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 Amen. So we've been thinking about questions that Jesus asked in his time on earth,

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 and our next question is the question here in verse 38, where Jesus asked,

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 what do you want? What are you seeking? So we come to the desire question. It's a great question.

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 What do you want? It's a universal question. Everybody has basic needs and wants. There are

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 desires that we will devote ourselves to. It's an interesting piece of reflection and indeed a

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 conversation starter. What is it that you want? What are you looking for in life? It's also a deep

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 question, isn't it? Because it's one of those that makes us stop and reflect. What is it that I

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 value? What is it I want most deeply? Have I found it? Is this it? Is there more than what I see and

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 what I experience? It's a challenging question. I was reminded of that famous quote from C.S. Lewis

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 in his collection of essays, The Weight of Glory, where he talks about people being too easily pleased.

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 You know, like our desires are too strong. Our desires, Lewis says, are too weak. And he uses that

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 image. So we're people who would settle for making mud pies in a slum because we cannot imagine what a

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 holiday at the beach would be like. So he says, you know, we fool around with drink and sex and ambition

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 when infinite glory is offered us. We are too easily satisfied. So we're going to be asking ourselves

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 the desire question, what do you want? We're at the beginning of John's gospel, and it's interesting

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 to see how John loves to use questions within his gospel. There's a scholar called Douglas Estes who

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 points this out, that John records the questions of Jesus at significant points within the gospel,

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 in part to give structure to the book. I hadn't noticed this, but the first words of Jesus,

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 we just heard them, are a question. What do you want? The first words of Jesus after his resurrection,

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 recorded by John, another question. Why are you crying? The final words of Jesus recorded in John's

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 gospel, another question. If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You follow

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 me. The questions that John records from the mouth of Jesus are so important as well because they help

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 towards John's great purpose in writing his gospel. In John chapter 20 verse 31, John, these things are

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 written so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have

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 life in His name. And so actually the majority of questions that you find in John's gospel are either

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 going to be asking, whom are you seeking or do you believe? So they both kind of move towards

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 John's great theme. And what I want us to think about this evening is that as John puts his gospel

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 together, led by the Spirit, he places his first question in a strategic position. Think about what we

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 just heard read. We heard the testimony of John the Apostle in the first 18 verses. We heard the

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 testimony of John the Baptist sent to announce the coming of Jesus. They are saying together, this is

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 who Jesus is, this is what Jesus brings, and then comes the question, what do you want? What do you desire?

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 What is your response? So that's what we're going to think about. We're going to move very briefly

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 through the two testimonies and then think about response. Testimony one, the first 18 verses,

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 this great introduction to John's gospel, where if we were to kind of give it a summary,

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 John is telling us that Jesus is God who reveals God's glory. It's a wonderful introduction to Jesus.

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 So John the Apostle is writing after being an eyewitness for three years. So he's been there

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 during the public ministry. He was there when Jesus died. He saw the risen Jesus, saw him ascend to

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 heaven, and he's writing after Jesus from heaven sent the Spirit to guide him in writing. So he's writing a

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 reflection. Now what does John highlight about Jesus? I just want to pick out three words to show

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 that Jesus reveals God's glory to the world. The first words is words. Verse one, in the beginning

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 was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning. It's how Genesis begins,

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 first book of the Bible. Genesis begins with creation. John takes us to creation but moves back

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 to say that before there was creation, there was God, there was the Word. We've got the building blocks

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 of the Trinity here, especially when the Spirit is introduced. And then we're going to see that

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 John also moves from creation to think about new creation as well, that there is new life found

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 in Jesus who is the Word, who is with God, and who was God. He's inviting us to reflect, go back as far as

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 we can, and go beyond that, beyond our ability to fathom eternity past. There is God, and there is the Word.

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 The Word who is eternally with God, who is God's own self, who John will reveal in the gospel,

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 is none other than Jesus. But it's a wonderful word to use of Jesus. When we think about John's Old

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 Testament background, God's Word in the Old Testament was how He created the world.

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 God said, let there be, and there was. And then the author of the Hebrews tells us that Jesus was

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 God's agent of creation. God's Word was how He revealed Himself in the world. Think about that

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 phrase associated with the prophets. The prophets came and they said, thus says the Lord.

