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Cool Coincidence in 3:16 numbering with Guest Jay Johnson

Most of us can quote John 3:16 from memory. It is one of those verses you see everywhere: at sporting events, on signs, on banners, on bumper stickers. Those numbers, 3:16, have become synonymous with Christianity. But do you realize there are some hidden treasures in other 3:16 verses?

The Bible was originally written without chapter and verse divisions. Those divisions are later human inventions, added to make finding passages easier. Yet while studying some of the 3:16 passages in the New Testament, a remarkable pattern appears. The 3:16 verses paint a beautiful portrait of the life of a believer. Together they reveal who Jesus is, what God wants to do in your life, how you are to live, and what happens when you ignore God.

These spiritual diamonds are sprinkled all throughout the Word of God, and they are all marked with that same 3:16 address. We can only scratch the surface, but we will walk through four truths found in some of these verses and discover that God has given us far more than famous verses. He has given us the 3:16 road map for life.

1. The Savior We Need

The most important thing the 3:16 verses show us is the Savior we need.

God So Loved the World (John 3:16-17)

We begin with the most famous 3:16 verse, John 3:16, and we include verse 17 to help with the context.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

"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." (John 3:17)

Even though every one of us has rebelled against God and sinned against God, God still loves us with an everlasting love. Through Jesus, He has provided a way for us to be saved from the penalty of sin, which is eternal separation from God in hell. Verse 17 tells us the reason God sent His Son: not to condemn us, but to deliver us from eternal, everlasting torment in hell.

God created every single one of us in His image and likeness, and His greatest desire is that you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, His Son, and follow after Him. When you believe in the sufficiency of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, and you choose to follow Him, God promises you will receive eternal life. God is not a man that He could lie (Numbers 23:19). God always keeps His word, and every word that He says is true. In the book of 2 Peter, it says that it is not God's will that any should perish, but that God wants everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Saving faith begins and ends with Jesus, the Savior we need.

The Cross Was a Deliberate Act of Love (1 John 3:16)

Jesus spoke the words of John 3:16 to Nicodemus, and they were recorded by John the Apostle in his Gospel. But in addition to the Gospel of John, John also recorded three little epistles in the back of the Bible: 1, 2, and 3 John. You know John 3:16, but do you know 1 John 3:16? It tells us that we understand Jesus' love for us by what He did for us.

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." (1 John 3:16)

Jesus is the Good Shepherd because He lays down His life for the sheep. Remember what He said: "I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (John 10:17-18).

The cross was not an accident. The cross was not an occupational hazard, as some Bible teachers have put it. Jesus was not a martyr and He was not a helpless victim. He said, "No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord." The cross was a deliberate act of love, and that was always God's plan. Even before man sinned, God had planned this from before the beginning. As Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, Jesus' death on the cross was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). Jesus chose the nails. Jesus chose the suffering. Jesus chose the cross. As John says in 1 John 3:16, this is how we know what true love is: that Jesus laid down His life for us.

Over in the book of Romans, we are told that very few people would die to save the life of somebody else, even if that somebody is a good person. But Jesus Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and this is how God proved His love for us (Romans 5:7-8).

Saving faith begins and ends with Jesus, the Savior we need.

Who Is Jesus? (1 Timothy 3:16)

In Paul's letter to his young protégé Timothy, he summarizes the gospel: the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus back to heaven.

"Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory." (1 Timothy 3:16)

These are just a few verses that answer the most important question in life: Who is Jesus? He is God's Son. He is the promised Messiah. He is the Savior of the world. He is the perfect sacrifice for sin. He is the risen and exalted Lord.

The Jigsaw Puzzle

Some of you like to put together jigsaw puzzles. Imagine you have a 1,000-piece puzzle with no picture on the box. Every piece seems unrelated until you start putting them together. You start with the corners, then find a few matching colors, and suddenly a face emerges. These seemingly various 3:16 passages are like jigsaw puzzle pieces. You put them together and a face emerges, and that face is Jesus Christ.

So here are three questions to consider:

• Have you repented of your sin and received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
• Are you depending on Him alone for salvation?
• If so, does your life reflect gratitude for His sacrifice?

