Derek Grier - An Upside Down Kingdom
We are gonna be in the Book of John, starting with chapter, well we're in chapter three, starting with verse 22. And John says by the Holy Spirit, "After these things, Jesus". Jesus had just started traveling. He had just turned water into wine, he spent 40 days, 40 nights in the wilderness. He turned over tables at the temple in Jerusalem and he also had his famous Nick at Night meeting, you know, with Nicodemus. But my pastor used to say, while he was alive, you cannot influence what you avoid. Okay, she said, "Say it again". You cannot influence what you avoid.
So despite the condition of the world, the condition of his nation, Jesus had to go to where the people were. And growth, whether it's in your personal life, your career, ministry, or anything else, requires personal investment and it's often uncomfortable, messy, and full of feelings you were not expecting. And Jesus is familiar with all of the things that we go through in life. And it says, "After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea".
So Jesus was comfortable ministering in the city, which was Jerusalem, but also the small towns. He spoke with the elite, the educated, you know, the folks with more education really than they could handle, but he also spoke with the common folk, those with accents so thick you almost need an interpreter to understand. But don't ever become so spiritual you can't be regular anymore, you can't talk to regular folk anymore. You so high, so spiritual, so tongue talking, hear what I'm saying, so vision seeing that you can't be regular. And there he remained, not above them, not behind them or beside them, but with them and he baptized.
Now the next chapter tells us that it wasn't Jesus himself that was baptized, it was actually his disciples. And by the way, our teams are getting re-mobilized and soon we will have our first baptism since COVID, you need to be excited about. And just while I'm on it, now this is not the point today, but baptism is sacred. It's a very, very important step in our spiritual journey and it should not be missed. You know, as a wedding celebrates the union of two hearts for life, baptism celebrates the union of the human and divine for eternity. So if you really made Jesus the Lord of your life, it's time to jump the rope.
Now, Jesus also is baptizing in Aenon near Salem because there was much water there. So those of us that over-spiritualize, we need to understand that baptism first happens in the heart, but not only in the heart, according to Jesus here, it also requires physical water, in a physical place with physical people watching because baptism is really a declaration to the physical world that we've chosen a new path. You see, weekly worship without concrete commitment is no more than flattery. And we need to follow the directions. And Jesus would like every one of us to be baptized, to say to the watching world, "We belong to him. And they came and were baptized".
This is what you gotta come for. This is something you gotta do. And by the way, some of us were baptized as children, how many of you were baptized as children? Yeah, and that's a good thing because Jesus tells us, "Suffer or allow the little children to come to me and don't forbid them. For as such is the Kingdom of Heaven". So I would not refuse a child that's been rightly instructed, you know, about what baptism is. But as you grow older, you know whether or not it was real.
You see, I may not be perfect, but I've lived long enough to know I'm not fake. And time has a way of revealing whether or not it was real. For John had not yet been thrown in prison, it's gonna take me a minute to get to our focus. Just stay with me, context is important. So John had been baptizing for months if not years. It's been going on for a while. He had built the largest ministry, the most popular ministry in the entire nation. Even Jesus himself was baptized by John. But we see when his time came, it wasn't all fluff, it wasn't all for show, he was willing to pay the ultimate price, and ultimately he paid with his life.
But let's keep going. But then in verse 25, the human happened. Great ministry, miracles are being done, lives are being changed, but then people. "Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification". So people in the Church argued then and they still argue now. But how many of us have been in relations long enough to know that what we're arguing about is seldom really what we're arguing about. Now you argue because, you know, your husband, your wife, or whoever, you know, forgot to pick up that thing from the store, but underneath, what you're really arguing about is you might feel taken for granted. You might feel that you don't matter. It's not the event, it's typically what's going on in the heart and mind underneath.
So what I've found in my life, and I know me and my wife, we supposed to fell from Heaven, but we didn't, we didn't, we didn't. What I've learned, if we're arguing about something for more than a couple of minutes, chances are it's not just about one person's actions, but about something going on inside of one of us. So finally, in verse 26, there's this argument going on, but that's not really the deal. We get to the real problem. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi," so they call him by his formal title. They're trying to get John stirred up because there's another rabbi that's shown up and he's doing great things, but John here doesn't take the bait.
Now you see, we find in John, he does not have a petty bone in his body. You know, pettiness is usually the consequence of a person not yet living for a larger purpose. See, I'm learning when they go low, we go what, high. "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan," the Bible tells us that Jesus and John were first cousins. Remember Elizabeth and Mary were related. But here they wouldn't even say Jesus' name. "He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified," John, the guy you baptized, the guy you said that God told you to endorse, is getting bigger than you.
By the way, this is another aside, if God had to raise up someone credible to vouch for Jesus, someone, somewhere also, should be in position to vouch for us. Yeah, I'm getting a few amens today. I love this African proverb, but I'm gonna cut you, but then I'm gonna put you back together. If you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, go together. We need other leaders in our lives, we need other Christians in our lives, we need people that can vouch for our faith, vouch for our life and our living. And they said look at this, John, pay attention, Rabbi, I thought you were a leader, you're supposed to understand leadership.
"Behold," Rabbi, "He's baptizing and all are coming to him"! He's upstaging you, John. He's gonna put us out of business, John. Everyone's looking to him now, John. John, you need to protect what you worked for. John, listen, you'd better do something, John, or we're gonna pass away and everyone else is gonna be involved in this new movement. But watch John's answer, it's impressive. And "John answered and said, A man can receive nothing," no thing of any value, "unless it's been given to him from Heaven". Solution from God.
