2018-06-31

I. Me and We

A. Do we REAllY Know what we want?

- path to happiness

what we REALLY want

B. I thought I wanted ???? But what I really wanted was ???

C. THought I wanted happiness, but what I really wanted was peace.

II. God.

John 1:35–36 NRSV

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

John 1:35

John points his disciple from him, to the one he knew they were really looking for. We have already heard that John was a signpost pointing to someone much greater than he was or ever could be. He pointed to Jesus as the lamb of God

John 1:37–38 NRSV

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?”

John loses two of his disciples here. THey immediately stop following John and begin to follow Jesus.

The first question Jesus asks is a hard one:

John 1:37.

”What are you looking for?”

We can also read this question as: “What do you want?”

That’s a hard question. Notice, the new disciples don’t even answer it. Perhaps they don’t know. Perhaps they THINK they know.

A. What do you want?

Looking for the Messian

Looking for the One.

I’ve come to discover that the question “What do you want” is a very hard question to answer. We think we know what we want. We want comfort. We want recognition. We want wealth. We want “the good life.” Yet, even when we get that we still have a deep desire for who knows what. We don’t know.

At times of insight, we may know when we haven’t Found what we are looking for, but we may never know, deep down, what will satisfy our souls.

Of course, we believe they were looking for the Messiah. John knew, that he wasn’t the one they were looking and waiting for. Jesus was. He points them to Jesus and they answer Jesus question by simply asking “Where are you staying?”

They want to be with Jesus.

B. “Come and See”

Jesus Invitation to all

Jesus response is an inviation. He doesn’t tell us. INstead, he invites us to experience him. Come and see. That phrase will appear in John some more as well. “Come” you are invited. See - decide for yourself.

Perhaps the problem we might have is that we never take him up on his offer, or we only go half way.

Come - We may come, but we go with eyes closed so we never see. We have our own agenda so we aren’t open and receptive to what Jesus wants to do in our lives.

See: We may be open but open to so much that we never actually “come” to Jesus. We may want to keep our options open. a disciple who wants to follow Jesus AND John. Or JEsus and Comfort. Or Jesus and who knows what.

C. What they found.

So what did they find? That’s what the Book of John tells us. Since we already know the ending of this story, we can look a head somewhat. I love what N. T. Wright comments:

What Andrew and Simon Peter thought they were doing was looking for the Messiah. What they didn’t realize was that the Messiah was looking for them.

Eager in their excitement, they had no idea what this was going to involve.

I love N. T. Wright’s comment:

Looking for ”their” messiah.

Found the Lamb of God

Found what they NEEDED

Jesus didn’t only change names, he transformed their lives! He looked within them and saw more than anyone else. He sees Simon and knows that although he tends to be impetuous, he would be transformed into a rock who would be killed for his faith

YEs. They found the Messiah, but he ended up to be much more than they ever thought he could and would be.

III. You and Us

A. What are YOU looking for?

You may believe you know what you are looking for. Many things indicate that you don’t. Not really.

Sure we have various activities that will distract us, keeping us from that deep ache in our souls, but at the end of the day and when the activities run out we are left yearning for something and we might not even know what it is.

B. We find what we need in Jesus

Jesus may not be what we want, but he is definately what we need.