Dr. Alan J. Meenan
Why did God give us this incredible gift in his son Jesus Christ? It is an indication of God's depth of love for us that He would dare to give His one and only child. For those of us who are parents, the thought of giving away a child, especially to death, is unimaginable. Tucked away in the pages of Judges chapter 11 is the incredible story of Jephthah, a judge of Israel. Jephthah made an absurd vow to God. He told God that if God would bless him in his war against the Ammonites, then he would make a human sacrifice. The sacrifice would be the first person to greet him from his own home when he returned victorious from war. Unfortunately, when Jephthah returns from his battle against the Ammonites, the first person out of the door was his daughter. She was singing and dancing for joy, because her father had been victorious. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break. I cannot begin to imagine the agony in Jephthah's heart.
Do you remember Abraham? As he and Isaac climbed to the top of Mount Moriah, the boy turned to his father and said, "Dad, I understand that we're making a sacrifice, but I don't see any sacrifice." Abraham knew that he was to sacrifice his only son, and his heart was breaking as he turned to him and replied "Isaac, God will provide a sacrifice." Of course, God spared the life of Isaac and did provide a sacrifice. However, through these stories we can begin to comprehend the heartbreak that God endured for us. God loved the world so much that he gave His only begotten, His one and only Son.
God gave this gift to people who didn't deserve it and couldn't care less about it. God gave such a sacrifice to people who maligned His Son, mistreated Him, misunderstood Him, and crucified Him. Have you ever given someone you love a birthday present and seen a look of frustration come over their face? They look at you and say, "Well, it's very nice, but what is it?" Imagine for a moment that you spent every penny you had to buy this gift and they simply set it aside. God gave His gift, and not only was it set aside, but it was crucified. And, the gift was the gift of Himself.
The wonderful, unique thing about Christianity is that God became a human being, and died because of love for humankind. There is nothing like that. This is not mere sentimentality. This is something real. This omnipotent God, the transcendent one, becomes eminent, becomes human, becomes real, becomes tangible, becomes touchable, and becomes understandable. That is the Christian God as He's revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.
At a great Christian convention held in Carnegie Hall after the first World War, the minister opened the proceedings with a prayer. It went something like this, "Oh, thou great and terrible God, great is thy majesty, great is the distance that separates us from thee. From the abyss of our helpless and lost conditions we cry after thee guilty sinners that we are…" The old guy sitting on the platform behind him turned to his neighbor and said, "Why doesn't somebody give that man a New Testament!" This great and awesome God took on human flesh.
I love the story of a little girl working in her father's print shop. She came across a scrap of paper that said, "For God so loved the world that He gave." Then, it was torn. Yet, this scrap of paper made the little girl very happy. When her Mom asked her what it was that was making her so happy, she handed her the scrap of paper. "Well," her mom said, "That's nice dear, but what did God give?" She stood for a moment, puzzled. Then she turned to her mom and said, "I don't know. If He gave anything, then He must be a lovely God, and we need not to worry or be fearful of Him. God is good.
Why would God give such a gift? First, he so loved. The great German, George Elsmere once said, "If I were God, the sorrows of the world would break my heart." In fact, that's exactly what happened. The sorrows of the world broke the heart of God. God's love comes flowing over the mountain of human ruins and degradation, to touch our hearts. If there is something vexing you and giving you cause for concern, God's love is greater than the problem. God's love is greater than the sorrows associated with death. God who sees the façade, still loves the clod he made out of sod. God loves us because He loves us. God doesn't love you because you're a neat person. He doesn't love you because you have a high IQ, or because you've got lots of money that you give to the church. God doesn't love you because you're one of Hollywood's beautiful people. He doesn't love you because you do nice things. Israel once thought they were special because of something they had done. Yet, God sets them straight in the book of Deuteronomy. He says, "I didn't choose you because you were the greatest of the nations of the world; in fact, you were the least of all the nations. That's why I chose you."
Why is it that God has chosen you? There's nothing in you to commend you to God. But, He loves you anyway. That's the Good News that we believe.
I cannot tell you why He, whom angels worship,
Should set His love upon the sons of men.
