John 1 Part 3 What do you Want?

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” (John 1:35-38 NIV)

Madeline has a game that she loves to play, where she will sneak up and stand right behind my back and wait for me to notice her. Usually she does it in department stores, and usually I discover her presence by stepping on her feet and nearly knocking both of us over. But that somehow doesn't diminish her fun.

The disciples follow Jesus Madeline-like for a while, and Jesus is either oblivious to them or chooses not to notice. Can you imagine being in this situation? What would you do? John tells you the lamb of God is walking by, so you follow him. . .and follow him. . .and follow him. He walks up a mountain and down the other side, completely silent. You clear your throat a few times. . .or start whistling. Is this lamb guy ever going to notice me?

Finally he does, in an odd way, but in a very particular one. "What do you want?"

What if Jesus showed up right now, in this room and asked the same question. What do you want? How would you answer? Keep in mind, this is creator of the universe Jesus, he has unlimited power and wisdom. He can do absolutely anything. . .what do you want?

This question is a really, really, really big deal. Because you will likely find what you are looking for. What are you doing here on earth? Why are you sitting in school? Why do you come to church? What do you want?

Now imagine yourself in the story. How would you answer if you were one of these disciples?

Teacher, where are you staying?

Interesting response, huh? But how completely perfect. Rabbi, teacher, we don't know anything, but John said you are the lamb and that he is not worthy of you. We aren't really even sure what to ask. So, like, can we come hang out at your place?

Great humility these guys show. They don't have any religious questions prepared like the Jews. They don't debate philosophy like Pilate. They simply call Jesus, "teacher," and ask to be with him.

Teacher, I want to be with you. I want to hang out at your place. I want to walk behind you and see what you do. I want to follow you.

What do you want? What if your answer was, to be with and follow Jesus? What would your life look like? What would be the same and what would be different?

Lets take a look at a guy who knows exactly what he wants: Paul.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8-11 ESV)

What did Paul not want - what did he consider rubbish?

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. (Philippians 3:4-7 ESV)

All the external things that defined him, he considered rubbish. What would the equivalent be in your or my life? It would probably read exactly like your college applications or a speech when running for student government.

What did Paul want?

I want to know Christ, to gain my identity from him, to have faith in him, to know his power, to suffer like him, to die like him, and to be raised from the dead like him. I want to know Christ, believe in him, and follow in his footsteps. We talked about getting what we want, Paul certainly got it. He traveled all over Asia telling people about Jesus, getting beat up, shipwrecked, thrown in jail, bitten by snakes, all manner of craziness. But he shared the gospel, through his presence and letters, literally to the entire world. The only thing Paul didn't get was the opportunity to die like Jesus. . .as far as we know, he died a peaceful death while waiting for the opportunity to share Christ with the Roman emperor.

So write this backwards on your forehead, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in death, and somehow to gain resurrection from the dead so I can live with him forever." And every morning when you look in the mirror, you can remember that you want Christ!

You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:12, 13 HCSB)

“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter ). (John 1:39-42 NIV)

Back to our story, the disciples go with Jesus and they spend the day hanging out. We don't know what happened that day. Maybe they played games and Jesus got twenty Yatzees in a row, or maybe their bottomless bowl of nachos really didn't run out no matter how many they ate. But whatever happened, it made a huge impression on Andrew. After hangout time was over, he runs to find his brother and tells him, "come see, we have found the messiah!" Peter comes and then Jesus does a strange thing. He takes one look at Peter and then gives him a new name.

Why does Peter get a new name?

From time to time in the Bible we see this happen. God told Abram that his name would change to Abraham, which means father of many. Basically saying, hey, I'm promising children as many as the stars in the sky, so lets go ahead and change your name to match the promise. (Genesis 17). Jacob, who gets a new name and a busted hip after an all-night wrestling match with God: "What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” (Genesis 32:27, 28 NIV).

The new names are part of a new identity. God is saying, you have been this person, but I'm going to do something new and awesome with you. I'm giving you a completely different identity.

So what does Cephas or Peter mean? Cephas is an Aramaic word and Petra (which we translate as Peter) is Greek. They both mean the same thing: rock or stone. If Jesus was here speaking English, he might have said, "you are Simon Johnson, but you will be called Rocky."

Why in the world is Jesus changing Simon's name to Rocky? To find the answer we need to flip over to Matthew.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:13-18 ESV)

The rock is Simon's confession: "you are the Christ, the son of the living God." This is the foundation of the church, Saying and Believing that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. If you want your nickname to be Rocky, just do the same thing - believe and say who Jesus is! Seriously, try this at school on Monday. . .write Rocky on all your notebooks and test papers. Or maybe get "Hi, I'm Rocky," printed on a T-shirt.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 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." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." (John 1:43-46 ESV)

I have to say, this is one of my favorite verses in the New Testament. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? It's such a human thing to do. Your friend walks up an tells you the most amazing news. . .and you find some little reason to discredit it. You're dating Johnny Ringwold? Yeah he's good looking, but I heard he's a bad dancer. You got an A on your chemistry test. . .yeah, just wait until the final exam, you won't do so well then. Nazareth? That place is a dump? How could the messiah come from Nazareth?

Think about how we prejudge things in our life. I'm not going to be be her friend because she's weird looking. Could anyone with freckles an wonky eyes ever be cool? I'm not going to go on the youth trip because Timmy Stinkytoes is going and he has stinky toes. How could a retreat be fun if Timmy is there?

Has this ever happened to you? Has someone ever rained on your parade or ruined your excitement or disbelieved in you?

Imagine Jesus didn't show up on earth 2,000 years ago, and that instead he came today. Where would he be born? What would he look like? Who would he be friends with?

Would he be the shampoo commercial flowy-haired Jesus carrying around a lamb and walking on perpetual clouds of glory? What if he was born to a teenage mom in Meridian Mississippi? What if his dad was a mechanic, and what if he wore slightly-dirty NASCAR T-shirts? What if he didn't have braces and a perfect smile?

What reasons would we find to reject him? Would we discredit him because he never went to college, much less got a religion degree? Would we disbelieve his teaching about heaven because he spoke with too Southern an accent? Would we reject him because he was baptized by one of the guys on Duck Dynasty?

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" 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." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 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." 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 1:47-51 ESV)

Come on Nathanael, this is Messiah 101 stuff. You think that is cool, I'll show you something really amazing.

But to Nathanael's credit, at least he does get it. He recognizes, in spite of his prejudice and doubts that Jesus is the Son of God an King of Israel.

And this is the good news. . .that though we may be prejudiced and faithless, Jesus does not hold that against us. We can be silly as Nathanael, doubting as Thomas, but Jesus will break down our walls, break through our foolishness, and stop at nothing to show us how much he loves us.