The Lord’s Day Morning

February 1, 2009

John 3:22-30

“How to Be a Useful Christian”

Reverend Richard D. Phillips

      Well, let me pray as I come to preach God’s word. Let’s ask God to bless that. Would you join me in prayer.

      Our Father, we think in our mind’s eye to long ago and a land far away, when Your Son, Jesus, would open up Your book, and He would teach and He would speak Your word to Your people. And Your people would gather around Him – that little band of disciples, such as they were, they would sit before Jesus. Well, Lord, here we are. We are His disciples, and we now would sit before Your open book. And we pray, Lord, that as Your word is preached that it would be our Lord Jesus. We know that it is Him who teaches and feeds His flock. Our Father, would You therefore send Your Spirit, that he who speaks would speak Your word and that all of us would have ears to hear, eyes to see; that our hearts would open to Your word, for Thy word is life. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

      Our passage today is John 3, beginning at verse 22 and continuing to verse 30. Using the pew Bible, you’ll find this on page 888. John 3, beginning at verse 22. Listen now to God’s holy and inerrant word:

“After this Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean countryside, and He remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at 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 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.’ John answered, ‘A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves 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. He must increase, but I must decrease.’”

May God be praised through the reading and the hearing of His holy word.

      Of all the spiritual giants in the Bible prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, not one was greater than John the Baptist. Now, that’s not just my opinion. We have it on the authority of Jesus Himself in Matthew 11:11. Jesus said, “Among those born of woman there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.” So here we have the man who, short of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the greatest man who had come.

      And I want to say to you this morning that in my opinion nowhere else in all the accounts of John the Baptist does his greatness shine forth so brightly as here in these verses, when we might say that John is “upstaged” by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, upstaging is a theatrical term. It’s a practice that’s done when the lead actor or actress appears on the stage for the first time. All the other actors and actresses who are there, they turn their backs slightly to the audience, and so people necessarily have to focus their attention on the star who has appeared. That’s what’s going on here. Jesus has arrived, and John the Baptist, great though he is, is being upstaged.

      And here’s what I want to say to you today: that the example that John gives us in this passage shows you and me how we might be useful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what he’s showing us. We’re seeing what it was that made John the Baptist so great, and what will make you and me useful. And I want to say to you that this is what should be the desire of our hearts. You and I have been given by the Lord such grace that the Son of God has come into the world (wonder of wonders!) and He has lived the life we should have lived. He has died the death we deserve to die. He has shed His blood for our sins. We have been saved by grace through faith alone. We are now the people of God.

      Well, what then are we to do with our lives? The answer is that we are to live unto the Lord Jesus. We are to desire, each of us, to be as useful as we can be for Jesus. And Jesus is coming back soon, or we are going to Him soon. One of those is happening relatively soon, and we have a certain amount of years between now and that time. What will matter is what we do in those years to make ourselves useful for the Lord Jesus Christ.

      Well, there are four things I want to point out about John the Baptist in this passage that made him great, and they will make us useful to Jesus, and we will make a difference in our generation.

      Let’s look at the beginning of the passage in verse 22. Jesus has been in Jerusalem, but now He’s gathered His disciples and John the Apostle tells us that He went into the Judean countryside and He remained there with them and was baptizing.

      Now here we see the handoff between the epic ministries of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ. We might say it’s the handoff between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And very shortly after this, John the Baptist is going to be arrested by King Herod and he is going to be put to death, but at this point he’s still conducting his baptizing ministry at the Jordan River. And so what happened was that when Jesus arrived and began His ministry publicly, people who had been under John the Baptist’s care had been listening to him preach and had been part of his little congregation were leaving him and going to Jesus’ congregation, as it were.

      Now this bothered some of the people who were loyal to John. We know how this works. I think it’s interesting here that it takes place in the context of a debate over the mode and form of baptism. It seems we’re always arguing about that! [We know that John the Baptist would have been right…I won’t even go down there!] But they were arguing over this, but what was important was this. Look at verse 26:

“Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and everybody is going over to him.”

Doesn’t that reflect a spirit with which you’re familiar? Is that the spirit that so infects us? You see, here we see perhaps the chief threats – or one of the chief threats – to our usefulness to the Lord, namely a craving for personal prominence, a party spirit that leads us to envy.  How many able ministers, how many strong churches, have lost their gospel influence because they craved worldly prominence? Now we are to crave gospel success, but not worldly prominence and fame and worldly glory. And yet there is too often a sad spirit of competition among Christians. Paul had to deal with that in the early church. We see that in the first chapter of I Corinthians. Kent Hughes argues that the problem if anything is worse today. Listen to what he says:

“Our competitive society is structured to compel us to measure our achievements against others.” Isn’t that true? That’s how we define our success, by comparing ourselves to others. Well, Hughes adds, “Very few things give the enemies of Christianity an occasion for blasphemy like a jealous party spirit among Christians.”

