GOD LOVES US
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 3:16-17
OCTOBER 9, 1994
The heavens are silent. That is what astronomers are telling us. The heavens are silent with respect to signs of intelligent life there, with respect to messages coming from space. The heavens are silent. All over this world, scientists have erected radio telescopes, and some are massive. This is certainly true of the VLA, the “very large array” radio telescopes in New Mexico. These radio telescopes serve a multiplicity of purposes, one of which is simply to listen. They listen for signs of intelligent life in the universe. They listen for messages from deep space. So far all they have heard are the sounds of silence. We live in a vast universe with perhaps a trillion galaxies. Each galaxy contains on the average more than a hundred billion stars, and only God knows how many planets. Scientists tell us there is not one shred of evidence that there is any intelligent life out there. Not one shred of evidence. In fact, some scientists believe that we are alone. Some scientists believe that this planet, this world, is unique in all the cosmos. Life is only found here.
The Bible tells us that we are not alone. The Bible tells us God exists. The Bible tells us that God has created the angelic hosts. The Bible tells us that this world, this planet, has indeed received a message from beyond. The Bible tells us this world has received a message that has passed through the heavens, a message that has come from heaven itself. That message, which has come to our world, is the message of Jesus Christ. It is the message of God’s Son. It is the message the Bible calls the gospel. It is the message the Bible calls good news. If you are a world Christian, you have heard this message that has come from heaven. You have believed this message that has come from heaven. And you are involved in proclaiming this message that has come from heaven to the nations of this world. What is the message? The message is twofold. First of all, the message is that you are loved. This world is loved. That is the message that has come from heaven, the message we are to take to the nations. “For God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son.” God loves the world.
Karl Barth has been called the greatest Protestant theologian in history. He was born in Switzerland. He attended Europe’s finest schools of theology. Karl Barth was a professor at the University of Bonn, the University of Basel, the University of Muenster, and the University of Göttingen. It took him 30 years to write his monumental 12-volume work called Church Dogmatics. When I was in seminary, it felt like it took 30 years to read Church Dogmatics.
When Karl Barth was asked what he believed to be the most profound truth of Christianity, when he was asked to summarize succinctly everything that he had written regarding the Christian faith, he quoted those simple words that children sing in Sunday school, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, this I know.” In my view that was Karl Barth’s greatest moment because he was proclaiming in a very simple way the message that has come from heaven, the message that has come to our world. God loves us. God loves us so much that he has sent his Son Jesus Christ.
Victor Hugo, a 19th century French writer, wrote literary classics including the Hunchback of Notre Dame. In his literature masterpiece Les Misérables, Victor Hugo made the statement that the greatest happiness any person can have is to be convinced that they are loved, loved for who they are and loved in spite of who they are. God loves us like that. While we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), God loved us in spite of who and how we are. The Bible says Christ died for us. “For God so loved the world He gave us His Son.”
Yet this message that God loves us, even when it is believed theologically and theoretically, does not impact most people at the core of their being. Perhaps it does not impact most of you. Many people hear the message that God loves them. They can hear the message that Jesus loves them, yet it does not impact them at the core of their being. Why is that? Because people not only need to hear the message, but also they need to experience the message. They need to experience the love of Jesus, the love of Jesus Christ.
A lot of people when they hear the message, “God loves you,” think, “So what?” I think that is because they have not experienced the message that comes from heaven. The disciples of Jesus Christ experienced the message that came from heaven. When Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, even so I have loved you” (John 15:9), they knew it was true. They had experienced God’s love through Christ. When Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lays down his life for his friends, you are my friends” (John 15:13-14a), the disciples knew it was true. Jesus had been their friend. When the Apostle John wrote about the final week of Christ’s earthly life, he described Maundy Thursday—Jesus girded himself with a towel and washed the disciples’ feet. The Apostle John began the account with these words, “ Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Jesus’s disciples had experienced the love of Jesus Christ.
How are people in the world going to experience the love of God? How are they going to not only hear the message that has come from heaven, that God loves them, but also begin to experience that love? How is that going to happen? It must happen through you. It must happen through me. If we are world Christians, if we understand what that means, we take that message to the nations, but not simply verbally. We take that message to the nations with our actions. We embody that message. We manifest the love of God in this world so that people’s lives might be transformed and that they might receive the gospel.
Many of you have heard of Joseph Damien Doe. He was born in Belgium and accepted Christ when he was very young. He joined the Society of Jesus and became a Roman Catholic priest. He was sent as a missionary to the Hawaiian island of Moloka’i. He is known to historians simply as Father Damien . The year was 1873 when Father Damien arrived on the island of Moloka’i to become a priest to a leper colony. Father Damien was not sure that he really loved those people. When his ship came into that harbor, a little boat came out to receive him. The boat was piloted by a man with leprosy, The man reached up his hand to help Father Damien down into the boat. When Father Damien saw that the hand was diseased, he withdrew his hand and helped himself down into the boat. That man did not forget. He returned to the leper colony and told the others that this is a hands-off priest. This is a no touch priest. No one listened to Father Damien , even though he bore the message that came from heaven. He found the church in shambles. The congregation was non-existent. When he rang the bell every Sunday morning, not a single person came.