One of the great hymnists wrote these words the beginning of the last century. In particular, I like these verses:
I cannot tell how silently He suffered,
As with His peace He graced this place of tears.
Or how His heart upon the cross was broken,
The crown of pain to three and thirty years.
But this I know, He heals the broken hearted,
And stays our sin and calms our lurking fear,
And lifts the burden from the heavy laden,
For yet the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is here.
Christianity's greatest apostle, Paul, records this prayer in the book of Ephesians. He says that the reason he kneels before the Father is so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. The apostle Paul prays that you might know the height and depth and length and breath of God's love. He prays that you not only know it, but that you experience it, even though it is beyond human knowledge. Says the hymnist:
It passeth knowledge that dear love of Thine,
My Saviour, Jesus, yet this heart of mine
Would of thy love in all its length and breadth,
It's height and depth, it's everlasting strength
Know more and more!
According to John 3:16, one of the reasons that "God gave" was so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This is our year of discovery at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. We unabashedly say that God desires everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. If the love is the motive, this is the value of the gift. Notice two things about this passage. First, there is a condition to receiving the gift. Not everyone receives the gift of everlasting life. Only the person who believes, receives the gift. If you do not believe, then you will never ever possess eternal life. If belief is as important as I think it is, then it is incumbent upon us to understand what "belief" really means.
If you went down to Hollywood Blvd and asked people, "Do you believe in God?" Most of them would say, "Yes." My response would be, "Shake hands with the devil, because he believes too." The Devil believes in God's existence. His existence is a factual reality. When Jesus said, "whoever believes in me," it had to mean more than a mental assent that God exists in Jesus Christ. So, what does He really mean? The answer can be found in linguistics. First, consider the Hebrew word for "believe". It means to lean your weight upon something. It means to commit yourself to something, to surrender to something. When you finished singing just a few moments ago, you all just plopped down in your seats. I didn't see any of you checking the pew for stability before you sat down. You believed that the pew would bare your weight. That is the meaning of this Hebrew word. Alexander McCarran, the great Scottish preacher, talks about faith in this way. He says, "Simply lay hold of God as a person lays hold of the heart that loves Him and leans his full weight upon it." God so loved the world that whoever leans their weight upon Jesus will have everlasting life. Second, the old English word "belief" comes actually from two words, "by" and "live." That is where we get our word belief. By this live. In other words, if you're going to live by this truth, then you need to commit yourself to it completely.
To whom is this gift offered? It is offered to whosoever. It doesn't matter whether you are a celebrity or a bum. It doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor. We're all covered. Everyone in this room is covered by "whosoever." I'm a whosoever. You're a whosoever. The person in your neighborhood is a whosoever. The person you work with is a whosoever. Get them here some Sunday. If you think you're not worth much of anything, you're a whosoever. The greatest gift in the entire world has been given to you.
John Wesley was the founder of Methodism. He was a great preacher in his day. In fact, a secular historian wrote that the reason the bloody French Revolution never translated itself into the bloody English Revolution was because of John Wesley. He was an incredible preacher. Men and women were turning in droves to Jesus Christ. He was the Billy Graham of his day. After one of his great campaigns, he was invited to the home of English Royalty for a cup of tea. As they sat around the teapot conversing, the Royalty began, "We think, Mr. Wesley, that you went a trifle too far in your message today." "Oh," said Wesley, "What made you think such a thing?" "Well," they said, "You indicated that God would refuse no one. You even said that God would take the Devil's castaways." Wesley didn't answer immediately. He fumbled in his coat pocket and brought out a little note. It was written by two ladies who had heard the message that morning. He simply read it to his host. "We are just two old sinful women from the London underworld. We heard you preach, Mr. Wesley, that Jesus would even take the Devil's castaways. Hearing that, we want to start life over and give ourselves to God."
I love the word whosoever, because I qualify. So do you. There need not be one person in this room who does not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners. Whosoever covers everyone. God loves you so much that He gave you His Son, that if you believe in Him, you will not perish but will have everlasting life. That is the gift of God for you. Reach out and grasp it.