      Now often the case will be, as it is here, that it’s not John the Baptist but it’s his close entourage of loyal followers who are most jealous for his prestige, most prone to criticize someone who seems to be enjoying the Lord’s blessing. It’s always a temptation to Christian leaders to be talked to that way by their followers.

I. Christians should be content with the place and provision that God has given us.

      But John the Baptist rose above it, and he did so – here’s the first thing I want to bring before you – by holding forth a key principle. Here’s how John avoided the distraction of envy, and self-glory…this key principle in verse 27. He says a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. That’s John’s answer. A person can’t even have a single thing except that which God has sovereignly apportioned and given to that person, and we’re to content ourselves therefore with the place and the provision that the sovereign God has given us.

      Our role in life is to be faithful to what God has set before us, instead of playing up our own deeds, instead of seeking to outstrip the success of others. We are to receive our work from God, and we are to accomplish it faithfully. And, you see, this, as John models it here, is the antidote for strife and jealousy among Christians. If we have great gifts…if God has given you great gifts, well, then, it’s from God. Those gifts belong to Him. Use them for Him. Or if God has given you more modest gifts, well, it has pleased Him to do so. Take the modest gifts that God has given you and use them for Him. It seems in the church that everybody wants somebody else’s gifts. We struggle when somebody else is in a position of prominence. God has placed us in the place where He wants us to be. He has given us the gifts and the opportunities. We are to use them for Him.

      Paul puts it this way as an antidote to boasting: “What do you have that you did not receive? If you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (I Corinthians 4:7.) So, if we have gifts, they came from God. If we have experienced success, it is God who has given us success. If we’ve been through a period of struggle, it is God who has sovereignly put us through that time of struggle. It all comes from God, and is for His glory.

      I think that this helps us to distinguish between godly and ungodly ambition, because what I really want to say to you is to be ambitious! And I pray that this church will be ambitious for God’s glory and for the work of the gospel. It warmed my heart to hear your pastor urging you in praying about world missions. My friends, great things are happening in the world and I personally want to be in the game! And I hope that you have a sense of zeal for the way that you can be in the game, as it were. In that the gospel is going forth with power in the world, I pray that you have ambition, but not for the prominence of the name of your church…not so that you’ll be able to stand up above others. We should aspire to do good in all kinds of ways. You individually should aspire to…fathers, to provide for their families…everyone to use their gifts in a way that will especially bring others to faith, nurture people to Christian maturity. Whatever gifts God has given you, I want to urge you to be as useful as you can. Be ambitious about it. And yet what a far cry that is from the selfish ambition that frankly is more natural to our hearts.

      You see, this is where our envy and our strife come from. We want to be glorified. We want to be admired. If that were not true, then why does it bother us if our reputation is not being lifted up? I’ve had to deal with that as a minister. If someone speaks poorly of me and it bothers me, I have ask myself, “Self, why does it bother you so much? If you’re being faithful to the Lord, concerned with what’s happening to your reputation, leave that to the Lord. You do the Lord’s work and don’t be so worried about your reputation, Self.”

      We want high positions, riches, and worldly luxuries. If not, then why are we so anxious when they are threatened? Well, you see, here’s John’s principle for our well-being, for our usefulness to the Lord: if we can replace self-centered ambition with a God-centered ambition, a gospel-zealous ambition, saying, “Whatever I have is given to me from God, I will be content with that”…well, how blessed we’ll be!

      Now the gifted preacher, F.B. Meyer, in London at the end of the nineteenth century, was a man who struggled with this. Some of you will have heard the name of F.B. Meyer. This was a man who was a good enough preacher that over a hundred years later we’re reading his sermons, so this was an outstanding preacher. But he’s preaching at a church in London, England, in the late 1800’s. Can you think of somebody else who’s preaching in London in the late 1800’s? Perhaps Charles Haddon Spurgeon? And I’m sorry! I don’t care who you are, other than the Lord Jesus, Spurgeon is a better preacher than you are! And so F.B. Meyer…here’s this brother who is so able, he’s so gifted, and he’s…oh, he’s working hard all week. He’s pouring his heart into his sermons. He’s praying. And as he goes and stands on the steps of his church on the Lord’s Day morning and watches the carriages go by to the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear the great Charles Spurgeon…. And who can blame them? But he struggles with it. Well, finally…he’s younger than Spurgeon, so Spurgeon’s ministry comes to its end and you’d think it would be F.B. Meyer’s turn. But, oh, no! In His providence and wisdom God raises up in this direction the great G. Campbell Morgan in the early years of the 1900’s – a great preacher! And so now Meyers stands on the steps of his church and he watches the carriages go this way! And he would speak of it. He was a prominent man himself, and he would speak at conferences, and he would be in a sanctuary like this and it would be about half full when he preached. And then Campbell Morgan would come in, and it would be full. And it rankled him and he was envious.