When the ship came back into the harbor a few months later, Father Damien was there. He was ready to leave. He had failed. He boarded the ship and noticed on the ship another group of people who had leprosy. They were about to disembark and go on to the island. When he saw them, a miracle happened. In a moment of time, the love of Christ suddenly welled up within Father Damien. As he looked at each of the people who were about to join the others on the island, he was filled with love for them. He forgot his fear. He went over to one little girl, picked her up, and held her in his arms. He held her tight. He kissed her cheeks and began to cry.
On the ship there was a stack of wood that was going to be taken to another island. Father Damien convinced the captain of the ship to release the wood for the island of Moloka’i that it could be used to build a hospital. He got off the ship. He returned to the colony and began to love the people. As word got around that Father Damien was willing to touch people, ministry began to happen. People began to understand the message that that had been given from heaven, that God loves them.
In 1885, having been on the island for 12 years, Father Damien came down with leprosy. He lived four more years, but those four years were the most powerful years of ministry in his life. In those last four years, person after person gave their life to Jesus Christ. Why was that? It was because they had begun to experience the message that had come from heaven. They had begun to experience the love of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and they had experienced this love through Father Damien. This is the call that is upon us as Christians. This is the call that is upon our church—that the city of Denver, this nation, this world might see the love of Christ and see the love of God through us.
If you look at the missionaries that we support (They are all noted in the Missions Week brochure), you will see that we support many missionary agencies that are involved in ministries of compassion. If you look at the city of Denver, there are eleven different ministries in the city of Denver that are compassion-oriented that we support. They provide food, clothing, and education as well as the gospel. Worldwide we support ministries, like World Vision, that reach out with the love and compassion of Christ, and we support individuals like Ted Vail in Nairobi, Kenya, who works with Food for the Hungry. Each of the missionaries we support embody the message from heaven that God loves people. The gospel does not have power unless it is bathed in love. When we go out as Christians and love people for Christ’s sake, they begin to experience the love of God and are able to respond to the gospel. The world is loved. That is the first message that has come from heaven that we are to share with the world.
But that is not the only message. There is a second part of the message. The world is loved, but the world is also lost. If we have heard and understood the message that has come from heaven, the message that God has sent to our world, we know the world is not only loved, but also the world is lost. The Lord Jesus tells us that he views people as sheep without a shepherd. You read this in each of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In the eyes of Christ, people are seen as lost sheep. If you look at the Old Testament, you see God portrayed as the Great Shepherd and the people of the world as his sheep. The Bible tells us the sheep have left the flock, and the Great Shepherd now pursues them. The shepherd has not left the sheep. The sheep have left the shepherd. The sheep are loved, but they are lost. That is what missions is all about.
The lostness of the world can be readily seen. This is a confused world. It is tragic, and at the same time almost humorous. A few weeks ago, I was watching a program on television. It was a science program on the Discovery Channel, I believe. There were a number of botanists who were describing the complexity of plant life. They were explaining that certain plants have a kind of intelligence, and they were demonstrating this. They were also explaining that plants have emotions and complexity of emotions. It was fascinating to listen to. At the end of the program, these brilliant scientists came to an incredible conclusion. They said we should not kill plants. They said we should not eat plants. We should only eat those plants that have died natural deaths. We should only eat fruit, nuts, and berries that have fallen to the ground. We should not harvest cornfields or wheat fields. I was thinking, how did they come to this conclusion? Do you realize what that would do to the world food supply? Read Genesis 1 where God has given to humanity, created in His image, plants for food the world over. You wonder, how could these allegedly brilliant people come to such a ludicrous conclusion?
The answer is that people are lost. It does not matter how intelligent we are. We are lost. We see it in so many ways, morally and ethically. We see it in terms of our sexual morality. This is a world where venereal disease is increasing. We live in a nation where thousands of people every year come down with syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. There are venereal diseases from genital herpes to acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Seriously, sexual diseases represent the physiological impact of promiscuity and sexual immorality. There is a growing body of evidence that promiscuity and sexual immorality also impacts people psychologically and emotionally. It is devastating for people relationally. There is growing evidence that apart from long-term monogamous relationships sex can be very damaging physiologically, emotionally, and relationally. Yet the world does not want to reexamine its behavior. Why does the world refuse to reexamine its behavior? Because the world is lost.
