After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.23
John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized24
(for John had not yet been put in prison). 25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26
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.”27
John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is 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
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. 30
He must increase, but I must decrease.” 31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32
He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33
Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 34
For he whom God has sent utters 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
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.
You can almost hear the resentment, the envy, in their words: “John, John, have you even noticed, everyone is going to this other guy, this Jesus fellow.” They
were afraid that they were already seeing the beginning of the end for their teacher, the great John the Baptist, whom they loved! Jesus, meanwhile, was getting all kinds of attention. And when John and Jesus were working side by side, brief though that time
was, it was becoming more and more obvious that folks were no longer coming to John, but their attention had turned instead to Jesus!
Jesus worked miracles after all, John did not. John the Baptist, did not heal one person, did not do one “sing” to authenticate himself! “What about Jesus, master?
What do you think of him?” Was there envy or jealousy in their voices? It isn’t right that a man as great as John the Baptist should be so quickly displaced. You can almost hear irritation in those words, “Well, come on, John, this Jesus is baptizing
– he has taken a page from your book, he is copying you, he is using your method – and everyone is going to him!”
But what an astonishing reply they got back from John. In modern language John basically told them:
“Listen carefully brothers: The Lord gave me a job to do. It was a remarkable calling and it was an immense honor for someone as unworthy as I to fulfill it. What
is amazing to me is not that the crowds are heading after Jesus, but that the people came in such numbers to hear a man like me. It was all the Lord’s doing. Remember, I told you that I was not the Christ; only the forerunner of the Christ. Jesus, however,
is the Christ of God. You heard me say that he is the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. It is joy for me to see him, to know that he is here in the world. I am like a best man at a wedding. I feel honored to stand next to the groom, to
be known as his close friend, and it is a great pleasure to attend the ceremony precisely because I am Jesus’ friend and his pleasure is my pleasure. Listen, my friends, what you see now, the crowds leaving me and going over to Jesus, that is just the beginning.
It will continue. It must continue, until everyone is with him and no one, not one, is left with me. And, when that has come to pass, I will feel, with a perfect satisfaction, that I have done the work that God graciously gave me to do. Jesus must increase,
I must decrease, because he is the Son of God, I am not; he is the Savior of sinners, my Savior, I am not; he is the Messiah, I am not; he can baptize with the Holy Spirit, I cannot.”
Here is what the gospel writer is asking us to consider: If Jesus is God the Son now come into the world to take away my sins; if he is really the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world; if Jesus is really the Messiah, the one for whom the people of God have hoped for through such long ages…if Jesus really is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire; if Jesus and no other is my hope for
eternity, the greatest gift the Father in heaven has ever given, that those who believe in him may have eternal life; then it is not enough that I simply acknowledge these things to be true…
…My life must be a demonstration of them. Listen carefully because this is not just for John the Baptist this is for you, and for me…so I want to put this before
us again: If Jesus is who we say he is, and if you say, you believe that Jesus and only Jesus is the Savior of sinners, then it is not enough for you to simply say that these things are true…
YOUR LIFE MUST BE THE DEMONSTRATION THAT THESE THINGS ARE TRUE.
If you really believe that God the Father has sent his one and only son for you and your salvation, then Jesus Christ absolutely must have your heart, your affections,
your priorities and your commitments, with absolutely, no rivals. And your life must show forth that indeed this is the case! In John’s Gospel, to believe in Jesus means to follow him, to serve him, to put him first in heart, speech, and behavior. Anything
less than this would be an outrage against the magnificence of the gift he has given to the world. If I believe that Jesus is the Christ, it follows by a rigorous necessity that he must increase and I must decrease.
In speaking those words, John the Baptist spoke for every believer, for all time, he speaks this for you. I don’t say that it was an easy thing for John to do. He
was a sinful human being as you and I are, though far greater in the things of the Spirit of God than you or I. But, still, to go from having multitudes following you everywhere, hanging on every word, to then having no one, and seeing them all chasing after
someone else, had to have caused some kind of feelings in the man.
And yet, Christ must increase…and I must decrease.
These words are for every Christian…or…they should be. This is what your heart seeks after, less of me and more of Jesus. I realize none of us have multitudes of people
following us everywhere we go, but you are still to measure your life in the same way. Are you willing and is it obvious that you are, to place yourself, your wants, your convenience, beneath the interest, the honor, and the pleasure of Jesus?
Like John, are you willing, with your friends, at work, at home, are you willing to suffer loss, embarrassment, diminishment in the eyes of others, not being ‘important’
simply because you cannot, for the Master’s sake? If he is really the Master and you love him as the Master, surely you will be willing to see His name set forth as it must be, even to your own cost, even if it cost you dearly…
In how many ways, in how many different ways, would your life change, your attitudes, your behavior, your speech, if it were more the commitment and the determination
of your life that you decrease so that Jesus might increase? Over how many things in your life could it now be written: “He must become greater; I must become less.” Over how many things in your life should it be written, “He must become greater;
I must become less.”
Prayer: Father, forgive me for I have been so absorbed with myself; interested only in my own self-promotion and desires. I speak too many words about my love for
and commitment to Your Son but my life says that I am too much taken with self. Father, You know all things, You know that I love you and that what I most want is to be emptied of self and filled with Jesus. Father, give me such a sight of my Lord that I want
nothing but Him. I truly desire that He become greater and that I become less, through Jesus Christ my Savior, Amen.
Hymn: All the Way My Savior Leads Me (Piano instrumental)