God Speaks the Truth in Christ
For the Lord’s Day:  the 29^th of August 2004

John 3: 31-36

Introduction:  The commentators have a field day with this passage, they have so many questions, and one would think that the concept of wisdom was only invented in the modern era!  Sadly, all too many actually believe that proposition.  The only real “problem” worth commenting on is who specifically speaks in these concluding verses of chapter three?  Is it the Baptist, the Apostle John or Jesus Himself?  There are detailed arguments to justify all three options.  However, the facts of the matter might work out – once we have the final perspective of heaven, we can pointedly observe that the prophetic voice of the Baptist certainly appreciated his decline in stature once the Son of God was revealed, thus the words here could be spoken in that sense.  The Apostle could certainly edit the end of this chapter with summary words that he had heard the Master speak, and we would insist that this is the Master’s voice here faithfully recorded by the Apostle – what difference is there really which of the last two is most likely.  And if we appreciate that the Prophet spoke faithfully the words revealed to him, again what does it matter how we understand the summary character of these few verses in their insightful commentary on the revelation given in and through the whole chapter?

Now I do not mean to be flippant when it comes to the serious discussions carried on by the scholars.  However, we might understand the original source copied into the text – still it is God’s word conveyed to tell us something important at the end of this wonderful chapter as it relates to the salvation themes therein revealed for us to ponder.

Development:  In this chapter there were two earthlings involved in separate discourses about the nature of the Messiah.  Both Nicodemus and the disciples of the Baptist have questioned just who Jesus really and truly is?  None of them appear on the surface of the text, to have immediately comprehended the answers that were given to them from the Master of heaven and earth. After all, we may imagine the common complaint that Jesus had confused them with all of this “Calvinistic nonsense,” as the worldly and earthly might suppose - the doctrines of grace applied to the elect of all the earth, to be.

Nicodemus had stumbled over the necessary work and witness of the Holy Spirit.  And the Baptist’s disciples marveled when the Baptist admonished them that “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.”  Clearly the theme running through this whole chapter is the superiority of heavenly authority over every earthly person, event or even circumstance.  A few weeks ago we even considered the problem with a majority of earthlings misunderstanding the best known verse of the New Testament:  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  Almost the whole of evangelicalism gets confused about acknowledging the God given nature of the second birth.

Calvin writes about the “everyone” and “whoever” mentioned in the last phrase of this verse:  “It is a remarkable commendation of faith, that it frees us from everlasting destruction. For he intended expressly to state that, though we appear to have been born to death, undoubted deliverance is offered to us by the faith of Christ; …. And he has employed the universal term whosoever, both to invite all indiscriminately to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers. Such is also the import of the term world which he formerly used; for though nothing will be found in the world that is worthy of the favor of God, yet he shows himself to be reconciled to the whole world, when he invites all men without exception to the faith of Christ, which is nothing else than an entrance into life.

Now in verse thirty-one, we read:  “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.”  There are three statements here which we must take seriously. 

The first and third statements force us to consider that One who speaks from heaven - must be considered at least higher, if not even better than we are or ever can be.  Specifically, the first observation posits the theorem that there is indeed a difference between one who comes from heaven and the one who is earth bound.  After all, what can Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel and the Baptist, a prophet know – unless the good Lord revealed it to them?  By comparison – they have come to the Lord of all the earth, a very person of the Godhead: who knows all things.  They remain earthbound in their knowledge, being and understanding – unless they are enabled to comprehend heavenly things.

In verse thirty-two we read:  “He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.”  We can certainly take these words in the immediate context of those who have just spoken to or of the Christ in this chapter.  And yet there is a world of ignorance and stupidity wrapped up also in this just accusation.  Jesus has spoken. And just as Calvin notes:  “there are very few and almost no believers, when compared with the vast crowd of unbelievers.”

So even if the Lord of all the earth would explain clearly that which He knows from heaven, still the world receives Him not.  And why is that, we may well ask?  Simply because we need a spiritual filter to discern the things of the Spirit, and that is what the new birth is all about.  I remember a scene in a movie about emigrants from Europe sailing across the Atlantic in a crowded hold aboard ship.  It was a whole Scandinavian congregation headed to the new world.  A number of the group were busily learning whatever they could of the English language.  The pastor would have none of it, because he fully expected to be filled with the Spirit as the Apostles were in Jerusalem.  Therefore he fully expected to be able to speak fluent English once he stepped ashore!  The good Lord chose not to give him a miraculous English filter in such a manner and in his foolish ignorance he was as good as lost in a strange New World.

