WEBVTT 00:00:03.470 --> 00:00:13.640 right good morning everyone let's have the first slide up so um so this morning's um we're 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:19.520 continuing with the series on john it's the second of our series on john's gospel and and today 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:24.900 actually the passage isn't directly about jesus it's about john the baptist and in particular 00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:32.980 john how john answers the question who are you and as we listen to um john being interrogated 00:00:32.980 --> 00:00:38.340 really, and the answers he gives, kind of my hope and prayer is that that will help 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:46.880 us answer that question for ourselves. Because, I mean, John is a deeply fascinating character, 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:54.620 and the answers he gives are really counter-cultural and interesting. But, you know, the who are 00:00:54.620 --> 00:01:00.720 you question is such a big one, isn't it? And if you try it, as I did at some point 00:01:00.720 --> 00:01:06.780 of the week. If you Google the phrase identity crisis, you get lots of stuff up. There's 00:01:06.780 --> 00:01:12.280 a sense in which in our culture there are a lot of people struggling to find answers 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:18.440 to the question, who am I? And there's lots of kind of resources and self-help and all 00:01:18.440 --> 00:01:27.770 sorts of stuff offering answers to that. But the question is a really big one. But let's 00:01:27.770 --> 00:01:34.370 have the next slide. So the question, the context is, the question is, who did John 00:01:34.370 --> 00:01:44.240 the Baptist think he was? And the background to this is that John has been preaching and 00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:49.720 holding open-air meetings up and down the Jordan River, calling on people to make major 00:01:49.720 --> 00:01:56.040 changes in their lives, to be baptized, and to receive the forgiveness of sins. And people 00:01:56.040 --> 00:02:01.480 are coming to him in large numbers. So John is kind of like the celebrity preacher of 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:08.340 the moment. And he's come to the attention of the religious establishment in Jerusalem. 00:02:09.220 --> 00:02:17.200 And so they've sent a delegation to question John. And it's not a particularly friendly 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:24.400 delegation. They're not coming with open minds, but they're trying to pin John down, and they 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:30.830 question him. It's almost like a trial. And it's like he's being questioned by the barrister 00:02:30.830 --> 00:02:36.450 representing the other side. But that's the kind of context. But let's hear it firsthand. 00:02:36.690 --> 00:02:41.630 So I think Sarah or Cornelius, Cornelius, Sarah's going to read it for us. So let's 00:02:41.630 --> 00:02:46.930 listen to the word. Thank you, Sarah. 00:02:53.420 --> 00:02:58.720 This was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and temple assistants 00:02:58.720 --> 00:03:03.360 from Jerusalem to ask John, who are you? 00:03:04.590 --> 00:03:08.710 He came right out and said, I am not the Messiah. 00:03:10.420 --> 00:03:12.900 Well then, who are you, they asked. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:14.380 Are you Elijah? 00:03:16.220 --> 00:03:17.540 No, he replied. 00:03:18.980 --> 00:03:21.180 Are you the prophet we are expecting? 00:03:22.460 --> 00:03:22.840 No. 00:03:24.640 --> 00:03:25.800 Then who are you? 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.400 We need an answer for those who sent us. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:36.620 who do you say what what do you have to say about yourself john replied in the words of the prophet 00:03:36.620 --> 00:03:45.740 isaiah i am a voice shouting in the wilderness clear the way for the lord's coming then the 00:03:45.740 --> 00:03:53.680 pharisees who had been sent asked him if you aren't the messiah or elijah or the prophet 00:03:53.680 --> 00:04:03.090 it, what right do you have to baptize? John told them, I baptize with water, but right here in the 00:04:03.090 --> 00:04:11.450 crowd is someone you do not recognize. Though his ministry follows mine, I am not even worthy to be 00:04:11.450 --> 00:04:21.560 his slave and untie the straps of his sandal. This encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:32.400 the Jordan River where John was baptizing. So that was good to hear the word directly. 