Complete: Successful people need Jesus

Palm Sunday…Celebration day!

Chris Davis got a hit!

Day when Jesus shows up and becomes KING.

Not the sort of kingdom that the people were expecting…they were expecting a political kingdom…Jesus came to establish a spiritual kingdom.

We talked last week how you entered into this kingdom, by being born again, this week we are going to see how our lives can change when Jesus shows up, when we begin to live a kingdom life. I’m not talking about our life in heaven, but our life on earth. What marks the life of a person in the Kingdom of God?

In order to do that, I want us to stop and think for a moment, how this week will end....it’s far different from how the week begins. It starts here with us waving palms…celebrating, singing HOSANNA! But by the end of the week the lights will be out, the cross will be covered in death. The king that was to deliver us is dead. Killed for our sin.

This shouldn’t come to a surprise to us, but it does.

It does because this isn’t the way we think good stories should end…it’s not how things are supposed to work - the best person isn’t supposed to die. If we didn’t have the whole Bible like we do, we would see the events of this week and never would we say this was a successful start to a new Kingdom. It looks like a failure.

This should tell us something about how we measure success in the kingdom of God.

Tell me what a person believes and I’ll tell you what he’ll do.

How we measure success has a tremendous effect on how we live out lives.

EVEREST

Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer, tells the story of the ill-fated expedition to the summit of Mount Everest in 1996. In the book he mentions a member of the expedition named Yasuko Namba. Ms. Namba was a 46-year-old Japanese FedEx employee with a passion for climbing. She was an accomplished climber, having reached the summits of seven of the largest mountains on the planet. The only one left for her to conquer was Everest, the tallest in the world. She desperately wanted to get to the top of Everest as well. This was her goal. So much so that Krakauer, who was also a member of the expedition, tells how “Yasuko was totally focused on the top. It was almost as if she was in a trance. She pushed extremely hard, jostling her way past everyone to the front of the line. She wanted to get to the top of Everest.” Later that day, she made it. She accomplished her goal. She was the oldest person ever to make it to the highest point in the world.

Later that afternoon, however, Yasuko and the other climbers were caught in a blizzard. And as the icy winds blew, Yasuko succumbed to the exhaustion of her climb and froze to death. Yasuko Namba died agonizingly close in time and location to where she had gained her greatest prize. This helps explain her tragic mistake.

According to Krakauer, Yasuko's fatal flaw was that she adopted the wrong goal. Yasuko's goal had been to get to the top of the mountain. What she wanted the most was to stand at the top of the world, and all of Japan cheered her when she did. But this was the wrong goal, and a frequent and sometimes fatal mistake that climbers make. The goal of climbing should never be to get to the top of a summit. Successful climbers know that the goal is not to get to the top—it is to get back down to the bottom.

The tragedy is that Yasuko accomplished her goal. Against incredible odds she made it to the top of the mountain. But as she poured out her energy to get to the top, she did not save enough strength to make it back down. Yasuko failed because she adopted the wrong goal.

John 3 - AMEN

Was she successful? if the goal was to get to the top, then we have to say yes…if the goal was to get home, then we have to say NO.

How do we measure success?

How do you define success? Often times we think of being a success as one who accomplishes something significant. But when you think about it, success is much more than that. Success is something internal quality. Because we can reach a significant milestone and still be miserable…we wouldn’t call that true success…real success has an outward and an inward component.

We will learn something about this today in our text. Let’s look:

John 3:22 NIV84

22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized.

“After this” tells us to remember just what happened. Look back to see what just happened in the text? Jesus explained to Nicodemus about the necessity of being born again. That we, you and I, wouldn't be allowed to see, take part in, or experience the Kingdom of God without being born again. We needed, not another physical birth, not a physical baptism, but we need to be born again in a spiritual birth to a spiritual life in order to be a Christian. Jesus says this isn’t optional.

Remember, John is telling a story with one purpose, that those who read these words would believe. He wrote at the end of the Gospel that if he wrote everything Jesus did, the world couldn’t hold the books that would be written…so being one of Jesus’s closest friends he selected these particular stories, these signs to clearly tell a story of the life of Jesus that would lead us to believe, to accept Jesus as the Lord of our life, for us to surrender to him, that we might be saved.

So back to the text.

John 3:23–26 NIV84

23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 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—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

John and Jesus were each in the Jordan river, within a few miles of each other. JTB is near Salim, which means springs, where there was plenty of water. They were there accustomed to drawing crowds of people wanting to be baptized for repentance. Up comes a Jewish man and questions what they are doing, debating ceremonial washing. IF you have been around many Jewish people, they love to argue and debate…sure that’s a stereotype and I probably shouldn’t do that, but I think this one is safe. So when some fellow shows up to challenge why they are baptizing and what purpose it serves way out here in the desert, not even close to the temple, John’s disciples would certainly get defensive. Somehow this also got them to thinking about this new bunch of Disciples. Now look what was happening, the people were going over there, too.

They were beginning to see things change now that Jesus was in ministry; and they did not like it.

What’s going on. You can hear some pride and jealousy in their words can’t you?

WE know what this is like don’t we. When the new business comes into town and people start going there. When people leave our church and start going there. When our barber moves, when our restaurant closes.

