I Must Decrease

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Well, I want to invite you all to take out your Bible and turn with me now to John chapter 3.
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We have been studying through the Gospel of John now since the beginning of the
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Advent season, which would have been the early portion of December. So now we are more than six months into John's Gospel, and we have only arrived today at the latter half of John chapter 3.
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I do want to make note that my goal in the next few weeks and months is to increase a little bit of our speed in moving through.
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You know, we did three weeks on John 3 .16. And if I did that for every verse of John, we would never make it out.
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And there is a problem sometimes when we go too fast that we miss vital things.
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But when we go too slow, we can also become so focused on one particular part that we miss the overarching point of the book itself.
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And so we don't want to miss the forest for the trees, as the old saying goes. So we are going to read today a rather lengthy section of John's Gospel.
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We are going to read chapter 3 verses 22 to 36. Whether or not we get through it all in today's message will be up to the
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Lord, but we will see how we go. I plan to try to at least get down to verse 31.
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But we are going to read the entire section. I want to remind you of where we are in the book. In John chapter 3, one of the most cited and studied sections of the entire
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Bible, it begins with Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night and having that very fruitful interaction where Jesus tells him about the doctrine of regeneration.
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Unless a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of God.
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And that interaction sparks a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, which leads up to the point where Jesus uses the example of the serpent in the wilderness.
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And he says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.
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And that gives birth to verse 16, For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten
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Son, that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. And then following verses 16 down to verse 21, we have this great explanation of the blessing of knowing
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Christ and the danger of not knowing Christ. The condemnation that comes outside of Him and the blessing of no condemnation that comes in trusting
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Him. And so we have that great explanation there for verses 17 to 21.
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Well, when we get to verse 22, which is where we are today, we find ourselves at the place where now the entire setting is going to change.
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And the focus is going to move from what Jesus was doing with Nicodemus to now
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Jesus is moving away from where He was into a different area where He is going to be near again to John the
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Baptist. And what we are going to read is we're going to read John the
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Baptist's testimony about Jesus. Now, if you remember from our study of the previous chapters, this is actually the third time that we find ourselves focusing again on John the
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Baptist. John is focused on for a portion of John's prologue, which is the first 18 verses of John's gospel.
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And then we have an extended section where John talks about Jesus as the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and John's disciples leave John and follow after Jesus.
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We have that. That's at the end of chapter one. Then in chapter two, we have the story of the wine, the water turned to wine and the story of the cleansing of the temple.
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Now we are here again at chapter three, and we are again faced with the words of John the
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Baptist. And I am convinced that one of the reasons why
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John's gospel focuses so much, especially in this first few chapters on the words of John the
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Baptist, I'm convinced that the reason for this is because there was in the early church a movement of those who still followed after John, even after Jesus's death, burial and resurrection, there were still those who considered themselves followers of John the
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Baptist. And I think at least in a sense, John's gospel is written to remind all of those people who may still be following the
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Baptist to remember that John did not come to accumulate followers for himself, but he came to point people to Jesus.
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And therefore, if you're still following John the Baptist, you need to stop and follow
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Christ. And so we're going to see today how
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John speaks of Jesus and how he speaks of himself and what we can learn not only about humility, but also about priority.
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So let's stand together and read John's gospel. It will be on the screen in the version I'm reading, and you can read along in your own
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Bibles if you'd like, beginning at verse 22. It says,
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After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.
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John also was baptizing at Anon near Salem, because water was plentiful there and people were coming out and being baptized, for John had not yet been put into prison.
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Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification, and they came to John and said to him,
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Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all are going to him.
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John answered, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
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You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.
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The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.
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Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.
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He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.
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He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.
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Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom
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God has sent utters the words of God. For he gives the spirit without measure.
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The father loves the son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life.
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Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him.
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Father, thank you again for your word. May you be with me now as I preach and your people as they hear the word preached.
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And may your spirit be the one who not only instructs but applies the teachings of your word.
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In Christ's name, amen. It's often been said that you know who your friends are when things go bad.
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Your real friends are those who stand with you when you're hurting or you're in pain. In fact, there's even a proverb which says that.
