John the Baptizer: A Lapse in Faith

John 3:22-30 John the Baptizer (A Lapse in Faith) Introduction: A few weeks ago I was sitting here listening to Nicolai share about John the Baptizer and as he shared I was thinking of what an awesome testimony John gives here “he must increase, and I must decrease”. This is not only a motto for all Christian leadership, to point away from themselves and to Christ, this is a biographical statement on the Christian life. It’s another way of saying what Paul said in Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me”. The life of the Christian is to glorify Christ, not self, to seek God’s Kingdom, and not or own. John knew Jesus was the Christ, after all, He had a religious experience... The Spirit spoke to him...I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” As I Listened to Nicolai talk about John I couldn’t help but think of what transpired with John not long after. We find in Luke 7 that John had been thrown into prison because he had spoken against Herod (The local ruler at the time), over taking his brothers wife to be his own wife. John was the kind of guy who spoke the truth and let the cards fall where they may. He was after all a prophet, calling people to repentance, preparing the way of the Lord. So John is now in prison. Meanwhile Jesus ministry is thriving - John if you will, has left the stage and the limelight is on Jesus. Jesus is increasing, John is decreasing…and suddenly John’s perspective has changed. John is disillusioned with Jesus. “The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, 19 calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 20 And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ ” 21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. 22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” -Luke 7:18-23 1. How Does Someone Like John Get to a Place Like This? 1. John’s biggest problem is that his idea on what Messiah should do, and what the kingdom of God should look like do not fit what Jesus is currently doing. 2. John, like most of his contemporaries, is expecting a political militaristic Messiah. He expects a Messiah that is going to liberate God’s people from the heavy yoke of Rome. He is looking for a Messiah that is going to throw the current religious system on it’s head, maybe even by force. Jesus is not fitting in with John’s ideas about what God should and shouldn’t do. You see John is in prison, and Jesus has not stormed the gates of the prison to set his messenger (his cousin) free. No, John will remain in prison until his unjust death. Jesus upon hearing this sends a message to John. “Tell John what you have seen and heard”. Basically saying, I am the promised one, all that was written about me is being fulfilled. 3. It seems that John wasn’t truly looking at the whole of scripture. John of course didn’t fully understand Jesus’ mission - no one did. 1. We have less of an excuse, living post resurrection. We are often disillusioned because we are operating under a kind of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which comes from the surrounding culture rather than the teaching of the scripture. 4. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is: 1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth. 2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. 3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. 4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem. 5. Good people go to heaven when they die. 1. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a weird morph of Christianity and the American dream. It practically works it’s self out this way: God wants us to pursue and achieve our dreams and to be happy so long as we don’t greatly hurt ourselves and others along the way… 2. The problem with Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, besides being totally unbiblical, is that it sets us up for failure, because it brings with it many false expectations of the Christian life. 3. Maybe some of us have said things like "Jesus is Lord", or "he must increase and we must decrease". But I wonder if like John the baptist we are saying these things because we actually think by Christ increasing it means promotion, or physical blessing, it means a physical reigning with Christ now for us, and that it couldn’t possibly mean suffering, bereavement, or the purifying fires of sanctification. But as the life of Jesus shows us (along with the whole testimony of scripture) the cross always comes before the crown. 2. Is God’s work in your life offending you? 1. What in your life causes you to doubt God’s power, goodness and love? 2. What could it be for you? Human suffering? The Holocaust? a life of singleness? continued failed relationships? it could be a hard frustrating marriage, it could be a divorce, it could be an expected or unexpected death of a loved one, it could be cancer, it could be bareness or continued miscarriages, it could be chronic pain, it could be a lack of recognition, it could be not getting the promotion you deserve, it could be constant struggling to make ends meet. I believe that it is anything that says: 1. “I’m happy if “blank” happens. 2. “God loves me or doesn’t love me because I have or don’t have “X”.” 3. But nothing could be further from the truth. God has proven his love and care for us through the work of Jesus Christ. What an insult to God when we ignore his greatest sacrifice and focus on passing pleasures of his creation… “He did not spare his own Son but freely gave him up.” 4. Not only that but God the Father loved the Son and look at the things he suffered….. God loved the children of Israel and look at what they suffered, God loves his people the church but historically it has not been shown through material blessing. So just because God doesn’t always or ever give us want we want, or what we think we need, doesn’t nullify his goodness, power or love. 5. We need to beware of this kind of thinking, it can and will shipwreck our Faith. 