WEBVTT 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:05.020 Now, this is the point at which you're going to need your Bible, and I want you to turn to John chapter 3. 00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:12.620 John chapter 3, we're going to look just at one verse in John chapter 3, and it's on page 1066, which is kind of pleasing. 00:00:13.460 --> 00:00:17.120 Page 1066 in your church Bible. 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:21.740 Now, Jeremiah, don't worry, my plan is not to detain us for very much longer, 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:28.500 but I do want us just to have a look for a few moments at one very familiar verse in the Bible. 00:00:28.500 --> 00:00:35.740 I think if you've been to church before, or maybe if you studied RE at school and you were made to do that like I was made to do that, 00:00:35.820 --> 00:00:40.700 you will know John chapter 3, verse 16. 00:00:41.579 --> 00:00:51.519 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:54.519 In fact, it's so familiar, why don't we read it aloud together? 00:00:54.520 --> 00:01:06.420 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:11.900 Now, I think that's probably got a claim to be the Bible's most famous verse. 00:01:12.579 --> 00:01:19.040 But I want to show you this morning four impossible things in John 3, 16. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:23.920 Okay, four impossible things in John chapter 3, verse 16. 00:01:24.380 --> 00:01:30.420 And the first one is this, John chapter 3, verse 16, talks about loving the unlovely. 00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:31.660 Loving the unlovely. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:37.920 To try and get this across, let me ask you some of the things that you love about Christmas. 00:01:38.219 --> 00:01:40.540 Anything that you love about Christmas. 00:01:40.540 --> 00:01:44.940 Oh my goodness. 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:47.920 The food, okay. 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:51.340 People, look, put your hands up if you love the food at Christmas. 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:52.219 There you go. 00:01:53.860 --> 00:01:56.200 UK, have you had bad experiences of the food at Christmas? 00:01:56.460 --> 00:01:57.540 Or are you just... 00:01:58.160 --> 00:01:58.880 Okay, never mind. 00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:00.680 Anything else? 00:02:00.740 --> 00:02:01.580 What do you love about Christmas? 00:02:01.719 --> 00:02:02.040 Yes, I'm fine. 00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:05.780 Being with your family. 00:02:06.100 --> 00:02:06.960 That's great. 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:15.079 According to the radio this morning, the average time for an argument as a family is 10.14 on Christmas morning. 00:02:15.419 --> 00:02:18.439 So if you've made it past that time already, you've done well. 00:02:19.299 --> 00:02:22.180 So time with family is a Christmas blessing, isn't it? 00:02:22.259 --> 00:02:22.879 Anything else? 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:29.340 I want to suggest to you that we love lovely things. 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:38.620 So we love things like chocolate or family or good films or great music or Liverpool Football Club or something like that. 00:02:38.900 --> 00:02:41.580 We love the lovely things, don't we? 00:02:41.620 --> 00:02:46.340 And what we don't love, we don't love unlovely things. 00:02:47.379 --> 00:02:52.620 So we don't love sprouts or cold rain blowing in our face. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.620 We don't love delayed trains. 00:02:55.620 --> 00:03:01.420 You know, for us, love is a response to whether something is lovely. 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:01.900 Yeah? 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:04.780 We see something lovely and we love it. 00:03:04.900 --> 00:03:08.060 We enjoy good food and we love eating it. 00:03:08.140 --> 00:03:11.300 We see our family and we love spending time with them. 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:15.640 But John chapter 3 verse 16 says that's not how God works. 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:16.659 Look down at the verse. 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:20.319 For God so loved the world, he says. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:30.620 And the point is that in John's book, every time you encounter the word world, what you're encountering is, is not a beautiful place of mountains and wonderful scenery. 00:03:30.959 --> 00:03:35.000 No, the world in John's gospel is the world in rebellion against God. 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:39.000 The world is an unlovely place. 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:46.319 Verse 19 tells you that the world loves darkness because it's a cover for its wickedness. 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:55.539 In John chapter 15, you'll find that the world hates Jesus and hates his disciples because the world is a dark and rebellious place. 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:58.439 A place of wickedness where terrible things happen. 00:03:59.519 --> 00:04:00.539 And we know that, don't we? 00:04:01.159 --> 00:04:04.060 Some of us have experienced some of those things, even this year. 00:04:04.060 --> 00:04:11.840 And our verse starts with this impossible claim that God so loved the world. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:19.060 It's not even that God kind of loved the world or God, you know, had some affection to the world. 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:21.860 No, it is he so loved the world. 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:24.360 He loved the world to a high degree. 00:04:24.819 --> 00:04:29.980 God is a God of extreme love, even for the unlovely. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:32.519 Now, why do you think that might be the case? 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:37.459 Why would God love something or someone that is unlovely? 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:41.259 You know, I think this sometimes happens to us, right? 00:04:41.899 --> 00:04:47.500 There might have been a time in your life, you might be able to remember it, where you looked at a sprout and you thought, that might be lovely. 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:51.079 And then you thought, oh, that might be, I love that. 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:52.819 I love the idea of that. 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:56.879 And then you bit into it and realize that it tasted like acid. 00:04:57.419 --> 00:05:01.620 And you're like, oh, that is not as lovely as I thought it was, right? 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:03.899 Maybe that's what God's like. 00:05:03.959 --> 00:05:11.379 Maybe he so loves the world because he kind of thinks that it might be lovely or it has the potential to be lovely, perhaps. 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:13.759 But no, it's not that at all. 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:21.079 God knows, knows better than we do the darkness and the wickedness of the world. 00:05:21.259 --> 00:05:22.519 He knows that. 00:05:22.519 --> 00:05:23.519 God knows that. 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:25.500 And yet he so loves the world. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:27.180 He so loves the world. 00:05:28.740 --> 00:05:30.459 Let me try and illustrate it. 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:32.599 I need a volunteer. 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:36.019 You can stay in your seat, but I need a volunteer. 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:38.819 And you need to be able to answer this question. 00:05:38.919 --> 00:05:39.599 It's very simple. 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:41.339 What is your name? 00:05:42.219 --> 00:05:42.359 Okay? 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:47.379 Does anyone want to put their hand up and help me? 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:49.819 I'm looking right at you. 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:52.840 I'm not going to tell you your name because then I've answered the question for you. 00:05:53.100 --> 00:05:54.439 Are you going to help me out? 00:05:55.580 --> 00:05:55.900 No. 00:05:59.460 --> 00:06:00.740 Tex, are you going to help me out? 00:06:01.220 --> 00:06:01.939 You help me out. 00:06:02.020 --> 00:06:02.180 Okay. 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:06.400 So what I'm going to do, Tex, I'm going to ask you your name and you need to tell me your name. 00:06:06.699 --> 00:06:08.100 You can give me your full name if you like. 00:06:08.860 --> 00:06:12.020 And then I'm going to show you some pictures and I want you to tell me your name again. 00:06:12.460 --> 00:06:12.780 Right? 00:06:13.020 --> 00:06:13.540 Does that make sense? 00:06:13.620 --> 00:06:17.080 Just to see whether anything that I show you changes these things about you. 00:06:17.400 --> 00:06:17.580 Right? 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:18.920 Okay. 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:24.300 So it's always going to be the same question. 00:06:24.640 --> 00:06:26.000 It's not, there's no tricks here. 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:26.960 Okay? 00:06:27.260 --> 00:06:29.180 Because I was hoping it would be a child who'd do it. 00:06:29.220 --> 00:06:30.540 So you'll be okay. 00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:30.620 Okay. 00:06:31.060 --> 00:06:32.740 Can I ask you what your name is? 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:37.280 Okay. 00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:38.739 So that's more complicated than I thought. 00:06:38.819 --> 00:06:40.579 But I will call you Tex. 00:06:42.359 --> 00:06:42.859 Oh dear. 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:43.839 Okay. 00:06:43.899 --> 00:06:45.879 So I'm going to show you a picture of something that's unlovely. 00:06:46.339 --> 00:06:46.459 Okay? 00:06:50.339 --> 00:06:51.519 Now, can I ask you the same question? 00:06:51.639 --> 00:06:52.259 What's your name? 00:06:53.939 --> 00:06:54.259 Tex. 00:06:54.379 --> 00:06:54.519 Okay. 00:06:54.679 --> 00:06:55.519 That's interesting, isn't it? 00:06:55.919 --> 00:06:59.539 So even though you're looking at something unlovely, it doesn't change anything about your name. 00:07:00.239 --> 00:07:01.219 I'm going to show you the next picture. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:03.299 But I'm going to show you quickly because it is quite unlovely. 00:07:06.119 --> 00:07:06.819 What's your name? 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:06.879 What's your name? 