St Theodore's Sermon

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week

28/2/99

John's Testimony John 3:22-26

John's coming must have had quite an impact on the Jewish nation. It had been 400 years since the last prophet had appeared in Israel. That was Malachi, and his prophecy had ended with this promise: (Mal 4:5-6 NRSV) "Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. ⁶He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse." For 400 years people had waited patiently for that promise to be fulfilled. In fact Luke's gospel tells us of 2 such people who waited: Simeon and Anna who we're told were waiting for the consolation of Israel. So when John appeared in the desert preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins people were very excited. Here was the one God had promised through Malachi all those hundreds of years before turning the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents. And so people flocked to the Jordan river to hear John preach. Disciples gathered around him and followed him around. Even the Jewish leaders began to wonder whether he was the one they were expecting.

But then Jesus came along, and John announced that this was the one he had said would come after him, the one whose path he was sent to prepare. Well, you can imagine the confusion in the minds of those who had come to follow him. What should they do? Should they stick with John or should they abandon John and go off and follow Jesus. John's preaching was so powerful. The world needed to hear this stuff! It was back to basics, family values, law and order, moral rearmament, all brought together in one package. And now here was this newcomer, Jesus, getting on the bandwagon and baptising people as well.

Then an argument arises between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew about ceremonial washing. We're not told what this dispute was about but we can guess? One can imagine that it was a dispute about how John's baptism of repentance fitted in with the Jewish rites of purification which of course were intended for the same reason. Now there's a flashback here to the wedding at Cana in Galilee, when Jesus used the jars that were used for that rite of purification to turn the water into wine. I imagine some of the Jewish leaders were beginning to get concerned that the popularity of this new phenomenon, of John and Jesus baptising for repentance, might undermine their authority, and particularly the importance of the Jewish rites of purification.

Well, we're not told the outcome of that dispute, only that it leads some of John's disciples to start thinking about the fact that Jesus is also now baptising. So they come up to John and complain to him about Jesus stealing their thunder.

   Well that's really just setting the scene for the main message of this passage. Here it is. John answers, "No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven ²⁸You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' ²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.

   That is, there's no room in the Kingdom of God for jealousy over ministry, particularly if that jealousy is directed at the Messiah himself. You see, John's disciples have fallen into the trap that so many people in Christian ministry fall into. It's so easy to look over your shoulder and see someone else having success and feel envious. I was at our deanery meeting on Thursday and one of the other ministers in the group was telling us how well things had been going over the past few years. Their families ministry was growing, the Sunday School was a good size, he'd counted up 30 fathers who had joined the congregation in the past couple of years, and so on. It would have been easy for me at that point to start to feel sorry for myself and think how hard it is for us in a small parish with limited resources. But no! It's much better to thank God for the way he's been working in that Parish, and at the same time think of all the good things that have been happening here. To thank God for the way he's blessed us, in different ways, but just as significantly over the past couple of years. And it's important too, to understand like John, that we're all simply servants of God, given our own task to do, and responsible to God alone for the way we carry out that task.

   You see, John has a wisdom borne of God. He understands that his role is purely that of a servant. In fact he's already made it clear, back in John1:20, that he isn't the Messiah. No, he's simply a voice crying in the wilderness "Make straight the way of the Lord!" His job is to prepare the way, and having done that to fade into the background once the Messiah has come.

   What we discover here, is that, just as we found in the earlier parts of John that Jesus has superseded the purification rites of the Jews, and the temple, and the snake lifted up in the wilderness, so now he's superseded the Old Testament prophets. Here's what Jesus told his disciples in Matt 11:13,14 "all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; ¹⁴ and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come." Similarly in Luke 16:16 he says: "The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed." Now that Jesus has come there's no further need for OT prophets, because the one they looked forward to has arrived. Now the message is proclaimed on the form of the gospel.

   But then John adds another OT image that Jesus fulfills. He says "He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice."

   Think for a moment about the way the OT uses the idea of the bride and bridegroom. Here are just a few examples: (Isa 62:4-5 NRSV) "You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. ⁵For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." Or Jer 2:2 (NRSV) "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown." And then he goes on to talk about how the people of the land have been unfaithful to him so it's like he's taken out a writ of divorce against her.

