Introduction:
I. I would like to begin this morning, by asking you, “What is the most difficult thing you have every undertaken to accomplish?”
A. As you think about that question, maybe your mind goes to,
1. The workplace,
a. Maybe a difficult task that your boss gave you, or
b. Maybe even training and preparing for your vocation, or maybe you are thinking
2. Raising children,
a. Certainly training and raising children is not picnic at times.
3. Maybe it is in your role as a husband or wife.
B. Now let me ask the question in another way; “What is the most difficult task you have undertaken in the spiritual realm?”
1. Maybe some ministry that you thought was beyond your abilities.
2. Maybe it was in the area of exercising faith,
3. Maybe it was when you anticipated that God was going to do one thing in your life, and it actually turned out that something else happened.
II. For me, one of the most difficult things I have had to do in the “spiritual” realm was to pray for the people and the ministry of my former church.
A. I had spent almost 5 years in that place, believing God was going to build something great.
B. For six months, during the “honeymoon” phase, things seemed to go well, and then for the next 4 or so years, I often felt as if that church was inhabited by everyone except God.
C. In my humaness and pride, after I resigned, it was very difficult to not hope that that church would lock it’s doors.
1. Who were they to treat me that way?
2. Why couldn’t they see what God wanted to do in the middle of Levittown; through them?
3. Well, if they were going to resist God that way, they deserved to close.
4. Then God said,
a. “Pray for them.”
b. “Desire that I bless them.”
c. “Pray most especially for those that were the most negative towards you.”
D. What? Pray? Desire to see them blessed.
1. That was not easy to do,
2. It was almost as if I didn’t want to see God recognized there.
E. Today, that church still stands.
1. From what I understand, it’s not a lot different than it was those years ago, BUT,
2. In fact, I went back there a couple of weeks ago for a funeral service for the father of a member there.
3. From time to time, I still pray for them.
III. Pride can be a terrible thing.
A. Pride be the cause of a gnawing, dissatisfaction with life.
B. Pride can be the cause of loss of relationship.
C. Proverbs 16, verse 18 says that pride sets us up for an eventual fall. - “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
IV. I believe our passage this morning is teaching that
A. It was a lack of pride that allowed John the Baptist to honor Christ, first.
B. In fact, verse 22 seems to be saying in part at least, “Pride is one of the first things that Christ dealt with in his disciples.
C. And this morning, I would like to share with you how to deal with the issue of pride, and grow closer to Christ in the process.
Become a Disciple of Christ
22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing.
I. At first glance, verse 22 does not seem to be dealing with the issue of pride at all.
A. Our English translations, simply state that Jesus was “spending time” with the disciples.
1. The King James uses the word “tarried”
2. And the NIV says, “where he spent some time” with them.
B. John is the only one of the gospel writers that tells this part of Christ’ story.
1. Mark begins the ministry of Jesus, after John’s imprisonment.
2. Matthew basically agree’s with Mark’s interpretation,
3. And Luke begins the ministry of Christ following the temptation in the desert.
C. What caught my attention in John’s telling was when I looked at the word translated as “spending time.”
II. In Greek the word is “diatrobo”
A. Diatrobo means, “to rub; rub hard” “to wear away” or “to consume”
B. I suppose I could be pushing the whole pride issue here, but I have to ask,
1. What was Jesus “rubbing” wearing away, and “consuming” in the disciples?
2. I believe he was dealing with the issue of pride, and rubbing away who they were, in preparation of what they were to become.
III. Consider that for several of the disciples, at least to this point they had been pretty self-sufficient guys.
A. Several were fisherman, and while we may not think of fisherman as having great status in life, consider also that they were independent business men.
B. One was a tax collector, not much of a respected job title either, but certainly a man to be reckoned with.
C. A zealot, who was pretty full of himself.
D. Varied personalities, and that I believe spending time with Jesus, and each other allowed them to begin to take on a new purpose in life.
IV. One of the benefits of spending time with Christ, is that our pride can be dealt with, but in the process, the work of Christ becomes our work.
V. Verse 22 states that Jesus “rubbed” the disciples, but it also states that Jesus was “baptizing.”
A. Now that makes sense,
1. Jesus was getting to know the disciples, and allowing them to get to know each other in new ways.
2. In order to do this, He was preaching, performing miracles, and teaching about the coming kingdom of God.
3. It is only natural that he would be baptizing, isn’t it?
B. But look at John chapter 4, verse 1 and 2, - “Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 “although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were).
1. Who was baptizing?
2. Not Jesus, but his disciples.
C. We typically think of “disciple” as meaning a follower of Jesus Christ.
1. The word actually means, “student, pupil or learner.”
2. A disciple is one that is learning from another.
3. In this specific case, the disciples were those that were learning what Christ was teaching.
VI. I am challenging us as believers in Jesus Christ this morning.
A. Many of us speaking of how we want to Jesus magnified in our church.
B. We want to see others come to faith in Christ.
C. We want to see our church grow,
D. We want to grow closer to Christ ourselves.
VII. If all that is true, here is the challenge,
A. We need to spend time with Jesus, allowing Him to rub off the edges of our pride and self-suffiency.
B. We need to become true “disciples”
C. And when as we do, His work will become our work, and Christ will be made known through us,
D. Christ will be magnified through our humility.
Allow Christ to Be Magnified Through You
23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and they were coming and were being baptized. 24 For John had not yet been thrown into prison. 25 There arose therefore a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew 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 borne witness, 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 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. And so this joy of mine has been made full. 30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.
I. One of the more difficult things in life to do, is to see someone prosper, while you don’t.
A. Maybe you were hired on a job, before someone else.
1. You hear about a potential promotion that is about to occur, and you are certain that you will be chosen.
2. Then that day comes, and you find that the person hired after you get’s the promotion, while you remain just as you were yesterday.
