Being Thankful Is Not Enough

2018-11-25 

Pastor Jonathan Falwell 

Key Verse: John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

We spend a great deal of time talking about being thankful for so many things in life, but there is one thing we have for which being thankful is not enough. The gift of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Today, we have observed the Lord’s Table (Communion), a time where we remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us all. I’d like to take some time today, on this Thanksgiving weekend, to truly reflect on that gift. It’s good to remember the significance of that sacrifice that changes everything.

Being thankful is not enough when you consider…

1. God’s love

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Rom. 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

• It’s overwhelming to think that God could love ALL OF US that much, but He did …and He does!

2. God’s power

Heb. 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

• The key in this verse is, “by the grace of God”
• That grace is what allows us salvation through the atoning work of Christ
• God showed us kindness (grace) by extending His power to cover us all

3. God’s healing

John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

• Christ had to be “lifted up” in order to pay for our sins
• The great healing that is found here is that “whoever” looks on the Son of Man, lifted up, will be healed forever

Num. 21:6-9 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. 7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Ex. 12:13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

4. God’s gift

John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

• Jesus was the sacrificial lamb that was offered once and for all for us all
• That sacrifice takes away anything that can keep us from Him

1 John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.