John 1:38

The Greatest Discovery

What seek ye? John 1:38.

How often do you hear people say, when you are turning everything in the house upside down, “What are you looking for?” Generally it is only a ball or cell phone that you are searching for, because you did not put it away in its proper place. Possibly you are not so blunt as the little girl who replied, “A spanking, I believe.”

Now, if it is not something you have lost, there is a great pleasure in hunting for things, and a still greater in discovering them. Whether it is birds, or plants, or butterflies, or stamps, or picture post-cards, there is joy in seeking and finding.

Perhaps some of you are more ambitious. What you would really like to do is to go on a voyage of discovery, and find something quite new, a new island for instance, since all the continents have been picked up already. Or, possibly, a gold mine, or a river which could be called by your name. Well, perhaps you may. All the discoveries have by no means been made. There are still parts of the world almost unexplored such as the Antarctic regions, or the center of the great continents. There are fine fields still in Africa,

and Australia, and Asia. There are rivers yet to trace, mountains to measure, oceans to chart, and new forms of living creatures to discover. Then there are wonderful secrets waiting to be found out in mechanics and chemistry. We want to discover a new fuel to use when our coal is exhausted, and some way of making ships unsinkable, and a host of other things.

All these discoveries are waiting for the young people now growing up, but they will not be made by accident. Columbus found America by going to look for it, and the answers to these problems will be found by those who seek diligently for them.

There is a story about an old Greek philosopher that he went about the city with a lighted lantern in the daytime, and when he was asked what he was looking for, he said, “I am seeking a many You see what he meant. There were plenty of men there, of course, but to find a man worth calling a man among them was not so easy. He had to be hunted for carefully.

A man is a fine thing to discover, but there is a still greater discovery, which each of you must make for himself. There was a famous doctor in Edinburgh, called Sir James Simpson, who discovered chloroform. You know what chloroform is. It sends people into a nice sleep while the doctor is operating on them, and they don't feel that he is hurting them one bit. It has saved thousands of lives, and it is one of the greatest discoveries ever made in medicine. Yet, when Sir James Simpson was asked what he considered his greatest discovery, he said, “The greatest discovery I ever made was that Jesus Christ was my Savior.”

Boys and girls, discover what you like, but do not omit that greatest discovery. No other discovery is to be compared with it. Suppose it were possible for one person to make all the discoveries that are to be made in the world, and suppose you were that person and had made them all. What then? Though these discoveries had brought you both wealth and fame, you would be nothing but a poor miserable creature if you had not made the greatest discovery of all.

Set out today to seek Christ. He is not hard to find. He has been seeking you since the day you came into the world. Every day He is knocking, knocking at the door of your heart. But He can't get farther until you open the door. Yes, that is all the distance you have to go to find Him just to the door of your heart. Then open that door this morning, and let the Savior in.