Two Stories
In
his sermon, “Don’t Waste Your Life,” Pastor John Piper shares two different
stories with us.[1]
The first story goes like this. In his church two of the faithful church
members, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards, who went to Cameroon as missionaries,
had both been killed because of a car accident. Ruby was over eighty. Single
all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known
among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical
doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon. As
people read this story in the paper, they said, “What a tragedy!” But no, that
is not a tragedy. That is a glory. Then, Pastor John tells us the second story,
what a tragedy is. He reads to us from the Reader’s Digest: “Bob and
Penny… took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago
when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where
they cruise on their thirty-foot trawler, playing softball and collecting
shells.” Yes, there’s a time for relaxing and taking a vacation. But if the
purpose of our life is the American Dream: a nice house, a nice car, a nice
job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells, that’s a tragedy. If
Bob and Penny’s life describes the last chapter of our life, what a tragic way
to finish the last mile before entering the presence of Jesus who finished his
last mile so differently.
Two Joys
As
we celebrate Jesus as our joy this morning, I want us to ask ourselves this
question: “What is at the bottom of my joy?” “What is the feeder of my
happiness?” All of our joys have a foundation. What does it mean by that? Let
me give you an example. Once my daughter Grace said to me, “Dad, when I grow
up, I want to be either pastor or teacher.” I said, “Great. But why do you want
to be a pastor or teacher?” She said, “Because you teach and talk in front of
many people, and they listen to you.” So I asked, “Why does that make you
happy?” She replied, “Because you can tell them what to do and boss them
around.” If we continue this “why – because” conversation, we get to the bottom
of what makes us happy. At the bottom there are only two possibilities of our
joy: making much of me, or making much of God. Self or God.
The default mode of human heart is self-centered, self-exalting, making much of self (cf. Jer 17:9). That’s why being “born again” is necessary. The new birth changes the default mode of our fallen heart. It changes the bottom of what makes us happy. It changes the foundation of our life.
Nicodemus
In
John 3 we see a contrast between a person who has self at the bottom and a
person who has God at the bottom – a contrast between Nicodemus and John the
Baptist. But both of them have something in common: Their worlds are falling
apart. They are going through a major crisis in their lives.
First, we meet Nicodemus. The Bible introduces Nicodemus as a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews (v. 1), the teacher of Israel (v. 9). In other words, he was serious about God. He was a good man, moral man. He was knowledgeable, experienced, respected, full of credentials. Seen from outside, he was a perfect example of how to live as God’s people. But in reality, Nicodemus’ inner world was falling apart. He felt miserable. He felt thirsty. He felt something was missing. Why? Because there was self at the bottom. Because self at the bottom could never satisfy his heart made for God. Blaise Pascal rightly said, “There is a God-shaped hole in the heart of every person which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”
So Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. And Jesus said to him, “You must be born again.” Here Jesus was saying, “Nicodemus, you need something new at the bottom. Now God is not at the bottom. You are at the bottom. You must exchange yourself at the bottom with God.” So, to be born again is to experience this exchange at the bottom – an exchanged life! It is no longer I at the bottom, but Christ is at the bottom.
John the Baptist
The
second person we meet in John 3 is John the Baptist – the one who has God at
the bottom of his joy. How do we know what’s at the bottom? Oftentimes, storms
in life reveal what’s in there at the bottom. Right now John is going through a
major crisis in his career. He was a rising star. Everyone in Israel was
talking about him, and many of them came out to be baptized by him. But then,
all of sudden a storm came. He saw his ministry begin to fade away as Jesus
began his ministry. His disciples said, “Rabbi, your star is sinking. Your
ministry is diminishing. All are going to Jesus, the one whom you testified.
What are we going to do?” They were upset, anxious, jealous. But, John said to
them, “I am not the Messiah. I am not the Bridegroom. I am the friend of the bridegroom, his ‘best
man,’ who stands beside him and hears him, rejoicing
greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. That
joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease”
(John 3:29-30). So what’s at the bottom of his joy? Making much of Christ!
