Text: John 12:23-26, Title: Dying to Live, Date/Place: NRBC, 2.17.13, AM
A. Opening illustration: that song a couple years ago by Tim McGraw called Live Like You Were Dying
B. Background to passage: I’m skipping over the triumphal entry passage for now, may come back on Palm
Sunday, but not sure yet. I want to focus on the teaching passages of the last week of Jesus’ life. This next
teaching does come in the context of the wake of excitement after the triumphal entry. The Pharisees noted
that “the whole world has gone after him,” and began to plan to kill him. It is interesting that John specifies
that these were Greeks (probably “God-fearers”) who wanted more than a sighting or an autograph, they
wanted time to interview and engage with Jesus. We are not told whether or not Jesus did anything with their
request, but we are given the teaching that their desire precipitates.
C. Main thought: Jesus gives to foundational centerpieces to the significance of the events that will culminate by
the end of that week: the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus
The Centerpiece of Christianity (v. 23-24)
1. This is the first time Jesus has spoken of “the hour” being here. Perfect tense. This “hour” is the reason
for which he has come, foreordained from before the foundation of the world, not a cosmic fix to a
jumbled up mess. He speaks of this “hour” as the time when He would be glorified. This “hour” is his
crucifixion, death, and resurrection. This the centerpiece of our faith. It is the only thing that makes our
faith possible. It is that which makes reconciliation and salvation possible. Preach the cross! Recount
some of the details, and speak of their beauty.
2. So how is a violent, bloody, humiliating death glory? Glorification means for something to be adorned
with appropriate splendor. It’s beauty comes in a number of facets, in fact too many to even comprehend.
But here are a few as we think about the glory of the cross. 1) the beautification of the character of Christ,
2) the accomplishment of the Father’s will, 3) the submissive obedience to death, 4) the unjust suffering
and sacrifice, 5) the forgiveness of sinners, 6) the love of God poured out on us making a way for the
ungodly to be declared clean and righteous. The greatest tragedy of justice ever told is the most glorious
event in the history of creation!
3. John 17:1-5, Isa 60:9
4. Illustration: read some hymns from the hymnal, pages 140 on, While preparing for a communion service
in 1707, Isaac Watts wrote this deeply moving and very personal expression of gratitude for the amazing
love that the death of Christ on the cross
5. The cross is not only central to salvation, which is most important, but it is central to everything about our
lives in Christ. It informs our relationships about the sinful influences that affect the way that we treat
people. It reminds us of our desperate need for Christ in overcoming sin and brokenness in our lives due
to it. It frees us from guilt associated with every kind of failure in our lives. It reminds us and reaffirms
God’s never-ending love for us when the world says he has forsaken us, or when our minds attempt to
deceive us or accuse us. It offers the only grounds for forgiveness for every wrong you’ve done, or that
has been done to you! Look through the stain-glassed window of the cross at your wife or husband…at
your neighbor… at your co-worker…at your son or daughter…at your customer or client. Look through
the eyes of forgiveness, compassion, love even when you have been severely wronged! You can only do
this because of the cross
A.
B. The Centerpiece of Abundant Life (v. 25-26)
1. With the exception of the paradox of how God
to be radically committed to the fame of his own name,
and yet justify the ungodly who have trampled upon it; this paradox about the origin of the fullest, and
most abundant life being offered in death, self-denial, sacrifice, and the hatred of human desires and cares
is probably one of the most stupefying. But Jesus says that if you want to live, you must die. He teaches
this with his words and his actions. But how can that be??? How could one die alone and find endless
fruitfulness and life??? Jesus explains that those of us who relish affections for things of this life will
destroy our lives. The word there suggests that those who love their lives are concurrently destroying the
life that they seek to preserve. Self-focus destroys. “The person who loves his life will lose it: it could not
be any otherwise, for to love one’s own life is a fundamental denial of God’s sovereignty, or God’s rights,
and a brazen elevation of self to the highest point of one’s own perception, and therefore an idolatrous
focus on self, which is at the heart of all sin.” –D. A. Carson.
2. Jesus further states the paradox like this: if you hate your life, you will preserve it. The hate language
in the Jewish mind was more closely related to comparison and priority than what we think of as hatred.
Jesus is saying that if you prioritize things of the kingdom, you will actually guard your life, preserve it, or
gain it. “Jesus does not identify true saving faith by its perfection, but by its affection. Those who truly
come to Christ love Him above all things—all sin, all self-righteousness, all relationships, all self-will.”
