John 3:31-33

³¹ The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³² He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. ³³ Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful.

Voters

In the last race to become the next prime minister of Canada, one prime minister hopeful believed that French-Canadians wouldn’t mind if he wasn’t able to speak French. Unfortunately, his bid to run as the next Liberal party leader was barred by the Liberal party for reasons not even related to his inability to speak French.

Wise voters check the credentials of each candidate during election season. Each one of us has his or her own preference when choosing a candidate to vote for.

Sometimes one might try to convince  others to vote for a certain candidate or party. Some vote for relationship reasons, for ethnicity or dialect reasons, or for religious-leaning reasons. Others vote because of the candidate’s popularity. Still there a few who vote for personal gain or just plain guessing game.

Last Wednesday, we learned that Jesus must become greater in us, and we are to become less.

Why should we let Jesus become greater in us? Is it not enough for us to have Him as our Saviour? Why should we let Jesus be the Lord of our life? Why do we need to have Jesus be the driver of our life?

We can observe that John the Baptist focused the attention to Jesus after his disciples inquired about Jesus.

Jesus is magnified more thoroughly in the latter part of John chapter 3.

After talking about eternal life that is received by whoever believes in the Son of God, John explained the credentials Jesus has as the worthy Saviour of those who believe.

What are Jesus’ credentials as ruler of our life?

1.  He has the authority over all things

³¹ The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 

³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 

Verse 31 says, “The one who comes from above is above all” twice. First at the beginning of verse 31 and in the same verse ending with same phrase “The one who comes from heaven is above all.” We can see another reminder of this in verse 35 says, “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.”

Take note that writers in the Bible repeated some phrases. Repeated phrases in the Hebrew literature are to emphasize or to drive some points. Repetition means emphasis.

The author of the Gospel of John is saying:

John the Baptist is not the Saviour but a servant.

John the Baptist is from the earth.

John is a messenger. He is a preacher.

He preaches about Jesus—the Son of God

John the Baptist points to Jesus—the One who has authority over everything in Heaven and Earth because God the Father has given Him all things.

Jesus is the Messiah,  not the preacher John the Baptist.

      Jesus is from above and above all.

      God has placed everything in Jesus’ hand.

Jesus is the One whom we should follow instead of the pastor or the preacher.

In the next verses, we can see that multiple times Jesus was mentioned as having authority above all things that God gave.

Daniel 7:13-14 ¹³ “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. ¹⁴ He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. 

Matthew 28:18 ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Luke 10:22 Jesus says, ²² “All things have been committed to me by my Father.  

John 17:1-2 ¹ After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ² For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 

1 Corinthians 15:27 ²⁷ For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.

 Ephesians 1:20-22 ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

 Philippians 2:9-10  ⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

 APPLICATION:

While living on earth, we will experience things that other people experience. We are not exempt from problems. We are not exempt from sickness, neither are we excluded from experiencing good health and abundance.

The Christians’ advantage is having Jesus Christ as our refuge, our fortress, our master, our boss whom we can run to in times of trouble or stress.

As long as Jesus is the Lord, the master, the big boss of your life and you are trusting Him alone for your eternal life you will experience a glimpse of life in eternity now.

You may be in sickness or in health, in abundance or in need, with problem or without problem. The reality is: all of us will face death.

The best thing to keep in mind is we should always be with Jesus with or without problem to maximize our relationship with Him.

Follow Jesus Christ who is from heaven if you want to have a heavenly character.

If you follow Pastor Lorenz who is from the earth, you will have an earthly character. 

Another Credential Jesus has is…

2.  He has the credibility to testify

³² He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. ³³ Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 

Jesus our Saviour and Lord is the most credible witness about God and His love for us. Jesus talks only about what has been seen and heard, and not what others have seen or heard. Jesus has the firsthand experience of what heaven is.

But since humans who are from the earth cannot conceive in our mind what heaven is or who God is, humans do not accept Jesus’ testimony.

Witness

There was an episode of Judge Judy in which she was clarifying something to a person. The person wanted to put the blame on another man by reporting that the police found some evidence of an empty shell from the backyard of the still another person but the so-called evidence was not available to be presented during the court hearing.

Judge Judy clarified that a witness should have the firsthand experience of the event, incident, or occasion to be accepted as exhibit or demonstration of evidence in the court of law.

However, even if many times that person says, “but I know a guy who says he saw a guy”, it will not count as a true witness who is described as one that touched, seen, heard, smelled, or even tasted something from the incident or occasion. Meaning—a witness to be credible, reliable—he or she must have an immediate, direct, or actual experience of his or her testimony.

APPLICATION:

There’s a lot of people testifying that they came back to life after they died. These people who left their earthly bodies returned to tell of their experience of the afterlife. Some say that they passed by a tunnel to a bright and shining light.

Others say that they saw and heard angels singing.

They claim that they experienced eternity.

But the response of the world is that they were crazy. They were just under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the time they supposedly went to heaven. They were just dreaming.

Luke 16:31 ³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Verse 33 from our passage says, ³³ Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 

This is plain and simple. If you trusted Jesus and obey His commands, you are testifying that God is truthful.

We are trusting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour because He has all authority to govern all things. Jesus has the credibility to testify of what He has seen and heard because he came from heaven.

Jesus is not simply a great teacher or a prophet; He is the One who came from above—He is above all.

Our passage tonight reminds us that Jesus did not speak from human opinion or limited earthly understanding. He came from heaven, and He speaks from firsthand knowledge of divine truth.

Though many rejected Him, His testimony remained unshaken. He didn’t speak to gain favor with people. He spoke eternal truths, whether or not people received them.

In our world today, there are countless voices offering opinions, philosophies, and even distorted versions of spiritual truth. But only Jesus can speak as the One who has seen and heard the realities of heaven. That is why we trust Him. That is why we build our lives on His words. He is not offering us ideas from earth—He is delivering the truth from heaven.

As we continue in our smaller groups tonight, ask God to give you reminders of why Jesus is worthy to be our Lord and Saviour because He is the only Lord and Saviour we should have.

Ask God to reassure our hearts that we are following the living Word made flesh—the One who came down from heaven to testify of what heaven is like.

Let us then hold on to Jesus’ words with reverence and confidence. Let us not treat His testimony lightly. And let us open our hearts daily to receive all that He reveals.

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