John: Jesus Greater, Me Less.

Well, at the end of John chapter 3, we have a little bit of a soap opera breaking out, really.

John 3 · chapter mention

I mean, we we we saw John the Baptist earlier in the book of John, and he was preaching about the Messiah coming, he's preaching about Jesus, and then kind of validated Jesus coming and said, you know, this is him, is the Messiah, and the Jewish authorities came out and they talked to John the Baptist because a little revolution was beginning and they wanted to keep their thumbs on top of it.

And John the Baptist told us that, well, I'm not the Messiah, this other guy.

You know, his people understood, this people heard this, and yet still, here's a situation where Jesus' influence is growing, and you you can just kind of feel all of John the Baptist's people starting to get a little nervous because people are leaving, right?

I mean, I mean, you could you kind of, you know, maybe in our world, you could just hear them going, well, you know, you know, Dave and his family, they're going over to hear that other guy preach.

You know, I mean, did you hear did you hear their family laugh?

They went over to Jesus's, you know, and John the Baptist has got to be thinking, well, well, great, like all of you should go, right?

All of you should go over there.

I mean, I have my ministry, but Jesus is actually the Messiah.

And a little bit of soap proper, there's an argument about baptism, about purification.

But I think I think under that, just kind of me speculating perhaps, I think under that is just this this idea of, you know what, um, John was the revolutionary.

He was the man, he was the scene, it was, it was going, and they were all in it.

They were in the group that was everything was going.

And then now there's another guy, and people are starting to go over.

And so they come to John the Baptist with this in verse 26, and they they say to John, Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, the one you testified by, look, he's baptizing everyone's going to him.

And John quickly turns the conversation around from like any anything near uh like a defensiveness, and he replies in verse 27, a person can receive only what is given them from heaven.

You yourselves can testify that.

I said, I am not the messiah, but I am sent ahead of him.

I mean, even reading that again this week, I am not the Messiah.

For us to be able to say that, to mean it, right?

Like I'm I'm not the God, the sovereign controller of everything in my life, of my career, my family, my children, my grandchildren, my future, my friends.

I can't fix everyone, I can't control everything, I can't make everything perfect, I can't even make everyone like me.

I mean, to be able to say that is such a freeing thing.

I'm I'm not the Messiah, I'm not him.

Don't put me up there to be him.

And for you to be able to say that is unbelievably freeing.

Verse 28, 29, you yourselves can testify that I said, I'm not the Messiah, but I'm sent ahead of him.

The bride belongs to the bridegroom.

The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice.

That joy's mine, and it is now complete.

I mean, they come to him and they're thinking, I well, you know, we have a situation because people are leaving and they're going over to Jesus' camp.

And John says, Man, my joy's complete.

This is this is fantastic.

I've been waiting for this day.

Uh a few years ago, I can remember, it's probably been I was in college, senior in college, maybe 14 years ago at this point, somewhere around there, and it was the first time I was a groomsman in a wedding.

And I I felt I felt so important.

It was Christy's older brother, and Kevin and I were good friends, and he was getting married.

He's a couple years older than me, and so I was invited to be a groomsman.

And I wasn't the best man, KC, my younger brother-in-law, he was the best man.

But John and I, my buddy John and I, we were kind of the honorary groomsman, so we had some roles.

I mean, we got some tasks.

We were in charge of the bachelor party.

You know, we were sort of the stand-in best men here, and we had some roles and some tasks, and we I felt important.

I felt so included and a part of it.

I felt very important.

I can remember the day of we're all dressed up in our black tuxedos, and we're at the church, and we're walking down, and uh, Kevin and and KC, they'd come out from the side and they're standing there, and we're walking down, you know, the um with our with our ladies that we're walking with, and we're walking down, and uh we and the inside of our jackets we wrote like different past girlfriends of Kevin's, and we just sort of flashed it, and it said, like, you know, goodbye, Jennifer, and then the next guy would walk down, he'd just flash it, you know, and be like, you know, goodbye, Meredith, and then the next one, and so all the way through, and then the then the last guy was it just you know, it said, hello Ree, and Ree's his wife.

And and you know, and we're standing like two over from Kevin.

Here's the reality.

The reality is I could have been on the back row, right?

I mean, I I could have been, I could have been any, I could be in the janitor's closet.

Nobody's gonna know the difference.

Why?

I was not the center of the attention.

I was not the bridegroom.

I mean, I might have felt important, and my joy was was huge.

I mean, I mean, to see two friends get married and be a part of that, especially the first wedding I was at.

I mean, I I was it was so much fun, it was so much joy.

But I it was I was far from the center of attention.

I mean, not even close.

And it didn't matter that I was not the center of attention.

Here's the thing, right?

I mean, the Bible, the Bible, in the Bible, God's always asking us to glorify him.

I mean, at a certain point, and John the Baptist is buying into this, right?

I mean, this is what John the Baptist says, this is kind of his attitude.

