John 3:22-36 The Father Gave Jesus Everything

You're listening to a podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsek is preaching from his series,

The Warrior Poet King, Study of Second Samuel. Let's listen in. Well, good morning, everyone.

Just to get started this morning, Recast has asked me to share just a little bit, maybe for about 10 minutes, about our ministry at Western Michigan University, so I'm glad to do that this morning.

I have a few pictures to show you. So I work with international students primarily at Western Michigan University.

I work with an organization called International Link for Christ, but at the same time, I partner with His House Christian Fellowship, with the

Kalamazoo Chinese Christian Church, and with a group called the Open Air Campaigners, so there's a lot of relationships going on.

But Western Michigan University, if we can go to the next slide, just as an overview,

Western has about 23 ,000 students, and roughly around 1 ,500, 1 ,600 international students.

So math is not my strong point, but that's roughly about 7 % to 8 % of your students at Western are from different countries.

And we believe this is a strategic ministry, because our students at Western come from some of the least reached countries in the world, some of the countries where they have really difficult languages, where they have political and religious persecution, countries where it's very difficult for missionaries to go to proclaim the gospel, and yet God has collected students from countries around the world right here in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

So we work with a lot of students. I think somewhere around 90 countries are represented at Western.

Some of the countries we see students from the most are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, China, Japan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, Iran, a lot of students from Afghanistan these days,

Pakistan, and it's our privilege to try to develop relationships with these students as an opportunity to share the gospel with them.

So if we can go to the next slide. So why do we do this ministry? What is our motivation? And one passage that has been really kind of formative for me in thinking about campus ministry is this, from 2

Corinthians chapter 5, verses 19 through 20. Paul writes this. He says, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them, and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us.

And it's that last sentence that really strikes me. God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

He has made us his ambassadors, and God actually makes his appeal to people through us.

As if God, God who needs nothing, God who does not depend on people for anything, and yet God who could communicate in any way that he chooses, he actually chooses to use human beings as his primary mode of communication for his gospel.

What an awesome privilege and responsibility that is. It's something we all share. So that motivates me to do campus ministry.

Let's go to the next slide. So, here are a couple of pieces to our ministry. There's a lot of different things we do.

We equip Christian students for ministry. We teach

English as a bridge to sharing the gospel. We have a lot of different student activities that we participate in.

We do direct evangelistic outreaches on campus. We have investigative Bible studies, and we also have different ways that we meet student needs.

I'll just share with you briefly a little bit about each of those things. First of all, discipling and equipping students, these are some pictures from our spring break trip last year.

We went down to Florida. We did evangelism training with about 18 students, and then we spent the week reaching out evangelistically in Daytona Beach, Florida.

This is exciting for me because to help students gain an understanding of what the gospel is and how to communicate that with their non -Christian friends, to take students who have no experience talking to somebody from a different country and to give them the encouragement to develop relationships with international students, that's an exciting piece of our ministry.

And it would be a mistake to think that, okay, so Dale's working with international students, trying to reach international students, and he's equipping

American Christians to do that. That's actually not true. Many of the Christians that we work with and many of the

Christians that we equip for this ministry are actually international student Christians. We've seen

Christians from China, from India, from various African countries, from Indonesia that we've had the privilege of training in evangelism and encouraging to go out and reach their classmates.

And it's so much fun to see sometimes, like this man from India that we baptized two years ago, and he's here on campus, he's sharing the gospel with people.

It's really fun to see people who have come to Christ sharing the gospel with Americans. So evangelism training and equipping.

Next we work with English teaching on campus. Every Friday night we have a conversational

English group for mostly graduate students. Most of the students are Chinese visiting scholars and graduates, but everybody is invited.

We've had students from multiple different countries, and it's been really fun for me.

One of the things that we've seen happen just especially this summer is we've had just such a fun ministry with Chinese visiting scholars.

So we have a number of scholars who are professors in China. The government pays for them to come here, spend a year in America.

I'm not exactly sure what they do, but they get a government -funded sabbatical, and they write some articles, they sit in an office, and they are so open to spiritual things.

The man in the picture on your left, he's a professor in a university in China.

He meets with me each week for Bible study. And he made very clear to me that I'm a communist,

I'm an atheist. So we've started studying the Bible together, and recently, in one of our lessons, it's so much fun.

