John 3:22-36

Hey, everybody.

Thanks for being with us again as we keep

going through the Gospel of John, the early part in the third chapter.

About halfway through with the 22nd verse.

Yesterday looked at some of those great well known verses, John 316.

John 317.

Today we circle back to some, content that involves John the Baptist.

And, we can talk about that in a minute, but let me read it for you.

Starting with verse 22.

After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside,

and he spent some time there with them and baptized.

John was also baptizing at the in near the near Salim,

because the water was abundant

there, and people kept coming and were being baptized.

John, of course, had not yet been thrown in prison.

Now discussion about the purification arose between John's disciples and a Jew.

They came to John and said, Rabbi, the one who was with

you across the Jordan, to whom you testified

here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.

John answered, no one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.

You yourselves are my witnesses that I said

I'm not the Messiah, but I've been sent ahead of him.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom.

The friend of the bridegroom stands and hears

him, and rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's words.

For this is the reason my joy has been fulfilled.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

So here we have

another interesting moment, kind of the juxtaposition of John

and Jesus, the relationship between the two of them.

Here in the early part of the gospel,

John, the author does what John the Baptist has said.

He will now pretty much focus primarily on Jesus.

John the Baptist will make an appearance briefly here and there, but not much.

What's interesting, I think Michael and I have not

I don't know if I've noticed this before.

Is this note in verse 22 that Jesus

was baptizing and,

I, I to my memory at least, that's unique in the gospel.

I don't know if we see a reference like that anywhere else.

But here again, for John's purpose, the idea that John and Jesus are doing

similar things with a different outcome or with different authority.

John, the author, likes that idea to set them

next to each other, but to have one say, look, I'm not him and point

to the one who is would be something that John would appreciate.

And so here we have those words in John the Baptist mouth.

I told you that he's going ahead of me.

I'm announcing him. He's the bridegroom.

I'm the friend, I rejoice,

but now he must increase and I must decrease.

We see this,

I think, not only relationally, Michael, but we see it literally as well.

I mean, in terms of the literature,

as John will follow that pattern in his own writing.

There's themes here that we've already addressed

in some of the introductory work here in this gospel, talking about how John

that is the chief witness to who Jesus is.

And so, you know, we do risk some repetition in that,

but it's a theme that's coming up frequently here in the gospel.

And that's an important part of John's telling, I think, for a couple reasons.

And I think the first, that we need to just get out there

for the sake of this conversation today is John's repeated emphasis

upon talking about John the Baptist and the returning to this language here of

he must increase and I must decrease that this kind of brother.

I'm not the bridegroom.

I'm the friend of the bridegroom. Right?

It's this language that is intended to make it clear to the reader,

the ordering that Jesus is first in John is second.

And yes, that sort of doesn't land on you.

If that distinction doesn't seem unbelievably important,

it may have something more to say about the community to whom

that this book is written, Clint, that they did have

a very high view of John the Baptist, that his baptism.

You have to remember in the book of acts,

there's a few stories of people baptizing in different names.

Right.

And who's that? In whose name is this baptism?

Well, of course, John wants it to be clear.

The writer of this gospel wants us to know there's only one baptism.

That that Jesus is the baptizer.

Now, at this moment, because John's not been put into prison yet,

because some of these things haven't transpire than the story

Jesus is baptizing at the same time that John the Baptist is baptized.

But there's one ultimate baptizer.

There's only one in the end who is the chief

of all of God's divinity, incarnation, God's presence in the world.

That's Jesus.

It's not John the Baptist.

And so I do think he has something, to put it very simply, to say

about the original community that's receiving this book.

Clint, I do think that this is clearly a theme that matters to them.

I also think that once again, John is

the example par

excellence of a witness to who Jesus is.

And this is now more devotional than it is interpretive.

In terms of this tax bite.

I think it's worth noting John the Baptist does provide,

I think, for modern Christian hymns of all stripes

and especially modern Christian leaders, in whatever context you lead,

whether that be in a church or in a place of work, or whether

you have more institutional power, I'd say the politician or those kinds of it.

