Thank you all so much for your warm welcome.
I counted a great joy that my first visit and
literally my first hour to the UK is being spent
here at Oak Hill. I've admired this college from
afar for its faithfulness and theological training
and ministry formation, and the more that I've
learned about you through my dear friend Chris,
the more that I've sensed a heartbeat that's
so close to my own. A deep desire to serve Christ
and his church well for the long haul. To see
the church flourish, as I understand it. And
that's part of why I was drawn back to this particular
passage, John chapter 3, verses 22 to 30. This
is a text that I first preached two years ago.
At that time, it was my final sermon in the church
where I had served as lead pastor for over six
years. And to be candid with you, I had reached
a breaking point of exhaustion and taken a leave
of absence. Like many who love ministry, maybe
you can relate to this already, I found myself
doing good things for Jesus faster than my soul
could keep up with. But the Lord in his kindness
met me there. He gave me a fresh assignment,
a powerful experience of his healing presence,
and a new hunger to understand. What it means
not just to start well, but to finish well. And
out of that season came a question that I'm still
learning to answer. And it's this. Rather than
burning out along the way, how can we complete
our entire race with joy? And how can we do this
in a space where a friend of mine, Brian Croft,
who leads a ministry to pastors called Practical
Shepherding. has a statistic that says 50 % of
pastors will not make it five years in ministry
and 80 % will not make it 10. How can we complete
our entire race with joy in any realm of Christian
ministry rather than burning out? And I found
a surprising companion in that question, and
his name is John the Baptizer. We often remember
him for his boldness, perhaps his camel hair.
But in this passage, we see another side of him.
We see his surprising joy. Here is a man whose
ministry is fading, whose public influence is
declining, whose best days, humanly speaking,
are behind him. And yet he says, my joy is now
complete. That kind of joy anchored in a sea
of sorrows is something that every follower of
Jesus will need if we hope for resilience in
ministry. And it's this joy that I'd like for
us to explore together this morning. The first
wedding that I ever officiated was nearly a disaster,
and it was my best friend's wedding. Not only
was I underprepared for the ceremony, and not
only did I drop the bride's ring, which almost
rolled into a floor vent. Worst of all, when
the bride entered the room, I nearly cried. Now
for you, my British friends, crying is something
that happens when substance comes out of your
eyes and rolls down your face. Just for an explanation
there for context. You see, at this moment, in
most weddings, everyone stands as the bride enters,
and they look, first of all, where? To the bride,
to honor her and her beauty. But then secondly,
where do they look? To the groom. Why? They want
to see how he's responding, right? Is he smiling?
Is he emotional? Bonus points, is there a tear?
But imagine instead if the minister is the one
crying. You can almost hear the whispers. What's
this? Is this man unhappy? Is he jealous? He's
lost the plot. So the truth was simply that I
loved my friend. After years of waiting and praying
to see him finally receive his bride filled me
with such emotion that I couldn't help myself.
They were happy tears, the kind that make you
lose your composure just for a moment. And that,
I think, gives us a small picture of what we
see here in John the Baptizer. As he nears the
end of his ministry and soon his life, John also
speaks in wedding terms. A groom, a bride, a
best man, and complete joy. Who was this John?
Of course, he was the very promised forerunner
of Jesus Christ, the last great prophet chosen
to prepare the way of the coming of the Messiah,
a wild man who ate bugs and preached repentance.
Probably not the biblical character you think
of for exemplifying joy. And yet, listen to one
of the first things that we read about him in
Luke's gospel. In early pregnancy, when Jesus'
mother Mary went to visit John's mother Elizabeth,
Elizabeth said to her, as soon as the sound of
your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my
womb, what? Leaped for joy. How can this be?
A baby throwing shapes in utero? Like what's
going on here? It can be because we were told
earlier in Luke's gospel that John would be filled
with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's
womb. And when you are filled with the Holy Spirit,
it's like an umbilical cord that binds your deepest
desire with that of Christ's deepest desire.
The late pastor Timothy Keller puts it this way.
You know you love somebody when you put your
happiness into their happiness so that your greatest
happiness is just to see them happy. their joy
is your joy, their delight is your delight, and
there's nothing beyond it, then you know you
love somebody. So we might say that the defining
legacy of John's life and ministry was not that
he fully obeyed God or that he became known widely,
though those things were true, but that he simply
loved Jesus deeply. And this can be the only
explanation for what we see here in John chapter
3. By this point, the door to John's once thriving
ministry is closing. The crowds that once flocked
to him are now following Jesus. John's own disciples
are starting to worry that their leader is no
longer trending. They say to him in verse 26,
Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other
side of the Jordan, the one you testified about,
look, he is baptizing. And everyone's going to
him. I don't think John's disciples are rejoicing
here. I think they're jealous. I think their
instinct is the same as ours whenever we feel
passed over in favor of another. But remarkably,
as the spotlight shifts away, John's joy doesn't
diminish. It deepens. So here are two things
that I think made that possible for him and perhaps
for us as well. First of all, we see that John
served with open hands. Listen to the first words
out of his mouth in verse 27. John answered,
John's disciples are focused on what's happening
on earth. Who's getting attention? Who's drawing
the crowds? Does that sound familiar? But John
immediately redirects them toward where? Heaven.
