FBCWest 583 | Losing Your Life by Loving It
Recorded On: 12/03/2023
Bulletin
Hymn # 87 “Go Tell It on the Mountain”
SCRIPTURE READING – Romans 10:8 - 15
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Holy Forever”
“Great Are You Lord”
“Home Coming”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Losing Your Life by Loving It”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Living Hope”
Benediction “There Is Freedom”
Sermon Notes
John 12:20 – 22 Greek believers want to meet Jesus
John 12:23 Jesus tells them it is time for Him to be glorified
John 12:24J Jesus’ death is necessary to bear much fruit
John 12:25 A seeming oxymoron, Loving your life, you will lose it – Hate your life keeps it to eternal life
John 12:26 Serving Jesus is to follow Him and if you do that the Father will honor you
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
There are a lot of people who will give you different advice on how to live a wonderful, valuable life. Some people will tell you that you should have as much fun as you can. Others will say get as much fame or fortune or power as you can. Jesus has a very different approach to this than advice. Come listen to what Jesus has to say about life and how to live it forever.
Now today, the message only covers a few verses, which means probably, I'm not guaranteeing, but probably it means this message won't be as long.
However, the length of the message doesn't depend on the important things.
And some of what Jesus has to say at this time, we need to take the heart and to live our lives. And so the context here is that Jesus has entered Jerusalem prior to the Feast of Passover.
And he came in a triumphal entry upon a donkey and a colt, and people were saying, and I'm saying, "Hosanna save us. Blessed be one who comes in the name of the Lord and spreading their clothes in palm branches before him." And after this is now where we see. And so if you have your Bibles, and as I continue to say, and you should, please turn to the Gospel of John chapter 12. We're going to start with verse 20.
And in this context it says, "Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast." Now the problem with this is the Greek use of the term Greeks is kind of dual.
When we think of the word Greek, we think of the country Greece and the people who lived there to be Greek.
And the Greek culture at that time was significant. As a matter of fact, the international language, if you will, was Greek, even though Rome had conquered the Mediterranean world. So it wasn't Latin that was used throughout, but the international language was Greeks. And like I said, in the New Testament was written in Greek.
Furthermore, the Sadducees were very much influenced by the Greek culture. And so they were more enlightened because of their culture. And there was a division between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. But the term Greek most often doesn't refer to people who live in Greece.
It refers to those who aren't Jews.
So for instance, in the Scriptures they'll say that they were going to present the Gospel to the Jew first and then the Greek. It didn't mean that they were just going to go to Greece and everybody else.
Too bad.
Greek was the term used for Gentile.
And so there were probably a bunch of Gentile God-bearers. Those were the ones who believed that the God of Jacob, the God of Abraham, the God of the Jews was God. And they followed him and they feared him and they were coming up to the feast. But they weren't Jews. They didn't receive necessarily circumcision or obey the law. But they acknowledged that the God of Abraham was God. And there were those who were God-bearers who left Egypt. There were also God-bearers throughout. Well, known one for instance when the Ethiopian eunuch is traveling. He's reading Isaiah. He was a God all over the world but he hadn't received full knowledge. And so he's saying that there's these Gentiles who were God-bearers who came up to the feast at the time because they wanted to celebrate as the Jews do.
And these came to Philip who was from the Seder of Galilee and began to ask him saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." So they come to Philip and the Scriptures don't tell us why they choose Philip. Philip has a kind of a Greek name so maybe they think they have an inside with that. And notice they're respectful because they say, "Sir," to Philip as if he's important because they want an audience with Jesus. They've just seen what the crowd is doing and I'm sure they've heard about the miracles and the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And so they want to talk to Jesus.
And so Philip came and told Andrew and Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. Well, again, we're not told why Philip went to Andrew other than probably Philip goes, "Abril, I'm not sure what I should do."
You know, the crowds are seeking Jesus. There's a whole lot of people. Jesus is really busy. Should I interrupt what Jesus is doing and try to provide an audience with these Gentiles?
And then it says, "And Jesus answered them saying," again, here's the problem.
We're not sure who he's talking to.
We don't know if he's talking to the Greeks.
We don't know if he's talking to his disciples.
We're not sure what the audience is. But I can tell you this for sure. The audience is you and me.
What he has to say is so valuable. It doesn't matter who he's talking to. What information he has to share is something that we all need to hear. So he answered and said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified."
So he's setting up and saying, "What's happening now is not what's important.
The time has come for me to be glorified." And he means that in a different way than most would say, "Well, certainly you're being glorified because the crowd is shouting, "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They're expecting you to be the conquering Messiah, and now is the time for you to acknowledge that." But then he makes a turn and says this, "Truly, truly."
Again, when Jesus says, "Truly, pay attention." As a fact, when Jesus says something, "Pay attention." When he says, "Truly, really pay attention." And when he says, "Truly, truly," it's on the test.
Okay? It is really, really, really, really, really, and really important.
I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
So Jesus is going to use an agricultural situation to drive home a point. He's going to say, "If you take a grain of wheat and you keep it as a grain of wheat, you have a grain of wheat.
But if you plant the grain of wheat, a stalk will rise up, and it will bear a head of multiple kernels of wheat. It will bear much fruit. But as long as you keep it in the storehouse, or as long as you have it someplace else, and you don't bury it, it will do nothing but have a simple kernel of wheat." And so he says, "If that dies, if it's buried, it will bear much fruit."
Jesus is in essence telling us, and he will continue to do it on the next messages that we will be seeing,
is that his death will bear much fruit.
Because that is why he came to die for us, that we might be reconciled to God, and be saved, and be sanctified, and be glorified.
If it were not for his resurrection, most of us would not be believers.