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 Revelation. And then we think about Hebrews 1, how a New Testament author understands it. In the past,

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 he spoke through the prophets, but now he's spoken in a new and a decisive way through his Son.

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 So he creates, he reveals, and he brings salvation through his Word. I don't know if you noticed that

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 as we sang Psalm 107, verse 20. He sent out his Word and healed them. He rescued them from the grave.

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 His Word that creates, that reveals, that saves. And John wants us to know this is Jesus. Jesus is

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 this Word. And that matters. So when we come to the Gospels, and we consider the actions and the

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 words of Jesus, we need to understand that these are the actions and words of God. Jesus is how God

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 speaks and reveals in a new way. And this Word is so powerful as to transform. So verses 12 and 13,

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 we're told that to all who did receive Him, He gives the right to become children of God.

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 A new identity, a new citizenship, a whole new life, because the Word

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 reveals God's glory. The second word for us to focus on is the word

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 light. It's there in verse 4 and verse 5 and also in verse 9. Again, to go back in the Old Testament,

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 creation begins with light. God said, let there be light. And everything else follows. Light is

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 essential for life. We also know from the Old Testament that light becomes this powerful reality

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 for revealing God's presence. So when the people had been set free from slavery, they followed a

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 pillar of fire. When they set up the tabernacle and the temple, when they met God at Mount Sinai,

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 there was this cloud of glory that shone that had lightning coming from it. Light is also a symbol to

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 speak of God's purity. And the apostle John, when he writes his letters, first, second, third,

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 he loves that idea of light and darkness. God is light in Him. There is no darkness at all.

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 And God's Word is light that guides His people's walk of faith. Psalm 119, Psalm 19.

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 And look now with me at verses 4 and 5. See how John uses the idea of light in two distinct and

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 significant ways. Verse 4, in Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

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 This is John's way of saying Jesus is the one who gives life, a reminder that He is Creator God.

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 And then in verse 5, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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 Here is light in the sense of salvation, in the sense of darkness being dispelled.

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 You know that sense that light will always conquer darkness. Picture yourself in a perfectly darkened

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 room, but then when the door opens or you open the curtains and as light begins to come in,

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 darkness has to leave. Jesus comes to defeat the darkness of sin and evil. And so, John is saying

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 to us, using the imagery of light, that Jesus reveals God's glory to us both as our Creator and as our Savior.

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 And Jesus Himself will declare, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in

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 darkness, but will have the light of darkness, but will have the light of life. And so, we have this

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 reality within John's gospel that by the grace of God, people are transferred from the kingdom of

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 darkness to the kingdom of light and life and love. And still, by His Spirit and through His Word,

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 Jesus, who is light, directs His people, directs us to walk in His ways through the Word of God.

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 He is the Word. He is the light. The last word to think about in John's testimony, and it's the word

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 glory. It's there in verse 14. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory,

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 the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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 John loves to draw from the Old Testament. He loves to draw from the book of Exodus. And in the book of

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 Exodus, we discover God's glory appearing in the tent, in the tabernacle, so that God could dwell among

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 His people. We thought about that this morning, that God graciously chooses to come down to be present

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 among us. And now John brings this revelation that in Jesus, the glory of God has set up camp among us.

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 That the unique glory of God is revealed by the unique Son of God, the glory of God in the tent of human flesh.

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 Jesus, the great figure of the book of Exodus, prayed to God. Maybe Exodus 33, maybe 34, I can't remember.

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 Show me your glory. And the response of God at that time was, no one can see my face and live.

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 But now with the coming of Jesus, the glory of God is seen in His face. There is that sense in which

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 that glory is still veiled. And we know that because on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus and three of

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 His disciples are there. And then Moses and Elijah appear, and then the glory cloud comes down, and the

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 voice comes from heaven, and it's as if the curtains are pulled back, and Jesus shines with the radiant

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 glory of God. And Moses got to see the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. So, as John introduces us

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 to Jesus before he begins his gospel proper, he concludes with this testimony in verse 18,

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 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son who is himself God and is in the closest relationship

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 with the Father has made him known. To see Jesus is to see the Father in His glory. In Jesus, the glory of

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 God shines in a whole new way as John declares that God has made the eternal, invisible God visible.

