
Jesus - The Main Event of the Wedding
John 3:22-36
Even in service to God, people will engage in religious rivalry. (3:22-26)
It’s the perennial problem of comparison and competition
o Jesus and his followers were ministering. (22)
After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.
The six disciples with Jesus were baptizing converts. (4:2)
o John the Baptist and his followers were ministering. (23-24)
John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison).
receiving baptism at his Picture of a long procession of pilgrims coming to John confessing their sins and hands.
o The Jewish religious establishment clashed with John’s followers. (25-26)
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 is baptizing, and all are going to him.”
Ironically, the issue was how to be pure enough to please God.
Somehow the topic moved to the fact that they were losing followers who went to follow Jesus.
It is important for God’s servants to recognize their role. (3:27-30)
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. 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.”
o John reminded them of his message & his mission, that he was on assignment from heaven.
“I came to do what I am doing. Jesus came to do what he is doing.”
o Remember that the purpose of a wedding is the marriage of the bride & the groom
o If your role is to bring the bride to the waiting groom, you do your job and step back.
o Neither is It ever the role of the servant to displace the Master.
Because Jesus is the greatest, people must believe his witness. (3:31–36)
o We should believe the words of Jesus because he came down from Heaven. (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.
o No one else can make this claim, we all speak from the earth.
o We should believe the words of Jesus because it is firsthand information. (32-33)
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.
o Jesus taught what he had seen and heard.
o Those who believe and act on his words know by experience that his witness is true.
o We should believe the words of Jesus because they come from the Father. (34-35)
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.
o God the Father gave Jesus the Word, the Spirit, and all things
o We should believe the words of Jesus to escape the wrath of God. (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.
o To reject the Son’s witness is to rebel against the highest authority in the universe.
Still God in his loving mercy, has provided His own Son as the Savior
For anyone who receives him, the message is – that person receives eternal life
o Ultimately, the world refuses even his testimony, in so doing, continuing under condemnation and eventually the wrath of God.