What Do You Want? | John 1:29–42

What Do You Want?

What do you want in life? I don’t mean necessarily on a broad spectrum but narrowed down and focused. What are things you search for so that you can feel as if having it makes you into the person you wish to become? For some it may be a material thing, status money or it may be something more prideful such as prestige, or respect, status, or anything else that as we believe causes us to ascend to a height that maybe we don’t belong.

Have you ever truly searched for yourself and what makes you who you are or what you want to become? I don’t mean some empty search where you have no clear direction or insight into what you hope to find but rather a very directed search, one that you can focus on and have the best chance of finding. Have you ever had that moment where you felt lost, like you couldn’t find yourself, a piece was missing but you just couldn’t figure out what it was?

Common to all people is this feeling at times in our life where we feel like we don’t belong, we’re outsiders looking in. We’re window shopping, looking at others lives seeing how they live so maybe we can try to copy it and if we can then we could find ourselves. Maybe we try that and maybe that works for a while but it never lasts and we repeat this cycle of searching for something and it feels like whatever that thing is, is right in front of us, only a few feet, just out of reach but if you could figure out just how to reach out, you could grab it.

Not looking for it isn’t an option either because we are pulled towards it, like a magnet set just out of reach yet still having a strong enough hold on us that it’s pulling toward it. It’s an inward feeling more of the soul and less than the mind. If our minds could understand it then we could deal with it, reason with and maybe bargain with it to just let us grab onto it for a minute at least let us see it but we can’t see it at all.

Have you ever asked yourself what you are searching for in your life? Have you ever felt like you are being pulled in a direction you don’t understand, maybe toward something you’re not even sure if you want but denying that pull just isn’t an option because it feels important yet you just can’t define it.

Behold! The Lamb of God!

Verse 37 describes the fruit of John’s witness. The two disciples listen to John and respond accordingly. These disciples may not have yet understood the fullness of the object of John’s witness, but they trusted John and his testimony and respond in obedience: they left John and followed Jesus. In this gospel, “follow” is often used in reference to discipleship. These first steps of discipleship are representative of the nature of true discipleship and the true disciple.

In verse 38, we have the first recorded action of the Word in the world. When Jesus “turned,” this strongly suggests more than just a mere turning around physically. Its use elsewhere in the gospels is always connected with Jesus and always denotes a sudden or remarkable change of attitude on His part and nearly always followed by a wholly unexpected saying on His part.

The people had been searching for something very particular, they have been looking for the messiah to come and save them that will be that answered prayer they have offered up many times and when they find it they’re not sure what to do with it, almost like, OK, now what?

Now they have to make a decision of what to do. They are faced with a situation we have been in many times, when we have prayed and the answer to that prayer is right in front of us are we going to respond, do the work, follow Christ?

Thats the hardest part right, the following? Now they didn’t know where they were going or what was going to happen but they knew that something was standing right in front of them. They probably felt fear, where are we going, what are we going to do, who’s coming with us, could this really be Him? But they knew enough at this point to know that they had to respond in some way but first they had to answer the question.

What Do You Seek?

Jesus asks them a very simple question, what do you seek?

John 1:38

38 Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”

This is a fairly easy question to answer for the disciples but they gave an answer that doesn’t make much sense. They could have asked many other things, important things, life changing things but instead they ask, “where are you staying?”

Come and See

Jesus doesn’t just whip out the old testament and start teaching them anything, doesn’t even really explain who he is, he just tells them to come and see. He invites them to come and simply hang out for a bit, talk, share some stories, eat dinner and be together. He invites them on an adventure. He didn’t drag them along with him, he gave them a choice of how they wanted to respond, maybe to test them to see how committed they were at least to this point because keep in mind, they didn’t know for sure who He was yet.

They call him Rabbi, a teacher, which they call him many times but in this instance they mean “teacher” and because of their response we know that they were confused, they didn’t know really what to do and they had their concerns but because of something pulling at them, almost trying to slowly move them forward, they couldn’t really explain it so they just throw out the answer they choose but there was a danger present here too.

The Expositor’s Bible, Volume 5: Luke to Galatians Chapter IV: The First Disciples (John 1:35–51)

The danger at this point is hesitation. Many persons fail at this point from a native reluctance to commit themselves, to feel pledged, to accept permanent responsibilities and bind themselves with indissoluble ties. They are past the stage of merely keeping Christ in view, but very little past it. The closer dealings they have had with Him have as yet led to nothing. Their fate hangs in the balance

The hesitation we experience when faced with following Christ, of finding that lost piece of ourselves and doing nothing about it can leave us stranded in a place of hopelessness because we chose not to take action, which is a decision that can made if you choose and it is here where we can be attacked by satan and sin because if finds us vulnerable and weak, not willing or wanting to do anything and we can quickly find ourselves alone.

But Christ does something amazing, he rescued the men from their own doubt, hesitation and questions and gives them an irresistible invitation, “Come and see.” Christ was going to leave that part of the country the next day and if he had simply told them where he was staying would have done nothing for them so if they didn’t go with him right now they could have lost him as quickly as they found him.

Their answer asking where he was staying was them trying to simply learn about him which many people still do today but that is a problem because for many, we want to gain knowledge of who Christ no matter how eagerly, can stop us from making acquaintance with him, spending time with him, being in his presence before we have all the answers. It can be an empty and shallow place to be always inquiring about One who is Himself with us. The only way we can secure that we shall have him when we need him is to go with him now, wanting to be in his presence.

How can we expect our difficulties in life be removed or lessened, to be healed and restored, comforted and supported if we do not adopt the ONE method God Himself recognizes as the way to achieve that purpose, fellowship with Christ? Often we can do things that put off that fellowship to delay it for a future time but Christ offers it NOW.

“Come with me, now.”

Come with me, now he says and come into my presence as a loved and cared for friend. Hesitation now can put Christ beyond our reach if we wait too long.

This was such an important moment for them, and I want you to understand this as clearly as possible, it was such an important moment in their life that 60 years later when one of those men wrote this Gospel, he remembered it as if it happened yesterday, the very hour of the day when he followed Jesus into that house. It’s like his whole life seemed to date from that hour and it really did, for what could mark a life more deeply and lift it more surely than an evening with Jesus? They had finally found what they had been looking for and they almost missed it.

In this moment we have God’s response to all of those who felt like part of themselves was missing, spent so much time searching and wanting for something they didn’t have the vocabulary to describe. The part of ourselves that we felt was missing is God. God reveals himself to us by goodness and love and that love has been tried by every test you can imagine upon our earth and He has passed every one.

Take this to heart, questions are great, they are needed and should be asked but we also need to be in fellowship with Christ, to go with him, to go with him now.