He Must Increase & I Must Decrease

in John 3:30, John the Baptizer says, “Christ must increase & I must decrease.”

I recently preached on this verse and God preached it to me!

(1) Here is the context of this great statement:

John the Baptizer had a popular ministry of proclaiming Christ but all of a sudden his audience started leaving his little flock of students in order to move over to Jesus congregation of pupils.

This upset some of John’s disciples, but not John because this was his entire purpose in ministry:

For Christ to increase and for him to decrease.

This statement is every ministers test of weather or not they are really serving Christ or serving themselves: can you decrease? Will you be okay if your congregation shrinks? Even more, will you rejoice when your congregation shrinks if it means that your people are going to another congregation where Christ is still proclaimed?

John just finished saying in v29 that his joy is complete just like the friend of the Bridegroom’s (the best man’s) joy is complete in seeing his friend the Bride-groom marry His bride.

In other words, John didn’t look at himself as somebody who “owned” his group of followers. They belonged to Christ, the Bridegroom. And John’s entire purpose was to see them grow closer to Christ, become united with Christ, and in that way, John’s greatest joy was to see Christ receiving His Bride, not himself receiving the crowds.

Can we say the same thing of ourselves? Do we delight in seeing people coming to Christ or coming through us to Christ. In our mind, though, we’re very delighted that they’re coming to us more that coming to Christ.

Sometimes our joy is in seeing Christ’s Bride come to us! But we like John aren’t betrothed to the Bride. God’s Church does not belong to us. Therefore, ministers and especially pastors ought to be okay with seeing their congregation moving and going elsewhere insofar as it means that they are following Christ.

We need to be very careful not to think that we as ministers are betrothed to our Church, no because it’s Christ’s Bride (This is called “ministry adultery”)!

And notice that John drew a line of distinction between his ministry and Christ’s ministry as Christ’s ministry would increase while His would decrease. And we must draw this line of distinction too so that we can say, “Christ must increase & I must decrease.”

(2) But I believe that this statement, “He must increase & I must decrease” goes beyond the context. This is a statement that speaks of our sanctification.

In other words, how do we become more holy like Christ? How do we conform into His image? How does Christ increase in our life? By us decreasing.

It is impossible for Christ to increase in our life while we increase too. Christ is not one to compete with us. He is God and Lord; we are not.

Yet we often want to say, “He must increase and I’ll increase too.” That’s not how it works!

While we decrease, Christ increases.

God will often take things away from us, health, money, security, job, relationships, etc…so that Christ will increase in our life. He will strip us of everything so that we find Jesus to be everything.

And this is no option because “Christ MUST increase & we MUST decrease!”

Now the question is weather or not we will submit to this.

This is for God to do and us to pray.

God will make us decrease, not us make ourselves decrease. John says, “I must decrease” not “I will make myself decrease.”

That’s God’s job to do and thank God that He does this graciously to us. But while God decreases our self confidence, He wants to replace it with Christ-esteem. When God decreases your physical health, He wants to make the glory of Christ increase.

This ought to be encouraging for you because it means that God will use every decreasing thing in your life for the increasing reputation of Christ upon your life. God will use every painful and diminishing success in your life for the increase of Christ in your life. And if you love Christ, then this will only, oddly enough, increase your joy!

We were made to find joy in seeing ourselves decrease and Christ increase!

As Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,”

In other words, that is saying that when bad things happen to you and you decrease in happiness, God is working that for your good, but how? He’s working it for the increase of Christ in your life….”to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

We often think of God working all things for our good in a vague way. We think of good as maybe circumstances or as something like, “everything will work out in the end.” But Romans 8:28 is saying that God works all things for the good increase of Christ in your life. As Galatians 4:19 pictures, God puts us through contracting jolts of pain until Christ is formed in us.

We must decrease and Christ must increase. This is God’s model of sanctification upon our life and it is also God’s formula for joy.

Will you pray with me, “Christ MUST increase & I MUST decrease?” It’s a dangerous prayer to pray because God will answer it.

Believing What You’re Preaching

David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, once came to listen to George Whitefield preach of the Gospel and he seemed rather persuaded. Somebody asked him, do you believe in what he just preached? Hume replied, “no but He does!”

I’ve come to realize that this is what preaching is: believing in what you are proclaiming. Preaching is not speaking. It’s not developing a nice sounding speech. Preaching does not mean just presenting God’s Word in an organized fashion (although that ought to be a part of it!).

There are all types of ways to describe preaching. It does mean calling out and it is associated with the herald trumpet. It means, “heralding” (‘Kerysso’).

Such is the example of what 2 Timothy 4:1-2 says, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word;”

Notice the motivation for preaching. Or you might put it this way: notice what ought to blow breath in one’s preaching: “the presence of God & of Christ Jesus.”

Preaching means being aware that God is present and that God is present in preaching. Preaching is the exercise of allowing God’s Holy Spirit to blow through the preacher like His instrument. The preacher is a trumpet who submits to the sheet music of God’s Word, but who allows the presence of God to breath through him (2 Timothy 3:16). Indeed, this is what it means to “herald/preach” God’s Word!

