He Must Increase, But I Must Decrease
Download MP3Invite you to open your bibles to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. I'm gonna keep this tea up here with me. Ever since we have gone to 2 services, I have lost my voice. And so I need a little help.
Jeffrey Heine:John chapter 3. We will begin reading in verse 22. After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he had remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing in 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, discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification.
Jeffrey Heine:And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who is with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all are going to him. John answered, a person can receive, cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. The one who has the bride and the bridegroom is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.
Jeffrey Heine: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 a earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.
Jeffrey Heine: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.
Jeffrey Heine:Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Pray with me. Our father, we are so grateful for this time that we could come together. And we could be encouraged in our faith just by being with other believers, singing songs, hearing from your word. But more than encouragement, what we want is to hear from you.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, our prayer is what John said that you would increase, but that we would decrease. And I pray that that would happen beginning here at this pulpit, that I would decrease. Father, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. Cynthia Heimel was a satirical New York City columnist for a publication called The Village Voice. And being in New York City, she she knew celebrities before they became celebrities. And back in the nineties, she wrote an article about how she had seen these people change as they got fame. So she wrote this.
Jeffrey Heine:I pity celebrities. No, I really do. The moment they become a celebrity, they become a monster. Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Barbara Streisand were once perfectly pleasant human beings. But now, their wrath is awful.
Jeffrey Heine:I think when God wants to play a really rotten, practical joke on you, he grants you your deepest wish, and then laughs merrily when you realize you want kill yourself. You see, Sly, Bruce and Barbara wanted fame. They worked. They pushed. And the morning after each one of them became famous, they wanted to take an overdose.
Jeffrey Heine:Because that giant thing that they were striving for, that fame thing that was gonna make everything okay, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and happiness had happened, and they were still them. The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable. Our natural bent as human beings is towards self absorption. Self glory is what we want, what we spend a lifetime seeking after, always thinking we deserve more admiration, more praise, more respect, more appreciation from others. Yet, if we were to ever actually succeed in getting that in our pursuit of self absorption, if we succeeded in that, we would ultimately fail, because we would become howling and insufferable.
Jeffrey Heine:You see, you were not made to make much of yourself. You were made to make much of God. He must increase, I must decrease. Just kinda cuts to the chase, doesn't it, when when John the Baptist says this. Jesus says it this way, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Jeffrey Heine:The Christian life is about denying oneself and making much of Christ, not making much of oneself. The Christian life is about what I would call a true gospel humility. It comes from this, an understanding that all you deserve in life is hell, but all God has given you is grace. I've heard it said that one knows what they really believe when they don't get what they think they deserve. What happens when you don't get that admiration, that respect that you think you deserve?
Jeffrey Heine:What is your rock there? Let me ask you something a little personal. Do you often ask, do people realize just how wonderful I am? Do do do they realize what a great person I am? Do they understand how much I do?
Jeffrey Heine:Now, of course, you're not going to say these things out loud. You're just going to think these things quietly, but but do you have those thoughts? Or do you do you have thoughts like, you know what? I think I am under appreciated by the people around me. When you meet people, do you find that you like to drop little lines to impress them?
Jeffrey Heine:Just like little things. You find yourself saying the same stories over and over because it's a good, impressive line. You can say, somehow, maybe it's the fact that you ran a marathon, or that you went to a certain school, or that you know a certain celebrity. You just kinda wanna drop that in, or maybe you wanna drop in all 3 together. You know, when you were at Harvard, you ran a marathon with Bruce Willis, or something like that.
Jeffrey Heine:And somehow that just always gets inserted in in conversations with you people. Do you do things like this? Have you ever had those thoughts? I confess I do. I do.
Jeffrey Heine:In the past, I have had to come before the church, and I have confessed those struggles with you. I used to pastor a really large ministry before, pastoring here at Redeemer. And although when I was a pastor at this ministry, I always said that numbers didn't matter. That I could really care less about numbers. 3 years into starting Redeemer, we'd grown to about a 100, and then we went down to about 70.
Jeffrey Heine:So we we were already going down. And and I began having these feelings that I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. Not not considering the sacrifices I have made to be here and to do all of this. And as much as I try to deny these feelings, us going down in some numbers really bothered me.
Jeffrey Heine:And I began am. I deserve better than this. And I had to get up and confess that to the church. It's the only way I knew how to get rid of it. God used the first few years here to really show a, a deep seated pride and envy that I had, probably all my life, but I I didn't know it had been festering there.
Jeffrey Heine:He must increase. I must decrease. It is some of the most painful and joyful words in all of the Bible. This is gonna be the last thing that we hear John the Baptist say. It's the last we hear from him in this book.
