The Christian Vocation: 'He must increase, but I must decrease'

Introduction

The title of today’s sermon is ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’. The reason I chose this title is because John the Baptist says this himself in John 3:30, and I think this verse captures and summarises what this passage is really about.

This passage is essentially talking about the Christian vocation. A vocation is like a job, or your work. Kind of like how some people’s vocation is to be a pilot, an engineer, a computer programmer, a doctor. But a vocation is more than just your actual job. A vocation is more encompassing, much further reaching in your life: it includes your suitability for that job, your sense of fulfillment, your purpose in life, your calling, your passion, your satisfaction in life that you get out of this job. It’s something that you pour out all your soul, body, and energy into, because you see it as something valuable and worthy. In a sense, you could almost even say that your vocation is what your life is about. So when you say ‘My job is to be a teacher’, that is very different to saying ‘My vocation is to be a teacher’.

But as Christians, no matter what your job may be, whether you are a student, or teacher, or nurse, or whatever it may be, we have the same Christian vocation. God has given us a clear calling and purpose in life. And John the Baptist in this passage is perfect in showing us what that vocation is.

To put it really simply, the life of a Christian, the Christian vocation, no matter what your job or occupation may be, is to live your life so that Christ increases, and you decrease. It is about showing Christ to the world, making Christ the centrestage in your life, while we decrease so that we don’t block the view of people seeing Christ through our lives. And as we go through this passage, we can see that this is exactly what John the Baptist does.

The Problem

But first, this passage shows how we can get it wrong. We can see this between the contrast between John’s and his disciples. John shows us what the Christian vocation is, and his disciples show us what the Christian vocation is not.

Let’s read John 3:26 “And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”” John and his disciples are baptising people, and his disciples see that Jesus and his disciples have also come to the same area and they are baptising people as well. And how do they react? They react with jealousy. They saw all these people flock to Jesus for baptism instead of coming to John, and they felt threatened and worried for their teacher John the Baptist. They were worried for John’s reputation, and perhaps John’s disciples felt a certain rivalry between John and Jesus.

But what’s wrong with this? Is it right for John’s disciples to feel this jealousy for John? John was a highly respected teacher with many followers after all. He was the real deal!

But their reaction is wrong. And it’s wrong because their jealously shows that John’s disciples are misunderstanding their calling, their vocation. And they misunderstand their vocation because the center of their heart had moved. The center of their mission, their vocation, their calling, is meant to be God, Jesus Christ. It is all meant to be glorifying Jesus and making Him known. But their center had now become themselves. Their job was to make God known, but rather they wanted to make their themselves known. They wanted fame, respect, attention for themselves. This explains why they felt threatened, and jealous, when Jesus arrived on the scene and people were flocking to Him. If God was truly at the center of their mission, then they wouldn’t have been jealous when Jesus came and did the same thing, because Jesus was doing their job for them but in a much superior way. But they felt jealous, indicating that what is at the center of their heart, is a concern for elevating themselves.

I think Christians also often do this too. We tell people about Jesus, we read the Bible and tell people about what’s written in the Bible. But beneath all that, where is our heart at? I think quite often, we are more interested in making ourselves look good in front of other people, to tell people about ourselves, to make ourselves centrestage in our lives. In our own eyes, my own interests, my own needs, my own things become most important.

But the Christian life is not about getting God into your story. It’s not about thinking, how can God fit into my life or how can he serve my interests? What can I take and pick from Christianity that will make my life better, fulfill some meaning or purpose in my life, bring some benefit to my life? The Christian life is not about getting God into your story, but it’s about getting your life into God’s story. It is not about using God and the mission He has given you to somehow enrich your life; it’s not about using God and the gospel as a vehicle to bring attention to yourself. It’s about being transformed by God so that our life is no longer about us, we are no longer the center, we no longer seek our own interests, our own fame, our own attention, but we now solely focus on bringing attention to God, Jesus Christ, and that means our own self-interests are no longer prioritised.

So how do we do that? How do we live out the Christian vocation? Well the two John’s in this passage today, John the Baptist, and John the Evangelist, recognises this heart problem in the disciples and provide a correction, a solution. To fix this problem of the heart of self-centredness that we have:

1. John the Baptist tells us that we need understand ourselves correctly.

2. John the Evangelist tells us that we need to understand Jesus correclty.

John’s Answer

So John the Baptist says to fix this problem of the heart that the disciples are having, we need to understand ourselves correctly. John the Baptist was able to live out the Christian vocation because he knew exactly who he was.

Look at what he says in John 3:28–30 “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 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. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.””

John has a clear understanding who he is: he is not the Christ. He clearly knows his ministry and his talents are not for himself, but he has been sent before him, he has been sent to prepare the way for Jesus. His entire life’s purpose is not about himself, but it is to point to Jesus.

