Sermon Transcript
Morning, everybody. How you guys all doing? Thanks for your prayers last weekend. The Young Professional Group, or YOPROs as we call ourselves, we were away up to the cabins in Arnold. I don’t know if you guys know where Arnold is, but it was a lot of fun.
There wasn’t a ton of snow, but there was enough to make it retreat-worthy. It was good. If you hear a couple of us getting over colds, myself included, you’ll know why. But thank you for your prayers. It was just a really, really good time.
Excuse me. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to John 12. We’re going to be covering a lot of verses today. We’re looking at verses 20 through 50.
But as you’re opening up, my name is David Collister. I’m a pastor of young adults here, and we’re going through this One Week to Live series where each of the 3 teaching pastors here are taking one at a time, so this is a fun series to go through. But if you’re there, let me go ahead and read. Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request.
Sir, they said, we would like to see Jesus. Philip went to tell Andrew, Andrew in turn told Jesus. Jesus replied, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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.
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. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?
No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it and will glorify it again. The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered. Others said an angel had spoken to him.
Jesus said, this voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
The crowd spoke up, we have heard from the law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Then Jesus told them, you are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.
Put your trust in the light while you have it. So that you may become sons of light. When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them. Then even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere, he has blinded their eyes and deaden their hearts so they can neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts nor turn, and I would heal them. Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. Yet at the same time, many, even among the leaders, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees, they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved praise from men more than praise from God. Then Jesus cried out, when a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.
When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words. That very word which I spoke will condemn condemn him at the last day.
For I did not speak on my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life, so whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say. This is the word of the Lord. Let’s pray.
Lord, we just ask for your Spirit now. I ask for your Spirit that as we hear these things, as I speak your word. We pray that it would just be— it would be just that, your word, and that you would change us and have us live changed lives as a result of it. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So we’re continuing our One Week to Live series, and we just come across this incredibly important passage. And I think at first glance you probably wouldn’t think— it seems there’s a lot going on. It probably seems pretty disjointed. But it’s incredibly important for this reason, if not for anything else, and that is it is Jesus’ last public words in his ministry. This is the last time the crowd would see Jesus before he was on the cross.
And so it’s incredibly important for us because it shows us what Jesus stood for. Like, what was his driving purpose? You know, when you look at what people say, what some of the martyrs over the years, what they when they have the chance to kind of have their last speeches, you see the important things that drive them. You guys remember the name John Brown from history class in high school? He lived just before the Civil War.
And he was caught, tried, and found guilty for trying to help slaves escape. And a month before his execution, he got up in the court and said, I’d like to have a word. And just shared some amazing things. He said, the court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament.
That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me further to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. I endeavored to act up to that instruction. John Brown, in the last words that he has, was just making clear what he stood for, and that is living for God and not for man, even in such a way that it cost him his life. Others down the years— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, although he didn’t do it in public words, in speech, he did it more in his writings in Nazi Germany, standing up for his fellow brother, the Jew.
Many, many people over the years with public words, last public words that are incredibly important because they tell us what they stand for. Well, here of all people, we get to see the Son of God in his final words. The last words— he has about 20 minutes with these people, if that, and then he’s gone from the scene. Gone. You don’t see him again.
And so Jesus wanted to make these, these words count. Incredibly important for us because it shows us how we can make the last time that we have with people who are not followers of his. Make those count. I don’t know if you have people in your life who are colleagues that are moving away, maybe being transferred or whatnot. If you are a student, graduating seniors moving away, or if you have a family member who is coming close to the end.
Cindy and I have friends who are living in China right now and they are just undergoing virtually the exact same thing she and I did a couple of years ago. They’re over there, they’re living in Beijing, and they just found out that her mom— that his mom has late-stage cancer and just a short time to live. His parents live here back— actually in San Diego too, go figure. A lot of details carry over here. She’s not a believer, so they just want to come back and spend what time they can with her.
And they, if you ask them, they want to make the time count. You can believe that. And I know from conversations with you, with many of you, that you’re in a similar situation, whether a family member or just at large with the limited time that we have with the people around us, Jesus shows us how to make the last— the time that you have left, the finite time that we have with people who need him, how to make it count. He answers that and shows us how to do that in the scripture today. And so what I plan to do is take these points, 3 of them, and pose them in questions just for the sake of application.
But the first one is, I see from the text here, is are you living with a sense of urgency?
