Title: Are You Rooting for the Right team?
Theme: Rooting for Christ and Christ’s interests instead of our own.
Text: John 3.22-30
Time: February 6, 2011, Communion Sunday
[S] Today is Super bowl Sunday. The Super bowl is the most anticipated and watched sporting event in America. It’s estimated that 130 million people will be watching the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers battle for the coveted Lombardi Trophy and the championship rings. But I won’t be one of them. Because I’m catching a 1:00 o’clock flight for Dallas to attend the Super bowl with my brother thanks to my brother and parents. I’ll be rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers while the majority of my family will root for the losers.
Many people don’t realize it, but there are a couple of other teams playing in a game bigger than any Super bowl ever played and with a lot more at stake than a trophy that goes in some owners case. And interestingly enough, even though most people aren’t even aware of these teams they are rooting for one team or the other. Who are these teams and how do you know if you’re rooting for the right one? Well, let’s open up God’s play book and see what God has to say about rooting for the right team.
[S] “After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon (Enun) near Salim (say-lum), because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan-the one you testified about-well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ 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 it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” (NIV) “He must grow more prominent while I become less so.” (The Amplified Bible) “He must become more important, while I become less important.” (CJB)
The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
[S] Like two friendly teams separated by the line of scrimmage, the Jordan River at Aenon and Salim separated John’s team and Jesus’ team. Both squads were at the river baptizing. Up until this time John’s team was the favorite and the most popular. John’s team sold the most jersey’s and game apparel and was the most marketable. Like the Super bowl quarter backs Aaron Rogers and Ben Roethlisberger, John was a household name. When people wanted to confess their sins and be baptized they went to John’s disciples.
[S] It seems to me that his disciples had grown accustomed to being the chosen ones. Whether they meant to or not they probably felt important and needed. John’s popularity fed their popularity and that fed their ego’s and sense of importance. John’s disciples were concerned about how what they saw was going to personally impact them and their Rabbi.
John on the other hand was more concerned about Jesus and Jesus’ ministry than his own. When John’s disciples told him what they saw he basically said, “That’s okay, because it’s not about me. And it’s not about you. It’s not about what is best for us. It’s all about Jesus and what is best for him.” John put the game in proper perspective for us all.
Pastor Dave Johnson told of the time he was preparing a sermon when God spoke to him. God said, “Are you more concerned about saying it well? Or communicating my truth?”—“Is this message about you, and how you come off? Or about Me and how I come off?” (It’s Not About Me, Bret Toman, Sermoncentral.com)
I think this is what God wants us to hear. God wants us to be more concerned about how our decisions and actions make Christ come off instead of how we come off.
[S] For example we will see some players in today’s game who like to draw attention to themselves after making a play. You’ve seen it all season long. A defensive player makes a key quarterback sack and gets up and does his signature dance. What’s he communicating when he does that? “Uh uh, uh huh, look at me. I’m bad. Look what I did.” Or a running back or receiver makes a touchdown and breaks out in some funky chicken like routine. What’s he saying? It’s about me. John is saying, “No, it’s not about you.”
There are a lot of good people who find themselves living like this. John’s disciples were good guys, religious, devout, lovers of God. And yet they were concerned more about their agenda, their plans, and how something would benefit them more than how Jesus would benefit.
[S] Instead of being those kind of players, John would want us to be more like Philadelphia Eagle running back Herb Lusk. On October 9, 1977 did something no one had ever seen done in a professional sporting event like this. He took a knee, bowed his head and prayed. He really didn’t think anything about it. Lusk’s teammate Vince Papale said, “What I liked about it, it was a private, sensitive moment for him. It wasn't like, 'Hey, hey, look at me,' like a lot of the celebrations have become these days. It wasn't demonstrative." (The Washington Post, September 28, 2007). It wasn’t about Lusk, it was about his Lord.
When Lusk was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles he had already decided he would only play for three years and then give his life to serving Jesus in some form of full time ministry. However, when the fourth year rolled around he reported to training camp where the real battle began. The lure and the temptation to keep playing was more than he realized. The money he could make, and the fame and the popularity he would enjoy was not easily dismissed.
And then the morning of July 12 while at training camp he woke up. He said, "I can't say I heard a voice, but I got on my knees like I did when I was in the end zone, and I knew that was it." He left the team behind and went back to school. A couple of years later he became the pastor of Greater Exodus Baptist church with a membership of less than two dozen people.
For Herb, saying Jesus and his desires were more important than his own would no longer be lip service or a 30 minute half time show. He would make decisions and live a life that demonstrated it’s all about Jesus and what is best for Jesus and not for Herb.
[S] This is the game that get’s as gritty and bloody as any game on the gridiron could ever be. It’s the battle of the will, the pride, the ego, and the self. It’s by far the toughest game going. Which team are you really rooting for and is it the right team?
I believe you know. The question is what are you going to do in light of it? Herb asked to be traded. Why don’t you do the same?
Communion is the covenant. You make the decision to root and play for Jesus and he’ll grant you a bonus that the NFL could never hope to match.
