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Jesus: the Greatest Valentine EverJohn 3:16-18
The Church of the Covenant, Washington, PAFeb 14, 2018
- Intro
Today, February 14th, we are observing “Ash Wednesday” which marks the beginning of Lent – the 40 day period leading up to Easter. In the Old Testament, ashes were used as a sign of sorrow and repentance for sin. When Jonah preached to Nineveh, the king laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. [i] The intent of Ash Wednesday and Lent is to intentionally acknowledge our guilt for the sins that led to Christ’s suffering and death. The 40 day period of fasting and abstinence is modeled after the feasts of Moses, Elijah and Jesus, all of which lasted 40 days. The marking of ashes in the form of a cross on the forehead of the faithful symbolizes not only death, mortality and sorrow for sin, but also that sins are forgiven through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
February 14th is also Valentine’s Day when people celebrate love and affection for one another by sending cards and gifts. Originally Feb 14th was a Catholic feast day in honor of Saint Valentine, who was martyred in Rome for refusing to deny his faith in Christbby converting to paganism. Legend has it that while Valentinus was imprisoned awaiting his execution, he wrote very emotional letters declaring his love for his fiancée.
On the cover of your bulletin is what is called an acrostic. Years ago someone figured out that if you placed the phrases of John 3:16 in a certain order, the vertical letters spelled “Valentine.” Jesus Christ is the greatest valentine of all time. You might say that Jesus is God’s love-letter to humanity, God’s Valentine to His people.
Because today, February 14, 2018, is both Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day, I am weaving together the significance of both holy days around the thought of the verse John 3:16.
Let us read the verse together:
For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
- FOR GOD
The verse begins, “For God…” what do we know about this God who loves the world? During the Exodus of God’s people out of Egypt, God described himself as: “the LORD, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.”[ii]
God is Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer. He is holy, righteous and just. God is kind, good, patient, faithful and true. He pardons sins and forgives transgressions.
God is eternal and exists in Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
- SO LOVED
In our English language, we use the word love to mean many things: “I love my dog. I love cheeseburgers. I love to go hiking. I love my kids. I love my husband.” The word for love that is used most often in the New Testament is the Greek word agape, which is a sacrificial love that desires what is best for another person. Agape love is unconditional and unselfish.
God’s love is agape love – it is unconditional, sacrificial love.
- THE WORLD
Like the word “love,” the Greek word “kosmos” or “world” has a variety of meanings. One way to interpret this phrase is that God loved “the world” without regard to their race, ethnicity, nationality, status as slave or free, male or female, Jew or non-Jew. God loves everyone. Classical Reformed Theology asserts that indeed, God loves all of the world, and he saves people from all parts of the world, but God does not universally save all the people in the entire world[iii]. That is a sermon topic for another day.
- THAT HE GAVE
To give means that the item being given has no charge, the recipient does not have to pay for, or earn, or deserve what is given. God gave his lonely son. Jesus endured torture, rejection, humiliation. Jesus willingly gave his life, dying on the cross, so that you could be forgiven for you sin, washed clean, and live. Salvation, redemption, is a free gift from God, through his grace.
- HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON
The phrase “Only begotten Son” is just one word in Greek: monogenais. You can almost figure that one out yourself! “mono” means one – like monopod, or monotone. Genais sounds like gene, or genetic. God the Father, first person of the Trinity, has only one Son: Jesus Christ. Human beings were created; Christ was not made. His Sonship had no beginning. Jesus did not become God’s Son at his birth in Bethlehem, nor at his baptism by John in the Jordan River. The Son of God has existed eternally with the Father. He is begotten, not made.
- THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM
The most important message of the Bible is that salvation is a gift received only by believing God’s promise. Salvation is not something that one can deserve or earn or buy. The Apostle Paul taught, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”[iv]
Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”[v] To “believe in Him” is to have faith and trust in Jesus as your Savior, to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he was crucified, died and was buried, and that he rose again from the dead.
- SHOULD NOT PERISH
To perish is the opposite of salvation. To perish does not mean to cease to exist; it means to experience utter failure, futility and loss of all that makes existence worthwhile. To perish is to be excluded from the presence of God and from everything that is true, good, beautiful, righteous and holy. [vi]Think about Judas, who betrayed Christ. Judas perished.
- BUT HAVE EVERLASTING / ETERNAL LIFE.
On the night before he died, Christ gave one long prayer for his disciples. He had only one request for himself: Jesus prayed, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”[vii]
Eternal life is to know God completely, with no questions unanswered and nothing hidden. The believer is no longer separated from God in any way. You receive a totally new quality of life. Eternal Life begins now, when you believe in Jesus, and that life will be made perfect in God’s eyes in heaven. That part of us which is perishable becomes imperishable. All our sins are washed away. We are transformed to be in the image of Christ. Because of Christ’s work on the cross, we are at last approved by God and welcomed into his presence.
- CONCLUSION
On Ash Wednesday and during all of Lent, we remember all that Jesus Christ suffered and endured so that we might be forgiven for our sins and reconciled to God. Look at that painting of the crucifixion on the cover of your bulletin. Christ endured the most excruciating torture and death to pay the price for your ransom, to take the punishment that each of us deserved, and to redeem you from sin, so that all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Meditate, during each day of Lent, on the price Jesus Christ paid for your salvation.
For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in Him [including you!]
should not perish but have everlasting life.
That is the most exquisite, priceless Valentine you will ever, ever receive.
Don’t ever forget it.
[i] Jonah 3:6
[ii] Ex 34:6-7
[iii]Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, by R.C. Sproul, p. 177 , article on Definite Atonement.
[iv] Romans 10:9
[v] John 14:6
[vi] Expositors Bible Commentary on John, p. 50
[vii] John 17:1-3