Jesus Led the Lost

What Did Jesus Do?

Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.
John 4.48

I remember driving around in circles on the road that passes by all the terminals and parking fields for some time at Newark Airport because I couldn’t remember the airline my friend was arriving on, I didn’t know my destination. It didn’t do me any good that the airport authority had lots of very large, brightly colored attention getting signs. I mean, the signs were very nicely done, but in themselves they did me no good since I was without a clue as to where I needed to go. The lost need one thing more than signs to show them the way, they need a destination or they have no “way.” Jesus was, and is, “the way.” (John 14.6)

Yet, many who were lost, unbelievers who had no clue where their life was heading, wanted Jesus to supply them with impressive signs (miracles) without their knowing the way. When the “way” is right in front of you and you can’t see Him, what real good can signs do? If the BIG question we all will one day have to answer before the Judge of all is, “Who do you say Jesus is?” the answer is not “Signpost!” All the popular answers of the day, John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets of old (Luke 9.19), were nothing more than signposts intended to lead people to God which the LORD had provided his people. But when Peter said that Jesus was, “The Christ of God” (Luke 9.20) he revealed that he understood that Jesus was not just another signpost, but the destination!

The frustration Jesus had with the peoples’ demand for signs was because He knew signs really did little or no good for people who didn’t believe. Miracles without belief are no better than signs for the lost who don’t know their destination, they can’t help you get where you need to go. It has been said that miracles are a poor foundation for faith, while faith is the essential foundation for true miracles. Everywhere that Jesus encountered people who believed in Him signs abounded, but where people did not believe, like in His own hometown of Nazareth, miracles were scarce. (See Mark 6.1-6)

When a man came to Jesus asking Him to come and heal his son who was deathly ill, Jesus, who had come back to the area of non-believing Nazareth, was little inclined to perform wonders for an unbeliever. But when the man continued to beg Jesus to come, revealing his actual faith in who Jesus was, the Lord spoke a word of healing that cured the boy “long-distance” if you will. (John 4.49-53)

If we follow someone because they are wealthy, what do we do when their wealth is used up? If we follow someone because of their feats of strength, what do we do when they grow weak? Jesus did not want people to follow Him because of what He did, but because of who He was. Peter’s answer, “The Christ of God,” did not come by signs and works but by revelation from the Father. (Mathew 16.17) Even so, no one can truly call Jesus Lord because of any sign, but rather by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. (1Corinthians 12.3)

Jesus led people to the Father not because of what He did, but because of who He was, because He and the Father were one. (John 10.30) It didn’t matter how many miracles and signs He performed, if people would not believe who He was, mighty works would avail them nothing in the end.

We can tell people about what Jesus did so that they can know a lot about Him, but in the end they stand a good chance of getting that all important question wrong when asked, “Who do you say that Jesus is?” far better to introduce the lost to the destination than to give them signposts when they don’t know where they need to go. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4