MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

By DR. KEN GRAHAM, Pastor

VICTORY BAPTIST CHURCH

5366 HWY. 67 SOUTH

BENTON, ARKANSAS 72015

E-Mail: drkengraham@experiencevictory.net

PHONE: 501.315.5005 – Cell: 501.860.3259

John Chapter 3, Verse 26-31:  "And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.

John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.

He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all."

Let us Pray: Father, what a marvelous thought it is tonight as John said, "You must increase but we must decrease." Help us to learn, Lord, to die daily and to die to self and magnify you in all that we do and say. We will thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Three things I want to bring to your attention out of the verses that I have read tonight and I am preaching tonight, really if I gave it a title it would be entitled simply "Mission Accomplished."

The story that unfolds here John's disciples have come to him. John the Baptist, of course, was a great man. If you know anything about John the Baptist – if you were going to pick out heroes of the Bible – let me say this. I don't want to be a man worshiper and I think that you understand there is a dangerous thing. we have to understand that no matter who it is, whether it is a family member, a friend, a great preacher, we must always recognize that we are nothing but mud. We are nothing but made out of clay, and except for God we would be nothing, so we don't want to ever lose sight of that.

Humanly speaking, John was a great man. John was a unique man. You know about John's life and about his preaching, and if you read about John the Baptist, he is a man's man. He is just a dynamic preacher of the Word of God, bold in his preaching and uncompromising.

He is a great example when it comes to preaching the Word of God. John has been preaching. He is that voice crying in the wilderness. He is that one that is echoing the message about Jesus Christ. He is that one that is telling everybody that the Messiah is coming and now John the Baptist has baptized Jesus.

That great scene has taken place and John said I am not worthy to even unlatch your shoes and Jesus, of course followed into the waters to baptism. You remember the voice that was heard from heaven "this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him."

So, John has had this mar- velous experience, but now his disciples come and they say, hey, this one that you testified of, you remember that one that you witnessed of, the one that you made mention of, well He is baptizing and not only that, but all men are following Him.

We notice first of all the

CONCERN OF JOHN'S DISCIPLES

They come to him and they say, John, there is a problem. Notice the problem that they stated. John, more people are following Jesus than you. In fact they made it pretty strong, they said all men are following Him. They were con- cerned about John, in fact they said John you are losing your crowd.

I have said this often through the years and of course we built this building because we want to see it filled up. But I hope you understand. it is not about filling this building up so people will come and hear Bro. Graham. It is about filling this building up so people can come and meet the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think sometimes we lose sight of the fact that He is the most important one. And John's disciples are concerned, they said more people are following Jesus than are following you.

PRIORITY

Notice the priority that John sought. They came to him and they brought this to his attention, but John said, you don't under- stand, you are missing the point. John said I am the one that came to bear witness. I am not the light. Go back to John, chapter one. He is is not the light. but he said I am come to bare witness of that light. I am just a witness, and by the way, that is what we are.

Boy, it was exciting tonight when Miss Tammy gave that testimony about winning her first soul to Jesus Christ, and how thrilling that was. My mind went back to the first time that I personally led somebody to the Lord. The week that I was saved I got to lead my best friend to the Lord when I got back from camp. His name was Kevin and I got to lead him to Christ. What an exciting joy and thrill it was when I got to show him how to be saved. I don't ever want to get beyond or over the thrill of telling somebody else the good news of salvation.

But John said, hey, I want you to know my priority, I want to bear witness of Him. But why John, why is it so important? Well, there are three reasons that John gave as to why he wanted to bear witness. First of all in John 1, verse 7, he said I want to bear witness of Him because Christ and Christ alone is the one that has the:

POWER TO SAVE

Look what he said in John chapter 1, verse 7: "The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe."

You see, John understood this one great fundamental truth, that as he came to bear witness of Christ, that Christ alone had the power to save. I want to tell you something, you and I can do nothing for anyone outside of Jesus Christ. But I'll tell you that when we go to them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with the message of the gospel we do have the answer that all men are seeking. We do have the hope for mankind and it is found in Jesus Christ. John said I want you to know I am witnessing for Him first of all because He has the power to save.

