Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / Easter | God's Love

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Easter | God's Love · Bayside Davis Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the B Side Babies Podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You are now listening to our Easter teaching from the Gospel of John about God's love for the world.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mark 16, verse 1 to 7.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It says, When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Saloon bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Very early on the first day of the week, just after the sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be alarmed, he said.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Crucified.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: He has risen.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: He is not here.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: See the place where they laid him.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: But go.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Tell his disciples and Peter.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: There you will see him just as he told you.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Happy Easter, everyone.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: What a joy to be celebrating Jesus with each of you on this Easter Sunday.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Bayside Davis welcomes you if you're new to Bayside.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: We are so glad that you're here today.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: We normally meet at 10 a.m.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: every Sunday.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we want to encourage you to come back this next Sunday this following Sunday as we open up a brand new series in the Gospel of John.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to be studying the Gospel of John, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, in its entirety, which will be amazing.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: And a few of you are excited.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited that a few of you are excited.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is happening next weekend.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we're just really glad you're here.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is the greatest day in human history.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't just a holiday where we're like, let's all dress up in pastel colors and get our Easter bunny stuff going and get the kids having candy and eggs and all the things.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this is the most definitive day that has changed human history.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I want you to lean in today to what this day means in your life because this is an important day.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Our first service, our first Easter service was packed, and nine people gave their life to Christ.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we just praise God for that this morning.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Bayside is not just in Davis.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: We have 10 churches across Northern California, one in OC.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's Orange County, Bayside OC.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And our heart is to plant ten more in the coming years.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we just love being a part of this amazing community across Northern California and what God is doing.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so welcome to one of the 10 Baysides, Bayside Davis in this city.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: This is not a city known for Christianity and Jesus, but we want to make this city known for Christianity and Jesus.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I would love for you to turn, if you have your Bible, to John chapter 3, verse 16.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I thought we're about to go in the book of John, so let me give you a teaser of how amazing this gospel is.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: John chapter 3, verse 16.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, what a blessing.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: That we get to gather here on Easter Sunday, 2026.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Some of us we are Christians who go to church in the rhythm of weekly worshiping you.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And some of us in this room, we're not Christians, or we rarely go to church.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: And Lord, every single person, no matter what their context or relationship with Jesus is, in this room is important to you.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I pray that we would open up our hearts on this definitive day to what you want to do in each of our lives.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: That it would not just be a holiday to celebrate, but that it would transform our lives with the meaning of Easter Sunday.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Everyone loves a good love story.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Amen?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone loves a good love story.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I got on my AI this week and I typed in, tell me the most famous love stories in film, reality TV, shows, Pixar of the 2000s.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then I texted Kelly and Bernice, who were up here on, you know, they're on our staff, they're up here this morning, they're amazing.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I texted them, yes, they are.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: You got some fans, Kelly and Bernice.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: I said, give me your list of the best love stories, film, Disney, all that of the last 25 years.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: You ready for this list?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, Titanic.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Number two or three, I forgot where it was.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: The Bridget Jones diary.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that just shows the age of this room.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: The first service, you had so many people talking about that.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: The notebook.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: La la land.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Crazy rich Asians.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's popular in this room.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Also popular in the first service was The Summer My Turn Pretty.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know a lot of these shows.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then some Disney Pixar.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: The Princess and the Frog.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is that a good one?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Up.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: You guys never?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Kelly said Avatar.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Avatar, I don't know.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Is there multiple?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: She just said Avatar.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then Bernice said this one, the fault in our stars.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's really sad, I heard.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: So if if you don't want to watch a really sad movie, don't watch that.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then the reality TV shows that nobody's gonna cheer because you're closeted fans.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Love is blind.