[Introduction]
We have all experienced it. We have been busy, or caught up in something when we realize that we have finished or that it is time to leave it behind. At that point, we take a deep breath, commit ourselves to the new course of action, exhale, and start down the new path.
In the Gospel of John chapter’s ll & 12 are a little like that. They “stand as a bridge between Jesus’ ministry and his hour.”(i) The message today comes from the time between the public ministry Jesus and the hour of his death. We can almost hear Jesus take a deep breath. We can see him pause when he sees the symbolic meaning of a different kind of people coming to him. Instead of directly addressing their concern, Jesus turns and looks to the task that is before him. When he tells the Father to bring glory through the cross it is a dramatic event in history. God Himself speaks a reply in a voice like thunder.
Listen for the message that God has for us today as I read His Word from:
Scripture: John 12:20-33 NLT
20 Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration 21 paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsedaida in Galilee. They said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.” 22 Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. 25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. 26 Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came! 28 Father, bring glory to your name.”
Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.” 29 When the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.
30 Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. 32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate how he was going to die.
This is the Word of God for the people of God.
[Topic: “Who comes to Jesus?” with reference to v. 20-21 Some Greeks …said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.”]
Will Rogers said, “You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.” (ii) In modern times if we move to some place away from home, there is a good chance that we will be able to go back and see the family we left behind. It hasn’t always been that way. For most of us in this congregation, when our ancestors left Europe or Great Britain, they probably never got to go back to see their family again. They really went out on a limb when they got on a boat and crossed the Atlantic. But their trip to America resulted in the opportunity to share in the fruits of this great country.
Several years ago my wife’s uncle told us how to get to a certain cemetery in Statesville. When we got there we got to see the grave of one of Jane’s ancestors—he was the first one in that line to come from Scotland to America and he is buried in Statesville at the Old Indian Creek Burying Ground. Jane has a Scottish heritage on both sides of her family. We were able to go to Scotland for our 25th wedding anniversary. I am now more aware of the deep Gaelic influence, not just on our family, but on much of the US. The highland games held each summer here in NC, in Avery Co. is one of the largest gatherings of the clans in the world. For many, many years, especially in the 1700’s in NC you could go to a lot of different churches with Scots and Irish people where only Gaelic was spoken. There were many other churches in the piedmont where only German was spoken. The Waldensen church in Valdese used French in church services well into the 1900’s and still uses French on some special occasions. NC has also become home to people from Switzerland, and to the Welsh and Moravians. It is good to remember that that all of us here in NC whose ancestors came here from somewhere else are descended from foreigners. Someone in our family took a chance, went out on a limb, and came across the ocean.
When Jesus walked this earth, the Jewish people anyone who was not Jewish was considered to be part of the Greek world. That was a general term often used for all foreigners. There were essentially only two groups of people: Jewish and Gentile or Jewish and foreigners. Most theologians believe the reason these “certain Greeks,” which is one term for the “foreigners,” came to Andrew and Philip was because the names, Andrew and Philip, were Greek names. The Greeks had probably heard about Jesus and wanted to know more. Perhaps they even wanted to become followers.
Before Jesus, in effect took a deep breath, committed himself to the cross and started the new course of action, he had been teaching the disciples, and healing people. But almost suddenly everything changed and it was time for Christ to enter the glory of the cross. John helps us understand this change by telling us in the first part of his Gospel that Jesus’ hour had not come, then, in the verses today, by telling us that his hour had come.
We read in John 2:4Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come." There are two examples in John 7:6Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. Then later in John 7:30Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. Finally, in John 8:20These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come. After hearing that his hour had not come so many times, it is almost suddenly that we read in today’s lesson that John 12: 23 Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory.
Four times John reports that the hour had not come, then, in v. 23 Jesus said the hour had come. What was different? The difference was that certain Greeks sought him out; that his message began to reach beyond his own Jewish community to the Gentiles; that finally the light would shine into all of mankind.
We know that from the time of creation God has wanted all people to come to him. Through the history of the Jewish people we can see that God called people to come to him because the Temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations. The Children of Israel would sin and fall away but God would eventually forgive them and bring them back. Then they would sin again and fall away again. Aren’t we like that? We know God loves us and sometimes we follow him closely, then we sin and turn to a worldly life and he calls us back. Sometimes he would send foreigners to the Children of Israel to help them come back to him. They accepted the foreigner Rahab the harlot. They accepted the foreigner Ruth the Moabite. And when Jesus first started teaching we were told the hour has not yet come. The hour has not yet come, John wrote. We were told four times the hour has not yet come. Then finally, when the Word reached the foreigners, Jesus said, my time has come.
