April 20 2025 // John 3:16; Luke 24:1-12
APPLICATION: Read & watch/listen to John 3:16; Luke 24:1-12
John 3:16
God so loved….
The Greatest Love – You are so loved
The Greatest Act - You are so loved …he gave
The Greatest Gift -You are so loved …he gave …his son
The Greatest Promise - You are so loved …he gave …his son…whoever believes
The Greatest Possession - You are so loved …he gave …his son…whoever believes…will not perish but have eternal life
Lunchbox Evangelism
In one of my favorite Peanuts cartoons, Peppermint Patty says to Linus, “I would have made a good evangelist.” The skeptical Linus responds, “You? An evangelist? How could that happen?” Peppermint Patty explains: “You know the kid that sits behind me in school? I convinced him that my religion is better than his.” An increasingly befuddled Linus ponders, “How did you do that?” Says Peppermint Patty, “I hit him with my lunchbox.”
John 3 may be one of the most evangelistic passages of the entire Bible, proclaiming the gospel repeatedly in numerous words and ways. But John was not trying to convince anybody whose religion is better; he wanted to demonstrate how the Son of God continues to fulfill the plan of God on earth by bringing new birth and life to those who believe.
Verse 30 is one of the great transition passages of the New Testament. The Old Testament prophet must fade (the present tense verb literally means “continuously decrease”), while the new covenant Prophet must continuously increase. Evangelism is the proclamation that God’s Son has come to earth to die for the sins of humanity and that rejection of that gift leads to judgment and wrath. As we have seen, the message is profoundly simple yet still obscure to millions two thousand years after John introduced Jesus to the world.
Part of the problem comes when we try to tack on to evangelism modern accoutrements to make it happen. We use big advertising campaigns, large tents, a variety of contemporary music approaches, and even some manipulative gimmicks (such as “altar counselors” moving forward at the beginning of an invitation hymn to simulate spontaneous response to the invitation). All this is part of cultural accretion, and God has used it all in one way or another.
On the other hand, none of it is evangelism, but merely the party wardrobe (sometimes the grave clothes) of the message. As Inrig observes:
He Is Risen!
The Lord is risen, indeed! This is the message that separates followers of Jesus Christ from all other people of the world. If Christ is not risen, we are of all people most foolish. The church must constantly ask why it believes in resurrection and what difference that belief makes. The Gospel writers faced the same questions as they wrote. They did not give philosophical answers. They did not engage in polemical debate. They simply testified to what the church had seen and how the church was different.
The first apostles did not believe the earliest testimony of the resurrection. They thought of it as an old wives’ tale told by a bunch of grieving, delirious women. Quickly, they rethought their position. Better check it out. Peter found an empty tomb and discarded linen wrapping cloths. Then Jesus found Peter. His witness convinced the other apostles and followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. Jesus did not rely on only one appearance. He joined the pair on the road to Emmaus and let them recognize him in the breaking of bread. Thus, his followers would always know that when they met to remember him in the breaking of bread and drinking of the wine, they could encounter him. As the pair retreated to Jerusalem and shared their witness, Jesus again appeared, this time to all the disciples. He showed them he was not a spirit or a ghost. Even as he appeared in the resurrection body, they could see his physical reality in the scars in his feet and hands and in his need and ability to eat.
Jesus then showed them that his life, death, and resurrection had completed what Scripture had predicted. What is more, Scripture promised more to come. Repentance and forgiveness of sin must be preached to all the world. That job lay with the witnesses to and believers in the resurrection. So they were to stay put, wait for God’s promised Spirit, and then start in Jerusalem and go to the nations in Jesus’ name. Having received their mission, they watched as the risen Lord rose again, this time into the heavens to be with the Father. This brought not grief and sadness at their loss, but worship, joy, and praise. Life with the risen and ascended Lord is a life of joy, worship, and praise for his followers.[2]
A powerful analogy! And one John might have warmed to immediately. That is what this chapter is about: how the Holy Spirit uses the message of God to point to the Son of God and draw believers to him.[3]
Digging Deeper:
A. The Snake in the Desert (John 3:14)
Jesus used a simile adapted from Numbers 21, recalling the time when serpents bit the Israelites and they began to die. God sent healing to those who looked at a bronze serpent that Moses had made and placed on a pole.