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That a brother is one who stands in adversity. But I think there's a corresponding and opposite truth that we ought to consider.
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Not only are your real friends those who will stand with you when things are bad, but your real, real friends are those who will celebrate your victory and your success without being covetous, jealous, or green with envy.
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I was told years ago, be very careful who you share good news with.
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Because not everyone is going to celebrate your good news. It takes sympathy to be with someone during pain.
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But it takes humility to celebrate when someone is being successful.
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It takes humility to really be thankful to God when someone else has a blessing that maybe you don't have.
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It's an interesting reality. And today as we look at the words of John the
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Baptist and how he describes himself as Jesus, one of the things that kept coming to me this week as I was studying the text, reading the text, making my observations, writing my notes, is that John is overjoyed at the success of Jesus' ministry.
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In fact, the one verse that really jumped off the page to me this week, you know, he must increase,
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I must decrease. That's the one that sort of like everybody knows. But the one right before that, that really got my attention, was when he said, he's talking about Jesus' success in ministry.
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And he says, he talks about it, that Jesus is the bridegroom and he's the bridegroom's friend. And he said, therefore my joy is complete.
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My joy is complete. What is it that brought John joy to see
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Christ's ministry increase? What was it that brought John's joy was to see
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Christ exalted, even if in the exaltation of Christ it meant the diminishment of himself.
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John says, my joy is now complete.
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Would to God that all of us would be overjoyed to see
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Christ's ministry exalted, even if it didn't involve our exaltation.
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That's the humility that John exemplifies for us in this text.
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That it's all about Christ and not about himself. So I have an outline of the text for us today.
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If you want to follow along the outline, you don't have to write anything. I know some of you do like to write, so I'm not telling you not to.
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But always remember, you can just email me and I'll give you my notes. So you don't have to write anything if you want to simply sit and listen.
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But the outline is we're going to look at the context of today's text. It's verses 22 to 24. The concern which is brought to John the
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Baptist, it's 25 to 26. The correction that's offered by John the
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Baptist, which is 27 to 30. And then if time allows, we'll get to the comparison and the commendation.
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But that may have to wait to next week because there's so much in that, that's condensed into such a small portion.
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We'll have to see how the Lord leads. But let's look first at the context. This is verses 22 to 24.
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It says, Now when it says after this, this is giving us a time stamp in the text, reminding us that we're now moving from one narrative to another.
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I said very early on that I don't believe that John's gospel is strictly chronological.
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And I really don't. I don't think John is as concerned with chronology as he is concerned with theology.
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But there are times when he will make little time markers in the text to indicate that he's moving on from one story to another.
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He's moving on from one event to another. And the event that led up to this, as I already mentioned from chapter 3 verses 1 to 21, was the night discourse with Nicodemus.
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The evening discourse with Nicodemus. Now that is concluded. So now when it says after this, it's moving to an entirely different section of the narrative.
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And it says, The Judean countryside means that Jesus is now moving from Jerusalem, which would have been an urban area.
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Now he's moving out into a rural area. He's moving out to a place where he's going to be nearer to the ministry of John the
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Baptist. He's going to be out in a place where he's going to be out in the countryside with people from that area.
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And he's going out there for the purpose of continuing his ministry. And that is the ministry of baptizing.
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Notice what it says. It says, Now, I have to make a quick point about this.
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The text, if read by itself, if all you had was verse 22, you could easily come to the conclusion that Jesus himself was doing the baptizing.
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I mean, just read it again. It says, That sounds very much like Jesus is the one doing the baptizing.
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John was the one doing the baptizing with his disciples. It seems like Jesus is the one doing the baptizing with his disciples.
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But we need to remind ourselves that in the very next chapter, in fact, if you have your
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Bible, just for a moment, just turn over to chapter 4 and look with me at verse 2.
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It says, So, when we come back to chapter 3, verse 22, when it says,
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It is not saying that Jesus was baptizing, because the very next chapter says Jesus didn't baptize anyone, but his disciples were baptizing.
