Advance Man
John the Baptist had a difficult job.
Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” - John 3:25-30
John was the advance man, the one who showed up first and got the crowd riled up with expectations.
An advance man is the one who visits a location to get everything ready for the arrival of an important visitor. And for John, that meant getting the crowd riled up.
In modern thinking, John was the marketing guy, or the one who scouts out new locations for a movie shoot.
Only John's approach was unique.
He made himself the talk of the town, so people would come to him. Let's go see that crazy guy who eats locusts and lives in the wilderness, they would say.
By attracting attention to himself, he got their attention and was able to get them to do something to forever set them apart, he baptized them.
Brilliant!
Join my club and find out more about the Messiah, who is not what you think.
How do we emulate John?
What can we do to draw attention to Jesus in our time?
Maybe inviting them to church is not enough. Maybe we need a wild man to go out and be the spectacle.
More to come...