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Less of Me and More of Him
John 3:22-3:36
There is the tale that Satan’s agents were failing
in their various attempts to draw into sin a holy man who lived as a
hermit in the desert of northern Africa. Every attempt had met with
failure; so Satan, angered with the incompetence of his subordinates,
became personally involved in the case. He said, "The reason you have
failed is that your methods are too crude for one such as this. Watch
this."
He then approached the holy man with great care and whispered softly in
his ear, "Your brother has just been made bishop of Alexandria."
Instantly the man’s face showed that Satan had been successful: a great
scowl formed over his mouth and his eyes tightened up. "Envy," said
Satan, "is often our best weapon against those who seek holiness."
In class this morning our journey through the book of John takes us to a
very dangerous place. There is a very debilitating and evil spirit that
stalks many churches and Christians of our country and that is the
"spirit of competition." The spirit of competition causes Christians to
compare themselves with what God is doing in another person’s life.
Howard Hendricks says that, "Comparison is the favorite indoor sport of
Christians." Now, I’m not talking about the friendly competition that
goes on at church sporting events or outings, but I’m talking about the
competition you see when God grows a church and the other church becomes
jealous, or when God blesses an individual Christian and his brother
becomes envious. Competition is such an evil spirit because it seeks to
rob God’s people of spiritual blessings and it stunts the growth of the
kingdom of heaven.
When people start being blessed it’s human nature for others to become
envious. Whether they speak it openly or hold their envy within, there
is bound to be someone who is envious over another person’s blessings.
That’s what was going on with John the Baptist’s disciples, they have
become very envious. As we examine this passage of Scripture, John the
Baptist is going to give us some very practical advice as to why we
should avoid competition and envy at all cost. He will also tell us what
we must do to overcome the spirit of competition. We will break this
down into 2 parts.
1) The Spirit of Competition (vv. 22-26)
We read here that John the Baptist was baptizing in one place and Jesus
was baptizing in another. John’s disciples noticed that for some
unexplainable reason everyone started going over to be baptized by Jesus
and they became a bit nervous and told John about it. It appears that
they were afraid they wouldn’t have any more converts and they thought
that they were doing something wrong.
I believe that it’s good that they were questioning in order that they
might learn to do what was right, but at the same time it was bad
because they became more focused on what was going on down the road than
what God wanted to do in their own ministry. It also appears that they
were somewhat jealous that many people were going to Jesus to be
baptized instead of coming to them.
Unfortunately this story reminds me a lot of how some churches and how
some Christians tend to act at times. A church down the road might start
attracting people and growing by leaps and bounds and another church
will see what’s going on and begin asking what they are doing wrong to
have such growth.
It’s good for one church to ask what another church is doing in order
that the people might learn and grow, but it’s not good if the people of
one church sit and pout and criticize the other church. I believe that
it says a lot about a person who sees a church growing and there first
assumption is that they are doing something wrong. Shouldn’t it be just
the opposite? If we are not growing shouldn’t we question what we are
doing wrong?
A Christian should see his fellow brother in Christ being used in a
mighty way by God and become concerned and ask what’s wrong in his own
spiritual life. We should never become jealous of his brother and
disassociate ourselves with this brother or gossip about him.
When we become jealous, envious, and competitive about what God is doing
in someone else’s life or in someone else’s church or ministry we tend
to take our eyes off of what God is doing in our own lives. We become
distracted and lose our focus and then we become ineffective for the
Lord.
In John 21:21-22 the Lord gave us some practical advice as to how we
should respond to another person’s blessing.
"Peter, seeing him [or John], said to Jesus, ’But Lord, what about this
man?’ Jesus said to him, ’If I will that he remain [or live] till I
come, what is that to you? You follow Me’."
Jesus basically told Peter that if he wanted to bestow a blessing upon
John that it was none of his business. Jesus then told Peter that he
needed to focus on his own relationship with him, and only his own.
Ruth M. Walsh said that, "Envy is the art of counting another’s
blessings instead of one’s own!"
If we want to be effective in the ministry to which God has called us as
individuals or as a church then we need to mind our own business and we
need to focus on what God is doing in our own lives. We read in verse 23
that there was much water where John was baptizing, probably just as
much as where Jesus was baptizing.
This is probably symbolic of a spiritual blessing. When the Scripture
says here that there was much water where John the Baptist was, it could
mean that God had blessed John with what he needed to carry out his
ministry. If we would only focus on the blessings that God has placed in
our own lives then we would realize that God has empowered us to be used
by him as well.
