John 3:22-36 - ”Divine Ambition” - Abundant Life (Gospel of John)

The Old Testament reading this morning

is from the prophet I Hosea

chapter 2:es 14- 20.

Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness, and

speak tenderly to her, and there I will

give her her vineyards, and make the

valley of Acor a door of hope,

and there she shall answer as in the

days of her youth, as at the time when

she came out of the land of Egypt.

And in that day, declares the Lord, you

will call me my husband, and no longer

will you call me my Baal,

for I will remove the names of the

Baales from her mouth, and they shall be

remembered by name no more.

And I will make to them a covenant on

that day with the beasts of the field,

the birds of the heavens, and the

creeping things on the ground. And I

will be and I will abolish the bow, the

sword, and war from the land.

And I will make you lie down in safety.

And I will betro you to me forever. I

will betro you to me in righteousness

and in justice,

in steadfast love and in mercy. I will

betro you to me in faithfulness

and you shall know the Lord.

The New Testament reading is from the

Gospel of John

3:es 22-36.

After this, Jesus and his disciples went

into the Judeian countryside, and he

remained there with them and was

baptizing.

John also was baptizing at Anon near

Salem because water was plentiful there,

and people were coming and being

baptized, for John had not yet been put

in prison.

Now a discussion arose between some of

John's disciples and a Jew over

purification.

And they came to John and said to him,

"Rabbi,

he who was with you across the Jordan to

whom you bore witness, look, he is

baptizing and all are going to him."

John answered,

"A person cannot receive even one thing

unless it is given him from heaven.

You yourselves bear me witness that I

said, "I am not the Christ, but I have

been sent before him."

The one who has the bride is the

bridegroom.

The friend of the bridegroom who stands

and hears him rejoices greatly at the

bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy

of mine is now complete.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who comes from above is above all. He

who is of the earth belongs to the earth

and speaks in an earthly way.

He who comes from heaven is above all.

He bears witness to what he has seen and

heard. Yet no one receives his

testimony.

Whoever receives his testimony sets his

seal to this that God is true.

For he whom God has sent utters the

words of God. For he gives the spirit

without measure. The Father loves the

Son and has given all things into his

hand. Whoever believes in the Son has

eternal life. Whoever does not obey the

Son shall not see life, but the wrath of

God remains on him. This is the word of

the Lord. Thanks be

>> to God.

>> All right.

So, have you guys seen this movie? About

Schmidt. Did anybody see this movie?

Raise your hand if you saw this movie.

Okay. So, I see it's a generation thing.

Okay.

About Schmidt is actually a really

well-made movie. It's a I believe it won

the movie of the year by the Academy

Awards. And the plot of the movie is

quite simple. There's this older

gentleman who's about to retire. He's a

risk assessment manager about middle

middle of the road in the company. And

at the beginning of the movie, you see

him go through his retirement party. And

then he's sitting in his office the last

day and he's staring at the clock for it

to close. And all of his wife's life's

work is beside him in these boxes. And

that's your opening scene. And it just

goes tick tick tick. And finally, it's

time to go. And he heads out. And you

think, "Oh, that's wonderful." And you

almost get the sense that he's been

itching for this. Well, if right after

that they show you in his home with his

wife where clearly they don't have a

happy relationship and he quickly

decides that he wants he he's he has had

ambition. He has built himself to this

mid-level manager and he's getting none

of the praise from home.

So what does he do? He goes back to work

to try and help them unsolicited.

And as he walks into the office of the

new manager, you have this moment of

just sadness because he walks in the

room and clearly the ma mid-level

manager doesn't want anything to do with

him. He says, "Well, I'm here to kind of

try and help you. I want to help you get

your, you know, this." And he reads a

few files and the guy says, "Oh, that's

all under control." And you see when

you're watching this shot that those

boxes that filled his room are all gone.

And so he says, "Well, no, I could help

you this." And you could tell he just

desperately wants to have that

significance again. And the guy quickly

gathers him and walks him out and hush,

you know, "Oh, I've got a meeting

downstairs. Do you want to come with

me?" Just to get rid of him. And as

Schmidt is walking past the building, he

sees the garbage.

And what was by the garbage?

All those boxes.

His life worked over. all his ambition

done. And what you realize as the

narrative goes on is this guy had

nothing else. He had put everything into

this position. This was his pride. This

was his life.

