Juan 3:16 || Victory Church

Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo, que ha dado a su hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que en él cree, no se pierda más tenga vida eterna. Juan 3.16 Sin duda, el verso más famoso, el verso que todo el mundo en mama conoce, al menos los de nuestra generación. Lo verás en carteles en las zonas de anotación de los partidos de fútbol americano. Lo verás en las biografías de la gente. En las redes sociales lo escucharás gritado por megáfonos en boca de evangelistas en las esquinas de las calles. La familia Bowie, de hecho, la semana pasada hicimos como nuestro viaje de despeje mental después de Pascua y nos fuimos a California. Y literalmente, lo primero, estoy hablando de que lo primerito que hicimos después de bajar del avión fue ir directo a In-N-Out. Porque ningún viaje a la costa oeste está completo hasta que te comes un Double Double Animal Style. Vamos, alguien. Si has probado y comprobado que el In-N-Out es bueno, ¿puedo escuchar un Aleluya? Muy bien. Pero si sabes cómo es, al final de esa comida, he aquí que Isaac voltea su vaso y ahí está escrito en el fondo del vaso, Juan 3.16. Así que la verdad es esta, que de tapa a tapa, desde Génesis hasta Apocalipsis, es la buena noticia de Dios. Todo es el Evangelio. Toda la Biblia es la buena noticia de Dios. Si tuviera que resumir todo el Evangelio en un solo versículo, sería, Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que en él cree no se pierda, sino que tenga vida eterna. Este fin de semana hablamos de esto. Damos la bienvenida a Victory Hamilton Mill, Victory Midtown, Victory North Cobb y a nuestra familia en línea. Estoy muy emocionado. El 9 de Agosto llega Victory a Hula. 9 de Agosto. Esperando ese momento. Y saben, oramos por esto ayer en la mañana. El Pastor Denise oró por esto, que aunque hoy estemos separados por la geografía y las autopistas, hoy nos estamos unificando alrededor de la Palabra de Dios. Estamos unidos específicamente en torno a Juan 3. Y Juan 3.16 ocurre en medio de esta conversación que Jesús tiene con este importante líder religioso. Líder religioso en Israel y su nombre es Nicodemo. Y comenzamos con esto la semana pasada.

Nicodemo viene a Jesús de noche, lo cual nos recuerda. Cuando leas a Juan, presta mucha atención a los detalles. Él es un escritor que sabe que estás leyendo lo que escribe e incluye pistas específicas para mostrarte lo que sucede. Así que cada vez que Juan menciona la noche, lo que está diciendo es que hay oscuridad, hay duda, hay miedo, hay incertidumbre. El enemigo está acechando justo a la vuelta de la esquina. Así que Nicodemo viene a Jesús de noche. Él está dudando, aunque es un líder religioso en Israel, demostrando que es posible ir a la iglesia y no conocer a Dios. Por mucho que me duela, puedo ir a un partido de los braves y eso no me convierte en jugador profesional de béisbol. Simplemente me convierte en un espectador de profesionales. La verdad es que algunos de nosotros vamos a la iglesia, pero no somos cristianos. Vemos a los cristianos hacer lo suyo. ¿Demasiado pronto en el sermón? Está bien, solo espera un momento. Así que Nicodemo viene a Jesús con algunas preguntas y me encanta esto. Jesús no lo rechaza, mostrándonos que está bien con tus preguntas. Así que quiero decirte eso hoy. Jesús acepta tus preguntas. No vas a herir los sentimientos de Jesús con tus preguntas. De hecho, el comienzo de la verdadera fe puede ser llevar las preguntas correctas a la persona correcta. Así que vamos, Generación Z, no le pregunten al chat. Vamos, millennials, no le pregunten a sus amigos ateos. Lleva tus preguntas reales a Jesús. Muy bien. Y de nuevo, uno de los temas que estamos viendo a lo largo de todo el libro de Juan es que Jesús está suplantando, está reemplazando el sistema antiguo. Me encanta. Juan 3 empieza con Nicodemo como maestro de Israel y termina con Jesús como maestro de Israel porque Jesús deja a Nicodemo boquiabierto con sus palabras. Enfoquémonos de nuevo, retomando donde quedamos la semana pasada en el versículo 12. Sé que ahora ven todo en rojo.

