John 3:16-18

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

God loves. That is the heartbeat and the core of the good news.

God so loved the world. The world was loved in an astonishing manner.

BB Warfield, “The point … is not to suggest that the world is so big that it takes a great deal of love to embrace it all, but that the world is so bad that it takes a great kind of love to love it at all.”

A Good God greatly loved a bad world. How do we know? What is the evidence?

He gave his son. A lot is contained in those simple words.

He gave his son to suffering, humiliation and death; so that the guilty might be forgiven. That is an astonishing kind of love.

“That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” He sent his son, that “the world might be saved through him.”

This good news comes to a world in rebellion against God.

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” Not condemned. Forgiven, accepted, loved, adopted into the family of God. He is taken from darkness into the marvelous light of the Lord.

Those who embrace this good news are family; forgiven, accepted – they have been given eternal life. Their faith has made them whole.

But there are some who are condemned. And why are they condemned? Because they have not believed in the Son of God.

If you do not believe, do not come to this table.

Faith is required to come to Christ and to come to this table.

If you believe, you are not condemned, even though you have sinned.

Come, trusting in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The blood and righteousness of Jesus makes us worthy partakers of the Lord’s Supper.