JOHN173 - America Used to Have Bank Runs, Which Are the Worst Kind of Runs
John 3:31-36
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Music by Jeff Foote
1 SPEAKER_00: Back in 1933, we had the runs in America, the bank
runs, which is the worst kind of runs.
And what was happening was we had a Great Big Depression, and
people were hearing rumors that they wouldn't be able to get
their money out of banks.
And so then they would get the runs right to the bank.
And there'd be a bank run, and everybody'd be like, Give me all
my money out of there, because I don't think you're going to have
any left.
And I'm going to got to get ahead of the other people who
are going to try to get their money.
I got to get mine.
And it was causing this panic was sending shock waves through
our already fragile economic system.
And so eventually our president, FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
he got up in front of America and was like, hey, looky here.
We got nothing to fear, but fear itself.
And the larger context of his point was like, yeah, we, I
mean, yes, there is a problem.
Everybody can tell the Great Depression is a problem, but
this is exacerbating the problem.
We can't give ourselves over to panic, settle down.
And I guess that worked.
I mean, I assume that carried the day.
But the saying has vastly outlived the bank run problem
because, well, two reasons, right?
One, the saying clearly made a lot of sense to the original
audience.
They were like, okay, yeah, we've been seeing the bank runs
in our own communities.
That's going to liquefy our system and it could kill us.
And the president's saying we got to knock it off.
Okay, like, you know, we get the point.
And eventually the banks get firmed back up and the bank runs
dry up and everything's better and the problem goes away.
But the saying lives on.
We got nothing to fear but fear itself.
Why?
Well, because it made sense in the original context to the
original audience, and the occasion and circumstances under
which it was said kind of got it into the minds of people.
But then over time, it just proved to be one of those things
that's just, you know, true.
Yeah, panic and freaking out and anxiety can exacerbate something
that was a, you know, sort of problem and turn it into a mega
problem.
So there are times in life and in society where the real thing
to fear is public fear.
Well, likewise, here in John chapter three, at the very end
of the double prologue that makes up the first three
chapters of John, John the evangelist is saying something
that was relevant in the moment.
He was speaking, I believe, maybe not everybody agrees with
me, but I believe he was speaking to a problem that the
original audience in that moment was having to contend with.
And because of how relevant what John was saying here was, it got
into the minds of people.
Everybody really latched onto it because it was very, very timely
and relevant in the moment.
But also it proved to be timeless.
This didn't just apply to one audience or people who spoke a
certain language or lived during a certain decade.
It proved to be, well, like the truest thing ever, the most
resonant thing ever.
I mean, is John maybe the most famous book, most read book
that's ever been written by anyone ever?
It might be.
So you gotta figure it's pretty timeless.
What am I talking about?
Well, let's start with the timely side of what John is
saying here at the end of John chapter 3.
He just got done talking about John the Baptist and Jesus, and
John the Baptist just got done being quoted by John the
Evangelist as saying, Jesus must become greater, and I, John the
Baptist, must become less.
Then John the Evangelist writes this: 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.
Okay, well, who are the two characters here?
Clearly, the one from above is Jesus.
Clearly, the one from the earth is John the Baptist.
The one who comes from heaven is above all.
Okay, so obviously, John's point in the moment is speaking to the
pecking order, the hierarchy of Jesus versus John the Baptist.
Now, John the Evangelist is trying to completely diffuse the
idea that it is Jesus versus John the Baptist, and he is
rightly reframing it as John the Baptist on the same team as and
in support of Jesus.
But we know, as we discussed a couple of days ago, that various
cults and sects of John the Baptist lingered.
Well, I mean, there are a few small ones that still exist to
this day, I believe, in the Middle East.
But we know they were thriving at this point with people who
just really struggled to let John the Baptist go.
It was such a meaningful thing.
It was like going to camp.
You had to be there.
You should have seen it.
It was like a music festival.
It was just crazy.
Like we all went out there in the desert and something
incredible happened.
And John the Baptist was the guy in the middle of it.
It's the closest I've ever felt to God.
And then I know he's really enthusiastic about this Jesus
guy, but John the Baptist is the dude who like he was like my
spiritual dad.
He's the guy who took me by the hand and walked me into the
presence of God.
And I would feel disloyal to him if I too closely followed Jesus.
I'm going to go in the ways of John the Baptist.
That sounds very nice, but it was a problem because the point
of John the Baptist was to point people to Jesus.
So the timely message directed toward John's contemporaries
here would seem to be: hey, there's one who is from above
who is above all.
