Friend of the Bridegroom (John 3:22-36)

John 3:22-36. From the "The Gospel of John" sermon series. Preached by Jody Killingsworth.

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Sermons preached at Trinity Reformed Church in Bloomington, Indiana.

Jody Killingsworth: 00:13

We are coming back to the gospel of John this morning in our preaching. We're finishing up chapter 3, which is in the middle of a mini unit in this gospel that runs from chapters 2 to 4. And that unit is structured around a pilgrimage that Jesus made with his disciples early on in his ministry up to Jerusalem for Passover. And it's prefaced by events that took place before the trip in Galilee and then on the way back there after the fact. Running through this little mini unit is a theme of newness.

Jody Killingsworth: 00:49

Jesus makes all things new. It's a theme. We saw how he makes new wine for drinking out of the old water of the law in chapter 2. And then later in that chapter, we heard him prophesy about a new temple that he is building, speaking of the temple of his body. He told Nicodemus about the need of a new birth for entering the kingdom of heaven, a birth provided by the Holy Spirit of God as we look on Jesus by faith.

Jody Killingsworth: 01:21

And next week, Lord willing, we'll sit with Jesus at Jacob's well and hear him tell a Samaritan woman about new worship that's being established and how God the father is seeking new worshipers to be a part of it. This is a theme throughout this section, and, it's indicative this newness is indicative of the rich blessings of the gospel and of the new covenant that's established in Jesus Christ. But new means change, and change is hard. And John's audience that he's writing to was long accustomed to the old covenant. They were nurtured in the old covenant under Moses.

Jody Killingsworth: 02:03

And so John, as he's writing, has to keep them constantly in mind. New doesn't necessarily just mean better to them. And so he he stops here in the middle of all this talk of newness to let us hear once more from the great harbinger of change himself, the the herald and forerunner, John the Baptist. John was the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. He he stood right on the cusp of the coming kingdom of God, and he got to announce its arrival and its coming.

Jody Killingsworth: 02:35

He was a very popular figure in his day, something of an unimpeachable character. So for John the writer to appeal to him is helpful. He used his popularity, John the Baptist, by crying out at a very opportune moment, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus was there, and he announced who he was to his crowd. That was John's big moment of glory.

Jody Killingsworth: 03:02

We talked about that earlier. Every one of the gospel writers gives an account of that very scene. But that turns out not to be the last word of John the Baptist about Jesus Christ. He has something more to say on the subject of him, and he has one more stamp of approval to give to Jesus. And this gospel writer, John alone, is the one to tell us about it.

Jody Killingsworth: 03:23

We can be glad that he did, because this passage adds a lot to our understanding and appreciation of John and also of Jesus Christ, and it has a lot to teach us. So let's read it together and dig in. This is John chapter 3, starting in verse 22 to the end. This is God's word, and it is eternally true. After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.

Jody Killingsworth: 03:57

John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salem because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized, for John had not yet been put in prison. Now, a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he's baptizing, and all are going to him.' John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.

Jody Killingsworth: 04:47

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. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.

Jody Killingsworth: 05:14

He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

Jody Killingsworth: 05:42

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. This is the word of the Lord. The first thing we notice here is that John's last words about Jesus are occasioned by a bit of controversy.

Jody Killingsworth: 06:06

We have a humbling example here before us of the kind of petty jealousies and divisive spirit which are far too prevalent among God's people. The disciples of John were offended because the ministry of Jesus began to attract more attention than the ministry of their master. We see how this unfolds. Look at verse 22. It says, after this, that's after the Passover had ended, Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and spent time together in the countryside.

Jody Killingsworth: 06:38

And it was here, John informs us, that Jesus began, for the first time, to baptize himself. He John credits Jesus for the baptisms in verse 22, but just a few verses later at the beginning of chapter 4, he's going to come back and clarify that it was actually not Jesus himself doing the baptism, but rather his disciples were doing it. It's very clear. But he credits Jesus here because, of course, what happens under Jesus' command and authority accrues to him. Everybody thought of it that way, Jesus is baptizing, even though it was his disciples.

