“Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?” John’s two disciples had asked.
Jesus did not respond by giving them His house address and directions on how to get there.
His invitation was, “Come and see” (John 1.39).
We are living in days when the amount of Christian knowledge available to us—very good Christian knowledge—is absolutely immense. The Internet has Bible study resources like nothing the world has ever seen before. There are also countless messages by a host of good ministries, and books and audios and videos without number. Most of this is in the English language, I know, but I think there are translation tools available for a lot of it.
Add to that the multitude of messages over our pulpits on any given Sunday, and the weekly home Bible studies…
This is all very wonderful, is it not? Yes… but at the same time it is, to me, somewhat frightening that we have all this available to us.
For, I remind you that alongside all this Bible knowledge, the darkness of our world has also grown to immense proportion.
How can this be? So much light, but so much darkness, also? Why, with all our Internet resources and Sunday sermons and Bible studies are we not making the impact on this world that we need to be making—and which the beloved Bible we are studying so much says we should be making?
Could it be possible that we are being led astray by the very abundance of the knowledge we have at our fingertips? Is it possible that the light we have is actually blinding us? I think that it might be. At least the potential for that is there. I think it is, at least, a very great test we are being subjected to.
If the abundance of the Bible knowledge available to us in this day is not creating in us a cry… “Lord Jesus Christ… it is YOU YOURSELF we want… and need; we want YOU in our midst, we want to see and need to see YOU…” then we have miserably failed a very important test… with dangerous implications.
We have all this available to us… the sermons, the Bible studies, the Internet resources… yet our need in this hour for the Presence of the Lord Himself in our midst is beyond words to describe.
This is what I meant when I said last time that John the Baptist gave his disciples a very good spiritual education—something beyond the things I’ve mentioned. The diploma these disciples had received in the School of John the Baptist certified—and their own hearts bore witness to it—that it was Something more than knowledge their eye was searching for.
“Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?”
“Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?”
Is that the cry on our hearts as well?
And if not… why not? In spite of all we are learning, are we in the right school?
That is the question we need to face up to. Where is our hunger for God—for God Himself? I wonder if hunger for God Himself is not the greatest spiritual blessing a person can have.
Notice. John’s two disciples address Jesus as Rabbi—Master, Teacher… Rabbi—the very title by which they had previously addressed John.
In other words, they were expectantly looking to Jesus now to be their new teacher.
Their new Rabbi inducted them into the School of Christ immediately.
“Come and see.”
Lesson Number One in the School of Jesus Christ: It was not information He gave them, but an invitation to participate in a walk with Him.
It is only by walking with this Teacher and dwelling with Him, and taking His yoke upon us, and in this way learning of Him, that we become true disciples in the school of Christ.
A Mending Feast 