Sermon
Last Words of a Humble Man
October 15, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our Bibles. If you're using the pew Bible it's again page 715. We'll get to 716 one of these days. But we're just enjoying ourselves learning as much as we can from this great Gospel. And if you're with us today, we just move from portion to portion, sometimes word to word, but we're trying to grow in the knowledge of God's word. And so our reading today is from John chapter 3 verses 22 to 30.

After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. Now John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified-behold He is baptizing, and all our coming to Him!" John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, "I am not the Christ, but, I have been sent before Him." 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. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.

Humility is a virtue all men preach, none practice, and yet everyone is content to hear. So wrote an English jurist in the seventeenth century. Now these to words are not universally true, of course, but they are true for many people and they characterize much of human nature. Although people praise humility, most persons think of themselves much as a character in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera who said, "You've no idea what a poor opinion I have of myself...and how little I deserve it." We all recognize that humility is important and desirable. It is to one of the great Christian virtues. It's the opposite of pride. But where does it come from if it's so difficult to attain? And does anyone, in fact, possess it? Someone has said, that if we do not learn humility, we will learn humiliation. The only way up is down on your knees, and humility is to make a right estimate of oneself. Humility is such a frail and delicate thing that the one who dares to think that he has it, proves by that single thought that he has it not.

We noted that, I've said that the opposite of humility is pride. You might write down the personal notes there to the side. I'm going to give you just some verses that relate to this whole subject of pride. Now that's the opposite of what we want to talk about today, but Proverbs 11:2 Solomon says, when pride, Proverbs 11:2, when pride comes then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 16:8 says, pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. And Proverbs 21:4 says, haughty eyes and a proud heart it's the lamp of the wicked and it's sin. There are many examples of pride. Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey Him and let Israel go? And his pride brought Egypt from glory to shame, and his nation in utter defeat. Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 32:24 says, But Hezekiah's heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him. Therefore the Lord's wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. The king's pride has its effect upon his nation and the judgment of God comes. James in finishing up his little letter at the end of the New Testament says, all boasting, James 4:16 says, all boasting is evil. So we're not talking about pride today. We're talking about the opposite, humility.

And back to our notes. In our lesson today we learn humility from John the Baptist. His closing words were, He must increase and I must decrease. And we've already seen that part of the aim of the writer of the fourth Gospel was to ensure that John the Baptist received his proper place as the forerunner of Jesus, but no higher place than that. There were those who were still ready to call John master and Lord. Let's pause there. You say, why would that be so Pastor? Well, during those years that John is preaching, of course, there were many festivals and many celebrations down in this city of Jerusalem, and people from all over the known world, Jewish people would come, and, of course they'd hear about John and maybe they went down to the river. We know this, that John had baptized many and they'd gone back to countries that the Mediterranean. In fact, in Acts chapter 19, Paul arrives way up in Ephesus in Asia Minor and he meets some folks and he asks them about their faith. Well, we've been baptized with John's baptism. That's all they knew. So there were people all the way around the known world who thought of John as their master and their lord, and the writer to the fourth Gospel wishes to show that John had a high place, but that the highest place was reserved for Jesus alone.

To understand the setting for these words of our text today, we must recognize the fact that the Baptist achieved a great deal of popularity as the result of his preaching. Luke tells us that multitudes went out to hear John. Matthew tells us that people came from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of Jordan. And, apparently, the multitudes included all segments of the population - the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the tax collectors, the soldiers, the rich, the poor, and John speaks of an official delegation from Jerusalem, which would mean that he also had the religious people that were coming to hear him preach. In fact, we are told that on some occasions John was praised as a reincarnation maybe of Elijah or one of the other prophets.

