John 3:22-30 (He Must Be Greater!)

John the Baptist’s Final Witness to Christ

Perhaps the most famous words that John the Baptist ever uttered were also the last words that he ever spoke. He said, he must increase, but I must decrease. And what he's talking about there is Jesus's kingdom.

Of course, when John says he, he's talking about Christ, the son of God, the lamb, the heaven sent Messiah who has come to inaugurate a brand new kingdom, a permanent kingdom to which the old Testament looked forward to.

And the reason that Jesus comes is because the old Testament was limited, of course, but he also comes at the specific time that he comes at because the old Testament covenant in first century, Israel was being perverted.

The Jewish leaders had stiff necks, hard hearts, and wicked heads. They continually turned away from the good commands of the Torah that were given to them in the old Testament. And they fell into idolatry, religiosity, they were hurting people and they were dishonoring God.

So Jesus came not to reinvigorate the old Jewish covenant and not to reinstate national Israel. Jesus came to bring a new kingdom, a new covenant, something that would never end that the gates of hell would never stand against.

So that kingdom needed to increase at all costs. That kingdom needed to go on and continue to go on. And John knew that his ministry needed to bow down and decrease in light of who Christ was. Now, if you've been tracking in the gospel of John, this is exactly what's happened.

John announces Jesus in John chapter one, we have two Johns, you have John the Baptist and John the gospel writer. I'll do my best to differentiate those today. John, the gospel writer talks about John the Baptist who announces Jesus Christ to the people in John chapter one.

And a couple of disciples follow him a little bit later in John chapter one, a couple more disciples end up following him. So Jesus is increasing. His kingdom is growing. It's small at first, just like Daniel says, it's a little rock that grows into a mighty mountain.

It's like five or six people in John chapter one, John chapter two, Jesus goes to a wedding and he turns six empty water pots into 120 gallons of the greatest wine that had ever been produced, demonstrating the superiority of his kingdom over against the emptiness of the Jewish religion.

Their purification pots could do nothing, but Jesus made water out of, or made wine out of nothing. The end of John chapter two, Jesus goes into a temple and he flips over tables and he goes against the religious leaders who were abusing the people of God.

Jesus's kingdom is increasing here in Jerusalem. He's preaching to large crowds of people at this point. He's performing signs and wonders and miracles. His kingdom is increasing while in the background, John's ministry is decreasing.

John chapter three, where we've been in the last several weeks is where Jesus educates and re-educates one of the great religious leaders of the Jewish period, Nicodemus, who comes to him at night, Jesus's kingdom is increasing.

Now today we're going to be in verses 22 through 29. I was a bit ambitious and thought we were going to finish chapter three. God said, no, this sermon is long enough. You'll thank me. And in this verses, Jesus leaves Jerusalem.

He goes into the hill country of Judea on his way back to Galilee. That's where Jesus's base of operations is going to be. Now, the purpose of today's sermon, I'm going to give it to you right up front, is to look at John's response to Jesus.

Because when we see John's response to Jesus, it's going to be informative for us on how we should respond to Jesus, on how we should respond to his ministry. He must become greater in our life as well, and we must become less.

So what we're going to do is we're going to lay a little bit of a foundation. We're going to go through some context. Then we're going to talk about four things that John believed about Jesus, that we ought to believe about Jesus.

And then in the end, we're going to make that practical to our lives as Christians today, 2000 years after this text was given. So let's, with that, turn to the text. We're going to start with verse 22.

Hear the word of the Lord. After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he was spending time with them and baptizing. John also was baptizing in Anon near Salim because there was much water there and people were coming and were being baptized for John had not yet been thrown into prison.

The Kingdom of God Is Built by God, Not by Worldly Methods

Now, when John says after these things, he means after the events of Jerusalem, he means that Jesus had this whirlwind weekend where he did all of these things. And then now he's retreating into Judea.

Judea was like the county. Noel, for instance, would be the city. Jerusalem is the city. Judea is the county. And he's in these rural regions here with his disciples. Now I want to bring up an interesting point here.

It's a side point. It's, it's not necessarily connected to the narrative, but I think it needs to be made. Why would Jesus leave Jerusalem? If he wanted to start a religious kingdom, that would be like someone leaving Silicon Valley to start a tech company.

That'd be like somebody leaving Paris to start a fashion industry. I'm from the South. That would be like leaving Nashville to become a country music singer. You just wouldn't do that. You'd wait tables.