   Perhaps the most striking of these examples is that of Hosea, where Israel is likened to a beloved wife who is unfaithful to the point of becoming a prostitute and bearing the children of prostitution. But then God talks of winning her back, and restoring her to his arms. And he says (Hosea 2:16-20 NRSV) "On that day, says the LORD, you will call me, "My husband," and no longer will you call me, "My Baal." ¹⁷For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. ¹⁸I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. ¹⁹And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. ²⁰I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD."

   Jesus has come to be the one who will bring the unfaithful bride back to himself; to restore her despite her failings. The way he does that is by dying for her. He shows his love in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Here's what god tells us in Eph 5:25-27 (NRSV) "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind -- yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish." Jesus has come to be the bridegroom, who makes his bride pure so he can present her to himself in splendour. It's exactly the same imagery we find in Hosea.

   So John has come as the best man, to rejoice with the groom as he takes his bride to himself. Isn't that a marvellous picture of John's role, of presenting the bridegroom to his bride, the church. And having done that, he says, he must increase, but I must decrease. I guess that's the mark of faithful service to Christ isn't it?: that Christ is magnified as we fade gracefully into the background.

   John tells us why this is so. It's because of our respective origins. Christ is from above (v31) and is therefore above all. We are merely from the earth and therefore can only speak of earthly things. John could call people to repentance but he couldn't tell them anything about the God of heaven. Nor could he make any difference to their inner life. Only he who came from heaven could do that. All we can do is to take his testimony and believe it because it comes from one who comes from God. Of course the implication then is that all we can do then is to pass it on. And as we discovered last week, the choice is simple. We either believe in the Son and have eternal life, or we disobey the Son and miss out on life, instead having to endure God's wrath. Either we accept the one who came to make us pure, or we continue to live in our impurity.

   When we accept what Jesus says, we certify that God is true because we believe that Jesus comes from God and speaks the words of God because he has been given the Spirit without measure. Have you ever thought about that? That when you believe what you read in the Bible you're actually deciding that God is the truth? Or conversely those who don't believe what they find here are calling God a liar. That makes our response to God's word fairly significant doesn't it?

   So let's make sure that we believe the testimony of Jesus. Let's make sure we rejoice that the bridegroom has come, and has made it possible for us to be purified from our sin. Let's rejoice that the time is coming when we as a church will be presented to Christ as his bride. That is, to be brought into lifelong union with him in the Father's house.


