The Desire To See Jesus - O I Want To See Him

Sermon - The Desire To See Jesus

John 12:20-28

Joh 12:20 20 Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration 21 paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsaida 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[a] 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 serve me 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.”

Introduction: “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory.” Now, the signs are over, the parables are finish and Jesus begins speaking in plain language. The shouts of the Triumph entry are quiet, and a banquet has been prepared. The setting of the text is a beautiful banquet prepared in Jesus’ honor. We are back in Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, a city that has been turn on its head by the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The pharisees and elders were saying, “that the whole world has gone after him.” Every plot and trick have failed, Jesus was more popular than ever. Jesus was not seeking popularity; he is seeking the glory of God.

If believers are not careful, the news of world’s events would make us think that monkeypox, virus pandemics, police brutality, protests in the street, the rise and fall of the stock market, Russian aggression, Chinese interference are the most important things going on in our world today. During that season of Jesus’ earthly, His mission was misunderstood. The crowd was wrong, the disciples were wrong, the pharisees were wrong and the Romans were wrong about who he was and what he would do. Both the powerful and the powerless were wrong in their expectation, yet God had a plan and Jesus knew his assignment. Then Jesus sets the record straight. His only desire was that God might be glorified. This is the turning point of the gospel of John. Jesus has a laser focus on his mission.

Some theologians see this text as a “book end.” Jesus’ story began with wisemen from the east seeking him and now ends with Greeks from the west seeking him. It seems as if Jesus was waiting for this sign. The learned Greeks of our text could stand it no longer. They wanted to know the truth for themselves. They had traveled a great distance, some say from Athens, to worship at Jerusalem for the Passover. Historians say that there was many God-fearing Greeks who believe in the one true God. They were not satisfied with Greek Philosophy, the many gods of Rome Empire, they sought the true God and believed in the one God of the Jews. There were two leading schools of thought were the Epicureans (whose philosophy was "Eat, Drink, and be Merry, for tomorrow we die) and the Stoics, who were heading in the direction of Vulcan denial of emotionalism. Neither the stoics nor the Epicureans had any concept of resurrection of the dead. These two schools of thought are mentioned in Acts 17, during Paul's visit to Athens, and they largely ignored Paul's message, because of his teaching of the resurrection.

These Greeks approached Philip who had a Greek name, Philip went to Andrew and they approached Jesus with the request. Jesus seems to have been waiting for this moment. “And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.” As a side note, I am amazed at how often we find Andrew bringing people to Jesus. He brought Peter to Jesus; he brought the lad with two fish and five loaves to Jesus; and here he brings these Greeks to Jesus. We do not need to be the greatest, most popular, or most educated, yet we can all take a lesson from Andrew who just brought people to Jesus.

1. See Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb, One dying for the glory of God. When the disciples expected glory and grandeur, the crowd expected a political leader to overthrow the Romans and the Pharisees expected a riot to overthrow them, the Greeks may have been looking for a new philosopher, Jesus makes it plain! 24 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Jesus knew this was the moment for kingdom increase, for the sin debt to be paid, for lost mankind to be saved, and the enemy’ power to be overthrown. Jesus does emphasize his miracles or popularity; He draws attention to his sacrificial death. If we would see Jesus, we must see His sacrificial death.