Christianity is not about following a list of rules and regulations. Christianity is about developing an intimate, personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The Spirit Who Empowers

Once you understand who Jesus is, and your need for Him as a Savior, the next question becomes: what does He want to do in your life? The 3:16 verses tell us about the Spirit who empowers.

The Holy Spirit Lives in You

When you repent of your sins and choose to follow Jesus, something miraculous happens inside of you. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, comes to live inside of you. The old-timers called Him the Holy Ghost, and that is what the King James Version says. Modern translations refer to Him as the Holy Spirit. He is called by many names in Scripture: the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Spirit of life, the Helper, the Spirit of God, the Witness, the Teacher, the Counselor, the Spirit of Christ, the Intercessor, and the Spirit of truth.

The Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates you once you get saved. He renews your mind. He empowers you. He enlightens you. And He encourages you when He indwells you.

Baptized With the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16)

John the Baptist, talking about Jesus, said that Jesus was going to baptize with the Holy Spirit.

"I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." (Luke 3:16)

People have all kinds of weird ideas about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some think you have to tarry for the Holy Spirit. Others think you are supposed to have some manifestation, such as speaking in tongues or some gibberish, or other signs and wonders. To make it plain: the baptism of the Holy Spirit simply means that you have received the Holy Spirit and now you are a member of the global body of Christ. That is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, plain and simple. You are not going to start gyrating and falling out in the aisles when you receive the Holy Spirit. You might, but that is between you and God.

You Are God's Temple (1 Corinthians 3:16)

"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16)

In the Old Testament, they had the temple, and that was where the Shekinah glory dwelt. The presence of God was there in the temple. Today, there is no temple for the presence of God to dwell in. Why? Because you are God's temple. If you are saved, your body is the temple of God, and His temple is holy.

Power to Resist and Endure

You have the Spirit within you, and the Holy Spirit gives you the power to resist the devil. Scripture says that if you resist him, he will flee from you (James 4:7). The problem is that we do not resist him enough. The knowledge and awareness of the Spirit's presence enables you to endure temptation. As 1 Corinthians 10 says, with every temptation God provides a way of escape so that you can bear up under it (1 Corinthians 10:13). When you are tempted, do you look for that door of escape and try to get out of it, or do you just give in easily? Greater is He who is within you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). You have the power of God living within you.

Jesus did not save you just to forgive you and give you a get-out-of-hell-free card. He gave you His Spirit to transform you. God wants you to be transformed into the image of His Son, and He wants you to be strengthened with power from within.

Strengthened With Power (Ephesians 3:16)

That is what Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus.

"That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being." (Ephesians 3:16)

Too many people try to make it on their own. Too many Christians try to live for Jesus through sheer willpower, grit, and determination. That is not what God intended for you. One of the reasons He gave you the Holy Spirit was to supply you with divine power. Why not use the power that is within you? God is able, through His mighty power at work within you, to accomplish infinitely more than you might ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

The Holy Spirit empowers you. The Holy Spirit enlightens you, so that when you come to the Word of God and read it, you can understand it. The Holy Spirit encourages you when you are discouraged. The Holy Spirit strengthens you, and He gives you wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

So ask yourself: am I trying to serve God by sheer willpower and determination, or am I relying on the Holy Spirit every day? Is there evidence of spiritual growth in my life? You ought to be able to look back a year ago, or five years ago, and see some spiritual progress. If you are a child of God, you ought to start resembling your Father. There ought to be some family resemblance. When Jesus saves you and the Holy Spirit transforms you, that transformation should become visible in your everyday life.

3. The Scriptures That Guide

In addition to the power of the Holy Spirit, you need the Holy Scriptures to guide you.

Be in the Word of God

If you are saved, you need to be in the Word of God. As Job said, he treasured the words of God's mouth more than his necessary food (Job 23:12). The Word of God is more necessary than your physical food. Imagine fasting for seven days. You would be pretty weak. Yet some people go all week without reading their Bible.

