These were Gentiles. They were not raised up under
the Old Testament scripture. Yet their desire was we would
see Jesus. Would you see Jesus? Is this the desire of your heart? When God looks in your heart,
is this what he sees? A desire to see the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, these men had come to Jerusalem
for the Passover to worship. How much understanding did they
have? Well, enough to come to Jerusalem to worship. They evidently
felt a measure of dissatisfaction with their religion. They wouldn't
have come to Jerusalem to worship if they did not. Perhaps they
were very much like the Ethiopian eunuch. He had done the same
thing. He came to Jerusalem to worship. He was not satisfied with his
religion and he comes to Jerusalem to worship. And I have no doubt
that these men heard of Jesus while they were there. Now, in
the context, what had just happened? Lazarus was raised from the dead. And you can bet the town was
buzzing over that historical event. Someone who had been dead
for four days was raised from the dead by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm sure many things, many
people had many things to say about this man, Jesus. People
were pretty quick to give their opinion and their thoughts. And
these Greeks, these Gentiles heard and they come to Philip and say, sirs, sir,
we would, this is our desire to see And you know what? As far as our experience goes,
this is when our true experience begins, when we desire to see
the Lord Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, I wouldn't give
you a nickel for somebody's religion that is not founded in this,
a desire to see Jesus. Like Zacchaeus, he sought to
see Jesus who he was. Now all saving knowledge begins
here. The knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, would you, would I see Jesus? Is that my desire? They said
that's what we desire. Would you would I see Jesus? Verse 22, Philip cometh and telleth
Andrew, and again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Now, why did
Philip go first to Andrew? I don't know. But when they got
together, both of them went to the Lord Jesus to tell them about
this request. There's some Greeks, there's
some Gentiles, maybe they were excited about it. There's some
people who ordinarily wouldn't have any interest in you. There
are some Greeks who expressed this desire to see you. And Jesus answered them, verse
23. Now, I believe that these Greeks
are included in this answer that the Lord gave Philip and Andrew
that he intended for them to hear. And what does he say? And Jesus answered them, The
hour is come that the son of man should be glorified. Now there's the first way he
answers their desire. And if I would see Jesus, this
must come first. I must see him as glorified. And if I don't see him as glorified,
I do not see him at all. The hours come, the reason for
the creation of the universe, the reason I came, the hour is
come. Look in chapter 17 of John. He says the same thing to begin
this prayer. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou has given him power over
all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him, And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work
thou gavest me to do. Now, to see him glorified has
something to do with seeing that he finished the work the father
gave him to do. Verse four, once again, I have
glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work thou
gave us me to do. Now, what did he come to do?
If you want to see, we would see Jesus. If I would see him,
I would know what the work was that he came to do. I do not
see him apart from seeing his work and his works. And I think this has something
to do with what the Lord meant when he spoke to Moses and said,
no man will see my face and live, you'll see my back parts. And
that means his works. What does this mean? him doing
what the father sent him to do. What did he come to do? Well,
first he said, I came to glorify you. That was the purpose of Jesus
Christ in coming to glorify his father. He came to do his father's
will. He said, I came down from heaven
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. You see, his will was one with
the father's. And He came to do His Father's
will. And think of this scripture, Matthew 121. Very opening page,
opening chapter of the New Testament. Thou shalt call His name Jesus.
Here's why He came. For He shall save the world. his people from their sins."
Now notice that he doesn't say he came to save everybody. He
didn't. He said in another place, I'm only come for the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. He came to save his people, those
the father gave him, the elect. He came to save his people from
their sins and that's what I need saved from. my sins. I need to be saved from the penalty
of sin. I can't bear to go to hell and
bear God's condemnation. I need to be saved from the power
of my sins, and that's what He came to do. Sin shall not have
reign over you, dominion over you, lordship over you. for you're
not under the law, but you're under grace. You see, he saved
me from the condemnation. I don't have to bear it. He saved
me from the dominion of sin in giving me the grace to do what
there was one time I couldn't do, believe the gospel. And he's
gonna save me from the very presence of my sin, all for the glory
of his father. And look what he says in verse
24 of our text in John chapter 12. And Jesus answered them saying,
verse 23, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. I'll only see him as I see him
glorified. And I don't see him glorified
without me seeing him finishing the work that the Father gave
him to do, completing it, glorifying himself. Now look at what he
says in verse 24. This goes with it. 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. Now, if I would see Jesus, I
would see him in the achievements of his death. That's what this
verse is referring to. the achievements of his death. Now he says, if I don't die,
I'll go back to heaven alone with nobody with me. If he would have come to this
earth and lived a perfect life and went back to heaven, what
good would that do you or me? It would do no good at all. But if I die, I shall bring forth
much fruit. I see Jesus when I see the success
of His death. I'll bring forth much fruit. Now, I love that passage of Scripture.
