Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on John 12:20-33. The main subject of the sermon is the example Jesus sets for evangelism.
sermon transcript
Series Introduction: The Exciting Road Ahead
A Vision of the Resurrected Christ in Revelation 1: What Would He Say About FBC?
At the end of his life, the Apostle John was exiled for the ministry of the Word of God, for the testimony of Jesus to the island of Patmos, a small island off the coast of modern day Turkey. All the other 12 had been martyred for their faith as they shared the Gospel, but God had a special purpose for John at the end of his life. And one of those, one of the aspect of that purpose was that he would have a revelation of the resurrected and glorified Jesus Christ. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and he had this vision of Christ. Revelation 1 says there,
“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me, and when I turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands. And among the lamp stands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white, like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. And in his right hand, he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. And then he placed his right hand on me and said, ‘Do not be afraid. I am the first, and I am the last. I am the living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the key of death and Hades. Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lamp stands is this. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And the seven lamp stands are the seven churches.'”
So we have a picture of the resurrected Christ in glory, and in it seems priestly garments, moving through these seven golden lamp stands. And we’re told there that these seven lamp stands represent the seven churches. And they are lamp stands, I think, because Jesus said to us, “You are the light of the world.” And they are golden, because they are precious and valuable. And he’s moving through them, because he has an ongoing ministry to local churches. And in the next two chapters, which we’re not going to go through.
By the way, we are looking at John 12 today. This is all intro. I haven’t forgotten that. But here’s the resurrected Christ moving through these seven golden lamp stands. And he has something to say to each of the seven churches. The seven churches were real churches, but they were also symbolic as well. That often happens in scripture. Things that really happened in space and time have an eternal spiritual lesson for us as well. And they were just across a small stretch of water, there in kind of a circular postal route, there in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, these seven churches. And he has these seven statements to make to the seven churches, and they are of a timeless nature. And it’s very clear that the Lord wants us to read the other churches’ mail. We’re supposed to read all of the letters, because at the end of each of these letters, he says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” plural. So we’re supposed to read all these seven letters, and at the end of each one, also, it gives a promise to him who overcomes. So we’re supposed to read these letters and we’re supposed to understand what’s happening in each of these seven churches. And we’re supposed to be given by the power of the Spirit the ability to overcome for his glory. And so we’re supposed to learn from these. And so from… I think from the church at Ephesus, we’re supposed to learn the value of doctrinal and life purity, but also the danger of forsaking our first love. From the church at Smyrna, we’re supposed to learn the very real possibility of persecution, of being imprisoned and even killed for our testimony to Jesus. And though that may not be happening to us, we’re supposed to be aware that it’s happening to other brothers and sisters, and pray for them and care about it and be aware that it may happen to us in the future.
From the church at the Thyatira, we’re supposed to understand the danger of tolerating sin, especially sexual sin. From the church at Sardis, we’re supposed to understand the danger that a church that was once alive and vibrant and vital can at some point become dead, living on its past reputation, no longer vibrant and vital for the glory of God. From the church at Philadelphia, supposed to learn the value of seeing open doors of ministry and walking through them while we have the opportunity. And from the church at Laodicea, the dire warning to not become spiritually lukewarm, that the Lord would spit us out of his mouth because we’re neither hot nor cold. So seven churches, but it made me wonder, and it’s made the elders wonder recently, as we’ve thought about these things, how would the Lord Jesus evaluate FBC?
Evaluating Where We Are and Where We Are Going
What would he say about us? What kind of letter would he write to this church? How are we to see ourselves? And as we’ve seen what we consider to be led by the Spirit, strengths and weaknesses, opportunities for ministry, some dangers that we face, some good things that are happening in our midst, we feel that we would like to urge the church more and more toward faithfulness in evangelism and evangelistic fruitfulness. We would love to see this church have a river of people who are brought to faith in Christ by our witness and then discipled and trained. And we want to see this happen, because we believe that it is the logical and spiritual next step of health in this church’s progression or reformation, that we would see more and more individuals brought to faith in Christ. And so we are excited and thrilled not just about the next five weeks, but about what God may have for this church over the coming years, even decades, if he should not return in our lifetime. We want to be positive. We want to be thankful. We want to be helpful. We want to be biblical and prayerful, and we want to be fruitful.
Ten Years from Now: A Culture of Evangelism… With Its Evident Fruit
And so that’s our desire as we begin this little five-week focus, but 10 years from now, brothers and sisters, I would love to see a culture of evangelism thriving here, just a kind of a warm culture of people regularly sharing their faith, regularly taking faith steps, venturing forth in the workplace, in the neighborhood with family members, with parents of fellow team members, with total strangers even. We want to see people here consistently, regularly trained very well in evangelism, so that people know what the Gospel is, and they know what to say in various circumstances. And they’re ready, and they are being encouraged by positive examples from other brothers and sisters, regular testimonies of people who are sharing their faith. We long to see people brought to the ordinance of water baptism and be able to hear their stories of how this or that was brought to faith by members of FBC. Honestly, I think I can speak for all the others that we don’t care who brings them to faith. Amen? Just like members of a team don’t care who sank the winning shot. We just want to see it done, and we are so thrilled when we hear stories of faithfulness as you guys are reaching out with the Gospel. We would long to see this culture of evangelism just flourishing here, and I believe we’re going to see it.
I believe this is something the Lord is going to work here as we’re faithful and as we step out in faith, and as we hear God’s word. Recently, a number of us were at a missions conference at Christmas time, the Cross Conference, and a friend of mine, Mack Stiles, who has a flourishing evangelistic ministry in the Persian Gulf with students, Muslim college students, and seeing many come to Christ very rapidly, seeing them built up in their faith in Christ rapidly and seeing them be fruitful to the glory of God. Anyway, he was able to sit four generations spiritually of people right alongside each other. This one led this one to faith, who led this one to faith, who led this one to faith. That’s awesome. Wouldn’t you love to see that here at FBC?
Two Infinite Journeys… We Must Make Balanced Progress
Now, that’s just a rare providence that that could happen all in one, the context of one local church and that person stays there and they come to faith and are trained so quickly. But wouldn’t that be incredible? We yearn to see a culture of evangelism, and so as Ashok was sharing these two infinite journeys, we want to keep them in front of you. The internal journey of sanctification, we must never turn our backs on that. We believe that’s a real strength of this church that we love the Word of God. We love doctrine. We want to drink it in. We are happy to get good teaching and good preaching, and we want to grow in grace. And we must embrace that. We want to be holy and like Christ.
We also want to be faithful in the external journey, and I think this is a church that’s seen numbers of people go out from our midsts to go be set up on the mission field. We want to see that more than ever before. We would like to see lots of folks coming through and being trained here, running with us for a while, but then going out to some unreached people group. The external journey breaks into two kind of sub-sections in my mind. There’s missions in which you have people that are being reached that not only have they never heard of Jesus, but people around them have never heard of Jesus, and there’s no church there. We just need to see those people brought to faith in Christ, and that’s going to take years of language-learning and culture. That’s what we call missions. But here at home, there’s evangelism, and these are people who are not yet Christians, but they are surrounded by the sounds of the Gospel all the time. They have probably Christian friends and family and relatives, other people that they’re aware of the Gospel, but they’re not yet brought to faith in Christ. I would contend that because of that, they’re hard to reach. But this is the mission field God’s given us right here, and I yearn to see us be faithful in evangelism and to grow.
And I think that these two journeys are interconnected. They’re intertwined. As we are embracing our sanctification and growing in maturity and our love for Jesus, we’re going to want to be more and more faithful in evangelism. And as we’re actively sharing our faith, we’re going to have more and more opportunities to grow in grace and trust God for things. So we look on these two journeys as intertwined. We want to see it happen.
My Desire: Hope-Filled Training, Encouragement
So for five weeks, I’m going to be preaching sermons, evangelistic sermons. It’s the closest you’ll ever get me to preaching topically. This is it, guys. So if those of you thought, “Ah, a topical sermon,” that’s what it is, five weeks of it. But even so, I can’t help but be exegetical, so I’m choosing the five best passages. Is that okay? Good compromise. So topics, but still exposition. And this morning, it’s John 12. My desire is to be biblical. I want to be practical in the pulpit. I want to talk about practical ways you can grow. I want to be encouraging.
My deep desire is to motivate people, whoever you are, wherever you’re at in your walk, to take the next steps in evangelism without resorting to guilt manipulation. It’s a terrible motivator. It is not helpful. And we’ll talk more about that, but I don’t desire to make anyone feel guilty. I want to be motivational based on Scripture’s motivations, ultimately, the glory of God, as we’ll see this morning.
