John 3:22-36

Second Place

It was London…The 2012 Olympics When the world champion in Gymnastics, Mckayla Maroney showed up…She was fighting to keep her title. at this point, She is the best in the world, favored to win.

But she slipped and fell in her second run on the vault…It nocked her down to second place.

When she was standing on the podium she had no idea that she was about to become an international meme…She has a face that she calls her “not impressed face”

It’s a face she has been making since she was little…And just for a second standing on the podium of the world stage she made her not impressed face

PIC Mckayla Maroney

This was just for a second…And by the time she got back to the olympic village this picture was going around the world

But just for a second it confirmed something that physoglist had suspected…That while 2nd is a tremendous victory…It is the least happy spot on the podium

In a 1995 study titles, “When less is more: Counterfactual thinking and satisfaction among Olympic medalists." Sports physiologist argued that you are actually happier as a bronze medalist or 10th place than a silver medalist…

Some thought this study was a fluke so different forms of this study happened in 2001, 2012 and 2021 and they all found the same results

That second place is not a happy position to be in.

But as we dig in to the scripture today…We find that this is the exact position that John the Baptist chooses for himself and in a simple statement really calls all of us to choose.

let’s dig into the text today

John 3:22–36 NIV

After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) 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.” 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.” 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. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

“After this:”

Look back at the first 2 words of John 3:22

One of the things we will see from John…Is that he will add in a phrase here and there that is meant to make you connect what you just read with where you are going.

The first words in this section are “After this” …Then he talks about an argument that arouse about ceremonial washing

See the way that John writes is almost this daisy chain. Where he links back to earlier things by the words he is saying…

If you remember John’s first sign. This sign was turning water into wine.

‘But john wanted us to see something far more significant

John 2:6 NIV

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

That the vessel he used to turn water into wine was meant for ceremonial washing…

It was meant for becoming clean before God

And if you recall back to the point of water into wine is that we all are ceremonial washed by the blood of Jesus

And that there is enough…There was enough for the whole party…The idea here in this baptism text is that this is happening in the midst of an argument on ceremonial washing….So again…John is daisy chaining…He is laying bread crumbs

He is like…Everything here will connect

Then after the water into wine narrative

Jesus cleanses the temple…Lot’s of ceremonial cleansing happening

And then there is the most intense theological conversation to date in the book of John. It is between Jesus and Nicodemus…Pastor Evan preached on it last week so I won’t cover much except for what Jesus says

John 3:3–8 NIV

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

There is this conversation that is so deeply Jewish you almost have to be a jewish person to understand it.

Jesus talks about a new birth

And this is a great chopstick moment revealed…Oh if you are new, eating the book of John with chopsticks is the metaphor I am using the entire time in we are in John…Because everything has a surface meaning and a deeper meaning…

There is a meaning to John’s Greek audience and his Jewish audience

So Nicodemus is speaking on a human level…How can a human crawl back in his mother’s womb

But jesus is speaking on a spiritual level…you need to die to your old life and have a new creation moment

So Jesus says…You have to be born of water and spirit…

If you want to think like a Jewish person then I will give you a big key to doing that…

You have to ask…Where is the first place we see water and spirit in the Bible?

Genesis 1:1–2 NIV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The first place we see water and spirit is in literally the very first verses of the bible

The spirit of God was hovering over the waters

The Earth was formless and empty…If you have been in my genesis class you know i can just talk about this for hours

See the waters were chaotic…They were some of my favorite words in the Hebrew…They were “Tohu va Bohu” The twin forces of chaos and destruction…They were wild and waste

But what happened?

The spirit of God rested on the waters…Or hovered over the waters

What is the end result of the water and spirit in Genesis 1? the creation of humans!

And what happened after that…It was the spirit of God and the word of God that created the earth….

It separated and divided and made land and vegetation and animals…

By the spirit and the voice of God! What is Jesus called in John 1? The WORD of God!

So in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus he is referencing the first creation…

Then of course…After the garden Creation goes wild…People are sinning and Israel goes off to exile but we see these prophetic promises

Isaiah 44:3 NIV

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 NIV

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

So the point of all of this is that Jesus telling Nicodemus…

Is that he is the new creation

That Jesus standing there before him is the embodiment of new life and he can have that too!

Its a very Jewish conversation

And now we go back to our main text for the day

John 3:22–26 NIV

After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) 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.”

See in the gospel of John water isn’t just water…

Water has been transformed to wine

Jesus tells us we need to be born of water in spirit

now he is baptizing

and I don’t want to ruin next week…But Jesus will say that he has living water to give people!

So what looks so benign as just descriptive text…These guys are out there baptizing…Because there was plenty of water….Is actually a continued theme though John

So what this text wants you to see is that there was a jewish practice of ceremonial washing that happened in the temple…and people were required to do this…It actually comes up more and more in the book of John

But no matter how much they washed it still wasn’t enough…So they went to the crazy prophet down at the river

We are told that an argument developed between John’s disciple and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing…Again the same word from chapter 2

The argument was probably something to the affect of…are you trying to take the place of the Jewish ceremonial cleansing…

See that is always a temporary practice to get physically clean…To remover the dirt from the outside

But John was doing a repentance baptism…And this was to get clean on the inside!

Matthew 3:11 NIV

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

So this was likely the argument that developed

And remember…The Jewish cleansing happened at the temple…And Jesus was critical of what the religious establishment did to the temple…They had made it into a market

So he and John the baptist are outside the temple area…to a place with plenty of water doing what the temple should have been doing this entire time

Cleansing people on the inside!

Asking them to repent…What is repentance? It is coming home to God!

Calling them back to a relationship with God

But I want us to pay special attention to what one of John’s disciples says to John

John 3:26 NIV

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.”

