(Full disclosure: Sermon Central already has a message of mine based on this text called “Seven Sundays to Easter: ‘Sir, We Would See Jesus’”. This is a different message, based on a sermon preached at First Baptist Church of Chamois, MO on March 19. 2023. This message is not an exact transcription.)
Introduction: Today is March 19, and, can you believe it, Easter is only three Sundays away! I hope it’s a great day for all of us. This morning we’ll take a look at a passage I’ve used before and it speaks to this season. The text comes from John 12, verses 20-26:
Text: John 12:20-26, NASV: 20 Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; 21 these people then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and were making a request of him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip* came and *told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip* came and *told Jesus. 23 But Jesus* answered them by saying, “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 The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. 26 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”.
<Opening prayer>
1 The Greeks come and meet Philp
Before I go much further, I’d like to share this with you. When I was a teen, about 14 or so, we moved to a different state and of course attended one of the local churches. Our youth group would sometimes meet in the sanctuary and try—emphasize, “try”—to sing one of more selections chosen by our youth group leader. After that, we’d go to our classroom for Bible study. Now, when we finished up practicing the music, I’d look at the pulpit. This is something I’ve always enjoyed doing but never to be anything but respectful. After all, one of God’s preachers was bringing God’s messages to us and to me this was holy ground, even as a teen.
It was on one of those Wednesday evenings that I saw something that’s stayed with me for many years now. The pastor had taken one of the self-stick (“Dymo”-labels, remember those?) labels with the words of verse 21, “Sir we would see Jesus” and the verse. If I could meet this pastor again, I’d like to tell him that something on his pulpit has been an encouragement to me.
But now let’s look at the text. The first thing to notice in the text is “the feast”. This was the Passover, and this was one of the three feasts that every male Jew was required by the Law to take part in. On each of these three feasts—Passover, around the first of April in our calendar; then Pentecost or First-fruits, six weeks later; and Tabernacles, or “Booths”, later in the year—every Jewish male was required to show up in Jerusalem. By the way, “booths” meant just that: every Jewish family was supposed to literally cut down tree branches, make a shelter or “booth” out of these, and live in them for seven days! I’m sure glad I didn’t live back then, as I might have had an “axe”-ident (accident, get it? Hmmph.)!
All right. Now, it’s Passover, and every male Jew was required to come to Jerusalem to observe this feast. But it wasn’t only natives of Israel who were coming: a number of Greeks had come to Jerusalem to worship God at the feast of Passover as well. We don’t know anything about them, such as how many, or where they were living, or even if they were Greek-speaking Jews or actual Gentile converts to the Jewish faith.
We do know about this one thing they did. They met Philip and made a request: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip found Andrew and the two of them went to see Jesus.
Now, one of the problems, challenges, whatever you want to call it is how to translate the original language of the New Testament (Greek) into understandable English! Some, and I do hope they were joking about it, suggested everybody learn Greek and there wouldn’t be a problem. Yeah, I don’t think so either. Part of this is because one Greek work may have any number of English translations and one English word might have several different Greek words.
That’s the case with the word “see” in verse 21. There are several words, maybe half a dozen, in Greek translated “see”. One has the idea of “oh, there’s something to look at” and that’s about it. Kind of the same idea of “I see something over there” and the one seeing may or may not know exactly what it is. There’s another that has the idea of analyzing something—we get the word “theory” from it. Mark used this word when Mary Magdalene “saw” the tomb where Jesus was buried. It’s as if she wanted to make a mental note of exactly where it was.
There are a couple more, but that’s not the word these Greeks used when they spoke to Philip. They used the word with the idea of “We’d like to have the experience of meeting Jesus”, not just to say, “Hey, we saw Jesus near Jerusalem”: or anything like that. No, this was a request to be “up close and personal”, as some might put it.
Oddly enough, we’re not even told how these Greeks knew Philip was one of Jesus’ disciples. Some of the commentators observed that one clue might be Philp’s name, which was Greek, and meant “lover of horses”. I’m glad my parents didn’t name me “Philip” because I just don’t like horses, except for saw horses! Some of you know that Grandpa likes some horses, and one or two of them—not so much, right?
Anyway, these Greeks find Philip (we’re never told how) and ask him to introduce them to Jesus.
But Philip may not have known just what to do, so he finds another disciple and asked him for some assistance.
That other disciple was Andrew.
