Let's open our Bibles tonight
to John chapter 12. I'm thankful that in the providence
of God we have come to these verses tonight that we're going
to look at on the night that we observe the Lord's Supper.
Because in these verses we have the request of the Greeks who
came to Philip with this word, Sir, we would see Jesus. Notice in verse 20 through 26.
And there were certain Greeks, John chapter 12, verse 20. 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. Jesus answered them, saying,
The hours 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." Every time that I read these words, Sir,
we would see Jesus, I'm reminded of two stories, and I'll only
tell us one of those stories tonight, but two stories always
come to my mind. One was that of a young preacher
who brought a message, and after he finished preaching, There
was an older pastor there in the congregation and he went
up to him and asked him, what did you think about my message?
And the older pastor said, I thought it was awful. I thought it was
awful. And he said, what do you mean?
He said, I studied that text and had several arguments and
Weren't my arguments good? And he said, pastor said, yes,
but it's still a bad sermon. And he said, well, my illustrations,
they were, I thought they were excellent. He said, yeah, they
were good, but still it was an awful sermon. And he said, please
tell me why. He said, because there was no
Christ in it. There was no Christ in your message.
And the young man said, well, Christ was not in the text. And
the older gentleman said, he's in every text. He's in every
text. And he said, if I ever come across
a text in which Christ is not found, he said, I'll make a way
to Christ. An awful message. An awful message
is every message that is not all about Christ. Sir, we would
see Jesus. You know the last week's message
ended with the Pharisees saying the world has gone after him.
Now we read that Greeks, Greeks came with a desire to see him. Let's consider two questions
tonight. First, who were these Greeks
who requested to see Jesus? You know there's a term in the
scriptures, Grecians. Grecians. And when you first
see that, you might think that it applies to Greeks, but it
doesn't. It applies to Jews who had been
Hellenized, that is, from the time of Alexander the Great,
spreading the Greek language and the Greek world influence. that many of the Jews had adopted
the Greek language and could not speak Hebrew or Syriac. They were Grecians. A good example
of this, if you look in Acts chapter 6, and remember this
is before the Apostle Peter was sent down to the house of Cornelius
and he tells us that was the first time that God used him
in delivering the gospel to the Gentiles. But here in Acts chapter
6 we read, And in those days, when the number of the disciples
was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews. Now these Grecians, they were
Jews. They were not Greeks. They were Jews who, for the most
part, could not speak. Hebrew language, but were Greek-speaking
Jews. And also, for the most part,
they used, of course, the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. But no doubt, and most of the
writers believe that these here in our text tonight were not
Grecians. They were Greeks. They were Gentiles. No doubt they had been proselyted
to the Jewish religion. But remember this, in the temple
in Jerusalem, and that's where they were, in the temple in Jerusalem,
there was that outer court. And the archaeologists have discovered
stones that had a sign which on the penalty of death if any
Gentile went in to the second court. I mean, there was a court
in which the Gentiles, proselytes to the Jewish religion could
come, but they couldn't go any further. Only a certain part
of the temple were they allowed in. And so, if this was the same
day that the Lord entered into Jerusalem, triumphantly, as we
saw last week, It may be that he's gone on into the court,
the second court, but these Gentiles, they could not go in there, even
though they were proselyted to the Jewish religion. Sir, we
would see Jesus. The scripture said that they
had come up to worship at the feast, so they were proselytes. But you know, When you think
about that middle wall of partition, that wall that separated the
Gentiles from the Jews, that middle wall was right on the
verge of being broken down. It was right on the verge of
being broken down. But as of yet, it had not. When
Paul, if you look in Ephesians chapter 2, when he wrote the
letter of Ephesians, of course after the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that wall had been taken down. In Ephesians chapter 2, and beginning with verse 11,
the apostle writes, wherefore remember that you being in time
past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by
that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, in
other words the Jews, that at that time you were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world. But now in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were far off. And when you think about that
temple and the law and the gospel, the difference might be stated
like this. The law said go. The law said
go. Go and do. The gospel says come
and rest. What a difference. But before
this metal wall was taken down, by the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, even these Gentile believers, proselytes, they could not go
in to the inner part of the temple. There was a separation. But notice
in verse 14, For he is our peace, who hath made both one. There