No combina bien con la paleta, pero lo hice para resaltar las letras rojas. Esas son las palabras de Jesús. Solo lo resalto por hoy. Ustedes, amantes del color, cálmense, ¿vale? Esto dijo Jesús. Nicodemo, te he hablado de cosas terrenales y no crees. ¿Cómo entonces vas a creer si te hablo de cosas celestiales? Nadie ha subido jamás al cielo excepto el que vino del cielo, el Hijo del Hombre. Y lo que Jesús está diciendo es, Nicodemo, te estoy volando la cabeza porque tú eres de abajo y yo soy de arriba y estoy trayendo cosas de arriba para ti. In other words, what I am teaching you today cannot be read in a book because I am bringing it from heaven directly to your ears. That is why your mind is being amazed. And then Jesus goes to the book of Numbers and here it is. Just as Moses raised the serpent in the desert, so too the Son of Man must be raised. Say, raised, so that whoever believes may have eternal life in Him. So Jesus returns to the book of Numbers where God judged, the serpents entered, they bit the people, and they made this bronze serpent into a rod. All who looked at the curse in the rod were healed. Jesus says, so I will take your curse. He speaks prophetically, I will be raised. When you look at the curse in the wood, you will be healed and set free. He says, I will be raised. I want to pause now and remind you, in each campus, that it is your duty to raise Jesus. That is the purpose of your life, to raise Jesus so that everyone believes, so that your friends, your family, your coworkers and neighbors can see the true Jesus. We are called to raise Jesus. Up there, in the book of Revelation, it says that the church is the candlestick. What is a candlestick for? It is to take the hidden light and put it in the sight where everyone can see it.

It is our job to raise the light, to show it and to shout it to a world that is looking. That is the job of every pastor, of every Christian and of every church. That is why, if you have ever been frustrated, why don't you have a simple thing? Because our job is to raise Jesus. We can make mistakes in many things, but we are going to get it right in one. We are going to raise Jesus. Why don't you have this other thing? We are going to raise Jesus. Why don't you start this mission? Because we are going to raise Jesus. And allow me to say this. I don't know how you got here today, but if you are part of a church, of another church that does not raise Jesus, that is not a church. It is a TED talk with some self-help and a cafeteria. Okay? Our job is to raise Jesus. If we stop exalting Jesus, we will stop being a church. It is my desire for us in our campuses. That when you leave, we may make mistakes in a thousand things, but we never fail in the fact that we are going to raise Jesus. That every time you leave, you leave more in love with Jesus than the day you entered. Okay? And that is how we finish verse 15. And then we move on to John 3.16. This is what happens. The reason why I put that in red letters above is because if you have a physical Bible or a Bible in red letters where the words of Jesus are in red, in some versions John 3.16 will be in red, and in other versions it will not be.

Okay, why is that? Well, if you really go back in time, the Greek Bible did not have quotation marks. So we really do not know when Jesus stopped speaking and when John began to speak as an author. Okay, so people smarter than me, theologians, the general consensus is that Jesus stops speaking in John 3.15, right where we finish, and John begins to speak in verse 3.16. Why is that important? Why does that even matter? Because I think John is giving information that Nicodemus did not have that night. John writes after being crucified, dead, and buried. On the third day, they remove the stone. He has ascended to heaven. John is seeing how the church explodes in growth and sits down to write. And in essence, if you can see it that way, John is shouting through the pages to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, would you open your eyes? Would you open your ears? God himself is 45 centimeters from your face. He is telling you the good news. Please, could you remove the cotton from your ears? Could you remove the scales from your eyes? Jesus himself, God in flesh, is right there. And he is giving us information that Nicodemus did not have that night. He did not have it that night, but John wants to make sure that we do have that information.

So what is the information that John wants to make sure that we know? John 3.16, because God loved him so much. The world that he gave to his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not be lost, but will have eternal life. Verse 17. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn him, but to save him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned. Already, because they have not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And ladies and gentlemen, this is the good news of the Gospel here in Victory. This is the good news of the Gospel. Evangelio. And while we begin to analyze John 3.16 in the next few minutes, I want to warn you about a temptation with which some of you are already beginning to deal here on campus. This is against what we have to fight today, okay? If you are like me and you grew up in the church. So you've been in the church for 300 years, you've heard Juan 3.16 at least mentioned 10,000 times, okay? And this is what each one of us has to fight if you are in that category. Don't let the good news of the Gospel become old and cold in your soul. This is against what we have to fight, okay? That Juan 3.16 is not only for beginners, it is also for veterans. It's for each one of us, right? The seminary professor said at the beginning of the series that Juan's book is sufficiently superficial for children to play and deep enough for elephants to swim. Whether you are a child or a veteran in faith, God has something valuable for you today. Taking a long time as a Christian doesn't mean you already understand Juan 3.16. I want the Holy Spirit to remind us of it today.

Remind us right now that the power of these words can still save your soul. That the power of these words can still rescue your marriage. The power of these words can still free you from captivity and addiction and infuse courage in your bones to evangelize a wounded, dying, and lost world. Juan 3.16, because in this way God loved the world. Let's analyze these great words starting right here in verse 16. Here you have it. Because God loved him so much. Everyone says he is loved. He loved that word so much. Well, let's start with, so. It's curious because I'm not an English literature student. I was very bad at English at school. Good luck to those of you who are bad at English. Now I write articles to live. That's what I do. So the word, so, is an adverb. I didn't know that. I had to look it up. So this is what it means. That so doesn't define the amount of love, but the type of love, the quality of love. This is what it means. That doesn't mean that God loved the world so much. It doesn't mean that. Okay? What it really means is that God loved the world this way. God loved the world this way. So how did God love? This way he loved. This way he loved.