No matter where a Christian leads, one needs to be very, very careful

to not have that kind of inversion happens where your service turns

into a pursuit of power or self glory or vanity.

Yet John the Baptist does.

I think Clint represent an individual, a Christian, analog,

someone who is a testifier to Christ,

who keeps that in correct order and that is, I think, something for us

to aspire to as people who also seek to be witnesses to Jesus Christ.

And one of the ideas here is, and I think we've touched on this before,

the idea that the Gospel of John

is written to a community, or at least is going to be read

by a community that is very pro John the Baptist.

And so here we have this idea that Jesus ministry

is beginning to outgrow John the Baptist ministry.

And it would matter then

that John the writer says,

and John the Baptist not only was okay with this, but celebrated it,

that John the Baptist said, it's good for Jesus ministry to expand.

He is the bridegroom.

He must increase, I must decrease.

And so one of the things that it's speculated that John,

the author, is doing here, is helping

the community that celebrated John the Baptist

make a similar leap and say,

okay, John

was preparing us to be ready for Jesus.

And so now the focus shifts from John

the Baptist to Jesus, as it does with the characters in the story.

So it may also have needed to happen

in a community, in an early community of Christians.

And that's one of the ideas here.

And if we continue with this next part of the passage, we hear more of the same.

So jumping in at verse 31, the one who comes from above is above all.

The one who is of earth belongs to the earth and speaks of earthly things.

The one who comes from heaven is above all.

He testifies to what he's seen and heard, yet no one except his testimony.

Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this that God is true.

He whom God has sent

speaks the words of God, for he gives the spirit without measure.

The father loves the son, and has placed all things in his hands.

Whoever believes in the son has eternal life.

Whoever disobeys the son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath.

And so, already just in these first three chapters, you've seen John do this, these

almost moments of sermon or proclamation and here we have it.

Yet another example of it, where

the the text celebrates a

kind of profound moment of truth telling.

The one from heaven knows the truth, the one from earth doesn't.

If you can accept the testimony of that one, then you have eternal life.

But if you can't, you will have wrath.

And John is going to play this out and and give this to us

in a variety of ways throughout the text.

But this is the kind of separation, and these are the kind of options

that are going to be prolific throughout the rest of this book.

So we certainly come to a text like this from embedded

within the reformed tradition.

And I think it does give

some, assumptions, at least some color and background to a reading of the text.

And I just want to point out a section here which may be a little thorny to read.

It starts here at verse 32.

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

This statement.

But then look at the next statement,

which seems to contradict that whoever has accepted his testimony, right?

So no one has.

But now here, whoever has accepted his testimony

has certified this, that God is true.

And then I think this is striking.

He whom God has sent speaks the Word of God, for

he gives the spirit without measure.

And I think that here that idea

of the one whom God is sending, speaking

the Word of God is doing so by the very Spirit of God.

This is a very mature and very form

and theology already happening in the book of John, that there's a

whatever is spoken of God

rightly is done by God's own work within that speaking the

that the one who testifies is doing in part

by the power of the Spirit of God, that working in the midst of that.

And so this language that we have here, which I think is somewhat cryptic

about no one accepting, but the one who does accept it,

that there's a kind of divine grace

that comes in the ability to accept.

And if you've ever had a family member or close friend

who struggled with the faith, you might know some of that spirit

tearing kind of experience where, oh well, why can't they see it?

Or why don't they get it?

Why are they so hostile to to the faith, to who Jesus is and is?

That's your experience, I think, just maybe a word of,

grace in the midst of

that is that that sometimes we testify to the thing that we know is true

and for whatever reason, that that isn't able to be heard.

And that's okay.

Some of that is the work of God in the midst of that relationship,

but trusting that the Spirit of God is able to do what you and I can't.

Clint, I think that John

is having quite a bit of success in terms of his testimony.

He's having people come out

to be baptized, but in light of the spirit of God

revealed most perfectly in Jesus Christ, that none of that matters.

I it's as if no one is listening.

