“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
– Matthew 11:11
What a picture. This is Jesus talking about John the Baptist and his humility.
Matthew 11:11 Contains the Bible’s greatest teaching on Humility
And the whole picture is what we see at various points all throughout Scripture that the one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted, which is why Jesus is exalting John here, because of his humility. Remember, this is John whose theme is summarized in John 3:30. He must become greater. Jesus must become greater. I must become less so to live for the glory of Jesus. More of Jesus, less of me. To live like that is to be exalted ironically by Jesus. The one who humbles himself will be exalted, which is why Jesus then says, the one who’s least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. This is so different than the way we think.
The way to greatness is not by asserting yourself, exalting yourself, focusing on yourself. The way to greatness is by humbling yourself and dying to yourself, denying yourself and exalting Jesus. This is greatness. So are you living for greatness today? Am I living for greatness today?
Matthew 11:11 Encourages us to Deny Ourselves
Let’s pray. Jesus, may you become greater and may we become less, more of you, less of us today, more glory to your name, less even acknowledgement of our name. All of you, Jesus, none of us. We want to deny ourselves, die to ourselves today. Take up a cross and follow you. You are our life. Lord, you are our joy. You are our strength. Lord, you are our everything. We live today for Your glory, not our own. Oh God, we praise you for the example of John the Baptist. We praise you for how he paved the way and prepared people’s hearts for you and pointed people to you and not to himself. God, we pray that that would be true of our lives today. That we would live all day long today pointing people to you. God, that we would live all day long today, concerned about what others think about you, not concerned about where they think about us.
God, we pray for humility. We pray that you would help us to live crucified lives, that you would increase our humility. And we trust, oh God, that when we live humbly and we die to ourselves and we live for you and your glory alone, that we will experience that which is truly life. So Jesus, we pray today with John the Baptist, may you become greater and may we become less. More of you, less of us; all of you, none of us.
Praying for the Urdu People
Jesus, glorify yourself through us, we pray. In the nations among the Urdu of Guyana, God among the small isolated people group in Guyana, God we pray, may the name of Jesus be exalt among the Urdu of Guyana and raise up laborers who will work for the spread of your glory among the small people group in Guyana. We pray that you’d help us to live for greatness according to your Word, knowing this means living for your glory in the world. We pray this in Jesus’ name, according to Matthew 11:11, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