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So there's two things that we can learn from just this principle that we, or this text, two principles we can draw from this.
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One, Jesus himself did not baptize anyone, but it doesn't tell us why.
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But I think I can at least render an idea as to why. I believe that there is the possibility that Jesus held back doing baptisms himself, so that no one could claim any special privilege of having been baptized by him.
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Later, we're going to see something similar from the apostle Paul. When we read
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Paul's writings, he mentions, he says, I went into these different churches, but I didn't baptize very many people.
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And then he says, I think I baptized Crispus in the house of, you know, like he starts thinking about who he's baptized, but he indicates he didn't baptize very many people.
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Which tells us something about how easy it is for people to take something as simple as who baptized me, and use it to glorify themselves.
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So Jesus didn't baptize anyone. Jesus allowed his disciples to baptize people, and when they baptized people, it was as if he had done it himself, but he's doing it through the hands of his disciples.
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I bring that up because one of the things that we shouldn't think, is we shouldn't think that because the baptism is done by one of Jesus' disciples, that it's any less in accordance with his will.
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Jesus is having his disciples do the baptism, so that it is to be demonstrated to us, that when one of his disciples baptizes in his name, it's as if he himself is doing it.
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And so baptism itself, the person doing it, doesn't really matter.
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As long as it's done in the name of Christ, and we would say in the triune name, the name of the
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Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. There is a belief in certain denominations, and maybe you believe this, so I'd be happy to chat with you about it.
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There is a belief that the only people who can baptize, are those who are ordained, and those who have that ordination authority to baptize.
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If you've ever noticed in our church, we allow people to baptize other people who aren't necessarily ordained.
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We've allowed fathers to baptize their children. Now, Mike, you baptized your son, but you're ordained, so you don't count.
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But we've allowed others to baptize their children. Even our own
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Confession of Faith, the 1646 Confession of Faith, says that the act of baptism is not tied to any specific office.
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Baptism itself does not have to be administered by an ordained person, not at least as far as we believe.
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But rather, baptism is valid not because of who does it, but because of the name in which it is done in.
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It's valid not because of the person administering the baptism, but because of Christ Himself, whose name is evoked,
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God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, whose name is evoked in the baptism. There's actually a historic issue that arose in the early church, because there were those who were baptized, and then later the men who baptized them apostatized, meaning they left the faith under the threat of punishment.
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And the question was, well if a man leaves under the threat of punishment, that means he was a false convert.
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And what if you were baptized by a false convert? What does that mean? Your baptism is invalid. And now the whole question is, everybody needs to be re -baptized.
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Who was baptized by this guy who walked away from the faith? You see, when you begin to dig down like that, you forget that baptism isn't about the man administering it.
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It isn't even about the person receiving it. It's about God's promises which come through it. It's about what it's doing, not what the person is doing.
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And so when we tie it to a clerical office or to a person, we forget the heart of baptism and the idea and the root of what baptism is doing, is it is giving that outward sign of unity to God the
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Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And that's why we baptize in the triune name according to God's command.
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Who commanded us? Jesus Christ commanded us. When we baptize, how do we baptize? In the name of the
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Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So if someone comes to us from another church, what do we want to know?
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We want to know, one, have you been baptized as a believer? If you haven't been baptized as a believer, we as Baptists, we believe that's necessary, being baptized as a believer.
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But also, we want to know that you've been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Some people don't.
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Some people only baptize in the name of Jesus. You say, well, why is that bad? Well, a lot of people who baptize only in the name of Jesus are what are known as oneness.
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They deny the Trinity. The Trinity is evoked in baptism. And if we do not receive
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Trinitarian baptism, we have not received Christian baptism. That is important.
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If our baptism was not in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, it's not Christian baptism.
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You go all the way back to the early church, and there was actually an importance in stating the triune name.
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Now, having said that, I want to sound like I'm going to contradict myself, so stay with me. At this point, when
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John's disciples, or Jesus' disciples are baptizing, I don't think they're using the triune name, because that command did not come until after Jesus' resurrection.
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When John went out and baptized, he baptized how? He baptized a baptism of repentance.
