Follow Him, Boys

John 3:31-36

Main Idea: John provides his disciples three reasons to follow Jesus as the Christ.

1. The Supremacy of Christ (3:31)
2. The Testimony of Christ (3:32-34)
3. The Authority of Christ (3:35-36)

An old Disney movie called Follow Me, Boys was released in 1966, and the plot is pretty simple. The main character, a musician called Lem Siddons, decides to settle down in the small town of Hickory. His plan is to become a famous lawyer and make a difference. Not long after moving to town, he attends a town meeting where a certain single lady catches his eye. In an effort to impress her, he volunteers to start a Boy Scout troop. Over time he invests more and more energy in the troop, and he impacts dozens of young men. He realizes at the end (after winning the woman’s affection, of course) that he made a greater impact investing in the boys than he would have by getting rich. Follow Me, Boys shows the impact one person can have on the lives of others. By choosing to follow this man, these boys learned what it took to become a man. Following the right leader changed their lives.

The previous verses record a conversation between John the Baptist and his disciples. They were concerned everyone was following Jesus instead of John. John made clear his ministry was intended to point people to Jesus. In other words, John wasn’t saying, “Follow me, boys.” He was saying, “Follow him, boys. Follow him.” As chapter 3 comes to a conclusion, we find three reasons to follow Jesus.

The Supremacy of Christ

John 3:31

Jesus is not from here. He may have been born in a stable in Bethlehem, but he existed long before. John the Baptist makes a contrast between himself and Jesus. John the Baptist is “from the earth,” meaning he was born of a human father and mother and came into existence as a human baby. His origin is earthly. Therefore, he belongs to the earth. He’s a normal, ordinary human. Jesus is not from the earth but “from heaven.” His origin is not terrestrial but eternal. He has always existed. Therefore, he is “above all.”

Jesus is supreme. Nothing and no one is greater than Jesus. He has authority over all things. Everything has been put under his rule and control. Consider the majestic redwood trees, some standing more than three hundred feet in the air, or soaring mountain peaks, reaching five and a half miles into the sky. Jesus is greater. Picture the crashing ocean waves or gigantic solar systems. Jesus is greater. Think about Nobel Prize winners or heads of state. Jesus is greater. Jesus is above all. He is supreme over all creation.

Has your life ever felt out of sync? You get up in the morning and feel unmotivated. You get home and you’re too tired to think. You feel like you’re jogging in quicksand. In spite of the energy you’re putting out, you’re just not going anywhere. Your relationships are stalled, and a type of blasé monotony has crept into your soul. We often feel that way when we’re out of sync with Jesus. All of creation exists to serve Jesus Christ. Every atom in the universe was created to fulfill his purpose. Whenever our lives don’t line up under Jesus, we’re out of sync with this world. It’s like riding a multispeed bike for the first time. You go to switch the gears, and there are a few anxious moments in which you’re between gears. The bike lurches slightly, the pedals aren’t spinning right, your heart is in your throat, and then all of a sudden the new gear engages and everything works smoothly. Jesus is supreme over all things, including your life. When you follow him, you’re in gear with God’s world, but when you try to go your own way, all you’re doing is spinning your wheels.

The supremacy of Jesus is easy to state, but it’s not so easy to accept. The Gospels are filled with examples of people rejecting Jesus. These same people would claim to obey God, yet they rejected the one God sent. Every time the Bible states that Jesus came from heaven, it exposes the hypocrisy of the religious establishment. How can anyone be obeying God if he doesn’t listen to the one who came from God, the one God sent? The more often they heard about Jesus’s origin—he was in heaven from the beginning—the more foolish and silly their excuses for not obeying him looked.

For example, in John 9 Jesus heals a man born blind. The Pharisees come out to investigate. At first they dispute the claim that he had been blind. They try to make him out as a fraud. Until his parents show up: “He was born blind,” they say (v. 20). The Pharisees question the blind man again, hoping to get him to denounce Jesus. Since they’re asking all of these questions, the man innocently asks them in verse 27, “Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?” They respond, “You’re that man’s disciple, but we’re Moses’s disciples. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But this man—we don’t know where he’s from” (v. 29). Here’s the gist of their claim: “If we knew Jesus came from God, we would recognize his supremacy, that he is over all. But we do not know where he came from.” The man Jesus had just healed makes this amazing statement to the religious leaders:

This is an amazing thing! . . . You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him. Throughout history no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything. (9:30-33)

With all Jesus has said and done, it’s ridiculous to think he’s from the earth. He must be from heaven. It was clear to a blind man, and it should be clear to us. Jesus came from God. Jesus is God himself, and therefore Jesus is supreme.