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:10.740 What's your name? 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:12.599 Tex. 00:07:12.740 --> 00:07:13.420 See, his name is still there. 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:14.120 Quick change of change. 00:07:14.219 --> 00:07:14.540 Okay. 00:07:15.719 --> 00:07:16.659 Here's something else unlovely. 00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:17.420 This is a fight. 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:18.519 Yeah? 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:19.480 What's your name? 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:20.800 Tex. 00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:22.639 Why? 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:25.740 It doesn't matter what I, it doesn't seem to matter what I show him. 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:27.600 His name is always Tex. 00:07:27.939 --> 00:07:29.240 Why is his name always Tex? 00:07:29.240 --> 00:07:31.379 But okay. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.120 You're learning a very deep and important theological truth this morning. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:36.019 You don't realize it. 00:07:36.660 --> 00:07:41.980 But Tex is his name because his name belongs to him outside of what he is looking at. 00:07:42.139 --> 00:07:42.280 Yeah? 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:45.919 Now, bring that back into John chapter 316. 00:07:46.039 --> 00:07:47.319 Why does God so love the world? 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:53.819 Because love is who God is outside of anything else. 00:07:54.459 --> 00:07:58.039 God is and has been loving from eternity past. 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:03.200 So God so loves the world because God is love. 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:05.100 It's his name. 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:06.620 It's who he is. 00:08:06.960 --> 00:08:13.040 And so the unloveliness of the world cannot jeopardize the love of God because love is who he is. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:19.860 So God so loves the world with an impossible love, a love for the unlovely. 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:24.500 I wonder whether perhaps one or two of us this morning need reminding of this. 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:29.740 Do you know that God loves you not because you're sorted and nice and together? 00:08:30.960 --> 00:08:34.460 God loves you because he loves you because he is loved. 00:08:34.539 --> 00:08:40.519 Not because you've got a perfect family or a brilliant job or a bank full of money 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:42.720 or because you've never done anything wrong. 00:08:43.299 --> 00:08:49.759 No, God loves you not because you deserve it, but because of who he is and who he has always been. 00:08:50.419 --> 00:08:51.759 That's impossible thing number one. 00:08:52.379 --> 00:08:53.360 God loves the unlovely. 00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:56.439 Impossible thing number two, and I've made up a word for this. 00:08:56.959 --> 00:08:58.860 God is giving the ungivable. 00:08:59.339 --> 00:09:00.339 Giving the ungivable. 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:05.319 Now, you know that Christmas can be an expensive thing, right? 00:09:05.319 --> 00:09:10.360 Because you end up having to give presents perhaps and you've asked your family members 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:14.980 and you ask them what you wanted and then you've tried to pull the money together. 00:09:15.680 --> 00:09:19.080 But I want to suggest to you that sometimes giving is not... 00:09:19.080 --> 00:09:23.200 The cost of giving is not so much just the money, the financial cost. 00:09:23.259 --> 00:09:25.060 It's what it costs you, right? 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:27.060 It's what it takes out of you to give it. 00:09:27.800 --> 00:09:30.519 I'm going to use this as an example and Vanessa will hopefully forgive me. 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:37.699 But once, years and years ago, when we were first married, Vanessa spent most of the year making like a quilt for her mum and dad. 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:40.480 And this is like a project that had lasted all year. 00:09:41.059 --> 00:09:45.539 You know, we'd collected together little bits of material and Vanessa had really carefully stitched them together 00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:51.840 and like sort of poured her heart and soul into making this quilt for her mum and dad. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:57.160 And then, you know, on the day before Christmas, she's kind of like trying to finish it off so that it's ready. 00:09:57.740 --> 00:10:04.480 And when she handed it over and they opened it, Vanessa started to cry. 00:10:04.980 --> 00:10:09.420 Not just because the emotion of everything that had gone into... 00:10:09.420 --> 00:10:11.780 I mean, I didn't cry, but I could have done. 00:10:12.040 --> 00:10:16.840 Because there was a lot of me in there as well, just in terms of the backup role, right? 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:23.700 So there's a lot of things have gone into that and then giving it away and passing it on to somebody else. 00:10:24.300 --> 00:10:27.340 And there are just certain things, aren't there, that we shouldn't give away, right? 