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:39.310 So let's have the next slide. So John's being interrogated. I see it's like a trial and they're 00:04:39.310 --> 00:04:44.510 saying, well, who are you? And they ask you, are you the Messiah? Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet? 00:04:44.970 --> 00:04:53.880 And each time we get from John a resounding no. And that's, I guess, in order for me to know who I am, 00:04:53.880 --> 00:04:55.440 I have to know who I am not 00:04:55.440 --> 00:04:59.660 and there's also something about 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:02.620 they're trying to put a label 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:04.420 on John 00:05:04.420 --> 00:05:09.490 and he's refusing to be labelled 00:05:09.490 --> 00:05:12.160 one of the dangers 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.000 of this whole identity 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:15.040 question is that 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:17.820 we can kind of end up with an identity 00:05:17.820 --> 00:05:19.780 that's been put on us by other people 00:05:19.780 --> 00:05:22.380 and if that's a positive identity 00:05:22.380 --> 00:05:24.100 we can suffer from imposter syndrome 00:05:24.100 --> 00:05:26.340 we feel other people are saying nice things about me 00:05:26.340 --> 00:05:32.480 that's not how I feel about myself but other people put negative stuff on us that can grind 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:43.120 us down and John is refusing to be labeled by them and that's because of course he's accepted 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:50.990 the label given to him by God but we'll come to that in in a minute. So the first question is 00:05:50.990 --> 00:05:59.250 are you the Messiah? Now, Messiah really meant the anointed one. And in Israel, when a king 00:05:59.250 --> 00:06:06.220 was crowned, they were anointed. So to be the Messiah is to be the king, and not just 00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:14.740 any king, to be the great king that was going to bring great freedom and prosperity to Israel. 00:06:15.340 --> 00:06:20.140 So they kind of say, well, are you claiming to be the top dog? And he says, no, I'm not. 00:06:20.140 --> 00:06:24.040 And then they said, well, are you Elijah? 00:06:24.500 --> 00:06:32.400 Now, Elijah is this hugely important, mysterious, and powerful prophet from the Old Testament. 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:38.520 But there's also been a prophecy about Elijah in the book of Malachi that says, 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:42.380 before the Messiah comes, Elijah will come back again. 00:06:42.760 --> 00:06:47.980 So they say, well, if you're not the top dog, are you kind of the person who's kind of pointing to the top dog? 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:50.600 and again John says 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:52.040 quite clearly, no I am not 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:54.180 I'll come back to that one in a minute 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:56.200 and the third one is kind of similar 00:06:56.200 --> 00:06:58.060 this is taken from 00:06:58.060 --> 00:07:00.220 some verses in Deuteronomy 18 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:02.220 there was something 00:07:02.220 --> 00:07:04.340 Moses said, he says, there will come 00:07:04.340 --> 00:07:05.820 another prophet like me 00:07:05.820 --> 00:07:08.240 now, you know, Moses is one of the 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:10.060 towering figures of the Old Testament 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:12.000 so there was an expectation 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.260 that somebody very important would come 00:07:14.260 --> 00:07:16.300 again and John says 00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:17.420 no I am not the prophet 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.840 So he is kind of refusing labels. 