Enjoy and Exalt
Notes
Transcript
Claim - John the Baptist exhults Jesus for he is from above
Focus - Jesus is above all, how sad that some reject, but we must live to exhult Him
Function - To see the majesty of Jesus and exhult him in all of life
PRAY
Zeke, our youngest son has recently outgrown his bike,
so we did what any loving parent does,
we worked out the cheapest way forward,
and bought his older brother Zeph a new bike and gave Zeke the handmedown!
But it was something about the enourmous box that Zeph’s new bike came in that got me thinking
about how today’s passage might have something to say about the world we live in.
was flogging this ‘life is all about me’ message.
And even the box that the bike came in wanted was flogging this ‘life is all about me’ message.
Here’s a picture
SLIDE - Your world, Bike it
was flogging this ‘life is all about me’ message.
It’s amazing how self centred and self-absorbed we and the world we live in is
This world belongs to me,
The right thing todo is do what I most want to do with it!
Even bike companies are flogging the ‘life is all about me’ message..
Every which way you turn, life is all about makeing sure you are number one.
Do what makes you happy,
Put number one first, then think about others.
Every sales slogan, life motto, motivational idea is based around me, number one!
It’s your world, bike it
It’s your world, live it.
Your life, you choose how to use it.
Me, Me, Me
Me, Me, Me
And if you were here last week, as we looked at the begining of chapter 3,
that 'me first’ attitude, to some extent, is the attitude that Nicodemus had.
I can do life my way.
Sure his aim was to have a good relationship with the God of creation,
but he went about it under his own strength.
My life, I’ll decide how to get to God.
We could have had this passage included with last weeks, in that it provides a preety stack contrast between 2 different attitudes towards Jesus.
And even the box that the bike came in wanted was flogging this ‘life is all about me’ message.
Here’s a picture
SLIDE - Your world, Bike it
We could have had this passage included with last weeks, in that it provides a preety stack contrast between 2 different attitudes towards Jesus.
Last weeks passage, 3v1-21, we met a Jewish leader called Nicodemus.
Nicodemus went to visit Jesus at night becasue he didn’t want his fellow jews
to see him even investigating who Jesus was.
His night time visit though seemed to symbolise the darkness of his attitude towards Jesus.
He though he was a pretty special guy!
An educated Jewish leader wiith what he thought was a good undertsnading of the OT.
He thought his education,
his obedienec to God even,
was what was required to have a relatiionship with God.
Or to put it more simply to have a relationship with God the creator of the world.
And now, as a deliberate contrast to the self-saving attitude of Nicodemus,
We meet, not for the first time in this book,
a man known as John the Baptist.
It’s porbably quite obvious why he’s called that.
And this week we meet, not for th first time in this book of John, a man known as John the Baptist. It’s porbably quite obvious why he’s called that.
To receive the pormise of eternal life after death, rather than face the etenral judgement of God
And life for John, is going pretty well.
Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized.
He was popular, people were coming to him to be baptised.
They believed what he was saying.
He had authority amoung the people.
Life wasn’t going to continue to be that good
, as our author points out in v24,
where we’re told all this happened before he was put in prison!
That reminder is there just to keep us on track with how we understand the narratove of this book.
We are jumoing around chronoligically to the historical narrative, in favour of John’s efforts to point out to us the Theological signifcance of the historical events in Jesus’s life.
But for now, things are good.
Hense we see this contrat bewtween Nicodemus and John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was not disimilar in his position in society to Nicodemus.
Respected, followed, with authority.
But John, unlike Nicodemus,
is NOT ‘worried’ about this new kid on the block, Jesus.
Far from coming to Jesus from a position of darkness,
John is all for Jesus and His light.
Despite the fact that Jesus is clearly becomeing a fairly direct competitor to John in the popularity stakes:
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized.
jojhn 3 22
Youd think John might feel a little threatened,
or anxious as Nicodemus did.
I’m sure the Costa Coffee staff in WP are a great bunch,
but they had to feel a little frustrated,
or under extra preassure to deliver their sales targets
when Nero Coffee opened directly opposite them a couple of years ago.
You probalby feel it at work, .
and depending on your postion will determin who or what casues you those feelings.
Perhaps it’s a new coleugue who joins your team but who seems a bit to good for ‘your’ own good!
