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.
The implication here by Scripture is that both locations are in the extreme northeastern part of Judea. [show map here] also from the context of these verses we can know...
First we can know that Jesus and His disciples were not that far away from John and his disciples.
Second, both groups were engaging in kingdom building ministry, making disciples and baptizing people.
We can see that BOTH groups were reflecting an obedient heart to the work God had called them to… BOTH groups were answering the call of God on their lives… But to untrained eye, BOTH groups would have looked like ministry teams doing the same thing…However, there WAS a difference in their ministries…
You see, John’s ministry was a foundation laying ministry… a ministry that cleared the path for Jesus’ ministry. John was NOT able to bring about salvation to his followers, but what he did do was make them realize their need for repentance! The baptism John instituted was confirmation by his followers of their confession and repentance from sin…
But here we find that they have a situation rising… in reading the text, the implied situation happens when a Jew, presumably one who had just been baptized by Jesus’ disciples came to the disciples of John and asked a question that angered or upset the disciples of John.
Scripture does not tell us what the exact nature of the question was, but looking at the Greek word used here is “zetesis [zay-tay-sis]” we know that it can be defined as a ‘discussion’ but it can also be translated as a question, debate, controversy, or argument.
Now let me ask you something, “Have you ever had a ‘discussion’ with someone? I know that there have many times that Michelle and I have had ‘discussions’ over different matters. I call them ‘discussions’ but there are many who would call them at best debates and at the worst… arguments or fights!
And that is just what we have here…one of those ‘discussions’ that has arisen between these groups of disciples. Neither Jesus nor John were involved in this ‘discussion’ until one of John’s disciple brings it to John…
This discussion seems to bring out jealousy and envy from the disciples of John… there seems to be a resentment toward Jesus and his disciples by the disciples of John. This human trait of jealousy and resentment is common to today’s believers as well. It seems as if believers all over the world can harbor resentment toward another group of believers for their successes…
This usually takes the form of a derogatory comment or something being said to belittle that person or that group of people or ministry… Jesus had faced this very situation in Luke 9 when he defended the others who were ministering in his name.. He told His disciples that if they were proclaiming His name in the ministry… that they were with Him and not against Him!
We are ALL called into work and ministry for the kingdom, but we are NOT called to be competitive with each other. We cannot fall prey to this pitfall of competition! We are all on the same team!
What seems to be implied here is that this man had questioned the need for John’s ministry now that Jesus had begun His ministry… But John did not bite… We see that John was focused on his ministry and we must be focused on what God has called us to do as well…
Looking at these early verses in this passage we can find that there is a very simple truth we can learn and apply in our walk with Christ and that is the attitude of obedience and work that we see John exhibiting here in these verses. We can ALL learn from that sort of attitude… learn to submit ourselves to the calling of obedience to God in our lives!
It could be that you have been called to vocational service as a professional minister!
It could be that you have been called into service as a SS teacher or Deacon…
It could be that you have been called to be His witness as you teach school or run a business…
The question is NOT if God has called you, the question for you this morning is, have you answered His call? Others may doubt your calling… others may question you in your calling, but when God calls…He wants you to obey! So ask yourself the question today, “Are you serving with the same attitude of obedience that John reveals in his life?”
Here we can see clearly that the 1st characteristic of John’s attitude that revealed his deep love of Christ was the attitude of obedience and work! Of living in submission to the plan and calling of the Father… but we can also see another attitude of John’s that I believe reveals his love for Jesus…
John’s disciples were loyal to John and in spite of what John said about Jesus in chapter 1… they defend John to this Jewish man and argue with him, and that argument increases and eventually spilling into the lap of John the Baptist himself… here John reveals the 2nd characteristic of his attitude and how it reflects his love for Christ…
An Attitude of Humility/Service – v.27-30:
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."
Now I can almost see the look on the face of John’s disciple as he was waiting to hear John’s response to this situation. I’m sure that he was fully confident that John would come out and rebuke this Jew as he had rebuked the Pharisees so many times…
BUT… Scripture shares with us that John did NOT react as this disciple may have thought he was going to… John basically tells his disciple: “Listen, you have heard me say “I am not the Messiah” but that I was sent to pave the way FOR Him!” This is in reference to his response to those asking him who he was in Chapter 1… John had tried to tell his disciples then but they had not fully understood…
We find John telling his disciple that nothing is given unless given by heaven… in other words, the authority of Jesus came straight from heaven, so don’t try to fight against it!
He then paints a picture to help his disciples understand… He uses an analogy of a wedding and how the focus is on the groom… in the 1st century the wedding was all about the groom… not like today when it is all on the bride! The groom was the featured person at 1st century weddings! And John was basically saying he was like the friend of the groom… part of the wedding but not the focus OF the wedding!
John understood that he was part of God’s plan, but that Jesus WAS God’s plan. John also told of how much joy the friend has when he sees the groom… this was his way of telling his disciples of how much joy he was experiencing when he saw Jesus.
John compares that joy with his current position as it pertains to the kingdom and Jesus. John was JOYFUL that Jesus had come! He fully understood that Jesus’ time had come… and because Jesus’ time had come, it was time for him to step aside. John was rejoicing because of the prominence of Jesus… he did NOT resent it at all, but fully embraced it! In fact, John states it as plainly as he can in v.30 when he says, ‘He must increase and I must decrease…’
Humility was his attitude! John knew and accepted the Sovereignty of Jesus. John understood that this did not lessen what he HAD done or the importance of his ministry, BUT what it DID acknowledge was that Jesus was above him! And because Jesus was above him, Jesus should be acknowledged as the greater!
John goes on to explain himself further in the next few verses…
In v.31 he repeats this statement 2 times… “The One who comes from above (referring to Jesus) is above ALL… John understood this to include him and his ministry as well.