The situation is Jesus had been just growing in popularity. Last week Pastor Steve talked about the triumphal entry. People were laying down the palm branches and just praising God. And the Pharisees were not too happy about this. I mean, pressure was mounting.
Opposition was growing. And they say in verse 19, see, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him. And then both literally and stylistically, verse 20 picks up. Now the Greeks among those who went to worship at the feast, and they came and they wanted to see Jesus.
They said, sir, we would like to see Jesus.
And the interesting thing here is Jesus doesn’t respond to their request. Instead, he has something else in his mind completely. And that is, he only has less than a week left. He has something else he wants to share. And so what he says in verse 23 when this request comes is something completely different.
He says, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Not, okay, see the men. I’d like to see, you know, let’s have a discussion with these guys. He says something completely different. The hour has come for for the Son of Man to be glorified.
And this is just an incredibly important phrase for us because we have seen over and over again in the Gospel of John Jesus saying, the hour has not yet come. The hour has not yet come. You remember when he was turning water into wine? Mary came to him and said, can you do this? And he says, the time hasn’t come yet.
I can’t do it. He went ahead and did it anyways. If you remember, his brothers came to him before the Feast of Tabernacles and said, you gotta go to Jerusalem. You’re starting to grow in fame here. Get down there.
That’s where the action is. People will hear about you. Jesus said, the hour has not yet come. I’m seeing a theme here. He also went in that case.
But he is always, always, the hour has not yet come. Now we see Jesus says the hour has come. And what is he talking about? Of course, he is talking about his death. We see this in the passage.
We are going to be skipping around, hopefully bringing it together. But in verse 32, but I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. Then also in verse 35, you are going to have the light just a little while longer. What is interesting about that is he only has a couple of breaths left with these people.
A little while longer is a very, very short time. He goes on, walk while you have the light before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. Put your trust in light while you have it so that you may become sons of light. When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
That was it. Gone from the public sight. We have more verses here, but they’re probably at a different time. Jesus was gone. Those were the last words in public.
Jesus is saying on one level, we need to live with a sense of urgency. We need to live with a sense of urgency. Pastor Steve last week talked about how there’s 2 types of people following him in these crowds. 2 types of people he was talking to: fans and followers. If you remember that, the fans are the people who are just kind of all about the hubbub, and then the followers, of course, are people who were dedicated to committing their lives to him.
To the fans, what Jesus is saying, if you are not a follower of his, what he is saying is, here is the words of life. You can receive it, but do not delay because you do not know how much time you have left. And that makes sense. We do not know how much time we have left. The Bible talks about how our days are like grass here today, gone tomorrow.
We don’t know how much. My father-in-law, 60 years old, eats— has eaten very healthy all his life, goes to the gym just about every single day, regular checkups, and then at 60 finds out he has late-stage non-smoking lung cancer. I mean, I just think it takes— not to be morbid, but just a blown tire on the 880 Life is incredibly fragile, and Jesus is not making such a morbid point as he is being realistic. Here’s the words of life. Receive it while you can.
You’re not gonna— put your trust in the light while you have it. And then to his followers, to those of us who are Christ’s followers, he’s saying we need to live with a sense of urgency. We need to make our time count with the little time that we have.
You know, when Jesus is talking about the light that is here and will be gone shortly, he’s talking about the light that is in you and the light that is in me. He’s talking about his eternal— his words of eternal life in you and me to be shown to others. But we have to be showing it. We have to be living in such a way that we have this sense of urgency as we Shine for others. I got the chance to listen to Francis Chan a couple weeks ago with the other pastors who went to this conference.
And if you know Francis Chan, he is kind of— his name is becoming more known. He was a pastor down in Simi Valley at a church that just kind of exploded and is now a megachurch. And he just thought, you know, this is a great ministry, but I want to focus on other things. I want to get in the trenches. Where are the trenches?
Well, he went to San Francisco. That’s where you go if you want to live in the trenches, San Francisco. No, but he’s there working with just a group of folks, a group of guys, gals, and just spending time pouring into them that they might pour into others. So just disciple-making is how he puts it. And he was talking about in this conference how he was out with his— with one of these guys, and they came to a BART station during rush hour in San Francisco, and there were just thousands of people, as I am sure you have all seen.
And one of these guys was just like, hey, you know what we should do? We should go get a sign and write, you need God, and go stand up on that step and just say, you know, everybody, you need God, and this is how you can receive Jesus as your Savior. And Francis Chan, he said, in response to that guy, he said, you know what bothers me? What bothers me is that there is a Christian living next to, working next to every one of those people and yet not reaching them.