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 John's testimony is that Jesus reveals the glory of God.

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 Here's part of the background for that question that Jesus asks, What do you want? What are we seeking?

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 God has come down, entered in, bringing light and life and salvation, demonstrating the perfect glory of

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 God in His God in His person and His work. Stack that up against anything that we find ourselves seeking.

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 Weigh that in the balance, whether that's status or security, achievement or honor or relationship.

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 What do we want? Are we being too easily satisfied?

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 John's testimony invites us not to settle for a temporary slice of happiness,

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 but to receive the invitation to infinite joy from the God of infinite joy and glory.

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 So that's testimony one from our first John, John the Apostle. Now we need to hear a different testimony,

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 the testimony from John the Baptist. Verses 9 to 36, we hear a lot of John's testimony. And again,

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 to summarize John the Baptist's testimony, I think we could say his testimony is that Jesus is God's

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 chosen Savior. We're going to begin where John concludes verse 34, I have seen and I testify that

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 this is God's chosen one. Think about that, that idea of the chosen one. It's a powerful image and theme in

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 our stories. Some of the great stories, whether it's film or in book, have this theme. One is selected,

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 often a surprising candidate, usually to save the world. So again, this morning we thought about King

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 Arthur. But we can think about Frodo Baggins, we can think about Luke Skywalker, we can think about Harry

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 Potter, all with that same theme. Here is the one, the chosen one who will defeat enemies, who will bring

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 rescue, who will bring freedom. Why do we love that theme in our stories? Why do we hear it repeated so

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 often? Because it's God's story, because it's the theme of God's story of salvation. And John the Baptist

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 is enabled to see that as he considers Jesus. And John the Baptist's testimony is very different from the

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 apostle. So the apostle has long years to reflect back on the life and ministry, the teaching, the

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 miracles of Jesus, and to formulate his gospel. What we're getting from John the Baptist, though,

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 is a prophet who is speaking in the moment directed by God. Here is the moment of truth. The time is now,

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 the Messiah is here. One other thing that we need to know about John the Baptist is that he loves the

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 book of Isaiah. He loves the book of Isaiah, and he draws on it again and again to help us understand

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 that Jesus is the chosen Savior. And I hope we'll see this together. Again, three words, three themes

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 from John the Baptist. The first theme or word is the word Lord. Verse 23, as John speaks of himself,

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 I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, make straight the way for the Lord. And here he's

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 quoting from Isaiah chapter 40 in verse 3. Okay, so just to set the scene, John the Baptist is being

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 grilled by the Jewish leaders. We said it this morning, expectation for a Messiah was always high.

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 Every generation was looking, is the chosen one in this generation? And so they come to John,

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 who's gathering great crowds in the wilderness, and he's speaking with authority from God. John,

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 is it you? Are you the Messiah? Are you the one we're waiting for? And we get that wonderful example

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 of John the Baptist. For our own sort of lives and testimonies. He always, when you encounter John

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 the Baptist in the gospel, he's always pointing away from himself, don't look at me, look at Jesus.

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 He's happy to lose followers. Don't follow me, follow Jesus. He must become greater, I must become less.

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 He understands Jesus is the true light. He and every Christian ever since, we are reflected lights,

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 and the light we are to reflect is not our own glory, but the glory of Jesus. So they're asking him,

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 who are you? Are you Elijah? No. Are you the prophet? No. Who are you? And he says, I am the voice.

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 I'm the voice. In a sense, he's saying, I am the king's herald anticipated by the prophet Isaiah.

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 Isaiah. And so he quotes from Isaiah 40, prepare the way for the Lord. And this is huge.

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 Let me show you why. In Isaiah, the book of Isaiah breaks into two parts.

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 The first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah are largely a message of judgment and the anticipation

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 of exile because of their disobedience. There are wonderful glimpses that the Messiah will come

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 and God will be gracious. But then we get to Isaiah 40 to 66, and it's often known as the book of comfort.

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 And it brings a message of comfort to people living in exile, that there will be a second

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 exodus. There will be a return and a restoration. There is great messages of salvation. There's the

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 promise of new creation. There's the promise of the king who is the servant.

