How To Study The Bible

Okay. We've been taking a look at John chapter 3. We've been going for four and a half months on John chapter 3. Digging out little bits at a time. Looking at tiny little parts so that we make sure we don't skip anything. Alright. Now, I should tell you we're just hitting the high spots. Okay? So you know. So you'll forgive us for just hitting it superficially, but we only have so much time. Now, we've been going through this. Let me scoot this up, because I think we've spent some time on the prior verses.

John 3.15 is actually kind of a brief statement of John 3.16, isn't it? It says it kind of in shortened form, it boils it down.

John 3.16 kind of expands on verse 15. It's really kind of what happens. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. That's the boiled down version.

John 3.16 explains it in greater detail. So it's an expansion of verse 15.

Make sense? Yes. In other words, here's what's happening. Is this for... That's making a logical statement, isn't it? In other words, it's backing up. This is a because kind of statement. It's backing up what's stated simply in verse 15 with more detail to give you the insight into what's behind verse 15. Make sense?

Something else that's real interesting, and there's always a little bit of a trick to get in my mind. In English, we say, for God, and frequently that for is the second word in the Greek sentence. So it's an interesting thing to get shifted in your English mind. They'll put the because as the second word.

When we look at this now, so what's happening, it's important to look at that this is explaining this. This is laid out the principle. This is giving us insight. And that's the important sequence. And as you're going through studying the Scriptures, when you see this for or because or therefore, those kinds of words, remember that there's a connection to what's prior. And so that's what we're looking at here. Oh boy, I don't like that sound.

This word for is gar. You and I wouldn't say gar, but that's the way the Greeks say it. Gar, a causative particle standing always after one or more words in a clause and expressing the reason for what has been before affirmed or applied. because of what's in verse 15. Now, this is expressing the reason. That's what we were just saying. This word, gar, there is expressing the reason for what was said in verse 15.

So that's the turning point. Now, we've talked about the word God, theos, in the Greek, and what are some of the things you notice about it? the article in front of it. So in the Greek, it has the article. And the article is not always there, but frequently it is there to spell out, this is THE god. Remember, what was the Greek pagan idea that their language came out of? What was the Greek pagan idea about a god? It's not the only one. That's right. There's bunches of them. There's a lot of them.

They had what we call a pantheon, right? And what else do we know about those gods? They had different functions. One was for fertility. That's right. There would be one that was God over this, one that was God over that. So when the Christians came along and started using Greek to communicate with them, they had to kind of clarify what they meant by the words. And using that article was one of the ways that they would do that. They would spell out, this isn't just one of these gods, because you've got a pantheon.

This is the God. Paul spells it out in Acts 17. You have an altar to the unknown God. Well, I'm introducing you to the unknown God. So this is for, that is because, the God, the one particular God that's not just part of a pantheon. Not just one that has responsibility for this particular area. The one who is almighty. That one. The one the Greeks didn't know. The one they called the unknown God. That one. But that God they only had because if there was something they couldn't attribute to it.

That's right. Let's have a kind of a spare God. Yes, excellent point. It was because of their what we would call agnosticism. Because they were trying to accommodate what they didn't know. And Paul is saying, it's what you don't know about that I'm trying to tell you. Yeah, good point. That this is sort of a catch-all that they had set up. And Paul is saying, this catch-all is the one you really need to pay attention to.

Now here's the word that causes me to make the statement, John 3.16, may not, I didn't say does not, may not mean what you think it does.

This little word so, does this word so, for God so loved the world, does this word so refer to the intensity and degree of God's love or does it refer to the kind of love that he has. God so loved the world. That little tiny word in English, isn't it? God so loved. Now, so let's take a look at that. It's Huto. Huto in the Greek. Basically it's saying in this kind of a context, in this manner, in this way.

So it's not God loved the world a whole bunch. It's not saying he didn't, but that's not what this is trying to communicate. this word is communicating, this is the way that God showed his love to us. God loved us in such a way. Does that make sense? Here's a question. When Nancy and I do marriage counseling together, and that's the way we do it, one of the things that we ask couples is, what does love mean to you when your spouse says, I love you, How does that come across? What says I love you?

And when we take it back to this verse, what John 3.16 is explaining in part is this is the way that God expressed His love to us. This is the manner that He expressed His love to us. It's not just saying the degree. It will tell us that. in a little bit, but this particular word is pointing to this is the way that God loved us.

Okay? Make sense? Communicating? My dictionary has it down as an intensifier. What, an English dictionary? Yeah. It frequently can be used that way, but that's the reason why I wanted to clarify it here, because the Greek intensifier sounds more like a degree kind of issue. That's right.

