“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. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.”
We saw in the last passage that John the Baptist was not feeling animosity towards people going to Jesus but, as a good disciple of Jesus, he knew that in the end because Jesus was there and his purpose was to point people to the coming of Jesus that he, John, must decrease as Jesus increased. In this next passage we will see how John’s and Jesus’s message and ministries are intertwined and how they come speaking and bearing the same message.
The first verse shows a contrast of two men, one from above, or heaven, and one from the earth. This is the difference John the Baptist is showing between himself and Jesus. John the Baptist is the man that is of the earth and speaks in earthly ways in order to relate to people, but Jesus is the man who comes from above and is above all. This relates back to what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus at the beginning of the chapter where he contrasted the difference between spiritual things and earthly things. What John is saying in this verse is that he speaks and relates in earthly ways, but He who is above him is Jesus who comes from heaven so he can speak in a way that is above all. There is an idea in the verse that John the Baptist’s ministry complements what Jesus’s ministry is doing. We can see how John is decreasing as Jesus increases but that he isn’t gone and God is still using him to point people to Jesus.
This “pointing people to Jesus” is explicitly seen in the next verse as John the Baptist says he bears witness to what he has seen and heard. The implication is this is what he has seen and heard from heaven. John the Baptist is still a witness pointing people who come to the one of whom he bore witness, Jesus, even as he decreases in popularity. The sad part of the verse comes next and cannot be overlooked because John says no one receives his testimony. You have a man who has seen and heard miraculous things from the Man who comes from heaven yet no one is receiving that testimony. Going back to the beginning of the chapter, this is what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus. We must receive the earthly realties about Jesus before we can understand the spiritual realties. In the same way, how could they understand Jesus without understanding those who bear witness to Jesus?
Dear Christians, we see a lot of people in the world reject the witness. It might not be an overt rejection but a rejection in their hearts. We must not lose heart. Instead, as the John the Baptist kept working despite knowing he was decreasing in importance, we keep working and praying for those around us to come to know Jesus so they might truly know the Man from heaven.
Non-Christians, it is easy to not believe. All the systems in the world are designed to make it easier to reject the truth of Jesus and go about your lives. He is calling you to come to Him truly, not just in a vague thought but a life-changing decision to follow Him because of what He did on the earth and what He represents. You must accept the man from heaven to bring your life into alignment with the One who is above all restoring a right relationship with God.
Leave a comment