Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 2 Study # 7
January 28, 2024
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: The reality of Jesus' "superior knowledge" makes it imperative that a man yields to that wisdom, as it is expressed,
if that man wishes for beneficial outcomes.
Introduction: In our study last week we considered Witness-John's attempt to correct his misguided loyalties. He reminded them that he had been sent to go before the One "from above". This meant that he was not to be the object of his disciples' loyalties, Jesus was.
This morning we are going to look into a major reason why that is true.
- I. The Major Thoughts Of This Paragraph.
- A. 3:22-26 -- The overlap of the baptizing labors of both Jesus and Witness-John.
- B. 3:27-36 -- Witness-John's validation of Jesus' baptizing of disciples.
- 1. 3:27 -- Witness-John validates Jesus' activity as "out of heaven".
- 2. 3:28 -- Witness-John reminds the "questioners" that they had heard him push people in Jesus' direction because He is the Christ and he (John) is (merely) the prior messenger.
- 3. 3:29-30 -- Jesus is the bridegroom; John is His friend; thus the friend is glad to hear the voice of the bridegroom and understands that He is to grow in popularity and John's influence is to diminish.
- 4. 3:31 -- The difference between them is as great as that of heaven and earth.
- 5. 3:32-33 -- Jesus has a superior message but it is not being received; but those that do receive it are affirming God's Truth.
- 6. 34-36 -- Jesus' words are the ones which men should believe in order to escape the abiding wrath of The God.
- 7. Pulling these thoughts together: the "message" of Jesus (and, therefore, His actions also) is the message to be believed as an expansion of the message Witness-John was proclaiming (this is a part of the meaning of Acts 19:5 in that the disciples of John were rebaptized by Paul in the name of the Lord Jesus because the "message" had significantly developed in its linkage to Jesus as the Provider of the satisfaction of Justice so that "forgiveness on the basis of repentance" could be better understood: God forgives those who "repent", but there is no explanation of how that can be; Jesus is that explanation).
- II. The Fact Of Jesus' Superior Knowledge.
- A. As an inescapable element in the issue of "heavenly" versus "earthly" realities, the infinity of God makes all "earthly" thoughts extremely tenuous (Isaiah 55:8 in context).
- B. It is the actual insertion of divine "works" into the history of man that makes any learning of "Truth" possible (Jesus, in John 10:37-38).
- 1. But there is another set of essentials that must be in place before the actions of God in history can be properly understood.
- a. There has to be a "conviction" that God is most fundamentally "Truth" and not "deceitful" in His dealings with men (3:32 declares that the "testimony" of the "works-established" One from heaven is what He has seen and heard in/of "heaven" and is accurately given in His words).
- 1) The message of Author-John is, according to 1 John 1:5, that there is absolutely no darkness in God at all.
- 2) James concurs with this in James 1:17 where he declares that there "is [with] God ... no shadow of turning".
- b. There has to be some level of participation in the "Love" of God for the words of God to be understood in their setting/context.
- 1) John 5:34-36 says of the motives of Jesus that His testimony is the "salvation" of those who hear them.
- 2) John 5:41-44 records Jesus as establishing a most fundamental element in true understanding because all "understanding" is rooted in the greatness of infinity's meaning borne out of the "Love of God".
- 2. All of the errors of men are rooted in man's refusal to "receive" the testimony of the Only One Who can tell us what is true and what is error (3:32).
- a. Earlier in his record, Author-John raised this issue with Nicodemus (3:11-13).
- b. At issue is what John calls "setting one's seal upon" (3:33 and 6:27) a claim that has been made.
- 1) To "set one's seal upon" a "claim" is to declare the inviolability of the claim's content (as is illustrated in Matthew 27:66 and made crucial in both 2 Corinthians 1:22 and Ephesians 1:13 and 4:30).
- 2) To "set one's seal" upon the testimony of Jesus, the Lamb, is to put all of one's hopes for good outcomes upon the meaning of those testimonies.
- a) There can be no "fudging" in this principle so that men become "pickers" and "choosers" -- receiving what they wish to be true and rejecting what they do not wish to be true (James 1:6-8).
- b) That "no one receives" His testimony is an indisputable fact that is without legitimate dispute among men.
- c) That on those occasions when one "does receive" the testimony, he/she is "setting his/her seal" upon one truth: "That God is True".
- C. The Consequences Of "setting one's seal" upon God's truthfulness are inescapable.
