appreciation again for the opportunity and the Lord's providence, Robby Holt and Lucas were together at Covenant and look out Mountain Church and got talking about some of the themes of preaching and so forth and it turned out that they asked me to come and I was glad to but it was somewhat apprehensive about coming and preaching a series of sermons to the same group for such a short period of time. But I am overwhelmed by your warmth and hospitality. Robby, I appreciate you and Jamie and Steve and you cleanse and all you guys who worked so hard to make this conference a success from my perspective at least, it's been very good. I've had to call on my prayer warriors around the world on the nation anyway to support me in prayer and I don't think I've ever had an experience what I felt so supported by God's Holy Spirit in ministry. I know we don't talk about feelings too much but I feel pretty good. Nobody much like the Holy Spirit has been enabling me to stand on this high podium here and still reach out to you in some warm. I do appreciate it. Also although I'm an adjunct professor at the Orlando campus just this short time I've been I really sense that there is something grand here and unique here at this campus. If you have much more of a community here than we're able to achieve in the commuter situation of Orlando. So praise the Lord, these different places are different people, different times in their lives but you've got a wonderful ministry for you here. Let's pray together. I thought as you look at this portion of your word in one more time consider some of the benefits and emphasize that you have in the word for us in this redding metaphor. May our hearts, our minds be open before you may my spirit be confident not in myself but in you Lord that you are with us. You have brought us together for these moments and you have something to say to us from your word that some more than others may need but that we all need to hear Lord. Finally behind the cross of Jesus made a spirit and able us to communicate your word effectively in Jesus name amen. I address you first of all from John three to take your bibles and look at the gospel of John three and verse 22 and following. Here now the Lord's word and the New Testament reading after this Jesus and his disciples went out into the J.D. and countryside where he spent some of his time with them and baptized. Now John was baptizing it and on your salient because there was plenty of water and people were constantly coming to be baptized. This was before John was put in prison and argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washings they came to John and said to him rabbi. That man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan the one who you testified about well he is baptizing everyone is going to him. This John replied a man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourself can testify that I said I am not the Christ but have sent ahead of him the bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him and as full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice that joy is mine and is now complete he must become greater. The one who comes from above is above all the one who was from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks of speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from above is above all he he testifies to what he has seen and heard but no one accepts his testimony. One who has accepted it as a certify that God is truthful for the one who has whom God has sent speaks the words of God for God gives the spirit without limit. The father loves the son who has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the son had you turn a life whoever rejects the son will not see life but God's wrath remains on him. How many of you have ever been in somebody else's wedding raise your hand? How many of you have ever served as bridesmaids? How many of you have served as groomsmen? How many of you were ever best men? The groomsmen and bridesmaids are there to assist with principal parties. The bridesmaids assist the bride, you know, at least theoretically, and the grooms then the groom. And the best man, of course, is the lead of the groomsmen, and his responsibilities are greater. Responsibilities include the following. To study the groom and protect the groom, make sure the groom arrives on time. To prepare the way, whatever it would mean, get chairs out of the way, ropes or flowers, whatever, make sure everybody gets there on time. He was also to escort the groom to the altar. He's to present the groom to the bride. And then there's often a toast and so forth. But in the end, the best man is to do his duty and sort of fade into the side like. Now, we're looking at the marriage metaphors yesterday and today, and there are more than any time to look at, including the serenity of the bridesmaids. But we've seen enough to know that the human marriage is the analogy that God features throughout the scripture. One of them, he'll illustrate his love for us, for his people, his covenant, his desire to be with us forever. He's beautiful wedding metaphors, and he'll continue to resonate in our hearts. The God wants to be with us forever. We know that the father is a one who elects, and it prepares the wedding, arranges for it, the son is the one who dies and pays the dowry, and the Holy Spirit is the one who converts and persists and perseveres with the bride. You know that the Christ is still preparing a place for us? And this morning, we talked about a variant on the theme that the leaders of the church are called to be beside the bride, the men are active, fathers of the bride. And in a certain sense, as we talked about the fathers of the bride, we were looking at the bride side of things, and now tonight, at this afternoon, the last address, we're across the aisle a little bit, and we're going to look at the groom side. And you may be surprised to know that there is, in the text of scripture, a text about the best men, and you may have picked it out already, but it's in John chapter 3. You turn with me to John 3, and to notice John 3.29, the bride belongs to the bride groom. The friend who attends the bride groom, focusing on the bride groom side of things, the friend