Who is the greatest?
Notes
Transcript
Jesus is the bridegroom
Jesus is the bridegroom
Am I successful? Are you successful? Well that answer depends right? What does it depend on? It depends on the criteria you use to measure success right? Am I successful as NFL running back well that one is easy to answer isn’t it. I didn’t even play high school football let alone in the NFL. What if you want to measure my success based on the millions in my bank account? Wow do I fail miserably there. So the question I want to examine as we make our way through the text this morning, is how should we measure our success or ultimately our value. Because I think they are intertwined. I think we want to be successful because we want to be valued. So keep that in your mind as we turn to our text in John chapter 3 this morning.
John 3:22–30 (ESV)
After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, 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.”
What does our passage say about God?
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.
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
Why is John the Baptist pointing this out?
25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification.
26 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.”
This ties into what does our text say about man. Our hearts love attention. We like to judge the success of our ministries by numbers but what does John the Baptist say?
27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’
29 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.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
R.C. Sproul
“What do we have that we haven’t received? every talent and ability that we have has been given to us from God, and we understand that we all have our own vocations. The term vocation comes from the Latin word that means “to call.” God has called each one of us to the place where we are in this life.
Sadly, we often slip into jealousy, envy, and backbiting, trying to advance our position at others’ expense - tearing down our neighbors so that we can replace them in status or in exaltation. When we do that, we despise the gifts that God has distributed in His wisdom.”
We like to look at the Pharisees from a distance and judge them. Don’t we. Which isn’t hard to do. Because scripture makes it easy because it constantly reminds us of their heart. Doesn’t it?
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.
28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
and also in Matthew
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
The one online article had this to say about vipers
The viper was seen to be an evil creature. Its venom was deadly, and it was also devious—the viper that bit Paul was hiding in the firewood (Acts 28:3). The Hebrew Scriptures, which the Pharisees knew well, associate the serpent with Satan in Genesis 3. For John to call the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” implies that they bore satanic qualities. This idea is clearly stated by Jesus in John 8:44,
where He says the unbelieving Jews “belong to [their] father, the devil.” When John and Jesus called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers,” they were pointing out that these men were deceitful, dangerous, and wicked—deceitful in that they were hypocrites (Matthew 23:15); dangerous in that they were blind leaders of the blind (Matthew 15:14); and wicked in that their hearts were full of murder (John 8:37).
There is another aspect to Jesus calling them a brood of vipers look at Matthew 23 verse 33
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Another fascinating detail is found in Jesus’ use of the epithet “brood of vipers” to describe the Pharisees. In Matthew 23:33, He says, “You brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” Farmers, then as now, often burned the stubble of their fields to get the land ready for the next planting season. As the fires neared the vipers’ dens, the snakes would slither away from the flames, but they often did not escape being consumed. Snakes fleeing the fire was a common sight, and Jesus’ words to the Pharisees would likely have called it to their minds. How could they think they would escape the fire of God’s judgment by relying on their own works, which were not at all honest or good? John’s and Jesus’ calling them a brood of vipers was meant to make them aware of their own wickedness and call them to repent.
What hope do we have from this passage? I want to look at 2.
First, If you repent and believe, your bridegroom is coming again.
Second, if you yield to the Holy Spirit in your life, can overcome your tendency to judge your worth and value based on success. You can replace the jealousy and envy with contentment. You are not here to see how much stuff you can accumulate or how many exotic vacations you can go on or what titles you can achieve? Life really isn’t about you at all. Your goal is to make much of Christ? Verse 30 should be our motto.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
“You are divinely assigned to the people in your world, divinely positioned by God as His spiritual rescuer for those around you. Grasp that reality and your every day activities and relationships will gain great significance. You will be getting a glimpse of the eternal impact you were made for.”
“It must have been a staggering thing for eleven humble Galileans to be sent forth to the conquest of the world. Even as they heard it their hearts must have failed them. But no sooner was the command given, than the promise followed. They were sent out - as we are - on the greatest task in history, but with them there was the greatest presence in the world.” William Barclay