The secret is out. John the Baptist has testified that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), the one on whom the Spirit descended and remained (John 1:32), the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (John 1:33), and even the Son of God (John 1:34). Jesus is a grown man who has lived his life with a concealed identity, so that not even John the Baptist, his own cousin, really knew who he was (John 1:31). But now that John’s ministry has come to its fulfillment in the identification and revelation of Jesus, there is no going back to Jesus’ former obscurity.

Even though his secret is out, Jesus is not interested in making a big splash in the wider religious community—at least, not yet. Instead, his first priority is to gather a core group of disciples who will follow him in varying degrees of closeness. For his closest inner circle, Jesus gathers men like Peter, and possibly John (if John is the unnamed second disciple with Andrew), and maybe even James. As other disciples who are part of the twelve, Jesus gathers Andrew and Philip, and possibly Nathanael, if Nathanael is another name for the disciple known as Bartholomew in the Synoptic Gospels. Otherwise, Nathanael is one of the many people who believe and follow Jesus through his life, even though not being a part of the formal group of the twelve.

But that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Let’s open John 1:35–51 to read about the call of Jesus to discipleship which marks the beginning of Christ’s church.

Again, our sermon text will be from John 1:35-51. I'll read this passage as we get started this morning.

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter). 43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:35-51, ESV

This is the word of the Lord. When I was six or seven, I cracked the code. I figured it out. I was going to win at Christmas that year in an epic kind of a way. Now some of you children, you may not remember this, but back when I was a little kid in order to figure out what we wanted for Christmas, we had to open these big paper, heavy things called catalogs. And they had pictures and they had prices, which I didn't care about. Cause they were meaningless to me. I just saw what I wanted and would ask for it. And as my friends and I were combing through these catalogs, figuring out what all of us wanted. I figured out the right thing to ask for.

See, I recognize that if I just asked for one or two of these things in the catalog, that would be the extent of what I would get. What I needed was something that could give me unlimited gifts. And so logically I asked that year for a magic wand. My parents were then faced with the question of how do we talk to our son about this. I had seen though, a couple of Disney movies, I was educated. I knew how it worked. If I could just get my hand on a magic wand, I could conjure anything I wanted. I was going to win epically at Christmas that year because every day following that could be Christmas, if I so chose with my magic wand.

Now, how do you sort of get in the mindset of a six year old as he's thinking through something like that? Well, it's pretty easy to sort of understand where I was coming from and what I was thinking about. The first question we might ask is, well, I really want? Very obviously I wanted a lot of stuff, a whole lot of stuff, way more stuff than my friends. And certainly way more stuff than my little brother. I wanted something. And so flowing from that desire, I had, to set in place a plan of action, to do something, to give me what I wanted. And then I had sort of expectations of what this magic wand could do for me.

Well, the whole thing was a bust. The magic wand didn't work the way I thought it would. My parents had a conversation with me about magic and really I didn't get exactly what I wanted that year, but I learned an important lesson about how the human heart worked. Well, I didn't actually learn that until much later, but that was the start of learning that.

Now that kind of thinking, if we ask ourselves, what do we really want at the end of the day? What are we seeking? What are we doing? What are we expecting? Really, that's a way to figure out, not just what a six year old is about in life. What to six year old is after, but everybody, whether you're six or 16 or 60. You can kind of look at someone and what they're doing, what they're after, what they're trying to expect that they can accomplish. And you can learn a lot about a person. And in fact, that's the outline that we see in our text today.

The first question that we come across on the lips of Jesus and the gospel of John are, "So what are you seeking?" And we'll unpack that in just a moment. But the next thing that we're going to look at in the next part of the passage is not a question, but it's sort of implied. What are you doing? What are you seeking? What are you doing? And from that, what are you expecting?

Jesus is showing all of us these questions and prompts to get us to think not through sort of one person that he sort of walks through this, but through a lot of different interactions that Jesus has with many people.

