The Greatness of Jesus

Good morning. Our passage is John 3:22-36. Follow along as I read.

Let’s pray.

Father, help us to see Jesus for who he is; for who the Bible has revealed him to be. As we gaze into this passage for the next few minutes, let us be amazed by Jesus. Let us be swept off our feet by the fact that in love, you sent Jesus to us to save us. Now, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your eyes, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

INTRODUCTION:

Transcendent. Amazing. Record-breaking. I don’t know much about hockey as an Arkansan. But I know about Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky had a nickname and it was fairly simple: The Great One. Sports fans love to argue about who is or was the greatest player in their history. Basketball fans bring up Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Baseball fans have Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, or Hammerin’ Hank Williams. Golfers talk about Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, or Jack Nicklaus. But hockey fans – from what I can tell – are fairly united: Wayne Gretzky is the greatest player of all time. Other players of his time paled in comparison to Gretzky’s skill and intelligence. Have you ever been in the presence of greatness? I’ve never seen any of the people listed above play their respective sports. I’ve been to some great concerts and seen some great athletes. And when we are in the presence of greatness, it demands a sort of response from us. Like the words I used to open this illustration: transcendent, amazing, record-breaking. Those words were what other professional hockey players used to describe Gretzky. They were in awe.

But for all of his greatness, at some point, Gretzky retired. He’s no longer the greatest. He can’t play at the NHL level any more. His greatness, though it was wonderful to witness for his fans, was not permanent.

Today, I want to talk about Jesus and his greatness. Our passage is all about how Jesus is the greatest. Jesus’s greatness, however, transcends time, endures through eras, and is completely all-encompassing. His greatness will never retire, nor will it grow old. There is no debate. He is the great one. And I want to show you what his greatness produces in us and what it is worthy of from us. So here’s the main point today:

Main Point: Jesus’s all-encompassing Greatness produces in us never-ending joy and is worthy of our ever-devoted faith.

Our sermon today will just kind of break down that sentence. So the first part we will focus on simply the greatness of Jesus as we see it in this passage, then move on to talking about the never-ending joy that his greatness produces, and wrap up with the ever-devoted faith that is a response to that joy and greatness.

The Greatness of Jesus

Jesus has just had his conversation with Nicodemus, and he and his disciples made their way into the wilderness, and began a ministry wherein they were baptizing. In the first section of our text we again encounter John the Baptist. Again, this is not the same John who wrote this book of the Bible – that is John the apostle. John the Baptist was a prophet of God whose ministry was to expressly point forward to the coming Messiah.

That was his whole reason for ministry. John viewed himself as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” John had his own disciples, his own devoted students and assistants. And in verse 25, we see a dispute arise between a Jewish person and a disciple of John, which leads John into a lengthy discussion on Jesus. Now, we aren’t given much detail on what the Jewish person and John’s disciple were arguing about. Purification is the central point of their dispute, but that’s a big topic. Potentially, using “Jew” in this sense could be shorthand for a Jewish leader, a Pharisee. John was introducing a new way for purification, a baptism of repentance. He was still Jewish, but was pushing people forward in faith in the Messiah, and to trust in the coming Messiah rather than their works of the law. This would frustrate the Pharisees, as it would undermine their ministry of teaching and leading in a works-based system of righteousness and purification. John was preaching that people would be purified through repentance and faith in the Messiah. The Pharisees taught that purification came through works. That’s all we’ll really say about that since the verse is a little vague. This dispute on purification is not the focal point of this passage. Rather, the focus of this passage is John’s response to his followers’ concerns in verse 26.

The followers of John come to him and say, “Rabbi, the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, is baptizing and everyone is going to him.” Now, we don’t know the tone with which this statement was said. Most commentators agree, however, that John’s disciples might have been a little jealous of Jesus’s following. At this moment, they were only really thinking about their influence and their crowd. They weren’t thinking about who was leading the ministry across the river or if it was legitimate. We can understand that, right? People aren’t coming to our Bible study, or our events, or our Sunday services! They’re going somewhere else, but we still feel that frustration or competitive spirit.

In the face of this, John responds with such a beautiful response that we need to read it again:

27 “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” In the face of this complaint from his disciples, John simply responds with an exhortation of the greatness of Jesus. John simply did not care that people were going to be baptized by Jesus instead of him. In fact, that was kind of the point of his whole message. John’s whole ministry and life could be summed up in verse 30: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’

But let’s start at the beginning of John the Baptist’s response and see what makes Jesus’s greatness so great. We see 3 things in these verses that point to Jesus’s greatness:

He is Divine

First, John extols Jesus as God. ‘No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.’ John is saying that this ministry of his is from heaven. Whatever he was doing, has its source from God. His ministry was only possible under the sovereignty of God himself. And he has already pointed to his disciples in chapter 1 that Jesus is God. So in turn, John the Baptist is saying: “Look, whatever kind of ministry I am doing is under the divine rule and reign and authority of Jesus. I can’t do anything unless God gives it to me.” John the Baptist acknowledged that Jesus is God; Jesus is divine.

