What's up podcast listeners.
Hey, I just want to let you know, before you listened to this podcast.
This didn't go so well, I recorded it, but things went wonky
all throughout the recording.
So it's not all there.
But it's still worth listening to even what is there.
So you'll do yourself a favor by still pursuing it and listening some of it.
You may not even notice that some of it was cut out.
So I hope you'll enjoy it.
Please forgive my recording problems.
But what is here is toward listening to give it a listen.
Here it comes.
Well, if everyone can turn in your Bibles to John three, we're going to
look at a couple of verses here tonight, specifically verses 25 through 30.
I'll give you all a second to open up there.
It's a really interesting experience when someone comes up to you and
says, you remind me of someone.
That can either be a really good thing or a really bad thing.
A couple months ago, I was on a work trip and I was coming home from Nashville.
I was exhausted.
I was ready to be done.
I had a bunch of flight delays and I was just tired of being in the airport.
Um, and so I'm going in to check a bag that I didn't think I would have to check.
And I, I hand it to the lady who's about to put it on the
conveyor belt and she stopped me.
She looked me in the face and was like, you remind me of someone.
You know, you look exactly like Chris Pratt.
And I was like, thanks?
Like, which one?
Like, am I, am I Star Lord or am I Andy?
I feel like there's a big difference, you know?
There's a massive difference about which is, okay, thanks boys.
I appreciate the front row here.
That's, that's the thing is, you know, you, you never know.
But, as I said, you look just like Chris Pratt.
Chris Pratt.
It was a very odd experience, but it would have been an even more odd
experience if that lady would have gone home that night to her family or to her
friends and said, you guys will never believe who I met at the airport today.
I met Star Lord.
I met Chris Pratt in person.
I checked his bag.
It was the best experience of my life.
It would have been really odd because I don't know if it's obvious.
I am not Chris Pratt.
I'm not even close.
I feel like I'm like a dollar store Chris Pratt.
So if people were to look to me to be Chris Pratt, to be this amazing,
talented actor, or to be someone that was super funny and just had
a good time with everybody like Mr.
Pratt, they would be super disappointed because I'm not him.
I'm, a cheap substitute.
I'd be, I'd be a stand in.
You see, when it comes to Jesus, this is something that I want us to
put a pin in and think about for the duration of this message tonight.
When it comes to Jesus, accept no substitutes.
This thought is going to be super evident in our passage, and it's going
to govern everything that we talk about.
All the points that I'm going to make tonight, everything that you're
going to see in the scriptures, is going to lead you to the inevitable
conclusion that when it comes to Jesus, Do not accept a single substitute.
Hopefully you're there in your Bibles by now.
We're going to be looking at John 3, 25 through 30.
So I'm going to read the passage and then we'll dive into talking about it.
It says, 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
is 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 has given him from heaven.
You yourselves bear me witness that.
I said, I am not a Christ, but I have been sent before him.
The one who has the bride is the bride groom, the friend of the bride groom.
So
what we see as we get started in this passage is you've got the disciples of
John the Baptist who have been following him for his ministry, coming up to John.
And with this hint of envy, of frustration that Jesus is getting
so much attention, they're saying, look, John, everyone's going to Jesus.
What are you going to do about it?
think one is getting more of what you want.
That's certainly a fake savior, saying, to whatever degree I possibly can,
then I'll feel good about myself.
I'll have joy that lasts.
That'll be good.
Right?
Like how much, how much you're willing to work hard.
That as long as, long as I work crazy hard and I do all of the things
that I wanna do, I'm just, I'm just gonna grind, then I'll be happy.
I'll earn literally everything.
That's certainly a fake savior.
Self-trust and self-love.
These can be fake saviors too.
The fact that you can say, I don't really need anybody else if I got me.
Doesn't matter.
What anyone else might think, whether good or bad, doesn't matter.
No one else matters but me.
If you put yourself above literally everyone else, we all kind of understand
that this is how we're hardwired.
We see the world through our own eyes.
Leaning into that is something that can be like biting into that impossible burger.
