John 3:22-36
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V.22-24
V.22-24
After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. 23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized— 24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison.
Jesus moves to Judea to minister
Thre is a change of setting after the conversation with Nicodemus.
Atmosphere is alive with the preaching and teaching of both John and Jesus
Jesus spends time with people. People saw and interacted with Him in person. And Jesus is exemplifying what service is in the lives of people. Jesus oversaw the baptisms. He was at the same time training His disciples for ministry.
2. John the Baptists ministry overlaps with the Ministry of Christ.
You have these two big movement, within Judaism, going on at the same time
Jesus approves of the ministry of John, for He Himself was baptized by him and gathered his first disciples from John. Andrew was one of them
John’s ministry contained the same message as Christ. “Repent for the Kingdom is at hand. His baptism was symbolic of a fresh start in spiritual life. His Ministry was a preparatory baptism for the higher baptism of Christ. Baptism meaning purification. Repentence from sin return to Torah obedience.
Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
“This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’
“I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water.”
John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.
“I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
“I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
25 Therefore there arose a debate between John’s disciples and a Jew about purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” 27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves [g]are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the [h]Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’
Debate about immersion/What is immersion in Jewish Context?
Not baptism but Jews call it immersion. Immersion in a Mikvah, a pool of water . The Jews would immerse themselves so that they would come from ritual impurity to to a state of purity. Being ritually pure was very important because the need of ritual purity to be in the presence of Yahweh.
The Lord also said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments;
and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
“He shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the live bird go free over the open field.
“The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days.
“It will be on the seventh day that he shall shave off all his hair: he shall shave his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair. He shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and be clean.
Other groups within Judaism had immersions of their own. So the question was why should we follow this one? Might be some jealousy going on, John’s disciples seeing Jesus’ movement as larger than theirs.
2. John recognizing God’s will for his ministry
John’s disciples immersion was a change of status from sin to repentance. Also legal procedure. Change in status. Not only ritual.
John sees Jesus movement expanding so he explains to his disciples that this cannot happen apart from God’s will. reminds them that He was sent to prepare the way for Him and that was his mission. To prepare the nation for the King. This was the Lord’s counsel
Many plans are in a man’s heart,
But the counsel of the Lord will stand.
29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
John’s emphasis of his ministry purpose
John sees the growing ministry of Jesus and rejoices. His purpose once again was to prepare the way for the Messiah. to prepare Israel for their king. Once this mission was accomplished Jesus would increase and John decrease. This was the purpose of God.
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight!’ ”
2. Israel as the Bride
John acted as the friend of the bridegroom. In those days the friend wasn’t just a best man. He made sure the wedding was prepared way in advance and that everything was arranged. He prepared the way for the bridegroom, Messiah Jesus, for the the Bride, Israel.
Israel is depicted as the Bride of Messiah throughout the Scriptures. Some say God divorced Israel and no longer the bride.
“And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.
“For your husband is your Maker,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
Who is called the God of all the earth.
For as a young man marries a virgin,
So your sons will marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So your God will rejoice over you.
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the wilderness
And speak kindly to her.
“Then I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
“It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord,
“That you will call Me Ishi
And will no longer call Me Baali.
“For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
So that they will be mentioned by their names no more.
“In that day I will also make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
The birds of the sky
And the creeping things of the ground.
And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land,
And will make them lie down in safety.
“I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,
In lovingkindness and in compassion,
And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will know the Lord.
31“He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 What He has seen and heard, of that He bears witness; and no one receives His witness. 33 He who has received His witness has set his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; [i]for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. 36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not [j]obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Jesus is Sovereign Chief
He is God, Yahweh and His words is superior to any human teaching because Jesus is from Heaven (Remember Son of Man is from there). As God the Son, Jesus can explain divine truths with no contradiction or error. He has always been in communion with God the Father. Spent communing with one another.
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Those from the earth have in earthly origin, therefore we have a sinful nature that corrupts our thinking and reasoning. Sin impacts teaching. And because of this our relationship with Yahweh is broken. deformed.
Yahweh, the Father sends Yahweh the Son as His Faithful witness to speak the words of the Father. Jesus attests to the words of the Father. He attests to the truth shared with Him by the Father and brings that to us. All based on His intimate relationship with His Father.
Whoever accepts the witness of Jesus testifies that God, Yahweh is the truth.
To believe in the witness of Jesus is to have eternal life. This results in obedience that flows from this belief in the witness of Jesus. To not believe is not stay in disobedience and sin. Unbelief results in disobecince which incurs the wrath of God because Jesus is the only true witness of God.
“I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”
Applications:
V.22 People have to see Jesus with you in person. We can’t just say truths and leave them on their own. There has to be ongoing discipleship for a time. and if they are committed then be with them longer.
Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.
For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;
just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,
so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
The Apostle Paul learned this from Jesus for sure. He stayed with them and gave them a live example of Himself. He lived out the gospel in front of their own eyes. Lets live out the gospel in front of people. State your belief, then take action in living it out. Just as we see the Apostle Paul doing.
V.25 Immersion signifies purification and change in status. It was ritual and legal/forensic transaction
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
V.26/29-30 Don’t be jealous if God is blessing a ministry and your ministry is not increasing or is stale or whatever it is in life. Maybe you can be blessed by it or maybe God’s purpose for your ministry has reached its end. When there is disputes and rivalries it always does damage and does not promote holiness. Be like John and rejoice to other brothers and sisters being blessed by Yahweh.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.
So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.
This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
V.28-30 We cannot thwart's God’s purpose for our lives. does’t mean we are robots and have no will to make decisions. God gives us the ability to make decisions, but as believers we must make our decisions in the context of God’s will for our lives
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
V29-30 Yahweh has His story laid out for us. And a banquet prepared for His Bride Israel and us gentiles are invited to that Wedding. Lets not change the story. We are invited as well. Once again don't be jealous, bitter or arrogant towards the Jews or else God wont spare us Gentiles
“I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven;
You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear;
for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.
Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
V.34-36 God the Son knows the Father because of intimate communion. The way to know God and grow in your relationship with Him is to spend time with Him. Whatever or whoever you spend your time with the most, that is what you love. that is who you love.
“Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
“Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;
for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
V.36 Accept the witness of Jesus, His witness is true and belief in the witness of Jesus gives eternal life which will result ultimately being made priests to God His Father. a high honor which we share in now and will share in the millenilun rieign. Be a priest for him. Share His truth
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—
and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
