John Selden, a 16th century English jurist, once wrote, “Humility is a virtue all men preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear.” Now, this obviously is a gross overstatement. There are many people who we come in contact with who are very humble people; some of them too humble. However, by-in-large, we, as fallen and sinful people, struggle with the issue of being humble, at least in the since of being humble before God. Think about some of the events that we have seen thus far in John’s gospel and how Jesus relates to them. Why, when Jesus turned the water into wine, the wine that was made was far better than the other wine bought for the event. Last week, we looked at Jesus’ mention of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21 and how our looking up to him is so much greater than the looking up to the bronze serpent by Israel in the desert. Whenever we talk about an event in Jesus’ life, we are usually talking about a greater and more perfect event than any other example that we can think of or could hope to see.
So we come to our text today, a fairly simple and straightforward text dealing with the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus. You see, there has been some time that has now passed since Jesus began his earthly ministry. He has begun to build quite a following. In fact, it’s likely that he has a pretty substantial following at this point. He’s continuing to preach, teach, and baptize people who come to him. Meanwhile, John the Baptist is continuing his ministry as well. After all, the Messiah has come, but it’s not as if Jesus told John to stop what he was doing. He didn’t give John instructions to stop what he was doing and to follow him, so John labored on.
Then, one of John’s disciples is having a conversation with a Jewish man about purification rights. Somehow in their conversation, something gets stirred up within this disciple, and he comes to John and says, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” In other words, “Um, John, this guy who you taught about and pointed to, is starting to get a pretty big following. In fact, his following is bigger than your own; remember he also took one of your disciples, Andrew. Teacher, I think we should be getting a little worried and you might want to do something.” This disciple of John’s seems to be a little envious of the attention that Jesus is getting compared to the current amount that John is receiving. He is suffering from thinking that numbers are what measure and indicate a successful and healthy ministry. Does that sound familiar in our modern society? Anyways, think about it, John used to be the “only game in town” so-to-speak, and now there is “competition.” Ok, so it’s not competition, but our human nature can turn it into this. I mean, as I mentioned just a few moments ago, how often do charities, non-profit organizations, and, dare I say it, churches become jealous and envious when someone who is working towards the same goals becomes more popular, wealthier, or bigger than they are? Ought not our goal be proclaiming the gospel and spreading God’s word? There shouldn’t be anything else that matters.
John the Baptist takes this opportunity to teach his disciple, and us too, about being humble. And as I see this text, there are 4 characteristics to being truly humble before God. The first is that we must understand God to be sovereign. By this I mean that he is in control of all things. “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” All the blessings that are coming to Jesus during John’s time, all the blessings that have come and are coming to us in this time, are given to us by the one who is in control of all things. Don’t think for one second that you have earned what you have. Yes, you may have worked hard; you may have sacrificed, but you haven’t earned it; God has given it to you. The second characteristic of being humble that John gives us is being self-aware of who we are and how that relates to Christ. John realizes who he is; he specifically says that he isn’t Christ. He’s just the one who came before him to point the way. John knows that when it comes to being compared to Christ, John is nothing. He knows that the very name of Jesus Christ is above all other names. After all, John has been proclaiming about the greatness of the one who is coming. Wouldn’t it serve to reason that John would see it necessary to place Jesus above himself? When we start to get an inflated sense of self-worth, how quickly are we struck down when we compare ourselves to the man they called Jesus who walked this earth some 2000 years ago?
The third part of being humble before God comes to us in the form of a scenario at a wedding. John inquires of his disciple as to whom the bride brings joy to at a wedding. It’s not everyone else, but it’s the groom. Although her radiance may warm the hearts of all those in attendance, her father may walk down the aisle to give her away with tears in his eyes because she resembles her mother so much, but she is there solely for her groom and he for his bride. I had the privilege of officiating a wedding yesterday afternoon in Preston, MS for a friend of mine who I have known all my life. We spent so much time together growing up that people always thought we were related. I looked at his face as the doors opened and he saw his soon-to-be wife walk through the back of the small, quaint, country chapel doors and I saw pure joy. This was a look of joy that even though I have known him all my life, I have rarely, if ever, seen such visible joy on his face. John is telling us that we are to seek this kind of joy for others. We are to seek first the joy of others. John is seeing the number of people following Christ and the amount of joy that has come to those who have committed their lives to God and their Savior, and he’s thrilled. He isn’t worried about the fact that as people go to Jesus that his ministry is decreased; he’s only concerned with the joy that they have now found in Jesus.
The fourth and final characteristic of humility as we have it for us here in our text is best stated by the words of verse 30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Now we have already alluded to this fact when we talked about Christ above all others, but there is a little different element to this statement. You see, we just get in the way. I’m not saying that we just don’t try and we wait for God to do everything, but we acknowledge we cannot do it without God. John’s a pretty popular and famous figure in his own right. He has had a pretty substantial ministry up to this point, but he knows that that really doesn’t matter much. The time has come for John’s ministry to decrease as Jesus’ really gets “revved up.” Even Jesus himself has raised John up to the highest dignity, but it is time for him to step aside. After all, this is what it was all about, and still is today; it’s about Jesus Christ.
You see, all of this conversation between John and his disciple leads to one thing. Verses 31-36 are John the Baptist’s words that reaffirm that the Messiah has come. I said earlier that John the Baptist had been proclaiming that the Messiah was coming and had been pointing to him for quite some time. You would think that if anyone would have overly harsh standards and expectations as to what this coming Savior would look like, it would be John the Baptist. I have to imagine that John examined every aspect of Jesus and his ministry very carefully just to make extra sure he was who John thought him to be. After undertaking such a daunting task, John finds him to be even more than he ever expected. He finds him to be God, come down and living on this earth. He knows his words to be the very words of God spoken for all mankind to hear. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
We would all be well served to have our minds tuned into the same frequency that John displays here. He isn’t worried about gaining fame or having the largest following. He doesn’t even seem to be worried about receiving credit for what he has done. His only goal; his only care; his only concern is the proclaiming of God’s Word. As I mentioned at the beginning of our sermon, humility is something that we struggle with from time-to-time. I want to challenge all of you this day, to humble yourselves before your God. I want you to realize that all that you have and all that you are comes from Him. I want all of us to realize that He is our all in all, and we must look to Him daily for everything that we need. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment