April 26, 2015 – John 3:22 – 36
Download discussion questions: John 3_22-36 Increasing and decreasing
Once again John the Apostle and writer of the Gospel shifts focus back to John the Baptizer (for the last time in this Gospel). John is still baptizing, and his loyal followers became concerned about the competition (as they probably saw Jesus and His followers and their baptizing activities). The discussion with a Jew (v. 25) might have intensified their concern – which baptism was best? Do I need both, first by John and then by Jesus? Which one provides the most effective purification? We don’t know the exact nature of the conversation, but it may have been along those lines.
Because of their concern, John’s disciples came to him, expressing (and perhaps exaggerating) the possible effects on their own ministry: “all are coming to Him.” Perhaps they had their own doubts – Have we been following the wrong prophet? In our group discussion, someone pointed out that even John the Baptizer himself had questions later. From a dungeon cell he sent a message to Jesus to be sure He really was the Messiah (Matthew 11:2-3). The questions by John’s disciples were not all that surprising.
John corrected their perspective. The ministry he had been given was not about popularity or personal reputation or success measured by the size of the crowds. Those are what C.S. Lewis would have called “second things” – not bad things, but not ultimate things. We often find it all to easy to draw our satisfaction or fulfilment or energy from good second-thing blessings. Presumably John’s disciples were excited and encouraged by what they had seen God do through John’s ministry, and they had been a part of it! Seeing the potential decline of that ministry as more and more people followed Jesus was a frightening prospect. When our satisfaction and fulfilment (ministry, job, health, finances) are threatened, we tend to try to hold on tighter.
John had a very different perspective. His satisfaction was not in second things, not even in the ministry that God had given him for a time. John knew the only genuine source of satisfaction and fulfilment: the voice of the Bridegroom. John probably enjoyed the success of his ministry and the adulation of his followers. But he was not dependent on those second-thing blessings. He knew the first thing (as Lewis says) is our relationship, our communion with God. Even as his ministry was diminishing he could say, “This joy of mine has been made full” (verse 29). Jesus used similar language later: “These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11) and in His prayer, “Now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves” (John 17:13).
John the Baptizer knew enough of the ministry of Jesus to recognize that successful ministry (a second thing) was good, but not the ultimate source of joy. Like John, we can gratefully enjoy the blessings that God provides us. If those blessings diminish or disappear we need to remind ourselves (and especially to remind each other, as John did his disciples) that our true joy is in the voice of the Bridegroom, in our continuing and growing communion with God.