But John said secondly I am witnessing about Him because he is:

PREFERRED BEFOR ME

He said this in John chapter 1 and verse 15: "John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me."

That's an interesting verse because, you remember John the Baptist was born physically first and then Jesus came. Amen? But John said even though I came into this world a few months sooner He existed long before I ever showed up. John said He is preferred before me because He was before me. John said I witness about Him because He has the power to save.

I witness about Him because He pre-existed before I did. He is preferred before me. John said, I am just flesh, I am just a human being. I am just here for a time, but He is eternal. He has always been and ever shall be the forever living God. So John witnessed for Him not only because He had the power to save, not only because He was preferred before John, but John said I am witnessing of Him because of the:

PERSON THAT HE IS

In Chapter 1 and verse 34 he said, "And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God."

Now I understand that the Bible says, "Beloved now are we the sons of God." When we get saved we become children of God, but there is a clear distinction here that John is making. I want you to know that He is that only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

He is that one and only Son that without Him none of us could be in the family of God and the only way that you get in the family of God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. John said I am witnessing for Him and I am bearing witness because of who He is. The person that He is. He is the eternal Son of God. There is no other savior.

People are saying today well, as long as you are sincere, that is all it takes. They are wrong. Sincerity is not enough. Religion is not enough, You must have a relationship with the one and only Person who can save you and that is Jesus Christ.

I know this is Wednesday night and I am not preaching a salvation message, but if you are not saved, I would just like to say there is no other Person that can save you except Jesus Christ. You are not going to go to heaven because of church membership or good works or good deeds or being a nice person or being a good neighbor. You go to heaven because Jesus Christ lives in your heart and life.

We notice the concern of John's disciples, they said you know His crowd is bigger than ours. I believe I can say this with all honesty, though God knows my heart, I want our building to be filled. I think it is a dangerous thing when all we care about is numbers. I am for numbers, don't misunderstand me. But we sure don't want to lose sight that every number represents a soul.

I don't know what your mind is, but when a brother is talking about these different numbers of people that were being saved, my mind was thinking about people. Hosts of people in a place unlike ours. You go through Benton and there is a Baptist church on every corner.

There are places in the world where Baptist churches are few and far between. There are places in America where Baptist churches are few and far between. I am just simply telling you we are blessed to be in an area where people hear so much and know so much about the gospel of Jesus Christ. II am telling you we need to recognize that it is more than just a number, it is the relationship with a person and John said, hey, I am not worried about the fact that more people are following Him. In fact it is, notice secondly, not only is it the concern of John's disciples, but notice the

COMMENTS OF JOHN

Notice in chapter 3, verses 27 through 29: John made three very important comments. First of all notice what John:

RECOGNIZED

He said in verse 27 as they began to say this to him, "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven."

I don't care how much talent you have without God you have nothing. I talk with Bro. Bradshaw sometimes about our burden and our visions. We have some good young people come through our Bible College. But oftentimes I find some young people are wholly dependent upon their talents or their personal ability or their strength. Maybe they are thinking that my talent in this area, or my strength in that area is going to carry me through. I want to tell you your talent alone is not going to make you a great servant of God.

I think sometimes there is a danger in a place like America, sometimes preachers lose sight of this. I am not being critical but I think if we are not careful, we will forget. I was sharing this thought for the message with a preacher friend of mine and he said you know I thought about those very verses. He said I thought about preaching a sermon on "you are not the Messiah." He said man, to hear some preachers talk you would think they are the only preacher in the world and if everybody doesn't come to their church, somehow they are missing out on everything.

Don't misunderstand, we ought to love our church and we ought to thank God for our church, but if God chooses to bless another church or let souls be saved somewhere else, our hearts ought to rejoice in that. We should not be envious about that. Hey folks, they are getting saved.

I mentioned the other day about the revival up at Tower Hill, Illinois. Tower Hill, Illinois is where Knobs Baptist Church is. Knobs Baptist Church is 2½ miles from Tower Hill and Tower Hill is a long ways from anywhere. I told our people, it is in the middle of nowhere.

