John 3:16 Part 2

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever

believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world… I don’t think it’s an accident that this is the most famous
Biblical verse in the Bible. I think God impressed it in our hearts in the hopes that we would
truly and completely understand and be transformed by the message. So much is said in so few
words and the single word I want to focus on today is the word ‘world’.

It doesn’t say that God so loved Christians. It does not say that God so loved those who
follow all the rules and laws. It does not say that God so loved the perfect and righteous. It does
not say that God had any partiality in his love. No. God so loved the world, all of it. From the
very best to the very worst. From the most evil to the most righteous. He loved every skin color.
He loved every nations. He loved everyone regardless of their religion, beliefs, lifestyle or
consequence. God so loved the world.

Until we can truly understand that statement and realize what that means for our own
love, we will never become the people or Christians that God is trying to transform us to be.
God’s love must be our model. It must be our finishing line. It must be the goal we set in our
lives every day that we wake up.
Let’s take a moment at look at the world when this was written. The world empire at that
time was Rome for most of Africa, the Middle East and Europe. This is what history says about
Rome at that time.

The Romans were a notoriously violent society, and their favourite pastimes often reflect that.
Despite the societal development that they experienced, the Romans still lived in relative squalor.
This meant that their everyday lives were often filled with brutal violence. (1)

In Asia there was the Han Dynasty which had a rapid increase of power through conquest
and wars of neighboring nations. Violence was not just common in the world at this time but it
was expected. Even so, God loved them all.

We now live in a world where war is also common place. Bombings, terrorist acts,
invasions and pirating is in the news every day. Division and anger seems to be festering in every
corner of the world. Morally is evolving and changing causing more division, anger and
violence. In almost every aspect of human life, things are not going peacefully and now I ask,
has God’s love changed? No. God, still today, so loves the world.

May we find a way to make God’s love our goal in our lives.

Blessings

Pr. Steven Couto
(1) https://www.learnancientrome.com/how-were-the-ancient-romans-brutal/#Was_life_in_the_Roman_Empire_brutal

The Bronze Serpent

13No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of
Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:13-15

The mission of Jesus Christ is the most difficult mission anyone has ever had to
accomplish. He had to come to earth, the very heart and home of the enemy, and he had to do it
by leaving his divinity back in heaven. He had to come down without any protection himself and
had to completely trust his Father in protecting him through the Spirit. He was born a baby, with
all the human limitations of a baby. Then he had to grow up as a child, teen and then adult
surrounded by human sinners who were also brothers, friends and strangers. Sometimes we feel
like we are different from everyone else but in Jesus’ case it was real. He truly was different.
And why did he do all that sacrifice to come down to the earth? He came to be a blood
sacrifice. When Moses put up that bronze serpent, it pointed to Jesus. It’s a strange sight
considering a serpent is usually connected with the devil. In this case it symbolized sin being
killed on a cross and that is what Jesus did. Before he carried that cross he put on himself the sins
of the world. He held tightly to those sins, as much as they hurt, and dragged them down to death
where they could be separated from us.

Jesus died surrounded by sin. Not of it was his own, being perfect, but their staining
effect was on his soul. He felt like a sinner in those moments as he held on to the sins. The sins
disconnected him from the Father. That is why Jesus yelled out “My God, My God, why have
you forsaken me?” And he did all this while the very people he was trying to save was mocking
and laughing at him.

But with all of that Jesus still went forward with his mission. Not only that but he
accomplished it perfectly. He lived for years in a sinful world behind enemy lines but came out
victorious. He resurrected with victory over the world, Satan and sin itself. He did what no one
else could ever do.

So what is our part in this mission of salvation? We just need to believe and accept the
gift of salvation. With that simple act we can have eternal life. Is that something you can do? It’s
so simple compared to what Jesus had to do. That is a loving God.

Blessings
Pr. Steven Couto

The Wind and the Spirit

⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 3:5-8

Paul rightly said that the gospel we believe in would be seen as foolishness to the perishing. We live in a world today where anything spiritual is seen as wishful thinking, weakness of a small mind or fairy tales. With our scientific and technological advancements, humans have reached a level of arrogance that has never been seen before- not even at the Tower of Babel. The idea of an invisible, all powerful and all-knowing God is just too much for many people today.

Of course we all, religious and atheist, live daily with faith and blind belief. No one on earth holds their breath before the sun rises- not sure if this day perhaps it won’t. No one crosses their fingers when they flip the light switch, unsure is the lights will actually turn on or not (well perhaps in some places that is something people fret about). Most have no problem trusting the gears and cords that pull elevators up and down even though they are hidden away behind the walls and elevator ceiling. The truth is that there are a hundred things we simply trust will work throughout our day. Many of those things are invisible just like the wind.

I love the analogy that Jesus uses between the Spirit and the wind. Both can be so powerful and we can see the results of the wind all around us even though the wind itself is always invisible. The Spirit is the same way. We see miracles and answered prays and yet the power behind those things remains unseen.

We must reach a place where we trust just as much in the Spirit as we do that light switch in our home. We know the switch will turn on the lights. We must also know that the Spirit will do everything that we need in our lives. That faith must grow day by day.

It is that faith in the unseen and the living with the power of the unseen that is being ‘in the spirit’. When we can walk forward without seeing the next step- that is being in the spirit. It is faith without having to see. That should be the goal for all of us.

I pray that this week we can all work on this. Let us trust the unseen Spirit in our lives. Let us grow in that faith and we too can be spirit.

 

Blessings

Pr. Steven Couto

I Know Your Heart

²³ Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. ²⁴ But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, ²⁵ and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

John 2:22-25

It must have been very difficult for Jesus socially while he lived in this world. As a child, while other kids were getting into trouble and making mistakes, Jesus was living a perfect life. I can only imagine the rejection he must have felt from other kids. As an adult, he always seemed to do the exact opposite of what people were expecting. He would speak hard things to hear, like destroy this Temple, when people were anxious to hear him. That only caused anger in most. In these verses, the Bible says that there were many who wanted to believe in him and make him their leader but instead he stayed away. He could never really win with people.

But there was always a reason for his backwards behavior. He always did the unexpected because that is truly what people needed instead of wanted. He knew their hearts. They wanted to make him king so that Rome would fall. It had nothing to do with God or real salvation. They just wanted to have their land back and be blessed. Jesus knew that that would never give long lasting help. If Jesus had toppled Rome and given the Jews their land back, they’d just go back to their Old Testament ways. They would veer even further from God and only return back to where they started.

The same is true for us. There are times when we ask things of God but it’s not what’s best for us. Like the Jews in Jesus’ day, we often think more about the now instead of the future. God wants to give us eternal life with Him in heaven. To get there, there are things that God has to keep away from us or we too would veer away from him.

Are you willing to accept that God knows better than yourself when it comes to your life? Are you willing to accept that there’s things God will not give us because it’s what’s best for our spiritual lives? At times this can be hard to accept but it is true.

May we all find a way to live in peace with God’s plan for our lives. He knows our hearts as well.

 

God bless,

Pr. Steven Couto