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then maybe for the older crowd, The Bachelor and the Bachelorette.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: One person.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody's silent because I know half of you have watched it before.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: The Golden Bachelor.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to admit they watch reality TV, and that's okay.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's something about the human soul that is drawn to love stories.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's something about how our soul has been wired, where we long to experience, even if it's on film or reality TV show or in our real life, some sort of connection with genuine love.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: The problem with the reality TV shows is they all break up, so it's really not a great thing.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you were on one of these, we would be fans of yours, but we would also know you're probably gonna break up with that person.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing the reality of love comes from God.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: 1 John chapter 4, verses 8 and 16 says, God is love.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: The greatest love story is not the bachelor, the bachelorette, la la land, the notebook, any of these.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: The greatest love story in human history is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad three of you clapped.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And hopefully all of you will by the end.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And at the center of this story of the gospel is probably the most well-known, famous verse in all of the Bible, John chapter 3, verse 16.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And let me just set the stage.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: The story goes Jesus is hanging out with this man who came to him at night named Nick or Nicodemus.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And Nicodemus is the theologian, the scholar, the greatest teacher in Israel.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And he had some genuine questions about Jesus.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Who is this guy who's uh giving sight to the blind and doing all of these miracles and teaching with thousands and thousands of people following him?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus began to teach Nick or Nicodemus that Nicodemus, you must be born again.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: And he was confused and perplexed by that comment.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: All of us are born once physically, but Jesus is talking about a different birth.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: You see, some people are born once and die twice, and some people are born twice and die once.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: What Jesus was trying to teach Nicodemus is that all of us are born physically, but all of us need to be born again spiritually.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: That every human is disconnected from God, and so they need a spiritual resurrection, a spiritual rebirth.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And he was perplexed how this might happen, and so naturally he would ask the question that all of us would ask, but how?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: How can you and I be born again?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where we pick up in our story in John chapter 3, verse 16, where Jesus begins to describe, and many scholars believe that this is Jesus continuing to teach, and then some scholars believe that this is John explaining what Jesus was teaching.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Notice these words that have shaped Christian history.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, for God.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna stop there.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know that currently in our cultural moment there is a return to God all across the Western world?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Across the Western world, the ideas and promises of secularism have left people's souls empty.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: They have deprived us of our true meaning and purpose in life, to know God and to be in a relationship with Him.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's why across the Western world there's been a shift.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: All throughout America and Western countries, people are returning to God.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Let me give you some data that reflects this shift.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: In the United States, the long-term decline of Christianity has ended.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, not only has the decline ended, but about 62% of adults identify as Christians currently in the US.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's far more than 10 years ago.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: And personal commitments to Jesus among U.S.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: adults has risen significantly from 54% in 2021 to 66% today.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: That is an uptick of 30 million people that have come to Christ.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And leading the church charge, the most engaged generations are Gen Z and millennials.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: They attend church now more frequently than any of the older generations.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And guess who leads the way?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Gen Zers are the number one attenders of churches by generation of all generations.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're a boomer or a Gen X or even a millennial, you should feel convicted right now.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Gen Zers are leading the way, and we should follow their lead.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: There is a return to God.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: But the question is: who is God?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: All of us need to answer that question.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Who is God?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: I remember being a little kid growing up, single mom, one sister, all in our household.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't grow up in a Christian family, like a lot of us.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't grow up going to Sunday school, hearing the story of like uh Adam and Eve and Noah and the Ark and the rain deluge and Moses in the desert, God speaking to him, sending him back to Egypt to be the co-deliverer of the people.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't grow up hearing all these stories, but I remember at a really young age, I had a lot of fear in my heart.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I've always been an anxious, fearful person.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember every night I would look up at the ceiling in the darkness of the night and I just start talking to God.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I would seek out because I knew that God was real, there was a reality of God in this world.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was like built into my soul, it was wired into me.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody taught me that, nobody instructed me or guided me.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: I just knew there was a God, but I didn't know who God was.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: The Bible answers this question from the first book to the last book, Genesis to Revelation, describing in vivid detail who God is.