      But now here’s the thing. Meyer was a godly enough man that he realized that he was devoting himself to unworthy thoughts, and he was not serving the Lord as he ought to, and he had this sinful envy. In fact, he found himself being critical of Campbell Morgan and tearing him down, and he realized how wrong that was. And so his strategy was this. He said, ‘Since I’m aware that I envy the man, I’m going to pray for him and pray for God’s blessing on him.’ And as he did so he found that he was rejoicing in the success of his brother; and instead of running Campbell Morgan down, you would hear F.B. Meyer saying, “My! Did you hear that man Campbell Morgan preach? That man’s got the Spirit of God upon him.” (He came across a great innovation. He started praying that God would so overflow Campbell Morgan’s church that they would have no place to sit, and they would have to come to his church! [Laughter.] God answered those prayers and his church was blessed in many ways.)

      Well, it’s to the credit of John the Baptist that he seems to have had no such struggles when it came to Jesus. Look at verse 28. “You bear me witness that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’” You see, John had a sense of his place and his role, and, oh, he was so ambitious in the fulfillment of that which God has given him. I wonder if you have a sense of what God has placed in your hand, the ministry that He’s put before you. Be zealous for it, but understand that’s the place where you fit in. He wanted what we above all should want, that others would see in Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. His whole purpose of his ministry to direct people to Jesus. He was not upset, therefore, when they left him to follow Jesus. He had a key principle: Whatever ministry I have comes from the Lord.

II. Christians should have a joyful attitude as they serve the Lord.

      Now a second thing that we notice in John the Baptist is related to that. It’s actually a by-product, I think, of the first principle, and it is itself also very key to our usefulness, particularly in the long run. And that’s that John the Baptist, far from being frustrated by his waning prominence, all along he maintained a joyful attitude in service of the Lord. That’s the second thing. We see in him a joyful attitude in service to the Lord.

      And he explains this in verse 29. Look at verse 29. He says,

“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.”

Now, the friend of the bridegroom was analogous to our “best man” – except he was a lot more useful than most of our “best mans” are. I find them to be relatively useful, but the friend of the bridegroom was greatly useful. He acted as a liaison between the bride and the groom. He arranged the wedding. He sent the invitations out. He organized the wedding feast and presided at it. And especially, on the wedding night it was the friend of the bridegroom who would bring them together. Literally, he would guard the bridal chamber, and when the groom came and knocked on the door he would listen for the voice that he knew. And when he heard the voice of the bridegroom – this is what John the Baptist is saying – then he would admit the groom, and then he would leave, having joined the man and the wife together.

      Now, you see, here is John’s point. The friend of the bridegroom does not seek attention for himself at the wedding. His whole purpose, his whole calling and joy, is the joy out of love for his friends of bringing them together in love. This is the attitude that will make us useful. Let me quote James Boice when he asks this:

“Do you know the joy that John is talking about? So many people think that joy comes from material possessions, but things of themselves never satisfy. So many others think that joy is found in worldly fame and achievement or pleasure, but these goals are relatively unrewarding. They satisfy at best for a short time. Real joy comes from being able to say to Jesus Christ, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ And then finding that out of the bounty of His grace that God is able to use you, and does use you, especially to bring others into a saving relationship with Himself.”

      Amen to that! The true joy is found in knowing and serving the Lord Jesus Christ.  And, you see, this is why John the Baptist wasn’t frustrated when Jesus came. He wanted to point to that Light. He wanted to hail Jesus as Savior. John Calvin puts it this way:

“John has attained the height of his wishes. He has nothing further to desire, for he sees Christ reigning and people listening to Him as He deserves.”

Let me put this in the form of a question. Here’s my question. What is the true and chief and great reward of serving Jesus? I’ve said we need to be useful to Jesus; we want to make our lives count for our generation. What’s the reward for us, really? And what kind of reward is going to make us fruitful in service to the Lord? It’s this. The true and chief reward of serving the Lord Jesus Christ, my friends, is the joy of serving the Lord Jesus Christ. That you and I could know the Son of God who came into the world to save us, and that we should then bear His name in this world – Him who is the Lord of glory, who does and will reign forever and ever – and that we should be His emissaries and ambassadors in this world, that His grace should work through our lives – I cannot think of anything more staggering to my mind. And you see, when this is the joy of our lives, when we say “Here’s what I’m looking for in life, simply that I might be used to serve Jesus,” then you and I will become useful to the Lord Jesus Christ.

