What Did We Say?

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

WHAT DID WE SAY

John 10:40-42

40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed 41 and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.

NIV

Although it seems there are some people, believers, who travel the country putting on large meetings in which they appear to perform healing miracles, in the name of Jesus of course, we see that John the Baptist never did a single miracle. All John ever did was to speak the truth about Jesus. It seems lots of people will travel to watch these healing miracles, but few are willing to listen to the truth about Jesus. Yet here we see that many did believe in him. Was it because they saw him perform miraculous signs or just because of what John had said? It would seem that because many people came to him, it implies he healed them, although it does not say it directly, and it is because of what Jesus did or said which prompted them to remember what John had said about him, claiming him to be the Lamb of God, in fact John said that Jesus was the Son of God. We should make sure what we say about Jesus is the truth, and that what we say is about Jesus. Some Christians invite people to church to hear their pastor preach, but most pastors preach to believers, telling us how we are supposed to live, what our next step is, that we need to support the programs of the church, but few pastors preach the Good News about Jesus, so of what good is inviting people to church. We need to be more like John the Baptist, being a voice in the wilderness, a voice in the world of the unsaved, telling them the truth about Jesus. Many who conduct those Healing services pass the plate more than they tell the people about the Good News. Maybe some people actually get healed, and it appears those who are in charge make it appear it is about Jesus, but when you hear people tell about those services, you do not hear them telling about Jesus, but about so in so, you really need to go see him, he is so good, people are getting healed. What John said about Jesus is true, all that John said about Jesus is true, everything John said was about Jesus, and it is true. What if all we said was about Jesus, about him being the Son of God, about him healing the blind, the lamb, the lepers, about raising sick people, even those who had died. What if we told people nothing about church, nothing about our pastor, nothing about religion, but just about Jesus, and what he does in our life? What if we kept telling how we were healed by Jesus? What if we kept telling the truth about Jesus? What if all we said about him was true? Would many come to him? What does it look like to come to Jesus? Is it about being religious? Is it about being justified, or sanctified, or holy? Is it about living according to a set of rules? Maybe it is about believing in him. Those people, who believed in him, did not belong to some denomination, nor did they have some statement of faith to agree with, or some set of doctrines to adhere to. They only came to Jesus and believed in him and remembered that all John said about him were true. What will people remember about what we said? Will they remember what we said about Jesus is true? What did we say?