Don't just read it. Study it, meditate on it, and memorize it. You may say, "I can't memorize Scripture." You know the words of your favorite song, don't you? Let's be real. Or perhaps you say, "I don't like to read." No problem. There are websites and Bible apps that will read to you. You can listen on the go, while you are driving to work or wherever you are going. We have no excuse for not being in the Word of God in 2026.

All Scripture Is God-Breathed (2 Timothy 3:16)

You might be thinking, why do I need to read the Bible? What purpose does it serve? The Bible has the answers for life. No matter what situation you are in, the Bible has the answers for your life. Here is what the Word of God has to say about the Word of God:

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God or the woman of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

All Scripture is breathed out by God. The Greek word for "breathed out" is theopneustos, God-breathed. We do not know exactly how it happened, but Peter tells us that God moved holy men to write down exactly what He wanted them to write (2 Peter 1:21). That is why it says all Scripture is breathed out by God. It is not just something man came up with by himself. It is the Word of God.

Why do you need it? Because it is profitable. What is it profitable for?

• Teaching. It teaches you what you need to know. It will teach you how to be saved, how to grow, and what not to do.
• Reproof. It will show you what you are doing wrong.
• Correction. It does not just leave you there. It will correct you.
• Training in righteousness. God wants you to be righteous and holy, so He has given you the Word of God so that you, the man of God or the woman of God, can be complete. That means mature. God wants you to be mature and equipped for every good work.

Renewing Your Mind (Romans 12:2, Colossians 3:16)

Before you came to Christ, you filled your mind with all kinds of worthless junk. Let's be real. Today, we live in a world that is filled with voices: voices of temptation, voices of fear, voices of doubt, voices of false religion. And there are voices out there that are lying to you. That is why the Word of God commands, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2). You will be transformed, and your mind will be renewed, by filling it with the Word of God.

Paul encouraged the Colossians in the same way.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16)

What do you fill your mind with? Think about a wet sponge. When you squeeze that sponge, water comes out because it is full of water. What do you fill your mind with? When you are squeezed, what comes out of you? The only way for you to be transformed and have your mind renewed is through a regular heap and helping of the Word of God.

From Milk to Meat

God wants you to become more intimate with Him. He wants you to grow in His grace and knowledge, and He wants you to be spiritually mature. You begin with the milk of the Word, and then you advance to the meat of the Word (Hebrews 5:12-14), just like babies. Babies start out on milk, but they only want milk for so long. After a while, they want what you are eating. Milk is not enough. They want some meat, some pizza and hot dogs and hamburgers.

That is the way we ought to be. Spiritually, you start out with John 3:16, but after a while you ought to be memorizing some of these other 3:16 verses. Growing, complete, mature. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Spiritual maturity is not something that happens overnight, and it does not happen automatically. It occurs progressively as a result of reading, studying, obeying, and applying God's Word.

Following the Directions

Years ago, I used to buy a big Rand McNally atlas every year so I would have maps to guide me no matter where I was in the country. Today, I do not need an atlas because I have GPS on my smartphone. Most of the time it is right, except when it gets me stranded on a mud road. But GPS is only helpful if you follow its directions. Many of you own Bibles, devotionals, and commentaries, but possessing God's Word is not the same as reading and obeying God's Word.

Do you spend time in the Word of God regularly? Are you a doer of the word, or just a hearer of the word, deceiving yourself (James 1:22)? Do you apply the Word so you can grow in wisdom and knowledge? The Bible is not just information for the mind. It is transformation for your life. It is the miracle of God transforming a poor, wretched, unworthy sinner into a child that is saved by grace. The Word of God teaches you to put off the old self and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24). The Bible will supernaturally change your life.

4. The Signals We Must Heed

The Word of God also gives you warnings, because God loves you enough to confront you when you begin to drift away. So let's look at a couple of 3:16 verses that give us the signals we must heed.

Losing Your First Love (Revelation 2:4-5)

Do you remember what it was like when you first fell in love? You wanted to be with that special someone all the time. When you could not be together, you talked on the phone all night long, or now you text or get with them online. You could not get enough of that special someone. Even their breath smelled good. It is the same way with new Christians. I love their zeal. They are so excited that Jesus saved them. They love Jesus, and they are eager to tell anybody who will listen about it. They see God in everything.

