85 John 12:20-26 JESUS ANNOUNCING HIS DEATH TO THE PEOPLE Introduction: In our message last Sunday we saw the impact which the triumphal ride of Jesus into Jerusalem had upon His disciples, upon the people of the city of Jerusalem, upon the nation of Israel and upon the Jewish leaders. His disciples were jubilant at the prospect that Jesus might be crowned as king. The masses of people of the city and of the whole nation were also excited about it. They hailed Jesus as the promised Messiah and as the king of Israel. However, they are to meet with disappointing news, because in our text today Jesus announces to all that instead of being crowned as king, He will be put to death. He had already repeatedly told His disciples that He would die upon their arrival, but now He makes this announcement to the general public. I. The Gentiles who wanted to see Jesus However, John mentions another matter before Jesus made His announcement about His forthcoming death. John tells us about some Gentiles who sought to have an audience with Jesus. V. 20, "And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast." We would ordinarily think that the word, Greeks, could refer only to those who were of the Greek blood line. However, in the New Testament it could have three possible meanings. It could refer to Jews who lived among Greek people, who spoke primarily the Greek language and who had adopted much of the Greek culture. It does not, however, have this meaning in this particular passage of Scripture. If they had been of the Jewish blood line they would not have asked for an audience with Jesus in order to see Him. They would be able to go into the Jewish courtyard of the temple along with any other Jews who might be there and there could see Jesus. The word, Greeks, of course, could refer to those who were actually of the Greek blood line. If so, then these could attend the Passover at the Jewish temple but could only go into the Gentile courtyard. They would not be permitted to go into the Jewish courtyard, where apparently Jesus was at this time. There is also a third possibility. The word, Greeks, could refer to people of any Gentile blood line. Alexander the Great had required that all people in his empire learn the Greek language and adapt many of the Greek cultures. For that reason, the Jews usually referred to all Gentiles as Greeks. We cannot be sure if the Greeks referred to by John in our text were of the Greek blood line or whether they were of some other blood line, but since they were not of the Jewish blood line, they were, at least, Gentiles. V. 21, "The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus." Whatever the bloodline of these people, they were Gentiles and they wanted to see Jesus. They made contact with one of the apostles by the name of Philip and made their wishes made known to him. Philip is a Greek name and they undoubtedly felt more comfortable approaching him about the matter than they would the other apostles. Since they were able to make contact with Philip and tell him that they wished to see Jesus, this tells us that Philip was not at that time inside the Jewish courtyard. It also tells us that Jesus was most likely inside the Jewish courtyard where they were not allowed to go. V. 22, "Philip cometh and telleth Andrew..." Philip seemed to be uncertain whether to even mention their request to Jesus. So Philip talked it over with Andrew, who was a brother to John. The New testament writers indicate that Philip and Andrew kind of buddied together and Philip especially trusted Andrew's judgment. (V. 22), "...and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus." Andrew was not willing to take it upon himself to promise the Gentiles that Jesus would come out to see them. Rather, he thought it best to inform Jesus of their wishes and then leave it up to Jesus whether or not He would come out to see the Gentiles. So Andrew and Philip go together and tell Jesus that the Gentiles wish to see Him. John does not tell us whether or not Jesus went out to see the Gentiles. Many Bible interpreters think He did. Others think that He did not. I find no conclusive evidence in the Scripture in either direction. I am inclined to think that Jesus and did not come out into the court of the Gentiles but stayed in the courtyard of the Jews. The reason I think this is because the conversations which follow this text is between Jesus and Jews and not between Jesus and Gentiles. Nevertheless, Jesus fully intended for the Gentiles to get the message which He sets forth in this text. Those Gentiles were interested in Him because they thought He was about to become king of Israel and He wanted them, along with the Jews, to know that He was not about to become the king of Israel. He had a far greater goal in view. II. The announcememt which Jesus made and a law of nature which He used as an illustration V. 23, "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." This statement was intended not only for the Gentiles. It was intended also for the Jews who were present with Him in the Jewish courtyard. After His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, virtually the whole city of Jerusalem, including virtually the whole nation, was excited about the prospect of crowning Him as King. This statement that the hour had come for Him to be glorified would surely grab their attention. From that moment on, He would have their undivided attention. They would immediately jump to the conclusion that He was saying that He was about to be crowned as their king. Then, once He got their full attention, He proceeded to make it clear that He was not saying that He would be crowned as king. He would be glorified, but He would not be glorified by being crowned as king. He would be glorified by being crucified. V. 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." Here Jesus uses a law of nature to illustrate what is about to take place in His life. He spoke about a corn or grain of wheat, going into the ground and decomposing. In effect, the grain of wheat dies. It ceases to be a grain of wheat. But it is in that process of dying that it germinates and a stalk of wheat springs forth. Then after the stalk of wheat matures it will produce many grains of wheat. Listen, a grain of wheat would never produce other grains of wheat unless it dies. This is a law of nature. Jesus uses this law concerning a grain of wheat to illustrate what is going to take place with Him. He is announcing to them that He will not be crowned as king. Rather He is about to die. He will die so that He may produce spiritual fruit. He desires to produce much spiritual fruit. Jesus desires that He may die in order that every lost sinner would have opportunity to be saved. More than that, He knew that if He would die that many lost sinners would be saved. III. The choices which Jesus faced V. 25, "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Jesus had been born into this world for one primary purpose. He had been born into a human body and had taken on human life in order that He might achieve the goal of saving lost sinners. Theoretically He now had a choice. He could choose to love His own life and look out for His own advancement as a human being and become king of Israel or He could choose to die and be the Savior of men. If He should choose to love His own life and look out for His own self, He would lose His whole purpose for living. He would fail to accomplish the thing that He had come into this world to accomplish. On the other hand, if He should choose to die, He would gain much. He would succeed in making it possible for all men to be saved. If