Chapter 3 Verse 22, After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. 

 

Turn over to Chapter 4 verse 2.  So John tells us that it actually wasn't Jesus doing the baptizing, but His disciples.

 

If you recall, in our last study we read how Jesus had established the foundation of a saving faith in His conversation with Nicodemus.  Jesus described the need to be born again in order to live a life unto God and that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him would be saved...yet here, very interestingly, we see that Jesus does not baptize...

 

Why do I say this?  Because there are some that will tell you in order to be saved, you must be baptized...that baptism is essential for salvation.  That's not only unbiblical but it would appear to me that if baptism were the avenue to salvation and Jesus said that it would be through Him that man is saved, then Jesus would be baptizing...but He's not. 

 

Salvation is by God's grace through faith and not of works lest any man should boast...baptism is a work of obedience.  We are baptized in order to show ourselves, and testify to others and to God that we believe...not the other way around...we are not baptized in order to believe...and so Jesus Himself, did not baptize.

 

However, John here in verse 22 says He remained with them and baptized.  Interesting because we know He didn't > so what is John trying to tell us here?  I believe John is establishing an important spiritual truth that what is done by the disciples of Jesus, at the command of Jesus, is just as if it was done by Jesus Himself. 

 

Paul said in 2 Cor 5:20, We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us...and so when you serve in the name of Jesus, when you share the gospel in the name of Jesus, when you are persecuted for righteousness sake, when you bless when you could justifiably curse, when you love when you are not being loved, showing the fruits of the Spirit, when obey the commands of Jesus > it is as if Jesus Himself were reaching out to that person or that workplace or that home or that husband or that wife...or that mother in-law...so don't grow weary in doing good...Jesus said I am with you to the ends of the age and we see by John here that indeed it was His disciples physically carrying out the labor, yet it was truly Jesus Himself, doing the work.

 

Just like the wedding at Cana.  Jesus turned the water into wine but we never read of Him every lifting a finger...He choose to work through His servants, and so John says here Jesus was with them baptizing but we know it was His ambassadors doing the work...how magnificent!  Why?  Because nothing is impossible if it is God working!  And we know that it is...so what is holding you back?  When we make God into our image we are stifled, but He is higher to march!

Verse 23, Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there.  And they came and were baptized.  For John had not yet been thrown into prison.  The names of the places here are very interesting because Aenon literally means, “Place of the Springs” while Salim literally means, “Peace.”  And so we once again encounter John the Baptist but he is no longer in the wilderness of Judea and the region round about Jordan (as we read in Matthew Chp. 5) which both speak of isolation, and drought...but we find him in the place of refreshment, springs and the place of peace!  What marks the interim between these two place in John's life?  Obedience. 

 

Ever notice how faith and obedience fuel each other?  Its sometimes difficult to tell the difference isn't it?  But understand as we walk in obedience - we will see God faithful and as we walk in faith - we see God's promises true, and the natural product of that is spiritual growth...we grow more dependent on Him and to grow more and more dependent on the Lord is truly fruit from walking in obedience, in faith.

 

Side note on baptism and the comment of “much water.”

 

Verse 25, Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification.  There they go again, those under the religious system arguing and pressing for their own righteousness.  Concerned with the outward ceremonies...purification...but that is the way of the world...that is the mind of the lost isn't it?

Wheaties, breakfast of champions.  Be all that you can be, find your future in the Arrrrrrmmyy!  Maybe she's born with it, maybe its Maybelline!  The world, so obsessed with the outward.  Clean me, fix me, plump me, slim me, paint me > when all that is needed is SAVE ME, FREE ME!  Save me from the merry go round of circumstantial happiness and the false promise of gotta-get-mine satisfaction > which simply doesn't exist...and forever most importantly, save me from the price and penalty of my sin...

 

The truth is...Christian...the truth is Nicodemus, the truth is the bible says, we stand by grace.  Our sufficiency is found solely in God's grace.  There is nothing that we can do to add to God's approval of us...we are not on “probation” day in and day out...God's grace is freely bestowed upon us in Christ and by that alone we are justified.  Paul said, by grace, I am what I am. 