Or an equal who you just want to pip to the post for the next promotion!
Or maybe you feel it when other parents seem to parent so much better that you,
Or how well your child performs compared to others.
Wow, that family has a child passing grade 8 frech horn,
another getting a sports scholarship
and another programming for microsoft at the age of 7.
And there’s Zeph and Zeke outside in the mud, trying to give each other weggies!
Social media inflates our feelings of inferiority,
and drives us to present an unrealistic image of oursleves.
BUT ALSO OUR We compare, feel threastened, want to be good at what we do, it’s so normal, that some of the Jews, probably a follower of John the Baptist, wants to know what John is goign to do about this Jesus and his plageristic tendancies to be copycatting John’s ministry!
I started using Strava a couple of weeks ago,
We compare, feel threastened, want to be good at what we do, it’s so normal, that some of the Jews, probably a follower of John the Baptist, wants to know what John is goign to do about this Jesus and his plageristic tendancies to be copycatting John’s ministry!
A fitness app designed, I guess, to motivate you as you compare and see the activiites of others!
I’ve now barely run or cycled anywhere it’s so depressing comparing myself to others!
It’s just normal life isn’t it.
To compare, for good or bad reasons.
It’s just normal.
We compare, feel threastened,
want to be good at what we do,
it’s so normal,
And it was normal in Jesus’s day.
And so, what is John is goign to do about this Jesus
and his plageristic tendancies to be copycatting John’s ministry!
An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
jon 3 25-26
John you need, some google targeteed marketing,
I know a marketing guy
perhaps a flash sale,
or better still a flash mob singing about you,
and how good your baptisms are!
We need a better pipeline stratergy,
and a review of our key staff roles.
Maybe even a slur campaign!
That was Nicodemus’s thought process!
He did a little competitor research, what’s Jesus offering that we’re not.
So how is John the Baptist going to respond?
To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am 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 is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
john 3 27-
What a brillaint illustration John gives us!
Using familiar Christian imagery, John puts everything in it’s perfect place.
Jhn knows he has a significant role to play for God.
He is the messenegr,
the one calling out ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’.
He is important.
But, now, the Bridgegroom is here, why on earth would he wnat to stop the bride (the people), going to the bridegroom!
I’m the Best man he says, my job,
more than that, my joy is complete
when the bride is finally wed to the bridegroom!
Despite my importance in the lead up to the big wedding day,
He must become greater; I must become less.”
It’s a fairly alien thought in our culture isn’t it,
to want, or even find joy in deliberatly elevating someone else above ourselves.
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
But, this account is NOT here just to encourage us to be humble,
or to know our place in society,
or to be loving and kind towards those we naturally feel competetive, or threatend by.
You see, this account is not here just to encourage us to be humble, or to know our place in society, or to be loving and kind towards those we naturally feel competetive, or threatend by.
John wamts his readers
This is not about us, this is about who Jesus is!
Why does he have such authority,
what makes him the bridegroom -
why does John want to fade into the background next to Jesus?.
It’s once we understand who Jesus is, that we can then slot our sleevs into this passage and work out what we should do about it.
Why must Jesus become greater while John becomes less?
We’re told in v31
The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all.
john 3 31
Jesus is from above and is above all!
It’s nothing new to those of us who have been reading through John.
Jesus is not just a man with a message from God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jesus is God.
And in his lifetime in real history, he claimed to be God!
You only have to look at the reaction of the jews at the time
to see how offended they were by this man claiming to be God!
Eventually they would kill him on a cross for his claims!
You might have heard the well known options that are available to classify Jesus.
He was either
Mad, Bad or God!
Mad, Bad or God!
Perhaps he was Mad,
deluded, suffering from serious mental health issues
- going around claimng to be God.
But then how do we explain the impressive teaching and debates receorded by historians.
How do we explain away the huge follwoing he had.
Why did anyone take him seriously if he was mad?
Why not just ignore him?
And how do you explain away his prophesies that came true,
and the way in which his life fulfilled som may OT propheises?
So perhaps he was bad - perhaps he was a liar and a fraud?
But then again,
surely he would have slipped up at times?
Why would he have so many followers?
Those close to him would surely see the truth?
And Why then did he live a life of poverty and sacrifice for others
- what was in it for him if he was bad?
Why would he maintain his lies even when facing death on the cross!
