Jesus and John Baptizing

By Paul Earnhart

Do you know what envy is?  It is one of the ugliest emotions of which we can be guilty.  It is displeasure in seeing another person prosper, or in seeing someone else more successful or popular than we are.  All one must do to become the object of envy is to do well.  Even in the church, individuals who excel in Bible knowledge, or in Christian service, are often the victims of hatred and gossip among other people.  Preachers are sometimes guilty of envying other preachers who may be more effective than they are.  John the Baptist is a fine example of a preacher who avoided envy.

John 3:22 tells us that after Jesus had spoken with Nicodemus in Jerusalem, He and His disciples came into the land of Judea and there He tarried and baptized.  John 4:1 even says that He was making and baptizing more disciples than John.  Some of John’s disciples apparently resented this fact, and they came reporting to John what Jesus was doing.  John could have been envious, but instead he responded with an illustration in which he spoke of Jesus as the groom in the wedding and of himself as the best man, the groom’s friend and helper.  Here is what John said: "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.  You yourselves bear me witness that I said, He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices because of the bridegroom’s voice.  Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled.  He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:27-30)

John here not only gives us a good example of one who avoided envy, but he also gives us a good example of our role as teachers.  Our duty is to bring people to Jesus, not to ourselves.  When they meet Jesus, we need to get out of the way quickly and let Him increase while we decrease.

Lovers of Light and Lovers of Darkness

By Paul Earnhart

If you go into an old barn on a dark night and turn on a bright light, you will see two different reactions.  The rats will run, but the candle flies will soon be swarming around your light.

Jesus came into the world as the light of the world.  And there were two different reactions.  Some hated Him and began almost immediately to plot His extermination.  Others, however, were drawn to Him and became completely loyal to Him.

In John 3:19-21, He explains these two reactions.  “And this is the judgment that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest their deeds should be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

The true character and teaching of Jesus serve as a judgment on the deeds of evil people.  Once they truly understand Him, they react against Him; and, in so doing, they actually pass judgment on themselves.

In our generation, however, Satan has confused the issue.  He has made Jesus out to be a very broad-minded and tolerant individual who will accept most any kind of conduct.  Satan has also led many to think that believing in Jesus is simply accepting the fact that He lived and died for mankind; and if one believes that, one can live any way they want to live.  Those who are deceived by Satan in this manner do not truly know Jesus.

Jesus condemned sin in all forms, and He demands that we live as pure a life as we can live.  Nothing in the life or teaching of Jesus encourages sin.  And just as belief in a doctor means following the doctor’s instructions, so belief in the great physician means living as He directs.  He asked, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?” (Lk 6:46)

God So Loved the World

By Paul Earnhart

God’s love for mankind has been expressed in more ways than we can count.  His creation of man was an act of love, to say nothing of the wonderful world which He made for our habitation.  He gave us eyes to see and mountains and flowers and colorful sunsets to behold.  He gave us ears to hear and the song of the birds and the roar of the ocean to enjoy.  He gave us the gift of taste and delicious food to satisfy our appetites.  Who can count the material and physical benefits He has provided?

But when we try to describe the love of God, all of these things become insignificant beside the gift He gave for satisfaction of our spiritual needs.  Jesus described it in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  God knew that the needs of the inner man are greater than those of the outer man.

God’s love is surely the greatest love of history, and it was expressed in the greatest gift of all time…the gift of His only begotten Son.  Its purpose was to rescue each one of us from the greatest possible tragedy: eternal death.  And to provide for us the most valuable blessing we can hope to attain: eternal life.

Our world does not now comprehend what God did.  Our thinking is so dominated by our concern for here and now, for the needs of our physical bodies, that most people give little attention to the needs of the spirit.  But one day, all of that will change.  Regardless of how we may prosper in material things, there will come a day when none of those things can help us.  When we come to the time of our death, the important thing will be our relationship to God.  If we are not right with Him, all will be lost.  Jesus is our way to God (John 14:6).  Only those who believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.  And belief in Him means full submission to Him.

The Serpent in The Wilderness

By Paul Earnhart

The Old Testament is not a law for us to keep today.  Colossians 2:14 says that Jesus took it out of the way and nailed it to His cross.  God speaks to us today in the New Testament.  That does not mean, however, that the Old Testament is worthless.  It is essential to the understanding of the New.  Jesus used many examples from the O. T. to teach us about Himself.  In John 3:14-15, Jesus said “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  Without the O. T. that would make no sense.

When we turn back to Numbers 21, however, we find God’s people in the wilderness traveling toward the land that God had promised them.  God was providing their needs, but instead of appreciating it, they complained.  God was displeased with their grumbling and sent fiery serpents among them so that many Israelites died.  When they pled with God for relief, God gave the following instructions to Moses: “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live.” (Num. 21:8)  Moses made a serpent of bronze and did as God said, and those who looked upon it were healed.

Now you will agree that this was a strange treatment for snakebite.  We understand, of course, that the bronze serpent did not heal them.  It was God who healed them.  He healed those who had faith enough to look upon the serpent.  It was altogether God’s doing; their part was to simply believe.

Today, all of us are the victims of another serpent…Satan.   He has tempted us all and we all have sinned.  Sin is more deadly than snakebite.  We cannot cure ourselves.  But Jesus came and died on the cross and, by looking to Him in faith, we can be healed.  Just as their faith saved them WHEN THEY OBEYED GOD BY LOOKING AT THE SERPENT, our faith in Jesus saves us when we obey Him.  James 2:26 says, “…faith without works is dead.”

The Son of Man

By Paul Earnhart

When Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, He spoke of Himself as the “Son of Man.” (Jn. 3:13)  Jesus used this expression many times to identify Himself.

It was an accurate description for He was most certainly human.  He was born of a woman, a descendant of Adam and of David.  At the same time, it was a description which His enemies could not use against Him.  If He had called Himself the Son of God in the early part of His ministry, they would have killed Him instantly, and His work of teaching could not have been done.

But for those who believed in Jesus, the expression, Son of Man, had special significance.  For one thing, it tended to identify Him with the prophet Ezekiel who was also called the “Son of Man”.  But more than this, it identified Jesus with two Old Testament scriptures which were recognized as prophecies of the Messiah.  One is Psalm 8:4 where the Psalmist wrote: “What is man that You are mindful of Him or the Son of Man that you visit Him?”  The other is Daniel 7:13 where Daniel wrote: “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like the Son of Man was coming.  And He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.”  When Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, He was discreetly claiming to be that Son of Man mentioned in the Psalm and in Daniel.  He most certainly was not denying that He was also the Son of God.

We should be grateful that Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man.  It is this that makes Him our perfect high priest, our mediator and God.  We were separated from God by our sins.  We needed a mediator to plead our case before God, but no man could qualify.  A mediator must be unrelated or equally related to both parties.  As the Son of God, Jesus could stand before God as His equal, and as the Son of Man He understands our weaknesses and can plead with God on our behalf.  He is our pathway to God. (Jn. 14:6)