Complete in Him
A Sermon on John 3:30
Originally preached June 19, 1966
Scripture
30He must increase, but I must decrease.
Sermon Description
What is the center of all human life? Men and women center their lives around things like wealth, power, religion, and more. They look to these things to give them meaning and joy but Scripture has a very different answer to this question. God’s word shows that it is the person of Jesus Christ who is essential and foundational to all human existence. His coming to earth and dying for sinners is the most important fact because it is only through Him that anyone can be saved. There are even those who claim to be Christian, yet replace Jesus with their own works, the church, or something else. This is a fatal error because it takes the focus off of Jesus Christ and turns it to a secondary thing. The only truly happy and blessed life is that which is focused and centered on the true Jesus Christ who has died in order to save sinners. This sermon from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on John 3:30 titled “Complete in Him” forces all to ask themselves: “is Jesus the center of my life or am I trusting in something lesser?” All must begin with the glory and weightiness of God as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and center their life on this Christ.
Sermon Breakdown
- The sermon focuses on John 3:30 which states "He must increase, but I must decrease." This verse captures the essence of the Christian life.
- Christianity is about receiving grace upon grace from Christ's fullness. The question is whether we are receiving more of Christ's fullness.
- The biggest hindrance to growth in Christ is self. We must decrease so Christ can increase.
- We looked at ways to decrease self last week. Now we look at how to increase Christ.
- To increase Christ, we must avoid anything that detracts from His greatness like viewing Him as just one of many ways to God or supplementing Him with other teachings.
- We must not be more interested in what Christ gives us than in Christ Himself. We can be more interested in knowledge about Christ than in Christ Himself.
- We can be overconcerned with activities done in Christ's name rather than our relationship with Christ Himself.
- To increase Christ, consider His essential greatness - He is the Son of God, co-eternal and co-equal with the Father, eternally holy, the effulgence of God's glory.
- Consider Christ's work in creation - all things were made by Him and for Him. He holds all things together.
- Consider Christ's eternal knowledge - He is the final revelation of God, the fullness of God dwells in Him.
- Is Christ increasing in our sight, affections, and being? If so, we are blessed. If not, we must humble ourselves and ask the Spirit to reveal Christ to us.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.