How did God love the world? Pablo writes it differently. We should read it in John 3.16, but that's how Pablo says it. But God shows his love for us in this. God loved us this way. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Let's go. Someone? I'm glad to know that God didn't wait for me to fix my life. I'm glad that God didn't wait for me to go to church and dress well. I have to cover my tattoos and leave the rudeness. I just have to do everything right to fit in here in the south and be a good feligres. And he says, I can finally love you. No. God didn't wait for me to order. God didn't wait for me to love him first. I didn't start this. No. While they were your enemies. While they made fun of God, cursing and ridiculing other Christians. While they raised their fist to heaven. God loved them and died for you. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's how great God's love was. That's the kind of love that God has. That's how he did it. And now, here's the thing. God loved, loved, loved. Here's our problem, and now let's look at it for a minute. We live in a world that doesn't know what love is.

What is love? Honey, don't hurt me. Don't ever hurt me again. No, we don't know what love is. We live in a culture that equates love with approval. Love is affirmation. If you really love me, you will affirm what I do. If you really love me, you will approve my lifestyle. Right? Honestly, many people don't go to church because they see us as intolerants who decide who they should love. Love, right? How dare you? How dare you say, who can I love? And now comes the problem. To top it off, we use the word love for everything. So it doesn't mean anything, right? Love has degraded. It's worthless. You say, love, this is what I want to say. Let me tell you a secret. I love Mexican street corn. Yes? Yes, really. Last week, Summer and I went to a Mexican restaurant and ate corn. And it was delicious. I love it. I love it.

I love it. And I love Mexican street corn. I also love my wife. And some of you love the royal housewives of Atlanta. That's a completely different topic. We'll talk about that one day. And I love Jesus. And in that way, I love God and the world. The same, the same, the same, the same. God loves me. I love the world, like I love the Mexican street corn. No, right? We don't know it with just one word. Maybe English is your second language and in yours there are 50 words for love. Okay, wrong in English. We only have one word, but in the biblical Greek there were four to refer to love. Maybe you already know it, but let me explain it. So one of those words for love is eros. Okay, eros is romantic or sexual love. Clearly, that's where the word erotic comes from, right? So just, I mean, that, yes, that's enough, okay? You understand the point, right? The second is storge. Storge is family love. A father would have storge for his son, right? Fileo is what is called fraternal love. That's why Philadelphia is the city of fraternal love. Even if it's not, I mean, to be honest,

they're the worst sports fans. Okay, okay. And finally, agape. Agape. Agape, what I would consider the highest form of love. That's an act of unconditional and sacrificial love. It's the most common word in the whole New Testament to refer to God's love. It's the love of God that he gives us and that we are then called to share with the world. God loves us with agape, and that's why we give that agape to our friends and neighbors. What he's saying is that God's love is not passive. God's love is active. God's love is not passive, but it acts. God's love is sacrificial. It's active. It's something humiliating for the person themselves. They are totally willing to suffer damage for the loved one. What that means is that we shouldn't make fun of true love by bringing the eros. Here's the problem. Our culture confuses them and calls love lust. It's not love. It's lust. You don't love each other. You have sex with each other. Don't say that love is love.

Love is lust. They're just affections. Yes, of course. That's a sin. But don't defame love by calling sex love. No, that's eros. Those are chemicals in the brain. That's physical attraction. No, that's not agape. Agape goes much deeper than that. Agape is willing to bleed for the loved one. Most people shouldn't say they love each other. They just have sex with each other. Because true love, agape love, is a love that moves you to suffer for your loved one. Agape descends from the throne of heaven, leaves the place of perfection, denies itself, humiliates itself, lowers itself, wraps itself in a fragile and weak skin, walks on the earth it created to bleed and die for its enemies. That's love. That's love. And John writes it in 1 John 4, verse 9. He says, This is how God showed His love. This is how God loved us with agape. He sent His only Son into the world

so that we may live through Him. If you ask yourself what love is, this is agape. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son in sacrifice for our sins. Reminder, you did not do God favors. You did not start this. It's like saying, Jesus needs my love. No, no, no. Jesus did not need anything. You did not start anything. He loved you with agape so that you could love Him with agape. You did not start agape. He started agape and gave you agape so that you could love Him with agape. What is love? Love is not butterflies in the stomach. Love does not demand approval or affirmation. True love is to climb and bleed for your enemies. Love is to give life for those who make fun of you. Here is the problem. Humans evaluate love with brain chemicals. God does it with nails in His hands.

