On to the Land of Juda

Lesson #56

We are ready to finally move ahead to the next section that we will define to include John 3:22 – 30. Chapter 3 begins with Jesus in Jerusalem having a conversation with a Pharisee, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Jesus told him that he had to be born again if he was to enter heaven, but Nicodemus could not comprehend what Jesus meant. Since God had not prepared his heart spiritually to understand, Jesus changed the conversation to why he was sent into the world. Jesus came not to judge the world but that the world might be saved through him. “After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing” (John 3:22 ESV). Looking ahead to John 4:1 – 2 we learn that Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were and they were baptizing more people than John was.

Let us sharpen the picture. We are in the Judean territory, at the Jordan River at Aenon near Salim, because the water was plentiful there and people were coming there to be baptized. On one side of the river John was baptizing and on the other side the disciples of Jesus were baptizing. As expected, people began to notice that John was falling behind Jesus in the number of baptisms. We are no different today. Our pride wants us to be bigger and better than the church down the street or across town. John’s disciples seem to be a little upset because they say to John, “Rabbi, the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, about whom you testified—see, he is baptizing, and everyone is flocking to him!” This is exactly what was supposed to happen and brings us back to consider once again the uniqueness of Jesus. We will pick this up in the next lesson when we look at John 3:27 – 30.

Before we leave this lesson I should point out that I didn’t cover verse 25 about ceremonial washing because no one really understands what this was all about. Anything I might say would be just speculation and I believe there is more important things to cover in the time we have, so we will move on.

Prayer

Father, some of these lessons are hard to draw a personal application because of their informative nature. But as I think about this lesson I have to consider my own feelings. How do I feel about someone else receiving attention and not me. Lord, you know that pride is something we humans always struggle with. Father, continue to conform me into the image of Jesus so that I would continue to see greater evidence of humility and meekness in my life.