You do whatever you can. You'd spend every waking moment in the city of Nashville to become a country music singer. You would spend every waking moment Silicon Valley to try to become the next big startup.

You wouldn't leave those cities because there is where everything that you need is located. Well, why would Jesus leave Jerusalem? It's the religious capital of the nation. It's where the temple is. It's where the leaders are.

It's where he would make connections, where he would rise the corporate ladder and he would gain notoriety and influence. Why would he leave Jerusalem? Because I think that Jesus's kingdom is greater than our worldly kingdoms.

It's wiser than our worldly kingdoms. In Jesus, his ways are higher than our ways and greater than our ways. And look at this 2000 years later, there's no temple standing and there's no kingdom of Israel.

There's a national Israel, but it's not like it used to be. There's no Rome, no Roman empire. Nations have risen and fallen, but yet Jesus's kingdom still remains. Why? Because he was building the kingdom of God and he wasn't building it off of worldly means.

Jesus does everything that no one else would have done. He leaves Jerusalem. Then he goes to Samaria, a place where no faithful Jew would have ever went. And then he goes into Galilee, a place where no king would have ever ventured.

And then he talks to a woman at a well, something no male in Jewish society would have ever done. He heals a Roman centurion, the occupying army soldier, something no patriot would have ever done. Jesus is doing everything opposite of what the kingdom of man would say to do.

If you could go to the first century Barnes and Noble, I don't even know if that's still a thing. Maybe, maybe COVID has shut it down, but if you could go to their bookstore and you were to buy a book on how to start a kingdom, this would not be the way that you would do it.

It just goes to show the infinite wisdom of God. He knows exactly what he's doing because as we've said, 2000 years ago, his kingdom still stands. He built a kingdom that does not employ, borrow from, or bend to the ways of the world, but instead it's built on truth and righteousness.

The same is true today. The kingdom that Jesus Christ is building is not built on the methods of the world. It's not built on the means of the world. It's not built on the tricks and the schemes of the world.

The world laughs at the kingdom of God because they cannot understand it. It doesn't look like the world's kingdom. It's not built like the world's kingdom. It doesn't use the tools of the world's kingdom.

And yet it's lovely to the people of God. See, we live in a kingdom that's built on truth and a truthless culture. It's not like the world would have built it. It's built on a gospel message and a fake news culture.

It's built on conviction and a compromising culture. It's built on honor and a shame-ridden culture. It's built on worship and an idolatrous culture. It's built on righteousness and a rioting culture.

It's built on obedience and a lawless culture. It's built on purity and a perverted culture. It's built on faith and a fickle culture. And it's built on service and a selfish culture. This kingdom is fundamentally different than the world.

So therefore, why do so many churches bow down to the means of the world in order to build a church? The world wouldn't build a kingdom this way, but God does. The same God who left Jerusalem is the same God who today who's building his kingdom with the only thing that matters, the truth of the word of God.

Now, the Jerusalemite crowds laughed at Jesus back then. The secular people of the world will laugh at us today. I've said this recently, evangelical Christians today will laugh at you for building a church based off of the word of God alone.

But the true sheep of Jesus Christ hear his voice and the true sheep of Jesus Christ love it when the word is read and they thrive when the word is sung and they they grow when the word is preached. Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, they follow me.

We don't need skinny pastors, celebrity pastors in skinny jeans. We don't need attractive worship leaders. We don't need cool modern spaces or million dollar buildings. In China today or tomorrow, people will be meeting in underground rooms with barely lit lights.

And yet Jesus is enough in other countries in the world where it's illegal to be a Christian. Jesus is enough. Why can't we get back to a culture where Jesus is enough and we don't need all of the pomp and circumstance and we don't need all the bright lights and fog machines and we just need Jesus.

That's what John believed. If a church uses worldly means in order to attract the world, it will have to continue using worldly means in order to keep them there. But if a church in humble submission to the word of God just simply preaches it, you don't have to be a professional.

You don't have to be an expert. We get slides wrong. I almost break my lungs singing sometimes. Like we trip all over ourselves here, but we know where the power is. The power is in the gospel of God.

It says it's the power of God for salvation to those who believe, not all the stuff. That's who we delight in. And if you do that, if you just preach the word of God, lost people will be found. True sheep will rejoice in worship and they will grow deep in Christ and the church will flourish.

Now I don't want us to get lost on that point because again, it's a side point. Jesus left Jerusalem, not a popular move in his day. Jesus goes to Samaria and Galilee showing that his way of building a kingdom is fundamentally different than the world.

