FOLLOWING JESUS TO THE CROSS

FOLLOWING JESUS TO THE CROSS John 12:20-25 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Max Lucado, He Chose the Nails; Anne Graham Lotz, My Heart's Cry; John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship; C. S. Lewis Problem of Pain March 23, 2003 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Preliminary scripture reading - Matthew 16:24-27; Philippians 3:7-11; Galatians 2:20 Introductory What are your favorite oxymoron? There are several interesting ones in the culinary realm: you've all tasted "jumbo shrimp" - you know to be careful in saving your food so it doesn't get "freezer burn" - everyone's favorite has to be "airline food", "hospital food" or "cafeteria food" - and we've all had occasions when we have eaten with "plastic silverware" or drunk out of "plastic glasses". Ever taken your car to the repair shop and gotten an "exact estimate"? You look at the figures and think to yourself "good grief" as you are "clearly confused" but you "act naturally" because if you went elsewhere it's "even odds" you'd get a "pretty ugly" deal there, too. And even if this estimate is "second best", in your "unbiased opinion", it's the "same difference". In our study this morning we are dealing with a divine oxymoron: In death there is life. We've gone backward sequentially in our study of the events of Passion Week. We're looking at John's gospel today, chapter 12. We've jumped back to a time before the Last Supper, just after the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Suddenly Jesus is very popular and the religious elite are worried. Verse 19 has them jealously moaning to one another, "…the whole world has gone after him!" Picking up at verse 20 - "Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. 'Sir,' they said, 'we would like to see Jesus.' Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus." (John 12:20-22) It is somewhat surprising that we find this group of Greeks in Jerusalem-it's not like there's some big, fat Greek wedding or something. It is the Jewish Passover Feast, and the appearance of Greeks indicates they are God-fearing people or even new converts to Judaism. They had probably witnessed Jesus' cleansing of the Temple, as that dramatic event had taken place in the Court of the Gentiles, the only place where they would be welcome at the Temple. They were hesitant about approaching Jesus-He was, after all, a Rabbi, and they were non-Jews. But they noticed one of Jesus' disciples whose dress gave him away as a Galilean, and Galileans characteristically could speak Greek. So they approached Philip about getting them an audience with Jesus. Philip was the kind of guy who was never real sure of anything, so he took the request to Andrew. Andy and Phil brought the request to Jesus, and they were probably even more surprised than we are by the response it drew from Jesus. A Startling Response "Jesus replied, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.'" (John 12:23) Doesn't that seem like a strange reaction to a simple request for some conversation? Think with me for a moment, though. Jesus is nearing the climactic end of His earthly life. Through His impending death and resurrection He will open the gates of salvation to include not just the Jewish nation but all the Gentile world who will believe in Him as well. With His heart full and His emotions high, at the mere mention of a couple of Gentiles coming to Him for ministry, He is instantly reminded anew of His mission which is coming to it's zenith this very weekend. He bursts forth prophetically that He will soon be glorified. A long time ago when I was an Army draftee on my way to a new training center after Basic Training, I flew into Philadelphia and took the bus to Fort Dix, NJ. Once there, I was sent to temporary quarters, along with a hundred or so other new arrivals. We were told to grab a bunk anywhere, and I was glad to do it, because dragging a duffel bag and two suitcases through the airport, the bus terminal and across the campus of Fort Dix, I was worn out. In the middle of the night sometime, the desk quarterly got an emergency phone call for a certain guy named Smith. Not knowing where anyone was he went around waking everyone asking if they were Smith. I was having some wild dreams, and my leg muscles were taught and sore, so when this corporal grabbed my toe and whispered "Smith?", both my calves went into instant charley horses, and I sat straight up in bed and yelled, "Arrghh!" I still remember the way his eyes went wide and how he ran from the room apologizing. A Simple Parable Maybe that's how Philip and Andrew felt when they got this seemingly exaggerated reply. But then Jesus got reflective, and He quieted down and began teaching with a short parable. "I tell you the truth, 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." (John 12:24) We get insight here as to what was going on in Jesus' mind. He just said He was going to be glorified, and that meant His obedience would bring glory to the Father in such a profound way that He would actually participate in the glory. Skip down to verses 27-33 for one of the most awesome passages in the gospels. ""Now my heart 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. Father, glorify your name!' Then a voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.' The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, 'This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.' He said this to show the kind of death he was gong to die." Please notice that the illustration about His being "lifted up" is a reference to His crucifixion. Elsewhere it is also a reference to His resurrection and ascension into heaven, but here Jesus is clear about how He was going to be glorified, and how He was going to glorify the Father. He would take His absolute obedience to the Father's will all the way to the cross. This is what that mini-parable is all about. You see, there is a mystery, an oxymoron, which Creator God has built into the natural order. From the very beginning, when He created seed-bearing plants and trees, He built a teaching picture into the process of the regeneration of botanical life. The seed that is in the fruit of the plant or tree must fall to the ground, it's casing must fall away, exposing the vulnerable seed, and the seed must die before it can bring about the production of many more seeds. Every farmer and gardener knows when he buries a seed, that seed will dry up crack open and virtually