The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived
John Boda
When we think of who this person might be, we can have all kinds of people in mind! Michael Jordan…Martin Luther King Jr……Abraham Lincoln…..George Washington…..any more come to mind? OK, you’re thinking more spiritual now, how about The Apostle Paul? Moses, David, Elijah, Abraham, or even Jesus?!
No doubt that many of them could be considered with the title, of course, maybe we would have to eliminate Jesus because he was not just a man, but the Son of God!
Well who do you think that I could possibly be thinking of as “The Greatest Man who ever lived”?!
OK, without any further delay – the winning title goes to – JOHN THE BAPTIST! Now this is NOT my opinion, and in fact, I probably wouldn’t even have had him in the running, but as is so many things in God’s Kingdom, it is a mystery and based on other issues than we base it on!
Where do I get this idea? From Jesus;
“As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John; ‘What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in King’s palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A Prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written; “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way before you”. I tell you the truth; among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist, yet he who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he”. (Matthew 11:7-11)
When I first read these words many years ago, and even most times since, I have tended to assume that Jesus was just being super nice about John, after all, he was his cousin! You know, like we get many times when we are asked to speak a eulogy for a lost friend, or even to give a toast at a wedding. We try to say the nicest things, even if they are quite a stretch!
But we cannot, and we must not, think that this was what Jesus was doing here!
Jesus was saying, “Those crowds that flocked to John didn’t do it because of his clothes, or even because of his extreme character and personality, no, they flocked to him because he was a Prophet of God, and not only a Prophet, but the greatest man who was ever born up to that point!”
(I realize that Jesus’ statement means that John was the greatest to that point, and possibly others have been born since who took his place, but I doubt it. Even so, the principle of greatness remains, and I will look at that coming up.)
John had a very unique role and mission as being the one between the covenants and the one who would open the door for Jesus!
R.C. Sprout has often said that he has asked a trick question at times to his students in Bible College. He asked, “Who was the greatest Prophet of the Old Covenant?” Most students respond with Moses, or Elijah, and very few catch on to his little trick. He finally tells them, no, you’re all wrong! The greatest Prophet of the Old Covenant was John the Baptist! It is a trick because most people don’t think of him as being part of the Old Covenant because he is written about in the New Testament! But he was born, and lived within the old, and was the one God used to usher in the new.
One more note before I move on: It is interesting that Jesus, the Son of God, calls him this! The only lesson being that those who are truly great have no problem giving full credit to others! While the opposite is true, those who are carnal and have selfish ambition with ego problems, always see others as competition to themselves and never give sincere credit to them.
Why Was He the Greatest?
In John 3:25-30, we find that John’s disciples are concerned that Jesus is baptizing more than their Rabbi John was doing! Once again, these men were displaying selfish ambition and showed they were more concerned with competition and keeping the crowd than they were advancing the Kingdom of God.
In speaking of Jesus, John deflects their concern that Jesus is the Christ, and that Jesus is the Bridegroom, and we should rejoice in that fact. Then he says something very important within this context;
“He must increase but I must decrease”.
Or possibly it is better to understand from The Message Bible;
“This is the assigned moment for him to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.”
My question is this: If this was the heart attitude of John the Baptist, do you think it had any bearing or link to the title Jesus’ gave him of being the greatest?
You can answer that yourself, for me, I’ll say – YES!
I am one of the worship leaders at a large contemporary church around Chicago. I can say with personal experience that for anyone to get up in front of a large group of people, and sing, teach or preach, the temptation is always there and very strong for pride and ego taking center stage! Anyone who disagrees with me, I submit that you don’t do this regularly, or you have such a pride/ego problem that it has blinded your eyes to even know you have it!
What if….and it is a big “what if”…every person in ministry who gets up in front of people for any reason, were to make a practice of saying in their hearts just before they arose, “Jesus must increase, and I must decrease”.
“This is the assigned moment for Jesus to move into the center stage, while I slip off to the sidelines.”
That can be hard to do, especially when you may be about to go on center stage! But just what if?? Think of how it may transform attitudes, and whole services!
One of my personal habits for many years is a similar statement that I make to myself before I go up front in church. I try to think of two things in the proper perspective:
If we can find the middle ground of those two, wow, we’re on our way to real ministry! If all we know is who God really is, that is great, but we will be so heavenly minded we will be no earthly good! We will just cower somewhere in a closet and worship every moment of the day, which is not terribly bad for yourself, but horribly bad for any ministry for others!
Likewise, if all we know is who we really are….that is well and good to keep us from pride, but we will be so aware of sin, selfishness, greed, envy and all other terrible things that we will also be of no use for ministry!
We can visualize having a coin in our pocket with one side saying,” Who God is” and the other saying, “Who we are”…and then humbly go forward!
Take the JTB Test
The context in which JTB spoke those powerful words, “He must increase, but I must decrease”, was when his disciples came to him and told him that Jesus was on the other side of the river baptizing more people than him! Heaven forbid! (John 3:26) That would be a terrible problem if it was a popularity contest, but this was nothing of the sort, to both Jesus and JTB.
