18th February 2026

18th February 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 3:22–36 focus 27-30)


Message (Alan Burke)


After weeks like the ones I’ve had, I am looking forward to being yesterday’s man. I’m dreaming of it, and right now I’d accept it gladly if I could take early retirement, but I’ve got to keep going until I’m 72, probably 80 the way the country is being run these days. If you haven’t heard that idiom before, ‘yesterday’s man’, it is often used of politicians whose careers are over. The influence and power that they once had is now gone, and they have become nothing more than outdated irrelevance. They may still try to put their nose in where it doesn’t belong, give interviews, write letters, speak to anyone who will listen to them, but more and more they are just an inconvenience to everyone, and they are no longer in the position to do anything. 


There are those, though, who I’ve come across who cannot let go. They never want to retire. They can’t let go of what they have out of fear of being yesterday’s man or woman. Remember where we are? John’s disciples, out of fear, envy, and rivalry, had gone to John, giving off that Jesus was taking their glory. And today, as we look at John’s response to them, it is humbling. It is an example to us, no matter who we are, what our station is in life, whether we are just starting out or towards the end, whether we are by the world’s standards a nobody or a somebody. And John knows that everything that he had and that we have comes from God. Everything. Whether we are riding on the crest of the wave in life or our lives are falling apart. 


Look at the response of John to his disciples’ envy and rivalry; he acknowledges God’s sovereignty in all things. He says: “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven” (Jn 3:27). John is acknowledging God’s sovereignty in what he has received in his life, in God’s plans and purposes for it. It is as if his disciples were saying to John: “Here look, Jesus, he’s taking the glory that I due to you, what are you going to do about it?” If it were us, the easy thing is to be likewise filled with envy and rivalry, to be discontent in the midst of all that is happening just as John’s disciples were, but not John. John wasn’t wanting to keep the status or fame that he had. He knew that everything comes from the Lord and to be discontented in his life with what he had, in his position, in what he had, in his circumstances, whatever it was, would ultimately lead to dissatisfaction with God. 


John here uses the imagery of the wedding, of the friend of the bridegroom, to make his point; the job of the best man is to bring the focus on those whom it should be focused on. He knew the joy privilege that he had in being the forerunner to Christ. His whole intention was to give the glory to the one that he was sent ahead of. John knows that Christ must become greater and he less. This is a lesson that we need to learn, a lesson that is hard to learn for we often make it about ourselves. There are times that we might look at what is happening in our lives and we think, “How can the Lord bring anything good from this? We’re not happy, we’re maybe dissatisfied, disappointed that God has brought this upon us.” John had not made it about himself; he knew that Christ must increase while he decreased. And in this life, whatever we face, we can take comfort from the words of Joseph. Joseph, who was sold into slavery, who faced some awful things that would break most of us, and at the end, he was able to say to his brothers: “You meant it for evil, God meant it for good” (Gen 50:20).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q101 What do we pray for in the first petition?
A. In the first petition, which is, Hallowed be thy name,” we pray, that God would enable us, and others, to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known, and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.
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