"The one who comes from above is above all..."

Reading John 3:31-36
"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. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

This is John the Baptist's testimony concerning Jesus. John met Jesus as a man, as he met every other human being that came to him to be baptized. There is no human explanation for how John saw Jesus as distinct from everyone else that had ever lived. Nothing short of an aboslute and clear revelation from heaven could have given him the perspective that he shares here.

John begins by contrasting Jesus with himself. This is a good starting point because John was accepted as a great prophet by the people. As many as two million people came to him to be baptized. John was the central figure of the greatest revival that Israel had ever seen. John is referred to as the greatest of all the prophets. So to start by comparing Jesus to himself was to take a very high point of comparison. John does not simply say that Jesus is an even greater prophet than he is. John tells us that the origin of Jesus, the roots of Jesus being, are located in a radically different place than his own. John is a man, a great man, an influential man, God's man, but JUST a man, he is "from the earth" and "belongs to the earth." Jesus, on the other hand, is also a man, but not JUST a man. Jesus is "the one who comes from above," "the one who comes from heaven." This removes Jesus from the lists of the "one hundred greatest people that ever lived" category, and places him in a category of his own, a category that John repeats twice for emphasis. Jesus is "above all."

Everyone else "belongs to the earth." Jesus belongs to heaven.
Everyone else "speaks as one from the earth." Jesus speaks as someone from another place.
Everyone else speaks what they have received second hand. Jesus "testifies to what he has seen and heard."
Everyone else speaks words from God. Jesus "speaks the words of God."
Everyone else has a given measure of the Spirit. Jesus has "the Spirit without limit."

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

The fate of every human being that has ever lived and that ever will live turns on whether they accept or reject Jesus. "Whoever rejects the Son will not see life."

This is the Jesus that you can talk to today. The Father has placed everything you could ever need in his hands. The same hands that received the nails because of our sin, now offer us everything. He has forgiven and has paid the full price for all of our sin. John knew that there was no one else like him. Do you?