JOHN152 - Should John 3:16 Be the Most Famous Verse In the Bible?

0:00Hey, Matt's daughter here. I just wanted to say that leaving a rating and review on this podcast really helps and we are grateful for you considering doing that. Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Today we're actually going to talk about John 316. We're going to start talking about John 316 as it pertains to a list that I went and did some research on. I don't, I mean, this is an imp... When I tell you what it is, it's an impossible to quantify Bible list that I've put together here. But yeah, I'm going to run a buy it. We'll see if it rings true for you. And I'm going to give you a little spoiler, a little hint here. John 316 is on this list. The list that I have assembled is Top 5 Most Famous Versus in the History of Christianity Before 1900 AD

1:10and the Top 5 Most Famous Versus in the History of Christianity After 1900 AD. Which one do you want to do first? I can't hear you at all. So I'm just going to pick one. We're going to do before 1900 AD. And my methodology here is trash. Like I googled some people's opinions on it. I sat and thought about it for a while. I thought about how Christianity was conveyed to people before 1900, before maybe even 1800, before the Reformation. So much of it would just be what was in an inscription or what would have been in the most repeated liturgies. So I don't know what I'm doing. I'm kind of making this up. And this is what I got for before 1900 AD. Most famous Bible passages. Number five, Genesis 1-1. Probably everybody knew that back in the day. Number four, John 1-1. And the reason I think that would be on there is because it's very memorable.

2:11It's at the beginning of either the first or second most famous gospel. It seems like John and Matthew were always back and forth for that title. And it is a formulation of, you know, it speaks to the nature of Christ. And that's a very important question throughout church history. So I think even your normal lay people would have had John 1-1. Luke 2-14 is the glory to God in the highest stuff, the glory in exceitious day. Oh, it would have been sung a lot. It would have been repeated a lot. It was part of the religious or part of the Christian calendar, not just in Advent season, but it would have come up at other points during the year. I think people would have known that one. And then Matthew 28, 19, the in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that would have been said, you know, over every baptism and tons of other things. So I think that one would have been really famous. And then finally, the most famous verse in the Bible before 1900 is maybe still the most famous verse in the Bible, even till now. I think even people

3:18who are not Christians or maybe once were and got discouraged or maybe trying to decide what to do with that. I think they even people who aren't Christians, just kind of the same way you can go on autopilot and you kind of know the Miranda, right? You have the right to remain silent. Anything you can, you just sort of know the words because they just flow together. I think Matthew 6 and the Lord's prayer works that way. If I start saying our Father who art in heaven, how would be that? Like you've got it. You can take it over from there. Even if you're like, I don't, I don't have any single Bible verse ever memorized. You might have that one. So that's before 1900. You'll notice John 316, which we're beginning to talk about today is not on that list. Probably, I think all did you all know what John 316 is? Maybe probably, right? I'm just going to read it because maybe it's a little bit inside baseball language. Not everybody in the conversation here thinks in terms of chapters and verses and all of that. Maybe you're new to it. John 316 goes, for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not

4:21perish but have eternal life. All right. Now here's my list for famous verses since 1900. I guess I'll tell you why I drew the line there after I give them to you. Okay. Here, I used stuff from publishing and search results and stuff like that. I mean, these lists, who knows if they're accurate, this is what I got. Romans 8, 28, all things work together for the good. Okay. Jeremiah 29, 11. I don't think this should be one of the five most popular verses since 1900, but I think it is for I know the plans I have for you. Says the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you. I don't think people are real locked in on what the context is there, but it's a popular one. Philippians 413, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Psalm 23 is what I have for number two, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I think in particular is one that people think about. And then number one, I would put John

5:24316 and maybe even though repeating the Lord's prayer in church isn't as popular as it used to be, I think it should be as popular as it used to be. It may be it's still popular enough that belongs right up there at number one with John 316, which of course, once again is the passage that we're looking at. For God's will of the world that he gave is one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Okay, I divided that by the way at 1900 because that's when you see a literacy, not illiteracy, literacy, go through the roof. It's when you see kind of popular Christian publishing in multi-medium, you get it writing, but then very quickly into radio, television, the internet, popular publishing magazines. I mean, there's this whole big push. And I do feel like a little bit market forces in that time skewed the popularity of certain

6:30verses in the Bible. Maybe a little bit away from stuff that proclaims the glory and character and power of God, which you'll notice is everything that was on the top five before 1900 in my mind. And it post 1900, those market forces, I think, they go a little bit, you know, lowest common denominator. And as a result, you'll notice that most of the verses on the more modern top five, I imagine to have a little bit more to do with God's blessing in your life, which is still true. And it is still Bible, but you know, make of it what you will. Either way, I think it's great that John 316 is one that is so popular at this point. Why was it not as popular before 1900? Well, let me read it to you again. Let's see what you think. 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.

