In John 12, verse 20, we're going
to read down to verse 31. There were certain Greeks among
them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came,
therefore, to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and
desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh
and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.
And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. 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. He that loveth his life shall
lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal. 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 honor. Now is my soul
troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
The people therefore that stood by and heard said that it thundered. Others said an angel spake to
him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of
me, but for your sakes. Now I want you to go back to
verse 20. Now these Greeks, it says verse 20, certain Greeks
came among them. There were certain Greeks among
them. This is Gentiles. They converted to the Jews' religion. They began to worship with the
Jews. They came up to worship at the feast, it says. They came
there to Jerusalem because that was the week when the Passover
was being observed. And at the end of that week,
they would eat the the paschal lamb. It would be slain and they
would eat that lamb, that Passover lamb. And you know that Passover
was instituted by God to remind Israel that He brought them out
of Egyptian bondage through the blood of a lamb that was slain
in the place of all the firstborn in Israel. Now Christ is our
Passover. Christ is the believers Passover.
At the end of that very week At that very time, the Passover
lamb, the true Passover lamb, Christ himself laid down his
life and he redeemed his children out of bondage of sin and corruption. He did that. He put away our
sins by the sacrifice of himself. Now verse 21 says, the same came
therefore to Philip which was of Bethsaida of Galilee. Those
Greeks came up to talk to Philip and they desired him saying,
we would see Jesus. Now that's a good request. Sir,
we would see Jesus. If we can see Him, if we see
Him by God-given faith, we see Him, we'll have eternal life.
We'll have atonement. We'll see righteousness, the
one who is our righteousness. And all that we'll need to be
accepted of holy God, we'll find in Him through faith. Theirs
was a request we need to follow. Now verse 22, Philip cometh and
telleth Andrew. Now why did Philip come tell
Andrew? Those Greeks weren't asking to
see Andrew, they said we would see Jesus. But Philip goes and
he tells Andrew this. Well, let me give you a little
background here. This was a difficult, difficult,
tumultuous time right then to be in Jerusalem, to be identified
with Christ. Look back up at John 11 in verse
53. From that day forth, they, that
is the Pharisees, took counsel together for to put him, that
is Christ, to death. Jesus therefore walked no more
openly among the Jews. Look down at John 11, 57. Now
both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment
that if any man knew where he were, he should show it that
they might take him. that they might take Christ.
If any man knew where he was, look down at John 12, verse 10.
The chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to
death. Lazarus whom Christ had just
raised from the dead because that by reason of him, many of
the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. Because he had raised
Lazarus from the dead, they wanted to kill him too. They wanted
to kill Christ and they wanted to kill Lazarus. And if any man
knew where he was, that he would probably be killed if he was
identified with Christ and he knew Christ. Well, these were
things that Andrew and Philip would rather not suffer. There's
some things believers have a hard time with in this world that
we'd rather not suffer. Now, they were thinking, they're
still holding on to this idea that Christ came to reestablish
the kingdom of Israel on the earth like what David had in
David's day. They still had this idea that
that's what he was going to do. They were slow to let go of that.
And we're slow to let go of all our grave clothes and all the
things of this earth and everything that's earthy and the things
that we want of this earth. We're slow to let go of those
things. Slow to let go of them. But the Lord said, my kingdom's
not of this world. He said, if my kingdom were of
this world, he said, then would my servants fight that I should
not be delivered to the Jews. But now it's my kingdom, not
from him. So his servants didn't fight. His kingdom's not from
here. We don't want to be rejected. That's another thing. We hang
on to this earth. We're slow to let go of our lives
and hold on to His thoughts and His truth, what God said. We're
slow to do that. And we don't want to be rejected.
We don't want to be rejected of men. That's not comfortable.
It's not ever comfortable to us to be opposed and rejected
by family and friends. Which you will be. If you truly
know the God of this Bible and trust Him and believe on Him
and declare who He is to folks, you will be rejected of men.
Christ wasn't crucified because everybody in religion liked Him.