I think it's so glorious. In Luke chapter 9, verse 31,
when the Lord was talking with Moses and Elijah on the Mount
of Transfiguration, and what would they be speaking of? Moses
and Elijah. How that happened, I don't know,
but there they are speaking with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration.
They've been dead hundreds of years, but here they are living,
speaking to the Lord. Remember, He's the God of the
living, not the dead. What were they speaking of? They spake
of the deceased which he should accomplish in Jerusalem. His death was an accomplishment. In his death, he accomplished
the salvation of everybody he died for. If I would see him, I would see
him in the achievements of his death." You know, the thief on
the cross understood that. He sees the Lord hanging on a
tree. He saw him die. He witnessed
it. He said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
You're going to come back as a mighty reigning king. You're
going to come back having accomplished whatever it was the father sent
you to do. Now, would you, when you come back in your kingdom
as a mighty reigning king, having accomplished your work, would
you remember me? On judgment day, when my name
is called, would you remember me? Would you say he's one of
mine? I died for him. I died for her. I am their salvation. And that's
all his plea was. Would you remember me? Would
you stand as my representative? Because I know that what you're
coming back as a mighty reigning king in the achievements of your
glorious death, would you remember me? Now, false Christianity always
falls short here. Now, notice I use the word false
Christianity. There's no salvation in false
Christianity. Now, if I bring a message where
Christ can die for you, and you might wind up in hell anyway
if you don't do your part, I have failed to preach the gospel. I have made meaningless what
Paul said. When he said, who is he that
condemneth? It's Christ that what? Died. That's my hope of not being condemned.
Christ died. Now, if you tell me that he can
die for me and I might end up being condemned anyway, because
I didn't do my part. All that is, is a message of
salvation by works. Now I've seen him when I see
the glorious achievements of his death." I love what the Passover
says which speaks of the death of Christ and the blood of Christ.
God said, when I see the blood I will pass over you. What's the one thing he was looking
for? He didn't say, when I see your works, he didn't say, when
I see your sincerity, he didn't say, when I see your ardent longings
over me, he didn't say, when I see your sorrow over your sins
and your efforts to quit sinning, he said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And the Lord has not been seen
at all until we see the achievement of his death. You see, it's because
of who died. That's the point. It's Christ that died. And if
he died, oh, there's a glorious achievement in his death. The complete glory of God, the
complete manifestation of all the attributes of God, and the
complete salvation of all of his people. You see, if you see
who he is, you have some understanding of the achievements of his death. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down. Why? They were purged. They were
put away. They were made not to be. Now
let's go on reading verse 25. Verse 24, he said, if you ate
fowl, would you see Christ? Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He's speaking
of the fruit of his death. Now look what he says next. This
is involved in seeing Jesus. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. And he that hateth his life in
this world, shall keep it unto life eternal. Now, when we see
Jesus, we have the true Christian worldview. And you've probably
heard that term. Preachers talk about the Christian
worldview and how you view the news in light of the gospel and
certain events and current events, the Christian worldview. The
Christian will view the world like this. The Christian will
view the world like that. Here is the Christian worldview. If you see who he is, you'll
hate your life. You'll hate your life. What's he say? He that loveth
his life, you're going to lose it. But he that hated his life in
this world shall keep it until life Eternal now this I know
if you see him you will hate your life Now I'm not just talking
about the circumstances of your life I'm talking about who you
are You'll hate your life Like Job, I've heard of thee with
the hearing of the ears, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore
I abhor. I hate myself and repent in dust
and ashes." What did Daniel say when he was given that vision
of Christ in Daniel chapter 10? I mean, Daniel, what a man. If
you read about his history, he's such a admirable man, but what
does he say about himself when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, when I saw him, my comeliness
turned to corruption. What did Isaiah say when he saw
the Lord? Woe is me. I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of the people
of unclean lips. Now here's the truth. If you see him, you'll hate your
life, and the only life you'll be concerned about is having
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as your life before God. That's
the life you love. You love the glorious life of
Jesus Christ. You love that life he spoke of
John chapter 14 verse 6 when he said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. That's the life you love. You love the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You'll hate your own life. You'll
be just like Paul when he said, oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. I don't want
to have anything to do with anything that has anything to do with
my life, what I do, what I've done, what I intend to do. No,
the only life I want to have is the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Now, if you've seen him, you
will hate your life. And if you don't hate your life,
I'm talking about your obedience, your personal righteousness.