The primary application centers in the cross, on which Jesus was “lifted up” to pay the penalty for our sin. But it is typical of John to build in a double meaning. Many scholars pick up on the theme of exaltation of the crucified Christ, especially since the glorification of Jesus came through his sufferings. The use of the phraseology “lifted up” in John refers exclusively to the cross. The concept of exaltation (“Let us lift up Jesus in our service this morning”) is purely application, not interpretation of the text.
Looking at the snake manifested active faith. It was not sufficient for the Israelites to know that there was a snake on the pole; they had to turn in faith, expecting God’s cure. So it is with the cross. It is not enough to know that Jesus was crucified on the cross; one must look to him in faith, accepting God’s free gift of salvation.
By this time readers know I am drawn to the flowing narrative of older commentaries which, in their “King James fashion,” poetically describe the essence of the gospel from metaphors like this one. Dods will do just fine as an example:
B. Son of Man (John 3:13–14)
In an earlier chapter we cited Charles Wesley’s familiar Christmas hymn, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” In a lesser-known but equally powerful theological text he once wrote:
Let earth and heaven combine,
The phrase “Son of Man” represents a literal translation of the Aramaic for man or the man. Jesus applied it to himself eighty-eight times in the Gospels and nobody else ever used it to describe him except Stephen (Acts 7:56) and the Greeks in this Gospel (12:34). The title was also used by the author of Hebrews when he quoted Psalm 8:4 (Heb. 2:6) and by John upon his revelation of Jesus among the seven lampstands (Rev. 1:13) and as the crown prince of heaven (Rev. 14:14).
In two of the first three chapters, John appears preoccupied with the nature of the Son of God. He wants his readers to grasp both humanity and deity, with a clear focus on the origin of Christ in heaven with the Father. Certainly the Lord’s humanity is more definitively argued in Mark, while John focuses on a central point: Jesus Christ is God. The position of liberal theology proclaims Jesus as a historical figure, a powerful if somewhat misguided personage of the first century whose teachings were misunderstood and which led to the cross. These liberal theologians argue that Jesus never claimed to be God, but the confused Jews and Romans around him became confused and killed him for exactly such a claim.
Evangelicals believe this is the exact reverse of what the New Testament states, particularly the record of John. Jesus claimed to be God because he was God and John affirmed that deity in every possible way. One little book stands out above others in affirming John’s message during the heyday of liberal theology. I offer one tasty sample from Sir Robert Anderson’s, The Lord from Heaven:
No one who accepts the Scriptures as divine is entitled to deny that in His personal ministry, the Lord Jesus laid claim to Deity. And the crucifixion is a public proof that He did in fact assert this claim. For we are told expressly that the reason why the Jews plotted His death was because He not only broke the Sabbath but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. His claim to be “Lord even of the Sabbath” was in itself an assertion of equality with the God of Sinai. And as regards His declaring Himself to be the Son of God, the question is not what these words might convey to English readers today, but what He Himself intended His hearers to understand by them.
And this He made unequivocally clear. The charge brought against Him was one from which, if false, any godly Israelite would have recoiled with horror. But instead of repelling it He accepted it in a way which even common men could understand. For He immediately asserted such absolute unity with God that the Father was responsible for His every act, including, of course, the miracle which they had denounced as a violation of the divine law. He next claimed absolute equality with God as “the author and giver of life”—the supreme prerogative of deity. And, lastly, He asserted His exclusive right to the equally divine prerogative of judgment (Anderson, p. 88).[4]
C. Resurrection (Luke 24:5)
Resurrection is the central fact on which Christianity and the church are built. Resurrection is unique from all that went before it. Some Old Testament heroes of faith were taken to heaven without enduring death—Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kgs. 2:11). Jesus raised people from the dead (such as the son of the widow of Nain as well as Lazarus). These would die again. Jesus died. He was buried and stayed in the tomb parts of three days. Then he came out of the empty tomb alive, never to enter a tomb again. The resurrected Christ was then taken to heaven to rule with God forever.
Other religions and people without religion may claim to believe in a life after death. Without Jesus, however, they have no evidence for their belief, no reason for their hope. The historical example of Jesus Christ proves that the God and Father of Jesus Christ has power over sin, death, and the grave. The historical promise of Jesus Christ means that each of his followers can expect to participate in the resurrection of the dead and the rewards of Christ. A person who does not believe in Christ, who does not take up his cross, deny himself, and follow Jesus, has not received Christ’s promises and cannot expect to join him in the rewards of eternal life after death.
