A few years ago, a community family visited Faith Church, and after that visit they told me they would not be returning because in their words, “You’re not ready.” They weren’t saying I personally wasn’t ready. They were saying that Faith Church wasn’t ready.
Not ready? What were they saying?
By declaring that Faith Church was not ready, they were saying that they believed a worship service should have a certain set of components, perhaps a style of worship, to show that the church was ready to worship. Apparently, we didn’t have the components and style they believed we should have and thus, they declared that we weren’t ready. They couldn’t worship here.
True to their words, they never came back.
But I don’t think that Faith Church wasn’t ready. I’m not saying that our worship services are somehow perfect. We can always learn, experiment, and grow.
What I am saying is that the people who visited our worship service and said, “Faith Church is not ready,” were actually revealing something about their hearts. They were revealing that they were not ready to worship. How do I know that? Because of what we’re about to learn this week, the correct posture and attitude of worship.
So what is the correct posture and attitude about worship? We’ll find out this week as we study John 4, verses 1 through 26. So please open a Bible to that passage. As you turn there, remember what we learned last week. Last week in John 3:22-26 we read that both Jesus and John the Baptist had baptism ministries at the same time. What happens next? Let’s find out by reading John 4:1-3.
In John 4:1-3, we read that the Pharisees get wind of Jesus’ ministry as on the rise, even surpassing John’s ministry. That news of Jesus’ success would be a warning sign for the Pharisees. The Pharisees saw themselves as the gatekeepers of true religion in the land. There were an estimated 6000 Pharisees stationed throughout the nation of Israel, and from north to south they taught their strict beliefs as the truth in local synagogues. The problem is that their teaching created loads of laws on top of God’s law, and worse still, they sought to enforce their laws on the people. They were almost like a religious secret police force, seeking to make sure the entire nation was held accountable to their views.
So far in our study of the Gospel of John, though, Jesus has had no trouble with the Pharisees. In fact, the only time that John has described Jesus as interacting with a Pharisee has been in chapter 3. Remember that? When Jesus conversed with Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, it seems Nicodemus was very sympathetic to Jesus. Now the Pharisees are starting to hear about Jesus’ ministry picking up steam. In fact, they hear that his ministry is gaining more disciples than John the Baptist’s ministry. That would cause them concern.
As we read in verse 3, not only did word of Jesus’ success get to the Pharisees, but also word got back to Jesus about the fact that the Pharisees had taken notice of him, so he decides to move on. He had been in Judea, which is the southern region of Israel, the same region where Jerusalem was located, and where the Pharisees’ HQ was. Jesus decides now is a good time to head back home, north to Galilee, away from the Pharisees’ center of power in Jerusalem and away from their watchful eye.
Did the hundreds or thousands of people who had come out to be baptized now follow Jesus all the way from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north? We don’t know. I highly doubt it. That would have meant leaving their jobs, families, and homes. The only people we know for sure that followed him were his twelve disciples, and maybe some others, as eventually he would send 70 or so on a mission trip. But at this infancy stage of his ministry, I suspect Jesus’ baptism ministry in Judea lasted only a short while, and now it was over.
Jesus packed up and headed north, towards home.
But that trip presented a geographical dilemma. We’ll learn about that in the next post!
Bono, the lead singer of my favorite band, U2, recently came out with a memoir (which Michelle already ordered for me, and which I am excited to read!). In the meantime, I’ve been reading articles reviewing the book, reading interviews with Bono, and watching videos of him talking about the book on news and talks shows (see his rendition of “With Or Without You” on Colbert!). Over the years I’ve talked about Bono and U2 in many blog posts. Here I go again. But first I need to back up a few years.
In 2006 my dad asked me if I might be able to substitute teach a class at Lancaster Bible College where he was a Bible professor. Actually, LBC needed a long-term sub, someone to teach the class for the remaining two-thirds of the semester. They were in a bind because the professor who started the class was let go for moral failure. The class worked for my schedule, and because it was about the spiritual life, I felt I should do it.
In the class we talked about worship, and I showed them a video of what I still maintain was the greatest worship experience of my life. In the fall of 2001, just two weeks after 9/11, Michelle and I, and our two boys had returned home from a year as church-planting missionaries in Kingston, Jamaica. What we thought was going to be our life’s work got cut short in a confusing mix of emotion, immaturity, poor planning and uncertainty. A few more weeks after moving back to Lancaster we flew to Denver, Colorado to visit our friends from college and meet their newborn baby girl. The husband also scored tickets for me and him to see U2 live in concert on their Elevation tour. When Michelle and I moved to Jamaica the year prior, I figured that my bucket list goal of seeing U2 live in concert was never going to happen. Now here I was walking into Denver’s Pepsi Center, so excited. During our year in Jamaica, I picked up U2’s latest album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and I was so thankful that I could see them playing these songs live along with their popular classics.
After 9/11 the band had adapted their show, especially the American leg of tour, to address the atrocity. But it was a mid-concert series of two of their classic songs, along with some spoken word, that I call the greatest worship experience of my life. Let me try to take you there.
