Restlessness - What Are You Looking For? 1-18-26
Overview
Restlessness: What Are You Looking For?
"Do you know where you're going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you?" The questions posed by familiar songs echo something far older and deeper—the restlessness that lives in every human heart. Augustine named it plainly: "You made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." Pascal described it as a God-shaped vacuum that no created thing can fill. We may try to satisfy that ache with power, money, status, education, relationships, or any number of substitutes, but the void remains until it is filled by God made known through Jesus Christ.
In John 1:35-39, John the Baptist—the prophesied forerunner sent to prepare the way of the Lord—is standing with two of his disciples, Andrew and John. As Jesus walks by, John exclaims, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" That title would have struck deep chords in his hearers. They knew the Passover lamb of Exodus 12, whose blood on the doorposts shielded God's people from judgment. They knew the daily sacrifices of Leviticus. And as Hebrews 10:11-12 declares, where priests once offered sacrifices that could never take away sins, "when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God." The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.
John's first chapter unveils a cascade of titles for Jesus—Rabbi, Son of God, King of Israel, Son of Man, Messiah, Lamb of God. And when the two disciples begin to follow him, Jesus turns and asks the very first words recorded of him in this Gospel: "What are you looking for?" Another way to render it: What do you want? It is the question beneath every restless search. Their reply is telling: "Rabbi, where are you staying?" They wanted to be with him. And Jesus answered, "Come and see." They remained with him that day, and Andrew immediately went to find his brother Simon, announcing, "We have found the Messiah" John 1:40-42.
The pastoral application is as simple as it is searching: hear Jesus ask you the same question today. What are you looking for? Whatever you have been chasing to quiet the restlessness within, no person, possession, achievement, or experience will fill that God-shaped place. Only the Lamb of God, who bore your sin on the cross and rose victorious from the empty tomb, can satisfy the longing he himself placed within you. His invitation still stands: Come and see. Spend time with him. Bring others to him as Andrew brought Simon. In him, the search is over.
Transcript
Would you open your Bibles, please, with me, to John the first chapter for our time in God's 3s
Word today, if you're using a Pew Edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that 9s
in the New Testament on page 80, John the first chapter. 13s
Do you know where you're going to? 22s
Do you like the things that life is showing you? 26s
Where are you going to? 31s
Do you know? 34s
Do you get what you're hoping for when you look behind you? 37s
There's no open door. 41s
What are you hoping for? 44s
Do you know? 48s
Well, we're not going to play name that tune too long this morning. 50s
But do you remember who sang that very, very popular song? 56s
It was Diana Ross. 62s
It wasn't Diana Ross. 63s
It's such an interesting song when you look at the lyrics of that. 64s
It's a song that's asking really piercing questions in terms of, do you know where you're 68s
going to? 74s
Do you like it? 75s
It addresses direction. 77s
It addresses future. 79s
It addresses the present. 82s
It addresses the sense of restlessness that one can have in their life. 84s
Do you know where you're going to? 92s
What's fascinating? 97s
Is Jesus in our text for today asks a very similar question? 98s
But before we get to Jesus's question, let's do a little work in the prelude to that 110s
question. 116s
Look with me please, at verse 35. 116s
The next day, John again was standing with two of his disciples. 119s
Who's the John here? 125s
John, it's John the Baptist. 127s
Number, Advent season comes and John the Baptist shows up. 129s
He was the prophesied four runner of the Lord Jesus Christ. 135s
He was the one whom the Lord had raised up to make the call to straight the paths here, 139s
the smooth road for the Messiah to come. 148s
He announced the coming of the Messiah. 152s
And John is with two of his disciples. 157s
All that means is that the two he was with here, they were students of John. 161s
Well, who were the two? 170s
Verse 40 tells us that one of them was Andrew and the other one was John. 172s
Here's just a little aside. 177s
In the Gospel of John, John never refers to himself. 178s
Here's an example of it. 183s
So you've got the picture here. 185s
You've got the four runner, John the Baptist. 186s
He's with two of his disciples, it's Andrew and John. 189s
And then look at verse 36. 194s
And as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, look. 196s
Here is the Lamb of God. 202s
The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. 206s
Now as we're looking at here, the prelude to the question that Jesus would ask. 213s
It's interesting to note that in the first chapter of John, 221s
you see various titles for Jesus come up. 224s
Slide over please to verse 49 of chapter 1. 228s
Nathaniel replied, Rabbi, you are the son of God. 233s
You are the king of Israel. 240s
There's three titles there, right? 243s
Rabbi, son of God, king of Israel. 245s
Go down to verse 51. 249s
He said to him very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened 252s
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son 256s
of man. 261s
The son of man, by the way, was Jesus's favorite title 263s
that he used of himself. 267s
So in addition to Rabbi, son of God, king of Israel, son of man, 271s
in verse 41, we have Messiah translated, anointed. 280s
And we also have this other title here. 285s
This title that John exclaims. 288s
Look, here is the Lamb of God. 293s
People wouldn't vary from familiar with lamps, 305s
vary from familiar. 308s
Exodus 12 chapter, the Passover, God freeing his people 310s
from being under the bondage of an incredibly impressive 315s