If you don't hate your life, you've never seen him. you see
him, this is what happens, you will hate your own life. He that loveth his life shall
lose it, he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it until
life eternal. Verse 26, if any man serve me,
let him follow me and where I am there shall My servant be, if
any man serve me, him will my father honor. Now, if I have
seen Christ, I'm his servant. That's my highest honor, to be
his servant. If you've seen him, you will
serve him. You are now his servant. all who see him are his servant."
Now you might not be able to claim much for yourself but you
will claim this, I'm his servant, he's my Lord, he's my God and
if I serve him how do I do it? What he says in verse 6, if any
man serve me let him follow me. Now, this is what it is to serve
the Lord Jesus Christ. You follow him. And I need to make this distinction
because most folks, when they hear this thing of following
Christ, they think, well, I need to do what he would do. I need to imitate him. I need
to follow his steps. Whatever he did, that's what
I need to do. Remember a few years ago that WWJD, what would
Jesus do? That's the way you judge every
action. What would he do? That's what
I'm going to do now. Would I say not to do what he does and not
to imitate him? Of course not. I want to imitate
him. But the fact of the matter is,
how are you doing at it? Do you feel pretty good about
your imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ? I think of that book
that man wrote, Thomas Ocampus, I think is his name, The Imitation
of Christ. And he talked about all you got
to do is imitate Christ. Like I said, would I in any way
say anything against the imitation of Christ? I want to imitate
Him. I want to be like Him. But the word follow does not
mean imitate. It means follow. How do you follow
somebody? You keep your eyes on them. You
look to them. Now, if you're in a crowd, if
you want to follow somebody, what do you do? You keep your
eyes on them. If you're going somewhere, following somebody
in a car, what do you do? You keep your eyes on that car. You
follow them. If I'm following somebody, I'm
not looking down at my feet to see how well you're following.
No, you'll lose them if you do that. I don't look to the side
at somebody else to see how well they're following my losing.
I don't look behind me to see if I can find some evidences
that I have really followed him. I look ahead to him only, looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. When you
see him, they said we would see Jesus. I know this, you will
follow him. You will look to him only. Not only will you hate your life,
you'll love his life and you will look to him only. And I love the way the Lord says,
if any man serve me, him will my father honor. Do you remember what was said
Abel and Cain. To Abel and his offering, God
had respect. It doesn't just say to the offering,
it says to Abel and his offering. You see, you can't separate the
person and the offering Christ made for him. To Abel and his
offering, God had respect. But to Cain and his offering,
God had not respect. Now somebody that follows the
Lord, looking to him only, God honors that person. If you're somebody that looks
only to Christ, if you see the achievements of his death and
trust him only, God himself honors you. You might not have the honor
of any human being, but if you have the honor of God, what else
matters? Every believer has God the Father
honoring them. Verse 27, now is my soul troubled. Now obviously, you and I will
never plumb the depths of that. He knew he was going to be made
sin. And I don't know what that means,
and you don't know what that means, but it's more horrible
than we could ever imagine. He knew he was going to be made
sin. And he says, now is my soul troubled
and what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour,
but for this cause came I in to this hour to die. He came to die. His purpose for coming to this
earth was to be made sin And to die, now this was so mysterious
to me that he could die in the first place because of who he
is, the God man, fully God and fully man and yet die. What this reminds us of, would
I see him? I would see the very purpose
of the world, the purpose of creation, was for Jesus Christ
to come and die. You see, the death of Christ,
and I want to say this with as much fear and reverence and trembling
as I can, but the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary
is the most God-like thing God ever did. In the death of Jesus Christ,
every attribute of God is manifest. And every sinner that Christ
died for is completely saved. He said, this is the cause I
came to this earth, to die. Now my soul's troubled and I,
you know, somebody says, well, how could God be troubled? I
don't know, but he was at the thought of being made sin. He
was troubled. My soul, he said, is troubled.