We’re standing on the floor in the general admission section, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other sweaty, jumping concert-goers. The band is on stage just 20-30 yards in front of us. The lights dim low, and the music is soft as the band plays “Bad”, a powerful song about giving your life away, about surrender, which is, by the way, the title of Bono’s new memoir. At the conclusion of “Bad”, the band seamlessly transitions to the chorus of “40,” which is their rendition of Psalm 40:1-3. The chorus borrows from the psalms of lament, repeating over and over, “How long to sing this song?” While singing that chorus, Bono holds the microphone out so the 20,000 of us can sing along with him. As we all sing “How long,” U2’s lead guitarist, The Edge, starts playing the iconic ringing first measures of what might be U2’s most famous song, “Where The Streets Have No Name.”
Over the excited roar of the crowd, with Edge strumming sounds like bells ringing, a bright red video wall slowly rises behind the band, and Bono quotes Psalm 116:12-14, “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.” Bono finishes with a prayer, “This is a toast to our Father. I’m following through on a promise I made to you.” Just then he raises his arms, lets out a guttural melodic note, and rows of bright lights wash over the arena in a near-blinding golden hue. Bono suddenly takes off running around the heart-shaped stage while singing the opening line, “I want to run…where the streets have no name.”
I imagined this was a taste of worship in heaven. See for yourself here (this video is the Boston edition). Turn up the volume!
Over the years, I will admit to you that I have played that clip in the church sanctuary, sitting there all by myself, worshiping again, with chills and oftentimes tears. Every time, it moves me. Yes, I had to play it again as I typed this!
After the LBC class in which I showed that video, two students asked to talk with me, and I could tell they were concerned. They were unhappy at my suggestion that the U2 concert was worship, and especially that it was the greatest worship experience of my life.
Are they right to be concerned about me? Shouldn’t my greatest worship experience be in a church? What is worship? We do it every week in churches around the world. Or do we? It might seem like a question with an obvious answer, but as we study John 4:1-26 this coming week, I think you’ll find the answer surprising. I encourage you to read it ahead of time. Then join us on the blog next week as we talk about it further.
If you’ve been a Christian for a few months, and during that time you’ve attended worship services at a church, my guess is that you’ve heard songs that mention God’s wrath.
The song, “In Christ Alone,” says “the wrath of God was satisfied” when Jesus died on the cross. And “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” refers to God’s terrible swift sword.
Do songs about a wrathful God seem odd to you? They do to me. I prefer to think about God as loving, kind, gracious, merciful and forgiven. He is all those, and yet there are times the biblical writers mention his wrath. In this, our last post on John 3:22-36, John mentions the wrath of God.
In John 3:35, we read that the Father loves the Son and has placed all things in the Son’s hands, which is another way to say that the Father has given Jesus all authority. Therefore whoever believes in him has eternal life, John goes on to say in verse 36, while those who reject him, the wrath of God remains on them. There it is, the wrath of God. More specifically John says God’s wrath remains on people, meaning that it was already on them. What is John talking about? Is he suggesting that God’s default posture toward humanity is wrath?
To try to understand the tricky concept of God’s wrath, I believe it will help us to back up a bit. Remember last week when we studied the first part of this chapter, and I suggested that John 3:16 is not enough? Then I was referring to the possibility that when John talks about belief that leads to salvation, being born again, and experiencing eternal life, I said that John is talking about faith that shows itself to be true faith is a life of faithfulness to Jesus. When John talks about belief, he is not just saying that all we need to do is believe ideas in our minds.
We see a taste of that here in verse 36 when John writes that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” We can have eternal life now. We are not waiting for it, as if we cannot experience eternal life until someday in the future after we die. We can have it now. Not just a promise of eternal life now, we can the experience of it now.
Jesus will call it the abundant life in John 10:10. Abundant life is the full life, the life of flourishing, and this is where it ties into having the Spirit without limit, which we read about in the previous post. The Spirit enables us in our human lives now to experience a transformation now. The Spirit enables us to be born again, not just in a symbolic way, but also in a very literal way. We can be transformed into new people, so that the Fruit of the Spirit is flowing out of our lives, when we walk in step with the Spirit.
We won’t experience the Fruit of the Spirit simply because we say a prayer and say we believe. Instead the Holy Spirit is here with us, available for us to walk in step with Him. To put it another way, when we choose to have a relationship with Jesus, we are choosing to life the lifestyle of Jesus, and by doing that we experience eternal life now. It is available now. Eternal life now, abundant life, does not mean that our lives will be perfect, but it does mean the accessibility of supernatural peace in the middle of life’s storms, comfort and strength in struggles, wisdom in confusion.
With that in mind, let’s return John’s mention of God’s wrath? Go back to verse 36? God has wrath? Isn’t wrath sinful? God’s wrath, theologically understood, must be seen in connection with God’s love. It is normal to think of wrath as a destructive, awful force; anger unleashed, unrestrained, that can do irreparable damage. We see wrath as evil. God is not that.