Five Weeks in March
Also along with this for three weeks, we’re going to see discussion on these sermons in the evenings at home fellowship, so all the home fellowships will be focusing on these topics for three weeks. And then the final week, Sunday, we have no home fellowships tonight. On the final evening, Sunday evening, we will have a time of corporate prayer here in this room, in this sanctuary, in the evening, to just plead with God to give us fruit and that we would see people brought to faith in Christ and just a time of prayer for them. So we’re looking forward to that. Along with that, I’m teaching a Bible for Life class. And if you’re not presently attending a Bible for Life class, I would urge you to think about coming to the one that I’m teaching on evangelism. So we’re going to go over some of these same things. We’re going to try to be practical. That’s Sunday mornings 9:15 AM and beyond. Along with that, Wednesday evenings, I and some others will be teaching on evangelism as well.
Now you may be wondering, “How can we do all of this teaching on evangelism and say different things each time?” I’m not promising that. There’s going to be some repetition, some overlap. I have only so many ideas on evangelism, but I want to hear from you folks as well. And so those other settings will be more give and take as well, a chance for us to sharpen ourselves in that. So that’s what’s ahead. All of that kind of a brief sermon series intro.
Powerful Lessons on Evangelism from John 12
The Subjects of Evangelism: A Foretaste of a Vast Harvest (vs. 20- 22)
Let’s dig in now to John chapter 12, and let’s see what kind of lessons we can learn from this on the issue of evangelism. And I want to begin just with this amazing encounter that Jesus has in verse 20 and following, 20 through 22, of some Greeks who come up to fill up in Andrew, and they want to see Jesus. And so I’m beginning. The first point I notice here are the subjects of evangelism, this foretaste of a vast harvest. Look again at verse 20 through 22:
“Now, there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast, and they came unto Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee with a request. Sir, they said, ‘We would like to see Jesus.’ Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.”
So these are Greeks. They’re pagans. They’re non-Jews. We don’t even know that they would be at the level of God-fearers, ’cause John doesn’t tell us that. They’re just Greeks. And maybe they’d heard about Jesus’ reputation, his miracles, something like that. And they had a strong interest to meet Jesus. And Jesus would have been very difficult to get to at that point, surrounded constantly by a huge crowd of people, so they went to people who maybe could introduce them to Jesus. They wanted to meet Jesus. And so Philip and Andrew together, they work together to bring these men to Jesus. Now at that time, bringing people to Jesus was physical. You could literally bring them to where Jesus was and they could have a conversation. For us, it’s a metaphor for evangelism, for the spiritual work of introducing people to Christ spiritually through the Gospel.
And so Philip and Andrew are doing that with these Greeks, and it’s amazing how Jesus reacts. We don’t get a conversation between Jesus and these Greeks here in the text. I’m sure that he talked to them, but we don’t have a record of it here. Instead, Jesus’ mind goes immediately to the cross, goes immediately to his imminent death on the cross. Why so? Well, I don’t know exactly what was going on in Jesus’ mind, but it’s not a stretch to think that he realized that these Greeks were just a foretaste of a vast and varied harvest that was going to go among all the tribes and languages and peoples and nations of people interested in coming to Jesus and believing in Jesus and following him. He knew the scriptures better than anyone else alive, anyone who has ever lived, and he knew it said in Isaiah 49:6, that Jesus would be a “…light for the Gentiles, that he may bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus was, Jesus is the light for the Gentiles. He also knew that he would shed his blood. Revelation 5:9 says there, “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” And so he had this, I think, in his mind, because he immediately talks about a kernel of wheat falling into the ground and dying and bringing forth much fruit.
So for us, the application – I’m going to just be weaving applications all the way through here – the application is that we should yearn to bring people to Jesus. We should try to live in such a way that people are hungry to meet the savior. They want to know more about the hope that’s in us. They’re hungry for that, and that these Greeks were just the first fruits of centuries of Gentiles, who would be fascinated in Jesus. Do you yearn for this? Do you yearn to be instrumental in bringing people to Jesus? How much would you love someone to come up and say to you what these Greeks said. “We would love to meet Jesus. Can you tell us how?” Hey, what’s wrong with praying to God for that? I don’t know that God will grant you that prayer, but why not? You say that, “Pastor, that’s where I’m at in evangelism. If someone comes to me and says, ‘I would like to meet Jesus,’ I’ll tell them. But other than that, I don’t know.” Well, I understand that. I feel like that many days, but why couldn’t we ask God for that and see what he does? And it could be that God will give you something that easy, or it could be that God will just make you a little stronger and bolder. But either way, just yearn to be an instrument in bringing people to Jesus as Philip and Andrew were.
The Unique and Repeated Pattern of Evangelism: The Death of a Seed (vs. 23-25)
Secondly, Jesus then brings us to, what I call, the unique but also repeated pattern of evangelism, the death of a seed. First of all, it’s completely unique, utterly unique, but secondly, it’s a paradigm or a pattern of example absolutely essential to the spread of the Gospel, through evangelism.
So Jesus’ mind goes immediately to his death on the cross. Verse 23, “Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.’” Jesus’ immediate answer is amazing. Here are these Greeks and he says, “The hour has come.” At last, the time has come. Throughout John’s Gospel, we have this, “His time had not yet come. The hour has not yet come.” But now it’s come. The time has come. The hour is at hand. And his mind goes, I think, right to the price he’s going to have to pay for Greeks just like this, a price in blood. If they’re going to be rescued from hell, if they’re going to be brought to heaven, he will have to pay the price. He will have to shed his blood for them. And he doesn’t talk about his death directly, but he uses this glory language, “‘The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.’”
And so it’s very important for us to understand what this means. To glorify God is to put God on display, to make God radiant and obvious to the people, that God’s attributes would be put on display for all to see. And so there’s so often this display language connected with the Gospel. It says in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So it’s a display of love. Earlier in Romans 3, we have a display of justice. God displayed his justice, because in his forbearance, he left the sins committed in the Old Testament unpunished, so he had to put his justice on display. Those two, love and justice, are just an entry way into seeing all the attributes of God, all of the characteristics of God on display in Christ crucified. They’re all there: Power of God, wisdom of God. That’s 1 Corinthians 1. The patience of God, the wrath of God. It’s all on display. And Jesus said, “The hour has come for that. The time has come for the son of man to be glorified,” not just God, but that Jesus’s attributes will be put on display.
Son of man comes from Daniel chapter 7, where we have the Ancient of Days, Almighty God, and then we have another one, one like a son of man being brought into the presence of the Ancient of Days, “…and he receives sovereign power and honor and glory, and all peoples and nations and people of every language will bow down and worship him, the son of man.” Jesus calls himself the son of man. He is the fulfillment of the Daniel 7 passage.
And this is the cost of their salvation and of ours: He must die, he must shed his blood for them to be saved. And this is glory for his own name. And so he says in verse 24, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.’” As usual, as he frequently does, Jesus uses an illustration from nature. Many of his parables are agricultural, and he’s choosing out this idea of a seed. Now the seed, he says, has a hard shell on it, a protective coating, but that coating must be cracked, that protective shell must yield, and that seed must fall into the ground, and then the shell cracked and that genetic material inside that God made from the foundation of the world for the wheat plant must be exposed to the nutrients of the soil and the moisture, and up will come the plant. It must die, or else this harvest cannot come, and without it dying, then it will never bear fruit, it will remain a single seed. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.
Now, the NIV says, “…brings forth many seeds.” The Greek word there is just fruit, it’s a common word for fruit, but we know that fruit has seeds in it, and the idea here is of a repeated pattern, there’s going to be lots of seeds that also must fall into the ground and die. First, let’s finish this one assertion, the death of Jesus is utterly unique, never to be repeated, never again will it be repeated. It’s completely unique, it is complete and perfect in itself. It says many times in the Book of Hebrews that Jesus died once for all. Amen? So Hebrews 10:10, it says, “By that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” But the application of that redemption will be, it turns out, by the same principle of sacrificial, self-sacrificial dying, that the redemption was bought to begin with. Jesus won the redemption himself by himself, perfect work of redemption. But the application must be in the same way. Therefore, Jesus’s death is not only unique, but it’s also a paradigm example of how we also must be, if we’re going to be evangelistically fruitful. You must be willing to die to yourself. If you refuse to die, you will remain a single seed. That’s the idea here.
