Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
For God So Loved
Picture a familiar verse so well-known you could recite it in your sleep—John 3:16. Now imagine discovering it holds a deeper meaning that transforms everything you thought you knew about God's love.
This eye-opening sermon reveals how Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus connects two seemingly unrelated biblical stories: Moses lifting a bronze serpent in the wilderness and Christ being lifted on the cross. The key revelation? The Greek word typically translated as "so" in "God so loved" actually means "in this way" or "in the same manner"—completely reframing our understanding of how God demonstrates His love.
The parallels are striking. Just as Moses fashioned bronze through heat and pressure to create the image of the very thing killing God's people, Jesus was beaten and shaped to visually represent our sin. As the serpent was lifted on a pole for healing, Jesus was lifted on a cross for salvation. This isn't just clever biblical symmetry—it's the heart of the gospel message.
Most profoundly, we discover that God's love isn't merely sentimental feeling but deliberate action. "God gave His Son" isn't about giving a present but giving Him up to die. As Acts 2:23 confirms, Jesus' crucifixion happened "by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God." While we might struggle to sacrifice even for those we love, God demonstrated His love by dying for us "while we were yet sinners."
This deeper understanding transforms how we live. Having received undeserved grace, we're called to extend that same love to others—not because they deserve it, but because we've experienced it ourselves. The gospel changes not just how we worship but how we engage with everyone we meet.
Next time you hear John 3:16, don't just remember the words—see the cross, understand the sacrifice, and let it transform how you demonstrate love to a world in desperate need of it.
While I try to adjust my microphone, let's see if we could sing, and it's at that time that my mind goes blank, so I can't think of a song.
Anderson George:All right, let's do this one, alas. And did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die? Would he devour that same great head for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes? Was it for crimes that I have done? And he groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace unknown and love beyond him, but drops of grief, but drops of grief, but drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe.
Anderson George:Yeah, yeah the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and a burden of my heart rolled. It rolled away. Was there my fate? I received my sight and now I am happy. O, it was at the cross, at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. I know, and it was there. By faith, I received my sign and now I am happy all the day.
Anderson George:John, chapter number three John, the third chapter will read verse 14 to verse 16. John, chapter 3 verse 14 to 16. Scripture says Whoever believes will in him have eternal life. For in this way God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. If you read that, say amen. The gospel in John 3.16. The gospel in John 3.16.
Anderson George:It's interesting that this story is familiar to us in pieces. Most of us would be able to know and remember that Jesus is talking to a man called Nicodemus and what we remember is that the beginning of the conversation he tells Nicodemus something about being born again of water and of spirit. Most of us don't necessarily connect John 3.16 with this conversation that Jesus is having with Nicodemus. But before you get to John 3.16, where he says the word, the verse that everybody knows for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life, before you get there he tells this interesting story or reminds us of this interesting story that takes place in Numbers 21. He says just as Moses lifted up the serpent, so too, or in this way, must the Son of man be lifted up. And then he says in this way, god so loved. Most of our Bible says for God so loved, and we think of God loving this much, but your text is actually saying if you want to see the way that God showed his love, look at Moses and the serpent in the wilderness. So the text is built in a way that says just as Moses lifted up the serpent, in this way Jesus must be lifted up, and in this way God shows his love. What that means, then, is you and I need to understand what happened in Numbers, chapter 21. So you could turn there and I'll try to help you through it. Numbers, chapter 21.
Anderson George:From verse number one, it says that Israel was complaining and murmuring against Moses and against God, and as a result of their murmuring, as a result of their complaining, god sent what scripture calls fiery serpents upon them. That should be in your Bibles that God sent fiery serpents, and I don't have time, but I want you to recognize that what caused the fiery serpents was Israel's murmuring and complaining. If ever you needed a verse not to murmur and complain, here it is, but I also want you to see that the fiery serpents was judgment against God's people for sin, and God sent fiery serpents as judgment, consequence, payment, punishment for sin. When they began to die as a result of the fiery serpents, they came to Moses and said Moses, help us. Moses prays to God and as Moses prays, god tells Moses I want you to get bronze and fashion it into a fiery serpent and set it up on a standard so that all could see it. He then tells Moses whoever looks at this bronze serpent on a standard will be healed. Whew, I'm excited, see.
Anderson George:I read this and I already know where I'm going, so I'm getting ahead of myself. But think of what just happened. Moses needs to find bronze. Let's work through it.