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And according to the Gospel of John, the most definitive explanation of the nature of God is seen in the life, ministry, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because, as John declares in the first verse of the Gospel of John, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Word being a uh a euphemism, a metaphor for Jesus who would explain God to humanity.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: To know Jesus is to know God Himself.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: That is why in the introduction to John, he wrote these words in John 1, verse 18: no one has ever seen God but the one and only Son who is Himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: He, the Son, has made God known.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is why later in the Gospel of John, when Philip asked Jesus to show the disciples the Father, Jesus replies with these words, John 14, verse 9, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: If you saw Jesus, you saw God.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you heard Jesus teach, you heard God teach.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you saw Jesus do a miracle, you saw God do a miracle, because Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and he explained God to humanity.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Notice what John says next.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: What a statement.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: We begin to understand who this God is.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: For God who exists, who is real.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Notice who he is.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: He so loved the world.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Loved is an interesting verb in this passage that takes a prominence throughout the Gospel of John.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's agapah'o, it means to seek the highest good of another person.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: And embedded, wired into this idea of loved, God loved the world, is that God has an affection for human beings.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: He's not detached, he's not distant, he is affectionate toward us, and he is seeking out our highest good.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, John, who wrote the Gospel of John, a disciple of Jesus, he gives special attention to this word love in the Gospel of John.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: And remember that John refers to himself, he gave himself a nickname.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: This is kind of cool.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: John gave himself a nickname, he said, here's my nickname: the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that awesome?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now I've given myself some nicknames, and some other people have given me nicknames as well.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Across Base, I'd have many nicknames.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: One of them is the bald eagle.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: They also call me the Beanie Bishop.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then some people call me WKT3 because I'm Wesley Kent Town III.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: I have nicknamed myself the Surf Scholar.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because, well, I used to live in Hawaii, so I love, I love the ocean and the beach and all the things, and then I also did a lot of schooling, and I love the Bible, and I'm kind of like a theological bent person, so I nickname myself the Surf Scholar.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then somebody also, because my family's from Copenhagen, Denmark, somebody also said, You're the Danish discipler.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a couple nicknames.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: But John gave himself a nickname, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, if we walk out today or next week and you call me one of these, I'll know what you're referring to.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if you just call me Wesley, that's awesome as well.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: John gives special attention to this word love.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's six things in the Gospel of John that he says about love.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Write these down if you're a note-taker, real quick.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not a note taker, maybe you start on Easter Sunday.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, the Father loves the Son.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: All over the Gospel of John, we learn that the Father, God the Father, loves the Son of God.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: We also learn, number two, that the Son loves the Father.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's this reciprocity, this reciprocal love in the triune nature of God Himself.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Third, we learn that Jesus loves his disciples.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the Son of God, loved his followers and his people.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Fourth, we learn that the disciples of Jesus loved Jesus.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Their life was being transformed and they had this deep affection and appreciation for Jesus Himself.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Fifth, we learn that the disciples of Jesus are called to love one another.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: How about we just start a trend out with the cranky, judgmental, mean-spirited, uh, exclusive Christians.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know how sometimes you're around a Christian group and you're like, man, these are the these are the most unhappy, uh, mean, judgmental people ever.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, the people of God should be the most loving people in the world.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: People who aren't Christians should be like, oh, I love to go to a church because I know those people are the most loving people I've ever met.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: We are to love one another.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: We're to love people inside the church and outside of the church.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then number six, this is the most shocking statement of love in the entire gospel of John.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: God loved the world.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, Wesley, Wesley, help me to understand the world.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: What does this mean?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Why is this so shocking and scandalous?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: The world is obviously the world that God created.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem with the world that God created is that human beings like me and Adam and Eve and everybody post Adam and Eve, we have all decided to walk away from God.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: We've all decided to deviate away from God's purpose for our life, away from a relationship with God, away from the design of God for human flourishing, that we would be in step with our Creator.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, we decided to do what we wanted to do.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: We wanted to take authority and autonomy and control of our own lives, and we wanted to be able to do anything we desired to do, and that's what the Bible calls sin.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Anything outside of the nature and design of God for humanity.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so when John says God loved the world, John is saying, God loved sinful humanity who has rebelled and walked away from him.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: That is shocking.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: God loves the world.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: His pursuit of us is motivated in love.