Where are you looking for Jesus?
The other day I was talking to a new friend who had started reading the Bible as a teenager and was looking for Jesus in his life. Someone saw him with his Bible, befriended him, and brought him into his Bible reading community. But then he tried to plant the seeds of anger and distrust of society as a whole and other Christians, along with hatred for anyone unlike the people in this group. And all this was under the guise of finding and following Jesus.
Pretty quickly though, the more my friend read the Bible for himself, the more he realized there was something not quite right with the attitude in this group. In fact, there was a lot that wasn’t right. The Bible spoke to him of a very different way to think and interact with other people that was more like the way Jesus would have.
So he left those guys behind and has just been following Jesus the best way he can by reading the Bible and putting Jesus’s teachings of love and forgiveness into practice in his daily life. And let me tell you, he has found Jesus.
When my friend first started reading the Bible, he was looking for Jesus. He was trying to find out who Jesus is and what he was like. He wanted to know if all he had heard about Jesus was true. And he learned a really important lesson, not to be too easily influenced by what someone else says about Jesus.
Lots of people looking for Jesus
There are a lot of people are looking for Jesus these days. I talk to a lot of folks who are trying to find Jesus, I mean find the real Jesus, not just what someone else has told them about Jesus. And they want to follow this real Jesus.
Unfortunately, a lot of people have become disillusioned by the difference between what they’re discovering about Jesus in the Bible and the way their churches have followed, or rather not followed, Jesus.
So today, we’re going to talk about looking for and finding Jesus. And I don’t just mean finding out about Jesus intellectually or being able to quote everything he said. I mean discovering Jesus’s deep spiritual nature as the Christ, the Messiah.
Well, I’ll talk about where to find Jesus in just a minute, but first I think it’s important to look at some of the places where you won’t find Jesus, even though a lot of people still look for him in these places.
The Bible gives some pretty good insights on where and how to find Jesus and shows us where not to find him.
Looking for Jesus 2,000 years ago
Imagine for a minute you lived back 2,000 years ago in the region of Galilee. You heard about this new preacher who was traveling around the countryside preaching in synagogues and telling stories about farmers, unfaithful servants, and women baking bread. It all sounded pretty interesting but then you start hearing about people who have been healed by this new preacher guy.
And so, you go looking for him. You want to hear him for yourself. You talk to your friends about where he has been and if they know where he’s going next. There are lots of different opinions about who this guy is. Some of your friends think he might be a prophet or maybe even the Messiah. But the leaders of your local synagogue aren’t so sure. He’s breaking the commandments by healing on the Sabbath.
No one knows for sure where he’ll be next. But one afternoon, the word on the streets is that he’ll be preaching nearby. So you go looking for him, along with almost everyone else in your village. You want to see him for yourself.
And that actually is the best attitude when you’re looking for Jesus. You don’t just take someone else’s word for who or where Jesus is, you find out for yourself.
Finding Jesus 2,000 years ago
You see all these people going in so many different directions looking for where Jesus might be, and then it occurs to you that the best place for Jesus to talk to a lot of people would be down by the Sea of Galilee. And off you go.
As you get closer to the water, you see a huge crowd gathering and someone way up front who you’re pretty sure must be Jesus. You find a place to sit, and when he starts talking, you know for sure it’s him and that this is exactly what you’re looking for.
I think it’s helpful to sometimes to imagine what it would have been like to live in the times of Jesus. It helps me to feel the excitement of the Bible stories in a fresh way.
As Jesus got more of a reputation for the way he preached with such authority, treated people with such compassion, and healed so many different diseases, it’s no wonder people were always trying to find him.
Looking for Jesus when you want to be healed
One Sabbath, Jesus had healed a lame man and then Peter’s mother-in-law. Word got out and that night basically the whole town came looking for him and he healed everyone who had a problem. You can read about this in Mark, Chapter 1, starting verse 21.
The next morning, Jesus got up really early.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Mark 1:35-37 NIV
Think about that, everyone is looking for Jesus.
Simon Peter and the other disciples knew where to find him. They said “Everyone is looking for you.” But these folks weren’t looking in the right place and they didn’t find him.
Looking for Jesus when you just want another free lunch
Another time the crowds were looking for Jesus and realized he must be on the other side of the lake.
Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” John 6:24-27 NIV
Jesus saw very clearly why they were looking for him. They had been in the crowd of 5,000 he fed the day before. He tried to get them to recognize their need to look for the deeper spiritual meaning of his message instead of just getting another free lunch.
What are your motives for looking for Jesus?
In other words, your motive for looking for Jesus is just as important as where you look.
Take a moment and ask yourself: Where are you trying to find Christ? And just as important: Why are you looking for Christ in the first place? Is it for the loaves and fish? Is it to be healed? Is it because you are hungry and thirsty for righteousness?
Where else did people look for Jesus while he was here on earth?
Not finding Jesus
The ironic thing is that sometimes Jesus was right under people’s noses and they didn’t find him. The religious leaders of his day were supposedly looking for the Messiah to come, but many of them were looking for him in their preconceptions of how the Messiah must appear and they never found him. Jesus was the very fulfillment of the Scriptures these religious leaders thought they believed.
Does this ever happen today? Do some religious leaders, and their followers, sometimes have incredibly detailed preconceptions about how someone must find Jesus in their lives and become a Christian? Or on any given topic, especially what many Christians refer to as the Second Coming of Jesus, do they have such specific theological ideals of how it has to happen that they could miss it altogether, just like the Pharisees missed Jesus being the Messiah?
You can never find Jesus in your preconceptions or opinions. And if you’re trying to find Jesus through what some person says to you, or a book someone has written, or a sermon or podcast, even this podcast, then you’re looking in the wrong place.
Looking for Jesus just on the surface
Jesus was constantly encouraging his disciples to turn to God in every situation. But usually they went looking for him personally to solve a problem.
When Jesus and his disciples were on a ship in the middle of a terrible storm, he was asleep in the back of the boat. In an obvious sort of way, the disciples knew where to find him. There he was sleeping in the boat. So they woke him up and he stilled the storm.
But on a deeper level they really hadn’t completely found Jesus. They were looking for him as a physical personality who could save them from the storm because he was present with them. And that’s what they found.
After they woke him up
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:39, 40 NIV
But wait a minute, they thought they did have faith, at least enough to wake Jesus up and hope he could do something.
But they were looking for Jesus as a person who had to be present in order to solve a problem. Jesus rebuked this lack of faith. They had seen him heal so many people as well as other amazing things. Was Jesus asking them to look for him in not such a personal way? What if they had looked for him in all he had taught them, and called upon their own faith in God to still the storm instead of depending on the person asleep at the back of the boat?
Looking for Jesus geographically
The disciples continued to look for Jesus in his personal presence throughout his entire ministry and even after his resurrection.
When Mary Magdalene, along with other women, went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried, they were looking for him in a material location where his material body had been put. In effect, they were looking for him in death. However, their motives were pure and of the highest love they knew. They were going to honor and pay respect to him, even in his death.
But they were looking for Jesus in the wrong place. When they got to the tomb, two angels, according to Luke, appeared and said,
Why do you look for the living among the dead? Luke 24:5 NIV
Now you’ve probably read that verse a hundred times. It’s not a surprise anymore. But think of the shock this was to these women. The angels told them they were looking for Jesus, not just in the wrong place, but in the wrong way.
They were looking for a material person in a material, geographical location. Once Jesus ascended, it would be impossible to find him that way.
Looking for Jesus materially
And think of Thomas after the resurrection. He was looking for Jesus in the visible and physical evidence of the nail prints and spear wound. And Jesus met Thomas there. But he also rebuked this approach to finding him. He said to Thomas,
Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. John 20:29 NIV
In a sense, Jesus had to wean his disciples from looking for him physically and geographically. During the forty days after his resurrection, he would come to them. He found them where they were and continued to teach and prepare them for what would happen after he ascended and could no longer be found as a physical being in a physical location.
Looking for Jesus spiritually
Jesus had to teach his disciples to look for him spiritually.
Even before the crucifixion, Jesus gave some pretty good clues as to where people could find him, and this includes us today.
Jesus was talking to some religious leaders and said pretty straightforwardly,
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, John 5:39 NIV
Now, he was talking just about the Jewish Scriptures because the New Testament hadn’t been written yet. There were dozens and dozens of Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. Today, of course, we have the New Testament which bears witness to who Jesus is and how he fulfilled those prophecies.
