LEARNING DAILY

John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  John the Baptist

John came to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus. The angel told his father, Zacarias, that he would have a son who would be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb and would be great in the sight of the Lord. Read about this in Luke 1. The gospel of John explains John’s mission was to be a witness of the Light that would come and people would believe through Him. John the Baptist made it clear that he was not this light. He did identify Jesus as the Messiah and did baptize Him in water.  John the Baptist preached one message – repentance – and his one purpose was to bear witness to the true identity of Jesus.

Eventually John made the statement, “He must increase, but I must decrease”. As time went on, more people began to follow Jesus than John; that was not a problem for him. His message, his preaching was to encourage others to follow Him. When this started to happen, John was filled with joy. Both John and those who followed him had to come to the realization that the promised Messiah had come into the world and He needed to be followed. This is what amazes and encourages me. John had a following but he resisted the temptation to disregard the revelation about the Lord Jesus and keep his followers. He could have downplayed who Jesus was in order to build on his own reputation to keep his followers. But instead, he chose to decrease in importance. John declared the truth about Jesus. His disciples had to hear and believe in their hearts that Jesus was the Light, the Messiah John had preached about. People needed to follow the Messiah and not John; he knew people could not follow them both.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this statement by John. There are those who try to hold on to their positions or roles; they spend too much time trying to protect their position in life. John shows a gracious or tactful way to step aside in order to allow others to fulfill the roles God has for them to fulfill. I was pretty impressed when the founding pastor of the church we attend retired after twenty-five years as the lead pastor. He cited Numbers 8:24-26 that states a Levite should retire after twenty-five years of service and allow others to serve. It is amazing to have watched how the one replacing him has been able to build on the foundation established.

John the Baptist has been given as an example for people to get out of the way and allow God to accomplish His will. When that happens, it is amazing to see what is accomplished. It is the proud who do not accept this, trying to help God and in the end actually work against Him. James 4:6 tells us, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”.  When Jesus is given the right place in the lives of Believers, they can be sure that they are in His will and serving where and how He desires. Is not the point of ministry helping others to come to the saving grace offered through Jesus Christ and then helping people to walk on the narrow way as they grow and mature into who He wants them to be?

My prayer is that each of us would be less concerned about ourselves and become concerned with exalting the name of Jesus in the days ahead.