Pointing to Jesus.

During World War 2 about 500 American soldiers attended a performance of "Rigoletto" in a great Italian opera house. In the middle of a scene an air raid caused a power failure, leaving the opera house in darkness. One soldier pulled out his flashlight and pointed it toward the conductor. That wasn’t much light, but it helped. Within seconds 500 soldiers had their flashlights out and pointed toward the conductor. The whole stage was illumined. The conductor turned, bowed to the audience, and the opera began right where it has stopped.

John the Baptists role was simple and clear: to point others to the Jesus, the true light.

Like that first soldier, he let his light pierce the darkness and point to the conductor.

Like John's purpose, ours as a church is to point people to Jesus.

Luke 7:24–28 ESV

When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

What are the reasons we attend church?

As we pick up in verse 24 we find that John’s messengers had gone.

They were returning to give John the message Jesus has told them, and to answer the question which Jesus had asked.

Jesus attention now turns to the crowd that is with him.

Remember, Jesus had just been performing some amazing miracles.

Luke 7:21 ESV

In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight.

Now he asks the crowd a question.

What did you go into the wilderness to see?

He then uses a couple of examples that are the complete opposite of what we know to be true about John.

A reed shaken by the wind?

A man dressed in soft clothing?

There are two options with the Jesus referencing a reed.

The first is in reference to comparing John to that of spineless individual.

Someone easily tossed to and fro.

The second is with reference to the beauty of the area.

Both are possible.

Think back with me, what was it that John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized back in chapter 3.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Does that sound like a reed shaking in the wind?

Pastor and commentator Philip Ryken says of John that

Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 The Messiah’s Messenger

He was hardly a reed, blown about by the latest winds of public opinion. No, John was more like a mighty oak tree, standing firm against the rough and stormy gales of opposition.

But the area was also quite beautiful.

Lush and green.

The reeds would grow up to 12 feet tall.

The next statement is very literal though.

What do we also know about John’s clothing, it was made of camels hair.

Matthew 3:4 ESV

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Charles Spurgeon spoke of John’s attire saying

Spurgeon on a man dressed in soft clothing, etc - They do not preach repentance. As is their clothing, so is their doctrine. They try to show a royal road to heaven — a smooth and easy path. But was John the Baptist a preacher of that kind? No, that he was not. John had been preaching in the desert, with all his might warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come. He was no court preacher, but a minister to the multitude, who delivered his heaven-inspired message in his own straightforward earnest style.

The way these phrases are written in the Greek come across more as an affirmative.

Jesus and the people both know their reason for going out to see John.

Have you ever asked a question that you already know the answer to in order to make a point?

Jesus was saying John was John was not just the next cool popular preacher in the out in the wilderness for everyone to latch on to.

In verse 26 Jesus again says - What then did you go out to see.

And now he begins to make his point.

A prophet?

Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

Although God had been silent for many years up until this point.

The people of Israel were no strangers to prophets.

It was a recognized formal role.

A person directed and inspired by God to proclaim His will.

In reality, Jesus was less asking the people what it was that they went to see, and more telling them.

What he was questioning was their motives.

What were their intentions.

Why did they go?

This is a question I think we must ask ourselves as Christians.

Why is it that we go to church?

A pastor is not a prophet in the sense that Jesus, or even John was for that matter.

Jesus work is often referred to as prophetic, priestly, and kingly.

He is the king of all kings, the great high priest, and spoke of his role prophet unlike any seen before because he came from the very presence of God.

Ephesians 4:11–12 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

We know the qualifications to an apostle were to have been with Jesus for his whole earthly ministry, this comes from when they replaced Judas.

No person alive today meets that criteria.

So that sense as changed in that people are sent ones - the meaning of the word, sent with the gospel.

As far as prophets -

First and foremost a prophetic ministry is not primarily about prediction.

It is most often about proclamation.

Simply put a prophet is one who declares the word of the Lord.

Revelation speaks of the two prophets in chapter 11 who will testify against the Lord.

We don’t go to church to see a prophet.

A churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.

"I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!

The church is not a building.

Jonathan Leeman

A local church is a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.

Just as a pastor’s pronouncement transforms a man and a woman into a married couple through the covenant of marriage,

so an ordinary group of Christians spending time together with the purpose of declaring the work of the Lord are a local church.

The gathering is important for a number of reasons.

One is that it’s where we Christians “go public” to declare our highest allegiance.

As a place, it’s the outpost or embassy, giving a public face to our future nation.

And it’s where we bow before our king, only we call it worship.

The gathering is also where our king enacts his rule through preaching, the ordinances, and discipline.

Gospel centered preaching explains the “law” of our nation.

Learning and living the one anothers of scripture.

It declares the name of our king and explains the sacrifice he made to become our king.

It teaches us of his ways and confronts us in our disobedience.

And it assures us of his imminent return.

