I am not the Messiah

Good morning! My name is David Sorn and I’m the Lead Pastor here. You ever tried to jump in and fix something and just make it worse? I know I have. I have this memory of when I was 18, and I was riding back to my house in Cambridge from my Aunt’s house in Southern MN, but I was riding with a family friend When we were about 10 or 15 minutes south of Saint Paul, I noticed that my family friend (who had never driven this way before) seemed a little confused about which way to go. Now, this was before the smartphone We had these papers we printed out with maps. But my family friend had made a critical error, and they had not visited MapQuest.com before the drive. Which is still a real website, I looked this week…and it looks the same! And while they were discussing where to go, I, in my overconfident 18 year old voice said, “Ah, my friends, turn here, on Concord Street!” And so they listened to me, and we then spent the next 45 minutes completely lost. And to this day, now 20some years later, every time I drive by that road I think about how I got everyone lost. We have this thing within us where we want to step in…and be the hero, the savior of the day. And that is just the type of thing our passage in Scripture addresses today, so let’s jump in. John 1:19 28 Page 723 We are in Week 2 of a new series on John chapters 1 & 2. John is one of the 4 books in the Bible about the life, teachings, death & resurrection of Jesus. This week we’re going to read more about another central person in the early chapters of John: And that is John the Baptist, who is a different person from John the Disciple, who authored this book. Let’s take a look. (John 1:19 28) – NIV 19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” 21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” 24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” 28This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. (TITLE SLIDE) So John the Baptist is this unique guy who wears clothing made of camel’s hair and eats locusts & honey for lunch. All while preaching a fiery message about repenting from sin. And huge crowds are coming to hear him speak In fact, so many are coming, that the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem send some representatives to figure out who this guy is! And they ask him: “Are you Elijah?” Now, Elijah is a key prophet in the Old Testament. 2 years ago, we did a really fun summer series called “The Life of Elijah,” who was famous for a lot of things… Including being 1 of only 2 people in the Bible who never died. He was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. And so the Jews believed that Elijah would come back someday. In part because the last prophet of the Old Testament era, Malachi, says Elijah will come back before the Lord and turn hearts. But John the Baptist says, “Nope, I’m not Elijah” Which is a bit confusing because in Matthew 11, Jesus says that John the Baptist is the Elijah that the Old Testament said was to come. Why the discrepancy? Most scholars say it’s probably because, when the Jewish leaders ask, “Who are you?”, John the Baptist is saying, “no, I’m not literally Elijah” And it’s quite possible that the real Elijah will still come back before the end of days (Rev 11 points to that possibility) But Jesus, on the other hand, is saying that, yes, John is fulfilling that prophecy of an Elijah type person that is turning hearts back to the Lord before He comes. And then the Jewish leaders ask John, “Are you “THE PROPHET?”” Which is in reference to something that God once said through Moses throughout Deuteronomy 18 (Deuteronomy 18:15) – NIV 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. The context suggests that God is merely talking about how prophets will continue to lead Israel But over time, many Jews began to feel that this verse was talking about a key figure that would come someday and lead them. So they were waiting for “The Prophet” And, in some ways, you could say that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that. (TITLE SLIDE) But John the Baptist is denying that he’s all of these things. But he very clearly denies that he is the Messiah. Which meant the Anointed One, the Savior. Actually the Hebrew word Messiah, when translated to Greek is…Christ. It’s the same word. THE MESSIAH TO OTHERS But in verse 20 John wants to make sure that everybody hears him when he utters these 5 very important words. …and I want you to say them with me: I AM NOT THE MESSIAH Ah, doesn’t that feel good? Or you could say: I AM NOT THE SAVIOR. Now, intellectually, I don’t think there’s anyone in this room that actually truly believes that they are Messiah, the Savior of the World. That’s…silly. But practically, a whole lot of us act like we are the Savior. When something goes wrong… Who’s the best person to come in and fix it? We say, “Who’s got two thumbs? This guy!” When someone’s making the wrong choices? Who can set them straight?” We can! In fact, I want to focus on the two broad categories where we get a bit of a Messiah Complex, and start operating in the place of Jesus. Let’s start with the first one: Two Ways We Play Messiah #1: “I can save you” So let me give you some real situations here so you know what I mean: What is the first thing you do when your kids start making poor choices…maybe even drifting away from the Lord? What do you do if your best friend’s marriage is falling apart? Or your sibling starts getting addicted to prescription drugs? What do you do when the lives of people close to you start to get messy? Now, like anything, some of us struggle more with this than others. Some of you fear conflict like it’s the Bubonic Plague, and we don’t want to go anywhere near anyone’s messy or hard situations (and by the way, that’s a different problem!) But others of us, we love to jump into the mess. (TITLE SLIDE) Which can be good. BUT, when you jump in, you have to know…who the Savior (the Messiah) really is. Who is that can really get your friend out of that awful friend group? Who actually has the power do the miracle of restoring a marriage? Who is it?? It’s Jesus. Say it with me: I am not the Messiah. The Savior. And again, that’s a Sunday School like answer, but you can tell if you truly believe that core Christian truth or not by what your actions are. Are you on your knees for your friend that’s been stuck in depression, or are you just coming up with another list of ideas to get them out of it? Or your sibling that just went through a terrible break up… Are you sharing God’s Word with them, or just your own best advice? With whom does the power to change really lie? And the reason we fall into acting like we’re the ones with the power to change things is we’re not rightly remembering who we are and who He is. I mean, think about the John the Baptist here. If anyone had reasons to be prideful, it was John. Was your birth announced by an angel like John’s was in Luke chapter 1? Probably not. Was your life prophesied about by multiple people hundreds of years before you were born? Do you have huge crowds of people coming to the river to hear you speak? Can you imagine people liking you so much that they start saying, “Hey, um, just wondering, you seem SO AMAZING, are you, by chance, THE SAVIOR SENT BY GOD?!?” C’mon, like we’re not gonna get prideful over that? But John the Baptist is a man that understands that massive gulf between Him and Jesus. Do you see that same gulf? Let me ask you the question they asked John in verse 22: “Who are you?? What do you have to say about yourself?” How would you answer that question? John quotes the words of Isaiah the prophet by saying, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord” John’s identity isn’t in who he is but in pointing people to who Jesus is. And the idea of “make straight the way” was akin to how workers in ancient times would straighten out and get roads ready for the King who was set to come to town. That’s what John is doing for King Jesus. And here’s the thing: No one remembers the guy who calls out that the King is coming…or the guy who got the road ready. And that’s okay; because they’re not the King. And neither are we. I am not the Messiah. When John the Baptist is questioned again a few chapters later about who he is, he famously says about Jesus: (John 3:30) – NIV KEEP UP UNTIL NEXT SLIDE He must become greater; I must become less. When conflict and trial hit those around you, is that what your heart goes to? “He must become greater, I must become less?” But that’s where it should go. We should think, “Okay, my friend’s life is spiraling, it’s getting hard…so now, more than ever, I can’t go into hero mode…into Savior Mode. I need to (like John the Baptist) point to the Messiah. And I need to rely on the Messiah. I…am not…the Messiah. He must become greater, I must become less. Is that your heartbeat? THE MESSIAH FOR MYSELF For some of us, that’s our issue For others of us, our issue is that we act like Messiah for our own problems. Or if you’re like me, I really have both problems 😊 Two Ways We Play Messiah #1: “I can save you” #2: “I can save myself” I mean, what do you do when it’s your life that gets really hard, or feels out of control? Again, certainly we all respond differently… …but for many of us, we jump right into Messiah mode. We go, “I can fix this…. “’ll just work harder. ‘ “I’ll just …talk to the professor and tell her she has to fix my grade.” “Everyone says I can’t stop doing this, but I can. I’ll just try harder!” And a big part of why we think like this is because we don’t understand who we are in relation to God. But John the Baptist gets this. He knows his power in comparison with God. Did you see in verse 27 where John said that he’s not even worthy to untie the straps of the real Messiah’s sandals? I remember being really confused by this verse when I first started reading the Bible, so let me break this down for a second. See, the rabbis of Jesus’ day taught that a rabbi could ask his disciples do to just about anything…except…take off his sandals. Because in those days, you’re not walking on fancy sidewalks. But muddy paths mixed with garbage and who knows what. And you’re not walking in Nike Sneakers, but open sandals. And you’re not really taking a lot of showers. I mean think about this, some of you don’t even like feet when they’re clean. So a rabbi could ask you to do anything, but take off his sandals. He had to do that himself. Or if you were rich or powerful, you would make the lowliest of your servants do it. And so here is “The great John the Baptist,” is saying, he’s not even worthy to be the lowest servant in Jesus’ house (the one who would untie his sandals) He’s saying, “That’s how great the Messiah is compared to me.” And I don’t think we understand this in America. In fact, I think so much of our pain comes from the fact that we’ve been taught to believe that WE are great. I firmly believe that one of the main reasons (and