2 Philip finds Andrew and they speak with Jesus
Something that I haven’t figured out is why Philip seemed to be so unsure when these Greeks came to speak with him. Philip had, in fact, introduced at least one other person to Jesus, and that person was Nathanael (see John chapter 1). Philip had found Nathanael and told him they had met Jesus of Nazareth! Nathanael said, in so many words, “Are you kidding me? Can anything good come out of Nazareth”—implying Nazareth was beyond worthless, if I understand him. But when Nathanael met Jesus, everything changed. Everything will change for anyone who meets Jesus and accepts His gift of salvation!
But Philip may have been a bit shy of this, trying to introduce people to Jesus. Andrew, on the other hand, had not only introduced his brother Simon Peter to Jesus, but had also found the boy who had the five loaves and two fish which Jesus used to feed 5000 people! The late Dr. Peter Marshall, one-time chaplain of the U. S. Senate in the 1940’s, wrote in one of his printed sermons that maybe we should call Andrew “the Introducer!”
Now, then, Philip and Andrew go to find Jesus. We don’t know where Jesus was, or why these two were away from Him, but they knew they had a situation they couldn’t handle. And that’ s why they knew they had to find Jesus to see what He had to say.
3 Jesus gives His reply
We don’t know if Jesus ever spoke directly to these Greeks who had come to meet Him. In fact, some of what He says in these next few verses is clear, but some of it’s cryptic. I’m sure those who heard His replies understood—or not—but there are still lessons for us even today.
The first thing Jesus said was “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”. Peter, James, and John had seen some of that glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. Mark’s gospel says that when Jesus was transfigured, His clothes became whiter than any “fuller” or laundryman could ever do (Mark 9:3). But none of them may really have understood what Jesus meant by “glorified”—at least not at this point.
Then Jesus used an example most, if not all, would be familiar with, that of sowing seeds (grains) of wheat. The Lord had used this very figure of speech twice in parables (Matthew 13) describing, first, how it would be hard to grow any kind of crop in anything except good ground. He also used this in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares (weeds) in the same chapter. Besides, the Law required fine flour for certain offerings (Leviticus 2, for example) and the people would of course need flour to make bread.
The idea that I think He was mentioning here was that unless a seed is buried in the ground, nothing will grow. There won’t be a crop if the harvester or anyone else simply keeps all the grain he or she harvested or, otherwise, eats all of it and doesn’t save any for the next season. I mean, suppose we plant and harvest corn, green beans, or any other row crop but hold on to all the harvest—what then? It doesn’t do anyone any good to have seed and just look at it!
And to me, this is one of the maybe veiled messages Jesus was trying to get to these Greeks—and to us, to, by the way. If He had not died, just like that grain of wheat, salvation would be impossible for anyone to receive. True, Jesus knew exactly what was waiting for Him in just days, if not hours, after this but He loved us enough to go through with it. What a Savior!
He moved on from there to declaring “if anyone loves his life, he loses it; but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life”. Love and hate are relative terms, of course, and Jesus never intended anyone—ANYONE—to think “I’m worthless, my life is meaningless, I hate my life” or any such concept. No, He made us to have fellowship with Him, to enjoy time with Him, and for us to work together with Him in making His program a reality on this earth.
So don’t feel like you need to literally hate your life! All Jesus is saying is to realize that a life without Him is not much, really, of any life at all.
There’s also another way of looking at this. It’s just as true now as it has always been, namely, that there are some people who will give their life, their very soul, for what the world and the Devil have to offer. Just think how many singers began at church, but changed course and decided they could make more money by singing other types of music. Others would sell out to idols, or other less than honorable professions, just “to get by”—they’ll tell you.
And, some are successful, by the world’s standards, but when each one faces the end of their lives on earth, they leave all they made behind and have nothing to look forward to except spending forever in Hell or facing the Lord empty-handed, no rewards that last, when that day comes (1 Corinthians 3).
It also goes without saying that those who “hated” their lives, or followed God’s plan for their lives, will be rewarded as God permits. The disciples knew this firsthand, some having left their profitable fishing business (James and John) and others, like Matthew/Levi, left a lucrative career as a tax-collector. This is still true today, as those who answer God’s call for their lives may not be regarded as “successes” or “Number One’s” in this world—but in God’s evaluation, the rewards could be greater than anybody could imagine. Let’s try for the best, then,
And the Lord wraps up His reply by a double statement, “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 the original, it reads, “if Me anyone serves, Me let him follow”, putting the objective right where it belongs, with Jesus Himself. As far as the Father honoring those who serve Jesus, none of us will fully understand this, but one day it will be crystal clear.
Let’s wrap it here: there were some Greeks who found Philip and asked him to introduce them to Jesus. Philip found Andrew and these two came to Jesus. The Lord gave a four-verse reply that may have been clear, or not, but they got the message. I hope we get the message, too.
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Version of the Bible (NASV).