Let's look at how this works. Now, the question, what are you seeking? That's going to kick us off this morning. Doesn't come until verse 38. In verse 35 to 37, we have to tie up some loose ends from John the Baptist. We read his story last week. John the Baptist we read in verse 35 was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus as Jesus walked by and said the same thing he had said the previous day, "Behold, the Lamb of God." His disciples, these two disciples whom he trained, whom he's spent time with, who have probably been helpful with him in his ministry. These two disciples hear John the Baptist saying this, and they leave their master to go follow after Jesus.

Now that's a remarkable thing. John, the Baptist has sort of reached the pinnacle of his ministry. The reason for which he was put on earth was to identify and reveal Jesus to the world. And the previous day that had happened. John the Baptist pointed out and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His time has come and gone. So the next day already, he's taking the people who have been following him, learning from him, helping him and he's nudging them along and saying behold, the Lamb of God. Leave me, he's the one you're after.

Now, if you and I were in that position, what would we be seeking? What would we be desiring? See, I feel like if I were there, I would say, "Hey, why don't I just go along with you Jesus? I'll bring some disciples along with me. I'll kind of be your right hand, man. I've already got this crowd who's following me. We could do some great things together, Jesus."

That's not the mission that John the Baptist was sent on. And so the question is, how can he do this? How can he give up his life's work? How can he give up his ministry, his influence, his power, his authority, and send people following after Jesus? Well, it answer that question in a couple of chapters at the end of John 3:30, where John the Baptist says, Jesus must increase, but I must decrease.

For now, let's pick back up the story of these two disciples. In verse 38, Jesus turns around, sees these two disciples following him. And he says them, what are you seeking? Now this is a pretty normal question. There's this conversation that, that happens here in this part of the passage, that if you just saw it happening on the street, it wouldn't look that remarkable. Jesus turns around and says, Hey, what are you guys looking for? What can I help you with? Kind of a question. And they're going to respond to him and say, rabbi, where, where are you staying? And Jesus says, well come, you'll see.

If you were at a convention say, and you saw one of your colleagues there and you were kind of walking along and they said, Hey, what you looking for? What can I do for you?
And they said, well, hey, where are you staying? Are you staying at the convention hotel or did you find something cheaper offsite? Come and see, I'll show you my place, it's right around the corner. It would look totally normal, totally low key. It would look like really boring, small talk. But through these simple questions and responses, we see part of what's happening here is John the evangelist is setting up much of what's going to happen to the rest of the gospel of John.

We are going to find an important principle of what it means to follow Jesus, starting with this question, what are you seeking? This word seeking is a word that's going to come up again and again and again. And it gets at this idea of desire, the desires of your heart. What at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, when things get difficult, when it seems like you might have a better offer, what do you want? What do you want? Do you want Jesus? Or do you want something else?

The word here for seeking is going to be used often of those who are seeking Jesus. But then it'll also be used often of those who are seeking to kill Jesus. This word seeking kind of works both ways. They're either seeking to be with Jesus or seeking to kill Jesus. You might think from that quick description, that that's the whole story. There are these two kinds of people. Some of them want Jesus. Some of them want to kill Jesus. It'll be pretty easy to figure out who's whom.

Well, not precisely because a lot of what's going to happen in the rest of the gospel of John is that some of the people who are seeking Jesus, do not actually want Jesus. However they think Jesus is useful, helpful, valuable to get them what they really want.

So in John chapter six, Jesus feeds 5,000 people and they think, hey, there's a guy who can provide free lunches. This guy is useful. So when Jesus walks across the sea of Tiberius in the middle of the night, no big deal, right? And they can't figure out where he is gone. Thousands of them, board boats, and cross the sea. It says in John 6:24, "and they were seeking Jesus". That seems like a good thing, right?

Thousands of people, a huge crowd following Jesus. Yet by the end of the chapter six, when Jesus has said hard things, if you want to have eternal life, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. People are like, whoa, this guy's a weirdo, I'm out. They don't actually Jesus. They thought he would be the one who would lead them to where they wanted to go, to what they wanted to get. Rather than trusting Jesus, desiring Jesus, willing to accept the hard statements of Jesus, and give him the benefit of the doubt and wait for him to unfold his meaning, they bounced. They were out of there.