3. How Do We Safeguard Against This Kind of Disillusionment? 1. John did not leap into disbelief he drifted into it, and it will be the same with us. 2. “The actual descent into this kind of disillusionment begins without much notice, this is why we must be alert, on guard, Rather than a huge noticeable leap of rebellion, (addiction) is marked by small steps of spiritual casualness or indifference, and a lack of sensitivity to right and wrong. It doesn’t capture our attention; spiritual indifference and apathy don’t attract notice. After all, everyone coasts now and then, we think. What we are doing really isn’t that bad. The trail looks smooth so we ignore the warning signs that seem to be everywhere: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22)” -Ed Welch 1. "Idolatry is automatic. When the sentry of our hearts is not vigilant, idolatry is like an instinct. It happens naturally.” - Ed Welch 2. Listening and surrendering to the Spirit: 1. But the Spirit is speaking to us all the time. Unfortunately we often attribute his voice to an overly “legalistic conscience” and then we feel that we can argue and negotiate our way out of what He is prompting us to do. 2. “He is that renewing presence that says; ‘Choose what is good, right and true.’ He is that tug toward self-sacrifice for the good of others. He is the challenge to boldly tell someone how Jesus is changing your life. He is the Person that brings Scripture to mind and coaxes you to believe it. He is the one that prompts you to pray for others. He is the one who restrains you from clicking on that image on the internet, making that purchase, or silently judging someone. He prompts you to encourage a friend, praise a co-worker, or to rejoice in God’s remarkable grace. If you are in Christ, you have the Spirit, and he prompts you all the time. We simply need to surrender to his prompting.” -Dodson. 4. Share My Heart as Pastor/Shepherd 1. I see some of you and I am concerned. I know you are cruising along, you are in spiritual auto-pilot. Maybe at one time you were following the Lord passionately, but that honeymoon faze is over. Now, you don’t sense the Holy Spirit; You don’t feel anything when you pray; You get nothing out of reading the Bible; Church attendance and fellowship seems more like a chore than a joy; You are dabbling in sin and you don’t necessarily feel convicted the way you once did… 2. I fear for some of us the fate of a theologian that C.S Lewis described in The Great Divorce: 1. “Having allowed oneself to drift, unresisting, un-praying, accepting every half conscious solicitation form our desires, we reached a point where we no longer believed the Faith.” - C.S. Lewis, (The Great Divorce) 2. What has happened? You are drifting, unresisting, un-praying. But you do not drift into sanctification; we do not coast into righteousness, we drift into sin, and doubt. And If we do not take heed (apply or live out) the things we have heard we will drift away. 3. The Christian is called to Resurrection Life - “the new life of strenuous ethical obedience, enabled by the Holy Spirit, to which the believer is committed.” - N.T. Wright 4. What are you expecting? God to come down and rebuke you to your face? Are you waiting for some radical experience or circumstance to wake you up? "What more can he say than to you he has said?” 1. Our relationship with God works in the same way that a marriage does or a parent/child relationship does. We don’t invest in these relationships when and if we feel like it. We do it out of necessity, so that the marriage can continue to grow and be strengthened, so the child/parent bond. 2. We go to God, (through prayer, his word and fellowship), because he is the fountain of living waters, and in his light we see..not because we feel emotionally driven. We go to the Word, not just to learn cool new things, and not just for a spiritual pick me up, but because our hearts are desperately wicked, we are prone to wander and we need the Word of Truth to put us straight. We desperately need the light that shone out of darkness to shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus (2 Cor 4:6). Conclusion: If God were to answer all my prayers and desires the instant they were uttered, he would become an automaton (a self operating machine), or more like a rain god, or magician. He would not be the God who wisely responds to his people, and who disposes of all things according to his sovereign goodness. Trust in the sovereign goodness of our God. “Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart. There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God. Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. God has charged himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to him. Here is his promise: "And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." A. W. Tozer 1. Guard your heart - by the word of truth, and by speaking that truth to yourself, and surrounding yourself with those who will speak the truth to you. 2. Make the decision to change today. Repent! “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.” 1. Do I have deal breaker’s with God? 2. Fill in the blank: God loves me or doesn’t love me if _____? 3. How does scripture say we know that God loves us? How are these different? 4. In what ways have I ignored the Holy Spirit’s prompting as of late? 5. What are some ways I can protect myself against spiritual disillusionment?