And I believe that today we have to recover that spirit of trusting in the way that Christ builds his kingdom instead of the way that the world does. Now let's get back to the text. It says after these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea and there they were spending time with him after baptizing and they were baptizing.

Jesus, His Disciples, and the Baptism Controversy

Now imagine the crazy schedule that the disciples have just underwent. They meet Jesus, they walk to Jerusalem, he makes the whole city mad, except for those who are cheering for him. They're caught up in a frenzy.

They're probably at his coattails saying, Jesus, tell me what your favorite color is. They haven't had time to talk to him. They haven't had time to spend time with him. So after all of this stuff, they go into Judea and it says that Jesus was spending time with his disciples.

He was training them. He was pouring into them. He was discipling them and he was giving them ministry opportunities. It says that they were baptizing. They were baptizing in the method of John the Baptist.

Now I want to make this point. Jesus is not the one baptizing here, although the text reads like Jesus is baptizing here and I'll show you why. It says he was spending time with them and baptizing. Sounds like Jesus is the one doing the baptizing, but in John four, it says this, therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John.

Although John tells us he himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were. I bring this up again, it's a side point, but I bring this up because people who hate truth and hate the Bible will say that this is a contradiction.

John three says Jesus was baptizing. John four says that he wasn't. So if John can't be trusted with the normal everyday details of the text and how can we trust him when he talks about salvation and how can we trust him when he talks about new life and being born again?

See the authority of the Bible is at stake and I'll tell you that this is not a contradiction for a couple of reasons. First, the text is perfectly capable of saying that Jesus was baptizing if he was overseeing his disciples doing the baptism.

He's the leader, they're the followers. The second thing I would tell you is that there's a rule when interpreting the Bible and I want you to memorize this. If you have a pen and paper, write this down.

When you're interpreting complicated passages, you always interpret them in light of the easier and more clear passage. You don't interpret the easy passages through the complicated passages. You interpret the complicated passages from the easy ones.

Now let's make this an example. John three is a little confusing. John four is really clear. John four then will help us understand what John three means and John four is more clear so we go with that.

It doesn't mean that the text is in contradiction. It just means that one passage helps us understand more clearly and helps us get to the meaning of the truth of the other. That's the second thing I would tell you.

The third thing I would tell you about why this is not a contradiction is because Jesus's ministry is on the increase. John's ministry is on the decrease and here they're meeting in the middle. Here you have this moment where they're in the same geographical region and Jesus, John has already told us, is bringing a different baptism.

John says in John one that he brings a baptism of water but Jesus brings a baptism of the spirit. So Jesus is not going to baptize with water because he's bringing a new covenant. He's bringing a new kingdom.

He's bringing a new baptism. But Jesus also was in a particularly interesting situation because Jesus wanted to verify and validate the authenticity of John. John was a prophet. Jesus loved John. So what does he do?

He has his disciples as their first ministry exercise baptizing the baptism of John. He validates John's ministry but yet Jesus withholds performing the baptism because he is waiting for that moment where he baptizes people with the spirit of God.

We see Jesus in Matthew do this in a different way in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. That's exactly what John the Baptist said. See if you study Jesus's sermons in his early ministry they looked like sermons from John the Baptist.

Why? Because Jesus is honoring his forerunner. He's honoring the man who is going to announce him to the people and there's this overlap in their ministries. John doesn't announce Jesus and then immediately fade away.

John announces Jesus and there's the six to nine month gap where they're both ministering at the same time. Jesus honors John. He honors John in the way that he preaches, he honors John in the way that his disciples baptize and it's a way of just showing that John is a faithful man from the Lord.

That's what he's doing. Now let's continue. John was also baptizing in Anon near Salim because there was much water there and people were coming and were being baptized for John had not yet been thrown into prison.

Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification and they came to John and they said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing and all are coming to him.

It's a fascinating passage. What's happening here is a debate between Jesus and a Jewish scholar and what's interesting if you've ever been in a lot of debates, they're emotional, you can get frustrated, you can go home and complain, I can't believe that person, they really had a cheap shot on that argument or whatever and here they're discussing a pretty contentious topic, baptism.

Christians have turned against one another over this topic. Martin Luther, the great reformer said that his brother in the Lord Ulrich Zwingli was conceived in a spawn of Satan because he didn't agree with him on baptism, it's a contentious debate.

