“From Good to Great”
John 3:22-36
Several years ago Jim Collins wrote a book titled “Good to Great.” It is the story of how effective leaders can take a business that is already doing well and take it to the next level. One of the quotes from his book is this: “good is the enemy of great.” And that is one of the key reasons why we ever achieve greatness at anything. Because it’s just way too easy to settle for good. We don't have great schools, primarily because we settle for good schools. We don't have great government, because we settle for good government. We don’t have great churches because we settle for good churches. But today’s society tells us we must be great; good is not enough…. we have to focus on moving up and climbing the ladder to success. So which is it?
It is actually an issue that the Bible addresses. And don’t let this scripture confuse you because it means exactly what it says. John, the forerunner of Jesus had come forth to introduce Jesus. He began to build a following; he began to baptize. These disciples not fully understanding yet who Jesus was said to John, “that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan ----the one you testified about (Jesus) well, he is baptizing and everyone is going to him.” They must have thought that John and Jesus were competing for people to baptize…. To see who could baptize the most people. John had a following…Jesus had a following. So there were John’s disciples and there were Jesus’ disciples. It was early in the ministry of Jesus and they didn’t understand fully where john was leading them. So John gives a great answer, a simple answer…here it is… Jesus must become greater; I must become less. He must increase, I must decrease. You see if you and I want to be truly great then you must follow these principles ......
* if you really want to be something then you must become nothing.
* If you want to go up in life then you must learn to come down.
* If you want more of God then there must be less of you.
This is the model we find in the lifestyle of Jesus. Paul said that Jesus, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” The Bible makes it clear that Jesus came “down” into the world and not only did He come down, he came down from the very top.
* He was God, yet he became man and would suffer from much pain on the cross.
* He owned everything, the cattle on a thousand hills yet while here He had no home, Bible says no place to lay his head
* He was the King of Kings but He became a servant
He did all of this for at least 4 reasons. (1) He did it to accomplish God’s purpose. (2) He did it to pay the price of our sin debt. (3) He did it to demonstrate God’s love for us. (4) He did it to show us how to be truly great.
We come to this passage immediately following the conversation in chapter 3 between Jesus and Nicodemus. You remember Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. Following that conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus and His disciples traveled about 50 miles to an area called Salim which is located along the Jordan River. As I have already stated, John (the Baptist) was at the same place and was baptizing people on the other side of the Jordan River. It was at that point that an argument developed between some of the disciples of John and they said to him, John, that man (that man was Jesus!) who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, He is baptizing and EVERYONE is going to Him.
Sounds almost like a child to me. You know Mama, Daddy, I want a pair of 200 dollar shoes ... everyone’s buying them. I want to go to the party this weekend at the beach ...Everybody is going and everybody’s parents are letting them stay out past midnight. And then as parents we say well if everyone is jumping off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge do you want to also? Because we all know everyone’s not doing it.
These men were loyal followers of John the Baptist. Now this new fellow comes into town and to them it was almost as though there was now competition. If you’ve got the only place in town where someone can get a certain item then you don’t get very excited when competition comes to town.
Look at how John’s disciples referred to Jesus. They didn’t call Him by name. John knew who Jesus was; his disciples didn’t ... at least not yet. So they were jealous and they remarked “everyone” is going to him. So John does something very important here… he explains to His followers that he is not the Christ ... he explains that he was actually sent to be the forerunner of Christ. The one who would let others know that Jesus was coming.
Now look at the illustration he gives us. Bride and groom. In that day when the time of the wedding arrived it was the responsibility of the best man/best friend of the groom to take care of a number of the details for the wedding. The best man would be the connection between the groom and the bride. Basically the best man arranged the wedding, delivered the invitations and was the MC for the event. He also had one final duty, when it was time it was his responsibility to guard the bridal room. In that day men tried to make their way into the bridal room to (hopefully) take the bride away. So it was the job of the best man to guard the door. He would know what the groom’s voice sounded like and whether it was him or not and only the groom would be allowed to enter. Once he took care of that task, his job was over. He never felt used or slighted. You see his job was to bring the bride and groom together. That was it. And once that job was complete, his job was to simply fade into the background.
John’s disciples would have understood this analogy completely. John’s job was to bring the bride, the church and Jesus, the bridegroom together. And now that the job was complete, John was happy, he didn’t feel slighted or used and his job now was to fade into the background. To fade out of the picture. John put it this way…. He must increase, I must decrease. You see if you want to find/experience greatness we must do exactly what John did. We must decrease .... He must increase.
At one time or another all of us have asked the question, Lord why did you put me here? What’s my purpose? How can I find my purpose? So to do that this is the way we start thinking….if I am going to find my purpose then I have to work on “me.”
* I just need to focus on me for a while or
* I think I will just do whatever feels good or
* If it makes me happy it must be the right thing.
And all of these responses have one thing in common ...they’re selfish. They’re all about us. You see there’s this thing inside of us that says what about me? Look at me. It’s all about me! But it’s not. It’s about Him! Three things I notice here that seemed to give him perspective. (1) He knew who he was. (2) He also knew who he wasn’t. V. 28. (3) He knew who Jesus was. V. 29.
Now I want us to get a grip here this morning on what this means for Jesus to increase and for us to decrease. Because this is very much a part of being a real disciple.
1. We must remember where we came from. Know the source of your life. Know your roots. V. 27. Never lose sight of how far God has brought you.
2. We must remember our calling. Think about the moon for a moment. Ever looked up into the sky and seen a full moon? Orange perhaps. It’s beautiful. You think, how can this one object have so much light? How can this one object light up the entire sky? You probably know that the moon has no light of its own. The sun does but not the moon. The moon is just a big round black rock. But when it is in the right position to the sun it has light and it reflects that light and we can see it. You and I have no light in and of ourselves. But we are in the right position and are completely dependent on God we will be light. Our calling is to reflect His light. He is the light of the world.
3. We must know where our joy and peace come from. Jesus is the source of our joy in life. You will not find lasting joy anywhere else. V. 29.
4. We must learn to base your goals in life on His purpose for us. These two things, His purpose and your goals must always, always line up. He must be first, we are 2nd.
I had the pleasure of coaching Little League for about 5 years and did so during the time my 3 boys played, so I coached the team they played on. On one occasion we were two runs behind in the final inning with a runner on 2nd. And who was coming to bat? Brian. Brian was a slugger. He hit the ball to right center field and it dropped in right by the fence. The runner scored and Brian ran those bases like lightning, rounding 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the 3rd base coach was telling him to hold at 3rd (that was me). I wanted to just reach and out and grab him by his jersey was he came by but we couldn’t do that. He didn’t see me or he wasn’t paying attention so he rounded third and headed for home. I was yelling come back, come back ... he kept running, he slid right under the catcher just as he caught the ball. Looked up and the umpire said, He’s safe. We won the game. The team flooded out of the dugout and lifted Brian up in the air and carried him to the dugout. I asked Brian recently… I said, you ever think about that? He said yeah, all the time. It’s good to be able to recall a good memory like that. But what if as his father and his coach I had said wait a minute I’m the one who coached him, I showed him how to hit, what about me? Pick me up and carry me around the field. We do that too often.
Someone said it’s amazing how much we can get done in life when we don’t care who gets the credit. I mean after all, I really just helped him get prepared. He is the one that got the hit. He’s the one that ran the bases. He deserved the credit. That’s the best attitude. Give Jesus the credit. He’s the one who deserves it. I must decrease...He must increase.
