The Time

Scripture: John 12:20-33

John 12:20–33 NIV

20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. 27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

3/17/2024

Order of Service:

Announcements

Church Update (Finance/Education/Trustees)

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Week 5: Church Update

Opening Prayer:

Lord, we come to You as those who are rich in the distractions of this world yet hungry for Your righteousness in our hearts. We need Your love to take root in our hearts so that we can bear good fruit for You. Come and be present in our praises and prayers, and make Your Word live in us gathered here today as we honor You in all we do. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Time

(Title Slide)

We’ve been invited to follow Jesus on His journey from the water to the cross. We know it will involve carrying a cross. He will draw us into God’s worship along the way. And there is a plan to save us and lead us all into redemption—a new life. We are saved when we join Jesus on that journey. But there’s more. As Bekah told us last week, we walk each other home, meaning that once we join Jesus on this journey, we become a part of God’s plan to save and redeem everyone around us.

As we realize what it means to be part of that plan, we see that our actions affect more than our own spiritual journey. We can affect others. When we turn away from Jesus, sometimes we take others with us, away from Jesus. Hopefully, most of the time, they follow us as we draw closer to Jesus.

Standing Out (Change slide)

We do not all start our journey at the same place or take the same road to get to Jesus. Some people seem to have a head start in their relationship with God. Whether it is because of their family upbringing or because of experiences they had earlier in life, they seem like brighter lights to us. Once He finds us, though, He takes us on the same path, His path, to Heaven. Like light bulbs, we can come from different places, and all look different, but that amounts to nothing without a power source. Once plugged into the same power source, we all work for the same purpose: to share the light of Christ with the world and help others see where they can connect to this journey with Jesus.

These feelings of purpose and thoughts of mission get us excited to shine even brighter for Jesus, and our minds start working out ways that we can go and grow bigger, faster, and more successful. We want to win the whole world for Jesus, and as we look around, we see some of those light bulbs around us that would help us be even brighter. If we could get this person to church or that person to believe in Jesus a little more, then we would be able to shine so much more light.

God knows those thoughts and feelings. But in our scripture today, Jesus reminds us about God’s timing and what it means to succeed in our journey with Him. Jesus reminds us that our journey is a journey of loss to this world and gain for God’s kingdom.

📷

Greek Converts Seek Jesus

Greek Converts

Jesus and the disciples go to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, and as they all look around, the city is filled with people. Jerusalem has been famous for thousands of years as a multiethnic city where everyone gets lost. Even Jesus got separated from His parents as a child there. It is a bustling place, especially during the season of Passover. The disciples run into some Greeks, who have heard about Jesus and want to meet this new celebrity of Judea, and the disciples are unsure how to handle this.

You see, many of the conservative Jews wanted to kick everyone who was not born and raised in Jewish families there in Judea out of the country. Those who were Jews in other countries might be allowed in, and this may be what John meant by “Greeks” here. Or they may have been non-Jews visiting and curious about Jewish culture. Whatever their background was, John lets us know that they were outsiders. But Jesus had already ministered to pagans and Samaritans. Just as Solomon opened the Temple for the other nations to come and worship God, Jesus did not turn these outsiders away from crossing over from their cultures to discover what it meant to be God’s people. They approach Philip, whom we only know by his Greek name, and ask to see Jesus. Philip then goes to Jesus and the other disciples to see what to do next.

📷

Opportunity Knocks

Here is a marvelous opportunity. Jesus already rubbed the Jewish leaders the wrong way, which didn’t matter to most of the people because many of those on the Jewish high council lorded their wealth and presumed holiness over everyone else. But now there is a new audience of people that Jesus could win over, and perhaps they would help Him win back the Kingdom from the Roman Empire. Maybe this was the beginning of a King Cyrus situation, the Persian king who let the Jews come back home to Jerusalem, rebuild their city, and restart worship in the Temple again. We don’t need many of those Greeks on our team, but if we had just a few of the right ones, we might be able to stand up to their empire when push came to shove. The disciples think it is a risk, but they’ve seen Jesus do more than talk to foreigners. What will Jesus do?

Jesus sees and understands all the hustle and bustle in their heads and hearts, and He helps them by cutting right to the quick. They are not questioning what kind of foreign policy Jesus has with non-Jews. They are questioning whether including these people in their circle -- right alongside the tax collectors, prostitutes, former lepers, and so many other non-traditional religious leaders, will be the boost they need to succeed. Instead of talking about these people, Jesus tells them what is happening in their heads and hearts and redefines what “success” looks like in God’s Kingdom.

“Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” - John 12:25

📷

Timing

Our Timing

Sometimes, following Jesus is frustrating. Very frustrating. We see a lot of short sayings about God’s timing, and we’ve probably repeated them to others many times, but we don’t preach or teach about it often because God’s timing is not like our timing, and it almost always frustrates us.

We know we don’t always get what we want when we want it, so we adapt and compromise our wants to try our best to match what the world gives us. When we want something sweet, and life gives us lemons, we make lemonade. That is human ingenuity at its best. We respond, adapt, thrive, survive, and wake up and try it all again tomorrow. We know if we cannot beat our enemies, we can at least outlast them, like the story of the tortoise and the hare. If we are not hitting our goals, we can always change them so we are at least succeeding at something. If we didn’t make money, then at least we would have a big family. If we don’t have a big family, we at least make many friends. If we didn’t get any of those things, we can say that we lived by our own choices, not letting others run our lives. We work with what life gives us.

📷

God’s Timing

But God’s timing is something completely different. Jesus takes us deeper than God’s answers: yes, no, or wait. He tells us that God’s timing is not about what we gain. It is about what we lose. You see, the journey of Jesus was never about money. It was never about having a big family. And as many friends as Jesus made, it wasn’t about them either. His journey was heading to an endpoint at a cross, and every day, with every step He took closer, He lost more.

On His last night, He lost every cent and possession. He lost all His family. And His friends all deserted Him. He watched His fame trickle away, and He watched them take away His dignity. He felt them treat Him like an animal. He felt His life slip away through waves of intense pain and suffering. He lost everything in the end, just as God planned and right on time. The plan depended on Jesus losing everything. If He had held anything back, it would not have succeeded.

That is the journey that Jesus has invited us on as well. He never lied about that. We are not getting out of this world alive, and we don’t get to take anything with us when we go. We are to be born again, made new, and Jesus goes ahead of us to prepare that new life for us in heaven. When we get to our endpoint in the journey here on earth, we, too, will have nothing left. Our only hope is that Jesus will catch us and bring us to that new life on the other side. So success on this journey is not measured by what we have gained but by what we have lost.

📷

The Chisel of God’s Word

The Chisel of God’s Word

That is a hard lesson to live, but it doesn’t help us know what to do with each day’s details. How do we know what to give up and when? How can we know God’s plan for us each day?

The answer is that we follow Jesus, and we can do that through His Word. Praying, worshipping, and gathering together as His people help point us to Jesus, keeping us plugged into that power source. But there is nothing as pure as His Word for showing us Who He is with such precision. When we read or hear God’s Word read to us, we are listening to the accounts of those who walked with Jesus in the flesh, who were there when God first announced His plan of Salvation and Redemption to the world, and many of whom lost everything in the process.

The Bible claims that, as God’s Word, it cuts sharp enough to separate soul and spirit and can discern our thoughts and feelings (Hebrews 4:12). It not only tells us the truth about God, it shows us the truth about ourselves. God has given us His Word in the Scriptures as a gift to help us understand Him and better trust Him in His timing. It helps us ask better questions. Instead of constantly asking if God would like this or that choice, it allows us to recognize Him where He is already working and invites us to come alongside Him. Instead of focusing on doing for God, His Word helps us find ways to stay with Him.

In the end, if we follow Jesus long enough to live and love like Him, we will find that it is not so much giving up this life and hoping for the best as recognizing each new gift that God is holding out to us and letting go of what we are clutching so dearly so that we can receive that gift.

Brothers and Sisters, what do you find yourself holding tightly today? How are you feeling frustrated by God’s timing? And what does the Word of God reveal that He is holding out to you, waiting for you to empty your hands so you can receive this new gift?

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father,

Your Word cuts us sharp and deep as a sword, yet You use it like a surgeon's scalpel. We continue to repent each day from the sin that clings to us, and we shake it away as we strive to follow You. Yet there are things in our lives that are unnecessary or merely temporary that we cling to and struggle to let go of. They pull us away from following You or burden us down with weight You do not intend us to bear.

Lord, we are grateful for Your Word, which speaks to us today. We want to make space for that same Word to trim away those excess things in our lives every day. Help us, Lord, to be brave and willing enough to submit and surrender ourselves to Your correction. Soften our hearts so that You can shape us into the people You see in us and that You created us to be. Let Your Word have Your way in us each day.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

📷