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John 3:26-30
February 5, 2012
When you think about words, the word “DOWN” doesn’t have many positive meanings. It’s a word reserved for cowards, losers and bear markets. It’s a word that is to be avoided or ignored. When you attach it to other words it brings them down, such as — down and out, breakdown, down hearted, downfall, downsize, downturn, facedown, downer and rundown, and the only positive was touchdown, and that’s if it’s your team. What’s worse for the word down is its opposite, UP.
The word UP has many positive connotations. It’s reserved for winners, heroes and bull markets. Add the word “up” to other words and look what happens — upscale, up and coming, upwardly mobile, upper class, and upstanding.
When we think about our present world, we’ve been deluged with the philosophy that our sight should be to move up in the world. It plays into our egos. Up is a word that signifies power. It’s assumed that the direction of greatness is always up. UP, UP, UP! People rise against the odds, they ascend to fame and power.
So, the words of John the Baptist startle us. John told his disciples “Jesus must increase and I must decrease.” Talk about an oxymoron — let’s “DESCEND into GREATNESS.” It seems absurd, yet that’s exactly what John was saying.
As we look at the yearning of our souls, what will it take to open the eyes of our heart and soul; and scream out to God to fill us, fill us until we can’t take it anymore.
But is that just too scary for us? So, we don’t ask God to fill us the way we really would like, so we continue to live a life of less than, instead of more than life. You know what I mean?! It’s almost like living a life which is an oxymoron. We want more, but we’re afraid to go after it. Then we complain and lament about our lives.
When we stop and look at Jesus, we believe and are certain we should have all of Him. We should invite Jesus into our lives and submit ourselves to Him. We believe that, and we believe that’s what God intended for us.
Yet, we become so caught up in the world and all that it offers, and pretty soon we forget about “Jesus alone” and we become consumed with the desires of the world and before we know it, everything becomes blended. We aren’t sure what’s true and what’s false. Everything’s become clouded and in a strange way, we accept it. But that comfort lasts for only a short while and we end up with a longing, and this time it’s even deeper than before.
Now we have a choice. . . do we go forward and embrace Jesus, or do we settle for what we already have, simply because we know that this is far safer than grabbing hold of Jesus.
Let me ask you, are you with me? Do you know what I mean about that choice? Because the deepest desires in our heart are predicated on what choices we make.
Let’s look at John the Baptist and see what we can learn from him.
This passage occurs immediately after Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. During that conversation, Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again and of course Jesus said the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16. After that conversation Jesus and His disciples traveled about 50 miles to an area called Salim. It was located along the Jordan River and this is the only recording we have of Jesus baptizing people. John the Baptist was at the same place, baptizing people on the other side of the Jordan River. An argument developed between John’s disciples and another Jewish man. We aren’t certain what it was about, but the end result was that John’s disciples came back to John and questioned what Jesus was doing.
Let’s look at this scripture and a remarkable statement from John . . .
26 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—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
27 To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’
29 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.
30 He must become greater; I must become less.
They told John, “that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan -- the one you testified about -- well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” These men were loyal followers of John the Baptist. Now this new guy comes into town and they didn’t like it. It was competition. If you owned a store and it was the only one of its kind in town, and suddenly someone else opened a competing store, you may not be very excited about it.
Notice how John’s disciples referred to Jesus. They don’t call Him by name, nor do they refer to Him as the Messiah, even though that’s how John referred to Him. Instead they speak of Jesus as “the one who was with you … the one you testified about.” I believe they resented the success Jesus was having at the lake.
John knew who Jesus was, the disciples did not. John knew it was time for Jesus to gain in popularity and for John to begin to diminish in popularity. But John’s disciples didn’t understand what was going on and what needed to occur.
John explains to his disciples that he was sent to come ahead of the Christ. John gives an illustration about a bride and groom. When the wedding came it was the responsibility of the best man to take care of many of the details surrounding the wedding. The friend would act as a liaison between the man and the woman. In essence, the friend arranged the wedding, delivered invitations and presided at the wedding feast.
He also had one final duty, when it was time, he was to guard the bridal chamber, so that no false lovers could get in. Once he saw the groom and heard his voice, he let the groom into the room. Now the friend’s job was over. This was a joyful job for the friend of the groom. He didn’t begrudge his friend, instead there was joy in the completion of his task. His job was to bring the bride and groom together, and once that was accomplished, his job was to fade out of the picture.
John’s disciples would understand that analogy. John’s task was to bring Israel, the bride; and Jesus, the bridegroom together. Now that this job was complete, John was happy to fade into the background. So it was not with envy or bitterness that John said, “JESUS MUST INCREASE and I MUST DECREASE.” John would have said it with joy. Not with anger.
I believe that when we want to find the kingdom of God, when we want to find heaven, right here on earth, we have to be willing to do exactly as John did. We must descend into greatness. There is no other way to do it. We can’t get there by going half-way. That will never work. We know that.
But there are risks involved. The risk is that we have to submit our lives and even surrender ourselves to God. We can’t give God just a little bit, like sticking your toes into the water. We must jump in. Without jumping in, without giving all of ourselves to God, we will never experience the true joy, grace, peace, courage, love and power Jesus has in store for us. And if I were to guess what the deepest longing in most of our hearts and souls would be, it would come from that list.
The risk is that we become more Christ-like. And it’s a risk because when we become more like Christ, we’re faced with greater challenges. We’re faced with fighting off the powers of evil, that are certain to come our way. The more we walk with Christ, the more satan will throw our way. I am certain of that. We will have greater temptations, yet we’ll have greater joy when we resist those temptations.
The beauty of Christ increasing in our lives, is the way we live our lives, it is the way we experience life, and it is the way others see how we live life. When we have Christ increasing our soul will be more satisfied, even in the midst of pain and suffering, trials and tribulations. We will experience greater joy, greater love, greater peace and greater grace. Others will look at us and marvel at our spirit. They will be witnesses to our ability to destroy evil with good, to defeat temptation and to overcome the pain of living life.
It is being humble, when it may surprise others at our humility. I love it when athletes and other entertainers give thanks to God for their accomplishments. This is the reason so many people, even non-Christians have great respect for Tim Tebow. He seems to walk his talk. There is no phoniness there.
Think about the words of Jesus in the ‘beatitudes’ . . .
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
5 Blessed are the meek,
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
7 Blessed are the merciful,
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted
Then add Paul’s words to these from Jesus . . .
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. - Philippians 2
Or his words from Romans 12 . . .
13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
So, what does that mean in our lives? It means that we continue to die to Christ on a daily basis. This means that every morning when we wake up we go through the dying process again and again. We resubmit ourselves to Jesus. We proclaim Him again as Lord, as Savior, as Forgiver, as my Lord and my God. We may think because we have called Jesus our Messiah, that we are in, that there is nothing left to do. But when we think that way, as I really think so many are apt to do, we end up feeling alone, and have a deep hole in our spirit.
But the way to fill that longing is to call on Jesus. It is to call decrease more in this life, so that He can increase more in your life. It’s as Paul said, for when I am weak then I am strong. It makes no sense at times, but when we are weak and recognize it, then we can rely on only one thing, and that is the power of Jesus.
Dear friends, what longing do you have today that needs to be filled? Don’t accept any imitations. There is only one way to fill our soul. Call on Jesus, if you have to, get on your knees, fall face down on the ground and humble your self before the Lord. No matter how you do it, call on Jesus, shout to Him to fill you . . . and He will.