It's just like this mystery. The Chinese don't always tell you exactly what they're thinking. They're very polite on the outside, but they don't really let you in sometimes.

And so he says to me, we're reading about how the Israelites had rebelled against God and refused to take the promised land, and so they spent 40 years in the desert.

And he said, he's getting upset in our Bible study. He's like, I can't believe they didn't trust God. We need to trust

God. Now I'm an atheist, but we need to trust God. So we'll let the

Holy Spirit work that out in his heart. But it's fun to see just the movement in some of these professors.

But it's also sobering to think the cost that some of these international students would face were they to give their lives to Christ and receive

Christian baptism. As a university professor in a country like China, your job could be at stake.

Your career advancement would certainly be at stake for your faith. And so there's a lot of things to consider. But English teaching is one thing we do.

Let's go to the next one. We have a lot of different student activities. This was a picture from just about a month ago.

We took students to a lake, did a lot of swimming, a lot of kayaking, canoeing.

It was a lot of fun. Nobody drowned, which is always a fear because some of these international students cannot swim even a little bit.

So we made it. Let's continue. One of the things we love to do is to just share the gospel through regular outreaches on campus.

I partner with a group called Open Air Campaigners. And so oftentimes, we will go on campus. We'll set up a display board and just talk to students as they pass by, which is a lot of fun.

Nine out of 10 students will become very interested in their cell phone very quickly as they walk by you. But, you know, one out of 10, maybe one out of 20 will stop, and you will have fantastic and dynamic conversations.

I think there are even a couple of people here who have been part of this ministry. So let's go to the next slide. All right.

Who had their coffee? Are you feeling smart? All right. So this is a series of sequences, okay?

So all you have to do is tell me what comes next in the sequence. This is one of the slides that we use, one of the boards we use when we do an outreach on campus.

Okay. So we'll start with an easy one. Are you ready? A, B, C, what comes next?

D. All right. Good. Okay. 1, 4, 9, what would come next in this sequence?

All right. So we're taking squares, right? Good. How about the next one? 31, 28, 31?

Nope. Not 28. 30. Who said 30? All right.

You have to show your work in this class. How did you get 30? Months, right. So there's 31 in January, 31 days in January, 28 in February, 31 in March.

April has 30 days. Good. O, T, T, F, F, S.

How did you get S? Okay. You've done this before. That's cheating. Anybody who hasn't done this wants to try.

The answer is S, but why? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

S for 6, right? Okay. We know this one.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, right? And the last one, hear, believe, and be saved, right?

Good. So we will challenge students to solve these sequences. And the last one will be something like life, death, what comes next?

And it's just an interesting way to start a conversation with students. So let's go to the next slide.

You guys did well with that. Well done, recast. Together with some of our campus ministry interns,

I've been working at Kalamazoo Valley Community College one day a week as well to kind of pioneer a campus ministry there.

So this week, we'd appreciate your prayers. On Wednesday, we have their big student organization fair.

So this is one ministry initiative for this year. And I think finally, the final piece to our ministry, if we can go to the next slide, is meeting with students for investigative

Bible studies. This is the place where I would really love to be with students, meeting one -on -one in the student center to just introduce the

Bible lesson by lesson. We have about a 16 -lesson sequence that walks students through a study of the

Old Testament. And I have a 16 -lesson study that walks people through the

Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as an introduction to the life of Jesus. And so if a student will commit to me to meet for an entire year, we can complete the whole

Old Testament sequence and Gospel sequence in a year as we trace the character of God.

We trace the theme of a coming Savior and a coming Redeemer through the Old Testament into the

New Testament. So this is one of the most enjoyable things I do is meeting with students one -on -one for Bible study.

So that's our campus ministry at Western. We're excited about a new year. Recast, Don and Linda asked me to come and speak this weekend.

And they said, I know that this is really a busy time for you. And they were right. Last week was probably our busiest week of the year.

Students have come back on campus. Unlike the previous COVID years, it is full again. We had Bronco Bash this past Tuesday.

Bronco Bash is the big student fair where thousands of people come and hundreds, really, of organizations come and set up tables.

By the grace of God, we were able to meet more than 600 students and collect contact information from them.

More than 100 of those were international students. And so over the next week or two, we will be following up with those students and trying to set appointments.

