Men of the New Testament: "John the Baptist" by Landon Bryant - Part 1

Can you all hear me?

Test one, two.

Is that better?

Okay.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Landon Bryant.

If you don't know me, this quarter here in the auditorium, various men are going to

be going through different characters in the New Testament.

I have the privilege of going first so I can make sure to set the bars as adequately as

possible for everyone.

As you can see, we're going to be discussing John the Baptist.

So quick disclaimer, John the Baptist has an abundance of material to talk about, so

I get to absolve myself of responsibility because we will not be able to cover it all.

So there will be some things I skip over or some things that we don't go in-depth on,

but hopefully you'll get a good summary here by the time we depart.

So if you will, turn with me to Matthew chapter 1, and when you get there, back it up a page

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

into Malachi.

So Malachi 4, 1 through 6.

I'll give everybody just a second there and then I'll read it aloud, but Malachi 4, 1

through 6.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every

worker of wickedness will be chaffed.

And the day that is coming will set them aflame, says Yahweh of hosts, so that it will leave

them neither roots nor branch.

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you

will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

And you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the sole of your feet

on the day which I am preparing, says Yahweh of hosts.

Remember the law of Moses, my servant, even the statues and judgment which I commanded

him in Horeb for all Israel.

Behold, I'm going to send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and

awesome day of Yahweh.

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of the children

to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land, devoting it to destruction.

So it's important to note here that this bit from Malachi is written roughly 400 years

after the death of the prophet Elijah.

But it says, I'm going to send you Elijah before the coming.

And so by the time Christ rolls around, there is this strong conviction amongst the Jewish

people that Elijah was coming back.

We'll briefly see this at the crucifixion as well.

So why was this expectation of Elijah's return?

So if we go to 2 Kings 11-12, we'll see, most of us I'd say was familiar with this, this

idea that Elijah never died.

He was taken up in a whirlwind into heaven, there was no burial, there was no body.

Maybe later in 2 Kings they even go on a search party looking for him.

In 2 Kings 16-18 it says, then they said to him, behold now, there are with your servants

fifty excellent men.

Please let them go and search for your master, lest the spirit of Yahweh has taken him up

and cast him on some mountain or into some valley.

And he said, you shall not send.

But when they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, send.

They sent therefore fifty men, and they searched three days, but did not find him.

So they returned to him while he was staying at Jericho, and he said to them, did I not

say to you, do not go?

So ever since that day that he was taken up in the whirlwind, the Jews have been looking

for him.

Prophets are saying he's coming back, the Jews continue to look for him.

The expectation is still woven into modern day Jewish life.

At the Passover ceremony that they celebrate, the cup is set out for Elijah.

There's an actual cup they set out and fill with drink waiting for Elijah.

They even go through the process at some point of opening the door to the house that they're

celebrating in, waiting for Elijah's return.

He's given a chair of honor at Jewish circumcision ceremonies.

They even sing a song about him returning to usher in the Messianic age.

And then again, even at the cross when Jesus began to call out, they thought it was him

calling Elijah to return.

So it's nearly as deep as you can get in the mindset of the Jewish people.

And so it's important to pause here.

This quarter is supposed to be about New Testament characters, and we're spending a lot of time

in the Old Testament.

Spoiler alert, there's a little more time to spend there, but this idea of the return

of Elijah is so rich in the Hebrew text, we're going to look at another example of,

so we can get a good understanding of the significance of John the Baptist.

So in Isaiah 40, verse 3, and surrounding, we see, a voice is calling, prepare the way

Isaiah 40:3

for Yahweh in the wilderness, make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

And so this is written roughly 700 years before the birth of John the Baptist.

Isaiah describes a herald who will prepare the way for the Lord, someone who will make

straight in the desert a highway for our God.

This should sound rather familiar to you because, let me back up here, so this should sound

rather familiar to you.

All four Gospels attribute this line of making the highway straight in the desert, a voice

crying out in the wilderness, all four Gospels attribute this to John the Baptist.

I do want to draw your attention though, so in this verse of Isaiah, it actually does,

in the Hebrew it uses the word Yahweh, it uses the word, more or less referring to the

Alpha and Omega, as the one whom Isaiah says they're preparing the way for, they're preparing

the way for the creator of all things.