Instead God’s wrath must be seen in light of God’s love manifest in human free will. If we choose using our free will to believe in Jesus, we are not under wrath because we have abundant life now and eternal life in heaven. If, however, we choose of our own free will to reject Jesus, we remain under wrath, disconnected from eternal life. Of course God wants all to choose life because he loves all and has made a way for all to experience eternal life now, through his astounding gift of love in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
No matter how you look at John 3:22-36, the focus is Jesus. He must increase. What steps will you take to make Jesus increase in your life? I would encourage you to spend time with him. Serve him. Who will you talk with today or this week about increasing Jesus in your lives? We are made for community. Jesus lived with his disciples. He spent time with them. They shared questions, and doubts, and conversation? Who will you talk to about Jesus? About how you want him to increase in your life?
I’ll never forget when our friends surprised Michelle and me on our 40th birthdays. Our birthdays are only a month and a half apart, and we were both turning 40 that year, so I friends threw us a surprise dance party. Even as we were walking around the corner and into the front door of the venue, our one friend was selling us on the story he concocted to get us there, that we were his guests for a company event. We walked through the door, expecting to have a good meal and meet people. Instead we were shocked to discover we had entered a dance party…for us!
Have you been surprised? Some people don’t like surprises. It definitely can feel awkward, uncomfortable, and disconcerting. But I suspect that once the initial confusion wears off, many (most?) people come to enjoy the surprise. As we continue studying John 3, we are going to see that Jesus has quite a surprising gift he’d like to give to as many people as possible. It’s a very good surprise. We’ve arrived at verse 31, and we’re not sure if it is John the Baptist still talking, or if it is John the Gospel writer. My opinion is that verses 31-36 sound like John the Gospel writer. He comments on what John the Baptist just said.
In verse 31, we see the difference between Jesus who is from above and John who is from the earth. Clearly both served a God-given role, and in that sense John the Baptist is also from God, but we know the actual difference. Jesus is God, as we learned in chapter 1. Jesus is from above. John, however, is a human. John is from the earth. That means Jesus is above all. This is right in line with John saying “Jesus must increase, and I must decrease.” That’s why we strive for the same in our lives too. Jesus is king, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is the truth. We honor and glorify him.
Verse 32 sounds a bit cryptic to me. “He testifies.” Who testifies? Who is he? Look back at the previous verse, and it is talking about the one from heaven, Jesus. So Jesus testifies what he has seen and heard, meaning that Jesus has a vantage point like no other, because he is God. But the problem is that no one accepts his testimony. No one? We’ve already learned that some people accepted his testimony. The disciples did. John the Baptist did. Nicodemus seems to have accepted Jesus testimony, from earlier in this chapter. So that phrase “no one” in verse 32 is better understood in the way we might say at a movie, “Wow, this theater is empty!” when in actuality there are some people there, but hardly any. In fact verse 33 clarifies that some will accept Jesus’ testimony, and those who do accept it affirm that God is truthful.
John is saying that Jesus speaks the words of God, so the implication is that we should listen to him. Again John is placing Jesus superior to all other people, including John the Baptist. He is making a case for why Jesus needs to increase in our lives. Jesus is from God, Jesus is the truth-speaker, speaking the words of God, and, John says, he gives the Spirit without limit.
That is fascinating. A little blip of a comment about the Spirit, given to us without limit. Some think this means Jesus had the Spirit in his life in an unlimited way. Some think this means that God, through Jesus, gives the Spirit to all who believe in him. Both seem to me to be true. Jesus was certainly Spirit-filled, and the amazing gift of God is that you and I can also be filled with the Holy Spirit.
At 45 years old, it is astounding that NFL superstar and living legend, Tom Brady is still playing professional football at the highest level. Just last year (2021), also in his 40s, he was a Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the 7th time. As I write this in fall of 2022, though, Brady seems to be falling from a long flight in the rarefied air of his sure-to-be Hall of Fame-level career. His team is losing. He was caught on camera screaming blame at his teammates. He looks gaunt. Worse, he and his wife just divorced, seemingly because Brady couldn’t say no to football.
There is a real dignity and respectability about knowing when to quit. It can be so difficult to know, though, can’t it? Especially when things are going great. We love that feeling of success, and all the perks that come with it. The attention, the acclaim, sometimes financial benefits. John the Baptist almost certainly had all that in his role as forerunner. He was the star. Huge crowds, likely numbering in the thousands, would come out to see this prophet as he baptized them by the Jordan River. He was the talk of the nation.
But as we learned in the previous post, John’s disciples report to John some potentially disturbing news. Jesus’ competing baptism ministry just might be growing faster than John’s What should John do? John’s response to his disciples is classy, classic and shows he knows his place. Look at John 3, verses 27-30.
John basically says, “Guys, when God gives you a role, it’s best you go with God. God gave me the role of the forerunner, the one who would prepare the way for the Christ. I am not the Christ. You need to face that fact. I was only ever here to prepare the way for the Christ. I did that. Now he’s here. He is the focus.”
John was well aware of where his ministry began and where it ended. His job was to call people to prepare their hearts and minds for the coming of the Messiah, the Christ. He wasn’t the Christ, and therefore, when the Christ showed up, John’s job was, for all intents and purposes, done. He was the forerunner to the Messiah, and when the Messiah showed up, John would step aside. The Messiah, Jesus, had arrived.