These are two very different things. And we can only know what love is because Jesus went to the cross for us. This is how you, if you have ever asked yourself what love is, point to the cross. What is love? Observe Jesus bleeding and suffocating, naked and deeply humiliated by His enemies. That, my dear friends, is true love. And let me add to this for a moment. I am better in every area of my life because I have received God's agape. I am a better husband thanks to God. I have received God's love. Let me make this real for a moment, okay? Why? Because the covenant itself is based on agape. Agape is an active, unconditional sacrificial love that bleeds. It is not eros. And let me tell you something for a moment. If you base your relationship or marriage on eros instead of agape,

be careful. Listen carefully. We always take a break for this announcement. If you are single, make sure that the person you will marry has really been born again. Because if not, he won't have the love to give you. And we have all these people trying to sign blank checks and there is no money in the account. How do I love you? Then prove it. I can't because I don't have the love of God to give you. If you marry someone without God's love, then he won't be able to give it to you and your marriage will be short, long, and miserable. So it's better to make sure that your relationship is bathed in God's love. So let God be praised for his love. God's great love, disinterested, unconditional, and sacrificial. God loved the world so much. Who did God love? Who did God give his love? I said it. There it is highlighted above, verse 16. God loved the world so much. Now John writes, Do not love the world. He is telling us that, so this is not contradictory. Here in John, when he says that God loved the world, he speaks of the ocean of lost and defiant people. Humanity, as in Psalm 1, says, Why do nations mutiny? Why do we shake our fists? We humans shake our fists towards heaven.

We curse God and turn our backs on him. That's what John is talking about. That is the world, the ocean of humanity, which without intervention, in reality, because of its sins, would suffer the divine judgment of God and go to hell. Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. God loved the world so much. Not the forms of the world, not the things of the world, not the sin of the world. God loved the people of the world. That's how God is. And guess what? That includes your neighbors who don't like you. That includes the other political party you don't like. That includes your family that is sitting next to you right now. In fact, God loves all those who don't like you. God loves. Listen carefully. You have never met a single person for whom Jesus has not died. That's right. Jesus died for those who have pronouns in his biography. Jesus died for those who lead a homosexual life and sin differently from you. Jesus died for those people you speak ill of on social media. Maybe you criticize Maga. Jesus died for them too. Or maybe you're a Maga and you're criticizing. Yes, Jesus died for those people too. God loves those who make fun of you for following Jesus because he loved the world so much. Every ethnic group is included.

I'm sorry, black Hebrews, white nationalists, and the rest. It's not skin color. It's not geographic lines on a map. Let's remember Galatians 3.28. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman, for they are all one in Christ Jesus. If they belong to Christ, they are the lineage of Abraham. You have been injected into the family of God. It doesn't matter your skin color, genealogy, or what's in your blood. What matters is who the blood is on your life. God is not black. God is not white. God is not American. And listen, I must say this. And I know we say it all the time. We offend everyone equally. If you offended today, don't worry. Next week you won't be there. And if you're not there today, you'll be there. Don't worry. I say this. We live in a nation of America first. The problem is that America first soon becomes America alone. And that's anti-gospel. And that's against what we have to fight. God's love is not a purely American or selfish question. What I'm saying is that God loves our brothers in Nigeria who are martyred right now for their faith. God loves the Kenyans. God loves the North Koreans.

God loves the Chinese. God loves the Russians. God loves the Iranians. In fact, there's a stronger God-loving movement in Iran than in the United States right now. God loves the Israelis. God loves those from Gaza. God loves profoundly the South Africans, the Italians, and each and every one of the people because God loved the world a lot. God loved the world so much, dear friends. God loved the breeze. This is what it also means. Listen to me. This means that God loves you. You. It's not just for others. It's also for you. Quizás esto sorprenda a algunos. El valor de algo lo determina lo que se esté dispuesto a pagar por ello. Es economía básica. Como cuando oyes que una obra de arte se vendió por 50 millones de dólares y tú piensas, ¿qué es eso? Es como un lienzo blanco con un punto negro. Eres como... Porque alguien vio valor en eso que tú no. Así que vaciaron su cuenta para pagarla. Buenas noticias. Tienes un valor inmenso. Porque no fuiste comprado con la sangre de toros y cabras,

fuiste comprado con la preciosa sangre de Jesucristo mismo. No por nada que hayas hecho, sino porque Dios te hizo digno. Y tres generaciones, acabo de remontarme a tres generaciones de padres de la iglesia que hablaron sobre esto. Agustín, en el siglo V, dijo, Dios ama a cada uno como al único. Si fueses el único en la tierra, Jesús vendría por ti. Martín Lutero dijo, Dios no nos ama porque seamos valiosos. Somos valiosos porque Dios nos ama. Tocer dijo esto hace décadas. El valor de una persona se revela por lo que Dios pagó para redimirla. Son amados como si fuesen únicos en la tierra. Eres digno por el rey. El padre te consideró digno de la sangre de su hijo. Así que dejemos de lado toda esa basura innecesaria de hablar mal de uno mismo y de repetir que no valemos nada. Chicos, hoy eso se termina. El autodaño se termina. No eres una persona sin valor. Eres valioso. Tienes un valor incalculable. El padre sonríe cuando piensa en ti. Él se regocija por ti con gritos de alegría. Sus pensamientos hacia ti son más numerosos que la arena del mar. Aún los cabellos de tu cabeza están contados. Incluso si eres calvo, Dios sabe cómo funciona. Y antes de que vivieras un solo día, todos tus días ya estaban escritos por el padre que ama al amado. Fuiste amado. Valías la pena.