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 But the question was always, well, when will this comfort come? When will this salvation come? When

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 will we find peace? Who is going to be sufficient to bring hope of the new creation? And the message

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 of Isaiah is, all of this is wrapped up in the coming of the Messiah King. We thought about that this

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 morning, who is also the servant of the Lord. And so when John announces,

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 my job is to get people ready for the coming of the Lord. He's saying, he's here. God has kept his promise.

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 The king, the Lord himself has come. Get ready to receive your king. A wonderful announcement about who

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 Jesus is. The second theme, which seems so in many ways strikingly different, is of Jesus as the Lamb.

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 Verse 29, the next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, look, the Lamb of God

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 who takes away the sin of the world. And then again in verse 36, look, the Lamb of God.

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 The Lion is the Lamb, the great King is also the great sacrifice. The significance for the people

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 when John says, look, the Lamb of God, for them being used to going to the temple, bringing sacrifices,

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 they understand what's going on. To hear someone spoken of as the Lamb of God

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 is a message of mercy from God. Sacrifices are always connected with God's mercy, that God has

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 mercifully provided a way of sacrifice, of a substitute that will bring forgiveness and

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 reconciliation. It's there from the first pages of the Bible. It also says the wages of sin is dead.

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 It also says there is a need for blood to be spilled, for justice to be done, for God's wrath to be turned

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 away, for forgiveness to come. The Lamb of God speaks of sacrifice. And of course, the great text in the

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 book of Isaiah that the New Testament writers come to love is Isaiah chapter 53 of the sufferings. One of

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 the amazing things about Isaiah is he brings together that the Messiah King is the suffering servant,

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 and the suffering servant is the Lamb of God, the Lamb who is led to the slaughter.

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 We all like sheep have gone astray. We all turn our own way, and the Lord has laid on him, on this one,

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 on the Lamb of God, the iniquity of us all. And so John the Baptist announces,

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 Jesus is the chosen Savior who saves by way of sacrifice.

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 Notice that John the Baptist says, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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 John the Apostle loves to record this idea of the world, this idea of a system, of a people,

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 in active rebellion against God, a way to include us all. And we have this gracious,

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 gracious truth that God is pleased to save sinners, to pull sinners out from the darkness,

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 bring us into the kingdom of light. Jesus, who is eternal God, as the Lamb of God will suffer

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 punishment. He will be forsaken. He will know what it is to feel the full weight of sin,

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 and the punishment that sin deserves falling on Him. And in the sacrifice of the eternal Son of God,

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 we have a sacrifice of eternal value, giving forgiveness and giving eternal life. And so John

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 the Baptist gets us ready for the gospel. The only reason there needs to be sacrifice is because we sin

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 against a holy God. We sin against a holy God. We deserve eternal punishment for disobeying an eternal and

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 righteous God. But God, in His own Son Jesus, takes upon Himself the punishment, experiences death,

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 knows separation, knows separation, that sense of being forsaken, pays the price in full as the perfect

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 sacrifice, the perfect substitute who takes away sin and gives us heaven. And so the question returns,

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 what do you want? What more could we want than this Jesus?

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 The last theme is the theme of the Spirit. So there in verses 32 and 33, we hear John giving his

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 testimony, I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. It's significant. In the

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 Old Testament, we read of the Spirit coming down upon various of God's servants at different times.

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 Sometimes it's the judges, sometimes it's prophets, sometimes it's kings.

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 There's something unique here though, because the Spirit remains upon Jesus. He is anointed for His

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 task by the Spirit. So here we have the Son of God coming to do the Father's work in the power of God,

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 the Spirit. He is the Spirit-filled man. And notice that John connects, John the Baptist connects,

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 the idea of Jesus having the Spirit and the Spirit remaining on Him, with verse 34, Jesus being the

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 chosen one. And that's significant because those two themes appear again in Isaiah chapter 42,

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 one of the great servant songs, anticipating the coming of the King who is the servant. And so

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 John is telling us here, Jesus is the chosen servant of the Lord. And as the servant of the Lord,

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 he is filled with the Spirit. He reads Isaiah 42. It's a wonderful, it's a short chapter,

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 it's a wonderful chapter. This servant who comes bringing justice to the nation.