Because of that, what we read in verse 23, about people constantly coming to be baptized by John has me wondering if John was hanging on longer than he should’ve. Jesus was on the scene. John knew it. John was aware. He was a perceptive, godly man. He also probably heard the rumors about the miracles, about Jesus cleansing the temple. I suppose, given his asceticism, it is possible that John secluded himself and didn’t hear any that news. But at the very least John knew that Jesus, the Messiah, had arrived, and some of John’s disciples began following Jesus, as they should.
Maybe…just maybe, did John drag his feet, trying to keep his ministry going? Did he hang on too long? Was there even a small bit of longing for more? If there was, the Gospels don’t say so. I’m just speculating. It could be that John was just a charismatic guy, a super bold prophet, and people were constantly fascinated by him. So when they kept showing up, he kept calling people to repent and be baptized and follow God’s ways.
But now, John makes it clear what has to happen. He says in verse 29 that he has the distinct pleasure of fulfilling the role of the forerunner. He says he is like the best man at a wedding. The best man has an important role, but there is another who has a more important role. Once the best man hands over the rings, and makes the toast, he’s done. The groom is now center stage, along with the bride. It’s their day. A best man and maid of honor who have their hearts in the right place will feel so much joy because their friends, the bride and groom, are the main attraction.
John says it like this: “Jesus must become greater; I must become less.” That’s a powerful comment, and one that you and I can dwell on for a long time, repeatedly, daily even, evaluating its applicability to our lives. We should be like John the Baptist. We’re not the star of the show. Jesus is. We want people to know Jesus, to be in relationship with him.
This is why it rubs me the wrong way when Christians and even churches seem to be trying to make a name for themselves. Some churches have tons of merch that you can buy with their logo on it. There are worship leaders or pastors who seem to want the limelight. Some Christians give money and want their name on a plaque or on a building. John was saying, “It’s not about me. My ministry was always all about Jesus.”
Get this: some scholars estimate that John’s ministry was maybe only about three months long before Jesus hit the scene. In that short time, John had made a name for himself. But making a name for himself wasn’t his mission. His mission was to prepare the way for Jesus. So when the time came, when Jesus arrived, John actually wants his name to decrease, so that Jesus’ name can increase.
What can it look like for Jesus to increase in your life? In your church’s life? This passage is a clear call for all of us to evaluate Jesus in our lives. Are we intentionally seeking to increase Jesus in our lives, with our lives, with how we spend our money, our time, and with how we use our talents?
As Jesus’ ministry was getting underway, we learn in John 3:23 that John the Baptist’s ministry was still going strong too.
John hadn’t stopped his ministry just because Jesus was now on the scene. How much time had passed since John baptized Jesus in John 1? If you scan through the days mentioned in John 1-3, the minimum, I think, is a couple weeks. It could easily be that more time has passed. John is not concerned about precise chronology, but we know, based on what John tells us in the next verse, that probably not a lot of time has passed since John baptized Jesus at the Jordan River.
Also, look at verse 24, which also suggests that not much time has passed because John is still in ministry. He would soon enough be thrown in prison where he would eventually be killed, which you can read about in Matthew 14. So there was a time, John is telling us here in verses 23-24, that both John and Jesus had ministries that involved baptizing, and they were ministering in different places, but at the same time. Jesus has a baptism ministry. John has a baptism ministry. Both serving the mission of the Kingdom of God.
In verse 22 we read in the previous post that Jesus and his disciples are in the Judean countryside. Not sure where precisely. In verse 23, we learn that John the Baptist was baptizing at “Aenon near Salim”. Where is that? First of all, it is not at the Jordan River. “Aenon” is a generic word that means “many springs.” It is not the proper name of a place, and it probably shouldn’t be capitalized. John was baptizing near Salim because there were many springs there and abundant water. You can visit this place still today if you want to drive around farmland north of Jerusalem. This video explains it well.
In John’s day, it was likely a fairly dry arid area. Today, farmers have been siphoning water from the abundant springs and they have turned a dry arid place into lush farmland. We know where this place is because of the name “Salim.” Salim is a tell, which is a hill, and on that hill, archaeologists have found loads of evidence of human activity going back to Roman times. Not far from the hill is an area with multiple natural springs. “Aenon,” remember, means “many springs.” So John was baptizing people at a location that was way off the beaten path. But it didn’t matter, as he was still quite popular, and people came to him.
Was John still more popular than Jesus at this point? Possibly. We don’t know. What happens next adds some controversy to the potential competition between these two ministry leaders. Look at verse 25-26.
We learned in chapter 1 that some of John’s disciples left John to start following Jesus. But not all of John’s disciples. Those disciples who remained following John get into an argument with a Jew or possibly multiple Jews. Just as we saw in chapter 2 when Jews came to confront Jesus in the temple, that word “Jews” is referring to Jewish leaders. My guess is that they were Pharisees. There were about 6000 Pharisees operating all over Israel, and they saw themselves as the gatekeepers of true religion. When an upstart no-name religious man gains a huge following, baptizing and preaching, you can bet the Pharisees were all over it. I can see them spying on him, tracking his activities, reporting back to their leaders, and building a case against him, so they could shut him down if needed. It seems something like that is happening here in John 3, verse 25.