Jody Killingsworth: 07:11

Now simultaneously to this, we're told in verse 23 that John the Baptist was also baptizing at that time. He is he was still active in ministry. This was before he had been put in prison. He was doing that at a place called Aenon, where the water was plentiful. So the stage is set there between those two things, those two ministries, for potential strife, potential showdown, because now there's 2 big ministries in town.

Jody Killingsworth: 07:37

And is the town big enough for the 2 of them? We'll see. It's tempting to me with this passage to want to dig into the meaning and the nature of baptism, John's baptism, Jesus' baptism. But all the scholars agree, helpfully, that this passage is actually not about baptism. It's about competition, ambition, jealousy, strife, and then the beautiful humility of John the Baptist that's revealed in that context.

Jody Killingsworth: 08:05

Still, it is worth mentioning a couple of things about baptism here before we move on. The credobaptists among us, the believers' Baptists, will be gratified to know that this talk of plentiful water led Calvin to admit that these were full immersion baptisms. He says, and I quote, from these words, we may infer that John and Christ administered baptism by plunging the whole body beneath the water. Isn't that great? Thought you'd like to know that.

Jody Killingsworth: 08:37

It's very fun. He has his way of reconciling it with infant baptism and sprinkling, but he acknowledges that. There's been much debate also this is the second thing. There's been much debate throughout history, about the exact relationship between John's baptism and Jesus' baptism. Are they the same?

Jody Killingsworth: 08:56

Are they different? How do they relate? Personally, I think that the best way to understand them is to think that the the baptism of John and Jesus are substantially the same thing, and that we have to allow, though, for the fact that Christ adds more meaning and significance to it. He adds the trinitarian formula, and all and all of the full meaning of baptism comes to the fore upon his death and resurrection and the giving of his spirit. But I think they're substantially the same thing.

Jody Killingsworth: 09:28

John, it was his privilege to prepare the way for Jesus who would add this meaning to the symbol. But baptism is not the point of the passage. It's rather the occasion for some petty squabbling and a territorial dispute to arise, and to break out amongst John's disciples with regard to Jesus and what he was doing. Look how it developed in verse 25. Now it says, a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew about purification.

Jody Killingsworth: 10:02

Jew, in John's lingo, is usually referring to a Jewish religious leader in Jerusalem. Others he calls Israelites, the believing crowd he calls Israelites. But the Pharisees he refers to as the Jews. So this is probably a Pharisee who's acting as something of a religious inspector, and he comes out to see what John and his disciples are up to, and he and he's there to kind of, accuse them of novelty and of bad practice or something over the question of ritual purification. But that's not what bothered John's disciples.

Jody Killingsworth: 10:37

That was not the big takeaway from the dispute for them. All they could hear was, Woah, Jesus is baptizing too? Somehow that enters into the equation, and they find this out. And we learn from the next chapter, first 2 of chapter 4, that this is happening in greater numbers than John. So the word is getting around about this, and that is their great concern.

Jody Killingsworth: 11:01

They come to John with their complaint. They say, verse 26, Rabbi, he who is with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him. Now, clearly not all are going to him. What they really mean is more than what we are getting are going to the people are going to him. He's got the momentum.

Jody Killingsworth: 11:23

He's got the draw. In the words of one commentator, these men seem to think that their master John had behaved generously, magnanimously to Jesus when he called him out and gave him attention and notice when he said, Behold the Lamb of God, that he'd done Jesus a big favor. And they find it intolerable that Jesus should now be attracting more attention than John, doing the same things that John was doing. They say about the vice president that his job is to never outshine his boss, to always make his boss look good, partly by being humbly lesser than him, a good a good soldier. These disciples are offended for their master because Jesus, who came along second and owes his career and notoriety to John, is now outshining him.

Jody Killingsworth: 12:14

And this is the kind of petty jealousy and strife that is very prevalent among God's people throughout history. It's evident here with the disciples. We see it was a problem among the disciples later. It says that Luke tells us that an argument started among them as to which one of them was the greatest. And that is also a disease that has plagued the church, the later spirit filled church in the New Testament.

