Children’s Message, Sunday, March 22, 2009, The Gospel in a Nutshell—John 3:16

OK, here is a Bible quiz for you—What are the first four books of the New Testament? Those first four books have a special name when they are looked at all together—they are called the Gospels. The Gospel according to: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In Sunday School, you are studying the Gospel of Mark right now. In worship today, we will be hearing from the Gospel of John.

The gospels are the place where we hear the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The Old Testament, which comes before the Gospels, tells of God’s people before the Messiah came. The rest of the New Testament after the gospels is made up mostly of letters about the early church and the spreading of Christianity. So the Gospels are where we really hear about and get to know Jesus. In our pew Bibles, the gospels take up about 115 pages. Do you think you could memorize all of that? I know I couldn’t. What if I told you that instead of memorizing the whole of the Gospels, I could teach you “the Gospel in a nutshell”? How about just 27 words??

OK, repeat after me--
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.
Those words are chapter 3, verse 16 of John’s gospel. They are perhaps the most well known verses of scripture. Sometimes, that one verse is called, “the Gospel in a nutshell” because if you remember that—that God loved us enough to give his only Son. . . that we should believe in him. . . that when we do, eternal life in heaven can be ours. . .you’ve got a pretty good idea about what Jesus life, death and resurrection was all about.

Let’s pray:
We thank you God for your love
And for giving your son Jesus
That we might believe
And have eternal life. Amen.