That's Jesus.
There's one who's from the earth.
That's John the Baptist.
I mean, it's kind of enough said here.
The difference between the two is very obvious.
John the Baptist did not descend from heaven.
He's great, but settle down.
Jesus, on the other hand, did.
The one who comes from heaven is above all.
He, that is Jesus, testifies to what he has seen and heard, but
no one accepts his testimony.
Okay, again, that's in keeping with the initial prologue at the
beginning of John chapter 1.
The light came into the darkness, but the darkness has
not understood it, or at least not very much.
But the man who has accepted it has certified that God is
truthful.
Now, yesterday we talked about the timeless interpretation of
this verse, and that is that raveling idea that Jesus vouches
for all of it.
So even if we don't understand all of it, if we understand the
credibility of Jesus, good enough.
It's a package deal.
It's a tight-knit thing by the knitting together power of
Jesus.
But in the timely sense, I have to imagine the original audience
here was being challenged by John the Evangelist to say,
look, if this is what the scriptures teach, if this is
what Jesus taught, and all of it affirms that Jesus is God in the
flesh, and John the Baptist was a prophetic forerunner, well,
then to follow Jesus is to follow everything Jesus taught.
And the consistent understanding here is what I, John the
Evangelist, am telling you.
Jesus is God in the flesh, John is his forerunner.
He goes on, verse 34.
For the one whom God has sent, that's John the Baptist again,
speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
Okay, so God, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, by the way he
ordains history, he is infusing John the Baptist with the
ability to say things that are true about Jesus.
But God, the Spirit, and the Son, yeah, they're just on
another level.
I mean, John the Baptist isn't part of the Trinity.
The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.
Okay, again, the timely interpretation here for, say,
disciples of John the Baptist who live 10 miles down the road
from John the Evangelist near Ephesus, and they're getting
this and they're reading it.
The application for them here is going to be okay, yes, true.
If the Son is God in the flesh, then God has empowered him with
everything.
All authority is his.
It isn't shared.
John the Baptist doesn't get some, and Jesus gets some, and
they're kind of peers, maybe a little more Jesus.
John the evangelist is trying to say this is absolute.
Jesus is all God, all man.
John the Baptist is a guy, a very important one who God used,
but they're just not on the same tier at all.
Verse 36: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but
whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath
remains on him.
Now, here's where we get some real deviation between the
timely and timeless reading of this passage.
Those disciples of John the Baptist who were still clinging
to the John the Baptist sect 50 or 60 years after the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus, they're imperiling their
souls.
And grandfatherly John the Evangelist, who's writing this
as an old man, is showing compassion toward these loyal
adherents to John the Baptist all these years later.
He's saying, look, guys, this isn't like a no consequence kind
of deal.
If you believe in the Son as John the Baptist wanted you to,
you get eternal life.
But, and reading between the lines a little here, but not too
much, I don't think.
If you keep elevating your old master, your old teacher
inappropriately high up the pecking order, you're doing so
at your own peril.
If you reject the son of God out of some sort of misguided
attempt at loyalty toward John the Baptist, you will not see
life, for God's wrath will remain on you.
It sounds harsh, but in the original context, I think this
is a tender warning.
I'm concerned for your soul, brothers.
This has gone on long enough.
I was there.
I was one of the original disciples of John the Baptist.
I was there when Jesus got baptized.
I was there when Peter, the rock, was called and encountered
Jesus for the first time.
I was there for all the miracles.
I was there when Jesus grieved at the news that his cousin had
been arrested and killed.
I was there for all of it, and so were all of my friends.
And I'm the last one who's still alive, and so I'm the last one
who was an original witness to this, who's still here to tell
you guys you gotta get things straight on who John the Baptist
was and who Jesus was.
And right now you don't have it straight.
Okay, I know I'm not gonna be able to get through all of this
today.
And we made it quite a ways into the timely interpretation of
what was going on here with this little end of the double
prologue.
But we still got to talk about a bit more with this and also the
timeless interpretation.
It's the same words, it's the same meaning, but in the same
way that we got nothing to fear but fear itself is gonna hit
people differently in 1933 than it does now.
So, you know, as we're seeing, I think this passage is gonna hit
the original audience just a little different than it hits us
now, but the same truth applies to both.
So we'll keep unpacking that tomorrow.
All right, that's good for now.
I'm Matt.
This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast.
Let's do this again soon, I'm gonna go to the bottom.