God’s Love – Jesus Christ (John 3:16-21)

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Let us bless one another, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I pray that the grace of the Word of God may be upon all the families that are worshipping in the temple, church, as well as their homes. Today I will share with you the reason why Jesus Christ had to come onto this earth, related to the topic we discussed last week about Nicodemus.

John 3:16 is one of the most important verses; in fact, it is one of the main, core points of the entire Bible. The [interpretation] Bible will change depending on where you put your main, central focus, but today, I will give you the Word of God centered on John 3:16.

Main
1. World
“For God so loved the world,” it says. This word, “love,” begins from God. If we know God, then we know love. If someone does not know God, then that love is a different kind of love. I’ll explain that later, but the results of that incorrect love will be wrong. That person himself will not be able to love.

“For God so loved the world,” today, we also talk about the world, and the world that is spoken about in this verse is speaking about the children of God who are living in the world. Even among the nonbelievers, there are people who are prepared to eventually become children of God.

By human efforts and human diligence, you will never be able to go to God. If you know this, then you won’t wander in life; however, because many people do not understand what these words mean, they wander in life and then later on, understand what these words mean.

If you live your life not knowing the Word of God, you’ll waste your entire life, and in the end, you’ll realize you wasted your entire life. I may be a pastor, but I’m actually speaking in front of you with my own testimony. It may be important for me to explain the Word of God well, but I’m actually standing in front of you as a witness of the Jesus Christ I have experienced in my life.

Ephesians 2:1 says that anyone trapped under this original sin is under the state of death. “Dead” here means that you are dead before God. In front of Satan, you are alive and that’s why you listen to Satan’s words, but because you are dead to God, you cannot listen to God’s Words. That is why in Ephesians 2:2, we hear that we follow the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air. You are alive in front of Satan but you are dead before God.

Therefore, Ephesians 2:3 tells us that we are by nature, objects of wrath, so you’re living in a state where no matter what you do, you’re receiving wrath, and later you may realize by God’s grace. But if you’re able to understand this early on, you won’t have to suffer consistently.

This isn’t something we can do on our own, but we can only understand these words if God gives us His grace, and if you see the people who haven’t received God’s grace yet, we feel bad for them. So, we need to be able to see the world from the point of view that God sees the world.

The people who are able to see from God’s perspective are even more elevated than Harvard graduates, because you won’t be able to see this truth with a Harvard degree. Those people work so diligently with their own knowledge and effort, but later on in their life, they’ll confess that they were wrong.

2) Jews
In this age of the Bible, what were the Jewish people in the churches like? The Israelites were actually colonized by the idol-worshiping nation of Rome. It was the fact that these Israelites who believed in the almighty, all-powerful God, were now playing slaves to these idol worshipping Gentiles in Rome.

When God created us and called us, it wasn’t to live like that. Genesis 1:28 says that we were created to rule over and subdue this earth as co-owners with God, but how did things get switched? It means that we have lost hold of something very important.

We read in John 2 that the leaders of the temple were corrupted. People always gathered to the temple to worship, but more so than being interested in worship, they were interested in money. Because the church has lost the essence of worship, they started to focus on things that the nonbelieving world focused on, like money. What happens after that? Then absolutely you will have no choice but to be a slave to nonbelievers, and those nonbelievers are slaves to Satan. Ultimately, the children of the omnipotent God are living as slaves.

3) God – Loved the World
We read today that God so loved the world, but what was His method for loving us? How much did He love us, exactly? God loved the world so much to the point that He sent His one and only Son. What does this mean, “One and only Son?” Is it talking about the literal son of God? What is it talking about?

John 1:12 says that whoever believes in Him become children of God; we become children of God. So, the Son of God is not referring to the actual descendant of God; He has a Son and now He has an offspring – that’s what Jehovah’s Witnesses say, but that’s not what we believe.

It says, actually in John 1:18, what does it say here? “The one and only Son, who is Himself God,” it means that God Himself has made Himself known. It means that the Son of God came to this earth, but He Himself was God. This Son of God is in the closest relationship with God the Father.