Jesus’ Command to Evangelize: Follow Him in Dying (vs. 26)
Thirdly, Jesus gives us a command to evangelize. He commands us to follow him in his death. Look at verses 25 and 26. You see how he extends it, so he’s not just talking about himself. “‘The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’” Verse 26, “‘Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be.’” So Jesus extends and clarifies this metaphor. His death is unique, but your death will be like his if you want to be fruitful, and in order to do that, if you refuse to do it, if you refuse to fall into the ground and die, you are loving your life in this world too much. That’s the image he’s giving you here, you’re loving your life. It means to love your life in that sense means to yearn for a life of comfort and ease and prosperity and the respect and love of the world. To love your life means to love your reputation, to love your reputation with people and benefits that come from people’s acceptance. Conversely, to use the language that Jesus uses, to hate your life is not an absolute command, it’s relative. Similar to when Jesus says, “If anyone does not hate his father or mother, or his wife, or his sons, or daughters, or even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Now, Jesus in other places, commands us to love all of those things, but compared to our love for Jesus, it must be like hatred. I think that’s the same thing here. We’re supposed to actually love our lives in this world and be thankful for the good things God gives us, but relative to this calling, we are to hate our lives. And if we do not, we will remain a single seed, we will not bear fruit. So Jesus, he is commanding his servants to follow him in the same pattern of dying, there is a command. My servants must follow me, there’s a command in there. And so, he commands us to do this. So this is a basic principle.
The external journey, the Gospel cannot advance without suffering. It can’t advance without suffering, it’s impossible. Will not advance without pain and suffering, and Paul knew this better than anyone who’s ever lived, other than Jesus. Paul knew it very well, and he said to the Colossians church, which he did not plant, he’s writing to somebody else’s church plant, but he says in Colossians 1:24-25, “Now brothers, I rejoice in what was suffered for you. So I am excited by the missionaries, the evangelists that brought you the Gospel and paid the price, and actually I fill up in my body, my flesh, what is still lacking in regard to the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church.” In other words, there’s something missing with Christ’s suffering.
Now there’s nothing missing on the atonement, it is perfect, but now there must be additional suffering to take the message of the atonement out to those who need to hear it. And that’s exactly what Paul is talking about in Colossians 1. And so again and again, the advance of the Gospel has been through suffering, the blood of martyrs has been seed for the church. Our brothers and sisters, they conquered the Roman Empire spiritually by dying, literally dying. Some of them sown in animal skins and set loose in the colosseum and packs of wild dogs ripped their flesh till they died, hard way to die. Others were put up on stakes and burned for Nero’s dinner parties and other things like this. This has been going on for 20 centuries, is going on in our day as well in other countries. But there are simpler less spectacular ways of dying that are every bit as essential to Gospel advance, you know what I’m talking about. You know what everyone who has ever screwed up his or her courage at the workplace and walked across the floor to share the Gospel with a co-worker, you know that feels like dying. Doesn’t it? It feels like dying. I don’t want to die. It hurts, and it’s hard, and it’s not easy.
I remember this guy named Ron, I was trying to lead to faith in Christ, and he was this gruff older guy, he was in his late 50s, and tough to talk to, tough to work with. And the Lord convicted me, I needed to share the Gospel with Ron, I’ll never forget that. Why him? Hardest guy I could think of that I regularly interacted with at the workplace, and it was lunchtime, and I was like, I don’t want to do it, don’t want to do it, don’t want to do it, and I just don’t want to do it, and I don’t want to do it. So I remember going around and I was like in my mind, I was getting sweats and all that sort of thing, and I was like, I tell you what, I’m going to put a fleece down, that’s what you do in moments like this, I’m going to put a fleece down. If I go around the corner to Ron’s work bench and he’s sitting there eating his lunch, then that’s a sign you want me to share the Gospel with him. But if he’s not there, then I won’t. So I come around the corner and there he is eating a sandwich. Thank you, Jesus. So I walked up and I just – you know Paul said, “I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling.” And that was going on. And he was like – I don’t know what he was thinking, but I’m sure something like this – “What in the world has gotten into you?” So I just, I did a very poor job. But I basically said, “I’m a Christian.” He said, “I know.” And I said, “Well, I believe in Jesus.” “I know,” he said. “Well, I think you need him.” And then I walked away.
That’s it. I don’t know if Ron’s going to be in heaven or not, but I don’t think it’ll be because of that witness. But friends, we can do better than that, but that’s not my message. It’s just felt like dying, it just felt like dying that day, and I didn’t want to do it, and I just don’t think we can really be fruitful if we’re not willing to face that and be willing to step forward. It does hurt. It’s not easy, it’s difficult. We’ll get to more of that, but Jesus is promising sweet fellowship for those who serve him. Do you see this? Verse 26, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am there, my servant will be.” Sometimes I feel like there’s a distance between me and Christ because I’m not more faithful in this area, that he’s out there working and I’m not wanting to go there. But Paul said in Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” That’s what I want, I want to go, even if the price is suffering, I want to be where he is. And the same thing in Hebrews 13, “Jesus was crucified outside the city gates, let us go to him outside the camp bearing the reproach he bore.” So that’s where he is, he’s out there, go to him and you’ll find sweet fellowship with Jesus.
The Stunning Reward for Evangelism: Honor from God (vs. 26)
Fourthly, the stunning reward for evangelism, honor from God. Verse 26, “‘My father will honor the one who serves me.’” Boy, this just brings goosebumps to me, it’s staggering. Meditate on what’s being said here. This is the infinite God of the universe, this is the God before whom the angels hide their faces and they cover their feet. This is the one who dwells in unapproachable light, the one who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and all its people are like insignificant grasshoppers. This amazing infinite God, this eternal omnipotent God will honor you if you serve Jesus. Wow!
This is the doctrine of rewards. At the center of reward is this one thing. Look down, same chapter, verse 43, John 12:43. This is what the honor is, it says, “‘They loved praise from men more than…’” Look at that, “‘…praise from God.’” Do you see that? That’s it. Now, it’s a negative verse, but it tells us what the honor is. The honor is that God will praise you, he’ll honor you, and he may even of their indication give you some emblems of that praise, such as crowns, etcetera, the crowns in which we’ll glory in the presence of God, but we will cast them down, giving him all honor and praise. But friends, this is better than an Olympic gold medal for half-pipe or free style skiing or ice dancing or curling, friends. Look, I’m not mocking those sports, I’m just saying this is better than any Olympic gold medal from Sochi or any other place, this is an eternal reward from God if you serve Jesus. Now, I don’t think this statement is just linked to evangelism only, any way you serve him he’ll honor you. But I think the context here is hating your life and dying and bringing forth fruit, so it’s home base seems to be evangelism and he’ll honor those that step out in faith and trust him. He will praise you.
The Troubling Cost of Evangelism: Jesus’ Infinite Suffering (vs. 27)
Fifth, the troubling cost of evangelism pictured by Jesus’s suffering here, ultimately his infinite suffering. Verse 27, “‘Now my heart is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it’s for this very reason I came to this hour.’” So this is John’s glimpse into what’s recorded for us in Matthew, Mark and Luke at Gethsemane. Jesus there, as you know, shrinks back from drinking the cup of wrath that God hands them. “‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me, yet not my will but yours be done.’” So Jesus reveals the troubling in his soul over the pain and suffering he would undergo, it is very difficult to suffer, Jesus did not in any way minimize that, but he knew that this was the very reason God had brought him into the world. So also at a much lower level, we evangelists will suffer internal turmoil in our souls. We will be able to say, “Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, get me out of witnessing?” No, no. No, you orchestrated this whole thing. I am your workmanship. I am created for good works. That’s why you left me here. You work the other side of the equation, you’ve got them ready to hear. I can’t say no. I can’t.
So people are going to attack us verbally, we’re going to be at a disadvantage in our careers probably if we’re faithful in evangelism. Some neighbors will never wave to us again. I’ve said before, you’re basically going to trade in a mediocre relationship for one good opportunity to share the Gospel, because it wasn’t that great anyway, honestly. But don’t be afraid to trade it in. Say, “I want to share my faith,” and Jesus shows us the way out. Don’t shrink back because of your fears. Feel the fear, don’t expect to be anesthetized, it’s actually how we glorify God. When you feel it, but witness anyway. It’s the way we get to glorify him, so don’t ask that that go away, just say, “God help me to push through it and be faithful, just as you Lord Jesus pushed through it and you were faithful.”
The Ultimate Reason for Evangelism: The Glory of God (vs. 28-30)
Sixth, the ultimate reason for evangelism must be the glory of God. “‘Now, my heart is troubled and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No. It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’’ Now, the crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered, others said an angel had spoken to him, and, Jesus said, ‘This voice was for your benefit, not for mine.’” I love that statement.