00:07:21.810 --> 00:07:25.130 He's, in a sense, being questioned by them, 00:07:25.290 --> 00:07:28.130 but that's not going to shape his identity. 00:07:29.890 --> 00:07:31.990 And we'll just come back to number two for a minute, 00:07:32.130 --> 00:07:33.490 and I'll tell you the reason for that. 00:07:33.490 --> 00:07:37.190 So John says quite clearly, I am not Elijah. 00:07:37.630 --> 00:07:42.450 Now, the problem with that is that Jesus says he is Elijah. 00:07:43.650 --> 00:07:47.010 And you find that twice in Matthew and also in Luke, 00:07:47.010 --> 00:07:51.510 and Mark. So who's right? 00:07:53.340 --> 00:07:55.340 Well, I think the first thing we need to say, of course, is that 00:07:55.340 --> 00:07:59.020 John may simply have been wrong. We do not always 00:07:59.020 --> 00:08:02.320 John is not 00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:07.480 perfect. He doesn't know everything. So John may have been wrong. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:12.240 But I think maybe a better answer is to think about the context 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:16.540 and of course they're trying to give him a label. So they're saying, who are you claiming 00:08:16.540 --> 00:08:27.400 to be. And actually, John's not claiming to be that. And he's not interested in labels or titles 00:08:27.400 --> 00:08:37.190 or prestige. He's thinking about something else. I think it may also be the case that when we look 00:08:37.190 --> 00:08:43.470 at what Malachi said and how Jesus quotes it, when they said John was to be Elijah, that's not 00:08:43.470 --> 00:08:49.010 necessarily meant in an absolutely literal way, that the same guy who was operating in 00:08:49.010 --> 00:08:56.250 the Old Testament has himself come back. It is more like, is somebody who very much looks 00:08:56.250 --> 00:09:01.270 like Elijah, is it the ministry of Elijah we're seeing again, rather than exactly the 00:09:01.270 --> 00:09:08.640 same person? And John the Baptist clearly does have that incredibly significant prophetic 00:09:08.640 --> 00:09:19.520 ministry anyway we'll move on right next slide please so having said he's not three things he 00:09:19.520 --> 00:09:26.580 then says I am three things and he says I'm a voice I'm a baptizer in water and I am unworthy 00:09:26.580 --> 00:09:32.060 and each of those is a little bit unusual and thought-provoking and it's good to be 00:09:32.060 --> 00:09:39.540 have our thoughts provoked by the bible isn't it and I want to spend a little bit of time on each 00:09:39.540 --> 00:09:46.490 of those. So let's have, let's look at the first one next and have the next slide. John replied 00:09:46.490 --> 00:09:53.590 in the words of the prophet Isaiah, I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, clear the way for the 00:09:53.590 --> 00:10:01.160 Lord's coming. And this is incredibly significant. The first thing it tells us about how John sees 00:10:01.160 --> 00:10:07.260 himself and about his identity is that John sees himself as belonging to something bigger than 00:10:07.260 --> 00:10:13.360 himself. You know, he's part of what God has been doing over thousands of years, spoken 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:20.830 of by the prophet Isaiah. He belongs to a bigger story than himself. And in fact, John's 00:10:20.830 --> 00:10:28.180 identity doesn't come from inside him. It is actually given to him by God. And he describes 00:10:28.180 --> 00:10:36.460 himself as a voice shouting in the wilderness. I'm sure you've all had the experience, I know 00:10:36.460 --> 00:10:41.520 I have of, you know, you've been in some public place and somebody is like shouting stuff 00:10:41.520 --> 00:10:47.700 and possibly they've got, you know, mental well-being issues or drugs and alcohol or 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:52.320 some mixture of that, but you've got somebody like shouting out and everybody's going, 