Keep Your Eyes On Jesus (John 3:22-36)
When Adam and Eve were created placed in the Garden of Eden, they were given a job to do. The Garden of Eden was a paradise that all the later temples looked backwards at and even pictured in the structure. It was the place where God and man resided together in perfect harmony. And Adam and Eve were given the task of expanding the boundaries of that Garden Temple. They were to subdue the Earth, that is bring the entirety of the globe into submission to the Lord.
They were to work, but it was not in order to glorify their selves. It was to glorify the Lord.
When Jesus gave the Great Commission, it was very similar. Where are we supposed to go?
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)
The world stands in rebellion against God. And the Church goes forth making disciples of all nations, preaching the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. And in so doing, the world is conquered for Jesus Christ.
Now, it is easy for us to forget that very thing. It is easy for us to forget why we exist and what we are doing. It is easy for us to forget that we are bringing people to Jesus and start to think that we are doing something for ourselves, either personally or as a church. But our task is much larger than that. Our task is to bring people to Jesus.
We are to strive with all of our might, but it is not for our sake or the fame of our name, it is for Jesus. We are bringing people to Jesus.
John the Baptist did not. And that becomes plain in John’s
Understand What You Are: A Servant of the Lord (John 3:22-28)
Jesus and His disciples now made it into the Judean countryside and John the Baptist was there. The word baptism means to submerse or go underwater so there was need of plentiful water. You can’t just get a body underwater anywhere.
And we get a bit of understanding concerning the timeline here as well. This is before John the Baptist went to prison. In fact, this would be the last proclamation that John makes concerning Jesus before he is arrested (Matthew 14, Mark 6:14-29).
Now we come to the meat of this story. John’s disciples had concerns about Jesus that grew out of jealousy (John 3:26). Jesus was stealing all of John’s disciples. Their lamentation was that “all are going to Him” as this takes place.
John’s response is completely profound. He tells them that this is a good thing for two reasons. First, he said that a person cannot receive anything lest it is given by God. God is blessing Jesus and he is thankful for that. Second, and more importantly, John the Baptist is not the Christ. His job was to prepare the way for the Christ. And he has done just that. Because of this people are flocking to Jesus.
There is something that we can forget when we come to church together and it’s what the mission is. I’m here to tell you, it is something that we can easily forget.
We invest our lives in the body of Christ here at Victory Baptist Church. We love each other, care for each other, hear God’s Word preached and taught together. We have a real and good attachment here. And that is good. That is how it is supposed to be.
But at the same time, it is possible for us to look at other Christians or other churches, and not be happy for the good work that has happened in the life of their church.
And here John gives to us a corrective. Nothing can be given to us unless God decides to give it to us. I have constantly said that, as a church, we should pray for God to work in our midst. And the reason for that is simple. The only way anything good will happen, is if God gives it. It is God that pours out blessings upon a family or a church. It is God that is in charge of that not me.
But that doesn’t change who I am or what I do.
I want to make a large impact for Jesus. I don’t want to just exist. I want more than that. I have been in churches that just paid the bills and existed, sometimes with years between baptisms. And I don’t want that. I have never wanted that.
But do you know what I don’t get to do. I don’t get to decide what I am going to get. It is God that gives the blessings. It is God that causes people to be born again. It is God that bestows gift upon gift to the people of God. I don’t get to decide that.
I do get to do something though. I get to be faithful and I get to serve the Lord however He sees fit. I get to work and pray, pray and work, and if the Lord decides to bless the labor, then we will see that.
That is how we are supposed to live. Sometimes I do forget this. Sometimes I hear about something happening with another church and I do think to myself, “Why there?” And in those moments what am I doing? Am I not doing the very same thing that John’s disciples did? Am I not falling into the same sort of foolishness.
And this is something that we must not do.
I desire for our church to grow. And in order for the church to expand in the ways that I hope and pray that it will, there are going to need to be more pastors and teachers. But if those people decide to compete with one another over who is the better pastor or teacher, then there is going to be a problem. If they look at each other as opponents rather than fellow workers in the ministry then there will be issues.
And for my own part, what if I helped guide and teach someone to preach and teach that was obviously more blessed than myself in ministry. I would need to have the humility that John had here and celebrate it rather than take it personally.
My whole point in talking about all of these things is that we need to keep our eyes on Jesus and His mission. It’s not about us. It’s not about ourselves receiving notoriety or a lot of attention. It’s about exalting Jesus and preaching the gospel. It’s about people hearing the gospel and coming to faith in Christ. It’s about people growing up to be fruit bearing disciples of Jesus Christ.
Are we to work with all our might? Absolutely. I am sure that John the Baptist did. But even as he worked with all his might, John was able to look past the jealousy and into what really mattered. And by God’s grace we will be able to do the same.
Understand Who is to be Exalted: Jesus Christ (John 3:29-31)
John now moves to an illustration to teach about his role. John states that he is the friend of the bridegroom and Jesus is the groom. And we should infer from this that the Church is the bride.