John is famous for making baptism the main feature of his ministry. Because the Pharisees probably didn’t like it, or were at least suspicious of his ministry, they lay down a challenge. In their mind John is not doing baptism right. He is taking liberties with the Mosaic Law which specified what ritual cleansing was supposed to be. They are probably thinking, “Why can’t John just follow the Law?” So an argument about ritual cleansing or ceremonial washing erupts. It’s the Jewish religious leaders versus John’s disciples.
At some point, John’s disciples break the news to John, but notice in verse 26 that the focus in not about about ceremonial washing or even about an argument with the religious leaders. Instead, John’s disciples talk about Jesus. It seems they are jealous for their leader, John. Maybe they perceive Jesus as more of a threat to John than the religious leaders. Jesus, they say, has started his own ministry of baptism. What’s worse, people are starting to follow him.
Interestingly, they use the word “everyone.” “Everyone is going to Jesus,” they say. Classic exaggeration. How often we use absolute language, right? “Everyone, always, only, never.” We spice up our arguments with these absolute words. Usually, at least in my experience, absolute language sounds powerful, but often makes the situation worse, only pumping up the drama. And absolute language is almost never true!
Was “everyone” going to Jesus? No. John just told us in verse 23 that people were constantly coming to John the Baptist. But were at least some people coming to Jesus? Yes. Probably more and more people, especially because Jesus had a couple things going for him that John did not have. The biggie? Jesus did miracles. Jesus also had a quality about him that some described as “authority” in his teaching. No doubt John the Baptist was a bold charismatic figure who was not afraid to open his mouth and say it like he saw it. In fact, that quality is what would get John thrown in prison, when he started criticizing King Herod. Again, see Matthew 14 for that.
Here in John 3, John hasn’t yet been thrown in prison. He’s still running his ministry. John’s remaining disciples see Jesus as a threat to John’s viability and ministry. They knew that John had testified about Jesus. They heard what John said about Jesus, that Jesus is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. They knew some of John’s disciples had started following Jesus. We learned about that in John chapter 1. But John’s disciples mentioned in chapter 3 are loyal to John, and it seems they didn’t like what was happening. They didn’t like that maybe Jesus was stealing people and popularity away from John.
Imagine that. We’re so used to thinking about Jesus as the one, the Messiah, the Savior, and we are right. But there was a time when Jesus was the new guy, and he was perceived as a threat to the old guy. Both were good guys. But sometimes the fans of the old good guy are not too thrilled about the new good guy, especially when more and more people start following the new good guy.
John’s response to his disciples is classic, and classy. We’ll learn about it in the next post.
If you walk around many institutions of higher learning or hospitals, you’ll see all sorts of plaques on walls noting who gave money to help build a building. Sometimes the names are in the titles of the building. Sometimes there are brick walkways, where each brick has names engraved, names of people who gave money. It is a common practice in our world. It’s called Naming Rights. If you give a certain amount of money to that organization, you can get your name on something. Sports arenas are perhaps the most expensive buildings for which to purchase naming rights. Naming rights also occurs in Christian organizations and churches. It is a method for enticing people to give.
It reminds me of the phrase, “Make a name for yourself.” What’s behind that? What is the motivation for making a name for yourself? Do you ever think about making a name for yourself? My guess is that most of us do. We wonder if we will be remembered. But how many generations back in your family do you remember?
In our continuing study of the Gospel of John, we have arrived at John 3, verse 22. There we’ll learn a little-known story in the life of Jesus that I think relates to this practice of Naming Rights and making a name for yourself.
In verse 22, we learn that Jesus and disciples travel to the countryside. There they spent time together.
Think about that. They spent time together. At the risk of stating the obvious, this is one of many descriptions of Jesus’ relationship with his disciples which reminds us that Jesus invested in the lives of his disciples. Discipleship is only possible when people spend time together. We spend time with Jesus, and we learn how to follow him. In the same way, we spend time with people helping them become followers of Jesus. Jesus is our example. He spent time with his disciples.
Think about who invested in you. Who spent time with you, helping you know Jesus, learn the way of Jesus, so that you could better live a life in line with the way of Jesus? And who are you spending time with? Who are you investing in?
We also read in verse 22 that baptizing was happening. This is a curious reference because when we think of baptizing, we think of John the Baptist. But in John 3:22, we read that Jesus and his disciples were baptizing. Or were they? If you scan ahead to John 4:2, John clarifies that Jesus didn’t do the baptizing. Only his disciples did.
Why? Why were Jesus’ disciples baptizing people? I think there are at least two ways to answer that question.
