Humility

RIVERSIDE INDONESIAN FELLOWSHIP
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Humility

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2020 · 30 August 2020

Now turn in your Bible to John 3:30. Here are the words uttered by John the Baptist: “He” (meaning Christ) “must increase, but I must decrease.” That’s an aphorism, an axiom, a truism. That is the first law of ministry: He must increase; I must decrease. Humility is the first law of any ministry related to God and your fellow man. Let us look at other examples.

First Peter 5:5-6 says, “Be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” Again, humility is the first law of ministry. All faithful, all honorable ministers make much of Christ and nothing of themselves. This is what we see in this passage.

Now let’s look at John 3:22-30, “After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. 24 For John had not yet been thrown into prison. 25 Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification.”

“26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!” 27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.”

“29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.” Any minister who exalts his own position is perverted in his claims. There is only one High Priest and one Mediator between man and God, which is Christ Jesus.

Any minister who views himself as anything more than a Christian equal to every other Christian has corrupted himself. Any so-called minister who claims to be the head of the church, dishonors the Son of God to whom that title belongs exclusively. Any priest who claims the name Father dishonors the true Father/God to whom that title belongs exclusively. Jesus says, “Call no man Father.”

All ministers are like stars who only appear in the darkness, their flickering light is not enough to light the world. They fade out as the sun rises. As churches fall into apostasy, they think less of Christ and they make more of their ministers. To the corrupt church the sun has gone out and the stars have descended into blackness. In a truly holy church, little is made of the ministers and much of Christ.

John the Baptist was the greatest man who ever lived. Therefore, he was the greatest servant of God, the greatest prophet who ever lived. What was his clothing like? Camel’s hair and a leather belt. What was his diet like? Locusts and wild honey, and anything he could find. Israel was in darkness. One star left and he faded out as the Son of righteousness arose. His joy was in being hidden.

And the lesson he teaches us is how important it is that he fade away and Christ become everything. He had national popularity. All Jerusalem and Judea went out to see him. The Son of God was living in obscurity up in Nazareth for 30 years. He finally appeared; He was baptized by John. Then John sent a few of his followers to follow Jesus, but Jesus still remained in obscurity.

And then in John 2, Jesus came to Jerusalem on that Passover and He went into the Temple, still in obscurity. And then He ended that anonymity when He took a whip in the Temple and threw everybody out, creating a massive, unparalleled scene. But He still had only a few disciples. And then He began to do miracles. Then He began to cast demons out and He began to heal people of all their sicknesses.

And the crowds began to come to Jesus because John didn’t do any miracles. There were people who were demon-possessed, and many people were very ill. And they knew that Jesus could heal them because of His miracle power. He began to draw people and no one had ever taught like He had. His teaching attracted many people. And then John told the people, “Behold the Lamb of God.”

And He pointed to Christ and He is saying, “Go follow Him.” Who are you, John? “I’m just a voice crying in the wilderness. I’m just getting the road ready for the Messiah.” The Messiah attracted them with His teaching and His miracles. And John is beginning to fade away. But their ministries overlap. And it’s in this time of transition, that what John the apostle records here takes place.

This is a lesson of humility for all of us. So John’s ministry overlaps with Jesus, probably by as much as six months or so, because he was the one introducing Jesus. So he was still ministering and preaching repentance, and preaching that the Messiah had come and telling them who He was and baptizing those who repented. And Jesus began to preach repentance, preach the kingdom and declare Himself the Messiah.

Let’s look at the context, verse 22, “After these things,” meaning after He came to Jerusalem, went to the Temple, and cleaned out the Temple. And after that the Pharisee Nicodemus came to Him, we went through the whole discourse with Nicodemus from John 3:1 -21. So after that, Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea. And they went into the countryside, leaving Jerusalem.

There Jesus was spending time with them. Based upon what it says in John 4:35, we think this is up to six months. At the same time Jesus was baptizing, the same kind of baptism that John was doing, which was the symbolic washing of the outside to demonstrate a desire to be washed on the inside to get ready for Messiah’s arrival and kingdom. This is the early training of His followers.

We see that in verse 23 with one important note. John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. That was an accommodating place for John, which means there were still a lot of people coming to John. We don’t exactly know where that is. There are two possibilities. But both of them are in Samaria. As soon as Jesus went into Jerusalem and Judea, John went somewhere else.

He left Judea for Jesus. This is the first act of a humble man who leaves the location of his success for someone else. So he’s doing his ministry of preaching, repentance, baptizing the same as Jesus. Neither of them is doing Christian baptism, until Acts 2:41, after the death and resurrection of Christ, which Christian baptism depicts, “buried with Him in baptism and raised in new life.”