And now he had to go find himself.

Why it's so powerful

is because we lie as a culture.

What's the first thing you ask somebody

when you meet them?

What do you do? Right?

We actually say that because we judge

each other based on what we do. And we

have convinced ourselves that our

ambition is a good thing. And the higher

up that person responds, the more

respect we have, right? Let's be honest.

At least we interact with them

differently.

That's why our culture celebrates

selfish ambition.

Our culture celebrates ambition and sees

it as a good thing. So did the Romans.

So did the Greeks.

What's interesting though is

just like this guy.

Everybody who lives for the stuff they

do ends up dying because one day it

ends.

Why is that?

Why do

the average Why does the average

educator in America postretirement the

average age is only two years until they

die postretirement?

Did you know that? It's a provable

statistic

because there's a lie in what we do is

who we are. There's a lie the harder we

work is the better we are.

and God's economy. He wants to set us

free. And that's what this section is

about today. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

amazing grace.

We thank you for your love to us. We ask

you to open our eyes and our ears

so that we might

see you, become like you, and be changed

in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, before I go on to teach this, I

just need to do a a quick caveat. A lot

of people don't understand why covenant

is such a big deal to Christians. It's

largely because our God is a God of

covenant. He makes covenants with us and

he makes covenants on his end. And these

are agreements to be together, to love

one another, to act certain ways. These

are these are vows as it were, but

they're not legal contracts. We tend to

think of marriage as a legal contract,

don't you? But they thought of it as a

covenant.

And throughout the Old Testament, the

idea of marriage in the Old Testament

was a reflection of God and his covenant

with humanity. Did you know that?

That God would make a covenant with

humanity. Marriage, the two becoming one

flesh, was actually seen and biblically

is seen as a reflection of God what God

does with us. When we make a covenant,

then we are acting out

this relationship that God has with

humanity.

So just quickly, when Israel is no

longer faithfully worshiping their God,

they're no longer in covenant. And what

do they what was the word the prophets

call that? They're committing not

idolatry, they say,

>> but adultery.

They're saying they're cheating

literally on their God. Do you

understand? So adultery represents the

brokenness of covenant. Them leaving

their living God and going somewhere

else because covenant had been broken.

And this is the state that Israel is

often in. And the prophets are

constantly warning them. You worship the

Bays. If you worship, you know, the

ashropoles or whatever other god is out

there, you are no longer worshiping the

living God. You're worshiping a false

god. Thus, you are committing adultery.

Covenant has been broken. That's how it

must be understood.

Now, by the time of Jesus, this is how

they see everything. Israel knows

they've broken covenant. They know

they're living in exile because the

Romans are on the land. They believe

that they need a savior to come. and the

imagery they have in the intestamental

texts, the text between the old and the

new, they all talk about the fact that

God has to send someone and that someone

will renew the covenant.

He will do something to bring this

covenant and they use the marriage

metaphor. Okay. Now, what are the texts

they would use these intertestamental

people? Well, take a look at Hosea Hosea

that we read today. Read how God

describes his relationship and what he

promises to do with them. And look how

he uses marriage as a metaphor. And in

that day, declares the Lord, you will

call me my husband because we'll be in

right relationship. And no longer will

you call me my ba, the false god. Do you

see that? For I will remove the name of

the balss from your her mouth, and they

shall be remembered no more.

And I will, this is God, will betroth

you to me forever. I will betroth you to

me in righteousness and justice, in

steadfast love and in mercy. I will

betroth you to me in faithfulness, and

you shall know the Lord.

The promise then here is of a marriage,

isn't it? A new covenant.

This is my the new covenant sealed in my

blood. This is what this is all pointing

to. that God will set to rights his

people and his people can then become

his bride again. The church was not the

first one called the bride. The bride

the first one was called the bride was

Israel but Israel was unfaithful. Right?

So that the church which is Israel

expanded with Gentiles becomes the

bride. So right around Jesus' time

they're waiting for this time for a

marriage. Remember that a metaphorical

marriage where God would send his

messianic figure and he would do

something to forgive Israel's sin and

God and his people would be set to

rights again. In other words, the

marriage would happen, the new covenant

and God would have his bride again. The

second thing I want you to note before

we get into the text is the best man at

a wedding was responsible for the whole

wedding

for seven days. It wasn't the

mother-in-law.

