Pointing the way

A lot of times, Christians get scared about sharing Jesus with their family and friends.

Part of the reason is that they think they have to have certain qualifications to do so. Or that they need special Bible knowledge to answer all possible questions.

Certainly it helps to have these things. And as we grow in our faith, we should grow in the knowledge of our Savior.

But as we see from this passage, our main responsibility is not to convince people, but to point the way to Jesus.

We see this with John the Baptist first. When the priests and Levites came out to question him, they immediately asked for his qualifications. Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you the Prophet?

When John said no, they then asked him, “What then gives you the right to baptize?”

I wonder how John felt? Did he at all feel uncertain or intimidated by these people trying to stare him down?

One would think not, considering how he had lashed out at people like these before. But still, it can be tough when you’re facing a bunch of people with “qualifications,” all of them hostile to you.

I don’t know if it happened this way, but I wonder if it was at that moment that John saw Jesus returning from the desert. I wonder if it was because he saw him, that John said to them,

“I baptize with water…but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” (John 1:26-27)

In other words, “If you’re asking my qualifications, I’m a nobody compared to the one who’s coming after me. In fact, he is right here, right now. And I’m not even worthy to be his slave.”

People may question our “qualifications.” But let us remember that we are not preaching ourselves, but Jesus.

We are not preaching how great we are, but how great Jesus is. And so when people question our qualifications, we should point not to ourselves, but to Jesus.

The next day, John once again pointed the way to Jesus, and then again the following day. As a result, two of John’s disciples immediately left him and started to follow Jesus.

One thing we should remember is that we are not trying to make people disciples of ourselves, but of Christ. It is him we should teach people to rely on, not ourselves.

That’s what John did, and I imagine he was ecstatic to see his disciples go after Jesus.

These disciples quickly followed up on John’s example. First, they brought Peter (Andrew’s brother — Andrew was one of the two who left John to follow Jesus).

Then after Jesus called their friend Phillip, Phillip got into the act by bringing Nathanael to Jesus.

But Nathanael was very skeptical when they told him of Jesus, saying,

Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? (46)

As you can see, Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, did not exactly have a sterling reputation for producing prophets, or anything else spiritual for that matter.

But Phillip didn’t argue with Nathanael. All he said was, “Come and see.”

And when he brought Nathanael to Jesus, it was Jesus who did the convincing.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t make the effort to answer people’s questions. We should.

But ultimately, answering their questions will not save them. Only Jesus can.

You will never argue a person into heaven. And so after dealing with their questions, we should tell them as Phillip did. “Come to Jesus. You will see.”

How about you? Are you pointing the way to Jesus to the people around you?