Exalting Jesus
Text: John 3:22-36
Introduction
1. Illustration: I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.
My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotion, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.
My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me…my banner will be clear!"
— by Dr. Robert Moorehead (pastor of Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, Washington for 29 years).
2. Unfortunately, there aren't nearly enough Robert Moorehead's in our world today. We live in a world that would rather exalt self rather than Jesus.
3. When it comes to exalting Jesus...
a. Ego Gets In The Way
b. Humility Looks To The Greater Good
c. Benefits And Disadvantages
4. Let's stand together as we read John 3:22-36
Proposition: Everything falls into place when we realize that Jesus is First and we are second.
Transition: The problem that we as humans have with exalting Jesus is...
I. Ego Gets In The Way (22-26).
A. Instead Of Coming To Us
1. As we read through John's Gospel we need to take into consideration that he had a specific purpose in mind, and that was to tell the story of Jesus life and ministry from his perspective and to show him to be the unique Son of God, the Savior of the world.
a. However, in doing so he was also dealing with certain challenges that his congregation was dealing with at this particular time.
b. One of those challenges had to do with the disciples of John the Baptist, some of which never quite got the messages that the Baptist taught about Jesus.
c. This section of the Gospel deals with this issue.
2. It starts out with, "Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people."
a. We should notice two things about Jesus here. First, he cared about ordinary people. He didn't stay in the city or at the mega church, but he went into the countryside.
b. Second, he cared about his disciples. He was among other things a mentor, and spent time teaching his disciples.
c. "Spent some time" translates another word that is not very specific, but we get the impression of an unhurried period during which Jesus and his followers got to know each other better.
d. We do not read of Jesus as baptizing in any other Gospel, and from 4:2 we learn that the actual baptizing was carried out by the disciples, not by Jesus in person.
e. It is difficult to think of this as Christian baptism in the later sense. More probably it represents a continuation of the "baptism of repentance" that was characteristic of John the Baptist, though with some implication of adherence to Jesus.
f. Both Jesus and his first disciples had come from the circle around John, and it may well be that for some time they continued to urge people to submit to the baptism that symbolized repentance.
g. We know that Jesus' first preaching was the same as that of John, "Repent" (Morris, New International Commentary, The - The New International Commentary on the New Testament – The Gospel According to John).
3. This is where the problem comes in. In v. 23 we read, "At this time John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to him for baptism."
a. The focus now moves from Jesus to John the Baptist. For John baptism was a big part of his ministry, thus the name "Baptist," so there were two things necessary to his ministry, spiritual need...and water!
b. Therefore, John chose this particular location because there was an abundance of water. there is a striking accuracy in the statement that there was "plenty of water" or, more literally, "many waters" there, for in this locality there are seven springs within a radius of a quarter of a mile (Morris, 210).
c. Plus we can see from the verb tense that people kept coming to John for baptism, which indicates the spiritual need.
4. It was during this time, "A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing. 26 So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.”
a. John's disciples get a little jealous that Jesus was having more success than they were.
b. While Jesus is not mentioned by name, it is obvious that he was the one they were referring to because it says, "the one you identified as the Messiah."
c. This shows that Jesus stayed with John longer than we might have expected based on the writers explanation back in chapter 1, because John's disciples not only acknowledge what John said about Jesus but also where he said it, the Jordan River.
d. They are saying that he is becoming more important than John and they don't think that this is right.
e. They were more concerned with who got the credit than what was right,
B. Exalting Self
1. Illustration: D. L. Moody said,
"I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts.
But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled."
2. You cannot exalt Jesus if you are full of yourself.
a. Isaiah 2:11 (NLT)
Human pride will be brought down, and human arrogance will be humbled. Only the LORD will be exalted on that day of judgment.
b. In order to exalt Jesus we have to be willing to put aside our own desires.
c. In order to exalt Jesus we have to be willing to lay down our ego and recognition.
d. We have to be willing to put others first.
e. We have to be willing to put the Kingdom first.
f. We have be willing to empty ourselves so that Jesus can fill us.
g. We have to be willing to take second place so that Jesus can be exalted.
Transition: The opposite of ego and self is humility. The reason this is so important is...