But the Greek is not saying, here's the magnitude. It's saying, here's the kind. Here is the kind. Here is the way in which God shows us love. See? So that's kind of the dimension of this word that I want us to get across here. Here is the way that God's love comes across.

Yeah. Why is that important? Well, we'll get into that in a minute. What we'll see as we get into this verse is that the magnitude is demonstrated in the rest of the verse. So it isn't ignored. But one of the things we'll be looking at here This is the way God carried it out. Now, the next thing we see, for God in this way, God in this way loved the world. Now, that means he had kind of a warm, gushy feeling? Is that what it means? What's that talking about? What kind of... He had the benefit of everybody in mind regarding it.

There are places where our English is a little bit more specific, but this is an area where the Greek language, and I think it's one of the reasons why the Lord said, okay, now is the right condition under which we can spread the gospel, because we can talk about what different kinds of love there are. He chose a particular kind of love, and to be careful The word agape, agapeo here, can be used in some other ways, but in this context and in the way it is used here, this is the way it comes across. Agape is the noun, agapao the verb. Indicating a direction of the will.

This is interesting. This is a willing, not an emotional relation. See the difference? It's a willing, not an emotional relation. It isn't simply a matter, you give me warm, gushy feelings, and therefore, reciprocally, I wish to convey the same. Okay? So it's an exercise of the will, but it's also finding one's joy in something or someone.

And we hear this in Hebrews 12, too. What does it say? For the... The joy said before me, endure the cross. That's this message here, isn't it? Now, it wasn't because, again to underscore the point, it wasn't because we were just such wonderful people. Oh man, those are just marvelous human beings. And I just, I can't help myself but to respond to those human beings. Is that what's going on?

No. That's not what we did. Ephesians 2 lays it out, when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and the Greek word is nekros, we get our word necrotic. When we were necrotic in our trespasses and sins. So we weren't lovable and lovely. It was an expression of the will of the Lord, and it was an expression of finding one's joy. The Lord found His joy not in what one were but in what He saw that we would be. Now, here it makes a distinction. It differs from phileo, indicating feelings, warm affection. And notice the connection here.

It even highlights John 3.16. Spoken of things to love, to delight in.

It is a love that sees the benefit for the other person and by the will takes action based on that foreseen benefit, even though the receiving party of that benefit may have no recognition of or appreciation for what they're getting. Isn't that something? And that's the way it's conditioned. God, I don't care what you do. I got my own life to live, and that's the heart of a great many people still, and that is the heart of man apart from the wooing of the Lord.

So this love is a love that is a love of the will, it is a love of value that looks into the future, it is a love that looks to benefit the recipient regardless of the recipient's appreciation or desire for the benefit. So let's go through this and kind of expand.

Four, that is, based on what's been given previously, the God in such a manner loved of the will and with intent to benefit the recipients, And then we come to this word, world. And it's a word that you've probably heard before, cosmos. And when we think of that word cosmos, there are several different ways that the Greeks would use it. And some of those would be, for example...

Yes, it would think of, here's this whole creation. So that was one way that the word was used. So we need to keep that in mind, but that's why this zeroes in on something different. This isn't talking about the material creation, is it? This was another way in which it was used.

This is zeroing in, you look at the world, this is looking at people. And looking particularly at the condition of those people. Cosmos is primary meaning being order, regular disposition, and arrangement. It's usually the physical creation. But there is a use of the word, in this one here, the world meaning the inhabitants of the earth, men, mankind, and specifically points to John 3.16. That's the direction that this is headed. Now, think of what that means.

God had a disposition of the will regarding benefiting mankind, regardless of mankind's appreciation for that benefit. And so here's all these unappreciative, fallen creatures, spiritually dead, as Paul describes in Ephesians 2, they were necrotic, spiritually. And God has love for these creatures. Wow! Isn't that amazing?

Now, we'll see here in a minute, for God so loved, the manner in which He loved the world. And we'll see exactly how that gets spelled out. But we'll see, here's what God does. And God did not wait for human beings to respond and say, hey, Lord, I need something. I need you to do something.

One of the phrases that we'll frequently see throughout Scripture is, before the foundation of the world. Remember reading that? Before the beginning. Or at the beginning. Those are phrases you'll see frequently in Scripture. And it's interesting, if you go through and kind of stack those up, you'll see a lot of things that God did Right at the start. And he didn't wait for human beings to come out and say, boy, I'm in bad shape, help. He saw the need and began things at that point.