Now the question is this, why was John so popular? Well, there are two or three things that I might suggest, and you might want to write them down on the side of your note. His popularity was due to the fact that people looked upon him as a prophet. Now remember, a prophet was a very highly esteemed man in the Jewish world. They looked back to Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel, these were great prophets of God. But for 400 years heaven has been silent and Palestine and Jerusalem had never had a prophet. And now after 400 years here's this interesting man who set up shop down near Jericho near the Jordan River, and he's dressed in these clothes that marked him as a prophet. And he preached, he sounded like a prophet, and when he preached they likened him to Isaiah or Jeremiah, and so the reason for his popularity is 400 years of silence and all of a sudden here comes this mighty voice; Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand! And they're ready to listen. Four hundred years of silence has been broken and here's the prophet.

But there was something else about John that made him successful, he was absolutely sincere. All of religion down in Jerusalem was wracked with hypocrisy, and everybody knew it, and there was this total lack of sincerity and lack of integrity, and religion did not have a good name. John comes along and he's got sincerity and there's a sense of integrity, and he's got the heart of God in his preaching, and as a result, his sincerity is appreciated by those who had put up with so many years of a hypocrisy in the pulpit.

Thirdly, his message was so powerful it always touched the moral fiber of his listeners. He preaches away and says that ax has now been laid at the root of the tree, and the old tax collector comes and says, John, what do I have to do to repent? And John says, you've got to quit cheating people and stop collecting wrong taxes. Somebody else comes and said, John, what do I have to do? And John says, if you've got a coat give it away, to and if you've got food give it away also. And the old soldiers come and say, John, your preaching has really deeply touched me, what do we got to do? And John says listen, you quit accusing people falsely and you start being content with your wages. You see, there was something about his preaching that touched the moral fiber, and the result was that they wanted to do something. They knew their lives had to take on a new dimension. There had to be a change, and powerful preaching will produce that.

It says that John's baptism was a baptism unto repentance. In Matthew 3:11 it says, I baptize, John's saying, I baptize with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me, baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John is saying mine is not a baptism of remission for sins. Mine is a baptism for you to acknowledge that you're a sinner. And the result was that people were deeply affected by his preaching. And involved in his preaching and in the act of repentance was this whole matter of restitution. Now this to me is fascinating. Those who had come now for repentance wanted to do something about clearing up their past lives; people that they had hurt, wrongs that they had done, monies that they had stolen. They wanted to correct that. You go to Luke chapter 19 and we have the story of Zacchaeus. He's the little fraudulent tax collector whose cheating everybody he can for the Roman government. He's hated by every Jew in town. And as the result, Jesus comes to town and old Zacchaeus, he's small in stature, climbs up into a sycamore tree and Jesus stops at the tree and says, I'll have supper with you. Zacchaeus I'm coming to your house. Something happened in that house in the presence of Jesus, Zacchaeus is convicted of his fraudulent lifestyle. He said, Jesus I'll give back fourfold that which I have taken wrongly and I'll give the rest to the poor.

Now that's an interesting thing, because taught in the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 22 was the laws of restitution. Here's what they were. If you had taken anything from anybody violently and there was damaged and hurt and injury, then you repaid that four times. That was the law. If you had taken something and it was non-restorable, and you could do nothing about it, then you doubled in the act of restitution. You gave back twice to make up for the wrong that you had done. But if you voluntarily made the decision to acknowledge and seek restitution, and you went to the person that you'd hurt, you paid back the full amount of the value plus 20 percent. So you can see Zacchaeus. He's gone the full-length. I'm going to pay back fourfold for anything I've done. Jesus, I want the people in this community to know that since I've met You my life has changed. Restitution, what a fantastic witness to people who have known us before we were saved, and then for us to go back and try to correct some of our wrongs. Something missing, we don't talk about it much.

