Jesus and John the Baptist (John 3:22–36) — A Sermon by R.C. Sproul

0:02 We continue now with our study of the gospel according to St. John as we come to chapter 3, beginning at verse 22 and reading through verse 36. John 3, 22 to 36. After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he remained with them and baptized.

0:38 Now John also was baptized in Enon near Salem, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized, for John had not yet been thrown into prison. And then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified.

1:19 Behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him. And John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him. For 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. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all.

2:18 He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard that he testifies. And no one receives his testimony. But he who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give him the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand, and he who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.

3:16 He who has ears to hear the word of God, let him hear. Let us pray. Again, our Father and our God, as we come before this text that You have been pleased to give to Your people as part of the treasury of the church, we pray that the same Holy who inspired it in the first place may now illumine it for us, for our edification, for we ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. We have been watching through the early chapters of John's gospel a series of incidents by by which the new order that is being inaugurated by Jesus is set in contrast to the old things, and the superiority of that which breaks through now with the appearance of Christ is set forth.

4:32 We see the superiority of the wine that He makes at Canaan over against the waters of purification. when Christ will be lifted up, He will exceed in greatness that episode which Jesus recalled from the Old Testament when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. And now we have this passage at the end of chapter 3 where we see a comparison between the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus. We are told in verse 22, after the discussion with Nicodemus, that Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea. You may notice that if this passage follows upon what went immediately before us, they already were in Judea.

5:28 They were in and about Jerusalem. But the idea here is now they're moving outside of Jerusalem into the uttermost parts of Judea as the Judean ministry is expanding. There's some interesting footnotes to this in terms of the total itinerary that the synoptic gospels give us about Jesus, but we'll pass over that for now. The point that we want us to see here is that John's disciples are entering now into a dispute with the leaders of the day, and they come now to John and they challenge him. They address him as rabbi, which is a term of respect, and they say, Rabbi, remember he who was with you at the Jordan, you know, the one that you testified to.

6:18 Behold, now he's baptizing, and everybody's coming to you. Now, one of the issues that supposedly the early church faced was a divided loyalty among some between their commitment to John the Baptist and their commitment to Jesus. And it was some people's joy to try to continue to drive that wedge between the disciples of John and the disciples of Jesus. And I'm sure it must have been hard for some of the followers of John to transfer their loyalty and their allegiance to Jesus. But what comes across so clearly in this passage that I've just read is that there was no problem in John's heart about making that transfer. And so the people come and they say, well, you're baptizing here, but then that fellow that you talked about over at the Jordan, he's baptizing, and more people are coming to him to be baptized than are coming to you.

7:22 And listen to John's answer, how instructive this should be for us, where John says, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. In one sense, John here is speaking about the principle of vocation. What do we have that we haven't received? Every talent, every gift that we have has been given to us from God, and we understand that we each have our own vocation. And the term vocation comes from the Latin word that means to call. God has called each one of us to the place where we are in this life.

8:25 And sometimes we get engaged in jealousy and envy and backbiting, trying to advance our position over our neighbor, tearing down our neighbor so that we can replace our neighbor in status or in exaltation. And beloved, when we do that, we despise the gifts of God. A few weeks ago as we completed our study of the Ten Commandments in the adult class, We looked at the tenth commandment, thou shalt not covet. And we spent quite some time talking about the New Testament principle of contentment, how in the life of the apostle Paul, Paul said that he learned how to be content. Contentment is not natural for fallen people.

9:25 Rather, we are assaulted by spirits of envy and covetousness where we want what somebody else has, or we want to have the job or the position that somebody else has. And so people come to John and try to stir up that spirit within him. What do you think, John? He's getting more than you are. You remember in the Old Testament, Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands, and when Saul heard that, he wanted to kill David. But now by contrast, when it's called out to John the Baptist that Jesus is having a larger following than he has, he is thrilled because that means that God is honoring the vocation that God gave to John in the first place.

10:27 Listen to how he responds to this. He says, a man can receive nothing unless it's been given to him. I've been given to Him from heaven. You heard me bear witness, I told you. I'm not the Christ. The gift I've been given from heaven is to be the one whom the Father sent to go before the Christ. Throughout He keeps giving the testimony that He is a voice crying in the wilderness. He is the herald of the kingdom of God. He is the forerunner of the King Himself, and He can't wait to see the manifestation of the One whom the Father is sending as the Messiah. He said, he who has the bride is the bridegroom. John is saying, the bride doesn't belong to me.

11:33 Perhaps he's thinking back to the Old Testament economy, where even then Israel was seen as the bride of God in anticipation for the New Testament church where the church would be presented to Christ as His bridegroom. And John is saying, I am not the bridegroom. The bride isn't mine. The bride is his. But I'm the best man. And I get to go to the wedding feast and stand right next to the bridegroom as he enters into the joy of this wedding. And for John, that is an unspeakable privilege, a joy that is matchless and immeasurable. Again, He doesn't covet the bride, but He delights to stand with the bridegroom on the occasion of that wedding.

