Mark 1v7: And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit."
There comes a time, for all of us, when Jesus removes the the very person we have looked to and imitated in order to continue to follow Jesus, in order that He
might ensure that we are only FOLLOWING JESUS ALONE. Sometimes it may not even be a removal of that person or leader from our lives, but simply a removal of the IMPACT that the person has in our lives. This is done, not only for the sake of the Christian themselves, lest they begin to make that person an idol, but also for the sake of the leader who has had any influence over them, in order to hide pride from that leader.
In the scripture above, John the Baptist realised that such a time had come upon him, and instead of fighting against it, realised what was going on and realised that his importance to others needed to diminish in order to ensure that Jesus' importance to others was what remained paramount: John 3v30: "He must become greater; I must become less." He also needed to make it clear that what Jesus could do, he himself couldn't do: ...'I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.' And furthermore, that who he was, was nothing compared to Jesus and also that HIS SERVICE, was nothing compared to Jesus': '...the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and unite'. John didn't just ASSUME that people would be able to tell, but made it clear to people by CLEAR COMPARISON. Paul the Apostle also did this, boasting about his weaknesses, trials and hardships and even ripping apart his clothing once to show people that he wasn't God, but rather very very human, just like themselves.
We as the Church must continually realise and remind ourselves that, while God's men in our lives and His leaders are a blessing and while we should honour them in a Godly manner, they are still and only JUST MEN, with no power, goodness or influence except for what the master gives them in order to serve Him for a time (and nothing good comes from themselves without the grace given to them and without the Spirit Himself working in and through them). Those ministers and leaders themselves must continually remind themselves of this fact as well, and never ASSUME THAT THEY ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THEY ARE. Jesus came to set an example for men, and that is that they should SERVE ONE ANOTHER (e.g: 'the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many'). Paul himself professed that he was a BONDSERVANT of Christ, and that it was only by the power of God that he was of any good effect to people at all. God never wants His Church to laud men, to make them the centre of our affection and our attention and to begin to follow them in such a way as to begin to ignore the only King, Lord and Saviour there is. If ANYTHING at all good comes from His people and His ministers IT IS BECAUSE OF HIS GOODNESS ALONE.
God also was the one to remove John, allowing him to be imprisoned and beheaded. Because of this, no one in the Church now gives too much focus and attention to the life of John, and no one has made a religion out of him, because all the attention and focus went on to the person of Jesus Christ, just as it should have. If ever we as individuals, or the Church as a whole starts to follow too closely or pay too much attention to one man, Jesus will make sure that He deals with such a situation accordingly. This teaches us all to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, and to know that while we all have a role to play, that role needs to be whatever Jesus wants it to be, and the time period it lasts for is also just as long as He has set it; no shorter and no longer. If we all accept this, then Jesus will always be the centre of our love and the centre of our attention, and we will all be kept from idolatry and from unnecessary dejection and despondency, knowing that our Lord is in control of all things.
In the scripture above, John the Baptist realised that such a time had come upon him, and instead of fighting against it, realised what was going on and realised that his importance to others needed to diminish in order to ensure that Jesus' importance to others was what remained paramount: John 3v30: "He must become greater; I must become less." He also needed to make it clear that what Jesus could do, he himself couldn't do: ...'I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.' And furthermore, that who he was, was nothing compared to Jesus and also that HIS SERVICE, was nothing compared to Jesus': '...the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and unite'. John didn't just ASSUME that people would be able to tell, but made it clear to people by CLEAR COMPARISON. Paul the Apostle also did this, boasting about his weaknesses, trials and hardships and even ripping apart his clothing once to show people that he wasn't God, but rather very very human, just like themselves.
We as the Church must continually realise and remind ourselves that, while God's men in our lives and His leaders are a blessing and while we should honour them in a Godly manner, they are still and only JUST MEN, with no power, goodness or influence except for what the master gives them in order to serve Him for a time (and nothing good comes from themselves without the grace given to them and without the Spirit Himself working in and through them). Those ministers and leaders themselves must continually remind themselves of this fact as well, and never ASSUME THAT THEY ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THEY ARE. Jesus came to set an example for men, and that is that they should SERVE ONE ANOTHER (e.g: 'the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many'). Paul himself professed that he was a BONDSERVANT of Christ, and that it was only by the power of God that he was of any good effect to people at all. God never wants His Church to laud men, to make them the centre of our affection and our attention and to begin to follow them in such a way as to begin to ignore the only King, Lord and Saviour there is. If ANYTHING at all good comes from His people and His ministers IT IS BECAUSE OF HIS GOODNESS ALONE.
God also was the one to remove John, allowing him to be imprisoned and beheaded. Because of this, no one in the Church now gives too much focus and attention to the life of John, and no one has made a religion out of him, because all the attention and focus went on to the person of Jesus Christ, just as it should have. If ever we as individuals, or the Church as a whole starts to follow too closely or pay too much attention to one man, Jesus will make sure that He deals with such a situation accordingly. This teaches us all to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, and to know that while we all have a role to play, that role needs to be whatever Jesus wants it to be, and the time period it lasts for is also just as long as He has set it; no shorter and no longer. If we all accept this, then Jesus will always be the centre of our love and the centre of our attention, and we will all be kept from idolatry and from unnecessary dejection and despondency, knowing that our Lord is in control of all things.
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