Life in Death - John 12:20-26

Last week we looked at the Triumphal entry and saw that many of the Jews were looking for a militaristic, revolutionary, messianic figure. And a lot of that was wrapped up in the Jews’ use of palm branches.

And what we see from verses 12-19 to the passage we’re looking at this morning, verses 20-26, the difference is rather striking. Because the Jews wanted political freedom and they thought that’s what the Messiah was going to bring. And what does that typically entail? Warfare and violence.

But Jesus had something very different in mind didn’t he? Because he didn’t come to earth to start a political war, no instead, Jesus came to earth to call people to deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow him.

But really he says that in even stronger terms in the passage that we just read. What we learn in these verses is that for the Christian to truly live, he or she must first die. And this theme really develops over the course of these seven verses. First, Jesus reveals to us that his hour has come (vv. 20-23), second, we see that salvation comes through Jesus’ death (v. 24), which illustrates the heavy cost of discipleship (vv. 25-26).

The Hour Has Come (vv. 20-23)

I don’t know if any of you have ever experienced this, but there have been times where I’ve visited a church and I looked around at the clientele and thought to myself: many of these people don’t necessarily look like the churchgoing type. It’s usually a biker jacket or something.

I can kind of relate because I’m sure people have looked at me and thought he doesn’t look like the pastor type. But nevertheless here I am.

In a similar way, it’s easy for us to forget that there were people, not of Jewish descent, who worshiped the living God.

When Jesus cleansed the temple, he cleansed the outer court, which was where the non-Jewish people, the Gentiles, were permitted to worship. And we have a similar case here in this passage, look at verse 20, “Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.”

These weren’t Greek speaking Jews, these were ethnic Greeks or gentiles. But we’re told that they went up to Jerusalem to worship during the Passover feast.

Which is very interesting because, at the end of verse 19, “that the whole world is going after him.” And it’s true! People from all over the world are going after Jesus!

And these tell Philip that they want to “see Jesus” in verse 21, which simply means they want to speak with him. They want to have a conversation with him. Again, keep in mind the setting: the triumphal entry had taken place probably a day or two before, and Jerusalem was abuzz about Jesus!

And so you have a rather interesting situation developing: here’s a group of non-Jews wanting to speak with Jesus at a Jewish Feast.

It’s also not entirely clear why they wanted to speak with Jesus, but based upon Jesus’ answer I think it’s safe to say that they wanted to chat with him about spiritual matters.

Look at what Jesus says in verse 23, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Up to this point, Jesus has consistently told people that “his hour had not yet come.” But here, in verse 23, he says that, “his hour has come.”

“The hour” in which Jesus is referencing isn’t a literal hour. Rather we should understand this as a reference to the time of his atoning death on the cross. And now it’s passion week. His crucifixion will take place in the next few days. Which is why up to this point he has spoken of his hour as some point off in the distant future, but now, here in this passage, he talks about his hour in the present tense. This moment is finally upon him. “His hour has come.”

And pay attention to the way in which Jesus speaks about the “hour” of his quickly approaching death on the cross. He connects the hour of his death to being glorified. His humiliation in death is immediately followed by his glorious exaltation.

Jesus is glorified in and through his death. If you’ve grown up around the church you probably don’t think twice about associating Jesus’ death on the cross with him being glorified, but aren’t those things contradictory? Where else in life do we associate death as being a good thing? Normally, we think of sadness, despair, grief, and heartache as being associated with death. But that’s not the case with Jesus.

He receives glory, honor, and praise because of his sacrificial death. The cross of Jesus Christ sits at the center of what we believe as Christians.

All of God’s divine attributes are wrapped up in the cross. The apex of love, justice, faithfulness all find their ultimate fulfillment in the cross of Jesus Christ.

We come here to worship the living God for the sacrificial gift of Jesus Christ. This is why we make the effort each week to worship the Lord. It’s why we partake of the Lord’s Supper. We’re reflecting in part on Christ’s sacrificial, atoning, work on the cross.

