Some folks can see Jesus and some folks can’t. At least that’s the message I get after reading an Internet article entitled “Jesus Sightings in 2010: Year Ends in a Piece of Candy.” People claimed to see miraculous images of what they perceive to be the face of Jesus in a piece of candy, in a bleached out spot on an old sock, and the pattern of paint peeling away on a door to an Australian pub, just to mention a few. Then there was a cluster of vines growing upward and on the cross piece of a utility pole somewhere in Louisiana. The vines reminded some people of Jesus hanging on a cross. So the utility company thought it best to remove the vines lest some folks get fried trying to “touch” Jesus. I guess their take was that there is real danger for folks that want to see Jesus.
Some people wanted to see Jesus when He walked this earth. Some didn’t. To His own nation He came, the Promised People of God, and most did not want to see Him and rejected the premise and prophecies that He was the Messiah. They could not see because they would not see. But some things could not be ignored. Chapter 11 of John’s Gospel records that Jesus performed the seventh “sign” or “attesting miracle” when He called a man named Lazarus to life who had been dead for four days. When the one “who had died came forth,” it was such a powerful display of the authoritative word of Jesus that some people wanted nothing more but to see Him, and Lazarus as well. And some wanted nothing more but to see them both dead! Especially Jesus…who the Pharisees complained about that “the world has gone after Him.” (John 12:19).
Our text today describes a turning point in the Gospel of John and in the ultimate mission of Christ on the world stage as some people came with a desire to see Jesus. As we unfold the Word of God together today let’s seek the Lord’s wisdom as we attempt to find answers to the following questions:
How far does a person have to go to see Someone whose word held the power of life over death?
And what can keep people from seeing Him once they know where to look?
Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus.
And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
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. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” (John 12:20-26)
I. SOME GREEKS DESIRED TO SEE JESUS.
Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the
feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Who were these “Greeks”? A few possibilities exist. They could have been Greek-speaking Jews from one of the surrounding cities, pagan unbelievers, or they could have been Gentile proselytes to Judaism. I believe that the context points us to the latter. People whom God is drawing to a greater revelation of the truth. I don’t think they were unbelievers because they would not be among the worshippers at the feast. They might be at the feast but they wouldn’t be worshipping God. But in the temple environment, where this occasion could have occurred, there were places where God-fearers went to worship, but could go no further. One of these places was the court of the Gentiles. The identity of these Greeks are crucial to understand what the Pharisees were saying in the last passage. The world has gone after Him. Then some Greeks seek Jesus.
This passage is significant because Jesus is broadening His mission beyond the cultural boundaries of Judaism to the Gentile world. When Abraham was commissioned to be the beginning of God’s people blessing the nations, God moved the hearts of other nations to seek Him. Some people were drawn toward the kingdom of God…they came to worship, drawn to this kingdom culture experience, but something was not yet quite complete…until the coming of Jesus. People on the periphery of kingdom culture often desire to see Jesus. These Greeks not only wanted to see Jesus…they needed an intervention…an introduction. They needed someone to help them see Jesus, someone who knew Jesus. Someone who was like them. We are told they came to Philip. Philip of Bethsaida was from a Greek city. This encounter is significant because Philip did not identify these Greeks as one of his evangelistic target groups, but the Sovereign Lord brought the Greeks to seek Jesus. And He brought them to Philip. What Philip did next is instructive to us in the disciple making process. He involved another disciple. He went and told Andrew.
II. SOME DISCIPLES CAME AND TOLD JESUS.
Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus.
Disciple making is community-based in its concept. Imagine the conversation between Philip and Andrew. “Andrew, some Greeks want to see Jesus. What should we do?” “I don’t know Philip…they’re not Jewish, you know. We’d better go tell Jesus. He’ll know what to do.” What these two disciples did is a model for us today. When someone wants to see Jesus…when someone is drawn to the things of God… we should be talking to the Lord about them. Not depending on some method of evangelistic outreach or a rehearsed presentation, but dependent on the direction of God…let’s go and talk to Jesus about them.
Disciples with discernment, wise disciples, are ones who are not only talking to men about God, but talking to God about men. They can be used greatly by God to bear fruit when they are available in the world to hear those in the world seeking to see Jesus. People need the Lord. People need the Word of God. They need to see God’s word alive and well, growing in the hearts of disciples of Christ. These two disciples were wise…they talked to Jesus about it. Then they heard what Jesus had to say.
III. JESUS SPOKE OF HIS TIMELY APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH AND ITS PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE IN ETERNITY.
And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Jesus spoke in response to the announcement from the disciples. We aren’t told in the text He ever talked to the Greeks. I suppose He could have went out to include them in the conversation. But I tend to think He was speaking primarily to His disciples. The first thing He said to them is crucial to understanding the text.
