He Must Increase

Introduction

Illustration: The humbling experience of working on a project with someone who is much more an expert than you are.

In a situation like that you really need to know your place. If you’re working with an expert you don’t really try to take the lead, and you certainly don’t try to correct the way that they are doing things. A lot of the time in life we can get the mixed up idea that we’re the only expert on us. That our lives are our own and that we are the ones in charge. That we’re the main character of the story.

That’s not really how the Bible puts it. When we read the Bible we learn that the story isn’t about us, it’s about God. In fact the whole Bible and all of life is really about Jesus. This probably explains how John the Baptist acts in our passage for this morning, because he was someone who understood this about the nature of life.

Let’s read our passage this morning and learn from John the Baptist’s example for us.

John 3:22–36 CSB

After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside, where he spent time with them and baptized. John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were coming and being baptized, since John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples and a Jew about purification. So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi, the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, is baptizing—and everyone is going to him.” John responded, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, and yet no one accepts his testimony. The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true. For the one whom God sent speaks God’s words, since he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

In this passage John is presented with a scenario that tests his humility. The people who come to him complaining that everyone is going to Jesus to get baptized want to provoke John to jealousy. To make him upset over what Jesus has that he doesn’t, and to forget that it’s really all about Jesus. But John doesn’t take the bait.

Here in part 7 of our sermon series “believe and live: the gospel according to John,” we are asking ourselves the question, “what does John the Baptist teach us in this passage today about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus who makes other disciples of Jesus.

The message that I see for us this morning is that realizing that everything we have is a gift from God is the ultimate cure for feelings of envy towards what others have or accomplish. We learn the importance of knowing our place in the universe, and that we aren’t actually the main character of the story. We also learn the importance of knowing that the only way to know the truth about who God is and the nature of life is to go to the source, and that’s why we turn to Jesus in order to know Him.

The Cure for Jealousy

Illustration: In high school I earned money over the summer to buy my first crappy guitar, and was upset when a fellow student who didn’t know any guitar showed up with a super expensive high end guitar that was basically my dream guitar.

There’s a reason the ten commandments repeat the concept of not coveting twice, with specific examples. There’s a natural urge to be jealous of other people. Now in my story I was struggling with jealousy over an object, a guitar. Honestly most of my life my struggle with jealousy wasn’t over things but over accomplishments. Maybe some of you can relate to me in that. Someone who seems to have exactly the life you want but can’t seem to get. At this point in my life I’m very happy with how my life way going, but this wasn’t always the case. Now-a-days my biggest struggle with jealousy is with people’s free time. Parents in the congregation understand.

So what are we supposed to do with our feelings of envy when they strike? I would argue that John the Baptist teaches us something profound in here about how to avoid feeling envious of the success of others. Let’s take a look at three verses in particular.

John 3:25–27 CSB

Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples and a Jew about purification. So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi, the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, is baptizing—and everyone is going to him.” John responded, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

Here was a perfect moment to be jealous, and the people coming to John were setting him up for it. John had been a hugely successful preacher. People from all over Judea had come to the river Jordan to be baptized by him and he had amassed a loyal group of followers. By all metrics he was on his way to becoming a successful mega church pastor. Then Jesus comes along, the one John was preparring for, and suddenly John’s followers are leaving him to follow Jesus. Now he can’t even draw crowds for baptisms because they are going to get baptized by Jesus instead.

The larger theme of the whole passage is about the importance of giving glory to Jesus instead of taking it for ourselves, but this first response from John is a lesson in contentment. “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.”

The basic idea here is that John is able to accept what comes to him as from God’s hand, and to view the things that others have the same way. This is a bit of a hard pill to swallow sometimes. Why does God allow our situations to be so diverse? Why do some people prosper while others struggle? It’s clearly not tied to their behaviour, since we see wicked people succeed and righteous people fail all the time. Yet John has learned to be content and trust God anyway.

Paul says it this way in Philippians 4:11-13

Philippians 4:11–13 CSB

I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

God gives us the strength to be content in all circumstances. Not the way a lot of people use that verse, but I’ll resist the urge to rant. No matter how much or how little we have what do we all have? We have Jesus. That’s enough. He is the one who gives us strength, both actively through the Spirit working in us and passively through the realization that the riches of His love are worth more than anything this world has to offer.

Take the world, but give me Je­sus— All its joys are but a name; But His love abid­eth ever, Through eter­nal years the same.

So then my dear friends, what should we do when envy and jealousy perk up their ugly heads? What should the response of Jesus’ faithful disciples be? We should turn our eyes upon Him and the riches of His mercy and learn to be content. Content with plenty. Content with few. Content with good times, content with hard times. Content to succeed and content to fail. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.

Increasing Jesus

Illustration: The episode of the office where Michael tries to make Phillis’ wedding about him.

Now I’d like to think that most of us, and frankly most people in general, have the self awareness to know that a wedding is about the couple getting married and not about us. I’ve had the honor to stand as a groomsman for five people, and especially as a groomsman your job is to support the groom, not to make it about you.

Yet in most cases we all kind of think of ourselves as the main character of the story, don’t we? It’s natural. We live in our own heads, we see things from our own perspective. We’re the hero of our individual stories, right? Well actually, according to the Bible we aren’t the main character at all. God is in fact the main character of the story.

