He must become greater; I must become less

17th October, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

John 3:22-36

Main Idea: To show Jesus must become greater in our lives and we must become less.

Objectives: a. To show human tendency to become greater b. To show that we as disciples of Jesus must become less and He must become greater in our lives.

A. Introduction

- When you are sinful, you are so proud of yourself, Jesus becomes less in you. When you are sinful, (fill with pride because you are right all the time, the others are wrong; not willing to let go of your wrong mindset; you are lying and keep lying; there is unforgiveness, hatred, etc), you will like to have the final say about your lives, you ignore all the truths, all that Jesus requires you, you compromise on the word of God, of course Jesus has less and less say in your lives, Jesus becomes less in your lives.

- Sin put you yourself at the centre of your life and it means self-centeredness and pride taking over your life.

- You face all the consequences of self-centeredness and pride.

- Study the Chinese character of smelly. The word self is above the word big and with a dot in the middle, it means smelly. When you are big, you are smelly!

- We desperately need to learn from John the Baptist to allow Jesus to become greater in our lives.

B. Mentality of John the Baptists’ disciples.

- Now, we understand from the context that John the Baptist and Jesus and their disciples were doing ministry and baptism at the same time. John’s disciples developed an argument with a Jew on the ceremonial washing and they consulted him. They pointed out that Jesus was also baptizing like him and everyone is going to Jesus to receive baptism in verse 26.

- As disciples of John, it is very natural to develop the sin of jealousy towards Jesus because those who received baptism by their teachers were getting less and less. Or, even nobody came to John for baptism. Their teacher was becoming less important now! Their teacher could even be replaced by Jesus!

- Praise the Lord John the Baptist knew very well his own identity and his mission was to prepare the way for Jesus. He was not at all threatened by the presence of Jesus.

C. John the Baptist’s attitude towards Jesus.

- Let us see the attitude of John towards Jesus in verses 27 to 36. His attitude toward Jesus is the title of this sermon, in verse 30, “He must become greater; I must become less.”

- How John can develop such attitude towards Jesus? The skill behind it is like this: John, right from the beginning of his ministry knew that his mission from God was to prepare for the coming of Jesus. But most important of all, he was willing to do the God given mission for Jesus because he knew thoroughly who was Jesus. His knowledge of Jesus allows to develop the godly attitude of “He must become greater; I must become less.”

- In verse 27, John recognized that Jesus was mandated by the heaven to do what need to be done. Verse 27 John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.”

- From verse 28, John also recognized he was the Christ but he just sent ahead of Jesus. In verse 29, he likened himself to be the friend to the bridegroom (Jesus), so, when he heard that Jesus was coming, he was overjoyed and he felt his job was complete when he was able to prepare the way for Jesus.

- You see how well he knew Jesus from verses 31 to 36: in verse 31, Jesus is the one from above is above all; in verse 32, Jesus has personal experience that is coming from God; in verse 33, the people also accepted Jesus as coming from God and it was for the purpose of salvation; in verse 34, Jesus spoke the word of God and the Holy Spirit empowered Him to do so; in verse 35, God the Father loves Jesus, the Son, and God has put everything in His hands; and in verse 36, John recognized Jesus as eternal life giver, as Savior.

- This thorough knowledge concerning the real person and God in Jesus of John allowed him to develop the humble attitude of Jesus must increase in his life and he himself must decrease. This must be our attitude towards Jesus.

D. Applications.

- How do you allow Jesus to be greater inside you?

- First and foremost, you need to realize who Jesus Christ is, as John the Baptist realizes who Jesus Christ is.

- To do that you need to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. Most of the times, we only have head knowledge of Jesus. We may know and believe in a superficial manner how good, powerful, merciful, gracious, all knowing, is He, etc. But we never allow Him to have a final say about how we should live our lives (if He says, we lie anywhere and even allows the devil to have the final say in our lives; we allow devil to work more than Jesus work in our lives). So, since our lives are not transformed, we do not find Jesus real in our lives.

- How do we transfer the head knowledge of Jesus and allow it to touch our hearts, move our hands and legs to obey Him? Not to be so self-centered? Allowed Jesus greater space in our lives?

- For a lot of people, because God disciplines His children, God has to use crisis to break down our pride, self-centeredness, to hit us, to wake us up so that we obey Him.

- Can we do without this alternative as it is too painful?

- Can we use a more gentle path of reasoning with God’s word? Can we do lots of dialogue with God? Why I still have this sin, weakness, struggles, pride, pain, etc? What are the consequences for my disobedience? What can Jesus do to me if I obey Him? How much do I want to suffer before I let go and let God, in the person of Jesus to have the final say in my life?

- As you dialogue with Jesus, may be you will give up the greater financial gain in order to deal with greed in your life; give up your face in order to deal with your pride in your lives; give up the woman in order to experience joy in marriage; give the man in order to experience joy in marriage; give up hatred, bitterness and unforgivenss in order to be reconciled with people around you, etc.

- When you give up the rubbish, the sins in your life, Jesus will become greater in your life. If not, in your bondage to sin, do you think, do you expect to be greater in your life?

- Secondly, then, we need to realize how much we need Jesus in our lives. Most of the times, we do not feel the need for Jesus because we do not regard Jesus the master of our life; as our God who has the final say about how we make decision; as a result, we do not fill the need for him.

- Personally, as I stay close to Jesus because of the authority of God, everyday, I find that I face temptation to lie, to be pride, to condemn and not love, to gossip, to pull down others and show people how great I am, I feel that I need Jesus very much. I always go him and have dialogue with him. If I leave anything godly behind, after my 9 years in GMC, it is this one precious thing, the art of doing dialogue with Jesus. Do that, you will find that your live will allow greater space for Jesus. Jesus will become greater in you.

E. Conclusion.

- If Jesus is not becoming greater inside you then you are growing “Bigger” inside. Then, you miss Jesus totally. One great consequence is there will be no joy in your life. You are just living a sinful life.