II. Humility Looks At The Greater Good (27-30).
A. He Must Become Greater
1. The opposite of ego and pride is humility, and John the Baptist is a great example of humility.
2. Look at how John responds to his followers when they questioned him about Jesus. He says, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven."
a. John's reply to his disciples is an immediate justification of Jesus' ministry and importance.
b. He says, "no one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven." In other words, everything that I have came from heaven, and everything that Jesus is getting comes from heaven.
c. John sees the hand of the Father in everything. If people were flocking to Jesus, that was because the Father wanted it that way (Morris, 212).
d. John’s reply to his disciples was the response of a man who knew his place in God’s plan. He knew that a person is not able to do anything unless it has been given to him or her from God (Barton , Life Application New Testament Commentary, 386).
3. Then John tells his disciples, "You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’"
a. "You yourselves" is emphatic. "You," John is saying, "have the answer already if you will only think of the significance of what you have already heard."
b. He had spoken on this subject before and plainly said that he was not the Christ. They should have remembered that.
c. His "I" is also emphatic; there is to be no doubt about his disclaimer.
d. "I ... am only here" is in the perfect tense, which indicates that his permanent character was that of a man sent from God to prepare the way for the Messiah. Nothing can change that.
e. The success of Jesus is not at all difficult to explain if John was truly sent from God.
f. On the contrary, it was the most natural thing in the world. For Jesus is the One whom John came to prepare the way (Morris, 212).
4. Then John uses an illustration that most people of his day could relate to, that of a wedding. He says, "It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success."
a. John is not unhappy at all about what is happening. On the contrary, he rejoiced because of it!
b. He now uses the illustration of a wedding to bring this out. At a wedding the bridegroom is the important man.
c. His friend may stand by him and rejoice with him. Indeed, in the Jewish scene he could do more.
d. "The friend who attends the bridegroom" was an important person. He was responsible for many of the details of the wedding, and in particular it was he who brought the bride to the bridegroom.
e. But when he had done this, his task was over. He did not expect to take the center of the stage. "The bride belongs to the bridegroom."
f. But a wedding is a happy occasion for others than the bridegroom. The bridegroom's friend "is full of joy."
g. The joy of his friend brings joy to him, too. In the same way, says John, his own joy, not simply that of Jesus, fills him completely.
h. The news his disciples brought him was what he had been longing to hear. It filled his cup of joy to the full (Morris, 213).
5. Then John says something that is the epitome of humility. He says, "He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less."
a. The last words of the Baptist recorded in this Gospel are perhaps the greatest words ever spoken by any human being.
b. It is not easy to gather people to an important purpose, but it is even harder to get them to leave and follow someone else.
c. That is exactly what John does here, and it is the measure of his greatness for doing so.
d. Jesus, he says, "must" become greater. It is not merely advisable, nor is it the way events might happen to turn out.
e. There is a compelling divine necessity behind the expression.
f. John sets "he" and "I" over against one another in emphatic contrast.
g. They are not cast for identical or even similar roles. It is God's plan that the Messiah must continually increase.
h. The servant, however, must of necessity decrease. It is never the part of the servant to displace the Master.
i. This lesson is something that must be learned in every age. Jesus must always increase and we must always decrease (Morris, 214).
B. He Who Humbles Himself
1. Illustration: "I used to think, that God’s gifts were on shelves - one above another, and the taller we grow, the easier we can reach them. Now I find that God’s gifts are on shelves - one beneath another, and the lower we stoop, the more we get!" F.B. Meyer
2. We reach our highest goal when we realize that God's will is of the utmost importance.
a. Colossians 1:18 (NASB)
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
b. We have arrived when we come to the realization that what God wants is more important than what we want.
c. That it doesn't matter if I get the glory as long as Jesus gets the glory.
d. That it doesn't matter if I get the credit as long as Jesus is exalted.
e. That it doesn't matter if I get a pat on the back as long as people are coming to Jesus.
f. It is better to have no one recognize you now and to have Jesus recognize you before the Father.
g. If Jesus is praised then everybody wins!
Transition: When it comes to ego and humility there are some obvious...
III. Benefits and Disadvantages (31-36).
A. Anyone Who Believes
1. John continues his declaration of the greatness of Jesus. He says, “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else."
a. John is saying this so that his followers will understand the reality of the situation.
b. His followers may think of him as the Messiah, but he cannot compare with the Messiah.
c. The Baptist is "from the earth." He does not come "from above." His teaching is important, but it must always be borne in mind that it is of earthly origin.
d. The repeated affirmation that Christ is "greater" is impressive. He is absolutely preeminent. The words refer to all things and all people (Morris, 215).