I saw some of their people last week and man, they were excited. I am talking about they were effervescent with excitement. I have known the people in that church for many years.

I told you I preached there when I was fourteen and many times since then. The people were telling us we just had revival and we had eighteen people saved in our revival and boy, they were excited about it. They were thrilled. You say eighteen people, well that is not that many, well Tower Hill is a town of only about 250 to 300 people, a pretty good stirring. You get eighteen folks saved in a community like that and it will stir the waters pretty quickly.

Those people were fired up. They said we had to extend the meeting. When is the last time you heard a church had to extend the meeting? They said the guest they had made a couple adjustments with the next preacher and they said we really prayed about going on even longer. We were not sure what to do, it was so exciting, and you know what, it thrilled my heart.

That is the way John said I want to be. He said I want you to understand that when I hear that Christ is working, I am not going to be jealous. If he has a bigger crowd, and this guy has more and this is happening there, I am not going to be jealous because I am not the Christ and you are not the Christ. We are just here as witnesses, we are just here to represent Him. We are just here to stop by on this journey called life and to tell others the good news of salvation.

And then, notice what he:

REVEALED

Let me illustrate it like this. John said I am like the best man at the wedding. I know there is a lot of theological debate about this and I am not going to deal with that tonight, that is for another sermon, but I like the illustration that John is giving. John said I am like the best man at the wedding. John said my job at the wedding is very important. He said I am not the pre-eminent person at the wed- ding.

As some of you know I recently got to be the best man in a wedding. My son Brandon got married and he asked me to be his best man. When he called me that day and said, Dad, I wanted to know if you would be my best man, boy I was thrilled.

Ben of course, said im- mediately, boy, I wish I had thought of that. He will probably get a better cut in the inheritance. Well, I don't know about the inheritance. but I will probably leave him less bills than I will you. But anyway, he asked me to be his best man at his wedding and I took that as an honor and it is an honor. But listen to me, when I went to the wedding my goal wasn't to try to steal everybody's attention away from that couple.

I heard about a wedding in a church in another state and the best man got to cutting up and acting up and doing some foolish things and actually disrupted the wedding. He created just a little bit of havoc.

It was so bad that I heard two or three different preachers at the next weddings I went to who had been around there, were telling the party, listen, here is what we don't want to happen at the wedding.

I want you to understand that if you get to be in a wedding and you are a member of the wedding party, it is an honor, but you are not the big deal. It is about the bride and groom. Now the only thing that will be different when we get to heaven is it will be a bigger deal to us. Of course it will be a big deal to Him because He is going to present the church without having spot or wrinkle and I understand all that.

Let me just say when you are the best man, or whatever position you hold, your job is not to draw attention to yourself,. It is all to bring the focus of attention to the bride and the groom.

John said, you mean to tell me they are looking past me and they are seeing Him? John said, oh, that is what I am living for, that's my goal. You mean that the crowd has stopped looking at me and they are seeing the one that I have been telling them about is going to be coming, they are looking at Him and they are seeing Him.

John said, oh, hey, I am telling you right now, mission accom- plished. That is what my life is about. That is what the goal is. I am just the best man at the wedding. I am here to serve and do whatever He would have me to do, but at the end of the day it is all about putting our attention and our focus upon Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

At the end of the day that He would get all the praise and honor and glory – that He would be magnified above all, more than anything and everyone. John said I want you to know that thrills my heart. John said if you came to make me jealous it is not going to work. That is what I am living for.

Now, number three, notice the:

COMPLETE JOY

John said in verse 29, I am like the best man when the bride and bridegroom get married – when the wedding comes to its cul- mination and everybody is looking at him and her. John said my mission is accomplished. John said I am so glad, I am so thrilled. In fact he makes the statement like this, "This my joy therefore is fulfilled."

Let me ask you, what fulfills your joy? I think sometimes we are consumed with our joy being fulfilled by the praise of men, the pat on the back and all those things. Now listen, I am not against encouraging people and saying how much you appreciate them. Don't misunderstand what I am saying, at the end of a hard day, everything that we do, everything that we say, everything that we are ought to be to the end that the Lord Jesus Christ would be magnified, and that our lives would cause somebody to see Him along this journey called life.

