Fourth Sunday in Advent Service

The Sermon— John 3:22-36

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison).

Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

We see John again in our text for today. Last week, you recall, he was preaching stunning Law to the people in the sermon text, breaking down their tendency toward self-righteousness so that he might comfort them with the news of God’s Anointed One who makes sinners righteous before God. He was baptizing them into the name of that Savior for the forgiveness of sins.

This morning, that same one’s (John’s) ministry intersects with Jesus’ ministry. Baptizing and preaching are being done in both their camps, which, evidently, brings about some envy among John’s disciples. They say to John, all are going to him (all are going to Jesus, they mean).

What greater report of success could be said of John’s work than that? All going to Jesus is exactly what his work has been about. He has been the one preparing the way of the Lord, making His paths straight (the prophet had spoken it long before John's birth). His work had always been about pointing anyone coming to him for baptism, to Jesus, to the One Whose righteousness gives the benefit in every baptism. That’s what John means when he says, I baptize you with water…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John’s baptism is real baptism, accomplishing all of the things we talk about with it; but it’s Jesus’ righteousness that the Spirit is bringing to a person through it. He’s the one the whole thing is about. John’s work is working if it can be said that all are going to Jesus.

Then the Spirit’s work through John’s preaching and baptism has been successful. It has convinced people that Jeremiah’s prophecy from our Old Testament lesson is being fulfilled. Then they’re convinced that God is fulfilling the promise He made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, of a righteous Branch springing up for David to execute justice and righteousness in the land, to save Judah, to enable Jerusalem to dwell securely—The LORD our Righteousness, His name. Then they’re convinced that He is the One Who stands among them, coming after [John], preferred before [him], whose sandal strap [John is] not worthy to loose (these things John says in the Gospel lesson). What a ringing endorsement of the work that’s been done through John’s ministry if it is being said, all are going to Jesus.

But John’s disciples haven’t yet added themselves to that number, and they have exaggerated in saying that all are going to Jesus (in fact, John tells us toward the end of the text, that many of the people were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ). John has more work to do. And in his testimony to his own disciples this morning, we get a nice summary of his message that other of his listeners have already received.

He really focuses on Jesus’ divinity. You know, when we confess the Creed every Sunday we do the same. In addition to the things we confess about the Father and Spirit, we talk about our belief in Jesus Christ. In the words of the Nicene Creed: He is the only begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by Whom all things were made. He is the eternal God. Very God of Very God means He is the genuine article (not some copy or representation of it; He is God). He isn’t a created being, like us. He isn’t less than the Father. It’s through Him that everything was made, in fact.

So, when John says to his disciples, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven he is pointing out the difference between himself and Jesus. Jesus is the eternal One, the true God among them. He is the Christ, the one Whom John precedes as forerunner. Jesus is the One Who comes from above and is above all.

In fact, speaking in terms of earthly things they understand, Jesus can be compared to a bridegroom (He often refers to Himself that way, with His bride being the Church or believers), whereas John can be compared to the bridegroom’s friend. In this illustration John is a willing and joyful servant to the bridegroom who rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. It’s in pointing his disciples and others to Jesus that he can say, Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.

So, John’s response to his disciples’ concern that Jesus’ ministry is starting to, as they say, suck up all the oxygen, is to say, He must increase, but I must decrease. Everything about John that might in any way detract from sinners going to Jesus, their righteousness, their Savior, must now recede into the background so it doesn’t get in the way of what God has provided so that people can be with Him. John must not get in the way of Jesus.

Isn’t it true, dear Christians, that that must be able to be said of all of us: I must not get in the way of the One Who brings God’s righteousness, God’s grace to sinners. Certainly it’s obvious that if John’s disciples were to hinder Jesus’ ministry in some way because of their envy, they would be getting in His way. We aren’t necessarily in that situation.

But in the epistle lesson that is paired up with the others for today, we have St. Paul warning his readers about a hindering of Jesus’ ministry that is much more personal. The interference in Jesus’ ministry that he’s warning about is our tendency to wear the most shameful aspects of life in this world rather than our baptismal garment of Christ’s righteousness. We interfere with Jesus’ ministry in our own lives when we’re lulled to sleep, forgetting that He’s ever returning. He warns about it in so many of His parables.

Paul says, make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. As examples he talks about sexual desires that can certainly be an issue. He could also talk about our shameful lack of empathy for our neighbor, couldn’t he? He could talk about our tendency to want to build ourselves up by running others down—to their face, certainly, but also in our conversations they might not ever know about (not ever knowing about the damage done to their reputation). Those are the works of darkness that Paul is talking about too; that’s the gratifying of the fleshly desires for which he is warning us not to make provision. It’s an ugly picture of ourselves, and of another kind of envy that hinders the ministry among us of the One Who comes from above, and is above all.

But thanks be to God, His ministry is of God’s grace to us sinners. It is the ministry of forgiveness in the atoning blood of our Savior Jesus. He must increase in our hearts above anyone or anything else because only in Him is our joy complete. Only in His righteousness do we find our own righteousness before God, only in Him eternal life. May it ever be said that we are going to Jesus; and after it is said, let it be said again and again, that all others still questioning in their hearts about anyone else might hear the news and join us at the Savior’s side for forgiveness and eternal life. Amen.

Jeremiah 33:14-18

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD our Righteousness.’ “For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.”

Romans 13:11-14

You know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

John 1:19-28

Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD,” ’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”

These things were done in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”