Do you live in such a way that you’re making the most of the time that you have with the people next to you? They’re not going to be there forever. They might be transferred. They might get a promotion. You might go this way or that way.
But we have to make the most of the limited time that we have. We don’t know how much time we have. Jesus did. Jesus knew that he had about a week left. I mean, that much is clear from the context.
You and I don’t. So how much more Do you and I need to be living with a sense of urgency? Are you making the most of the opportunities that you get? Are you looking for them? And when you get them, are you making the most of them?
We have to be because time is limited. Then Jesus gets real practical. He shows us how to do it. You know, with the limited time left to share the gospel, the question I’d next ask is, do your actions point to Jesus? Look at verse 24.
Jesus goes on and says, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. Seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds. 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. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
This is a really interesting concept, at least to me. Jesus is basically saying death brings life. In order for life to happen, death must precede it. And I think to help us understand this, we gotta be seeing it from the context that Jesus sees it, and that’s the, the larger biblical context. And that is this: God created the world to be perfect, created man, woman just to enjoy it.
And yet we, in our sinful ways, in our rebellion, as seen through Adam and Eve, we decided, you know what, God, we don’t need you. We like to do things our own way. Actually, it would be better if you left altogether.
And God, in his love and in the freedom he wanted to give us, despite the pain that he saw coming as a result of our choice, said, okay. And of course, now we see the effects of the sin in this world. We see this in our lives. The pain, the suffering.
Look, this book, the Bible, can really be— I mean, in my opinion, you can really sum what it’s about in one sentence, and that is this: God is— it is God in all things redeeming things to him. This is a book about God redeeming all things to himself in Jesus Christ. When Jesus says, whoever Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant will also be. Jesus is saying, I went ahead to redeem the world so that it can be how it was originally intended. And how he did that, of course, was on the cross.
By paying the debt that you and I deserve. Physically, the death, but also spiritually, the wrath that was poured out on him. Paying the punishment that you and I deserve so that we can have new life, be a new creation, be born again. Death brings life. And what Jesus is saying here in John 12 is that this concept applies to his followers.
In order for people to— in order for life to come, we must die to ourselves. You see that? What Jesus is talking about is living Sacrificially. In other words, what I’m asking, what I believe that the text is asking, is are we living in such a way that our actions are pointing to Jesus? Are we sacrificing, making hard choices such that people are saying, okay, there’s something different.
There’s something different about this guy. Drawing them to actually see Jesus in the way we live. And how that happens is, you know, the way this world works is it teaches things like, get ahead. Do what you need to do to make it. You know, don’t worry too much about what others— the effect on others, but just do what you need to do.
Jesus teaches just the complete opposite. Love. Love even your enemies.
Not only— should you not only not discard people, you need to Bear with them. The people that perhaps you would just rather just say, you know what, I’m through with, even though it goes against every fiber of your being, Jesus is saying love them, forgive them, work it out, try.
These sorts of things, living in humility. I mean, I think of, you know, when you are working and you’ve maybe been ahead of a project, a group of people have been working on it and you get the credit. When you pass the credit along and say, you know, this wasn’t about me, just look at all these people who are— when we do things like this, people see Jesus. Whether or not they’d articulate that is another story, but they see that there’s something different. Do your actions point to Jesus?
The way that you’re living, are you living sacrificially? And if the answer to that is no, then the question I’d have for you is, what can you do even this week To help people see Jesus in the way that you live? Because the sad thing is, I think a lot of us, we don’t live in such a way. I mean, maybe we’re in the workplace or school and people don’t even see in us that we’re even a Christ follower. I mean, maybe some of us, we actually point the opposite direction, but that’s another story.
But I think for a lot of us, we just kind of burrow down and we’re quietly and we don’t know that people don’t even know that we’re Christ followers. Maybe we’re in positions of influence and we’re not using those influences to help people see Jesus in the way we live. Jesus is saying that cannot be. People need to see it. You are the light that people need to see.
Do your actions point to Jesus?
And if not, I would just encourage you this week, how can you How can you even this week live in such a way that people see it?
One thing that’s important to point out, I believe— Cindy said you gotta talk about this before moving on— and that is this: living sacrificially, it’s an obvious point but needs to be said, is incredibly hard. I mean, we’re talking about death, right? Dying to yourself. You know, Jesus, when he was looking at the weight of the cross, what it meant for him to go before us. He said, now my heart is troubled.