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:32.040 There are certain things because they would cost us so much, we don't actually give them. 00:10:32.180 --> 00:10:33.259 We don't want to give them. 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:38.700 And here in John 3.16, God doesn't just give something really expensive. 00:10:38.940 --> 00:10:41.840 He gives something that really you shouldn't give. 00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:43.480 It should be ungiveable. 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:49.000 You shouldn't be able to give it away because of the sheer cost to God of giving it. 00:10:49.779 --> 00:10:50.740 So look in the verse. 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:54.220 For God so loved the world that he gave... 00:10:54.220 --> 00:10:55.240 What did he give? 00:10:56.039 --> 00:10:57.460 His one and only Son. 00:10:58.920 --> 00:11:00.279 His one and only Son. 00:11:01.019 --> 00:11:04.700 Now, if you know this verse, which you probably do, it seems unremarkable to you. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:09.060 But just stare hard at it for a moment and have a think with me about what's being said. 00:11:09.059 --> 00:11:18.899 You understand, don't you, that you're being told that God, the eternal creator of everything, is a trinity. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:23.879 So we've met God the Spirit earlier in chapter 3, and we can look at that later. 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:30.219 But you find out now that God is both his Father and Son, as well as Spirit. 00:11:30.220 --> 00:11:34.820 God is eternally existing in three persons. 00:11:35.420 --> 00:11:43.820 And in Christmas, the eternal and only Son is given at incomprehensible cost. 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:50.220 For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only Son. 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:55.879 Amazingly, what you find out as you read on in John's book is that the giving of the ungivable 00:11:55.879 --> 00:12:01.860 is not just as God the Son clothes himself in human flesh and is born in a manger as a baby, 00:12:02.180 --> 00:12:08.519 but even more so as that Son gives his life on the cross to die for our sin. 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:11.480 An absolutely unthinkable cost. 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:17.460 God is giving up what is most costly for those who are least worthy. 00:12:18.060 --> 00:12:18.639 Do you see that? 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:19.740 Put them together. 00:12:20.220 --> 00:12:24.779 The impossible love for the unlovely with the giving of the ungivable. 00:12:25.420 --> 00:12:32.340 And here you've got a God who is giving something he should never give to people who don't deserve it, like you and me. 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:37.019 Okay, the third impossibility is fixing the unfixable. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:38.279 Fixing the unfixable. 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:41.560 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 00:12:41.700 --> 00:12:46.840 that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 00:12:47.399 --> 00:12:49.320 It's right there, isn't it, at the end of the verse, 00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:55.440 that the Son is given so that we should not perish, but have eternal life. 00:12:55.940 --> 00:13:00.720 You know, don't you, that the unfixable thing in life is death. 00:13:01.020 --> 00:13:03.980 We know that, don't we, especially today as we miss loved ones. 00:13:03.980 --> 00:13:08.680 But death is not just unfixable because it's like a really difficult problem, okay? 00:13:09.180 --> 00:13:13.320 Death is not just unfixable because it's like a Rubik's cube, which is really difficult to solve, 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:18.100 or a maths problem that's really complicated, so you're not going to be able to do it. 00:13:18.100 --> 00:13:26.740 No, rather perishing, symbolized in physical death, but even more in spiritual death, the exclusion from God's presence. 00:13:27.379 --> 00:13:32.600 That death is unfixable, unsolvable, because it's exactly what we deserve. 00:13:33.800 --> 00:13:34.540 It's justice. 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:41.220 Judgment for rebelling against God and living for ourselves is death. 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:44.980 Death, spiritual death and physical death. 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:47.100 Think about it like this. 00:13:47.139 --> 00:13:51.840 Put your hand up if coming up in 2025 you have exams at school. 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:55.259 I know some of you have got exams at school coming up. 00:13:55.660 --> 00:13:56.840 Yeah, you see, there's a few here. 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:01.340 I want you to imagine for a moment that you sit your geography exam. 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:05.279 We all know that geography is the most valuable subject at school, right? 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:05.800 Isn't that right? 