And then all four Gospels come along later and apply this to John the Baptist.

The implication being, who is John the Baptist preparing the way for?

He's preparing the way for Jesus.

By this verse in Isaiah, they're preparing the way for God to walk among us.

I'll pause there because this is a pretty big thing, so are there any questions or thoughts

about that, comments?

Anybody have anything they want to share with us?

Right, that intertestamental period.

And he picks up right where Malachi leaves off, yeah, that's a great point.

If you didn't hear what Chuck said, so there's this gap between Malachi and the New Testament

and more or less that's exactly, you know, where the Old Testament leaves off is right

where the Gospels pick up with the voice crying out in the wilderness being John the

Baptist.

Okay, so there's this expectation that Elijah is coming back.

Do we think that he is Elijah?

Well the good news is we don't have to worry about that because they ask him directly in

Scripture and we get to work through that.

So in John 1, 19 and following, you know, some folks like to say this is the Bible supporting

reincarnation, but we'll see why that's not the case.

So if we start here in John 19, it says, and this is the witness of John, when the Jews

sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ, and they asked him, what

then?

Are you Elijah?

And he said, I am not.

Are you the prophet?

And he answered, no.

Therefore they said to him, who are you?

So that we may give an answer to those who sent us.

What do you say about yourself?

He said, I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness.

Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said.

Now they had sent from the Pharisees and they asked him and said to him, why then are you

baptizing if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?

And answered him saying, I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know.

This one is he who comes after me of who I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.

So he tells us directly that he is not Elijah reborn or returned from the whirlwind that

took him away, but he does say, I am the one who the prophet spoke about.

I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness.

And just to bring this home, later on in Matthew, just after the transfiguration, in

Matthew 17, Jesus will actually confirm for us that yes, John the Baptist is the Elijah

that had already come.

Not as Elijah reincarnated, but one who came in the spirit and the mission of Elijah.

I'll pause there.

Any thoughts or questions up to this point?

Okay.

All right.

So now we're going to talk a little bit more about John the Baptist's ministry directly.

So during his ministry, there are several stories to cover here, but we'll begin with

the baptism of Jesus.

So John the Baptist is the one who baptized Jesus in Matthew 3, 13 through 17.

This is where Jesus goes out while John is baptizing and says, you know, John, I want

you to baptize me.

So picking up in verse 13, then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John

to be baptized by him.

But John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you and do you come

to me?

But Jesus answered and said to him, permitted at this time for in this way, it is fitting

for us to fulfill all righteousness.

And he permitted him.

And after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were

opened and he saw in the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.

And behold, there was a voice out of the heavens saying, this is my beloved son and whom I'm

well pleased.

So there's several things to unpack here, right?

So we see one Jesus reinforcing the importance of baptism itself.

He's our example in so doing that he did it himself.

And after the baptism, the heavens open, the spirit descends like a dove, you know, confirming

for us if there was any doubt up to this point, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased.

It also, in this, embedded in the beginning of it is John protesting.

And why does he protest?

What does he say?

I'm not worthy.

This is a continual theme and we'll unpack this a little bit more as we go, but John

makes a lot of proclamations about Jesus during his ministry that we as Christians should

be repeating.

We'll do an analysis of a few of those in a moment.

But this idea of, you know, I am not worthy.

Jesus is greater than I is something that we see.

In this case, and in more cases as well, where John is always doing his best to point

to the one that is greater.

Right, right, and as they say, who takes away the sins of the world.

So if you couldn't hear, Chuck, there's more than just the passages we quoted in the Old

Testament that refer to the coming, the one of Elijah coming back, and there's several

instances there, and we'll cover, we'll see references to a few of those as well as we

go, but thank you for that, Chuck.

And so just to reinforce that, John's entire ministry is really defined by proclaiming

the one who is to come, and that's a similar message for us as Christians.

We should always be proclaiming the one who has come.

There's a slight difference, right, so Elijah never got, at least on his side of eternity,

that his ministry existed on, the resurrection, all those things had not happened yet, the

full story was not complete, but we'll see that he still, in those circumstances, makes

a rather robust, if still incomplete, version of the Gospel.

