John 3:22-36
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”[h]
31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God[i] gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Footnotes
John’s role, and our role, is to point people to Jesus. Our calling isn’t to gather a following for our own glory or start a movement in our own name. God help the pastors and theologians and Christian speakers who become too popular for their own good and the good of their “followers”! God help us when we make reaching out to and teaching others all about us – growing our church, convincing people to join our movement, persuading them to accept our doctrine!
We are not the bridegroom. We are the bridegroom’s friend (thank You, Jesus, for calling us Your friends), the one who gets everything ready for Him and then gets out of the way and lets Him take center-stage. We are sent ahead of Jesus to prepare people to receive Him. And when we see someone growing in their relationship with Jesus, when we “hear” Jesus’ voice speaking into someone else’s life, that’s our joy, not when they want to keep listening to what we say.
John knew he had received something given him from Heaven. He had a ministry to perform. I thank God He’s given me a ministry to perform. He’s given you one too. Maybe you don’t know exactly what that ministry looks like yet, but He has given you one. And it’s a privilege to join God in His work. But we can only receive what we’ve been given from Heaven. Let’s not ever try to make our role more than what God has appointed us for. Let us serve in humility and wait for Him to either give us our next task or tell us to get out of the way so that, following God’s lead, Jesus will be glorified in either circumstance. He’s the one who saves, not us. He’s the one who must become more, not us.
I’m really liking that word “must” lately. As David Guzik writes, ““Looking back over John 3, one might say that it is a must read chapter of the Bible. There are four prominent musts in John 3.
- The Sinner’s must: you must be born again (John 3:7).
- The Savior’s must: so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14).
- The Sovereign’s must: He must increase (John 3:30).
- The Servant’s must: I must decrease (John 3:30).”
We must let the Holy Spirit give us new life in Christ and lift Him up in our hearts and lives to receive salvation. Then, we must point others to Him and take a back seat ourselves. Another way to say it is He must become more in my life, and I must become less in the lives of those I’m pointing to Him.
So, what role has been given to you from Heaven? Are you serving in humility? Are you overreaching beyond the role God has given you? Take some time to let the Spirit search your heart and re-center you.
Ceremonial Washing and Baptism?
John 3:22-26
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
It's interesting that in the context of baptism for repentance, John and an unknown “certain Jew” argued about ceremonial washing. To me, this clearly shows that baptism is symbolic of ceremonial washing. So, what did ceremonial washing mean for the Israelites?
Ceremonial washing, or washing for purification, was required when anyone became “unclean.” A person could become unclean for a variety of reasons, such as having an infectious skin disease, coming into contact with a dead body, a man having an emission of semen, or a woman menstruating.
Most of the laws for ceremonial cleanliness seem to be for the purpose of promoting the good health of the community, but “cleanliness” is also tied to sin. When someone became unclean for one of these reasons, they were to isolate themselves from the rest of the people and wash themselves, their clothes, and any objects they had touched. They also needed to come before the priest to receive a blessing of cleansing before the Lord.
This religious cleansing included the ashes of a heifer, cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool. The priest would make the sacrifice, then distribute the ashes among the leaders of the people to use for cleansing.
Numbers 19:5-6, 9, 17-21 - “While the priest watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and intestines. 6 The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer.
“9A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin….
“17For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. 18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. 19 The man who is clean is to sprinkle those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them. Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and that evening they will be clean. 20 But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean. 21 This is a lasting ordinance for them.”
Did you notice in verse 9 that the water of cleansing is for purification from sin, not just physical hygiene? Linking ceremonial cleanliness to sin continues throughout the Bible.
Psalm
51:5-7 - Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me
with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
King David, the writer of this psalm, refers to hyssop, part of the sacrifice for ceremonial cleansing (see Numbers 17:6 above).
John the Baptist continued this idea of being sinfully “unclean” before God and began washing people in a movement of repentance from sin. John didn’t have the sacrifice for making people “clean” before God, but he knew it was coming through the work of the Messiah.
Shortly after Jesus was baptized by John, He went to a wedding in Cana, and the hosts ran out of wine. At the suggestion of His mother, Jesus used the opportunity to foreshadow the sacrifice He was going to make by turning water into wine for the people to drink.
We’re told that the jars of water Jesus used to turn water into wine were for the people of Cana to come and wash themselves and any objects that became unclean. The wedding He attended was held in the town square, and the jars of water were from the local synagogue nearby. Jesus turned the purification water into wine. Jesus later used wine to symbolize His blood by which He washes away our sin and purifies us from all unrighteousness.
The New Testament writers picked up on this theme.
Hebrews 9:13-14 - The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Acts 22:16 - “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”
Let’s review:
In the Old Testament, being unclean outwardly was linked to being unclean inwardly
John the Baptist used the imagery of ceremonial cleansing to show people repenting and being washed of their sins
Jesus used the theme of ceremonial cleansing to symbolize His shed blood
We are cleansed spiritually by Jesus’ sacrifice for us, symbolized by the ceremonial washing of baptism
BUT…
Jesus was baptized by John, even though He had no sins to be cleansed from. That’s because ceremonial washing in the Old Testament wasn’t just for purification from “uncleanness.” It was also used to consecrate priests.
Exodus 40:12-15 – “Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 13 Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. 14 Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. 15 Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.”
The priests were to be washed with water. Jesus was washed with water when He was baptized. Then the priests were to be anointed, which Jesus was when the Holy Spirit came on Him immediately after He was baptized.
Jesus wasn’t baptized to show He was being cleansed from sin but to show He was being anointed as God’s High Priest. Both meanings of baptism apply to us. When we are baptized, we are showing Christ’s blood has cleansed us from our sin and, with the Holy Spirit living inside us, we are entering His service as priests after Him.
1 Peter 2:9 - You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
If you’ve accepted Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf, then welcome to God’s family! You’ve been washed clean and now you’re a priest serving under your Big Brother Jesus.
The Earthly Man vs. The Heavenly Man
John 3:30-31
“He must become greater; I must become less.” The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all.
John says Jesus must become greater, and he himself must become less, and then he tells us why. John, and we, are of the earth. We see things from an earthly perspective. We’re concerned about earthly things. We think about things from an earthly point of view.
But Jesus is from Heaven. He has a higher perspective than we do. He knows what the plan is and has a better vantage point from which to direct things here below.
For me to become less and let Jesus become more in my life means to stop doing things from my perspective and allow His Spirit to give me His perspective, to allow Him to give me His thoughts and words instead of my own, to repent from following my own plans to joining Him in His.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).
He Gives the Spirit WITHOUT Limit!
John 3:34
For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
This verse is in the context of speaking about Jesus, but it’s a general principle for all believers. The writer John is explaining how God operates: He gives the Spirit without limit.
If you believe in Jesus, God has given you His Holy Spirit to live in you. And the work of the Spirit is without limit. He will never stop teaching you, guiding you, and growing you. God gives you His Spirit without limit.
You supply of the power of the Spirit will never run out. There will never be a time when God says, “I’m sorry; I have nothing left to give you.” No matter what you face, God’s Holy Spirit will always be there pouring more and more strength, wisdom, and comfort into you. God gives you His Spirit without limit.
What trials are you facing today?
He gives the Spirit without limit.
What temptation are you struggling with lately?
He gives the Spirit without limit.
What task has God set before you?
He gives the Spirit without limit.
What words has God put in your heart to speak?
He gives the Spirit without limit.
Can I tell
you that God doesn’t put limits on the gift of His Spirit in your life?
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