#6: “John the Baptizer Teaches About Jesus”
SCRIPTURE: John 3:22-36
INTRO:
When John wrote “After this…” he was referring to the conversation
Jesus had with Nicodemus. This conversation took place in Jerusalem, so Jesus
and the four disciples He had called went from the city to the more rural areas of
Judea, where He was baptizing folks. I find this rather interesting, yet puzzling.
While John seems to indicate here that Jesus was baptizing people, he wrote in
chapter 4, verse 2, that it was the disciples doing the baptizing.
I am further puzzled by the absence of information here regarding what
this baptism was for. Was it the same as John’s baptism of repentance, or did it
have some other significance? We know that those who were baptized by John
were baptized again after Pentecost had come and gone. What about those who
were baptized by Jesus’ disciples? Did they have to be baptized again to
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit?
And note that John makes it a point to say that John “was baptizing at
Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there.” What does that say
about baptism? Actually, a literal translation here is “John also was immersing
at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there.” Baptism is immersion,
and it requires more than a trickle of water.
John makes a parenthetical statement about John the Baptizer: “(for John
had not yet been put in prison).” John’s gospel was written several years after
John the Baptizer was imprisoned and then beheaded.
Verses 25-26 introduces the main part of our lesson today: “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.” This is the only time in John’s gospel that anyone other than Jesus is
called “Rabbi.” I don’t know that there’s any significance to this, but I thought I