Studying the Bible is one of the Jesus-approved ways of looking for and finding him. But it’s not the only way.
Finding Jesus through service to others
When you obey Jesus’s teachings, when you visit the sick and the prisoners, minister to those in need, and heal in Jesus’s name, you are, in effect, finding Jesus in the people you help. Jesus made this quite clear,
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Matthew 25:40 NIV
This is a wonderful “place” to look for Jesus: following him in your daily life, being like him in the way you interact with and help others, seeing that the way you treat others is the way you are treating him.
The more you treat others the way you would treat Jesus, the more love you will experience, and the more you will find Jesus, the real Jesus, the spiritual essence of who Jesus is.
Where is Jesus today?
So, say somebody today is looking for Jesus, where do we find him today? It’s only reasonable to ask: Where is Jesus now? How can I find him?
Well, we get a clue from the story of Stephen. From our perspective here on earth, Stephen’s life doesn’t end well at all. He was a powerful preacher filled with the Holy Spirit, and accused the Jewish leaders in the Sanhedrin of killing Jesus, whom he had affirmed to be the Christ. This infuriated them and in the heat of the moment, Stephen sees something remarkable.
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Acts 7:55 NIV
When he tells the Sanhedrin what he sees, they stone him to death.
But we get an amazing glimpse of where to look for and find Jesus, not walking around as a physical personality, not in the back of a fishing boat, not hanging from a cross, not in a tomb, not in someone else’s opinions about him, but standing at the right hand of God.
That is the “place,” if that’s even the right word for it, to find Jesus.
The Sanhedrin didn’t like Jesus’s answer
Interestingly enough, Jesus had told this same thing to the Sanhedrin when he was on trial before his crucifixion, and it infuriated them then, just as it did with what Stephen said. When Jesus is asked if he is the Messiah, he responds,
But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God. Luke 22:69 NIV
That pushed the Jewish leaders over the edge and they demanded Jesus be crucified.
But what does this really mean and how do you and I look for and find Jesus sitting, or standing, at the right hand of God?
Looking for Jesus at the right hand of God
Well, to start with, if you take this very literally and take this as a material throne in a place somewhere out in astro-geographical space called heaven, or wherever, it gets complicated pretty quick.
There’s a lot of metaphorical language in the Bible that describes heaven in terms of streets of gold and gates of pearl, and that may be why some folks think of heaven more as a physical place with physical or physical-ish beings. But they’re metaphors.
But Jesus makes it very clear that “God is Spirit” (John 4:24 NLT). God’s kingdom is spiritual. Paul confirms this when he says
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 1 Corinthians 15:50 NIV
In other words, nothing material can enter the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Spirit. I say all this just to say that Jesus, as a physical, fleshy being, is not standing or sitting next to a physical throne, in a physical heaven that you can see with your material eyes.
The best way to find Jesus
The only real place to look for and find Jesus, as he really is, is in his pure spiritual dwelling place in heaven, the realm of God, the realm of Spirit. The best way to find Jesus is to close your material eyes and open your spiritual eyes. Then you will find him clearly in the Scriptures, and you will see him in the face of everyone you meet.
You can’t find the real Jesus in your human opinions. You can’t find him in theological debates with other people who have their own personal opinions. You can’t find him in man-made doctrines.
You will find Jesus when you look through the honest and sincere lens of your own heart every time you follow and obey his teachings, every time you search for him yourself in Scripture, every time you help and heal in his name. When you do these things, you can say with Stephen,
I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Acts 7:56 NIV
Photo credit:
Free Bible Images
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Mark 1:35-37 NIV
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
36 Simon and his companions went to look for him,
37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
John 6:24-27 NIV
24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.
27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Mark 4:39, 40 NIV
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Luke 24:5 NIV
5 “Why do you look for the living among the dead?
John 20:29 NIV
29 “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 5:39 NIV
39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,
Matthew 25:40 NIV
40 Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Acts 7:55 NIV
55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Luke 22:69 NIV
69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.
1 Corinthians 15:50 NIV
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Acts 7:56 NIV
56 “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