So, it went way better. No,

I'm joking.

Decisions were made easier. Um,

but the best man was responsible making

sure this 7day wedding, why seven days,

by the way?

Creation story, covenant. Think of all

of that stuff. The creation of God. This

is all wrapped up in why they did it

over seven days. This was a also

represented the perfect time. And this

best man would come in and you could

give him heck. In fact, you could sue

the best man for not doing it right.

That's a lot of pressure. I like the

idea of just having to hold on to the

rings.

Though I will say I did almost lose the

rings one time, but that's a whole other

story.

So now we get to the text today. Jesus

has shown up and we had John the

Baptist. He's met with Nicodemus. He

says, "You've got to live by the spirit

and water." In other words, the

purification

of sins on the inside and the regenerate

spirit, his spirit. Those are the things

that the Old Testament tells us has to

happen. And Jesus hints that it's him

who's going to bring it. And now we're

back and Nicodemus has left and there's

been a great warning. Believe in me and

you have eternal life. But don't believe

in me and you're condemned already. And

all of a sudden, John's back. Now, John

the Baptist, he never gets called John

the Baptist largely probably because

there's two Johns in this, isn't there?

And John the Baptist doesn't get named

for what he does in this assumption

because he doesn't actually use John's

name, does he? In the think there's two

Johns, but he calls himself the beloved.

So, he doesn't have to describe John the

Baptist. He just calls him John. And he

So, here we go into the text today. Now

remember John the Baptist has been

baptizing and this seems to have

continued. Baptizing remember was

cleansing the outside of a person. It

was a way of repentance so that you

could be cleansed in the old system. I

want you to also remember one thing is

that it wasn't just John the baptized

who baptized

uh Pharisees baptized the Essins

baptized some of the extreme Essins

baptized themselves every day to be

purified. There was debate always about

how this works. What would make it

right? What's the right way of doing

things? That sure good thing that we

Christians don't have that eh.

So in this it says and he's out in with

the Judean countryside and he remained

there baptizing with them with them and

was baptizing. John was also baptizing

at Anon near Salem because the water was

plentiful there and people were coming

and being baptized. All right. for John

had not yet been put in prison. Now we

got Now the minor key hits.

Now a discussion arose between some of

John's disciples and a Jew over

purification. Now this might not

surprise you, but just like today, they

like to yell at each other about

theology. And there's whole doct there's

whole treaties on why you had to do

baptism a certain way in the ancient

world. And they're fighting about this.

And we don't know if this is one of

Jesus' guys that's arguing with him, but

there's a fight going on between the

disciples and somebody else. And they

being John's disciples came to John and

said to him, "Raboni, teacher, he who

was with you across the Jordan to whom

you bore witness. This guy that you said

so many nice things about, look what

he's doing. He's doing our thing."

It wasn't actually Jesus who baptized.

By the way, John will tell us it's his

disciples.

He says, "Look, he is baptizing. How

dare he? That's our thing. That's our

church growth plan."

And all are going to him. Now remember,

John the Baptist was the guy before

Jesus. He was selling out. Remember in

Luke it says all were coming to

Jerusalem to be baptized. And all of a

sudden, you have this moment where Jesus

gets baptized and John says all these

wonderful things and then he goes down

and he takes some people and all of a

sudden John's people are leaving. Oh my

gosh, we're going to lose the lose their

tithe.

They're going to join this new church

startup.

You can see the anxiety.

You can feel it in the question, can't

you?

Because this guy has ambition.

This guy has ambition to be part of it.

A church arrived. His little group, John

the Baptist.

Jealousy reigns.

John answered him a great answer. And

this is John at his best. The first

thing he does is he points to the

sovereignty of God. A person cannot

receive even one thing unless is given

to him from heaven.

right there that shatters the ambition

because if you do get anything, it's

only because God has given it to you. So

any pride you might have that John is

saying and any pride I might have in

baptizing these people is nothing

because it's all come from heaven. And

if this gentleman's baptizing more, that

means God's given him something.

You yourself bear witness what I said. I

am not the Messiah. He's always said

that. But I have been sent before him.

What else he does is he places himself

in the right place. I am not this guy. I

am nobody. I just prepared the way. John

is very humble, isn't he? His disciple

is ambitious. John is not.