What— and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. It is incredibly difficult.
The pruning, the refining, the sacrifice of time, of energy, of talent, all these different things is incredibly difficult. But Jesus is saying it is in this way that life is produced. In other words, if we’re not sacrificing, if you’re not sacrificing where it is you’re working, where it is you’re living, where it is you’re operating, people aren’t going to see Jesus. So the question for you, for me, is do our actions point to Jesus?
Are we living in such a way that people might even be drawn to ask, what is it different about you? Why is it you live this way? Which leads to the next question. You know, when we do get the opportunity to speak and share the gospel, do we take our stand? Do you take your stand on the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Is that where you take your stand? On the cross and resurrection? Jesus says, now is the time for judgment, verse 31, on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.
If you would like to underline, this is the verse to underline. Verse 32. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. This is Jesus’ big stand. His big push.
His driving force. What he is about. What in the limited time, the 20 minutes, probably much less than that, with this crowd, what he wanted to let them know he was about. And that is the cross. And resurrection.
Do you see that here in this verse? When it says lifted up, it’s an incredibly rich phrase, but it’s talking about the cross and resurrection. I think you probably— we see the cross pretty easy. Lifted up, okay, it’s talking about the cross, but he’s also talking about the resurrection. Some of your Bibles will probably say lifted up means also exalted elsewhere, so that hints at it.
But even the preposition in the original language behind it isn’t quite conveyed in the English. What Jesus is saying is, when I am lifted out from the ground, that’s what he’s saying. When I’m lifted up out from the ground, I will draw all people to myself. In other words, what Jesus is saying is, to put modern words to it, is our faith is an Easter faith. If that helps us remember it, our faith is an Easter faith.
It hinges upon the cross and resurrection Period. That is what our faith is about. And that is where we need to take our stand.
I mean, I think the problem is we often get focused on so many other things. You know, as a church, as individuals. I mean, you think about what Christians are known for and the things that we take our stand for. Whether it be a political issue, moral issue, a certain way of living. I mean, things that we— that all have good intentions, but if we’re going to take our stand, may it not be about those.
May it not be about those things. May it be about the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. May that be what we are known for as a church and as individuals. The cross and resurrection. And do you see how incredibly important that is for us as believers as we think about sharing the gospel?
Do you see how incredibly valuable and helpful that is? It means, okay, when we are talking to our friends or get the opportunity, get the privilege to share with folks, sharing our personal story, talking about Jesus’ teaching, all these things are very helpful. But if you are going to talk about one thing, if I am going to talk about one thing, it needs to be the cross and resurrection. It needs to be Jesus lifted up.
And so here is a very challenging question. I mean, it is challenging for me. When was the last time you talked about the cross? Cross and resurrection with somebody, with a nonbeliever.
Growing up, my dad had this little inscription on his pulpit, and he took it, I found out, from his dad, who was also a preacher, from the preaching team that he was involved with. They had a little inscription, and the inscription on the back of the pulpit was, Sir, we would see Jesus. It is a literal translation of when the Greeks come and they say, Sir, we would like to see Jesus. What they literally say is, Sir, we would see Jesus. And so my grandpa and then my dad had Sir, we’d have to see Jesus on their pulpit.
And you know what it is what they’re doing. The idea here is, look, when you’re preaching, remember to show people Jesus. If you’re going to focus on anything, focus on Jesus, specifically the cross and resurrection. In other words, you can go off on all these other things and do your thing, Bring it to the cross and resurrection. And that’s just so important for us.
You know, I think, you know, how does this play out for us? You know, pick a hot topic issue. Pick a hot button issue in our culture today. Abortion. Homosexuality.
I mean, I think it’s so important to realize we need to take our stand on the cross. It’s not so much these issues. These issues many as they are, aren’t the things that we should start on. Those of you who are familiar with philosophy know that variables are often used. You know, if A and B, then C, right?
And you have D, E, and F, and as many as you choose to use.
We can’t focus on D, E, and F if A hasn’t been resolved as Christ followers. The central issue of our faith faith is Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s from where everything else falls from. It is the redeeming act that restores our relationship with God. These other issues, whatever they might be, will work themselves out as we love the Lord and choose to follow him based on what he did on the cross.