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Come and repent of your sins. Receive baptism for the forgiveness of sins. And what?
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Because the kingdom of God is at hand. We call that kingdom baptism. It's likely that that's the baptism that was happening here under the disciples of Jesus.
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But after the resurrection, after the resurrection, you follow the book of Acts. You get around chapter 19.
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You'll find some people who were baptized only in the baptism of John. And what did they tell them to do?
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What did Paul tell them to do? You need to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You need to be baptized because you didn't even know the
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Holy Spirit was there. You didn't even know the receiving of the Holy Spirit had come. And therefore, you need to be rebaptized.
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There are times when people need to be rebaptized. There are times when rebaptism is necessary.
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Either you learned something, you were taught something wrong about baptism, and you believed something wrong about baptism, or you were baptized before you were a believer.
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Those are times when we as a church would say to you, yes, there are times where actually you should be baptized in accordance with your faith, in accordance with a right understanding of what baptism is.
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Now I know you might be thinking, boy, that's not all in the text. No, I'm drawing out a doctrine here, but it's important because we see
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Jesus' disciples baptizing. This idea of baptism is hugely important, and it is in the scriptures.
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And notice the very next thing. It says, John was baptizing at Anon near Salem. This is near where Jesus was.
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And notice why he was baptizing at Anon. He was baptizing because what?
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There was much water there, or the ESV says water was plentiful there.
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And people were coming and being baptized. As a
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Baptist, I do believe that the proper administration of baptism is putting someone in water, not putting water on them.
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Andy, give me an amen on that. But think of why this text would even tell us where John was, and the reason for where John was.
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You remember how Jesus was baptized. John and Jesus went down into the Jordan where Jesus was baptized.
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And here it says John is in Anon near Salem because of this reason.
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There was water there, and water was plentiful there. Recently, I did a debate, a public moderated debate with Matthew Everhard, who is a brilliant scholar.
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Matthew Everhard is actually the editor of the Jonathan Edwards Study Bible. So he's no fool.
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Matthew Everhard is a Presbyterian, and he and I are dear friends. He believes that baptism is properly administered by pouring water, not plunging into water.
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And that's, we would say, dipping versus pouring. So if you're interested in hearing the arguments on this, you feel free to go listen to our debate.
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It was over a two -hour long interaction on this subject. But remember this, the root word, baptizo, while it can be used for things like washing, and that was his argument that it can be used for other things, the primary use of baptizo means to put into water, to dip into water, to plunge into water.
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And why is that important? It's important because of what it symbolizes.
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Baptism, according to Romans chapter 6, symbolizes our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ.
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This is why when we put someone into the baptistry, we lay them down into the water, and the water comes up and over them like a tomb.
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And the water closes in over them like a casket.
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And in that grand symbolism of going under the water, there is the symbolism of dying to ourself.
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And then when you emerge from the water, and the water is opened up and you come out, it is the picture of the new resurrected life that is lived in following the
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Lord Jesus Christ. This is why we say buried with him in baptism, raised to the newness of life.
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So, John is baptizing there because there was plentiful water there. And as I said,
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I did say this in my debate, I said if baptism was administered in this time by pouring, then
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John didn't need a river, all he needed was a canteen. He didn't need plentiful water, he just needed water that he could take with him.
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And I do believe, if you want to know why I believe baptism became more commonly practiced through pouring and sprinkling, is
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I do believe it was because it is much easier to administer that way. It is much easier to administer baptism by pouring water or sprinkling water on the head than it is to put someone in water.
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And it became very common after the second century. There is an early church document called the
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Didache, it is the teaching of the twelve. This early church document tells us that the way the early church baptized is that they would baptize in running water.
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Running water means like a river or a stream. But if running water wasn't available, actually the
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Didache says living water, but that just means running water. It says they would use running water, but if running water wasn't available, they would then use still water.
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But if still water wasn't available, use cold water. I'm sorry, no, it needed to be cold running water.
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But if it wasn't cold running water, it could be still, but it needed to be cold. But if you had to use, they were very specific.
