“The Gospel in a Nutshell”
Original sermon given March 10, 2024, written and delivered by Pastor Jeffrey Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“The Gospel in a Nutshell”
John 3.14-21
John 3.14-21
In the name of the Living God and the crucified Christ. Amen.
Many of us gathered in worship this morning that have heard the gospel story a thousand times; but there may be others here who have never really, fully grasped it—I want you to know this Jesus is for all of you.
Some of us come from great homes with great families, and others whose homes and backgrounds are such that the church has really become more home than any place else—this Jesus is for all of you.
A few of you might even be heading into church work—if you’re at Moody or Concordia. Some will study Greek or lead lock-ins or sing or play some of the greatest sacred music ever written. On the other hand, some of you, quite honestly, maybe rarely even step foot in church. This Jesus is for all of you.
Some here have lived pretty pure and pious lives: kept themselves clean, not gotten into trouble, never sat in the back of a police car before. Others… well… you put the fun into dysfunctional, don’t you? – poor choices, embarrassing past, rough around the edges, maybe even abused or neglected. This Jesus is for all of you.
Maybe you’ve recently turned a corner in your life, or maybe it’s another dead end. Maybe you feel like life is just getting better and better, or it’s a downward spiral that you can’t get out of. It doesn’t matter. Not to Jesus. Not anymore.
The reason I can say this and assert it with great confidence and preach it from this pulpit is because of what we just read a few minutes ago. The witness from St. John, the beloved disciple, who was right there walking with Jesus, who saw him die with his own eyes and ate breakfast with him on the beach after the Resurrection—this John records that God loved the whole world. That includes you and me, regardless of where we come from or what we’ve done. God gave Jesus—gave him for sinners, for unrighteous ones like us. Whoever believes, trusts, has faith in Jesus is right with God forever and saved from peril. Not, mind you, whoever is good enough or smart enough or pious enough or does enough right before they die to become barely passable before God. And God sent this Jesus into the world not for condemnation but for reconciliation between us and the Father.
John 3.16 is the most famous passage ever—right up there with Psalm 23. It’s sometimes called “The Gospel in a Nutshell.” You’ve seen the numbers held up on a sign at sports games or as a tattoo on someone’s arm. Even if you don’t know anything about “church-y” stuff you might know at least this much. But I want you to stick with me for a minute, because this passage, this message really is the most remarkable thing ever. Let me outline it in this somewhat paradoxical way: 1) the Love of God has nothing to do with you, 2) but it also has everything to do with you.
The love of God has nothing to do with you because you didn’t create it or earn it. You don’t deserve it, you can’t buy it, and no matter what happens it’s never going away. Before the foundations of the world, love lived, because God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is eternal. At Bethlehem this love took on flesh and blood, became fully human, and lived a perfect life in every way possible. Then this love walked step by painful step to the most unjust, torturous, death imaginable on the cross of Calvary. But even all the legions of Satan, death, and hell could not hold back the mighty power of this love, for Christ burst forth on Easter Sunday and now lives forever… Love lives forever. Love reigns eternal because Jesus Christ does.
Now, you see that the love of God has nothing to do with you or me because it’s about the nature and character and actions of God Almighty. It is conditioned and dependent upon no person or situation. Like the law of gravity, Christ’s love just is.
But like the law of gravity, it affects everyone personally. This love of God in Christ at the same time has everything to do with you and me. It seeped into that terrible night when you cried yourself to sleep. It lifted you up the “morning after” when you couldn’t believe what you did the previous night. It breaks through when you don’t even know yourself anymore, who you’ve become. It forgives when you can’t even forgive yourself. It upheld you when everything else was falling apart. It gives hope and direction when nothing seems clear or certain. It’s got everythingto do with you because the Love of God in Christ is given to each individual person in every circumstance.
I was given a poignant reminder of this breadth of God’s love this past week. I’d like to introduce First Saint Paul’s newest member—little baby Hazel Walder. Hazel is not here this morning because she’s just a couple of months old in the Nico ICU at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital. Born six weeks early, she’s in a very, very precarious situation. The pastor from St. John Buckley called us to do an emergency baptism, as baby Hazel’s grandparents are members there. God so loved Hazel that He declared her to be his own child last Monday through the waters of Holy Baptism. The objective, ever-true love of God in Christ was made subjectively true for her, through this means of grace, Holy Baptism.
Now on Thursday I visited her again. When I prayed with her, her little fingers grabbed onto my pinky finger. And when I started to sing to her: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so” – when I sang these words, she opened her eyes.
Dorothea Chaveriat opened her eyes, too, when I sang that very same simple children’s song to her a few months ago. Many of you know that Dorothea, one of our long-time members, passed away last week. But a few months ago, I sang “Jesus loves me this I know…” and she opened her eyes for a moment and even sang with us. Even amid her illness and deterioration, in the depths of her soul, that faith of a child still lived. Our newest member, baby Hazel, and our most recent member to depart and be with Christ, Dorothea, will never meet on this earth. How different their lives have been. And yet, the objective truth of Christ’s love, which embraces the whole world, embraced each of them individually too. God called each of them by name.
To come full circle, Dorothea’s father, Pastor Walther Eissfeldt, served at St. John’s Buckley where baby Hazel’s grandparents are members. He married Dorothea and John there, and he baptized Hazel’s grandpa there, who I met this week—small Lutheran world, right?
Hazel opened her eyes at the song of Jesus’ love; Dorthea did; and now it’s your turn too. Open your eyes to see and experience the world differently, because when God loved the whole world in the gift of His beloved son, He loved you too.
You don’t know where the course of your life will take you. Its brevity or its length; its pains or its joys; its failures or its successes. But you can know what’s most important to be known—that God’s love in Christ Jesus has spoken your name too.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.