This does not mean that all people will not experience resurrection. The Bible clearly teaches the resurrection of all people, both followers of Christ and those who reject Christ. Those who do not follow Christ will experience resurrection, but they will also receive the punishment for their sins that Christ bore for those who trust him. Thus, resurrection leads in two directions—to heaven and rewards for people who trust Christ and to hell and punishment for people without Christ.[5]
Questions to Consider:
Prayer Time:
[1] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 61–62.
[2] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 422–423.
[3] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 62–63.
[4] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 65–67.
[5] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 425–426.
[6] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 68.
[7] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 428.
John 3:16
God so loved….
The Greatest Love – You are so loved
The Greatest Act - You are so loved …he gave
The Greatest Gift -You are so loved …he gave …his son
The Greatest Promise - You are so loved …he gave …his son…whoever believes
The Greatest Possession - You are so loved …he gave …his son…whoever believes…will not perish but have eternal life
Luke 24:1-12
They were perplexed –
They remembered –
They doubted –
Peter looked /marveled – it happened!
They were perplexed –
They remembered –
They doubted –
Peter looked /marveled – it happened!
Life Application:
Lunchbox Evangelism
In one of my favorite Peanuts cartoons, Peppermint Patty says to Linus, “I would have made a good evangelist.” The skeptical Linus responds, “You? An evangelist? How could that happen?” Peppermint Patty explains: “You know the kid that sits behind me in school? I convinced him that my religion is better than his.” An increasingly befuddled Linus ponders, “How did you do that?” Says Peppermint Patty, “I hit him with my lunchbox.”
John 3 may be one of the most evangelistic passages of the entire Bible, proclaiming the gospel repeatedly in numerous words and ways. But John was not trying to convince anybody whose religion is better; he wanted to demonstrate how the Son of God continues to fulfill the plan of God on earth by bringing new birth and life to those who believe.
Verse 30 is one of the great transition passages of the New Testament. The Old Testament prophet must fade (the present tense verb literally means “continuously decrease”), while the new covenant Prophet must continuously increase. Evangelism is the proclamation that God’s Son has come to earth to die for the sins of humanity and that rejection of that gift leads to judgment and wrath. As we have seen, the message is profoundly simple yet still obscure to millions two thousand years after John introduced Jesus to the world.
Part of the problem comes when we try to tack on to evangelism modern accoutrements to make it happen. We use big advertising campaigns, large tents, a variety of contemporary music approaches, and even some manipulative gimmicks (such as “altar counselors” moving forward at the beginning of an invitation hymn to simulate spontaneous response to the invitation). All this is part of cultural accretion, and God has used it all in one way or another.
On the other hand, none of it is evangelism, but merely the party wardrobe (sometimes the grave clothes) of the message. As Inrig observes:
Some Christians have suggested that true evangelism is “power evangelism,” in which resistance to the Gospel is overcome by the demonstration of God’s power in supernatural events. This, we are told, makes receptivity to Christ’s claim very high. In fact, it has even been suggested that people who do not experience such power are less likely not only to believe but to move on to a mature faith. But the Lord’s words suggest something very different. True power evangelism involves not the doing of miracles but the proclamation of God’s truth in Scripture, which is able to make people “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15) (Inrig, pp. 133–34).[1]
He Is Risen!
The Lord is risen, indeed! This is the message that separates followers of Jesus Christ from all other people of the world. If Christ is not risen, we are of all people most foolish. The church must constantly ask why it believes in resurrection and what difference that belief makes. The Gospel writers faced the same questions as they wrote. They did not give philosophical answers. They did not engage in polemical debate. They simply testified to what the church had seen and how the church was different.
