This afternoon I would like to take you to three semi-related scriptures. They all have questions which were posed to the Lord Jesus, but they had different purposes and answers. I bring them up because perhaps we should have the same questions – if we ask with proper attitudes.
Together they take us into the doctrine of Biblical Christology.
Let’s start with the best question of the three: “Rabbi, where dwellest thou.”
Over the years, my understanding of this event and this question have changed. I picture these two disciples of John, stalking the Lord Jesus and then being suddenly discovered. Verse 36 says that John the Baptist saw Jesus walking and said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” He saw Jesus “walking.” Jesus was not simply strolling or ambulating around the garden. He was going somewhere with a purpose. But where was He headed? Apparently it was toward his temporary home. And was He passing through a busy crowd street, or was He still out near the banks of the river? Whatever the circumstances, the Holy Spirit put in the heart of Andrew and his friend to follow their Saviour. They thought they were being discrete, but the omniscient Son of God knew them and what they were doing. So at some point, Jesus spun around and confronted them: “What seek ye?” He knew exactly what they were seeking, but the question was: Did they know?
In the past, I have pictured Andrew so embarrassed that he was completely tongue tied. “Ah, ah, hmmm….” What he said was not really an answer to the question: “What seek ye?” I used to think that he didn’t really know what to say. So he answered the Lord’s question with a question, which we are usually told is not proper. I used to think that not knowing what to say, he just blurted out, “Master, where do you live?” I used to think that his a dumb question; just the first thing that popped out of his mouth. (After all he is the brother of Peter who did that sort of thing all the time.) But as we have heard, there are no dumb questions, except when there is a wicked intention involved. “Rabbi, where dwellest thou?” We know that Jesus didn’t consider this to be a dumb question, because He indirectly ANSWERED it. “He saith unto them, Come and see.”
Obviously, these two disciples were just beginning to learn about the Lord. What the Baptist had said whet their appetites and made them hungry for more. And for the next three and a half years, their hearts continued to want more, and more, and more. This is one of the tests we might apply to ourselves. Am I a child of God? Am I a Christian? Well, does what I know about the Saviour make me want to know more, to possess more, to enjoy more? If I am satisfied with “going to heaven,” and satisfied with the idea that “Jesus loves me,” then I may not be a Christian at all.
Jesus turned around, startled them, and asked, “What SEEK ye?” Later He is going to add, “SEEK ye FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” “and you’ll have answers to all of your important questions.” “What seek ye?” “Rabbi, where dwellest thou?” Isn’t this the sort of question Nicodemus might have asked, if he didn’t already know the answer? “Rabbi, where dwellest thou?” Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus in the dark, but he knew where to find him. So his question was: “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” “Lord, I am willing to hear what you to say.” Andrew might have been saying, “Master, is there a quiet place where we can talk?” This is something you and I need to say each and every day of our lives. “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.” “Lord, what would thou have me to do?” “Lord, what would you have me to LEARN?” Andrew might have been saying, “Master, we want to make your dwelling place our dwelling place. We have been scripturally baptized and we have been disciples of Pastor John, learning a lot. But we know that ultimately, we need to learn from God our Saviour over and above the best efforts of our human pastors and teachers. Bring us into your tabernacle and be our teacher.” We should make it our business every day to go to the place where Jesus dwells and invite ourselves in. If your heart is pure, the Lord will say with a sweet and inviting smile, “Come and see.”
But – what if your heart isn’t pure? What will the Lord do when your question isn’t sincere?
We have an answer to that in John 19 when Jesus stood before PILATE.
The Roman governor asked a question quite similar to Andrew’s, but it was asked with a wicked heart and for a different purpose. Please turn to John 19:7. Jesus had been horribly abused by the rulers of Israel before being sent to be condemned by the Romans. Pilate ordered Him to be further beaten, and his soldiers mocked and tormented Him with the crown of thorns. Hoping that would placate the Jews, Pilate presented our Saviour – covered in blood – saying, “I find no fault in him.” “The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, WHENCE ART THOU? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.”
Andrew politely asked, “Rabbi, WHERE dwellest thou.” Pilate fearfully asked and yet with some degree of arrogance – demanded an answer, “WHENCE art thou?” He wasn’t interested necessarily in Christ’s mission or purpose, and he didn’t want to learn from Him. Based on what the Jews had just said, and colored by his own paganism, Pilate wanted to know about Jesus’ origin. “Whence art thou?” Luke 23:6 tells us Pilate was aware that Christ was from Galilee. But he wasn’t interested in Jesus’ birthplace – whether he was born in Bethlehem or Nazareth. That was an interesting distinction which should have brought the Jews, closer to knowing that this was their Messiah. But this Roman didn’t care about such things. He wanted to know whether or not this man was a demigod. In the Roman religion, various births came about in unusual ways. Minerva, for example, the goddess of wisdom and war, sprang from her father Jupiter’s head. But Jupiter also was the father of several humans, such as mighty Hercules. And Mars, the god of war, fathered of Romulus and Remus, the co-founders of Rome. The Roman and Greek gods had, in their mythologies, brought about the birth of various humans. That was rolling round in Pilate’s mind when he heard the Jews say, “This man claims to be the son of God.”
