JOHN 3:22-30 PODCAST
JOHN 3:22-30 PODCAST
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” 27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:22-30
In John 3:22 we learn that the Lord Jesus went alone into the countryside with His disciples. Previously, Nicodemus came to be with the Lord Jesus alone, in order to have meaningful conversation with the Lord Jesus. Alone time with the Lord is most essential. In like manner, the Lord Jesus often would go away from the masses of people to be alone with His disciples, to teach them. He invested, most intimately, in twelve men. This is instructive. We are most effective when we carve out personal alone time with the Lord. It is only at this point that we are in a position to invest in the few.
The scene has shifted to the Judean countryside where Jesus and his disciples are baptizing (though John 4:2 says that “Jesus Himself did not baptize, but only his disciples”). In v.22, we discover John the Baptist's disciples were upset that Jesus was now pressing in on John's ministry.
The crowds are now anxiously following the Lord Jesus, instead of clamoring to hear John. John's disciples fell into the trap of the numbers game. God illustrates throughout the scriptures, numbers is not where it is at. In fact, He has been know to cull the numbers down to 300 from 32,000; just ask Gideon. This is God's way ... choosing the weak to shame the strong, choosing the foolish to shame the wise, choosing the things that are not to overturn the things that are. Siding with the poor and the oppressed and the weeping and the hungry and the outcasts.
Then John's disciples get into an argument about the meaning of baptism. Someone questioned the meaning of Jesus' baptism, especially since Jesus was now baptizing. So, John's disciples ask John what this all meant.
John answers in v.27-30, "27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less."
John emphasizes that Jesus is not his rival, saying that all power comes only from God. Many think they have earned their way to power by their own efforts, by their intelligence, by their hard work. John highlights this was not the case when he essentially says in v.27-30, "Not my will be done but yours.”
John is saying, "When I see crowds of people leaving me and going to Jesus I am glad because Jesus can do for them what I could never do. For their sakes I am glad. Jesus is the bridegroom come to claim his bride. He is receiving those who believe in him; that is his bride. I am the friend of the bridegroom; I am the best man at the wedding. I have a certain role to fulfill, and I rejoice when the bridegroom claims his bride."
Then John says his most famous words, "He must increase; I must decrease." That is so different from how we ordinarily think. The obvious lesson here is that we treasure the Lord Jesus over everyone and everything else. When the Lord Jesus becomes greater and I become less, my joy increases.
John the Baptist was a humble man. True humility is not thinking lowly of oneself but thinking accurately of oneself. Most often, humility comes into our lives through humiliating experiences. The humble man has made peace with the truth, he has allowed the truth to be true in his life.
Unlike the man who loves darkness and hates light, the man who does the truth “comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” One of the main birthmarks of the born-again is that he loves for it to be clearly seen that his heart is with God.
