Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 2 Study # 5
January 14, 2024
Broadlands, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
Thesis: Our "joy" is to be rooted in the fact that we have a "bridegroom" who is coming for us once He has "prepared a place for us" (
John 14:3).
Introduction: In the Scripture reading for this morning, we were told that "the bride" of Jesus whom Witness-John identified as "the bridegroom", is "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God". From this we understand that it is the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem who make up the "bride" of whom Jesus is the groom. The fact of this future reality is, in some senses, the apex of God's promise of "Eternal Life" to those that "believe into Jesus". This city is not presented to John's sight in a vision until
after the entire earthly program, including a yet-to-come period of 1,000 years, has been concluded. We need to understand this: we are not going to enter fully into the Life of Eternity until the entire process that has been outlined for us in the Bible is concluded, and we are called to "endure" all of the complications of a sometimes painful life on earth until that conclusion.
This reality is the backdrop of our study this morning in John 3:29 where we are told that Witness-John had to correct his "disciples" in regard to what was to "make them happy".
This is a matter that we are going to turn our attention to this morning because it is such an integral part of Author-John's "theology of joy".
- I. The Facts Of Life In This World.
- A. Author-John's opening salvo regarding his intention of bringing us to "joy" by means of writing about certain "signs" that would accomplish that for everyone who "believes into Jesus" began in Chapter Two with the record of the wedding in Cana of Galilee.
- 1. The overall "point" of that record is, according to 2:11, that the disciples of Jesus "believed into Jesus".
- a. This event was the "beginning" of a faith that was to lead to "joy inexpressible and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8).
- b. The nature of the "sign" was the instantaneous alteration of over a hundred gallons of water into the finest "wine" that the overseer of the details of the wedding had ever tasted.
- c. That Author-John began his recorded "signs" with this massive and instantaneous production of "wine" means that his argument that "faith into Jesus" was to lead to an ever-increasing experience of a kind of "joy", that was unattached to our present circumstances, began with the presentation of Jesus' ability to produce that "joy".
- d. From that beginning, the actual living of married life is to be tempered by the fact that what was at the beginning is going to be what is once the process is ended.
- 2. That Author-John returns to that demonstration of "joy" in our current text is expressed by Witness-John's words of correction to his disciples.
- B. Author-John's insertion of these words about the "groom" and his "friend" asks us to return to the "wedding" thesis of exuberant "joy" made more so by the best wine ever made.
- 1. Witness-John's "disciples" are not "happy"; their experience of "joy" is nonexistent.
- 2. The reason for this departure of "joy" is the "disciples'" departure from the message of their "Rabbi".
- a. "Repentance" is presented, at the beginning of their "Rabbi's" ministry as the way of "joy" as it is rooted in the "forgiveness" of sins.
- b. But those disciples have "forgotten" that joy (2 Peter 1:9) because other, lesser, matters have crowded their minds with "debris", not the least of which is their lust for the status that they had with Witness-John's enormous popularity.
- 3. The major "problem" is the shift of loyalties from the "God Who Forgives" to the messenger of that God as if the messenger is the one who "forgives".
- a. There is an example of this in 1 Corinthians 1:11-13.
- b. It is critical that we see Paul's "solution" in 1:13 in the question, "Paul was not crucified for you, was he?"
- 4. It is no accident that Witness-John's words about keeping the loyalty issue in its rightful place ("...this joy of mine has been made full") is a direct "fact of Life".
- a. If we keep Jesus in focus, "joy" is an undercurrent in our experience.
- b. If we let the detritus of lesser claims upon us shift our focus, "joy" will be the first thing to disappear.
