Did He Not Also Die for These Lost Ones? (John 3:16-17)
Steve Shell lived up the street from us when I was growing up, and Steve suffered from severe epilepsy. I witnessed Steve have two seizures—one during a worship service and another at a neighborhood get-together.
Steve and Peggy, his wife, put a swimming pool in their backyard. One afternoon, while Peggy was teaching school, Steve went out by the pool, had a seizure, fell into the pool, became trapped under the plastic cover, and drowned. A tragic accident.
Tragic accidents occur frequently. Did any of you have a classmate killed in a car accident? Maybe you knew a coworker who was killed tragically at work. Perhaps you knew a youngster who died of an accidental drug overdose. Maybe a neighbor succumbed to injures from a fall.
Jesus did not die because of a tragic accident. “Jesus died for everyone so that everyone could be saved.”
Body
Scripture:
- “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29).
- John 3:16-17.
- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.
- Jesus “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2).
Why, though, did Jesus die for everyone, even those who would reject him?
One: Love
God’s love for all mankind is boundless. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 Jn 3:16).
God loves you—period. You can do nothing to increase or decrease God’s love for you. And that applies to everyone. Thus, God sent Jesus to die for all.
Two: Lawlessness
While God loves all men, he cannot tolerate sin. “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Ex 15:11). “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy” (Rev 15:4).
Because God is perfectly holy, a perfect sacrifice appeased his wrath so that men could draw near to him.
Three: Liberty
God desires all men to be saved; through Jesus, all men have the Liberty to be saved. “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ez 33:11). God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).
God doesn’t want anyone to spend eternity in hell, and the only way for man to avoid hell is through the death of Jesus.
Four: Liability
Because each person is liable to God for his actions, each person will stand before the judgment seat. “Each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom 14:12). “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor 5:10). The only escape from that Liability is the blood of the Lamb.
Five: Life
Jesus died for all men that all men might live for him. “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). The Lord Jesus desires each person to pick up his cross, follow him, and die to self.
Application
“Jesus died for everyone so that everyone could be saved.” How should you reorient your life because “Jesus died for everyone so that everyone could be saved?”
One: Love
Because God loves everyone, so must you. “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Eph 5:2). How well do you walk in love? How much do you show love to your fellow man? How much do you demonstrate that love by serving? By praying? By sharing Jesus?
Two: Lawful
Because Jesus died for you, you must live a Lawful, i.e., holy, life. “Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1). How holy are you? Do you live a Lawful life or a sinful life?
Three: Lead
Because Jesus died, you must Lead lost souls to him. Jesus’s death is connected with teaching his truth: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Lk 24:46-47). Since Jesus died for all people, are you leading people to him?
Four: Liable
You will be Liable as you stand in judgment. Christ Jesus “is to judge the living and the dead” (2 Tim 4:1); so whether you are alive or dead when Jesus comes again, you will be judged. Are you covered in his blood and ready for that judgment?
Five: Live
Because Jesus died you must Live for him. Jesus “died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). For whom do you live? Do you live for yourself? Or do you live for the one who for your sake died and was raised?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.