–MacArthur. If one seeks Christ, and spends his days laying down his life for others, he will experience
the fullest life, as he focuses on the greatest treasure—Christ! “The loss of life is the condition for the
emergence of new life.”
3. So Jesus says, “FOLLOW ME.” Jesus says some harsh things. These Jews also knew what it meant to
follow a rabbi. It meant personal attachment and categorical, unqualified allegiance. Jesus says that those
who follow him will be where he is, and will gain the Father’s honor! Think about that?
4. Argumentation
5. Illustration: Have you seen those commercials that show a scary, emaciated, hollow, pale figure, and end
with something that says “Meth will do that to you?” an addict has a love for the feeling of the drug,
habit, whatever that will cause them to self-destruct; cause them to do things that they wouldn’t set out
to do; cause them to sell themselves, steal, even kill for the need that is within them. “The cross is laid
on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the
attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ.
As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death—we give over
our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy
life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, He bids
him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to
follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world.
But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.” –Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
6. To foster and embrace affections for things of this world increases our tendency to value things of lesser
value. It deadens our affections for things of the Spirit. It causes us to find our joy in things that will not
last, that will eventually disappoint, that will cause us to waste our lives, that will cause us to harm those
that we love, and withhold from those who need. How about you? What affections cause you to guard
things of your life? What loves do you have in the flesh that you strive to maintain, achieve, possess,
pursue? What attitudes, what longings, what things draw away your affections and destroy your life?
7. Are you prioritizing Christ and His kingdom? How does it show? Are you looking for joy? Peace?
Patience? Kindness? All these fruits of the Spirit that we feel like we must seek and work hard for, are
truly gained by self-mortification, and gazing upon Christ and his blazing glory. Kick your own selfish
desires in the teeth and find all the things that you are searching for.
8. I am giving you the key to abundant life: follow Christ, come and die with Him. “True salvation is not
only about affection, but direction.” –JM. Go outside the gate and suffer with him. Lose your life in Him.
Lose your ambitions and goals and guilt and fear in Him! Find life in death! Will you follow the one who
glorified Himself by a torturous death that you deserved? Will you be honored by the Father? Will His
testimony of you be that you laid down your life in service to Him?
Closing illustration: a parable from John Piper’s book, "The Pleasures of God."
Once there was a land ruled by a wicked prince. He had come from a foreign country and enslaved all the people
of the land and made them miserable with hard labor in his coalmines across the deep canyon. He had built a
massive trestle for the trains that carried his slaves across the canyon to the mines each morning, and it was heavily
guarded.
Two men were still free in the kingdom – one old and the other young. They lived on an inaccessible cliff
overlooking the trestle. They hated the trestle because it kept those people in slavery. At last they resolved to blow
it up and destroy the slave labor of the enemy prince. They planned and prayed and they reminded themselves of
the reality of heaven.
The night came when the deed would be done. Their hearts were pounding with joy. It was a hard plan. It would
be possible to time the trek of the trestle guard so that the explosive could be carried to the vulnerable spot on the
trestle. But there would be no time for the carrier of the explosives to return. It was certain that he would be seen
and the plan foiled if he tried to return. To make sure the trestle blew up the two men agreed that the young man
would detonate it by hand on the trestle. He would blow it up.
But they believed in heaven and they would be reunited, and they loved the people of the land and wanted to free
them. So the honor of this sacrifice made their hearts leap with joy. The hour came. They folded up the map of
their strategy, stood from the table and embraced each other. When the young man got to the door, he turned,
looked at the old man and said, "I love you Father." And the old man took a deep breath – with joy – and said, "I
love you too, Son."
A.
B.
Recap
"Let us then stand in awe of this great God! And let us turn from all the trivial resentments and fleeting pleasures
and petty pursuits of materialism and merely human 'spirituality.' And let us be caught up into the gladness that
God has in the glory of His Son..." -Piper
Additional Notes
THE WONDROUS CROSS
Gal. 6:14 inspired Isaac Watts to compose one of modern Christendom’s favorite hymns. While preparing for a
communion service in 1707, Isaac Watts wrote this deeply moving and very personal expression of gratitude for
the amazing love that the death of Christ on the cross revealed. It first appeared in print that same year in Watts’
outstanding collection, Hymns and Spiritual Songs. The hymn was originally titled "Crucifixion to the World
by the Cross of Christ." Noted theologian Matthew Arnold called this the greatest hymn in the English language
(Osbeck, Kenneth W.: Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Kregel Publications, 1990, S. 106).
Note in particular the beauty of the little-known fourth verse:
When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er his body on the tree;
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