Jody Killingsworth: 12:41

Paul addresses this problem in his letter to the Corinthians. In 1st Corinthians 1, he says, it's been reported to me, folks, that by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you. And what I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or worst of all, I follow no man but Jesus. I follow Christ. Paul says, is Christ divided?

Jody Killingsworth: 13:12

Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? You see what he's getting at? This party spirit that's in the church, where we align ourselves behind our champion or our hero, or we judge one another based on our our commitments or our views or our or our looks or any number of things. Do we do that?

Jody Killingsworth: 13:40

You and me? We're jealous for our church over against other churches in town. Oh, man. They go there? They must be pretty shallow people.

Jody Killingsworth: 13:54

We're jealous for our ministry in the church against over and against other people's ministries. I don't understand why they get all the good resources and all the best people. I mean, man, why are we so heavily invested there? I think we're over invested in that area. We envy the attention that gets paid by pastors and leaders, to other people instead of ourselves.

Jody Killingsworth: 14:18

We rank and evaluate each other according to our favorite doctrinal commitment or cultural view. We fight amongst ourselves about the schools we go to, about the music we prefer, any number of things. Now, that should have no place among us. This is all very petty and beneath and unworthy of the grace of God and of the life of the Spirit of God. The Spirit would have us clothe ourselves in humility and learn to recognize each other as actually genuinely better than ourselves, more important than ourselves.

Jody Killingsworth: 14:59

He would have us understand and know and live out live our lives in such a way as we recognize that we aren't independent of one another, that we're part of a body put together by the spirit of God, interdependent, just parts of a of a wonderful mechanism, organism created by God, and that we belong together, and need one another, and live to serve each other in the body. Now, there are, of course, good and necessary times, circumstances, and reasons for dividing from others, whenever the glory of God is at stake, the honor of God is at stake, we have to be ready to divide from people along those lines of God's reputation and honor and glory and clear commands. Even our own families, Jesus says, we need to be ready to separate from, if need be, for his sake. But that's not generally where our flesh tells us to draw the lines. We want to draw the lines where it's where our reputation, our preferences, our our unessential views of things are at stake.

Jody Killingsworth: 16:17

And that's a very common sin and failing among God's people. It's just very common. But John the Baptist seems to be wonderfully free from this fleshly spirit of envy and jealously. In response to the pit the petty jealousy of his disciples, John exhibits the most beautiful and godly humility. He starts in response by giving an aphorism, a maxim, a proverb, a kind of foundational principle.

Jody Killingsworth: 16:45

In verse 27, he says, men, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. That's his basic life principle, his operating system. Nobody can receive anything unless it's given them from heaven. His men are operating as if standing and prestige and influence. These are things that are intrinsic or earned, come to us by our own deserving.

Jody Killingsworth: 17:15

And John is just correcting that. He's rebuking that with this foundational principle. No. That is not it at all. Paul gives the same kind of rebuke to the Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 4.

Jody Killingsworth: 17:27

He says, What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Why do you live as if your gifts and preferences and personality and your position and your strengths are your own and not gifts to you from God. John is correcting our bad thinking. He's giving us the right and only right godly view of things.

Jody Killingsworth: 18:00

All good things comes from from from God. They come from nowhere else. They don't come from us. They come from God. And we need to get that deep down into our bones.

Jody Killingsworth: 18:09

John seems to have it in his bones. Unlike some of his followers, John is not perturbed at all to hear that Jesus has a rising popularity. He has always made it clear to his followers that he was not the Christ. He said that back in chapter 1 verse 2. And that he was sent only as the herald to announce his coming.

Jody Killingsworth: 18:32

He said that in chapter 1. And so he reminds them of that again here in verse 28. He says, you yourselves, men, bear me witness. You remember. I've heard you say it.

Jody Killingsworth: 18:42

I'm I am not the Christ. You heard me say it. I've heard you repeat it to me. I'm not the Christ. But I have been sent before him.

