John 3:22-36

00:00:00:30 – 00:00:24:19
Clint Loveall
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.

00:00:24:28 – 00:00:49:50
Clint Loveall
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.

00:00:49:55 – 00:01:10:30
Clint Loveall
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.

00:01:10:35 – 00:01:38:01
Clint Loveall
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.

00:01:38:06 – 00:02:11:52
Clint Loveall
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.

00:02:11:52 – 00:02:42:16
Clint Loveall
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.

00:02:42:16 – 00:03:09:25
Clint Loveall
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.

00:03:09:30 – 00:03:30:48
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:03:30:48 – 00:03:51:50
Michael Gewecke
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?

00:03:51:57 – 00:04:16:57
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:04:17:06 – 00:04:47:13
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:04:47:13 – 00:05:12:22
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:05:12:27 – 00:05:49:31
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:05:49:44 – 00:06:21:40
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:06:21:45 – 00:06:46:41
Clint Loveall
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.

00:06:46:46 – 00:07:28:30
Clint Loveall
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.

00:07:28:35 – 00:07:50:40
Clint Loveall
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.

00:07:50:40 – 00:08:12:36
Clint Loveall
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.

00:08:12:41 – 00:08:41:39
Clint Loveall
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.

00:08:41:43 – 00:09:14:13
Clint Loveall
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.

00:09:14:18 – 00:09:23:22
Clint Loveall
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.

00:09:23:27 – 00:09:40:10
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:09:40:24 – 00:10:00:37
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:10:00:37 – 00:10:40:46
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:10:40:46 – 00:11:06:36
Michael Gewecke
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?

00:11:06:36 – 00:11:26:24
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:11:26:29 – 00:11:52:29
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:11:52:34 – 00:12:11:06
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:12:11:06 – 00:12:32:54
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:12:33:05 – 00:12:58:48
Michael Gewecke
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?

00:12:58:48 – 00:13:16:13
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:13:16:26 – 00:13:52:22
Clint Loveall
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.

00:13:52:22 – 00:14:25:26
Clint Loveall
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.

00:14:25:26 – 00:14:43:22
Clint Loveall
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.

00:14:43:30 – 00:15:08:01
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:15:08:06 – 00:15:34:03
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:15:34:13 – 00:15:50:43
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:15:50:47 – 00:16:11:54
Clint Loveall
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.

00:16:11:54 – 00:16:43:01
Clint Loveall
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.

00:16:43:01 – 00:16:45:16
Clint Loveall
I think. John John does not.

00:16:45:30 – 00:17:05:18
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:17:05:18 – 00:17:16:12
Michael Gewecke
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.

00:17:16:12 – 00:17:26:21
Clint Loveall
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.

00:17:26:25 – 00:17:46:49
Michael Gewecke
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. Give this video a like if you find it helpful. And if it’s been encouraging, that helps others find it sometimes years down the road as they’re studying the scripture themselves.

00:17:46:49 – 00:17:53:40
Michael Gewecke
Subscribe if you want. Go with us on this journey or journeys like it? As we study Scripture together, we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

00:17:53:40 – 00:17:54:34
Clint Loveall
Blessings, everybody.