However, the one who preaches needs to believe, truly believe in the unique presence of God that is active as he declares God’s Word.

Therefore, the first and most important aspect to preaching is to believe in God’s presence but not only that, the preacher must believe that God is “the judge of the living and the dead.”

For the preacher to preach, he must believe that judgement day is coming and a person’s eternal destiny is riding on a decision to either believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or reject Him.

And the preacher must believe in the “appearing and His Kingdom.”

Then and only then does 2 Timothy 4:1 move onto say, “preach the Word.”

In other words, preaching God’s Word is motivated by believing in eternal & invisible realities like God’s presence, God’s judgment and God’s Kingdom.

Therefore, to preach God’s Word is to invite people into the Kingdom of God. It is to invite people to make sure that they have the one thing that is most important covered: their sin. People need their sin judged in Christ on the Cross for them lest they experience judgment for themselves!

So what matters in preaching is, “do you believe this?” Do you believe in what you are preaching?

If so, then you’ll sound like something of a trumpet–beautiful, powerful, unignorably, and forceful.

Preaching needs more preachers to believe in what they preach & WHO they preach…Christ & Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). Preaching invites others to believe in Jesus & “Him crucified for their sins.” Therefore, the preacher needs to believe in what he’s telling others to believe.

What matters is peaching is, “do you believe in what you are speaking is true? Many pastors believe in their job, but that’s it. Perhaps they understand that they have received a high calling, which is true. But do they believe in the “breathed out Scriptures?” Do they believe that the Scriptures are God’s Word? Do they believe that as they preach God’s Word that His Word preaches life into dead souls?…that God’s Word is the summons of the King to enter into His Kingdom? Do they believe that God’s Word makes a way for the greatest salvation ever, to be saved from Hell and saved to God.

If one will believe this, then they can’t help but to become God’s mouthpiece that He blows powerfully through. There ought to be nothing left back. The dynamics of preaching needs crescendo that knows how to, yes, blow soft notes of comfort but also loud notes of warning, high notes of praise, and low notes that are somber. And don’t forget the silence, the pauses that leads the audience to consider, search their heart and allow God to speak to them, and then, turn to God.

In summary, preaching is only possible when you truly believe in the seriousness of what God’s Word says! And preaching is only possible when one allows the presence of God to be the conductor of that preaching.

May God raise up more pastors and preacher who believe, truly believe in what they preach and in Who they preach!

Preaching Passionately

I read this quote in Steven Lawson’s book on George Whitefield and found it encouraging:

“The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with Mr. Butterton the [actor]. One day the Archbishop…said to Butterton…’pray inform me Mr. Butterton, what is the reason you actors on stage can affect your congregations with speaking of things imaginary, as if they were real, while we in Church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?’ ‘Why my Lord,’ says Butterton, ‘the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary, as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.”

How true is that?

I by no means am the best preacher or teacher although I aspire and work hard to be the best that I can be. However, if there is one thing that I want to excel in, it’s passion…not passionate acting, but passionate preaching!

I want to speak of eternal realities with eternal passion. I want to preach on real joys with real joy! I want to speak of sad futures with sadness. I want to preach on God’s love with love! I want to preach the powerful Word of God with a powerful voice!

As 1 Peter 4:11 says, “Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God.”

As my pastor once told me, ‘find the mood of that passage of Scripture and then preach with that mood.” In other words, the tone of preaching ought to match the tone of God’s Word.

It’s true that God’s Holy Spirit can impact a person greatly through a monotone discourse on John 3:16 BUT I don’t think it’s typical. He does work through human instruments.

Now I understand that every personality has a different display of passion, or a different potential for expressing passion. Some people are a bit weaker than others.

Personally, I’m weak in many ways as I preach from the pulpit but I’m beginning to embrace my weaknesses not as an excuse to settle into my own natural limitations, but rather, in order to lean hard into God’s supernatural enablement!

We fail to realize often that God’s choice method of strength is weakness. Yes, it’s a paradox. It might even look like a typo but it’s not. God delights to use weakness in such a way that show off His power, not ours, without a shadow of a doubt.

So my friend, whatever your weakness is, insofar as it isn’t sin, embrace it for the glory of God.

BUT, live passionatly, speak passionately and preach passionately if that’s your calling in life.

I should add, live, speak and preach passionately in proportion to how God has designed you to express yourself. Live and speak and teach in such a way, though, where people take you seriously.

As Romans 12:6-7 says, “having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith, if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching…”

In other words, use your gift, specifically in regard to teaching, in proportion to your full potential given to you by Christ! Teach and preach with as much skill, passion and gusto as God has gifted your personality with!

I once had a family friend join our Church for a service and she made this comment on my preaching: “you were very passionate. I sometimes wish that our pastor was a little more serious in his preaching sometimes because he’s really funny.”

There is no doubt a time for jokes. As one guy said, “hook’em, hold’em, hold on to’em, humor ‘m and hit em.”