Jody Killingsworth: 18:53

D a Carson says that unlike many preachers for whom humility is little more than an affectation, put on, pretended, feigned. Unlike many preachers, for whom humility is nothing more than an affectation, John meant what he said. Both John and Jesus were given their roles by heaven. And John was entirely content with his. So, what about you?

Jody Killingsworth: 19:41

Do you do you recognize that what you have comes from God? Your gifts, your position, your ministry, your influence, your family is a gift from God. And are you entirely content with it? John is completely content with his rule. And to emphasize this even further, he turns to a beautiful analogy of a wedding to try to illustrate how he sees himself with respect to Jesus.

Jody Killingsworth: 20:18

He says, Men, it's like at a wedding, verse 29. The one who has the bride at a wedding is the bridegroom. Right? The one who has the bride there's not there's not 2 grooms for every bride. There's a 1 groom and 1 bride.

Jody Killingsworth: 20:34

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. Right? The friend of the bridegroom, or the best man in our lingo, he's the one who stand who stands and hears him. He's, you know, he's at the side, and he hears the bridegroom's voice, his friend. He doesn't begrudge his friend his joy or his prize.

Jody Killingsworth: 20:54

That's not what a friend does. No. He rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. I do gives them joy. Wow.

Jody Killingsworth: 21:06

What a gift God has given to my dear friend. He's not there to compete with his friend, the groom. He's there to support him in any way he can and be happy for him. And that was even more the case back in those days. Because in those days the work of the ceremony and of the after party didn't follow the bride and her family.

Jody Killingsworth: 21:27

It fell to the groom who relied heavily on his best man and his groomsmen to pull off this thing, to pull all the details together and make sure everything stayed on the rails. That was that was the way they did things. And so John is saying, this is my role. I'm the bridegroom's friend, and I'm here to support him in any way I can. This is not my show.

Jody Killingsworth: 21:53

This is not my day. The bride is not my prize. It's his. And like a good friend, it gives me great joy to see him shine, to see him obtain this wonderful gift of the bride. This is not about me.

Jody Killingsworth: 22:13

It's about him. That is a really beautiful picture to illustrate what is his humility and his view of himself in relation to Jesus Christ. And it is a thoroughly biblical analogy. This is all through the Old Testament. God's relationship with his people Israel is often, in the prophets, characterized as one of a wedding, of a of a husband and a bride.

Jody Killingsworth: 22:42

And John, unlike many, is applying that analogy in the right way in the right way. He is not the groom in this picture. He gets that right. That dignity belongs to Jesus Christ. He's the groom.

Jody Killingsworth: 22:56

But John is also not the bride. That's where a lot of people also go wrong. John is not the bride. The bride bridegroom analogy is a corporate picture of Christ's relationship to his people as a whole. It is not how scripture teaches us to view ourselves independently, personally in relation to Jesus Christ or to the father.

Jody Killingsworth: 23:26

Jesus is is we're to consider Jesus our most excellent elder brother by adoption, who through his sacrificial work for us has given us, brought us to the Father, made us made the Father able to consider us and call us his own children. This is of the Father's love, but Jesus secured the right for it, our older brother, our excellent brother by adoption, who brings us to the father. That's how scripture clearly teaches us to think of ourselves individually with relation to God. The idea that we each individually are brides of Jesus Christ is called bridal mysticism. And that is an idea that has been prevalent at times throughout church history.

Jody Killingsworth: 24:14

You see it in the Middle Ages in a lot of, kind of, gross erotic devotional material that monks and and, nuns produced. You see it today in contemporary Christian music, which loves to sing romantic oriented love songs to Jesus. But we are not brides of Christ. The bro the church is the bride. We understand this concept when we think about our school, our alma mater, our nursing mother.

Jody Killingsworth: 24:48

We think we we know how to apply these categories elsewhere, and these analogies and pictures elsewhere. We need to learn to apply it to ourselves. So this is a good and a necessary and a healthy analogy, very scriptural, but it is a corporate one. The church, not Jody, not D Wayne, the church is the is the bride, and Jesus, not Jody, not D Wayne, not Michael, is the groom. We've got to keep those categories straight.