“The Jews answered (Pilate), We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” Based on his religious superstitions, if what the Jews said was true, it put Pilate into dangerous territory. Did he want to offend the gods by executing one of their offspring? Then things got even more complicated because “when he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him” – Matthew 27:19. Pilate was thinking, “What if this man from Galilee is what He says He is – the Son of a God? I better be careful.”
I hope you can see the essential difference between Andrew’s question and Pilate’s. The context suggests that Andrew was willing to submit to the Lord and to any answer He might have given Him. Pilate, ultimately, was only interested in saving his neck. He wasn’t sure there was any truth to the rumor about Jesus’ origin, and even if there was, he certainly wasn’t willing to take it to the bank.
Taking that back to us: Do we really want answers to our questions? Would you like to know how Christ is the Son of God and what that means for you? Really? Do you want to know why these terrible events have befallen you, and you are ready to submit to the Lord for victory through them? “Rabbi, where dwellest thou?” Do you really want to spend the rest of the day in the presence of the King of kings? Are you willing to become a true disciple of Christ, picking up your cross and following Him? Andrew was ready to answer “Yes” to whatever the Lord was going to say. Pilate was not.
In John 8 we have another question asked for another reason.
The chapter begins with the scribes and Pharisees bringing to Christ a woman they had caught in adultery. They had an initial question for Jesus: “What do you say should be done to this woman?” He replied with an unwanted answer – “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” After Christ wrote something in the sand, her accusers all fled the scene. Then He said, “I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” “Whosoever shall ask, “Rabbi, where dwellest thou,” shall be invited into my eternal light.” When the Jews tried to argue the point, Jesus pointed out that they had never asked the right questions and never responded to the correct answers.
That brings us to John 8:21 – “Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.” They didn’t say a word about “ye shall die in your sins.” “And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” Jesus repeated himself, “you will die in your sins because you refuse to believe who I am.” “Then said they unto him, WHO ART THOU? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have many things to SAY and to JUDGE of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”
I can picture both Pilate and Andrew asking the same question as these Jews: ”WHO art thou.” But all three of them would have been asking in different ways and for different reasons. John had pointed to Christ telling Andrew and his friend, “Behold the Lamb of God.” I don’t believe for a moment the Lord Jesus would have been angry with Andrew for later asking: “Are you indeed the Lamb of God sent into the world to save my friend and me from our sins.” The Lord might have answered in any number of ways, just as he later did to other disciples of John. But there would have been no anger.
However these Jews were not being honest in their query. They weren’t looking for an answer. They were hoping that Jesus would say something to incriminate himself. They were looking for something which might be brought up before the High Priest or even the Romans. And notice Jesus’ answer. Essentially, there wasn’t one. “You want to know who I am?” “And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.”
This same question is being asked today, two thousand years later. A man is invited to the house of God. Out consideration for his friend and with a tiny bit of curiosity, he agrees and visits. Once there he hears that he is condemned to die in his sins because he hasn’t believe on Christ. He hates what he has been told and vows never again to darken the door of that unfriendly church. In the past he has ignored the Bible, which his parents told him is just a book of religious fables. He believes the lies which declare that all the problems in the world are religiously based. But the message he has heard nags him, and he acknowledges that religion hasn’t hurt his friend. So that night, in the privacy of his bedroom says to himself, hoping that God, if there is a God, is listening. “I want to see a sign that this is all true. God if you’re listening, do something miraculous to convince me to believe you.” Will there be a miracle in his room that night? Will an angel come to visit and violently shake the bed? No, because the Lord has already answered the question that really plagues him. “I’m not going to give you anything more than what you already have. You have my WORD. Read it. THAT is where I ABIDE. THAT is from WHENCE I have come. The Bible declares who I am.”
Conclusion:
In order to have the answers to questions like the three we’ve considered this afternoon, we need hearts that are willing to listen and feet willing to take us to the place where the Lord dwells. We may begin with faith only the size of a grain of mustard seed, but what a hedge row might grow from that tiny seed. We may need three and half years to mature as we should, but it will be time well spent.
If I leave you with anything this afternoon it is this: We need to stalk Christ. We need to be stalkers of Christ – just as Andrew and his friend stalked the Lord. We need to follow the Lord Jesus, even if initially we’re still the disciples of someone else. “Christ is the light of the world.” “Christ Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Him.”
“Rabbi, where dwellest thou?” “He saith unto them, Come and see.”