John 3:22-24 “After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.
And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.
For John was not yet cast into prison.”

Continuing on in the book of John we see what happened after Jesus and Nicodemus finished talking. Some people would wonder why the conversation seems to end in such an abrupt fashion. However, we need to realize that the conversation probably did not end with verse 21. We can gather from John 21:25 how the scriptures are not an exhaustive second-by-second account of everything happening. I’ve stated for others who have asked questions like “Why doesn’t the Bible talk about ________ or mention _______,” that it simply means the Holy Spirit who told the souls who wrote down these things, saw to it that we didn’t need to know that particular thing. And we can figure that the Holy Spirit is smarter than we are in this matter and therefore do not need specific things stated since what IS stated is enough to cover those other subjects as well. Afterall, should Jesus have to specifically record in scripture “Thou shalt not curse at someone on Facebook?” and since He didn’t mention it does it mean it’s not wrong to do so? Of course not, many other scriptures speak on that issue such as Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”

Getting into the verses though, we can see that after the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus and His Disciples went into the land of Judaea. While there, they baptized people (though in later verses we see that Jesus Himself didn’t do the baptizing but rather His disciples did the baptizing). This is something that we should remember: the importance of being baptized. Jesus saw to it that He Himself led by example in being baptized. Then He tells us we ought to be baptized as well. And we even see that He set His disciples to baptize even while He walked the earth. Baptism is a very important thing that we as believers need to be sure we take part in. It is an open proclamation for all to see, that we have laid to death the old sin nature in us, and are raised up a new creation to live in Christ Jesus and He in us.

We also see in today’s verses, that John was continuing to baptize as he was before, but not in the same exact area. We see geography mentioned yet again for the sake of explaining that these are not vague “theoretical stories” but real historical accounts that are backed by geographical and historical references that we can know even today, 2000 years after the fact.

Verse 23 can give us today, a bit of a humorous opportunity to talk about something. John baptized in that place because there was much water there. It was common sense for John the Baptist to go to a place that had much water in order to baptize people. Some people today can become so …. “religious” or I should say “spiritual/spooky” that they leave behind common sense! Some people will become so religious that if they were in John’s shoes they may very well have said “I can’t leave from the spot where Jesus showed up! It’s so Holy and chosen that I have to stay right here and God will provide the water for me!” The Lord wants us to have enough common sense and brains that HE gave us, to be able to examine things and have us know we ought to go and do as needed rather than having to wait for God to audibly tell us to leave the church building to take a shower because we stink, even though there’s a revival happening, and then go back to the revival after the shower!

The scriptures are sure to include even small details like this to remind us of the world we live in.

We see in the last verse for today, a bit of foretelling. We’re told that this is before John was arrested, so we know that later on at some point in John’s life, he was arrested, and this account was before that time.

I hope and pray that you are blessed in the Lord, and that you continue to bless the Lord in return with songs of Praise and Thanksgiving and a life lived for Him according as Romans 12:1 says. I love you and pray for you daily, and I hope to bring the next study to you again soon as we go through the book of John!

Love always in Christ Jesus,
Your friend always,
And bother,
Michael