It just doesn’t add up!
The only other option seems to be that he was who he claimed to be!
He was God.
And unsuprisingly,
if we’re prepared to believe that,
then there really are very few questions left to explain at all!
All the miracels and sigsn and wonders are very believeable if he was God!
All his authoratitve teaching and impressive debates are very believable!
All his sacrificial love and servcie of others are demonstrtaions of the graciuious love of God!
But perhaps the only question left is,
if he was God,
why did he allow himslef to die?
Why Die?
Why Die?
And why did people reject him as v32 reminds us?
He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.
Not only did they not accept his testimony they would go on to put him to death on the cross.
It may look like failure to those who continue to reject Jesus,
but to those of us who believe in his truth,
that he is who he claimed to be,
Then his death is actually the most dramtic revelation of God’s love!
for those who are prepared to believe!
You see, to reject God,
to deny Jesus, is to a catastrophic mistake!
If God is who he says he is,
and we reject him,
then what ought He to do with us!?
In his righteous perfection, he must act.
As Tim said the other week,
would we want a God who is indifferent to sin and evil and rebelion?
No way.
And so to reject Jesus is to face the right and just wrath of God’s judgemnt, according to v36.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Payment is demanded for rebelion,
and each of us has rebelled in some way.
But, God in himself, in Jesus,
and this is why he died,
takes that punishment upon himself.
He, the one perfect man,
takes God’s wrath at the cross, so that, v36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Non-Christians, according to the bible, you are under God’s rightful wrath!
And Christians we have not escaped his wrath through our own work,
but through the work of Jesus!
For he is above all for he is from above!
We are called to be the bride,
awestruck by our wonderful bridegroom.
Who provides life for us,
Who leads us,
Who we trust unconditionaly.
Jesus, name above all names,
Jesus, Lord of Lords, King of Kings,
Wonderful saviour,
Beautiful one,
Comforter
Saviour
SLIDE - Blank
And John the Baptist gets this - he wants to EXHULT jesus!
all he wants todo is EXHULT, LIFT UP HIGH jesus!
“What am I going to do about Jesus, the competition?”
I’M GOING TO SEND EVERYONE I CAN TO HIM!
Everything about my life is for Him.
Not only that,
my joy is complete when I see him exhulted!
When his bride goes to him.
So, for us,
Perhaps you are one of those who has rejected Jesus.
You’re on the other side of the fence, where you believe the grass is greener.
Where you feel you know better,
you’re more enlightened,
or have your own opions about God or Jesus.
You own the world and you’re going to bike it however you think best.
Well John wants you to hear, quite clearly,
that there is only one God,
and he has chosen to reveal himself in one simple way,
and that is through himself in the person of Jesus.
It’s not your world, it His, and you can’t live it how you want,
You must live it for him.
And the truth of your situation is simple,
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Please, I urge you to reconsider
- read John’s Gospel, speak to a Christian friend, talk to me.
Perhpas you feel you’re sitting on the fence.
You havn’t outright rejected Jesus, but you’re not convinced yet either.
Well again, John is quite clear,
You have only 2 options.
beliefe or rejection - sitting on the fence is rejection by default, for you have not believed.
and you too need to hear 3v36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
For believers in Jesus, what does this passage do for us?
For believers in Jesus, what does this passage do for us?
Micxture of 2 things
1 - Enjoy Jesus
1 - Enjoy Jesus
We are the bride of the bridgegroom!
The people John the baptist describes as the bride of the bridgegroom!
We are loved beyond measure!
John finds joy in people going to Jesus, becasue of the eternal life they could receive from him!
Do not underestimate the greatness of Jesus,
and the joy he gives us both now and forever.
Our dark Feelings of uncertainty and meaningless are overshadowed
our dark lives become lives of light in Jesus.
Feelings of uncertainty, meaningless are replaced
with
confidence and meaning in Jesus,
Death and judgement is exchanged for life eternal and love.
No longer do we need to daily convince ourselevs
that happiness or contentlmet depend on our own self-will or ideas.
We have the truth, the joy,
the comfort of knowing all in working for our eternal good in Jesus.
Being a Christian of course does not make life easy.
And live to love God through obedience and loveing others around us, even our enemies!
But it is possible becasue Jesus gives us life, truth, light, eternity to look forward to him,
Being a Christian means we have truth and hope in the difficulty of life.