Some years ago we had a man come to our church. His name was Larry. Larry was in the San Francisco gangs. He was in drugs. He was involved in deep crime and he ended up in Soledad prison. He spent years in Soledad prison and there he became a Christian and he started studying his Bible in depth. He wanted to be a preacher. So when he got out he came here and we took him in, and we started training him. Today, he's nearly 60 years of age, he's still in the ministry down in Southern California and has had a marvelous ministry. But Larry came to me and said Pastor, when I was in sin, he said, I went down on Market Street and I walked into a little pharmacy and there was an older man there. And he said, I held my pistol to his temple and robbed him of everything he had. Now he said in going through the law, he said, this was one area that never came out, and he said I've concealed it. But he said, since coming to Christ I've thought, I can't get the picture of that old man standing there in fear while I got a gun in his temple. And he said, I've got to go down and ask him to forgive me. And I said, Larry, I know that the past really winds some tremendous trails and you may run into more difficulty than you can imagine. He said, I don't care if they take me back to prison to Soledad for another 20 years. I've got to do what's right. So we had a little prayer. He went down to Mission Street and the little old pharmacist was still there, and Larry walked into his little shop and said, Sir, you don't remember me, but years ago I'm the who held a pistol to your temple and robbed you. And I want you to know that in recent years I've given my life to Christ and I'm sorry for what I did, and I came here to apologize, and if there's anything I can do to correct what I did I want to do it. The pharmacist began to weep and he said, Son, the very fact that you came to ask my forgiveness the matter is closed. And he was his friend until the old little pharmacist died. I always admired. What a marvelous testimony to walk in and tried to correct something. What a powerful witness that says my life has been changed, I made new person in Christ Jesus, I'm sorry for the past.

A man came to me some months ago and said, Pastor, I'm a Christian now, but before I became a Christian, he said, I was married before and I treated my wife terribly, and I was unkind to the kids. He said, we're divorced and she's remarried and I'm remarried, but I still can't get, now that I'm a Christian, I still the way I lived it so bothers me. And he said I'm going home and I'm going back to that lady and I'm going to ask her to forgive me. And he did. He sought her forgiveness. Of course, there are some entanglements you never untangle, but at least there was a healing and that friendship was brought back into the family. So what are you saying Pastor? I'm saying that what made John such a marvelous, powerful preacher is that when he preached the very moral fibers were touched and people wanted their lives to be changed and they wanted the world to know it. That's my prayer always in the proclamation of the gospel here, is that the truth of God will so penetrate our being that it will change us and we then become a great testimony for the cause of Christ.

Back to our notes. I'm on page two. At the time in which the author of the fourth Gospel, I'm down in the middle of the page, is writing, however, John's imprisonment had not yet occurred, and John was still in the midst of his ministry. Our text notes the fact that the crowds began to gather around Jesus. In fact, many who had been following John now detached themselves from him and began to follow Jesus. It seems that John's disciples were the ones most worried about it, for they did not like to see their teacher taking second place to anyone else. They did not like to see him abandoned while the crowds flocked out to hear and see the new teacher! In answer to their complaints, it would have been very easy for John to feel injured, neglected, and unjustifiably forgotten. And I note here that sometimes a friend's sympathy can be the worst possible thing for us. It can make us feel sorry for ourselves and encourage us to think that we have not had a fair deal. But John had a mind above that.

And then I quote here from a dear old man known as F. B. Meyer. He was a preacher in London many, many years ago, and you can tell by his writings that he had a deep relationship with God. He has written some beautiful books. But old F. B. Meyer was pastoring and he was growing older and, if I remember correctly, old Spurgeon opened up his church across town in London. And F. B. Meyer's crowds began to dwindle, and old Spurgeon's crowds began to grow. And one of the parishioners came to Pastor Meyer and said, Pastor Meyer, doesn't it bother you watching people go and watch old Spurgeon so successful? No, he said, I'll tell you what, I've decided to we're going to close our church next Sunday and we're all going to go hear Dr. Spurgeon. Here's what old F. B. Meyer says about John the Baptist. He said, It was as though they said, Master, is it not too bad? See how thy generous testimony has been requited! That is, you build him up so much. I mean, you really turned everybody his direction. In fact, in the of thy glory thou wert so profuse in thy acknowledgments. In other words, you went overboard trying to sell Jesus. Too prodigal in thy testimony. You should have watched your words a little bit better, John, for this new teacher now has taken a leaf out of your program. He too is preaching, baptizing, gathering a school of disciples. But there was no tinder in that noble breast which those jealous sparks could kindle. Nothing but love dwelt there. It had been plunged into the baptism of a holy love, which had burnt out the selfishness and the jealousy, which were natural to him as to us all. It was as if a spark falls into an ocean and is instantly extinguished. Thus his reply will forever rank among the greatest utterances of mortal man. The Lord said that of those born of women none was greater than John; and, if by nothing else, by these words his mortal stature and his superlative excellence was vindicated. He must increase, and I must decrease.

