This summer at church, instead of a sermon series, we have people giving testimonies about how God has worked in their lives, along with some one-off sermons. On Father’s Day, my pastor, Kurt Petersheim, preached a sermon based on John 3:22-30:
After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison). Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John the Baptist knew that his role was to prepare the way for Jesus (see Matthew 3:13-17 and Luke 3:15-16), so he was also aware that once Jesus’ ministry began, his own would come to an end. That’s why he said that Jesus must become greater as John became lesser.
It’s the same for us. As Kurt put it, “Our lives are meant for us to decrease, not increase.”
Recommended: Sunday Thoughts: Sitting at the Feet of Jesus
I don’t have to tell you how difficult it can be to decrease in this world we live in. Our culture pushes us to puff ourselves up and make ourselves look more important than we really are. Modern life promotes a dangerous sense of entitlement.
“As long as we believe we’re entitled to something, selfishness and pride creep in,” Kurt preached.
The antidote to entitlement is to realize that what we have is a gift from God. Or, as Kurt said, “God owes us nothing, and if you come to terms with that truth, you’ll realize that everything is a gift.”
Kurt pointed out that the companion verse to John the Baptist’s declaration that Jesus needs to increase is John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Kurt looked at the three things that Jesus identified Himself as in reverse order. First, the life that Jesus brings needs to increase in us. Jesus isn’t a supplement to our lives; He is our life. Two scriptures help drive this point home:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21 (ESV)
Next, the truth of Jesus must increase in our lives. In a world that views truth as ever-changing, it’s more crucial than ever that we stand on the unchanging truth of God’s Word.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:32 (ESV)
[Jesus prayed to the Father:] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
John 17:17 (ESV)
Finally, Jesus’ way must increase in our lives. This shows up in our practical, everyday way of living. Living this way means that we pursue God’s glory and not the approval of the world.
After John the Baptist’s followers asked Jesus to confirm that He was the Messiah, He said of John, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11, ESV).
Kurt concluded with two points that remind us to live for the glory of God and let Him increase in our lives:
- As we decrease in the eyes of the world, we Increase In the eyes of God.
- As we decrease, our joy Increases.
May we strive to do everything for the glory of God.
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