He is the telos of all of history

Not only is Jesus great because of his divine nature, but his greatness is proved because he is what we might call the telos. Telos is a fancy word meaning the end; the thing that everything else is leading up to and pointing to. John says that he was definitively not the Messiah.

He wanted his followers to know that his ministry was to play a role in pointing forward. In fact, that was the role of every prophet before John the Baptist.

Moses pointed forward. Isaiah pointed forward. Jeremiah pointed forward. To what? To the culmination, the manifestation, the glorious climax of God’s work in the world: The coming of Jesus Christ the Messiah. Jesus was the point at which all of history was leading up to. John was right: as great as he was, he was not the Messiah, but existed to point forward to the Messiah.

He is the Groom of the Church

The last thing John says about Jesus’s greatness is found in a short parable. John compares himself to the ‘best man’ and Jesus to the groom. The job of the best man in this context is to honor in every way the groom on his wedding day. So it’s fairly clear to see what John is saying here: He’s not the groom. He’s the best man, existing purely to point to and even glorify the groom, who is Jesus the Messiah. We can look at this in two ways: John is extremely humble, but he is also well-acquainted with the greatness and worthiness of Jesus himself. He had beheld Jesus as the lamb of God - ever-worthy and ever-glorious. When we look at and behold Jesus for who he is, we can’t help but be undone. All notion of pride and any semblance of self-glorification melts in the face of the Jesus’s glory and grace. This is what John is saying here: I’d be a ‘best man’ ten thousand times if it means that I get to point to Jesus as the glorious groom.

Jesus is the most true, most good, most beautiful. In the light of his greatness, we see John point out these three qualities: Jesus is divine, Jesus is the telos of all of history, and Jesus is the Groom that we are working to glorify. Jesus is greater than we could ever imagine. Jesus has an all-encompassing greatness. But that all-encompassing greatness produces in us something.

The all-encompassing greatness produces never-ending joy in those who look upon him and see him for who he is.

Let’s talk about what this joy is like.

Never-ending joy

Seeing Jesus as completely and totally all-glorious produces in us joy beyond comparison. Look at the end of verse 29: “so this joy of mine is complete.” John the Baptist’s joy was complete: complete means the same thing: fulfilled. His joy was fulfilled. See there are temporary joys in life. There’s the joy that is brought on by simple things: pay day. Right? Or maybe your favorite team winning. Even more serious things like overcoming a long-time sickness. Or seeing a prayer get answered. We’ve even seen that in our church this week. But as good as those things are, they are temporary.

We spend our lives looking for things and feelings that last. We want to find lasting things – permanent things. In our main point, I wanted to make sure to include an important adjective when discussing the joy brought on by Jesus: Never-ending. That’s hard for us to wrap our heads around. You’re probably thinking: this sermon feels never-ending! I know that whenever I have to drive anywhere that is longer than 4 hours, I feel as though it’s never-ending. And our fast-paced, frenetic lifestyles have shortened our attention spans and our capacity to even come close to imagining what it might be like to experience something never-ending. We live in a world with constant breaking news, a 24-hour news cycle. You can always go to social media and refresh and find new content. Never-ending, permanent things are hard to come by. But Jesus brings us never-ending, eternal joy.

This means that the joy brought on by Christ isn’t dependent on your circumstances, your feelings about your circumstances, or the current cultural moment.

John the Baptist gazed upon Jesus, beheld his glory, and knew that his joy was fulfilled, made manifest, complete. Nothing could take his joy away. He didn’t say happiness, or good vibes, or feelings. No: joy. Joy is different from happiness. Joy is the state of being brought on by eternal satisfaction in the person and work of Jesus Christ, trusting in Christ’s all-sufficient work for you, and resting in his salvation of you.

So joy is not something that just happens. Joy is not something that we can manufacture. C. S. Lewis says this: “Joy itself, considered simply as an event in my own mind, turned out to be of no value at all. All the value lay in that of which Joy was the desiring. And that object, quite clearly, was no state of my own mind or body at all.” In other words, Joy is not found in an event or in the state of our body or mind or feelings. Rather, the value of joy is found in desiring God and finding him in salvation. I would argue today that lasting joy – a permanent thing – can only be found in finding yourself in Christ. Everything else is ultimately a shortcoming. Everything else leads to restlessness. St. Augustine says, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You, O Lord.” Finding yourself in Christ leads to joy, and joy is not dependent on your circumstance.