He was crucified because He did not... He came to establish righteousness
and He took it all out of man's hands. And men don't like that.
Men hate that message. And you will be despised for
this message. But we don't want to suffer. We want a savior and
a religion that everybody likes. We don't want to be rejected
by family and friends. We want to have agreement. Well,
verse 22 says, finally, it says again, Andrew and Philip, they
went and told the Lord Jesus. They knew what was best for them
to do. It was best for them to go to the Lord. And we know what's
best for us to do. This is always the best thing
for us, brethren, is to go to the Lord. Go to the Lord and
in all the face of uneasiness and all the face of suffering
and persecution and rejection, when you're weak at all times,
go to the Lord Pour it all out to the Lord and tell the Lord. He'll answer. He'll answer you.
Maybe you've been doing that. Maybe somebody here's been doing
that and they haven't felt like they've been getting an answer
from the Lord, from the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, maybe today
He's sent you the answer. Maybe He's about to give you
the answer right now. And this is what He said. Let's listen
very carefully. Verse 23. And Jesus answered
them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be
glorified. That's an odd way to answer them,
isn't it? They come and tell him, Lord,
there's some Gentiles here that want to see you. And the Lord
says, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
The hour had come when Christ, the Son of Man, should be glorified
in the redemption of his people by the sacrifice of himself.
That hour had come. You know, he went throughout
the scriptures and it would say men try to take him and they
try to do something. They try to lay hands on him
so they could throw him off a hill or whatever. And he went out
from their midst because his hour was not yet come. But now
he says, my hour has come. The hour had come. Look over
at John 17. This was the very hour for which
this world was made. It was the very purpose why God,
the Son, came from glory and took a human nature, the human
nature of His children, of His elect children, so that the Son
of Man, that perfect Son of Man, that perfect man, should be glorified
and bring together his children together with God. In that one
God-man mediator, John 17, verse 1, these words spake Jesus and
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. And that's what was taking place
there. They were glorifying one the other. As thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent." That's life eternal. You would think that
if we knew where If you knew where the fountain of youth is,
where you would never grow old and you would always live forever,
wouldn't you seek it? Wouldn't you go there? Wouldn't
you just want to know everything about it and where it's at and
drink along and deep from that fountain? Well, here He is. This
is Him, the only true God in Jesus Christ our Savior. And
He says here, I have glorified thee on the
earth. I finished the work which you gave me to do. And now, O
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was." Now that hour
had come for him to be glorified. And also, this was the hour when
Christ was going to be glorified in Andrew and Philip. Now they
knew Him. They'd been called by Him. They'd
been taught by Him. They'd walked with Him. They
had the Spirit of God dwelling in them. But they're about to
see Christ in a little better light than how they'd known Him.
He's about to be glorified in their hearts a little bit more.
Verse 24. He says, 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 I remind you again They've
come there because these Greeks wanted to seek the Lord. And
the Lord just starts saying, now's the hour when the Son of
Man should be glorified. And then He said, now verily,
verily, this is the utmost important thing, listen to what I'm saying,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. Now, Christ is the seed. Turn over to Galatians 3. Let
me show you this. You know, a single corn of wheat,
within a single corn of wheat, just a pea or a bean or a single
corn of wheat, there's much fruit in it, much fruit in that, in
that single kernel. Well, Christ is the seed. He
is the seed. Lord told Abraham He was going
to bless him. He said, In thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed. And Paul tells us here in Galatians
3.16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, to thy seed,
which is Christ. You see, all the promises that
God have for his people, he gave them all to Christ. He made those
promises to him. He said to Abraham and to his
seed, he made those promises to his seed, to Christ. And in
him were all the children that are going to be born. All the
children that are going to be born in that seed, just like
in a kernel of corn. There's a lot of fruit in that
one little kernel of corn. Well, all of God's children were
in Christ, put there by God. a father in whom, according as
he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, they
were all put there. Well, children, you children,
you were in your father before they were born. You know that?