Perhpas when you’re feeling unsatified or stressed at work,
When you relationships or familiy is difficult,
- rememeber that Jesus layed down his life for you.
We enjoy him,
He’s preparing a place for you eternally,
when he returns.
He loves to hear from you in prayer,
he’s structuring the situations around you
to draw you closer to understanding his love for you!
Jesus is above all things,
So enjoy Jesus,
praise him,
We live for him,
obey him
be content in Him
We’re content in Him
For he is the bridegroom,
he Loves us enough to lay down his life for us
I don’t know what that might look like for you this week, but take time to think about enjoying Jesus this week.
Secondly,
He’s preparing a place for you eternally, when he returns.
He loves to hear from you in prayer,
he’s structuring the situations around you to draw you closer to undertsnading his love for you!
Jesus is above all things,
Enjoy Him.
2 - Exalt Jesus
2 - Exalt Jesus
As we think about applying this passage, we also need to consider how John’s attitude ought to affect ours?
Of course we’re not the best-man who lived to prepare the way for Jesus’s earthly life.
We are the bride.
the church of God, His people,
And the NT goes on to tell us that Jesus
has left us on this earth for now to spread the
good news of His Love,
for the forgiveness of sins.
But, we are the church of God, His people, who he has left on this earth to spread the good news of the love of Jesus, for the forgiveness of sins.
It is through us,
that more people will hear of Jesus.
And
our joy in life
ought to be in seeing others find Jesus! - Just as John did.
Should we not find joy in seeing others finding Jesus?
And the way they will do that is if our lives both as a church
and as individuals always exhult JEsus, not ourselves.
1 -
It’s always temptiing to do things that make us look good isn’t it.
It’s always temptiing to do things that improve oursleevs.
To have the ‘Our world, Bike it’ attitude.
As a church we could diminish the truth about Jesus,
or
dilute Jesus with other ways to God, other faiths are acceptable here.
forget the hard facts of sin and judgement,
becasue it would make us more cultrally acceptable.
We would look better!
We could diminish the truth about Jesus, the hard facts of sin and judgement in exchange for emotional and exstatic experince.
Perhpas as some other churchs have done.
We could dilute the truth of Jesus being the only way to eternal life with God.
Perhpas as some other churchs have done.
It’s a sad road that many, many churches have gone down,
in the name of love and inclusivity,
But it reverses v30
Perhpas as some other churchs have done.
He must become greater; I must become less.”
It’s to say,
Jesus must become less, so we can become greater!
He mu
But let’s not just point the finger,
BUt all of that is a self-centred, self driven context where the false bride appears to have no interest in the truth of the bridgeroom.
How often are we guilty of reversing that verse!
Our numbers could swell, but there would be no joy in heaven.
We must trust the truth of Jesus as revealed in the bible alone, and alwasy exhult Jesus, not oursleves, and trust him with the results.
We believe the lies of this world,
It’s your world so bike it however you want!
How are we goint o exhult Jesus.
It’s not your world!
It’s Jesus’s world,
and that should affect every breath we take!
Jesus who is from above and is bove all?
Wouldn’t it be to put him first in every situation, rather than ourselves?
Wouldn’t it be to put him first in every situation, rather than ourselves?
We must start by Enjoying Jesus our bridgroom,
And He should be such a joy to us,
That we exhult him with all of our lives.
How can you point others to him?
Some of us think of Jesus everyday.
We know that our decisions and thoughts affect our relationship with him.
All of life!
If you are not thinkning about him, there is something wrong!
John exhulted Jesus at every oppertunity and with all of his life as best he could?
Do you?
Audit you life!
howehfewi
We exist, our life ought to be all about Exhulting Jesus.
Jesus is not an add on to your life,
were we pray when we’re stuck,
go to church as insurance for heaven,
Think about him if we get a church email!
No, Jesus is your life,
For he bought your life with his!
So here’s a challenge this week.
Money, giving,
or you don’t really know him at all.
Time, serving, not just on Sundays
Reading the bible
Learn v30,
Praying
v30,
home groups,
And consider it everytime you are faced with a dicision this week.
use of your money,
hospitality
loving others
Can you behave in humility and love at work when you haven’t before, so perhaps your collegues might oneday ask, why are you so slefless?
