Latest / Finding Jesus Again / Episode 5; I must Decrease
Transcript
- John Smithson: Welcome to Finding Jesus again. This is episode five, the end of our first week together. And today we are going to finish out John chapter three, and we're going to start with verse twenty two. I hope you're blessed today, and I hope God is with you, and I hope that this encourages you. Let's start with verse twenty two. So after these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he was spending time with them baptizing. Now John also was baptizing in Anon near Selim. Because there was no abundance of water there, and people were coming and being baptized. For John had yet had not yet been thrown into prison. Look at verse twenty-five. Then a matter of dispute developed on the part of John's disciples with the Jew about purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing, and all the people are coming to him. John replied, A person cannot receive not even one thing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent ahead of him. He who has the bride is the groom, but the friend of the groom who stands and listens to him rejoices greatly because of the groom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. Let me just kinda explain this real quick. So we know that John baptized Jesus. He had the the the privilege Of being the one who baptized Jesus. And when he did, he testified to the fact that this is the Lamb of God. Well, John obviously had some disciples. He had some people who were following him, who were who were serving him and helping him serve the people. And they heard a rumor that Jesus was close by and Jesus was also baptizing people. Well, they got jealous for John. They said, look, This guy whom you baptized is over here now baptizing people and and people are going to him instead of coming to you. And what's up with that? Like our our our our our church is getting smaller all of a sudden and they're going over to that church instead. That's kind of really the gist of what he's saying. And John said, Look, I I told you I'm not the Christ, but I I I'm I've just been sent ahead of ahead of him to point to him. And he said that he must increase and I must decrease. So basically what he's saying is is that I'm not here to get the glory, but I'm here to point to Jesus so that he can get the glory. And I think a lot of us we forget that, especially in ministry, that it's not about me, it's not about my church, it's not about my my sphere of influence, but it's about Christ. And everything that I do must point to him. He must increase. And if that needs to happen, and that must happen, and for that to happen, I must decrease. So let's read on. He who comes from above is above all. This is John talking. The one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth, he who comes from heaven is above all. What he has seen and heard of this he testifies, and no one accepts his testimony. The one who has accepted his testimony has certified that God is true, for he whom God sent speaks the words of God, for he does not give the Spirit sparingly. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to his hand. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. So here John is saying that that I'm from the earth and I only have earthly wisdom. Jesus is from heaven. He has heavenly wisdom. So don't follow me. Follow him. He is testifying of things that he knows. He is testifying of things that he sees. And this is a very important part. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to his hand. God has entrusted all things to the hand of Jesus. Again, we go back to the fact that God is God and Jesus is God and the Holy Ghost is God. In the beginning was the Word. The first part of this is of this book said in the beginning was the Word. The Word was God. The Word was with God. And in here we're reading that the Father entrusted things into Jesus' hands, but they're supposed to both be God. I think what this is talking about is that Jesus laid aside his his godliness to come to the earth to be a man so that we could be saved. The only person who could take on the sin of the world was a man without sin. The reason why that had to be done is because there had to be a sacrifice made for the sin of mankind. And the only sacrifice that could be made was a pure and spotless lamb or a pure and spotless man. There was no way that a pure and spotless man could be born into this world from an earthly father and an earthly mother because they're already born with a sin nature. Jesus didn't have a sin nature because he didn't have an earthly father. His father is God, is God's only begotten Son. God placed him in the world. In the womb of Mary. He was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit. And so he was born with not a sinful nature, but with a a pure nature. And so that was why it was important. That is why it was necessary for Jesus to come and give his life so that he could be the sacrifice for sin. And that is what the Old Testament all points to the fact that there had to be a pure sacrifice. There had to be a pure and spotless lamb. All these rules and all these different things had to be obeyed for us to find forgiveness of sin. Well, Jesus then comes and becomes the fulfillment of all those things that have been taught and told to the Jewish people. Everything that they have been taught and told, everything that they have studied, everything that they understood about forgiveness of sin and about sacrifices was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ put his deity aside and he came to the earth. To save mankind. And it says in verse 36, the one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. So God doesn't put his wrath on us. Like God doesn't say, Well, you're going to receive my son, or I'm going to send you to hell, or I'm going to put my wrath on you. But we already have God's wrath on us because of sin. So it's not something that happens because of our disobedience. It's something that is. It's the state of who we are. It's it's our state of being right now, that we are under the wrath. We are we we have the wrath of God on us. But when we receive or believe in the Son, we will receive eternal life. And that wrath is removed because we have accepted the sacrifice that Jesus gave for us. But those who do not obey the Son, they won't see life. And that wrath of God remains. What does it mean to obey the Son? Well, we're not what it means to believe. It means to believe that He is the Son of God. It means to believe that He came to die for us. It means to believe that He rose from the grave. And we're going to get into more about what that means. The emphasis, but the emphasis in these first three chapters is all about receiving Christ and believing that He is the Son of God. So thank you. I hope you had a great week. I hope that these podcasts spoke to you. If you have any questions, please reach out. If I don't have an answer, we'll search for them together. But ⁓ I just hope that that God is speaking to you and that you are finding Jesus again like me and that you are encouraged. God bless you and have a wonderful weekend. And we will see you back here on Monday with episode six. Thank you.