Yeah. Joanne? So God created man in his own image. Yes. So in him, he received a desire for salvation. Okay. And restored to health. Let's think about that for a minute. Here it says, and this comes out of Genesis 1, God said, let us, so here's the plurality within this pronoun, let us make man in our image, another one of these plural pronouns again, let us make man in our image. So he did that.

And let's ask the question, is man still in God's image? There is still an imprint of that image, although it is profoundly tarnished, is it not? Adam and Eve had, because it was Adam and Eve created in God's image, Adam and Eve had had an innocence about them, and there was an unblemished imprint of the image of God. And so that was damaged.

But let's think through this, because that's a part of this thinking through, what is man? What is man? And it's a part of also, what is this cosmos? God created man in his own image, and what are some of the ways in which that image comes forth? We're not just more gods, okay? But what are some of the ways that that being created in the image of God comes forth?

Okay, we have a will. In fact, we'll see in the main message that the word used in the New Testament for the will of man is the same word used for the will of God. How about a God consciousness? Okay, there is a consciousness of God where at minimum there's a consciousness that there is a spiritual realm. It's something that animals do not appear to have from anything we can observe or see in scripture. So there is an awareness of things spiritual and not only that, anthropologists have stated man is incurably religious. incurably religious.

I sat down with a fellow who was an atheist who came forward after at the end of a philosophy class. We were talking and so he said, I don't believe in God. I said, okay. I said, then what is? What is your God? Because the bottom line is human beings are such a character that they're going to find something. Did he say thank God? No. Less than a year later he became a believer.

I find it interesting that as Jesus was talking to Nicodemus that he changed that direction. He said, if I have told you of earthly things and you believe not, I'll show you believe if I tell you heavenly things. So he made a shift. I was talking about heavenly things. Right. What we're talking about there is that there is a difference in man. There's an earthly and there's a heavenly. And Jesus is making earthly. So there's a difference there. This is as we talk about it being made in the image of God. Man in the beginning had an automatic awareness and true relationship with the Lord. That has been damaged.

Because what has happened is, as sin has entered, there has been this separation that has taken place. One of the Greek words for death is apoceino, and it means to from die. Here is the preposition, apo. Basically, the word death in there, and it's only one of the words for death, but the word death actually says separation. It's a from death. In what other ways is man created in the image of God? As a believer, we have the possibility to live forever.

Okay. Alright. Yes. Okay. The point being, as we go through scripture, what we find is human beings have body, soul, and spirit. Animals appear to have body and soul. It doesn't appear from anything we have in scripture to indicate that animals have a spirit. So there is a basis on which we can relate to them. but it is limited. We, however, can relate spiritually to God. One of the things that is characteristic of God is God is a moral God who is by definition righteousness with all capital letters.

Human beings also have a moral sense. Now that can be violated and it can be warped, but human beings have a moral sense As a matter of fact, there is among human beings, and if you ever wondered about this, there is a sense of something ought to be, or it ought not to be. We have as human beings a kind of, boy, it sure ought to be this way, or it shouldn't be this way.

Why should that be there? Why shouldn't we just accept things, well, whatever it is? Even the atheist that I talked to had a sense of, boy, this ought not to be, or it ought to be. That incurable sense of something ought to be different than it is is a recognition in fallen man of the fact that things ought to be different than the way they are. That spiritual character imprinted upon man has built into it that sense of ought, and the unbeliever has no philosophical or moral or spiritual basis for that. They've got no good reason why something ought to be different than it is. Have you ever thought about that? That sense of oughtness, that sense of things should be different than they are, or shouldn't be the way they are, that's something that comes from being made in the image of God.

Here's something else, the ability to communicate. We know that, and scientists are studying, that the animals can communicate very well on different levels. But one of the things that we don't seem to get any sense of at all, either from scripture or from observation, is something like dolphins, who seem to be very adept at communication, saying, you know, I would like to have gone to church last Sunday.

They don't seem to go there. There isn't that complex an ability to not only think that but to communicate that. Dolphins have not been observed except on training to start praying before they eat or something. It just doesn't happen. You present the fish and they got it. Human beings have an ability to communicate. Now that ability to communicate has been what?

Corrupted as well. Tower of Babel. corrupted it. And I think it actually corrupted in other ways aside from that. So as we look at it, God so loved the world and when he did so, the world, yes, reflected God's image, bore God's image, those individuals in it. And yet at the same time, every part of man is corrupted. Every part of man is cursed with this separation from God. So God so loved these people who were corrupted and separated, who were a tarnished image at best of God himself. So that is amazing.

Now, let's move on. Here's where we start to see the answer to Roy's question. Why is that so? Why does it make a difference whether it's kind or manner of instead of intensity? He loved the world in this way. The way in which he loved the world is in the rest of this passage, the rest of this verse, explained as to its degree or magnitude. And here's his response.