It's not ultimately satisfying being good enough, being good enough.
Certainly saying, well, I mean, I've come on, like I'm a, I'm a pretty good person.
All things considered.
You know, I feel, come on, I'm not that bad.
Even better, I'm not as bad as those other people, right?
The lateral comparisons.
You know, those people are, those people are terrible.
Over there, they got no teeth and they're being silly all the time.
They're disrupting class and doing just weird stuff.
Come on, I'm better than them.
You compare yourself laterally and make yourself feel better about who you are.
So yeah, I feel good.
Maybe having an excellent reputation.
But what I, what I want to show you as we tie it all together here, every
single one of these points, these things that can stand in as fake saviors, what
they all have in common is that they have self exaltation or self worship
as your highest good, that your highest good is to put yourself first and to put
yourself above everyone, including God, including your family, including your
friends, that if you pursue yourself as the highest good that you could
possibly achieve, then you'll be happy.
That's what all of these fake saviors have in common.
They say, I come first.
It matters if I increase, it matters if I do well.
See what's hard about this is that's exactly what, when we go back to
the text, we're going to see that John rails against self exaltation.
John is going to say, what are you guys doing?
Come on, look back at the text with me.
Let's, let's, let's look at John's response here.
Again, they say, Rabbi, he, who's with you across the Jordan, whom you bore witness.
Look, he's baptizing.
All are going to him.
Do you hear the envy in their voice.
Do you hear their desire to stay in the limelight?
Do you hear their desire to exalt themselves, sticking with this godly guy,
who's bearing witness to God, that he's a prophet, he's really well thought of.
Do you hear them wanting their shine, wanting their moment, wanting to stay as
the best of the best, to be seen that way?
But what does John say?
Look again.
I want to particularly focus on this last verse, but I'll read a couple leading
up to it as well, where he says, Look, a person cannot receive even one thing
unless it is given him from heaven.
You yourselves bear me witness.
I said, I am not the Christ.
It's not me, 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 complete.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
That's what John ends with in this passage.
That his followers say, shouldn't you be increasing?
Shouldn't you take your followers back?
Shouldn't you be just the most hype and cool dude in all the universe?
And John says, you're talking about me in comparison to Christ?
No.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
You see, if we claim to trust Christ, if we claim to follow Him and to be
His disciple, but we're walking with this arrogance and this pride of
saying, well, I want to put myself in the limelight and be the most popular
and exalt myself above all else.
And if your biggest concern is with your own reputation, And your own
worthiness, you're going to miss Christ.
You're going to bite into one of these cheap substitutes.
You're going to miss the forgiveness that he offers.
If you don't say with John, he must increase, but I must decrease.
That's point number two.
I want you to write it down this way.
Humble yourself before the real savior, humble yourself before the real savior.
Again, we have the idea of, we know that there are cheap substitutes out there.
We know that.
But in order to come to the real, it has to be an act of humility.
It's not something we can do with a bunch of pride in our hearts.
No one enters the kingdom of God with a swagger.
They enter with a limp.
I hope that you get to have the experience someday of being in
a wedding other than your own.
Because it is one of the most joyous and fun occasions that you can be part of.
Cause if you can be in that wedding party, that inner circle, it is so much fun.
Whether you're a groomsman or, or a bridesmaid, it is
an incredible amount of fun.
And a couple months ago, I got to be the best man for my best friend
in California for his wedding.
Now, the number one rule of what you cannot do as a best man is make the
wedding about yourself is make the wedding about how great your speech is, how much
fun you are to be around with everyone.
The point as the best man is not to exalt yourself, but to honor
the couple who's being married.
It's to point away from yourself saying, yeah, I'm, I'm not the
one who's getting married today.
I'm not the bride, the bridegroom.
I meant to point to the married couple and say, hey, honor them,
enjoy them, appreciate them, shower them with affection.
They're the ones who deserve our honor today.
I mean, think about the text of what's happening in our verses.
We have the disciples of John saying, why is everyone given honor to Jesus?
Why is everybody doing that?