      Now, John the Baptist put this very eloquently. In Luke 3, he said, “He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” Now, you may have heard that even slaves in ancient Jewish society were not required to loosen the thong of a sandal. And so if you were a slave you had to do all kinds of menial service, but not the sandal! You were not expected to go to the dirty feet and take the sandal off. And John the Baptist says, ‘You know, what is too menial for a slave to do for his master is not only beneath me, but when it comes to Jesus it’s above me. I would serve Him, that I would do anything for One so glorious as Jesus.’ You see, this is why knowing Jesus and having your life centered on the grace of God in Jesus Christ will give us joy and make us useful to the Lord.

III. Christians must resolve to make themselves little and make much of Christ.

      Thirdly, John was especially made useful as a believer by his humble resolution. First he has this key principle that I am and all that I have to do is what God has called me to do. Secondly, a joyful attitude. I rejoice to serve Jesus. And to that he adds a humble resolution. Leon Morris describes these as some of the greatest words ever to fall from the lips of mortal man. John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” He must increase, but I must decrease. You see, he saw that his ministry must, was designed, would be blessed to give way to the ministry of Jesus Christ. And I want to say to you that the people who are most useful to Jesus, the people that you and I know that make the most difference in their generation for Jesus, are those who are resolved to make little of themselves that much of Jesus will be made in and through their lives.

      Now, that’s not very natural for us. You and I again, we love prominence. We are prideful people. But I want to say that this is of the very essence of the Christian experience. In fact, when John says that he must decrease, that is the third of three great musts in John 3. You know John 3 begins with Nicodemus, and Jesus says to Nicodemus the Pharisee in John 3:3, “You must be born again.” And then when Nicodemus doesn’t understand, Jesus says, “The Son of Man must be lifted up” on the cross. That’s the second great must of John 3. And then at the end, John the Baptist said that those who have been born again because Jesus died for their sins on the cross, they must decrease so that Jesus will increase. This is not optional for a fruitful Christian. It’s at the very essence of the Christian life and calling that we are born again by trusting in Jesus who died on the cross, and that we decrease that He would increase in and through our lives.

      A.W. Tozer says this:

“True humility is a healthy thing. The humble man accepts the truth about himself. He believes that in his fallen nature dwells no good thing. He acknowledges that apart from God he is nothing, has nothing, knows nothing, and can do nothing. But this knowledge does not discourage him, because he knows that in Christ he is somebody. He knows that he is dearer to God than the apple of His eye. He knows that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him; that is, he can do all that lies within the will of God for him to do. And when this belief becomes so much a part of a man that it begins to operate as an unconscious reflex, well, then the emphasis of his life shifts from self to Christ, where it always should have been. And that humble man, that humble woman, is thus set free to serve God in his generation without the thousand hindrances he or she knew before.”

Isn’t that true? If we can say “Let Christ be exalted in my life. Let me decrease, and let Him be glorified in and through me,” a thousand hindrances will fall away from us. This is why all of God’s greatest servants have been humble people: Moses, the great deliverer of the Old Testament, was called in the Old Testament the meekest of all men; David was “a man after God’s own heart,” as he was a humble servant; John the Baptist, here called by Jesus the greatest man ever to live prior to His coming…he said, “He must increase; I must decrease.” And of course this was the way of Jesus himself. He said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

      Well, I pray that you all will resolve, having been saved by the grace of the Son of God, that you would desire to be useful in your life for Jesus. That’s what our lives are for, to serve the gospel and the glory of Christ. And I’ve pointed out three things that John the Baptist shows us: the key principle that says what I have is what God has given me, and I’m going to be faithful to that; and then a joyful attitude, the second thing. What a joy that I should serve Jesus! And then, thirdly, a key resolution: Let Him increase; let me decrease.

IV. Christians must have a consuming passion for Christ.

      I want to conclude with one last thing we see in this passage. I think it’s the characteristic that in all of this that motivated John is this: a consuming passion for Christ. A consuming passion for Christ because of His love for us, and the love that we have for Him.

      You see, when the Holy Spirit inspired John the Baptist to speak here about the bride and the bridegroom, the groom coming and the bride giving herself to him, the Holy Spirit knew He was talking about you and me. And this imagery of the bride and the groom that emphasizes the love and passion of a man and a wife together in marriage is a picture of our salvation. And so if you and I want to be useful to the Lord, then we will have…this is what is happening here…you and I will have the same passion for Jesus that a bride is to have for her groom.

