What is Your Role?

The Houston Astros have become one of the top teams in Major League Baseball. They have won two world series titles in the last five years. One of their star players is Jose Altuve. He is a second baseman with an incredible batting average. The man is fast. He is known for his hitting and his speed. In his career he has hit 192 home runs. His teammate Framber Valdez is now a starting pitcher. In his career he has thrown 522 strikeouts in 539 innings pitched. Jose Altuve has no strikeouts to his name and nobody cares. Why? He has never pitched an inning. That is not what he was hired to do. He was hired to hit balls and run bases. Valdez was hired to strike players out. These men are so successful because they know their roles and execute them well. Today we will looking at this topic as we revisit John the Baptist.

Last week we saw the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, where Nicodemus learned that to truly see the kingdom of God, he must be born again. We learned that this meant to be born from above, and this was an act initiated by the Holy Spirit. Human beings cannot spiritually resurrect themselves. The story moves back to John the Baptist this week as we pick up our place in John chapter three.

Our story begins in verse 22:

John 3:22–24 NASB95

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 Aenon 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.

Remember that Jesus and his disciples had been in Jerusalem for Passover. This is where he overturned the tables of the money changers. It follows that Jerusalem was also the setting for the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus. He and his disciples have left Jerusalem and are in the Judean wilderness (the territory outside Jerusalem) baptizing people. John the Baptist was nearby baptizing others also.

Then a problem arose beginning in verse 25:

John 3:25–26 NASB95

Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. And they came to John and 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.”

The word discussion in verse 25 is the nice way of saying there was a dispute, or an argument, over the subject of purification. We are not given the details, but this dispute came up and John’s disciples took the issue to him. There is a concern among them that Jesus is baptizing more people than he is. Jesus is growing in popularity. On the surface, this is problematic for John and his ministry.

Remember I told you that if John the Baptist was doing his job right he would be the only one who would not have any followers when he was done. He reemphasizes this as he responds to his disciples.

John 3:27–30 NASB95

John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have 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, but I must decrease.

Here John reminds his disciples that he is not the Christ. His job is to point others to Christ. He provides a helpful illustration here. He compares Jesus to the bridegroom and himself as a friend to the bridegroom. How many of you men have ever been groomsmen at a wedding? How many of you ladies have ever been a bridesmaid at a wedding? What is the job of the groomsman or the bridesmaid? Their sole job is to highlight the bride or the groom. They are there to make the bride’s or groom’s day special. The wedding day and the events leading up to it are not about the groomsmen or the bridesmaids. It is all about the bride and groom. It would be wrong for a groomsman or bridesmaid to take attention away from the one they represent and place it on themselves. In the same way, John is the groomsman, and Jesus is the groom. John’s job is to point others to Jesus. He knows that and is unconcerned about Jesus’ popularity. In fact, he expects it. This is why he says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

The duty of every disciple of Jesus is to point others to Jesus. It is not our place to wish we were Jesus. It is not our place to wish we were someone else. It is our duty to love Jesus and foster a relationship with him so we will know what our role is in his kingdom. We do not get to assign our own role. We receive our assignment from him and execute it with as much faithfulness as we can. The problem we run into is that someone else’s assignment looks more glamorous or exciting. They look like they are accomplishing more. They seem to be attracting more people. Then we become like John’s disciples asking, “How come he is baptizing more people than you?”

John follows up this illustration by reemphasizing who Jesus is and presents the motivation for service to him in the last few verses.

John 3:31–36 NASB95

“He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. “What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. “He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John’s whole ministry is to lead other people to belief in Jesus. If he does his job right, he is the only teacher in Israel who ends up with no followers. He still has followers in this passage, so he is still trying to point them to Jesus. First, he reminds them of Jesus’ origin. He is from above. He has come from heaven. This means that he has all authority. He is in charge. Those who belong to the earth lack authority. Jesus has all authority.