And so this is what our campus ministry looks like right now. So thank you,

Recast, for your partnership in our ministry. It's a privilege to work with you at Western Michigan University.

And if I can pivot now into our text this morning, the text that we're going to read this morning, and I'm hoping that this will lead us into worship, is

John chapter 3, verses 22 through 36. So if you have your Bibles with you, I would encourage you to open to John chapter 3, verses 22 to 36.

This is a passage that is very challenging and instructive to me as a campus minister.

I believe it is challenging and instructive to all ministers of the gospel. Because this passage talks about why we do what we do.

And this passage also talks about our motivation for ministry.

And it warns us against certain dangers that we are tempted to engage in as ministers of the gospel.

So let's read John chapter 3, verses 22 through 36. After this,

Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside. And he remained there with them and was baptizing.

John also was baptizing at Anon near Salim, because water was plentiful there.

And people were coming and being baptized. For John had not yet been put in prison.

Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him,

Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.

John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven.

You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.

He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.

Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom

God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the spirit without measure. The father loves the son and has given all things into his hand.

Whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Would you pray with me as we enter into our time of worship? Heavenly father,

I ask this morning that you would magnify the name of your son,

Jesus. I ask that we would become less. I ask that Jesus would become greater.

Father, I ask that you would, in the Holy Spirit, enable our worship this morning. I ask that in the

Holy Spirit, you would enable me to speak. I ask that you would, in the Holy Spirit, enable us to listen well.

And I pray, heavenly father, that you would be at work just powerfully transacting business in each of our hearts.

God, I ask that you would glorify the name of your son. And as we come to you, we do so humbly. Who are we?

Who are we, God? As I share your word this morning,

God, I'm aware that I cannot feed the multitudes. Only you can multiply the fish and the loaves.

I am just someone who distributes what you have created. And so, God, I just ask that you would give grace to the preaching of your word.

I ask that you would give grace to us as we worship. I ask that you would clear our minds, collect our thoughts, and enable us to come to you with pure hearts and focused thoughts.

God, we love you. We ask that you would make your son, Jesus, great. In his name we pray, amen.

Saint Augustine said these words, Jesus Christ is not valued at all until he is valued above all.

And it's my hope this morning, as we read this passage, that each of us will be challenged to love, to worship, to savor

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior more and more. So will you pray with me just again, one more time?

Father, I ask that you would quiet our hearts. I ask that you would open our hearts. I ask,

Holy Spirit, that you would speak through your word. In Jesus' name, amen. So, during the last few visits that I've made with you, we've been kind of venturing through the

Gospel of John. And so far, in the Book of John, we've seen how

John, the last surviving disciple, is nearing the end of his life, and he writes this book to highlight the identity of Jesus.

And specifically, that Jesus is the second person of the triune God, the exalted Messiah, who stands supreme over every created thing.

Up until this point in the Gospel, we've seen how John emphasized the way that Jesus fulfills the true meaning of all

Jewish forms, figures, and festivals. For example, in John 1, we see that the law was given through Moses, but that grace and truth were revealed through Jesus Christ.

In John 2, we see that Jesus turns water into wine.

And in this way, He's filling these old Jewish forms and rituals with new meaning, kingdom meaning.

In John 2, verses 13 through 22, we see that Jesus cleanses the temple, and therefore,

He is declaring that He has authority over the temple. He declares that His own body is the temple of God, the true residence of the

Spirit of God. And in John 3, verses 1 through 15, we see that Jesus calls a revered and respected member of the

Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin, to repent, believe, and therefore, experience the new birth by the power of the

Spirit. And in this same passage, Jesus reveals that He is actually the fulfillment of the imagery of Moses lifting up the bronze serpent for the healing of the snake -bitten nation of Israel in Numbers chapter 21.

And now, as Jesus continues His early Judean ministry, we see that His popularity and His influence is beginning to just increase more and more, and His popularity and influence is beginning to surpass even that of John the

Baptist. Now, John the Baptist, for Christians, can be an understated character.

We might even dare to say that John the Baptist almost is a minor character in the

Gospels, but that would be a mistake. It is impossible to overstate the impact that John the

Baptist had and his message of repentance had on the people of Israel. He was a significant public figure at the time of Jesus, and his preaching sparked a significant awakening in the nation of Israel.

