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DIRECTION

A. P. Buchan *

John 3: 27–31; Genesis 24: 61–65; Proverbs 3: 5, 6

I have been thinking, beloved brethren, of the thought of

direction, particularly divine direction. I have enjoyed this week

Mr. Darby’s poem on the wilderness where he says,

‘Rise, my soul, thy God directs thee’. It is a great thing for all of

us to prove divine direction in our wilderness pathway. I

thought it would be appropriate to say a few words about this

for the encouragement of our beloved brother and sister and

indeed for the encouragement of us all.

John the baptist is one who directed to Christ; that is one of

the great features of John. He is a model servant in that he

directs persons to Christ. He could say in the first chapter of

John’s gospel, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the

sin of the world” (John 1: 29). He calls attention to Christ and

indeed our attention tonight has been drawn to Christ, and

while we have our beloved brother and sister much in our

minds tonight I think the Spirit never would fail to bring before

us a fresh view of

* With Christ, 12 December 1987

the glory of Christ on an occasion like this, and that is what

John the baptist does.

In the synoptic gospels we know that John finished his life in

prison, but we do not get that in John’s gospel. The way that

John the evangelist presents the baptist is slightly different

from the synoptic gospels. We do not get John cast into prison

in John’s gospel, in fact it says in chapter 3, “for John was not

yet cast into prison” (John 3: 24). In the synoptic gospels John

the baptist has doubts as to Christ—“Art thou the coming one?