His hour was finally at hand. The time was drawing near.

Salvation comes through Jesus’ death (v. 24)

One of the other interesting aspects of this passage is that it’s not entirely clear whether Jesus is addressing the Greeks or not. I tend to think that he is addressing them because of what he says.

Jesus gives them this wonderful illustration to describe his hour. Look at verse 24 with me. “Truly, truly, 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.”

Jesus uses an agrarian illustration to help them understand what he came to earth to do. I’m not a farmer, but the basic idea is pretty straightforward: a seed that is planted in the soil must ultimately die in order to produce a large harvest.

I’m not a farmer, but I’m pretty close because I just redid the flower beds at our house. And whenever I do something like that, I totally forget all that new plants require. I’m just envisioning massive plants that need to be shaped and cut back and forget all the maintenance required. I also forget to factor in deers and rabbits destroying our plants.

At this point, I just hope what we planted in our flower beds survives!

The illustration Jesus is using in verse 24 is fairly straightforward. He’s referring to the fact that his death is atonement for the sins of his people. His death is what gives the Christian eternal life.

But notice the difference between what Jesus says in verse 24 and my flower beds: Jesus says, “it bears much fruit.” Again, he uses present, active, language. He’s not hopeful his death will produce fruit by saving the lost. He knows it will.

Some teach that Jesus simply opened the door to salvation, but it’s up to you to walk through it. That’s certainly not the language he uses here. Because what Jesus says is, his death will bear fruit. He doesn’t say ‘it can’, or I hope it bears fruit or anything like that - what he says is definitive. It’s certain - “it bears much fruit.”

Jesus not only opens the door to salvation, but he grabs your hand and walks you through it too. Any view of salvation that doesn’t teach that Jesus definitively saves is deficient. It’s unsatisfactory.

And this is incredibly encouraging because it takes all the guesswork out of it. You don’t have to wonder if what you’ve done is enough because what Jesus accomplished on Calvary’s cross was sufficient. You see, what he did was enough.

Isn’t it amazing that so much rich theology is packed into what you might think of as flyover verses? Isn’t Jesus an amazing evangelist? He seamlessly drops the gospel into a conversation without a formal introduction.

The cost of discipleship (vv. 25-26)

So Jesus gives an illustration to help the Greeks and us really to better understand the atonement and what he accomplished on the cross, but of course, that also has implications for each of us as well.

And here’s the implication: If you trust in Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death, that means you must die to yourself. Just as Jesus died - you and I must die as well. Look at verses 25 and 26 with me.

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

Jesus is asking you and me a simple question: What do we value most? If you love and value yourself, your possessions, friends, and family most then you're on the pathway to destruction. That’s what Jesus is referring to when he talks about loving your life.

And really what Jesus is saying is incredibly countercultural isn’t it? Because we’re constantly being encouraged to think about ourselves. There are whole industries dedicated to self-help, self-love, and self-care. Individualism is one of the great guiding principles of our society.

But that’s not what Jesus calls his followers to. He calls his followers to die to themselves.

Jesus teaches us that our wants, our desires, our loves, are always secondary. They’re not primary. In fact, Jesus describes it in terms of love and hate.

You must “... [hate your own] life in this world [to] keep it for eternal life.”

It’s very similar language to what he said in Luke 14:26,

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

I’ll never forget one time I was with my cousins, and they’re wonderful people and I said that I “hated” something, I can’t even remember what it was, but my cousin looked at me and said, “Jake, don’t say that, hate is a very strong word.” And frankly, he was right. ‘Hate’ is a strong word but our Lord uses it!

But we have to understand how he’s using this sort of language, because Jesus certainly doesn’t mean that loathing yourself is a form of righteousness.

Professor John Frame says something helpful here. He wrote: “... Jesus calls us to hate our family and even our own lives in comparison to our love for him… Here hate and love measure relative priorities: we are to love Jesus far more than anyone [or anything] here on earth.”