This word, that, hoste. It connects more closely a following clause with a preceding one. So that accordingly, thus, it's to make a tight connection there in the words. The words have a connecting sequence. It's not just another idea thrown in randomly. It is a very connected idea.

That, okay? It's focused on a result or a consequence, okay? So, when it says, that he gave, this is a response to the way in which he loved, okay? That he gave, and what do you notice about this? What do you notice about this? He gave. That's, as we've talked about, that's aorist. So it's a giving in the past. And then it's an aorist.

And what do these two letters in the middle mean? It's indicative. It's stating a fact. So the aorist, one of the questions Roy had some weeks back, does the aorist mean primarily stating a fact? In the indicative mood, yes. It is a fact from the past. You could say this, that he in fact did in the past give. That gives the full sense of the verb there. And notice what it is.

It's active voice. God did the acting. God is the one who did the acting. So there's a whole lot built into that little word there, isn't there? He was the one that gave. And then his. Basically, nothing too complicated about that other than referring back to God, because He's the only one that's been spoken about in that way. And this is only begotten. Let's take a look at that. It's already given. The Son is already given. assume that of course he has given him because he's been 30 years old.

I'm trying to make sure I'm getting the sense of what you're saying. I mean did Nicodemus then understand that the meaning is that God had given him Jesus? In the past. I'm sure that Nicodemus' mind was reeling at this point. It's clear that this whole And Jesus, remember, we talked about before, Jesus had just turned a corner.

This is no longer follow the law. This was no longer I'm a son of Abraham. Now it's believing. Now it's the whole world. This is mind-boggling, earth-shaking, head-quivering kind of concept for Nicodemus to absorb. But now, God in the past took the action to give. I wanted to elaborate on this a little. The prophecies certainly laid it out to some degree, but never to the depth which Christ here revealed. He's nailing it, isn't he? Yeah.

I mean, even if you took the prophecies for granted, they sunk in. I mean, the volume of this statement They just couldn't have the grasp. And he just, it's almost like he takes a club and hits him over the head. Because there was no leading up to this.

It's very pointed, isn't it? It's very pointed. And then for human brains, generally it takes about a week of struggling over it before you have any further acceptance of this, if you have any acceptance of it at all. You've hit on a point. We as human beings have a tendency to take where we're at now and adjust slightly from our initial perspective. Here's an example that I had in one of my marketing classes that I think shows human thinking.

They did a survey in which they asked a group of people, they said, quickly, don't do the math, just kind of give me an estimate from your sense of things. What is 1 times 2 times 3 on and on up to 10? And people, when asked that, they gave a figure of around a million. And then they, to another group of people, went up and said, quickly, give me what is 10 times 9 times 8 down to 1. What's that? And people gave an answer, 5 million. times two times three all the way up to ten, and ten times nine times eight down to one is the same thing.

But it's interesting, people's initial tendency is to grab something and then adjust from there. And this shows exactly what you're saying. Nicodemus coming so deeply entrenched in this idea that, well, I'm of the right group, I've got the right mother and father, I'm doing all the right stuff. As a matter of fact, I know better than anybody all the right rules to follow. This was an extraordinary thing for him to try to absorb. You're right. And it was mind-boggling.

This thing, you mean just believing? Not doing? And do you mean it's what God does and not what I do? See, this very thing that he gave... Well, wait a minute. The only thing God gave is the law, right? Yes, and I'm keeping it. And it's my job to keep it, all 613 of them, every single one. But now here, God so loved the world that what did He do? He gave, and notice He just gave. He made a deal. He traded. But He gave His, and then this only begotten, This this focuses on.

The word itself here focuses on offspring or posterity, family, lineage, stock, but we have something that differentiates it and focuses. What do you see here? And what do you see here? OK, so it isn't just he gave us his, you know, family or something. It's the one that was descended that was the son. The one that was descended that was the son.

That one. Individual, singular, this one, this one. Double emphasis. Article, article. That would just knock somebody off their feet. They would heal people out of their mind. Yeah, and when you say boasting, what do you mean? Because I think that's real insightful. Look at me, I am that person. Yeah, I mean, what kind of a statement to make? If it isn't absolute truth, it's just a bald-faced, egotistical, insane statement. Yeah, blasphemous in the Jewish context. Deserving of death. blasphemy was deserving of death in the Jewish understanding.

