Sunday we heard the first words Jesus speaks in John's gospel. Not a sermon. A question: "What are you seeking?"

Before He says anything about Himself, He asks about you. Why are you following? What are you actually after?

This week's homework: name one person and say the words, "Come and see." Invite them to read John with you, to your D-Group, or to sit with you next Sunday.

He asks so that you will be honest, not so that He can find out.

John points at Jesus one more time. Two of his disciples start walking after Him. Jesus turns around.

He is not asking because He doesn't know. He knows everything, as Nathanael is about to find out. He asks so they will be honest with themselves.

Be honest about your own answer. Courtesy: someone asked, and you came. Escape: life is too hard. Protection: trouble is close. Understanding: is Jesus really who Christians say He is? None of those are wrong answers. They are just answers. Jesus wants the true one.

The two disciples don't give a reason. They ask, "Where are you staying?" They weren't asking for His address. They were asking for time with Him. And Jesus said, "Come and you will see."

Jesus asks what you are seeking so that you will find Him, not so that He can find out.

Don't rush these. Give yourself a few minutes with each one before moving on.

Write your answers down. By Friday you will see where this question leads.

Come back tomorrow - tomorrow you will watch what Andrew does the moment his day with Jesus is over.

• John 1:40-42 - Andrew brings Simon
• Matthew 16:17-18 - the Rock

Read John 1:40-42. One of the two disciples was Andrew. He spent the rest of that day with Jesus, asking questions and listening. And the first thing he does when the day is over is go find his brother Simon. "We have found the Messiah." Then four words that describe the whole gospel: "He brought him to Jesus."

Andrew couldn't keep it to himself. Nobody in this chapter does. The gospel doesn't spread through crowds in John 1. It spreads one brother, one friend at a time.

Then Jesus looks at Simon and gives him a new name: Cephas, Peter. Rock. Nothing about Simon was rock-like yet. For the next three years he is impulsive, hot-headed, often foolish, and he will deny Jesus three times. But Jesus wasn't naming the man in front of Him. He was naming the man He would make.

That should give you hope on two fronts. Jesus does not call people who have it all together. And the person you are afraid to invite because of who they are right now? Jesus sees who they could become.

Jesus names people for who they will become, not for who they are when He finds them.

• John 1:43-46 - Philip and Nathanael
• Psalm 34:8 - taste and see

Read John 1:43-46. Jesus finds Philip and says two words: "Follow me." Philip does. And then, like Andrew, he goes and finds someone: his friend Nathanael. "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

Nathanael is not impressed. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" He knew his Bible; the Messiah was supposed to come from Bethlehem. He knew the area; Nazareth was a backwater. His objection was partly good theology and partly plain prejudice. He was right about the text and wrong about Jesus.

Notice what Philip does not do. He doesn't argue. He doesn't explain the birth in Bethlehem. He may not have even known about it. He says two words: "Come and see."

That is the memory verse this week, and it may be the most freeing sentence in the chapter. You do not have to win the debate. You do not have to answer every objection. You just have to make the introduction. Jesus does the rest.

You don't have to win the argument. You just have to make the introduction.

• John 1:47-49 - Nathanael meets Jesus
• Psalm 139:1-6 - You have searched me

Read John 1:47-49. Nathanael comes to see for himself, and before he can say a word, Jesus speaks first: "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" Remember Jacob: his name meant deceiver, and he lived up to it until God renamed him Israel. Jesus is saying, here is a true Israel, with none of the Jacob in him. Here is a sincere man.

"How do you know me?" Nathanael asks. And Jesus says, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." We don't know what Nathanael was doing under that tree. Praying, wrestling, maybe reading about Jacob's ladder. But Jesus knew. He knew the man and what was stirring in him before Philip ever opened his mouth.

And Nathanael goes from "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" to "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" in a single breath.

Many people believe they have to clean themselves up before they can come to Jesus. This scene ends that. He already saw you under the fig tree. He knows all of it, the sincere and the not-so-sincere, and He still says, "Come."

Jesus knew you before you came. He still said, "Come."

• Genesis 28:10-17 - Jacob's ladder
• John 1:50-51 - the Son of Man

Read Genesis 28:10-17, then John 1:50-51. Jacob, the deceiver, running from his brother, lies down with a stone for a pillow and dreams of a ladder set up on the earth with its top reaching heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it. He wakes up and says, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."

Now listen to Jesus' first "truly, truly" in John's gospel: "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." He takes Jacob's dream and puts Himself in the middle of it. The ladder is not a thing. The ladder is a person. Jesus is the one connection between heaven and earth, the only One who came down from heaven, the only mediator between God and men.

And the "you" in that verse is plural. Jesus is talking past Nathanael to everyone who would ever read this. You will see heaven opened. If you are seeking the true reality of Jesus, you are about to watch it happen across this gospel.

Which brings the week back to Monday. What are you seeking? Nathanael came with doubts. Thomas, at the end of the book, came with doubts. Both got the same answer: come and see. And both left saying the same thing: my Lord, my King, my God.

Heaven is open because of Jesus. Come and see - and then go and tell someone.