Loving your life is bad and hating it is good. But Jesus is using ‘hate’ and ‘love’ in order to draw a contrast. The way we view everything in this world, including our own lives should look like hatred in comparison to our love for the Lord. That’s what Jesus means when he says, “whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Jesus teaches us that we must deny ourselves. That doesn’t mean we need to pick up a whip so we can self-flagellate. No that means, you must always be willing to humble yourself in order to exalt Him.

And of course, all of this is reiterated in verse 26: “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

This is the paradox of the Christian life: the way up is down. Eternal life means you must humble yourself before the Lord. Humbling yourself in every way before the Lord is salvation.

Again, it’s so countercultural, it flies in the face of everything we naturally think. Our culture believes that in order to be super successful you have to have a cutthroat spirit. You must be willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top, step on people, hurt people, in order to achieve success.

I was recently reading a book on raising children, because, well, that’s the stage of life that I’m in. I don’t think any of you are surprised. Keep praying for us y’all. But the book was talking about chivalry. And the author was encouraging his readers to teach boys to hold doors open for women, and to show people honor.

And he said that chivalry encourages boys to adopt the posture of, “you first, me second.” It’s important for boys, but really all of us put the needs of others before our own. For us to stop obsessing over our own needs all the time and consider the needs of someone else. “You first, me second.”

Isn’t that similar to what Jesus teaches here? Obviously, Jesus isn’t teaching chivalry, but he’s encouraging all of us to think of our own desires as secondary or even subservient to him and what he calls us to. After all, Christians are called to take up our cross and follow him.

We’re supposed to say:

“Not my ways Lord, but your ways. Not to us O Lord, but to your name be the glory! Not my will, but yours be done!”

Charles Spurgeon captured it well when he said, “You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.”

It’s not adopting a woe is me mindset or constantly belittling yourself. Rather it’s the fundamental belief that what Christ offers in the gospel and in his word is and will always be far superior to anything you could ever achieve or have in this life.

It reminds me of the final stanza from When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

It’s having an attitude that serving Christ is and will always be far better than anything this world has to offer.

That’s denying yourself. That’s what it means to die to yourself.

Following Christ costs something, and it’s not just one hour on Sunday or fitting “your faith” in whenever it’s convenient for you. No, following Christ requires your whole life.

Just as Jesus died, you and I must die as well. We must die to ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Christ. That is what it means to be a follower of Christ. That’s what it means to be a disciple.

But let’s pull back out and look at this passage as a whole again.

Jesus is talking to Greeks that have no Jewish blood whatsoever. These Greeks would go to Jerusalem but were never given full access of the temple.

Just imagine for a second, a new person decides on a Sunday morning, “I want to go to Providence Presbyterian Church!”

So they hop out of bed, they’re excited and they park their car in the parking lot and get to the door only for someone to greet them at the door and tell them, you’re welcome to worship with us but you're not allowed inside. You have to stay in the parking lot.

For one, Providence wouldn’t exist for very long, but wouldn’t that just be incredibly discouraging?

That’s the way Jewish Temple worship worked! You had to be of Jewish descent in order to fully participate in the worship. Non-Jewish people were allowed to worship but they couldn’t go into the inner courts - they had to stay in the outer courts.

Wouldn’t that be disappointing? You believe in the Lord, but you can’t fully worship him. You can’t have it all.

I think what Jesus said was meant to encourage the Greeks. Jesus was telling the Greeks that God requires the same thing from all people: everything!

The call to come and die, doesn’t pertain to a certain group of people. anyone willing to lay down their life for Christ will be invited to his table.

your origins don’t matter, your past is irrelevant, there’s only one thing that matters: are you willing to lay down your life for Christ? Are you willing to give it all up for him? Are you willing to take up your cross and follow Christ - you see that’s what really matters.

In our member meetings it’s always a joy to hear peoples’ testimonies of faith in Christ. It’s a real encouragement, many of you have incredible stories.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter does it? What really matters is where you are right now? It doesn’t matter if you used to go to church or anything like that, what matters is, are you trusting in him right now.

In order to truly live, you must first be willing to die.

Amen.