[0:00] We may again read at verse 36. And he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold the Lamb of God.
[0:18] The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you seeking?
[0:30] And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come, and you will see.
[0:42] So they came and saw when he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One or two thoughts that come to us through the reading and studying of these verses.
[1:00] I suppose John chapter 1, verse 29 is known to many, many people.
[1:12] When John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
[1:22] As you know, John the Baptist was Jesus' forerunner. And he came into the world to point Jesus out.
[1:33] And of course, at Jesus' baptism, John got to know who the Messiah was, because the Holy Spirit came down and dwelt upon him.
[1:49] And from that day on, John the Baptist was able to show people who the long-awaited Messiah was.
[2:00] And he saw Jesus coming towards him on that particular day. And this is the way he described him. The Lamb of God.
[2:12] And he asked people, Behold him. The people commonly would have known the significance of the sacrificial lamb.
[2:27] They would have heard and known about the Passover lamb. That in Egypt long ago, the Lord had commanded Moses to select a male lamb of one year without blemish, set him aside on the 10th day of the month, and be under examination until the 14th day, so that the lamb to be slain on that evening of the 14th day would be a lamb suitable as a type of Christ.
[3:00] And you remember that in Egypt, the lamb was slain, and the blood of the lamb taken, and put upon the doorposts and the lintels of the doors upon which the Israelites abode.
[3:13] And the Lord said, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. That was symbolic of what the Lord Jesus Christ, the real lamb of God, was coming into the world to do.
[3:30] He came into the world, and he offered himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile his people unto God.
[3:44] And there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. And when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, he highlighted him with these words, Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
[4:07] And then coming down to verse 35. The next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold the lamb of God.
[4:22] The same text. I sometimes feel awkward when I feel I'm going to preach the same text as I preached last week, or the week before.
[4:35] But John didn't have that problem. It's the same text he used. And what's more, we here see people were able to respond on the second preaching of the same text that they hadn't responded before.
[4:52] Two of John's disciples heard John preaching that or declaring that word, and they followed Jesus. That's what our minister is sent to do, to preach Christ, to preach the word of God.
[5:11] And the word of God will bear its own fruit in God's good time. His word shall not return to him void. It will accomplish that which he pleases, and will prosper in the thing whereto he has sent it.
[5:24] So we see here two disciples of John the Baptist heard John preaching, and they followed Jesus. Now it's focusing on these two men, particularly I want to be this evening.
[5:40] And it said in verse 38, Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them. That's the first point.
[5:53] What he says to them is, what are you seeking? He sees them following, and he asks them this question, what are you seeking?
[6:08] That's the first thing. And they respond with these words. They said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?
[6:23] That is their response to the question, what are you seeking? And they respond, where are you staying? That means that they wanted to be in his company.
[6:37] They wanted to hear him. They wanted to be in fellowship with him. That's the second point. Where are you staying? And thirdly, and finally, from verse 39, he said to them, come, and you will see.
[6:55] So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. The tenth hour in Jewish reckoning was four o'clock in the afternoon.
[7:12] And they stayed with him the rest of that day, because obviously, they were enjoying what he was saying to them and drinking in the teaching he was giving them.
[7:26] These three points then, what are you seeking? And they respond, where are you staying? And thirdly, he says, come and see. What are you seeking?
[7:40] Jesus turned, and he saw them following. We are following the Lord. That's what's leaving us here this evening.
[7:52] Some of us have been following him for many years. But the question needs to be asked of every one of us. What are we seeking? What are we seeking?
[8:05] Having heard John the Baptist declaring of Christ that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, it's easy to believe that these disciples of John the Baptist, they sought to have their sins dealt with.
[8:24] They sought forgiveness. They wanted salvation for their souls. And isn't that what we are seeking?
[8:35] When we come to the word of God, when we come to the means of grace, when we call upon the Lord in prayer, surely it's the same thing we are seeking. There were some in Jesus' day who followed him because they had tasted of the bread he had provided in such a miraculous way when he fed the 5,000, when he fed the 4,000.
