Clutching to Purpose

When we first step into a new job, the boss generally hands us some papers that explain our job description.  This description lends guidance, gives purpose, and help us stay focused.  John the Baptist was an incredibly focused man.  I'm sure locusts and wild honey make good brain food, but his focus comes from a place deeper than his morning breakfast.  Isaiah 40:3 prophecies of John's purpose hundreds of years before his birth saying,

"Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,'Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord!  Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!'"

In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel spoke of John's purpose to his father, Zechariah, before John was even born.  Talk about job description--written in prophecy and spoken from the lips of an Angel!  But even with such a grand calling, John was a human being.  Luke 1:15 says that John was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born.  He needed the Holy Spirit's guiding to keep him focused on his purpose--keeping the important things in the foreground and letting everything else fade to peripheral.  

The whole purpose of John's ministry was to baptize people as an outward sign of their repentance so that they would be ready for the coming Messiah--Jesus.  "Repent!  For the Kingdom of Heaven is near!"  

Shortly after John baptizes Jesus, Jesus' disciples begin to baptize people too.  You would think that John's disciples--his right hand men--would surely understand why it is they do the things they do, yet when they see that Jesus' disciples are also baptizing, they get a bit jealous.  "...Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him." (John 3:26).

The implications here are huge.  I am sure these disciples had great intentions, and they were doing a great thing, yet they completely missed the point!  Their job was to point towards Jesus, yet when the people went to Jesus...they became jealous!  They forgot the purpose of their ministry in the first place!  But John never did.  His response is, "...He must become greater, I must become less"(John 3:30).  John continually recognized that his purpose was to direct hearts toward the Messiah.

In ministry, it is critical to get in the habit of stepping back, examining our programs, and asking, "Now, why is it that we are doing this again?"  It would be foolish for the UPS man to drive from place to place with nothing to deliver.  We too must continually make sure our purpose hasn't fallen from the truck!

As Christians, do we keep our purpose at the forefront of our minds?  Like John's disciples, we might be doing all the right "stuff", but if we aren't pointing others towards Jesus, we've missed the point.  We've lost our purpose.  It's time to focus!  He must become greater, we must become less.