Who can receive the New Birth, as Nicodemus well asked – the Spirit acts wherever and however He chooses and this fact is divine in its ordering.  Earthlings speak not the spiritual verse – just as emigrant peoples from all over Europe spoke not the language in America.  And, we can go a little further, just knowing how to speak English is no guarantee that one comprehends the local idiom well enough to comprehend the nuances of day to day speaking habits.

In the same way, the average worldling who picks up his Bible may think he is bright and able to be reborn by his own native intelligence.  And yet – those of us within the Church realize the futility of such nonsense!  “You must be born again!”  And all the worldly wonders what are we talking about!

In verse thirty-three we move further into the grand design implemented by God Himself.  “Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.”  Commentator Raymond Brown observes that “Verse thirty-three takes on added significance against the background of twenty-six, which reported that everyone was flocking to Jesus … If the Nicodemus scene justified the pessimism of thirty-two, then the success reported in the John the Baptist scene justifies the affirmative character of thirty-three.”

Brown further quotes 1 John 5: 9-12 to press home the importance of the true testimony here: “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.  Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.  Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.  And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Therefore those who will not receive the Christ on His terms, they have thereby called God a liar.  And this is why Jesus can say in John 14: 6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

We now come to verses thirty-four and five, and I want to be very careful with my comments on these two verses.  “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.”  There is a question here that has some important implications.

When does the general work of the Holy Spirit begin in the New Testament?  Look forward to John 14: 16  “And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” as well as Chapter 16: 7 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you.”

Do we wish to make much of the phrase in John 14: 16 that  reads “for he dwells with you and will be in you”?

Remember, in the Old Covenant time period there was a certain premise of “the presence” or Shekinah in and around the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle and the Temple.  We also understand the prophetic voice that promised new hearts being put into believers in the Messianic Age to come.  And then there are the reports of the Apostles on Pentecost who celebrated the pouring out of the Spirit on the Church being assembled in Jerusalem.

The clear meaning of the text here is that God gave the Son the Spirit without measure and as we later learn the Son gives the Spirit to the elect, those who are called into the church of the Living God.  Now my question here in this context is simple, and it is raised by Ramond E Brown’s comments.  Please understand that this Raymond Brown has a Roman Catholic background, if this is at all important in this regard?

In generic American Protestant theology we usually associate the giving of the Spirit in the context of baptizing believers who have been enabled by the Spirit to believe.  The Roman Catholics believe in the efficicacy of their baptism and its accomplished result.  We of course would not agree with the Catholic model:  baptism does not impart the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Can the opposite view be held firmly and fairly that those who are reborn by the power of the Spirit are brought to baptism in a timely manner?  Or can baptism and the coming of the Spirit be different events in the life of the Christian?

Now, for the reason I raise this question.  If we accept the common view that the gift of the Spirit came fully at Pentecost and ever after that into the hearts of the believer at the ordering of Christ, then what must we acknowledge in the work of the Baptist and the work of Christ’s disciples.  Was the Spirit associated with the immediate baptism, or was baptism for repentance followed some time, possibly as much as three years after the fact from the point of Pentecost on?  This is an important question for all who would argue for believer’s baptism alone.  And I am willing to discuss the matter further with any and all who would want to search the scriptures in this regard.

Application:  Now, we have taken a short journey away from the immediate application of the text and to that we must now return.  At the very least verses thirty-four and five tell us that all things are placed into the hands of Jesus Christ.  And the essential question before us all today is this:  What do you make of the person of Christ?  John tells us plainly here that “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.”  Now let us be careful with the phrases here.  Obedience should be considered nothing more than the real fruits of the Spirit as they are described in the New Testament.  We would teach sincerely that all of those who come to belief in and through the power of God demonstrated in the Holy Spirit must believe in Jesus Christ.  Once this new belief is evident – then the Holy Spirit begins a work of sanctification in the life of the new believer.  Slowly, but certainly over many years the presence of the Spirit becomes more and more evident as the desired fruits are engaged and become a part of the personality and character.

It has often been said, that those who have come to belief can look back over their lives and know for a fact that God has sustained them in times of trouble, that he has afflicted them in times of complacency and that he has demonstrated his love and forgiveness in and through the blood of Jesus Christ.  And it is to Christ’s table that we come this Lord’s Day, to celebrate anew what He has done.  We are always encouraged to discern the Spirit of Christ in this holy meal.  So as we all draw near to Him this day, may you realize all the more that the doctrines of Christ are not Calvinistic only but from the very beginning of the Church the new birth, the gift of the Spirit and even your own faith are wrapped up in what the Lord has, and is doing in and through you is His own work.  Amen.

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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.
Tasker, R.V.G.  Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: The Gospel According to St John.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.
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