The First Law of Ministry

Introduction

If you would, please open your Bibles back to John 3:22-30. (PRAY).

So often in the modern church, there is a tendency to try and gain members or gain popularity by worldly means.

Like having a band.

Like having a young preacher who is always dress according to the fashion of the day.

Like having a popular movie sermon series (Barbie, Star Wars, etc…).

With a society that is all online, it can be easy to want to look like a largely popular church by becoming social media moguls.

What we are going to see tonight is the correct focus that a believer is to have in ministry.

Context.

This is the next stage in John the Baptist’s ministry. Remember him?

He first shows up in this gospel in 1:6 where he came to bear witness about the coming Light, about Jesus.

He was pointing people towards the Light, not Himself.

In verse 1:15, we see that John tells the people that Jesus existed before him even though Jesus was born 6 months after John.

In verses 19-35 of chapter 1 we see John continuously pointing to Christ as the Messiah, and not himself. He had quite the following.

We know that because even the Pharisees even took notice of his ministry. After this we don’t hear about John for a bit.

And then Jesus began His public ministry at the wedding of Cana by changing water to wine, His first miracle.

Jesus then goes to Jerusalem for Passover and He cleanses the temple.

Now people began flocking to Jesus, because they were captivated by the miracles He was doing (2:24-25).

He gained such a following that the most prolific teacher in Israel came asking questions.

Which is where our text picks up, as we see Jesus is not in the land of Judea, with his disciples (vv. 22-24).

He was already in Judea, as that is where Jerusalem is.

He likely was moving out into the countryside.

He was probably spending time with His disciples.

He was also baptizing.

4:1-2, Jesus’s disciples were doing the baptizing, but people were coming to Him to be baptized.

1 Corinthians 1:14-15.

Jesus was relieving the possibility of someone saying that they were more spiritual than another because they were baptized by Christ.

His baptism were likely the same as John’s baptism, as there wasn’t any Christian churches yet.

Mark 1:4.

It showed their understanding of the message that the Messiah was coming to deal with their sin.

That the Kingdom of God draws near.

Which was Jesus’ message exactly.

Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.””

The First Sign of Humility from John (v. 23).

John was still baptizing.

Instead of staying in the same place and possible becoming rivals, John moves to Samaria.

Aenon near Salim.

Time stamp (v. 24).

John eventually was thrown into prison and beheaded.

So here was have it, two cousins doing the same ministry in different locations: Only difference is one is pointing them to the other. And then we get a controversy.

The Second Sign of Humility from John (vv. 25-29).

We see that there was a discussion about purification with a Jew. The conversation with a Jew happened probably because he saw John dunking people, like they would in mikvah’s before going to the Temple. John was in Samaria.

This conversation stirred some things that John’s disciples had probably been thinking about for some time (v. 26).

There are three things we can see in this verse and one major thing that is evident.

They literally refuse to use Jesus’s name.

“he who was with you...” I think being cousins, John would’ve said his name when addressing Jesus.

In chapter 1:26, John the Baptist said that the Messiah was standing among them. At that point even John didn’t know until he saw the Spirit descend on Him.

They were audaciously not using His name.

They knew who John said that Jesus was!

The Messiah!

They heard the Baptist’s message about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John 1:15.

John 1:29.

They exaggerate by saying “all” are going to Jesus.

John’s disciples were growing jealous of Jesus because they were no longer a part of the most popular radical group in Israel anymore.

Obviously the one major thing is that they were jealous of Jesus!

How does John respond?

in complete humility (Read verse 27-28).

And in faith! This is John understanding the Sovereign plan of God!

This was the plan from the beginning.

We saw in Malachi 3:1 he was the prepare the way.

We saw in Luke 1:17 he was the forerunner.

We saw in John 1:23 John the Baptist himself say “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘make straight the way of the Lord,’ as he was quoting Isaiah’s prophecy concerning himself in Isaiah 40:3.

John knew this and accepted it as God’s plan!

He even taught this!

Remember, John even told his own disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter, and John, and followed Jesus.

John 1:35-37.

For some reason, these guys didn’t.

The Third Sign of Humility From John (v. 29).

For our purposes tonight, I’m not going to go into full detail on how we are the bride of Christ as the Church. In fact, next week, we will spend more time on this passage to tackle some of the deeper theological underpinnings that are taking place in our text.

For today, we are going to focus on the analogy on how John the Baptist presents it.

Jesus, here is the bridegroom.

He has the bride, which is us, the Church.

John the Baptist is the friend of the bridegroom.

He is the best man in our cultural synonym.

In first century Judea, the best man of the wedding would assist the groom in everything having to do with the wedding, even bringing the bride down the isle.

When the bride comes, the best man has accomplished all of his task.

He could now move out of the way.

In Canaan, there was a tradition in where the friend of the bridegroom was forbidden under any circumstances to marry the bride.

this explains why Samson, in Judges 14-15, was so angry.

It also reinforces the idea that John was not there to take the bride.

He was gladly yielding, or passing, as it were, her off to the bridegroom.

And his joy was made full because of this.

How many of us, when we lose a following, would be joyous?

How many of us would be joyous when God’s sovereign plan doesn’t necessarily feel good in our lives?

How many of us would be joyous when we are accomplishing exactly what God would want us to do?

The Fourth Sign of Humility (v. 30).

Many people like to say that this is a picture of a sunrise, and John the Baptist is just a star or the moon.

When the sun rises, the moon’s light fades.

This is the point of every Christian minister, whether its me, as a pastor, or you and member of a local church.

our mission is not to point people to ourselves, or to our church necessarily.

Our Mission is to point people to Christ and a deeper relationship with him.