	Contact us	Preaching Program	Home		Last Week's Sermon

	Sermon of the Week
	28/2/99
	John's Testimony	John 3:22-26

	John's coming must have had quite an impact on the Jewish nation. It had been 400 years since the last prophet had appeared in Israel. That was Malachi, and his prophecy had ended with this promise: (Mal 4:5-6 NRSV) "Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. ⁶He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse." For 400 years people had waited patiently for that promise to be fulfilled. In fact Luke's gospel tells us of 2 such people who waited: Simeon and Anna who we're told were waiting for the consolation of Israel. So when John appeared in the desert preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins people were very excited. Here was the one God had promised through Malachi all those hundreds of years before turning the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents. And so people flocked to the Jordan river to hear John preach. Disciples gathered around him and followed him around. Even the Jewish leaders began to wonder whether he was the one they were expecting.
	But then Jesus came along, and John announced that this was the one he had said would come after him, the one whose path he was sent to prepare. Well, you can imagine the confusion in the minds of those who had come to follow him. What should they do? Should they stick with John or should they abandon John and go off and follow Jesus. John's preaching was so powerful. The world needed to hear this stuff! It was back to basics, family values, law and order, moral rearmament, all brought together in one package. And now here was this newcomer, Jesus, getting on the bandwagon and baptising people as well.
	Then an argument arises between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew about ceremonial washing. We're not told what this dispute was about but we can guess? One can imagine that it was a dispute about how John's baptism of repentance fitted in with the Jewish rites of purification which of course were intended for the same reason. Now there's a flashback here to the wedding at Cana in Galilee, when Jesus used the jars that were used for that rite of purification to turn the water into wine. I imagine some of the Jewish leaders were beginning to get concerned that the popularity of this new phenomenon, of John and Jesus baptising for repentance, might undermine their authority, and particularly the importance of the Jewish rites of purification.
	Well, we're not told the outcome of that dispute, only that it leads some of John's disciples to start thinking about the fact that Jesus is also now baptising. So they come up to John and complain to him about Jesus stealing their thunder.
	Well that's really just setting the scene for the main message of this passage. Here it is. John answers, "No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven ²⁸You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' ²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.
	That is, there's no room in the Kingdom of God for jealousy over ministry, particularly if that jealousy is directed at the Messiah himself. You see, John's disciples have fallen into the trap that so many people in Christian ministry fall into. It's so easy to look over your shoulder and see someone else having success and feel envious. I was at our deanery meeting on Thursday and one of the other ministers in the group was telling us how well things had been going over the past few years. Their families ministry was growing, the Sunday School was a good size, he'd counted up 30 fathers who had joined the congregation in the past couple of years, and so on. It would have been easy for me at that point to start to feel sorry for myself and think how hard it is for us in a small parish with limited resources. But no! It's much better to thank God for the way he's been working in that Parish, and at the same time think of all the good things that have been happening here. To thank God for the way he's blessed us, in different ways, but just as significantly over the past couple of years. And it's important too, to understand like John, that we're all simply servants of God, given our own task to do, and responsible to God alone for the way we carry out that task.
	You see, John has a wisdom borne of God. He understands that his role is purely that of a servant. In fact he's already made it clear, back in John1:20, that he isn't the Messiah. No, he's simply a voice crying in the wilderness "Make straight the way of the Lord!" His job is to prepare the way, and having done that to fade into the background once the Messiah has come.
	What we discover here, is that, just as we found in the earlier parts of John that Jesus has superseded the purification rites of the Jews, and the temple, and the snake lifted up in the wilderness, so now he's superseded the Old Testament prophets. Here's what Jesus told his disciples in Matt 11:13,14 "all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; ¹⁴ and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come." Similarly in Luke 16:16 he says: "The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed." Now that Jesus has come there's no further need for OT prophets, because the one they looked forward to has arrived. Now the message is proclaimed on the form of the gospel.
	But then John adds another OT image that Jesus fulfills. He says "He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice."
	Think for a moment about the way the OT uses the idea of the bride and bridegroom. Here are just a few examples: (Isa 62:4-5 NRSV) "You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. ⁵For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." Or Jer 2:2 (NRSV) "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown." And then he goes on to talk about how the people of the land have been unfaithful to him so it's like he's taken out a writ of divorce against her.
	Perhaps the most striking of these examples is that of Hosea, where Israel is likened to a beloved wife who is unfaithful to the point of becoming a prostitute and bearing the children of prostitution. But then God talks of winning her back, and restoring her to his arms. And he says (Hosea 2:16-20 NRSV) "On that day, says the LORD, you will call me, "My husband," and no longer will you call me, "My Baal." ¹⁷For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. ¹⁸I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. ¹⁹And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. ²⁰I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD."
	Jesus has come to be the one who will bring the unfaithful bride back to himself; to restore her despite her failings. The way he does that is by dying for her. He shows his love in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Here's what god tells us in Eph 5:25-27 (NRSV) "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind -- yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish." Jesus has come to be the bridegroom, who makes his bride pure so he can present her to himself in splendour. It's exactly the same imagery we find in Hosea.
	So John has come as the best man, to rejoice with the groom as he takes his bride to himself. Isn't that a marvellous picture of John's role, of presenting the bridegroom to his bride, the church. And having done that, he says, he must increase, but I must decrease. I guess that's the mark of faithful service to Christ isn't it?: that Christ is magnified as we fade gracefully into the background.
	John tells us why this is so. It's because of our respective origins. Christ is from above (v31) and is therefore above all. We are merely from the earth and therefore can only speak of earthly things. John could call people to repentance but he couldn't tell them anything about the God of heaven. Nor could he make any difference to their inner life. Only he who came from heaven could do that. All we can do is to take his testimony and believe it because it comes from one who comes from God. Of course the implication then is that all we can do then is to pass it on. And as we discovered last week, the choice is simple. We either believe in the Son and have eternal life, or we disobey the Son and miss out on life, instead having to endure God's wrath. Either we accept the one who came to make us pure, or we continue to live in our impurity.
	When we accept what Jesus says, we certify that God is true because we believe that Jesus comes from God and speaks the words of God because he has been given the Spirit without measure. Have you ever thought about that? That when you believe what you read in the Bible you're actually deciding that God is the truth? Or conversely those who don't believe what they find here are calling God a liar. That makes our response to God's word fairly significant doesn't it?
	So let's make sure that we believe the testimony of Jesus. Let's make sure we rejoice that the bridegroom has come, and has made it possible for us to be purified from our sin. Let's rejoice that the time is coming when we as a church will be presented to Christ as his bride. That is, to be brought into lifelong union with him in the Father's house.

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