who attends the bride groom and waits and listens for him, and it's full of joy when he hears the bride groom's voice, just pause there for now, you see here, the friend of the bride groom is the groom's man, or perhaps the best man, and when a label John that he speaks himself here, John says of himself in our own modern language, I am the best man to Jesus, the bride groom, and there are three duties listed here, to our obvious, and well at once, I should be obvious, first is to prepare the way for the bride groom, point number one. Secondly, to announce the bride groom's arrival, and thirdly, then to step out of the spotlight, so the bride groom may have it to be featured. So duty number one, and the biblical theology here, is to prepare the way, turn back to chapter one of John, and see how John the Baptist did this in great ways. John chapter one, be familiar with the text, but let's pick it up, look at chapter one, 19. John's testimony is listed and recorded down on 19.21, they ask who he is, and there's some people give their various answers, who are you verse 22, and he replies in verse 23, I am the voice of one who's calling in the desert, make straight the way for the Lord, so he's saying clearly I am come to prepare the way, and that's the first job of the best man to prepare the way. I am the voice in the wilderness, crying, make straight the way for the Lord, I'm preparing the way for the Lord. Now here is, I think you want to see in the context, when God was just about ready to bring his son into the world, the bride groom, to redeem the bride, the world was not ready. The world was not prepared, ready for the bride, the nation of Israel, to whom the bride would come, was particularly not ready. The religious life of God's people was very poor at this time, there had not been a profit in Israel for 400 years, it would be called, religion had become fossilized, informal, outward ritual mask, an intercorruption of which the prophets had spoken and still existed, there was little faith, and the point of this is that people of God that Jews were not spiritually alive or prepared to receive the Messiah when he did come, so when the bride would come she would not be recognized at all, or loved, so God sent John as a friend of the groom to prepare the way among the people of God, and he served as best man, look at chapter 123, he prepared the way by preaching the word, 123, he quotes the scripture, I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, and he preached that, and he flundered that verse of scripture, the preaching of the word was to prepare the way, and then in chapter 3 of Matthew I will turn there for you, in chapter 3 of Matthew a parallel passage in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the desert of Judea saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near, and again he quotes the scriptures of Isaiah, and he is calling for repentance. So he is preparing the way by preaching the word, and by calling for a verdict, by calling the response, by calling for repentance, and then that it is symbolized in chapter 3 of Matthew 11, and in John 2 by baptism, so baptism, the sacrament of baptism, well the pre-Christian right I should say, of baptism here, the pre-Christian right of baptism, Jewish conversion is pictured and symbolized by this ceremony, probably of immersion, pre-Christian immersion ceremony, now the second duty of the groom, the best man rather, is to announce the coming, prepare the way number one, number two, announce the coming, that was made clear, and what he did in John and here in Matthew 2, but for fuller information, look within the first chapter of John, you may still be there, verse 15, the point here is that he is to announce the groom's arrival, and John did a lot to make his point clear, he was here to announce, to prepare the way to announce the coming of the Messiah, John 115, John testifies concerning him, that is his job, and testifies concerning him, he cries out saying, this was he of whom I said, he comes after me, is a pastor, past me because he was before me, and go for his fullness, from his fullness we have received, and so on, for the sake of time, good of verse 23, John replied in the words of Isaiah, I am the voice of one calling in the desert, makes trade the way for the Lord, so he is announcing the arrival of the Lord in 126, I baptize with water, John replied, among you stands one, you do not know, John is here to announce, and so you will know him, so when Jesus, the groom, actually comes on the scene, go to 129, when Jesus actually comes on the scene, and it is time for his public presentation by John, the bride, the best man, John, the baptist, the best man, when Jesus comes on the scene, in the way that you are paired, and so the best man is going to announce is coming, he says 129, the next day, John sold Jesus coming toward him, and said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, this is the one I went man, when I said a man who comes after me, surpassed me because he was before me, so John announces, Jesus, we are 35, later, the next day in fact, the next day, John was there again when two of his disciples, with the two disciples, when he sold Jesus passing by, he said, look, the Lamb of God, and this isn't very difficult, there's an obvious, but we'll state it again, the best man's responsibilities are to prepare the way for the groom, and to announce is coming, and John did this wonderfully, to prepare the way in verse 37 again, he said, and two disciples heard him saying this, they turn and follow Jesus, he did his job, in fact, John did his job so well, he was such a good best man,
that the more and more of his own disciples began to switch from following John to following Jesus, and this brings us a chapter 3, our text, because this tells us in chapter 3 verse 26 that is more and more people heard John preparing the way and announcing the Messiah that more and more of John's disciples began to follow Jesus, are you with me church planters, you hear what I'm saying here? More and more of John's disciples began to switch over to Jesus church so that it riled the fateful of John's followers, the elders and dikes were saying to him, rabbi, 3, 20s, and man who was with you and he had his sight at Jordan, he was the one who he testified about, well, he's baptizing, everybody is going to him, you see John had done his job as best man so well,