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:09.899 I don't know where Liz has disappeared with the grandkids, but Liz and I agree on that, right? 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:18.799 So you're sitting your geography exam, and you know that you don't get a single question right, okay? 00:14:19.459 --> 00:14:21.259 You didn't get a single question right. 00:14:21.699 --> 00:14:22.699 Everything was wrong. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:24.919 And then you get your mark back. 00:14:25.079 --> 00:14:30.859 What mark are you expecting if you get every single question wrong in your geography exam? 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:32.039 What are you expecting to get? 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:34.319 Zero. 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:34.360 Zero. 00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:37.620 On your GCSEs, is it possible to get zero? 00:14:38.160 --> 00:14:39.100 Or do you always get one? 00:14:39.920 --> 00:14:40.820 Even if you get... 00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:42.980 Okay, maybe you should experiment, Anderson. 00:14:43.420 --> 00:14:46.340 Go into an exam, get every question wrong and see whether you get just a one. 00:14:46.420 --> 00:14:47.100 You might get a one. 00:14:47.520 --> 00:14:52.400 Okay, so you would expect, wouldn't you, to fail your exam if you didn't get a single question right. 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:58.260 But imagine then you opened your results on results day, and you opened it, and geography is the one you really want to know. 00:14:59.180 --> 00:15:00.500 And you got a nine. 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:01.880 You got a nine. 00:15:01.879 --> 00:15:06.500 I mean, I didn't get a single answer to any of those questions right. 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:08.980 You know, I got them all wrong, and yet still I got a nine. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:10.639 Well, what would you think then? 00:15:10.820 --> 00:15:12.259 This is a grave injustice. 00:15:13.059 --> 00:15:15.179 I've got a nine, and I got everything wrong. 00:15:16.179 --> 00:15:16.740 That's... 00:15:16.740 --> 00:15:17.799 There's something wrong. 00:15:18.419 --> 00:15:19.939 There's an injustice going on. 00:15:19.940 --> 00:15:22.400 And that's the sense in John 3.16. 00:15:22.400 --> 00:15:31.240 When John says, or Jesus says, we're not actually quite sure whether it's Jesus specifically being quoted by John or whether John is paraphrasing here. 00:15:31.500 --> 00:15:36.780 But when it's said that because God so loved the world, he gave his son that we should not perish. 00:15:36.779 --> 00:15:43.559 It's like people opening their exam results and getting nines when really they should have got ones. 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:48.539 Because it's not simply that we've done everything morally wrong that we could have done. 00:15:48.599 --> 00:15:52.039 I'm sure that's not the case, and I'm sure you've done many good things. 00:15:52.299 --> 00:15:54.000 The problem actually is much worse than that. 00:15:54.279 --> 00:15:56.639 It's that we do good things, good and bad things. 00:15:56.699 --> 00:15:59.439 We do them for our own glory and not for God and his glory. 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:07.640 And because God's law is love God with all of our soul, our mind and strength, when we don't do that, because of that, we deserve death. 00:16:08.380 --> 00:16:15.400 In the exam of life, we have got the questions wrong because we've lived for our glory and not for God's glory. 00:16:16.380 --> 00:16:17.960 And so we deserve death. 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:23.440 And so to not perish but receive eternal life, well, it's a massive injustice. 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:30.840 How can God do that and still be a God of justice, righteousness, holiness? 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:41.440 But God says here that because he gave his only son in his love for the unlovely, his giving of the ungiveable, he can fix the unfixable. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:42.700 How so? 00:16:43.500 --> 00:16:52.400 Well, because God the son in human flesh is going to die in our place, receiving the punishment of perishing in our place. 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:55.000 So that we might receive eternal life. 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:56.939 It's utterly remarkable. 00:16:57.740 --> 00:16:59.379 God fixes the unfixable. 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:04.259 Now, there's one more impossibility in John 3, 16. 00:17:05.019 --> 00:17:06.420 And for this, you need your thinking cap. 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:08.539 So have a look down at the verse and I'll show it to you. 00:17:09.139 --> 00:17:10.539 Let me read to you the verse again. 00:17:11.819 --> 00:17:20.819 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:35.980 Notice just with me that to benefit from God's loving of the unlovely, to benefit from his giving the ungiveable and fixing the unfixable, that there's a clause in there that means that we need to do something, don't we? 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:37.339 We have to, what? 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:39.019 Believe in him. 00:17:39.299 --> 00:17:39.980 Notice that? 00:17:40.980 --> 00:17:42.399 Now, that sounds simple enough, doesn't it? 