Please pray with me: Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak but Thou art Mighty, hold me in Thy powerful hand. Bread of Heaven, feed me ‘til I want no more, AMEN.

The text for today’s meditation is John 3: 16-21

There are few figures in America that are more beloved and more easily recognizable than Paul Harvey. He made a legacy for himself by telling the whole story about things that we might or might not have heard about. His iconic phrase, "the REST of the story" and his sharp, but lilting voice have been played across television and radio from one side of America to the other. As a child, I can remember listening to 8.30 AM WCCO out of Minneapolis Minnesota when we were traveling. His funny sounding voice would come on the radio and you would immediately take notice because the words that followed would teach you something you did not know about a subject that you dealt with everyday. "The REST of the story", and he would always say it that way, "the REST of the story" always intrigued me because I love trivia and random, sometimes mundane, facts concerning all sorts of things. I always listened with great attention so that I could learn something new. It always made the car trips more tolerable and more enjoyable. And since his radio show was nationally syndicated, I am sure you have heard him on many different radio stations all over America, if you have done any traveling. And he always finished his "teaching lesson of the day" with the restated, "and now you know the REST of the story, good day." Wonderful memories from my past, and your’s too.

Our Gospel lesson today includes the verse that has been called, "the gospel in a nutshell." Have any of you heard of John 3:16 referred to as "the gospel in a nutshell"? Maybe it is just a "northern" thing. The verse seems to have everything needed to understand the gospel message. Please open your pew bibles to page 888 and follow along with me. We will continue to refer back to it so you might want to keep it. Please follow along with me on John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." That passage has it all. If there was any "one" passage from the bible that you would want someone to know, it would probably be that one. The gospel in a nutshell. Salvation complete and written down so we can remember it. Most everyone who has grown up in the church has learned this bible verse in Sunday School and has had to memorize it.

Can anyone tell me, without looking, what the next verse is? We read it just a few minutes ago but can anyone tell me what it is? Can anyone tell me what comes after the "gospel in a nutshell"? Can anyone tell me "the REST of the story"? The rest of the story seems to be forgotten in the shadow of John 3:16. My friends, it is "the REST of the story" that I would like to focus on this morning. What comes next? Please look in your bibles at John 3:17. It says, "for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." As I was thinking about this verse, the world "condemned" stood out. As I looked into it further, a different translation of that word from the Greek seemed to put a different meaning into my head. Let’s try this one, "for God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." Judge the world. This puts a whole new spin on the role of Jesus coming into our world. John is telling us that Jesus did not come to judge us. We had already been judged by God, our Father, and found to be guilty!!! And that "guilty" verdict carried with it the death sentence for each one of us. God’s law had condemned us to death because we had failed, miserably, to keep it. We had already been judged and found guilty. Can you picture God, your Father, sitting at the Judge’s Bench in the front of the courtroom declaring you guilty and sentencing you to death? It happened!! It happened to each one of us!! When sin entered into the world, you were declared "guilty" by God for all the sins that you would ever commit. You were sentenced to death.

But, then came Jesus and He changed everything. Our text says, "God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world" because the world had already been judged. He sent Jesus "in order that the world might be saved through Him." Jesus stood up for you!! Jesus stood between God the Father, the Judge of the world, and you; and said, "the sins of this child have been paid for." Your sins have been paid for. And in the most awesome, most booming voice imaginable God the Father said, "who chose to pay for these sins?" And in the humble voice of a servant Jesus said, "I did." And God looked at you, and He saw no sin. He saw no shame. He saw nothing but the heart of a sinner, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. And He saw the sacrifice that Jesus made for you. And He smiled. And He declared you "NOT GUILTY." That is why Jesus came to earth: to save you and to save me.

But, even that is not the whole story. Our text goes on to give us more of "the REST of the story." Verse

18 goes on, "whoever believes in Him is not judged, but whoever does not believe in Him is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." It says here that "faith" is the indicator of whether or not a person has been judged guilty: "whoever believes." Faith in the name of the only Son of God: faith in Jesus. Where does this faith come from? We know what the object of faith is, Jesus, but where do we get this kind of saving faith? It also comes from God. God gives us the faith necessary for salvation. Remember verse 17, "God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." God SENT His Son into the world. He did not leave anything to chance. He sent Jesus to save us so that He would be the object of our faith; faith, as it says, "in the name of the only Son of God." God knew that if He did not do it all for us, we would mess it up. So He left nothing to chance!! He sent Jesus to save you, so that your faith would be in Him and His salvation. God took care of it all, and He did it for you and for me.

WOW!! What an awesome God we have!! That He could love a bunch of knuckleheads like us that much!! And if the story ended there, we would have everything we needed to be saved by Him. But wait, there is still more. We still need to hear the "REST of the story." Jesus has been talking about "judgment" but He has not told us what He means by this. Verse 19 says, "and this is the judgment." Here it comes, don’t miss it: "this is the judgment: the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed." Jesus, the light of the world, came into the world and was rejected by the people of darkness because they LOVED the darkness and continued to live in their sins. They rejected Jesus and His gospel of salvation. When Jesus stood up to intervene between them and the Father, the Judge of the world, the people of darkness told Jesus to sit down. They did not need His help. And they faced the Judge alone!! And were condemned to death!! Their works were evil because they were based upon themselves and their merits. They were based upon what they could steal from this world. They were based upon everything that embraced the darkness, and did not want their deeds to be brought into the light where they could be examined for what they truly were: selfish and evil!! They were given the faith, and they turned their backs on it. They were given the light of salvation, and chose the darkness of death. That is the problem with the darkness. When you choose the darkness, you cannot find the light by yourself.

Here, finally, is the "REST of the story" for you and for me. Verse 21 says, "BUT (big but) whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." We are the ones who have been drawn to the light. We live in the light: which is Jesus. We have been judged and found "NOT GUILTY." We LOVE the light. We are not afraid to live in the light, and have our deeds shown in the light, because our deeds are based upon our faith in Jesus: who is the Light. We believe in the name of Jesus: the Son of God. We believe in the fact that His sacrifice for us has paid the price for our sins. We come to the Light because we know that it is there, and only there, that we can find the pardon and peace from our sins, which is promised to us in the saving gospel of Jesus. The Light chases away the darkness in our lives so that we have nothing but the Light. Our works, the fruits of our faith in Jesus, are exposed in the Light of Christ and shown to be beautiful. And when we share our light, our faith in Christ, with the people of darkness, the power of the gospel can chase the darkness from their lives too.

This is the text that has been chosen for Trinity Sunday. Does it seem a little "odd" to you that the "gospel in a nutshell" only directly names two of the three persons of the Trinity? Or, is it just me that finds that odd? Let’s look at it again, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." So, we have God the Father loving us so much that He sends His Son. We have Jesus being "given" by the Father as payment for our sins. But where is the Holy Spirit? For the answer to this question, we have to return to a question that was asked earlier: where does this faith come from? We know that it comes from God but how do we get it? And how is it strengthened so that we don’t fall back into the darkness? That is where the Holy Spirit enters the picture. Jesus is the object of our faith but the Holy Spirit is the One who strengthens it every day. He keeps us in the light. He is the One who chases the darkness from our souls so that we can live in the light. The Holy Spirit took up residence in your heart when you were baptized and He lives there. And He makes sure that you stay in the light. So, they are all present in this verse: this verse that is better known to us than most of the other verses in the Bible. All three Persons of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity, all there: so that we can live in the Light of the gospel message of Jesus Christ forever.

"And now you have the REST of the story, good day"

Amen.