And you kind of go, is this kind of egocentric of God?

I mean, to, you know, to constantly be saying, you, you know, you should glorify me, right?

I mean, even I'm gonna glorify myself and you should glorify me.

And Jesus comes along and he calls us to worship him and follow him and obey him and you know, surrender to him, and all of this.

Is this egocentric of God?

And here's the key.

The key is that what Jesus is back to John 1 that we saw back in September.

Jesus is actually the source of life and creation and goodness.

So for God to call us and all these things to bring him glory, he is not egocentric.

This is actually our path to freedom.

Let me say it a different way.

The pursuit of our joy, the pursuit of our freedom is the same as God's pursuit of his glory.

So this egocentricity that we sort of see in God of constantly asking us to glorify him, this is actually love.

Because it's for our freedom.

And John the Baptist is ecstatic that the Messiah has come because of this reason.

And then he says some profound words in verse 30.

He says, and we've, if you've been around church, you've heard these over and over and over again.

Maybe just kind of let go of hearing them so many times so we can hear them afresh this morning.

He must become greater.

The Messiah, the one everybody's leaving to go hear.

He must become greater.

I must become less.

I mean, verse 30 is so otherly from the philosophy of this world.

I mean, right?

I mean, the philosophy of this world, you know, make much of yourself.

I mean, become something, be somebody, and then when you do that, then you'll you'll be something, you'll be enough.

Be pretty, be successful, be important, then you'll be enough.

Or the way of religion, you know, you'll be accepted as you grow in devotion and in practices.

You know, so be moral, be devoted, be pure, then you'll be enough.

This is not it's not the gospel.

The gospel is that you are made enough before you were even close to being enough.

So, what's what's John talking about here?

This this be less and Jesus be greater.

I mean, two kind of obvious questions that come away here is is what does it mean for us to be less?

What does that mean?

And what does it mean for Jesus to be greater?

Question number one, what does it mean for us to be less?

Well, I mean, for me, I mean, for years I lived as a Christian, I became a Christian when I was 13 years old.

For years, I mean, through seminary, I lived thinking grace was the way into the family, grace was the way in, and now I'm in.

I maintain it by self-effort, I maintain it by my striving.

So, really, what was going on here?

I was forgiven, but I wasn't free.

I was forgiven.

But on a day-to-day standing, I I woke up burdened that I needed to maintain it all, or to prove to God I was worthy of something, or to prove to other people.

I mean, I was still living in a merit works-based way of life, not the grace of God.

And this thought, this thought of become less, this was not the Christianity that I knew.

The Christianity I knew was I was gonna make much of myself, much of my practices, much of my discipline, much of what I did, and I was gonna prove to God that I was worthy.

I was gonna prove that my standing is secure before Him today by what I did.

And this is just imprisoning in time.

Because you just have to keep doing it.

You have to keep maintaining it.

I mean, it's it creates such insecurity, it creates judgment on other people.

And what happens in time, because there's there will always be a deviation between what you should be doing and who you really are, because of this gap, if the gospel is not getting bigger and bigger to constantly cover that gap, you will to cover that gap, you will begin to perform and you will begin to pretend.

And so some form of dishonesty begins within yourself about who you are and what you aren't, and being fake or surface or sort of cliche.

Here's the good news.

There's another way.

This is what John's talking about.

Because becoming less is about turning from this self-focus to focusing on something greater.

That's question number two.

What does it mean for Jesus to become greater?

Well, it means we want our lives to be more and more overwhelmed and rooted into Him.

Which means what?

Well, it means we live in a state of humility and confession and receiving life.

So it's a posture, it's a way of life, a posture of receiving versus a posture of proving.

And that we're focusing on God's righteousness, his faithfulness, his goodness, not our righteousness, our faithfulness and our goodness.

Verses 31 through 35, the author, he goes into sort of, he just starts bragging about Jesus, really is what's going on 31 through 35.

He says, Jesus came from heaven, and because of that he's speaking the words of God, he gives the Spirit without limit.

Don't you love that?

I love this unconditional side of God as giving without limit, and that all things are in his hands.

And then we get verse 36, kind of capping off this section.

He says, Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life.

Not whoever does a lot or whoever earns enough, whoever believes, belief.

Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life.

But whoever rejects the sun will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them.

Or there's a popular phrase for our culture, right?

No, our culture wants nothing to do with that phrase right there.

Nothing to do with the idea that God would have wrath.

Here's what I've how I've always thought about this.

I've always thought about it that if um you're walking out of Walmart or Target, wherever you prefer to shop, you're walking out, and uh there's a 40-year-old man, and he is he is beating a seven-year-old little girl.

Uh he's beating her with a pipe.

I mean, he's beating her unto death.

Hopefully, this creates some amount of wrath in you toward him because of the injustice you're seeing, because of the destruction, because of the sin.

The goodness in you would demand something, right?