We are to go to church more than to hear a message, but to serve and be served.

We go to church because it reminds us, and points us to Jesus!

Jesus sought to remind the people of John’s roles, mission, and message.

He was not a merely a prophet.

But he was a man on a mission, with a specific message for a specific purpose.

To point people to Jesus.

God has given us a specific message for a specific purpose.

We can see this from Jesus words about John where he is quoting the OT.

Malachi 3:1 ESV

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

What made John important was who Jesus was.

Since Jesus was the Messiah, John was more than just another prophet; he was the man promised to serve as the Messiah’s messenger (Mal. 3:1).

This made him the last and greatest prophet before Christ.

The other prophets all looked for the Savior from a distance, but John saw him with his own two eyes.

He alone had the privilege of pointing at Jesus and saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Jesus is now reaffirming to those present that John knew who he was, and the mission that he had.

That even amidst his doubts, John was correct, and knew the truth.

Charles Spurgeon spoke that John was not like so many preachers, nowadays, who are swayed by the ever-changing opinion of the age, — the thought of these modern times, — and so prove themselves to be mere reeds shaken with the wind.

It is a temptation for people in authority to give in to popular culture, popular demands.

To adopt what the world says is good and right but it comes at a price.

That price is quite heavy, because it is the price of truth.

John remained firm in his message.

That didn’t mean he didn’t doubt or question, but even is his doubts, he was still looking.

Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?

As Christians today, we have a roll very similar to that of John.

Only in that we are not pointing to the Messiahs coming, but rather to His return.

Christian, you have a specific message, for a specific purpose.

Jesus saves us from our sin.

Puts us in a right relationship with God.

He has made it possible for us to have that relationship.

Jesus is coming again.

Personally and visibly, He is coming back.

In power and glory, He will return to consummate His redemptive mission and to establish His eternal kingdom.

Bible-believing Christians may disagree on some details surrounding the end times, but on this we can agree: Jesus is coming again.

Like John, we have a message that points others to Jesus!

John was great, but we have a greater message than he ever did.

Even with how great John was in his time, the least in God’s kingdom is greater.

Luke 7:28 ESV

I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Do you realize who some of those least are?

That is you and me.

Community Outreach Moves a Neighbor to Consider Christ

There was a church in Compton, California that started an outreach program where they would do a community service day.

One day a volunteer was walking down a side street heading towards one of the worksites.

It was towards the end of the work day, and dozens of yellow-shirted church volunteers—maybe 50 in all—were streaming out of the site, getting ready to head off to lunch after finishing a complete makeover of a local house.

The volunteer was six or eight houses away when he passed a married couple working in their own yard.

He paused to compliment the woman on her roses, and she asked him what they were doing down the street.

The volunteer replied that we represented a band of churches united in our desire to serve the city.

Then they continued chatting about the radical neighborhood transformation she had witnessed the church’s simple acts of goodness.

During the conversation with this woman her husband had been weed-whacking the other side of the front yard.

But when he saw the yellow "volunteer shirt," he turned off his weed-whacker, set it down, and started walking straight towards the volunteer and his wife.

The man made a very striking statement.

He looked into the volunteers eyes, nodded approvingly towards the renovated house down the street and then said, "I love your heart. Where can I get a heart like yours?"

Completely taken back, the volunteer simply said, "We got our hearts from Jesus, and he would be glad to give you one like his, too."

This opened the door for a great conversation about the gospel of Jesus Christ and his power to change hearts, homes, neighborhoods, and cities.

The volunteers pointed people to Jesus through their words and their deeds.

John’s message was great.

Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 The Messiah’s Messenger

even the newest, weakest Christian is greater than John. This is because we have experienced the finished work of Jesus Christ, and therefore, by the witness of the Holy Spirit, we know things that John could only dream of knowing. We know the mercy of Jesus in forgiving our sins through the cross. We know the power of Jesus in rising from the dead. We know the love of Jesus in the free gift of eternal life.

The return of our Lord is the New Testament hope.

We know from scripture that Jesus is reigning and will continue to reign until he has overthrown all his enemies and returns as the judge of the living and the dead.

We can point people to Jesus through our words and deeds.

Charles Dickens wrote in a tale of two cities -

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

With a right biblical perspective, even in the midst of chaos, we truly live in the best of times.

John was great, but we have a greater message than John ever did.

We have the news of the risen savior Jesus!

We can use that message to make an impact on the community around us through our words and through our deeds.

Our purpose as a church is to point people to the only one who saves, the only one who forgives.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Church, let us point each other, and those outside these walls to Jesus with all that we do!

John lived a life with purpose and intention.

The people and tax collectors accepted Jesus message but the religious leaders did not.

What do you come to church for?

To hear a message that simply encourages and tickles your ear?

To see a reed shaken in the wind?

To be patted on the back, to hear good job Christian, keep up the good work?

To come to place of luxury that caters to your every need?