Several years ago, one of my sisters was attending a missions banquet, and she heard that the President of our Southern Baptist International Mission Board was going to be in attendance, so she was looking forward to meeting him. She had seen his picture before but she didn’t really know him by sight, so when she arrived she began looking for him, but she didn’t see him. The meal began, and they were serving the food and the drinks, and still no sight of the President. So she leaned over and asked someone next to her: “I thought the IMB President was supposed to be here tonight; is he not?” The person said “Yes, he is right over there” — and pointed to a man who was carrying a hand towel and a pitcher of water. It turned out that my sister HAD already seen him — but she had mistakenly thought that he was a waiter!
That’s the kind of mistake that we OUGHT to make in our Christian churches and ministries. Our churches are not about US being “something” — not the pastor, ministers, deacons, teachers, leaders or people. We are only servants who should be pointing people to the Lord.
We see this attitude modeled in the ministry of John the Baptist here in Matthew 3. Last week we studied how John warned us in :9 not to trust our nationality, our religious heritage, or our family background to save us, but that each of us must personally repent of our sins and follow Jesus as our Savior, in order to be saved. Now in :11 we find that John makes an important statement both about HIMSELF, and about the LORD:
“As for me, I baptize you in water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
There is a striking contrast in this verse: John first speaks about Himself, and he speaks about Jesus. He says, “As for ME, I baptize you with water for repentance” but then he says: “BUT HE” — and there is a real emphasis; a real contrast here in Greek: “BUT HE”! — is mightier than I … HE will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” He says, I am one thing, BUT HE is another; I have one ministry, but He has another. And John makes it very clear here, that he is merely the humble servant of a powerful Savior! And we need to make sure that we realize the same thing about ourselves today too! Let’s look at what God has to teach us through this verse: Continue reading
shawnethomas 