John 1 says that He existed from the beginning, He was with God, and He was God. That’s why it says here that God loved the world so much that He sent His one and only Son. What happens if you believe in Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son? It says here in verse 16 that you gain eternal life.

“Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” You shouldn’t live our life so diligently but end up perishing, right? You shouldn’t live your life so diligently but end up perishing; you need to live an eternal life, and that’s why we’re not afraid of death. If you die, you simply move your location: God is simply sending us to heaven. It is simply a relocation because we are living an eternal life, so live your eternal life starting from today.

2. Jesus Christ

Ephesians 2 says that God’s grace must first come upon us, God needs to stretch out His hand to us first. If you don’t have God’s grace first, then you will never be able to have your actions of faith. May God’s grace come upon you today, then you will be able to believe, and once you believe, you can act on your faith. To what extent? You will act to the extent of doing world evangelization.

You’ll be able to act according to your faith in order to do temple construction and save the next generation and all the nations. This is only possible when you have faith, and may the grace of God be upon you at this time. This is why worship is everything.

If you look down on worship, your faith will not grow, then you’re going to live your life centered on your physical standards. If you have faith, no matter how small your faith is, like the size of a mustard seed, you can move this mountain, telling it to go somewhere else.

There’s not a single person on this world who is able to relocate mountains; however, it is possible if you gain faith through today’s worship, why? Because God does it. You need to have faith in order for you to please God.

Let’s say you have a lot of knowledge but you don’t have any faith, then the people who listen to you will get mad. You talk so much because you know a lot, but people get mad, and you try to teach people but they get mad. But there are some people who can’t even speak well, but when they speak, you can tell they have faith. They’re not saying very much or anything great, but faith is carried in their words, so they’re changing people.

But [for] people who have faith, it doesn’t matter what their limits are because God said, “Whatever you ask for in my name, you have already received.” You have already received anything you ask for in God’s name. Saving the world is God’s will. If you want that, then you have already received it. Our entire life must remain within God’s will. If temple construction and temple purchase are within God’s will, then accept that you’ve already received it. All you have to do now is simply wait to see how God works. God is raising us up as the witnesses of that evidence.

1) Light
Here, it says that the Son of God is Jesus Christ, and He is Light. John 1 says that Jesus Christ is the life, and that life was the light of man. John 3:21 says that the ones who live by the truth will come to the light, so the light is Jesus Christ, and people who live in the truth will come to Jesus Christ. So, people who want to find out the truth will keep getting pulled towards Jesus Christ.

In the time when this Bible passage was written, many of the Jewish people were very corrupted and they were going towards money and idolatry. However, there were some Jews from among them who really wanted to seek the truth. However, all the people who were able to see the flow of the Bible and realized that, “Hey, there’s a Messiah who is promised to come, and I want to seek that Truth.” All of them were led to Jesus Christ.

However, for the people then who only thought about the law or obeying the law so that they could gain salvation from that, or they were focused on money, even when Jesus Christ was in front of them, they rejected Him. “But anyone who lives by the truth has done what they do in the sight of God.” Whoever stands before God will go into the Truth.

But people who hold onto this Bible and use it stand before people or use it to try to get money, even if the gospel is told to them, they will not accept it. Among nonbelievers, there are people who are very desperate. No matter what they try to do, they cannot fill themselves. Even if they are successful, they are not complete. Even if it seems like they have everything, they’re not complete. People like that will go before the Truth.

For people who are still ignorant about the world, I’m sorry, but they will not go before the Truth because they are going to keep following the world. There are also people who have faced their limitations in the world; those people will seek the Truth because no matter how hard you try in life, you will face your limitations.

Especially people who have reached their limitations spiritually or mentally, they will go before the gospel. Some people, I’m sure, will not. The people who still have hope in themselves will never go stand before the Truth because they still have hope in themselves. If you’re able to see that, you’ll also be able to see, “Oh, I should still wait for this person.” Or you’ll realize, “Oh, this person is ready.”

It is the same whether they are a believer or a nonbeliever. King Solomon had 3,000 wives and he made the confession that there is nothing above God. Students, you’re studying right? How many books did Solomon write, and how much wisdom did God give to King Solomon? But Solomon said, “None of that is real. I’ve tried everything and that’s not the answer. Only God.”

