(John 1:37)
�And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.�
Today�s text verse marks about the last we�ll hear of John the Baptist. From the human standpoint that sounds somewhat sad. After all, here was a very notable person. John wasn�t just another �store front preacher� walking around the countryside. John may well have been a voice crying out in the wilderness; but, such was his voice that multitudes of persons came out into that same wilderness in order to hear him speak the oracles of God.
John, however, wasn�t too concerned about this situation. He would say, alone with the apostle Paul, �I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.� (II Timothy 4:7-8)
Those are verses which we have all repeated. Many of us have memorized them. We use them at funerals when we honor a Christian who has passed from this life unto the next.
But, have we ever stopped to think about what these verses really say?
Paul was writing, here, to Timothy. Timothy was a young man who had rece3ntly entered the service as a minister of Paul�s Lord. The Book, Itself, was written to give instructions to this young man.
What Paul was actually saying was, �My time is up. It�s your turn to carry the ball. I have done the best possible job; now it is up to you to finish up because I won�t be able to do so.�
And, about this, Paul was exceedingly happy. He may have felt a tinge of regret that he�d not be able to continue his own work. But, he knew that he was replaceable. Paul was to have his reward. Part of that reward was seeing the work continue in hands that were, likewise, yielded to the Lord.
Recently I have been reading some books written by a former pastor and evangelist. He passed from this life to the next back around 1990. His work continues. Not by me, I�m just reading his words and being blessed by his record of his own life for the Savior. His work continues among those many which he sent out into the fields for his Master. Young people sat under his ministry and labor in the fields for the same Lord.
Our job, as both ministers of the Gospel and as Christians, is to send others into the spiritual fray. The Spiritual war doesn�t cease simply because we grow old and retire. In may respects, as I grow older I see the war getting hotter. Some of the challenges which the young people of today will face in the world of tomorrow were completely unheard of in days gone by.
I am fairly certain that D. L. Moody never considered that a television program would impact upon the possibility that people would come to his meetings to hear the Gospel message. I am reasonably certain that Billy Sunday never considered that the very public schools, to which his own tax dollars gave support, would strive to marginalize the message of the Truth of Jesus Christ. I am sure that men such as Washington and Madison would have never foreseen that the very freedom of religion which was written into the Constitution of the United States would become a cudgel to beat the voice of Scripture from the public marketplace of ideas.
But, God, the Lord of History, knew all that would happen. He provides the leading of the Spirit to enable His faithful to continue to spread the message that Jesus died in time so that we might live in eternity.
That is just another reason why we ought not attempt to draw people to ourselves, or to our ministry. Instead, we should point them to Jesus!
That is what John did.
Look, first, at the hearers of John. �And the two disciples��
Our text verse this week is John 1:37. Take a look back at what John the Baptist had said back in John 1:36 - �And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.�
John led his followers to the Lord. Here was John, a notable preacher and religious teacher, he had a band of men who followed his preaching and his person. But, John pointed over at another and said, �Behold the Lamb of God.�
I can preach politics and attempt to change the current world situation. I can preach with an amount of humor and attempt to gain a crowd of hearers for a short time. I can preach literature and try to educate people in the knowledge of the world. Or, I can preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and attempt to change the soul direction of men from the path which leads to destruction and on the to the path which leads to life eternal.
Only the latter situation is reasonable in the light of eternity. Only the latter situation is reasonable in light of the needs of humanity. Only the latter situation is reasonable in light of the sacrifice and direction of the Lord I claim to serve!
We preach Jesus in order to change the world one person at a time. This is a real change which causes a soul to find true freedom from sin and direction in his life.
I recently read that a man who sees a crowd is going, and then jumps in front of the parade, is often considered a leader.
Folks, we don�t want to be leaders. Our desire should be to be pointers. Leaders get too excited about their popularity and position. We should be pointers. A pointer is one who is concerned with what he has seen.
We have seen Jesus. We need to be as was John the Baptist, and point men and women to the face of the Lamb of God.