What do we do…we criticize. We gripe, we complain, we compare.

That’s exactly what’s going on here

Why do we take success personal?

Remember now, Jesus and JTB had already met a few times. Previously, JTB had encouraged his disciples to go and join Jesus, some did, but not all of them. Some of them had remained with JTB, faithful to him.

And these who remained were now jealous because they had been the ones who did the majority of the baptizing in the past. If you were a disciple in that day, you took pride in your Rabbi. You served him with, followed him, defended him, you talked like him, lived like him. You tried to do everything the way he did. You stuck by him when other disciples bailed out when a new teacher showed up. When your Rabbi was disregarded, you took offense.

Now that their Rabbi’s ministry was losing steam, they were worried. They were worried for their Rabbi, but they were also worried about themselves looking like failures. Why did it bother them? Because they had missed the point of their work. These guys had been a part of a successful ministry, and yet they were clueless. John had announced Jesus as the SON OF GOD…yet they didn’t understand what that meant. As Jesus might say, they were still in the dark.

When Jesus shows up in your life, everything changes.

We have to admit, often times we too take our success - personal? Why is that? I think we all should answer that question.

Is it a love for wealth? Our desire for prestige or power or influence? Is it because we want to be recognized during pastor appreciation month or because we want people to acknowledge us when we enter the room?

Success validates us. Successful people matter. Failures don’t.

If we deny our tendency to think this way, we are fooling ourselves.

JTBs disciples seemed to be driven for significance; that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but at what point do we have enough?

Then when Jesus shows up in our lives, everything changes. Remember Nicodemus? When you are born again you get a new spiritual life, you get a whole new way of seeing the world.

Paul said it this way in Romans 5

Romans 5:1–2 HCSB

1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Peace with God…a peace that leads to joy.

This is what being born again is all about, and John gives us an excellent illustration what this peace with God and Rejoicing in hope looks like.

John 3:27–29 NIV84

27 To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 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’s saying I only have, He only has, what God gives. You know i’m not the Messiah…he is. I am ok with that. Why is he? Because he has been born again.

We know weddings. When the bride comes down the isle, my favorite part is the look on the groom’s face. Often he can’t contain himself. it’s normal to see them cry, sweat, even start to shake nervously. It’s really special. In our culture, the best man is the one who carries the rings and offers the first toast. But in the first century the responsibility of who we would call the best man was very different.

He was part of the courtship. He would preside over the wedding, and the banquet, he would make the arrangements for the wedding, and take care of preparing the bride for the ceremony, standing watch at her door even, protecting her until the wedding day as need be.

In the OT, the bride was referred to as the nation of Israel and the groom as their messiah…JTB knew this, as did everyone else.

John is saying that’s who I am, the friend of the groom; and when I announced Jesus as the son of God, I was introducing the bride to her groom. That has always been the point of my ministry to prepare the people for their messiah.

(If the Best man steps in and elbowed the groom out of the way?)

That is why my joy is complete. JTB says I couldn’t be more successful because Jesus has fulfilled my purpose of presenting his bride to him. His ministry has been a success and this is proven by the completion of his joy.

When we begin to live a spirit filled life, Joy becomes our measure of success.

Joy is the true measure of success.

If John had of stopped right here we might be tempted to believe that our next step is to go out and seek to be more joyful.

That joy should be our goal…but joy isn’t a goal…it’s an outcome.

Joy is a result of experiencing God’s grace...Jesus is our joy, our relationship with him produces joy. We rejoice in being able to tell others about him, to love others because of him. We get joy in serving others and in being generous because we are a friend of Jesus. Jesus is our source of joy.

That’s why John says this:

John 3:30 NIV84

30 He must become greater; I must become less.

When Jesus is my focus, I get to experience joy.

But, when things are about me and they work out…it tends to produce pride in me. “look what I did; We have such a great church; my kids are so smart; I have influence.”

And, when things are about me and they fail…well that leads to embarrassment or shame. “I lost that one; I wish I had more…, I need more…, I hope people don’t notice...

Michelle and I doing things together.

But when I do things out of my relationship with Jesus…when I function out of my NEW LIFE, I can find joy regardless of the outcome, because I did it with Jesus.

So the path to spiritual success…eternal success... is more of him and less of me.

In the last year has Jesus become more and you less? If you say yes, they I bet your faith is growing. You are studying God’s word. You are praying. You are part of a small group.

John 3:31 NIV84

31 “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.

32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.

John 3:36 NIV84

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

I want some of you to hear this. Some of you have had an idea of what success should look like in your life. You have been striving for that for sometime.

Jesus came to set you free from that. Free to joy.

Following Jesus produces joy.

Success isn’t about succeeding over my circumstances, success isn’t about overcoming a hurt, habit, or hangup. Success isn’t about finding significance. Success is accomplished the moment you trust in Jesus and begin to live your life with and for him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Tell me what a person believes and I’ll tell you what he’ll do.”

Following Jesus produces joy, because we get to stop calculating, strategizing, manipulating. Following Jesus, we are able to simply marvel at the one we are following.

If you hear Jesus calling you to come and follow him, I want to pray with you today, that you would respond, knowing that as you follow him, you will find success…the success that you have long sought. Success rooted in obedience and relationship, not in personal status or accomplishment.