The Baptist Speaks
For the Lord’s Day:  the 22^nd of August 2004 

John 3: 22-30

Introduction:  It is always amazing how the various and assorted scholars can get themselves all worked up over any minute details of the Gospel record.  There must be a detailed historic chronology to be drawn out of the four Gospels, otherwise – what are we to know, and how are we to trust the divergent aims of the several authors?  Of course, we may always have questions about these details, but we have to realize that the gospel truth is not dependent upon our knowing the relationship of all things and events.  What I am trying to say is this:  the scholars do not know where to fit the testimony of these verses into the grand outline of day to day historiography as it relates to the life of Christ.

Suffice it to say – it probably really doesn’t matter.  The obvious truths are laid out before us, the disciples of John the Baptist are put out that this usurper that they have failed to recognize is increasing in influence even while the impact of their teacher is on the decrease.  Our last verse here comes from the honest integrity of the Baptist himself:  “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

However, there appears to be a fair number of survivors who still follow John the Baptist.  They have descended from the disciples of the Baptist who did not agree with his own observation just quoted.  About twenty thousand followers still live in the Middle East divided between Iraq and Iran.  At least one thing we can learn from that sad cult is that they pay no more attention to their founder than a lot of people regard the words of our own Lord Jesus Christ.  This is of course what happens when the general population believes that at best the world’s various religions represent a spiritual smorgasbord from which the average person can take an appetizer or two, one of several main courses and of course their heart’s desire for desert!

Development:  And this brings us to a necessary first point from our lesson today.  And it is espoused carefully by John Calvin himself.  John the Baptist “denies it is in his power or [his disciples] to make him great, because the stature of us all is that we are what God wanted us to be.”  There is a world of truth in that great principle which Calvin draws out in two ways.  While the Baptist was familiar with his own calling and quite comfortable with it, obviously his followers had refused to listen when he told them point blank:  “I am not the Christ.”  And so we sense that even the most prophetic of teachers cannot teach his disciples point one unless they are meant to learn what the God Lord intended.  We have seen this in countless ways down through the millennia of both Covenant Churches.

In addition, Calvin bluntly asks us all:  “Who of [Christ’s] flock shall dare to desire more than the Lord has given him?  If this one thought were deeply rooted in everyone’s mind, it would be more than sufficient to restrain their ambition.  And if ambition were corrected and destroyed, the plague of contentions would be removed at the same time.  For why is it,” Calvin pointedly asks, “that everyone exalts himself more than he ought, and that we do not depend on the Lord, satisfied with the rank He assigns us?”

I can still remember a friend who was upset that I had to step away from the ministry when the liberal church refused to consider my calling.  “You don’t need them to ordain yourself, he admonished!”  Maybe not “them” but it is incumbent on everyone called to the ministry to be recognized by those in the faith as worthy of leadership.  We have all seen far too many self-appointed spiritual leaders of every kind imaginable within every conceivable religion.  And when specifically gifted people are truly appointed to lead God’s Church, then their followers should pay close attention whenever they speak clearly the honest truth.  John the Baptist could be horrified if he knew there was a large religious sect that still honored him above the Christ, some two thousand years later.

Our second essential point follows hard on the heels of the first.  And this is the vital testimony with which the Baptist describes the anointed Son of God visible in the person of Jesus Christ.  Calvin again sets the stage:  “by affirming that he is not the Christ [the Baptist]  leaves himself nothing but to be subject to the Head and to serve in the Church as one of the rest and not be so highly exalted as to obscure the honour of the Head.  He says that ‘he was sent before’ to prepare the way for Christ as attendants used to do for kings.”

We have only to consider the advance agents for presidential candidates as they move throughout the land campaigning for votes.  The security personnel at least, would rival the Imperial Guards of the crowned heads of Europe.  While they have not the pampered uniforms of the past, they are still easily noticed in and around any public appearance.  But what a glorious collection of advance agents, working from the time of Adam – all of whom looked forward to the coming of the One of whom they had only the slightest knowledge.  And yet, not one of the messengers, even the angelic beings who sometimes appeared – can hold a candle to the incredible lightness of His awesome being!

And while we have probably milked this humble theme for as much as we are able, it is time to move on to the greater principle established in our text for the day.

Application:  The third necessary point established by the Baptist is this:  “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.”

Isn’t it interesting that you don’t have to be a Calvinist to see that line in the text!  It has always been there, but it has only been appreciated when men were gifted by the Holy Spirit to take special note of the doctrine implied!  Raymond Brown tells us that “the basic message of the scene is found in what John the Baptist says of Jesus in verses 27, 29-30.”  The importance of these words cannot be minimized in the least.  This theme runs through the whole of John’s Gospel of Glory:

John 3: 35              “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.”

John 6: 37              “All things the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

John 6: 39              “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”

John 10: 29            “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

John 17: 2              “Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”

John 17: 9              “I am praying for them> I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”

John 17: 11            “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you
                                have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

John 17: 24            “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me
                                because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

Limited access is a common enough phenomenon that we should not be surprised.  I carry a Sam’s Club card as well as another for The Flower Factory.  Then there is my membership card in the Farm Bureau which I have yet to find a restrictive use for.  After all, anyone who is willing to pay the $50 annual membership fee is counted as a “farmer” and granted special status with Nationwide Insurance for whatever savings can be counted there.  Then there is the AAA card, which I have treasured on several occasions.  Recently, I ran out of gas and was fumbling for the card and number when a AAA truck stopped at the same intersection.  I walked up to him and told him:  “That is excellent service – I haven’t even called you yet!”  He laughed and called back to the station for another driver to bring me out some gas!  I was back on the road within ten minutes!

Wouldn’t we all like special privileges like that?  Well, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ – our very basic need for a savior of our souls is realized, even before time.  And this fact, brings us to our last point for this morning.  “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.”

And here we find the grand theme of the Bride of Christ that runs through all the ancient Scriptures, from Proverbs, the Psalms and Prophets and especially in the wonderful poetry of the Song of Songs.  This Bride is the Church of the Living God, to be found in both Covenantal organizations.  One of the things that we must all remember about the Church is that it is not ours, it is the sole possession of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We may not have our way with the organization, the congregations and confessions – but must submit in every way in humble service and affirmation that Jesus is Lord of His Church alone.

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PREACHING RESOURCES 

Barrett, C.K.  The Gospel According to St John.
Brown, Raymond E.  The Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John.
Parker, T.H.L. Calvin’s Commentaries: The Gospel According to St John.
Tasker, R.V.G.  Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: The Gospel According to St John.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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