But now, in this passage, the passage we're going to look at, we see that Jesus' ministry is beginning to surpass even that of John the

Baptist. Now, this creates a problem, because the disciples of John the

Baptist don't like seeing their ministry diminish and Jesus' ministry increase.

They don't like seeing their rabbi losing market share to this new rabbi,

Jesus. So let's read John 3, verses 22 through 26.

After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.

John also was baptizing at Anon near Selim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized, for John had not yet been put in prison.

Now, a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification, and they came to John and said to him,

Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he's baptizing, and all are going to him.

Now, a certain Jew was arguing with John's disciples about purification. The scriptures don't elaborate on the exact content of this argument, but this unnamed

Jewish man was evidently questioning the legitimacy of John's baptism.

Remember, for Jews, baptism signified the final stage of conversion for a

Gentile who wanted to convert into the Jewish faith. John the Baptist comes on the scene, and he begins preaching to devout

Jews that you need to be baptized, a step that signified going back to the beginning, becoming like an unbeliever, and taking that step of faith.

And so John's disciples were confronted by a certain

Jew who was evidently calling into question the legitimacy of John's baptism. Now, that argument became the occasion for John's disciples to bring up a related issue that was causing them an increasing amount of alarm.

And that issue was simply this, the popularity of their rabbi, John, was diminishing, and the popularity of another rabbi,

Jesus, was increasing. Their spiritual movement was waning.

They were losing people to this new and emerging ministry of Jesus. And so a spirit of rivalry was percolating in their hearts.

Listen to what J .C. Ryle says. He writes this 150 years ago, but I think it's just so appropriate for our day and age as well.

"'The spirit exhibited in this complaint "'is unhappily too common in the churches of Christ,' "'J .C.

Ryle writes. "'The succession of these complainers has never failed. "'There are never lacking people who care far more "'for the increase of their own party "'than for the increase of true

Christianity, "'and who cannot rejoice in the spread of religion "'if it spreads anywhere "'except within their own denomination.

"'There is a generation which can see no good being done "'except in the ranks of its own congregations, "'and which seems ready to shut men out of heaven "'if they will not enter therein under their banner.'"

Just a word of application. If another church, another organization, another campus ministry flourishes, do we feel threatened?

If a well -known leader, or even worse, if a well -known leader from another denomination or another theological tradition falls into sin, is there any part of our hearts that feels vindicated?

Like, you know, I knew they were sketchy all along. We all recognize that these attitudes are small, they're un -Christlike, but they're also insidious, and we need to guard our hearts against any spirit of rivalry and competition.

Now, I want us to see in the next section of this passage how John responds to this concern voiced by his disciples.

We're gonna read verses 27 through 30. John, in this paragraph, says four different things, and each of these four things is instructive for us.

Verse 27, John answered, "'A person cannot receive even one thing "'unless it is given him from heaven.

"'You yourselves bear me witness that I said, "'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

"'The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. "'The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, "'rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

"'Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. "'He must increase, but I must decrease.'"

Four things, verse 27. "'A person cannot receive even one thing "'unless it is given him from heaven.'"

This is a first -century maxim, a saying, kind of like we would say, a penny saved is a penny earned, or actions speak louder than words.

Jesus essentially rephrases and repeats this same maxim when he is speaking with Pontius Pilate.

In other words, what John is saying when he says, "'A person cannot receive even one thing "'unless it is given to him from heaven,' what he's saying is that kingdom increase is given by God.

It's not manufactured by people. It's given by God in accordance with his sovereign choice and his sovereign will.

And if God chooses to bless one of his servants or one of his churches above another, who are we to question the sovereign choice of God?

Or will we be found complaining against God? Verse 28, "'You yourselves bear me witness that I said, "'I am not the

Christ, but I have been sent before him.'" So John here reaffirms his mission, the mission that he's already testified to publicly, the mission that his disciples should have remembered, "'I am not the

Christ, I have been sent before him.'" John is only the herald of Christ. His job was always to introduce

Jesus publicly to the people of Israel, to prepare them for the coming of their

Messiah, to pass the microphone, so to speak, and then to step off stage. Verse 29, "'The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.

"'The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, "'rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

"'Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete.'" In this passage,

John the Baptist refers to a very common Jewish cultural tradition, that of a wedding.