Why did God give us this incredible gift in his son Jesus Christ? It is an indication of God's depth of love for us that He would dare to give His one and only child. For those of us who are parents, the thought of giving away a child, especially to death, is unimaginable. Tucked away in the pages of Judges chapter 11 is the incredible story of Jephthah, a judge of Israel. Jephthah made an absurd vow to God. He told God that if God would bless him in his war against the Ammonites, then he would make a human sacrifice. The sacrifice would be the first person to greet him from his own home when he returned victorious from war. Unfortunately, when Jephthah returns from his battle against the Ammonites, the first person out of the door was his daughter. She was singing and dancing for joy, because her father had been victorious. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break. I cannot begin to imagine the agony in Jephthah's heart.
Do you remember Abraham? As he and Isaac climbed to the top of Mount Moriah, the boy turned to his father and said, "Dad, I understand that we're making a sacrifice, but I don't see any sacrifice." Abraham knew that he was to sacrifice his only son, and his heart was breaking as he turned to him and replied "Isaac, God will provide a sacrifice." Of course, God spared the life of Isaac and did provide a sacrifice. However, through these stories we can begin to comprehend the heartbreak that God endured for us. God loved the world so much that he gave His only begotten, His one and only Son.
God gave this gift to people who didn't deserve it and couldn't care less about it. God gave such a sacrifice to people who maligned His Son, mistreated Him, misunderstood Him, and crucified Him. Have you ever given someone you love a birthday present and seen a look of frustration come over their face? They look at you and say, "Well, it's very nice, but what is it?" Imagine for a moment that you spent every penny you had to buy this gift and they simply set it aside. God gave His gift, and not only was it set aside, but it was crucified. And, the gift was the gift of Himself.
The wonderful, unique thing about Christianity is that God became a human being, and died because of love for humankind. There is nothing like that. This is not mere sentimentality. This is something real. This omnipotent God, the transcendent one, becomes eminent, becomes human, becomes real, becomes tangible, becomes touchable, and becomes understandable. That is the Christian God as He's revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.
At a great Christian convention held in Carnegie Hall after the first World War, the minister opened the proceedings with a prayer. It went something like this, "Oh, thou great and terrible God, great is thy majesty, great is the distance that separates us from thee. From the abyss of our helpless and lost conditions we cry after thee guilty sinners that we are…" The old guy sitting on the platform behind him turned to his neighbor and said, "Why doesn't somebody give that man a New Testament!" This great and awesome God took on human flesh.
I love the story of a little girl working in her father's print shop. She came across a scrap of paper that said, "For God so loved the world that He gave." Then, it was torn. Yet, this scrap of paper made the little girl very happy. When her Mom asked her what it was that was making her so happy, she handed her the scrap of paper. "Well," her mom said, "That's nice dear, but what did God give?" She stood for a moment, puzzled. Then she turned to her mom and said, "I don't know. If He gave anything, then He must be a lovely God, and we need not to worry or be fearful of Him. God is good.
Why would God give such a gift? First, he so loved. The great German, George Elsmere once said, "If I were God, the sorrows of the world would break my heart." In fact, that's exactly what happened. The sorrows of the world broke the heart of God. God's love comes flowing over the mountain of human ruins and degradation, to touch our hearts. If there is something vexing you and giving you cause for concern, God's love is greater than the problem. God's love is greater than the sorrows associated with death. God who sees the façade, still loves the clod he made out of sod. God loves us because He loves us. God doesn't love you because you're a neat person. He doesn't love you because you have a high IQ, or because you've got lots of money that you give to the church. God doesn't love you because you're one of Hollywood's beautiful people. He doesn't love you because you do nice things. Israel once thought they were special because of something they had done. Yet, God sets them straight in the book of Deuteronomy. He says, "I didn't choose you because you were the greatest of the nations of the world; in fact, you were the least of all the nations. That's why I chose you."
Why is it that God has chosen you? There's nothing in you to commend you to God. But, He loves you anyway. That's the Good News that we believe.
I cannot tell you why He, whom angels worship,
Should set His love upon the sons of men.