The Testimony of Christ

John 3:32-34

In the children’s game of Telephone, someone on one end of a line of kids comes up with a phrase and whispers it in the ear of the child next to him. He is not allowed to repeat it. That child then turns and whispers it in the next person’s ear, and so on until it reaches the last person. The last person in line stands up and tells everyone what he or she heard. After that the person who started shares the original phrase. It’s always funny how much distortion the phrase undergoes as it passes from person to person. When something is relayed over and over, you should be skeptical about how accurate it is. That’s why when someone shares something with us, we want to know how they know. If they saw it or heard it, we’re more likely to believe them than if it came secondhand. Everything Jesus said about God was firsthand knowledge (vv. 32-34). He didn’t need to rely on someone else’s information. He saw and experienced everything he spoke about.

Let’s think about how this works. Do you want to know about heaven—God’s home? A lot of people are interested. In fact, people are so interested they buy a book by a four-year-old child who claims to have visited heaven. Do you know who really knows what heaven is like? Jesus. He’s been there. In fact, he made heaven and lived there for some time; he lives there today. We can trust what Jesus says about life and death, heaven and hell, God and man because everything he says comes from God himself, as Jesus repeatedly reminded people (8:26; 15:15).

Despite the fact Jesus’s testimony is clear and firsthand, it’s most often rejected (v. 32). Only a small minority receives his testimony (v. 33). However, those who do believe show their confidence that what God says is true. They affirm, literally “set their seal,” that God is honest and trustworthy (v. 33). To set a seal is to press a unique emblem into hot wax. You do this over the flap of a scroll or envelope so that if anyone opens it the seal is broken. When a person receives a letter from you, if the seal on the envelope is unbroken and the seal is your seal, he knows that what’s inside came directly from you. When a person believes the testimony of Jesus, he says, “Through Jesus I have heard God, and I testify this message is authentic. It’s not a forgery. I believe the words of Jesus are the words of God.” The opposite is also true—to reject the testimony of Jesus is to reject God himself. If you reject Jesus, you are calling the God of the universe a fraud.

Jesus did not come to deliver his own message but to speak the words of God (v. 34). Jesus came as the ultimate prophet. Prophets in the Old Testament spoke God’s word and were given God’s Spirit with the right amount of power for just enough time to fulfill their tasks, but Jesus was given “the Spirit without measure.” Jesus is absolutely trustworthy. The safest thing to believe in the entire universe is the testimony of Jesus.

The Authority of Christ

John 3:35-36

God has given everything into Jesus’s hands. Jesus has authority over life and death, forgiveness and punishment, salvation and condemnation. Jesus has the power and authority to give eternal life. But he only does so to those who believe in him. Notice that the word believes (v. 36) is not in contrast with does not believe but with rejects. An essential element of believing Jesus is accepting his word and obeying him. You can’t divorce obedience from belief. To believe you must obey what Jesus has commanded. What we believe and how we live are intertwined. Like strands woven together to make a rope, belief and obedience are woven together in salvation. The New Testament teaches that if you don’t turn from your sin to obey Jesus, then you haven’t put your faith in him.

So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7; emphasis added)

Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles. (Rom 1:5; emphasis added)

. . . but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. (Rom 16:26; emphasis added)

This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels, when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thess 1:7-8; emphasis added)

After he was perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Heb 5:9; emphasis added)

For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household, and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? (1 Pet 4:17; emphasis added)

True belief in Jesus is always accompanied by obedience to his Word. When we place our faith in Jesus as Savior, we’re putting ourselves under his authority as Lord. You can’t accept half of Jesus. You can’t say, “Jesus, I’d like you to rescue me from death, but I don’t want to follow you.” It’s a package deal. You either embrace Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or the wrath of God remains on you. Real faith always brings the real fruit of obedience. Faith always bears fruit.

I’ve seen too many parents who say, “I know my child is a Christian.” “How do you know?” I ask. “I remember when she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart.” “Where is she now?” I ask. “Well, she doesn’t go to church. She doesn’t obey God. She lives for money or sex or the weekend. She demonstrates zero fruit of conversion. But I know she’s saved.” Now, I understand why we want to think that, but that thinking doesn’t come from the Bible. Whoever believes, obeys. If they don’t obey, then they never believed. All they did was profess.