Then he uses this language of the

bridegroom. And now that you guys know

what this means, you'll remind you again

that the bridegroom

in the Old Testament is the metaphor of

God who wants to make the covenant with

his bride, his people. Okay? And in that

metaphor, and they would have understood

it, John places himself as the best man.

I love it. He's not the bridegroom.

He's one that's helping the marriage

happen.

So he says, "The one who has the bride

is the bridegroom." What does that tell

us about when he's pointing to Jesus?

Who is Jesus?

The bridegroom. Who is the bridegroom in

the Old Testament?

God.

A plus B equals Jesus is God.

I just did the math.

The friend of the bridegroom who stands

and hears him rejoices greatly at the

bridegroom's voice. Bridegroom's voice.

Now, what would that mean for John in

this case? Jesus has gone off. His

disciples are baptizing. People are

starting to come to faith. What does the

bridegroom do if Israel is the bride and

they're coming to the bridegroom? The

bridegroom's friend celebrates. Instead

of going, "Look what's going on over

there." He goes, "Praise the Lord.

Do you see?

He celebrates when the groom gets

married, when the covenant is remade.

Therefore, John says, "This joy of mine

is now complete. The ceremony is over.

God is starting to rewet."

What a beautiful gift he's saying. I am

nobody. And then he ends, he must

increase and I must decrease.

Now, there is something in our culture

that's harder than anything else to get

across

this.

Because I don't know if you've noticed

that our politicians, our economic

experts, the people around us who tell

us what we should do with our lives

never say that.

Can you imagine Donald Trump saying,

"Yeah, he must uh increase, but I must

decrease.

or Biden or Trudeau.

None of them say that because our world

is taught that everything is about

ambition. Strong man doing well. All

politicians, none of them tell you to

decrease.

There's something different in following

Jesus Christ than this world is what I'm

saying.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

And then we flip.

We now have John the commentator. That's

John the disciples word. He must

increase and decrease. But now we get

John's comment around this. He says, "He

who comes from above is above all."

Who's the one who comes from above? It's

only Jesus. We agree with that. It's the

only one that's been in what I call

heaven's sphere.

He who is from the earth. This is not

the bad. This is not you remember God so

loved the world cosmos. This has an idea

of broken humanity of uh of arrogant

humanity of of a humanity post Genesis

3. This word is a different word. He

says he who comes from the earth just

meaning terrairma

belongs to the earth and speaks in an

earthly way. Who do you think he's

talking about there?

John.

So that's why John can't be it. John can

only he that's all he's ever been is on

this earth, right?

He can give them tips. He can tell them

to get baptized, but he doesn't know

what he's he can't take him any further.

He needs this guy from above. He who

comes down from heaven, who comes from

heaven is above all because he's the one

that knows what we need. He who bears

witness to what he has seen and heard.

He has been he has bears witness to the

heavenly realm. He bears witness to

God's heart. He bears witness to what

God's going to do and no one else knows

it because we don't live in heaven. But

God has come down and that's why he is

the only one to listen to.

And then he says he is bears witness to

what he has seen and heard. And then he

ends this section with a typical John

comment yet no one receives his

testimony.

One of the truths.

Amen. We're going to do the altar call

later. Okay.

And yet no one received his testimony.

That's going to be the point of John's

gospel right to the end. He is going to

tell the truth. And it's that very truth

is going to be the fact that none of

them can receive his testimony. Why can

they not receive his testimony? By the

way, even though he speaks this truth of

who he is and he's going to a cross

because they are selfish and ambitious

and want the world for themselves and

Jesus is telling them the way to the

kingdom is through the cross.

And no one no one up to the crucifixion

and resurrection not until they get the

spirit do they receive Jesus Christ

correctly.

Not one of those disciples. I want you

to remember how ambitious the people of

Israel were. When he feeds them on the

mountain, they take them down. And what

do they try and do? They try and make

him king by force. Why? Ambition.

Why does Judas turn on Jesus? Ambition.

Get closer up. Be higher up. It's always

ambition. Ambition. Ambition. Why are

the disciples even following Jesus

Christ? cuz they believe he's a militant

Messiah who's going to come and bring

them deliverance. And when you bring

them deliverance, what do they fight

about? Who will be at the right and left

hand? What they mean is in the temple

when he rules. Of course, what Jesus

knows is who will be on his right and

left in glory will be the two thieves on

the cross.

Yet no one receives his testimony.