Jody Killingsworth: 25:20

Where where are we in the picture? Well, John knows exactly where he fits. And his joyful embracing of his role is an excellent reminder for you and me. There is a kind of ambition that we should have that's godly. Paul tells us that we are to earnestly desire the greater gifts.

Jody Killingsworth: 25:45

We should want them for ourselves. We should want to grow in giftedness and in ability. He says that in 1st Corinthians 12. He also says in 1st Timothy that it's good when a man aspires to church office and to the office of an overseer. It's good.

Jody Killingsworth: 26:00

It's a good thing he desires to do. But in whatever we're given to do, if it's worthy of the Lord, it's only ever a support position. If that's true of John the Baptist, it's certainly true of me and you. That's as high as we ever achieve, a humble support position and role. We never amount to more than friendly facilitators of people coming to Jesus and being united to him and growing in him.

Jody Killingsworth: 26:40

We're not building disciples for ourselves and kingdoms for ourselves. I hope. That's what false shepherds do. Paul warns about it in in Acts, chapter 20, verse 30. He says, Men will arise from among your own selves, drawing after drawing disciples after themselves, not sparing the flock.

Jody Killingsworth: 27:03

That's what false shepherds do. John is a wonderful example of a true shepherd, a true friend of Jesus Christ. My joy is to serve him and to point people to him. Seeing people come to Jesus, however that happens, however we can participate in that, that should be enough for us to go around in contentment and in joy. That's John's claim about himself, and it's a sincere one.

Jody Killingsworth: 27:38

Look at verse 29. He says, the friend of the bridegroom, me, John, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is complete. You tell me people are going to him, you're making me happy. This joy of mine is complete.

Jody Killingsworth: 27:59

He must increase, but I must decrease. Isn't that the most beautiful thing? Drop dead gorgeous humility with regard to Jesus Christ. Is that your ambition, your view of yourself? Or are you a groomsman?

Jody Killingsworth: 28:17

Do you view yourself a groomsman upstaging the true groom? Well, there's 5 more verses in this passage. And interestingly, we are not sure who said them. Quotation marks and punctuation are not features of Koine Greek, which is the original language here. And so translators, interpreters have to use their judgment as to who's saying what when.

Jody Killingsworth: 28:49

And most of the time, that's just very clear, but not all the time. And this is one of those less clear places where people have disagreed. The traditional view is that the next verses are spoken, continued meditations and exhortations from John the Baptist, and there's a good case to be made for that. The more modern view is that, this is John the author, John the apostle, giving theological meditative commentary on what has just taken place and even earlier things and themes that he's kind of drawing together, and he's offering theological thoughts for us to reflect on. And the case to be made for that is that the the tense of the pronouns shift completely to the 3rd person.

Jody Killingsworth: 29:39

Could go either way. There's a good case for either. Whoever said it, which whether it was John or John, this is a wonderful, wonderful testament, to Christ. It exalts him, these words. They're just like almost ecstatic meditations on who Jesus is and the insignificance of his coming and his authority and his greatness and how we should listen to him.

Jody Killingsworth: 30:08

Okay? Their purpose is to further establish Jesus' superiority over all things and to get us more willing and ready to hear him and love him. These these these are just full of gospel. Look at verse 31. He who comes from above is above all.

Jody Killingsworth: 30:33

Where did Jesus come from? He came from heaven. Before anything was, he existed. He was with God and he was God in the beginning. There is nothing that has come into being that has not coming come into being through Jesus Christ.

Jody Killingsworth: 30:51

John has established that in this prologue, which makes him Lord over all. What about us? John says in verse 31 again, he who is of the earth, everybody else, the best and the brightest of us belong to the earth and speak in an earthly way. Who are you listening to? There's a lot of clever people in this world.

Jody Killingsworth: 31:20

Elon Musk may be one of the most cleverest, but he speaks in an earthly way. This is as high as we can achieve. We are of the earth. We think and speak and act in an earthly way. We don't know the half of what we're talking about.

