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The Gospel of John, The Confession of John the Baptist, John 3:29-36, Part II - Lesson 20
Read John 3:29-36
Verses 3:29,30, He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.
At a wedding the best man does not complain because he is not the bridegroom.
He is there to assist the bridegroom and to see that all goes well as he secures the bride of the bridegrooms choice.
The best man is satisfied if the wedding is conducted successfully and the bridal couple rejoice.
When the wedding is over the duties of the best man are over.
His services are no longer needed.
The bridegroom's voice is now heard, the preliminaries are over.
The commands that were given by the best man to see that the wedding plans were carried out are finished.
The bridegroom is talking now.
Listen to him speak.
This brings joy to the best man because his task has been successfully completed.
John, by this beautiful verse says that he is perfectly happy and content with the situation he finds himself in.
He says, I am perfectly satisfied.
My joy is filled full.
I have seen the Bridegroom.
What else do I need?
As a friend of the bridegroom I rejoice in his presence.
Now that he has come on the scene, he is the preeminent One.
I stand and hear his voice.
I listen and learn and he helps me to be conformed to him.
Never mind me.
I am only a friend of the Bridegroom.
He must increase, I must get out of the way.
John as the forerunner preparing the way for the Messiah, may now retire satisfied and full of joy knowing that he has done the task that God had called him to do.
He must increase, but I must decrease are John the Baptist's last recorded words before his arrest and imprisonment.
John decreased because Jesus completely filled his vision.
Jesus was the complete object of his love and his worship and his devotion.
John the Baptist got himself out of the way to make more room for Jesus Christ.
Likewise, if he is to be preeminent in our lives than we must die daily that there be room for him to move and live in our lives.
The more I decrease, the more I delight in standing and hearing the voice of that blessed One who is all in all and the All Together Lovely One.
The more I stand and hear his voice the more he will increase before me.
No man can serve two masters.
He cannot serve himself and Jesus Christ.
So we see that there has to be a continuing decreasing of self if there is to be an increasing of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said that if we save our lives we shall lose our lives but it we lose our lives for his sake then we shall find it.
As paraphrased in II Cor. 3:18, When I am occupied with the one who was meek and lowly in heart, when I am constantly beholding his glory in the mirror of God's Word, then I shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. II Cor. 3:18
In these next verses John the Apostle gives us an example of how to increase the Lord by meditating upon Jesus Christ and his glory, his abilities, his knowledge, his saving grace.
He points out the distinctives of Jesus, especially as it set him apart from John the Baptist.
We are to keep these things in mind and they are to be ever present so that he may increase and we may decrease.
The more we do this the more spiritual material we provide to the Holy Spirit to use to conform us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's read Verses John 3:31,32, He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.
John said that he must decrease.
He recognized that he was from the earth and that being earthly he was limited to earthly things.
He could only speak of things of the earth. He had no first hand knowledge of heavenly things.
John recognized that because the incarnate Word "came from above" and "is above all" that Jesus, the Word, must increase while that which is earthly, he himself, must decrease.
John yields to superior knowledge, which he says is superior because knowledge of heavenly things is superior to knowledge of earthly things.
John had a treasure, but it was in an earthen vessel.
Even John's witness was subject to limitation because he was only a man sent from God, he did not come down from heaven as the Son of Man did.
John validates Jesus' witness as superior because when Jesus speaks of heavenly things, he bears witness to what he has actually seen and heard in the heavenly sphere.
We can talk about heaven but we simply repeat what we have been told.
We speak the words we have been told to speak.
But Jesus came as the heavenly One.
His ministry was a heavenly ministry.
He came as God's divine Word to man.
When Christ spoke, God spoke.
Jesus is greater than Moses and Malachi, David and Daniel, Jonah and Jeremiah, the prophets of old.
These were men of the earth and had earthly limitations but he came down from heaven and was an eye witness of heavenly things.
Look at Hebrews 1:1, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
The Lord Jesus Christ was free from the limitations of ordinary human messengers.
He had full knowledge of heavenly things.
All things are clear with Jesus Christ. Its just like Jesus to roll the clouds away as the song says.
He is able to speak to us as one who has witnessed all the heavenly glories and not one who has been told by another.
This is like the difference between seeing a beautiful mountain range or a mighty water fall versus being told about them.
But the astonishing thing is that John tells us that his witness was not believed.
He saw, he heard, he testified and they did not believe.
He was not just a Spirit inspired prophet, or even an angel from the presence of God, but he was God himself who came and he was not believed.
What else can God do?
He can do nothing else to reach man but that which Jesus has done.
Jesus was there when the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit decided to act in creation.