And I just think there's maybe some tempering

of what we expect our Christian testimony to look like it.

It's never going to look as good as we wish it could be.

It's never going to be as fluent or,

maybe as compelling as we hope that it could be.

That's not the point.

The point is that the Spirit of God is at work, and the idea

is that ultimately that we hope that our belief here that we see in verse

36, that that belief will lead to eternal life.

It will lead to a life that extends even beyond the purview of what we can see.

And once again, all of this comes together in a really dense kind of format.

But because John the Baptist is such a important

figure and an important character, a touch point in this gospel,

I do think provides for all of us opportunities to put ourselves

as a foil in that.

What do we have to learn from John?

And also, you know, what ways might we be able to temper

some of our own expectations for what is God's work versus what's our work?

At the end of the day, I think John does that really well.

He's out there doing the baptizing, right?

But he doesn't

misunderstand that to be only his work.

He's not building a church. He's not building a kingdom.

He's only pointing others to the true kingdom bringer.

That's Jesus Christ.

And John the storyteller does an incredible job of getting to this.

There's this a very subtle thing that happens here

as you move from verse 30 to verse 31.

Bible scholars are not

of uniformed opinion.

There's an argument about whether what follows from verse 31

through the rest of the chapter is John

the Baptist continuing his speech,

or whether this is John, the author, putting in his words.

And so it's not even clear which of them is speaking in this instance.

So seamless are the lessons here

and so similar the language that we're not even sure

if we're to read 31 through 36, as the words of John

the Baptist following, he must increase and I must decrease.

Or whether we understand that this is John, the author, or

sort of inserting some of his own thoughts, theology,

and even preaching into this last part of the chapter. So,

really very seamless

presentation of John the Baptist's thoughts

as they pertain to John, the Gospels content and,

and those, are sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

And certainly this would be an instance of that.

Yeah.

And note here, this, this last sort of theme that we see Clint

I think is really interesting.

Just the note how similar

336 is to 316.

Now the idea of believing the son has eternal life, you know,

whether this is John the Baptist or whether it's John the gospel writer.

I don't think it really matters.

What you need to understand is this is in black typeface.

The red, the thing that Jesus had to say about himself is now being repeated

in a very similar way, so that we get the force of the point

and it's striking to me that, of course, we have memorized the red version,

the 316 version, but that that we also see how important this is to the writer,

how important it is to, you know, whether it's the writer speaking

or whether it's the writer recounting what John the Baptist has said doesn't

really matter. At the end of the day.

The importance of that point is now being repeated in a different way,

that this idea of what Jesus has come to do, our participation through belief,

and the great cost of not believing of what what that could potentially lead to.

And that is a thing that John wants to emphasize.

And we've said this before, but in the other Gospels, there is a sense

where they get to the end and they want you to make a decision about Jesus.

John is more timeless.

John is going to present those decisions to you throughout the way

we even see it here.

You know where he says

almost parenthetically, well, yes, John the Baptist hadn't been arrested yet.

He knows that his readers know that part of the story.

But but he's going to give

hundreds of opportunities to make a decision about Jesus.

Not one big moment at the end.

He's going to bring us to that place over and over and over again.

And I think that's one of the powerful aspects of the way

that this gospel is written, maybe in comparison to the others,

the others prolong

the the tension longer.

I think. John John does not.

Well, wouldn't you agree, Clint, that John's assumption is if you see

Jesus at any minute, you have a salvific moment,

that that if you can see Jesus at any stage of the journey, that's a moment

you can see him for who he truly is, because every moment is miraculous.

Like you said, you're not waiting for the cross, for everything to make sense.

If you truly see Jesus at any point in his life

or ministry, then you can see God at work in the world.

And that's an amazing picture being presented to us.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

I think he has a very high understanding of of Jesus

in Jesus impact on, in this case, the readers.

Well, friends, I certainly hope there's something in this text following

the great texts that we study yesterday that has been encouraging to you.

We certainly have an incredible text to follow tomorrow,

so I hope you might join us for our study tomorrow.

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Blessings, everybody.