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Rachel is looking at me like am I crazy. No, go read the Didache, it talks about it, it gives this whole big example of that.
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But then it says, but if there's not enough water, you pour the water on them. So they allowed it as an exception, but not the norm.
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In the Greek Orthodox Church to this very day, which makes up most of the eastern half of Christendom in the world, in the
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Greek Orthodox Church they still immerse to this day. In fact, if you look at their immersions, they immerse three times.
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In the name of the Father, the name of the Son, the name of the Holy Spirit, and they immerse babies. Yeah, you want to have some fun, go
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YouTube Greek Orthodox baby baptism. It's like a figure eight. The guy goes three times, and that baby doesn't have no idea what's going on.
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But all this simply to be said, I think John is helping us here at least in a way as Baptists by reminding us that water was plentiful in Anon.
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That's why John was baptizing there. That's why Jesus was baptizing there, because there was a lot of water.
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Because baptism, to do it in accordance with the method that is prescribed, is to put someone in water, which takes a lot of water.
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Now, the very next thing we see in the text, and this is all still context, is verse 24, it says,
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For John had not yet been put into prison. This is important, because if you read Mark's gospel,
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Mark's gospel in Mark chapter 1 verse 14, it says, this is the first chapter of Mark, it says,
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Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel. And in Matthew 4, it says,
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When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. Which tells us that John's gospel has given us some things that have happened prior to Jesus' Galilean ministry.
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Mark's gospel begins with Jesus' Galilean ministry. And so too, really, does Matthew's gospel.
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Because the first three chapters of Matthew's gospel is regarding his birth, and the things that happened regarding his birth. So, while Matthew and Mark begins with Jesus' Galilean ministry,
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John is giving us some insights into things that happened prior to Jesus' Galilean ministry. Because all of these things,
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John saying these things about Jesus, and Jesus baptizing there in Aenon, or Jesus' disciples baptizing in Aenon, all of this happened before John had been put into prison.
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And you remember why John was put into prison? John was put into prison because he testified about the sin of Herod.
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Herod had done what? Herod had taken his brother Philip's wife as his own.
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John testified against the sin of Herod. And what happened to John as a result?
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He was arrested. He was put into the dungeon. Until the day that the daughter danced.
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And Herod, in his foolish, impetuous promise, said,
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I'll give you anything up to half my kingdom. Thinking that she would want riches.
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Thinking that she would maybe want a gift of money or wealth. And no, she wanted the head of her mother's nemesis.
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John had testified against her mother. When he had testified against Herod.
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And so he said, she said to him, I want the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
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John's gospel doesn't tell us about the Baptist's imprisonment. It doesn't tell us about this event.
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We get that from the other gospels. So the reason why I'm pointing this out is I believe, I know
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John's gospel is the last one written. Don't know when it was written. We talked about this in our introduction to the series.
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But I do know that it was at least long enough, after the writing of the synoptic gospels, that the church already had an understanding of what had happened to John.
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So John could simply say, this was after John was put into prison and y 'all know the story.
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This was after John was put into prison and y 'all already know that. So we can just move on. He doesn't have to explain the event.
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So now let's move on to the concern. This is verse 25. It says, now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a
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Jew over purification. And they came to John and said, Rabbi, he was with you across the
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Jordan to whom you bore witness. Look, he is baptizing and all are going to him. Interesting that verse 25 and 26 don't seem to go together.
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Again, in my study this week, I've been looking at 25 and looking at 26 and trying to find the link.
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I went into an encyclopedia. Philip Comfort's New Testament Textual Encyclopedia.
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In verse 25, it references the fact that in some manuscripts it says a
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Jew. If you have an ESV, notice it says that John's disciples were having a discussion with a
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Jew. But if you have a King James Version, and my brother Mike Smith isn't here today to point out, but if he were here,
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I don't know how many of the rest of you carry the King James. The King James says the Jews. So it's whether you're dealing with a single
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Jew or whether you're dealing with the Jews plural. And there are some manuscripts that reads one way and some manuscripts read the other way.
