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so attractive to these two men that they follow Him. You would
not want to attract anybody to yourself; you would not be a
true servant if you did that. You would like to be able to be just
a signpost to point persons to Christ. John said, “I am the
voice of one crying in the wilderness”.
They wanted him to make something of himself. They sent
priests and Levites to him. Well, that would tend to ennoble
him. That importance would attach to him that they would send
priests and Levites to talk to him. They said to him, “What
then? Art thou Elias? and he says, I am not. Art thou the
prophet? And John said, I am the voice of one crying in the
wilderness”. This is a true servant. They said, “Why baptisest
thou then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?”
John said, “In the midst of you stands, whom ye do not know,
he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not
worthy to unloose”. How true a man John was; he could not be
moved to make anything of himself. So it is a beautiful setting
here; these two men come on the scene and are attracted to
Jesus, and it speaks of Jesus turning. He turned, and saw
them following.
I like the way persons come under the Lord’s notice in John’s
gospel. The Lord is interested in anybody who wants to know
Him. If there is a boy or a girl here who wants to know Him, the
Lord is interested. He would turn to speak to you, so great a
Person, the One upon whom everything is dependent for God
and for men. He is so great and yet He is prepared to turn in
relation to these two men who are interested in Him. He raises
a challenge; he says, “What seek ye?” They, said, “Rabbi ...
where abidest thou?” They were saying in effect, ‘Where could
such a great Person as Thou dwell? What kind of dwelling
would you have?’ In the world you would think of a great man
having
a great house. But the Lord says, “Come and see”. Well, they
must have been impressed with the Person and the dwelling
because Andrew immediately goes and finds his own brother