Mark Horne has an unusual, but I think helpful, angle on interpreting John 3:16. Many Calvinists seem to be exegetical trapeze artists as they try to reconcile the “world” with the “elect”. Horne stays within Jesus’ own universe of discourse, like N.T. Wright does, and the text seems to come out fine.
I would also suggest that since Jerusalem was the symbolic center of the world, the actions of the reprobate Jews were paradigmatic of how rest of the reprobate cosmos responds to Jesus.
Studium et Liturgica 