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:59.990 oh, what's going on there, you know. So a voice is only significant depending on the 00:10:59.990 --> 00:11:08.240 words are asked to say. And so John is a voice pointing to the word. And there's something 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:13.700 very careful about the words too, because John's gospel opens with the phrase, in the 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:21.160 beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. And John doesn't 00:11:21.160 --> 00:11:28.350 even say, I am a voice. He says, I am the voice. He says, I am a voice. But he's like 00:11:28.350 --> 00:11:31.290 he's like a signpost 00:11:31.290 --> 00:11:33.610 isn't he? John is 00:11:33.610 --> 00:11:34.930 pointing at Jesus 00:11:34.930 --> 00:11:36.430 he doesn't say 00:11:36.430 --> 00:11:39.810 clear the way for my coming 00:11:39.810 --> 00:11:42.400 he doesn't say look at me 00:11:42.400 --> 00:11:44.060 he says clear the way for 00:11:44.060 --> 00:11:45.760 the Lord's coming, look at him 00:11:45.760 --> 00:11:47.800 and we 00:11:47.800 --> 00:11:50.220 absolutely live in the age of celebrity culture 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:51.860 don't we? That kind of 00:11:51.860 --> 00:11:53.880 permeates all secular society but also 00:11:53.880 --> 00:11:55.820 sometimes can really 00:11:55.820 --> 00:11:57.860 permeate the church so celebrity 00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:03.620 is a big deal. And a lot of that celebrity is saying, look at me. And John's emphatically 00:12:03.620 --> 00:12:09.320 saying, look at him. And actually, that's how he answers it throughout this question 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:16.130 and answer. But for all that, it's a powerful statement, isn't it? He is part of something 00:12:16.130 --> 00:12:21.610 bigger than himself. His identity is because God has called him, but he's not looking at 00:12:21.610 --> 00:12:30.690 himself. He's looking at Jesus. So let's look at the second of John's two I am. What 00:12:30.690 --> 00:12:37.240 what right do you have to baptize? And I guess this is a word, this is really about credentials. 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:42.440 So the Pharisees who have been part of this group have been sent to interrogate John. So, well, 00:12:42.700 --> 00:12:46.820 you know, if you don't have this big title, if you're not claiming to be the Messiah, if you're 00:12:46.820 --> 00:12:51.360 not claiming to be Elijah, if you're not claiming to be the prophet, then what right have you got 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:56.660 to go around baptizing people? You know, I mean, John's ministry was quite powerful. He's telling 00:12:56.660 --> 00:13:01.760 people to make major changes in their lives, to be baptized and to receive forgiveness. 00:13:01.900 --> 00:13:10.990 What right does John have to answer that question? Interestingly, John doesn't really ask that 00:13:10.990 --> 00:13:16.890 question. He doesn't answer that question because he's actually, he's saying, I think 00:13:16.890 --> 00:13:20.870 in effect he's saying, you're asking the wrong questions. In fact, you're questioning the 00:13:20.870 --> 00:13:26.690 wrong person. You're busy looking at me and asking who John the Baptist is. Never mind 00:13:26.690 --> 00:13:34.260 about John the Baptist, look at someone right here that you are missing. And that, again, 00:13:34.260 --> 00:13:43.440 is very important. You know, if you were going to a pub quiz on the Hebrew Bible, the 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:49.180 Old Testament, you would have wanted the people from that delegation to be on your team. They 00:13:49.180 --> 00:13:56.850 knew it. They knew the stuff. They could have quoted. They knew the answers, but they didn't 00:13:56.850 --> 00:14:05.030 know God. And, you know, to be a believer in Jesus Christ, it's not about knowing the 00:14:05.030 --> 00:14:11.140 answers. It's about being surprised by the God who is there. It's about being open to 00:14:11.140 --> 00:14:21.620 what God wants to do in us. And actually, many of you will recognize, because we often 00:14:21.620 --> 00:14:25.660 say in prayer meetings, don't you, it says, well, two or more are gathered in my name. 00:14:25.660 --> 00:14:27.140 there am I in the midst of us. 00:14:27.980 --> 00:14:29.820 And actually, take him literally. 