Application.

      With that in mind, let me conclude with three brief applications by which we can make ourselves useful to Jesus.

      The first is that a bride prepares herself for her groom. I suppose there are places, maybe even in America, where a woman runs her fingers through her hair, slaps on some lipstick, and shows up at the church for her wedding.  But I want to assure you that South Carolina is not one of those places, and I strongly doubt that Mississippi is, either! No, no, no! A bride who has a passion for her husband…she does everything possible, everything humanly possible, to make herself as beautiful as she can be on that one day when she’s giving herself to her groom.

      I performed a wedding a year or so ago with my sister-in-law – my wife’s sister. And we were staying at the bride’s house the morning of the wedding. And I got to teach my boys how to be scarce while women are working on their beauty, because we didn’t want to be in the way! But when those doors open…I love this at weddings! One of my favorite parts at a wedding is when the door opens and she presents herself. And whatever is 110% beauty for this woman, it’s right there. I’ll never forget the day that my wife came in all her beauty to me. And, you see, if we have this passion for Jesus Christ, then what are we going to do now as we prepare to join Him in glory? We’re going to beautify our characters. We’re going to be working with the word of God and prayer in our hearts that we would be spiritually beautiful presenting ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you doing that for Jesus? Do you realize how much it matters to your Savior what’s going on in your mind and your heart? And how much He desires the beauty that He wants to work in you through His word and through the ministry of His gospel? Look, if you love Him and serve Him, you’ll make yourself beautiful.

      Secondly, a godly wife wants her husband to shine. I like to see that. It’s always nice when there’s a godly woman, and she wants her husband to be put forth and to be presented in a good way. And I remember…I was speaking of Charles Spurgeon. I remember a great story about Spurgeon in nineteenth century England. A group of American evangelicals were visiting London for the weekend, and their friends said, “While you’re in London, you must listen to the two great preachers of London, the great Joseph Parker in all of his eloquence, and the great Charles Spurgeon.” And so Sunday morning they went to Joseph Parker’s church, and he was magnificent. Have you ever read a Joseph Parker sermon? It is the most eloquent thing you’ve ever read. Shakespeare has nothing on this man. And so after the service is over, they stumbled into the street and one of them said to his friend, “I do declare, it must be said, for it cannot be denied that Joseph Parker is the greatest preacher that ever there was.” And everyone agreed, and they said, “Well, why even bother going to hear this Spurgeon fellow? Let’s come back to hear the great preacher Joseph Parker tonight.” But one of them said, “No, you know people are going to want to hear a report about Spurgeon, so let’s just go to his church anyway.” So they did. And there in the Metropolitan Tabernacle they heard Charles Spurgeon preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they came out into the street after the service, and one of them turned to his friend and said, “I do declare, it must be said, it cannot be denied that Jesus Christ is the greatest Savior that ever there was.”

      Do you see the difference? There’s nothing against Joseph Parker in that, but like a bride who wants her husband to shine, let you and I in all things want people to say of us, ‘Is not Jesus Christ a wonderful Savior and God of grace!’ If we want to serve Him, He will.

      And then, lastly, a bride takes a husband and she places herself under his authority. And in like manner let us be ready – always ready – to receive the call of Jesus Christ on our lives. If there’s a need that you can meet, meet it in His name in obedience to His call. If there’s a sacrifice that you and I can make that will really make a difference, let us be the ones to step forward in Jesus’ name and say, “What a joy it is…for my groom, my Lord, my Savior…to sacrifice for His gospel.”

      Where there’s a darkness around us (and brothers and sisters, is there not darkness around us today?)…let us in His name shine the light of His gospel. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” And so wherever Jesus calls us, however Jesus calls us, let’s be ready, let’s be willing, let’s be prepared to serve in His name. Let’s give joy to His heart, and let’s be the useful Christians, my friends, that our generation so greatly needs you and me to be: servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, driven by joy and by a love for our Lord, that the gospel of His grace would shine through our lives. That is what our times require.

      Let’s pray.

      Father, I thank You for this joy for me today to preach Your word to this dear congregation, and I pray Your blessing upon it. Would You sent Your Holy Spirit upon this church and upon the men and the women and the children, that their eyes would be open to see Jesus in His glory, to know Jesus and His love, and to have inflamed within them a surpassing consuming desire for Him. And, Lord, would You use this church that the gospel would go forth, that many would be saved, that the Christian faith would make a difference in our time, to the praise of Your name, through Jesus Christ. We pray in His name. Amen.