Pointing One to Jesus
It's amazing how easy it is to read the Bible and miss really important truths…all of a sudden, there it is and you ask yourself, “Why didn’t I see that before?”
In the first chapter of the gospel of John, we hear a lot about John the
Baptist, one of my favorite guys of the Bible.
John developed quite a following of his own in the early days of his
ministry. It seems John had two of
his own disciples with him one day when John pointed to Jesus and said,
“There is the anointed one!” These
two men followed Jesus and “stayed with Him awhile.”
We are told that one of John’s followers who followed Jesus that day
was Andrew.
Yes, Andrew, later to become a disciple of Jesus…Andrew, the brother of
Peter who Jesus would give the keys to the kingdom to…Andrew.
And upon realizing who Jesus was, the first thing Andrew did was to
find his brother Peter and tell him, “I have seen the Messiah.”
One of my favorite translations says, “And Andrew brought Peter to
meet Jesus.” And as Paul
Harvey would say, “and you know the rest of the story.”
My point is that once again, we see John the Baptist pointing to
Jesus…steering his own followers in Jesus’ direction.
John was so selfless…so focused on his mission, and that was to point
out the way…to point out Jesus. What
if John had not shown the way to Andrew?
Would if Andrew had not met Jesus?
What if Andrew had not gone after Peter?
Would Peter have become a follower?
A lot of questions we won’t have to answer…all because John the
Baptist pointed to Jesus, not to himself.
It is amazing how God takes the tiny thread of our life and weaves it into His
great plan for the world. Today
you and I might meet an Andrew…an Andrew who might have a brother who needs
to know Christ. Today we might
have the opportunity to point one to Jesus…and if we point one to
Jesus…who knows?…the world might be changed.
Thanks be to God.