A Christian Worldview Built From John 3:16 | Pastor Ron Hamm

We open up John 3:16 as more than a memory verse and show how it reveals God’s heart for every person. We walk through seven fundamental questions and land on a clear invitation to respond to Jesus with real heart-belief that leads to everlasting life. 
• John 3:16 as the heart of the gospel and a personal picture of God’s love 
• Nicodemus as the religious sinner and the woman at the well as the worldly sinner 
• A Christian worldview defined as the sum total of our beliefs 
• God as Creator and why origins shape meaning and purpose 
• Our purpose as loving God and loving others 
• Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son and the answer to life over death 
• Whosoever meaning anyone can be saved and God showing no partiality 
• Identity without Christ versus identity in Christ new creation and child of God 
• Salvation by grace through faith as heart-belief with repentance 
• How to live by walking in Christ and renewing the mind through God’s Word 
• What happens when we die judgment and the promise of everlasting life 
If today you just want to come and pray in fellowship with the Lord, then come to this side. If you need special prayer today, healing, or if today, if you don't know Christ, if you don't know that you're saved, that you have everlasting life, then come to this side and we'll pray with you today. 

Transcript

Welcome And John 3:16

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm Elder Ron. It's so good to see everyone's smiling faces. You know the old saying when the cat's away, the mice will play. And I'm so glad since uh our lead pastor, Chris, our visionary and teaching pastor, is not here today. You still came to church. Thank you. Can you give yourself a hand for that? Amen. Praise God. Today I have a uh Chris, uh Pastor Chris just said, preach what you want. He rarely says that to me. So I'm gonna go to my favorite verse today. Uh let's say it together. Many of us learned it in the King James Version, so it's gonna be John 3.16 is the theme verse today. Um let's say it together. It's up on the screen. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This verse means so much to me. It's my favorite verse. I tell you what, it makes me feel like uh Friday night. I came home from the men's uh picnic, great picnic, even though I lost in cornhoe and in horseshoes, but it still was a fun time. Uh but uh so I came home Friday night, and um they're having a family movie night, and so I go into the movie room, all the grandchildren are there for the weekend, and the little two-year-old, he just turned to little Basil. He he comes running, he says, Pop ball, and he crawls up into my lap, sits there and watches the movie with me. That's how I feel with John 3.16. That's exactly how I feel. I thought of that. I feel like I'm crawling up in the lap of Papa God, God the Father. That's exactly how I feel. The first time I heard that, that's how I felt. I still feel like that after 47 years of being a Christian. Years ago, when my son Jacob, he's 38 years old now, when he was five, we were stopped at the red light, and there was a car to our right. He was five years old. My son looked at the stranger in the car next to us. He said, Daddy, does that man know God? My heart wept over such love expressed by a five-year-old over the soul of someone he did not know. Today we will get a glimpse of the heart of God for every person that has ever lived. I want to share one of my favorite Bible verses with you, John 3.16. God's heart for you is expressed in John 3.16. I'm not alone in liking this verse. The great reformer, Martin Luther, said, he said, uh, the heart, John 3.16 is the heart of the gospel. It is the most published verse in the whole wide world at many sporting events, such as the World Series or the Super Bowl. You will see a sign with John 3.16 posted. There you go. John 3.16. We see that. We remember Tim Tebow wearing it under his eyes, right? John 3.16. This was the first verse I memorized after becoming a Christian. I've often wondered why is it such a beautiful verse to so many people? No doubt it touches the deepest part of our soul. Or maybe it's because it answers so many deep questions, fundamental questions of life. We all seek to make sense of this world, and this is what we call a person's worldview. So, a person's worldview, we call our worldview a Christian worldview. Everyone has a worldview. For some, it is well defined, and for others, they must go along just to get along with the crowd. So Chuck Cooson defined a worldview as this. He said, a worldview is the sum total of our beliefs about the world. A worldview is the sum total of our beliefs about the world. The words of John 3.16 are found written in the red letter edition of our Bibles because they are part of a conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. Maybe his friends called him Nick. Friends and family, probably called Nicodemus Nick. I thought that would get more laughs, but that's okay. He came to see Jesus at night because he was a Pharisee. And as you know, the Pharisees had been giving Jesus a hard time. Some of them even wanted him dead. But this did not stop Nicodemus. He had to find out what this man, Jesus, was all about. Yes, Nicodemus was religious. Today he would be considered a Bible