Sermon (17-Mar): "And, Here We Go..." John 12:20-33

Bible Passage:

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[g] from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

Objective: (SLIDE)

The objective of this message is to begin to understand Jesus’ path to the cross and what it means for us

Introduction: “And Here We Go…” (SLIDE)

- As a preacher of God’s Word, there’s a great amount of responsibility

- Many times in today’s church, at least for me, there’s the pressure of being relevant along with being culturally, biblically accurate

- There’s the push to ensure that you don’t stray too far from the text and make the message more about your opinion than about God’s wisdom

- And, as we get closer to Easter or Resurrection Sunday, I think we can do both—magnify the text and see how it impacts us today

- Jesus’ life and message is always impactful to our lives

- The Apostle John, writer of the last gospel, offers us a different look into Jesus

- We see that John was in the “inner circle” of Peter, James and John

- These three were arguably with Jesus the longest and there were specific times and events that they witnessed aside from the other disciples

- They were with Him at His transfiguration before Moses and Elijah (Mark 9:2-3)

- They were with Him and witnessed Jairus’ daughter come back to life (Luke 8:49-56)

- And, when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying and pleading with God (Matt 26:36-48)

- So, while there was a closeness with all the disciples—it was something deeper with these three

- And, of these three, we see the relationship Jesus had with Peter and with John—the separate interactions…

- John learned what it meant to literally lean on Jesus…how sweet it is to trust in Jesus

- John’s gospel doesn’t follow the other gospels but also doesn’t contradict them

- He set out to tell the gospel from a different angle so that people

“may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30)

- From the opening of the Gospel of John, Jesus is given the position of being co-equal with God the Father

- Being in Jesus’ inner circle, I believe gave John and the other two disciples that closeness with Jesus

- Some of the insights in John’s gospel stand out to both believer and unbeliever alike,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)

- I believe that it is John’s message that resonates with most when it comes to the four gospels

TRANSITION: So, I’d like to focus on three things—there’s many more—that we can consider when it comes to this passage…

- The Importance of a Seed

- The Angst of a Moment

- Here Comes Now and Then

The Importance of a Seed(SLIDE)

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.

- Anyone who has ever gardened, knows the power and importance of a seed

- Many times, we tend to overlook it but without the seed there can be no harvest

- Sowing and reaping have existed since the beginning

- Many churches have used this verse over and over again but God looks at the principle this way (Gen 8:22),

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

- God instituted the principle of the seed multiplying and Jesus teaches us what that means regarding Him

- I believe that Jesus was dropping hints all along that He was going to have to leave the disciples

- They just didn’t catch it

- I’m thinking that the disciples were just so attached to Jesus’ presence and impact that they couldn’t see themselves without Him

- That’s a great place to be in when you’re trusting Him

- His presence provides comfort that you’ve never had before—an assurance that you never had before

- So much so that you can’t imagine how life would be without Him and how you ever lived without Him to begin with

- Now, they’re faced with the fact that they’re going to have to do without Him physically

- Jesus would live in them—as He does us—through the Holy Spirit

- But they didn’t know that

- And, here Jesus, steadily drops allusions…that He’s going away (pause)

- But, He knows already that His death would not be in vain

- He knows that if He doesn’t go away that the Comforter—the Holy Spirit—won’t come

- He knows that without His death—Christianity and His disciples won’t multiply all over the world

- Jesus being God Himself had an eternal perspective not simply a temporary, earthly perspective

- His will was all about doing the will of the Father

- That’s something that I believe gets lost as we walk out Christianity today

- As good as it may be to have things or this and that, how satisfied are we with doing the will of God?

- How satisfied are we with obeying God?

- That’s the overarching theme that Christ died for…everything else we gain is an added benefit

- The “many seeds” that will come from His death is not limited to the Jewish nation

- It includes the Greeks that came up to Philip in verse 20 and it includes us too

- We should never discount the cost of Jesus’ death and what it meant for us today

- One song says, that the “blood will never lose its power”

Transition: The importance of a seed—Jesus’ death—can never be overstated

The Angst of a Moment (SLIDE)

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.

