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Pointing Beyond
John 1:29-42
01/20/2008
A man was out canoeing on an unfamiliar river. He was having a great time, enjoying the scenery, paddling along blissfully. Suddenly he heard a roar, and realized he was going to go over a huge waterfall. He paddled for shore, but couldn't make it. Just as the canoe went over the brink, he jumped and caught hold of a branch on a snag trapped at the top of the falls.He thought this called for drastic application of his meager faith, so he prayed out loud, “Lord, please help me!” Almost immediately a voice boomed out of the heavens. “This is the Lord. I will help you. Let go of the branch.” “What?!!!?” “Let go of the branch. This is the Lord. I will save you.” “You want me to let go of the branch?” “That’s right. Let go of the branch and I will save you.” “You’re the Lord, right?” “That’s right. Now let go of the branch.”The man thought for a minute. He didn’t know how long he could hold on. Then he yelled, at the top of his voice, “Is anyone else out there?” Has God ever told you to do something which seemed utterly ridiculous? Last week we talked about orders God has given each of us. This week I want to follow that theme by asking you to consider one of the strangest directives God calls any human to perform.In our text for this morning we see the story of John the Baptist who was known as quite a showman. John had a large following. Here he was at the Jordan River, as well as elsewhere, in his camel skin toga with a weight lifter belt around his waist. He was a great fan of those honey roasted locusts. Now if a guy like this looked at you and said, “Repent!” what would you do? And he had a lot of success. But there is one element of John which always amazes me. Always he was insistent that he was not the main attraction. Another One who was coming was! And when he baptized Jesus and saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending upon Jesus he immediately changed his entire operation to focus, not on himself but on Jesus. He says that he is not even worthy to untie Jesus’ shoe.In fact the next day when he saw Jesus walking up he tells everybody, “This is the One, the One I’ve been telling you about, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Let me tell you about it! Well, that was easy to give lip service to, but really, how do we know he meant it? Here is how:
When this happens the next day again, two of John’s disciples turn and begin to follow Jesus. Now here is the test of ego. Your students follow someone else. Would you let them go? John doesn’t say a word. He is content that the greater One is glorified. That is his chief concern. And it is so contrary to human nature. All through school and college we are taught that we need to study and strive and contrive to get ahead. If you want to be comfortable you have to know how to promote yourself and what you can do. We usually measure success by how much our following has grown, how big of a raise we have gotten, how many promotions we have accumulated. Promoting someone else ahead of ourselves makes about as much sense as letting go of a branch at the top of a waterfall. Not so with John. He figured he succeeded because he pointed, not to himself, but to Jesus.My friend, who is it that you have spent your life’s energy promoting? I’m not against success, and I’m not against doing what we do to the very best of our ability. But there are so many things which consume our time and our energies and our lives which are of little or no consequence to the Kingdom of God. And everybody but God thinks it ought to be that way.[37-38]saw or noticed or beheld = perceived, understood. Jesus, this account indicates, looked into their heart and saw their following. And He asked a very penetrating question: What do you seek? Think about it. They never answered His question. I can see them stammering, “WWWWWelllll, Uhhh. Where you staying, Lord, where did you find a room.” Jesus, however, does not let them off that easy. He doesn’t tell them. He says, come and then you’ll see. That’s the way it is with Jesus. We think we can learn to be a disciple from books, or seminars, or classes. But as helpful as those things may be, if we really want to know about the things of Christ, and He sees our following, often He just says, get up and start walking with me and you’ll discover.Jesus, I believe, asks us that same question: What do you seek? Where is your treasure? The famous British sculptor John Bacon, left an inscription to be placed on his tomb in Westminster Abbey: “What I was as an artist seemed of some importance to me while I lived; but what I was as a believer in Jesus Christ is the only thing of importance to me now.” So often as Christians I think we do not realize the great treasure we already have simply in being a follower of Christ. So we go on in search of something better, always over the horizon, like those who, in the 16th century journeyed all the new world in search of Eldorado, the fabled city of Gold. It was never found. I wonder if we have ever stopped that search. There just has to be something greater over the next horizon. So we plan, and we strategize, and we fight and we claw our way to the top, only to realize when we get there that it is empty.
One of those two who first followed Jesus was Andrew. This was a man who knew he had found a real treasure. We don’t see much about Andrew in scripture, but when we do, it is interesting to me to note that he is usually doing just what we see here: bringing someone else to Jesus. He knows this treasure is so great that he can’t help but share it! You can just see the joy on his face as he realizes he has found the Messiah. So he goes to the person most of us would never go to, his own brother. I don’t know why it is often so hard to live out our faith in Christ in front of those in our own families. Perhaps they know us too well. But Andrew doesn’t care. He goes as quickly as he can and finds his own brother, Simon, and the two of them follow Jesus.Andrew cared less about the possible rejection from his family than the kingdom of God. What about us? What about our own families? Are we Christians everywhere but there? If we have become a follower of Christ, we ought to point the way, starting with those closest to us. If we really treasure the Lord it will happen.Let me summarize what I have been trying to say by saying this. In the Baptism of Jesus, in the ministry of John the Baptist, and in the story of the very first disciples, constantly we see that all signs and all activities, and everything that was done pointed, not to any human being, but to Jesus Christ. As we go forward in this church I pray that we can say that of our church. We, as individuals, and as a church, must not forget Who we are following! We are not here to congratulate ourselves, but to point to Christ. So it is with your life. In the Psalms and I have been astounded at the number of references to the fact that all of the created order attests, not to the goodness in itself, but to the goodness of God. The only part of the creation that needs to be reminded is us.The man at the top of the waterfall had a decision to make. He could hold on to what he had accomplished and die. Or He could reach for the Lord and find himself in the arms of the Savior. What are you grasping? To what do you cling?The hymn writer wrote: His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid Rock I stand; All other ground is sinking sand. When all is said and done, may it be said of our lives that we pointed beyond ourselves.
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