Remember, his soul was made an offering for sin. And he said,
now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour? No, this is the very purpose
I came into this hour. Verse 28. Father, glorify thy
name. This is why I came. into this
hour to die. And here's what's going to happen
out of it. And this is my only hope. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I both glorified it and will glorify it again. Now you've seen him when you've
seen the father's complete affirmation of him. I've glorified it. I've glorified it and I'm going
to glorify it again. And that's our hope. All of our hope is found right
there. Now let's go on reading verse
29. The people therefore that stood
by heard and said that it thundered. Others said an angel spoke to
him. Now, when you see him, you see
the multitude is clueless. Look what the multitude, the
people said. They said, it's thunder. An angel spoke. You see, you can't really hear
him unless you see him. We would see Jesus. And when
the multitude heard that voice, all they heard was a thunder
or maybe the voice of an angel. They couldn't hear the voice
of God in this. You understand when you see him that the multitude
is clueless and you're willing, if necessary, to walk with him
alone, even if the multitude does not walk with you. This
was the multitude, the people. Therefore they said, by heard
and said it thundered and an angel spake unto him, verse 30. Then Jesus answered and said,
this voice, came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of the earth
be cast out." Now, if you've seen Him, we would see Jesus. Now remember, you can't separate
Him from His I've heard people say, I want to hear about Jesus.
I don't want to hear about doctrine. That is so ignorant to make a
statement like that. He is known by his doctrine,
by his work, by what he says. And he says, This voice came
not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of
this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out." Now when you see him and he's talking
about his death, he says, this is what takes place in my death,
the judgment of this world and the complete destruction of Satan.
Do you see that in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's
because you know who's dying. Do you see the judgment of this
world? All judgment took place on the
cross. The elect were justified. Those who do not believe were
condemned. Satan was destroyed. He was cast out. The ancient
prophecy, the seed of woman shall crush the serpent's head has
taken place. Judgment. All my sins judged,
put away, I'm justified. All who seek to be saved by their
own works condemned. Verse 32, and I, if I be lifted
up will draw all men unto me this he said signifying what
death he should die. Now he's going to die on a cross. Jews don't nail men to crosses. But he's letting them know this
is how I'm going to die. Remember in Deuteronomy 32 when
it says, cursed be he that hangeth on a tree. Cursed is everyone
that hangs on a tree. Now he's going to be crucified
by the Romans according to God's purpose. It wasn't a Jewish tribunal,
it was Rome that sentenced him. And it was Roman soldiers who
put him to death to be crucified on a cross. This he said when
he's talking about being lifted up. Remember what he said in
John 3, 14 and 15, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now, what
I think is so glorious is this word lifted up, talking about
Him being crucified, is the word that's usually translated exalted. And I, if I be exalted, the death
of Jesus Christ is His greatest exaltation. He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God, hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name that
is the name of Jesus." That when these fellows wanted to see,
we would see Jesus. Every knee's gonna bow. Things
in heaven, things in earth. Things under the earth and every
tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. Now, the Lord says, if I be lifted
up from the earth, if I be crucified, if I be exalted, same word, I
will draw all men unto me. Now you'll notice men is in the
italics. I will draw all to me, the whole,
all of God's elect, the whole company of my people, the people
I come to save, thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people from their sins. Now, if I've seen him, I'm drawn to him because he draws
me. I find the glory of His death,
the glory of the cross, irresistible and invincible. I'm drawn to
Him, and the reason I'm drawn is He's promised I will draw,
all men may. He's the one who does the drawing
by Spirit, and if you've seen Him, You are drawn to Him because
of the glorious achievements of His death. That's your hope. Your hope is in what He accomplished
in His death. And what He accomplished in His
death is proven by His resurrection. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised again for our justification by his death. Everybody he died
for stands before God as having never sinned. Perfect in Christ
Jesus. Oh, I'm drawn to that. I say,
draw us and we'll run after thee. That is the desire of every believer. Those who have seen him are drawn
to him, irresistibly and invincibly. And the reason they're drawn
unto him is he is the one who is doing the drawing. No man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him.
And we're proving right now, John 6, 37, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out." Now, would you see Jesus? Well, if
you would, you're going to see him as glorified. You're going
to see his death as successful. You are going to hate your life
if you ever see him. You're going to follow him. and
you're gonna know his reason for coming into this hour to
die and what he was going to accomplish. You'll see all judgment
having been accomplished, Satan being defeated by his death,
and you're drawn to him because of what he did on Calvary Street. Lord, draw us. Let's pray.