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified… Jesus did not come to draw a crowd, though He did…He did not come to be popular, though He was. He came to save His people from their sin…He came to die. Here we see the focus in John’s gospel hone in on the cross. Up to this point in the life of Jesus, we hear Him saying that His hour had not yet come…now the hour had come not because of some Greeks seeking to see Him, but the purpose for which He came was coming into view. Death on a cross was not a popular church building strategy for these early disciples. They needed to understand that God brings spiritual life in spiritual disciples by understanding the central message of following Christ…the glory of God is not found in drawing a crowd…it is found by Jesus dying on a cross. Greeks came to see Jesus…His hour had come.
The glory of God is found in the cross of Christ. It is where the mercy of God and the judgment of God collide. Jesus referred to Himself here as the Son of Man. It is a popular title that He used in the Gospels when speaking of Himself. It is because it signifies the prophetic symbolism of His humanity under the burden of judgment. I believe He used it here to instruct His disciples that they must first have a firm grip of salvation’s implications. The Son of Man…the God-Man…will die so Humanity can live. Without this death, then Humanity is still under the sentence of God’s righteous and holy judgment upon sin. Humanity is dead without God. And disciples of all ages must understand that before we can introduce anyone to Christ, we must have been introduced to Him ourselves. We must see ourselves in our sin, lost without hope in our own humanity, in need for a Savior. Christ went to the cross because of sin…our sin…everyone’s sin. Jesus taught this short parable introducing His world-changing strategy by telling them about a grain of wheat.
IV. PRINCIPLES OF PLANTING ILLUSTRATE THAT THE FRUIT-BEARING PROCESS REQUIRES DEATH TO PRODUCE LIFE.
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. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”
In my hand I hold several grains of wheat. I can observe that they are the fruit that is produced by the wheat plant. Mark 4:26 and following takes us through this process. The blade grows first, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. The mature grain, the seed, is reproduced by the seed…Here is where it all begins. A single grain of wheat. By itself…it’s hard…closed off in its shell it abides alone. It’s all it will ever be. And even if you put it together with other grains of wheat, stored and isolated in a safe place, all of the grains will only decompose and rot away. They will not reproduce. But I can take one grain…and do what Jesus says…let it fall into the ground and die…Something mysterious will happen…the world would call it magical…God calls it supernatural…
…But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Here is kingdom growth and the fruit bearing principle at work…Death produces life…Jesus died on the cross so that man could live…He came that we might have life, abundant, eternal life…His death is offered so that our death will not lead to death, but will lead to life eternal. And the death that He speaks of is of the pattern of His own death…where He told the Father, yet not My will, but Thine be done. When Christ surrendered His human will to the will of God, the process of the irrevocable planting of eternal life in a human being was set in motion. The fruit bearing process in Disciples of Jesus begins when they no longer love their lives but desire to lose it to bear the
eternal fruit of the Life of Christ within them.
Where does that begin? Growing up in a church family? Following Christ because your grandmother says you should? Praying the Sinner’s Prayer? Being baptized without knowing why, participating in the Lord’s Supper without remembering Christ and the cross? Bearing fruit begins when we die to our self-centered desires. These desires no longer rule our lives…the will of God rules. The will of God will ultimately and always rule.
V. THE POINT OF BEGINNING FOR FRUIT-BEARING FOLLOWERS IS AT THE CROSS OF CHRIST.
He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”
Philip and Andrew learned when you follow Jesus, you must be where He is. Disciples cannot follow Jesus unless they are servants. How do we follow Jesus? Show the world the cross. We cannot have the Resurrection Life of Christ and bypass the cross. The message of Christ is the message of the cross. Judgment and mercy. Has your sin been judged at the cross? This is where we begin. It is where we must continually return. Jesus said the cross is for our daily lives.
Fruit bearing disciples are productive disciples when the fruit of godliness begins to grow in them. Jesus, the Word of God, is to be our Master. We are to be servants of the Word, serving the Word to the World. Greeks wish to see Jesus. The fruit of godliness, the Word of God will grow from the inside out…we are to bear about in our body the dying of Jesus. We must follow the Word of God, follow Jesus to the Cross before we can follow Him anywhere. Knowing the Passion of Christ gives us a passion to make Him known. It is always the cross…our destination…our point of beginning…
We must know the Word of God to know what is in the Mind of Christ. We cannot serve God and self simultaneously. We cannot do God’s will unless we have surrendered our will. What does this mean? What is our So What of today’s message?
I must die here... We must die here. Our agendas, our meaningless traditions, our customs without the cross must be put away. I must learn to serve here and lose my life…I cannot cling to my earthly desires and do the will of the King of the Kingdom of God. We must surrender the will to the Word. The will to be me…to be you…surrendered so we can be like Christ.
How far does a person have to go to see Someone whose word held the power of life over death? All the way to the cross. Can we be found at the Cross of Christ for the Greeks who come to see Jesus? Or will we be found looking at ourselves…
And what can keep people from seeing Him once they know where to look? That which hides the glory of God…usually things of this world…our things…our lives.
Sir…we wish to see Jesus…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies…
No comments:
Post a Comment