 

It was Erwin Lutzer who said, “When the mask of self-righteousness has been torn from us and we stand stripped of all our accustomed defenses, we are candidates for God's generous grace.”

 

However the condition of the Jews at this time is as Paul remarked in Galatians 5:4...Paul said “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; for you have fallen from grace.”  And so they quarrel regarding how to be good enough outwardly disputing about purification.

Verse 26, And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified-behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”

 

John your crowds are diminishing!  They are all going to another!  Your ministry is shrinking!  Your popularity is being taken!  What ever will you do! 

 

John says I'll tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to REJOICE!

 

Look at verse 27, John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.  My friends, my followers, all this is God's!  This ministry is God's not mine, not yours.  It was never ours in the first place, it was always from heaven, empowered by heaven and exists for heaven's purpose, not our own!  (28)You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, “I am not the Christ, but, I have been sent before Him.  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!

So they come to John and alert him that someone else is drawing the crowd, someone else is taking even his crowd from him, but really we've seen this tactic of the enemy before.  This attempt to divide the house of God so that it may fall by introducing a spirit of envy or competition...

But listen, when leaders are in ministry for the right reasons, not for gain, not for notoriety, not for anything but for the glory of knowing God and making Him known, this tactice does not work.

 

They came to Moses in Numbers chapter 11 and told him hey Moses you are a mighty man of God but there are two Eldad and Medad and the spirit rests upon them but they come not unto the Tabernacle but rather they prophesy in the camp.  Even Joshua steps up and says My lord, Moses, forbid them.  But listen to the answer of God's servant, “Moses said to them, do you envy them for my sake?  My prayer unto God is that ALL the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His spirit upon them!

 

They tried it on Paul too.   Paul had heard that many were preaching Christ.  Some were preaching with a spirit of envy and strife, and some were preaching out of goodwill.  Some out of selfish ambition some out of love...what then did Paul say.  “Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”

 

There is no competition in the family of Christ.  The spirit of competition when it comes to ministry is a spirit estranged from Christ because we all stand by grace and we receive nothing unless it has been given by He who occupies the throne...we don't occupy the throne!  It is He.  He is the king...the kingdom, His! 

 

And so let's check ourselves.  Is our joy fulfilled by outward success of our ministry,?  We may receive joy as we witness the blessing of God adding to the church daily those that should be saved, but truly is our joy FULFILLED in seeing men, women, young people, neighbors, friends, family member, co-workers, turning to the Lord Jesus and being set free from the bondage and weight of sin!  That is why God has provided this church, these faithful laborers, this sound equipment, this radio ministry...not so we can get our name out there but so that we can get His name out there, so that we may grow in our own relationships with God and that through our witness and through our lives and through our ministry that has been given to us by the Kind we may reach lost souls with the power of His truth, His word and His salvation!  Do not lose sight of that!

 

There in verse 30, “He must increase, but I must decrease!”  If we are to be effective in ministry, this is the path.  If you are to be effective in your marriage, this is the path.  If you are to be effective at work, at school, at church, at 7-eleven, this is the path...because God gives grace to the humble and God lifts up those that humble themselves. 

 

To “decrease” is to be less and less occupied with ourselves.  The more I am occupied with Christ, the less I will be occupied with myself.  Humility is not the product of effort...it is rather a by-product.  The more I try to be humble, the less humble I will become.  Again, listen, the more I strive to be humble, the less and less humble I will be. 

This is a great mystery so let me explain.  The more I try and the more I see fruits from my labor, the more I will be satisfied with my effort...you see, that actually works against humility.  The biblical truth is that the more I simply focus on Jesus, the more I am occupied with the One that is meek and lowly in heart (because I naturally am not), the more that I learn of Him through His word, communicate with Him through prayer, serve Him through denying my flesh and loving HARD, all-out, then according to 2 Cor 3:18 I will be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

 

The bible says humble yourself, how – Jesus first.  The bible says blessed are the meek, how – Jesus first.  The bible says God's grace drowns the flesh, how – Jesus first...His ways, His word, His truth...before your own.  Fellowship with Him and Followship of His word...His commandments, and they're not burdensome, love others and love God.  Where in that recipe is self?  Dead.  Buried.  Crucified with Christ and nevertheless we live, but not us, Christ in us....