So some of those proclamations, in Matthew 3, verse 2, is where we see one of these famous

Matthew 3:2

verses, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

This is important because, one, he's still proclaiming, but later on, in just one chapter

later, Jesus will preach this same message in Matthew 4, reinforcing the kingdom of heaven

is at hand.

Next to one of those proclamations we see in John 1, verse 30, is where John the Baptist

John 1:30

states, he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.

So this is a verse proclaiming the deity of Christ, right, he's saying, I may be older

than him, but he is greater than I, and that's, culturally, that would be a very countercultural

thing to say.

A big, I guess, theme, you would say, is respecting your elders to a much more degree than we

see in our society today, even though there's not much of a time difference between them.

Another proclamation in John 3, verse 30, he must increase, I must decrease, and so

John 3:30

we as Christians, every interaction should leave people with more of Jesus and less of

us.

That's something for us to remember, right?

Every time you get a chance, people should know more about Jesus than they know about

you, within the right circumstances.

John 3, verse 36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

John 3:36

Again this is a proclamation we as Christians should all be making, and believe as well.

Luke 3, verse 16, he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Luke 3:16

So John the Baptist, his name, he's got it in the name, he's literally walking around

baptizing people, immersing them in water, and he tells us, I may be baptizing with water,

but there is coming one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

So proclaiming the, let's call it the evolution of baptism to come.

Mark 1, verse 7, I am not fit to untie the strap of his sandal.

Mark 1:7

This is reinforcing the idea that we are the clay, he is the potter, and in every way he

is superior to us, and we should look to him to be our example.

Remember one of these proclamations, John 1, verse 29, like we were saying earlier,

John 1:29

behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This should be our mission.

We should be grabbing people by the shoulders and pointing them and saying, behold the Lamb

of God who takes away the sin of the world, so that they can see what he's done for us.

So just as a reminder, the entire ministry of John the Baptist is defined by pointing

people to Christ in the same way that our walk in Christ should be that way.

Constantly pointing people, saying this is the way.

This is, not that you're the way, but you are showing people to the way.

I'll pause there, any thoughts or questions or comments?

Okay, and so as we mentioned, John departs before the crucifixion and resurrection, but

we see that he has a remarkably robust gospel message.

It's not complete, emphasis on that, it's not complete.

We see later in Acts 19 where it's addressed, right, those people that knew only the baptism

of John, that evolution of baptism, right, where they have to know the full story now

that it's been revealed, but the framework is largely there in John the Baptist's ministry.

And so with what we have so far, this all sounds pretty comforting and uplifting, and

Jesus even calls John the Baptist the greatest of those born among women.

So in Matthew 11, we see that.

So just think about that, though.

God walking among us, the incarnate Christ here on earth tells us that John the Baptist

is the greatest of those born among women.

So, born among women, that is what we would call a Hebrew idiom, and it just, it's emphasizing

humanity.

If you go to Job 14 verse 1, you'll see that, Job 14 verse 1, man who is born of woman is

Job 14:1 Job 14:1

short-lived and full of turmoil.

It's just this emphasis on his humanity, but it's saying, of those that are human, he's

the greatest.

And so this is saying, in no uncertain terms, that John the Baptist is the greatest that's

ever drawn breath.

They're all in line behind him, Moses, Abraham, the whole lot, right, the lot included.

And one of the reasons for that is John has the immense privilege of pointing and saying

there he is, that's the guy, that's the one.

Not one is coming or, you know, there he is, there's an important difference, right, a

lot of, well, not a lot, all of the Old Testament is pointing towards Christ, and John the Baptist

gets the immense privilege of saying there he is, not he'll be here soon or anything

like that, but behold, the Lamb of God, the one greater has arrived, right, there's this

idea of one greater than Moses is coming, well, now he's here.

Okay.

And building on that, right, so Jesus declares, truly I say to you, among those born of women

there is not anyone who is greater than John the Baptist, that's Matthew 11, verse 11,

Matthew 11:11

Hebrew idiom, okay.

But then he does this 180 towards the end of it, he closes that statement out with saying,

yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

I think it's, you know, important to notice here, right, all throughout Scripture we see

imperfect people getting used to serve the will of God.

Abraham was a liar, David was an adulterer, like these great figures of our faith have

their imperfections, and that should be, you know, should be very comforting to us, right,

there's a lot to say there, right, there's a lot that you can learn from being used for

these imperfect people.