The bridegroom is Jesus, and the bride represents the community of God, the community of believing

Israel, which today would be the community of the Christian community, us.

The bridegroom is Jesus, the bride is the community of believers. Now, John the Baptist here self -identifies as the friend of the bridegroom.

Now, in ancient weddings, the friend of the bridegroom organizes all the details of the wedding, and then stands quietly to the side and watches gladly and thankfully as everything unfolds without a hitch.

So, in an ancient wedding, the friend of the bridegroom is kind of like the best man combined with the wedding planner.

Now, what kind of best man would try to be the center of attention at a wedding? Worse yet, what kind of best man would try to steal the bride for himself?

John is reminding his disciples of his true mission, which was to introduce

Christ and then step offstage. But there's something else here embedded in this reference to Jesus as the bridegroom.

Something else. I want us to look, I believe the passages are here,

Hosea 2, verses 19 and 20. I'll read it for us. And I will betroth you to me forever.

I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and mercy.

God speaking, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. And again, in Isaiah 62, verse five, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your

God rejoice over you. Throughout your Old Testament, this imagery of the bridegroom and the bride is a picture of God and his relationship to his people.

It's a picture of the Lord, God, Yahweh, and his relationship to his people, the community of Israel.

We see that imagery carried over into the New Testament where the church is called the Bride of Christ. John the

Baptist is affirming Jesus as the bridegroom, and that is a role that is assigned to God himself in the

Old Testament. And what is more, not only is Jesus the bridegroom, but the day of betrothal is at hand.

John the Baptist speaking in the spirit, whether he truly understood the full significance of what he was saying or not, oftentimes people in scripture speak in the spirit prophetically greater than they know.

Whether John understood the full significance or not, he is giving powerful testimony to the divine nature of Jesus.

He's showing us yet again how Jesus fulfills the images, the figures and the symbols in the

Old Testament. Verse 30, he must increase, but I must decrease.

John the Baptist is saying that the influence and popularity of Jesus must increase, and the influence and popularity of his own ministry must diminish.

You know, friends, a small minister, a small minister is pleased for Jesus to increase so long as he might increase alongside

Jesus. A great minister is pleased for Jesus to increase, even at cost to himself and his own ministry.

Are we willing to decrease so that Jesus may increase?

Let's move on to the next subsection of text. It's verse 31 through 36. Now, I believe, and most scholars agree, that the words of John the

Baptist end with verse 30, and verse 31 through 36 were not spoken by John the

Baptist. Rather, they were inspired by the Holy Spirit as a theological commentary by the

Apostle John on the previous text. So let's look at this commentary in two parts.

Verses 31 through 34, first of all. He who comes from above is above all.

He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.

He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true, for he whom

God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.

In verse 31, this verse echoes John 3, verse 13, when

Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. Remember that passage? Here it says that Jesus has descended from heaven.

And this verse is really comparing Jesus and John the Baptist. Jesus, the one, is the one who comes from above.

Jesus is the one who comes from heaven, and therefore he speaks the words of God. John the Baptist comes from the earth and speaks, therefore, in an earthly way.

Now, the word earth here is a Greek word from which we get words like geology and geography.

Okay, it's the word that John chooses to indicate just this planet we live on. When John wants to indicate the world as the collection of sinful and rebellious humanity, he chooses a different word, okay?

So what John is not saying here is Jesus comes from heaven and speaks the word of God.

John is a sinful human being from this sinful world, and therefore he speaks flawed words. That's not the point of the passage.

What he's saying is that Jesus comes from heaven and speaks the word of God, and John the Baptist, however respected and however revered, is just a man.

He's still just a man. Verse 32,

Jesus testifies to what he has seen and heard in heaven, and it is no surprise, therefore, that sinful human beings do not accept this testimony.

We've already read this in John 1, verses 10 and 11. It says this, Jesus was in the world, the world was made through him, and yet the world did not come to know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. And although the reception to Jesus coming into this world is decisively and decidedly negative, there are exceptions.

Some people do believe, and for those that do believe, they certify that God is truthful.

It does not say those who believe in Jesus certify that Jesus is truthful. It says those who believe in Jesus certify that God is truthful.

And I want us to think about this for a second, because to receive the words of Jesus is to certify that God the

Father is truthful. It's become fashionable in our culture today for celebrities and politicians to reference

God, but to understate Jesus. Isn't it?