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And it's really not a big deal. But something else that Philip Comfort's manuscript mentioned that I had never heard before, and I thought was interesting, is that some scholars actually believe that the referent here is actually to the followers of Jesus himself.
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I don't think that that's necessarily correct, but it would make sense because the word here, discussion, is actually the word dispute.
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Notice it says, Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. It is a dispute.
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It's an argument, debate. They're debating the subject. So if John's disciples are arguing with a
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Jew, and then they immediately begin talking about Jesus and his disciples, there seems to be a disconnect there.
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But if they're arguing with Jesus' disciples, it would make sense. But again, I'm only saying this to say we don't have textual evidence of that, so it can't support it, but it would make sense.
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So what if it is what it says, just the Jew, a Jew? Well, what likely is happening here, if we read the text as it's written, is that there is a
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Jew, or at least possibly a group of Jews, who are continuing to argue about John's validity in being able to baptize.
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They're coming to say, who do you think you are doing this? Remember that happened back in chapter 1. They came, who do you think you are doing this baptism?
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Are you the prophet? Are you the Christ? Are you this? Are you that? And John said, no,
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I'm not. I'm the one crying in the wilderness. So at this point, the question is still being raised.
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Who gave you this authority to do this action of baptism? And the idea of purification, some of you say ceremonial washings.
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There were ceremonial washings in the Old Testament, specifically during the intertestamental period.
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There were ceremonial washings. And so the question is, who gave you the authority to do this? Who gave you the right to do this?
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And so a debate, a discussion is continuing to go about John's authority.
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It's continuing to arise about who gave John the right to do this. And then out of that arises an even bigger issue for John's disciples.
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Look there. He's baptizing even more than we are.
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And so they go to John and they said, hey, John, the one you bore witness about, the one you pointed us to, he's baptizing and everyone's going to him now.
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Now the question is, what's their problem with it? If John has already said, go follow
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Jesus. I mean, isn't that what he said to Andrew? Isn't that what he said to the two disciples who were there?
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Jesus walks by, says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. They went and followed Jesus and John didn't try to stop them, but actually was fine with them leaving and going.
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I've often wondered, and this is just me, why does John have any disciples at this point?
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Why? I mean, why isn't everybody leaving John to go follow Jesus? Well, my answer as I've come to this conclusion, is that John is still going ahead of Jesus.
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John is still going ahead. Wherever Jesus is, Jesus is behind wherever John's going.
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John's moving along, pointing people to Jesus, pointing people to Jesus. And some of his disciples just hadn't gotten the message that it wasn't about John, it was about Jesus.
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Some of the disciples, as he's going and making disciples, they hadn't gotten the message that, hey, it's not really about this guy.
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It's not about the guy with the camel's hair and the wild diet. It's not about him. But it's about the guy that he's coming before.
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So his disciples are sitting there, they've been baptized, they're following him, they're listening to him preach, they're listening to him, they're engaging with the
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Jews who are coming and challenging him, they're sitting there defending their rabbi's teachings to the
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Jews, they're doing all these things, and now they look over and they see Jesus' ministry is growing, and one of the things that is happening while Jesus' ministry is growing is their ministry,
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John's ministry is dying. And by dying, I don't mean that in a bad way.
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It's lessening, it's decreasing by the very nature of what should happen. As Jesus' ministry grows,
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John's ministry by nature must decrease. But his disciples don't get it.
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His disciples don't understand why that has to be. And there is the natural tendency among men to exercise the attitude of comparison.
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Look at what's going on with him. And it's not going on with us.
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Look at what's growing over there and it's not growing over here. Famed Anglican scholar
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J .C. Ryle, in his comments on this passage, he made a very important observation.
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I want to read it to you. He said, The spirit exhibited in this complaint, that is the complaint of John's disciples, look, all the people are going to him.
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The spirit exhibited in this complaint is unhappily too common in the churches of Christ.
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The succession of these complainers has never failed. There are never lacking religious confessors who care far more for the increase of their own party than for the increase of true
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Christianity. I'll say that again. There are far more who care for the increase of their own party than for the increase of true
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Christianity. He goes on to say, And who cannot rejoice in the spread of religion unless it spreads within their own denomination?
