We recently had our water heater replaced. When you look at an appliance like that, you realize how many valves, knobs, and connectors it has. Each one performing a very specific function that if left undone will not let the heater do its job. A valve, for example, has one arrow for “open” and one arrow for “close.” And it allows or blocks water from flowing through the pipe. That’s all the valve does – and yet it’s a very important function.
John the Baptist is like that. He does, what may seem like on the surface, a very simple job: point to Jesus Christ. But if we think that way, we’re forgetting what that pointing entailed and what it was for.
It entailed turning the hearts of people to the Lord and making ready a people prepared for Him (vv. 16-17). And beyond that, God had chosen and appointed John, from the womb, to do this monumental ministry. The angel, upon announcing John’s birth, tells his father that John “will be filled with the Holy Spirit” while still in the womb (v. 15) – the only person in the New Testament to have this distinction.
John, by God’s power, was to be like Elijah, turning the hearts of family members so that they would be reconciled. And causing those disobedient to God to adopt the attitude of the righteous (v. 17). God was going to use John to bring about many conversions to Himself.
Why? So that a people would be prepared for Christ – His people, a saved people.
And the way John performed his function was simple. He couldn’t turn a single heart. But he, being filled with the Holy Spirit and set apart by God to be in the spirit and power of Elijah (v. 17), could turn and point people to the One who could turn any heart: Jesus Christ the Lord. That’s what John did until his death. He was a human arrow, pointing one way – to the Lord, the Savior, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world and make a people’s hearts ready to receive and follow their Messiah.
This means that when we read the Advent story, and we read about John in it, we have to ask ourselves this question: Is my heart turned to Christ? Do I have a new heart, no longer disobedient to God but thinking and walking in righteousness?
The Spirit of God in John drove John to point away from Himself to Jesus Christ. John always decreased in his own eyes and in the eyes of the public so that Jesus might increase. That’s what a heart turned to Christ does. It simply fixates on Christ.
So, like John, let’s be filled with the Spirit by believing in what Christmas is all about – Christ – and focusing our hearts on Him – in prayer, in thought, in word, and in deed.
Who knows – perhaps the Lord will graciously use our pointing to point others to His Son?