And then he flips it. He goes, "Whoever

receives his testimony

that he is the one from above. He's the

only one listening to. He's the only

ambition to have sets his seal on this

that God is true."

So if you're going to receive his

testimony, you're receiving that God is

true. For he whom God has sent utter the

words of God. Jesus Christ is the only

one who utters the words of God to us.

Okay?

God breathes on the disciples. It

becomes the word of God and they decide

discern it. But I want you to know he's

the only one who be on this earth and

when he was talking gave us the words of

God.

And then he says for he gives and this

if you read it in the Greek it's he

gives him the spirit without measure.

Meaning Jesus is the only one who gets

the spirit without measure.

The father loves the son and has given

all things into his hands.

So again in John's gospel there's a

line.

You believe in him, you follow him and

you decrease

or you don't. You seek yourself

and you increase and be destroyed.

That's the line.

And John's go John's little testimony

here points right to it. What are you

going to be like? John's disciple or

John.

Well, he doesn't end there. He ends with

what is so typical a John's gospel.

Yohin they call it statement.

Whoever believes in the son has eternal

life.

What does it mean to believe in the son?

That he is the lord. that he is in

charge and his way is to life.

And then he says, "Whoever does not

obey," he flips from believes to obey.

"Whoever doesn't obey the son shall not

see life." What does it mean not to

obey, to be jealous, to ambition, to

make yourself king, to make your way the

right way?

Because the wrath of God remains on that

person because they are the same person.

That was Adam who tried to be like God

knowing good from evil.

What Jesus does when he comes into this

world and John will not stop and you're

going to get sick of me hitting on it is

that Jesus is the way, the truth, and

the life. And in John's gospel like no

other, there's a line you have to make a

decision. You might not like John's

gospel for this, but every time he's

going to say you either pick Jesus and

his way or death.

The tree of life is back or death.

That's the line.

Now, the reason I bring this up is I

can't help but see the selfish ambition

in the John's disciple. Oh, we're going

to see selfish ambition in Jesus'

disciples, too. Just wait.

And then we have John the gosp the the

Baptist showing us a different way. And

it's the hardest thing I talk about and

it's the one I can talk about sexual

indiscretion and people usually in the

church will amen me. They're like, "Oh,

yeah, that's terrible." I can talk about

power dynamics. I can talk about people

who violence and people go, "Yes, yes,

yes." But when I talk about ambition,

people in our culture don't want to hear

it.

And I'll tell you why. We have been

taught to celebrate ambition.

What do you do?

We celebrate what you've done.

It drives us and it drives us on every

level. And what I want you to know is

selfish ambition

is so destructive.

Biblically,

there's no question human ambition

is pride.

Human ambition independent of God,

notice I'm saying that is the desire for

self to be seen or to have more or have

an identity independent of God.

And what happens with this is people are

willing to do anything when this is

their ultimate end.

You've heard that it's a rat race out

there. Well, it's a rat race because

everyone's climbing over each other for

ambition. We tell our kids, "Do the best

you can. Become somebody.

Go get your education. Do this. Do

that." But we don't put God in the

formula.

I was raised this way.

I got so many judges and lawyers and

professors and educators in my

background. I'm the low guy. I'm I'm a

pastor.

But even that was an ambition. You do

this.

Listen to what Listen to what um James

says about ambition.

For you where you have envy and selfish

ambition, there you find disorder and

every evil practice. Listen

to listen to John Sto. Pride ambition is

more than the first of the seven deadly

sins. It is itself the essence of sin.

Ambition, pride, they're together.

Listen to Bonhaofer.

The root of all sin is pride. Superbia.

And I want to be my own law. I want to

be my own law. I have a right to my own

self, my hatred and my desires, my life

and my death.

That's ambition. That's pride.

Can you not hear in our culture today

people say this exact same thing?

I want to be my own law when I have my

own rules.

I have a right

to myself.

My hatred and my desires. My life and my

death are all mine. And we believe it.

See, when you're selfish, ambitious, you

are in control. You are God.

And anyone who steps on you, you get to

step on them.

Now, wouldn't it be nice if that was

just the world? But as we see here,

there's religious ambition

and that destroys people.

People who would easily

because they have an ambition for their

power in the church destroy others

because they have a goal that doesn't

deal with the humanity amongst them.

People who want it about themselves. And

I can tell you, I've been in this

business for over 30 years, 25 ordained.