Jody Killingsworth: 31:43

God has told us who to listen to. You remember that one account of Jesus' baptism goes this way, the voice from heaven says, This is my beloved son. Listen to him. Listen to him. Are you listening to Jesus?

Jody Killingsworth: 32:04

He who comes from heaven, says John says one of the Johns. He who comes from heaven is above all. Verse 32. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard up in the heavenly places. Isaiah said that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are not our ways.

Jody Killingsworth: 32:23

They're so far beyond comprehending with our feeble sense. Paul says that the world, through its wisdom, knew not God. We we can't climb the heaven ourselves with our own wisdom and figure this out. We can't comprehend God. But Jesus is wisdom from God sent to reveal the deep mysteries of God's kindness and grace to the world.

Jody Killingsworth: 32:52

He came with words of life. Here's the sad truth, John says, yet no one receives his testimony. No one. John is always putting things in stark terms. This is his way to get us to face uncomfortable, difficult realities.

Jody Killingsworth: 33:17

So what he's saying is, we have to acknowledge that the vast majority of mankind does not want to hear God, wants to live independent of God, and did not receive Jesus, but rejected him when he came. His own people, who he came to save, rejected him. We have to deal with that. We have to understand that it's not in us, naturally, to receive godly things, godly wisdom, godly truth. Something's got to happen to us.

Jody Killingsworth: 33:56

We've got to have a miracle born in us, something to change us, some miracle of God's grace. And John tells us in his prologue about that miracle. He says that some, that some would receive Jesus, and that they would be the ones to whom God had given the right to be called his children. And Jesus spoke the same way to Nicodemus. He said that the miracle of the new birth, the one that makes us spiritually alive to God and able to respond to him, is is comes from above.

Jody Killingsworth: 34:30

It's born in us from above by the Spirit of God. Do you know that miracle that makes you willing and able and ready to receive the wisdom of Jesus Christ? Do you know it? Praise God. There are some in this world who by God's grace have been set free from their hardness, and their death, and their dullness, and their foolishness to hear, to hear words of life.

Jody Killingsworth: 35:05

Verse 33, John acknowledges this. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. So when we come to know the truth as Christians, by God's grace, by a miracle, it's like light shining in the darkness. My chains fell off. My heart was free.

Jody Killingsworth: 35:29

And that faith springs up and sets its seal on this the veracity, the truthfulness of God. The cry of a Christian is what Paul says in Romans 3, Let God be true, though every man be found a liar. I I believe God is true, and I want to listen to him. The beautiful thing about a new believer usually those that come to faith later in life, after having tasted of the emptiness of this world and of themselves, is that everything is now negotiable. It's just the most beautiful thing that I've ever been privileged to see.

Jody Killingsworth: 36:11

It's how for somebody, suddenly everything becomes negotiable. They just want to know what God says about it. And they want to order their thinking and their life and their ways according to that pattern and that truth. Tell me what Jesus said. That's what they want to know.

Jody Killingsworth: 36:29

Jesus is the source of truth for his people. In Colossians 2:3, it says, In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He was sent as wisdom from God to make known all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which are hidden in God. God wanted to make them known and did so in his son, Jesus Christ. Verse 34.

Jody Killingsworth: 36:55

For he whom God has sent, that's Jesus, utters the words of God. For he gives the spirit without measure. Now, we discussed this in staff meeting, and I don't think I understood the meaning of this at the time well. What I believe is being said here by these words is that Jesus speaks the very words of God because God the Father has filled him with the Spirit beyond measure. That's why we should listen to him, because men at their very best, even prophets of God, are filled with the Spirit to do their work here, to speak that word there.

Jody Killingsworth: 37:38

But Jesus is filled beyond measure with spiritual wisdom, so vast. It's endless. It's endless. And he his words are life giving words. He's the quintessentially spirit filled man, filled beyond measure with the life giving power of God's spirit, and he's able to impart that life through his words to you and me.