John states that the one who is earthly (referring to himself) speaks in earthly terms (in other words can relate only so much to the kingdom…) John’s message was important and part of God’s plan, but it was not a complete message… it was a message of preparation for the coming of the Messiah… the completion of the message was Jesus.
John understood his place in the plan of God, and submitted to that place in God’s kingdom. So many times we get caught up in the ministry we are involved in and we lose sight of WHO we are serving! Our attitude toward Jesus has to be one like John… one of humility… one who knows his or her place and submits to the calling on their life!
John’s attitude reflected obedience and work to the place in life God had called him…
John’s attitude also reflected a humble spirit that did not seek position but sought out service to his Lord…
But there is one more characteristic about John’s attitude that I want us to look at this morning and it is…
An Attitude of Belief/Faith – v.33-36:
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.
In v.32 John speaks of Jesus and the implication here is that he has FULL belief in Jesus, but there were many who did not… referring to the religious leaders of the day. They doubted and refused to believe in Jesus.
How many of us have doubts in our lives? How many of us allow the doubt and rejection of others affect our own walk with God… our own faith in Christ? John reveals here that he had a solid resolve and faith in Jesus regardless of the doubts of others…
Here in v.33 John tells us that those who have accepted Jesus have revealed the truth of God. Jesus later in His ministry said, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life…”
Belief in Jesus as God’s Son confirms the truthfulness of God in His redemptive plan. It revealed the truth about his redemptive promise to restore the created order destroyed by sin and Satan…
In v.34 we can see that John’s faith is emboldened even further citing 3 reasons why he believes Jesus to be Messiah…
God sent Him… this is a clear reference to Jesus as Messiah, the anointed One of God, and it coincides with Jesus’ proclamation in John 3:16
He speaks God’s words… another clear reference to Jesus as Messiah, this refers to belief in Jesus as God’s Son/Lamb of God, who is sent directly FROM God, who represents God in full…later in John 5 Jesus proclaims this as well…
Since He gives the Spirit without measure… this is yet another reference to Jesus as Messiah. God is IN Him… Jesus is fully anointed by God… God withholds NOTHING from Jesus. Paul in Col 1:15 refers to this very belief when Paul says, “for God was pleased to have ALL His fullness dwell in Him (Jesus)”
John fully believed not only in God’s forgiveness of which he preached and baptized people into… but John also knew and understood Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s plan… Jesus was the completion of God’s plan!
In v.35 John reveals his understanding of what he believed. I don’t believe that John came to this on his own but it was supernaturally revealed to him, just as Peter’s confession of Christ in Matt 16 reveals! John’s ministry had been divinely inspired and instructed.
This is once again another proclamation by John about the Messiahship of Jesus. Jesus is the anointed and chosen One from God… comes to us from God with all of God’s power. Jesus reveals this Himself in Matt 28 just before He ascends into heaven… God held NOTHING back from Jesus!
So in v.36 we find John setting his disciples straight in that he was adamant that it was about Jesus and NOT about him. God’s plan WAS Jesus, John was part of that plan, but not the focus! He tells them that only thru Jesus can they know eternal life… accept Jesus and know eternal life… BUT for those who reject Jesus, all they have to look fwd to is the wrath of God in judgment.
John understood that God had called him to work in the kingdom and he had submitted in obedience to work as God had called Him…
John understood his place in that kingdom as well, he was called to be a part of God’s plan, but the focus of that plan was NOT him…
John understood and submitted to obedience and humbled himself that it was not about him… he did this because John firmly believed that Jesus WAS God and that it was only thru Him salvation could be obtained.
John had preached confession of sin and had offered a baptism into forgiveness of current sin, but he could not fulfill the role of Savior! He could not save anyone, but Jesus could… and Jesus would! And John knew this and knew that Jesus was the One who had come to save…
Today we can get caught up in the DOING of the ministry that we lose sight that it is NOT the ministry that saves us, but it is the person Jesus. We can not allow ourselves to lose sight of the FACT that Jesus is Savior and when we lose sight of that we are useless in the kingdom.
Ministry is the result OF Jesus… Jesus is not the result of our ministry!
Conclusion:
Today you have heard about 3 characteristics of John’s attitude of love toward Jesus! John’s attitude was one of work and obedience… we are also called to do the work of the Kingdom and be obedient to Christ in our lives!
John’s attitude was also one of humility and service… He was willing to set aside personal and petty issues and position because he knew that Jesus was sovereign, John humbled himself before Christ! We too are called to set aside all of our petty and personal issues and follow Christ… we are called to humble ourselves before the throne!
John’s attitude of love was also one of full belief and faith in the person of Jesus Christ! He believed that Jesus was Messiah… the anointed of God who came to seek and save the lost… who came to bring forgiveness of sin and offer salvation to all who accept Him.
John knew this and we are also called to know this… we are called to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord… that Jesus is the anointed Son of God… that Jesus came to save us…
This morning I want to issue a challenge to all people here today… step up and begin to live your life with the attitude of love for Jesus that John had… submit in obedience to working for God… humble yourself in service to Him and believe that He is the sovereign Lord of the universe. Come today and surrender your heart to Him!
If you already know Him as Savior, but you have not been living your life with this attitude of love… come and confess that He will forgive you and you can begin to serve and live as He desires!
If you do NOT know Jesus as your personal Savior, I encourage you to step out and come to this altar to pray… come confessing your sin, come seeking forgiveness, and God has promised that He would forgive and that He would save you… come as Jason comes to play and Ken leads us in our hymn of invitation…
Today if you have a decision that God is leading you to make, don’t delay, come now… step out as the music begins to play… the altar is waiting for you!
