Probably one of the best known verses of Scripture in the whole Bible—memorized by people all over the world—is John 3:16. Say it with me.
John 3:16 (NIV)
16 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.
Jesus Himself,
the one and only Son of God, spoke these beautiful words that summarize His
mission. If there was one verse that
could sum up the whole story of the Bible, John 3:16 would probably do it
best. But most don’t know the full
historical context of this verse. It is
grounded in the whole story of Scripture, going all the way back through
Genesis.
In the wild and
disturbing story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, God commands Abraham to
sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac, on Mount Mariah. Then, as Abraham’s knife is poised to
slaughter his son, God stops Abraham and provides a ram to take Isaac’s
place.
In Exodus, we
find the Israelites living in slavery in Egypt.
God sends Moses to deliver them, but Pharaoh refuses to let them
go. So God sends 10 plagues to torture
the Egyptians and convince them to let God’s people go. The was blood and frogs and gnats and
flies. All of Egypt’s livestock
died. Then there was boils, hail,
locusts, and darkness. And do you
remember the last plague? It was the
most terrible of all… Every firstborn son
not sheltered in a home marked by the blood of a Passover lamb died in a single
night. Every male offspring, from the
livestock to the servants and all the way up to Pharoah’s own son, died in that
single night. It was a costly sacrifice
brought on by the hard hearted, stubborn Pharoah who would not submit to the
God of Israel and let the Israelites go free.
It was a day to remember forever. God does not take death lightly--even the death of those who would be called His enemies. Jesus said Our Heavenly Father knows and cares if even a single sparrow dies. How much more when the entire nation of Egypt—every family—loses their first born sons. It’s devastating. But that was the cost of that nation’s sin and the cost of Israel’s freedom.
So God wanted His
people in Israel to remember that day forever. He gave them a special way to remember and honor God for saving them. We read
about it in Exodus 13:1-5
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Dedicate to me every firstborn among the Israelites. The first offspring to be born, of both humans and animals, belongs to me.”
3 So Moses said to the people, “This is a day to remember
forever—the day you left Egypt, the place of your slavery. Today the Lord has brought you out by the power of
his mighty hand. (Remember, eat no food containing yeast.) 4 On this day
in early spring, in the month of Abib, you have been set free. 5 You must celebrate this event in this month
each year after the Lord brings you into the land
of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites. (He swore to
your ancestors that he would give you this land—a land flowing with milk and
honey.)
This passage is the institution of the Passover Feast. These instructions were given to the Israelites over 3,000 years ago and they have been celebrated by the Hebrew people every year since then as a way to honor God and thank Him for delivering them from slavery in Egypt. It was a costly deliverance—the death of every Egyptian first born son. In recognition, the Hebrew people were to eat a special Passover meal and dedicate back to God the first-born male of every Israelite family—both humans and animals.
The Pagan cultures all
around Israel were known to practice human sacrifice. Whereas God stopped Abraham and would
not allow Abraham to actually sacrifice his son, Isaac, other non-Israelite
people often did sacrifice their first-born sons (as well as other children). Child/human sacrifice is one of the reasons the
Bible says God drove other nations out of the Promised Land and gave it to the
Israelites instead. Those other nations
sacrificed their children, thinking it would please and manipulate their gods
into helping them. But the one true God
of the Bible abhors human sacrifice. He forbids anyone to do it. And if you think how people made these evil sacrifice thinking they could manipulate their gods with them, you get an even deeper sense of how evil they are. They do not trust God and think they should and can perform some type of magic to control their gods. But the one true God is sovereign and we cannot and should not try to control Him--especially by taking the life of a child or any other person.
So God didn’t ask the
Israelites to actually place their children on the Temple altar and sacrifice
them. Rather, God instructed them to
“dedicate” or consecrate them to God.
Since God had purchased the Israelites at the cost of every first born
son of Egypt, now the Israelites honored God by consecrating to Him their
firstborn sons.
Consecrate is a special word for a special action. To consecrate means to make or declare something sacred—dedicated formally to a religious or divine purpose.
When something is consecrated,
it is dedicated for a holy purpose. For
instance, our altar is consecrated for use in religious services in our
church. It would be out of place to use
this altar for just any old purpose.
Right? We wouldn’t take it home
and use it as a breakfast table in our house.
That would be disrespectful and sacrilegious. That’s not what it was made for; it has been
dedicated to be used for Christian worship services. The only meal we place upon this table is a
sacred meal—Holy Communion—dedicated to remember Jesus. That is what it means to consecrate
something. It is to set it apart for
God’s divine purpsoses.
We are here today on Consecration
Sunday. It is a day set aside to
consecrate ourselves and our gifts to God for the coming year. I have asked each of you to complete a
Stewardship Survey and to indicate how you will serve God with your prayers,
your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness. You have had time to prayerfully consider
what you will dedicate to the Lord. We
have not required you to dedicate any certain amount. I’ve instructed you over the last several
weeks about the biblical standards, but what you choose to give is a matter of
prayer between you and God. And today
you have a chance to consecrate what you have chosen to give.
In a moment, I will ask each of
you to come forward and lay your survey upon the altar. What you lay upon the altar, you consecrate
to God. It is set apart as holy for the
Lord. Therefore, it should only be used
for His glory. You shouldn’t take it
back to use however you please. It is
for God.
But now we come back to John 3:16—that verse we love so much because it makes God’s Word in the Bible so simple. “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.”
Who is it who gave? It is God.
What did He give? Jesus, His one and only son.
Who did God give Jesus for? For the whole world. That includes you and me.
Why did God give us Jesus?
So that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Just like the Israelites
in Exodus, we have been delivered from slavery.
But our slavery wasn’t to a Pharoah in Egypt.
Our slavery was to sin and death.
Our sin separates us from God and corrupts our whole world. We are spiritually dead.
But, praise God, through Jesus we can be delivered from our slavery.
When we repent of our sin and trust Jesus to save, He does and we have freedom
and eternal life.
Won’t you repent and turn
to Jesus today? Ask Jesus to forgive
you. Trust Him to save you.
Dedicate your life to serve Him as Lord.
Please join me in the Wesley Covenant Prayer as a way to consecrate ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Closing – Wesley Covenant Prayer
“I am no longer
my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou
wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for
thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”