12:40 I'm the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears Him, who rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice, and therefore my joy is fulfilled. Now listen to what he says, this most famous statement from the lips of John, he must increase I must decrease. I just want to point out one little detail about this, that John is not suggesting a strategy that he has devised, he has not met with his disciples and said, well, all right, fellas, from now on we need to lighten up a little bit because we've pointed out the Messiah, we've called attention to the Lamb of God, and now that He has emerged and come out of obscurity and is entering into His public ministry, we need to call attention to that because that would be a wise thing to do.

13:46 It's a good strategy. No. John says, He must increase. And the force of that statement is, it is necessary. That is, the increase of Christ is not an option. John has his marching orders. He is called to go before Christ, and once he announces Christ, then John is to go back into the background that Christ might emerge in the fullness of His leadership as the appointed Messiah. It's necessary, John says. It's not optional. This has to happen. It has to take place.

14:38 I have to decrease. He must increase. Why? Here's the contrast again. Because he who comes from above. There's a little play on words there, isn't there? Remember where He came from. He didn't just come out from Jerusalem and come along the Jordan River. His point of origin is heaven Himself. He has come from above, and the One who has come from above. must be above. And then He goes on to talk about His own origin. You know, He's basically saying, I am of the earth, earthly, and that which is of the earth cannot have preeminence over that which has come from heaven.

15:43 And so He says, He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly, speaks of the earth. He's obviously speaking of himself. And he who comes from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard, that's what he testifies. Now, John is agreeing here, and this is important later on in the disputes with the leaders of the Jews, that John is agreeing with the testimony that Jesus makes that he comes from above, and the things that Jesus teaches are not of His own creation. He said, I teach nothing on my own authority but that which the Father has given to me. And so Christ comes from heaven, and He comes from heaven with the words of God.

16:41 He is the divinely appointed apostle of the Father to come to this planet and to declare the very words of God Himself. And what he has seen and heard, that he testifies. And no one receives his testimony. Now the next sentence seems to contradict that because it said, he who has received his testimony, he's speaking generally, that as he says, as John tells us in the beginning, the light comes into the world and the world does not receive it. He comes to His own and they receive Him not. And that's a general truth, but there is still that element that calls attention to those who did receive Him. For as many received Him, to them He gave the authority and the power to be the children of the sons of God.

17:39 But he who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure." That is, when God anoints His Son, the Messiah, the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is given to Christ is not piecemeal or partial. It's not like God measures out a little dose to give to His Son, but rather in immeasurable dimensions the Father pours out the Spirit upon the Son. For God does not give the Spirit by measure.

18:37 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. And he who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides in Him. God, the whole of Scripture speaks to us of the love of God for His people. But so often we fix our attention so much on God's love for us that we forget that the The ground of God's love for us is the love that He has from eternity for His Son. Remember we're not the natural children of God, we're the adopted children of God. And even our election must always be understood to be in the Son.

19:38 It's because of the Father's love for the Son that we can be here at all. And so even this morning, as we come to the Lord's table, we need to have this in our mind as we come. The love of the Father for the Son. We remember that when we come to the Lord's table, we don't just look back to the past and remember what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. We do that. But not only do we look backwards, but we also look ahead to the future, don't we, where we look to the marriage feast of the Lamb. And there's a sense in which every time we participate in the Lord's Supper, we have a taste of heaven, because we have already received our invitation to the marriage feast between the bridegroom and his bride.

20:50 And we are invited not simply to be friends of the groom. and not simply to be friends of the bride. But we're invited to be the bride. That's what's going on here. And so this morning, the bridegroom comes to meet at his table with his bride. And the Spirit of the Bride say, come. And so I invite all of you this morning who have repented of your sins and who have fled to Christ for your redemption, who have embraced Him by faith and by faith alone, who have experienced the remission of your sins, that all of those who are in Christ Jesus and are part of His body, the church, who are not currently under the discipline of an evangelical church to come to the Lord's table.

22:04 For we remember the words of institution, how the apostle Paul tells us that on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and when He had blessed it, He broke it and He said to His disciples, this is My body broken for you. And then He went on to say, later on in the course of the meal, after they had supped, He took the cup, and He spoke of a new covenant, a covenant that was established in His blood which was for the remission of our sins. And so we come this morning to look forward to that moment when we will feast with Him in His kingdom.

22:56 Let us pray. Father, even now we ask that You would take the common elements of bread and wine, set them aside for an uncommon and sacred use, and that by Thy Spirit we may meet with the resurrected and ascendant Christ, that we may be strengthened by Him in this sacrament, And it may indeed be for us a means of grace that we may experience a fresh sense of the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our inner person by His Spirit. Sanctify us and forgive us as we come into His presence, for we ask it in His name.