Even the language of John sent his friends to the Lord.
It is very easy for our language to do the exact opposite. For several years my wife was in charge of the local Labor Day parade. One of my duties as her husband, she let me know about it!, was to sell advertisements in the brochure which helped to finance that parade.
One year our insurance agent took out an ad. His name was misspelled by the printer. He called me into his office and �read me the riot act� for this oversight. The company name was right; the office address and phone number were right. But, his name had an �e� instead of an �o,� or some such thing.
Several years later I transferred our auto insurance from his company to another. He asked why. I mentioned that scathing conversation from him. His response was that I was a terrible Christian because I transferred my business.
Folks, we were both wrong. He was wrong to treat a customer so shabbily. I was wrong to react by finding a new insurance agent. Who was �more wrong?� Well, his words cost him a customer. My words may well have cost a soul an eternal habitation in the glories of Heaven!
So, who was more wrong? No contest, is it!
May we be careful when, and how, we speak. Our Christian life is not a nine-to-five job.
As we consider the �professional� career of John the Baptist, we can see that John�s longing fled to the Lord.
Now, there are two ways to consider this. First, from a personal standpoint, John was busy preaching about the Lord Who he wanted to see come into the world. John was very interested in the coming of the Lord. This was the theme of his own ministry.
To see Jesus come was a vindication of the ministry and life of John. He had been preaching about this day. Now people could look and see the truth of his own message.
To see Jesus come was the vocation of the ministry of John. I worked, for a short time, making garage doors. A good feeling was produced when I saw a garage which had the doors I had a part in making. John had more than a good feeling when Jesus came upon the stage. This Lord was He Who would save the world. John had a part in preparing the world to come to that salvation.
To see Jesus come was a victory for the ministry of John. John had preached repentance. Now, with the coming of Jesus, there was a means of true repentance available to sinning mankind.
That, really, is part of the longing of John�s ministry as well. John longed to have people born into the Kingdom of God. The coming of Jesus gave truth to the fact that there was a way for true salvation from sin, and true peace with God.
We also notice the heralding of John the Baptist. ��heard him speak��
This was not a new thing for John to do. When he spoke of �The Lamb of God,� his own disciples knew exactly what he meant. John had been speaking of this coming Savior for the entirety of his ministry. He about Whom John made this statement was the One for which those disciples had been searching.
John searched for Jesus.
Linda and I were election judges together several times. On some of these occasions problems would arise. I recall one time when we were preparing to close up shop after the polls had closed for the election. All we had to do was to balance our ballot count with the number of valid applications for ballots. We were one off!
We searched everywhere for that one ballot. It had to be somewhere. We had been careful in the distribution of the ballots. It had been a very busy election, but that had only increased our scrutiny. We just could not figure out why we were one ballot short. We counted and recounted. We checked, and rechecked the ballot box.
No luck.
Finally we found our problem. One of the ballots had not fallen completely into the bottom of the ballot box. It was still partly hanging. When we found it we were quite relieved. �Now, we can turn in all these supplies and go home for the night!�
John had searched for the coming Savior. He had expected first one, and then another. But, no, God had told him that this was not the one. Then John found Jesus. Jesus was the One for Whom John had been searching.
Such joy filled the heart of John as he realized that he had finally come upon the One.
There had been great crowds hearing John speak. But, all those thousands had not filled his heart with such joy as did the sight of the Savior.
But, john did more than just search for the Savior. John sought the Savior.
One night when our daughter was very young, she told us that she wanted to go to her Grandmother�s. We told her that she could. We were going to go over there to do a load of laundry.
Both Linda and I heard the door close. I thought it was Linda taking a basket of clothes out to the car. Linda thought it was me taking a load of clothes out to the car. No. it was our then three-year-old daughter going to Grandma�s house.
Except, she didn�t know the way!
