What Do You Seek?
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John 1:1-39
As we prayed over the students, teachers, and coaches, I wanted to give them a bit of a message to encourage them as they start back on their journey. So, we will revisit some things we have talked about a while back again this morning.
Who is the greatest person that you have ever met?
What made them great?
Scripture talks about the greatest person ever...
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
John Understood 2 things: His Purpose and his Position – which led to his Passion!
1. Purpose
1. Purpose
7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”
Proclaim the Word of the Lord - “He is a Voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,'” as Isaiah proclaimed
Empowered by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God
Angel tells Zacharias that Elizabeth, John’s Mom and dad
15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.
Aside from Jesus, has anyone else ever had the Holy Spirit before they were born?
So, some context behind John the baptist
is that he is this crazy guy roaming the desert eating locus and honey and wearing camel’s hair.
Then something happens…and he shows up and begins preaching….what happens?
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
So, he goes from being this crazy cook in the wilderness to all of a sudden preaching the proclaiming the coming Messiah…and tons of people came to repent and be baptized....
So, what happened? What changed for John?
2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
John shows up and begins preaching a message of repentance because the Word of God came to Him!
The word for word here is rhema...
Specifically “the rhema tou theou”
Translated as “The Word of God”
John is in the wilderness and the word of God came to Him...
He then appears in country around Jordan and begins preaching repentance and many people came to be baptized....
John understood His purpose....
Let’s ask some questions this morning:
1. Do you understand your purpose?
2. What has God called you to do…and more specifically…why?
3. What is the why behind your what?
4. Are you doing what God has called you to do?
If not, why?
Do you need a word from God?
Are you wondering lost in the wilderness waiting for the rhema of God to come to you?
If this is you, here are some basic tips to help
draw close to Jesus - spend time in His word and prayer
think about your passions - how could you use them to serve God
talk to mentors about it
talk to other people and see what they would say about it
John first understood his purpose
He also understood his
2. Position
2. Position
He Understood that he baptized with water, but one comes that baptizes with the Holy Spirit
Understood he wasn't fit to untie Jesus' sandals
He knew he was the one in the wilderness preparing the way for Jesus!
His whole job was to point people to Jesus....
John reinforces this in chapter 3
26 They came to John and said to him, “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.” 27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’
Someone once asked Charles Stanley how he could be in the position that he is in and still remain humble...
Andy recalls his dad answering “because God put me on this platform and can remove me at anytime.”
Some of us spend a majority of our lives trying to make it about our platform and how high can we elevate ourselves
When really, maybe we should be decreasing our platform and increasing Christ...
John continues in verse 29..
29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.
Jesus has come… and he rejoices in it...
His whole purpose was to point people to Jesus...
Maybe that is ours too....
Maybe this thing called life should be less about us and more about Him!
Maybe we should echo the attitude John had in
30 He must become greater; I must become less.”
The people knew there was something about special about John.... one, he had many disciples and followers and 2 because they asked him
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”
And this is where things take an interesting turn…this is where we see just how great John was..
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
John simply said…look, the lamb of God and immediately two of his own disciples started to follow Jesus!
Talk about some good leadership skills!
He had prepared them so much for the coming Messiah that they didn’t even thing twice when John told them that Jesus was the one!
John’s position was to be less than Jesus…He sent his own disciples away to follow Jesus…he was out of a job..
Ever heard the saying “work yourself out of a job?”
Well, John sure did!
So, what is your position?
Where you do see yourself?
Have you built some pedestal that you are on or have you chosen to humble yourself beneath Christ and others?
Are you so focused on Christ that when others look at you they don’t see you, that they see Jesus?
Everything that we think, everything that we say, and everything that we do so be an image of Jesus inside of us!
We talk about this sanctification process that happens in us!
Sanctification is just a word that means that we are set apart for God and that we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ!
The more that we become like Christ, the more that others should see Christ in us!
This should be our position! Right at the feet of Jesus!
John was so good at this that his followers left their leader, who was “the man” to follow “The messiah”
It’s possible that today – we are those people
we have been taught about Jesus
we have been shown Jesus
it is time for us to leave our leader – whoever that is...maybe ourselves
and follow the Messiah
If you have not decided to follow Jesus, today is the day!
If you have been following other things…maybe today is the day to follow Jesus....
If you have been chasing “success” at work.
In your relationships
In your recreation
In friendships
Maybe it is now time to lay those at the feet of the cross and start following the Massiah...
If you have never done that – it is simple. Start with John’s message – Repentance – to recognize that we need Jesus and we are lost without Him.
Pray to God and confess that! Believe in Him and that He will forgive you!
Maybe we have done that!
Maybe now we are following Jesus as these two disciples were..
We are now at verse 38…which I will read out of NASB
John 1:38 (NASB95)
38 And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?”...
What do you seek?
That is really the question isn’t it?
What is it that you are after?
Why are you following Jesus?
Why are you in church today?
Why are you doing the things that you are doing?
What is it that we seek?
I think we all need to answer this question...
Are we following Him because we heard life was better with Him?
That He would give us whatever we want?
That He could heal us?
Or, it’s a nice status badge to be a Christian....
Or, do we follow Jesus because we want to know Him...
We want to learn from Him...
We want to be more like Him?
I don’t know who initially wrote the song, but I grew up listening to the SonicFlood version of I want to know you....
Is this our heart?
“I want to know You
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more
I want to touch You
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more”
If we answer the question in this way, we better hold on, because it is going to get crazy!
When you want to follow Jesus, He is going to ask you to do some challenging things!
Did He ever ask anything of anyone in the Bible that didn't challenge them?
However, the challenging things will lead us to a deeper relationship with Him.
What do you seek?
Worship team you can make your way up here...
As we wrap up this morning, I want to you to think through some things:
What is your purpose?
What is your position?
What do you seek?
If you want to be a follower of Jesus and haven’t yet, I encourage you to do so now....share the gospel...
If you have been saved and are a follower of Jesus, but want to take it a step further, you want to fully surrender you life to Him, now is the time to do so as well!
I invite you to come up pray.