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There is a generation which can see no good being done except in the ranks of its own congregations and which seems ready to shut men out of heaven if they do not enter under their banner.
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Nothing so defiles Christianity and gives the enemies of truth such occasion to blaspheme as jealousy and party spirit among Christians.
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Wherever there is real grace, we should be ready and willing to acknowledge it even though it may be outside our own pale.
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I think J .C. Ryle hits on something here that is very true. There is a natural tendency of competition among men and that competition does not end when a man puts on a minister's robe.
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And there are times where ministers, instead of being concerned with the building up of Christ's kingdom, are more concerned with the building up of their own.
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And they cannot rejoice when someone else succeeds because the success was not theirs.
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Recently I had lunch with a man who was trying to get some churches to work together.
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He's a good guy. He works with the local Baptist Association and he just wanted to meet me and talk with me.
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We had a good conversation. But something he said that was really encouraging and a good thought for all of us to consider is he said, you know, the hardest thing about getting churches to work together with other churches is churches see other churches as competition and it really shouldn't be a competition because the one we're actually competing against is the world, the flesh and the devil, not other believers.
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So if I have a brother whose church is growing, I should rejoice with my brother rather than say, why is mine not?
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Or why is he seeing ten times the growth I'm seeing? That type of attitude again is the wrong type for a minister or a church to have.
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Now that doesn't mean we have to rejoice at the growth of all churches because there are some false teachers out there and we don't want to rejoice in the growth of false gospels and false ministries and false teachings.
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But when I see someone, and I'll mention this because I was gone when it happened, John MacArthur just died a couple weeks ago.
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And John MacArthur has had as much impact on my ministry as probably just about anyone else. I remember years ago riding
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AM 550 the way radio, driving to work in the morning and listening to John MacArthur and R .C.
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Sproul on the radio and learning what it sounded like to hear a man preach the Word, to hear a man rightly handle the
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Word of God. And even though I would have some differences theologically with Dr. MacArthur, I can say this,
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I am thankful that God grew His ministry to the point that He did that it was able to affect even me.
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And so we ought to be able to see the growth in someone else's ministry and not look at it with envy or with jealousy or with covetousness.
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But say, blessed be the name of the Lord that God was able to do that and praise the
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Lord for whatever He does through me. Because that's the very next thing and that's the point I want you to see John's response.
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When his disciples came to him and they said, Rabbi, look across the Jordan to the one who you bore witness.
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Look, he's baptizing. Everybody's going to him. And notice John's answer, verse 27.
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John answered, A person can receive not even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven.
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He's talking about himself. He's talking about his ministry.
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Look, God gave me this ministry. And every person that comes to me and I minister to in this ministry ultimately comes from God Himself.
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And God is the one who's doing it, not me. If God chooses to give us a 110 -member church, praise the
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Lord. If God chooses to give us a 500 -member church, I think I'll faint, but praise the Lord. That's a lot of work.
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That's a lot of people. But you see a ministry growing and you say,
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God's doing that. And I can say, blessed be the name of the Lord. God has, think of this for just a moment.
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Based on what John just said, no one has anything that is not given to him from heaven. James says basically the same thing in his epistle.
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Everything we have is from God who gives. This is where we get everything.
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You guys are here. You guys who have covenanted with us and become members here and come to worship with us.
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God brought you here for a reason. And He brought us as leaders here to teach and preach and to minister together.
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We're here because of the sovereign hand of God. Many are the plans of a man's heart, but the
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Lord does what? He directs our steps. And some of you came through some really weird avenues.
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I don't mean that in a bad way. No, I'm just saying some of you have totally different backgrounds.
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Some come out of Pentecostal churches. Some come out of high church. Some come out of low church. Some come out of churches that were nothing like this.
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And some of you have been here since this church opened. Praise the Lord for Jack and Shirley. But beloved,
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God has brought us all together for a reason. He's the one who sovereignly has given us this church.
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And I think that's just an important application. I know that's drawing maybe a little bit more application than interpretation.
