The Coming of the Humble King (John 12:20-36) Pastor Peter Yi March 24, 2019

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1 The Coming of the Humble King (John 12:20-36) Pastor Peter Yi March 24, 2019 (John 12:20-36) 20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. Sir, they said, we would like to see Jesus. 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. 23 Jesus replied, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, 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. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. 27 Now my soul 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. 28 Father, glorify your name! Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. 34 The crowd spoke up, We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? 35 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. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light. When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them. If you remember, chapter 12 begins the week of the Passion of Jesus, and by passion we mean, his suffering. The Passover festival was coming, and Jesus had made his way into Jerusalem to go to his death. He came riding on a donkey, to the praise and cheers of the people. Upon coming into the city some Greeks or Gentile believers in Yahweh had come to worship at the festival and they approached Philip, one of Jesus disciples, and asked if they could see Jesus. John doesn t tell us if Jesus met their request, but rather it becomes the opportunity for Jesus to begin speaking of the hour. The hour What does he mean by the hour? When Jesus performed his first miracle at Cana where he turned water into wine, he responded to his mother, Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come. Later in chapter 7 John writes, At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. And then again in chapter 8:20 John says, He spoke these 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 1 of 6

2 But, now Jesus is the one that says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And then just a few verses later Jesus says, Now my soul 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. Then in the next chapter John writes, It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Finally, the word appears in Jesus high priestly prayer in chapter 17, where he says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. What then can we know about this phrase? First, the hour refers to the immediate events of suffering that are coming up in Jesus life. It begins when he will agonize in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He will then be betrayed by his disciple, Judas, the traitor, and handed over to the religious leaders to be falsely accused and tried. He would be beaten, spit on, mocked, and whipped. He would have a crown of thorns placed on his head, and the culmination of the hour would be his crucifixion. This is what is meant by the hour. We also discover that the hour is something that Jesus knew about all along. He knew it was the very reason for why he came. He also knew that it was going to be very difficult. Nowhere before the coming of the hour do we see Jesus expressing difficulty or struggle, but now he says that his soul is troubled. The word troubled can mean to be agitated, to have inner commotion, to take away calmness of mind, to be distressed you get the picture. Jesus Christ, the Son of God began to feel troubled. It ll only be a couple chapters later that the same word will be used to describe the disciples, upon hearing that Jesus would soon be leaving them. Jesus says to them at that time, Do not let your hearts be troubled, as if to say, because I will be bearing your troubles. We also learn from the phrase the hour that Jesus is in control. The hour is not imposed on him by men. He is not a victim. No. He is a man that lives fully submitted to the will of God. He lives knowing that God is sovereign over every moment of his life and his death. And finally, the hour, as gruesome and painful and horrible as it will be, will be a moment of glory. It is the moment for the Son of Man to be glorified. But it is also a moment for God the Father to be glorified. A few verses later Jesus says, 28 Father, glorify your name! Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. Jesus says, Father, bring glory to your name in the hour and through the events that will happen during the hour. And God replies, I have glorified it and will glorify it again. In what way does this event bring glory to Jesus and to God? Theologian Don Carson writes, It is not just that the shame of the cross is inevitably followed by the glory of the exaltation, but that the glory is already fully displayed in the shame. So, it s not after the death and resurrection, when Jesus returns to his Father in heaven, that he receives glory, but even in the cross, in his death, he is glorified, but more specifically, God is glorified in Jesus act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father. In all of Jesus acts of obedience he brought glory to God, but the greater the act, the greater the glory, and there is no greater act than when he goes to the cross. This act of self-sacrifice and obedience to God s will is his great act of glorifying the Father. In what way is the Son glorified? Well, that s the job of the Father. The father replies, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. The Father is saying, I have been glorifying you my Son, from eternity past, and from the moment you set foot on the earth. And in the coming hour, when you will suffer, I will glorify you once again. Isn t that amazing that in the coming of the hour that what Jesus is concerned about most is that God would be glorified and that God is concerned most about glorifying his Son? 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 2 of 6

3 However, there s more. In verse 24 Jesus speaks of a seed. He says that a seed must die and fall to the earth and be buried, but only when it does that, will it bring about the growth of a new plant and a new harvest. It produces many seeds. Think of the stalks of corn we see during the summer along the highway. In one ear of corn there are hundreds of kernels, seeds. While attached to the corn stalk that seed, that kernel is still living, but once the ear of corn is removed each of those kernels begin to shrivel up and die. And that one dead kernel of corn, when buried in the earth, brings to life another corn stalk with hundreds of more kernels of corn. Jesus is that one seed that will die. And then he will be buried. And then he will come to life. And through his resurrection he will produce an immeasurable amount of new seeds, which include you and me. This is the glorious work of the Son of Man. If the hour, that is, the suffering of Christ, is the most glorious event in history where it glorifies the Son and it glorifies the Father shouldn t we also glory not only in the event of the crucifixion, but more so in the Son and in the Father? You see, every time we sing a song about the suffering of the Son, we are glorifying the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, our triune God. Every time we hear the Gospel, we should rejoice and glory in God. We must not think that just because we ve heard the Gospel message already, and that we ve trusted in Christ already, and that we ve repented of our sins already, that the Gospel message is in the past and should no longer move us. We mustn t ever grow weary of the Gospel. But isn t that how we should be with the Gospel story, with the story of Jesus death, with this glorious story? Shouldn t we say, Again, pastor, tell it to us again. It s like the words of the hymn, Of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, Of Jesus and His love; Tell me the story simply, As to a little child, For I am weak and weary, And helpless and defiled. Tell me the story slowly, That I may take it in-- That wonderful redemption, God's remedy for sin; Tell me the story often, For I forget so soon, The "early dew" of morning Has passed away at noon. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 3 of 6