Jeffrey Heine:While other gospels are going to go on to record the death of John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, when he is writing this gospel, he decides to end John's story here with these words, he must increase, but I must decrease. And this is what exactly happens. We never hear from John again. This is a summary of John's life. And John the apostle, he records these words here because he wants them to become the summary of our life as well.
Jeffrey Heine:The plan that you have mapped out for your life, that you think your life should go, he wants you right now to throw that down and say, what plans I had for me? No. But it's your plans, God. You must increase. I must decrease.
Jeffrey Heine:John wants you to redefine success by these words. He wants you to radically redefine the mission of your entire life by these words. Jesus must increase, I must decrease. And this is for God's glory, and it is for your joy. This passage here begins by describing how Jesus and his disciples were baptizing in the Judean countryside.
Jeffrey Heine:And this wasn't a big deal, except for the fact that John and his disciples were also baptizing in the same countryside. And it was causing a little bit of rivalry or a little bit of anxiety among John's disciples. And so we read this in verse 25 where it says that there was a discussion that arose among them over the issue of purification. And so they go to John the Baptist over the matter. Look at verses 25 and 26.
Jeffrey Heine: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. So so the original the the original, altercation here or the original thing they went to John with was this this issue of purification, except that it wasn't about purification. And notice that when they went to John over this issue of purification, purification doesn't even come up in the conversation. Instead, what they wanna talk about is how this other ministry over here is stealing people from our ministry, And this ministry over here is getting better and bigger.
Jeffrey Heine:And they're envious. That's the real issue here. They are envious of Jesus' ministry, that the spotlight is leaving John and is going to Jesus. This whole issue of purification is nothing more than a smoke screen. It was just a way that they could try to spiritualize their feelings of pride and envy over somebody else's ministry growing while theirs was shrinking.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you ever do that? You ever try to spiritualize your pride or your envy? See somebody driving a new car? Wow. I guess if I didn't give so much to the poor, I could have that.
Jeffrey Heine:Or if one of your friends gets back from a trip to Europe, and they're telling you all about it, and you're feigning interest, And you casually mentioned that you had thought about going on a trip like that, but you decided that the Lord really wanted you to go to Haiti instead. So you spiritualize this. You spiritualize your pride. You spiritualize your envy. And we we feel like we have to do this, because of of all the sins that are out there, envy is the one, that one sin that that you are most embarrassed by.
Jeffrey Heine:Who wants to ever confess that they are envious? Envy is a hard sin to confess because it is so petty. It makes us seem so small. Joseph Epstein, he wrote a book called Envy. He wrote it for the, the New York Public Library.
Jeffrey Heine:They did a series on the 7 deadly sins, and his book is outstanding. It's the best book on envy I've read. He's not a Christian. It's a secular book. But this is what he says about envy.
Jeffrey Heine:Of the 7 deadly sins, envy surely is the one that people are least likely to want to own up to. For to do so is to admit that one is probably ungenerous, mean and small hearted. Envy is certainly a charged, a supercharged word. One of the few words left in the English language that retains the power to scandalize. Most of us could still sleep decently if accused of any of the other 6 deadly sins, but to be accused of envy would be a serious distressing.
Jeffrey Heine:So clearly does an accusation go directly to character. Although the other deadly sins have all had their disapproval of religion, none of them so deeply demean, diminish, and disqualify a person. Not least of its stigmata is the pettiness, implicit in envy. I've had a lot of people come to me over the years and confess different sins. Sins like pride or lust or anger or greed.
Jeffrey Heine:But in all of my years of ministry, I have never had anybody come to my office and say, you know what my problem is? I struggle with envy. I'm envious of another person. No nobody has ever come to confess that because because who wants to fess up to being small hearted or petty? And so as a result, we don't deal with it.
Jeffrey Heine:We just kind of ignore it, or often, we spiritualize it. But we need to admit it, and we need to confess it when we have it. Do you know that in every known language, both past and present, there is a word for envy? Every culture, every people group, and every time has struggled with this. It is a part of the human condition.
Jeffrey Heine:Now perhaps it would help if I clarified what I meant by the word envy. Envy is this, it is wanting someone else's life. Envy is when you obsess over what you do not have. Envy is a violation of the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet. But envy isn't even content there.
Jeffrey Heine:Envy doesn't stop with just wanting what somebody else has. Envy doesn't just want someone else's life, it resents their life. So when NVC is someone living a better life, it cannot rejoice with that person. It can only, it can only weep over what they see as their own miserable life in comparison. Envy is the opposite of praise.