He then describes himself as the bridegroom’s friend. Weddings are all about the bride and the bridegroom, it’s not about the bridegroom’s friend. And John wasn’t confused about who he was; he didn’t mistake himself to be the bridegroom, he knew he was just the bridegroom’s friend. His heart wasn’t self-centred; it was completely Christ centred. He wasn’t interested in himself, about how he can be great, about how he can stand out. Everything in his life revolved around what is needed for the bridegroom, making Jesus Christ stand out. John was happy to recede into the background and let Jesus take centrestage. Because John knew exactly who he was and his role, he is able to say ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ in verse 30, which really captures the heart of what the Christian life, the Christian vocation is about.

What else is important is that although the Christian vocation is one where Christ becomes more and we become less in our lives, look at what John receives with this calling. In verse 29, John says in verse 29, ‘therefore this joy of mine is now complete.’ Showing Jesus more in his life, and less of himself, was his entire purpose and fulfillment and what brings him most joy and happiness. The Christian vocation of self-denial, and centering of our lives around Jesus and not ourselves, is actually what brings us true joy in life. Many people seek happiness and joy in this life by pursuing their own interests, goals, needs, but I doubt that many people, if any, find true happiness in this way (insert PeterMac multiple myeloma patient story). If you think about it, John was not only the bridegroom’s friend, but he was also part of the bride. Remember, when the Bible uses the wedding metaphor, the bride is used to speak of the church, with Jesus being the bridegroom. Jesus loves his bride, the church. And Jesus loves, blesses, protects, and serves the church, and just as we serve Christ by making ourselves less, Christ serves us the church with a love that is completely self-sacrificial - He died on the cross for us. So when we become less and less, and when we witness to Christ, we not only become less and make Jesus the centre in our lives, but we also receive from Him, as we are not only the bridegroom’s friend, but we are also the bride. So when Jesus asks us to decrease so that he might increase, it is also actually a blessing.

John’s Answer (again…)

So John the Baptist tells us that for the Christian vocation, we need to correctly understand ourselves. Then we get to the comment by John the Evangelist, who tells us that we need to have a correct understanding about God for proper Christian vocation.

Here, John the Evangelist tells us about who Jesus is. And the common theme is how much greater Jesus is compared to John the Baptist.

John 3:31 “He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.”

We see that Christ is superior because He is the one who comes from above. John is earthly and can only speak in earthly ways. But Jesus is God. He has been sent by the Father to the earth, he comes from heaven above, He is in perfect relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and He can tell us heavenly realities that we would otherwise never have access to. Only Jesus can give us things that are from heaven, like the new birth that we talked about last week - it is not a new birth of the flesh, but it is a new birth of the Spirit, which can only be given by Jesus as one who has come from above.

John 3:32–34 “He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.”

And the very words of Jesus are the very words of the Father. So whatever Jesus says is the words of the Father. And because God is truthful, if you do not receive the testimony of Jesus which He has heard from the Father, it says the ‘wrath of God remains on you’, you receive God’s judgement, because you are rejecting the claim that God is truthful -> you are saying God is a liar.

And whereas prophets like John the Baptist were given the Holy Spirit with a certain measure for their ministry, Jesus is given the Spirit without measure. His person, role, and ministry, is infinitely superior than any earthly individual, because Jesus is God in the flesh.

John 3:35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.”

And Jesus’ authority is above all others. The Father loves the Son so much that He has given all things into the hands of Jesus. Jesus’ power, authority, and resources cannot compare with anyone else. John conclusively shows that nothing or no-one can compare with Jesus. He is above all because he is one who comes from above.

So in the face of the utter supremacy of Jesus, how wonderful and powerful He is, how great He is, how can we focus on ourselves anymore? We are to be captivated by Him, amazed and be in wonder of him, give him glory, praise, worship, honour, because He is worthy of all this. We are but dust compared to Him. And despite being so infinitely above us, God loved us who are but dust. God who rules in heaven, loved us so much that he came down as man so that he can save us, even though we were unworthy, even though we were doomed for death and destruction. So in the face of how great Jesus is and how much he loves us, what we once thought was important, our lives, our values, goals, meaning, fulfillment, happiness, fame, money, success - all this fades into the background and our desires change to put Christ at the centrestage of our lives, not ourselves.

Conclusion

This is the final appearance of John the Baptist in this book. We all know how John dies from the other gospels - Herod beheads him and he dies a tragic death. But even his death is not recorded in this gospel. Instead, the final record of John the Baptist are his words ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’ When John the Evangelist wrote about John the Baptist, he clearly wanted to show John the Baptist as someone who knew that his life wasn’t about himself, to the point even writing about his death was no longer important. John the Baptist knew that he was the bridesgroom’s friend, not the bridesgroom; he knew that he was the messenger, not the message; he knew that his life was making Christ centrestage, not himself. He wasn’t concerned about his own interests, but he was concerned about the interests of Jesus. And ultimately, this brought him ultimate and perfect joy, because Jesus’ interests are our interests. How easy it is to forget this in our society today that values individualism, consumerism, self-help, personal development. Live your life for Christ, because the Christian vocation is for Christ to increase and for us to decrease.