Second, He testifies to what he has seen and heard. He testifies to the truth that he has come from above and that authority has been given to him by his father. This is seen in his teaching and the performing of miracles. He proves that he has power and authority by turning water into wine, casting out demons, giving sight to the blind, helping the lame walk, and so on. Therefore, he should be believed.

In fact, anyone who receives the testimony of Jesus has eternal life. John says that the one who believes “sets his seal” to the claim that God is true. This is like a seal of approval. When a person or an organization agrees with a statement or a cause, they might attach a seal of approval to it showing others that they approve of the contents in the document. In a similar way, if we believe the testimony of Jesus, we are giving our seal of approval to his message.

Finally, John is emphasizing that he cannot save his disciples. Only Jesus can. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you cannot save a single person from the wrath of God. Only Jesus can do that. As his disciple, your task is to do all of those things in an effort to point people to him. We play a supportive role. We are never in the driver’s seat.

From these statements from John, we learn the following things:

A mature disciple of Jesus knows his or her role in the kingdom of God.

Do you know what your role is in the kingdom of God? Only you can be you. God has made you unique and has given you unique talents and skills to put to work for him. There are only things you can do. What do you bring to the table? Do you know? If you do not know, your first responsibility is to find out. You must begin by consistently meeting with God through scripture reading and prayer. You must ask yourself what you are good at, and then see where that might be of value within the church. If you are not sure how to do that, I will be glad to walk you through that process.

Are you gifted with teaching? We are going to need a new preschool teacher very soon. Lura will be stepping down from that role in September. Are you gifted in administration? We could use your help with office work. Are you gifted in organizing events? We could use your help in planning events for the community. Do you like graphic design? We could use your help in developing promotional materials. Do you love social media? Maybe you need to talk to us about managing our Facebook page. Every mature disciple of Jesus knows his or her role and is actively engaged in it.

A mature disciple of Jesus performs his duties to bring attention to the Savior.

Once you find your role in the kingdom of God, you are called to perform your task in such a way that helps point people to Jesus. Not everybody plays a role that is as visible as a Sunday school teacher or a pastor. Every week, you are able to hear the soft voice of your pastor because faithful people show up to run a computer and sound board. That job allows the gospel message to be transmitted over the internet every week for those who cannot attend in person and to countless others all over the world.

We would never be able to point people to Jesus if we did not have faithful teachers and volunteers on Wednesday evenings. Some of them may not be great teachers, but they know how to provide a meal. That meal helps us feed kids physically so we might have a shot of feeding those kids spiritually. Don’t think that job is not important.

Every week those kids have a clean and safe environment to show up to because we have someone who comes and cleans up after them every Thursday. She takes pride in her work and her work enables us to continue to use a space week after week without exhausting those who are doing the teaching. The same applies in the rest of this building. This room is clean and orderly because there are people who are dedicated to keeping it that way. These jobs may not be glamorous, but they are important.

A mature disciple is not envious of the success of others.

It is too easy to fall into the comparison trap. The comparison trap is where we begin to compare our ministry against that of another. Examples might include: That pastor preaches better. That church has a bigger kids program. That church has more people in attendance, or that church is baptizing more people than we are. The comparison game is lethal to us on an individual level and as a church. We cannot allow ourselves to be consumed by what someone else is doing. We have to remember that if the true gospel is being preached, we are all playing for the same team.

When another church biblically baptizes someone, we should rejoice in that. If another church sees someone come to faith in Jesus even if we knocked on their door a week earlier, we should rejoice that another soul will not spend eternity in hell. If a church is able to put together more mission trips than we are, we ought to be grateful that God is mobilizing his people to reach the nations.

The question we are responsible for answering is not, “What is everyone else doing?’ It is, “What am I doing with what God has given me?”

APPLICATION:

Know what your role in the kingdom of God.

Do your duty to honor Christ and point others to him.

Rejoice in the success of others.