the brings us to the third and final point of being a best man, the critical point today, and that is that his final job is to step out of the spotlight so the groom may have the focus and John did this, and John devoted himself to Jesus all along, and when he understood that he was the right one, and John had said all along, I'm not the guy, he's coming, he's coming, there he is, so John said again, verse 27, to this John replied, a man can receive only what is given him from heaven, you yourself can testify that I said I am not the Christ, but in the center ahead of him,
the bride belongs to the bridegroom, 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, it is now complete, he must become greater and I must become less, look he says, he's not about me, he never was about me, this is about Christ and about the salvation he has come to give, 29, look I'm okay, I'm not the bridegroom, the bride is not mine, I am the friend of the bridegroom, look at me, consider me the bridegroom's friend, consider me the best man, these are my words of course, the best man who waits and listens for the bridegroom, I am full of joy because of the best man I hear the bridegroom come and announce him, here he is, come on take the bride, my job is done and my joy is full, I'm pity me, I'm happy, this is not my kingdom, I am not the central figure here, I've done my job and I need to fade into the woodwork, my brothers and sisters, John the Baptist was a unique character in biblical revelation and not one to be repeated for centuries, his unique role as a transition from the old to the new covenants you know well but these three duties that John carries out here are really not unique in some senses to him because we can say we said it more carefully, Tom will allow us and in some ways Moses was like that, the prophets, the angels who announced Christ incarnate appearance and they were just like this, they came and they prepared the way and they announced it and then they faded back into clouds and you're going and more relevant to you all is the apostles themselves kind of took up John's method of operation, the apostles themselves as they witnessed Christ first coming and that is going and it preparing for second coming, they began to announce to the congregation the bride of Christ that Christ was going to come again and they're doing all their work to prepare the church for the second coming of the bridegroom, for the real wedding you see and they're preparing the way by their preaching and repenting and baptizing and their announcing is coming, it could be soon, but all the while they did their ministry, they faced the light of death and of scorn and made themselves at a pass off the scene just like you do specifically I think the application to us is that we as ministers of his church continue John's legacy in some ways because I think our responsibility like the apostles was to prepare the way for the church to prepare the way for Christ coming I'm saying and to get the church ready for his appearing and that's what Peter does I'm going to turn you may with me to second Peter chapter two three second Peter chapter three well I think you see as an example the apostles doing this thing that is preparing the way John number one look with me a John or rather second Peter three ten second Peter three ten where Peter has written these two epistles and has a lot of to say about how the church is to be governed and things to say to the elders and so on and he closes his letter the second letter second Peter three ten but the day of the Lord will come like a thief of the night and the heavens will disappear with a roar the elements will be destroyed by fire the earth and everything in it will be laid there since everything will be destroyed in this way what kind of people want you to be well to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed it's coming speed it's coming how do you do that you see that's what we're doing with preparing the way it goes on here but let's move on and second point of our responsibility is to announce the way is to announce the groom's coming prepare the way announced is coming and our task is we had now that Christ has come and he's going to come again so we preach repentance to get the church and the world like God's grace prepared for his second coming we say such things as close the scripture we save words like behold I am coming soon and my reward is with me and we say that to the church and we say that to the world to alert them that Christ is coming and soon just like John did on the first coming and we say what a church in the bribe the spirit say come and over here say come is there a mercy come take of the water life free because it's not long before he comes and then become the difficult part of announcing this and having to play second fiddle to Jesus now Moses did it and John the Baptist and Apostles did it and their other leg men we revered who did this and women as well and students you are privileged to perhaps serve in the long legacy of these best men you must be willing to say with John and John 330 he must increase and I must decrease these are not easy words these are not easy words for Americans we raised the idea to be asserted to be central to what's going on to push our way forward to make a mark for ourselves remember when I did my church for a little while not there long a woman visited and she said to me at her service you won't be here very long that was a compliment you see and her view it was good preaching but it was too small a place to hang around make a name for yourself the modern person thinks everything revolves around him or her we're not we're not innocent here are we we don't go unscathed by this remark the modern person thinks everything supposed to work together to enhance our happiness to build our success to make us feel good or at least make it
a huge obstacle to the work of Christ is ego ministers elders and their wives get so into ministry get so into the ministry into church planting that they become the work the work is their reputation the work is our validation and nobody better get in the way of our validation you said to your parents you felt called to the ministry and they were hoping you were only high on acid
