Worship Call 0633 I must decrease, He must increase.
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It is Humility that John Carried which made him a great man. And when I say great, great as it is Jesus who Identified him as such.
Luke 7:28 (NASB95) — 28 “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John;
When it is Jesus, who says that there is no one greater than John, then who is there anywhere in the world who is greater than John?
Aside from being the baptizer, John is the Herald who announces the coming of the King. the Herald would go ahead of the royal precession to announce to villages that the king is coming and to make way to get your roads smoothed out.
As great as Jesus says that John is, it is John who says that he is not even worth to be a slave to this one to even tie his Sandals.
John had a least twice pointed out the Savior to the people.
John 1:29 (NASB95) — 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Who was it at that point departed John to pursue Jesus. Does not seem as any did.
And once again
John 1:35–36 (NASB95) — 35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
this time two went after Jesus. they were Andrew and John.
How many have sat in church week after week, month after month, and even year after year and yet how many of those are pursing Jesus? How many are content with listening to the sermon of the Pastor, going to their Sunday schools, having their pot luck dinners, and even working in the church, but how many are in reality pursuing Jesus? That is pursing a relationship. How many are falling in love and falling down in worship of the King of King Lord of lord?
Andrew and John left the side of John the baptist with a desire to become a disciple of Jesus. while every member of the body of Christ are disciples, how many are actually pursuing the Lord asking
“where are you staying Lord, where do you live, we want to be your disciples.”
While Andrew and John left the discipleship of John the Baptist, the others were left behind who would continue on with the milk that John was feeding them. they remained immature in the faith and were left to only bicker over controversies of whether one should be purified or baptised and corporate Jealousy as fewer were now coming to join with them going to Jesus and being baptised by His disciples.
John 3:29 (NASB95) — 29 “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.
A pastors greatest Joy should be to see the growth of the flock. No, not in numbers, but in spiritual growing toward the Savior. To watch lives being transformed by the message of Christ. seeing marriages strengthened, families coming together. seeing the growing eagerness for the savior.
the pastor is pleased for his flock but is also elated even more so for the Pleasure that is being made manifest that is of the Lords in whom he loves.
when we as the body of Christ are content to walk carnally outside the Love complex of the Lord it brings grief to the Lord.
Ephesians 4:30 (NASB95) — 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (3076 λυπέω)
λυπέω [lupeo /loo·peh·o/] v to effect with sadness, to grieve, to offend.
why would the holy spirit be grieved?
Because taking the place of John the Baptist is the Holy Spirit who is teaching all things and bringing to mind those things that one has forgotten. It is the ministry of the holy Spirit that is bringing the bridegroom and the bride together. It is the good pleasure of the spirit to see the happiness of the Son. It is when the beloved by the son walks a part from the Lord which brings an undesired estrangement between the bridegroom and his bride.
John 3:30 (NASB95) — 30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.
This is a powerful statement.
In context to the moment John knows correctly that He will be out of the picture. His role and mission given to him by God has an expiration date. as dynamic John probably was it was only there to bring peoples attention past himself to herald in Jesus. John was never going to sit on the throne, John in all of his baptisms never saved a single human being. He simply was an instrument of God to announce the Lamb of God and now that the Lamb of God has been announced, John’s role was about complete.
The focus, once the bridegroom is on the scene, is not the bride grooms friend, but the bridegroom.
when the bridegroom is taken away there comes another friend of the Bridegroom, the Holy Spirit.
and it is to The Holy Spirit’s divine pleasure to bring the relationship between the believer and the Lord together.
When we enter into the body of Christ we become His disciples.
Ah, we are all His disciples.
we are all learners.
we might be disobedient learners, but we are all learners.
We come to the classroom.
we are mentored by the spirit of God and his written word.
We may all come into that classroom under the S-E-L-F program. That is it is all about us. Our own Ego’s. Our own plans and desires my comforts and pleasures, the color of the carpets, and paint on the church walls and who gets what sunday school room. the what is in it for me type attitudes. And when we do not get our way, we go to battle with other believers and even with the pastor.
But being a faithful disciple something begins to happen as we continue take in God’s word and walk by means of the spirit.
First as we are walking under the authority of God the Holy Spirit that indwells us we begin to put away the deeds of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16–26 (NASB95) — 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
We are becoming less of our old selves
Ephesians 4:22–27 (NASB95) — 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. 25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.
that transforming comes from the renewing of your mind
Romans 12:2 (NASB95) — 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
The word for transforming is
Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 3339 μεταμορφόω
μεταμορφόω [metamorphoo /met·am·or·fo·o/] v
to change or be transfigured.
it is where we get the word Metamorphosis as when a worm weaves itself into a cocoon and in time emerges as a butterfly.
The Holy Spirit is doing the Lord’s good pleasure in transforming us, through the word of God into that which we were not before. it requires shedding off the old man, the carnal self and taking on the new identity in Christ. becoming Christ imagers.
in the process the self, in effect, is decreasing and it is the Lord that is increasing within the believer.
this transforming is evident to all those that know this person.
As we live the Christian life every day we are decreasing and it is the Lord within us who is being magnified.
Amen
Can you look back to an old self and say, I am not that guy no more. I am not that girl no more. that guy and that girl is left back with all of the shameful regrets, my new self is Christ in me I have decreased to self to magnify the Christ in me.
John 3:31 (NASB95) — 31 “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
John the herald function, can only convey what is given him, the one who has human limitations. John the baptist was born of a woman, as Jesus had pointed out. the limitation is noted later while John is prison, for he did not know whether or not to look toward Jesus as the expected one or to look for someone else. Luke 7:20
When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’ ”
the Herald is not the source of heavenly revelation but points to the source. John can only say that he has it on good authority. but what is the better authority. the one who has been sent from heaven. the one who is endowed completely by the spirit without measure. John himself witnessed the spirit descending like a dove upon the one coming out of the water.
the writer of this gospel says that he is the light of the world, the Logos who was in the beginning with God and who is God.
How can we, should we, put our trust in second hand information when there is first hand account of Him who is from heaven, has seen heaven, knows heaven. Not to demiss the role of the pastor teacher but as a pastor teacher, he fills the role of a herald that directs the attention of the flock to both the written and the living word which is a direct witness to heaven.
And ladies and gentlemen, WE have been given Pastor and teachers to equip the saints. To direct our attention, to that heavenly source. and may I Say that the pastor who is not spirit filled and whose content at the pulpit is stuck on worldly matters and not directing the attention of the things from above, he is not worthy to stand in the pulpit. he is friends with the world not a friend of the bridegroom.
those that are equipping the pulpits who are carnal, sinful, that is Homosexual, Lesbians, pedophiles and whatever else apart from a spirit filled Christ loving pastors, is nothing but an abomination. it is that church that should be left empty for they are not directing the flocks attention not to heaven but to hell. these are not pastors that stand in pulpits these are anti Christs.
John continues to speak of the true witness which is Christ.
John 3:32 (NASB95) — 32 “What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.
John at this point directing his sermon messages toward the Christ should be teaching to dwindling pews as people should be leaving his discipleship to follow Jesus ministry. it would seem even after the death of John the Baptist, there would be the following as there would still those who would considered Johns disciples (John 9:14).