And John's like, You guys aren't the ones, you guys, the bride
has, the bridegroom has the bride.
I'm not the Christ.
I'm not the one who's getting married, so to speak, in this analogy.
I'm the bridegroom.
Or I'm not the bridegroom.
I'm the best man.
There we go.
That's what he's saying.
Sorry.
He's saying I'm pointing to them.
I'm pointing to Jesus.
I'm pointing to his relationship with his church.
I'm not here to get all the shine.
John gets all the shine.
That Christ's glorification is necessary.
He gets that, but the followers think that they still need to stay in the limelight.
They don't think that they should be fading out of it.
And I think that's just one of the most important things to understand
on this point, where we're humbling ourselves before the real Savior because
we understand that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
That you either get salvation at the cross or not at all.
That this life is not about you putting yourself up and saying, Yeah,
I mean, I guess God's got to increase, but my reputation matters more.
I'm at this wedding feast, but I got to make it about me, even though
I'm not the one getting married.
Again, this, this humility that John displays is so critical
for the Christian life.
And it has to be our mantra, this one of humbling ourself before the real savior.
So what does true humility even look like?
It's something that's important to know about, but what does it
look like in the biblical sense?
I think first true humility starts with confession.
It starts with a confession that saying, I am a sinner.
I need a savior.
There is nothing more humble and basic than being able to say this and mean it.
This is the foundation of what we're talking about.
This is who I am.
I'm not the top dog.
I'm not the coolest thing since sliced bread.
And I need a savior.
I can't do it on my own.
I need a real savior.
I need someone that's really gonna make change.
Not someone that's gonna, you know, wet my appetite and, you know,
be able to, you know, not really worry about the real savior stuff.
It's like, at least I got a little bit here, you know?
And after this confession, true humility requires a
It's actually complete.
It's full satisfaction.
See, this joy is complete because the joy is in Christ.
It's in who He is and it's in what He does for His church.
So I want us to write this down this way, for point number three.
If we're thinking about not having to humble ourselves through gritted teeth
and through anger, point number three, delight in the Savior and His work.
Delight in the Savior and His work.
I am a pretty massive Christmas fan.
Which, like, most people are.
So I know that's not that interesting, but I mean, the The tree is up in my house.
It's decorated.
There's All the decor is out.
Basically, as soon as it turned November, it was like, Alright, are we doing this?
Like, we're gonna make this happen.
It'll probably up through March.
You never know.
But That's the thing is with, with Christmas, it's a time that's
characterized by joy, right?
Most people are going through the holiday season and they're singing all
the songs about having, having joy in their hearts and all of this great stuff.
But there's a reason that we can't sing.
Well, I mean, I guess you can, but you're crazy.
You can't sing Christmas songs in July when it's super hot out.
It's not the, it's not the season for it.
So no matter how excited you get about Christmas, no matter how
much this season of joy brings you, it doesn't end up lasting.
There's no element of completion.
You can't say, well, my joy is complete because it's Christmas because as
soon as it's not Christmas, your joy is not really complete anymore.
You see, your joy is only as stable as the object of your joy.
If your joy is grounded in your, in your circumstances in terms of what's happening
here around you immediately, you're going to be tempted to bite into these
impossible saviors to say, yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll accept the cheap substitutes,
but the mind shattering truth of the gospel is that when we talk about saying
he must increase, but I must decrease.
The truth of the gospel is that before you even had an idea of what
that could possibly mean, Christ was decreased on your behalf.
You'll go here later.
I don't have time for it right now, but just write it down.
Philippians 2, 5 through 8.
The idea that though Christ is very God of very God, He's the Son, He empties Himself
and takes on the form of a servant.
In a certain sense, this is the ultimate humiliation.
This is the ultimate act of humility.
That before we are in any sense called to humble ourselves
before Christ, He moved first.
He was the one who humbled Himself.
He was the one who came to us in our weakness and in our frailness.
And He took on flesh.
And so in a certain sense, Christ did that.
He didn't come for the increase of your own personal glory.
