MMwM 2021-28 - Dying to Live

John 12:20–26 (ESV)

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.

Notice how we have a group of worshippers who were not full proselytes. They were worshippers, and probably kept the Mosaic law, but they may not have been circumcised.

They have come to worship the True God and they have heard about Jesus.

They approach Philip whose name may indicate to them that he is familiar with and sympathetic to gentiles worshippers of the Law.

They have a simple request, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

Now, Philip appears cautious and so relays the request to Andrew and then they both come to Jesus.

It is at this point that we see Jesus pushing the whole matter past celebrity hour, to the more important topic:

The Hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified!

What is this glorification? The Son of Man must “fall into the earth and die”

The analogy that Jesus gives is simple. If we take a single grain of wheat, it can have a certain limited impact.

Jesus is this grain of wheat. He has had impact, of that there is no doubt. But, in His humanity, there are limits.

Now, He must be glorified by dying… That is in His death upon the cross is opened access for all people to the Grace of God.

In His example, just as a seed must be placed into the ground and die in order to spring forth into a new head of wheat with many grains, which can then multiply into a field, and fields, so Christ must die and be resurrected.

He must be resurrected physically, His glorification complete and the matter of salvation settled.

But, The Holy Spirit also must be sent abroad into the hearts of believers. And just as the one grain produces a wheat head which can then multiply, Jesus has produced the 11, then the 120, then the 3000 and so on until our day.

It is at this point, in verse 25 that Jesus takes the example to the next level. To the disciples as well as the Greeks he declares,

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life IN THIS WORLD will keep it for eternal life. 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.”

Three things - First, your life IN THIS WORLD must be forfeit. It is not that you will not experience this world, but rather you should never love it and cling to it.

Second, the hating of this life and the pointer toward eternal life means that something must change. As Jesus told Nicodemus, “you must be born again...” In order for this life to have meaning, you give it up, but that is not enough. Thousands, perhaps 10’s of thousands have give up their lives for something in this world… but because they did not hear or did not trust on the Name of Jesus, it amounted to little of eternal value. ONLY in Jesus does giving up this world for His offer of eternal life make sense.

Third, The matter of service and to whom that service is rendered is made clear. Jesus expects that giving up our life in this world is equated to following Jesus. Following Him in life - declaring the Father’s Will - that is the Word of God and belief in the Son.

Following Him into death and being considered a transgressor in the world’s eyes, not that our death bears the same promise as His does. Rather, that if the world hates us for following and serving Jesus, and we die as pariah’s in their site, so be it.

But, the promise of Jesus is that WHERE I AM, there WILL BE my servant also. He offers an eternal relationship and presence with the believer.

Further, those who SERVE (not sit in the pews in entertainment mode) WILL BE HONORED BY THE FATHER.