I'm not saying Luther was right, Luther was a little dramatic at times but this is a debate that's causing the disciples frustration but what I find so fascinating about it is that they don't go to their master and Rabbi John and complain about the debate.

They go to him and complain about Jesus which is a fascinating point. They just had this debate, they're upset and you would think they would go complain about that but they complain about Jesus, why?

Sometimes when we're upset what's really in our heart gets revealed, there might be something that's affecting us on the outside but what's really deep inside of us is what comes to the surface. There's an old phrase that you really don't know what's in an orange until you squeeze it, there's things that are deep down inside of these disciples that this particular situation is squeezing out of them and it has really nothing to do with that situation, it's just the catalyst that brings it forward.

I'll give you an example, let's say a husband forgets to do the dishes at night, next morning there's dishes all in the sink, there's fruit flies swarming around and the wife comes down and she says, you didn't do the dishes and what about that time last week where you forgot to mow the yard and you didn't clean the table on Thursday and you left the gas tank empty three years ago and remember that time you didn't stand up for me in front of your mother and the kids don't listen to me and the house is a disaster and nobody loves me.

The husband's like, I thought this was about the dishes, no there's things that were under the surface that have been bothering her for years, the dishes just pulled them out of her. There's things in these disciples of John that are bubbling under the surface and it was just this debate that brought it forth, it was just this debate that caused them to say what actually was on their hearts, they said Jesus' ministry is growing larger than ours, why?

Now let's transition now to what John says, the disciples are jealous, the disciples are angry, the disciples are frustrated, John what gives, your ministry was first, you should be greater, you started, you're the one who gave Jesus the introduction, why is he growing larger than you?

That's what they're saying, let's see what John says and it's here we're going to learn four things. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven, you yourselves are my witnesses that I said I am not the Christ but I've been sent ahead of him, he who has the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice so this joy of mine has been made full, he must increase and I must decrease.

Sovereignty, Superiority, Authority, and Role

This ends the words of John in the gospel, it's the last thing John says, John the Baptist. The first thing that he points to when life gives you lemons, when it doesn't turn out the way that you think it should, when other people around you are frustrated, the first thing that he says that you must be anchored to if you're going to have hope and if you're going to have joy and if you're going to have faith is the sovereignty of God.

John trust and rest in the sovereignty of God, that's the first thing that he says, he responds to his disciples who are looking and they were complaining and they are bitter and they're grumbling and he says, our situation is in the hands of God, my brothers, Jesus ministry is growing because God has decreed it, our ministry is declining because God has declared it, everything that is happening to us is not ultimately in our hands, no one receives anything in this life unless it comes from God.

What John is saying, this is a powerful point, if you can grab hold of it, it will change your life. What John is saying is that the good things that you received are a gift from God to make you rejoice and the bad things that you receive in this life are a gift from God to make you grow.

Everything that you and I have been given is from the hand of God and we should praise him for both good times and bad, rich times and poor, everything that comes into our life is a gift from almighty God and we're like the disciples of John, we often don't praise, when bad things happen, we grumble, when situations that we don't like happen, we murmur.

John's disciples had seen a growing ministry, they had seen life change, they have seen excitement, they knew the Lord's hand was on their ministry and in their mind, why would God want to shut this down?

This must be Jesus's fault, which is an interesting thing to say, God is blessing my ministry, it's Jesus's fault, he's God. John's answer is to say that we received this ministry from the Lord, we received its increase and we praise God for that and now as this ministry is dying, well, we have the character to celebrate that knowing that that too comes from God.

What John is saying is that God is sovereign, that God is in control, if you're not familiar with that term, sovereignty just means this, God is in absolute control and nothing in our lives happens outside of his will, nothing.

There's no accidents, there's no surprises, there's no outcomes that are unseen by God, he is using all of them in your life to bring you, if you're a Christian, into the image of Christ, good, bad, up, down, all of it.

Louis Burkhoff wrote a thousand page systematic theology, I'll tell you one quote from it, God's sovereignty is his dominion over the whole universe that he has created, his rule over all things as to secure the accomplishment of his divine purposes.

What Burkhoff is saying in his really ivory tower theological language is that everything God intends to do, he does, everything. There's nothing in your life that's an accident, there's nothing in your life where you can say, God, why did you allow this to happen?

Or God, did you miss this? Or God, were you not paying attention? There's nothing like it because everything that happens now that has profound implications. There's a lot of things in our life that happens that we don't like, just like these disciples, they didn't like that their ministry was dying, but John points them to a truth.