The ethical and moral instruction given in the Old and New Testaments, Judeo-Christian values, are rational. They are reasonable. They make a lot of sense. But the world is increasingly rejecting them. Why? Because the world is confused. The world is lost. But the lostness of the world does not simply produce confusion. It is more serious than that. If you have studied World War I, you have probably heard of the Lost Battalion. The Lost Battalion was a fragment of the famed 77th Division, a fragment of the so-called New York’s Statue of Liberty Division. There were 550 men in the Lost Battalion, and Major Charles Whittlesey led those 550 men. Major Charles Whittlesey was a Wall Street lawyer.
It was October 2, 1918, when the Lost Battalion was approaching the Argonne Forest in France, a German stronghold. General John Pershing gave the command for Major Charles Whittlesey to take his battalion into the forest. He said that other battalions would follow. It would be a major assault, and the enemy would be pushed back. Only, it did not happen. There was confusion. No one followed the Lost Battalion into that forest. The battalion marched onward. They penetrated enemy lines and went beyond the enemy lines, cutting them off from the Allied forces. They were without food and water. Some died of starvation. When they came under assault, they had no means of communication with the Allied powers except a cage with some carrier pigeons. They sent the pigeons out one by one, and each of these pigeons died. The final pigeon, which they named Cher Ami, meaning “dear friend,” made it back to the Allied camp. (That pigeon is stuffed and exhibited in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.).
Because this pigeon got through, the Allied forces realized that soldiers in this battalion were alive but lost. The Allied forces tried to airlift supplies in but failed. They sent a rescue party who reached the battalion five days later. By then 360 of the 550 men had died. Major Charles Whittlesey survived and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. However, he could not reconcile the accolades with the suffering that his men had experienced. Three years later he committed suicide.
God wants us to understand that the people of the world are lost in the same sense that the men in this battalion were lost. The people of the world are cut off, separated from God and from the life of God. They are surrounded by the enemy and are vulnerable to the weapons of the enemy—sin and death. The people of the world are in desperate need of rescue. If you do not believe that the people of this world are lost, you cannot be a world Christian. If you are a universalist, if you believe all religions are the same, if you are a religious pluralist or synergist, you cannot be a world Christian. You will not have a passion to take the gospel to the nations. If you do not love people or believe that people are lost, you cannot do it.
When Dave and the band sang that country western song today, it reminded me of when our staff and elders were down at the Flying W Ranch a few weeks ago. There was a country western show. I heard a little joke there. It was kind of funny and kind of dumb. It was about a guy from Colorado who died and went to hell. This guy had been a bad guy. He was an arrogant guy who always put himself first and always had to have the last word. There he was in hell. It was hot, and the devil decided to have a little fun with him. The devil came up to him and said, “Pretty hot, isn’t it?” The guy said, “I don’t know. On an August afternoon in Lyman, Colorado, it kind of feels like this.”
The devil was upset. He went back and turned the temperature up full bore. When he came back, this guy was perspiring profusely. The devil said, “How do you feel now? It’s really hot, isn’t it? Ever felt anything like that?” The guy said, “Actually, on a July afternoon in Pueblo, Colorado, it feels a little bit like this.” The devil went back and turned the temperature off. He let hell freeze over. He waited days and then came up to this guy from Colorado. He was shaking, with icicles coming off his arms. The devil said, “What do you have to say now?” And the guy said, “I can’t believe it.” The devil said, “Can’t believe what?” The guy said, “The Broncos must have won the Super Bowl.”
It is true that the Broncos are not likely to win the Super Bowl. I suppose that hell would freeze over. But God wants us to understand hell is not a joke. That is what God wants us to understand. The Old Testament speaks of the reality of hell. The New Testament speaks of the reality of hell. Jesus Christ speaks of the reality of hell. Sometimes people ask, “If God is love and if Jesus is love, how can the Lord allow hell?”
The Bible explains, and God wants us to understand that he is the Great Shepherd. He has not left the sheep. The sheep have left him. The Great Shepherd dwells in heaven. His flock will dwell in heaven forever. Some people in this world do not want a shepherd. Some people in this world have followed after false shepherds. But the Great Shepherd pursues them. He invites them to come back. He invites them into His flock. The Bible says that God does not want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) that we would all have eternal life.
God is not forcing anyone into his flock. He is a gentleman. He has given us volition, moral autonomy. He has given us free will. He invites the world, and that is what missions is all about. He sends us forth to invite the world—our neighborhoods, our communities, our city, our state, our nation, all nations—to come to him.
Hell, the Bible says, is eternal separation from God. Hell is exclusion from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might (2 Thessalonians 1). The reason the Bible describes hell as miserable is simply because separation from God is miserable. All kinds of people in this world have left the Great Shepherd. They are lost. Some of them even want to be separated from God. They do not want God in their lives. God sends us forth with the gospel. The world is lost, but the world is loved. Jesus said, “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus said, “Go into all the world and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). “God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).
Let us close with a word of prayer.