 

You desire joy, He must increase.  You desire peace, He must increase.  You desire reconciliation, He must increase...and since you are finite, a necessary component of Jesus increasing, is you decreasing. 

 

 

 

 

John continues here in Verse 31 and delivers his final testimony of Jesus Christ.  He who comes from above is above all; (Jesus is above all men, all messengers, all prophets, all priests, He is above all John is saying...He is above me); he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth.  He who comes from heaven is above all.

 

John is not saying that he is worldly, rather earthly.  He speaks of what he knows > but Jesus, since He is from above, is able to speak of much more than John.

 

(32)And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.  Remember who John is addressing here...his disciples had come with the Jews who were arguing purification with them...and so pharisitical jews, proud jews, jews that believed themselves already to be righteous...of those, John says no one receives the heavenly testimony of Jesus that one must be born again...

 

However, (33)He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true.  (...He told me what to do, He called me out of my home and into the wilderness, and into the desert, and told me I would make straight the way of the Messiah and now the Messiah has come and so I certify that God is true and God is a keeper of His word...and all that is because I have placed my trust in Jesus.)

 

 

 

(34)For He whom God sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.  Isn't that the truth?  Is this a man or a woman sent by you God?  Well, do they speak the words of God?  And John says of Jesus that God has not given to Jesus His Spirit by measure...

 

Recall in Hebrews 1:1, the writer begins by saying God who in various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets...as we read through the accounts of the prophets in the Old Testament we find the Spirit of God came and then went from them...the Spirit was given by measure...what was needed for that prophesy, for that battle, for that time of testing...but Jesus is a whole different circumstance because we read in John 1:32 that the spirit abode upon Jesus Christ. 

 

You see the prophets had fragments of the truth of God, Spirit by measure, but Jesus is God and therefore He fully possesses the mind of God, fully possesses the Spirit of God and that is what was meant when Jesus said I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.  Col 2:9 says, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

 

And so here's the thing, Paul said I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ in me...Through the New Covenant, you as the reborn child of God have not just the Spirit of God with you, but the Spirit of God is within you.  And so this spirit by measure business, is done away with in Christ...

We are set free from worldly weights, from earthly perspectives and from confusion...Paul said, let this mind be in you that was in Christ...and God the Father agrees and just pours His spirit out in these last days on His Children, because Jesus has overcome...He has made a way and He has removed the sin and the filth so that we are no longer separated from God but rather we are brought near...

 

Its all because of Jesus!  Our acceptance, our salvation, our sufficiency...not by outward purification or good performance but simply because of Jesus.  Why, verse 35, Because 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 on him. 

 

So each of us has a choice.  Believe Jesus and believe in Jesus and receive the gift of God's abiding Spirit or don't believe Him, don't believe His word, don't place your trust in Him and receive the condemnation that we deserve as sinners, the gift of Satan, the gift of sin, the gift of flesh, God's abiding wrath.

 

Jesus is God!  How else could God give to Him all things?  Who else but God Himself could endure all of the power, authority, omniscience, ALL...but God Himself.  To none but One absolutely equal with Himself.  And with that truth, the inevitable alternative.  Receive Jesus and receive God Himself...how divinely simple!

Those that receive the Son have everlasting life.  A present possession as well as an eternal one!  A life to be enjoyed and an eternity to be lived out in the very presence of Joy!  But those that do not come to Him, the bible says shall not see life.  Neither will they enjoy this life nor enter into eternal life. 

 

And so we simply come to the conclusion of John's testimony and witness of Jesus Christ...that there is no life, present or future, apart from Jesus Christ.  John doesn't matter, outward religion doesn't matter, nothing matters apart from knowing Christ and making Him known.  Soon this life shall pass and only what is done for Jesus will last.