Moose Mountain Church of Christ

Talking Points after the Sunday Sermon

 May 14th, 2008 Who'll Be a Witness

Who Are You?  What are you?

Seemingly easy questions to answer right? Well it depends on who is asking.  If I have never met you before and you ask me who I am, I may tell you, or I may not.  If you are a guard at a border crossing, I will give you my legal name, address, birthdate, and answers to any other questions that you give me, because I recognize that you are a person who has authority over me.  If you are a stranger on the street, I may give you my first name, I might offer information to other questions you ask, then again, I may not.  It would depend on why I thought you were asking me those questions. 

Now suppose you are a friend of a friend and we meet for the first time.  I am likely more open to providing more information about who I am because of the safety derived from having a mutaul friend.  See to some I am a teacher, to some I am a banker, to others I am a neighbor, to some I am a cowboy, to others, I am Cody's dad or Karen's husband.  To some I am an elder, while to others, I am just another regular person like they are.

Each one of us is unique.  There are things that make us who we are that make us completely different from anybody else.  Last weekend while attending a High School Rodeo, I and my family slipped into the nearby city to pick up a few things.  Now, rember, I just said we were at a rodeo, and my son was competeing there.  We are walking through the mall with our cowboy hats on, our western shirts, our jeans, and my son is even still wearing his spurs on his boots.  I can assure you there was no one else in the mall dressed like us.  Where we had come from we were right at home and blended in with the crowd, but at the mall we were not blending in.

John the Baptist, another guy that just didn't blend in to well.  He wore clothes made of camels hair, he ate locusts, he preached wherever he went, and he was baptizing a lot of folks.  He was sticking out in the crowd and he was getting noticed.

So, there I am in the mall, leaning against a wall and waiting for Karen to come back from running her errands. A proccupied mother and two sweet little girls are approaching.  Two tiny little voices start saying, its a cowboy, its a cowboy.  The preoccupied mother now hears the two little voices and becomes a little embarrassed.  She askes her girls, " Do you think he is a cowboy because he wears a hat?"  All they could reply with was, "It's a cowboy, it's a cowboy."  I responded to the mother, that the girls were referring to my son who had walked past them, and that he was the real cowboy.

Now the priests and the Levites from Jerusalem approach John and ask him, "Who are You?  Are you Elijah?  Are you a Prophet,  Are you the Christ?"  To all of these questions, John replies no.  They continue with their questioning trying to figure out why someone would be going around doing the things he was doing if he weren't one of these guys.

John lets them know that he is not the Christ, but he knows christ and has seen him and is testifying that Christ is the Son of God. 

There was something about the character of John that implied he was different.  It might have been his dress code, it might have been his attitude, it might have been his lifestyle, it might have been his message.  More than likely it is a combination f all these things that tie together and testify to the world around him that he knows Christ, and that he knows that Jesus is the Son of God.

To those little girls and the embarassed mom in the mall, I am a cowboy.  Possibly the closest that they will come to being in contact with a real cowboy. I mean, I own the clothes, and a horse, and I can ride, and I can swing a rope, I can even yodel a tune but compared to my son despite the fact that he is 12, I am a mere shadow of the cowboy that he is.  Yet to those 3 strangers in the mall, I am a cowboy.  They didn't see me as a teacher, an elder, a father, a friend, a neighbor, or a business manager, all they could see was cowboy.

Who are You?  What are you? What do people see when they see you?  Are you a witness for God?  Does your life tetify that Jesus is the Son of God?  Do we consider ourselves like John, someone unworthy to untie the sandals on Jesus feet. 

I could not get Cody's attention that day in the mall.  I would have loved to have him come over and shake the hands of those two little girls and let them meet a real cowboy.  I passed up the opportunity to lower myself to one knee to be able to look them in the eye and shake their hands my self.  To them I was the only cowboy they might meet.  Most times I would like people to be able to meet Jesus himself and shake his hand.  I forget that I might be the closest people get to meeting Jesus.  Despite John feeling unworthy to untie His sandals, he still went out and shared his faith and introduced people to Jesus. 

My encouragement to you.......Be like John.  Let Jesus be seen in You.

John 1:19-34