Pharaoh, propelling them to the promised land, displaying his power. 319s
And he tells us people to take lamps, to kill them, put the blood 326s
on the door post and then the lintal, the cross part of the door. 330s
And God would pass over all of those houses that were marked 335s
with that blood as he executed his judgment on Egypt. 339s
And all those in that house marked with the blood that were saved. 344s
Leviticus 14 chapter, daily sacrifices of the Lamb. 353s
People were very familiar with lamps. 360s
And in Hebrews, the 10th chapter, it says, 365s
and every priest stands day after day at his service offering again. 369s
And again, the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 378s
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, 384s
he sat down at the right hand of God. 392s
That's why we sing, Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. 399s
It's the Lord Jesus Christ who goes to the cross. 408s
And he bears yours in and my sin. 411s
And the sin of the entire world were reconciled through the blood 413s
of Christ, where washed in the victory of the cross and the empty tomb. 418s
The glorious titles here of Jesus revealed in John the first chapter. 424s
And one of them is the Lamb of God. 431s
John said, look, there's the Lamb of God. 435s
And what is it then that are the first words of Jesus of the Lamb of God recorded 443s
in the gospel of John. 452s
In this chapter of our series, the red letter words, 455s
we're taking a look at the first words. 458s
We studied in loop. 461s
We pondered the unformed words of the cry of the baby Jesus. 463s
We took a look in Mark of when Jesus said repent and believe we took a look last week 469s
that he's the fulfillment of all righteousness and studying when Jesus was baptized by John 477s
in the gospel of Matthew. 484s
And so when we come to John, what are the very first words of Jesus in the gospel 486s
of John, the first words of the Lamb of God? 494s
Look, please, at verse 38, when Jesus turned and saw them following, 501s
he said to them, what are you looking for? 510s
What are you looking for? 520s
Another way to put it is, what do you want? 523s
What do you want? 530s
1983, perhaps you remember this one. 540s
Sweet dreams are made of this. 548s
Who am I to disagree? 552s
I travel the world and the seven seas. 556s
Everybody's looking for something. 560s
Everybody's looking for something. 567s
Saint Augustine in early church, theologian and bishop. 575s
You wrote this. 582s
You made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. 585s
There's a restlessness in all of us. 613s
And we can look to satisfy that restlessness in a host of ways, power or money or who has 619s
the most toys or status or education or relationships or fill in a blank. 632s
Just fill in the blank. 639s
A various ways that we can try to fill that restlessness, because everybody's looking for something. 641s
And everybody has that restlessness that's only satisfied by God. 661s
Blazeplast Pascal put it this way. 673s
There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person. 677s
And it can never be filled by any created thing. 684s
It can only be filled by God made known through Jesus Christ. 688s
There's a God-shaped vacuum. 696s
And you try and fill that vacuum with anything or anybody else. 704s
And it's never, ever filled. 711s
Augustine said there's a restlessness until we rest in the Pascal said there's a God-shaped 718s
vacuum that can't be filled by anyone other than Jesus Christ or a little one in Sunday 724s
school put it this way. 732s
The Sunday school teacher asked the question to the class and said, 735s
I'm thinking of an animal. 739s
An animal that's free has a big bushy tail that likes to climb trees, that likes to find nuts 741s
and bury the nuts and then returns to them when it's winter. 750s
So here she can eat of them. 755s
What am I thinking of? 758s
And the little girl popped up her hand and just before she was going to answer, 760s
she has a tated and she said, 766s
it sounds to me like a squirrel, 771s
but it seems like every answer in Sunday school is always Jesus. 776s
You see, that's her way of putting the same thing 784s
because everybody's looking for something 790s
Jesus said, what are you looking for? 797s
Nothing can fill the void, the restlessness, 805s
nothing, no one can fill it. 812s
Except Jesus. 823s
Look, please, at verse 37 again. 828s
The two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 834s
When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, 840s
what are you looking for? 845s
They said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher. 849s
Where are you staying? 856s
It's an interesting thing that the answer Jesus has questioned 860s
with a question, but embedded in the question 866s
is the answer. 874s
They wanted to spend time with him, 877s
and spending time with him. 886s
They would discover the one who ends the search. 891s
Look, please, at verse 39, 900s
he said to them, come and see, they came and saw where he was staying, 905s
and they remained with him that day. 911s
It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. 912s
One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother. 917s
He first found his brother, Simon, and said to him, 923s
we have found the Messiah, which is translated anointed. 926s
He brought Simon to Jesus who looked at him and said, 933s
your Simon, Son of John, you were to be called Seepus, 937s
which is translated, Peter. 941s
They meet the one who addresses 947s
the restlessness. 956s
They meet the one who addresses the God-shaped void. 959s
They meet the one who is the answer. 966s
Do you know where you're going to? 981s
Do you like the things that life is showing you? 984s
Where are you going to? 990s
Do you know? 992s
Do you get what you're hoping for when you look behind you? 996s
There's no open doors. 999s
What are you hoping for? 1002s
Do you know? 1006s
Sweet dreams are made of this. 1010s
Who am I to disagree? 1013s
I travel the world and the seven seas 1015s
everybody's looking. 1019s
Something. 1023s
Our hearts are restless 1028s
until they rest. 1033s
In the beloved, the search. 1038s
It's over. 1049s
It's over. 1054s