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:50.540 Okay, if all I have to do is to believe in God, if all I have to do is acknowledge his existence, well then, that's perfectly possible for me, isn't it? 00:17:50.660 --> 00:17:51.580 It's not an impossibility. 00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:56.140 But actually, that's not what believing in him means in John's gospel. 00:17:56.140 --> 00:18:06.160 Perhaps you know that John chapter 3, if you just turn over the page to 1065 and look at the heading, you'll know it's a conversation between Jesus and a guy called Nicodemus. 00:18:07.100 --> 00:18:08.580 Nicodemus is a Pharisee, right? 00:18:08.620 --> 00:18:10.100 He's like the religious dude. 00:18:10.560 --> 00:18:12.360 Everybody respects Nicodemus. 00:18:12.460 --> 00:18:15.300 He does everything right, as far as anyone can tell. 00:18:15.620 --> 00:18:18.300 And he comes to Jesus in the night to ask him some questions. 00:18:18.299 --> 00:18:24.099 And Jesus speaks to him and says to him in John chapter 3, verse 3, 00:18:24.539 --> 00:18:28.839 Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:41.319 Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, the religious guy, listen, believing in me, receiving the kingdom, receiving this gift of the fixing of the unfixable, 00:18:41.940 --> 00:18:44.500 that requires being born again. 00:18:45.379 --> 00:18:46.240 Being born again. 00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:51.660 John chapter 3, being born again and believing are the same thing. 00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:55.019 So if you go back to John chapter 3, verse 16, you can read the verse like this. 00:18:55.120 --> 00:19:04.279 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever is born again shall not perish but have eternal life. 00:19:05.140 --> 00:19:07.000 And you know this thing, don't you, about being born? 00:19:08.120 --> 00:19:08.400 Yeah? 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:10.279 You're not in control of it. 00:19:11.900 --> 00:19:15.120 None of us decided to be born, did we? 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:21.480 And actually it is outside of our control to be born again. 00:19:22.460 --> 00:19:25.740 Instead, we need God to do that for us too. 00:19:25.740 --> 00:19:31.519 And so the final impossible thing in John chapter 3 is the giving of new spiritual life. 00:19:32.120 --> 00:19:38.059 God is able to give you and me new spiritual life. 00:19:38.059 --> 00:19:42.799 God is able to make you and me into believers. 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:51.839 People who love him and trust him and want to live their lives for him so they can benefit from God's love of the unlovely, 00:19:52.339 --> 00:19:58.879 his giving of the ungiveable, and his fixing of the unfixable, because we've received new life from him. 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:03.380 And really that's why Christmas is such good news, isn't it? 00:20:03.380 --> 00:20:08.040 It's not just that God is offering the gift of his son. 00:20:08.560 --> 00:20:13.680 He's offering you the gift of faith in his son. 00:20:14.220 --> 00:20:16.680 And that is incredibly precious. 00:20:16.680 --> 00:20:22.820 And I want to ask you this morning, if you're a visitor or you're a guest and you have never received that, 00:20:23.660 --> 00:20:31.039 why not ask the Lord, please, I want to be born again, that I might receive your love of the unlovely, 00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:35.480 your giving of the ungiveable, and your fixing of the unfixable. 00:20:36.420 --> 00:20:38.259 Please do that for me. 00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:42.100 And many of us in this room have received that a long time ago. 00:20:42.099 --> 00:20:48.319 And my prayer for us is that today we get to remember and rejoice in all that Christ has done for us. 00:20:48.859 --> 00:20:52.779 As unlovely as we are, as in trouble as we were, 00:20:53.500 --> 00:21:00.199 God has done everything that needed to be done so that we might receive eternal life and not perish. 00:21:00.740 --> 00:21:02.839 Let me pray as I close. 00:21:12.099 --> 00:21:23.679 Gracious God, thank you so much that you love unlovely things like this world in rebellion against you. 00:21:25.779 --> 00:21:29.679 Thank you that you love me, that you love us. 00:21:31.099 --> 00:21:33.980 Thank you that you are willing to give what is ungiveable, 00:21:35.339 --> 00:21:39.459 the person of the son in human flesh to die on a cross for us. 00:21:39.460 --> 00:21:44.120 Thank you that you are able to fix what is unfixable, 00:21:45.019 --> 00:21:48.079 that we might not perish but have eternal life, 00:21:48.539 --> 00:21:53.079 through the forgiveness of our sins in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. 00:21:54.440 --> 00:21:59.460 And thank you that you are able to offer people like us new life, 00:22:00.620 --> 00:22:02.840 faith in you, belief in you, 00:22:03.059 --> 00:22:07.319 that we might receive these extraordinary benefits of the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:08.759 dying in our place, 00:22:09.399 --> 00:22:12.980 facing our punishment that we might receive his life. 00:22:13.659 --> 00:22:16.539 How we thank and praise you in Jesus' name. 00:22:17.319 --> 00:22:17.659 Amen. 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:18.619 Amen.