John 3:22-30
Ministry can be a very strange thing in our lives. We go into the work of the ministry to serve
the Lord and others. We hope that our
lives can have a positive impact on the kingdom of God and draw others closer
to the Lord. It is a source of great joy
when we see God using us to minister to others.
It can also begin to produce pride in our lives as we hear the praise of
men and imagine how pleased God must be with our efforts. In a very subtle and slow way ministry can
begin to take the place of God. When
this happens we tend to get “stressed out,” there is very little joy and
jealousy begins to wiggle its way into our minds. Suddenly it seems that the ministry has
become all about us and not about God and others. Unfortunately, we see this happen far too
often in ministries all around the world and even more unfortunately we see
this begin to worm its way into our own hearts.
Satan has used success to destroy vibrant ministries by infecting the
hearts of ministers with pride. We must
be alert and guard our hearts from this threat.
John the Baptist gives us a shining example of just how we must go about
doing this.
COOPERATION IN MINISTRY IS DELIGHTFUL: As Jesus begins His
ministry the number of people following Him begins to increase. John is also continuing His ministry of
calling people to repentance and pointing them to Christ in close proximity to
one another. Both of them are baptizing and
there was “much water” in that region so they were making use of that
resource. Both ministries seem to be “thriving”
and both are fulfilling the purpose for which they were intended. This is how things should be. There are many needs for many ministries and
many varieties of ministries. All of
those ministries benefit when they recognize the value of one another, can pool
their resources, pray for one another, encourage one another and even hold one
another accountable. Cooperation makes
all involved more effective and multiplies the impact on all fronts. Just like there was plenty of water to go
around for both Jesus and John there are plenty of ministry opportunities for
multiple churches and missions wherever we might be serving. The growth of another ministry or the
addition of another ministry in area of service should be an encouragement to
us and not a threat. We are a Body with
man parts and those parts all benefit from cooperating with one another even
when the parts are very different from one another. My nose and my knee are very different but
both are vital to the health and productivity of my body. We need to look at the people who are
ministering around us and see how we can most effectively cooperate with them. We never know when they might need us or we
might need them. God’s work is in His
hands and we do not know what the future holds.
I find it interesting that the text mentions that John would soon be put
into prison. We never know when our
ministry will take a sudden turn due to drastic circumstances and then the
cooperating ministry will become much more important than ever.
COMPARISON IN MINISTRY IS DANGEROUS: The people who are
around John have a question about purification that came up with a Jew. This is an understandable situation that
makes sense for them to take to John. We
don’t know exactly what the question was about but it seems to be a legitimate issue. However, the conversation takes an
interesting turn. Suddenly they are not
talking about purification but about the fact that the crowd around Jesus seems
to be growing at a faster rate than John’s ministry. Statistics and numbers have their place but
they can be very dangerous. Too often
they are used as a means of comparison.
When we start comparing ourselves to others we stray from the path of
ministry into the path of marketing and business. This activity has very little to do with
promoting the kingdom of God and is usually a sing that we have started to
promote our own kingdoms. Pride and discouragement
are powerful weapons in Satan’s hands. Both
of them are easily stimulated through the dangerous practice of comparison. Bigger is not always better and sometimes
less is more. When people start making
comments that stimulate comparison we need to be on the alert and recognize that
we are entering a danger zone.
COMPETITION IN MINISTRY IS DESTRUCTIVE: John does not fall
for the bait in this discussion and stands firm on his purpose of pointing
others to Christ. He clearly states that
Jesus is the Christ and that His glory is the reason behind all that he is doing. He calls Jesus the bridegroom and calls
himself the groomsman. The groomsman
rejoices in the joy of his friend but does not become jealous of him. John’s statement that He must increase and I
must decrease is a beautiful summary of what the goal of every ministry and
every minister should be. None of us
should be the least bit concerned with the size of the ministry in which we
serve as long as the Lord Jesus Christ is being lifted up and His kingdom is increasing. When we begin to compete with one another in
ministry it is both distracting and destructive. We begin to worry about getting bigger and
better than the “competition” but what gets lost in all of the activity that
surrounds this mess it the glory of God.
People become products that are used to pad statistics and exploit for
the purpose of growth. When this happens
there is little or no ministry that is actually taking place. The church or organization has simply become
a self-sustaining machine that runs massive numbers in and out of its doors but
there is very little transformation of lives taking place. The structure is impressive and the leaders
are powerful but are people being served and is God being lifted up? The purpose of ministry is not to increase
our influence but to point others to Christ.
We must never compete with one another or with God through ministry.
APPLICATION: Look at the other churches and ministries that
are taking place around us and see how we can best encourage and help them to
further the kingdom. Avoid making comparisons
between ministries. Guard our hearts
from the pride that Satan is working so hard to produce there. Don’t be impressed with the size of our influence
or discouraged by the lack thereof.
Serve God and others faithfully no matter how many or how few people
might be around us. Don’t allow the
praise of men to become an idol in our lives.
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