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want you to think of God's love on the backdrop of your best days when you're like, oh, I did good, I followed all the rules, I was perfect today, I'm super righteous.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: God must love me.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, don't think of God's love for the world as a backdrop for your best days.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Think of God's love for the world as the backdrop for your worst days.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: When you're like, there's no way God will ever love me.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's no way God will accept me into his family, there's no way I can be saved.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm too sinful.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Deviated too much.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I have guilt and shame and humanity and fragility and brokenness inside of my soul.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: There's no way that God would accept me.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I remember when I first started going to this church, and it was about 30 minutes outside of my city, and a bunch of my friends went there, and I realized, well, this church is huge.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: It was about 10,000 people, and they were teaching through the Bible, just like we do at Bayside, just teaching the Bible.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it changed my life.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember sitting there and I was like, oh yeah, I know all these high schoolers.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: They go to my high school, they are strong Christians, they're really nice to everybody.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: They don't go to the parties.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then I thought, I'm the opposite of all of them.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: My first two years of high school, I was at most of the parties, getting drunk, not a strong Christian, doing things that being mean to students, like I wasn't, I was not the person that felt like they deserved to be loved by God.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started going back over and over and over again, and I felt this overwhelming sense that even me, not the church kid, not the Christian kid, not the one who has all the moral, you know, uh moral awards for all the things I was doing.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: No, even me, God loved.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to know this morning that God loves you.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: That God loves you in all your failures, that God loves you in all your brokenness, that God loves you in all your rebellion, that God loves you in all your guilt and shame, that God loves you on your worst day just as much as He loves you on your best day.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: God loves you.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you might be like me, walking in a church on Easter Sunday, feeling like, oh my goodness, I'm so unworthy of the love of God.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: You are the very person that God loves.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Notice what he says next.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: He gave.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: This means to give as an expression of generosity.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, the person giving is giving something of value.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: God gave his one and only son as the greatest act of generosity that humanity has ever known and will ever know.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing more valuable to the Father God or more precious to the Father God than his one and only Son.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the idea of gave refers to the death of Jesus on the cross.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: God, in perfect unison and agreement with the Son, gave His Son to die on the cross as an act of love for you and I.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's why the great theologian D.A.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Carson said, God loves the world with selfless, costly love of redemption.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's why 1 John 2, 2 says he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours who are Christians, but also for the sins of the whole world.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's why John the Bee, also known as John the Baptist, said these words at the beginning of the Gospel of John look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: God gave his one and only son.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: One and only.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a Bible student, mark that.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's one word.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Monagonase.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: It means unique or one of a kind.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: It talks about, it speaks of being one and only in a specific type of relationship.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: It could be used of an only child.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody in here, an only child?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Only child.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Put it up like you're proud.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Come on now.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: It could also be used of a unique child like Isaac in the Old Testament, who was the son of promise.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: He was the monogonese.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: He was the one and only son of promise.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is the second person of the Trinity.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is both God the Son and the Son of God.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: He is the only one of his kind in relationship with the Father.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And God gave his one and only Son for us.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's why in 1 John 4, verse 10 it says this, and this is love.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, what's love, God?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't initiate this.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: We weren't one day waking up and like, I wasn't praying as a kid in bed and like, oh, I love God.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: No, God was initiating all of this.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't love God first, God loved you first.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Which makes the story all the more remarkable.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because you and I, right?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: All of us, we know our unloveliness.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: We know the things we try to hide from ourselves, let alone other people.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Our failures, our shame, our sin, our rebellion, our regrets, we hide that because we know our unloveliness, but God first loves us.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: The gospel is a story of God's love for us.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you were to peel away the nuances, the layers of what he's saying here as he's presenting the gospel in this most impactful and famous verse, there are four layers, I think, to what he's saying about how God gave his son as an act of love for us.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, the cross of Jesus Christ, dying for our sins and resurrection of Jesus Christ, pictures the pursuing love of God.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: He's pursuing you.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: When I was a little kid, he was pursuing me.