Dying to Live

MATERIALS NEEDED—Jar with 186 Kernels of corn. 1 Bushel basket

One thing that I am not, is a farmer.

I’ve had a lot of different experiences in my life, but I’ve never learned how to farm.

I like to help, especially if it means that I can drive a tractor, but you better not turn me loose on things like planting, harvesting, fertilizing, tilling (if you do that),

I would dare say that almost all of you, men at least, know a lot more about farming than I do.

But even though I don’t know much about farming, there is one thing that I can appreciate.

And that is, driving the tractor and wagon loaded with corn up to the grain auger, getting the auger going and whirring, opening the chute of the wagon, and watching this golden corn flooding down the chute, into the auger and out of sight, going up the auger and dropping into the grain bin.

I watch those millions of grains of corn flowing by and think about what it took to produce that corn.

It all started from a seed like this (show picture of corn seed)

It’s pretty remarkable, really, what this seed will do. If you take this seed and put it in the ground,

It’s going to (if watered and fed) produce a plant. And on that plant will be an ear.

And if you take that ear off the plant, and peal back the husks, if it is a healthy ear of corn, you will find approximately 800 kernels almost identical to the one you planted.

800!

Now most farmers measure their corn in bushels. I did a little math and figured out that if you plant 186 kernels of corn, you should be able to get about 1 bushel of corn.

That’s a pretty good return!

That’s an amazing little seed!

I like what this seed can do for me.

This seed can give me corn! Corn is one of the foods that I missed the most in Africa.

I so look forward to fresh sweet corn at the end of the summer. There is nothing better than an ear of sweet corn with salt and butter dripping off of it.

But it’s such a nice-looking seed. I love how it looks. I love how it smells, and feels.

I think I’ll just hang on to this seed. This seed is going to please me.

I think that if I hang on to this seed, I might have some corn on day.

(pick on one of the kids) What do you think about that? Do you think that If I just hang on to this seed and carry it around in my shirt pocket that it’s going to give me some more seeds like it?

You see, in order for that to happen, this seed has to do something that is very unpleasant for it.

It has to fall into the ground.

It has to be released

In the old days, maybe a farmer would have to open his hand, and drop this seed into the ground

Nowadays maybe it is pushed into the ground by a machine

However it happens, the seed has to be released and fall into the ground.

The seed does not have the option of saying, “Hey, I’m not doing that! It’s a long way down there! It looks dirty! I like where I’m at now! I like my life now! It looks different down there and I think I’ll just stay here!

No, it has to fall into the ground

It has to die

Once the seed takes that plunge and is released into the ground

That’s when things start to get really difficult for this little guy.

The seed gets covered up with dirt; preferably damp dirt

And the seed has to die.

The seed looses its bright yellow color, it’s nice hard shell

It gets kind of dingy and starts to absorb some water. It starts to fall apart

And only after it has done that, can it do anything worth while.

Because out of that soggy, dingy thing that used to be a bright yellow seed comes a little green shoot.

And that shoot pushes up through the soil into the sunlight.

And it grows and grows and produces an ear of corn with 800 of these little guys for us to enjoy.

If this little seed had decided that it did not want to die, that it did not want to sacrifice its identity, its freedom, and ultimately its life, it would just be…a seed. Nothing more, nothing less.

All it’s other friends would be in the ground bearing fruit. But this seed would just be a seed.

I invite you to join me in John 12

Jesus has just entered the city of Jerusalem. His final entry before He is to be crucified.

Then verse 20

John 12:20–32 (ESV)

Some Greeks Seek Jesus

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

One of the themes in the book of John is Life. Where does life come from? Where does one go to get life?

This is good, Because we all want life. We want the best life that we can live. We want to be happy, healthy, living with purpose.

And, praise the LORD, in Jesus we find life. Abundant life!

Jesus says “I AM the bread of life. I have the living water”.

These are things that Jesus is and that He gives.

But what are my actions? How do I get the life that I crave? How do I get new life? Is there something that I have to do?

Yes there is.

Jesus shows us how right here in His example of a seed falling into the ground

I have to let go of my life:

Jesus says something pretty startling here.

He says that I have to “hate my life” verse 25. A pretty strong term.

If you love your life you will lose it

If you hate your life, you will keep it for eternity!

Such a puzzling statement.

Some people might say, “Oh, He couldn’t have meant that!” I mean, after all, He created us to live!

And furthermore, what does he mean to hate my life so that I can keep it?

If I hated my life, wouldn’t that mean that I don’t want anything to do with it?

Well, let’s look closer. This Greek word translated “hate” is μισέω (miseō)

Jesus uses this word in Matthew and Luke when He talks about how the world will respond to His followers. “You will be hated for my sake”

That’s something we can grasp. We know how the world reacts against those who follow Jesus

But then we read uses of this word that make us really puzzled.

Luke 14:26 Jesus says, if you come after me and don’t hate your father and mother and brothers and sisters and children and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

What? I thought we were supposed to love our family. What does He mean “hate”?

And then we get really puzzled because in Romans

Paul is talking about how God chose the Jews. And in doing so, he quotes from the prophet Malachi “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Same word. Which is kind of jarring.

We know that God detests sin. But people? Is it possible for Him to hate or detest people?

I would say no. God is love. Love defines him

But is it possible for him to choose one person over another for a specific person? I would say YES!

