I Must Decrease (John 3:22-36)

We are in the Gospel of John chapter 3 and we're going to be starting in verse 22.

John 3 · chapter mention

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We will be teaching out of the CSB translation here this morning.

So like I said, John chapter 3, starting in verse 22, and we'll go through verse 36.

John 3 · chapter mention

So if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

This is something we do out of respect for God's word because we believe believe that it's the compass that should direct everything we do.

We believe that this is God's inerrant word in its original text, and so we stand really out of respect for that.

And this is the only thing you're gonna hear this morning that's not filtered through a human being.

So this is one of the most important things, I think it is the most important thing we do here on Sunday mornings, is just reading the text together.

So John chapter 3, starting in verse 22.

John 3 · chapter mention

After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside, where he spent time with them and baptized.

John also was baptizing in Anon near Salem, because there was plenty of water there.

People were coming and being baptized, since John had not yet been thrown into prison.

Then a dispute arose between John's disciples and a Jew about purification.

So they came to John and told him, Rabbi, the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.

John responded, No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

You yourselves can testify that I said, I am not the Messiah, but I've been sent ahead of him.

He who has the bride is the groom.

But the groom's friend who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom's voice.

So this joy of mine is complete.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

The one who comes from above is above all.

The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms.

The one who comes from heaven is above all.

He testifies to what he has seen and heard, and yet no one accepts his testimony.

The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true.

For the one whom God sent speaks God's words, since he gives the Spirit without measure.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.

The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life.

Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

Let's pray.

That we'd forget all the things that you want us to forget as well, Lord.

But that you would do your work, whatever it might be in our heart that you want to change, that you want to tweak.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So as you notice, this week's passage starts off with after this.

So let's recap a little bit of where we're coming from from last week.

So last week we saw this meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus, where they talked about what it means to be born again.

To be born into new life through Jesus Christ.

And Jesus also talked about how he would be lifted up, if you remember, to telling Nicodemus, like the bronze snake on the pole in the wilderness.

And how he came to offer salvation to the whole world, not just to the Jews, but to the whole world.

Then Jesus talked about light versus darkness, if you remember, and how Jesus is the light, you know, that shines in the darkness, and that darkness cannot overcome it.

And how those that love the light, that love Jesus, come toward the light.

They don't run from it, they come toward the light.

So after all of this, we'll see Jesus on the move.

He's leaving Jerusalem and he's on his way to the Judean countryside.

And today we'll be talking about baptism.

We're going to be talking about John the Baptist.

We're going to be talking about John the Baptist's ministry.

And then we're going to talk about the greatness of Jesus, his superiority over John, and John's statement that we just read that Jesus must increase so John can decrease.

We'll talk about what that means for us and the statement's application specifically to discipleship, specifically to sanctification, which simply means becoming more and more like Jesus.

So let's jump in at verse 22.

So after this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside where he spent time with them and baptized.

So we learn in the next chapter that Jesus was actually not baptizing, but his disciples were.

And we don't know why Jesus didn't baptize, but it could be as simple as not wanting people thinking that they were more baptized if they got baptized by Jesus and not by John the Baptist or one of Jesus' disciples or one of John's disciples.

You know, didn't want people thinking, you know, well, I was baptized by Jesus.

And maybe someday you can be as baptized as I am.

You know, probably trying to avoid that whole argument.

And I don't want us to miss in verse 22 where it says, where he spent time with them, where Jesus was spending time with his disciples.

These were Jesus' disciples, and so much of discipleship is just spending time, like everyday time, with people.

And that is what Jesus is doing with his disciples.

He's just spending time with them and letting them get to know him.

Now look at verse 23.

John also was baptizing in Anon near Salem because there was plenty of water there.

Now we don't know for sure exactly where Anon near Salem is, but there's a lot of speculation about its whereabouts, and many think that it was up near the Decapolis.

And we have a map here, and this is just people's best guess that it's somewhere up here, because Anon just means springs.

And then there's some history that says that Salem was probably in this region, so it might just read, you know, this all the springs that were up near Salem, if we look at it that way.

But nobody's for sure.

But we do know that Jesus is in the Judean countryside, which puts them kind of right about here.

So if Anon's down further, they might have been close together.

But as we look at this story, they could have been up to 50 miles or more apart when we look at this.

And I think we like to look at this and think that they were within in visual contact with each other, or they were within earshot of each other, but we don't know that for sure.

We just know that Jesus was in the Judean countryside.

So we can't automatically conclude that they were right next to each other.

Now, let's look at the second part of verse 23 and verse 24.