It doesn’t matter if you have all the spouses in the world, all the knowledge and wisdom of the world. None of that matters. If you spend the rest of your life trying to get whatever you want, but you’re still not satisfied, what are you going to do? Either you have to keep living your life, trying to get more, or you receive God’s grace.

For those who stand before Jesus Christ, the Truth of the Light will come into them. The Spirit of Truth will come into us as in John 14:16-17. There is the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth, they are two different words for the same thing. Truth is the Spirit of God, that’s true, and the Spirit who allows us to understand and remember the Word of God is living within us, and that is the Counselor Spirit who protects us and guides us.

2) Darkness
There is also darkness in this Bible passage. Verse 19 talks about darkness, “But men loved darkness instead of the light.” What does it mean, “Because their deeds were evil”? Do you call someone righteous if they are following all the laws of the land? Then, are these evil deeds referring to people who are breaking the law? No.

2 Timothy 3:1-4, what does it say that evil people love? It says they love themselves, and so these people love something, and what do they love? They love darkness. 2 Timothy 3:1-4 says that they will love themselves: they will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure more than they are lovers of God. We think that if we obey all the laws of the land, then we’re okay, but that is not what God is saying.

God calls everyone evil who love themselves more than they love God. There is a suffering that results from loving yourself more than loving God. Buddha was sitting underneath a tree and meditating on, “Why is there suffering in the world, and how can we receive healing from it?” If you meet God through Christ, then you will receive the solution.

However, because Buddha loved himself more than he loved God, he didn’t listen to the words of God. He listened to his own thoughts and own philosophy, and because he loved himself more than he loved the plan of God, he listened to his own thoughts and believed in those instead. So, you’re just falling into your own thoughts and you have no choice but to suffer.

So, we should live our lives knowing the knowledge of the world, but that’s not enough. We may have great experiences in the world, but that is not enough. You need to love the Word of God. It needs to remain within us. When we speak about this word, “love,” it is where you place the value of your life. You will use the word, “love,” to describe the thing you value the most in your whole life, in the deepest part of your heart.

These evil deeds that we read about today come from loving myself more than God, and people who love money. People who place more money on money than they place on God are evil in God’s eyes, and that is why they have suffering.

People think, “Oh, my life was ruined because I met this person,” but that’s not true at all. You were making your decisions based on what you value. That’s why this entire world is only full of lies. “Oh, it’s because of my parents! It’s because of this person!” Those are all lies.

The Bible tells you, this is a result of loving yourself and money more than loving God. What’s wrong with America? It is the fact that you love something more [than God] in your heart. There is nothing wrong with school; it is a good place where you learn how to study, but people say, “Oh, I came to this home and my life is ruined”? That’s a lie. “Oh, I met this one person so my life is ruined,” that’s not true. It’s because you loved yourself. It’s because you loved money and loved pleasure. Even now, if you love pleasure more than you love worship, then you will face the result of your wickedness.

The fact that you come to worship means that you come because you have a heart for loving God. So, starting from today, I hope you will just throw away all of your excuses, throw away all of your resentment. All of those things are lies. All you need is to have the love of God in your heart, and you make your decisions and move based on the value of the love in your heart.

3) The Reason Why They Don’t Come to the Light
John 3:20 says, “Anyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” It didn’t just say that they chose to avoid the light, but it says that they hate the light. It’s not just the fact that, “I’m going to make a decision other than the light,” but they actively hate the light. If you preach the gospel to these people, they will fight, they’ll hate it. If you talk about anything else, they’ll love it. If you tell them about the world, they’ll say, “Tell me more,” but if you give them the gospel, they’ll freak out, why? Because they hate it.

But if you tell them there’s meditation out there, they’ll love it, why? Because it heals me. But if you tell them to come to worship, they’ll hate it. Why? Because they hate the light. That is why we are already in the age of churches closing down, because the churches are not shining the accurate light into the world, so you guys need to know the age.

If you don’t know the age you’re living in, you won’t be able to interpret anything. In the past, people would look for religions, whether it’s Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Catholicism, Judaism, or Christianity, but now we have come into an age where people reject the need for religion. Then, it means that the world is full of that kind of ideology and that kind of environment because even if you don’t come to church, you can do transcendental meditation outside of the church and still receive healing.

