In this way God loved the world

Sermon for the week of Pentecost

Isaiah 32:14-20  +  Acts 10:42-48  +  John 3:16-21

The readings you heard this evening are the historic readings for the day after Pentecost. It’s sort of the continuation of the theme of celebrating the Holy Spirit’s coming. As Isaiah prophesied in the first lesson, Israel would be a wasteland because of their unrighteousness, Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest. Then Israel would prosper. In what sense? In the sense that, on the Day of Pentecost and in the decades following, Israel became a fruitful field of believers in Christ who were devoted to the true God, a fruitful field of genuine faith and sincere love.

Not everyone in Israel, of course. Many—most!—remained enemies of God, remained a desolate wasteland with regard to faith and love. But a good number of them—3,000 of them on the Day of Pentecost—received the Word of God and, with it, the gift of the Spirit from on high.

And not only Israel in the sense of the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also including believing Gentiles, as we heard in the Second Lesson from the book of Acts. When Peter went to the house of Cornelius the Gentiles, he preached a clear message of Law and Gospel: Jesus commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins. Yes, Christ will judge all people, even those who have already died, since He will raise all the dead on the Last Day. Who will escape condemnation? Who will not have to answer for all their sins? Whoever believes in Him. Really? “Whoever”? Jew or Gentile? Israelite by birth or non-Israelite? Yes! What sign do we have that Peter’s “whoever” really meant “whoever”? We have this sign: The Holy Spirit was poured out in a visible way on the Gentiles who believed, as they began to speak in other languages, just as the believing Jews in Jerusalem had on the Day of Pentecost when they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And that brings us to the third lesson this evening, the familiar words from John chapter 3. For God so loved the world… Whom did God love? “The world.” All people. All men. The love of God extends to everyone in the world.

But not as many people today understand “love.” It isn’t the love of attraction. It isn’t the love of really liking a person, loving who they are or what they do. It isn’t the love of always being nice to people. It isn’t the love that overlooks people’s character flaws and evil deeds and sins, and it certainly isn’t the love that celebrates people’s wickedness and people’s sins. Rather, it’s the love that deeply desires to rescue people from their wickedness and from the painful and eternal consequences of it. It’s the love of a Creator who pities His miserable creation, even though our misery is entirely our own fault. Still He loved the world.

How did He love the world, then? What did He do for the world in His love?

He “so” loved.” Not “so much,” but “in this way.” In this way God loved the world: He gave His only-begotten Son. Gave Him into our humanity, to be our Brother. Gave His life as a living sacrifice for us, and then gave His Son into death for us, for the world.

So that, what? Everyone goes to heaven? No. Everyone is spared from earthly tragedy and pain and suffering? No. So that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. God desires the world’s salvation. His purpose in sending His Son was the world’s salvation. All mankind. All people. That all people should believe in His Son and escape perishing, escape being condemned to everlasting death, be saved from eternal exile and suffering in hell. That was God’s purpose. That’s how He loved the world.

And He did more than give His Son. He also gave His Spirit to work through the preaching of this Gospel to persuade men and to empower men to believe it, to believe in Him. He gave His Spirit in the Means of Grace so that believers can be strengthened and preserved in faith. And He gave His Spirit in the Church so that believers might live as children of the day and children of the light and no longer walk in the darkness of sin and depravity and disobedience. What’s more, He continues to give His Spirit so that, as the Church continues to confess the Gospel in the world, still more of the world’s population might hear and believe and be saved.

Not all men will believe, and so not all men will be saved. Not all will be justified. Not all will escape condemnation. Most won’t, in fact. Why? Why won’t they come into the Light of Christ and His forgiveness and salvation? Why won’t they tolerate the Light that’s being shined through His Gospel? Because men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

What a strong warning this is, not to be found among those who prefer to wallow in sin than to be cleansed with the blood of Jesus and to live a clean life, a life of love, true love, like the love of God who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. May Jesus’ words about the Father’s love keep you firmly grounded in the faith. May they inspire you to walk in the light, to stay in the light, to live as children of God. And may they also motivate you to tell anyone who will listen about the God who loved the world in this way. And when you do, there will be the Spirit of God doing His all-important work of persuading sinners to believe, and turning the desolate wasteland of this world into the fruitful field of His Holy Christian Church. Amen.