People were coming and being baptized, since John had not yet been thrown into prison.

So John the author is just letting us know that this was obviously before John the Baptist was in prison.

So John's ministry and Jesus' ministry had some crossover.

They had some overlap with each other.

So John the Baptist is still in full ministry mode, and as we'll see, still has disciples that are following him.

And notice something here that is gonna come into play here in a little bit.

People were still coming to John and were still being baptized.

Now look at verse 25.

Then a dispute arose between John's disciples and a Jew about purification.

So the big question is: what is the dispute?

If we're to speculate, I would guess that this Jewish person is asking, why would you baptize somebody that's already Jewish?

You know, we touched on this already earlier in John, but up until this point, baptism was a form of purification.

It was something that the priests would go through before they would serve in the tabernacle or the temple.

Or the Israelites would go through this purification process to be clean if they were already deemed unclean for various reasons, like if they had touched a dead body or they had a certain type of rash or something like that.

But some laws were later added, as we learn from history, that were not from the Lord.

That required those that were not Jewish to be washed, to be baptized before they would, before they could come into the Jewish community, before they could make Judaism their own religion.

So up until this point, baptism was something that was all about purification ritual.

And here comes John the Baptist preaching the baptism of repentance.

And that all need to repent and be cleansed by the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

And this outward washing of the body that John was doing was symbolic of the inward washing that he was preaching about, of repentance.

So if I had to guess what this dispute was about, I would guess it is why are you baptizing Jews that are not priests and that are not ceremonially unclean?

You know, this is something that just wasn't done in Israel up until this point.

And it appears, appears being the main word here, that John's disciples learned something from talking to this Jewish man that Jesus' disciples are also now baptizing, and large crowds are going to them.

Look at verse 26.

So they came to John and told him, Rabbi, the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.

Question for you was everybody going to Jesus?

No.

Verse 23 says that John was there doing what?

Baptizing.

But there's now another ministry that's now baptizing.

And up till this point, this was John's thing.

This was John and his disciples' things.

But now some of John's disciples were now following Jesus.

Remember that?

Instead of John, they went to Jesus.

And others, so these large crowds, are now following Jesus as well.

And John's disciples were feeling like, man, we got some competition now, John.

I think sometimes, if we're honest, it's hard if you're a part of a church or if you're a part of a ministry to see another ministry flourish while yours might be shrinking.

Or to see someone leave a church or a ministry to go to another church or ministry.

And I think it's easy to feel jealous.

And we can start to feel like, you know, well, what's wrong with our church?

And aren't we good enough for you?

Or, you know, what do they have that we don't have?

And we can even start to justify this.

Well, you know, they never really were invested here, and they're the ones that have the problems.

It's not us, you know.

We can start to generalize things like that.

But I think it's human nature where we start to feel like everyone is leaving us and going to this other place.

And that's where John's disciples are right now.

But John gives us the example of how we should respond in these situations.

Look at verse 27.

John responded, No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

So these followers of Jesus were given to Jesus from God.

And John wasn't jealous.

John realizes that it's up to God to grow or shrink a ministry as he wills.

And he also realizes that more people going to Jesus than to him is actually a sign that John's ministry is successful.

He was there to pave the way for Jesus, to point people to Jesus, to say, as we saw, look, or behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So unlike his own disciples, John is good with what is happening, with people going to Jesus.

He goes on in verse 28.

You yourselves can testify that I said, I am not the Messiah, but I've been sent ahead of him.

He's trying to tell his disciples, you know, these people are going to the Messiah.

Guys, what you are concerned about has been the goal of our ministry.

And you're seeing that come to fruition.

He wants them to be rejoicing with him and not jealous of Jesus.

Why?

Look at verse 29.

He who has the bride is the groom.

He who has the larger following, he who has, you know, some of our old followers, some of our old disciples, is the groom.

Jesus now has his bride.

You know, I think in some ways, John saw himself as what we would call in modern day a matchmaker.

Now, question for you.

Have you ever had the opportunity to be a matchmaker?

You know, I have.

I introduced my cousin to a friend I had in high school, and they're now married.

And I got to play a part in that.

And I was thinking that they would be the perfect couple together before they even knew each other.

And I was rooting for their relationship.

And I remember the first time that I saw them holding hands, I was like, yes, like this is working.

But John's role was let me tell you about my cousin.

Let me tell you about the Messiah.

You're gonna love this guy.

He's honest, he's kind, he's actually perfect.

He'll never leave you or forsake you.

He's long-suffering, he's full of forgiveness and compassion.

