John the Baptist: He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

The Baptist gave a three-part response to his disciples’ concern about the Lord Jesus being his rival:
1) All our work comes from God.

“No one can receive anything unless it is given from heaven." (John 3:27)

We like to take credit for what we’ve accomplished, but who gave you your intelligence? Or who gave you your health and strength, your ability to work, and the good fortune that enabled your hard work to pay off? All the credit goes to God.

John the Baptist understood this principle. He knew his role had been given to him by God, it was work that would give him satisfaction and fulfillment

2) The Baptist reminded them that he had always known his role. He was not the Messiah, but the one sent ahead.

"You yourselves can testify that I said that I’m not the Christ but that I’m the one sent before him." (John 3:28)

3) He’s like the best man, and all the people are the bride.

"The groom is the one who is getting married. The friend of the groom stands close by and, when he hears him, is overjoyed at the groom’s voice. Therefore, my joy is now complete." (Jouhn 3:29

Jesus is the groom. It would be crazy for the best man to feel like he was in competition with the groom to get the bride, it would be a total betrayal of his relationship with both the groom and His bride. Instead the best man is joyful for the groom, his best friend

The only way for you and I to have a successful mission is to have the same attitude.

These are the last recorded words of John before his arrest, when he told his disciples that he would have to decrease so Jesus’ ministry could grow. John’s mission was for Jesus to increase and for John to basically work himself out of a ministry because everyone would go to Jesus.

John wanted his followers to understand just how significant Jesus was. For one thing, Jesus came from heaven. He wasn’t simply called from heaven, or empowered by heaven, like John the Baptist was. Jesus actually came from heaven. Since He came from heaven, The Lord Jesus represents God, and to reject His witness is to reject God.

Jesus shares what He has seen and heard in heaven, that’s His testimony. Those who receive Jesus’ witness know that it’s true. You have to receive it, the Baptist was saying, you can’t just hear it.

The Baptist could not have been more clear,

"The one whom God sent speaks God’s words because God gives the Spirit generously." (John 3:34)

God sent the Lord Jesus. God gave Jesus the word, God gave Jesus His Spirit, in fact God gave Jesus everything.

The gospel writer, John, echoed Jesus' words to Nicodemus,

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life."
and
"The Father loves the Son and gives everything into his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.”
(John 3:16 and 3:35-36)

God loves the world and the Father loves the Son. Whoever receives Jesus’ witness also shares in the love the Father has for the Son, and in this “all things” that has been given to Jesus.

The last verse is actually the only place in the whole gospel that John used the actual word “wrath,” but he again echoed Jesus' words to Nicodemus,

"Whoever believes in him isn’t judged; whoever doesn’t believe in him is already judged, because they don’t believe in the name of God’s only Son."
and
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever doesn’t believe in the Son won’t see life, but the angry judgment [wrath] of God remains on them."
(John 3:18 and John 3:36)

obeying the Son means believing in Him and receiving Him.

Joy comes from obedience to God’s call, not getting the glory for yourself

This was a perfect setup for conflict, but it didn’t happen because there was no competition between John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus. The Baptist was content with who he was and what his job was. He didn’t have ambition to be or do more than God had given him, and he wasn’t worried about the numbers. He knew that his part was to obey God, and the results were in God’s hands.

I used to belong to a very small church, maybe fifty people on a bumper Sunday. Our building was made out of stucco, and we never did have much money. But we were right next door to a big stone church, beautiful, wealthy and full of people.

Sometimes they would accidentally come into our building, thinking we were like the kitchen or something. But we never felt bad. God had a purpose for us in our smallness. People often joined us for a while who had had bad experiences in a big church, and our church was just like family. We could never have offered them healing and renewal like we did if we had been a big church.

When does your own sense of importance overshadow your service to God? The source of contentment comes from knowing all of us have the same basic job of pointing others to Jesus. How that looks from person to person may be different but the calling is the same. There should be no comparison and no competition.

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John the Baptist: Contentment, Not Competition

Since John was writing about stories that he wanted to be read side by side to reveal something, he reminded the reader that this next story actually happened a little while before John had been put in prison, before John had been arrested.

For the few months until John the Baptist was arrested by Herod and put into prison, his ministry overlapped with the Lord Jesus. The Baptist did not really want to have followers. His whole ministry was about pointing to the Lamb of God and urging people to trust in Him.

But when two popular leaders are involved in a similar work, there’s bound to be trouble.

Evidently a Jew, we don’t know who, but John uses that word to mean a Pharisee or Scribe, got into a discussion about baptism and purification with the Baptist’s followers. Something must have been said in that conversation that made the Baptist’s followers feel like John the Baptist was getting compared unfavorably with the Lord Jesus.

They were upset about it. They started feeling a sense of rivalry with Jesus’ ministry because everybody was going to Him now, and He was even baptizing people, which had been John the Baptist’s special thing.

Competition is one of the most toxic forces to enter the Body of Christ.

Rivalry between ministries is one of the wedges Satan, God’s enemy and ours, uses to alienate Christians from each other, undermine projects in churches and block the progress of the gospel.

Who might you be feeling in competition with, or comparing yourself to? John’s disciples had gotten caught up in the numbers game: Who Had The Bigger Ministry.

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Blended Gospels: The Last Episode In John The Baptist's Ministry

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."

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. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.

Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 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.

[John 3:22-36, ESV]

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