But something happens after you have been saved for a while. Let's be real: you kind of lose some of that zeal. The fire dies down, and things begin to cool off. You are afraid to talk about Jesus because you worry about what people are going to say and how they are going to react. You lose the love you had for Jesus at the beginning.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus commended the church at Ephesus for their great ministry work. He said, "But I have this one thing against you: you have abandoned the love you had at first." This church was doing great stuff, great ministry, spreading the gospel. People were getting saved, baptized, and delivered. But they had lost their first love, and He said, "Repent and return to your first love" (Revelation 2:4-5).

Neither Hot nor Cold (Revelation 3:15-16)

In those first few chapters of Revelation, Jesus speaks to several churches. He has praise and rebuke for the seven churches mentioned, except for one: the church of Philadelphia. There was no rebuke for them. But then Jesus had no praise at all for the church at Laodicea, just this sober warning in Revelation 3:16, here with verse 15:

"I know your works: you are neither hot nor cold. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:15-16)

Think about that. Jesus would rather you be stone cold than lukewarm. I do not know why, but this makes me think about coffee. I like mine black and strong, and I drink it hot. Some prefer iced coffee with all that frou-frou stuff in it. Coffee is good either hot or cold, but it is kind of nasty when it is lukewarm. I just throw it out. So I understand what Jesus means here. There is nothing enjoyable about lukewarmness. The King James Version says, "I will spew you out of my mouth."

This church had become spiritually apathetic. They claimed to be rich and self-sufficient, and Jesus said they did not realize they were wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17). Jesus called them to repent of their apathy. Later in that same chapter, He says:

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will hear my voice and open the door, I will come into them and dine with them, and they with me." (Revelation 3:20)

Maybe you are saved, but you feel like God is distant from you. If you feel like God is distant from you, guess who moved? The Word of God says that if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you (James 4:8).

Jealousy and Selfish Ambition (James 3:16)

An apathetic heart that has drifted from God will lead to envy and selfish ambition.

"For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice." (James 3:16)

Paul even warned the church at Philippi about this very thing: "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit" (Philippians 2:3).

Small Compromises

Most spiritual failures begin with small compromises. Just like a small crack in a dam, a compromise may seem insignificant, but if left unattended, that tiny crack can eventually destroy the entire structure. You become lukewarm when:

• You do not spend any time with God.
• You hear the Word of God, but you do not do what it says.
• You neglect your prayer life.
• You are ungrateful, and all you do is complain about what you do not have, when God says, "If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content" (1 Timothy 6:8).
• You hold grudges, and unforgiveness leads to bitterness.

Repent and Return (Revelation 3:19-20)

Jesus says, "You have lost your first love. Repent of your apathy and return." He says again, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If you will hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and dine with you, and you with me."

So how is your walk with the Lord? Has it become lukewarm? Is there any hidden pride, envy, or jealousy in your life? Maybe you are holding a grudge and you refuse to forgive somebody, when God has forgiven you of all your deepest, darkest secrets. What areas of your life need repentance today?

"Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." (Revelation 3:19)

He calls you to return to your first love. Warnings were never meant to condemn you, but to call you back to God whenever you drift.

The 3:16 Road Map

When you put these verses together, they tell the story of life in Christ. The 3:16 road map is very simple:

• Jesus died for you.
• His Spirit lives in you.
• The Word of God is there to guide you.
• The Lord calls you to be faithful.

The question is not whether you know these verses. The question is whether this 3:16 road map is shaping your life.

If Jesus is not Lord of your life today, I would encourage you to repent and give Jesus control. If you are already saved, remember that repentance is not just for unbelievers. Christianity is a life of repentance. If you are saved, maybe, like a wandering sheep, you have drifted away. Remember what Jesus said: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." Repent and return to Jesus. Recommit yourself to living fully for the One who loved you enough to give His life on the cross for you.

Keep in mind that the chapters and verses were added by men. They are not an original part of the Scriptures, and they were given so that we can find things more easily. Yet as you look through the New Testament and the Old Testament, in the providence of God there are just so many great verses that line up with the address 3:16. Seeing how they are laid out in the New Testament can surprise and encourage you in your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.