John’s first reply is this; “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.” In other words, we have nothing, and we can really do nothing of any eternal significance in and of ourselves. Whatever good or blessed thing that is done by anyone is done as a result of a gift from heaven. So this is the first part of the test for all of us, to realize, and believe this truth;
Anything good, with eternal significance, comes first as a gift from God to people. Then it is to be used for service and ministry, to be given away to others. (If we really believe this truth, no one will ever fall into pride or ego trips because any gift or talents we have all first originated in God, and we have been only allowed to use them in service to others.)
Sing the rest of this old hymn, but notice how it starts;
Praise God from whom all blessings flow……..
The second part of this little test concerns the statement mentioned earlier by JTB, “He must increase, but I must decrease”.
This is fairly easy to do if we are comparing ourselves with Jesus, but try saying and believing it while comparing yourself with others! Like this;
Try asking the Lord to help get you to think of all of us together, as believers, are all on the same side! Pray like, “Lord, you must increase, in every way, even through other people around me, and I must decrease in any selfish or personal desire or goal that is in conflict to your will. Another way of saying this would be, “Lord, have your way and do your work through whomever, whenever, and wherever!”
Of course, this “test” has no grade or follow up….here on this earth by any human being. But in a real sense, it can form the basis by which God himself may judge all believers in heaven, a judgment based on ministry and what we did to advance the kingdom, not a judgment on salvation.
The Paradox of Greatness
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11
These words were spoken by Jesus when he noticed that people were rushing to sit at the highest seat of honor at a gathering. This is a paradox, if you humble yourself, then God will exalt you, and if you exalt yourself then you will be humbled. We are not told “when” the humiliation or exalting will come, and while most believe that he is speaking of eternal realities in heaven, I suspect that it also could involve right here and now on earth.
Of course, being exalted or humbled by God on earth could take on various scenarios with many people not even noticing, or mistaking it for something else.
Nevertheless, the principle is true and comes from the lips of Jesus himself.
Another paradox uttered by Jesus in context of people exalting themselves was when Peter blurted out that he had left everything to follow Jesus and asked what reward he would obtain by doing so.
Jesus answered; “Many who are first shall be last, and many who are last shall be first.” Matthew 19:30
So if we find ourselves seeking attention for our own popularity and ego, it really has the opposite effect in areas that matter the most! Being humbled, or finding ourselves last, could involve God leading us down a spiral black hole of serious trial and difficulties. While falling downward we may complain that God has abandoned us, but he is closer than ever, and we can eventually discover that when we come to our senses and get the priority straight of God first – and everything else next!
Spiritual Leadership
The key passage in scripture on spiritual leadership is found in Ephesians 4:11-16;
“It was He (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
I realize that this is a lot of words and can become confusing, but allow me summarize;
Every spiritual leader that God gave to the church is given to help everyone in the church also do their work as ministers of God. As long as everyone keeps this whole thing in proper perspective, of God first building his kingdom through all of us, then we will grow into a vibrant and healthy community of believers!
The problem is that many of the leaders, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, begin to think that they are the elite. They begin to think that they are more gifted, and are to be treated differently than all the other lower type workers. Then many of the people of the congregation feel like they are just “laity” and could never achieve the high level that these other super-ministers have achieved, and so they simply show up to warm the pews and chairs on Sunday, while the super-elite gain more power and control and status over the common people.
When this happens, we have grotesque growths like cancer on the body of Christ! It is what some people have called an actual disease and named it,
“The Attention on Man Syndrome”.
For about five years I was actually a part of this cancerous problem at a church where I was in leadership along side the lead pastor who ran it more like a dictatorship than a ministry. Upon my exit, I did meet with him, and although it was very tense, I opened my Bible to this passage I just mentioned in Ephesians and read him the exact words. Then I proceeded to say something like;
“If the church is functioning healthy, and like it should, then we should have real growth, and no one will be spiritually lacking, and no one will be tossed back and forth in all kinds of crazy doctrines made up by deceitful scheming men! We have not been healthy, we have not been growing, most people here are spiritually immature, and we have all kinds of crazy doctrines going on as well! Could it be…..that according to this scripture…we have abandoned the God-ordained order for spiritual leadership and true ministry, by having one man dictate and run all programs as a spiritual control freak always taking center stage?”
That was a close summary to my exit speech, and it was not taken well! But I stand by my reasoning and by God’s grace and help, not only will I never fall into that trap again, but I want to do everything I can to help others keep away from it as well.
The fact is that every one of us is a minister! To be a minister simply means to serve! If you are a believer, then you probably want to serve in some capacity, and if you are serving, you are ministering!
Any person who tries taking center stage within the church is involved in tearing down the Kingdom of God, not building it up! Remember John the Baptist, the greatest man who lived, did he take center stage? No, he proclaimed the one who would take center stage, then stepped aside!
THAT was why he was the greatest! THAT is why we need to do the same!
One final word of caution: I am in no way submitting that we should not attend church or ignore any leaders who are up front in ministry there!
On the contrary, we are told in Hebrews 13:17;
“Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.”
In true spiritual leadership, we follow other humble leaders, and submit to their authority. Notice that we don’t submit to them, but their authority, the authority that they have been given by God. As long as they function in humility and true genuine service to God and the church, we submit to their authority. But if the become a cancerous growth of ego, self centeredness, pride and manipulation, then we do not submit to that authority as that does not come from God.
I hope and pray that this has been helpful, grace and peace! JB