See Christianity fundamentally is not about what you do. You're measured as a Christian, not by how many times a day you pray or how much of the Bible you've read, or how well you can comport your activity and behavior to a certain standard. Christianity is ultimately about what you want. You're saved through faith.

Well, faith is partially a knowledge of something, a knowledge about the gospel of Jesus. It's partially mental intellectual ascent. Well, I believe that's true. It's one more thing, it's about trust. It's about saying I want Jesus. I trust Jesus so much that when life gets difficult or when I see something that looks a little shinier, a little more pleasant, I'm not going to leave him because I trust him, because I want him.

That's the question Jesus is facing these disciples with what are you seeking? It's a so penetrating piercing question. Can you imagine Jesus asking you here today, he is by the way, what are you seeking? What do you want? Why are you here? What are you seeking?

Now the disciples, I don't know how much they knew or didn't know at the time, but they ask a question that's pretty profound. They say in response, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" It's unlikely that they're trying to find cheap lodgings and want to know if Jesus has a recommendation. What, in fact they are doing is using a word, where are you staying? That word staying is a word that comes up again and again, in the gospel of John. This is our introduction to it. It's a word that's often translated as remain or abide.
So that in John 15:5 Jesus says,

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5, ESV

To abide with Christ is to have the life that is in Christ. "The Life, which is the light of men", John 1:4. They want that. They don't know what Jesus has. They couldn't articulate to you the theology that we have after having the entire completed can of the New Testament. But they just know this is the one that John the Baptist said was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The one on whom the Holy Spirit descended and remained. And they said, can we have a conversation with you, spend time with you?

So Jesus says, come and you will see. Come up, I'll show you. This phrase, come and see, the rabbis would use this when they were expounding, the scriptures. Come and see how God loves Israel, come and see the faithfulness of Boaz. Come and see that they go on and on. This was an idea of come reflect, meditate, ponder. And Jesus is saying that come reflect, meditate, ponder me. And they came and saw Jesus.

The desire of their heart was to have Jesus and Jesus gave them the desire of their heart. So they went away not saying, ah, he's a phony, he's a fake, I wanted a free lunch. He couldn't even give me that. They come away saying we have found the Messiah. The one who was promised, the one whom God said would save his people. We found him.
The question Jesus confronts us with, is this, what are you seeking at the end of the day? What is it you want? Is it Jesus? Or are you here today because you want something that you think Jesus can give you outside of himself? Is Jesus the end or is he a means to an end?

Well, I said a moment ago that Christianity is not about what you do. You're not measured by what you do in Christianity. But James reminds us that faith without works is dead. So that if you came to me and said, pastor, we need to have a conversation, there's some stuff in my life that I want to talk about. I'd say, well, great, let's talk up. I'll just reveal my secrets because I don't really have any good ones. What I would try to ask you is what do you actually want out of life? And then once we sort of got there, however long took, I'd say, okay, well, if that's the case, what are you doing? What does your life look like to reflect that that is in fact indeed what you want.

Well, Jesus, in his next interaction versus 43 through 46, doesn't ask about the motivations of Philip. He doesn't ask him what he's doing. He just tells him what to do. He says to Philip, follow me. That's what you're supposed to do. Now, we don't have much in the way of insight into the mind of Philip, except to see what Philip does, which is that he doesn't do this begrudgingly. He doesn't do this to fulfill a checkbox. He doesn't do this because he's trying to get something. He goes to his friend and says, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. We found him!
He's bursting with enthusiasm and to tell his friend Nathaniel about the one whom he has found. Nathaniel says, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Jesus of Nazareth to us, even if you don't believe he's the Son of God, you probably believe he's a pretty big deal across human history. But imagine if someone came to you and says, we found the Messiah, it's his name is Bob Johnson, he lives in Toledo. That would be pretty odd. You would probably not believe it. And that's what Nathaniel is saying here. But Philip repeating the words of Jesus just simply says to him, just come and see. If you want to know whether this Jesus is legitimate, whether he is real, come and see for yourself.