Eras valioso. Dios amó tanto al mundo, lo que significa que Dios también te ama a ti. Siguiente pregunta. ¿Cuánto te ama Dios? Aquí está. Dios amó tanto al mundo que Él dio a su único llamado. ¿Podemos decir eso? Único llamado. Una vez más. Entregar a su único hijo. Eso es lo que llamamos amor agape. Amor en acción. El amor desinteresado y sacrificial de Dios derramándose por sus enemigos. El padre envió al hijo, en esencia, en una misión de solo ida. Para venir y morir por las personas que odiaban al padre. Y he estado luchando con eso. He estado pidiendo, Dios, dame entendimiento. Dios, ayúdame a entender cómo se siente eso. Porque, escuchen, ¿cómo podríamos entender ese tipo de amor? ¿Cómo podríamos comprender ese tipo de sacrificio? Llevo lidiando con esto toda la semana. Y quiero presentarte, si no lo conoces, un término teológico que es una de mis hermenéuticas favoritas. La hermenéutica es una forma de interpretar la Biblia. Una de mis favoritas es el principio de la primera mención. Este principio dice lo siguiente. Para entender a fondo una palabra, debemos retroceder y buscar su primera aparición en las Escrituras. Comprender esa primera mención define y da matiz a cada mención posterior en la Biblia. Esta es la idea del principio de la primera mención.

Al buscar la primera vez que la palabra amor está en la Biblia, eso influye hasta Juan 3.16. ¿Me siguen? Aquí está la pregunta. ¿Cuándo es la primera vez que se menciona el amor en la Biblia? ¡Buen ejercicio! Porque esa primera mención marca toda la diferencia y define Juan 3.16 para nosotros. ¿Cuándo aparece por primera vez el amor en las Escrituras? Tiene que ser en el primer capítulo. Vamos, porque Dios es amor. Juan dice eso. Debe ser el primer capítulo, ¿no? En Génesis 1, no, no está ahí. ¿Está en los siete días de la creación? No, no, no. ¿Son Adán y Eva? No. ¿Noé y el diluvio? No. ¿Es Babel? No, no. ¿Cain y Abel? No. ¿Está en Génesis 1? Génesis 5. ¿Las 10? ¿Las 15? ¿Son 20? No. Vamos, ¿cuánto tiempo más para que digas la palabra amor, Dios?

Entonces llegamos a Génesis 22. Es la primera vez que se menciona la palabra amor. Cuando encontramos a un hombre llamado Abraham, al hombre a quien Dios le había prometido que tendría por fin su propio hijo. Y así transcurrieron 25 años desde aquel momento de la promesa hasta que finalmente nació el hijo, cuando Abraham tenía 100 años de edad. Aún más impresionante. Sara was 90 years old at the time. He just had to do the fun part. I'm sorry. But then came the long-awaited day when Isaac was born, and they held God's promise in their arms. And if you're a father, you know how that feels. In fact, it was easier in the other services, but Jeremias is here right now. I remember that. I still remember that eternal wait. I remember the emotion. I remember the promise, delayed but not denied. Let's go. I still remember that pregnancy test. I remember how it grew in the womb. And I remember Summer saying, Hey, I hear it moving. Being the father, I didn't feel anything, but in the end, I could feel his little kicks. The birth, the labor of birth, yes. But finally, having him in my arms.

No one ever taught me this. No one ever said, Hey, Johnson, make sure you feel this way. But I tell you, guys, I'll be 21 soon, very soon. 21 years ago, I remember holding a little boy in my arms for a second. And the first thing I tell you, word for word, my thought was, I would jump in front of a bus for this boy. No one taught me that. I didn't have that emotion 10 seconds before. This new dimension, this thing unlocked inside me because that's how it is, simply. He's my son, my only son. I've been holding him in my arms for 21 years. And seeing him grow, seeing him walk and speak, being the pride of my life. Genesis 1, verse 22. Some time later, God put Abraham to the test. He said, Abraham, here I am. Abraham replied. Then God said, Take your son, your only son, whom you... It's the first time that the word love

is mentioned in the whole Bible. Isaac. Go to the region of Moriah and sacrifice him there like a holocaust in a mountain. I'll show you. The first time that the word love is mentioned in the whole Bible is connected to a father taking his son, his only son, and sacrificing him. Do you realize that language? God loved the world so much that he gave his only son. And I've been trying all week and I can barely scratch the surface. But I've been trying to imagine how Abraham would have felt. God is my son. He's my son. I waited 25 years for this child. This is God's promise about my life. I can only imagine the confusion and anguish. God, what are you doing? I'm confused and I'm trying to process it all. That's why he's called the Father of Faith. He wakes up the next day. He gets going. For me, this could be wrong. It's not a great act at that moment. He thinks, if I wait 10 minutes, I'll regret it.