disintegrate in the soil. When the seed is broken down and atomized by the forces around it, when it is rendered inert, then and only then does God vivify its remains and recreate multiplied life through it. Jesus said He was the seed. Through Him, the Father was going to bring a massive harvest of souls in the world. From every tongue and tribe and nation God will have obedient disciples who would look like and act like their progenitor, Jesus. But first, Jesus, the Seed, must die. Literally, He must die. In a few hours, just after Judas the betrayer leaves the upper room, Jesus will say it again, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once." (John 13:31-32) In 12:28, the Father said He had glorified His Name through Jesus, and He was about to do it again. How had He glorified Himself in Jesus already? Through the obedient service Jesus offered Him in His earthly ministry. The life of Jesus is summarized tersely in John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus will pray in John 17:4 - "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." What glorifies God? A life fully committed to Him, willing to hear, trust and obey whatever He says. But the Father says He not only has glorified His own name through Jesus, he says He "will glorify it again" (John 12:28) And how will God be glorified again through Jesus? Through His death on the cross. Isaiah says something so full of "shock and awe" that Jews can barely bring themselves to read it. Isaiah says that "it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer" [webmasters note: Isaiah 53:10] as He makes His life a guilt offering. The seed must die so that many more may come to life. The Summons for Us Here's where it gets personal. Following His startling response and His simple parable, we find in verses 25-26 His summons for us. "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me." There's an old story about a preacher who loved to quote scripture. He went to visit a woman at her home one day. He knocked on her front door and no one answered, though he was sure he heard someone moving around inside. He knocked again. More movement but no one answered the door. So he took out a card and scribbled an appropriate scripture on it. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20) He left the note in the door. The next morning when he left his house something fell on the porch when he opened his front door. It was the same card he had left at the woman's house with the scripture on it. He turned it over, and saw that the woman had answered his note with a scripture of her own. "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." Genesis 3:10 We have in verses 25 and 26 a CALL and a PROMISE. More than I could possibly express I want you to hear and clearly understand these two important words from God. They are huge. They are absolutely critical to consider in all seriousness. The Call Jesus presents a call to anyone who, like the Greeks, would like to see Jesus. He says, "Whoever serves me must follow me." [webmasters note: John 12:26] I believe there is something we need to be reminded of this morning-We are sinners, all of us; we have missed the mark of God's glory, fallen short of it and are incapable of glorifying Him. But He made it possible that we could come out of our darkness and into His wonderful light. And He did that by dying for us, paying the debt of our sins for us and restoring our relationship with the Father. "The only reason you and I are spiritually alive is because he died!" Here is the crux of the call: if you want to serve me, you must follow me; and if you want to follow me, you must die. "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." [webmasters note: John 12:25] Jesus calls every disciple of His to voluntarily die to himself or herself. This word is enormously unpopular in our day. In fact, most people don't even understand it, not even in the church where dying to self ought to be going on day in and day out. To love your life is simply to place your desires first, ahead of God's will for you. Such an attitude is the polar opposite of Jesus' attitude. In order to do the Father's will He was willing to let go of all His own preferences and agendas. I want you to ask yourself what is ultimately the most important thing in your life, and there are only two possible answers: God's will or your will. To choose God's will is to say, "I am volunteering to die to myself and live the crucified life." Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." Here is how Jesus put it - "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Matthew 16:24) Any one of us could stand and tell our own story of how true it is that, unless we die to ourselves, we cannot truly follow Christ. We can testify how we have wanted to serve Jesus, but have also wanted to drag along our carnal concerns, and it has produced nothing but conflict. A couple of years ago USA Today ran the story about Stephen Trotter and Lisa Harrison who wanted to be the first couple to go over Niagara Falls together in a barrel. Only a half dozen people have done it by themselves and lived to tell about it, but they wanted to be the first couple to do it together. (There's a great date idea--a date to remember!) They spent $25,000 making a state of the art barrel wrapped with Kevlar, oxygen tanks, padded, seat belts, the whole works. Have you ever seen Niagara Falls? It is a mighty river that narrows and plunges over the side of rocks, then plunges hundreds of feet. Trottter's brothers and friends pushed them into the river and 15 seconds later they were at the bottom of Niagara Falls. "15 seconds later" For 15 seconds they had absolutely no control of their lives. They had yielded completely to the flow of that mighty river. They were going to go wherever that river would take them. That is the way to live the Christian life. Say to God, "Whatever and wherever. I'm going to dive into the flow of your wisdom and wherever you want to take me, God, sign me up." Maybe today is the day you say, "God, I want to sign up for this. I want your will to be in my life. I want to walk everyday in faith. I want to know that you have a big picture for me. I want to know that you are with me even when things get dark. And I want to be the right person, so you can put me at the right place, accomplishing your purposes on a day to day basis." The Promise Verse 26 mentions two specific promises to the disciple who dies to himself: 1) he will be with the