Just like that colonel. of wheat. You're in your father
before you're ever born. God made everything to show us
his glory. He designed everything that he
made to show us his glory. He made that corn of wheat to
show us there's a bunch of fruit in that corn of wheat right there.
Why did he make it like that? Why did he make it so that all
of a father's children are in him from the beginning? Why did
he do that? He's doing it to declare His
Son. He's doing it to declare the glory of His name in His
Son. All His children were in Christ before the world began.
They're in Him, just like you were in Him. Now the Father,
before you were ever born, the Father did everything that was
necessary to provide for you. Your fathers did. They did everything
necessary to provide for you. They had all provisions made.
And it was by them you were born. And when you were born, They
brought you home when you were helpless and couldn't do anything,
and they laid you down in a room where everything was provided.
They laid you in a bed that they made, that they provided for
you, laid you down and began to care for you and take care
of you all of your day. That's what God does for His
people. But look what He says here now, verse 24. He says,
except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. It abideth alone. Christ is teaching
them and He's teaching us that it was necessary that He lay
down His life. He's that seed. He's got to lay
down His life in order to do all the work for His children,
in order to put away all their sin, in order to provide all
righteousness for them, in order to declare His Father righteous
and just and the justifier, in order to provide eternal satisfaction
for them, and to provide eternal justification for them, and eternal
redemption for them. He's going there to lay down
His life. He has to die in order for that
to take place. If Christ hadn't died, what would
have happened? He says there, if that corn of
wheat doesn't fall into the ground and die, it just stays alone.
It abides alone. You still got the corn of wheat,
but it doesn't have all the fruit. The stalk doesn't, vine doesn't
come up, it doesn't bear fruit. It's just that corn of wheat.
So Christ had to die. But look at verse 24, but if
it die, and that's the title of the message, but if it die,
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Well, Christ obeyed
His Father. He obeyed His Father. And He
laid down His life. He served His Father. He followed
what the will of His Father was. And the will of His Father was
for Him to go to that cross and lay down His life at that cross
that His children might be born. They might be purged of all sin,
justified, and born of Him. That was His Father's will. That's
what He did. He said, I came not to do mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent me. He said, I came
to do your will, O God, in the volume of the book it's written
of me. I came to take away that first covenant of the curse and
the law for my people and to undo all of that so that you
can receive my people and they'd be perfect and accepted. and
righteous. That's what he came to do. In
order to accomplish that, he had to die to bring forth that
fruit. And that's what he did by this
man. By what offering he did that. He died. He went into the ground, into
the grave. And he rose again. The tender plant came up. And
from him, all his children are born. All of his children are
born. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sin. Now, because he did that, he brings forth much fruit. The
righteousness of God's declared. That's a lot of fruit. And then
he brings forth all his children. His children are fruit. Let me
show you that. James, look over to you right there at James. Look at James 1.18. Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. And that word of truth in other
places is called the incorruptible seed. born of the incorruptible
seed, by the gospel that's preached unto you, by Christ being formed
in you, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Fruits, you see that? Fruits
of his creation. And all for whom he died are
going to be born again. I want to show you this too,
Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Verse 10, it says, I'll give you time to get there.
Isaiah 53, 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him in the place of His people.
It satisfied God's justice to bruise Christ in the place of
His people. It satisfied the Lord to bruise
Him. He put Him to grief. No man didn't
do it, He did it. He put Him to grief. When thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. You see that? When he makes his
soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. God saw his
son, and his son shall see his children, his fruit. He shall
prolong days. He's going to prolong the days.
God prolonged the days of his son. His son prolonged the days
of his children, of his sons and his daughters. And the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Watch this, he shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall
bear their iniquities. See that word there, he shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Childbirth
involves a lot of travail, a lot of travail. But when the child
is laid in your arms, you see the fruit of your travail and
you're satisfied. God saw the travail of his son's
soul, and it satisfied his justice, for he bore away all the iniquity
of his people. And all of Christ's children
shall be born anew in spirit, and in each child born he shall
see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. All right? But that child of God, you child
of God, listen, we would have never had life. We'd have never
been born had Christ not willingly laid down His life and died that
we might live. It never would have happened.