First of all, let’s think about what the practice of baptism means. Why is baptism important? Baptizing was then and is still today an outward symbol of an inward reality. Baptism is not meant to do any actual washing or cleansing. You’re going to need a shower, soap and shampoo for that. Baptism is a symbolic washing that declares, “I have made a change in my life. I not only believe in the good news about Jesus, but also I am no longer going to live for myself and am choosing to repent and refocus, and depend on Jesus, choosing to live his way of life.”
There is one exception to that. Jesus.
John the Baptist did not want to baptize Jesus, at least in part because Jesus was the only person who was not sinful, and thus did not need to repent and change his life. When Jesus was baptized, he was symbolically proclaiming a different message. Jesus was proclaiming the message of being committed to God’s mission for him, the message of joining together with the people in their commitment to the Kingdom of God. When Jesus was baptized, he was saying, “I am in line with God’s Kingdom and mission.”
We continue to baptize to this day to declare that we have given our lives to God. As the baptismal saying goes, we go under the water to dramatize being buried with Jesus in his death, and we come up out of the water to dramatize being raised with him to new life. We are re-enacting and identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus. When we get baptized we are proclaiming that we endeavor to live the kind of life that Jesus himself lived, the same kind of live he calls us to live. It is a sacrificial life. It involves death to ourselves, and new life, rebirth, in Christ. We are new creations because of what Jesus has done in his death and resurrection, making it possible for us to experience new life as we walk in step with the Spirit. Therefore, baptism does not save us. Baptism is a symbol that tells the story that it was Jesus who saves us.
Of course, when Jesus’ disciples were baptizing people, as we read in John 3:22, it was not a symbol of Jesus’ death and resurrection, because those important events were yet to happen in the future. Instead, people were being baptized to show that they repented of their sins, and were now committed to live according to God’s heart and way of life.
That is what baptism declares, now let’s move to the second important point about baptism in this story. Why were Jesus’ disciples baptizing people? Shouldn’t Jesus be doing the baptizing? John doesn’t tell us why Jesus had his disciples baptize. Not in 3:22, and not in 4:2. So we are left to speculate.
Here’s what I think was going on. As we heard already, Jesus is a disciplemaker. He not only calls these men to follow him, as we read about in 1:43, he mentors them. He spends time with them, as we read today in John 3:22. The disciples are his apprentices, and he gradually teaches them, giving them opportunities to serve. Jesus is slowly building into them the skills and qualities they will need when they take over for him when he is gone. His focus on helping them pursue the mission of the Kingdom of God.
I suspect he has them do baptizing to give them experiences of ministry and leadership. He could do it all if he wanted. Or maybe he couldn’t. Maybe there were so many people starting to follow him that there wasn’t enough time for him to baptize all of them. Perhaps he was delegating responsibility to manage the scale of the ministry. Again, I’m speculating, but these possible reasons for the disciples baptizing make sense to me. We can learn from this too. This is why discipleship should not just be Bible studies or Sunday school classes or small groups. Those are good things. Jesus did teach information to his disciples. But discipleship, for Jesus, went beyond teaching to giving his disciples experiences, opportunities, new ways of serving.
But let’s get real here. Were all the disciples eager to baptize people? Were all the disciples excited about getting wet? About dunking people they didn’t even know? Was it awkward in any way? I suspect there were all sort of emotions flying around in the disciples’ hearts and minds when Jesus said, “Men, I want you to do the baptizing.”
I’m guessing some were thinking, and maybe even said, “Woah…I didn’t sign up for this. I’ve never done this before. I’m not qualified for this. Let’s just go get John the Baptist to do this. Or you, Jesus, you’re the Rabbi around here. Aren’t you supposed to do this? People won’t accept me doing it. They want you, the Teacher, to baptize. I don’t have any training. This isn’t my spiritual gift. I wouldn’t know what to say. I’m not really a people person. I don’t like the water. I don’t know how to swim. I’m not really that strong. What if I drop someone, and they can’t swim either? I don’t want to be responsible for creating a scene. Don’t you have other tasks I can do? I’ll direct people to line-up. I’d rather be behind the scenes. I’m not really an upfront kind of person. Let the fishermen do the baptizing. They’re used to the water.”
In case it wasn’t obvious, I made that all up based on real-life responses I’ve heard over the years when it comes to serving in the church, in ministries, etc. You can bet that the disciples gave Jesus all manner of excuses too. So this passage gives me hope. Jesus didn’t do the ministry. His disciples did. I believe there is a role for everyone single one of us to contribute in the life and ministry of the Kingdom of God.
Let’s talk about that. My guess is that your church could use volunteers in the nursery, in children’s ministry, singers, instrumentalists, I could go on and on. And that is just ways to serve in the church. There are a plethora of ways to serve God’s Kingdom outside the church, and they are just as important. What else is going on in your community where the Kingdom of God is bringing light into the darkness?
In John 3, verse 22, the disciples are helping bring light to the darkness by baptizing people. Jesus’ ministry was well underway at this point. Interestingly, we learn in the next verse that John the Baptist was still going strong too.
In the next post we’ll learn more about why there were two baptism ministries at the same time.
Have you seen the advertising campaign with the slogan “He Gets Us”? The campaign has been on television, online and on billboards for most of the past year. It’s a catchy slogan with high quality black and white images, and compelling stories. Do you know what company it is advertising?