Because he was just a man who had a lot of... And if he isn't Lord, some of his teachings are kind of out there, and the next one is going to be out there, if he didn't raise from the dead.
But because he rose from the dead, he bore much fruit, which is you and I.
And so he said, so he's setting up and saying, "My hour of glorification is here, but it's going to be different than you expect. It's not the crowds, my death, burial, and resurrection." And then he's going to teach us something very, very significant.
He who loves his life loses it.
What? That doesn't make sense.
And he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.
The world's going to tell you something entirely different. The world's going to tell you that you only have one life to live, and you need to gather all the gusts so you can. That you need to get as much money as you can, and as much power as you can, and as much fame as you can, and have as much fun as you can, because you have only one life to live it to the fullest.
And Jesus is saying, that's not what I tell you to do.
I'm telling you, if you love this life, you're going to live.
Which I'm going to say is extremely saddening to what many, many churches and pastors do.
This morning, there are pastors who are going to say that all God thinks about is you.
All God wants to do is fill you with all the dreams that you have. That you live the best and wonderful life that you can right now.
And if you don't get it, it's because you didn't have enough faith or whatever, or just continue on. And it's all about life here and now. And that is now what Jesus is teaching. Jesus is teaching.
And if you want all the gusto, all of a sudden you're more concerned about this life.
And he says, if you're concerned about this life, you're going to lose it. But if you hate your life, now hate in the biblical sense doesn't mean that you somehow just detest yourself. It means that you don't provide for yourself.
Jacob I love, Esau I hated. I didn't say I had some malice toward Esau. He said, I provided for Jacob.
Esau is on his own.
Jesus is saying, your life, this 24 seven hour of existence, that is not what you put priority on. That is not what you prefer. You prefer. So he says, if you love your life, you're going to lose it, which seems odd to us. But then he falls up and he hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.
Jesus is saying, you may live to be 80 years old. You may even make it to 100.
I think there was a great individual today who died this week at who reached the age of 100. And apparently, even at the age of 100, he was writing books and giving speeches and whatever.
But guess what he got.
He thought of saying, I'm going to give you eternal life,
not 10, 20, 30, 80, 100 years, but life that is eternal. And it's not life like we experience it where we have pain and disappointment and tears and sadness,
but joy like we just sang.
Here's turn to laughing and joys. So my humble and emphatic request of you and me take Jesus. And then he's going to say something else.
If anyone serves me, he must follow me.
Notice what he says.
If you serve him, you must follow him. But how do we follow him? We follow his teachings, his commandments. We love one another as he loved us and gave himself for us. We love the Lord with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our strength. We love our neighbor as ourself. We believe in him who therefore means we believe in the Father who sent him. We do these things that we do. We baptize teaching all that he's commanded. We do these things. We follow him.
We prefer washing other people's feet and having our feet.
Where I am, there my servant will be all.
Jesus had been saying that what he saw his father doing, that is what he did.
What his father said, that is what he said.
We should be the same way with Jesus.
What did Jesus say? That is what we're to say. What did Jesus do? That is what we're to do. We follow Jesus, what Jesus did and where he's at.
Now, unfortunately we have egos in the way.
In the world, you will hear people say, "No one recognized me.
I did all this wonderful stuff and nobody recognized me."
Unfortunately, in the church you hear the same thing.
I was a Sunday school teacher for 35 years and no one ever said, "I did a wonderful job." I was in the choir or in the band and I gave my ultimate talent. We have a person who has played the piano for decades.
Not every week we go, "Wonderful, wonderful."
If you're looking to get credit, you're going to be sadly disappointed in this world and in church in general.
If you're doing it to be recognized, thought helps.
Because I've gotten recognition.
Okay.
Same people who say, "That was wonderful. You ought to do this and that and then tell me what to do."
Notice what Jesus follows up with.
He's not telling you that the church is going to recognize you. He's not telling you the world is going to recognize you. He's not even going to tell you the pastor is going to recognize you. Notice what he says, "If anyone serves me, the Father will honor."
Not just recognize, the Father will honor you.
The God of the universe, the God of heaven and earth, the God who sent His Son Jesus to die for you and me, miserable sinners who simply decide that we're going to follow Him.
He's going to honor.
Not just say, "Adaboy, Joe."
He's going to honor us.
So what if I don't pay attention to what you do? What if the person next to you doesn't pay attention to what you do? Maybe the church never realizes or acknowledges what you have done for decades and decades and decades.
The Father will honor you.
And I'm going to tell you, I've not experienced it, but I'm going to bet my life that that's awesome.
That is far more exceedingly beneficial and exuberant and awesome than you say, "Adaboy, Joe." That was a wonderful message today.
My Father, honor.
My Father in this life only lived while I was five.
I never recalled Him ever saying, "I love you."
I remember Him doing the things that demonstrated that He loved me. To hear my heavenly Father say, "Well done, thou good and faithful Son."
Come enter into my room.
I showed you I love you.
And by honoring you, I'm going to say to you, "I love you."
That doesn't affect your life.
That doesn't affect what you choose to do with the rest of you. And this is what's awesome.
The world will tell you, "You ought to be rich."
Well, at my age, unless I win the lottery, which I don't really play, I'm not going to really be rich. I don't have that much time left.
Unless something spectacular happens and I'm not on TikTok or YouTube,
not much chance of being famous.
I wanted to be president.
They're already telling people like my age, it's too old, so probably ain't going to do that either.
So I probably can't do what the world tells me to do. Too late.
Not too late to do what Jesus told me to do. They are also things that's never true.
The only sad thing is that you wasted all that other time doing all the things that wasn't important.
So, all of the advice of Jesus that I hope to take your life and gain eternal life, instead of loving your life and all God's people say.