LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 93

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CONVENTION BIBLE STUDIES
1. One Message—Christ!
A Message of Love for a Church in Mission—John 3:16
PRAYER before the study of God’s Word:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, without Your help
our labor is useless, and without Your light our search is
in vain. Invigorate our study of Your holy Word that, by
due diligence and right discernment, we may establish
ourselves and others in Your holy faith; through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Amen. (Lutheran Service Book, 312)

Introduction
The focus of this convention is “One Message—Christ!”
During these next few days, we will make plans for the
next few years and beyond. Those plans will center on making known Christ’s love by word and deed within our
churches, communities, and the world.
How do we do that? How do we make known the love of
Christ? How do we nurture those who regularly sit in the
pews of our LCMS parishes as we bring the kingdom of God
to bear on their lives? How do we reach out to those we
meet, for example, at the Little League game, the person
who works next to us, and the neighbor who has no Christian church home? In the few moments we have together
this morning, we are going to look to the Gospel of John for
guidance as to how we can actually bring Christ’s love to
bear on the lives of the people we know and meet.
In chapter 3 of John’s Gospel we read the story of
Nicodemus, a Jewish leader who sought out Jesus under
the cover of night. Verse 2 tells us that he probably came
that night out of curiosity about who Jesus was. But as
was usually the case—and we can reference here Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman in John 4—Jesus
drew people into the conversation and then led them to discover His identity and the gifts He offers. Immediately following the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, the
inspired apostle records the one Bible passage that is probably known by more people than any other in the Scriptures—and I dare say by everyone in this room.
You may remember the guy who, a few years ago, was a
fixture at almost every televised golf tournament, major
league baseball game, and other televised sporting events. He
was usually dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, had multi-colored frizzy hair, and positioned himself so that the TV camera
was on him just when the golfer would hit the ball or the
pitcher was about to throw his fast ball. His last name was
Rollen, and his nickname was Rockin’, Rockin’ Rollen. And,
every time the TV camera was on him, he held up a sign on
which was printed: John 3:16. Now I don’t know how many
people actually knew that this was a Bible reference and
reached for their Bibles to read these words: “For God so loved
the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever
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believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But for
a few moments he had the attention of the world!
I memorized the words of John 3:16, as I’m sure many of
you did, too, when I was a small child. They were probably
the very first words of Scripture that I memorized, and I
have carried them with me my whole life. Today, as we reflect on these word, I invite you to focus with me on one little word—often unnoticed—of enormous significance in this
verse: the word so.

I. God SO Loved the World
In the Greek text, this is the first word in the sentence. It is pronounced “houtøs.” Actually, depending on the
context, it can have a variety of meanings. In English, too,
we use the word so in various ways. Consider, for example,
the word so meaning “very,” as in, “This is so important.”
Or, sometimes, it means “therefore,” as in, “So when he returns . . . ” Or, it can even mean something like “to the degree or extent that,” as in, “So long as I have breath . . . ”
Or, “having a purpose,” as in, “So gathered here to study.”
But here, in John 3:16, the Greek word actually means
“In this manner; in this way.” With this meaning, the word
is often used in discourse or narrative material to point
directly to what follows. Take for example John 21:1: “After
this Jesus revealed Himself again to His disciples by
the Sea of Tiberias, and He revealed Himself in this way
[houtøs]” (ESV, emphasis added). Then follows the account
of the post-Easter morning breakfast appearance of Jesus
to His disciples.
2007 Convention Proceedings