Anderson George:Moses needs to find bronze and take this bronze and make it look like the thing killing God's people, make it look like the thing that's bringing death to God's people, make it look like the thing afflicting and cursing God's people. And after you've made it look like that, put it on a standard or a banner. Those are not words we use today. So a banner it's interesting was something a general would have when he's going into army. He's on a horse or he's in front of the army and he has this long pole and on this pole has a flag that represents him, his kingdom. It represents something. There's a flag pole with an image on it representing that king and his kingdom. That's a banner.
Anderson George:A standard says I need you to make a poll and the message on the pole is going to be the bronze serpent, fashioned to look like the thing killing you. I wish I had a church. This is good. And then he says anyone who looks at it shall be saved. Now, if I was back home, I would spend 20 minutes right there on them looking at it To help us understand that it's nothing in the serpent itself that brought about their healing. It was their faith when they looked at what was hung on a standard. But I don't have time to do that. So I just want you to have this image in your head that Moses had to get bronze.
Anderson George:And just in case you missed this, bronze is a tough metal and for it to become pliable, for you to fashion it to look like what you want it to look like, it must go through pressure, it must take a beating, it must take some heat so that you could form it and fashion it to look like something else. Jesus said as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too must the Son of man. They didn't see it yet. Well, how did Moses lift up the serpent? He had to take bronze and beat it and fashion it and then hang it on a pole. What did Jesus say? Just as Moses did it, so too it must happen to the Son of man. It meant that Jesus is saying when you look at me, everything you understand about the serpent, you're going to see me represented now. Well, the serpent was a result of sin in Israel. Jesus said me, being on the cross is going to be.
Anderson George:Moses had to make the bronze look like the thing Ailing God's people, afflicting God's people. Jesus said when you look at me, I'll look like you all know. That's why they beat him. That's why he was scourged, that's why he had a crown of thorns plaited on him. It's because he was being fashioned and molded and shaped into the very thing that's afflicting us. He looked like sin. I'm not saying he was, don't misunderstand me. I'm saying when you look at the cross, it should look like sin. Oh, you're looking at me funny. Alright, alright, alright, okay, hold on, hold on, let's take a Bible commercial Everyone.
Anderson George:2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse number 21. 2 Corinthians Bible, commercial, chapter 5, verse number 21. 2 Corinthians Bible, commercial, chapter 5, verse number 21. Because you all looked at me funny when I said he looked like Sid.
Anderson George:2 Corinthians 5, verse number 21. 2 Corinthians, 5, verse number 21. If I remember correctly, your Bible should say God made him who knew no sin, to become sin or to be made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Is that in the Bible, church? God made him, but what did Moses do?
Anderson George:Moses made a bronze serpent out of brass. God is making Christ to look like the thing that's afflicting us, the thing that's killing us. So now see his rejection, see his beating, see the thorns, see the nails as him being made to look like sin. And then he has to be set up on a standard. So we have to find a cross somewhere to nail sin to. Oh, this is good. So, after they fashioned him, just as Moses had to find a pole to set the serpent up on, jesus now needs to find a pole to be set up on. That's what we call a cross. He's nailed to a cross and the only thing missing now is to lift it up. Moses, after doing all of that, then has to set it up so that everyone could look and see, and anyone who chooses to look will be saved. Here's what Jesus just said. That's me on the cross. So I was made to look like sin. I was then fastened to a banner and then they lifted me up. And they're lifting me up so that you could look at me. And if you look and you believe that just as God did it in Moses' day, he's doing it now, then you too could be saved.
Anderson George:That's verse 14 and verse number 15 of John 3. Verse 14 and verse number 15 of John 3. As Moses lifted the serpent up in the wilderness, so too must the Son of man be lifted up. Then verse 16 says in most of our Bibles for God so loved. The word so comes from a Greek word who toes, and it's used in verse 14, and when it's used in verse 14, it's used and translated in this way grab your Bibles. I need to show this to you so you could see it, so this could make sense. John 3 14. As moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, kutos, in the same way the son of man must be lifted up. Some of your bibles may even have so the Son of man must be lifted up. Some of your Bibles may even have so, but I know I just got technical Hold on. So here means in the same way, just as Moses did this, even so, you all see it In the same way must the Son of man be lifted up.
Anderson George:Anderson, why are you making this argument? John 3.16 is not showing you how much God loves you. It's showing you the way God demonstrated his love. If you want to see God's love, look at the cross. Something in the cross is showing you the way that God loves. So, even as Moses lifted up the serpent, in the same way must the son of man be lifted up. That same word is then used in John 3, 16, for in this way God loves.
Anderson George:I'm going to give you some time, because I know we've said this the way we've read it for so long that this could sound like heresy. Make notes. Make notes Fact, check me, it's fine, all right. The text is saying for God loves in this way. What way? Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so something about the snake in Numbers 21 shows love. Let me give it.