there are many), but one of the main that many Americans are struggling so much with anxiety and depression… …is because of the dissonance (the incongruence) they experience between what they’re told about themselves and what they experience of themselves. Let me show you what I mean. (NO Rows filled out I want to spend a few minutes talking through a chart we made of the ramifications of how the culture tells us to think about ourselves and how the Bible tells us to think about ourselves. (Row 1a of chart) You can do anything you set your mind to When it comes to what we think we can do (that’s row 1), the culture tells us that we can do anything we set our mind to. Many of you grew up hearing this exact thing from your parents, and teachers, from every cartoon, TV sitcom, or Disney movie, and more. They told you that you are special, and unique, and if you just worked hard, you could accomplish your dreams American culture almost builds the Messiah complex into us. “You’re amazing! Beautiful! Powerful! You can do anything!” But that’s not the teaching of the Bible at all. (Add row 1b of chart) – You can do nothing apart from Christ Jesus says in John 15 that He is the vine, and you are the branches, and apart from him, you can do nothing. Romans says we are born in sin, and without God, all we can accomplish on our own, is sin. And we say, “Well that sounds morbid, and negative, and I don’t like that!” Doesn’t, “You are special! And unstoppable!” and all that…sound WAY better? Maybe. But let’s play these philosophies out in real life. What happens when we add in difficulty to our lives? And life gets hard. And you don’t get into that college, or you get dumped, or fired, or betrayed? Or you just can’t live up the standard of the perfect American? And every day, you’re saying, “I’m not a good mom, I haven’t advanced enough in my career…I haven’t… (Add Row 2a) – I can’t do it. What’s wrong with me? If my core belief is cultural, and I believe that “I can accomplish anything, fix anything, do anything if I just have the right attitude and work hard… “ (which, by the way, is essentially the idea that I’m the messiah, I’m the Savior) If that’s my core belief, when difficulty comes (and things don’t work out!), I’m going to think, “I can’t do this right now…so, what’s wrong with me?” “Why did it not work out? Why are they leaving me?” Do you see the dissonance, the confusion here? But for the Christian (Add Row 2b) – I can’t do it. I need God! When life hits you hard, rather than us trying to put on our Messiah hat and rescue the day, we say: I can’t do it. I need God. By the way, this is why the amount that you pray is probably the best indicator of how much you do or do not think of yourself as the Messiah. If you never pray, it’s probably because you’ve convinced yourself that you are the Savior that you need in those hard moments. And so what comes next as we carry out the ramifications of these two ways of thinking? What does our next action step end up being? (Add Row 3a) – I must work even harder! If I think I can do anything, but then life gets difficult… After my period of confusion, I don’t know what to do besides just pick myself up by my own bootstraps and say, “Okay, um, I’ll try even harder to be a better husband…I’m going to be the best wife.” Or “I’ll just make them like me and accept, or bring me back, or give me the job, or….” It’s so deeply ingrained in us as Americans if we work hard we can MAKE it happen! Right? Right? …………or maybe not? Biblical thinking provides a different way: (Add Row 3b) = I must learn to rely on God’s power and plan After we fall to our knees, we say, “God, I can’t seem to do this. I need you.” Our next step is to learn to rely on God’s power (and His plan) To say, “God, I believe…that you can change me. God, Fight for me. Move for me. Heal my marriage. Help me get this job!” “And God I trust you no matter what!” Because “I am not the Messiah!” And I don’t have to be! Now watch the difference in the resulting emotions (Add Row 4a) If I believe I can do anything…that I’m the captain of my soul…that I shape my destiny… But then I realize, when I actually experience real life…that I can’t do all that. And even though I work even harder…it just seems to get messier, not better. If that’s how I live, what will my resulting emotions be? I’ll feel shame for not measuring up (“I must not be good enough” we’ll tell ourselves) And then I’ll feel anxious because, deep down, I know I won’t be able to do it any better next time. And eventually I’ll feel depressed because I don’t know how I’ll EVER be good enough (like everyone else who must just be trying harder than me or something) But look at the fruit of thinking biblically…especially in how Godly thinking even positively affects your mental health. (Add row 4b) When I realize that “I AM NOT THE MESSIAH”…that I’m not in charge of my life… I don’t have all the power…and I’m not ultimately in control… But Jesus is. And He fights for me…and He has the power to change things…and He is wise…and He is a Good King, the rightful Messiah Then I have Peace…because He’s on the throne! And then I have trust …because He’s good. And then I have hope…for the future. But it all starts with these 5 incredibly freeing words: I AM NOT THE MESSIAH Let me pray. Copyright: David Sorn Renovation Church in Blaine, MN You may use this material all you like! We only ask that you do not charge a fee and that you quote the source and not say it is your own.