And I can assure you

that people do not join and lead

churches based on the good of the people

in the pews.

More often than not, when we chat

amongst ourselves in ministerial, the

question that I get is, "How many people

go to your church?"

The ambition is to be bigger.

Paul in the two in in 30 years after

death of Christ, listen to what he's

running into. Philippians, some indeed

preach Christ even from envy and strife,

and some also from goodwill. The former

preach Christ from selfish ambition.

This is 30 years after the death of

Christ. 20 years. Not sincerely

supposeding to add affliction to my

chains.

I can see those preachers at Cor Corinth

who called themselves the super apostles

because so many good things were

happening to them and look down at John

of Paul because he had suffered. You

know the one

even in 20 years after Christ this thing

was entering religion.

The desire to get ahead and to look

better as your church

as your leadership as your spirituality.

the early 14th century. Hillary of

Poier, I think it says, remember this is

the 4th century. Listen to these words.

The utter folly of our time is

lamentable that men should think to

assist God with human help and to

protect the church of Christ by worldly

ambition.

How do we do that?

Well, God gets in the corner and we

design the system and it becomes about

us

and then it's less and less about the

preacher or sorry Jesus but about the

preacher who's pointing to the Jesus and

pretty soon the preacher becomes the

center and Jesus is the aside.

>> Right.

This next word from from Calvin hits me

right to the core as a preacher.

He says, "Those who win the church over

to themselves

rather than to Christ faithfully violate

the marriage which they ought to honor."

What does he mean by that? The marriage

between God and his people.

They create adultery.

They end up stepping into the role of

the groom.

That's dangerous.

Do I think the North American church has

got some problems? Yeah.

We are so ambitious to grow our empires

that we will create any worldly system

to do it. And pretty soon it becomes us

and then pretty soon people become

numbers rather than human beings made in

God's image.

Every event I go to, they eventually ask

me how many people I have. That's an

idolatrous question.

I don't have a number of people here. I

have people made in God's image. But I

don't want you to think I walk 5t off

the earth. I want you to know that I'm

very thankful for a God who convicts

sin.

I got a phone call. I was in Wall-E.

Wall-Ally was a tough ministry. It was

in the inner city and we were struggling

and I was barely had this little group

of Christians but they were wonderful. I

loved them. I hung out with them. We

went and fed the homeless but it was not

shiny.

And one person actually said in our

presetry and I swear to you they said

this. They said, "Well, nothing good

comes out of Wall-E."

They did.

The good part about it is they so

thought lowly of us, they never sent

visitors out to us because what could

ever be there?

Well, I get a phone call from a peer of

mine who I went to regent with. He was

in a nice center town. He had a nice

church, nice looking, too. If you didn't

have your hair dyed blonde, ladies, you

were not going there.

And he told me he was excited and he

wanted to talk to somebody. So, he

called me. He said, "Emmyry, we're going

down to the beach

and I'm going to baptize 50 people

50 people. Baptize."

And I went like, "You do." "Oh, that's

wonderful."

And I got off the phone and I was angry.

I was bitter.

I was pounding the pavement in this

inner city thing and we probably didn't

have a baptism in two years.

and this guy's got 50.

What am I doing wrong? And then I had a

moment.

And it hit me like only the Holy Spirit

can. And it was like, who do you think

you are?

You think this is about you?

Embrace those moments, my friend. It's

the grace of God. He shows you the

hardness of your heart.

And I wept in grief at my heart. Rather

than celebrating baptism,

people being renewed, I was looking at

it from my selfish ambition.

What was happening in my world? I

repented. I called him back. And I even

went down to watch it. And I did

celebrate it.

It's all in us, this selfish ambition.

And we love it because we can judge

ourselves and others.

And when it comes into the church, it

eats us. And people like it too because

they join big churches sometimes just

cuz they're big and they can say they

were around a big church

a success because they have an ambition

to have successful spirituality.

But is that Christian success?

Do you think God sitting there and the

first thing he'll say to you when you

cross that line is, "What did you do?"

I promise you that will be the last

thing he says to you. Not cuz he knows,

but because he values the world so

utterly differently.

I guarantee he is not going to on the

day I go to be with him say, "Emyry, how

many baptisms?" Oh jeez, that's

terrible. Like

you know why?

Cuz he's the god of the cross.