Don't ever think that God can't use you, you know, if you're willing.

But this in isolation is pretty staggering, if you ask me, but I've purposefully skipped

over the context of when Jesus gives this statement.

So if we expand out in Matthew 11 there, 2 through 11, we see that John the Baptist is

in prison, and he begins to wonder, right, his entire ministry he's been proclaiming

the story, right, he's been telling everyone, he's been pointing them to the Lamb of God,

and he's got to be thinking, he's in prison, he's got to be thinking, you know, I've done

all the things the prophets say I should do, and yet here I am in prison.

Have I been wrong?

Is Jesus really the Messiah?

And he sends his disciples to ask Christ directly, are you the one to come, or should we look

for another?

After all John has been through at this point, his entire ministry, you know, the locusts

and the honey, everything he's been through, he has his doubts, or at least lack of certainty,

let's call it.

Some people don't like to call it doubts, but I think it's a doubt.

And Jesus tells his disciples, Jesus tells the disciples of John, go and tell John what

you hear and see.

So he doesn't give them a simple yes or no.

Why do we think that is?

And we're going to unpack that in a minute here, but anybody have any thoughts about

why he doesn't just give a simple yes or no?

He says look at the proof, yes, okay, we're going to see that in just a moment.

So what he does is he gives them a list of signs.

These signs in particular are signs that in the Old Testament are reserved exclusively

for the power of God.

So if we look at the, we're going to have him broke it out here at the table, but he

basically says, go tell John what you hear and see.

And he says, tell them these things.

Tell them that the blind receive their sight, something that's never done by the prophets

in the Old Testament, but in Psalms and Isaiah we have verses telling us that the Lord will,

the blind will receive their sight by the power of the Lord.

Similarly, in Isaiah, the lame will walk by the power of the Lord.

The deaf will hear.

Lepers will be cleansed.

Now we do see an instance where that happens, but it's in that context of 2 Kings where

Naaman is purified of his leprosy.

It's attributed to being a divine act.

It's not something that the prophet did, it's something that God did in that case.

Similarly, the dead are raised.

While Elijah and Elisha do have a role in that, they are petitioning God to bring the

dead back to life.

It's not something they do of their own power.

And then lastly, the poor hear the good news.

This is the big one, right?

Prophets do proclaim the good news, but we see if we go to Luke 4, 20-21, Luke 4, 20-21.

Can someone read that for us?

Yeah, and so this is the verse that Jesus gets up in the temple and reads and says,

the poor have good news proclaimed to them.

When he's done reading that from the scroll, he sits down and says, in your hearing, this

prophecy has been fulfilled, essentially.

So Jesus, if we look at this, when Jesus is answering the question to John's disciples

of are you the one to come, instead of giving that simple yes or no answer, he gives an

answer that says, let the evidence speak for itself.

These are the things that are happening, these are the miracles that I'm working, this is

what's going on in my ministry.

Any learned Jew that was familiar with the scripture would know these are the things

reserved exclusively for the power of God.

We're talking about John the Baptist tonight, but this is Jesus in his Jewish way saying,

I am God, I am a divine, I'm the divine.

So this is an example of how Jesus does these things, he doesn't give simple yes or nos,

he gives a more thorough and more robust answer of why it's yes, I am the one to come.

I'll pause there, so any thoughts or questions around that, any comments?

Okay, so as Gary mentioned, Jesus lets the evidence speak for itself.

We're not discussing the deity of Christ here, but I would encourage you, if you do like

this topic, this is a very rich subject to go through, this idea of these things being

reserved exclusively for the power of God.

Back to John the Baptist, directly anyways.

And yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

So we see this line at the end of Matthew 11 that we just went through there, where

John is just proclaimed, John is proclaimed to be the greatest of those born among women,

and then Jesus tells us he's the least in the kingdom of heaven.

So that 180 that Jesus just gives us there, where he is the least in the kingdom of heaven,

some people have taken that to mean that John is actually not in the kingdom of heaven,

so I think we should put that to rest in case you've ever heard that before.

What this is, this is saying that those that are in the kingdom are in a superior position

to those on the other side of the resurrection.

It's not saying John is excluded from heaven or anything like that.