William Barclay tells us about the role of the bridegroom’s friend in Jesus’ time as follows[2]:
The
“friend of the bridegroom” had a unique place at a Jewish wedding. He acted as
the liaison between the bride and the bridegroom… And he had one special duty.
It was his duty to guard the bridal chamber and to let no false lover in. He
would only open the door when in the dark he heard the bridegroom’s voice and
recognized it. When he heard the bridegroom’s voice he was glad and he let him
in, and he went away rejoicing, for
his task was completed.
The joy of the best man! The joy of making much of Christ, the Bridegroom! This is the new birth, new heart, new creation, new exchange! John the Baptist is new you, new me. When we are born again, myself being made much of ceases to be the bottom, and God becomes the bottom for the first time. God becomes the source of all our joys. Then, so naturally, we treasure him, savor him, enjoy making much of him!
Look to Jesus
Our
Christian journey is a journey from making much of self to making much of God,
a journey from a life of Nicodemus to a life of John the Baptist. It takes a miracle to change. We need the new
birth. “How can this be?” “How can I be born again, born from above?” Nicodemus
asked. And we ask today. Jesus answers, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in
the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in
him may have eternal life” (vv. 14-15). It is not enough to be educated. It is
not enough to grow up in the church. It is not enough to do religious activity.
We must look to Jesus, who gives a new
foundation of joy.
Elizabeth Prentiss was a native of Maine. She was a pastor’s wife, and was very good at writing prose and poetry from a young age. But sadly, for much of her life she lived the life of a near invalid, she always suffered from chronic pain. To make things worse, she lost a child and shortly thereafter a second. In her diary Prentiss wrote, “Empty hands, a worn-out, exhausted body, and unutterable longings to flee from a world that has so many sharp experiences.” But it was then that she looked up to Jesus, and she was able to refocus her understanding of her own value and worth from doing to being – being with Christ, being in Christ. In the midst of grief and suffering, she found peace, rest, and joy[3]. That night she wrote the four stanzas of her hymn, and the second verse goes like this:
Once
earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
Now
Thee alone I seek, give what is best;
This
all my prayer shall be:
More
love, O Christ to Thee,
More
love to Thee! More love to Thee!
John
the Baptist became less and less. He was slipping off to the sidelines. Perhaps
he struggled with self worth and purpose in life and questioned himself whether
he was on the right track. Then he looked to Jesus. He saw Jesus exalted. And
he was filled with joy and said to the whole world, “Look, look to Jesus, the
Lamb of God! Look to Jesus, and you will live! Look to Jesus, and you will be
filled with joy!”
In the same way, there are times when we wonder whether we are on the right track – especially when our health is failing, when our life is falling apart. But if Christ is exalted and glorified in and through our lives, we are on the right track. By this, we can rejoice. Yesterday I visited one of the church members who was going through the final hours. I was sitting at her bedside. All I could do was to help her to keep her eyes on Jesus. I visited another church member who recently lost his spouse, confused and overwhelmed with sorrow. I held his hand and prayed with him, encouraging him to look to Jesus, our exceeding joy (cf. Psalm 43:4).
Looking to Jesus is not just the ABC of the Christian life but the A to Z of the Christian life. Everyone who looked to the snake on the pole lived. Everyone who looks up to Jesus on the cross lives. Nicodemus looked to Jesus and lived. John the Baptist looked to Jesus and lived. Let us look to Jesus – not just once, or twice. Let us keep our eyes on Jesus even when our world is falling apart. Then, Christ will become the bottom of our joy, and we will be filled with joy – joy of making much of Christ, saying, “More love, O Christ to Thee, More love to Thee!”
[1]
John Piper, “Don’t Waste Your Life,” https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/boasting-only-in-the-cross/excerpts/don-t-waste-your-life
[2]
Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe
(Crossway, 1990), 93.
[3]
“History
of Hymns: More Love to Thee, O Christ,”
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-more-love-to-thee-o-christ
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