You see the cure to this all of this is

the cross.

See, everyone,

no matter how ambitious they are,

put Jesus on the cross.

I don't know how great a pastor you

think you've been,

you by nature put him on a cross. I

don't care if you become a CEO and the

second greatest Elon Musk,

you put him on the cross.

You see what happens with the cross is

our true humanity comes out and we get

laid equally because in our humanity we

aren't good. We're not significant.

We're equally damnable.

And there's only one way to save us by

looking at the cross and believing it.

That's John's whole point. And just as

the snake was raised up, you remember

the text,

I will be raised up. He says, "And so

when they look upon me," where is he

raised up? The cross. When you look upon

me, you get healed because the true you

is exposed there because that should be

you.

And we worry about selfish ambition when

we would destroy Jesus today in our

ambition.

I am quite convinced that there is a ton

of people with very successful churches

which would not allow Jesus in the

building.

Would I?

The cross takes us to a point where all

ambition gets laid bare because

everything we end up going for is

eventually seen for what it is, death.

Because any ambition outside of Jesus

Christ, one day you're going to become

Schmidt.

One day you're going to hit a space in

your life

where all of a sudden that thing that

gave you identity and purpose and pride

will be taken.

And next thing you know, you're in the

hot tub with that old lady.

Have to know the movie.

I'm glad somebody liked that joke.

[panting]

By the way, when I tell you about a

movie, doesn't mean I'm saying go and

buy it. Okay? Read the back. You're

adults. You can see what's in it. I got

yelled at one time and Okay, so you're

adults. You've been given the warning.

Okay.

John's gospel ends in this section

exactly why it should because he's

talked to Nicodemus and now he's got

John's disciple and he's got the

jealousy and he's got Nicodemus with the

blindness cuz he's ambition and then he

talks about John saying it's not about

me I have to end and you've got this

either or now and this is the choice

that you have in John's gospel you

either follow yourself and your ambition

however great or small that is and find

death

or you look up at this cross and you

find life.

Dale Bruner to trigger this decision of

life or death is the major purpose of

the gospel of John. Nothing nothing less

than life or death in the conviction of

our gospel depends on this decision. The

Jesus of the gospel carries enough

weight to move one to this life or death

decision. I do not know of a story in

the gospel that is not seeking this

lifegiving decision. Every time you hear

this, you may feel convicted because

John's not afraid to convict us.

And the question we have to ask is, are

we going to lay down all of our

ambitious, our ambitions, religious in

other words, and receive this Christ

because he's the one that gives life.

Now, how can John say Jesus even has a

right to such decision? Well, listen to

Don Carson. Jesus so completely says and

does all that Jesus says and does and

only what God says and does that to

believe Jesus is to believe God

conversely not to believe Jesus is to

call God a liar

and what has Jesus said how do you get

saved believe in me that's it

so what about ambition so do Do we all

sit in a corner?

No.

Divine ambition.

We embrace God's ambition. What is God's

ambition?

John 3:16.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave

his only son that whomever believes in

him shall be saved.

That is God's ambition. And what God

wants us to do is have his ambition. He

wants us to live our lives as forgiven

people who've laid down our ambition to

now take up his ambition.

He wants us now through our words, our

actions, and his symbols to share the

love of God. He wants us to become the

people who do this.

John says, "But these were written so

that you may believe Jesus is the

Messiah, the son of God. And by

believing you may have life in his

name." So how does this work? By this

life in this name, you no longer have to

carry your own worry, fears, and

ambitions. You get to carry Jesus Christ

and his burden.

And what is Jesus Christ's burden? To

love your neighbor, to forgive your

enemy. His burden is for you to share

your life with them. That's the ambition

that Paul had.

And never is it because you can save

anyone.

Your ambition is God is that you follow

him. That's it. That you look to him.

That's your ambition.

You know, the writer of Hebrews calls it

entering God's rest. Have you heard

that?

It's a really unusual text until you

understand what God wants. He wants you

to stop doing it yourself and being idol

worshippers and self-focused and to be

restful in him. He's already done it.

He wants us to be free that we know

we're we're right with God.

That we don't have to make ourselves the

next CEO or something else. And that

doesn't make us more significant. What

makes us more significant is because we

are children of the living God. and that

only

then you have the freedom to do what

your passion is rather than what may

gets you the greatest amount.

The one thing that God is not about is

you saving the world.