is no difference now between the Jew and the Gentile. Our
Lord said, Go into the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. There's not one gospel for the
Jews and another gospel for the Gentiles. There's one gospel
and it is to be preached to all men. And whosoever believeth,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The middle wall. He is our peace
who hath made both one. and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and
that he might reconcile both unto God, both Jew and Gentile,
unto God in one body, the church is is one. Christ has one body. He's the head of one body. You say, well, is that relevant
to us today? Absolutely. Absolutely it is
because you know there are people today who still make a distinction
between the Jews and the Gentiles. As though Christ had more than
one family, more than one commonwealth, more than one nation. No, there's
one people who are the people of God, of which Christ is the
head. And it's made up of men and women
from every nation, from every language, from every clime, all
over the world. God has His people, and we're
all made one in Christ, and one body of which He's the head. We're all members of the same
body. and came and preached peace to you which were far off. You
Gentiles, you were far off. Someone said, how far off were
we? We were so far we couldn't come back on our own. That's
how far we were. They say that sheep, and God's
people are sheep, that sheep will never find their way back
home. You know, a dog, you can put a dog out. We've read stories
of people moving all the way across our country, leaving a
cat over here in the east, and somehow that cat finding its
way all the way to the family in the west. A cat can do that. A dog can do that. But a sheep,
no. A sheep will just wander farther
and farther away. How far were we? We were so far
off. that unless he had come seeking
us, we would never have come. Don't you love that story, that
parable our Lord gave of the shepherd who had the ninety and
nine, but one was missing? One was missing. One out of a
hundred. The percentage is low, but for
the shepherd, the good shepherd, He goes and he searches and he
searches and he searches until he finds that one sheep. And
when he finds it, and he does find it, and think about where
he found you, where he found me. You know, he finds a lot
of us in religion. He really does. He finds a lot
of us in religion. Just as lost as a goose, but
religious at the same time. never having heard the truth,
never having heard the gospel, believing somehow that by our
religious activities, what we do, that somehow we're going
to be accepted of God. And He finds us, and He shows
us that our acceptance is not in works of righteousness, which
we do, but according to His mercy, He saves us, that we are accepted
and the Beloved, to the praise of the glory of His grace. For through Him, that is through
Christ, we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore you are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God. In God's church, in God's household,
in God's nation, There's no metal wall of partition. There's no
wall that says, keep out. No, we're all one. And we all
have access to the Father through Christ by the Holy Spirit and
are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Who's the foundation of the apostles and prophets? Christ. Paul said,
other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which
is Christ. We sing that hymn. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. One reason, if we go back here
to John, one reason that seems to convince the writers that
these were actually Greeks, they were not Grecians, they were
Greeks, is because they approached Philip. They didn't go to Peter,
they didn't go to Matthew, they went to Philip. Now Philip was
a Jew, but he had a Greek name. And we know he was from the town
of Bethesda. And his brother Andrew, that
town evidently was right on the border with Tyre and Sidon. And that was the place where
the Lord Jesus Christ went. And that woman came to him and
asked for help for her daughter. And you remember he said that
he was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And so it may be for that reason that when they came to Philip
and said, Sir, we would see Jesus, he didn't go immediately to Christ,
but he went to his brother Andrew. And they had that in their mind,
no doubt, their memory of what he had said. Did the Lord Jesus Christ see
these Greeks? That's one of those things. We'll
find out in eternity. Arthur Pink, he believed that
he didn't. And he gives good reasons. But
for me, it's just hard to believe that anyone requested a favor
from Christ and he didn't grant that favor. Because I see it
over and over. Everyone who came with a need,
their need was met. Who were these Greeks? Well,
I think we may consider them as the first fruits of the millions,
yes, the millions of Gentiles who would see Jesus. you and I and all the others
from that time. See Him as the Lord's anointed
Savior. See Him as the one propitiation
for our sins. John said here in his love, not
that we love God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. Do you see Him tonight Do you
see Him as that one sacrifice by which God's just wrath against
you is put away? By that one sacrifice. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Well, the second part of the
message is this. What was our Lord's response
to their request? Well, I see a threefold response.