One of the great hymnists wrote these words the beginning of the last century. In particular, I like these verses:
I cannot tell how silently He suffered,
As with His peace He graced this place of tears.
Or how His heart upon the cross was broken,
The crown of pain to three and thirty years.
But this I know, He heals the broken hearted,
And stays our sin and calms our lurking fear,
And lifts the burden from the heavy laden,
For yet the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is here.
Christianity's greatest apostle, Paul, records this prayer in the book of Ephesians. He says that the reason he kneels before the Father is so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. The apostle Paul prays that you might know the height and depth and length and breath of God's love. He prays that you not only know it, but that you experience it, even though it is beyond human knowledge. Says the hymnist:
It passeth knowledge that dear love of Thine,
My Saviour, Jesus, yet this heart of mine
Would of thy love in all its length and breadth,
It's height and depth, it's everlasting strength
Know more and more!
According to John 3:16, one of the reasons that "God gave" was so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This is our year of discovery at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. We unabashedly say that God desires everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. If the love is the motive, this is the value of the gift. Notice two things about this passage. First, there is a condition to receiving the gift. Not everyone receives the gift of everlasting life. Only the person who believes, receives the gift. If you do not believe, then you will never ever possess eternal life. If belief is as important as I think it is, then it is incumbent upon us to understand what "belief" really means.
If you went down to Hollywood Blvd and asked people, "Do you believe in God?" Most of them would say, "Yes." My response would be, "Shake hands with the devil, because he believes too." The Devil believes in God's existence. His existence is a factual reality. When Jesus said, "whoever believes in me," it had to mean more than a mental assent that God exists in Jesus Christ. So, what does He really mean? The answer can be found in linguistics. First, consider the Hebrew word for "believe". It means to lean your weight upon something. It means to commit yourself to something, to surrender to something. When you finished singing just a few moments ago, you all just plopped down in your seats. I didn't see any of you checking the pew for stability before you sat down. You believed that the pew would bare your weight. That is the meaning of this Hebrew word. Alexander McCarran, the great Scottish preacher, talks about faith in this way. He says, "Simply lay hold of God as a person lays hold of the heart that loves Him and leans his full weight upon it." God so loved the world that whoever leans their weight upon Jesus will have everlasting life. Second, the old English word "belief" comes actually from two words, "by" and "live." That is where we get our word belief. By this live. In other words, if you're going to live by this truth, then you need to commit yourself to it completely.
To whom is this gift offered? It is offered to whosoever. It doesn't matter whether you are a celebrity or a bum. It doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor. We're all covered. Everyone in this room is covered by "whosoever." I'm a whosoever. You're a whosoever. The person in your neighborhood is a whosoever. The person you work with is a whosoever. Get them here some Sunday. If you think you're not worth much of anything, you're a whosoever. The greatest gift in the entire world has been given to you.
John Wesley was the founder of Methodism. He was a great preacher in his day. In fact, a secular historian wrote that the reason the bloody French Revolution never translated itself into the bloody English Revolution was because of John Wesley. He was an incredible preacher. Men and women were turning in droves to Jesus Christ. He was the Billy Graham of his day. After one of his great campaigns, he was invited to the home of English Royalty for a cup of tea. As they sat around the teapot conversing, the Royalty began, "We think, Mr. Wesley, that you went a trifle too far in your message today." "Oh," said Wesley, "What made you think such a thing?" "Well," they said, "You indicated that God would refuse no one. You even said that God would take the Devil's castaways." Wesley didn't answer immediately. He fumbled in his coat pocket and brought out a little note. It was written by two ladies who had heard the message that morning. He simply read it to his host. "We are just two old sinful women from the London underworld. We heard you preach, Mr. Wesley, that Jesus would even take the Devil's castaways. Hearing that, we want to start life over and give ourselves to God."
I love the word whosoever, because I qualify. So do you. There need not be one person in this room who does not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners. Whosoever covers everyone. God loves you so much that He gave you His Son, that if you believe in Him, you will not perish but will have everlasting life. That is the gift of God for you. Reach out and grasp it.