Never would have happened. And we're like Philip and Andrew.
We're like them. We get some opposition, we get
some pushback, you know, and we're slow to believe then. We're
slow to believe the Lord. And we regard that which we call
life that's really death, and we regard death that's not really
life. We regard that, we call that
life which is not really life, and that death which is not really
death. That's what we are by nature.
Philip and Andrew didn't say any of this to the Lord. They
just came and said, Lord, there's some men that want to see you.
But you know what was in their heart? What was in their heart
was, we don't want you to come out and let everybody see you,
because we're going to take you and they're going to kill you.
We don't want to be identified with you, because if we do, they're
going to take us and kill us too. We don't want you to die
because we want a kingdom of this earth. And we don't understand
how you're going to make a spiritual kingdom, and it's not of this
earth. We want something earthy. They
didn't say any of that, but God was standing there in front of
them. That's who they were talking to, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
He heard everything they were saying in their heart. And He
didn't answer them according to the words that came out of
their mouth. Lord, there's some men here that want to see you.
He's answering them according to the words that they were speaking
in their heart. that they weren't speaking audibly
with his mouth. That's the words he was answering.
Now, he's teaching them and he's teaching us. Now here's the lesson
that he teaches them and he teaches us. And I hope he answers our
heart right now like he did theirs. This is what he said. Let's go
back over it again now. Verse 24. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone. But if it dies, it brings forth
much fruit. Now let's go over this illustration
right here, just a simple illustration. You've got a seed. Say you've
got a pound of peas. Not a pound. You've got a...
What comes in one of those little packages? Is that a pound? A
pound of peas? It's not a pound, is it? Anyway,
you've got enough peas for a helping. One helping. Well, you've got
a choice what you can do with those peas. You can take those
peas and you can save them. You can hold on to them. And
you can soak them and boil them and make you up a big old bowl
of beans with them if you want to. And that's it. They're done. It's over with.
You've lost them. Or you can take those beans and you can
put them in the ground and let them die. And from that, plants
will come up, and you can get a whole lot more beans than just
that one helping of beans. You can get a whole lot more
than just that one. Now verse 25, he says, He that loveth his
life shall lose it. You have a life, just like those
beans we're talking about. You got a life, so you think.
You got a life. You can save it. Save it from
humility. Save it from humbling, vowing,
submitting to the Lord. Save your life from confessing
your sin and repenting of all your vanity coming to the Lord.
You can save your way, your thoughts, your ideas, who you think God
is or whether you don't even think there is a God. You can
save all that. You can save yourself from any kind of rejection from
family and friends. You can save it all. You can
save and you can have a moment of pleasure. called life. This life right here. A moment
of pleasure. It might last 10 more years.
Maybe it'll last 20 or 30 more years. It may last till you're
80, 90 years old. Just a moment. Just like eating
that bowl of beans. And then it's over. And it's
over. Verse 25, the second part. And he that hateth his life and
his world shall keep it unto life eternal. Or you can give
up your life right now. It's like you put those beans
in the ground. You can give it up, die to your lust, die to
this world, renounce all your works of righteousness, repent
from your sin, live no more for the momentary gratification of
one bowl of beans. And have Christ the life, eternal
life, right now and in the world to come. But you can't have both. But you cannot have both. Look
at Matthew 6.24. I can just read this to you,
but look at Matthew 6.24. You just can't have both. I know
there's some men that will try to make you think you can have
both. I'm glad Christ didn't try to have both. We wouldn't
have a Savior. We wouldn't have a salvation.