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But when John says a person cannot receive any more, even one thing, unless it's given to him from heaven.
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He's saying, I have what God's given me. We have what God's given us.
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God is the one who's sovereign over this. God's in charge. If you're here, it's not by accident.
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Verse 28, you yourselves bear witness that I said I'm not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.
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The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.
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Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. John is saying this. He's using the illustration of the bride and the bridegroom.
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This is an illustration that goes back into the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, Israel was likened to the bride of God.
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We see this in Isaiah. It says, for your maker is your husband. In Jeremiah, it says, the treacherous wife leaves her husband, referring to Israel going after other gods.
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Even the book of Hosea, where Hosea, the prophet, is demonstrating the relationship with the harlot.
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Gomer is a demonstration of God with Israel. This idea of God and Israel being his wife is then brought into the
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New Covenant idea of Jesus and the church being the bridegroom and the bride.
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And John says, I'm not the bridegroom. I am just his friend.
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And when the friend of the bridegroom sees the bridegroom coming, what does he do?
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He points to the bridegroom and not himself. Friday, Jennifer and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary.
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We were married right here, 26 years ago. Standing beside me was my best man, my brother
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Bobby. Standing beside her was her sister
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Julie. And none of y 'all would have known that if I hadn't have told you.
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Because even if you were there, you probably don't remember who the best man and the maid of honor are.
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Because they're not the point. The point was the bride and the groom.
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That's the point of the wedding. And John says, I'm his friend. I'm not the bridegroom.
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I'm here to do what God's called me to do. But at the end of the day, I don't have the head seat at the table.
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He has the head seat at the table. Therefore, my joy is fulfilled.
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Because his ministry is growing. And that's the point.
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My joy is fulfilled because the gospel is going forth. With or without me.
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And that's good. Because it's not about me. It's not about John.
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It's not about any of us. It's about Christ. The ministry of the gospel is a ministry of humility.
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I must decrease. And Christ must increase. But how does that work?
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This is why in my opening screen, I have a picture of a teeter -totter.
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Now you guys may call that a seesaw. Seesaw, okay.
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Seesaw is fine. When I was a kid, that was a teeter -totter. How does a teeter -totter work?
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For you to go up, the other person has to come down. And for you to go down, for the other person to come up, you have to go down.
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This is the best visual example of what John is saying.
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He is saying, Christ must be exalted.
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And for Christ to be exalted, I must be abased. Beloved, that is our whole life.
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Do you recognize what it takes to even receive the gospel of Jesus Christ? We must be humbled.
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We must be abased. Because anyone with pride in their heart who is going to God, looking at himself and what he has done, will by nature be unable to bow the knee to Christ.
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The very gospel is predicated on us decreasing and Christ increasing.
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I'm going to say something as I draw to a close. If you are outside of Christ today, one of the reasons, one of the main reasons, may just be that you have a problem humbling yourself before the
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Master. This is why it says in Philippians chapter 2,
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Have this mind in you which is also in Christ Jesus, that though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself.
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Actually the word says he emptied himself and became a man. And he gave himself even to death on a cross.
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And therefore God has exalted him, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow.
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Have you bowed the knee to Christ? That's what it means to come to him.
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It means to humble yourself before the
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King of the universe and recognize that you cannot save yourself.
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And whatever else it is you have trusted in cannot save you. But the only one that can save you is the
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Lord Jesus Christ. As long as you are exalted, he will be low.
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So humble yourself before the God of the universe and exalt him for God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the opportunity to walk through this text today.
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And while we've looked certainly at a lot in this text, I pray the most important thing that we have seen is the exaltation of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful for the example that John gives us, but John is not our focus.
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John is merely the one whose words we looked at today and his words are meant to point us to Christ.
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He said, I am not the bridegroom, but I am the bridegroom's friend. So may it be today that our focus is on the bridegroom, on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. As Brother Mike preached last week, Lord, when he preached about not looking back, but looking forward.
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Not looking at others, but looking at Christ alone, the champion of our faith.
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Lord, may it be that we continue to trust in him alone and in no other.