Attitude Makes All The Difference Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: January 25, 2011

Date Preached: January 30, 2011

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: Falling in Love With Jesus

Sermon Title: It’s All in the Attitude!

Sermon Text: John 3:22-36 [ESV]

22After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24(for John had not yet been put in prison). 25Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." 27John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease." 31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 34For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Introduction:

Love is about action… love is about attitude! In our passage of Scripture this morning we are going to take a look at John’s attitude of love toward Jesus. John love for Jesus was shown in his attitude… it was an attitude of work/obedience, an attitude of humility/service, and finally an attitude of full belief/faith!

Today we should seek to pattern our attitude after John the Baptist…

An Attitude of Work/Obedience – v. 22-24:

22After this Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean countryside, and He remained there with them and was baptizing. 23John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24(for John had not yet been put in prison).

In these verses we find Jesus being obedient to the Father’s plan…to reveal His love to the world and restore the created order… here we find Jesus doing exactly what He will instruct His disciples to do when He ascends into heaven… that is GO and make disciples! Here we find Jesus going and making disciples…

This is a confirmation for the reader about John the Baptist… this reveals his obedient heart. He was making disciples and baptizing them into repentance. But we have to understand that John’s ministry was different than that of Jesus.

Obedience and work are great things in the kingdom. However, as believers there are times when we get caught up in the details of doing the ministry itself and we can lose sight of who we are and what our role is in the kingdom.

This is what happens here with John’s disciples. They were so wrapped up with the ministry that they lost sight of who they were and what their role was. They were doing their ministry… they were doing what God had called them to do… what John had taught them to do…and then a situation arose where their focus was shaken and they hit a pothole in their walk…

Look at v.26-26 with me

25Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him."

Now for us to fully understand this we need to look at the full context of the text where we find Jesus and his disciples in the Judean countryside and ministering to the crowds… When we look at the 1st part of chapter 4 we see them headed toward Galilee through Samaria…

v. 22 tells us Jesus and His disciples had gone out into the Judean countryside, and in v.23 we see that John and his disciples also GO to a place along the Jordan river called Aenon, near the town of Salim.