Jody Killingsworth: 38:08

And he's also able to impart the love of God because he's the possessor of that love and the rightful distributor of it. Look at verse 35. The Father loves the Son. He's the possessor, the rightful recipient of all the Father's great immeasurable love. And he has given everything into the hands of his son, which means that Jesus has the authority to distribute to us the love of God.

Jody Killingsworth: 38:42

How do we partake of the love of the Father in Jesus Christ? John spells it out in verse 36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Notice the present tense of that. Has.

Jody Killingsworth: 39:03

Isn't waiting for it, isn't hoping for it someday, has in his possession, in himself, eternal life. Isn't that amazing? To believe in the Son is to receive in to yourself right now, today, the gift of life. Yeah. We're still waiting for greater fulfillment of that life, a greater experience of that life than we can even imagine to come later.

Jody Killingsworth: 39:38

But we have it now, if we believe. Right now. Really. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son notice that turn, belief versus obedience.

Jody Killingsworth: 39:55

Whoever believes has life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. What does it mean to obey the Son? Jesus is going to explain in chapter 6 that the obedience God requires of us is that we believe on his Son. This is the obedience God requires.

Jody Killingsworth: 40:25

We failed the test of the law, and we can't find our way to God that way anymore. So God has given us this rule: Believe. Believe. Jesus will say clearly, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. Do you believe in Jesus?

Jody Killingsworth: 40:54

Do you do you do you believe in Jesus? If you do not believe, you are living in disobedience to God, and in rebellion against him, who has given all things in his son, to his son, and to you in his son. No one comes to the father except through him. And you have no hope of seeing life, but are right now living under the wrath of God. And there it is.

Jody Killingsworth: 41:41

So the question is, do you, will you believe? What does it mean to believe in Jesus? Kids, are you listening? What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It starts by confessing and acknowledging that you are not deserving of the grace, and kindness, and goodness of God.

Jody Killingsworth: 42:11

You have disqualified yourself because of your sin, because of your pride, because of your lying, because of your lust, because of your hatred. Sin is no small matter. It violates the perfections of God. And so we start by confessing that. God, I don't deserve any good from you.

Jody Killingsworth: 42:42

I've offended you. I am an offense to you. And then it looks we look in faith, true faith and trust, and say to God, Jesus came. I believe it. I believe him.

Jody Killingsworth: 43:01

I believe you. He came to he came with your full acceptance. He came with your love. He came to make these things known to me in this way, by obeying for me, and by taking the punishment upon himself for my sin that I deserve. I believe that, that his blood covers my sin.

Jody Killingsworth: 43:40

And then we look to God, and we say, would you apply that blood to me? Would you forgive me my sins? Would this be true for me? Because I want to be covered by Jesus. I want his record of obedience to be my record of obedience.

Jody Killingsworth: 44:08

If we come and ask these things of God, what will he do? He will grant them to us. He says, and he's the one who cannot lie, he says, Turn to me and be saved, all the earth. For I am God, and there is no other. I'm the one you've got to deal with.

Jody Killingsworth: 44:33

But turn to me and be saved. In Isaiah he says, Listen everybody. Come to the waters and drink, and I'll give you everlasting life. Come to me if you're heavy laden and burdened, and I'll give you rest for your souls. He's made these promises.

Jody Killingsworth: 44:54

This one who came down from heaven, are we going to listen to him? Are we gonna trust him and obey him? May God help us all to do so. Gracious father, we thank you for this wonderful passage of your word. We're so thankful for the humility of John, and what a good example for us.

Jody Killingsworth: 45:16

I pray that you would purify our hearts, Lord, for a sincere love of the brethren and of Jesus Christ, and that you'd make our service of you to be not polluted by our pride and ambition and pettiness. Help us to see ourselves in a lowly way, as servants of Jesus and of one another. And I pray, Lord, that you would cause us to rejoice in the salvation that Jesus has brought, and help us to trust in it, and to believe. I pray that you would help the children of this church and the young men and women of this church especially to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Jody Killingsworth: 45:58

Amen.