There is some resentment here

John was drawing the big crowds

Remember it was in chapter on where John saw Jesus and was first to identify him as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world

I think this is one of the first places where we see competition arise in the church…

I think it is key for every believer to know that we are not competing with other churches…They are our partners in transforming the world

That here we ought to be paying for the kingdom…We ought to be praying that new churches succeed and grow

We ought to be praying for the growth of our church too

But we are so different from a business

See a business competes…And it is good for a business when one of their competitors goes out of business…But for us who are in the business of human transformation

We desperately want to see more and more churches because I know there will never be enough

If it is true and I think it is…That one person matters to Jesus then the 6 churches in the pocket area to cover around 40,000 people is not enough.

So the disciples of John see what Jesus is doing and they are like…It’s all falling apart buddy!

John 3:27–30 NIV

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.”

So John again…Clarifies: I AM NOT THE MESSIAH. But I was sent ahead of him

And then he uses this analogy: The bride belongs to the bridegroom…John calls himself the friend of the bridegroom

This is like saying now: I am the best man…

The friend of the bridegroom prepared for the marriage and received his reward in witnessing the bridegroom’s satisfaction.

The friend of the bridegroom introduces the bride to the bridegroom…That is their job…

During the engagement period, the friend of the bridegroom is the chief communicator between bride and groom…

Theologically, this role became a powerful metaphor. John the Baptist applied this image to himself, positioning Christ as the Bridegroom who possesses the bride, while his own significance diminished once the marriage was complete.

For christians: For you who have been changed by Jesus. This is a powerful metaphor…You are a friend of the bridegroom. You get the joy of introducing others to Jesus

What John is saying here is look…I am not the main character here

What he is saying is I will gladly find so much joy of standing on the second place of the podium

Because

He must become greater and I must become less

John is teaching his disciples that his purpose in life is to point to the messiah and to become less

But church our world is discipling us that what we really need in life is to become greater

To get more followers

to make a good reputation for ourselves

to get more money and status

to really become someone

And if your second place then that just means your the first loser

But John the baptist is like…My greatest joy is in becoming less!

Guys this is the upside down nature of the Kingdom of God. When you become less and Jesus is made great and you point the way to life that is really life…There is so much joy in that

When I was super young in ministry like early 20’s I remember we had a day in youth ministry were I was teaching the bible and kids were not like activly cussing me out or throwing things at me and we had a night were like 3 kids came to know Jesus and they wanted to make a huge change in their life

I just remember driving home and thinking about this verse…and I was so happy…There was no way that any of that was me…These kids coming to know Jesus is a direct result of Jesus becoming greater and me becoming less!

Aside from my wedding day and having my kids…Those moments when people said yes to Jesus and God used me as a small part of that are like the most joy filled moments of my life

And its not about me being great, it is literrally about me getting out of the way and becoming less

It is about Jesus becoming greater than my personality than any of my abilities it is about magnifying Jesus!

Pastor Evan commented on this last week

John 3:14–15 NIV

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

This is exactly what John the baptist is doing! He is lifting up the son of man! in his life

My question is what does this look like for you?

Let’s look at John’s explanation

John 3:31–36 NIV

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. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

Well Jesus is the one that is from above!

and John the baptist is the one who belongs to the earth

So it is only natural that he must become greater and I must become less

and at this point in the book of John we are three years away from seeing the death and resurrection of Jesus

And John sees the supremacy of Jesus in all things

Let’s look at the last three big claims of chapter 3

God gives the spirit without limit

In the old testament times the spirit of God was given on a limited basis. And now Jesus gives the spirit to the church without limit!

This act of baptism in the new testament is always connected with the spirit somehow…and what I think this text is trying to reveal is that whenever people repent and give their lives over to Jesus then he gives his spirit to that person

jesus wants you to have the fullness of who he is

He wants you to experience what it means to be never alone!

The father loves the son and has placed everything in his hands

I love that John the baptist makers this statement

Let me ask you this. What does everything include?

What does everything exclude?

Then why do we worry about petty things?

Why do we put our trust in random stuff?

Paul would later write Col 1:15-20

Colossians 1:15–20 NIV

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God and if this is true and I think it is…Then it’s on us to willfully climb down from the first place podium and find joy in being the friend of the bridegroom and pointing to him who is in all and above all!

It’s on us to take that second place spot

Lastly

Whoever believes in the son has eternal life but, whoever rejects him, God’s wrath remains on him

Come on John, this isn’t a fun fill-in to end on

No one wants to talk about God’s wrath

But the reality is that when you have sin in your life that is un-repented, your living in this state of God’s anger at sin..that is separating you!

When your trust is not in jesus but yourself then you are making a statement to God…I am fine being judged on my own merit

That you want to be judged based on your own actions rather than the actions of Jesus

This is the point of the “Ceremonial cleansing that Jesus wants to do in your life!

Think about it…There are only two places you can stand.

You can stand in first place — where everything depends on you. Your identity. Your worth. Your future. Your salvation.

That weight will crush you.

Or you can stand in second place — where Jesus is first. Where your identity is given, not earned. Where your worth is secure because it rests on him. Where your future is in hands strong enough to hold it.

John said, “He must become greater; I must become less.”

And he said it with joy.

Because second place in the Kingdom of God is not loss — it’s freedom.

The Father has placed everything in the Son’s hands.

Everything.

So here’s the decision:

Climb down from first place.

Stop trying to save yourself. Stop trying to carry what only Jesus can carry. Stop building your name.

Choose second place.

Choose to trust him. Choose to surrender. Choose to believe.

Because when Jesus is first — you finally find life.

He must become greater. We must become less.

That’s the invitation.

Will you choose it?

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