Lord and 2) the Father will honor him. When Jesus said "Where I am there my servant also will be" He made a double point. This may be so obvious it gets by you, but if you follow the Lord, you're going to be with Him wherever He is! John Maxwell says, "Wherever you go-there you are!" It's simple and it's silly, but it's true. I have a friend who was driving in the country once when it was extremely foggy. It was quite thick and he could literally only see a few feet ahead of him, and could only drive at 10 mph. So he was pleasantly surprised when he saw the taillights of another car appear ahead of him. He slowed to the 5 mph pace of the other car and gladly just followed him along the windy country road. Soon the car made a sharp left and stopped. My friend had his window down and he heard the other driver get out of his car, so he yelled out, "Is everything okay?" "Yep, just fine now!" "Why'd you stop?" "Because I'm home. You just followed me into my driveway!" Jesus often spoke of disciples "following" Him. And when they did, they never missed a thing He was doing. I want to be with Jesus all my life, and I think you do, too. I don't think you want to miss a thing He has for you to receive or a thing He wants you to do. If that really is important to you, you will die to yourself. Not only will His disciples be near Him in this life, but also in eternity. Jesus said, "I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." [webmasters note: John 14:2-3] That's heaven, brothers and sisters-where tears will never again flow and joy will never end. And it's reserved for those who are willing to die to themselves and live for Christ. The second promise in verse 26 is intriguing. Jesus said, "My Father will honor the one who serves me." Do you want the Father to bestow honor on you? He will, if you die to yourself and follow Christ. What kind of honor are we talking about? Let me suggest a couple, right out of the Word of God. 1. Fruitfulness. Three chapters later the teaching of the vine and the branches appears. "Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. . . .if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:4-5, 7) There are clearly two kinds of fruit taught in the New Testament: the fruit of the Spirit-godly character and maturity in your life, and the fruit of other disciples being drawn and developed through your influence. Is there anyone here this morning who would like to be fruitful in both ways? Draw near to Him and remain in Him. Listen, all you have to do, all you can do, is to decide for him. He will help you die to yourself. In fact, right here in this vine and branches allegory it says that if you abide in him he will prune you and take out of your life whatever is hindering your following Him. So He will actually help you in your self-crucifixion. 2. Victory. Before we go any further, please understand that the key to victory is the cross. Jesus won the ultimate victory over Satan and the whole demonic realm and Colossians 2 says He did it by "triumphing over them in the cross" (Colossians 2:15). When we say that our victory comes through the cross, it doesn't mean that we have to be physically crucified to gain victory over the world the flesh and the devil. No, Jesus has already done that-hallelujah! But we need to maintain our connection with that cross, and we do it by faith, trusting in Christ's sacrifice for us. That's why 1 John 5 teaches, "for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." (1 John 5:4-5) Listen, saints, when you remain in Christ and offer yourself as a living sacrifice to Him, He grants you spiritual strength to overcome whatever the world, the flesh or the devil throws at you. Question: do you want to live in that kind of victory? Determine today, right now, to die to yourself and live only for Him. Strive in Him for that level of maturity mentioned in 1 John 2:14 - "you are strong, the Word of God lives in you and you have overcome the evil one." 3. Confidence. There is a third aspect of the honor that the Father bestows on those who serve Christ, and it is confidence. There is a certain confidence that grows in the life of the person who is sold out for Jesus and has died to self. It is the confidence that comes from knowing where you are going. The closer you draw to Jesus, the stronger your hope gets. So many believers today walk around uncertain that they're going to heaven. Do you know why? No, it's not because they haven't read 1 John 5:13 (which says, by the way, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life"). It's because they have not yet decided to die. In dying we learn to live in Him, and to lay hold of those precious promises. It is only those we know and love deeply that we trust to follow through on their promises. The other part of this confidence the Father gives to true disciples of Jesus is the confidence living above the circumstances of this life. There are lots of troubles and difficulties we face in this sin-scarred world. And just because we're Christians does not make us immune to them. But, the Word of God certifies that not one thing that comes our way will harm us, or will separate us from the love of Christ. Isn't that great news? What's more, God will actually use every one of the circumstances we face in our lives, good and bad, for our good and the good of His kingdom. We're talking about the God that turned the most horrible event in the history of the cosmos (the murder of His own Son) into the greatest blessing in the history of the cosmos (the salvation of everyone who will trust Him). He wants you to live in the confidence of Romans 8:28. [webmasters note: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."] And He is willing to honor you with that confidence as you die to yourself and live for Christ. Conclusion "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." [webmasters note: Galatians 2:20] Firefighters who battle monster fires in the west have a survival technique that illustrates the one God has given us. If surrounded by flames and unable to find an escape route, he sets a fire right where is standing and allows it to burn outward from his location. He then digs a shallow grave, climbs in, and covers himself with a reflector shield in his backpack. Salvation is that burned over place. Our salvation is in the burned over place called Calvary where our sin was punished. ARE YOU WILLING TO CRAWL IN THE GRAVE WITH JESUS, AND TRUST HIS POWER TO RAISE YOU TO A BETTER LIFE?   [Back to Top]