To some extent we Christians can view all humanity as divided into two groups: there are those of us who are Christians and all the rest of the world—there are Christians and non-Christians. I believe that we are to invite the un-churched to Christ. In many ways the “foreigners” for us are the un-churched. As Christians we are sojourners who live in this world only temporarily. As Christians we are sojourners who are obligated to go out on a limb and love other people who are traveling through this world.
[Topic: “How do we come to Jesus?” with reference to v. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone.]
How do we invite others come to Jesus? In v. 24, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. One year I left a couple of pumpkins in the field at the end of the year. They lay there all winter. When I broke open the rotting pumpkins open in the spring, there were full of tiny leaves. The old pumpkin and the seeds in it had died during the winter, but new life was in the process of springing up from the seeds.
One way to interpret this is that we have to die to our self interest; we have to give up focusing on ourselves if we really want to reach others. A mother or father gives up their time, gives up doing the things they like to do in order to spend time with their children helping them grow. The parent, to some extent, dies to self in order to give life to the child. Their life dies like a seed, and then the new life of their child grows. As neighbors and friends, to some degree, we have to give up some of what we want to do, the way we want to spend our time, if we truly want to reach the lost. We have to turn off the t.v. and talk to our neighbors. There are some of us so attached to watching t.v. that giving it up is a little like dying.
Jesus died for all of us. Sometimes I like to think of the example of the dandelion as a way of understanding the way Jesus died for us. We know that a dandelion has to die, the yellow flower has to fade to white and the seeds must dry before they can spread. Imagine a great dandelion blown all over the world to every human. Then stretch your imagination a bit more and imagine the Holy Spirit blows a seed of love from Calvary to every person, not just to those living at the day of resurrections, but across time and space to every person. The human Jesus could not be in every place at the same time, but upon death, Jesus was able to send the Holy Ghost, the Comforter to every person at all times in history.
Winston Churchill, once said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Listen as I repeat that statement: Winston Churchill, once said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” (iii) When we die to self interest, when we die to the distractions of modern life, then we become fertile ground for the Word of God to grow in our hearts so that we can share it with the un-churched in our community.
[Topic: Where do we meet Jesus?; with reference to v. 32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”]
Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” It has been said that “the ground is level at the foot of the cross.” The idea is that all people, no matter the sin nor the circumstance of their life, have equal access to the forgiveness and love that flows from the cross. I want each one of us to understand that this is the day, this is the hour, and this is the time that Jesus is present with us. This is the time foretold long ago by the prophet Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NIV) 31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant … 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers …. 33 "This is the covenant I will make …declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ’Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
God decided long ago that Christ would come so that all of our sins could be forgiven if we come to Him. Today I want each of us to know, to truly understand that we are in the presence of Jesus. We are not second-class disciples born in the wrong place at the wrong time almost 2,000 years after the resurrection. The saving grace of Jesus Christ reaches out to us in this day and in this age. God operates outside the bounds of time and place; the resurrection is not a dim light shining through a great expanse of history. It is almost as if the two thousand years have not passed and the resurrection of Jesus occurred this morning just for you, and you, and you, and for me. The great God of creation spoke in thunderous ovation for the salvation which Jesus brought to all people. God’s timing was, is, and always will be perfect.
In the 1700’s Count Nicholas Zinzendorf was a wealthy man who came to support the Moravians. He was used by Christ in wonderful ways and helped spread the gospel. At one time he became friends with John and Charles Wesley and they were always close. I read that “When Count Nicholas Zinzendorf was a young man he had an experience in an art gallery that changed his life forever. He visited an art museum in Dusseldorf where he saw a painting of titled Ecce Homo, "Behold the Man." It portrayed the crucified Christ and below it was written the phrase: "This have I done for you - Now what will you do for me?" As the story goes, when his eyes met the eyes of the thorn-crowned Savior, he was filled with a sense of shame. He could not answer that question in a manner which would satisfy his own conscience. He stayed there for hours, looking at the painting of the Christ on the cross… From that day on, he devoted his heart and soul, his life and his wealth—all he had—to Christ…”(iv)
I can almost see Count Zinzendorf, all those years ago, take a deep breathe and start a new life. When it’s time for each of us to make a real change, let us take a deep breath, commit ourselves to the new course of action, exhale, and start down the path of loving Christ who died on the cross for us—the Christ who calls, “Now what will you do for me?”
Amen
(i) O’Day in the New Interpreter’s Bible, as reported by Brian P. Stoffregen Exegetical Notes John 12.20-33, 5th Sunday in Lent - Year B accessed at http://www.crossmarks.com
(ii) Accessed at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/willrogers163083.html
(iii) Accessed at:http://www.stevenredhead.com/quotes/WinstonChurchill.html
(iv) Accessed at two sources: http://www.zinzendorf.com/countz.htm and Pastor Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson; 5 Lent, Year B at SermonCentral.com