And your answer could be becasue you don’t llive for yourself, you live for God, for His son Jesus, who loves you and gave you life.
YOu could do things at work to make yourself more popular, but it would point people to you not Jesus.
He is marvalous, how wonderful!
SONG WORDS!
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 7. John the Baptist’s Continuing Witness concerning Jesus (3:22–30)
This is the fourth successive section to point out ways in which Jesus fulfills and surpasses Judaism: in 2:1–11, Jesus provides new wine that vastly surpasses anything that contemporary Judaism could afford, and renders obsolete the stone jars of purification; in 2:12–25, Jesus displaces the temple and thereby intimates that the temple’s proper role is best seen as an anticipation of the ultimate point of mediation between God and man; in 3:1–21, Jesus fulfills prophecies of a ‘water and spirit’ regeneration, and proves in his death to be the ultimate antitype of the snake ‘lifted up’ in the desert; and hence (3:22–30) Jesus surpasses John the Baptist and any baptism or rite of purification he may represent. In the next chapter (4:1ff.), the uniqueness of Jesus will be set against movements that extend beyond the boundaries of Palestinian Judaism.
And ask yourself 2 things:
How can I Enjoy Jesus?
How can I Exhult Jesus?
The authentic messenger or agent from heaven is utterly superior to any and all (pantōn) earth-oriented persons (3:31), for he has seen and heard the realities of heaven and bears witness to those realities (3:32).
Borchert, G. L. (1996). (Vol. 25A, p. 193). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
PRAY
b
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 7. John the Baptist’s Continuing Witness concerning Jesus (3:22–30)
This Gospel repeatedly associates ‘joy’ with the verb plēroun (‘to fulfil’, ‘to complete’); here John the Baptist means that he has the final and ultimate satisfaction of knowing that his God-given (v. 27) ministry has been successful
n
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 7. John the Baptist’s Continuing Witness concerning Jesus (3:22–30)
3:30. In short, John says, He must become greater; I must become less. The ‘must’ (dei) is nothing less than the determined will of God. John finds his joy, not in grudgingly conceding victory to a superior opponent, but in wholeheartedly embracing God’s will, and the supremacy it assigns to Jesus. A great deal of later Christian piety has turned on the same truth.
Explanation
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 8. Extended Comment II (3:31–36)
From the immediate context, the Evangelist is explaining why Jesus the incarnate Word must become greater (v. 30): he alone is from above and is therefore above all. The Greek for ‘from above’, anōthen, immediately recalls 3:3: the new birth from above can be experienced only by faith in the One who is from above.
b
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 8. Extended Comment II (3:31–36)
John pessimistically evaluates the reception of the one from above: no-one accepts his testimony. In this he is merely repeating the evaluation of Jesus himself (3:11).
Revealtion of God is through Jesus alone, and Jesus is only speaking the word of God
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 8. Extended Comment II (3:31–36)
Throughout redemptive history, God spoke to his people through many accredited messengers. Each received that measure of the Spirit that was required for his or her assigned task. Three centuries after John wrote, Rabbi Aha rightly commented that the Holy Spirit who rested on the prophets did so according to the measure (bemišqal) of each prophet’s assignment (Leviticus Rabbah 15:2). Not so to Jesus: to him God gives the Spirit without limit (this is almost certainly the correct rendering). John the Baptist had already testified that he had seen the Spirit descend and remain on Jesus (1:32–33), in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (Is. 11:2; 42:1; 61:1); the same truth is repeated in new form. (Cf. also the notes on 4:23–24.)
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 8. Extended Comment II (3:31–36)
Because of his love for the Son, the Father has given the Spirit to him without limit, and has placed everything in his hands (cf. Mt. 11:27; Lk. 10:22). Even the unfolding of redemptive history finds its ultimate source in the loving relationships in the Godhead. ‘The Son is the Father’s envoy plenipotentiary, his perfect spokesman and revealer’ (Bruce, p. 97).
judgement
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 8. Extended Comment II (3:31–36)
Judgment has already been threatened (vv. 19–20); now it is alarmingly explicit. God’s wrath is not some impersonal principle of retribution, but the personal response of a holy God who comes to his own world, sadly fallen into rebellion, and finds few who want anything to do with him. Such people are ‘condemned already’ (cf. v. 18).