In the past, people tried to solve their problems with religion, but now they say, “I don’t need that anymore,” so what is the ideology that the world is continuously emphasizing? The ideologies and the words of the world continue to tell us, “You don’t need to look for God because you yourselves are God.” So naturally, religions are disappearing. In other words, Christian churches are closing their doors.

In this age, God has given us the light and He wants us to spread the light. In this age, people will listen to and love the words of people, but they hate and reject the words of God. The reason these people don’t go towards the light is because they’re afraid their deeds will be exposed.

Do you think that people are not going to the light because they’re afraid that people are going to realize, “Oh, I love myself and money and pleasure”? No, that person doesn’t even know that that’s wrong. That person is living their life loving themselves because they think that’s the truth. That person thinks money is everything because they need money, so they love money, and that’s why they have no choice but to fall into the love of pleasure.

John 8:44 says that, “You long to carry out your father’s, the devil’s, desires.” So, Satan is actually controlling all the people so they have no choice but to act for their own selfish desires. They themselves think, “I am my own god,” and they have no choice but to live their lives in greed for money. Because they don’t have actual satisfaction or completion in their life, they fall towards pleasure.

So in reality, it is the devil that is stopping people from going towards the light because the devil does not want to be revealed. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that Satan has blinded the hearts of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, it’s not the people themselves, but it is Satan who is controlling this entire world, who is blinding their hearts, so they cannot go into the light of the gospel.

You need to see the world with depth. You can’t see the world with depth with just the knowledge of the world. You need to see people with depth through the Word of God. That’s what it means to look at them correctly, but because you’re not able to see people correctly, you’re attacked by people. God gave you the Word in order to be able to see them correctly, but you look down on the Word of God, and that’s why you’re taken in by it.

When all the corrupt leaders of the temple made a marketplace out of the house of God and the light of the gospel would go into their hearts, all of those activities would stop. So, I hope that every single person, without fail, will realize that everything is contained in Jesus Christ. If you simply, only worship and really stake your life on victorious worship, then you’ll see even your business in that, too. You’ll see your studies because everything is contained within the truth. That is how God will teach you.

Later, when we get into the age of Artificial Intelligence, you can’t fight against even one robot with all the knowledge in the world. No matter how hard you studied to get into medical school, you’ll never be able to overcome a robot that has artificial intelligence because we’re programming all the information into the robot and they’re way more accurate in diagnosis. They don’t make mistakes in surgery. That’s the age we’re in right now.

We have come into an age where we need the grace and strength of God all the more, and I hope that today will be the time of greatest grace for you. That is everything. If God gives me the grace, then I will understand. Because God gave Joseph the grace to understand, he was able to see the future of Egypt. That is why we stake our life on worship, that is why we stake our life on God. People who know that will know how important this truth is, and they will stake their lives to proclaim it.

3. God’s Love

Today we learned that the method of God’s love is Jesus Christ, then, who are the people whom God loves?

2 Corinthians 5:17 says that we have been changed into a new creation. In the past, I lived by my own will, but now I’m living centered on Christ. Even though I’m the same “me,” I’m different. The value and object of my love is different. Now that I love God, I’m living my life centered on God. If I love money, I live my life centered on money. If I love people, I live my life centered on people. If I love America, I live my life centered on America. If I love God, then I live my life centered on God.

I pray that the great grace of God will be upon you so that in the deepest part of your heart, you will truly love the Triune God that is living within you. Nothing else will work out. If you keep living your life, loving something else in your heart, then God regards that as evil deeds. The life of you loving God is the life that is good in God’s eyes.

So how can you know with concrete evidence if you love God or not? It means that you love the gospel of Christ, so, whatever Christ did. Whenever you live in the faith that, “I have been crucified with Christ and now Christ lives within me,” the Lord is living within me, but He is invisible to my eyes, so I need faith in order to live accordingly. Now, no matter what problems I face, it is no longer mine. Now, I’m a new creation who gives everything up to God and simply lives according to how God guides me with His Word.