Alright, well, let’s get the benefit from it then, shall we? Let’s get the benefit, alright? There are many motives for evangelism. We’ll talk more about this in a future sermon, but there are a lot of bad motives for evangelism. The worst in my opinion, one of the worst anyway, is guilt. It’s a terrible motivator. It’s a bad fuel, it’ll make the engine cease after a while. The engine can run for a while on it, but it’s going to cease down the road. It’s just bad. Friends, I know we’ve just put a pause on Galatians, but can we not forget the lessons of Galatians? We are justified by faith in Christ alone, not by any works of the law, and that includes our own evangelism. So guilt is a very bad motivator, let’s not do it out of guilt or fear that God won’t bless us or things like that. Guilt and fear of that sort are not good.
How about pride? That’s if you’re good at it, and you’re actually able to lead many to Christ and you start getting puffed up, and along with that comes the whole mega church thing, and there’s power and money and all of this river of things that comes based on evangelism. Those are bad motives, fame and all that. There are good motivations, good motivations: Love for people, compassion for others, faith, as we see what’s happening, what’s going on, where they’re all heading, training in habit can be good, it’s good to have a habit of doing a good thing, obedience, these are all good motivations, but the best by far is this: The glory of God.
You are the light of the world. Put God on display. Put him on display. Make him radiant. Yearn to worship in your witnessing. Say, I serve a great God. Can I tell you about him? I’m at my best in witnessing, I have no fear at all with people when I worship in witnessing. And say, “Let me tell you how great Jesus is. Let me tell you about some of his miracles. Let me tell you about some of his teachings. Let me tell you about the greatest thing he ever did, which is dying and his resurrection.” That’s great. And then I’m just happy and I’m having a great time even if they’re not. [chuckle] I want them to join me in my joy, but that’s the best witnessing I ever do, that God would be glorified. This is how Jesus worked through his own anguish. Oh, no, not that I would shrink back. “But Father, glorify your name.” Father glorify your name.
And by the way, this is pretty cool, I haven’t found another example in the Bible of what’s going on here. Do you realize what this is? This is the actual transcript of an inter-Trinitarian conversation, it’s the only one I can think of in the whole Bible. Some verses have the Father speaking to the Son. In many places we see the Son speaking to the Father. This is the only conversation I have recorded in the Bible. That’s pretty awesome, isn’t it? It proves the Trinity. Separate persons able to have a conversation. So away with modalism, talk to me about that after the worship, we don’t have time. But there is one God in three persons, and they’re conversing, and what is the topic? It’s the central topic of the universe, the glory of God. And the more you live for the glory of God, the more fruitful you’re going to be in evangelism.
As John Piper put it in “Let the Nations Be Glad!”, let me change it from missions to evangelism. Can I just do that? I don’t think John would mind. You can tattle on me and if he gets upset, let me know. But I’m just going to re-read the first paragraph of “Let the Nations Be Glad!” talking about evangelism instead of missions. “Evangelism exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not evangelism, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, evangelism will be no more. But worship will be eternal. God is everything. The glory of God is the best.” And this is what God’s doing. I love God’s answer, doesn’t it? “I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.” This is what I do, I glorify my name. So if you’re weak in evangelism, start with your worship life, fan into flame your sense of the greatness of God in his glory. Have a sense of how great a God he is, get more and more of a vision through faith, through Scripture of the greatness of God and your evangelism will flow from that.
The Violence of Evangelism: The Ruler of this World Driven Out (vs. 31)
Seventh, the violence of evangelism. The ruler of this world must be driven out. Verse 31, “Now is the time for judgment on this world, and now the prince of this world will be driven out.” Jesus speaks of the judgment of the world. There is a coming wrath, dear friends. There is a coming judgment on this world. That judgment is already and not yet, the time has already come for the judgment on the world, and it will come. There is a coming judgment. There is a wrath that’s now and there’s a coming wrath. Now, it is because of Satan, that ancient serpent called the devil who lured man into sin in the garden of Eden, that this whole thing even needs to happen. Now, Satan was given authority over the kingdoms of this world. Who gave it to him? I think Adam did. I think Adam surrendered the world to Satan, and now Satan is boasting to Jesus, “The whole world’s mine, I can give it to anyone I want to.”
So that’s the ruler of this world, that’s Satan. Satan must be driven out, and he is driven out by the power of the Holy Spirit through the word of God, specifically through the Gospel. As we step out in faith, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the power of God, speaking the Gospel, Satan gets driven out, progressively driven out, driven out of people’s lives, driven out of families and marriages, driven out of hearts and minds, and ultimately driven out of the whole world when Jesus comes back. So we need to know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, it’s not against the people, but against these Satanic force of evil in the heavenly realms, and Satan will not give up his territory easily. One of the letters of the seven churches was to the church at Pergamum. And he says there in Revelation 2:13, “‘I know where you live, where Satan has his throne.’” Well, biblically, Satan has lots of thrones. Could it be that there are some thrones set up here in Durham? Could it be there are some wicked stronghold set up here of strange worldviews and perverse ways of thinking and living that are satanic and must be driven out by the beauty of the Gospel?
And we need to know where we live. Now, let me tell you about the suffering that’s involved, that’s different from Jesus’s suffering. Christ suffered from the wrath of God, we suffer from the wrath of Satan. God isn’t pouring his wrath out on us, that’s not why we’re going to suffer. We’re going to suffer because Satan will use his people to make our lives miserable as we share the Gospel. That’s what’s going on. We’re not suffering substitutionary deaths under the wrath of God, that’s done forever. God’s not pouring out his wrath on us, but Satan is giving up his territory very difficultly, and he’s going to fight us and God is going to allow us to suffer for a short time. But every time we share the Gospel and someone hears it and believes, we have rescued them from what? “The dominion of darkness and brought them into the kingdom of the beloved Son.” How sweet is that? Colossians 1:13. So let’s go for it.
The Sovereign Power of Evangelism: Christ Drawing People (vs. 32- 33)
Number eight, the sovereign power of evangelism, Christ drawing people to himself. And so we’ll end with this, verse 32, “‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself.’” What does he mean by that? Well, I’m going to tread on a few toes here, but it doesn’t mean worship. It doesn’t mean singing the song, “Lift him up, lift him up, lift the name of Jesus higher.” You heard that one? It’s a good song, I like it. It’s good, it’s just positioned on the wrong verse. Okay?
“Lift him up, lift him up,
lift the name of Jesus higher.
Lift him up, raise his banner to the sky.
He said, ‘If I be lifted up,
I will draw all men unto me.’
Lift him up. All you people, lift him up.”
Okay, but read verse 33, please. What is the lifting up Jesus was talking about? His death. He was lifted up from the earth on the cross, once for all. Now, I’ve already said, worship is a powerful form of evangelism, but that’s not what this verse is talking about. What is he saying? If I die, if I shed my blood, and if I ascend and sit at the right hand of God, and if I send forth the Spirit, I will sovereignly draw all people to myself. That’s what he’s saying.
So if he dies on the cross, he will unleash a force in the universe and on earth for the salvation of people from every tribe and language, and people and nation. That’s how it happens. By the sovereign grace of God. Jesus said this, “All that the Father gives me will… ” What? “Come to me.” Not 90% or 80% or 99%. One hundred percent of the elect will come to faith in Jesus. Amen? But he said on the other side, “No one can come to me unless… ” What? “The Father who sent me draws them.” So Jesus is called irresistible grace, God will, by the Spirit, draw the elect to faith in Christ and they will come. Not 99% of them, all of them. That gives us encouragement, doesn’t it? Praise God for that.
Summary & Conclusion
So let’s look at the summary and we’ll talk about practical applications next week. The subjects of evangelism, a foretaste of vast harvest, there are Gentiles who have yet to be saved and some Jews too, praise God. Foretaste.
Number two, the unique and repeated patterns of evangelism, the death of a seed, be willing to die to yourself. His unique pattern never needs to be repeated again. His unique death, but it is a pattern.
Number three, Jesus has given us a command to evangelize. This is a matter of obedience for us, and if we do it, we will be where he is and share fellowship with him. The stunning eternal reward of evangelism is he will honor everyone who serves him. The troubling cost of evangelism, do not expect it to be easy. Jesus’s heart was troubled. Our hearts will get troubled. That’s how you glorify God by overcoming that. The ultimate reason for evangelism is the glory of God. The violence of evangelism is expect Satan to give up his territory with great difficulty, he’s going to be seeking to beat us up. But finally, the sovereign power of evangelism is, Jesus has the power to draw people to himself. Let’s close in prayer.
Father, we thank you for the time that we’ve had to understand the Gospel, to embrace it. I pray that you would strengthen each one of us. And Father, I pray again, if there are any here that have not yet trusted in Christ, that they would believe and that they would trust and look to Christ crucified and resurrected for their salvation. Help us to be faithful to share with our friends, and neighbors, and co-workers, and even total strangers. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
sermon transcript
Series Introduction: The Exciting Road Ahead
A Vision of the Resurrected Christ in Revelation 1: What Would He Say About FBC?