You can't have both. Matthew 6.24. No man can serve
two masters. For he will either hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. It just can't be done. It's impossible. Now go back to our text, John
12, 26. If any man served me, and I really
want you to see this part, if any man served me, any man now,
this applies to all who would serve Christ, if any man served
me, First, look at the next part. Let him follow me. Christ was
going to the cross. You know what the father said
his will was for his son? Go to that cross and lay down
your life. You know what Lord Jesus Christ said his will is
for those that follow him? Go to that cross and lay down
your life. Go there and lay down your life. He was going to lay
down his life for his father and for his brethren. That's
what he's saying. Lay down your life for your father and your
brethren. And he says here, Christ was
going to give up his life so that sinners can have life. That's
why we lay down our life. We do it for God our Father,
we do it for the Lord Jesus Christ, we do it for our brethren, we
do it so that other sinners can have life. And he says, and if
any man serve me, he says, let him follow me. Verse 26 again,
he says, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. Now
He went to that cross, and that's where every one of His children
who shall serve Him, that's where they were when He went to that
cross. When He laid down His life, they laid down their life
in Him. When He died, they died. But He's not on that cross now,
and He's not in that tomb now. Look at Colossians 3. He's risen
to the right hand of the Father, and that's where He is right
now. And that's where every one of His servants are too. That's
where everyone who right now are made alive and serve Him,
and that's where every one of them are that shall be made alive
and shall be brought to serve Him. And this is what He says
to you who know Him and believe on Him. He says, if ye then be
risen with Christ, Seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things of this earth. That's what Christ
is telling us. For you're dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. That's where your life is. He
says, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall
you also appear with Him in glory. You see that? Now go back, let's
look at it again. Verse 26, John 12, 26. He says, now if any man serve
Me, him will My Father honor. Now, the Lord Jesus was serving
His Father in everything He was doing, in teaching Philip and
Andrew, teaching us here today, and in going to that cross, He
was serving His Father. And now look at what He says
next, verse 27. He said, now is my soul troubled,
and what shall I say? He said, my soul is troubled.
That's what they were having problems with. They had soul
trouble. He said, my soul is troubled. And he said, what shall
I say? And he said, Father, save me
from this hour. Is that what I call to it? He
said, before this cause came out unto this hour, there's some
suffering we have to suffer. There's some suffering we have
to go through. Teach us to lay down this life that we might
have life eternal. And he had to do that. He said,
Father, glorify thy name. That's what I'll ask you, Father,
glorify your name. And that's what he's teaching
us to ask him. Father, glorify your name. Look now, watch. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
The people therefore that stood by and heard said that it thundered.
Another said an angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said,
and I think he's talking to Philip and Andrew. He said, this voice
came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now think about it,
he just told Philip and Andrew, and you and me, if any man serve
me, him will my father honor. And then he showed us what it
is to serve him, by how he served the father. He said, now is my
soul troubled, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
before this hour came I unto this hour. He said, rather, father,
glorify thy name. And he just said the father would
honor those who served him. Well, he's serving the father,
and there came a voice from heaven saying, I have glorified it,
and I'll glorify it again. The Father honored him, didn't
he? And he said, this voice didn't come for me, it came for your
sake. It came for your sake. You're
learning what I just told you. God the Father is bearing witness
to what I just taught you. Now every sinner who comes to
the Father through faith in his Son, who gives up this life for
Christ, to serve Christ, desiring to see our Savior receive all
the glory, The Father has already glorified you, already honored
you, and He will honor you, that believer, and continue to do
it the same way as He did Christ. Listen, He honored us when He
glorified Christ and raised Christ from the dead because He raised
His children in Him. He honored us and He glorified
Christ again when He raised us from spiritual death to newness
of life and quickness together by the Holy Spirit in the new
birth. He shall honor us and he shall glorify Christ again
in providing all our needs as we go through this earth. He
will again honor us and will yet glorify Christ again when
he raises our spirit to be with him when we die. He will again
honor us and will yet glorify Christ again when he raises our
bodies anew in the resurrection. And he'll again honor us and
yet glorify Christ again when he returns to be glorified in
all his saints and admired in all them that believe. Let a man hold on to his bowl
of beans. Take the world, but give me the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can you say that? A man would have to be just a
blazing idiot not to. Amen.