We know that God chose Jacob over Esau. Esau was not part of God’s eternal redemptive plan.

Is it possible that Jesus is talking the same kind of language here in John. Is it possible that He is talking about what you choose.

Is it possible that he is saying, “You are going to have to make a choice when it comes to your life”.

You are going to have to choose. Either hang onto your life, or let it go, believing that there is something better in store for you.

Either choose to live for yourself, and say, “Hey, I like things the way that they are, thank you very much!” “I don’t need to change. I don’t want to change.

I like my job, my income, my church, my community.

Basically, you can choose to hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign out on the doorknob of your life.

OR. You can release it. You can hate your life by putting all those things that we just mentioned on the back burner, and choosing something better. You choose Jesus

You choose to do what Jesus says in verse 26: If anyone serves me, He must follow me.

You have to choose to serve and to follow Him

And the only way that you can truly do that is if you open your hand and release your life into His hands

This is the kind of life that you can keep for eternity. Because it is centered on the eternal God, lived for His kingdom

I have to die: “serving and following

After I release my life and make that choice, there is death.

This is something that we see numerous times in the Scripture.

When we talk about death, we are not just talking about the end of something, like the “death of a dream”.

But we are also talking about a separation.

When Uncle Monroe died, he was separated from his body.

In the same way, we, by choosing Jesus is going to have to die.

there is going to be a separation from the life that we used to lead

Romans 6 says that we consider ourselves dead to sin.

Romans also talks about putting to death the deeds of the flesh

Colossians talks about being buried with Christ in baptism. We only bury things that are dead.

Paul says in 1 Cor. 15 that he dies every day. Not only was he persecuted and in danger of physical death, but I believe that every day he had to consider himself to have died to the life that he used to lead.

There has to be an active and daily separation of our new life from the old life that our flesh wants to live.

We are now actively participating in the life that Christ has for us

And this is a joyful process.

But it can also be painful and not so pleasant. Because we find ourselves changing from who we once were.

As we die to our old life, that nice shiny exterior that we strove to keep is being tarnished, and stripped away

And it can be excruciating. it can be uncomfortable.

Because Christ is revealing in us what we were truly meant to be, not what we want to be or think we should be.

In our dying or being separated from our old life, our will is being shaped and bent into the will of the Father.

Jesus show us clearly what this looks like in verse 27:

Now is my soul troubled! (Jesus thinking about what was coming) And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? (And I can almost sense Him setting His heart, and quieting His emotions and saying) But for this purpose I have come to this hour!”

This is why I came in the first place!

We see Jesus dying to what His flesh was telling Him. We see it again in the Garden of Gethsemane.

This is a mark of someone who has died, and who is actively dying to His flesh, to His old life.

It’s when we say, Father, not my will, but yours. Father, this is why you have brought me to this place.

The result:

We bear fruit

This is something that we all want. We want our lives to mean something

Some seeds fall into the ground, die, and never produce fruit.

But as people, we do not live in a vacuum. God has created us so that we will always bear fruit.

when I hand onto my life, living only for me, bad fruit is produced.

But when I release my life into His hands and die to my old life, good fruit is produced!

He tills the soil, he waters the seeds

The fruit of the Spirit is produced which overflows into blessing those around me.

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentlenss, self control

We see all of this in the life of Jesus

Think of Jesus and where we would be had He not released His life and died.

God is glorified (this is the ultimate aim)

Jesus says, “for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

“This hour”. What hour? The time of His death, the ultimate sacrifice.

I say “ultimate sacrifice” because Jesus literally gave up everything to die.

The more you give up, the greater the sacrifice

Jesus says “For this purpose”. What purpose?

If I was to ask why did Jesus have to die, what would we say?

We might say different things

He died for my sins

He died to reconcile us to God

These are very true. But there is another reason: one overarching reason that includes everything else that we could say.

Jesus tells us this reason when He says: “Father, glorify your name!”

I have come to this hour for a specific reason

My flesh wants to say, “Save me from this hour”.

But that’s not my purpose. That’s not why I have come to this hour.

My purpose is that the Father’s name will be glorified!

And The Father, for the sake of those standing nearby answers Jesus

“I have glorified it and I will continue to glorify it”

Here’s the thing about God and His glory: He will always get the glory

God says in Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other.

When Jesus was born, it was The Father who was glorified

When Jesus lived and taught, and healed, and loved and rebuked, it was The Father who was glorified

And Jesus is coming to His final hour, and God the Father says, “I will continue to glorify my name”.

That glory will come in the defeat of the ruler of this world and in the lifting up of Jesus in death

What will that glory look like?

The ruler of this world will be cast out

Satan, the deceiver who, over the generations, continued to draw God’s people away, his power would be broken

Jesus would be lifted up in death. And in His death and resurrection, all the people of the earth would be drawn to Him.

The Father’s name would be glorified and will continue to be glorified for all eternity!

So I ask you, “Why have you, why have we come to this hour?”

What is your ultimate purpose?

Why has God brought us to such a time as this?

Can you and I honestly look at each other, or gaze upon the face of Jesus and say,

“i have released my life into your hands. It’s no longer mine and I release all that I am to you

I am ready to die. I am ready to die to my dreams, die to sin, die to

And Father, would you receive the glory in my life? It’s not about me. I don’t care if people don’t remember me or talk about me or compliment me. Father, glorify your name!