scholar. Yet Nicodemus found out his religion was not enough. He found out that he was a religious sinner. Can you have religious and sinner in the same sentence? Yes, you can be a religious sinner, friends. Religion doesn't save us. We'll get to that in a minute. So his religion was not enough. He needed to hear the words of John 3.16, and so do we. Let's look at seven of life's fundamental questions today, together. I said there's a lot in this message, John 3.16. Whole books have been written about this, so to cover this in one message is challenging. But we will do that by 2 o'clock, okay? Is it 2? Anyway. So we're going to look at seven fundamental questions. This is what we would call a Christian worldview. I'm answering these questions from John 3.16. It gives us this one verse, gives us a Christian worldview. That's why I think it appeals to so many people, and it's such a life-changing verse like it was to me. So the first question is I'll just read through them real quickly, is who created us? Some people word it like, where do we come from? I like who created us because we know it took God. Number two, what is the purpose of life? Number three, who is Jesus Christ? Number four, who am I? Number five, what must I do to be saved? Number six, how shall I live? Number seven, what happens when I die? Are you all interested in answers to those questions? Let's go to John 3.16 and get us some answers, okay? Um, who created us? That's right. Thank you for answering that. Okay, so if I had over here in the beginning, let's picture a timeline, okay? This is in the beginning, and over here in the end, okay, the cross in the middle, okay. Pretend that's in the middle, all right. I'll have Hunter move it. No. But, and then we're to the right of the cross, okay? So I'm gonna give you a great thought today. You are here, okay, at Real Life Community Church in 2026. We are here, right? We are between in the beginning, the timeline, and what? In the end. And you can read about that in the book of Revelation. So that's where we're at. Who created us? God did, as we said. And let's picture that timeline in our mind. I want you to know that I spent a year and a half studying this. I think we got a picture of a book I put together. I spent a year and a half studying this question. We know there's lots of arguments about creation versus evolution, and I got kind of tired of hearing about, like it's a slam dunk, that evolution is a fact. So I thought I'm gonna take some time. I'm just gonna look into this. I spent a year and a half looking at it, and uh the Lord gave me a lot of good information. But anyway, uh you can find it on Amazon. It's called Mo it's called On the Origin of Life, Moses versus Darwin. There's a picture of it. I've got a copy with me today for$100. Anybody that would like to buy it. Uh I'm just joking. I'll give you one if you want. But On the Origin of Life, Moses versus Darwin. Now, that handsome looking gentleman on the left, that's not me. But you know, I look close to him now, but that is my dad. And he, you know, Ham family, we do some strange things sometimes. He played the part of Moses for me there, okay? So that's my dad, Tom Ham, who's now 86 years old. He makes a great Moses, doesn't he? So God is the creator. So I'm gonna give you two alternative views quickly on the creation. Where do I get creation here? Who created us? Just in the first words of John 3.16. Listen. For God. For God, right? God. It starts with God. What's the first verse in the Bible? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Here's what Darwin said in his book on the origins of the species. He said, perhaps we can imagine in a warm little pond a primordial soup of chemicals forming life. That's exactly what he said. That is the resounding science across the world today. People lose their jobs because they don't believe that. That in a warm little pond, a primordial soup created life. Okay? But if you believe in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, you lose your jobs in many places. So what I'm telling you today, God gives us the answers to this question: where do we come from? Who created us? In uh physics, you can look this up. I double-checked it again. But according to physics, the universe consists of four fundamental characteristics components. They are time, energy, space, and matter. Any physics majors in here, shake your head. If you know that's the truth, right? Time, energy, space, matter. Now I want you to think about it. First verse of the Bible. In the beginning, that's time. God created, that's energy. The heavens, that's space. And the earth, what's that? Matter. In the first verse of the Bible, God tells us right there that the universe is made up of time, matter, energy, and space. Amazing thing. That was written 1500 years before Christ. And at the time, the science of the day, 3,500 years ago, was that the earth was setting on a giant turtle. But God gave that to Moses. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. Praise God. Genesis 1:27. Now, the Bible's one stream of truth. Moses affirms Jesus, and Jesus affirms Moses. It's totally consistent. So if you don't believe what Moses says about creation, then you can't just pick and choose and take what Jesus says about creation. Jesus said, in Mark, he said, from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Moses said he made them male and female. The Bible's one stream of truth. It's consistent. So Moses affirms Jesus. Jesus affirms Moses. That's Mark 6, was the verse I was quoting. So that's point one. God created us. Question one. Fundamental question. I took a little longer with that. Some of these I'm gonna try to go shorter. Second question: what is our purpose in life? First part was for God. Second part of John 3.16, so loved the world. So what is our purpose in life? The Bible says, anyone who does not know God, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. Our purpose in life is found in the love of God. That's some good news, isn't it? God so loved the world. We love him because he first loved us. God's love is personal. Let's think about Nicodemus for a minute. This is one individual that came to see Jesus at night. And Jesus takes all the time to explain to him the kingdom of God. This religious sinner needed to hear the good news of Jesus. He had been looking for religion in all the wrong places. That's because he was looking for answers on earth. And the answers could only be found above. He needed to look up to heaven and be born from above, Jesus told him. And then we turn the page, if you turn the page over, which is one of Hunter's favorite passages, is John chapter 4. We have the story of the woman at the well. Now she was not religious at all. She was total opposite of Nicodemus. She had been looking for love in all the wrong places. So she was searching too, but she was looking like I said, looking for love. And so Nicodemus was a religious sinner, and the woman at the well was a worldly sinner. What did they have in common? They were sinners. They both needed Jesus. And Jesus, this is an amazing thing. Yet Jesus, the creator of the universe, takes the time to share the good news with both of them. Takes a lot of time to spend the good news. Is it worth taking time for one individual to share the good news of John 3.16 with them? Yes and amen, right? It's worth taking time. If the creator of the universe could take time to talk to Nicodemus and the woman at the well, we can take time to talk to people. Friend, God loves you individually. The scripture says he knows how many hairs on your head. For God so loved. Now, put the personal pronoun me in there. Can we say it together? We're going to say me, okay. For God so loved. Let's do it again. Point to yourself. For God so loved me. Yes, he loves the world, but it's personal. Amen. Just like when my little grandson crawled up into my lap. He wants us close and he wants us to be close to him. Think of the millions of love songs and love poems and romance shows. Every Christmas, Kay and I watch a lot of Hallmark, Christmas Hallmark shows. Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that's under things that men do for love, okay? Are there any amens? Any brave men in here? Under things men do for love when you watch the Christmas Hallmark shows. So the Bible says, and now abide faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13, 13. Why does it say that love is the greatest thing in the world? Because we only need faith and hope in this life. We only need faith and hope in this life. But a million years from the day, we will be experiencing the love of our Father in heaven. Isn't that good news? A million years from the day, we'll be experiencing his wonderful love. For God so loved the world. And our purpose is wrapped in his wrapped up in that love. So what is it our purpose as Christians? Jesus told us, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10, 27. So our purpose as Christians is to love God and to love others. The two greatest commandments. That's our purpose. So that's part of our worldview. To love God, to love others. The third question that John 3.16 answers is who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus Christ? That's the third question. It says, He is the only begotten Son. Christianity is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. So we are asking these seven questions today that form our Christian worldview. But if we could ask only one question, how do I choose life over death? The answer is one word, Jesus. Amen. If I want life over death, the answer to that question is Jesus. Amen. So we see that Jesus is the answer. Now I've got ten things. Jesus actually is the creator of the worlds, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. For by him all things were created and are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him, the Bible says. So Jesus is the creator. He is the I am that spoke to Moses at the burning bush before Abraham was I am. Jesus is the Son of the living God. He's the Lamb of God. He's the way, the truth, and the life. He's the light of the world. He's the savior of the world. He's the resurrection and the life. He's the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. And I got 90 more. You all want to hear him? I really do got 90 more, but I don't have them written down today, thankfully. All right. So, but can we see that Jesus is the answer? Do we understand why we need to have a coherent Christian worldview? And John 3.16 gives us these answers. He is the only begotten Son of God. Fourth question. The fourth fundamental question of life that John 3.16 answers. It says one simple word in the King James says whosoever. In the other versions, same thing, whoever. Now I want to give you the definition of whosoever, because some people are a little confused on this today. The word whosoever is a pronoun. It means anyone, anyone can be saved. God is not willing that any perish, but that all, A-L-L-L, all come to repentance. It's God's will that all be saved. Revelation 22, 17 says, Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. So let me clearly say that no person, you know, some people say, Well, I was born this way, and I can't help it. God made me this way, so he can't condemn me on the day of judgment. No, you were born with a sinful nature, but you chose to sin, right? So we all have no excuse. What does Romans 3.23 say? Let's say it together. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. We're all sinners that know Christ. So, but John 3.16, the blessings of John 3.16 is offered to whosoever. No one will be able to say that they're lost on the day of judgment and lay it at the feet of God and blame him. Romans 2.11 says, For there is no partiality with God. In the King James Version, I like that. It says, For there is no res for God is no respecter of persons. He doesn't respect one person or another over another. I hope that you understand that Satan, this is going to surprise you. Satan is a master theologian. Did you know that? He is quite good at building a labyrinth of lies to support a theological framework. That's why we need the Holy Spirit to help us interpret the Bible. This is what Peter called twisting the scripture. John 3.16 makes it clear that everlasting life is offered to whosoever. Choose life, choose Jesus. So let's go to the fifth question that John 3.16 answers. Whosoever, who are we in Christ? Who am I is the question. So I'm going to ask you a question today. Are you a whosoever? Are you a whosoever? Have you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? So we need to ask this question Who am I without Christ? And who am I with Christ? So without Christ, we are a sinner. We have broken God's law. We are lost without Christ. There it is. And got the question. And I am without God and I'm without hope in the world. Who am I with Christ? The Bible says, 2 Corinthians 5.7, I am a new creation in Christ. Old things pass away, all things become new. John 1.12 says, I am a child of God. And 1 John 2.12 says, I am forgiven through Christ. And John 8.32 says, I am free from sin. Whoever the Son sets free is free from sin. Praise the Lord. So we need to answer that. John 3.16 answers that question. Who am I in Christ? That's our identity. Number six, the sixth fundamental question that John 3.16 answers that gives us a coherent Christian worldview is, How shall I live? How shall I live? I mean, sorry about that. I skipped one. The question, the fifth, it's the fifth question is what must I do to be saved? That's an important one. What must I do to be saved? John 3.16, what does it say? We need to do to be saved, to have everlasting life. Believe in him. We're saved by faith alone. So for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him, we're saved by grace through faith. That's what we must do to be saved. Acts 16, 31. Apostle Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. So it's not talking about head knowledge here. It's not talking about I accept Jesus just with my head. It's talking about believing from the heart, which includes repentance. Because it says, with the heart man believes unto what? Righteousness. So if there's not righteousness in our life, if we haven't repented, there's no evidence of that salvation. With the heart, man believes unto righteousness. So when John is talking about believing in Christ, he's talking about a belief from the heart, not from the head. Just saying, oh, Jesus was a good man. I accept him. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about a change of course in our life, a change of purpose to surrender our life to Christ. That's why the Bible calls it what? Being saved. That's what Jesus was sharing with Nicodemus. So that's a very important question that John 3.16 answers for us. What must we do to believe? What must we do to be saved, to have everlasting life? Believe in Jesus from the heart. Number six question that it answers. How shall I live? Now you got to look for this one, this question. How shall I live? Take the same, it says, believe in him, the words in him. That's how we shall live. In him, in Christ. The Bible says, Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus as your Lord, so walk in him. So we walk in him. So John 3.16 answers that question. Christ is the living word in our hearts, the Bible is the written word in our hearts. So Christ lives in our hearts. Now Dell Cunningham, Pastor Dell, talked about that a lot last week. Go back and listen to that John 15 sermon he preached last week about abiding in Christ, living in him. He shares with us how shall we live as Christians? Jesus also said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So how do we live in him, in Christ? Through the power of the Word of God in our heart, in our mind. Our minds are renewed. Amen? So John 3.16 tells us how to live. How shall we live as Christians? Now the last question is a very important one. The last part of John 3.16, he said, should not