However, when it comes to the Word of God, it really isn’t written like a joke book. It is written as a book where God’s Word speaks life into your hurting soul, God’s Word exhorts you to correction, God’s Word disciplines you when you’re off track and God’s Word assures you do indeed belong to Him…no joke! It’s not a joke book. It’s a book of death & life. It’s a book that God uses to speak seriously to people. As for the humor, you can find it in Scripture, but it’s always for a point. It’s usually satire or exaggerations for illustrations. the humor in Scripture is always used to get your attention on divine realities. Therefore, ultimitely, Scripture speaks seriously and passionately.

Consider Ezekiel 33:11 which says, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

That describes passionate preaching. Can you imagine what the voice behind those words would sound like? He’s PLEADING for people to turn back from a pathway that leads to destruction.

And such should be the case with preaching…passionately pleading with people to turn to God, turn back from their evil ways, and LIVE!

This is no joke and it ought not to be acting! Preaching ought to be heartfelt. Lord, grant me the heart to feel what I preach. Amen!

Preaching Like Sign Language

Because I love my wife, I’m now seeking to learn and understand sign-language. In the midst of learning sign-language, I’ve begun to learn more about how to construct sermons like sign-language. Let me explain the similarities between sign-language and sermons: 

First, sign language is a visual language both outwardly and inwardly. When you understand sign-language, you are using your eyes to receive the language. But even more, you are using your mind to create scenes of imagination in order to understand the language. Therefore, sign-language is so much more than thinking with logic. Sign-language thinks with movement and action. 

This language should demonstrate the art of preaching. Preaching God’s Word well will speak through the imagination of the listener. Preaching should seek to paint a picture, to create a scene, and make a drama that the listeners can see. Good books are known for doing this. Many movies come from books. They are the epitome of what it means to turn words into action. When preaching about Christ, I don’t want to merely use logic, although that is good. I also want my audience to imagine Christ hanging on the tree. I want people to be able to see spit splattering on Christ’s body and blood dripping from His browls. I want people to be able to see the scene of the gospel as I preach the gospel.

I think sign-language is a similar language to what Jesus used when He preached. He told stories that could be imagined. In the same way, the Spirit wrote through many different authors of history in order to create the Bible, which is the entire counsel of God, God’s Will, and God’s Word. If you look carefully and broadly at the style of the Spirit’s authorship for God’s Word, then you’ll notice that the entire Bible is written as a story with characters, different locations, scenes, and obstacles. The Bible is a very visual book, therefore God’s Word is a very visual language. And so, when I preach, I ought to use a similar style of language like God and sign-language. 

Second, Sign-language speaks with expression. Whenever you are signing a question, you raise your eyebrows. Whenever something is extraordinary, you puff your cheeks. Whenever you sign “anger,” you look angry. And good preaching should appear the same way. 

God’s Word is filled with expressions. My Lancaster Pastor once asked me to find the mood of the passage and then preach from that mood. Indeed, God’s Word is filled with emotion, and so if I preach God’s Word, and God’s Word accurately with nothing added to it and nothing taken away, then I must also seek to raise by eyebrows at the right time, squint at other moments, whisper and raise my voice, and always use expression. If I don’t portray a mood, then I will miss the entire point. 

Third, Sign-language simplifies the ideas in language. It cuts out all of the unnecessary words and replaces them with symbols. Furthermore, a good ASL sign-language interpreter (such as my wife), will cut out all of the unnecessary statements that don’t contribute to the main idea. When my wife signs over from English speaking to ASL signing, she begins with the main point. She then elaborates from that main point. Sign-language does not leave people in the dark. 

Preaching should look very similar. Good preaching eliminates all of your unnecessary words and cuts them down to only the main point of God’s text. 

I believe that good preaching will also take a while to prepare. The biggest pause that I take within my interpreting from God’s Word (Hebrew or Greek) to the English is in finding the main idea. Once I find the main idea, then I can begin developing the language behind my sermon. 

As my wife signs, she does the same thing. As she listens to whoever is speaking, she might pause for a small period of time in order to gather the big idea so that she doesn’t sign prematurely. Actually, in order for her to interpret speakers into sign language most effectively and accurately, she needs to study the material for the message, the category of the conference, the topic for the class, the subject behind the lecture, or review the actual speech that she will be interpreting. In order to be a good sign-language interpreter, you need to take some time to evaluate what the main idea is, and then develop your language from there as you eliminate words that don’t apply to the main idea, and as you only create words that contribute to the main concept. 

Isn’t that what Jesus did on the road to Emmaus? He described to his disciples how all of the law and prophet’s pointed to Himself. Jesus found the main point from the entire counsel of His Word, which was indeed Himself, the Christ, and He elaborated on Himself. Every detail that Christ mentioned would have pointed towards Himself. 

As my wife says, “preach a full Christ,” because the truth is that the main point to all of Scripture is Jesus Himself. Everything applies to Him. So if I preach a good sermon, then I will apply my entire message to Christ. Ironically, many people think that good preaching needs to point at people and be applied to themselves. I think I might understand what they might mean, but I really disagree because I believe that the main point of Scripture, preaching, and life is to point to Christ, and apply all things to Christ before we ever get to ourself.