- I have to point this out, just because Jesus obeyed the will of God

- It doesn’t mean that it was easy for Him to do so

- We know that the path to the cross was not an easy journey

- It involved a crown of thorns and many lashes

- Your and my redemption meant great, physical pain for Jesus

- Anyone who has seen “the Passion of the Christ” and other depictions can only partly imagine what He endured

- Yet, He never sought to back out from it even when He when He was on the cross

- I’m reminded of Jesus embracing His destiny in Matthew 26:53-54 after Peter steps in to defend Jesus; Jesus’ response:

53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

- See, Jesus endured the cross and “disregarded the shame”

- And, what does that mean that he “disregarded the shame?”

- Two thousand years later, we see that Him dying was a bad thing

- But, in the days of the Roman Empire…

- Crucifixion was, arguably, the most shameful and disgraceful way to die

- The Romans didn’t even issue that form of capital punishment on its own citizens

- Nevertheless, Jesus bore the cross for me so the least that I can do is to follow His command (Matt 16:24),

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

- Jesus is calling each of us to live this life as a Christian valuing and living out humility

- Some of us including myself find it hard to imagine humbling ourselves in our passions, title/office held, status in life

- And, that’s exactly what Christ call us to as believers and followers

- He was troubled in His soul and what His Father called Him to do

- But He recognized something greater was at stake—someone of value…you and me

- Richard C. Halverson writes,

“Why did Jesus Christ not remain alive and eliminate, generation by generation, all the evils which harass humanity? Simply because He was the Great Physician, and in the finest tradition of medical science, He was unwilling to remain preoccupied with the symptoms when He could destroy the disease. Jesus Christ was unwilling to settle for anything less than elimination of the cause of all evil in history.”

- Richard C. Halverson in Relevance. Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 2.

- His death on the cross would do just that

- God the Father put His stamp of approval and re-emphasized Jesus’ purpose on this earth

- God’s voice speaking let everyone in the vicinity know that Jesus’ connection to God the Father was undeniable

- Thousands of year later, John recording this in His gospel is definitely for our benefit

- The angst—the anxiety and distress—of the moment would be overwhelming

- Which was understandable if we realize the weight of our sins was squarely on Jesus’ shoulders

- And He recognizes that He came to earth for moments like these—it was His purpose

- Your purpose will often push you pass and through your comfort zone

Transition: However angsty this moment was for Jesus, He wouldn’t disregard His purpose

Here Comes Now and Then (SLIDE)

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.”

- As often as I look at the word now, I think of the immediacy and urgency of the word

- And I begin to think back on other Scriptures where that word NOW shows up…

- Therefore there is NOW no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)

- NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)

- For many things, there is no better time than now

- Jesus talked about Himself (Matt 12:41-42) in that “…now something greater than Jonah…and Solomon is here.”

- God the Father speaking meant that Satan’s days were numbered

- The judgment of this world asks each of us as individuals think about Christ’s death—and moreover

- How do we respond to it? Could we care less about it, or do we value and treasure it as our only means of redemption?

- See, I’m convinced that His death—His blood—is the difference between heaven and hell for me

- Jesus’ death equals everything we need to be righteous

- Our works, good personality and many works equal out to nothing in God’s eyes

- Jesus’ death would mean that the devil—the prince of this world—would also be driven out

- I like the way one commentary put it,

“Christ broke the power of death and…the power of sin”

- The enemy’s reign as destroyer and deceiver were now broken

- Whatever the devil thought he had control over, it was now going to end

- With Jesus, He’s always going to get the victory—the devil’s fate had already been sealed

- Jesus knew that His death was inevitable, and He indirectly points to the cross

- The debt that was paid at the cross was sufficient for our redemption

- It wasn’t just for one people but all people—either for death, if we deny Him as our Savior or life, if we accept Him

- As often as Christ and the gospel message is preached, humankind has a chance for salvation

CLOSING: As I begin to close, that’s the intent that we all should seek after…drawing all people to Jesus

- Jesus understood His life meaning, its purpose and His death

- He knew that His death was going to be the necessary seed for all people today—for each of us to be given the opportunity to choose to believe or not

- Knowing that this moment caused Him great angst showed us how human He was…yet, He did it anyway

- The enemy’s hold on this world had to come to an end and each of us has been given the opportunity to choose or deny Him

- What should give us hope is that God signed off on this; He knew it had to be done for our sake

- God always knows what’s for our good; I believe Corie Ten Boom had it right but I’ll add to it,

FAITHpoint: Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God…it worked for Jesus and it will work for us

- Will you pray with me?