00:14:30.740 --> 00:14:34.200 Jesus didn't say, where two or more are gathered in my name. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:38.500 He said, where two or more are looking at my person. 00:14:39.570 --> 00:14:43.590 So when two or more people are focused their attention on me, 00:14:43.970 --> 00:14:45.630 there am I in the midst of me. 00:14:46.100 --> 00:14:49.160 But it's about God in the midst of us. 00:14:50.190 --> 00:14:51.670 God in the midst of us. 00:14:53.580 --> 00:14:57.800 And then John says, well, I baptize with water. 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:06.220 And it's almost, again, him saying, well, listen, I just do kind of human stuff by human means. 00:15:07.530 --> 00:15:13.750 And if something really important is happening through this, it's not down to me, it's down to God. 00:15:15.160 --> 00:15:17.280 Actually, you could apply that to our whole service today. 00:15:17.420 --> 00:15:21.800 You know, we've come in and we've sung some songs and we've listened to some music 00:15:21.800 --> 00:15:25.420 and we've had some people share things and now you're listening to me talking. 00:15:25.900 --> 00:15:27.820 All of that's human stuff. 00:15:27.820 --> 00:15:33.320 But if something comes out of that, if something powerful happens out of it, 00:15:33.540 --> 00:15:37.000 it isn't because the people at the front have been anything special. 00:15:37.540 --> 00:15:39.760 It's because God has been able to use that. 00:15:42.340 --> 00:15:47.110 So all the time we should be pointing to Jesus. 00:15:49.750 --> 00:15:51.950 Let's look at the third of his I am. 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:58.580 I am not even worthy to be a slave or untie the straps of his sandal. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.820 I'm sure most of us feel unworthy. 00:16:03.820 --> 00:16:09.730 some of the time, and some people probably feel it a lot of the time. And actually, I 00:16:09.730 --> 00:16:13.810 think that's healthy. I sort of was wondering about this, obviously, I don't know the answers, 00:16:13.950 --> 00:16:20.330 but I kind of figure that, you know, that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin rarely wake 00:16:20.330 --> 00:16:28.200 up feeling, I am not worthy. But that's not because they've got a healthy psyche, it's 00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:37.590 the opposite. They've got a kind of messiah syndrome, haven't they? So to some extent 00:16:37.590 --> 00:16:45.790 feeling unworthy is good. But I think sometimes when we're feeling unworthy, it comes from 00:16:45.790 --> 00:16:52.740 a place that isn't good. It can come from a place of, to be frank, self-pity. I'm unworthy. 00:16:52.940 --> 00:17:00.020 I'll be, oh, you know, poor old me. I'm useless. It can come from a place of despair. It can 00:17:00.020 --> 00:17:01.920 from a place, to be honest, we just spent 00:17:01.920 --> 00:17:03.700 too much time gazing at ourselves. 00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:09.400 But the way John answers this 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:11.460 is a bit different. 00:17:13.720 --> 00:17:14.080 Because 00:17:14.080 --> 00:17:17.360 he's not saying I'm unworthy 00:17:17.360 --> 00:17:19.400 in a vacuum as I'm an unworthy 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:20.860 person. He says 00:17:20.860 --> 00:17:23.240 I'm unworthy compared to him. 00:17:24.250 --> 00:17:25.690 So John's actually 00:17:25.690 --> 00:17:27.570 really looking at Jesus in all this. 00:17:28.210 --> 00:17:29.490 That's what he's doing. He's looking 00:17:29.490 --> 00:17:30.090 at Jesus. 00:17:30.090 --> 00:17:38.980 C.S. Lewis said that humility is a form of self-forgetfulness. 00:17:41.100 --> 00:17:46.980 And in fact, once he said, being humble is not about thinking less of yourself, 00:17:47.100 --> 00:17:50.940 when I was having a lower opinion, it's about thinking about yourself less. 