3. And what is our most typical response,
a. How could they choose him or her over me?
b. Don’t they realize how hard I’ve worked, how much time I’ve put in this place,
c. I’ve given my very blood, and they don’t even notice.
B. That was evidently the case with some of John the Baptist disciples.
II. It is evident in scripture that John had developed quite a following.
A. Acts 18 tells the story of Paul planting the church at Corinth.
1. It also tells of a young preacher of Christ named Apollos that although teaching truthfully about Christ, was also an adherent to the “baptism” or teaching of John the Baptist,
2. Priscilla and Aquilla, disciples of Paul heard his message, and taught him of the “baptism” or teaching of Christ.
B. Apollos had been teaching in Ephesus, and when Paul arrived there, he found many that considered themselves followers of Christ, but as of yet had not been baptized into Christ.
III. Verses 23 to 30 state that while Jesus was baptizing in Judea, John was baptizing in Aenon, because there was much water there.
A. But a strange thing was happening,
1. Many were evidently still coming to John the Baptist,
2. But many more were starting to go and listen to Christ.
B. John’s disciples said, “Wait a minute.”
1. Who does this upstart Jesus think he is?
2. John gave him his start,
3. John identified him, and yet
4. Jesus is developing a larger following that John.
C. In their earth bound eyes, Jesus got a promotion, while their hero John got a demotion; what’s that about?
1. Maybe they felt like Christ should have become a disciple of John the Baptist rather than the other way around.
2. And don’t we all feel like that sometimes.
IV. A pastor that I used to sit under was recently released from the church that he founded some 25 years ago.
A. As it turns out, he went and became a part of a new church plant, started by some of his former church members.
B. I recently went and looked at the website for this new church and guess what,
1. In only a matter of months, they have grown to about 75 people, according to what I understand.
2. And here were my immediate thoughts,
a. What’s that about?
b. They’re in a rented facility.
c. He got fired by the church he planted,
d. How can God add to their number so quickly, while we here are Newtown Community Church haven’t seen growth like that?
e. God, what’s up with that?
V. That is John’s disciples
A. He should send his followers to you.
B. He can’t do that.
VI. I see two primary thoughts in Johns response.
VII. First, verse 27 - 27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven - We are individually responsible for what God gives us, not what He gives to somebody else.
A. You see the real question is not “What is God doing with someone else’s life, or with someone else’s church.
B. The real question is, “What am I doing with what God has given to me?”
1. Am I being responsible with the gifts and talents that God has given me care of.
2. Am I concerned with caring for what I do have, or am I more concerned about what I don’t have?
VIII. We must rejoice more in what God has given us, and worry less about what someone else has.
A. Do you have a job that takes care of your family, Rejoice.
B. Do you have friends that you can count on and trust, Rejoice.
C. Do you have a church fellowship that challenges you to grow and serve within what God has given you, Rejoice.
IX. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 tells of three servants that were given various amounts money to use while the master was away,
A. The one given 5 talents invested; gained 5 more, and received a reward,
B. One was given two talents; gained 2 more and received a reward,
C. One received one, buried it for not gain, and “even what he had was taken away.”
X. Magnify Christ through what God has given you, and you may be surprised at the result.
XI. Second verse - 30 “He must increase, but I must decrease. - Be humble enough with what you have to rejoice at what God is doing, regardless of where He is doing it.
A. In this day and age we have lost the purpose of the “Best Man” or friend of the bridegroom in a wedding ceremony.
B. But in John’s day, it was something like this,
1. On that special wedding day, the “Best Man” was the one that introduced the bride to the groom,
2. Then it was the “best man” that oversaw the wedding ceremony,
3. Following the ceremony; and I would not have wanted this at my wedding, BUT
a. The best man led the new couple to their private chamber,
b. Took his place at the door to protect their privacy,
c. And ensured that only the groom would have access to the bride.
C. In saying “I am the friend of the groom” John is saying,
1. My job is complete,
2. The groom, the Messiah, has come for the bride, and I got to introduce them.
3. Now I can watch as the bride and the groom grow in that relationship together.
XII. I got an e-mail this week from a well intentioned pastor, entitle, “Six physical factors that affect your worship service.”
A. It is a condensed list from Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Church” and list six physical factors to look at in your church to improve attendance,
1. Increase the lighting,
2. Have the best sound system you can afford,
3. Use individual seats, rather than pews,
4. Lower the temperature, to keep people awake,
5. Clean the nursery,
6. Have clean, up to date bathrooms.
B. All good stuff, and probably all things that we should look at from time to time,
C. But I think just as important, in seeing people grow in Christ, we need to get out of the way, place our ego’s and pride in check, and allow people to respond to God, in the manner God wants them to respond.
XIII. The last thing I want to speak about this morning concerning “growing in Christ” is obedience.
Be Obedient to Christ
31 “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 “What He has seen and heard, of that He bears witness; and no man receives His witness. 33 “He who has received His witness has set his seal to this, that God is true. 34 “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35 “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. 36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
I. These last verses are believed to be the Apostle Johns follow-up to what John the Baptist has just expressed.
A. This is John’s call for us to lay aside our pride,
B. Lay aside our sense of self sufficiency,
C. Lay aside whatever might keep us from using what God has given us for His glory,
D. Lay aside whatever is keeping us from responding to the call of Jesus Christ on our lives.
II. Verse 36 is the all important verse in this passage,
A. “He who believes the Son has eternal life, but (and a better translation is) BUT, he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life...”
B. Verse 36 says,
1. “If you have believed in the Son” you already possess eternal life, BUT
2. If you have not believed, you only think your living.
III. SO, are you living; or not?