And looking toward heaven has a humbling effect,
doesn't it? It reminds us that we are small and
that everything that we have has been given to
us as an act of grace. And as the Dutch theologian
Abraham Kuyper spoke, there is not a square inch.
in the whole domain of our human existence over
which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does
not cry, mine. You think of a child who in its
human instinct immediately can begin crying mine
over this and mine over that, and yet it is only
Jesus Christ who can rightfully declare mine
over all. And Paul says, Virtually the same to
the Corinthians and to us with a simple question.
What do you have that you did not receive? And
here lies the gateway to what is a vital quality
for joy -sustained Christian servants. Humility.
John was humble enough to see that even his great
success came from God. So when the time came
for his ministry to fade, he didn't have to defend
it. He didn't have to grasp for it. It had already
been surrendered to God all along the way. In
his book, The Sacred Wilderness of Pastoral Ministry,
Pastor David Rohr actually uses John as a model
for the Christian minister. He argues that the
calling of a... minister is not to seize a church's
story, to make it his own, but instead to only
steward it for a season. To remember that the
story began before the pastor and the church's
story will continue on after the pastor. This
perspective continually pried open my seizing
hands as a pastor, which as you can see, was
the perfect preparation for when my pastorate
ended more prematurely than I had expected. But
notice this. John's humility, it wasn't self
-deprecation, was it? Self -deprecation is really
just pride in disguise. True humility is a true
assessment of oneself in light of what God says
of us. And John says this in verse 28. I am not
the Christ, but I have been sent before him.
There may be no more important words for promising
students who hope to complete their entire race
than these five. I am not the Christ. What a
freeing confession. Why suffer a career -ending
spiritual hernia trying to carry the weight of
the world? Your plate. constantly taking on more
and more and more that you cannot handle because
you are not the Christ. Hey, I can be the midwife
who faithfully delivers the message of the gospel,
but I cannot save the sinful heart. That's freeing.
I can be the midfielder who passes the ball forward,
but only Christ, the true striker, can score
the goal. Hey, that's a basketball player from
Kentucky trying to be in context here. Did I
get it right? All right. Thank you. It is, in
fact, the humble position where John's confounding
joy is found. And ours as well. And so we see
that John didn't burn out along the way, firstly,
because he served with open hands. But there's
another reason that I want to highlight today.
He also... finished with an open heart. John
continues in verse 29. The bride belongs to the
bridegroom. The 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 and is now complete. So John turns to
a wedding image that would have been familiar
to his listeners. In Jewish culture, The friend
who attends the bridegroom wasn't just a best
man with a speech to give. He had serious responsibilities.
It was his job to not only arrange many parts
of the wedding, but also this when the ceremony
had finished. And I'm quoting here from New Testament
scholar Colin Cruz, so that you know I'm not
making this up. The friend would then lead the
groom to his bride. and wait outside the bridal
chamber while the marriage was consummated. Thus,
the reference to the bridegroom's voice refers
to the shout of exultation by the groom over
his bride. The work of the friend of the bridegroom
is then complete and he takes pleasure in the
bridegroom's joy. What an intimate responsibility.
Like it's maybe a bit jarring to our modern sensibilities
here, okay? Get that. But what does John mean
by this? In the Old Testament, the people of
Israel are often described as God's bride. And
so John gladly, as he releases his own hard -earned
disciples to Jesus, he's saying nothing less
than the bridegroom has come for his bride. What
does that mean? It's a confession of lordship.
He's saying, Jesus is God. And the church is
his bride. And so what does that make John in
the analogy? The friend of the bridegroom who
couldn't be happier. This is... This is another
vital quality for joy -sustained Christian service
that makes it to the end and doesn't burn out
before. And I want to highlight it here. It's
the perfect complement to humility. Do you know
what it is? It might be quite surprising. Confidence.
Not the arrogance that thinks too highly of itself
or grasps for control or attention. But the grounding
assurance of knowing Christ intimately, like
we sang about just a moment ago, knowing that
he loves you, that he loves you enough to entrust
a part of his bride to your care, whether that's
a classroom, a congregation, a child, or a faraway
people. He counts you his dear friend. What a
privilege. What confidence that brings. And when
the privilege of that grips your heart, do you
know what confidence sounds like? In a world
where people are spewing all kinds of arrogant
nonsense all the time, even in the name of Jesus,
what does confidence wed to humility sound like?
It sounds like this. He must become greater and
I must become less. That's not resignation. That's
resolution. It's the confidence of a servant
who knows his story is safe in Jesus' hands,
even as his own part of it comes to an end. And
we know here really that John's ministry didn't
come to an end, though he would soon be jailed
and then beheaded. His ministry still bears fruit
today because we are absorbing. From his life
and testimony, aren't we? Right now. John was
finishing a season with an open heart, ready
for whatever would come next. Don't you want
that? And so what does all of this have to do
with you? Well, for every one of us, there will
come moments. when it's time to lay something
down, and often sooner than we expected or before
we feel ready. A hoped -for opportunity will
pass by. A ministry role will change. A great
success will fade or perhaps never materialize.