4 Tell me the story softly, With earnest tones and grave; Remember I'm the sinner Whom Jesus came to save; Tell me the story always, If you would really be, In any time of trouble, A comforter to me. Tell me the same old story, When you have cause to fear That this world's empty glory Is costing me too dear; And when the Lord's bright glory Is dawning on my soul, Tell me the old, old story: "Christ Jesus makes thee whole. Chorus: Of Jesus and His love. Dear Christian, say Again! to the Gospel. Say again! to Jesus and his death and resurrection; and then say again again! Well, this is the hour that was coming for our Lord and Savior. Now, this passage also tells us how we are to live in light of the coming hour. The life of Jesus is filled with many incredible paradoxes. He was the one worthy of the highest honor, yet he received the worst dishonor. He was the Almighty Creator of the universe, and yet himself was created, born of the Virgin Mary. He was the most exalted, yet he was the most humble. He was like a mighty Lion, but he was also like a slaughtered lamb. He owned the riches of the universe, yet he didn t even have a place to lay his head. What other man, what other being is like our Savior? And so the man of paradoxes shares with us a paradox. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. What is Jesus saying? He s saying that anyone who makes their life, their self, number 1, will eventually end up losing their life. And yet, if you consider your life worth nothing, you will gain true life. If you live for this world, you lose the next world. If you live for the next world, you gain both. If you live for the now, you ll lose what comes later. But if you consider your life in this world like nothing, then you will keep your life, and that life will be eternal life. How about you? Are you living according to this paradox? Are you hating your life, so you can gain eternal life? What would the way you spend your money, your leisure time, the way you look relationships, what would those things say about which life your living for, this life or the next life? Then Jesus explains what this paradox means. This is my summary. He says, I must be the center of your universe, of all your life. Look at what he says. He says, Serve me! He says, Follow me! He says, Wherever I am, you also must be. Be my shadow. Follow close behind. Wherever I lead you, wherever I take you, come after me. And to that person, my Father will honour. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 4 of 6

5 Does that seem too harsh, too demanding, or too radical? Well it all depends on whether or not Jesus is who he says he is; and whether or not Jesus accomplishes what he came to do. If he is who he said he is, then you can expect nothing less. And if he really did accomplish what he set out to do, then it makes all the sense in the world that Jesus would make these demands. If Jesus truly suffered and died for our sins, and resurrected for our sins; if he truly endured the hour, how could we expect him to demand anything less than what he s asked of us? What kind of person, what kind of God, what kind of Savior would that make him? Jesus endured the hour for us, for each one of you. He hated his own life, that is, he gave up his own life, in order to gain eternal life for us. How then could we love our lives more than loving Jesus? How could we serve ourselves more than we serve Jesus? How could follow our own plan, rather than the plan Jesus has for us? How could we try to hold onto our lives in this world and in doing so, forsake eternal life? How could we not serve him, and follow him and go where he goes? Isn t that precisely what it means to be a Christian, a disciple? So that s the first aspect of how we should live in light of the hour. What about the second thing? For that we must look to verse 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. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light. When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them. Jesus, here, refers to himself as the light, which he has already mentioned a couple of times before in John s gospel. He says, You are going to have the light just a little while longer, which means that in a short while, he will be gone, Jesus will die. He then says, Walk while you have the light, before the darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Not to walk in the light, is the same as to remain in the darkness, which is to be lost. Let s expand this a bit more. To not walk in the illumination of Jesus, who is the light, is to walk in spiritual darkness, is to be spiritually lost, is to be apart from God and apart from Christ. What then does it mean to walk in the light? The answer is found in verse 36: Believe in the light, so that you may become children of light. To believe in the light is to believe in Jesus. To believe in Jesus is to trust in Jesus. To trust in Jesus is to rely upon what he will do and accomplish in his hour. And to trust in Jesus is to walk in the light. If we do that, if we believe in him, we then will become children of light. We will belong to him. And if we belong to him, we will never walk in darkness. We will never have to fear spiritual darkness or judgment or an eternity in hell, because we are children of light. The Apostle Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 5:8, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. And then in 1 Thessalonians 5:5 he says, You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. In becoming children of light, we become like Jesus, we become like God. We become part of his family, we share in his identity. And thus we are to live as Jesus did. So Paul tells us that to live as children of light is to live out goodness, righteousness, and truth, and to find out what pleases the Lord (Ephesians 5:9-10). He also says, 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. (1 Thesalonians 5:6 8) If we are truly the children of Christ, the children of light, then we should live like him. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 5 of 6

6 Jesus told us we are the light of the world so when you go to work or school tomorrow, go as a child of light. What might that look like? Be ethical (truthful) in all your dealings for Christ s sake. Be loving toward all people for Christ s sake. Work diligently for Christ s sake. When you go back to your families, speak kindly to each other. As we live under the light of Christ, we too can shine the light of Christ to those around us. Friends, Jesus bravely embraced his hour into order to bring glory to God and in the hour, God also glorified Jesus. Therefore, we should serve him and follow him. Tell him Jesus, without you, I m in the dark. Without you, I m lost. I will walk in your light. I will believe in you. And, if you do, you will become a child of the light, you will never ever walk in darkness. Let s pray. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 6 of 6