[9:02] Some people followed him because they had received sustenance for their bodies. And there may be some people who have other reasons for which they openly are following the Lord.
[9:17] But those whom the Lord is dealing with in a saving way, they are seeking him, they are following him that they might know himself as their portion, as their savior for time and for eternity.
[9:34] Isn't that what you're doing here this evening? If this text is asked of you, what are you seeking? Well, maybe your answer can be this.
[9:45] I am seeking more light upon the glorious provision that God has made in Christ for my soul. I feel so often that I'm in darkness.
[9:58] I'm not seeing clearly. And Paul writes that we see now through our glass darkly. And there are things that come into my mind and into our lives that seem to blur our vision.
[10:11] We can't see Jesus as clearly as we would like to see him. But you come to our means of grace and you want to see a glimpse of him, of the glory that belongs to him, of his person and the glory associated with his finished work.
[10:31] You want more knowledge of him. Yes, head knowledge, but particularly experimental knowledge that he would speak into your situation.
[10:41] He knows your situation. He knows every detail of your situation. And he is able to give you grace to meet every challenge of life.
[10:53] And he is able to give you a word in season. You want a closer fellowship with him. There are so many things in the world that try and introduce a wedge between yourself and him.
[11:09] the world seeks to captivate your mind, to captivate your affections. It seeks to derail you in your commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[11:23] And you want a close fellowship with him. It's a marvelous picture there, isn't there? In the Song of Solomon, the church coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon our beloved, leaning upon him with all her inabilities and all her shortcomings.
[11:41] She knows nothing better than to lean her whole weight upon him. And this is what these two men, I believe, were doing.
[11:52] They want their faith to be strengthened. It's not what you want. You don't want to have weak faith. You want to be strengthened in your most holy faith. You want to love with a deeper love.
[12:07] You want to continue walking with Christ, feeding upon him, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.
[12:19] Before I go on, maybe you're looking for a greater assurance of your faith. Some people, they go for many years lacking the assurance of salvation.
[12:37] Assurance of salvation isn't integral to salvation itself. people can be saved for many years and not have that assurance. But what a comfort comes into the soul when you feel and are assured by the spirit of God that he is your God.
[12:59] The Lord is my shepherd, David said. In the ruins of Jerusalem after the Chaldeans had destroyed it, we read Jeremiah's famous words in the Lamentations chapter 3.
[13:20] Surrounded by the wreckage of Jerusalem and he says, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope and trust in him.
[13:32] He had that assurance. And when you come here this evening, you are seeking greater and deeper assurance. You are seeking stronger faith.
[13:44] You are seeking deeper love. You are seeking more light upon the Lord Jesus as you portion for time and eternity.
[13:57] Secondly, the answer they give to the question he gives them, what are you seeking? They say, where are you staying?
[14:13] Well, it's not clear where Jesus was staying at that particular time. The scripture says, concerning him, that foxes had holes, birds of the air had nests, but the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay his head.
[14:30] But wherever he was, in whatever circumstances, these two men, whose interest had been awakened, they wanted to be with him wherever he was.
[14:44] And isn't that the way you are? You want to be with him whatever it costs. You want to be with him because he is the pearl of great price.
[14:55] He is the one who is worth knowing and getting to know more and more. So, where are you staying? They said. The church in the Song of Solomon had something like this also on her mind.
[15:12] In Song of Solomon, chapter 1, verse 7, she said, tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, and where you make it lie down at noon.
[15:28] She wants to know the shepherd and she wants to know him as the one who is able to pasture and feed her. She wants to know the fellowship of his flock also.
[15:44] Tell me, she said. And then, of course, in Song of Solomon, chapter 1, draw me, she said, and we will run after you wherever you go.
[15:57] To be with you is life. To be with you is blessing. And it is a blessing of eternal life that I'm seeking. So they ask him, where are you staying?
[16:11] Where are you staying? Well, it's a question that I've thought about and I suppose the first word we can use to answer this question from these two disciples who are now following or seeking Jesus.
[16:39] Where are you staying? He is staying in the eternal purpose of God. I mean by that that is what leaves him in this world as the God man mediator.