Whether you physically stop or you call somebody, you go get somebody.

I mean, there would be a feeling of wrath towards the destruction.

And that would be the goodness or the righteousness in you.

So God and his righteousness, God in his righteousness rightfully has wrath towards sin.

Because sin is destruction.

It destroys people, it destroys families, it destroys children and futures, it's destruction.

Now the good news of Jesus is all of that rightful wrath, Jesus absorbs it on the cross.

God Himself says they won't pay, they won't take on the wrath.

I myself will come, I will absorb my own wrath, so I will uphold my justice, and I can love them.

That's why we get in the beginning of John chapter 3 about Jesus, he says that I've come to love you out of condemnation.

John 3 · chapter mention

Not here to condemn you.

Jesus absorbs the wrath and he extends love.

When I was about eight years old, we took a trip to Chicago.

We drove up and we saw where my dad grew up, and we visited some friends, and then we made our way to Chicago, and one day we went to the Sears Tower.

Not sure if you're aware of this now, the Willis Tower.

I don't think you might know this, whoever the Willis group is.

They're getting the short end of the stick, and they made a big purchase, and everybody still calls it the Sears Tower.

Sears Tower, 108 stories.

I remember being a little boy, eight years old, looking up at that building.

It was the tallest building in the world at the time.

It was the tallest building in the world from 1973 to 1998.

So when I was there, tallest building in the world, 1,451 feet above that street.

2,325 feet above sea level.

And you get in those elevators and it takes a minute, those elevators just shoot you straight up.

And I got up there as an eight-year-old boy and just, I mean, this was unbelievable.

At the same time, I didn't like it.

You know, there's kind of like that fear, like, I like it, I don't like it, I still don't care to be really high up in buildings.

I really value land.

The ability to run away is important to me.

But we're 108 stories up, and you know, you're looking down, you're having the Ferris Bueller moment where you put your head up and you're looking down on the people below you.

And it's just unbelievable.

A million people a year go to the Sears Tower for this experience.

Now, the next year, the next summer, my family, we went to visit family in Seattle, my aunt and uncle, cousins.

And we took the better part of a week and we drove out to Mount Rainier, which is a couple hours from Seattle.

Now, in Seattle, they don't call it Mount Rainier, they just call it the mountain.

Because it's real clear what the mountain is.

As soon as the clouds are gone, which is rarity, but whenever they're gone, it's there.

I mean, it's I mean, there's you there's no missing it.

I mean, it is massive.

It is 14,410 feet above sea level.

And after you park your car, if you want to climb Mount Rainier, it's 9,000 feet.

I was real impressed with the Sears Tower, 1,451 feet.

This is 9,000 feet once you park your car to get to the top.

You know, we camped there, we had a little camper.

We sat and just stared at the mountain, walked around, went on hikes.

I mean, days and days and days we did this.

People don't do that at the Sears Tower.

Nobody's camping out at the base of the Sears Tower just day after day.

Let's just walk around it again.

Let's just look at one more time.

This isn't going on at the Sears Tower.

It's 93 miles around the base of Mount Rainier.

It's about a quarter of a mile around the base of the Sears Tower.

Inside the Sears Tower, there's offices and there's desks and there's stairways and elevators.

Inside of Mount Rainier, it's a volcano.

There's enough energy inside of Mount Rainier to destroy a 45-mile-long valley.

Here's my point.

What's my point with all that?

Here's my point.

This is the only point of the sermon, right?

I mean, there's just one point here.

What we make is nothing compared to what God gives.

And whether we're talking about buildings or mountains, or whether we're talking about our works and what we do or manifest into the world.

Nothing wrong with our buildings, nothing wrong with our good works that are rooted in grace.

But what John the Baptist is saying, and what's freeing to us this morning, is that a life focused on what you do is more limiting than a life focused on what God gives you.

So for our own joy and our own freedom for the sake of God's glory, we must become less.

And he must become greater.

So what it means is when we wake up, we're not preoccupied with what we do.

We're not preoccupied with our works.

Our hearts aren't resting in that.

That flows out of a preoccupation with what God has done for us.

Let's pray together.

God, we confess this morning.

We love to make much of ourselves.

And even if we don't voice it, we do this by our preoccupation with what we do.

We love to validate ourselves with what we produce in the world.

We love to validate ourselves with worldly success.

We love to validate ourselves with religion.

We love to validate ourselves as righteous by our righteousness.

And all of this is incredibly imprisoning to us.

Help us.

Give us the faith to turn our hearts and our minds to wake up tomorrow, the next day, and the next day, completely overwhelmed and preoccupied with what you have given us?

Would this be the core of our identity?

Would this be the beginning of every work, of every action, every behavior?

And would we resist that temptation to turn our focus away from it, back to what we're doing?

But would we live in the freedom you want to give?

Would we live in your righteousness?

And would we live for your glory by becoming less and you becoming greater?

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.