See, this is actually one of my wife's favorite verses, she didn't know I was gonna say this. She's actually the least petty person I have ever met in my life. You know, people will come up to us and try to compare us to others, her typical response is, "Well, that's not what we were given". You see, she's lived long enough to learn wearing pretty shoes that don't fit will eventually ruin your feet. You don't wanna spend your life running someone else's race. You don't wanna climb the ladder of success only to find out in the end, it's leaned up against the wrong building. You need to do you and run the race assigned to you. That's all God's gonna hold you accountable, not what I do or what she does, what Jane does, what John does, but what God's called you to do.
Psalm 16 and six said, and I know you think, again, that, you know, I kind of live in a different world, let me tell you something, ministry can be one of the most petty environments you ever bump into. And this verse has helped me for over 30 years. The Psalm, it says here, I say my, but it says the, "My boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely," even though I don't look like the other, I don't hit a note like Arthur does and I'm not as tall as Pastor Ken and, you know, there's a zillion things I can't do, but he said, "My boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places," I'm happy about, I can be happy just being me, in pleasant places.
"Surely I have a delightful inheritance". In other words, he was saying, I'm happy with my limitations. I'm happy with what I can do and what I can't do. There are things I have others don't have, but also things others don't have that I do have, and I'm good. A man said contentment is not having everything, but being satisfied with everything you have. I'm preaching good, you give me some amens in a few minutes. Verse 27, let's go back. "John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from Heaven". John didn't want a bigger office, bigger role, bigger responsibilities or a platform that didn't fit him.
You know, I've had moments when my little wife will look me in the eye, I'm about a foot taller than her, and she'll look me in the eye and say, "Mister, I fit you perfectly. If I'm a problem, I'm the problem God meant you to have. If I'm a blessing, I'm the blessing God meant you to have. I may not be it for anybody else, but I'm it for you". She's right. Making me research texts and I found in Genesis two and 18, the Lord said, "It's not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable," suitable, suitable, "for him". God promised to give Adam a helper that suited him, meaning God was the tailor, and whatever she was, must fit.
So if she doesn't fit at some point in my life, either I need to lose weight. Workout and gain some weight, or she needs to shrink or stretch. But here's the deal, if God gave 'em to you, you'd better make it work. My Bible says, "Every good and perfect gift," comes down from above. He or she may not always be what you want, but according to my Bible, God is the tailor and that person is exactly who you need. My wife has made me strong. My wife has made me tough. When we were arguing, she made me patient. Do you understand what I'm saying?
She was exactly what I needed and if I would have picked without the mind of God, I would have messed up. And by the way, even if you messed up at the alter, God knows how to form and knows how to fasten and knows how to fix. If you got married before God, God will make him or her suitable for the journey. My Bible says, y'all gonna get mad at me, but woe to the man who argues with his creator. So God gave you that gift, it must fit. Well no, no, she's tight and not only that, you've got to lose weight. Work out or gain some weight. You either got your head too big, or you gotta get stronger. I went to meddling, but I'm helping somebody.
You say I'm gonna get out of this marriage, but you can't get out of life because the same lesson gonna follow you. Until you learn it, until you learn it, until you learn it. That person you're married to is suitable. God knows how to make suits fit. God knows how to design things and make it snug in a place, and hear what I, God knows what he's doing. I know I went to meddling, but I'm gonna get back to the scripture. John three and 28, the word is good, isn't it?
He said, John three and 28, "You yourselves bear me witness," they wanted to puff him up and say, well you know, yeah yeah yeah yeah, he's taking advantage of my niceness and my kindness and he should be in another neighborhood. Why is he over here, you know, all that stuff. He said, you'd better listen, "That I said, I am not the Christ". John understood something that some of us don't understand. I'm nobody's savior. I can't fix nobody.
You know, I'm really just a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody who can say, but I am not, you are not all that. You cannot fix that person unless they make up their mind to be fixed, they not gonna be fixed. I am not the Christ. Everybody's problem is not my fault. Everybody's issue is not my response, I'm not the savior of nobody. I have a tough enough time with my own life to try to be saving everybody else's life. "But I have been sent before," the one who is the Christ.
You see, John knew who he was 'cause he said I have been sent. So I have an assignment, but I'm not your savior. I can help you, but I can't do it for you. He said, I have been sent, he knew who he was, but he also knew who Jesus was. He didn't think too high of himself, acting like he was the Christ. He didn't think too low of himself, as if he didn't have a role in God's plan. And we go to these extremes, I'm just a nothing, or I'm everything. But I wanna tell you something today, in our modern culture, and this is gonna grate you wrong, but it will help you, I think high self-esteem is over rated.
A little low self-esteem is good for the soul. It helps you remain grateful and you will never be grateful for something you think you're entitled to. Will anyone else come back next Sunday? Verse 29. And then he explains, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom". So as leaders, as parents, as friends, we are groomsmen, never the groom. But we still have a role. Now I'm not the bridegroom, "But the friend of the bridegroom".
And today, the friend of the bridegroom would be called the Best Man. But in those days, the Best Man had a whole lot of responsibility, a little bit different than today. He helped organized the details of the wedding. Sometimes he helped negotiate the contract between families. He also made sure, and this is still done today, make sure the groom shows up for the wedding. But the friend of the groom or the Best Man also had a a special duty to guard the bridal chamber and let no false lover inside. And he only opened the door to the bridal suite after he heard the groom's voice on the other side.