I often ask people what the first recorded words of Jesus are in John’s gospel. When I first started asking the question I was surprised at the amount of people who didn’t know what those words were.

In the Bible the first words are important as they create the basis for all that comes after. In this case these first words are addressed to two people who want to be Jesus’ disciples. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus then it is important that you hear these words. They can be found in the first chapter of John’s gospel in the first half of verse 38. If you have a red letter bible these will be the first words written in red type that you will come across in John’s gospel.

“What are you looking for?” John 1:38a

I believe we need to honestly answer this question before we can consider being Jesus disciple. God wants to search out your heart. What are you really looking for? Is it a good time? Peace? A life partner? Money? Power?

The two disciples of John – wannabe disciples of Jesus – gave the answer that we all need to end up giving: “Teacher – where are you abiding?” John 1:38b. Before we can become disciples we have to get to the place of trusting Jesus in our hearts with our deepest desires. He knows what they are but we can deceive ourselves about them.

The two disciples give the right answer but it takes a miracle of grace to get to that place in your heart. At least, in my case, my heart has not been looking for Jesus. It was only when I was honest about my heart’s real desires that God was able to show me that He actually was the answer to those desires. It has taken a while to consistently believe that.

Every evil is in the heart but every evil is only a perversion of something good. It is in the power of God to take the perverted and to make it pure. My heart has to be taught that abiding with Jesus is the thing it really wants after all. He is the answer to my heart’s desires no matter how strange that may seem.

Typically of John though, he doesn’t complicate things. Jesus’ simply says to anyone who wants to find out where He is: “Come and you will see.”

We would do well to come and see and stay with Jesus at the place where He shows us He is abiding.

Revised 5/12/2025