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 This servant through whom God's covenant promise is kept. This servant who is a light,

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 not just for his own people, but a light bringing salvation to the Gentiles. This servant who delivers,

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 gives freedom from blindness and captivity. And John the Baptist tells the crowd on that day,

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 he's here. The one we're waiting for, God's chosen Savior, he's come. God has kept his promise.

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 And not only that, which is remarkable enough, verse 33, John says,

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 the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

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 Just stop and think about that for a moment. We as New Testament believers, we have a privilege

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 every Old Testament worshiper could only dream of. Moses, Abraham, David, none of them had this

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 privilege. Every believer, not just the elite, we have the Holy Spirit within us. And not just for a

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 while, but always. So the New Testament can speak about believers becoming the temple of the living God,

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 because the Spirit comes to live within us. The life of God and the soul of man.

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 People are looking to connect with ultimate reality, wanting to connect with God.

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 John is telling us faith in Jesus brings us into personal living relationship with the living God.

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 Well, having said all that, let's very briefly think about two responses to our question,

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 what do you want? John in his gospel prepares us to hear the question. He's given us grounds for

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 an answer by presenting these two testimonies. And now Jesus is here. He speaks to these two

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 disciples of John the Baptist. What do you want or who are you speaking? And we get to meet Andrew,

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 our patron saint, and a great model for our faith. He's heard what John the Baptist had to say about

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 Jesus. He spent an afternoon with Jesus. And from that comes this response in verse 41.

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 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, we found the Messiah.

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 That is the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.

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 Two responses that we see from Andrew. First response, he believes in Jesus as Lord,

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 in Jesus as the Messiah. We need to make sure that we get the significance of that. We spoke about it

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 a fair amount this morning. But maybe this will help. For every visitor who comes to Edinburgh by rail,

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 some of us spend a lot of time coming into Edinburgh by rail, the tracks all run into the heart of the city.

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 Okay, the terminus is Waverly. That's the destination. And if we live here, the destiny,

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 that's our home. Okay, so we follow the tracks, we come to the terminus, we find ourselves at home.

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 For Andrew, as someone raised to be taught the Old Testament, his great hope, his great home,

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 God with his people. God with his people in a promised land. The reality of God bringing salvation

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 and peace. The return of God's glory and the joy of rest with God. That's the destination that he is

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 desperately longing for. That's home. Now, what are the tracks that will bring him home?

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 Where the tracks along which his hope runs? It's the Messiah. It's the coming of Messiah. When the King

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 comes, then all of these promises can belong to the people of God.

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 If we were to ask Andrew, Andrew, what do you want? Deep down, Andrew, what are you seeking?

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 He seeks the Messiah because he seeks life with God. Like Andrew, we will find ourselves believing

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 and trusting and finding hope when the Spirit enables us to see Jesus and to seek him as our great

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 treasure, as our final destination, as our true home. So, he believes. And the second response,

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 he shares Jesus. First thing he did,

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 he understands, sharing completes the joy. If I find the hope of the people of God that I need to

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 share it. And so, he goes to share it with his brother. It's this wonderful pattern for the church

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 of God. As we are led to see and believe, we are then sent out to share, to bring people to see Jesus to

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 you. You and I know that that can often be difficult. We can often struggle with it.

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 We find ourselves disappointed in ourselves or disappointed by reaction, and so we can find it

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 hard. There's a couple of things. Perhaps one of the reasons why we can find it hard

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 is because we don't stop to wonder. We don't stop in order to worship,

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 because it's gazing on Jesus' glory that will cause us to want to share that glory with others.

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 Perhaps we lose a sense of wonder. Perhaps deep down we know he's not always who and what we want most.

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 We know that our hearts are prone to wander. They're prone to create idols.

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 And so, John's gospel, even as it begins, gives us this invitation to see and to see again,

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 to rejoice and to recover a desire for Jesus. What do you want? If you were to reflect on your life

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 today, do you feel that you're on the right track in terms of your pursuit of joy and happiness?

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 Don't settle for a slice of what is temporary. When God in Jesus invites us to infinite joy,

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 we're invited to center our life and our longings on Him,

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 and to invite others into the joy of knowing Jesus too. Let's pray about that together.

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 Our Father in heaven,