I should start moving. I should just start moving. He tells us from the beginning. It was a test. Abraham didn't know it was a test. It's a test for us, but Abraham ignores it. He just obeys and leaves. We see this at the foot of Moriah. They put firewood on Isaac's back for the sacrifice. And they just go up the hill, walking. And no matter what happens, the next events and details of the story, Isaac is tied up. Abraham takes the knife. And when he raises it in the air, an angel intervenes in the middle of everything and says, Abraham, don't do it. It was just a test. We knew it was a test. Abraham didn't know it was a test. By the way, God will never tell you to kill your children. It's a legal warning. But the idea is that Abraham probably knew that this was God. He is all-powerful. If Isaac dies, God will resurrect him. He will fulfill his promise to this child. He will find the way. God will make it happen. When the angel says, don't do it, Abraham looks and sees a lamb caught by the horns in the weeds. Then Abraham unties Isaac,

takes him off the altar, takes the lamb, puts him on the altar, and sacrifices him instead of his son, Isaac. This is the first time we see the word love in the Bible. It's a father sacrificing his son, his only son, the one he loves. And this is Jesus. Just as the firewood was laid on Isaac's back to carry the hill up for the sacrifice, Jesus carried the cross on his back to the hill of Golgotha. And just as the head of the lamb was caught in the weeds, the head of Jesus was wrapped in a crown of thorns. And just as the lamb was sacrificed so that Isaac could live, Jesus, the Lamb of God, immolated by the sins of the world, was sacrificed so that we could live. We were taken away from the altar. Jesus went to the altar. He received what was ours so that we could receive what was His. He took away our shame. He took away our sin. He accepted our condemnation. He took away our life. He accepted our humiliation. He took away every thought and perverse fantasy that you may have had and died for it. He exhaled His last breath so that we could receive His justice, His holiness, His perfection, His filiation, and His relationship with the Father. Cease. Louis calls it the intolerable praise.

Who am I? Who am I to receive that? Who am I to obtain that? I am dust. And then, just as Abraham waited and prayed for the resurrection, on the third day, the stone moves away and Jesus resurrects and breathes the breath of life, overcoming sin, hell, death, and the tomb. Because in such a way, God loved the world that He gave, gave, gave, gave, gave even His only Son. Praise God. That is Agape. That is Agape. I believe God wants us to feel what Abraham felt for just a moment. He felt the pain, the impact, and the horror. Again, I have been struggling with this this week. I have been searching in my soul, saying, God, under what circumstances, under what condition would I do that sometime with my Son? Under what condition could I tie Him up and lift the knife? And there is none. Listen, any father out there knows that first they would nail the dagger to their own heart before something like this happened to their own son. And I believe God is inviting us to experience that impact, that horror, so that we can begin to understand, even if it is a little, how miserable our sin is. What is the condition of humanity? How serious is the condition of humanity for God to really send Jesus on that mission? The mission that I would never do, I would never send my son to that,

but how great is the love of the Father that He would do that for us, and then He is inviting us to that place, so that this well of gratitude simply sprouts, and we can say, God, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. What kind of love is this, that a father would sacrifice his only son so that I could live? Therefore, forever, we must bring down these perverse lies against the Father, against Christ, against the Gospel, and against Christianity. These are the good news. God is not your enemy. Jesus did not come to condemn you. In fact, sending Jesus was the greatest act of love of the Father. Why? The verse 17 says it. Because God did not send His Son to the world to condemn the world, but so that the world would be saved by Him. The one who believes in Him is not condemned, but the one who does not believe is already condemned for not having believed in the name of the Son of God. Jesus did not come to condemn you. Jesus came because you were already condemned. We have to put the facts in the right order. Not believing in Jesus did not make you an enemy of God. You were already an enemy of God, and Jesus came to make you a friend of God. We have to understand this correctly. Jesus did not come to condemn you. Jesus came because you were already condemned. Jesus came to save you. Therefore, to reject Jesus is to reject your only salvation. This shows us that Christianity is not one of a hundred paths to God. Everyone says that everyone chooses their own menu of salvation.