At the end of his life, the Apostle John was exiled for the ministry of the Word of God, for the testimony of Jesus to the island of Patmos, a small island off the coast of modern day Turkey. All the other 12 had been martyred for their faith as they shared the Gospel, but God had a special purpose for John at the end of his life. And one of those, one of the aspect of that purpose was that he would have a revelation of the resurrected and glorified Jesus Christ. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and he had this vision of Christ. Revelation 1 says there,
“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me, and when I turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands. And among the lamp stands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white, like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. And in his right hand, he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. And then he placed his right hand on me and said, ‘Do not be afraid. I am the first, and I am the last. I am the living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the key of death and Hades. Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lamp stands is this. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And the seven lamp stands are the seven churches.'”
So we have a picture of the resurrected Christ in glory, and in it seems priestly garments, moving through these seven golden lamp stands. And we’re told there that these seven lamp stands represent the seven churches. And they are lamp stands, I think, because Jesus said to us, “You are the light of the world.” And they are golden, because they are precious and valuable. And he’s moving through them, because he has an ongoing ministry to local churches. And in the next two chapters, which we’re not going to go through.
By the way, we are looking at John 12 today. This is all intro. I haven’t forgotten that. But here’s the resurrected Christ moving through these seven golden lamp stands. And he has something to say to each of the seven churches. The seven churches were real churches, but they were also symbolic as well. That often happens in scripture. Things that really happened in space and time have an eternal spiritual lesson for us as well. And they were just across a small stretch of water, there in kind of a circular postal route, there in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, these seven churches. And he has these seven statements to make to the seven churches, and they are of a timeless nature. And it’s very clear that the Lord wants us to read the other churches’ mail. We’re supposed to read all of the letters, because at the end of each of these letters, he says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” plural. So we’re supposed to read all these seven letters, and at the end of each one, also, it gives a promise to him who overcomes. So we’re supposed to read these letters and we’re supposed to understand what’s happening in each of these seven churches. And we’re supposed to be given by the power of the Spirit the ability to overcome for his glory. And so we’re supposed to learn from these. And so from… I think from the church at Ephesus, we’re supposed to learn the value of doctrinal and life purity, but also the danger of forsaking our first love. From the church at Smyrna, we’re supposed to learn the very real possibility of persecution, of being imprisoned and even killed for our testimony to Jesus. And though that may not be happening to us, we’re supposed to be aware that it’s happening to other brothers and sisters, and pray for them and care about it and be aware that it may happen to us in the future.
From the church at the Thyatira, we’re supposed to understand the danger of tolerating sin, especially sexual sin. From the church at Sardis, we’re supposed to understand the danger that a church that was once alive and vibrant and vital can at some point become dead, living on its past reputation, no longer vibrant and vital for the glory of God. From the church at Philadelphia, supposed to learn the value of seeing open doors of ministry and walking through them while we have the opportunity. And from the church at Laodicea, the dire warning to not become spiritually lukewarm, that the Lord would spit us out of his mouth because we’re neither hot nor cold. So seven churches, but it made me wonder, and it’s made the elders wonder recently, as we’ve thought about these things, how would the Lord Jesus evaluate FBC?
Evaluating Where We Are and Where We Are Going
What would he say about us? What kind of letter would he write to this church? How are we to see ourselves? And as we’ve seen what we consider to be led by the Spirit, strengths and weaknesses, opportunities for ministry, some dangers that we face, some good things that are happening in our midst, we feel that we would like to urge the church more and more toward faithfulness in evangelism and evangelistic fruitfulness. We would love to see this church have a river of people who are brought to faith in Christ by our witness and then discipled and trained. And we want to see this happen, because we believe that it is the logical and spiritual next step of health in this church’s progression or reformation, that we would see more and more individuals brought to faith in Christ. And so we are excited and thrilled not just about the next five weeks, but about what God may have for this church over the coming years, even decades, if he should not return in our lifetime. We want to be positive. We want to be thankful. We want to be helpful. We want to be biblical and prayerful, and we want to be fruitful.
Ten Years from Now: A Culture of Evangelism… With Its Evident Fruit
And so that’s our desire as we begin this little five-week focus, but 10 years from now, brothers and sisters, I would love to see a culture of evangelism thriving here, just a kind of a warm culture of people regularly sharing their faith, regularly taking faith steps, venturing forth in the workplace, in the neighborhood with family members, with parents of fellow team members, with total strangers even. We want to see people here consistently, regularly trained very well in evangelism, so that people know what the Gospel is, and they know what to say in various circumstances. And they’re ready, and they are being encouraged by positive examples from other brothers and sisters, regular testimonies of people who are sharing their faith. We long to see people brought to the ordinance of water baptism and be able to hear their stories of how this or that was brought to faith by members of FBC. Honestly, I think I can speak for all the others that we don’t care who brings them to faith. Amen? Just like members of a team don’t care who sank the winning shot. We just want to see it done, and we are so thrilled when we hear stories of faithfulness as you guys are reaching out with the Gospel. We would long to see this culture of evangelism just flourishing here, and I believe we’re going to see it.
I believe this is something the Lord is going to work here as we’re faithful and as we step out in faith, and as we hear God’s word. Recently, a number of us were at a missions conference at Christmas time, the Cross Conference, and a friend of mine, Mack Stiles, who has a flourishing evangelistic ministry in the Persian Gulf with students, Muslim college students, and seeing many come to Christ very rapidly, seeing them built up in their faith in Christ rapidly and seeing them be fruitful to the glory of God. Anyway, he was able to sit four generations spiritually of people right alongside each other. This one led this one to faith, who led this one to faith, who led this one to faith. That’s awesome. Wouldn’t you love to see that here at FBC?
Two Infinite Journeys… We Must Make Balanced Progress
Now, that’s just a rare providence that that could happen all in one, the context of one local church and that person stays there and they come to faith and are trained so quickly. But wouldn’t that be incredible? We yearn to see a culture of evangelism, and so as Ashok was sharing these two infinite journeys, we want to keep them in front of you. The internal journey of sanctification, we must never turn our backs on that. We believe that’s a real strength of this church that we love the Word of God. We love doctrine. We want to drink it in. We are happy to get good teaching and good preaching, and we want to grow in grace. And we must embrace that. We want to be holy and like Christ.
We also want to be faithful in the external journey, and I think this is a church that’s seen numbers of people go out from our midsts to go be set up on the mission field. We want to see that more than ever before. We would like to see lots of folks coming through and being trained here, running with us for a while, but then going out to some unreached people group. The external journey breaks into two kind of sub-sections in my mind. There’s missions in which you have people that are being reached that not only have they never heard of Jesus, but people around them have never heard of Jesus, and there’s no church there. We just need to see those people brought to faith in Christ, and that’s going to take years of language-learning and culture. That’s what we call missions. But here at home, there’s evangelism, and these are people who are not yet Christians, but they are surrounded by the sounds of the Gospel all the time. They have probably Christian friends and family and relatives, other people that they’re aware of the Gospel, but they’re not yet brought to faith in Christ. I would contend that because of that, they’re hard to reach. But this is the mission field God’s given us right here, and I yearn to see us be faithful in evangelism and to grow.
And I think that these two journeys are interconnected. They’re intertwined. As we are embracing our sanctification and growing in maturity and our love for Jesus, we’re going to want to be more and more faithful in evangelism. And as we’re actively sharing our faith, we’re going to have more and more opportunities to grow in grace and trust God for things. So we look on these two journeys as intertwined. We want to see it happen.
My Desire: Hope-Filled Training, Encouragement
So for five weeks, I’m going to be preaching sermons, evangelistic sermons. It’s the closest you’ll ever get me to preaching topically. This is it, guys. So if those of you thought, “Ah, a topical sermon,” that’s what it is, five weeks of it. But even so, I can’t help but be exegetical, so I’m choosing the five best passages. Is that okay? Good compromise. So topics, but still exposition. And this morning, it’s John 12. My desire is to be biblical. I want to be practical in the pulpit. I want to talk about practical ways you can grow. I want to be encouraging.
My deep desire is to motivate people, whoever you are, wherever you’re at in your walk, to take the next steps in evangelism without resorting to guilt manipulation. It’s a terrible motivator. It is not helpful. And we’ll talk more about that, but I don’t desire to make anyone feel guilty. I want to be motivational based on Scripture’s motivations, ultimately, the glory of God, as we’ll see this morning.