The second thing that we need to learn is to Be Joyful That God Is At
Work (vv. 27-30)
If we desire that God’s kingdom be enlarged then we need to be joyful
that God is at work and using another church or another person for his
glory.
I would like to read for you the New Living Translation of verses 27-30
because to me it reads a little better.
"John replied, ’God in heaven appoints each person’s work. You
yourselves know how plainly I told you that I am not the Messiah. I am
here to prepare the way for him—that is all. The bride will go where the
bridegroom is. A bridegroom’s friend rejoices with him. I am the
bridegroom’s friend, and I am filled with joy at his success. He must
become greater and greater, and I must become less and less’."
In verses 27-28 we learn something else to help us overcome our
competitiveness. John said to his disciples that God gave each person a
specific plan in life and we can’t change that. He basically stated that
he knew God’s plan for his own life, which was to prepare the way for
Jesus the Messiah, and that is all he could do, nothing more. So why
fret about what God chooses to do in the life of another person?
He goes on in verse 29 and tells us that the bride will go where the
bridegroom is located. In the New Testament the bride is symbolic of the
church and the bridegroom represents Jesus Christ. John basically said,
"The people of the church will be drawn to where Jesus is at work."
And when we apply this interpretation to all of verse 29 the remainder
could be interpreted as saying, "All the people of God’s church or
kingdom will rejoice with Jesus whenever they see that he is at work
somewhere."
What we learn here is that if God is at work somewhere then people are
automatically going to be drawn there and we just need to rejoice when
we see that God is moving. We cannot become jealous when God is at work
in another church or in another person, but let’s rejoice that the
kingdom is expanding and growing, because we are all in this together.
In the 1998–1999 NBA basketball season, David Robinson, a frequent
all-star and veteran center for the San Antonio Spurs, learned to share
the limelight with the new dominant player of the league: his teammate
Tim Duncan. San Antonio won the NBA playoffs in 1999 with Tim Duncan as
their star player. In Sports Illustrated, Robinson reflects on what that
was like for him. He said,
"I can’t overstate how important my faith has been to me as an athlete
and as a person. It’s helped me deal with so many things, including
matters of ego and pride. For instance, I can’t deny that it felt weird
to see Tim standing on the podium with the Finals MVP trophy. I was
thinking, Man, never have I come to the end of a tournament and not been
the one holding up that trophy. It was hard. But I thought about the
Bible story of David and Goliath. David helped King Saul win a battle,
but the king wasn’t happy because he had killed thousands of men. He
only thought about David having killed tens of thousands. So King Saul
couldn’t enjoy the victory because he was thinking about David getting
more credit than he was. I’m blessed that God has given me the ability
to just enjoy the victory. So Tim killed the tens of thousands. That’s
great. I’m happy for him."
Through his faith in Christ, David Robinson came to realize that because
he was playing on a team and working towards the same goal, he needed to
rejoice that his teammate was in the spotlight. As Christians we are
each working for God’s team, therefore we should rejoice in another’s
victory.
In the NKJV verse 30 reads as, "He must increase, but I must decrease,"
And the NLT says, "He must become greater and greater, and I must become
less and less."
How do we learn to focus on what is best for the kingdom of heaven
instead of focusing on our own selfish desires? The answer is that
Christ must become greater than we in our own hearts. We have to stop
thinking of "I" and start thinking of others for a change.
We should first rejoice in the fact that God is at work, and secondly we
should rejoice that our brothers or sisters are receiving a blessing,
but we will not be able to do this until we learn humility and stop
thinking only of number one. We shouldn’t be number one in our lives
anyway, Jesus should be.
From this story of John the Baptist and his disciples we have learned
why the spirit of competition is a very serious and potentially
dangerous threat for a church or Christian, however we have also learned
four ways to combat this evil spirit. If ever we feel envious over what
God is doing in another church or in the life of another Christian we
need to:
1.) realize that what God chooses to do in another person or church is
not necessarily the plan he has for us.
2.) We need to look around us and see that God has blessed us with what
is needed to do great things for him right where we are.
3.) We should rejoice that God is working in another church or another
person’s life because we are all on the same team, and
4.) we need to humble ourselves and make Jesus first in our lives. In
other words we should only be concerned with what Jesus wants, not what
we want.
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