The first apostles did not believe the earliest testimony of the resurrection. They thought of it as an old wives’ tale told by a bunch of grieving, delirious women. Quickly, they rethought their position. Better check it out. Peter found an empty tomb and discarded linen wrapping cloths. Then Jesus found Peter. His witness convinced the other apostles and followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. Jesus did not rely on only one appearance. He joined the pair on the road to Emmaus and let them recognize him in the breaking of bread. Thus, his followers would always know that when they met to remember him in the breaking of bread and drinking of the wine, they could encounter him. As the pair retreated to Jerusalem and shared their witness, Jesus again appeared, this time to all the disciples. He showed them he was not a spirit or a ghost. Even as he appeared in the resurrection body, they could see his physical reality in the scars in his feet and hands and in his need and ability to eat.
Jesus then showed them that his life, death, and resurrection had completed what Scripture had predicted. What is more, Scripture promised more to come. Repentance and forgiveness of sin must be preached to all the world. That job lay with the witnesses to and believers in the resurrection. So they were to stay put, wait for God’s promised Spirit, and then start in Jerusalem and go to the nations in Jesus’ name. Having received their mission, they watched as the risen Lord rose again, this time into the heavens to be with the Father. This brought not grief and sadness at their loss, but worship, joy, and praise. Life with the risen and ascended Lord is a life of joy, worship, and praise for his followers.[2]
A powerful analogy! And one John might have warmed to immediately. That is what this chapter is about: how the Holy Spirit uses the message of God to point to the Son of God and draw believers to him.[3]
Digging Deeper:
A. The Snake in the Desert (John 3:14)
Jesus used a simile adapted from Numbers 21, recalling the time when serpents bit the Israelites and they began to die. God sent healing to those who looked at a bronze serpent that Moses had made and placed on a pole.
The primary application centers in the cross, on which Jesus was “lifted up” to pay the penalty for our sin. But it is typical of John to build in a double meaning. Many scholars pick up on the theme of exaltation of the crucified Christ, especially since the glorification of Jesus came through his sufferings. The use of the phraseology “lifted up” in John refers exclusively to the cross. The concept of exaltation (“Let us lift up Jesus in our service this morning”) is purely application, not interpretation of the text.
Looking at the snake manifested active faith. It was not sufficient for the Israelites to know that there was a snake on the pole; they had to turn in faith, expecting God’s cure. So it is with the cross. It is not enough to know that Jesus was crucified on the cross; one must look to him in faith, accepting God’s free gift of salvation.
By this time readers know I am drawn to the flowing narrative of older commentaries which, in their “King James fashion,” poetically describe the essence of the gospel from metaphors like this one. Dods will do just fine as an example:
Christ being lifted up, then, meant this, whatever else, that in His death sin was slain, its power to hurt ended. He being made sin for us, we are to argue that what we see done to Him is done to sin. Is He smitten, does He become accursed, does God deliver Him to death, is He at last slain and proved to be dead, so certainly dead that not a bone of Him need be broken? Then in this we are to read that sin is thus doomed by God, has been judged by Him, and was in the cross of Christ slain and put an end to—so utterly slain that there is left in it not any so faint a flicker or pulsation of life that a second blow need be given to prove it really dead (Dods, p. 124).
To which we can all respond, “Hallelujah!”
B. Son of Man (John 3:13–14)
In an earlier chapter we cited Charles Wesley’s familiar Christmas hymn, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” In a lesser-known but equally powerful theological text he once wrote:
Let earth and heaven combine,
Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate deity;
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made man (cited in Detzler, p. 357).
The phrase “Son of Man” represents a literal translation of the Aramaic for man or the man. Jesus applied it to himself eighty-eight times in the Gospels and nobody else ever used it to describe him except Stephen (Acts 7:56) and the Greeks in this Gospel (12:34). The title was also used by the author of Hebrews when he quoted Psalm 8:4 (Heb. 2:6) and by John upon his revelation of Jesus among the seven lampstands (Rev. 1:13) and as the crown prince of heaven (Rev. 14:14).