Anderson George:God hates the thing that's afflicting you. God hates the thing that's killing you. God hates the thing that's keeping you down. Now, we use different names for it. The name he uses is sin. Sin isn't keeping me down yeah, it is. That's why we lie, that's why we cheat, that's why we steal, that's why we don't always pay our taxes. Sin, sin, is afflicting us, and we don't always see how negative sin is, but God does, and he hates the thing that's against us. So, just as the fiery serpents was against Israel and he gave them a way of escape because he loves them, so too he looks at us. He sees us wretched, he sees us being torn apart. He sees us wrestling with sin and he says I love you too much for that to be your story. So, just as Moses, I'm giving you Jesus, for God loved in this way. And then the rest of 16 spells it out. Let me help you Now. What we have in this way, for God loves in this way that he give his one-of-a-kind son.
Anderson George:Most Bibles have only begotten. The word begotten comes from a Greek word that means one of a kind or unique. This same word is used in Hebrews 11 to speak of Isaac being Abraham's only begotten son. Now help me out here. I know most of us went to Sunday school. Is Isaac the only son of Abraham? No, is Isaac the only son of Abraham? No. So then, when this word is used, it has a special meaning. Isaac is only begotten not because he came from the loins of his daddy, but because the word that most of us know as only begotten has a meaning of one of a kind, unique. Isaac is Abraham's unique son, the son born in his old age, the son born to a barren wife, the son that is unlike Ishmael. Jesus is God's only begotten son, not because God found a lady somewhere I'm trying to be civil and fathered a child. That's not what it's saying but Jesus is God's only begotten son in the sense that he is a one of a kind unique. There is no one who will ever be a son in the same way like Jesus is you understand that he gave his monogamous, only begottenten one of a kind, unique son?
Anderson George:Here's the thing that blew my mind Every time I previously read John 3.16, and for God, so loved that he gave. I always understood give, the way we think of giving presents. God gave us his son, but that's not how John is using it. It's not that God gave us his son the way we give a present, but rather that he gave up his son to die on a cross. It's in the context, in this way God loved us, that he gave up his son.
Anderson George:Oh, you're looking at me funny, all right, all right. All right, meet me in Acts 2, only because you're looking at me funny. Meet me in Acts, verse number 2. You're looking at me funny. Meet me in acts, verse number two. Start at verse number 22. Acts 2 verse let's go to bible school. Let's go to bible school for two seconds.
Anderson George:Acts 2, 22. Here's what the bible says. Ye men of israel, hear these words Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves already know. Here's the verse he being delivered by the determined counsel and for knowledge of God. You have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. I don't want you to miss this he being delivered, given up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. As much as we could say Judas betrayed Christ, as much as we could say the Romans crucified Christ, as much as we could say the Jews turned Christ over to the Romans to be crucified. God gave him up. That was an amen point, right there, let me.
Anderson George:Jesus is bad all by himself. He could have called 10,000 angels. He could have just disappeared. I've read somewhere he was in a crowd. They wanted to seize him and throw him overboard over a hill and he just disappeared. Scripture said so. He had the ability to. In fact, another way to say this is Jesus himself said no greater love has any man than this, that a man give. You want to do it again. Give in terms of give up his life for a friend. And then he says no man takes my life. I lay it down and I pick it back up again.
Anderson George:Jesus died because it was the will of God, not because of Judas, not because of the Jews, not because of the Romans. It was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God predetermined, god preplanned that Jesus would hang on the cross. Now, let's put that back in the text. Why did God do this? Because this is the way God loves us. Is this coming together now In this way God loved the will that he gave up his one of a kind son on a cross so that whoever looks at him and believes might have life and not perish. And then verse 17 says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through him, might be saved, through him might be saved. You can't talk about God's love without looking at the cross. And we just sang at the cross, at the cross, cross at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away. It was there. By faith I received my sight and now I'm happy all the day. This is not Bible, but I like this song Because it helps me understand the theology of scripture. So I'll use the theology of Alas and Did, and then we'll go home, verse 1.
Anderson George:Verse 1. Alas and did my Savior bleed and did my king sovereign die? Would he king sovereign devote his sacred head for such a one or a womb? How many of you know a king that would trade places with you? How many of you know a king Well, we don't know much kings, governors, mayors, prime ministers, presidents that would take the consequences of your action, would switch places for you, even for a day. So the songwriter says alas, look look at what my king did for me. Is that not love?
