Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Who are you?

The Office was a sitcom which ran on TV for several years and was pretty popular here in the US.

Many of you have probably seen the episode where Jim and Pam get married.

Jim and Pam are coworkers who have fallen in love over the years working together and they are finally getting married.

They have spent months in preparation for the wedding, and it’s finally their special day.

But all throughout the ceremony, their boss Michael keeps on grandstanding them.

Instead of the music you had selected to play while you walk down the aisle, he picks some weird techno music and does a dance down the aisle.

He insists on pushing Pam’s grandfather down the aisle in his wheelchair because he wants to be the one to give Pam away to Jim—but since he can’t, he settles for making a scene by doing the bridal walk while pushing her grandfather.

When her grandpa gets tired of his antics, he stands up and walks the aisle without the wheelchair.

Offended, Michael obnoxiously drags the wheelchair behind him down the aisle, continuing to do the one-step bridal march.

All of this takes place during the processional.

To make matters worse, one of their coworkers decides that she wants to wear a white dress to the wedding, because that’s the color she looks best in.

Michael, and other coworkers, continue these antics, apparently unaware or unconcerned that this day isn’t about them—it’s about Jim and Pam.

At times, some of them seem to be merely oblivious to that fact, while others are more intentional about stealing the show.

When they ought to be pointing to the bride and groom, they’re too busy pointing to themselves.

Instead of finding their identity in relation to the bride and groom, they’re occupied with making a name for themselves.

FCF: It’s easy to roll our eyes and ridicule people like that, who seem to think that the whole world revolves around them no matter where they are.

But in reality, each of us struggles with an exaggerated sense of our own importance.

Our pride constantly pokes out its ugly head, showing us to be no better than the girl who wears white to her friend’s wedding or the guy dragging a wheelchair down the aisle to steal back some of the attention.

When we ought to find our identity in our relationship to Christ, we seek to make a name for ourselves instead.

Main Idea: But, in John chapters 1 and 3, John the Baptist shows us how we ought to find our identity in Christ.

Our lives will be the most fulfilled when we point other people to Christ and then get out of the way.

Turn with me in your Bibles to John 1:19-34

We’re also going to look this morning at John 3:22-30.

Hold your place here in chapter one and turn with me to chapter three.

Who we’re not:

We are not people worthy of praise or attention.

The significance of this line of questioning is often lost on modern readers who don’t understand what the Jews believed and were expecting.

First century Jews knew the Scriptures well and they were anticipating the fulfillment of a number of prophecies.

Much as you and I look to Revelation, Matthew chapter 24, and other as yet-unfulfilled prophecies and eagerly await their fulfillment, so too the Jews were awaiting the fulfillment of a number of OT prophecies.

The Jews knew that a Messiah was coming and they expected him to—literally—take the throne as David’s successor, oust Rome’s occupation, and reestablish Israel as God’s literal, physical, geo-political Kingdom on earth.

They knew that the coming of the Messiah would begin to undo the curse of sin and reconcile people to God.

The Jews had been without a prophet for about 400 years—ever since the last OT prophet.

They hadn’t had a word from God in a long time, but they knew that God would one day send a prophet.

So, Jews who read the Scriptures and took them seriously—as the Pharisees certainly did—also were expecting Elijah to return.

Some Jews believed that the Messiah, the Prophet, and Elijah would be three separate people.

Apparently, that’s what the Pharisees thought.

But no one expected that the Messiah and the Prophet would be one person.

So, when the Jews approach John and ask him who he is, that’s what they’re asking.

There was no doubt a temptation there to declare himself to be important.

In fact, John the Baptist was the long-awaited Elijah!

Jesus acknowledges this explicitly in Mt. 11 after John has been thrown in prison.

So why did John say that he wasn’t Elijah?

It’s possible that John didn’t know that he was “the Elijah who is to come.”

Jesus may have never revealed that to him.

But, if we assume that he did know, he probably refused the label for the same reason that Jesus didn’t want people to know at first he was the Messiah.

The Jews had a lot of expectation about who the Messiah would be and what he would do.

There was a lot of cultural baggage attached to that label.

The same was, no doubt, true of “Elijah.”

John’s desire was to promote Christ and glorify him.

He couldn’t do that if he drew attention to himself.

Accepting the label as “Elijah 2.0” or “the first genuine prophet in over 400 years” would, no doubt, have garnered John a LOT of attention.

John set aside a title and privilege which rightly belonged to him in order to not detract from the attention due to Christ.

Ways we try to get praise or attention:

When you work hard, and your work goes unnoticed or unthanked, how do you react?

Think of your greatest accomplishments in life—do they bring glory to God, or to you?

Who are you?

Is your identity found in your job, your culture, your family, or something else in this world?

We tend to find our identity in what we feel like we’re good at.

Men, recognize that the “self-made man” image so popular in America runs contrary to the humility which John shows us here.

Ladies, do you dress to attract attention to yourself?

We are the mountains!

If people are to see Christ, we prideful, self-exalting people have to be brought low.

We can either do that willingly, in humble submission and recognition of Christ’s glory and honor, or God will do it for us.

Every mountain and hill will be made low.

Every knee will bow.

But how do we humble ourselves when our sinful pride wants to exalt itself?

The key is to raise Christ even higher and set our focus on him.

Who we are:

We just voices, instruments to be used by God.

We must exalt Christ in order to humble ourselves.

Look how quickly John switches the focus to Christ in 1:23 and 1:25

John could have engaged in a theological debate with the Pharisees on his right to baptize.

He could have talked about the importance of his role as the herald of the Messiah.

Instead, he just shifted the conversation to Christ.

Again, John emphasizes Christ’s glory in 3:25-30

John isn’t jealous of the attention that Jesus is gaining.

He isn’t jealous that even his disciples (Andrew and Peter) are leaving to follow Christ

Children are born with a natural pride and selfishness about them.

It’s sometimes amusing to me to sit back and listen to my kids talk about how great they are at certain things.

I remember as a kid, I thought I was one of the best bicycle riders that ever existed.

I could ride faster than any of my friends, do jumps, make tight turns, and even pop a wheelie.

You wanna know what humbles a cocky 12-year old who thinks he’s all that on a bike?

Two things—a parked vehicle (which doesn’t budge no matter how hard you hit it on that bike) and videos of Red Bull Downhill Mountain Bike Championships.

While the parked truck certainly bruised my ego, the death-blow came from watching these Red Bull MTB’ers.

These guys are insane.

They go to places that look like the Grand Canyon and then ride their bike off the edge of a cliff.

They fly down these canyons at over 30mph along paths barely a foot wide with caverns on either side, hitting jumps that take them flying over canyons over 100’ deep, and going off of drops that are 30’ or more.

Just watching 5 minutes of these videos is a cardiovascular workout.

The amount of control that these guys have on a bike is incredible.

You want to humble a cocky kid on a bike?

Show them the Red Bull Championships.

Show them what real bikers look like.

In the same way, the way to true humility—not a false humility—is to focus our gaze upon the glory of Christ.

Think of who Christ is and what he has done for you.

How he has blessed you with every possession, talent, and treasure you own.

How he suffered and died for your sins.

How though you were once an enemy of the cross, he has adopted you into his family.

How he lived a sinless life in spite of being tempted with every single temptation that overtakes you.