It’s not Nike…as their slogan is “Just Do It.” It’s not Bounty, “The Quicker Picker Upper.” It’s not Maybelline, “Maybe She’s Born With It, Maybe It’s Maybelline.” It’s not State Farm, “Like A Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There.”
What kind of company might come up with the slogan “He Gets Us” to advertise their product?
In fact, “He Gets Us” isn’t advertising any company. It’s advertising Jesus. “He Gets Us” is a catchy, sharp ad campaign for Jesus. It’s also funded with $100 million dollars, and has plans for a Super Bowl ad. As you likely well know, Super Bowl ads are the mecca of ads, and that means they are super expensive. One source reports that 30-second ads for the 2023 Super Bowl are going for $7 million, and as of Sept. 7, 2022, Fox had already sold 95% of their ad space for the big game.
Who is behind “He Gets Us”? It is Signatry, aka The Servant Foundation, a foundation that is seeking to improve Jesus’ image, which they believe has been tarnished, not by Jesus, of course, but by his followers. I agree that we followers of Jesus have often made choices that have not been faithful to Jesus, thus keeping many people from seeing Jesus as he really is.
But let me ask you this: No matter how excellent (and it seems to me that “He Gets Us” is very creative, thoughtful and appealing), what are the chances an ad campaign will improve Jesus’ image? As of an October 12, 2022 report, 100 million people have visited the campaign website and 30,000 have signed up for Bible reading plans. That sounds very good, doesn’t it? Maybe “He Gets Us” will accomplish something amazing for God.
I must admit that I’m iffy. The “He Gets Us” people have also created a fan website where you can purchase “He Gets Us” merch to spread the news to people. Is there a false motive lurking here? Even if so, consider what Paul once wrote in Philippians 1:15-18, “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.”
So hear me on this. I believe God can use a $100 million ad campaign, even if it might be misguided. I don’t know that “He Gets Us” is operating under false pretenses, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume it is not. Even still, I happen to think that an ad campaign, in the long run, will not lead to many people becoming maturing followers of Jesus. As the excellent discussion on this episode of The Holy Post pointed out, Jesus doesn’t have an image problem, he has a discipleship problem.
Think about it this way: If you had $100 million to spend, how might you use it to make an impact for the Kingdom of God? Would you start an ad campaign? Think of all the other ways that money could have been used in tangible expressions of good news? Think about how Jesus himself taught people to use their money. I wonder what really would improve Jesus’ image in the world today?
I ask these questions because our next passage in our study of the Gospel of John relates to how we think about Jesus, about his image in the world. We’re going to study John 3:22-36, and I encourage you to read it ahead of time. Then join us on the blog next week as we talk about it further.
I recently read a book about Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent who betrayed his oath and sold top secret info to Russia. The author researched and described the in-depth, many years long process FBI agents went through to identify and catch Hanssen.
Does reading that book make me a spy-catcher now? No. In the same way, as we learned in the previous post, we Christians need to put fruitful actions to what we believe. Just reading the Bible is not enough. Just believing information is not enough.
Our lives, to show that our faith is genuine, will be lives lived in alignment with the way of Jesus. That is the difference between faith and faithfulness. True disciples of Jesus have a faith that is faithful. Faith that is faithful is belief that shows it is real by a life of loving Jesus, following Jesus, sacrificially doing what he did. In other words, if we have faith that is faithful, we will change and grow, as any healthy relationship does.
And that leads us right into the final verses in this section of John 3: verses 19-21.
In these verses, John once again demonstrates his love of the light and dark theme. Skim back to chapter 1, verses 4-9, and there John taught us that Jesus is the light of the world who entered our darkness. Now in chapter 3, John mentions light and dark again.
There has always been darkness in the world. I often hear that our day and age is filled with more darkness than an other time in history, but the reality is that people across the centuries have been saying that about the times they lived in too. Just think about these dark eras: the Civil War, World War 1 and 2; three eras which each included major social injustices in our land. Is our time worse than those? I don’t think so. More importantly, I find it futile to speculate about whether our era is more dark than those. Instead, let’s face the fact: there is darkness in the world.
John’s point is that there is hope because light entered the darkness! And what is the focus of darkness? Lack of faith? No. Darkness is equated to the prevalence of evil deeds.
Notice that faith and belief are not mentioned in verses 19-21. But deeds are. In fact, after emphasizing belief in verses 15-18, now John contrasts evil deeds versus living by the truth. If you live a life of evil deeds, John says, you are in darkness. If you live by the truth, though, you live in the light. How you live is the issue. How you live shows what you believe.
In fact, John says in verse 21, how you live shows that God is at work in the world. This is one of the many reasons why divorcing faith from faithfulness, which is to say, thinking that all God cares about is a Christianity of believing in the mind, intellectual assent, is so dangerous and has done great damage to the cause of Christ. If we tell people, just believe in your mind, but we do not disciple them to life transformation, people cannot see God at work. Instead we need to follow the famous passage from Micah 6:8, “Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.” There’s a lot of action in that!