So you can be joyful amidst chaos. You can be joyful in pain. You can be joyful when you have everything and when you have nothing. John the Baptist was a wild man who had nothing; he ate locusts and wild honey. He lived in the wilderness. But he had joy: Why? Because he had beheld the glory of Christ and seen that in Christ, there is ever-lasting joy. Never-ending joy.

Build your life on permanent things. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Where are you searching for joy today? Are you trying to find your joy in a relationship with your spouse? Your boyfriend or girlfriend? Maybe in your job or your performance in the classroom. I will testify to you today that all of those things will fade. They may bring you happiness but they can’t bring you permanent joy. Permanent joy is only found in Christ.

Find yourself in Christ today, and find never-ending joy. His unmatched greatness produces in us an unmatched joy.

Ever-devoted faith

Now, John the Baptist says at the end of his response to his followers, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Why would he say this? We find out in the last five verses of our passage.

Verses 31-36 are interesting and different. John the Apostle – not the Baptist – takes over and begins writing. It’s rare in the gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – that a writer will begin to simply write about Jesus rather than describing a conversation, event, or travel that Jesus did. But John the Apostle takes a moment here to write about the greatness of Jesus, just as John the Baptist did in his response above.

Again, the whole point of this sermon is that the greatness of Jesus produces joy in us and is worthy of our faith. We see the faith aspect of that sentence most clearly in the last verse of the passage: ‘The one who believes in the Son’ – or has faith in the Son – ‘has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life, instead, the wrath of God remains on him.’ What makes Jesus worthy to stake our lives on; to have complete and total faith in? We see it in these verses.

He is above all because he is from above. Jesus is eminent above all things because he is from heaven. He is God in the flesh, therefore he is sovereign. His will is higher, his strength is higher, his power is higher, his purposes are higher than any other. He is from above, and based on that above-ness, he is worth every ounce of faith, every ounce of worship, every ounce of devotion. Nothing on earth is worth that. We see that in verse 31, the last half. Things and people of the earth cannot speak or act with the authority of Christ, because they are not from heaven as he is. He is above all earthly powers.

He is authoritative and sovereign. When Jesus speaks, he is not merely speaking on behalf of God, he is speaking as God. When people accept Christ’s message, they are affirming the truth of God’s message and character and existence. Look at verse 34: For the one whom God sent speaks God’s words, since he gives the Spirit without measure. Here we have the working of the Trinity: God sent Jesus to earth to speak good news to people, and the Spirit was given without measure to Jesus. And not only does God the Father send the Son; he also loves the Son. The Father loves the Son so much that he gave him all things to rule and reign over.

All of this puts us at the point where we must either believe in the Son or reject the Son. Here’s the thing: Your belief in or rejection of the Son doesn’t change his Lordship one bit. This is why you won’t hear me ask you to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Because he is the Lord of your life whether you acknowledge that or not. He has been given all things. He is over all. What matters is your faith in his lordship and faith in his sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection. That’s what John is closing his passage with. Over and over throughout John, he shows the reader who Jesus is, what Jesus had done, and asks his reader to believe in Jesus. To have faith.

And the one who believes will have eternal life. Life with God in heaven, and the new heavens and earth. That’s the promise of the Bible: If you would receive Christ in faith today – Christ that is greater than anything you can ever imagine – you will have eternal life.

Christ is the only one worthy of our ever-devoted faith. Receive him in faith today. If you have questions about how to do that, I would love to talk with you after the service. But behold Christ for who he is this morning, and respond in faith.

Conclusion

Today, we have looked at the greatness of Jesus. The all-encompassing greatness of Jesus that produces never-ending joy in us and is worthy of ever-devoted faith.

Brothers and sisters, 3 quick things to think about in light of this statement and this text:

Let us venture to be a church that gathers weekly to simply look and behold Jesus for who he is. We can’t fashion a better Jesus than we find in Scripture. Let’s get together and sing as loud as we can because of Jesus’s greatness. Let’s be willing to say together, ‘I must decrease, he must increase.’ The world will think we’re crazy. Let ‘em. We serve an all-encompassing Jesus. Let’s let our praise and our prayers and our love for one another show that.

Next, where are you finding your joy? Remember this week, when stuff hits the fan and life gets hard, that joy is permanent and is found in finding yourself in Jesus. Whether you are happy, sad, angry, heartbroken, rich, poor, whatever, you can be content and joyful in the finished work of Christ on the cross. You can be joyful because Christ has saved you.

Finally, remember the gospel. Remember that God sent his Son to live a perfect life, die a sinner’s death, and rise again from the grave so that we might have eternal life. Remember how loved you are by God, for he has given his covenant faithfulness to you. Jesus is worth all of you faith and devotion.

Let’s pray.