Daily Scripture Reading John 3:22 - 4:12
Humans are inclined to seek glory, power, and prestige for ourselves. It is not natural to serve someone other than ourselves. Furthermore, it is difficult for us to rejoice when we lose influence while someone else is gaining influence.
Today’s passage tells us that after Jesus started His ministry, John the Baptist started decreasing. John’s reaction to his decline is a good example we should follow in our lives.
Yesterday, we started reading John chapter 3. Jesus was in Jerusalem. He had a conversation with Nicodemus during which Jesus taught about being born again. He told Nicodemus that in order to have eternal life, a person has to believe in Jesus.John 3:22 ¶ After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing.
Verse 22 tells us Jesus went into Judea. Jesus was already in Judea because He was in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is in Judea. This verse means Jesus left Jerusalem and started spending time in other areas of Judea.
John 3:23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized—
John 3:24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison.
The other gospel accounts accidentally give off the impression that John’s ministry stopped as soon as Jesus started His ministry. Here we see that was not the case. Jesus had started His ministry, but John was still baptizing.
Aenon was in the Jordan River Valley. The text does not tell us Jesus went to Aenon. He was still up in the hill country of Judea. The text says John was in Aenon. John and Jesus were at least 20 miles / 30 km away from each other, which means they were a one day’s journey away from each other.
John 3:25 ¶ Therefore there arose a debate between John’s disciples and a Jew about purification.
John 3:26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”
This verse tells us Jesus was baptizing. The other gospels do not mention anything about Jesus baptizing people.
John and Jesus were in different geographical areas, but Jesus was generating so much publicity the disciples of John heard about what Jesus was doing.
The disciples of John were concerned because Jesus was starting to draw bigger crowds than John.
John 3:27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
John 3:28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’
John 3:29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.
John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
John understood his role and place in history. He was less than Jesus, and he accepted that. He was content to decline while Jesus increased.
Humans are inclined to seek glory, power, and prestige for ourselves. It is not natural to serve someone other than ourselves. It is difficult for us to rejoice when we lose influence while someone else is gaining influence.
Our role as Christians is to serve and glorify Jesus. We should be happy if He gets the credit for something we do. We should be content to live our lives in such a way that Jesus is glorified while our contribution to glorifying Him is overlooked.
John 3:31 ¶ “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
John 3:32 What He has seen and heard, of that He bears witness; and no one receives His witness.
The pronoun He refers to Jesus. Jesus is God and came from heaven; therefore, He has seen things no human has ever seen. Jesus told humans about God and God’s glory. Unfortunately, many humans reject the truth Jesus told.
John 3:33 He who has received His witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.
Notice the word “seal”. A seal was used as a personal identifier or to secure something.
Instead of signing their name to a document as we do, they stamped their seal on it to identify the sender. When we send letters, we seal the envelope so that the recipient knows no one else opened it. When they wrote letters, they rolled them up like a scroll, put wax on it to keep it rolled, and stamped their seal in the wax so that the recipient knew the scroll had not been opened by anyone after the sender rolled it up.
This verse tells us anyone who accepts what Jesus says is setting his seal to the fact that God is true. In other words, anyone who accepts what Jesus says is agreeing that God is true.
John 3:34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.
In this case the pronoun “He” refers to Jesus, but this statement is true of any prophet sent by God.
John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Note the word “believe”. Anyone who believes in Jesus has eternal life.
Many Christians who supposedly share the gospel say that all a person has to do to become a Christian is to ask Jesus into their heart. They do not talk about the necessity of believing in Jesus. However, belief is essential to salvation. Without believing in Jesus, a person is not saved.
John 4:1 ¶ Therefore when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
John 4:2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were),
John 4:3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee.
Jesus left Judea because the Pharisees knew Jesus was making more disciples than John. That meant Jesus was more popular than John. That meant the Pharisees would target Jesus more than they would target John.
John 4:4 And He had to pass through Samaria.
Judea and Galilee were both Jewish areas. The shortest path between Judea and Galilee was to go through Samaria. The Jews and Samaritans did not get along, so sometimes the Jews traveled up and down the Jordan River Valley instead of going through Samaria. In this instance, Jesus went through Samaria. John 4:5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;
John 4:6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
It is about 30 miles / 50 km from Jerusalem to Sychar. That can be walked in one day, but it is a full day of walking.
John 4:7 ¶ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
John 4:8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
John 4:9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How do You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
Notice the word “if”. The reality is the woman did not know who Jesus was.
John 4:11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
John 4:12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
Jesus was able to give her eternal life, but since the woman did not know who Jesus was, she did not know enough to ask for it.
We will finish reading the story about the Samaritan woman tomorrow.
Jesus eclipsed John in popularity and number of disciples. John was okay with that; however, that was not natural. Humans normally are not content to lose influence and popularity while someone else gains them.
As Christians, we should seek to see Jesus increase while we decrease.
What opportunities has God placed in your life where you can bring glory to Jesus, but doing so will mean a loss for you?
Are you willing and content to take full advantage of those opportunities?
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”