He was there in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve; he was there with Noah, with Abraham, and Joseph and Isaiah, and David, and Daniel.
He judged Sodom and Gomorrah and knew Lot's heart.
When he talked about the great gulf fixed and described the torments in hell he knew these things as a witness.
When he spoke about the many mansions in his Father's house he knew about those because he had toured the rooms and knew all the details of the places prepared for his people.
He was speaking as one from above.
One who had seen and heard and testified but they didn't believe him then and they do not believe him now.
But thank the Lord for verse 3:33, He that received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
Thank God that some will believe, some will receive his testimony.
Jesus said that he will build his church. He will have a people for his name.
He will be successful.
Those who receive his testimony attest to the truthfulness of God.
It is as if a believer sets his seal upon the witness of God and declares that this is true.
He certifies it and he ratifies it.
He knows God for himself and not just as an idea
It is like the customs agent who stamps the passport and by that stamp declares that the passport is what it declares itself to be.
Those who receive Christ's testimony as true, take it unto themselves.
They commit their souls to it.
They rest in the truth of it.
They appropriate it for themselves.
The believer finds in Christ the complete fulfillment of every promise of God.
Ye are complete in him.
Whether or not the believer's feelings agree or not makes no difference, the Son of God has spoken, and that is enough.
God said it and that settles it.
End of discussion. Amen, thank you!
Verse 3:34,35, For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
God is true! The one who is sent by God who speaks the words of God is also true.
If you are faithful to the Word of God then you are true.
John says in these verses that God sent Jesus Christ with his words to speak and all power to speak them without measure or limitation.
His humanity did not impair or limit him from speaking the words of God.
He was the one heavenly messenger fully endowed to speak the words of God.
Each of the messengers of the earth, that God had sent had received that measure of the Spirit which was necessary in bearing true witness for the mission that God had directed.
But God did not carefully measure portions of the Spirit to his Son.
God did not ration out his Spirit to the Son. The Spirit did not come and go.
Jesus fully owned the Spirit.
There was nothing withheld from Jesus that was needed for him to speak the words of God.
He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit,
filled with the Holy Spirit from his very first breath, and from the time of his baptism, fully anointed by the Spirit.
Jesus was more than a messenger or witness for God.
He is the Son, beloved of the Father.
Not only the Son but the Son to whom the Father had given all things.
God loves the Son and this love is expressed in the giving of all things to him.
Nothing is withheld from him. He has given him all authority, all glory, all power, all power in all things.
And therefore Jesus Christ has all power to save.
The Father has given him this power to save as part of the all things.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
He has full power and authority to do this.
No limitations, no limited atonement, nothing stands in his way from saving a soul, not even the sin of a soul, but only the soul himself can reject his offered hand.
His hand is not slack, his hand is not weakened, his hand is fully endowed by the Father to carry out the work that the words of God have directed.
Verse 3:36, He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
This verse sums up what has already been said about the new birth in which believers in Christ become God's children.
The Son has received from the Father authority to bestow spiritual life, here and now, during life on this earth, on those who receive him in faith and accept his witness as a true witness.
This is the only way to eternal life.
Since God has no other plan, those who reject this way, deny to themselves the gift of eternal life.
The one thing that God will not forgive is to have his Son treated with contempt, disbelief, or indifference.
The soul that does these things, these outrageous things, continues to abide in the wrath of Almighty God.
The storm cloud of God's wrath, his retribution, hangs thick over the sinner.
"There is no peace , saith my God, to the wicked." Isaiah 57:21
Those that will not obey the Son, cut themselves off from the benefits of his redeeming work.
They are not covered with the blood of Christ which hides the sinner from his wrath.
They are fully exposed to the retribution which the justice of a sin-hating God demands; the retribution that is required of his moral universe.
God's righteous judgment is set like a flint, fixed, abides, continues, against all who do not do with Christ, that which is commanded to do.
But thank the Lord the believer cries out "Rock of Ages, cleft for me.
Let me hide myself in thee!"
The rock that was broken to provide a place of refuge, a place of hiding, a place totally removed from the terrors of God's wrath against those who reject his only begotten and beloved Son.
There are only two classes of people.
Those that have been delivered from God's wrath and those that continue to abide in his wrath.
Those that have been delivered from wrath are covered with the precious blood of Christ.
That is the difference.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing but the blood.
John is faithful to his calling by telling us that we can put our full trust in the One who is fully trustworthy, is a true witness and is fully able to deliver all who call upon his name.
Our next lesson in John will be the account of "Jesus and the Samaritan Woman" given in John 4:1-42 as we continue in "The Period of Consideration" or the " Object of Belief." |