She was found, almost two hours later, sitting quietly in a restaurant about three blocks from our house. A worker there had seen her wandering around and had taken her in to have some ice cream - and to sit still so the authorities could be called.
We had not been simply searching for her. We had �sought� her. We didn�t just want to find her. We wanted to find her and hold her. We didn�t simply want to see our little daughter. We wanted to welcome her back into our arms.
We were not just looking; we were seriously looking!
John sought Jesus with this fervor. He didn�t want to simply find the Savior. He seriously wanted to find that relationship with the Savior about which he had preached.
Many people look for religion. John looked for the Savior. Many people hope for a home in Heaven. John looked for the Lord of Heaven. Many people want the peace that comes from true religion. John longed for the Prince of Peace.
John wasn�t interested in just going to church on Sunday morning. John was too busy being interested in finding the Lord of the church to waste his time with simply going through the formalities of public worship. John was looking beyond even worship as he searched for a relationship!
John had such a complete, and compelling, interest in Jesus that he spoke often of the Savior. Jesus was the content of his sermons. Jesus was the content of his life among the brethren. Jesus was the content of his teaching to his disciples.
John spoke of Jesus at every opportunity he found. I suspect that he made a few occasions into opportunities because he was so interested in the subject of the Savior.
I heard that if one wants a full time job all he has to do is pet a dog on the head one time. The dog will make that into a full time job!
We need the perseverance of that dog. We need to be so enamored of the touch of the Master�s hand that we seek this out time and time again.
That type of devotion will cause us to speak naturally of the Savior.
�What was on T. V. last night?� �I don�t know. I wasn�t watching. I was caught up in going over our Sunday School lesson.�
Opportunities abound for conversations about Jesus when we commit our thoughts and desires toward him.
John knew the reason that this is so. John spoke of the Hallowed One. ��and they followed Jesus.�
John did not consider Jesus as an important part of his life. John considered Jesus as the purpose of his life.
John even considered the Lord as more important than himself. John was anxious to give whatever popularity he had earned in his ministry, to Jesus.
Most of us, when we are asked why we are so slow to witness, will say that we are just too shy.
Strange.
I remember my grandfather. Years ago he would run an extension cord out into his front yard so he could listen to the baseball games under a shade tree. He would sit there and argue balls and strikes with the umpires he couldn�t see, about pitches he couldn�t see on the radio.
Most of us are not too shy to root for our favorite baseball team.
But, we are too shy to share the good news that Jesus died in time so that we could live in eternity.
Strange.
John wasn�t too shy. He didn�t care what anyone might think about him. He just wanted to share the message of the coming Savior!
John gave true praise to Jesus. I was looking for something a couple of days ago. I just couldn�t find it anywhere. At my age I do that a lot! Anyway, when I found it I said, �Thanks, Lord.�
Some might call that sacrilege. I call it worship. In I Thessalonians 5:17, Paul asked that the Christian, �Pray without ceasing.� In order to do this we need to be in constant contact with God. We need to be aware of His presence. We need to acknowledge His presence
The story is told of a cowboy out in the old west. He came upon a man stuck up to his neck in quicksand. �I�ll help you out,� the cowboy said, and tossed a rope to the man in the quicksand. The cowboy put the rope around his saddle and pulled with all of his, and his horse�s, might. Nothing happened.
�I�m going to have to go get some help,� the cowboy said. �You�re wedged in too tight for me to get you out.�
�Wait,� cried the man in the quicksand. �Do you think it�d help if I took my feet out of the stirrups?�
We need to be like that man stuck in the quicksand. We are not going through this life alone. God is carrying us through our times of trial, despair, and joy. Realize this and hold on.
In all things John gave preeminence to Jesus.
Jesus was the subject of his preaching. Jesus was the substance of his faith. Jesus was the Savior of his soul.
In all things John realized how blessed he was that Jesus cared for him.
What about you? Do you know that Jesus cares about you? Have you accepted Him as your own Savior? Why not do so today?
He is the Lamb of God and He wants to be the Savior of your soul!