Sermon Nugget, Tues Feb 26
Theme- Unity
Verses- John 3:25-27 An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan-- the one you testified about-- well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."
27 To this John replied, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.
Working Together
The spirit of competition can hinder the work God has for us to do. Many organizations and people do marvelous work, but jealousy and competitiveness rob them of the joy of serving.
Jesus was not accepted in Jerusalem. He and his disciples went into the rural area and people came out to Him to be baptized. According to John 4:2 Jesus was not baptizing but in fact his disciples did. I can imagine the comparisons some would have comparing and contrasting their experience with others. "I was baptized by Jesus; you were only baptized by John."
“I was baptized by Jesus, you got stuck with Bartholomew"
Competition began to set in with John the Baptist's disciples. What they were fussing about was who was having the most baptisms. That can be as common for jealously and competition as clergy comparing sizes of congregations.
In Corinthian's letter Paul confronts this competitive, divisive spirit when people were following the different preachers instead of Christ. In Phil 1:15-18 Paul's concern was that people were dividing themselves into different groups according to the evangelist that God used to bring the message of salvation. He writes, "It is true that some preach Christ out of envy, rivalry, but others out of good will. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motive or true, Christ is preached and because of this I will rejoice."
Pastor Charles Cerling accepted a church as their pastor. Going to a ministerial conference he saw a classmate of his- same age, same education, same experience but was serving a church of 2,500. He was jealous. He felt like such a failure. Finally he decided he wanted to confront his feelings and confessed to his successful classmate. That pastor laughed and admitted, "every time I see you I have told myself what a failure I am, because you have a book published, and write in many magazines, and all I get are rejection slips."
God has given to us Jesus. Jesus confronts our petty competitions so that we when look to Him we realize all power and authority is His, not ours, and not our neighbors. Our focus is on the wrong one if we do not lift up the name of Jesus together. John the Baptist was not concerned about anything but Jesus being glorified. Jealousy was not his problem. He knew that each player, each servant of God has his own part to play. So play it well for Jesus only.
Pastor Dale