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:55.460 And John absolutely fulfills that. 00:17:55.520 --> 00:17:59.020 He's not really thinking about himself, he's thinking about Jesus. 00:17:59.580 --> 00:18:03.320 But he's learned that Jesus is the big deal. 00:18:03.740 --> 00:18:05.960 Jesus is what it's really about. 00:18:07.210 --> 00:18:08.210 Let's have the next slide. 00:18:12.710 --> 00:18:15.310 John told them, I baptize with water, 00:18:15.950 --> 00:18:18.690 but right here is one you do not recognize. 00:18:19.550 --> 00:18:24.090 There's a kind of comic tragedy about how they're missing the point. 00:18:24.870 --> 00:18:29.790 They're trying to label John and say, well, is he this, is he that? 00:18:30.230 --> 00:18:34.430 And John's saying, no, it's about somebody you don't recognize. 00:18:34.430 --> 00:18:42.940 I think this thing, though, about what John is really teaching us, 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:45.980 and I think it is relevant to Christian leadership as well, 00:18:46.100 --> 00:18:48.220 is that, you know, it's not about me. 00:18:48.540 --> 00:18:49.480 It is about Jesus. 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:52.760 And we need to keep being reminded of that. 00:18:53.040 --> 00:18:55.220 And, you know, sadly in our day, you know, 00:18:55.860 --> 00:19:00.180 all too often we hear a story about some famous Christian ministry 00:19:00.180 --> 00:19:02.520 that has come unstuck in some way. 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:05.100 And you think, well, is part of the reason for that 00:19:05.100 --> 00:19:12.180 maybe that um that person started to think too much of themselves they become the deal maybe 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:15.960 that's partly because other people have put that expectation on them you know they've had a 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:20.300 successful ministry and other people are saying well you're fantastic and and some of that starts 00:19:20.300 --> 00:19:29.270 to go in a friend of mine was um got a job as a i think he would be a assistant minister or he was 00:19:29.270 --> 00:19:35.570 I think a young man at the time, and learning in a big Pentecostal church 00:19:35.570 --> 00:19:37.730 with a very kind of charismatic leader. 00:19:38.790 --> 00:19:40.430 And he said, one day this leader came in and said, 00:19:40.490 --> 00:19:42.810 well, if the people in this church are going to hear from God, 00:19:43.130 --> 00:19:44.890 God's shown me they're going to hear through me. 00:19:45.430 --> 00:19:46.330 That's how they're going to hear. 00:19:46.410 --> 00:19:47.410 They're going to hear through me. 00:19:47.930 --> 00:19:49.490 And my friend challenged him and said, 00:19:49.550 --> 00:19:52.910 that's not at all a healthy thing to say whatsoever. 00:19:53.250 --> 00:19:55.650 That's not right, mate. 00:19:56.830 --> 00:19:58.150 Anyway, the next day he lost his job. 00:19:59.560 --> 00:20:05.180 But, you know, so John the Baptist is so countercultural, you know, the big deal is 00:20:05.180 --> 00:20:07.440 not about me, it is about Jesus. 00:20:10.100 --> 00:20:10.660 Next slide. 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:19.240 This encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of the Jordan River where John was baptising. 00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:24.480 I might be wrong, but I can't figure that there might be quite a lot of sermons that 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:29.640 you could find or things read in books about the passage we've just been talking about. 00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:34.380 I just possibly wouldn't mention this, because we've kind of heard all the really interesting 00:20:34.380 --> 00:20:39.300 stuff, and this seems kind of down to earth. I think that's sort of the point, you know. 00:20:40.560 --> 00:20:45.580 Neither this passage, nor any other passage in the Gospel, starts with the words, once 00:20:45.580 --> 00:20:54.030 upon a time. This is about real things that happened in real places to real people. It 00:20:54.030 --> 00:20:59.210 is grounded. It's not about, you know, what's going on in some big spiritual dimension. 