Do you see that? It's culturally acceptable to reference God so long as you're non -specific and non -sectarian in your reference.

We certainly wouldn't want to offend anybody by talking about Jesus. But if you're talking about the biblical

Jesus, not some co -opted version of Jesus that's used to serve some agenda, but the biblical

Jesus, this is offensive because Jesus says controversial things. Now, I want to be very clear here.

You cannot have a relationship with God that at the same time bypasses

Jesus. Jesus himself says, "'No one comes to the

Father except through me.'" To embrace Jesus is to embrace

God. To reject Jesus is to reject God. To accept the testimony of Jesus is to set your personal seal, your personal commitment to this, that God is truthful.

John chapter 12, verses 44 and 45 says this, "'Jesus cried out and said, "'Whoever believes in me, "'whoever believes in me believes not in me, "'but in him who sent me.'"

"'And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.'" Finally, verse 34.

When it says, "'He gives the Spirit without measure.'" What does that mean? Who's giving the

Spirit to whom? Now, some might be tempted to read this as, "'Jesus gives us the

Spirit without measure,'' but that's not what this passage means. The answer is this.

God gives to Jesus. God the Father gives to Jesus the Holy Spirit without limitation, without limitation in power, without limitation in duration.

Think about how the Holy Spirit was poured out on certain individuals in the Old Testament. Throughout the

Old Testament, God gave his Spirit to various men and women in proportion to the ministry to which they were assigned.

The Spirit would kind of come and go according to the task. In 2

Kings 2, Elisha, the successor to the prophet Elijah, asks his master for a double portion of his

Spirit. And in asking for this, Elisha was essentially asking for the rights of a firstborn, the right to become

Elijah's successor. And God granted Elisha's request.

Now, Jesus, in not just simply asking for his Spirit, but simply given a double portion of the Spirit of God, Jesus is given the

Spirit without limitation, unmeasured.

He's given the Spirit in unlimited measure, and Jesus sends forth his Spirit upon his church so that we might share in that gift.

Now, these things lead us now to the conclusion of the passage, verses 35 through 36.

And I would like to challenge everybody in this church, I would like to challenge every parent in this church to memorize these two verses and to memorize these two verses with your children.

Verse 35, the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the

Son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

God has given Jesus his own words, and they're authoritative.

God has given Jesus his own Spirit without limitation. And now we see that God has given something else to Jesus.

And that something else is everything. God has given everything to Jesus.

That means that God has placed all authority, all power, all glory, into the hands of the risen and reigning

Jesus. Jesus has the absolute right to reign and rule over this earth forever and ever.

He is the one through whom God created the world. He is the one who came into the world by the command of the

Father to redeem the world. And he is the one who will return one day to reign and rule forever.

Friends, I want this thought to capture you this morning, that God the Father has placed all authority in the hands of Jesus.

And God the Father is building a kingdom, or we might even say a community, for his Son to reign and rule over together forever.

God has done this because he loves his Son, Jesus. What's the most famous verse in the

Bible? John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only

Son. Compare that to John 3, 35. For God so loved the Son that he gave him the world.

Listen to how Daniel, the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament, echoes this same theme of the Father putting everything in the hands of his

Son, the Messiah. Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14.

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.

He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power.

All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

This conferring of authority from the Father to the Son, this conferring of authority, this conferring of a kingdom, is the reason that we do missions.

It's the reason that we, at Recast, support missions. It's the reason why missionaries travel to faraway countries and spill their blood there.

Because God the Father has decreed that all people everywhere should repent of sin and yield to the

Lordship of Jesus. God the Father has declared that every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth bow their knee to Jesus, and he is actively working to that end.

We, the church, have the privilege of declaring the supremacy of Jesus Christ and calling people to repentance and to yieldedness in his name.

And you know what? True Christianity means that we participate together with God as his instrument in proclaiming the greatness of his

Son. True Christianity means that we call people to worship and serve

Jesus. It does not mean that we cultivate dreams of our own greatness, like the disciples of John the

Baptist. We're not called to meander through life hoping that God supplies us with comfort and prosperity.

See, American prosperity Christianity takes our own selfish ambitions and entertainments and pleasures, baptizes them, and calls that true faith.