perish, but have everlasting life. So what's the fundamental question of life that it's answering? What happens when I die? What happens when I die? John 3.16 answers that question. So what happens when I die? The Bible says in Hebrews 9.27, it is appointed unto man once to die. And then what? The judgment. And Jesus said, Therefore I said to you that if you die in your sins, he says, Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. If we do not believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord, rest assured, we will die in our sins. So then what will happen? We will perish. And if we perish, we will be at the great white throne judgment of God. This is the judgment of unbelievers. The judgment of unbelievers. And it says the books will be open. How many know that God keeps good records? And we will be judged according to our works, is what the Bible says. So unless we kept the Ten Commandments and all the commandments of God perfectly, we'll be condemned. Has anybody ever kept the Ten Commandments in here perfectly? Raise your hand if you have. Even the Ten Commandments, right? So if we don't believe in Jesus and repent of our sins, we will die in our sins. And we will be at the great white throne judgment seat of Christ. And the Bible says, Revelation 20, 15, it says, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. That's what Christ said. If you believe in him, you should not perish. You won't be thrown into the lake of fire. You won't be condemned at the great white throne judgment. So what happens when we die? Either we'll be in the great white throne judgment, or we will be the resurrection of life is the judgment seat of Christ. Christ says, believe in him, you should not perish, but you will have everlasting life. So what happens for the Christian? The Bible says that our works will be judged and we will receive rewards based on our works. Our works will be judged, but we won't be judged by our works. There's a difference. If we're judged by our works, all of us in this room would be condemned. But as Christians, we're not judged by our works. Our works are judged by God, and we receive rewards based on the works that we do for Christ. The works that we do, if we do works for Christ, if we walk in the purpose of God, love God, love others, then the Bible calls those works good works. Good works. But if we do works in our own strength and our own flesh, the Bible calls those works dead works. So we want to have works that are through and motivated by the love of Christ in our hearts. That's what John 3.16 is all about. So that on the day of judgment we can hear the words, Well done, my faithful servant. Well done, my servant. So what happens when we die? Either we will go to the great white throne judgment or the judgment seat of Christ. So we want to be uh we want to be in the judgment seat of Christ, we will have everlasting life. So let's think about John 3, 16. How can we have peace of God with how can we have peace of mind without having the peace of God? And how can we have peace of mind without having a coherent Christian worldview? And John 3.16 gives us these answers. In one verse, it gives us the answers to seven fundamental questions that we all have. And that, and these aren't just questions that Christians have, these are questions that every person that we will ever meet, they have these same questions. As Christians, shouldn't we answer their questions? Amen. He says, Be prepared always, be ready always to give a reason for the hope that you have in heart and your heart to share these answers from John 3.16 with those that are lost. Let's think about God's love expressed in Jesus Christ in John 3.16. I don't I won't ask you to raise your hands on this, but are you searching for true love? Aren't we all in need of love? Love is our greatest need. Some people have had major disappointments in the love department, haven't they? Well, I want to tell you, God's love will never disappoint you. John 3.16. And let's think on the promise of everlasting life. How can we get on with the business of living until we settle the question of dying? Do you have assurance that you have everlasting life? Do you have that assurance that you're saved? John 3.16 gives us that promise that through Christ we have everlasting life. So we're going to share a song in a little bit, and I just want to open up the altar today. If today you just want to come and pray in fellowship with the Lord, then come to this side. If you need special prayer today, healing, or if today, if you don't know Christ, if you don't know that you're saved, that you have everlasting life, then come to this side and we'll pray with you today. So if you have questions, maybe you wonder, well, what is my purpose in life? You know, I need direction from God. I need to know God's will. We invite you to come and pray about that. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, we just thank you for John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We just thank you for the promise of your love and the promise of your direction and the promise of everlasting life. We just thank you for the only begotten Son for Jesus Christ who gave his life for us, O Lord. And I just surrender this altar time to you, Lord, and uh pray, God, that you will speak to hearts. We commit this time to you. Amen.