00:20:59.610 --> 00:21:10.610 This is happening here on earth. Next slide. I'm going to tell you about this picture. 00:21:11.210 --> 00:21:16.420 So my house kind of backs onto a graveyard, 00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:18.480 and I quite often go for a walk in the graveyard. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:21.640 And I have noticed more than one, 00:21:21.640 --> 00:21:24.120 a few of graves that have become 00:21:24.120 --> 00:21:27.020 kind of a little bit of a shrine to a football club. 00:21:28.080 --> 00:21:31.260 Now, this picture, I will tell you, is not one of those. 00:21:32.060 --> 00:21:34.940 And so I generated this on AI. 00:21:35.300 --> 00:21:36.640 Who would have thought it? But I did. 00:21:37.700 --> 00:21:40.220 But the reason for that was simply I didn't want to 00:21:40.220 --> 00:21:42.490 potentially cause offence 00:21:42.490 --> 00:21:44.690 by using an actual grave 00:21:44.690 --> 00:21:46.290 so maybe understand it 00:21:46.290 --> 00:21:48.110 but nevertheless I can assure you the word 00:21:48.110 --> 00:21:50.270 grave is maybe not quite as grand as that 00:21:50.270 --> 00:21:52.090 but very much in that way 00:21:52.090 --> 00:21:54.650 and what's 00:21:54.650 --> 00:21:56.750 wrong with it? Well I think 00:21:56.750 --> 00:21:59.170 gosh how sad 00:21:59.170 --> 00:22:01.360 to be blunt 00:22:01.360 --> 00:22:04.060 if the main point 00:22:04.060 --> 00:22:05.980 of your life, the thing you're going to be 00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:07.940 remembered for is 00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:09.620 your support for a football team 00:22:09.620 --> 00:22:15.040 a friend of mine actually became a Christian 00:22:15.040 --> 00:22:17.260 and part of his process was 00:22:17.260 --> 00:22:18.840 that he started to ask 00:22:18.840 --> 00:22:21.320 there's got to be more to life than this 00:22:21.320 --> 00:22:23.260 there's got to be more to life 00:22:23.260 --> 00:22:24.570 than this 00:22:24.570 --> 00:22:27.110 the trouble is in the west 00:22:27.110 --> 00:22:29.540 there's a kind of dominant 00:22:29.540 --> 00:22:31.640 culture of kind of godless 00:22:31.640 --> 00:22:34.100 materialism and if you follow 00:22:34.100 --> 00:22:35.420 that you end up with 00:22:35.420 --> 00:22:38.280 deeply inadequate 00:22:38.280 --> 00:22:40.160 and unsatisfactory answers 00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:42.280 to the question about the meaning 00:22:42.280 --> 00:22:49.960 of life and about who I am. It does not give answers that satisfy. 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:54.890 But for all that, and I'll say a little bit more about that in a minute, this is not about 00:22:54.890 --> 00:23:02.360 saying that football's wrong, or, it didn't have to be football, it could be about, well, 00:23:02.360 --> 00:23:08.460 it was my family, or it was whatever it was, the dominant thing that my life was about. 00:23:08.460 --> 00:23:13.560 It's not about saying those are wrong, but it's saying they don't belong in first place. 00:23:13.560 --> 00:23:20.200 don't belong in first place. And part of what I say is that, you know, if we put first things first, 00:23:20.200 --> 00:23:31.770 then second things become healthier. Let's have a final slide. So the first thing to say is, 00:23:31.770 --> 00:23:40.150 you know, as a Christian, my identity is not something I find in myself. It is given to me. 00:23:40.150 --> 00:23:47.480 It is a gift, and I've become part of something that is bigger than me. 00:23:50.270 --> 00:23:54.970 You know, God purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son 00:23:54.970 --> 00:23:58.190 and adopted us into his family. 00:23:59.560 --> 00:24:04.120 And that is the most important thing I need to know about my identity, 00:24:04.660 --> 00:24:08.060 and it's the most important thing you need to know about me, 00:24:08.970 --> 00:24:12.850 that God has purchased me with the blood of his Son 00:24:12.850 --> 00:24:14.670 have been adopted into his family. 