If you want meditation, Islam, or the witnesses of Jehovah, that's fine. I'll take care of it. There is only one option in this menu. It's called Jesus. It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. We are all condemned. There is no way to save ourselves. And Jesus is the only way to be saved from judgment. And I know, listen, I know, that sounds exclusive. I know that sounds closed-minded. In this culture they say, how dare you? Okay, I'm the opposite of being closed-minded. I'm the opposite of that. Do you want me to tell you how inclusive I am? I'm so inclusive that I believe you. An adulterer, idolater, murderer, thief, blasphemer can inherit everything. of the kingdom of God. That's how inclusive I am. I'm so inclusive that I think it doesn't even matter what you've done. If you repent of your sin and you have faith in Christ, you can be saved. It doesn't matter your lineage, where you grew up, your country, what language you speak, your skin color, or your income. So what matters is you have faith in Christ and only in Christ. And I think that's why you can present yourself before the Father, clean, holy, and just. But there's only one way to do it.

Acts 4.12, here it is. Salvation is not found in anyone else because there is no other name. Thank God for the name. There is only one name under heaven, given to humanity, for which we must be saved. There is only one name that saves us, and what is that name? Jesus. Look, friends, many people misinterpret Christianity. They believe it to be exclusive and hateful. They see it as intolerant. Only one way to heaven? I'll answer this. Wait, wait a second. Is there a way to heaven? Wait, wait, wait. Is there a way to heaven? Because, listen, friends, God should not offer a way. He is just and perfect in his judgment to send us all to hell. We all deserve hell. The first time you sin, he could simply say, burn and stay away from me. I don't want to see you. You make fun of me? I'll always make fun of you in hell. You turn your back on me?

Me too. He didn't have to offer a way, but he did. We all sin, and we are removed from the glory of God. We deserve judgment, but God opened a way. Imagine that you are on a great journey, and the cruiser crosses the ocean, right? And then the boat sinks. And you are left there, in the middle of the ocean, open and deep. And suddenly, your strength starts to fail. Who? Take one. Very good. And just when your strength is failing, you see something appear, and you raise your head. And it's a lifeguard. And you look up, and it's a boat. And they see you and say, I saw you pass. I saw you drowning. Take the lifeguard. And you look at them and say, just one way? There is only one way to be saved.

By taking that path, you can return to the port, you can accept your judgment. Dead. No, what would you say? Thank you very much. Really, holding on and holding on with a lot of strength. You gave me a way out. And a way to be saved, finally, completely. You didn't have to do it, but in my last moment, you gave me an opportunity to save myself. And that's what the Father did with us in Jesus. And I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you a story. And now, what is our job? To believe. That all who believe will not perish, but will inherit eternal life. Our job is to believe. And that word, I'm going to stop in it for just a second. That word, to believe, is really important. In Greek, it's pisteo. Pisteo means to know, to consider true, to put your faith in something,

to trust fully. Again, the English have a problem with the word believe. Our word believe refers to facts. For example, I believe that one plus one is two. That's not what this means with Jesus. Today, there's an epidemic in the church of something called intellectual ascension, which means that I believe many correct facts about Jesus. So therefore, I think I was born again and I'm a Christian and I'm saved. That's a problem, friends, because historians believe many facts about Jesus. Poncio Pilato believed many facts about Jesus. Do you know who probably believes the most facts about Jesus? The demons. The demons believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They also believe that people can be born again and be saved by faith. Spoiler alert. There are no demons in heaven. Why? Because they don't trust. They don't put their faith, they don't put their life, their existence in their hands. They turn their backs on them even though they know the correct truth. And what God is calling us to do today

is to go beyond the intellectual ascent towards the saving faith. The saving faith is deception. In a very real sense, when you entered any of the campuses today, when you sat in your chair, you didn't think, they've already deceived me before, right? No, it's as if you had suddenly appeared. What did you do? You gave that thing a beating. You said that if I deposited the weight of my life in this, it would give me strength. Every time you get on a plane, you step on the plane and what you're saying is, I think this will keep its promise and that it can take me where it says it will take me safely all the way. And that's what we're doing. llamados a hacer con Jesús. Estamos llamados a confiar no sólo a creer en algunos hechos sino a poner el peso de nuestra vida en la cruz. En Jesús subirme a su espalda mientras cruza la cuerda floja sobre las cataratas del Niágara del pecado creyendo que realmente puede llevarme al otro lado. No confío en las frágiles maderas a la deriva en las que otros confían porque todas se están hundiendo. Sólo hay una forma de ser salvo y confío en ese único nombre. Hay un solo nombre bajo el cielo dado a los hombres para salvación y es el nombre de Jesús. Y se nos invita y da la bienvenida a poner todo el peso de nuestro pasado, nuestro presente y nuestro futuro en sus manos. Y les imploro que aquel que confía en Jesús jamás será avergonzado. Hoy tenemos una invitación. Es más grande que el océano de pecado donde la