What it's saying is up to the point where John was ultimately beheaded in prison, John

only got to stand up to the edge of the completion of what the prophets had foretold.

So it's this tension that gets introduced by saying John the Baptist is the greatest

among born of women, at least in the kingdom.

Any thoughts, questions, comments there up to this point?

Moving a little faster than I anticipated.

So in the next section here we're going to unpack that a little more.

Throughout the scripture, the kingdom of heaven is referred to in this Jewish wedding type

of language.

So we see things, you know, there's examples, there's numerous weddings where they're attended,

there's a lot of language about Jesus being the bridegroom.

And if we look in Matthew, I'm sorry, if we look in John 3, 29, John the Baptist calls

himself the friend of the bridegroom.

And so in John 3, 29, he says, 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.

So to reinforce this idea that John is in the kingdom, the friend of the bridegroom

is not going to be standing at the gate, he's going to be inside the feast.

John was invited, so he's definitely invited to the feast to come in the next age.

Not only was he invited, he prepared the table, he announced the host, pointed other

guests towards their seats, he just didn't get to sit down before his earthly departure.

That's what this sort of tension that Jesus introduces.

And we should see that similarly, right, we, as we've discussed a few times, we should

be following this pattern that John the Baptist lays out in his ministry where we're proclaiming

the one to come, we're pointing people to the table, we're telling them who the host

is, trying to get other people to their seats, this idea of our ministry should mirror most

of the things, or a lot of the things that John the Baptist did and is something important

for us to take into account.

What this means for us, so that those of us that are on this side of the resurrection

have access to a greater revelation, a greater certainty than John and all the prophets before

him.

And we have a responsibility, right, with that greater knowledge, we have a greater

responsibility to do something with it.

Building on that, so his entire ministry is defined not by who he is as a person, he's

continually proclaiming that the one greater than he is here, and that should be a constant

reminder for us.

It should never be about us as an individual, it should always be about what Christ has

done for the individual and for the whole.

Just a reminder of some of those proclamations that John makes about Christ, repent, the

kingdom of heaven is still at hand, he must increase, I must decrease, every interaction

should leave more of Jesus, less of us, behold the Lamb of God, again we should grab people

by the shoulders and point them to the one who paid the debt we could never pay.

And just to reiterate, we get to proclaim more than John could.

He didn't get to see the crucifixion, the resurrection, he didn't get to see those things

that come to total completion that he was foretelling.

We get to tell people Christ died for our sins, rose again, and the gift that he offers

us is eternal life.

As a reminder, this is no matter how imperfect we are, God can still use us if we are willing

to proclaim that message, to build on the ministry framework that John the Baptist laid

for us.

With the time we have left here, I'm just going to go through a couple of comparisons

and contrasts between Elijah and John the Baptist.

So we'll start with a couple of shared ideas.

Again we didn't cover everything about John the Baptist here, but some things that Elijah

and John the Baptist have in similarity.

They're both sort of described as being out in the wilderness wearing this clothing of

camel skin with belts, they're a very distinct figure, you're not going to miss them, they're

going to stand out like a sore thumb, if you will.

Just walking down the road between cities, everybody would know who that is in both scenarios.

They both lived and ministered in the wilderness, like we said, and if we look at a parallel

of their ministry, they're calling the nation to repentance.

That's some key themes, right, so not only do they look alike, but they actually have

similar ministries as well.

In both cases they confronted the ruling power of their day, so in both stories we'll see

examples where Elijah and John the Baptist have these run-ins with the rulers of their

local area, some drama that comes up, obviously John the Baptist is ultimately beheaded, and

then similar to the nation to repentance, their ministries are tied to Israel's spiritual

renewal.

Some distinctions, as we mentioned earlier, so John foretold and introduced the Messiah

in person.

It's important that we understand and emphasize that as much as it's great that we have these

prophets saying, one is coming, we cannot overemphasize that he's here now.

He's already done what he has to do, there he is, and we should be just as eager to share

that with people as John was.

John did not perform any miracles, so if we go to John 10, verse 41, if someone wants

John 10:41

to read that when they get there, John 10, verse 41.

John 10:41

Thank you for that, so we see here this emphasis that he did no signs, that he did no wonders.