First of all, He announced that the hour was come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. In John chapter 7, we were told,
Then they sought to take Him, on that occasion, but no man
laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come. But now,
Our Lord says, the hour has come. The hour has come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. An hour is a measurement of time. The measurement of time had now
come in which the Lord Jesus Christ would finish the work
which the Father had given Him to do. And in finishing that
work, This would lead to his being exalted to the right hand
of God and pouring out his spirit on the church, who, as John Gill
said, would then go into all the world and preach the gospel
to the Gentiles as well as Jews, and which would issue in the
conversion of many of them, and so in His glory. The coming of these Greeks we
might look at as an earnest, as the firstfruits of the many
who would, until tonight, come to Christ. And then our Lord, the second
way, He responded, he used an analogy from nature to represent
his death. And he introduced it with those
two words that are common to John's gospel, verily, verily,
or truly, truly, I say unto you, except that corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die. In bringing the many sons to
glory, that he does. His death was not an option.
It was an absolute necessity. If any were to be saved, Christ
had to die. Sometimes you'll run into someone
and they'll ask, was his death an absolute necessity? Was there
no other way? Well, when he prayed in the garden,
he said, Father, if it be possible. Why was his death a necessity,
an absolute necessity? Because God is just. Yes, he's
gracious. Yes, he's love. Yes, he's mercy. But he's also just. You and I,
someone could offend us. We could overlook it, act like
we didn't see it, sweep it under a rug. God can't do that. He's of pure eyes and to behold
iniquity. His justice had to be satisfied. Matthew Henry on this made this
statement. He fell to the ground in his
incarnation, seemed to be buried alive in this earth. So much
was his glory veiled But this was not all. He died. This immortal seed submitted
to the laws of mortality. He lay in the grave like seed
under the clods. But as the seed comes up again
green and fresh and flourishing and with a great increase, so
one dying Christ gathered to himself thousands of living Christians
and he became their root. The salvation of souls hitherto
and hence forward to the end of time is all owing to the dying
of this corn of wheat." The effects of his death flowed backwards
and forwards, didn't they? Backwards to Abel, forward to
the last soul that's going to be saved is called. And it hasn't
lost its power. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. Aren't you thankful tonight?
That blood, that death, that sacrifice is still effectual
to save any and every sinner that comes to Him, that trusts
in Him. He opened a fountain and he opened
it for sin and uncleanness. Are you unclean? By nature we
all are. Unclean. Just like that leper
had to put his hand over his mouth. Unclean! Unclean! All of us before the thrice holy
God. Unclean. Unclean. But he provided a fountain in
which we may wash and be whiter than snow. The third thing, he gives a word
of warning and encouragement in verses 25 and 26. His disciples
to whom he was speaking had just witnessed him coming into Jerusalem
and people acclaiming him as Hosanna, the son of David. But our Lord knew that in just
a few days, many of these same people would be crying, crucify
him, crucify him. And his disciples need not expect
any different treatment. James would later write, know
you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world is the enemy of
God. And the world hasn't changed.
If any man, our Lord said, if any man come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. But what a wonderful promise
our Lord gives that where I am, there his disciples will be also. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this message to all of us. Sir, we would see Jesus. When
we see the bread tonight, when we see the wine, we see the symbols,
the elements that represent to us the broken body and the shed
blood of our blessed Savior. I'll ask the men, if you will,
to come now.