Even the life you're now preparing for here at
Oak Hill, the study, the structure, the community,
it will give way to a new chapter that asks something
different of you. And someday, yes, the letting
go will become even deeper. Parents, spouses,
children, health, even life itself. The question
is, when those moments come, what will be true
of you? Don't you want to be like a marathon
runner? I know Larry and Chris do. I'm not quite
like a marathon runner myself, more of a sprinter
when it comes to basketball. But don't you want
to be like a marathon runner who's found their
ideal pace, who knows their limits because they're
humble, but also knows their abilities because
they're confident, and therefore they can finish
their entire race without collapsing in exhaustion
like I would? Don't you want that? That is, well,
in fact, the calling of Hebrews 12, is it not?
It tells us, let us run with perseverance the
race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith. That's
what I want. But if I'm honest, I've often run
my race of ministry over the last 25 years. More
like Mr. Bean. Arms flailing. Tripping over my
own shoelaces. Darting between lanes with a completely
nonsensical pace. And occasionally crashing headlong.
It's almost a comedic miracle that I'm here at
all. And if John were here, perhaps he could
say the same. Because as much as we may want
to exalt him as an example to us of how to do
it, how to get it right, we also need to acknowledge
that while he sat in prison with great discouragement,
he sent a message to Christ, the one he loved,
and said, is it you or should we be looking for
someone else? We all crash. We all get it wrong.
We all go at the wrong pace in a modern world
that comes at us faster than we can keep up with.
And yet perhaps that's the point. Because in
the universal absurdity of real life and real
ministry, none of us will run smoothly for long.
The question isn't whether you'll stumble. It's
who will carry you when you do. How will your
joy -sustained Christian service be possible?
It will be possible for you and only possible
because Jesus first did it in your place. Tell
me who more than anyone embodied humility when
he laid down not just his ministry, but his very
life. His open hands nailed into that position
on the cross. And tell me who more than anyone
displayed confidence. in his father's love to
never abandon him, dying with an open heart to
the resurrection that would come next. And yet
what was it that gave Jesus this resilience to
the very end? The very next line of Hebrews chapter
12 tells us, for the joy set before him, he endured
the cross. scorning its shame, and sat down,
I'm sure, to great, great joy at the right hand
of the throne of God. The umbilical cord that
nurtured Christ's deepest desire was seeing the
joy of his Father. And what makes God's joy complete?
It's receiving his bride. And brothers and sisters
in Christ, you are part of that bride. And so
what makes God's joy complete can only be answered
by saying in part, it's you. That's staggering,
isn't it? What the gospel testifies is that God
has put his happiness into your happiness. His
delight into your delight. His joy into your
joy. That's what fuels your sustaining joy no
matter what comes at you in the highs and lows
of this life in obedience to him. That's how
you know he loves you. That's how you become
both humble and confident at the same time. A
sinner. and yet dearly loved on the basis of
Christ and what he's accomplished. That's how
you finish your race as part of the beloved bride
and helping to deliver her to God with joy. To
change the analogy slightly from umbilical cord
to another cord of sorts, the scriptures speak
of the vine. That Christ himself is that vine
and we are the branches. There is our connection.
The joy of God flowing into our hearts and filling
it up, knowing that we are deeply loved by him.
And our responding in like kind with the joy
that we bring to him by loving his bride and
helping her to flourish. There in that analogy,
and I'll end with these words, there are none
better. Jesus speaks, John chapter 15. I've told
you this, Jesus said, so that my joy may be in
you and that your joy may be complete. Let's
pray. Lord Jesus, we bow our hearts before you
here in this chapel. I can only speak for myself,
though I hope this will echo true for others
in this room and who may be listening. You have
filled our hearts with joy at the wonder of your
love. I confess to you, Lord, that often my heart
has not been receptive to your love, and therefore
I have lacked joy that... Humility has maybe
been easier for me than confidence, though there
may be those in this room who find the opposite
to be true. Confidence is easier than humility.
And yet, Lord, I just ask, as I have been asking
for everyone under the sound of my voice, that
they would walk away from this moment with a
deepened, ever so slightly, or even greatly,
sense of receptivity to your love. based on the
truth of the gospel and the risen and resurrected
Christ who sits enthroned at your right hand.
I pray, Lord, for each one, God, that you would
sustain them with your joy, that they may be
able to finish their entire race. Use them mightily,
Lord, just as you did John, so that their lives
and testimonies will continue to bear fruit.
even long after their race has finished. And
Lord, to conclude, I know no better way than
how you concluded your word and revelation, where
our hearts, filled with joy, the wonder of your
love, and with great affection for you and your
bride, cry out with the Spirit, come. The Spirit
and the bride say come. We want to see your face.
We want to be present at the... Great marriage
supper of the Lamb. And so come. And until that
day, let us bring many to that feast as well.
I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.