Greater Than; Less Than (John 3:30)

John 3:30, "He must increase, I must decrease."

Very few verses in Scripture present a better example of humility than this one. Here the Baptist is discussing with the Jews the fact that Jesus and his disciples are baptizing more than John is...typical of what Churches do today...we are never happy when others are doing better than we are...

But in response to this, John explains that Jesus is to increase...What does this mean for us today? John the Baptist came to bear witness to Jesus. He came to prepare the way for Jesus. John was the guy who sort of gave some legitimacy to Jesus' early ministry. People came from all over to hear him preach and, now, he prepares that he must decrease.

John the Baptist is declaring that his ministry is not as important as Jesus' ministry. John is stating that Jesus is to be made much of. John is expressing his desire to humble himself so that Jesus can do what he came to earth to do. Now that the true "light" has come, the "lamp" has no more work to do!

What must we do to Decrease:

We must understand that it is never about us.

JTB understood that. The Jews were coming to him to "warn" him that Jesus was gathering a crowd. His followers were growing. He was gaining influence. They thought that John was going to be upset at that. They thought that John was some sort of insicure prophet. But he wasnt. He understood that his ministry was not his own, his ministry was simply to prepare the way for Jesus. Our life is not our own. Our ministry is not our own. We simply live to prepare the way for Jesus.

We must understand that He is greater than us.

John knew that Jesus was the Son of God and deserved take the back-seat for no one. Jesus was the Light that the world needed to see, and because of that John didnt want to get in the way of that. Although John has an icredible ministry in the area, what was needed was the salvation that Jesus brought and because of that he knew that it was time for him to take a back-seat to Jesus.

We must understand that others are more important than us

Because Jesus (through his disciples) were baptizing others, we must understand that they were finding what they needed. John knew that he was not the answer to their problems...Jesus was. Because of that John needed to let Jesus' ministry grow. We must always understand that we will not always have the answers but we know the One that does.

He must increase.

We must decrease.

When that happens, people come to know Jesus.