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The Book of John
April 19, 2026
52m 16s

John 3:16

by Johnson Bowie
If you're familiar with the Bible, John 3:16 is probably a verse you recognize—arguably the most famous verse in all of Scripture. But it's tempting to let a well-known verse like this grow cold. Today, we tear it wide open. God's love isn't what the world calls love—it's agape: unconditional, sacrificial, and active. A love so wonderfully extravagant that it moved Him off the throne of Heaven and onto a cross to suffer for you and save you.
Sermon Notes

John 3:12-18 NIV
“I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 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.

John 3:16
“God SO LOVED the world...”

Romans 5:8 NIV
But God demonstrates his own LOVE for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Biblical Greek Words for “Love”
Eros – Romantic or sexual love
Storge– Love for family 
Phileo– Brotherly love 
Agape– Unconditional, Sacrificial, Active Love

1 John 4:9-10 NIV
This is how God showed his love (agapē) among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love (agapē): not that we loved (agapē) God, but that he loved (agapē) us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

John 3:16
“God soloved the WORLD...”

Galatians 3:28-29 NIV
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”
* Augustine (400AD)

“God does not love us because we are valuable; we are valuable because God loves us.”
* Martin Luther (1500AD)

“A person’s worth is revealed by what God was willing to pay to redeem him.”
* A.W. Tozer (1950AD)

John 3:16
“God soloved the world that HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON...”

Genesis 22:1-2 NIV
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 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.”

John 3:17-18 NIV
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to SAVE the world through him. 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.

Acts 4:12 NIV
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

PISTEUŌ – to know to be true, to put faith in, to trust completely


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