TeenUp - The Human SignPost

We are Signposts for Jesus (John 1:19-34)

This past June, the youth and I from Spirit of Faith Church attended a mission trip to Loveland, Colorado. To get us there, we organized multiple fundraisers, one being a church-wide Garage Sale, which took a lot of planning and preparation. Surprisingly, one of the most important components of a successful garage sale is the signs. We spent days developing signs that would most clearly point people to our sale. 

In the Bible, we also see this concept of signs or signposts pointing to something. However, the actual signposts are human beings - us. God calls us to be signposts pointing to Jesus Christ. This means no matter where we are (at school, home, kicking back with friends, the movies, parties, etc…) our posture, the way we act, and the things we do and say should be in some way directing people toward Jesus. That's right -  away from us, and toward the One we serve.

We see an excellent example of this in John Chapter 1. This is where we find John the Baptist being interrogated by the religious authorities of his day because of what he was saying, doing and how he carried himself. John was testifying about the One who was to come and baptizing people in preparation for His coming. What really stands out here is that John consistently deflected all the attention he received and instead pointed to Jesus. When asked if he was the Messiah, he professed, " 'I am not' but let me tell you about the One who is." John's whole purpose was directing people toward Jesus Christ.  

We are all a signpost for something in our lives; that is, we all point to and represent something. John attracted attention with his message and life, but deflected all of it from himself and directed it towards Jesus. How are we doing that today? Are we being good signposts for Jesus? Are we more concerned with drawing attention to something about ourselves or with showing people who Jesus is by the way we conduct ourselves?

Sometimes our pointing is obvious and others times it is more subtle. But the point (pun intended) is we should never forget the One whom we are pointing to. As Joel E. Kim puts it:  "A good signpost does not demand attention for itself, but points to an impending reality [Jesus]. Moreover, a good signpost is judged not by its beauty or size, but its accuracy and clarity." 

This Week's Challenge:

Read John 1:19-34. Practice being more like John the Baptist -  not focusing on drawing attention to your appearance, concerns, successes, desires and needs, but on how you can accurately reflect Christ and point to Him in your daily life. Is there anyone in your life that does this well? What can you learn from them?