Now there's a little note here at verse 25. It's fascinating to me. It says that and there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. Well the subject of purification, of course, is the subject of baptism and cleansings. So we know what they're talking about. But what was this all about? Well, this verse is compressed to the point of obscurity. So we've got to kind of go under the letters to find out what it means. A little light may be shed on it, however, by the Qumran scrolls. These show that there were Essene-type sects with a deep interest in ceremonial purification. Now stop there and let me explain. Down along the Dead Sea in Northern part to West, there was this group, probably three or four hundred at most, known as the Essenes. They were there during the time of Christ, and their goal was to keep the purity of the ancient text. They felt that up in Jerusalem they were muddying it all up. So it was those Essenes believed that they're the ones that put the text into these jars, stuck them into the caves, and in 1957 the little shepherd boy found them, and we know them as the Dead Sea scrolls. Most likely it was the Essenes who protected those. And interesting enough, when you read those scrolls the book that we have of Isaiah is almost a perfect duplication of what's in those scrolls. Amazing. Anyway, John it's believed, that he may while he was out there in the wilderness all these years, gone down there and visited those folks. But they had an interesting concept of baptisms. They baptized theirselves three times a day, once in the morning, noon, and night. And then if you went to the bathroom, you baptized yourself again for purification. I mean, you were always in the bathtub with those folks. Because to them one of the most important part of their religion was keeping physically pure, and so maybe, maybe it was that some of John's disciples had known what he was exposed to and they're saying, John, you're not holding up to what you were taught down there with the Essenes. That could have been the dispute.

Notice in the middle of the page. I suggest that this dispute may have also centered in the matter of comparing the value and the authenticity of John's baptism with that of Jesus. Was John's baptism more valid than that of Jesus? Can't you hear those disciples? Here's old John's disciples, well we don't have to worry about James, John your first anyway so, you know, whatever he does, you're first. That became a concern in the early church. Who baptized you? It seemed like the person who baptized you gave more validity, more importance, to your baptism. Look at 1 Corinthians; For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos," "I am of Cephas," "I am of Christ." Now is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Those folks over there at Corinth were saying, my baptism is more valid than yours because I was baptized by Paul.

Can I say something from my heart? I try to always talk from my heart, but, you know, I have the honor of being the senior Pastor. Many times people come and say when I'm baptized I want Pastor Sheley to do it. Now I appreciate that kindness, but when they say that I want to run and hide because I don't want them to think that because I did it, it has any more validity than with somebody else did it; I mean Pastor Leighton or Pastor Rick or Ralph, whoever. It's not the person who does it, it's the baptism itself that declares I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. That's the importance. And so it could have been those disciples were just saying, well, John don't worry about it. Yours is more valid than Jesus.