True Christianity means we embrace God's mission and God's love for his

Son, that we strive to love the Son the way God loves the Son, and we seek to see the

Son glorified among all the nations of the earth. That's what God's doing, and that's what we should be about.

True Christianity is not self -focused. It's a passion to see Jesus worshiped by every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

We want to see God the Father's mission realized here on earth, that all things come under the authority of his

Son, that all things should be placed into the hands of his Son. You know, occasionally

I'll go out on campus and I'll meet a student who says something to me like this. You know,

I tried Jesus for a while. I tried religion, it didn't really work for me. You know, I was into it for a little while in high school, and then, you know,

I kind of moved on to other things. So let's think about that for a second.

So what this student is saying when he says, I tried Jesus for a little while, it didn't work for me, is this,

I wanted God to give me something or I wanted God to solve a problem for me and he didn't do it, at least not on my timetable or in the way that I wanted, and so now

I reject God. Small, what a small way to think.

There's no worship there. There's no trembling. There's no fear of God. There's no consideration of what

God might want for us. Jesus isn't your handmaiden. He's not here to help you realize your dreams.

He's here to redeem people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

We don't ask God to serve as our little personal deity that comes alongside our life program and blesses us.

We come alongside God's program. We ask, God, give me a heart that I may love the

Son as you love the Son. God, may I share your heart. That's what he's saying about this morning.

God, what you're doing in all the world, I want to be part of that. I seek that privilege.

When we consider the love the Father has for Jesus and we consider the words, the Spirit, and the authority that the

Father has conferred upon Jesus, we are compelled to make a decision.

The authority of Jesus demands a response from us. God the Father demands a response from us, and that response is eternally consequential.

Verse 36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

If you yield your life to Jesus in obedient faith, you will have eternal life. That means the fullness of life that God has designed for you.

It starts now and is experienced and entered into right now. It continues in its fullest experience after we die in the kingdom of God.

But just as it is true that eternal life is something that you receive in the future, but it may be experienced and entered into right now, so it is the case that God's judgment is something that you will experience in the future and enter into now if you reject the

Son. If you are here this morning and you have never truly made a decision to yield your life to Jesus, then

I want you to please consider these words this morning. God the

Father deeply and profoundly loves Jesus, his Son. He has given Jesus his own words, his own spirit, and his authority.

And if you shrug your shoulders at Jesus and walk away to Jesus, you walk away from Jesus, the very

Jesus whom God the Father sent in this world, this very Jesus who died on the cross for you, you are actively and personally resisting the will of God.

And you will one day stand before the throne of God Almighty and give an account for your decision. And even before that day comes, even before that day of accounting comes, the judgment of God has already been pronounced over you as one who rejects

Jesus. Choose life, choose life.

Please do not diminish the Son. And to those of you who already belong to Jesus, the vast majority of those sitting here,

I'm calling you this morning, I'm asking you to examine your affections. Don't be satisfied with small things.

If we live without a vision of God's glory, of Jesus's glory filling the whole earth, then we are in danger of serving our own baptized selfish ambitions.

Throughout the course of your life, each of us is going to serve something. You're gonna give your life to something.

Everybody does it. You're gonna give your life to the seeking after wealth, to the seeking after entertainment, to the accumulation of power.

Some people give their life to try and please other people and gain approval. Maybe you're looking for that special someone that's gonna complete you.

Maybe you're seeking just comfort and pleasure and a problem -free life. I'm calling you to this morning,

I'm asking you this morning to give your life to Jesus Christ so that he might be magnified and glorified among all the nations of the earth through the glory and pleasure of the

Father. Friends, the Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.

Do you love the Son the way the Father loves the Son? Have you placed your everything into the hands of Jesus?

As we move into a time of communion now, I'm gonna ask Mark to come up and introduce that, but let me pray and we will continue with our worship this morning.

Father, I ask that you would glorify the name of your Son and I know that you will do it, but I ask that you would give us great passion for the glory of your

Son, great zeal for the name of your Son. And God, we plead with you earnestly for the privilege of being part of your work.

God, would you bring people to Christ? Would you change people's lives? Would you change our lives? And God, we just ask with John the

Baptist that we might decrease, that Christ might increase in all of our affections and all of our desires and all of our ambitions.

Jesus, would you become greater and greater? We honor you this morning, amen.