Introduction
John the Baptist was, by Jesus' own assessment, the greatest human being who had ever lived up to that point: 'Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist' (Matthew 11:11).
And yet his entire ministry was organized around pointing away from himself. His greatest success was measured not by how many followed him but by how many he redirected to Jesus.
The church is called to a very similar mission. And the church has a very similar temptation to resist.
I. The Times (Luke 3:1-2)
Luke situates John's ministry with unusual precision: the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate governed Judea, when Herod tetrarch of Galilee, Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea... The list goes on.
Luke names six political and religious authorities before announcing: 'the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.'
The point is subversive. Six powerful men are named — rulers, governors, high priests. And the word of God bypasses all of them and goes to an unknown man in the desert eating locusts. God has a habit of doing this.
John was given a specific mission, at a specific time. So were you. 'The word of God came to John' — it comes to us too.
II. The Mission (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1; John 1:6-8)
John's mission was announced centuries before his birth. Isaiah 40:3: 'A voice of one calling: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord.' Malachi 3:1: 'I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.'
John understood this. When the priests and Levites came asking 'Who are you?', he did not deflect with false humility. He quoted Isaiah 40: 'I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, Make straight the way for the Lord.'
John 1:6-8: 'He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.' This is John's self-understanding. Not the main event. The preparation for the main event.
Half of John's recorded speeches are direct quotations from the Old Testament. He did not preach his own ideas. He preached the Word. And the Word he preached was not about himself.
III. The Posture (John 3:28-30)
When John's disciples came to him, worried that Jesus' following was growing larger than his own, his response is one of the most beautiful statements of spiritual maturity in the New Testament.
John 3:29-30 — The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.
'He must become greater; I must become less.' Eight words that contain a theology of ministry.
John's joy was complete not when his own ministry was flourishing but when the Bridegroom arrived. He was the best man at the wedding, not the groom. And he was genuinely glad about it.
IV. The Courage (Luke 3:18-20)
John was not a crowd-pleaser. Luke 3:18 says he 'exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news.' But he was also the one who told Herod Antipas that his marriage to his brother's wife was unlawful — a statement that would eventually get him killed.
John the Baptist was not afraid to address the moral failings of society, including public leaders. He spoke the Word of God into moral depravity without softening it for powerful ears.
His sermons resulted in people asking, of their own accord, 'What then shall we do?' (Luke 3:10). That is the mark of effective preaching: not applause, but conviction.
Appeal
The church is called to be John the Baptist: pointing away from itself toward Jesus. Not building its own brand, its own name, its own legacy.
Sound like anyone you know? The Adventist Church was raised up for a specific mission, at a specific time, to prepare the way for the return of the Lord. Our greatness — if we have any — should consist entirely in our willingness to be secondary.
The question is not whether your ministry is growing. The question is: are you making the way straight for Someone bigger than yourself?