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: You might think you're here just to like wear your pastel colors this morning and celebrate Easter with your friends.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're here because God, the God of heaven and earth, is pursuing you in love.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, the cross and resurrection pictures the sacrificial love of God.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: When Jesus went to the cross, Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross for you.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Third, what John is saying, not only pictures the pursuing love of God and the sacrificial love of God, but John is saying the cross and resurrection of Jesus pictures the selfless love of God.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you guys know that Jesus was sinless?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus can do all things except he can't do anything that is contrary to his nature.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: He can't sin.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: He lived a perfect life.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the perfect one, died selflessly for you and I, the imperfect people that we are.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, maybe one of us would choose to die valiantly for somebody that is a friend, somebody that we love, somebody we respect, somebody that's good to us.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus died selflessly for those who were not good to him.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Who said, I don't want to have anything to do with you, God.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: And at that moment on the cross, that is Jesus pursuing sacrificially and selflessly us imperfect people.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: And fourth, the cross and resurrection, what John 3.16 is talking about pictures the redemptive love of God.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: As he pursues us through the cross and resurrection, sacrificially and selflessly, he's doing that because he wants to save you and change your life from the inside out for all of eternity.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: You have come to Easter Sunday 2026 because God is after you in love.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: And God wants to redeem your life, your story, your soul, and he wants to change you for all of eternity.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the last words here.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: How do we receive that?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, John tells us we receive that by faith.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, listen to these verses in the New Testament.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: John 1, verse 12, yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: John 6, verse 47, very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: Acts 16, verse 31, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: And this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Galatians 2, verse 16, know that a person is not justified by the works of the law.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's not what you do religiously that gets you favor with God, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: The gospel is a love story about what God did for you in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the greatest expression of love in human history.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, just so we're sure and clear of what the gospel is not and what the gospel is, because I really want you to understand this and I want you to experience this in your life.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: The gospel is not a story about what you need to do for God.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh God, I better be a better person, or I better make better decisions, or I've got to do these religious things and go to church so that someday you will accept me or love me.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, the gospel is not a story about what you need to do for God.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: The gospel is not a story about how you need to earn God's love.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like you walk out of here on a Sunday and you're like, okay, like uh this isn't for me yet, so I need to start reading my Bible, maybe God will love me.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: I need to start going to church at least once a month, maybe twice a month, maybe God will love me.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: I start taking communion, maybe God will love me, uh, hang out with other Christians, maybe God will love me.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: No, the gospel is not a story about how you need to earn God's love.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: The gospel is a story about the reality that God loves you.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Irregardless of what you do, and in light of what you've done, God loves you, and he loves me.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: The gospel is a story about what God has done for you, and all you have to do is believe.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's a gift, it's by grace.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: You simply need to put your faith in Jesus and what he did for you through his death and resurrection to be saved and experience God's love from that moment through all of eternity.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: That experience will now be yours.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: And notice what John says the moment you put your faith in Jesus is the moment you receive eternal life.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Eternal life.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's a quality of life here and now for you, and it's a quantity of life forevermore.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Notice he doesn't say, someday you'll receive eternal life.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, he says, the minute you believe, you'll receive eternal life.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: This phrase eternal life is the same idea of what Jesus said previously in John chapter 3, you must be born again.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: That the moment you believe, you are for the first time in your life, alive spiritually in a relationship with the living God.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Your soul is made alive spiritually with God, and you will have this forever and ever and ever and ever.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: And perish has the idea of being separated from God for eternity.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want that.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: None of us should want that.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: And God has initiated all of this on our behalf.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, one of my favorite authors, Tim Keller, one of the greatest theologians, I think will go down in church history, he wrote about God's love, and I just want to read this to you because it was so impacting to me.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: He said these words The gospel says you are simultaneously more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yet more loved and accepted than you ever dared hope.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: He goes on to say, God's love for you is infinite.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: God's love for you overcomes all your depravity.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: Your sin is a drop consumed in the ocean of God's love.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: Then he says, The only love that won't disappoint you is one that cannot change, that cannot be lost, that is not based on the ups and downs of life or how or how well you live.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: It is something that not even death can take away from you.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: God's love is the only thing like that.