Anderson George:Verse number two says was it for crimes that I have done? He groaned upon a tree. Amazing grace. All right, I need to pause for two seconds and compose myself, because here's what he's saying. He says I need you to think about your own crimes, and that the wages of sin is. But you're still breathing, and you're breathing because he decided to stand in your place and pay the wages of your sin. So was it for crimes that I have done? He groaned upon the tree. Yes, what does that show me? Amazing grace, pity and love beyond degree. The last verse then says the drops of grief could never repay the debt of love I owe. The only fitting response when you see God's love is in the last line of this last verse. Here, lord, I give myself away. It is all that I could do.
Anderson George:And just in case you didn't like the theology of a songbook, meet me in Romans 5. Romans, 5. Romans, 5. Start at verse number 6. And it says for while we will still helpless, christ died for the ungodly. Don't miss this. It starts by saying we, while we were still helpless. It didn't say Christ died for us. He did. But instead of saying Christ died for us, it said Christ died for the ungodly. So that's us Keep reading. And it says For one will hardly die for a righteous man, die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
Anderson George:I told you the story already that dared to die for my wife, just in case you missed that, I said I would swim the deepest ocean, climb the highest hill, fight the bravest lion, and then God sent a dog. Some of you already know this story, so you know what happened. I saw the dog. I loved my wife, but I wasn't willing to be bitten for her. So I took off running because I believe in equal rights, every man and woman for themselves. But I always bring that up because it's easy to say I'll take a bullet for you. It's easy to say that if push comes to shove, I'll stand in front of you. They need to get to me to get to you. It took me 13 years, don, to reach the point where I'll try to fight a dog for my wife before running.
Anderson George:God has it right here when he says perhaps, and what we should be praying is that we never have an opportunity to find out if someone would really do this for us. He says perhaps someone will do this and perhaps they'll do it because they consider you good. But God, jimmy, help me out. But God commended his love towards us In that, while we were yet sinners, christ died for us. Here's what you need to hear. While you may have to look hard to find someone who will take your place, god did, god did, and this text is saying the same thing God commends his love, god demonstrates.
Anderson George:Some of the translation should say God demonstrates his love in that, while we were yet sinners, jesus died for us. So the demonstration of his love is only seen looking at the cross, and here's where I'll end it. Jesus went on that cross for what John calls the world. Here is what he means by world the people who think they're righteous, as well as the unrighteous, the prideful, the liars, the thieves, the murderers, the adulterers, the persons we don't like, the persons who don't like us. He died for the world, but before we think of everyone else, let's start thinking of us. He died for me, broken, wretched, not always good me. That he would do the same so that I could overcome sin, death and the devil. That's true love, that's real love.
Anderson George:And so every time you hear this verse, it should not just be a cliche that you could quote, it should not just be something that we flippantly say. Every time you read this verse, we have to pause and say just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too, jesus was lifted up for me, alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die. Let's all stand. Let's all stand. Don't sing yet, let's all stand. Let's all stand. Don't sing yet, let's just stand.
Anderson George:Here's why this verse is important. Here's why I decided to remind you of a verse you already know, but put it within its larger context. We're living in a world and in a time where we've forgotten what's important. We're living in a world and a time where even us, who are called Christians, have forgotten that God saved us and is now asking us to share his grace, his mercy and his love with everyone else. If it had not been for the love of God, none of us would be here today. If it had not been for the love of God, none of us would be here today, so that our duty, as we live now is to be light and salt that shows and shares with everyone else the love that touched us.
Anderson George:So, every now and then, we need a reminder that if it had not been for God, I wouldn't be where I am, and I need to be mindful of that enough so that, as I live every day, I'm mindful that I'm living in the wake of the fact that, if it hadn't been for God and I want everyone that I come living in the wake of the fact that, if it hadn't been for God, and I want everyone that I come into contact with to know that the reason why I love, the reason why I forgive, the reason why I give mercy, is not because you necessarily deserve it, but because I know a God, when I did not deserve it, who gave it to me.
Anderson George:And if he could give it to me, I believe he's God enough to give it to you. The gospel story changes how I live, not just how I do church. So I wanted to remind us that God loved us, even us, and that we're now called to be light and soul to others, not always because they deserve it, but because God loved us. That sounds good, church. I'll take that to be your song. So as we sing, we're going to sing now as we sing. If you need prayer, meet me on the front row. If you haven't always appreciated that God loved even you, even me, and that I'm only here today because of that love, that grace and that mercy, only here today because of that love, that grace and that mercy and I have not always lived in a way that shows my appreciation for the amazing grace and pity and love beyond degree that was shown to me let's pray about it that we become better lightbearers and salt in this lost and dying world. As we sing,