Going Deeper for Life Change
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude ~ Colossians. 2.6.7
The Final Call
1. In verse 30 John the Baptist makes the statement - ‘He must increase,
but I must decrease.’ What did John mean when he made this statement? Allow
the context of the overall passage provide the clues to your answer.
2. In our passage for today, how is Jesus Christ shown to be God’s
supreme representative?
3. Look at verse 36. Why is this statement a fitting summary for the
contents of chapter 3 ?
4. In review of what we have learned of John the Baptist’s ministry in
this gospel, what are some of the characteristics and expressions of
humility that we as Christians can learn to apply in our own lives?
5. Does Christ have preeminence in the ministry and life of John the
Baptist? What position does Christ have in your life?
Winning The War Between Jealousy And Humility
by Noah Ressler
Movements begin that start with a leader able to draw men to himself,
and those men seek to elevate that leader above his position to a
demigod, someone almost divine-like. We humans are like that – we seek
that which is higher than us and when a leader comes along with great
gifts and skills, that leader can use his followers in an evil way or truly do
them good by directing them to the right way of thinking. An evil way is
evidenced in history by generations of followers of Jim Jones who drank
“Kool-Aid” laced with arsenic to their deaths. He led them all astray into
the depths of hell. Our politics are examples of deception and fraud
wherein leaders make promises they are unable to keep, but committed
followers elect those people, sometimes more than once even after
knowing of great moral failure of the leader.
George Whitefield (1714-1770), a great English evangelist used of God to
win a multitude to Christ in America and Great Britain from about 1736
until his death in 1770. This man had always facing himself persons who
wanted to make him their leader of a church denomination. He pulled
away from the Methodists entirely and refused to be associated with any
movement for fear it would detract from the gospel and put Christian
people at odds with each other. He was not entirely successful at this
because a very driven John and Charles Wesley were successful at a
movement that countered Whitefield’s understanding of the Biblical
doctrine of predestination and election. Among great men of God there
is still the flesh to contend with. Some take the road of humility and
some take the other to self-exaltation in the name of honoring Christ.
In John the Baptist we see a humble man wrapped up in his calling to be
the forerunner of the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Son of God. He knows
better than to elevate himself above that which has been given him. That
is a great gift of humility that few men have. For it is natural after the
flesh to seek glory and power that ruins us and leads astray those foolish
enough to follow. But John’s disciples had to be repeatedly straightened
out in their thinking. He was not the One to whom their worship and
following was to be directed. As the setting in our narrative tells us (vv.
22-26), John’s disciples were jealous of their leader having competition
from the One who John testified beyond the Jordan River (John 1:24-
34). Jesus was drawing a multitude which lead people to be baptized.
This always excites the flesh to jealousy.
John does not lose sight of his limits and calling. He immediately
reminds them that Christ is superior (vv. 27-30), and that Christ must
increase while he, John, must decrease. In verses 31-36, John explains
that Christ is God’s supreme representative. John uses the setting as
opportunity to explain the superiority of Christ, and that Christ is God’s
supreme representative.
Are you in a setting in life where some rivalry in your life wherein you are
jealous of another who appears to be more successful than you? It is Christ
who is superior to all for we as Christians are His servants at His beckon
call. What is it to you that God uses someone one way and brings them
His success? You will have your success as you obey His call. Remember
that this was Peter’s problem at the end of the Gospel of John. Be humble
as John the Baptist was. Your sojourn here is short just as all the rest of
humanity. Exalt Christ and He will exalt you in due time. Christ is the
supreme representative of God. He as God and Man is from heaven. His
Word is sure and assures us. It is His seal upon us that assures us. But to
those who are disobedient and refuse to come, the Father’s wrath abides
upon you. Won’t you come today? Obey Him now.