[16:59] He has come into the world and he has come according to God's eternal purpose. That is where he is.
[17:12] Whatever roof is over his head, that is basically and primarily where he is at the center of God's purpose.
[17:24] And what does that mean for him? Well, it means for him that he has taken human nature to himself and he was born of the Virgin Mary yet without sin.
[17:42] sin. And he has grown up without sin. He hasn't had one sinful inclination or thought pass through his mind.
[17:55] He hasn't put a foot wrong. He hasn't done or said anything out of place. He is walking a perfect path of obedience.
[18:08] obedience. That's where he is. That's where he is. He's staying. Every step of his way was a perfect step of obedience.
[18:22] Where are you staying? I am staying on this road of perfect obedience, of sacrificial obedience.
[18:34] Every step of my life in this world. And where is that leading you? What leads me, shall we say, to the Garden of Gethsemane?
[18:52] I'm going to stay there a while. And there my blood or my sweat like great drops of blood will fall to the earth because I have a cup to drink and and if it is God's purpose for me to drink it, that is what I'll do.
[19:13] Although my human frame trembles to think of the consequences for myself of me drinking that cup. When he came to the disciples in Gethsemane, they couldn't stay awake to pray with them, one out.
[19:35] But he went to Gethsemane and he was arrested there. It was the hour of darkness, the power of darkness. He could have called upon 12 legions of angels to destroy every individual who came to arrest him, but he didn't do that because he was following this path of perfect obedience as the Lamb of God who was now carrying the sin of his people and the consequences of the sin of his people were a reality to him.
[20:21] Where are you staying? He was in the hall of the high priest. He was before Pilate, but he was taken to Golgotha and he stayed there until his work was done.
[20:42] He stayed there meeting the outpouring of God's undiluted wrath against the sin of the elect of God.
[20:53] God's blood. He suffered in his mind, in his heart, in his soul, in his body, the consequences of God's wrath against the sin of his people.
[21:08] God's love. God's love. God's love. God's love. And he spoke amazing words from the cross. And the climactic word, I believe, was, it is finished.
[21:24] it wasn't his last word. His last word was father into your hands. I commend or commit my spirit. But the work that he finished, that is what he came to do.
[21:42] And these disciples, I am sure, would have been introduced to that work in some of its aspects, as they stayed with him from the tenth hour right into the evening of that day.
[22:00] And while they were talking, the sacrifice of the lamb of the evening sacrifice would have been offered.
[22:16] Do you remember that in Israel there was a lamb offered morning and evening? On the Sabbath, two lambs morning and evening, burnt offering.
[22:28] And you know, the burnt offering symbolizes total consecration to God. The person who sacrifices it on behalf of the nation, of the people of God, it was saying, well, this is what we are seeking to be, totally consecrated to you, our God, and we gave this sacrifice as a token of our consecration and dedication to you.
[23:01] And while Jesus was explaining his mission to these two, it's very likely that the hour of sacrifice came, and who knows, maybe Jesus referred them to that lamb of the burnt offering, and said, that is symbolic of me.
[23:33] Come and see. You have come, haven't you, and seen a glimpse of his glory. glory.
[23:46] You have seen a glimpse of his glory. Come again, and see it more clearly. Come again, and know more of that rest of soul that is so heavenly and so blessed.
[24:03] I'm sorry, the time has gone. I had planned to finish around eight o'clock, but I didn't realize that the time had gone. But if you can take these three points, what are you seeking?
[24:16] And where are you staying? They said to him. And he said, come and see. And just one more thing, I'm sorry to take so long.
[24:28] Where is he staying now, this evening? Well, he is abiding by his Holy Spirit in the hearts of his people.
[24:38] and he is in the word of God. He is the word of God. In the means of grace, word of God, sacraments, prayer, there you will find him.
[24:55] Ask him, show yourself to me. I don't deserve it, but I know I need you. I pray that you would reveal yourself to me.
[25:08] And by God's grace, I'll follow you every step of the way until at last you receive me into your nearer presence.
[25:19] By grace, may we all live in that way.