This is why we do not just preach John 3:16, as if we can pull one verse out of context, and that one verse can do all the work of sharing the Good News for us. John 3:16 is not enough. It’s good. It’s needed. But John 3:16 is part of a wider discussion that spans John 3:3-21. Let’s review that discussion.
To be born again, Jesus taught, is not just thinking thoughts in your mind, and saying “I believe.” This passage makes it very clear that being born again involves thinking thoughts in your mind that lead us to live lives of faithfulness to the heart and way of Jesus. When we have faith that is faithful, there will be growth in our discipleship to Jesus.
If our daily habits, actions and interactions with Jesus are the same today as they were, say, 5 or 10 years ago, it is time to work on making your discipleship to Jesus more healthy, more vibrant. All relationships change and grow, for better or for worse. Clearly we want our relationship with Jesus to grow in a good way, in maturity. That means we will be more engaged with him, learning what his heart is for, and how we can live more and more like him in our community.
Do you have eternal life? Not sure? You can know…now.
In John 3:14-15, we read the first time in the Gospel of John that Jesus gives us a hint of how he will die. Jesus refers to a situation from Israel’s history in the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapter 21, verses 8-9. The people of Israel, at that time, were wandering in the wilderness, having been freed from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. They were headed to Promised Land of Canaan, a trip which should have only taken a couple months. But they sinned against God and he led them on a long 40-year wandering. They actually sinned against God numerous times, and the instance in Numbers 21 was one of them.
As a result of their disobedience, the people were getting sick and some were dying, so God told Moses to make a snake and hang it up high on a pole. All the people who looked to the snake would be healed. Jesus says to Nicodemus here in John 2:14-15 that he, Jesus, is also going to be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. While his words are mysterious, and I doubt Nicodemus understood what he meant, you and I have the benefit of hindsight, and we know.
Jesus has summarized the major theme of the entire Gospel of John, and we’re not even at the next verse, which is probably the most famous verse in the Bible. We need to move right to that and the next few verses, however, because this important theme is explained further. Look at verses 16-18. Maybe you can even quote it from memory! John 3:16!
The meaning of this passage is powerful because it continues the astounding message that all people can have access to the Kingdom of God. All people can be born again, made into new creations who can experience something that Jesus calls eternal life.
This brings us to a very important clarification. Eternal life has long been understood as life after death in heaven. But notice that John doesn’t describe it only that way. In verse 16, we have the famous phrase “shall not perish,” and that rightly has us thinking that there is possibility of a non-perishing life. Someone could say, “Oh that means true believers in Jesus will never die a human death.” We know that is not true. So John isn’t saying that if we believe in Jesus, we humans will not die. All humans die. What John is saying is that those humans who have this eternal life will live again. People who believe in Jesus have life everlasting. It is life after earthly death.
Eternal life is that, life after death, but it is not only that. What many Christians do not realize is that eternal life begins now. Notice that this eternal life is also called “salvation” in verse 17. Jesus wants to save the world, not condemn it. So we Christians, to follow the lead of our Lord, should not condemn the world, but seek to save it. We do so by emphasizing what John emphasizes in verse 18, believing in Jesus now. People can access eternal life now by believing in Jesus. People can be saved now by believing in Jesus. It is not as though we believe in Jesus, then wait for years or decades until we die, and then we experience eternal life. We will experience it then, but we also partake of eternal life now.
Jesus in John 10:10, will say this, “I have come that they might have life, and life abundantly.” There is a flourishing kind of life that Jesus wants people to experience now. You can call it eternal life now. You can call it being saved. You can call it being born again. The label doesn’t really matter, and that is evident by how many labels Jesus and the other New Testament writers use for it. What exactly is eternal life now?
It is a Jesus kind of life. It is a life in which we experience transformation by his Spirit, so that flowing naturally out of our lives is the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Observe what is coming out of your mouth and your actions. Is there evidence of a living, active relationship with Jesus? You, and the people around you, should see the Fruit of the Spirit flowing from your mouth and actions. It should be obvious.
Does that mean you are to be perfect? No.
Does that mean you should be growing? Yes!
The beautiful truth of this passage is that abundant life and eternal life is accessible to all who believe. Believe? What does that mean? Is it just signing a doctrinal statement, a piece of paper that says, “I believe”? Is it just thinking in your mind, “Yeah…I believe that.” That kind of belief is called intellectual assent. It is purely ideas in our minds. Intellectual assent requires very little or no action at all. We just think, “I believe.” Intellectual assent, just thinking about it, is not what John 3:16, 17 and 18 are all about.
To understand the concept of belief as it is taught in these important verses we need to understand the difference between faith and faithfulness. Faith is the intellectual assent that I talked about. Faith is important. The story of Jesus has content to be wrestled with. That he is God, that he was born, lived, died for our sins and rose again to victory over sin, death and the devil. That information is not irrelevant. It is information about which we can choose to say, “I agree with that.” But simple intellectual agreement must lead to action, because it is action that shows what we truly believe. That action is faithfulness.
Engaging Scripture 