Witmer offers a helpful explanation:
Since the title had Messianic significance as a result of its occurrence in Daniel 7:13 as interpreted by subsequent Jewish scholars, Jesus’ use of it was acclaimed to His identity as Israel’s promised Messiah. This involved His ministry as the suffering servant and redemptive sacrifice (Matt. 20:28) who provides eternal life (John 6:53–58), accomplished by His death and resurrection at the end of His first coming. Jesus’ exercise of “authority, glory, and sovereign power,” is being worshipped by “all peoples, nations, and men of every language” and His eternal kingdom and “everlasting dominion” (Dan. 7:14) will not be realized until His return to earth to establish His Messianic kingdom, but Jesus was conscious of and spoke of His possession of those future Messianic prerogatives (Matt. 16:27–28; 24:30; 26:64). At least some of those Messianic rights were exercised by Jesus in His first coming, including the authority to forgive sins (9:6) and His authority over the Sabbath (12:8) (Witmer, p. 52).In two of the first three chapters, John appears preoccupied with the nature of the Son of God. He wants his readers to grasp both humanity and deity, with a clear focus on the origin of Christ in heaven with the Father. Certainly the Lord’s humanity is more definitively argued in Mark, while John focuses on a central point: Jesus Christ is God. The position of liberal theology proclaims Jesus as a historical figure, a powerful if somewhat misguided personage of the first century whose teachings were misunderstood and which led to the cross. These liberal theologians argue that Jesus never claimed to be God, but the confused Jews and Romans around him became confused and killed him for exactly such a claim.
Evangelicals believe this is the exact reverse of what the New Testament states, particularly the record of John. Jesus claimed to be God because he was God and John affirmed that deity in every possible way. One little book stands out above others in affirming John’s message during the heyday of liberal theology. I offer one tasty sample from Sir Robert Anderson’s, The Lord from Heaven:
No one who accepts the Scriptures as divine is entitled to deny that in His personal ministry, the Lord Jesus laid claim to Deity. And the crucifixion is a public proof that He did in fact assert this claim. For we are told expressly that the reason why the Jews plotted His death was because He not only broke the Sabbath but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. His claim to be “Lord even of the Sabbath” was in itself an assertion of equality with the God of Sinai. And as regards His declaring Himself to be the Son of God, the question is not what these words might convey to English readers today, but what He Himself intended His hearers to understand by them.
And this He made unequivocally clear. The charge brought against Him was one from which, if false, any godly Israelite would have recoiled with horror. But instead of repelling it He accepted it in a way which even common men could understand. For He immediately asserted such absolute unity with God that the Father was responsible for His every act, including, of course, the miracle which they had denounced as a violation of the divine law. He next claimed absolute equality with God as “the author and giver of life”—the supreme prerogative of deity. And, lastly, He asserted His exclusive right to the equally divine prerogative of judgment (Anderson, p. 88).[4]
C. Resurrection (Luke 24:5)
Resurrection is the central fact on which Christianity and the church are built. Resurrection is unique from all that went before it. Some Old Testament heroes of faith were taken to heaven without enduring death—Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kgs. 2:11). Jesus raised people from the dead (such as the son of the widow of Nain as well as Lazarus). These would die again. Jesus died. He was buried and stayed in the tomb parts of three days. Then he came out of the empty tomb alive, never to enter a tomb again. The resurrected Christ was then taken to heaven to rule with God forever.
Other religions and people without religion may claim to believe in a life after death. Without Jesus, however, they have no evidence for their belief, no reason for their hope. The historical example of Jesus Christ proves that the God and Father of Jesus Christ has power over sin, death, and the grave. The historical promise of Jesus Christ means that each of his followers can expect to participate in the resurrection of the dead and the rewards of Christ. A person who does not believe in Christ, who does not take up his cross, deny himself, and follow Jesus, has not received Christ’s promises and cannot expect to join him in the rewards of eternal life after death.
This does not mean that all people will not experience resurrection. The Bible clearly teaches the resurrection of all people, both followers of Christ and those who reject Christ. Those who do not follow Christ will experience resurrection, but they will also receive the punishment for their sins that Christ bore for those who trust him. Thus, resurrection leads in two directions—to heaven and rewards for people who trust Christ and to hell and punishment for people without Christ.[5]
- How would you explain the new birth in terms understandable to a person who never read the Bible and never attended church?
- In your own words, explain how God saved the world through Jesus (John 3:16–18).
- In what ways can you become less in your life and influence while Jesus Christ becomes greater?[6]
- Do you believe Jesus of Nazareth died, was buried, was raised again the third day, and ascended to heaven? Why?
- What difference does your belief or disbelief in Jesus’ resurrection make in your life?[7]
Prayer Time:
[1] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 61–62.
[2] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 422–423.
[3] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 62–63.
[4] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 65–67.
[5] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 425–426.
[6] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 68.
[7] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 428.