Verse 22 says, “He was spending time with them and baptizing.” John 4:1 says, “Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John.” So now more people are going to Jesus, than have been going to John. Verse 2, “Although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were.”

See in verse 1, that Jesus’ popularity was increasing and John was fading. And apparently John’s disciples began to worry about the implications of this on the one they loved. Verse 24 says, “For John had not yet been thrown into prison.” Because in Matthew and Mark, John’s imprisonment is recorded right after Jesus’ baptism by John. So John wants to correct the record of history.

It is in those months between the baptism of Jesus and the imprisonment of John that the overlap of their ministry goes on. People are coming to Jesus because John is sending them and because Jesus does miracles. Verse 25, “Then there arose a dispute on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification.” Purification relates to baptism which was symbolic of repentance and purification.

So they started having a discussion about who is preeminent, whose baptism is most important, who is greater. Did John the Baptist’s disciples not get the message? He pointed to Christ in John 1, saying over and over, “I am not the Christ.” John the apostle says he’s not the Light; he came to give testimony to the Light. John is happy to say, “I’m not the Christ” to the Jewish leaders.

But they said to him in verse 26, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan to whom you testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” And that is what’s called a jealous exaggeration. They don’t even want to say His name, Jesus. They are zealous and jealous for John the Baptist, and filled with dissatisfaction. So they come complaining to John about this.

They should have known, but they had a hard time with this. When John is finally imprisoned in Matthew 11, his disciples still are having a hard time shifting to Christ. So John sends them to go to Christ and ask Him if He is not the Messiah. And they do. And in John 11, they see sick people are healed, the blind see, the deaf hear and the gospel is preached to the poor. What other proof do you need?

Verse 27, “John answered and said, ‘A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.’” Wow, that sort of explains it with regard to ministry. It’s like John 15:5, “Without Me, you can do nothing.” Gifts, positions, ministries in God’s kingdom rest completely on God’s free grace and God’s sovereign call. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:1, “Since we have this ministry as we received mercy.”

Ministry is a mercy. What is a mercy? Something you don’t earn, something you don’t deserve, something you are given even though you’re unworthy. Paul says to Timothy, “I was a blasphemer, and I was a murderer, but the Lord counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry and He showed me mercy.” You don’t rise to the top because you’re holier than everybody else. It’s all mercy.

Paul talks a lot about ministry, Colossians 1:25, “I was made a minister according to the stewardship of God.” Stewardship means a responsibility and accountability. The principle is very clear. A man receives nothing when it comes to the privilege of ministry, when it comes to the fruit of ministry, except it’s given to him from heaven. Even what Christ had was given to Him by the Father.

Ministry is a mercy that flows to an unworthy Christian based upon God’s sovereign grace. You can’t earn it. You can’t gain it. You can’t achieve it. But you can forfeit it. You can be disqualified. This is about heaven and what heaven has deposited in my hands as a mercy. And then he illustrates it in verse 28, “You yourselves bear me witness that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.”

You know, every minister needs to say that over and over, it’s not about me; it’s about Him. The faster I’m lost in the glory of Christ, the better. Then a beautiful illustration in verse 29, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears Him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice, so this joy of mine has been made full.”

In Philippians 1, Paul is in prison when he writes that and there are other preachers who are saying, “Ah, this is our chance to shine. And so they start throwing arrows at him. They’re wounding him. It’s not enough that I’m in chains. They’re adding pain on top of my chains by saying I’m in prison because of sin and because the Lord has punished me and they’re preaching Christ from envy.

What’s your attitude, Paul? Philippians 1:18, “So what, Christ is proclaimed and in this I rejoice.” That’s the humility of the minister; Christ is exalted. Some preach out of good will toward me. Some preach out of envy toward me. In any case, “Christ is preached, in that I rejoice.” John is like a best man at a wedding, and that’s the illustration of verse 29. What is the best man’s job?

Well, in old times, the best man had an important role. Weddings were big deals. They were planned months in advance, and the bridegroom was getting his house ready and everything was prepared. And so he had a best man, who would do a lot of the communication with the bride. He would let the bride know when, where and how to meet. And finally he would take the bride to the bridegroom.

John says, “That’s my job. I’m not the bridegroom. I just want to connect the bride to the bridegroom. I just want to take sinners to Jesus. And when I’ve done that, I rejoice. This joy of mine has been made full. You guys are jealous. You’re upset because Jesus has more people than I do. I’m telling you, this is why I live. This is what I’m called to. This is my joy. My task is done.”

And when the bridegroom takes his bride, the best man disappears. And thus in verse 30 he says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” A great ministry never produces disciples of the ministry; it always produces disciples of the Savior. And at the end of this overlap John is arrested. And then one day they call for him. They cut off his head on earth but he is praised in heaven forever. Let us pray.



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