Think about this, hey, John, they are not talking about you anymore. You were exciting John there for a while. They were talking about you and your preaching, and you and your camel coat.

They were talking about you and your wild diet. John, they were talking about you in so many ways, but John, lately everybody is talking about Jesus. This one that you pointed out when Jesus came to the age of thirty. Now when He begins His public ministry, every single eye is upon Him and the attention is focusing upon Him.

By the way, Jesus said this about John – that there has not been a greater born among women. Boy, that should remind us that the way up in the Christian life is down. The road to greatness is a road paved with humility. Jesus said none greater than John and John said my whole goal is that He might increase, and I might decrease. What a statement.

Notice this. John's:

FOCUS

When they came and said John, they are not talking about you, but they are talking about Jesus, John said mission ac- complished. That's my goal. You know at the end of the day if people would talk about Him -- if our conversations would go to- wards Him – if our thoughts would go towards Him – if our songs would go towards Him – if our sermons would go towards Him. If our lives were lived in such a way that the goal and the desire and the driving force would be to point people to Jesus – let people see Christ in us, what a difference that would make. We see John's focus in his life. He said that is what I have been trying to do.

Now we see John's:

FULFILLMENT

John said, "My joy is fulfilled." If they are talking about Him, if they are following Him, and if they are interested in Him, if they are wanting to hear Him, John said My joy is fulfilled. You see the closer you get to Him, that is Jesus, the less impressed you will be with yourself.

You know sometimes we get so caught up in ourself we forget about Him. You think about some of the statements we make throughout the day, the thoughts that we have sometimes throughout the day, the thoughts of selfishness and self-centered thoughts, the thoughts all so con- sumed about us.

Everything is so often about us. Sometimes we get caught up in wanting to make a good impression. Sometimes we get caught up in wanting to have things go a certain way and things don't always go the way we want them to. I am telling you if we could get our eyes on Him and we could get focused on Him and our life and our world and our vision would be all about Him, the closer you get to Him the less impressed you are with you.

The more you love Him, the less you care about you. I am just simply saying that if He becomes number one it will make a whole different perspective on everything else. John said it like this, "He must increase but I must decrease."

Too often we want to be the center of attention instead of letting Him be the center of our world. Too often we want everything to be about us. I am not saying it like you are that way and I am not that way. Sometimes we get caught up in our own agenda. Sometimes we get caught up in our own world. Sometimes we get consumed with what does everybody else think about our ministry?

The goal of a ministry is not about making a name for ourself. It is about magnifying Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. John said, oh, I want Him to increase.

I was reading some notes today that I had written as I mentioned going to Israel. I have been there several times, but the first time that I went, the first time that I physically saw Calvary. Let me just say this, I am glad you don't have to go there physically to go to Calvary. But the first time that I saw Calvary, the first time I saw the garden tomb, the first time I spent the night in Jerusalem – I woke up and (you will laugh because you know me), but I woke up long before the sun had risen. I found out it comes up gradually. I thought the first half turned the lights on.

But anyway, I got up very early, had my devotions, read scripture, had prayer, and I was reading these notes fresh today. I was overwhelmed by the thought of Him who loved me and gave Himself for me. Notes about Calvary, about Jerusalem and about all these places where I was.

You start thinking about everything He has done and I will be honest with you, you get pretty unimpressed with yourself. You get that close to Calvary and you get that close to the garden tomb and you get that close to all that is going on. I am not just talking about being there physically, I am talking about in your walk with God and all of a sudden you see Him for how great He is and you see yourself for how undone you are. You will come away from there thinking, Lord, I don't know why you ever fooled with me.

Aren't you glad He loved us? John's disciples said, hey, John, they are all following Him. John said, Mission Accomplished. At the end of the day our goal is not to make followers of us. Our goal is to get folks to follow Him. If we will follow Him, He will never lead us down the wrong path. If we keep our eyes on Him, we will never make the wrong decision. If we keep our eyes on Him, we will always, always succeed. V