The one thing God does not need your

help with is your ambition to save

anyone.

Those guys were trying to baptize and

were getting jealous because they

thought it was about them. Guess what

church? It's not about us. We can come

in here and hit our ambition is only one

thing to be right with God. And if

that's the case, we should be able to

walk out of here free because all of

that other garbage the world tells you

that's meaningful can be washed off. I

don't care if you have your PhD or that

you work in a in a ditch and dig

ditches. You have the same value in

Jesus Christ if you believe in him.

Carl Bart said this so well.

The Christian confront the world only as

a witness.

His action is totally dependent on the

truth and reality of what he attests.

He can only point men to the speaking of

Jesus Christ, drawing attention to the

fact that he speaks.

He cannot come and speak among them as a

second Christ. We cannot do that as if

Christ spoke through us.

He can encounter them only as the friend

of the bridegroom.

If Christ speaks through him, giving to

his witness the power of his

self-witness as he can and will. This is

not in the Christian's hands, and he

cannot boast of it in the world. Hence

does it not stand in his own power to

cause the gospel so as to shine and to

make enlightenment the world, to create

and give men the freedom to grasp and

appropriate the kingdom of God, and

therefore their reconciliation. He can't

do that.

He cannot have the man or woman

recognize and confess Jesus Christ as

Lord.

He cannot convert anyone.

So if that's the case,

we don't have to have ambition in trying

to do it.

What we can do though is do what John

did. Point to Jesus.

point to Jesus in our work.

Point to Jesus in our homes. Point to

Jesus at the church. And when he does

something

like the best friend of the bridegroom,

let's have a party.

When someone comes to believe down the

street, let's have a party. When

somebody comes and knows Jesus Christ,

let's celebrate

because this is the kingdom we're in.

And we just get to help. We're help

setting up the wedding that God's going

to bring fully in the end. The

bridegroom is coming and the bride says,

"Come, Lord Jesus." Revelation.

And we get to spend time loving one

another and setting up the potential for

this kingdom. And one day, if we do

that, we will be like John. We will be

in joy

because we got to see the groom marrying

his bride.

Poor

old Schmidt.

If he had Jesus,

maybe his work wouldn't have been

everything to him.

Maybe

he would have had another purpose in

this world. Maybe he wouldn't have

fallen into despair.

Because that selfish ambition was going

to kill him. Jesus doesn't. And there's

one thing I've seen in my job.

There are two types of minister that

come out of in retirement.

One will never leave the job and will

cause hell on their way out because

their whole identity is in the job. I've

had two of them over overseen and I had

to kick them out and it was terrible.

great ministers in their day, but their

identity was in there and their ambition

was to be the great minister

and they couldn't let it go. And the

other one was the minister who said,

"I'm just happy my best friend is

getting his bride

and they celebrate wherever they go."

If we are partly that heart, all of the

heaviness of our job, all of the desire

to become the next great will go. Oh,

we'll work and we'll bear witness, but

we will not be driven by this idea that

this is who we are. Because we will have

our eye on the one who Tim Keller says,

Jesus Christ, who had the power in the

world, who had all the power in the

world, saw us enslaved by the very

things we thought would free us.

He laid aside the infinities and

immensities of his being and at the cost

of his life paid the debt for our sins,

purchasing us the only place our hearts

can rest

in the father's house.

Knowing he did this, he will transform

us from the inside out.

So my invitation is simple. Lay down

your ambition.

Next time somebody comes to you, don't

say, "What do you do?" Just say, "Who

are you? What do you like,

get to know them,

and when you're in church, celebrate,

be with one another. You're saved.

You're children of God. You don't have

to do anymore. You don't have to have

any more ambition. He's already done

it." And let's celebrate together when

people come in and encounter the new

God. Because when they do, folks,

they get eternal life.

They get eternal life

and wrath is off them. And if we can't

celebrate that because of our own little

pious little things,

we've missed the whole story.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you as a

selfish people, a people who want to

make it about us.

And we ask you to forgive us.

Help us to be a people that let go of

ourselves, that die to ourselves, that

become less so that you can become more.

Help us to be a people who can carry our

cross

and remind us that we have already died

in Christ.

Remind us that we are living for that

life to come.

And the spirit and the bride say come

Lord Jesus. And so we say as your bride,

the one that you died for, come Lord

Jesus.