This is what John the baptist is getting at in these verses:

John 3:28–30 CSB

You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John the Baptist knows that this story isn’t really about him. That’s the reason that he has gone down in history as a prime example of humility. Because he knew that he was just a small part in God’s plan to save humanity through His son Jesus. Jesus is the groom, John is just the groom’s friend. The role of the groom’s friend was to support him in his marriage, and in some cases to shout throughout the streets of the town that the bridegroom was coming. Who does that sound like?

Now the interesting thing for us is that we actually aren’t the groom’s friend in this story. Though we should learn from this parable of John’s and act as he did like a herald of Jesus, we aren’t a groomsman, we’re the bride. We’re the one that Jesus came to save and to marry for all of eternity.

Ephesians 5:25–27 CSB

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.

The bible uses this image as a reason for us to seek to be righteous and pure, for the sake of our marriage with Jesus. It’s interesting how in the Bible metaphors work on so many levels. For example in the Hebrew Scriptures Moses, the bronze serpant, the tabernacle, the manna and the rock that gave water are all images of Christ at the same time. The wedding metaphor in the New Testament is the same. We are the groom’s friend in the sense that we should be pointing to Him instead of ourselves, but we’re also the bride, and we’re also the people invited to the wedding feast.

In this case the focus is primarily on making Jesus the centre of what we are doing, rather than on ourselves. It is inspiration to take time to reflect on how we are living and ask ourselves whether we’re living for the sake of our own kingdom, or for the sake of God’s Kingdom. Who gets the glory in what we do. Are we pointing people to ourselves, or to Christ? He must increase, we must decrease.

The One From Above

Illustration: If you want the best local food in a strange place who do you ask? You ask a local. If you want heavenly food?

The thing is, we want to be people who serve God Himself. Who receive truth from God Himself. How do you investigate the reality of a God so far above all that we can imagine? Throughout the years many have tried through reason and reflection on creation alone to come to conclusions about who God is, and some of their answers do get startlingly close. For example Plato’s concept of the “unmoved mover” is a stones throw away from monotheistic belief in God the father, but misses the mark in some important ways, like the belief in other lesser gods and a lack of God’s key traits like love and justice and holiness.

So where is the best source to go to find out about who God truly is and what His will is for all of us? John the baptist has an nswer for us here in the final verses of today’s passage.

John 3:31–36 CSB

The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, and yet no one accepts his testimony. The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true. For the one whom God sent speaks God’s words, since he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

If you want to know heavenly things, you ask the one who comes from heaven. Throughout history all that we have known about the true God has come from God Himself. He spoke to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, and so on and eventually through the prophets to the nation of Israel. Our God is the God of revelation, as in a God who reveals Himself. But now things are different. We have a new revelation in which we see God Himself coming to earth to teach us. Or as the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 1:1-2

Hebrews 1:1–2 CSB

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him.

God’s revelation to His people through the prophets was amazing, but how much more amazing is the fact that His Son, God Himself, came down to earth to speak with us. What more perfect revelation of God can there be than Jesus? Living and teaching in a way that shows us the true heart of God and His will for our lives, ultimately demonstrating what true love is by dying on the cross for sinners so that they can become saints. That’s the God that we serve my dear friends.

Jesus is the one from above who testifies to the heaven that He has seen with His own eyes. For that reason, and the reason that God has given Him authority over all things, He is the source that we can come to for eternal life. Only He can give it because only He is the one sent from heaven to bring it to us.

My friends there is no other way. We are living in a culture that I think out of a honorable desire for kindness and understanding has embraced a mixed up idea that every life path is legitimate. That no matter what you do if you do it with your whole heart than you’ll be a good person, and what good God wouldn’t accept good people? But the Bible doesn’t give us that option. Jesus is the only one who came down from above to give us life. There is no substitute. Or as John the Baptist says John 3:36

John 3:36 CSB

The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

Remember this says the wrath of God “remains” on him. And remember in last week’s passage Jesus says that those who don’t believe in Him are “already condemned.” God doesn’t save good people. I mean, He might if they existed. God saves broken people, who know well enough that they are broken to come to Him. That’s why Jesus says in Luke 5:32

Luke 5:32 CSB

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

So if you’re hearing this and you’ve been walking a different path and hoping God will honor it, than you need to see the truth that Jesus is the only way to God. For those of us who have already been walking this path we need reminders that any righteousness we have comes from Jesus. We aren’t special people God chose because of how great we are. We just recognized how broken we were enough to come to Him. Let us keep the humility that comes with that knowledge.

Conclusion

John the baptist only really comes into the story of Scripture briefly. Though He plays an important role in announcing the Kingdom of God and fulfilling prophecy about the coming of Jesus, he has a small footprint as far as words on the paper. Still, I think we can learn a lot about what it means to be disciples of Jesus from his example. This story for example teaches us a few notable principles of how to be a disciple of Jesus.

And that’s really what it’s all about. That’s why we get together every Sunday to take a close look at God’s word together. Because Jesus has called us to be His disciples, and to go out and invite other people to become His disciples as well. The Bible is our source for how to do that. There’s nothing more poisonous to discipleship than pride. It not only kills our own spiritual journey, but turns people off from following after Jesus.

So if we are to be humble followers of Jesus, why not learn from the example of one of the most humble followers of Jesus there was? Why not learn from him the secret to avoiding envy by placing our trust in God and our thankfulness towards Him for all that He has given us. Why not learn from him the importance of putting Jesus first and pointing others to him instead of to ourselves. Why not learn from him that Jesus is the only true source of knowing God and coming to Him. Let us be disciples who are more like John, and learn from his example how to ultimately be more like Jesus.

Let us pray.