You're gonna love this guy.

That's what John had been doing.

And now he sees the bride going to the groom, and John knows that she was never his bride.

This whole time he was just kind of playing this role of matchmaker.

Look at the second half of verse 29.

He goes on.

But the groom's friend, he's talking about himself here, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom's voice.

So this joy of mine is complete.

John's talking about himself, and this is a different role here.

We want to say, oh, like a best man.

It's a different role than what we call a best man in modern day weddings.

You know, this friend here was someone that was involved with the details and with the planning of the whole wedding.

But wouldn't it be weird in our modern day context if the best man was standing next to the groom as the bride comes down the aisle and was jealous of the groom and desired the bride for himself?

I mean, that would be all kinds of awkward, wouldn't it, if that was what's going on?

The best man should be thrilled that his best friend has a bride and that that bride is coming to his best friend.

And John the Baptist helped prepare the bride for this moment, helped bring the bride to Christ.

And I think John was saying, mission accomplished.

This is exactly what we've been hoping for.

That's why John can say in verse 29, this joy of mine is complete.

I've pointed the bride to the Messiah, and now she's come to her groom, and I'm standing here.

I think he was just probably giddy because he helped set that up.

Now look at verse 30.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

Isn't this the key really to all discipleship of being a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Isn't this really the key to sanctification?

To becoming more like him?

You know, that process of becoming more like Jesus, where we decrease while he is increasing in our life.

You know, our flesh, our old man, the part of us that still longs to sin and not act like Jesus must decrease.

And the ultimate goal is that we can honestly say Galatians 2, 20, and mean it.

That I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

That should be the goal of every believer.

That we become increasingly one with Jesus and therefore become more like him on a daily basis.

Where he must increase, and I must decrease.

And I think John saw this very literally, even in his own ministry.

His ministry, Jesus' ministry must increase, and my ministry must decrease.

Look at verse 31.

The one who comes from above is above all.

The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms.

The one who comes from heaven is above all.

Notice he says above three times in this verse, and then he says earth or earthly three times in this verse here as well.

What he's doing is he's contrasting humankind to God.

The one from above is obviously Jesus.

And in contrast, we human beings have literally come from the earth.

We were created from dust, and we were just that until God breathed life into us, as we see in Genesis.

So John paints this perspective of heavenly being far superior than earthly.

Jesus is greater in every way than we are, which is why we need to become more like Jesus and less like our natural earthly sinful nature.

Verse 32, John goes on.

He testifies to what he has seen and heard, and yet no one accepts his testimony.

So I want you to turn back a few pages to chapter 1, verse 10 in your Bibles.

Because John has already told us about this.

And he's talking about it again here in verse 32.

But turn to chapter 1, verse 10.

And we will read through verse 13.

I'll wait until I stop hearing pages turn, and then we can read it together.

Chapter 1, verse 10.

He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God.

Think of born again right there.

To those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, think of born of water, or of the will of the flesh.

Remember, he said what's flesh is flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

Now, turn to chapter 3, verse 11, which we covered last week.

This is Jesus again talking to Nicodemus, chapter 3, verse 11.

He says, Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony.

Jesus is God and came from above, so who better to believe about who God is, or about what heaven is like, or the role of the Messiah, than God the Son Himself?

You know, and this Jewish nation as a whole was not believing what Jesus was saying.

A small remnant did, but they even got real shaky when Jesus wasn't meeting their expectations.

So it says, Yet no one accepts his testimony.

Now look at verse 33.

The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true.

Now, your translation.

May say, has certified that God is true, or sets his seal to this that God is true.

The one that takes Christ at his word, which is hopefully all of us here today, we know he is real and he is true.

We have certified it within ourselves that he is real and trustworthy, and that we can believe in him and we can believe everything that he says.

And when we accept, when we certify, when we seal that within our hearts, his testimony, scripture tells us that God sets his seal upon us, which is the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 1 22 says, He has also put his seal, same word right there, on us, and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

We place our trust in him, and he places his Holy Spirit within us.

Verse 34.

For the one whom God sent speaks God's words, since he gives the Spirit without measure.

So can you see how this is continuing to dovetail with the story of Nicodemus that we went over last week?

What did Jesus tell him?

That you have to be born of water and the spirit.

And do you see how this is also dovetailing back with chapter one, if you remember back then?

In the beginning was the word.

The word was God, and the word was with God.

He was in the beginning with God.

Jesus is the word of God, and Jesus speaks the word of God.

And the Spirit of God was given to Jesus without measure.

All of this is pointing to Jesus being the most reliable source we could possibly listen to and we could possibly trust.