I mean, do you see how that works? In other words, when someone says to us, Okay, but how is this issue going to play out if I become a Christ follower? Our response has to be, well, what do you make of the cross and resurrection? What do you make of Jesus dying on the cross and him being raised from the dead? And if their response is, you know, I’m not too sure, I don’t know, then we have— we must say, well, then let’s spend some time talking about that.
Paul said, if the cross and resurrection— if Jesus did not rise from the dead, we might as well eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. In other words, these other issues, they don’t matter if Jesus didn’t die and rise from the dead. It is the central piece of our faith. It is the central piece that all other things fall from. So we have to take our stand on Jesus’ cross and resurrection.
The interesting thing here is Jesus does this. He makes this profound statement predicting his death and how He’s going to do this amazing thing, saying that he’s going to draw all men to himself. And then look at verse 34. We have heard from the law that the Christ will remain forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?
Who is the Son of Man? Do you see here that the crowd is just completely distracted? Just completely is missing what God— what Jesus is saying here? They’re hung up on this term Son of Man that he hasn’t even talked about for about 10 verses. You look back in Verse 23.
They are distracted. They are missing what Jesus is saying.
People are going to be distracted when we take our stand on the cross and resurrection, but it is our job to remain there, to lift Jesus up, to stay on the resurrection and the cross.
You know, in fact, I think you could sum up this passage this message in really 3 words if you want to, and that is, you know, when it comes to sharing the gospel with the limited time we have left, lift up Jesus. Lift him up. You can tack on to that and trust the rest to God, but our job in this is to lift Jesus up. Very simple, incredibly difficult as we live it out sacrificially, dying to ourselves, but making the most of the time that we have.
Lifting Jesus up and trusting the rest to God. I mean, these guys, they were distracted, but we got to lift him up. If you look at the rest of the verses, 37 through 50, I mean, John brings up this passage. He says, God has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts so that neither with their eyes would they see, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn, and I would heal them. We have to trust God when we lift him up because only God can save.
It is he that draws all people to himself. By implication, it is not you and me. So pray for them. Love them. But lift up Jesus.
Keep it there. You know, one thought I think as we close, I think one really helpful thought is when Jesus said the phrase, When I am lifted up out from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. He was referring back to a time when the Israelites were wandering in the desert. God had delivered them from the bonds of slavery in Egypt. And the people there, if you know the story, they were complaining endlessly when they were in the desert.
God would provide food and different things for them, and they would just continue to complain, grumble, And there was one time in particular that they just— they had another episode where they just complained and they said particularly nasty things. And God said, you know what, okay, and sent venomous snakes among them such that people were being bitten and dying.
And then they turned, they repented, it says. This is in Numbers. They repented and so God said to Moses, okay, what you’re to do is to take a bronze snake Go out in the middle of all the people, lift it up, and when people look to the bronze snake, when they look there, they will be healed. And then it says in— this is Numbers 21 if you’re interested— verse 9: So Moses made a bronze snake, put it up on a pole, and then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, He lived.
Jesus in John 12 is referencing this. Jesus is saying, when I am lifted up, when people turn to me, put their faith in me, they will receive eternal life. And so our job as followers is to lift up Jesus, is to lift him up. And what a beautiful illustration. I don’t know about you, but it’s just a wonderful illustration.
It’s putting things out there clearly, gently, and saying, here’s Jesus. We’re not proselytizing. We’re not beating people over the heads. I mean, even Jesus in verse 47 says, as for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. We are to lift up Jesus.
It’s as if in our life, our actions, living sacrificially, the words that we say, we are just doing this in our workplace. We’re doing this in our schools. We’re just lifting Jesus up, pointing to him when we get the opportunity. But word, deed, how we live out with the limited time that we have that God has given us with the people around us to lift him up. And the promise is, I will draw all men to myself.
May that be what we’re about as individual Christ followers. May that be what we’re about here on this campus, that when people come here, they see Jesus. That they somehow sense that there’s something different. They sense the presence of God in some way. And in this way, in living sacrificially, in being a light in our actions, showing people to Jesus, and then whenever possible, taking our stand on the cross, that Jesus will be lifted up and that he would draw all men to himself.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, thank you so much for dying that we might have life. Thank you for going to the cross and rising from the dead, being raised, that through your death we might have life.
Lord, we want to be the light to others. We need your help in this.
But may we lift you up wherever it is we are. May we lift up Jesus. It’s not about us. May we lift you up. We pray all this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