Five Weeks in March
Also along with this for three weeks, we’re going to see discussion on these sermons in the evenings at home fellowship, so all the home fellowships will be focusing on these topics for three weeks. And then the final week, Sunday, we have no home fellowships tonight. On the final evening, Sunday evening, we will have a time of corporate prayer here in this room, in this sanctuary, in the evening, to just plead with God to give us fruit and that we would see people brought to faith in Christ and just a time of prayer for them. So we’re looking forward to that. Along with that, I’m teaching a Bible for Life class. And if you’re not presently attending a Bible for Life class, I would urge you to think about coming to the one that I’m teaching on evangelism. So we’re going to go over some of these same things. We’re going to try to be practical. That’s Sunday mornings 9:15 AM and beyond. Along with that, Wednesday evenings, I and some others will be teaching on evangelism as well.
Now you may be wondering, “How can we do all of this teaching on evangelism and say different things each time?” I’m not promising that. There’s going to be some repetition, some overlap. I have only so many ideas on evangelism, but I want to hear from you folks as well. And so those other settings will be more give and take as well, a chance for us to sharpen ourselves in that. So that’s what’s ahead. All of that kind of a brief sermon series intro.
Powerful Lessons on Evangelism from John 12
The Subjects of Evangelism: A Foretaste of a Vast Harvest (vs. 20- 22)
Let’s dig in now to John chapter 12, and let’s see what kind of lessons we can learn from this on the issue of evangelism. And I want to begin just with this amazing encounter that Jesus has in verse 20 and following, 20 through 22, of some Greeks who come up to fill up in Andrew, and they want to see Jesus. And so I’m beginning. The first point I notice here are the subjects of evangelism, this foretaste of a vast harvest. Look again at verse 20 through 22:
“Now, there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast, and they came unto Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee with a request. Sir, they said, ‘We would like to see Jesus.’ Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.”
So these are Greeks. They’re pagans. They’re non-Jews. We don’t even know that they would be at the level of God-fearers, ’cause John doesn’t tell us that. They’re just Greeks. And maybe they’d heard about Jesus’ reputation, his miracles, something like that. And they had a strong interest to meet Jesus. And Jesus would have been very difficult to get to at that point, surrounded constantly by a huge crowd of people, so they went to people who maybe could introduce them to Jesus. They wanted to meet Jesus. And so Philip and Andrew together, they work together to bring these men to Jesus. Now at that time, bringing people to Jesus was physical. You could literally bring them to where Jesus was and they could have a conversation. For us, it’s a metaphor for evangelism, for the spiritual work of introducing people to Christ spiritually through the Gospel.
And so Philip and Andrew are doing that with these Greeks, and it’s amazing how Jesus reacts. We don’t get a conversation between Jesus and these Greeks here in the text. I’m sure that he talked to them, but we don’t have a record of it here. Instead, Jesus’ mind goes immediately to the cross, goes immediately to his imminent death on the cross. Why so? Well, I don’t know exactly what was going on in Jesus’ mind, but it’s not a stretch to think that he realized that these Greeks were just a foretaste of a vast and varied harvest that was going to go among all the tribes and languages and peoples and nations of people interested in coming to Jesus and believing in Jesus and following him. He knew the scriptures better than anyone else alive, anyone who has ever lived, and he knew it said in Isaiah 49:6, that Jesus would be a “…light for the Gentiles, that he may bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus was, Jesus is the light for the Gentiles. He also knew that he would shed his blood. Revelation 5:9 says there, “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” And so he had this, I think, in his mind, because he immediately talks about a kernel of wheat falling into the ground and dying and bringing forth much fruit.
So for us, the application – I’m going to just be weaving applications all the way through here – the application is that we should yearn to bring people to Jesus. We should try to live in such a way that people are hungry to meet the savior. They want to know more about the hope that’s in us. They’re hungry for that, and that these Greeks were just the first fruits of centuries of Gentiles, who would be fascinated in Jesus. Do you yearn for this? Do you yearn to be instrumental in bringing people to Jesus? How much would you love someone to come up and say to you what these Greeks said. “We would love to meet Jesus. Can you tell us how?” Hey, what’s wrong with praying to God for that? I don’t know that God will grant you that prayer, but why not? You say that, “Pastor, that’s where I’m at in evangelism. If someone comes to me and says, ‘I would like to meet Jesus,’ I’ll tell them. But other than that, I don’t know.” Well, I understand that. I feel like that many days, but why couldn’t we ask God for that and see what he does? And it could be that God will give you something that easy, or it could be that God will just make you a little stronger and bolder. But either way, just yearn to be an instrument in bringing people to Jesus as Philip and Andrew were.
The Unique and Repeated Pattern of Evangelism: The Death of a Seed (vs. 23-25)
Secondly, Jesus then brings us to, what I call, the unique but also repeated pattern of evangelism, the death of a seed. First of all, it’s completely unique, utterly unique, but secondly, it’s a paradigm or a pattern of example absolutely essential to the spread of the Gospel, through evangelism.
So Jesus’ mind goes immediately to his death on the cross. Verse 23, “Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.’” Jesus’ immediate answer is amazing. Here are these Greeks and he says, “The hour has come.” At last, the time has come. Throughout John’s Gospel, we have this, “His time had not yet come. The hour has not yet come.” But now it’s come. The time has come. The hour is at hand. And his mind goes, I think, right to the price he’s going to have to pay for Greeks just like this, a price in blood. If they’re going to be rescued from hell, if they’re going to be brought to heaven, he will have to pay the price. He will have to shed his blood for them. And he doesn’t talk about his death directly, but he uses this glory language, “‘The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.’”
And so it’s very important for us to understand what this means. To glorify God is to put God on display, to make God radiant and obvious to the people, that God’s attributes would be put on display for all to see. And so there’s so often this display language connected with the Gospel. It says in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So it’s a display of love. Earlier in Romans 3, we have a display of justice. God displayed his justice, because in his forbearance, he left the sins committed in the Old Testament unpunished, so he had to put his justice on display. Those two, love and justice, are just an entry way into seeing all the attributes of God, all of the characteristics of God on display in Christ crucified. They’re all there: Power of God, wisdom of God. That’s 1 Corinthians 1. The patience of God, the wrath of God. It’s all on display. And Jesus said, “The hour has come for that. The time has come for the son of man to be glorified,” not just God, but that Jesus’s attributes will be put on display.
Son of man comes from Daniel chapter 7, where we have the Ancient of Days, Almighty God, and then we have another one, one like a son of man being brought into the presence of the Ancient of Days, “…and he receives sovereign power and honor and glory, and all peoples and nations and people of every language will bow down and worship him, the son of man.” Jesus calls himself the son of man. He is the fulfillment of the Daniel 7 passage.
And this is the cost of their salvation and of ours: He must die, he must shed his blood for them to be saved. And this is glory for his own name. And so he says in verse 24, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.’” As usual, as he frequently does, Jesus uses an illustration from nature. Many of his parables are agricultural, and he’s choosing out this idea of a seed. Now the seed, he says, has a hard shell on it, a protective coating, but that coating must be cracked, that protective shell must yield, and that seed must fall into the ground, and then the shell cracked and that genetic material inside that God made from the foundation of the world for the wheat plant must be exposed to the nutrients of the soil and the moisture, and up will come the plant. It must die, or else this harvest cannot come, and without it dying, then it will never bear fruit, it will remain a single seed. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.
Now, the NIV says, “…brings forth many seeds.” The Greek word there is just fruit, it’s a common word for fruit, but we know that fruit has seeds in it, and the idea here is of a repeated pattern, there’s going to be lots of seeds that also must fall into the ground and die. First, let’s finish this one assertion, the death of Jesus is utterly unique, never to be repeated, never again will it be repeated. It’s completely unique, it is complete and perfect in itself. It says many times in the Book of Hebrews that Jesus died once for all. Amen? So Hebrews 10:10, it says, “By that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” But the application of that redemption will be, it turns out, by the same principle of sacrificial, self-sacrificial dying, that the redemption was bought to begin with. Jesus won the redemption himself by himself, perfect work of redemption. But the application must be in the same way. Therefore, Jesus’s death is not only unique, but it’s also a paradigm example of how we also must be, if we’re going to be evangelistically fruitful. You must be willing to die to yourself. If you refuse to die, you will remain a single seed. That’s the idea here.