He should choose to die and provide a way of salvation, many would be saved. His purpose would be accomplished. The purpose for which He had come into the world would be rescued. He would bring forth spiritual fruitage that would extend into all eternity. So, in effect, what Jesus is saying to all, to both the Jews and to the Gentiles, is that He is not about to be crowned as king. Rather, He is going to die. He is going to die in order that there might be much spiritual fruitage from His life. The only way that He could produce the spiritual fruitage that He desired is for Him to die and die He will! This was His purpose from the beginning. This was His purpose from before the foundation of the world. This was the will of God the Father who had planned it this way. It was His own purpose in coming into the world and being born into human flesh. It had been His purpose down through the years of His life. He had never deviated from this purpose. He would not turn from it now. In His humanity He would later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, pray unto God the Father and say, "If it be possible let this pass from me." In other words, "If there is any other way possible for lost souls to be saved, then let this cup of suffering pass from me." But knowing that there was no other way, He was committed to giving His life on the cross that lost sinners might be saved. He had never deviated from that purpose. IV. The choices which everybody faces Jesus now applies that same law of nature to His listeners and to all mankind. V. 26, "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." Remember that law of nature which He had earlier given and had applied to Himself. He had said that unless a grain of wheat dies it will not produce fruitage. He had then applied that law to His own life and purpose. He could not accomplish what He had come to accomplish without dying. Now Jesus is saying that this same law can be applied to every human being. He explains how it applies to man. If a man chooses to look out for number one and seek to gain wealth, prestige, power and earthly pleasures for himself, then he will lose out on all that is worthwhile. He may gain earthly treasurers but they will all be left behind when he dies. He may gain prestige and power, but that will be of no effect beyond the grave. He may enjoy earthly pleasures, but the memory of those pleasures will not bring him any pleasure when he is in torment. Those memories will only add to his torment. He will be shut out from all that is worthwhile forever. However, if one chooses to place his faith in Jesus and be saved, he will experience a change in his life. He will then desire to serve Jesus and serve God the Father. This will be a natural result of his faith in Jesus. Jesus said that if one does this, if he chooses to place his faith in Jesus and, as a result chooses to serve Jesus, he will gain a great harvest of blessings. For one thing, Jesus said, "Where I am, there will my servant be." In other words, "He will be with me in eternal glory. He will be with me in heaven." Further more, Jesus said, "My Father will honor him. "God will honor him and reward him in the hereafter. God the Father will honor him and bless him even here in this life. Just as a grain of wheat which dies multiples many times by producing fruitage, even so any man, any woman, any boy or girl can multiply the blessing of God upon himself by trusting in Jesus as Savior and by following Jesus and serving Jesus in this life. V. The choices which men face today Listen, this is a message which could make a world of difference for somebody in this congregation this morning. God has give lost sinners a choice. If you are lost you can choose to receive Jesus as your Savior or you can choose to reject Jesus as your Savior. God has not already picked out certain people to go to heaven and let everybody else go to hell. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to this earth to die on Calvary's cross to provide a way of salvation for all men so that all men must be saved. II Peter 3:9 says that God is "...not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." Acts 17:30 says that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heaven laden and I will give you rest." In Romans 10:13 Paul said, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." On the other hand, God wants you to know that there is no way in this world you can be saved except by repenting of your sins and trusting in Jesus Christ to save your soul. In Acts 4:12 the Apostle Paul said, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." You cannot be saved by trusting in your own works of righteousness. In Ephesians 2:8-9 we read, "For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." In Titus 3:5 we read, "Not by works of righteousness which we have doe, but according to His mercy He saved us..." Jesus and Jesus only can save. But no other Savior is needed. If you will trust in Jesus Christ to save you, then you will be saved. But if you will not trust in Jesus to save you, then you will never be saved. John 3:18 reads, "He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because, he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Even those of us who are saved have a choice to make. The Christian can choose to give his life in dedicated service to the Lord and if he makes this his choice then he will be richly blessed in this life and richly rewarded in the life to come. However, if he does not choose to serve the Lord, then he will lose his life. That is, he will lose it in the sense of wasting it. He will still go to heaven, but there will be few rewards for him in the hereafter. I Corinthians 3:11-15 reads, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." But let us get back to those Gentiles who wanted to see Jesus because of His miracles and because they thought He would be crowned as king of Israel and let us get back to those Jews who wanted to see Jesus crowned as their king. They were willing to choose Jesus as long as they thought only of what He could do for them in this life. But the real question is: Would they trust in Him as the One who would go to the cross and provide the salvation of their soul? They would serve Jesus and be His loyal subjects as long as they were thinking of Him as an earthly king, but would they serve Him and be His disciples in a world which stood in opposition to Him? We are able today to look back upon their choice and say that it is so sad that most of them chose to reject Jesus. Most of them later joined forces with the Jewish leaders and stood before Pilate and shouted "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" They chose not to trust in Him as their Savior and not to serve Him as their Lord. That is, that is what the most of them did. But thank God, some of them did trust in Jesus to save their souls and they chose also to serve Him here in this hostile world. Thank God because right now today they are with Jesus in the Paradise of God and when Jesus come back to this earth and sits upon His throne in Jerusalem, they will be with Him and will be greatly rewarded. Conclusion: I am going to ask you to take a lesson from those who rejected Jesus and not make the same mistake which they made. I am going to ask you to follow the example of those who trusted Jesus and gave themselves in service to Him. Some of you have already made Jesus your choice and I commend you for it. I thank God for your choice. Perhaps there is someone here this morning who needs to make Him their choice today. Will you do that? Will you make Jesus your choice?