Jeffrey Heine:Envy cannot be happy over another person's happiness. Envy's only happiness comes when this other person's happiness is destroyed, or when this person decreases that I might increase. It's an interesting study, a book called Luxury, in which there was a, just a poll in which a person asked, would you rather live in a neighborhood in which you can make $100,000, but all your neighbors will make 125? Or would you rather live in a neighborhood where you make 85,000, but everybody else makes 75? And the vast majority said they'll take option b even though it means they're making less just as long as they are exalted over their neighbor.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what matters. That's envy. So envy looks at a wealthy man with his great house, his good car, his easy life, all this, and he wants it so much he feels sick. So he's unhappy. He's unhappy at not having the wealth, but you know what happens?
Jeffrey Heine:When the stock market crashes and he sees that rich man go down, all of a sudden he feels pretty good. That's envy. When the perfect couple who lives next door gets divorced, you feel pretty happy about it. That's envy. When, when one of your friends, you know, gets to take one of their many vacation days and goes to the beach, you find yourself looking at the weather report, praying it rains.
Jeffrey Heine:That's envy. And when your friend gets a brand new iPhone and it breaks, you secretly rejoice. You can spiritualize it. I'm just happy because now they have to spend more time in prayer, God. They can't go to Google every minute.
Jeffrey Heine:They can't ask Siri anything. They have to pray, and that is why I am rejoicing. Now, if you continue with envy, you're gonna become a bitter and joyless person. Envy is the only sin that I know of, in which there is never any fun at all. There's not the least bit of joy and envy.
Jeffrey Heine:At least with lust or with anger. You're you're gonna at least get a brief momentary joy, but never with envy. Even laziness or greed can be rewarding at times, but envy is completely void of any joy. This is why Proverbs in 14:30 says, envy makes your bones rot. It's a poison that kills you from the inside out and it has to be dealt with.
Jeffrey Heine:Envy is what will keep you from enjoying the life that you do not have. Envy is gonna keep you from enjoying your own body and the way you look, because you're always gonna be comparing it to others. It will keep you from enjoying your singleness. Those who are married, it will keep you from enjoying your spouse. It will keep you from enjoying your job or your giftedness.
Jeffrey Heine:Because every time you look horizontally to others, instead of vertically to God, you're going to be robbed of joy. Now, wouldn't you like to be freed from this? I mean, I don't know anybody who wants to live this way. Wouldn't you like to freed from it? Wouldn't you like to replace envy with joy?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, John's disciples were filled with pride and envy, and it resulted in bitterness and anxiety. Yet, we look at John the Baptist and he is filled with such humility and joy. Let's read how. Let's see how John responds to his disciples. Look at verse 27.
Jeffrey Heine:John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. The best antidote for both pride and envy is the deep conviction of God's sovereignty. All our successes, all of our failures, all of our gifts, all of our abilities come from God and him alone. No matter what you've done, no matter how many great things you think you have done, there is nothing that you have that did not come from God. Paul says it this way in 1st Corinthians 4.
Jeffrey Heine:What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? We cannot boast in what we have and we shouldn't be envious of others for what they have if we truly believe that God is the one who gives everything. Everything comes from His sovereign hand. John tells his disciples that the people are going to Jesus because God is making that happen.
Jeffrey Heine:God was giving people to his son. John's ministry was shrinking. Jesus's ministry was going, because this is what God has planned. And in John 6, Jesus himself says, no one comes to me unless the father who sends me draws him. John the Baptist understands this.
Jeffrey Heine:And when he sees people leaving his ministry, for this ministry, all flocking to Jesus, he doesn't have to stress. He doesn't have to worry. He just says, this is all going according to God's plan. But not only is John free from anxiety, he's actually filled with joy. Look at verse 28.
Jeffrey Heine:You yourself 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. John's joy is complete upon hearing Jesus' voice and seeing people leave him and go to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:That thrills John to see people leave him and go to Jesus. To not listen to him, but to listen to Jesus. John realizes that when Jesus increases, joy increases. And that one can never make too much of Jesus. I'd like a show of hands here.
Jeffrey Heine:How many of you have ever made too much of Jesus? Has there ever been a time that you have ever made too much of Jesus? You know, a time when you thought, I just went too far this time. You know, I just, I crossed the line, and, and I made too much of Jesus, and now I'm suffering for it. Anybody?
Jeffrey Heine:How about in just one area of life? You know, concerning the area of, of parenting, I just made too much of Jesus. Concerning loving my wife, I just made too much of Jesus. Concerning my finances, you know I made the mistake. I made too much of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:You can never make too much of Jesus. It can't be done. You will never be disappointed the more you make of him. Never. Hear this, when Jesus increases, joy increases.