7:31I think that particular verse was still popular, though less popular before 1918, I don't know where we want to put it, because its contents were assumed. There is a God. This God is loving. This God loves the broken world. This God loves the broken world so much that he sacrificed greatly to solve the problems of this broken world. And that sacrifice that God has made by sending his one and only son is a sacrifice that is efficacious for you, transformative for you when your faith is in that God. I think people just assumed a whole bunch of that stuff pre-1900. Yeah. Great. There it is. Maybe people didn't need that verse as much to lay it out. Yeah,

8:32there's a God. He's real. Jesus is God in the flesh, the Son of God, all God, all man. He came into the world and yeah, you believe in God. That's how life happens. Cool. I think after 1900, as the world starts to become smaller and ideas mingle and cross pollinate, maybe that becomes a little less obvious as you get into the age of sort of secular modernism, sort of a post-Christian society. I think at some point in there, it occurred to Christians. This is maybe a little bit overlooked bold proclamation of the work of God and through the work of Christ, his son, all God, all man. Maybe that's a little bit overlooked. Maybe we should push that right back to the forefront because man, John 316 is a really succinct articulation of kind of the whole plot of the Bible and how it applies to the individual who reads the Bible for God. Okay. So there's a God

9:36forever. He predates the world. He predates the problem. God is love. We'll talk about how John fleshes out that idea more next time around at the time after whenever. He loves the world that he made that fell so much that that he stuck with it. He didn't give up. Right. I mean, the early going of Genesis, you have God, he makes everything and then he makes people in his image and then sin enters into the world and with it death and suffering and entropy. And then you have this unmarked moment of choosing. They're in the very early going of Genesis where even though it doesn't show the moment where God's like, hold on, we got sin in the world now. Time out. Jesus, holy spirit. Come on over here. We're going to three and one this thing that I mean, the Trinity, it's the mystery. It's difficult. I don't really know how to do this scene where it's probably wise on the Bible. Let's this game this one out. What should we do here? Should we keep the world and fix it?

10:38Would that bring the most glory to me us? Or should we just wipe the whole thing out and start over? There's no scene like that because there wasn't a moment of choosing for God. God never learned anything. He's immutable. He's always known and is sovereign over all of it. He knew that creation would fall and he knew that he would choose to redeem it to bring glory to himself. Which if you were I do it is arrogance and foolishness because we're not that great. When God who is truth and who is being does it, it's the most gracious loving thing he could do because he's saying the ultimate truth proclaiming his own glory. So there's a moment of invisible choosing that happens outside of time in the early going of Genesis after the fall where God chooses to redeem. The world is broken. I'm going to redeem it anyway. Then then he does. That's what the rest of the plot of the Bible is.

11:41It goes all the way through to the New Testament where Jesus is the pivot point, the cornerstone, the climax of a whole thing. And then it cruises on to look toward future things in revelation. Revelation is often treated as bleak apocalypse but revelation really is the summary of all of the theology of the Bible and it's the conclusion of the story as this redemption is fully realized and God is victorious and his glory is known to all. It's a beautiful cohesive beginning to end story. And I think somewhere in maybe the 20th century, Christians figured out, dang, there might not be a better verse in the whole Bible that sums up exactly what the story of all of existence is the story of our world, the story of the the arc of each of us as human beings and what we need to do in response to it better than John 316. One verse right there.

12:45And so people started, you know, remember they used to put up signs and people would go get they'd buy seats behind the goal posts and football games. They'd hold them up and just say John 316. And a lot of times that would be it. Tim Tebow used to write John 316 on his eye black. Athlete, some particular really latched onto this. But also people would memorize it and to whatever degree of school would allow something kind of Christian to come in, John 316 would be like the if I can only communicate one thing to these kids, if I can only point them to one bit of writing, one Bible verse John 316 is where I'm going to point them. And so it could be tempting to say, all right, well, this is, you know, this is the most popular verse in the post Christian world, which is still a pretty new experiment. So it's a little cliche. And we get it. I'm, how much do we really need to talk about this one? But the truth is this verse is timeless and awesome. And whoever those people were who came before us who were like, hey, if we got a boil it all down to one thing

13:46and really point people to the true nature of God, the true story of humanity, God's redemptive impulse, the nature of Christ and the call upon our lives to respond to Christ as king and acknowledge him for what he is. This is the verse we want to look at. So John 316, like maybe just because of familiarity, we might treat it as a little bit cliche, but it ain't the next time around, we got to talk about what role this amazing proclamation of the Christian, the biblical understanding of the world and God and salvation next time around, we got to talk about what this amazing proclamation is doing here in the text. What is the flow of thought in what Jesus is saying, or I'm going to tease you a little bit, what is the flow of thought in what Jesus has already finished saying and that John the evangelist is now offering comment on, we'll pull on that thread more

14:46next time around. A map is the 10 minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.