Start with the heart. What are you seeking? Then look, what does your life look like as a reflection of what you say you are seeking? Does it match? Are you actually wanting to follow Jesus? Do you want people to know about Jesus or is your life actually in a different direction? I mean, ask yourself if you really love Jesus, why do you act the way you do to your spouse, your children, your friends, your family members, your boss? If you say you want people to know about Jesus, well, why do you spend so much time playing video games or on the golf course? If you say you want know Jesus better, why are you wasting so much time on Facebook? Things to think about.

We're not going to be perfect, but Jesus calls us to have evaluate our actions, to see whether they reflect that we really wantJesus. So that where we fall short, part of trusting Jesus, part of believing Jesus, part of desiring, Jesus is going again and again to him for forgiveness. What are you seeking? What do you want? Or what are you doing?
The final question is what are you expecting? Nathaniel comes to Jesus and Jesus tells him behold and Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Jesus is talking about Jacob, the patriarch in Genesis 27, who deceitfully stole his brother's blessing from Isaac. Nathaniel says, how do you know me? Jesus answer, "well before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

Now we don't know why this answer is so impressive, but Nathaniel answers Jesus rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. We don't know what happened with the fig tree, all of its speculation, but we know that Nathaniel found it valuable and impressive. Then he exclaimed this wonderful confession about Jesus, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. He didn't come with high expectations, but when Jesus said whatever this meant about the fig tree, suddenly his expectations went through the roof. This is the son of God we dealing with.
Then Jesus says, you think that's a good thing, that's nothing. You will see greater things than these Jesus says. Now, what does he mean by that? N few years ago I was in a Barnes and noble and I picked up a book that was written by a very popular Christian author and I do put Christian in quotes.

I opened up the first few pages of it to see what this man was writing and he was telling this story about his faith, or lack thereof. He said he was driving along with his wife and looked in the distance and saw this wonderful, beautiful, expensive house. He said, boy, we'll never have something like that. And he said, me being the man of faith, that I was didn't believe that we could have something like that. Then his wife, and he said, a real woman of faith said, oh, don't talk like that, God does great things for those who believe. So the great things was whether or not God can give you a really nice house. The expectations were that if you believed enough, if you trusted enough, if you obey Jesus enough, you would get great things. Miracles happening in your midst. You'd get your health taken care of. You'd get the job you wanted. You'd marry the person you wanted to you'd have the children you wanted to have. They'd behave in the way that you want them to behave. You would have whatever you want. Great things from Jesus.

That's not what Jesus talks about. Jesus says you want to see greater things than these? He says in verse 51, this is what it's going to look like. It's not going to look like stuff that I give you. That tells me that again, what you're seeking it's for me to give you what you want. I'm useful to you. You don't want me because here's who I am. Truly, truly Jesus says, "I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man." Jesus says, "'I am the one who opens the kingdom of heaven." I am the one through my life, death and resurrection, the one who will bring you into the heavenly places. I am the one who connects heaven and earth. I am the one who created all things, who is redeeming all things, who one day will restore all things. Do you want me?

And that's the question we have to go back to, do you want Jesus? Do you want him? Is Jesus something that gets you respectability or gets you a new job or gets you the right social standing or whatever it is? Or do you want Jesus for Jesus? And the question is, do you want him in the sense that you trust him? That you're willing to walk through difficult things? That when you sin, you trust him to go back to him, knowing that he is a kind and gracious God?
How does your life reflect that you want Jesus, that you're seeking Jesus? What are you doing? Not because you earn your salvation. What you should be doing is to look to Jesus consistently for it. And what are you expecting is this life so that you can be rewarded or at the end of it do you get Jesus as your reward? What are you seeking? What are you doing? What are you expecting? Is it Jesus or is it someone or something else?

Pray with me, Heavenly Father, God, there are places in our lives that we care others not see. There are places in our lives where we are secretly pursuing things, or we don't realize that we are outwardly pursuing things that aren't the kind of things that you want. We pray God for grace to know and love and desire the Lord Jesus, so that our lives reflect an incessant pursuit of him in the knowledge that you alone draws to Jesus through the life, death and resurrection of your Son. Father, we pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.