Jeffrey Heine:Remember that back in the and, you know, when we first started studying John, we're in John 2, when we get to the wedding at Cana, and the wine runs out, just like all of our wine always runs out. And then Jesus comes to the scene and he turns water into the best wine. Jesus comes to get the party going and to take it up a notch. Jesus brings joy. And the more you make Jesus central to your life, the more joy you will have.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, this statement, he must increase, but I must decrease. It comes in this curious little setting that we just read about. This curious image of a wedding. And it's the image of the bride and the bridegroom and the friend of the bride groom. A way to, to say this in contemporary terms is John is saying, you know what?
Jeffrey Heine:I'm Jesus' best man at his wedding. I'm not the groom, I'm his best man at the wedding. And the imagery that he has here is the role of the best man in the 1st century, Hebrew culture, was that the the best man would send out the invitations. The best man was the kind of the master of the ceremonies. And the best man also had this unique job of guarding the bridal chamber, and making sure no false lover comes in.
Jeffrey Heine:And I think that's what John is alluding to here. I'm guarding the the bridal chamber and I'm making sure no false lover comes in. But when I hear the voice of the groom, my joy is complete because my task is over and I know the marriage is about to begin. That's what John sees his role here. He hears the voice of the Lord and he knows that the marriage is about to begin.
Jeffrey Heine:But I think there's another reason though that John actually uses this curious imagery of the bride and the bridegroom and the best man when talking about envy and talking about pride. And I think he's going back to that original question of purification that was supposed to be the smokescreen. They were debating. Remember John's disciples and this certain Jew, they're debating over purification and it likely went like this. Well, do you think John's baptism, does it cleanse you more than Jesus', or does Jesus' cleanse you more than John's?
Jeffrey Heine:And I think John addresses this issue through the language of a wedding. In Revelation 19, we see the wedding between Jesus and his church. And Jesus at this wedding is introduced as the lamb. If you've ever heard me do a wedding, you've often heard me say this, but Jesus is not introduced as the king of kings, the lord of lords. He's not introduced as the lion of Judah.
Jeffrey Heine:He's introduced at his wedding as the lamb. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And the reason Jesus is introduced as the lamb is because on your wedding day, you want to look your best. And it's when Jesus is the lamb and we see the sacrifice he made in order to bring the bride to himself. That's when he looks as best as the lamb.
Jeffrey Heine:That's why he's introduced this way. It's because this wedding is only possible through his cleansing sacrifice. Paul talks about it this way in Ephesians 5. He says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. Jesus, not John, is the one who cleanses and makes us beautiful.
Jeffrey Heine:I have done a lot of weddings over the years, and I can say this completely true. I have never seen an ugly bride, ever. Never. When when when the doors open and there's a bride, she is always beautiful. I I love looking at the husband as, like, you know, the had the best seat in the house always up there.
Jeffrey Heine:Often the the the sometimes the husband just bursts into tears. Sometimes her mouth just drops. Lauren has, in her kitchen, she had somebody take a picture of me right when the door opened and I'm just, I'm glowing in this moment there as she was walking through. And what John is saying is, do you want to be beautiful? Do do you want to really be glorious?
Jeffrey Heine:Do do you wanna really reach your potential? Do you want to have that life filled with joy? It's by Jesus increasing. It's by coming to Jesus. Don't make much of yourself, make much of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:In your singleness, Jesus must increase and you must decrease. In your marriage, Jesus must increase and you must decrease. In all of your relationships, He must increase and you must decrease. In your career path, in your profession, He must increase and you must decrease. And if you do this, all you're going to lose, all you're going to lose is the bitterness of envy and the anxiety of pride.
Jeffrey Heine:But what you will gain is the joy of Christ. Pray with me. Lord, we do in this moment confess our envy and our pride, and it is deep rooted in us. And only you through your gospel can root that out. So we pray that we would cling to you, that we would see you as glorious, and we would want to see you as more glorious.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, that the cry of our heart would be that you would increase and that we would decrease, that we would find our soul identity in your gospel. The fact that you have sacrificed and you have given yourself for us. Lord, as we think on these things and as we pray to you, may you wash us with the water of your word. As the bride hears the voice of the groom, may those words wash us and cleanse us. Father, I pray that through your spirit, you would make that happen.
Jeffrey Heine:We can never make too much of you. We can never do it. Lord, I thank you that you say that all that hope in you will not be disappointed. And that is where we place our hope in this moment. In your name, Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.