2. Then John says, "He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! 33 Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. 34 For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit."
a. "What he has seen and heard" is another way of expressing certainty. The teaching of the Master is not a hypothesis put forward as a basis for discussion; it is the truth.
b. He teaches what he knows. But even though what he says is seen to be supremely reliable, people in general do not accept it.
c. John has already made it clear in this chapter that we must all be reborn.
d. In our natural condition we will not accept Christ's witness. The world, as a whole, is not interested in the truth that Jesus came to bring. John sorrowfully makes it plain that people do not receive his witness (Morris, 216).
e. John is thinking not of a continuous, day-by-day receiving of the witness of Jesus (though that, too, is important), but of the act where someone decides to accept Jesus and Jesus' witness.
f. Anyone who does this does more. That person sets a seal on the proposition that God is true. that is meant here.
g. Those who accept Christ are not merely entering into a relationship with a fellow human being.
h. They are accepting what God has said. They are recognizing the heavenly origin of Jesus.
i. They are acknowledging the truth of God's revelation in Christ. They are proclaiming to all their deep conviction that God is true.
j. Truth is rooted in the divine nature. But there is also an emphasis on Jesus who bears the decisive witness to God (Morris, 217).
k. His words are not merely human words, but divine. Therefore, to receive his witness is the same thing as to receive the words of God.
l. The Father gives the Spirit to the Son without measure. There is perfect communion between them, and no limit to the gift. His perfect gift with the Spirit guarantees the truth of his words (Morris, 218).
3. John shows us that life is a pass/fail proposition. There is no close enough; you either do or don't. He says, "The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. 36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”
a. The mutual love of the Father and the Son means a lot in this Gospel. John pictures for us a perfect unity in love.
b. Here the point is that the love of the Father for the Son guarantees the Son's notable powers.
c. People may trust the Son in all things, for the Father "has placed everything in his hands."
d. In the context this refers especially to the gift of life in the Spirit. People may come to Jesus as they would come to God.
e. While John is sure of Jesus' preeminent place, he is also sure of his real humanity.
f. As a man Jesus depended on the Father as other men do. In this we see his lowliness, and his perfect example to us (Morris, 219).
g. Eternal life is here, regarded as the present possession of believers. When people put their trust in Christ they are born again, they enter a new life. The decisive thing has happened.
h. They will in due course pass through the doorway of death, but that does not change the fact that eternal life is theirs already. In the things that matter they are alive eternally.
i. This verse shows that for him faith and conduct are closely linked. Faith necessarily issues in action.
j. Disobedience cuts people off from that life which is real life. Far from seeing life they can look for nothing but the continuing wrath of God.
k. "The wrath of God" is a concept that our society has a hard time dealing with, and people try to soften the expression or explain it away.
l. This cannot be done, however, without doing great disservice to many passages of Scripture and without detracting from God's moral character (Morris, 219-222).
m. You can either accept him and live, or not and don't!
B. Eternal Life
1. Illustration: An elderly couple passed away and found themselves at the pearly gates. Peter was there to welcome them. First he showed them their mansion. The man overwhelmed by the sheer luxury of it all asked, "How much does this place cost per night?" Peter replied, "Sir, this is Heaven, it doesn’t cost anything." Then Peter took them to the dining room where table upon table was piled high with the most delicious foods you could imagine. Again overwhelmed by the glory of it all the man asked, "How much for the meals?" Peter said, "You forget, this is Heaven, it’s free." Peter then took them out back where they saw a fantastically beautiful golf course. As the man stood there open-mouthed Peter said, "Now before you ask, there are no greens fees, this is Heaven, everything is free." The man looked at his wife and said, "You and your confounded bran muffins, I could have been here 10 years ago!"
2. Life is filled with consequences. We can choose Jesus and live or not choose Jesus and face eternal death.
a. John 3:18-19 (NLT)
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
b. God's plan of salvation is very simple: accept what Jesus has already done for you and live.
c. You don't have to wear the right clothes or drive the right car.
d. You don't have to keep a bunch of rules and regulations.
e. All you have to do is accept Jesus and be born again.
f. However, if you don't there are consequences, and they are severe.
g. Just as there are two sides to every coin, there is a heaven and there is a hell.
h. Hell is not the consequence for being bad; it is the consequence for not accepting Jesus!
i. The invitation is out there and he is awaiting your reply!
Conclusion
1. When it comes to exalting Jesus...
a. Ego Gets In The Way
b. Humility Looks To The Greater Good
c. Benefits And Disadvantages
2. Is your ego getting in the way?
