JESUS: MODELING LEADERSHIP AND ENCOURAGING SACRIFICE
John 12:23-26 – Luke 10:25-28
INTRODUCTION: This Sunday is the Sunday that corresponds to The Triumphal Entry of Jesus. The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is the visible actions of what had already taken place spiritually in the life of the Lord.
At the coronation of His ministry, we heard this proclamation:
John 1:29 (AMP) The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Look! There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!
Throughout his ministry, Jesus spoke of a future time when he would go to Jerusalem, suffer, and be killed
Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Mark 8:31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
Luke 9:22 And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."
Luke 17:25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Luke 24:26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"
Now, as we come to this passage in John 12:23-26, we see something different:
John 12:23-26 Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 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. 25 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. 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.
1. We see that what Jesus has to do is not longer future, but present. The time is not coming, but HAS come!
2. Jesus understood that His death was necessary if there was to be a harvest in the future.
3. Christ understands the necessity of sacrifice!
a. Sacrifice alone produces growth and abundance
b. Sacrifice accepts my part in the plan
1 Chronicles 22:6-11 (NIV) Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel. 7 David said to Solomon: "My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God. 8 But this word of the LORD came to me: ’You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. 9 But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. 10 He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’ 11 "Now, my son, the LORD be with you, and may you have success and build the house of the LORD your God, as he said you would.
David was God’s man to establish the kingdom
David was not God’s man to build the temple
Solomon was God’s man to build the temple
c. Sacrifice is not something I will do in the future, but something I will do today
Jesus then shares two additional thoughts with His disciples:
1. The first thought concerns our lives and whether we love it or hate it now
a. The word hate here means to have a disregard for one’s own life relative to the claims of Christ. In other words to put the claims of Christ ahead of our own. To have no self-centeredness or concern for ourselves in our actions.
b. What is interesting is that the primary meaning of the word is, “of malicious and unjustifiable feelings towards others, whether towards the innocent or by mutual animosity.”
c. So, loving my life in this world as a believer is akin to malicious and unjustifiable feelings towards others – whether they “deserve” those feelings or not!
d. Loving my life now is the same thing as refusing to die – there is not harvest and there is no growth, and there is no acceptance of my part in God’s overall plan
e. And this is the kind of life I will bring into eternity with me. Again the meaning of “lose” is important. The idea is not extinction but ruin, loss, not of being, but of well-being.
f. Loving my life now propels me into heaven ruined
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
g. In contrast the person who “hates” his life – ie, does not focus on himself, will keep OR GUARD that life into eternity – the opposite of the one who loves his life.
h. His work will be refined and not consumed
2. Jesus’ second thought concerns our own servanthood.
a. Will we be good servants or not?
b. Will God honor us or not
3. It would seem that Jesus gave His disciples and us instruction in what it meant to serve and follow Him. He gave it to a lawyer or scribe, …
Luke 10:25-28 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27 He answered: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’" 28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
This then is our focus, what kind of sacrifice was Jesus encouraging from us when he acknowledged and approved this great commandment?
At the onset it is interesting to note that each facet of my being with which I am to love God is introduced with the phrase, “with all”. This then, gives each facet of my being equal weight, equal responsibility, and equal sacrifice regarding my love for God!
We are to be loving with our “wholeness” – nothing held back
I. Sacrifice is first loving God with all your heart
A. The reference here is to the center of our life
B. At my core am I a God lover?
C. The stress here is that of the innermost part of my being that determines how I act must be turned to God in love and complete devotion.
Psalms 42:1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
Matthew 15:10-11 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. 11 What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ’unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ’unclean."
D. God asks for us to love him from the very center of our being and to love him completely
1. Now none of us can do this
2. All of us have far to go to achieve this
SO WHY DOES GOD ASK US TO GIVE OURSELVES ENTIRELY TO HIM IN THESE AREAS? BECAUSE ANYTHING LESS GIVES US THE OPPORTUNITY TO ATTAIN IT OURSELVES, JUDGE OUR SPIRITUALITY BY WORKS, AND DECLARE THAT WE MADE IT.
II. Sacrifice is second loving God with all your soul
A. This is the flip side of loving God with your heart
B. Loving God with our heart is loving God from the inside out
C. Loving God with our soul – our life is loving God from the outside in
1. A willingness to give one’s life to God
2. A complete devotion
3. A total commitment
What we are looking at here is the outward walk and behavior that declares our relationship with Christ. How much of our daily life is spent as a visible representation of our walk as a believer?
III. Sacrifice is third loving God with all our strength
A. Strength is our time
B. Strength is our talent
C. Strength is our gifts
D. Strength is our physical stamina
E. Loving God with all our strength is making God the basis for our actions, and the focus of our actions.
1. Haggai the prophet asked that of the people when he said,
Haggai 1:4 (MSG) “How is it that it’s the ’right time’ for you to live in your fine new homes while the Home, God’s Temple, is in ruins?"
2. It gets asked every time there is a work project here and so few join the cause.
It is so easy to reveal a less than committed strength for God:
When we commit to a ministry and then don’t show up.
When our “ministry” is not active and so we don’t show up
When God’s house is open and we just walk out, drive by, or don’t care
When we let our own self get in the way of Godly living (ie: the other areas we are suppose to love God with) and stop praying, stop assisting, stop giving.
Then when we get over it, and step back in the picture, we think everything is just fine, but in reality what we didn’t do the weeks before now haunt the ability of others to stay faithful. They have a negative affect on those things that need to continue with or with out us.
LOVING GOD WITH OUR HEART SPEAKS OF LOVING HIM FROM THE INSIDE OUT. LOVING GOD WITH OUR SOUL SPEAKS OF LOVING GOD FROM THE OUTSIDE IN. LOVING GOD WITH OUR STRENGTH SPEAKS OF LOVING GOD TO MY LEFT AND TO MY RIGHT – IN RELATION TO THOSE AROUND ME. HOLDING MY PLACE AT THE WALL, MY SHOULDER TO THE WHEEL, THESE ARE LOST WHEN I DO NOT LOVE GOD WITH ALL MY STRENGTH!
IV. Sacrifice is fourth loving God with all mind
A. Loving God points to my viewpoint in life
B. Loving God means submitting my mind, thought patterns, opinions, and decisions to God’s Word.
C. Loving God means bringing my thoughts into agreement with the revealed Word of God
D. Loving God with my mind means acting not on what we think or on how we feel, but in accord with the facts of the Word of God.
• The Reality: The simple reality is we all fall short in obedience and submission to God. When reality becomes action it hurts the church.
• The Goal: Loving God with our total person must become our desire and our goal or we will simply be playing church.
• The Danger: Knowing that we will always fall short must not become an excuse for apathy and business as usual. When we do this we turn the reality of our being into action. Too many of these and the church no longer suffers, it dies!
• The Need: The need is to have a church of concerned and broken hearts with a deep change of mind about what is paramount in our lives.
JESUS MODELED THIS FOR US AND ASKS IT OF US
We should have ended last year with a surplus in anticipation of this year’s expenses and ministries. We did not. This combined with the events of the beginning of the year, have now left us in a position financially that I cannot even ask you to move forward in renovating this facility.
We will never get over this, whether financial, physical, or occupational until we have dealt with our personal response to the Great Commandment.