From today on, every single problem you face is not your problem; give it up to God. For people who are suffering from panic attacks, stop holding onto your panic attacks but give it all up to the Lord. For people who are suffering from depression, please, just give up your entire life to the Lord. Whatever suffering you’re facing, the Lord has already finished it on the cross, so I hope you will have the faith to give it all up to the Lord.

2) Church that God Loves
What is the Church that God loves? God loved the world, so He sent us Christ, right? Then what is the church that God loves? It is the Church that proclaims Christ. No matter how many good things you do, the only church that God loves is the one that spreads the work of Jesus Christ because God sent Jesus Christ because He loves this world.

In Revelation, God speaks to some churches saying, “Your love has become lukewarm. At the beginning, you loved the gospel and proclaimed the gospel, but that faded away with time.” When someone first accepts Jesus Christ, they were so desperate in life and so passionate, but now that they’ve received healing and they get used to it, they’ve lost hold of that love.

God loves a church that makes disciples of all nations. This is what the Bible tells us; in other words, this is what God tells us. People say that having skin-to-skin contact is love, but without Christ, there is no such thing as love. Whatever you call love between people and people is just a standard that humans have created.

Do you think a family can be perfect or complete without Christ? No. Because you guys are all unified in going to hell; what kind of love is that? But the world tells you, that’s the perfect family. It turns out that Satan has actually trapped you into the frame of these ideologies so that he stops you from going in front of the light.

Mark 16:15 tells you to go to all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Acts 1:8 says that you must become a witness to the ends of the earth, as far as you go, and that is the person and church that God loves. Then, the ones who hold onto this covenant and gather together in prayer as in Acts 1:14 is the church that God loves.

What is the family that God loves? It’s the same, a family centered on Christ, a family that understands each other and lives their life for Christ. However, there is an ideology in every family that doesn’t love God, but loves something else: human equality, or “No matter what, money is the most important in our family,” or “education is the most important in our family,” or, “the ideology of our family is the best.” So, people might look at that family and think they’re great, but God will never acknowledge that family.

God loved the world so much that He sent His one and only Son, and other than accepting Jesus Christ, there is no way of receiving recognition from God.

3) Field that God Loves
What is the field that God loves? It is the field in which the gospel has never been proclaimed. God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son, so He sent His Son to proclaim the gospel. God has most of His interest in the places that have not heard the gospel even once. Even your business must be opened with that in mind.

You guys keep strategizing and making your based on the knowledge you’ve heard in the world, but that’s simply the world’s words. You need to look into the field where the gospel has never been proclaimed because that’s where God’s interest is.

The field of the schools where the future generation is dying off, not ever having heard the gospel. In 1962, there was a law that was passed that forbade people from praying in schools or mandating prayers in schools. Now, Donald Trump has come out and passed a law saying that it is okay for prayers in public schools, so, we need to move so that we can allow prayer to be in every school. No one can block that, why? Because it is God’s will.

God will allow us so that our future generations can go to these schools and pray there. I received assurance in that. I can’t go to those schools, so God will allow the students to pray the prayer of giving glory to God before all of their classes. Whenever a student acknowledges God and prays for God to be glorified right before their school, the kingdom of Satan is broken down and the kingdom of God is established in that field.

For people who are working, I hope you will do that in your occupational field. That is what delights God. No matter how much money you make, it is irrelevant to God. God even sent His one and only Son; what do you think God could possibly be lacking from you? However, if your business is used as a business that saves the field you’re in, that delights God.
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Conclusion
1. God’s Love – Christ
In conclusion, God’s method for loving the world was sending Jesus Christ. Then, what is the person, church, and field that God loves?

2. Person, Church, Field that God Loves
   God is delighted in and loves the person who believes in Jesus Christ and proclaims Jesus Christ to the fields that do not have Jesus Christ.
   
3. Light and Life Is Proclaimed
   I pray that this will be a week where the light and life of Christ are proclaimed through you.
   

Message Prayer

Let us pray together out loud holding onto the Word that God has given us. Reach a conclusion in the Word of God and really apply and put the Word into practice. Let us pray so that we can hold onto this prayer topic and share it with one another throughout the week.