Those who hold on to their sin and refuse to follow Jesus are condemned already (John 3:18), and “the wrath of God remains on” them (v. 36). From the moment we’re born as sinners, as rebels against God, the wrath of God—the awesome and fearful justice of God on our sin—is placed on us. By rejecting Jesus as Lord and Savior, by refusing to submit to his authority, we ensure that his wrath remains on us for the day of judgment. But those who believe are granted eternal life. Jesus gives us a gift that cannot be matched. Eternal life has a future perspective. After our bodies perish, we will live forever in heaven with Jesus and the Father. But eternal life also has a present perspective. Eternal life refers to a certain quality of life. John says those who don’t believe “will not see life”—they won’t experience or enjoy life. The life Jesus gives us makes a difference now. We’re made alive in him immediately. We can experience and enjoy true, spiritual life right now.

In the next chapter Jesus describes the life he offers as a fountain of water that springs up inside us and never runs dry. In chapter 6 Jesus gives the bread of life so that we will never hunger. In chapter 8 he gives us the light of life so that we won’t stumble in the darkness. In chapter 10 he promises we will have life and have it abundantly. If you’re a Christian, you should have a different quality of life now than you had before following Jesus. I don’t mean luxury cars, yachts, and hot tubs. Those don’t matter. What does matter is an attitude and perspective on life that only comes from an intimate relationship with the life giver.

Do you realize Jesus created laughter? If you’re following him, laughter should be a part of your life. Jesus created adventure and beauty, everything from sunsets to sailboats; his people should not be bored. We’re told in Scripture that God rejoices over us with singing (Zeph 3:17). He loves us and enjoys us so much that he can’t keep from singing about us. Since that’s true, how do you explain all the people in church with their arms folded across their chests who look like they ate some bad guacamole? God thinks you’re special enough to sing over, but you don’t think he’s special enough to sing about? Christians should be the most exuberant, excited, joyful people on the block. After all, we have an intimate relationship with the Creator of exuberance, excitement, and joy. We are partners with the infinitely happy God, whose Spirit has taken up residence inside us. Our joy at being alive to God should be contagious! We should be like bottles of Pepsi that have just been shaken—ready to burst, unable to contain what’s going on inside.

Believing in Jesus should make a difference now, not just on the day of judgment. When we choose to follow Jesus, we instantly become partakers of his life, and we can for the first time live as God created us to live in joyful communion with him. We can experience in Jesus the satisfaction that’s impossible apart from him. We can be in sync with God and his world. Like starving men, we can run to Jesus and be satisfied forever. For the first time, we can have confidence not in ourselves but in the one who has been given all things by his Father. We don’t need to worry because we are in Christ. We’re no longer dominated by the darkness of sin. We can live in the light of Jesus Christ—abundant life to the glory of God!

In AD 354 one of the great Christian leaders was born. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, has influenced believers for the last sixteen hundred years. You might be surprised to hear the conversion story of this noteworthy Christian leader. Here’s how he describes his life as a young adult:

As I grew to manhood, I was inflamed with desire . . . for hell’s pleasures.

I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lust.

I was willing to steal, and steal I did, although I was not compelled by any lack.

I was at the top of the school of rhetoric. I was pleased with my superior status and swollen with conceit . . . it was my ambition to be a good speaker, for the unhallowed and inane purpose of gratifying human vanity. (Cited in Piper, Legacy, 47)

Sin dominated Augustine. Lust and sensual pleasure held him captive. Though by all outward accounts he had everything together, his soul was empty and unsatisfied. In his heart he was dead. But one day God opened Augustine’s eyes to his own sin and disobedience, and Augustine turned from his sin and followed Jesus—he rejected his disobedience and called out to Jesus to save him. Here’s how he described the moment:

How sweet it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose! You drove them from me, you who are the true, sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place . . . O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, my Salvation. (Ibid., 57)

Listen to Augustine and to John the Baptist before him. Don’t try to find joy yourself, but come to Jesus. Don’t follow your own empty desires, but turn and follow the one who can make you alive! Follow Jesus.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Why should we follow Jesus?
2. How is Jesus “above all”? Why is this good news?
3. Why is the supremacy of Jesus easy to state but difficult to accept?
4. What does it mean to approve or “set a seal”? How does a person set a seal that God is true?
5. How does the difference between Old Testament prophets and Jesus give us assurance of his words?
6. Why is Jesus’s authority good news that we should believe?
7. What is the connection between “believe” and “reject” in verse 36?
8. What always accompanies true belief in Jesus? What does this mean is at the foundational level of disobedience?
9. How does eternal life give us both a future and a present perspective?
10. How does your belief in Jesus make a difference in your daily life?