I Must Decrease

One phrase in Pastor Philip's from last Sunday sermon jumped out at me "Live with the prayer, "You must increase and I must decrease." John the Baptizer said these exact words about Jesus. Here is a sermon I wrote about it.

DECREASE

One of the things I love about Washington, DC is the sheer size of some of the monuments. The Lincoln Memorial, in particular, is built to evoke a sense of awe. From a distance, it doesn’t seem that big, but as you get closer and closer, it gets larger and larger, and you feel smaller and smaller. By the time you climb all the stairs and stand at the feet of Lincoln, dwarfed by his immense size, you feel very small indeed.

Lincoln was just a man, but his memorial and his greatness makes us feel small. How should we feel in the presence of Jesus? How should we treat our relationship with Him? Let’s take a look at what John says during the next few weeks. These events happened from weeks 10-13 of Jesus’ ministry.

Look @ The Book

John 3:22-4:3

Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people.

At this time John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to him for baptism. (This was before John was thrown into prison.) A debate broke out between John’s disciples and the Jews over ceremonial cleansing. So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.”

John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

“He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.

What was going on?

Jesus’ disciples begin baptizing relatively near Jerusalem. It’s understandable why people were going to them to be baptized. They had seen Jesus do miracles in Jerusalem, and like Nicodemus, knew there was something different about Jesus. They knew He had been sent by God.

As an aside, let’s remind ourselves of what they are doing. It’s not baptism in the way we would use the word…baptism following salvation. It’s “mikveh”…baptism for repentance.

John and his disciples are farther up the Jordan near a place called Aenon, also performing mikveh. It says that a dispute arose between John’s disciples and “the Jews” over the mikveh. It’s doesn’t say what the dispute was about, but I think we can guess. I think these Jews mentioned are Pharisees, because it mentions them at the beginning of chapter 4 and the only people that ever had anything negative to say about John’s baptisms were the Pharisees. I would imagine that their questions were pretty much the same…”Who are you to tell us we need to repent?” However, during the course of their conversation, it seems clear that they mentioned Jesus’ disciples baptizing farther downstream. This concerned John’s young disciples because they believed Jesus was poaching their followers.

John’s response is nothing short of amazing. Let’s look at verse 27.

Receive

We live in a society that celebrates “the self made man.” It reminds me of a statue at Brookgreen Gardens in SC called “Man Carving His Own Destiny.” It sounds great. In fact, it sounds so great that many people think the saying, “God helps those who help themselves” is in the Bible. The truth is far from it though.

John says that we receive nothing unless it comes from God. This idea is echoed in James 1:17 – “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.”

John expresses his absolute conviction that God is sovereign. Not one single thing becomes ours unless God gives it. Imagine the change in your frame of mind if you really believed this to be true. Would you continue to complain about your troubles? Would you go on bragging about your victories? Would be still be looking for that break? Or would life become the glorious journey of contentment with God’s gifts?

Give

The word here in Greek means that we are receiving something that was done long in the past which affects the present. John tells us that God has been giving everything about life to every specific man or woman for a very long time and that His gifts have effects that continue to this very moment. God is a cheerful giver.

For one moment, consider the events, possessions and situations of your life as a long series of divine gifts. Each one producing long-term results. Some for enjoyment. Some for correction. Some for direction. Some for reflection. Nothing gone to waste. God is directing you toward His hoped for end with every new gift.

And here’s the truly amazing thing…God gives whether we accept it, acknowledge it, or receive it. Of course, when we reject God’s gifts, it makes it that much harder to accept the next one, and eventually our heart becomes hard…but He still keeps giving! And He only asks one thing in return…

 Believe

Belief presupposes obedience. Verse 36 makes this clearer than almost any other verse because it connects the word believe with the word obey. We must believe for salvation, and if we do not obey, we will experience God’s wrath.

In John 3:16 how the focus of believing is God the Father, Yahweh. Here, though, John says that the focus of our believing is God the Son, Jesus. Jesus always points to the Father, but everyone else points to Jesus, for They are one.

So what are we obeying? Jesus was speaking of the Torah, which He summarized in two verses, Love God and Love others. However, many people today would protest and say that Jesus did away with the law and we are no longer bound by it. We live in a state of grace. I disagree that Jesus did away with the Law because He Himself said He hadn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, but let’s go with that for a second. Let’s say that we are to ignore all of God’s commands in the Old Testament and only do what Jesus told us to do. Do you know how many specific commands Jesus gave in the New Testament? I did a quick search and found between 50 and 150, depending on how you separate them. And Jesus was very clear…”If you love Me, you will obey My commands.” How are you doing with that? “But Josh, I don’t even know all those commands.” Well, that a problem, isn’t it? If I do not strive to obey, I cannot say I truly believe; if I do not truly believe, then I cannot say that I follow; and if I do not follow, then Jesus will look at me one day and say, “I never knew you.”

 Took

 Decrease

John does something here that we don’t see very often today. He is at the height of his success. He should have been writing books, leading seminars, and building a mega-synagogue. Instead, he points to Jesus and quietly fades into the background until he is beheaded. John recognizes his place in God’s plan and is completely submitted to it.

The only other place in the New Testament that uses the Greek word for “decrease” is in Hebrew 2:7 and 9. The writer of Hebrews was making a point about Jesus and used this word to refer to Him being “becoming lower.” Basically, John was doing for Jesus what Jesus had already done for John…and us all.

So what does it mean for us to decrease and allow Jesus to increase? To understand that, we need to look at Philippians 2:3-8…“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”

Decreasing like Jesus is quite simple…it means that the words “what about me” never cross my lips. If I am putting Jesus and His mission first, I will never talk about my desires, my rights, my needs, or my wants. I will submit everything to His will and trust that everything that happens is for a reason, just as He trusted God the Father.

The problem we have with that is that we like to put God in a box. We like God to be predictable and controllable. We like to believe that only happy things will happen in our lives (tell that to all of the Christian martyrs). If that’s your view, let me let you in on a little secret: God is wild and unpredictable. Right at the time I feel like I understand Him, He does something completely off the wall. Let me give you an example.

Later in the book of John, we are presented with an event that most of us are familiar with. It’s the woman caught in adultery. A bunch of men bring a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus. The cast her at his feet and ask Him what they should do with her. The Torah commanded that someone caught in adultery should be stoned (interestingly, the man wasn’t there). All the men stood there with stones, prepared to do this, and let me be clear…they were all correct. They were following the Law. However, Jesus bends down, writes in the sand, and says, “Whoever has never sinned may cast the first stone.” Jesus doesn’t tell them they’re wrong for wanting to stone her. He just creates compassion in their hearts. At the same time, Jesus literally places Himself between them and the woman. He puts His own life on the line for this sinner. He stands up for her. One by one, the men drop their stones and walk away, until only Jesus and the woman are there. “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one condemn you?” Jesus asks. She replies, “No, Lord.” Jesus then says, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

If we are truly to be the people of God, followers of Christ, that must be our attitude as well. That is, as Paul says, our spiritual act of worship.

SONGS FOR SUNDAY

This is Amazing Grace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjXjkbODrro&list=RDrjXjkbODrro&start_radio=1

Goodness of God

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f4MUUMWMV4&list=RD-f4MUUMWMV4&start_radio=1

What A Beautiful Name

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5L6QlAH3L4&list=RDr5L6QlAH3L4&start_radio=1

Run to the Father 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcpeLDp0Foo&list=RDHcpeLDp0Foo&start_radio=1