Jesus’ Command to Evangelize: Follow Him in Dying (vs. 26)
Thirdly, Jesus gives us a command to evangelize. He commands us to follow him in his death. Look at verses 25 and 26. You see how he extends it, so he’s not just talking about himself. “‘The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’” Verse 26, “‘Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be.’” So Jesus extends and clarifies this metaphor. His death is unique, but your death will be like his if you want to be fruitful, and in order to do that, if you refuse to do it, if you refuse to fall into the ground and die, you are loving your life in this world too much. That’s the image he’s giving you here, you’re loving your life. It means to love your life in that sense means to yearn for a life of comfort and ease and prosperity and the respect and love of the world. To love your life means to love your reputation, to love your reputation with people and benefits that come from people’s acceptance. Conversely, to use the language that Jesus uses, to hate your life is not an absolute command, it’s relative. Similar to when Jesus says, “If anyone does not hate his father or mother, or his wife, or his sons, or daughters, or even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Now, Jesus in other places, commands us to love all of those things, but compared to our love for Jesus, it must be like hatred. I think that’s the same thing here. We’re supposed to actually love our lives in this world and be thankful for the good things God gives us, but relative to this calling, we are to hate our lives. And if we do not, we will remain a single seed, we will not bear fruit. So Jesus, he is commanding his servants to follow him in the same pattern of dying, there is a command. My servants must follow me, there’s a command in there. And so, he commands us to do this. So this is a basic principle.
The external journey, the Gospel cannot advance without suffering. It can’t advance without suffering, it’s impossible. Will not advance without pain and suffering, and Paul knew this better than anyone who’s ever lived, other than Jesus. Paul knew it very well, and he said to the Colossians church, which he did not plant, he’s writing to somebody else’s church plant, but he says in Colossians 1:24-25, “Now brothers, I rejoice in what was suffered for you. So I am excited by the missionaries, the evangelists that brought you the Gospel and paid the price, and actually I fill up in my body, my flesh, what is still lacking in regard to the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church.” In other words, there’s something missing with Christ’s suffering.
Now there’s nothing missing on the atonement, it is perfect, but now there must be additional suffering to take the message of the atonement out to those who need to hear it. And that’s exactly what Paul is talking about in Colossians 1. And so again and again, the advance of the Gospel has been through suffering, the blood of martyrs has been seed for the church. Our brothers and sisters, they conquered the Roman Empire spiritually by dying, literally dying. Some of them sown in animal skins and set loose in the colosseum and packs of wild dogs ripped their flesh till they died, hard way to die. Others were put up on stakes and burned for Nero’s dinner parties and other things like this. This has been going on for 20 centuries, is going on in our day as well in other countries. But there are simpler less spectacular ways of dying that are every bit as essential to Gospel advance, you know what I’m talking about. You know what everyone who has ever screwed up his or her courage at the workplace and walked across the floor to share the Gospel with a co-worker, you know that feels like dying. Doesn’t it? It feels like dying. I don’t want to die. It hurts, and it’s hard, and it’s not easy.
I remember this guy named Ron, I was trying to lead to faith in Christ, and he was this gruff older guy, he was in his late 50s, and tough to talk to, tough to work with. And the Lord convicted me, I needed to share the Gospel with Ron, I’ll never forget that. Why him? Hardest guy I could think of that I regularly interacted with at the workplace, and it was lunchtime, and I was like, I don’t want to do it, don’t want to do it, don’t want to do it, and I just don’t want to do it, and I don’t want to do it. So I remember going around and I was like in my mind, I was getting sweats and all that sort of thing, and I was like, I tell you what, I’m going to put a fleece down, that’s what you do in moments like this, I’m going to put a fleece down. If I go around the corner to Ron’s work bench and he’s sitting there eating his lunch, then that’s a sign you want me to share the Gospel with him. But if he’s not there, then I won’t. So I come around the corner and there he is eating a sandwich. Thank you, Jesus. So I walked up and I just – you know Paul said, “I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling.” And that was going on. And he was like – I don’t know what he was thinking, but I’m sure something like this – “What in the world has gotten into you?” So I just, I did a very poor job. But I basically said, “I’m a Christian.” He said, “I know.” And I said, “Well, I believe in Jesus.” “I know,” he said. “Well, I think you need him.” And then I walked away.
That’s it. I don’t know if Ron’s going to be in heaven or not, but I don’t think it’ll be because of that witness. But friends, we can do better than that, but that’s not my message. It’s just felt like dying, it just felt like dying that day, and I didn’t want to do it, and I just don’t think we can really be fruitful if we’re not willing to face that and be willing to step forward. It does hurt. It’s not easy, it’s difficult. We’ll get to more of that, but Jesus is promising sweet fellowship for those who serve him. Do you see this? Verse 26, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am there, my servant will be.” Sometimes I feel like there’s a distance between me and Christ because I’m not more faithful in this area, that he’s out there working and I’m not wanting to go there. But Paul said in Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” That’s what I want, I want to go, even if the price is suffering, I want to be where he is. And the same thing in Hebrews 13, “Jesus was crucified outside the city gates, let us go to him outside the camp bearing the reproach he bore.” So that’s where he is, he’s out there, go to him and you’ll find sweet fellowship with Jesus.
The Stunning Reward for Evangelism: Honor from God (vs. 26)
Fourthly, the stunning reward for evangelism, honor from God. Verse 26, “‘My father will honor the one who serves me.’” Boy, this just brings goosebumps to me, it’s staggering. Meditate on what’s being said here. This is the infinite God of the universe, this is the God before whom the angels hide their faces and they cover their feet. This is the one who dwells in unapproachable light, the one who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and all its people are like insignificant grasshoppers. This amazing infinite God, this eternal omnipotent God will honor you if you serve Jesus. Wow!
This is the doctrine of rewards. At the center of reward is this one thing. Look down, same chapter, verse 43, John 12:43. This is what the honor is, it says, “‘They loved praise from men more than…’” Look at that, “‘…praise from God.’” Do you see that? That’s it. Now, it’s a negative verse, but it tells us what the honor is. The honor is that God will praise you, he’ll honor you, and he may even of their indication give you some emblems of that praise, such as crowns, etcetera, the crowns in which we’ll glory in the presence of God, but we will cast them down, giving him all honor and praise. But friends, this is better than an Olympic gold medal for half-pipe or free style skiing or ice dancing or curling, friends. Look, I’m not mocking those sports, I’m just saying this is better than any Olympic gold medal from Sochi or any other place, this is an eternal reward from God if you serve Jesus. Now, I don’t think this statement is just linked to evangelism only, any way you serve him he’ll honor you. But I think the context here is hating your life and dying and bringing forth fruit, so it’s home base seems to be evangelism and he’ll honor those that step out in faith and trust him. He will praise you.
The Troubling Cost of Evangelism: Jesus’ Infinite Suffering (vs. 27)
Fifth, the troubling cost of evangelism pictured by Jesus’s suffering here, ultimately his infinite suffering. Verse 27, “‘Now my heart is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it’s for this very reason I came to this hour.’” So this is John’s glimpse into what’s recorded for us in Matthew, Mark and Luke at Gethsemane. Jesus there, as you know, shrinks back from drinking the cup of wrath that God hands them. “‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me, yet not my will but yours be done.’” So Jesus reveals the troubling in his soul over the pain and suffering he would undergo, it is very difficult to suffer, Jesus did not in any way minimize that, but he knew that this was the very reason God had brought him into the world. So also at a much lower level, we evangelists will suffer internal turmoil in our souls. We will be able to say, “Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, get me out of witnessing?” No, no. No, you orchestrated this whole thing. I am your workmanship. I am created for good works. That’s why you left me here. You work the other side of the equation, you’ve got them ready to hear. I can’t say no. I can’t.
So people are going to attack us verbally, we’re going to be at a disadvantage in our careers probably if we’re faithful in evangelism. Some neighbors will never wave to us again. I’ve said before, you’re basically going to trade in a mediocre relationship for one good opportunity to share the Gospel, because it wasn’t that great anyway, honestly. But don’t be afraid to trade it in. Say, “I want to share my faith,” and Jesus shows us the way out. Don’t shrink back because of your fears. Feel the fear, don’t expect to be anesthetized, it’s actually how we glorify God. When you feel it, but witness anyway. It’s the way we get to glorify him, so don’t ask that that go away, just say, “God help me to push through it and be faithful, just as you Lord Jesus pushed through it and you were faithful.”
The Ultimate Reason for Evangelism: The Glory of God (vs. 28-30)
Sixth, the ultimate reason for evangelism must be the glory of God. “‘Now, my heart is troubled and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No. It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’’ Now, the crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered, others said an angel had spoken to him, and, Jesus said, ‘This voice was for your benefit, not for mine.’” I love that statement.