The thing I take away from that is, you don't do any signs or wonders either, but John had

an incredibly important ministry.

His mission was just as important without any of those signs, and that should be a lesson

for us as well.

As we mentioned, he baptized with water and tells us, he starts pointing to the spirit

baptism, the holy fire and spirit that baptism is to come.

He called himself only a voice, not a prophet, just an interesting emphasis on what I would

say is his humility.

Never do we see him trying to build himself up, he's always trying to point us to the

one greater.

Personally, I got to identify Jesus as the Lamb of God, and then again as we've said

a few times, we get to proclaim an even greater or even more complete message than John did

because we're on this side of the crucifixion and resurrection.

Pause there, any thoughts or questions that come to mind?

Okay, let's see here.

So what we see in his ministry culminates, if we look through a couple of just a summary,

if you will, of his ministry, it even begins in the womb.

So there's the story of Jesus and John the Baptist, if you will, meeting while they're

both in the womb.

I think there's a lot that we could draw from those stories, right?

Everything from, literally from womb to grave, he's been excited about Jesus.

I think that's something that we should all reflect on, have we always been excited about

Jesus?

Literally in the womb he gets excited because there he is, he's here.

And, you know, again, important to emphasize, as much as he does these wonderful things

and has his ministry, he has his doubts, and he still ends up being the greatest of those

born of women.

I think we should all take from that, you know, we're going to have our seasons that

we're on a high for Jesus, we're going to have our seasons where we're on a maybe not

so high, and that's okay, right?

We still have our examples to look to in Scripture that walk us through those high

points and those low points and ultimately get us to the cross.

Again, we have the privilege of proclaiming a more complete and robust message for John,

John the Baptist, than he ever did.

We get to tell everyone that the lamb has came and the price has been paid and that

our sins can be forgiven if we're just willing to accept the gift that he offers us.

Oh, yes, Andy?

Yeah, no, that's a good point.

We see in the, at some point they come to him and ask, you know, why do your disciples

not fast?

And Jesus says, why would they fast when they're supposed to be here celebrating with me?

There'll be a time for that later, right?

So it's another emphasis on the importance of, there he is, we've got to be doing this

the right thing, because there he is.

Okay, any thoughts, questions, comments before, yes?

Yeah, no, for those of you who couldn't hear, you know, this idea of there is no greater

mission than to proclaim the Savior and we should be doing the same, and the guy that

probably did that the best dies in a prison cell and gets beheaded.

And so we should never think that, oh, I'm doing all the right things, why is it not

going that great for me?

Well, I'd say this, Jesus did all the right things and at least in an earthly sense it

didn't go that well for him in the end either.

But you know, we do have this promise, this proclamation that those of you that have accepted

the gift and followed the mission that was laid out for us will have an eternal reward,

an eternal life that will far exceed anything we could ever imagine here on this earth.

But no, it's a great point, it's a good reminder for us, right, if you look throughout the

ministry of John the Baptist, it's always, like we said, it's always pointing towards

someone greater than he, he's never really trying to build himself up, he's trying to

tell everyone how great this one that's here is.

It's never, it's not about him.

Okay, just this idea, just as a closing thought, right, just building on that, he must increase

but I must decrease.

This idea that everything in our lives should be about getting more of Jesus into it, getting

it into our lives, getting it into the lives of those around us, those we encounter.

He must increase but I must decrease.

No matter what we're doing, no matter what interaction we have, no matter if it's one

of those high points of life, whether it's one of those low points of life, he must increase,

I must decrease.

We see that in John 3, verse 30.

John 3:30

There is no greater mission on this side of earth than increasing the message and reward

that Christ offers us, right, we should take that mission very seriously, just like John

the Baptist did.

No matter what we do, right, it's our job to proclaim, right, it's our job to point

to other people but just as it was in the ministry of John the Baptist, some people

aren't going to listen, some people are not going to believe and that's not anything we

can influence, right?

We see in the New Testament that I planted a pious water but God gave the increase.

He's the one that will change their hearts.

It's just our job to keep time and time again proclaiming the message, making sure that

we are grabbing them by the shoulders and saying, there he is, he's here, he came and

he's offered you this tremendous gift, right, that is yours for the taking.

So with that, thank you for your time and we'll get out of here five minutes early.

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