Has

John 3:16,35-36 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

John 5:24 – “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Application:

• ·         Eternal life is a present possession, not something the believer will only obtain later.
• ·         “Has crossed” means the decisive action has taken place, and the believer belongs no longer to the realm where death reigns supreme but to the realm of life.
• ·         “God so loved the word” is the great truth that motivated God’s plan of salvation.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

No One

John 3:30-34 – He must become greater; I must become less.” The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

Luke 4:18-19 – “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

John 4:34 – “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Application:

• ·         When people accept Christ’s testimony, they accept the truth that Jesus came from heaven and that God was acting in Him for the world’s salvation.
• ·         They thereby testify that God is truthful.
• ·         The Messiah’s ministry of preaching and healing—to meet every human need.
• ·         John often mentions that Jesus depended on the Father and did the work the Father sent Him to do.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Testified

John 3:20-29 – Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

John 1:7 – He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.

Philippians 2:1-2 – Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Application:

• ·         John the Baptist’s singular ministry was to testify about Jesus.
• ·         “Like-minded” is not uniformity in thought but the common disposition to work together and serve one another—the “mindset” of Christ.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Condemned

John 3:18-19 – Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

John 5:24 – “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

John 1:4,18 – In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind…No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Application:

• ·         “Has crossed” means the decisive action has taken place, and the believer belongs no longer to the realm where death reigns supreme but to the realm of life.
• ·         “The one and only Son, who is Himself God” is an explicit declaration of Christ’s deity.
• ·         He is the “light of the world”, who holds out wonderful hope for humanity and for the creation.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

To Save The World Through Him

John 3:17 – For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 6:29 – Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

John 10:35-36 – If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?

John 17:8,20-21 – For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me…“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Isaiah 53:11 – After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Luke 2:11 – Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

Luke 19:10 – For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

John 1:29 – The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John 12:47 – “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

1 Timothy 1:15 – Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

1 John 2:2 – He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Application:

• ·         Believing in Jesus Christ is the indispensable “work” God calls for—the one that leads to eternal life.
• ·         Jesus made an argument from the lesser to the greater: If there is any sense in which humans can be spoken of as “gods”, how much more may the term be used of Him whom the Father set apart and sent!
• ·         Three things about the disciples are mentioned: (1) They accepted the teaching. (2) They knew with certainty Jesus’ divine origin. Acceptance of that revelation led them further into truth. (3) They believed.
• ·         The unity of believers should have an effect on outsiders, to convince them of the mission of Christ.
• ·         The Spirit of knowledge rested on the Messiah.
• ·         Many Jews were looking for a political leader to deliver them from Roman rule, while others were hoping for a savior to deliver them from sickness and physical hardship.
• ·         “To seek and to save” was an important summary of Jesus’ purpose—to bring salvation, meaning eternal life, and the kingdom of God.
• ·         It may be that John chose “Lamb of God” as a unique way of referring to Jesus’ mission to point both to the sacrificial offering that Jesus would become and to His subsequent conquest of all evil powers—the two ways by which He “takes away the sin of the world”.
• ·         It is not the purpose of the sun’s shining to cast shadows, but when the sun shines, shadows are inevitable.
• ·         The closer one gets to a holy God, the more the magnitude of one’s sin becomes evident.
• ·         God, out of love, sent His Son to make substitutionary atonement for the believer’s sin.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Gave His One And Only Son

John 3:16,36 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

Isaiah 9:6 – For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Genesis 22:2,12,15-18 – Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” …“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”… The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

John 1:4,18 – In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind…No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John 6:29,40 – Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”… For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

John 11:25-26 – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

2 Samuel 7:14 – I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.

John 20:31 – But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Application:

• ·         “God so loved the word” is the great truth that motivated God’s plan of salvation.
• ·         His rule will bring wholeness and well-being to individuals and to society.
• ·         Abraham’s “faith was made complete by what he did”.
• ·         “The one and only Son, who is Himself God” is an explicit declaration of Christ’s deity.
• ·         Eternal life is a present possession, not something the believer will only obtain later.
• ·         Believing in Jesus Christ is the indispensable “work” God calls for—the one that leads to eternal life.
• ·         Death cannot destroy the life that Christ gives.
• ·         Jesus not only is life, but He also conveys life to believers so that death will never triumph over them.
• ·         Believers may die physically but, as those who have eternal life, their physical death is not their ultimate end.
• ·         He is the “light of the world”, who holds out wonderful hope for humanity and for the creation.
• ·         Life is Christ’s gift, and He, in fact, is “the life”.
• ·         The Lord put His servant’s faith and loyalty to the supreme test, thereby instructing Abraham, Isaac and their descendants as to the kind of total consecration the Lord’s covenant requires.
• ·         Abraham’s devotion is paralleled by God’s love to us in Christ.
• ·         The whole Gospel of John is written to show the truth of Jesus’ Messiahship and to present Him as the Son of God, so that the readers may believe in Him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

The Son Of Man Must Be Lifted Up

John 3:14-16,36 - Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

John 12:32 – And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Genesis 15:6 – Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Numbers 14:11 – The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?

John 1:7,12-13 – He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe…Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

John 5:24 – “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Acts 13:39 – Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

Acts 16:31 – They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

Romans 10:9-10 – If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

1 John 5:1 – Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.

John 20:31 – But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Application:

• ·         Christ will draw people to Himself, without regard for nationality, ethnic affiliation or status.
• ·         Although believers are also called “sons” of God, Jesus is God’s Son in a unique sense.
• ·         Eternal life is a present possession, not something the believer will only obtain later.
• ·         God graciously responds to faith by crediting righteousness to one who believes.
• ·         By refusing to believe in the Lord’s power, especially in view of all the wonders they had experienced, the people of Israel were holding Him in contempt.
• ·         People were not to believe “in” John the Baptist but “through” him. Similarly, John’s purpose was to draw them to believe in Christ.
• ·         Membership in God’s family is by grace alone—the gift of God. It is never a human achievement; yet the imparting of the gift is dependent on human reception of it, as the words “did receive” and “believed” make clear.
• ·         “Has crossed” means the decisive action has taken place, and the believer belongs no longer to the realm where death reigns supreme but to the realm of life.
• ·         “Justification” combines two aspects: (1) the forgiveness of sins; (2) the gift of righteousness.
• ·         “Believe in the Lord Jesus” is a concise statement of the way of salvation.
• ·         Christians believe not only that Jesus lived but also that He still lives.
• ·         Salvation involves inward belief as well as outward confession.
• ·         Faith in Jesus as the Messiah is a sign of being born again, just as love is.
• ·         His Name represents all that He is and stands for.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV