Buried in the Will of God (John 12:12-28)
Notes
1. Jesus comes into Jerusalem with growing fame.
A. There are two groups of people honouring and praising Him.
1. One group is the ones who have seen Him and talked with Lazarus. In verse 17 it says they were bearing Him witness. This is the Guy!
2. The other multitude comes and meets Him be- cause they heard that He had performed this sign. He raised a guy from the dead!
3. They are acclaiming Jesus and praising Him and saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel!” They are calling Jesus, the Messiah.
B. The Pharisees are pretty discouraged because Jesus is becoming more and more popular. You remember that they are planning to take Him and Lazarus and kill them. But right now they aren’t getting anywhere. Jesus is getting huge!
C. To the point where non-Jewish people are really curious about Jesus. These are Greeks, Gentiles, non-Jews, who are interested in Judaism because it is a clean, pure religion. The Scriptures are pow- erful. They are drawn to this, and they are curious about Jesus.
D. Jesus could be encouraged and say, wow, things are finally catching on. They people are accepting me. This is good! Very encouraging.
E. Except He knows that all this praise and honour and support are not real. No one understands what He is really about. That was shown when He got the donkey and rode on it. No one thought, “Oh my goodness! Zechariah 9:9 is being fulfilled right now!” God’s Messiah is just and endowed with salvation. People then and people now are not looking for salvation. They were looking for a political Messiah who would get rid of the Ro- mans and make Israel the head of all the nations. Peace, prosperity, healing, that’s what they were looking for, not salvation.
F. Salvation is not real to people. Sin is not concrete, like disease is. Sin is just not real to people. Salva- tion is not real because God is not real to people. He is some theory that you can play with if you want, but who would want to?
G. So the triumphal entry is not a triumph for Jesus. He doesn’t focus on how popular He has finally become. It means nothing to Him.
2. But He does say, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,”
A. His view of glory and success is that it comes from the Father only.
1. The Father is the reality for Jesus. Jesus came from the Father and is going to the Father. Jesus knows the glory of the Father and for Him that is the only glory that counts, the only opinion that counts.
2. The highest thing in life for Jesus is glorifying the Father.
4. Jesus lays down a principle of life to His dis- ciples. God has made us like seeds.
A. A seed has a purpose. It has life within itself. It is supposed to die and be buried so that new life can come forth and mature and bear fruit. That fruit nourishes with life and it reproduces the plant, leading to more life.
B. We agree with this principle because it is true. Everybody knows you have to bury that seed so that a new plant can arise from the seed that can bear fruit.
C. But what if the seed doesn’t want to be buried? What if the seed says, I want to determine for my- self what my purpose is? The purpose for the seed cannot be fulfilled. It can’t lead to new life, there can be no fruit. It is just by itself, alone. It does not fulfil the purpose for which it exists.
D. Then Jesus applies this principle to the disciples.
1. You are that seed. You have life in yourselves. That life is meant to fulfil the purpose for which the Father made you.
2. To fulfil that purpose, you submit to Him. It’s like dying. Not My will but Yours be done. You die to yourself and let yourself be buried in the will of God. From that submission God will raise up new life and maturity and fruitfulness. Others with be nourished. New life will come.
3. But if you love your life, you will lose it. Here is the definition of sin made concrete. I am a seed but I don’t want to be what God made me to be. I want to be something else, and I want to choose it. I love my own way. I am an enemy of God my Creator.
4. Even that little bit of life God put in you will be lost. There will be no maturity, no growth, no fruitfulness. There will be no purpose. Nothing will come of it. The reason is because none of what you do is eternal. Whatever you accom- plish will not last. Everything in this world is temporary. Therefore everything in this world is futile. It is just like the praise given to Jesus. Temporary, and therefore, worthless.
5. Jesus shows that this principle of submit- ting to the Father applies to Himself.
A. His soul has become troubled, because for Jesus, doing the will of the Father means becoming
the substitute for all people. It means He will die under the punishment of the Father for all sin, for all time.
B. Jesus is not crazy. He doesn’t want to die. But He won’t pray save Me. He came for this purpose: to give His life so that others may live.
C. So Jesus prays, Father, glorify Your name. That name is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, over- flowing in lovingkindness and truth. Be merciful to sinners and forget their unrighteousness and sins because You judge them on Me. You will be gracious to the wicked who don’t deserve mercy because you show Me no mercy. Be glorified in My life and in My death.
D. And the Father says, I will do it. We know that Jesus died for our sins. We know that God raised Him from the dead. We know that God glorified Jesus, so that every knee will bow and every per- son confess that Jesus is the Lord, to the glory of the Father.
E. Therefore we know that this principle that Jesus is teaching is universal. It applies to every person because it applied to Jesus, the Son of God. If you love your life, you will lose it. If you hate your life in this world, you will keep it to life eternal.
6. Now, here is how this principle becomes practical.
A. You begin by receiving Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Only what Jesus did makes you accept- able to God. You trust that Jesus paid for your sins by His death. Jesus’ resurrection gives you new life.
B. Then you follow Jesus. Where you are is where He is. What does He want to do in your situation, at work, when you are high risk? In your neigh- bourhood with your neighbours? You will be out of your comfort zone. People will praise you or not. You pray Father, glorify Yourself in me. It’s not about me. It’s about You.
C. Jesus says to His people, be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.
Let’s pray.