The friend of the bridegroom was an official role in a wedding. This person was similar to the role of a best man in a wedding today, but it was different. He had a responsibility to get the groom to the wedding and a lot of responsibilities in the Wedding Feast. He did a lot to get the groom to the bride, but he was not the groom. Once groom and bridegroom were joined together his job was over.
And at the end of this illustration John utters those words that we remember so well from here.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”” (John 3:30 ESV)
Like the best man that fades into the background, John the Baptist has done what he was supposed to do. He served that greater purpose. It is Jesus, not John the Baptist who is above all. And it is Jesus, not John the Baptist that is to be exalted.
As a church, as a pastor, as Sunday School teachers, as parents, we are striving to do something with our lives. We are striving to bring people to Jesus. We are striving to exalt Christ. We are striving to see people brought to saving faith and become mature in their Christianity.
This is a lot of work. We do a lot of thinking as to how this is happening. We pray that the Lord will bless our labor. The Lord gave us our faculties to be used for His glory and honor. I have a mind and a body and it is to be spent for His glory and honor. And we go forth and work with all our might to see these things take place. We are going forth to accomplish this tremendous task that has been set out before us.
What is the role of a pastor, or a teacher, or even a parent teaching their children about Jesus?
It’s not to exalt ourselves. It’s not to look down upon others. It’s to exalt Jesus.
I get the creeps a little when pastors walk out on stage to their own walk out music and video. It feels a lot like watching professional wrestling. It feels like I’m watching a performance that exalts the personality. It is likely not the case for some of these people, but with others I’m not so sure.
Churches can be built around personalities. And that can be very dangerous. That can be dangerous for the people when the person fails, there are numerous examples of this around our country. And it can be dangerous for the people the place was built around as they grow less humble. It puts both the church and the pastor in a precarious situation.
But beyond that, it is missing why pastors and churches exist in the first place. John the Baptist’s ministry was not about John the Baptist. It was about Jesus. He was the forerunner of the Messiah, and now that he had brought people to Jesus he had completed his job.
John the Baptist strove with all His might. But he wasn’t doing it for him. He was bringing people to Jesus.
As a pastor, I need to understand that the Church is not my domain to play around in and do whatever I want. It is Jesus’s Church. And I am to lead this church, preach, and teach in a way that leads people to Jesus.
If you teach here now or in the future, you need to teach in a way that exalts Jesus. It’s not about you. It’s about Him. You’re not in a competition with all the other teachers. You are not exalting yourself or trying to make a name for yourself. You are exalting Jesus. You are teaching kids about Jesus. You are proclaiming Him.
This also influences how we view other churches.
Understand the Mission: That People Would Believe in Jesus (John 3:32-36)
Now the tone changes. Jesus bore witness to what He knew. As we’ve seen repeatedly already in the Gospel of John and even in this chapter, Jesus came from Heaven. Jesus intimately knew the truth and He delivered the truth. But the people were rejecting His testimony. As we saw in John 1, not everyone rejected His testimony though.
Those that receive His testimony, set their seal to, or are able to confirm that God is true (John 3:33). They have eternal life. They have been united to God through the finished work of Christ. Those that believe have eternal life. Those that do not believe do not have eternal life. God’s wrath remains upon them (John 3:36).
John had a job and that was to point people to Jesus. He was to point people to Jesus, who testified concerning Himself.
This is a message delivered to people that are lost and dead in their sin. It is pointed out here, as well as last week, that they already stand condemned. They already stand condemned before God. God’s wrath hangs over their head.
God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He lived perfect life and accomplished all righteousness on behalf of us wicked sinners and died on the cross paying the punishment for our sins. Three days later, He rose from the grave. And because of this, we can have salvation in Him.
We don’t tend to think of people as Jesus does here. Those people that you work with and go to school with that reject the message of Christianity, are not people that are in a good position. They are condemned already. The wrath of God stands over their head.
Jonathan Edwards’s sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is thought to be the sermon that sparked the First Great Awakening.
“Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards Hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of Hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; not is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve your for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God’s enemies. God’s creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays His rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor.” (Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
Edwards captures the idea of our text today in that sermon, though he was preaching from a different passage of Scripture. There are two things going on at the same time with God and the sinner.
First, God’s wrath is hanging over them. He is angry with them. They have offended Him. And they have earned His wrath. It is an act of mercy that He didn’t pour it out on you yesterday. It is currently hanging over your head.
Second, God has not yet given this to you. He has given the opportunity to come to Him. Right now you still live, breathe, and though God’s wrath hangs over your head, you have been given the opportunity to believe in Him today.
We are to point people to Jesus. He is their only Savior. He is the only means by which they can be saved. And we are to be pointing people to Him.
This is not about pointing people to ourselves.
Conclusion
Point people to Jesus. Tell them about Him. You have friends, family, and coworkers that need to hear about Him. Go to them. Pray for them. Declare the gospel to them. Work with all your might for them to know Christ and become fruit bearing disciples.
And always remember, this is about Him!