No one can receive anything unless it comes from God, the good and the bad. And if God is infinitely wise and unbelievably intelligent, then everything he does, he does for our good, even if we can't understand it.

There's this wonderful passage in the book of Job after Job has just spent chapter after chapter after chapter complaining about why these things are happening to him. God pulls back the cosmos for a second and says, where are we when I created the world?

Where were you when I did this? Where were you when I did that? And Job, in the midst of that, in the midst of his suffering, in the midst of his pain, in the midst of the most horrendous part of his life, he says, I have spoken about things that are far too wonderful for me to understand and I repent.

What Job is saying, what John is saying is the world is more complicated than you and I could ever imagine. We live one life. We live one second by one second. Imagine God managing 7 billion lives that intersect with one another constantly over the course of all of human history, being outside time, infinite in knowledge and knowing that he knows all things.

I believe we can trust him. Even when our life feels painful, even when things happen that we don't like, we can trust that the Lord is in control. The Bible talks about God's sovereignty a lot. I'll read you a few examples.

Psalm 115, three says, our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases or another way to say that is everything God does is for his pleasure. Daniel 4, 35 through 34 through 35 says his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing. And he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. He does according to his will. And none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done?

No one can look at God and say, why did you do this? Because he's infinitely intelligent. He's infinitely wise. And who are we to make such accusations of God? Ephesians 1, 11, this is the last verse I'll share with you says, in him, we've attained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Everything that God intends to do, he does. So therefore John is rebuking his disciples and saying, why are you upset about a declining ministry when you've read the scriptures? Maybe they didn't read Ephesians, that wasn't written yet, but they read the Psalms, they read Daniel, they knew that God was in control of all things.

Why are they frustrated that Jesus's ministry is increasing and their ministry is decreasing? Why aren't they praising God? That God is in control. John appealed to them with the sovereignty of God. And this is the same doctrine that I think the modern church today needs to recover.

I think this is the same doctrine that we need to understand. I've shared this story before. I'll share it again. About nine months ago, I fell off of a house at a construction job by God's grace. I had been thinking about sovereignty that whole week.

I had been thinking about God being in control and as my foot slipped off the top rung of the ladder and as I fell 20 feet to eventually be met by the softest concrete you would ever imagine, I wasn't afraid, wasn't of my strength, wasn't of my will.

I remember thinking to myself, God's a better husband than me. God's a better father than me. God's a better, he's better able to deal with my affairs than I can. I'm going to trust him. If I wake up in heaven, I'm going to trust him.

If I wake up and I'm broken all to pieces and I can never walk again, I'm going to trust him. If I wake up like I did and stand up to my feet and wonder what just happened, I'm going to trust him with that too.

You see, if we really truly know who God is, we're not going to be frustrated when things don't go our way. We're not going to be angry when someone else has more than us. Comparison is one of the ugliest sins because it'll steal your joy in a heartbeat.

Someone else has more than me. Someone else is better than me. Someone else looks better than me. Kill that sin before it kills you. So-and-so is more successful. They're better looking, they're more likable.

All those things are affronts to your relationship with God. There are things that will steal from you, that will lie to you, and it'll make you miserable. Especially when God, the truth is that God is totally in control.

You look exactly how you look by the sovereignty of God. You have exactly the same spouse that you have by the sovereignty of God. Maybe you're angry about that. I don't know. God's good. He provided with you the exact person that he wanted you to have for you to love and for you to care for and for them to care for you.

You see, if we look at our life and we look at our circumstances, then those things, as Derek said earlier, those anthills become mountains in our lives. But if we look to the infinite God who has no limits, as we sing in the song, those things fade in the light of his glory and grace.

So what I want you to remember is I want you to remember the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. I want you to remember that God is in control and that everything in your life right now has been given to you for a purpose.

And if you're struggling with that, I invite you to repent. It's not an ugly word. It's a glorious word. Repenting means turning from the direction that you're going and turning back to the direction that God would have you go.

If you're a person like me who sometimes bottles up and compartmentalizes your frustrations, repent of that. God is sovereign. If you're a person who's prone to grumbling and complaining and gossiping and being filled with bitterness and disappointment, repent of that.

It'll steal from you. It'll kill your relationship with God. Repent of that and trust in the God who's sovereign. If you're a person who's rattled with fear and uncertainty, repent of that. Stand up and live boldly for your God who is sovereign over all things.