He gave the one who was descended, who was the Son, that, and notice this that is the same one as here, that whosoever, remember we looked at whosoever? The same one as up here. Again, he is drawing on the same words that he used in verse 15, but expounding on them. And remember that whosoever, then, ties back to this world. God so loved the world, that was God's action, that whosoever opens up the door to any who is going to respond. That whosoever, as long as they are of Jewish lineage. that whosoever, as long as there are specific ones that are on the right list, that whosoever, as long as they do all the right stuff. Is that right? No. And what's the condition? Believeth.

And this is a present active participle. What does that mean? What's a present active participle? Okay, it is a continuing action, but what's the sense of a present active participle? How does that come across in English? And you're correct, but I'm just trying to zero in on it here.

The believer does it. Okay, the believer does it. When we have a participle, the thing to do is to put an ing at the end. And yes, you're right, the believer is the one who's carrying this out. That whosoever, this is anyone. As a matter of fact, this one we looked at before, it's the Greek word pas, which means all. all those out there, everyone who is believing. Everyone who is believing. So here is this believing that is the response to God having so loved the world. Now, in, and we put up this neat little chart that folks got a copy of last week. And whoever is believing in, and this word in is entirely in.

Whoever is putting his trust, and we focused on the fact that this word for believing is, and this is an instance where in English we have differentiations that the Greek doesn't have. to believe, to have faith, to trust in. Those are all the same word in the Greek.

Putting one's confidence into the extent of dependence. This isn't just theoretical. I think hypothetically that this is putting one's confidence in entirely. How about if I say, well, I believe in God, but just in case, I want to make sure that I do these other things too. Is that what he has in mind? No. What if I just believe in God? Is that sufficient? That's not good enough? What's wrong with that?

Satan believes in God. Okay. He believes in God in the sense that God exists, but he does not believe in God in the extent of putting his trust and confidence. This N means entirely N. I put my trust and confidence in Him, but I don't say, but just in case, I'm going to make sure I do this and this and this.

Yeah, Joanne? Are you talking about N and verse 16? Yeah. And verse 16 is I. And verse 15 is N. Okay, I'm sorry. Hold on a minute here. Let me see. They said this is the best way. That's one thing I asked you about before. I don't understand why they have N and verse 16. I'll have to check on that because what I have here is N in both of them. So let me check on that.

I will say this, there are some contexts in which this is used, believing into. I think you said it was believing into Christ as a result that you were in. I will have to check on that in terms of the Nestle text coming up with that because what I have doesn't indicate that. Even if it does, there are passages where it definitely has ice, but even that is pointing to this. Your confidence may right now be here, but it is going into this state of belief. That we put our trust and confidence in Him.

And then it said, should not perish. This word perish is the same one we looked at in verse 15. The same one we looked at in verse 15. It is used consistently in the scripture for being destroyed, for eternal destruction. It is also used consistently in the context of perishing, meaning hell, not just going through a tough time and then getting out of it. It's consistently used. In sharp contrast, it's the sharp contrast kind, to have it in your possession. To have it in your possession is the intent. To have everlasting, ageless life. Ageless life. And that's a good point.

Sometimes translators will go and change words like that when I sometimes kind of question why are you doing that? Because it implies there's something different in the Greek. It's the same Greek word. See this 166? Same Greek word in both cases and life. This is the same. Basically, this here is repeating the end of 15. And the word structure, everything is identical. It's all there.

Paul uses this word here in a combined form he frequently will talk about, into the ages of the ages. And what it is, it's eternities of eternities. Wow. It conveys the sense in that use of unfolding ages. One age after the next, after the next, after the next, after the next.

And we made the distinction last week too, this is not bios life, which is purely physical life, where we get our word biology. But this is zoe, which is life that is more at the soul level. So even the Greeks understood that. So he didn't come to them and say you'll get eternal bios life, you keep lasting and lasting in these things, but that you will have eternal soul life. See the distinction there? So the Greeks had two different words here, and this is zeroing in on that last one. Now let's come back to having looked at this, because we've got barely any time left, Let's come back to Roy's question.

This is focusing on the manner. This is demonstrating the extent of his love. Do you see that? It demonstrates the extent of his love in that he sent the one and only, the Son. He says, this is so valuable, I will give the one and only singular Son. So it not only conveys this is the way that I love them, but this is the degree that I love them. You see that? It's both dimensions. Isn't that cool? I think that's neat.

Let's pray. Lord, You have given in Your Word such great depth. And even though we've looked at lots of fine details, Lord, when we back off and look at it, it is marvelous what You have done. And it is certainly beyond our simple human understanding to even comprehend why would you do this. And yet your love has that character that you would do this. And it has that degree and that magnitude. We give you thanks for that, Lord. It will take us that eternal life to understand it. And we just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.