gente se ahoga para aferrarse a este gran salvavidas del alma y apisteo. No sólo creer en hechos sino poner el peso de nuestra vida y luego confiar, obedecer y seguir por el resto de nuestra vida. Sólo hay un nombre, el nombre de Jesús. Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo que dio a su único hijo. Quien crea en él no perecerá sino que tendrá vida eterna. Y ahora vamos a dar un paso en esa dirección juntos como familia y vamos a recibir la cena del Señor juntos. Así que en todos nuestros campus si estás a la derecha del pasillo toma el balde y pásalo hacia abajo y hoy si eres un seguidor de Cristo o das un paso de fe te invitamos a participar en la comunión con nosotros. Esto es lo que sucede en esa última noche antes de que Jesús fuera a la cruz. Reunió a sus amigos, sus discípulos para la cena de la Pascua. Tomó el pan, lo partió, tomó la copa, la sirvió y le dio un nuevo significado haciéndola acerca de él. Así que realmente una de mis cosas favoritas es hacer todo esto con ustedes. Para que los otros campus entiendan tenemos un salón grande aquí en Norcross esperaremos a que la familia sea servida para tomar la comunión juntos. Mientras esperas puedes ir sacando el pan. Ahora los invito a que nos unamos todos en una sincera oración con mucha fe. Padre hemos escuchado tu palabra y te doy gracias por amarnos con agape no sólo con palabras sino amándonos con la cruz y con tu hijo único a quien amas nosotros éramos los condenados nosotros éramos los atados en el altar del pecado a punto de morir pero tú abriste un camino y Jesús tomó nuestro lugar para recibir el castigo que debió haber sido nuestro y gracias Dios porque ahora hay una manera de ser salvos hay un camino ese es el camino esa es la verdad y la vida y su nombre es Jesús así que ahora mismo Espíritu Santo te invito a despertar nuestras almas si aún estamos dormidos que esto no sea algo viejo y frío que sea real vívido vivo apasionado que respire cálido en nuestra alma así que tomemos este respiro ahora mismo padre te doy gracias por el

cuerpo quebrantado de Jesucristo que permitió que azotaran su espalda él permitió que le arrancaran la barba él permitió que le golpearan el rostro y por sus heridas somos sanados así que ahora mismo Dios declaró Shalom sobre esta familia si hoy tenemos angustia mental que haya Shalom la paz de Dios paz de Dios a tu corazón si hoy tienes el corazón roto sé sanado en el nombre de Jesús si tienes quebranto en tu cuerpo sé sanado en el nombre de Jesús ahora Dios recibimos este pan en memoria de Jesús tomemos el pan Jesús tomó la copa y luego la sirvió esta copa es el nuevo pacto la promesa de Dios para justificarnos ante él somos hechos justos porque Dios amó tanto al mundo entregó a su hijo cuya sangre derramó por nosotros si hoy confías en Jesús y te aferras a Cristo entregándole tu vida por primera vez o regresando a casa quiero orar contigo al recibir esta copa la señal de tu entrega total, bien pero primero vamos a orar juntos en todos nuestros campos y por eso no repetirán después de mí y de toda mi familia que Dios va a orar con ustedes, oremos dile a Dios que creo no solo con la cabeza sino con toda mi vida que pongo todo mi ser en las manos de Jesús, me arrepiento y me aparto de mi pecado y recibo tu gran amor acepta por favor tu sacrificio en expiación de mis pecados gracias por no serlo condenado y ahora mismo soy perdonado y me encuentro vivo por siempre jamás viviré para ti por el resto de mi vida y dedicaré mi vida a contarle a otros las buenas noticias sobre quién eres doy muchas gracias porque hay un nombre poderoso que me salva y ese nombre es Jesús padre gracias por la nueva vida hoy recibimos esta copa algunos por primera vez recibes la sangre de Jesucristo para lavarte y purificarte tomamos esta copa en su memoria amén amén si estás en la derecha del pasillo una vez que gires pasa ese pequeño cubo de adelante puedes colocar ahí el elemento de la comunión

oye mientras hacemos eso si puedes porque no te pones de pie vamos a dar un paso más y vamos a volver a cantar una canción que ya cantamos juntos antes se trata simplemente del nombre de Jesús no se me ocurre una acción más apropiada en este momento que juntos decir gracias Jesús porque hay un camino hay el camino y sólo hay un nombre vamos hay un solo nombre el nombre que está por encima de todo nombre el nombre ante el cual gracias por ser parte de victory church en la aplicación pando esperamos que este contenido haya sido de bendición para ti pero queremos que sepas que aún no has terminado porque queremos escucharte así que mándanos una carta y cuéntanos cosas como lo que dios está haciendo en tu vida como podemos orar por ti o incluso que contenido te gustaría que creáramos en el futuro sólo queremos que sepas que te vemos eres importante para nosotros y nos encantaría seguir creando cosas en el futuro que te bendigan así que mándanos una carta y esperamos saber de ti pronto