Now, up until this point, the Holy Spirit was given by measure, not without measure, but by measure.

The Old Testament speaks of God's Spirit being given for a time or a season to an individual and usually for a very specific purpose.

But Jesus was the first to have the Holy Spirit without measure.

And I think John's not just talking about Jesus here and his relationship to the Holy Spirit, but also talking about the new covenant that we get to be a part of.

Where when we accept Jesus, God gives us the Holy Spirit as a seal.

And he gives us the Holy Spirit without measure as well.

Access to God that nobody had prior to Jesus Christ.

And the Holy Spirit is proof of our salvation in Christ, our seal.

He goes on in verse 35.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.

Again, back to John 1.

Jesus was with God and is God, the second person of the Trinity, in perfect love and unity together.

And that is why Jesus was sent.

Look at verse 36.

The one who believes in, so who has trusted on the Son has eternal life.

But the one who rejects the Son will not see life.

Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

Each and every one of us was born into a world that is under the curse of sin.

We were born into a sinful nature.

We all were under the wrath of God because of our sin.

And not only under it, it says the wrath of God remains on him.

That word remains is the same word that we see for abide.

So if you are not abiding in Christ, the wrath of God abides on you.

We were already condemned, as we saw in verse 18.

But God loved us too much to leave us in that condition that we were already in.

So what did God do?

Verse 16, for God loved the world in this way.

He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

To remove us from remaining under the wrath of God, Jesus came.

And then Jesus came.

If we believe in Jesus, if we place our trust in him, he will pay that debt.

He's already died in our place to remove the condemnation that we were already under to satisfy the wrath of God.

But we have a choice.

Look back at verse 18.

Chapter 3, verse 18.

I know we're jumping around, but we're not going far.

Anyone who believes in him is not condemned.

But anyone who does not believe is already condemned.

Because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

But if we reject the Son of God, Jesus, what does it say in verse 36?

Back down to verse 36.

The wrath of God remains on that person.

The wrath of God abides on that person.

You know, there's always that question, you know, how could a loving God send somebody to hell?

It's not as if we were on this wonderful, glorious path that leads to eternal bliss.

And God steps in and says, No, you're going to hell.

No, you're going to hell.

No, you're going to hell.

But Jesus stepped in and said, I will offer another path.

You were on this wide highway that was leading to destruction.

And Jesus says, I will offer you an offering from that highway that you were already on.

You know, Jesus tells us, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction.

And there are many who go through it.

How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

But Jesus gave us another choice from the path that we were already heading down.

A path that begins with us placing our trust in Jesus, accepting the gift of forgiveness of sin, a life with no more guilt.

You know, people think that Christianity is a religion of guilt, don't they?

And that we do all that we do out of guilt.

No.

There is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

Christianity is a religion of freedom from guilt.

And Jesus gave us the choice to live in that freedom from guilt for the rest of eternity or to be guilty for the rest of eternity if we stay on the path that we were already on.

We need to rejoice in the freedom that Jesus has invited us into.

And if we're motivated to do anything for God out of guilt, we've missed something.

We've missed something huge.

Our motivation to do anything for God needs to come out of gratitude and love for all that he is and all that he's done for us.

And if anyone ever tries to motivate you out of guilt, that is not from the Lord.

That is not how he operates.

That is not how he loves.

And if we need guilt to motivate us to do things for God or abstain from doing things against God, that means we have a love issue.

Where you're not understanding the love of God or you're lacking under or you're lacking in love for God.

You know, our desire to decrease and him increase needs to come from a place of love and not from a place of guilt.

Where we love him so much that we want to be just like him.

And that motivates everything that we do.

And that's what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, to become more and more like him.

Where he increases and we decrease as we just continue to love him and understand him more and more.

Let's pray.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for all that you are.

We thank you for the gift of salvation that you've offered us.

Lord, we were on a wide highway going full blast to death and destruction and judgment.

But we thank you that you gave us the gift of Jesus Christ, that you offered another path for us to go down.

One that's filled with love and freedom from guilt.

So it's it's a harder path, it's a narrower path.

Lord, you're worth it.

And we want to become just like Jesus, just like you.

Would you show us what it means to decrease so that you can increase?

Would you show us how to do that and how to do it out of motivation from love and not guilt?

You love us perfectly in every way.

Would you show us how to reciprocate that to you?

Or our motivation for everything is because we love you so much and we want to be just like you.

Not out of guilt, not out of condemnation, but from a place of love.

Would you show us how to do that, we pray, in Jesus' name.