I must become less
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bibles we will dive back into the book of John 3:22-25
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
So after Jesus’s discussion with Nicodemus , they travel to where John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing people. And this is where one of the most amazing acts of humility comes to the forefront. But before we get to that, we must discuss the two groups of people. This is important for the context of our faith today and how we look at the big world of Christianity. John the Baptist was paving the way for Jesus. He was to point people to the Messiah. John the Baptist wasn’t trying to start a new religion, He was calling God’s people back to the Lord so they could be prepared for Jesus.
He was a reformer. Jesus was calling people back to the Lord.
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The Kingdom of God is near, Repent. He was calling people back to the Lord. Jesus will usher in a new covenant with God’s people. Jesus was reforming what the Pharisees had built. You see during the inter-testmental period an entire religious system had developed. Now you had John and Jesus preaching the truth of God’s word. Out in public they both stood on every single teaching of God. They stood up to the people that would corrupt the Word of God. They came preaching forgiveness of sins but they never affirmed someone’s sin and they never left someone in their sin. They came because God sent them with a mission and a purpose and both would fulfill them.
Now back to these scriptures as the two groups come together. An argument breaks out about why a person should follow John instead of Jesus. John’s disciples became jealous and angry of the large following of Jesus. You see John had built a large ministry. So they come to John to tell him
To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
These verses and the verses that end this chapter are something that all of us should come back to often. Especially those in any sort of church leadership. I am not the Messiah, John again reminds that of what he has been saying for his entire ministry. But now John explains even more. God is sovereign over all things and that includes bestowing his blessings on someone’s ministry. John’s ministry had been blessed by the Lord and now Jesus’s ministry was being blessed by the Lord. It is the will of the Lord. And when it is the will of the Lord, then we need to follow in line with that. We need to be humble enough to realize that it is all about the Lord Jesus first and foremost. But second to that, all of this is much bigger than just us. We fit into the Kingdom of God, we do serve a King.
It was John’s complete joy to have his part in the Kingdom of God but it was Jesus himself that gave John complete joy. Jesus must become greater and I must become less. As we look at our own faith , our own church and the church at large. This should be the mission statement of every single Christian walking on this side of eternity. This isn’t my pulpit or my church. It belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. John continues explaining the supremacy of Jesus to his disciples.
The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
First, all of us were born here on earth, that seems fairly obvious but that means that we are limited. Our knowledge is limited, our abilities are limited. The same is not true of Jesus, He sits at the right hand of the Lord. Jesus came preaching the Word of God, He came preaching the truth and yet people rejected what He said. People to this very day reject what He has told us. John’s disciples are having this conversation because they were upset that Jesus’s ministry was growing. This is where the humility must come in and where we must always go to the scriptures to see where we are letting pride or sin blind us to the truth.
The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
First everything has been placed in the hands of Jesus. Now take a moment to think about this, everything, that is an all encompassing word. Everything begins and ends with Jesus. Everything in life first and foremost begins at the spiritual level and moves down from there. We can see this play out in real time in the culture that we live in. There is nothing that is separte from Jesus, business, politics, sports, the shows we watch, everything must start with Jesus.
Because everything is in the hands of the son. Man has two options in life. You can trust in the Son or you can reject him. That choice will dictate how you see everything in life in the here and now and it will also dictate your eternity. Of all of the choices you will make throughout your entire life this is the most important.
This speech connects to our next section with the woman at the well, because we meet a woman that had not been following the Lord and because of her encounter with Jesus we will see her transformation, but first we need some background.
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
Everything falls under the will of God, Jesus had an appointed time for His ministry on earth. Jesus knew that His ministry had an end date, and this is only of the reasons that He continues to keep moving.
Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
Now the shortest route for Jesus to go was through Samaria. Again remember He is on a timeline, but He also needs to meet this woman. Jews and Samaritans didn’t like each other Jews would actually travel around Samaria to avoid them.
Map
Now the noon is important. it is the middle of the day in a desert climate. It was not the best time for someone to go get water. This is an important fact because she is there alone, which is also something that women did not do. This woman was an outcast in her community. A woman that the community rejected is the person that Jesus goes to.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Now we have to truly understand how counter culture this is, there was actually a Rabbinic law that prevented Jews from speaking with Samaritan women because they were considered unclean.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
Jesus is doing something great, He is putting on a masterclass in evangelism. Remember there are two choices, well the key to unlocking those two choices, is you must get people to think. That is what Jesus is doing. In one sentence, there are three different questions she has to ask herself
Who is He?
What is the gift of God?
What is living water?
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Now at first she misunderstands because she can’t believe something would be bigger than Jacob and deeper than the well that they were at. It is no mistake that they are at that well. See that well was deep and Jacob is the founder of Israel if you remember. There was great tradition at that well but Jesus is bigger than tradition. and what Jesus can offer is deeper than any well. Just like we looked at 2 weeks ago Jesus is building upon the teachings of the Old Testament
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Now Jesus begins to unveil the truth, the well only provides bodily thirst for a short time. Our earthly desires only satisfy us for a short time but what Jesus offers is salvation is living water.
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
Now Jesus shows this woman that he knows about her entire life including her sins. Jesus always deals with our sins because we need to see that we have a deep need for salvation and when we see our sin for what it is, then we can see Jesus for who He is.
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
This is what I mean by a masterclass, the woman’s response is really interesting. She must concede that he is no mere rabbi but He must be a prophet of God. But now she gives Jesus an intellectual quiz, can Jesus solve an ancient dispute, Samaritans worshiped on a mountain but Jews said you must worship at the Temple.
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Jesus solves her puzzle and continues to reform what was built as the religious system. We worship God, it really is as simple as that. It isn’t about the place of worship but who you are worshipping and if you are following the truth of the Bible. This is what the Lord looks at. Salvation is available for those that hear and believe the truth of God.
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
This outcast had now come full circle. Jesus then tells her in plain speech, that He is the Messiah. The first person that he outright explains that He is the Christ, is a woman that was an outcast and that he shouldn’t have even been talking to. That is who our Lord is. Everything has been placed in His hands, if you haven’t made that choice to follow Him yet or you need to reaffirm your faith in Him or prayer, I invite you to the front
Let us pray