00:24:17.170 --> 00:24:18.650 And secondly, but related to that, 00:24:18.810 --> 00:24:20.880 you know, the big deal 00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:22.720 in life isn't about me. 00:24:23.140 --> 00:24:24.140 It's about him. 00:24:25.580 --> 00:24:27.800 And that should come, actually, as a great 00:24:27.800 --> 00:24:31.760 relief. It's not about 00:24:31.760 --> 00:24:33.000 me. It's about him. 00:24:33.700 --> 00:24:35.580 Later in John's Gospel, you can see what 00:24:35.580 --> 00:24:37.720 you know, imagine some of the pressures 00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:39.680 John might have been under, because he's 00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:41.600 a celebrity. He's this celebrity 00:24:41.600 --> 00:24:43.620 preacher. He's the one that everybody's going 00:24:43.620 --> 00:24:45.620 to listen to. In a sense, you know, 00:24:45.620 --> 00:24:49.200 in asking their questions of him 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:51.440 are you the Messiah, are you Elijah, are you the prophet 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:53.360 there's a sort of a compliment in there 00:24:53.360 --> 00:24:54.460 you know 00:24:54.460 --> 00:24:56.760 they didn't ask it about 00:24:56.760 --> 00:25:00.170 Chris Simpson because everybody would just laugh 00:25:00.170 --> 00:25:02.110 they're asking it because he is this 00:25:02.110 --> 00:25:03.590 kind of big dog 00:25:03.590 --> 00:25:07.320 and we know later 00:25:07.320 --> 00:25:09.220 that some of John's disciples started to say 00:25:09.220 --> 00:25:11.520 well aren't you kind of losing a bit of your prestige 00:25:11.520 --> 00:25:13.260 because Jesus has started 00:25:13.260 --> 00:25:15.480 his ministry and John famously 00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:17.360 replied but it was a cracking answer 00:25:17.360 --> 00:25:22.080 that he said, he must increase, I must decrease. 00:25:23.490 --> 00:25:24.630 And that's so important. 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:29.900 But if we get the two first things first, 00:25:30.460 --> 00:25:34.340 if we understand that my identity is given to me by God 00:25:34.340 --> 00:25:38.140 and I belong to him, and that's the most important thing to me, 00:25:39.330 --> 00:25:42.890 and that fundamentally the story isn't about me, it's about him, 00:25:43.250 --> 00:25:46.270 if we put those first things first, actually second things, 00:25:46.270 --> 00:25:49.890 my love for my family, my interest in football, my interest in food, 00:25:49.910 --> 00:25:52.730 or whatever it happens to be, will be healthier and better. 00:25:54.600 --> 00:25:55.120 Let's pray. 00:25:59.320 --> 00:26:02.940 Father God, we believe that you are in our midst today, 00:26:03.160 --> 00:26:05.220 that you are among us. 00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:09.340 And Lord, forgive us if we haven't recognized you 00:26:09.340 --> 00:26:10.820 or if we're not recognizing you. 00:26:10.840 --> 00:26:14.580 Lord, we do want to be open to being surprised by you, 00:26:14.760 --> 00:26:16.640 to being touched by you. 00:26:17.380 --> 00:26:20.380 So, Lord Jesus, we exalt you today. 00:26:21.320 --> 00:26:25.160 Lord, you are the main story, and we look to you. 00:26:26.260 --> 00:26:29.640 But, Lord, I do pray for myself, for all of us, 00:26:29.740 --> 00:26:37.680 that we might know our security and our identity in Jesus Christ, 00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:42.070 that we have been purchased, we have been set free, 00:26:42.570 --> 00:26:46.930 we have been adopted, we have been brought into his family. 00:26:47.470 --> 00:26:51.770 And these are glorious truths spoken over us by God Almighty. 00:26:52.780 --> 00:26:54.120 And we're not the big deal. 00:26:54.580 --> 00:26:57.640 So, Lord, we praise you and we thank you for that. 00:26:58.020 --> 00:27:03.460 And we pray that you would equip us to live well and to live something, Lord. 00:27:03.520 --> 00:27:07.680 We might never be famous like John the Baptist, Lord, but we'd love a bit of that, Lord. 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:16.720 We'd love a bit of his strength and his character, his total commitment to Jesus Christ, to be a signpost to Jesus Christ. 00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:22.000 So, Lord, give us a double helping of John the Baptist in Jesus' name. 00:27:22.700 --> 00:27:23.100 Amen.