you changed your career in college to accommodate a seminary entrance acquiring substantial debt in college to target yourself for a goal that doesn't pay too well
and then you enroll in RTS and you get more debt and then you had to make matters worse by getting married
and you worked hard in seminary to prove to your mate that you were called to prove to your parents that you were called and to prove yourself that you were called either the youth ministry thing for a couple of years so you got a real job and you finally got a chance to work at a church or ministry and by gum you're going to be really sure to put the rest any doubts that you made the right decision you're going to work and pray so hard if I get it given for in the morning I'm going to do it because I got a mission and the mission is to prove to my parents and to prove to my wife and to prove to my kids and to prove to my mirror that I made the right decision when you go to Presbytery and talk with people the question really is how you do how's it going
looks like Chris Clark said in his presentation when you meet somebody the second question is what you do that question really means how successful are you that's what that question means how successful are you and brothers and sisters when you get to this point and you may be there low and behold ministry is not really about the bride or the groom ministry really isn't about the king of the god ministry really is about so ministry really is about self-validation most increase it's okay if Jesus increases too but I got increase and brothers and sisters we talked about the salvation metaphor we saw that the way metaphor that presents salvation is glory and sanctification and service but when it comes to sacrifice it starts right here it starts with sacrifice of your ego my reputation my validation and I'm not going to fool you I don't have a mask I don't have this conquered myself constant struggle we need a large dose of John the Baptist John three third to suit again he must become greater and I must become less now let me encourage you in closing I hammered you with a law here let me lift you with a gospel because it's right here the motivation for John is not that he didn't have an ego I didn't have any game plan or any ability to master follow you did a great job the motivation for John the Baptist if you really knew who Jesus was or he came to know and this is your deliverance this is our deliverance brothers and sisters from ego and the and the motivation for self-sacrifice at this point is to see and understand Jesus as for instance John do let's take your Bibles and begin a John 114 and do a very quick zip to the end here and find some motivation from John and John the Baptist John the Apostle John the Baptist both it is the understanding of who Jesus is the bridegroom that will provide us the motivation to become second fiddle John 114 look at it John understood John the Apostle understood and John the Baptist came to understand that Jesus is the eternal word of God made flesh he saw in this text that Jesus Christ had the fullness of the glory in him look at it for yourself read it to yourself John 14 they saw in this teaching of God's word this revelation that Jesus Christ the bridegroom was full of grace and truth verse 16 that all grace were received come from Jesus not from John from Jesus and John came to believe that we are all unworthy John 127 to untie Jesus sandals John came to worship Christ as the son of God come down from above switch over to now to chapter 3 and verse 31 John 331 John saw that Jesus was one come down from heaven and John saw in that same verse that he spoke from heaven 335 John saw that this one was specifically uniquely loved by the father and John would revere this one whom the father revered and to whom the Holy Spirit was given without measure that's Jesus and not John and that's why Jesus deserved to be exalted and John came to believe this 336 John came to know above other things that without the word of Christ you have no eternal life that they're going to have a king to let him mouse to anything a church that's going to grow and have any eternal significance or lasting benefit it's only by vote when those come to the worship Christ and believe in him as the son of God for the wrath of God remains on the rest and this is a theology of the of the best man and this is why John could say with a real sincere part 29 this is my joy to see the bride need the bride groom and I'm not that groom my joy is to see the bride tonight with the bride groom my joy to get the bride groom in front of the bride get them to meet each other know each other love each other then my work and this is the goal of getting the world ready for Jesus and this is the joy of announcing his coming and when we have announced the word to take the focus of our song I have seen in a short time at this campus with the professors that I've visited with and the students that I've gotten to know your some of your stories that you understand this don't you that it is your heart's desire your purpose and seminaries to prepare yourself to be part of the bride on the one side of the aisle all their the bride and the other side of the aisle trying to do good the one then impress with young men women have gone out with world harvest ministry Jack Miller was one of my professors at seminary to see this ministry of world harvest grow with his sacrificial leadership as blessed my soul in world magazine again recent issues just series of a little diary of some of the missionaries who serve the lord and ganda people being killed in some of these extreme portions their own lives and jeopardy I see this missionary Rick Gray sitting in a home he's not even wearing a tie you believe that he didn't look very preacherly to me holding the word of god open to some of his people trying to reach for the gospel Rick has given up a fancy pulpit he'd gone where his life may be in jeopardy he's done this because he's happy to be the best man
well they're in heaven my heart convicts me and I think we all