Alright, well, let’s get the benefit from it then, shall we? Let’s get the benefit, alright? There are many motives for evangelism. We’ll talk more about this in a future sermon, but there are a lot of bad motives for evangelism. The worst in my opinion, one of the worst anyway, is guilt. It’s a terrible motivator. It’s a bad fuel, it’ll make the engine cease after a while. The engine can run for a while on it, but it’s going to cease down the road. It’s just bad. Friends, I know we’ve just put a pause on Galatians, but can we not forget the lessons of Galatians? We are justified by faith in Christ alone, not by any works of the law, and that includes our own evangelism. So guilt is a very bad motivator, let’s not do it out of guilt or fear that God won’t bless us or things like that. Guilt and fear of that sort are not good.
How about pride? That’s if you’re good at it, and you’re actually able to lead many to Christ and you start getting puffed up, and along with that comes the whole mega church thing, and there’s power and money and all of this river of things that comes based on evangelism. Those are bad motives, fame and all that. There are good motivations, good motivations: Love for people, compassion for others, faith, as we see what’s happening, what’s going on, where they’re all heading, training in habit can be good, it’s good to have a habit of doing a good thing, obedience, these are all good motivations, but the best by far is this: The glory of God.
You are the light of the world. Put God on display. Put him on display. Make him radiant. Yearn to worship in your witnessing. Say, I serve a great God. Can I tell you about him? I’m at my best in witnessing, I have no fear at all with people when I worship in witnessing. And say, “Let me tell you how great Jesus is. Let me tell you about some of his miracles. Let me tell you about some of his teachings. Let me tell you about the greatest thing he ever did, which is dying and his resurrection.” That’s great. And then I’m just happy and I’m having a great time even if they’re not. [chuckle] I want them to join me in my joy, but that’s the best witnessing I ever do, that God would be glorified. This is how Jesus worked through his own anguish. Oh, no, not that I would shrink back. “But Father, glorify your name.” Father glorify your name.
And by the way, this is pretty cool, I haven’t found another example in the Bible of what’s going on here. Do you realize what this is? This is the actual transcript of an inter-Trinitarian conversation, it’s the only one I can think of in the whole Bible. Some verses have the Father speaking to the Son. In many places we see the Son speaking to the Father. This is the only conversation I have recorded in the Bible. That’s pretty awesome, isn’t it? It proves the Trinity. Separate persons able to have a conversation. So away with modalism, talk to me about that after the worship, we don’t have time. But there is one God in three persons, and they’re conversing, and what is the topic? It’s the central topic of the universe, the glory of God. And the more you live for the glory of God, the more fruitful you’re going to be in evangelism.
As John Piper put it in “Let the Nations Be Glad!”, let me change it from missions to evangelism. Can I just do that? I don’t think John would mind. You can tattle on me and if he gets upset, let me know. But I’m just going to re-read the first paragraph of “Let the Nations Be Glad!” talking about evangelism instead of missions. “Evangelism exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not evangelism, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, evangelism will be no more. But worship will be eternal. God is everything. The glory of God is the best.” And this is what God’s doing. I love God’s answer, doesn’t it? “I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.” This is what I do, I glorify my name. So if you’re weak in evangelism, start with your worship life, fan into flame your sense of the greatness of God in his glory. Have a sense of how great a God he is, get more and more of a vision through faith, through Scripture of the greatness of God and your evangelism will flow from that.
The Violence of Evangelism: The Ruler of this World Driven Out (vs. 31)
Seventh, the violence of evangelism. The ruler of this world must be driven out. Verse 31, “Now is the time for judgment on this world, and now the prince of this world will be driven out.” Jesus speaks of the judgment of the world. There is a coming wrath, dear friends. There is a coming judgment on this world. That judgment is already and not yet, the time has already come for the judgment on the world, and it will come. There is a coming judgment. There is a wrath that’s now and there’s a coming wrath. Now, it is because of Satan, that ancient serpent called the devil who lured man into sin in the garden of Eden, that this whole thing even needs to happen. Now, Satan was given authority over the kingdoms of this world. Who gave it to him? I think Adam did. I think Adam surrendered the world to Satan, and now Satan is boasting to Jesus, “The whole world’s mine, I can give it to anyone I want to.”
So that’s the ruler of this world, that’s Satan. Satan must be driven out, and he is driven out by the power of the Holy Spirit through the word of God, specifically through the Gospel. As we step out in faith, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the power of God, speaking the Gospel, Satan gets driven out, progressively driven out, driven out of people’s lives, driven out of families and marriages, driven out of hearts and minds, and ultimately driven out of the whole world when Jesus comes back. So we need to know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, it’s not against the people, but against these Satanic force of evil in the heavenly realms, and Satan will not give up his territory easily. One of the letters of the seven churches was to the church at Pergamum. And he says there in Revelation 2:13, “‘I know where you live, where Satan has his throne.’” Well, biblically, Satan has lots of thrones. Could it be that there are some thrones set up here in Durham? Could it be there are some wicked stronghold set up here of strange worldviews and perverse ways of thinking and living that are satanic and must be driven out by the beauty of the Gospel?
And we need to know where we live. Now, let me tell you about the suffering that’s involved, that’s different from Jesus’s suffering. Christ suffered from the wrath of God, we suffer from the wrath of Satan. God isn’t pouring his wrath out on us, that’s not why we’re going to suffer. We’re going to suffer because Satan will use his people to make our lives miserable as we share the Gospel. That’s what’s going on. We’re not suffering substitutionary deaths under the wrath of God, that’s done forever. God’s not pouring out his wrath on us, but Satan is giving up his territory very difficultly, and he’s going to fight us and God is going to allow us to suffer for a short time. But every time we share the Gospel and someone hears it and believes, we have rescued them from what? “The dominion of darkness and brought them into the kingdom of the beloved Son.” How sweet is that? Colossians 1:13. So let’s go for it.
The Sovereign Power of Evangelism: Christ Drawing People (vs. 32- 33)
Number eight, the sovereign power of evangelism, Christ drawing people to himself. And so we’ll end with this, verse 32, “‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself.’” What does he mean by that? Well, I’m going to tread on a few toes here, but it doesn’t mean worship. It doesn’t mean singing the song, “Lift him up, lift him up, lift the name of Jesus higher.” You heard that one? It’s a good song, I like it. It’s good, it’s just positioned on the wrong verse. Okay?
“Lift him up, lift him up,
lift the name of Jesus higher.
Lift him up, raise his banner to the sky.
He said, ‘If I be lifted up,
I will draw all men unto me.’
Lift him up. All you people, lift him up.”
Okay, but read verse 33, please. What is the lifting up Jesus was talking about? His death. He was lifted up from the earth on the cross, once for all. Now, I’ve already said, worship is a powerful form of evangelism, but that’s not what this verse is talking about. What is he saying? If I die, if I shed my blood, and if I ascend and sit at the right hand of God, and if I send forth the Spirit, I will sovereignly draw all people to myself. That’s what he’s saying.
So if he dies on the cross, he will unleash a force in the universe and on earth for the salvation of people from every tribe and language, and people and nation. That’s how it happens. By the sovereign grace of God. Jesus said this, “All that the Father gives me will… ” What? “Come to me.” Not 90% or 80% or 99%. One hundred percent of the elect will come to faith in Jesus. Amen? But he said on the other side, “No one can come to me unless… ” What? “The Father who sent me draws them.” So Jesus is called irresistible grace, God will, by the Spirit, draw the elect to faith in Christ and they will come. Not 99% of them, all of them. That gives us encouragement, doesn’t it? Praise God for that.
Summary & Conclusion
So let’s look at the summary and we’ll talk about practical applications next week. The subjects of evangelism, a foretaste of vast harvest, there are Gentiles who have yet to be saved and some Jews too, praise God. Foretaste.
Number two, the unique and repeated patterns of evangelism, the death of a seed, be willing to die to yourself. His unique pattern never needs to be repeated again. His unique death, but it is a pattern.
Number three, Jesus has given us a command to evangelize. This is a matter of obedience for us, and if we do it, we will be where he is and share fellowship with him. The stunning eternal reward of evangelism is he will honor everyone who serves him. The troubling cost of evangelism, do not expect it to be easy. Jesus’s heart was troubled. Our hearts will get troubled. That’s how you glorify God by overcoming that. The ultimate reason for evangelism is the glory of God. The violence of evangelism is expect Satan to give up his territory with great difficulty, he’s going to be seeking to beat us up. But finally, the sovereign power of evangelism is, Jesus has the power to draw people to himself. Let’s close in prayer.
Father, we thank you for the time that we’ve had to understand the Gospel, to embrace it. I pray that you would strengthen each one of us. And Father, I pray again, if there are any here that have not yet trusted in Christ, that they would believe and that they would trust and look to Christ crucified and resurrected for their salvation. Help us to be faithful to share with our friends, and neighbors, and co-workers, and even total strangers. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