Go to page four. Now the baptismal theology of the New Testament is believed to have had its origin in the Jewish understanding of proselyte baptism. Well what's that? Let me explain. In Judaism if you converted out of any heathen sects or pagans sects, you were called a proselyte. You were brought from another religion into Judaism, so you're a proselyte. You've been proselyted from another sect. But what happened, is when you came into the Jewish faith you had to go through what was known as the proselyte baptism. Now that meant that there had to be a closure of which you did it in secret, but you were baptized naked. Why? Because they taught that you had to wash away any impurities whatever from your paganism and your heathenism. So a proselyte baptism was a naked baptism in secret. So notice my notes here. You can immediately see that identification in water baptism was foreign to Jewish thinking in that baptism was something that Gentiles must do, for the Jew was already a child of God by birth. By baptism you identified yourself with the Gentiles, and that could have been part of the dispute. We don't know, but it's one thing, from the very beginning of time religion has always had its disputes.

I wish Christians would quit fighting over theology. But I mean it's been something with us that's always arguing theory is better than yours, my interpretation is more valid than yours, and I've learned there are two things I don't argue about; religion and politics. I just simply state my position and in love leave it there, because as soon as you start arguing religion, you polarize your opponent and maybe forever lose them from the possibilities of conversion. There's no harsher arguments than appear in Christendom. That's why there are so many denominations and so many churches today. We argue over the littlest things, and it started way back at John's baptism. Now I have to hurry to close. John says, when they come to him, he said you fellows have forgotten why I've come. I've come to usher in Christ. You missed it. And then he says something in verse 28. I'm now at page seven in your notes, and on page seven here's what he says. 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. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. Why does the talk about the bridegroom here when he's trying to cool the heels of these jealous disciples of his? You have to understand what the bridegroom's job was. In Bible times the bridegroom was the guy who planned all the wedding. He was the person who took out all the invitations personally to all the folks. He planned the food, made sure all things were ordered. He planned the day, the ceremony. He planned the bridal chamber, made sure that it was secure. And then after the wedding is over, he goes to the bridal chamber and he stands to make sure that there are no intruders into the bridal chamber, and when he hears the joy of the bride and the groom together in the bridal chamber, he walks off because his job is done. Do you catch the picture?

And what John is saying when he brings up the issue of the bride, immediately in the mind of a Jewish person he thinks those Old Testament prophets likened the Messiah to the bridegroom and the nation of Israel as the bride. And what John was saying is the Messiah has come for the bride, and the bride is Israel. It was his way of saying it's time to celebrate because the Messiah has come. To the last page and I'm done, down in the middle. Blessed climax was this to the lovely modesty of John, and well calculated to crush all party feeling and nip in the bud any jealousy there might be in the hearts of his own disciples. He must increase, I must decrease. Ah! What lessons to be learned. I cannot be occupied with two objects at one and the same time. Jesus said you can't serve two masters. You'll love one, you'll hate the other. To decrease is, we take it, to be less and less occupied with ourselves. And the more I am occupied with Christ, the less shall I be occupied with myself. Humility is not the product of direct cultivation, but rather it's the byproduct. For the more I try to be humble, the less shall I attain unto humility. But if I am truly occupied with the One who is meek and lowly in heart, if I am constantly beholding His glory in the mirror of God's Word, then shall I be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

It should be the goal of all of us, shouldn't it? To so keep our eyes on Christ that His very nature, His very presence is a continual change that makes us more like Jesus. John said, I am going to decrease, but He is going to increase. John preaches, old Herod doesn't like what he saying, throws him in prison, Herodias has his head cut off, his disciples come, and where they buried John nobody knows. He decreased. The Christ goes to the cross, comes out of the tomb, is taken back into the heaven where He now has the highest place in the universe. And the scripture we read this morning says the day will come when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. John said I'm going to decrease, but He'll increase. Amen? And one of these days we'll all bow in His presence. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, what lessons we can learn from John who was assigned such a glorious task of introducing You to Your public ministry. If there's a lesson that all of us seek to learn today, made it be that there's less of us and more of You. May our lives reflect Your presence, and Your love, and Your power, and Your grace. Forgive us for our selfishness and make us more like You dear Jesus. And everybody said, amen. God bless you.