He didn't come so you could be the best of the best, but He did come
for the increase of your good.
He did come so that ultimately, through Him being decreased and the work that
He does for the church, that you can be increased, that you can have eternal life,
that you can have joy that is complete.
Let's just look at a couple reasons why you should delight
in Christ because of this.
I know I've already started on this, but there's so much that we can say here.
And this is really the turning point in the Christian life, where
you go from gritting your teeth, thinking about this God, to trusting
in Him and delighting in Him.
So why should you trust in Christ?
Number one, He is the image of the invisible God.
He's the image of the invisible God.
Amen.
He's the disclosure of all that God is.
He's the one who shows what God is and who He is, what He's really like.
And that is super important for us, to know that this God is not twiddling His
thumbs out in the cosmos while we're just sitting here hoping that things
go well for us, but that He broke into space and time for your good.
You should also delight in Christ because He's fully God and fully man.
He's the only one qualified to be the mediator for our sins.
The only one who can go between us and God and have any sense of satisfaction
because of our sins.
This is really good news that God would take on flesh like this.
Again, Philippians just mentioned it.
You should also delight in Christ because He's gentle and lowly,
because He's gentle and lowly.
He's not.
A tyrant, he's not someone that if you knock on his door, he
says, go away, get out of my face.
Don't come near me, you sinner.
He says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden.
If you have any burden in any sense, come to me and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke.
It's easy.
It's burden is light.
But the freedom that's found in Christ because He is gentle and
lowly is something that is worth delighting in and being excited about.
Christ also tells the truth.
I mean, I wasn't going to go write down every single truly, truly statement
in the Bible, but you get the point.
Like when He's saying truly, truly, He's telling it how it is.
He's not telling you, hey, you know, uh, you might think that
you're in your sins, but like, you're actually cool to stay there.
He's also not telling you, Hey, you know what?
You should, You can just expect to have your best life now.
Nothing bad is ever going to happen to you.
You can manifest all the things that you would ever want, And I
will just give you all this stuff like a divine vending machine.
It'll be great.
No, He tells it how it is.
That when you read the Scriptures, And you, you understand these words
from Him, You know that what He's saying about your life is truthful.
That His Word is not going to fail you in any way.
We should also delight in Christ because He atones for sin.
Because Christ atones for sin.
Because He is the only one who is able to make sufficient
payment on the debt that we owe.
And that He did.
He was willing to do that.
Finally, we should delight in Christ because He prays for His people.
Because He prays for His people that Christ doesn't just save you and
then leave you and say, Good luck.
But as a Christian, you know that even in your deepest, darkest moments, you
know that the one whom you can call upon at any time is praying for you.
He's prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.
Even if your prayers and strivings may feel super weak at times, you know
that the prayers of your Savior are strong and that they're effective.
All of these reasons, and so many more, are things that move the needle for us.
As a Christian, it goes from gritting your teeth to delighting in this
God, to where to be humble is no longer a chore, but it's a blessing.
It's the vehicle through which you get this complete joy because you experience
all of these benefits and you trust in Christ who is all of this and more.
You see, when you delight in Christ, the one who's given from
above, you get that lasting joy.
And you reap the benefits of union with Him.
But you cannot get the joy that we're talking about until you
reject all Christ's substitutes.
All of the impossible Jesuses that are out there.
And you finally confess, He must increase, but I must decrease.
So, with that being said, when it comes to Christ, accept no substitutes.
Pray with me, please.
Our Father in heaven, thank you for your word, which is so
effective and so useful to us.
We know that it does not fail us in any way, but that you have
given it, that we may know the truth, that we may know you, God.
And so I pray that.
You would help us in our small groups tonight to recognize the, the
substitutes and the idols that cling so closely to us, that sound the best,
the things that we're more willing and more desirous to, to trust in you.
And I pray that you would give us the, the strength and all of the
courage to, to shun those things and to totally reject them, God.
And I pray that we would be humble.
We will be people that are marked by the confession that you, Lord,
must increase, but we must decrease.
Pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.