Three ways that you can repent is to rest in what God has said. Receive the new life that God has given you and remember everything that is happening to you right now is for a purpose. Rest, receive, remember.

That's the first point that John brings out. God is sovereign. The second point he brings out is that he trusts that Christ is superior. He trusts that Christ is greater, that Christ is better, that Christ is infinitely higher.

He isn't just appealing to the sovereignty of God. He's appealing also to the superiority of Christ. Look at what he says. A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. I find this passage so fascinating because look at what the world has been given in Christ.

A man can receive nothing. Think about our salvation. A woman, a man, a child can receive nothing unless it is given from God and God and the greatest gift because he so loved the world, gave his one and only son who came from heaven down to earth to rescue and redeem sinners just like us.

We could not do that on our own. We couldn't receive anything on our own. We are totally indebted to the grace of God who brought the superior Christ down from heaven to save the inferior wretches like us and give us new life.

He is superior. John is looking at his disciples and I wrote this down as a quote. It's not actually what John said. Don't look in the Bible for this. This is kind of what I think John would say to his disciples, stop looking at a successful ministry as your means of your identity.

That is nothing in comparison to who Christ is. If you really know Christ, success in ministry is nothing but filthy rags. If you really know Christ and success at your job is nothing but filthy rags.

If you really know Christ and vain beauty and anything else that you could ever imagine is nothing in comparison to the glory of knowing Christ. When you truly know who he is, he becomes everything to you.

And if you have absolutely nothing, it's totally fine because you know who Christ is. If you have Christ, you have everything. And if you don't have Christ, no matter what you have, you actually have nothing.

John's disciples like us were struggling. Because they thought Jesus was just a man. I'll tell you this, almost every heresy that has ever affected the church of Jesus Christ has to do with this principle.

Jesus is both God and man at the exact same time. That's called the hypostatic union. If you say that he's not fully God, you're a heretic. If you say that he wasn't truly man, then you're a heretic. Just this week, multiple examples of Christian pastors saying that us as Christians now have become just like Jesus, that we're both God and man in one body.

No, we're not. The incarnation and the dwell in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are not the same things. They're not. We are not fully God, even though the Holy Spirit has indwelled us. We are not little gods.

We are sinners saved by grace. We are wretches that the song talks about that are saved by pure grace. If you don't understand who Jesus is, both fully God and truly man, you'll have theological error in your life that could damn you to hell.

It's important to understand who he is and it will affect your joy. If you believe that Jesus was just a man and right standing with God and that his miracles he did because he was obedient. Now I have to go out and do miracles, too, because I'm just like Jesus.

You're going to live with the pressure and a weight that you can't bear. You're going to have a millstone around your neck that's going to paralyze you because you can't live like Jesus. That's the point of the gospel.

If you could have, you would have because you couldn't have. He died. That's what the Bible says. We have to understand who Jesus is and we have to understand that he is infinitely superior to us. So in light of that, John looks at them and he's like, why would you ever be prideful?

Do you not know who Jesus is? His ministry must increase. Our ministry must decrease because of who Jesus Christ is. If you don't know him, then you'll be confused about that. But if you truly know him and his his ministry must increase.

And when that happens in your life and in my life, too, if Jesus increases in your life and more of you decreases in your life, you'll have more joy. You'll have more happiness. You'll have more pleasure in God because it's no longer about you.

When we make our faith about us, it poisons our faith. When we make it all about him and not us, we are set free to have the greatest joy and the greatest pleasure in Christ that has ever been found. The Bible says that Jesus is a treasure that we find that we're willing to give up everything in order to have because he's infinitely superior.

There's nothing at all that you could ever cling to in this life. Not relationships, not people, not beauty, not anything else. There's nothing that you could cling to that will ever give you the kind of lasting joy and peace and pleasure that is found in Jesus Christ.

He is superior in all things. That's the second thing. Jesus is superior, he's sovereign and he's superior. The third. Is that John trusted Jesus's authority, he didn't get upset like his disciples did, he didn't get jealous like his disciples did because he trusted Jesus's authority.

He says, you yourself are my witnesses. That I said to you, I'm not the Christ, but I've been sent ahead of him. Do you see how John's rebuking his disciples here? He says, guys, don't you remember what I said in chapter one?

He didn't say that the book wasn't written then. He's saying, I stood before the Jews and I profusely said that I'm not the Christ. I said that I'm not the Elijah. I said that I'm not the prophet. I said that I'm just a voice, the one crying in the wilderness in fulfillment of the Isaiah passage.