Snippet of Sermon by Rev Tan-Yeo Lay Suan
Men
were still stirred by this amazing miracle that had happened just over the
Mount of Olives, in the little village of Bethany, and they were talking about
it everywhere. Evidently these Greeks, coming up to Jerusalem, did not merely want to see him as a kind of tourist attraction; they
wanted conversation with him. They wanted an interview with Jesus. Philip
and Andrew made a quick decision and brought their request to Jesus. When they
reported the request of these Greeks, the Lord replies to them very strangely.
And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for
the Son of man to be glorified." (John 12:23 RSV)
This
reply must have startled Philip and Andrew. For 3-1/2 years while they had been
with Jesus they had heard him say over and over, "My hour has not yet come."
You have the first account of it in the first miracle Jesus did, when his
mother came to him and asked him to do something about the wine for the wedding
feast. Jesus said to her, "Woman,
what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come,"
John 2:4). He did not mean by that that he would not do anything for her,
because he did. He went on to change the water into wine. But he meant by it
that it would not result in anything significant. There would be no display of
his glory through it. No one would understand who he was, no one could see him
for what he was, because of that miracle. And so it proved to be true.
Then
in the seventh chapter of his Gospel, John tells us that Jesus told his
brothers to go on up to the feast at Jerusalem but that he was not going up
because "my hour
has not yet come" John 7:6).And, in the eighth chapter, as he is
speaking in Jerusalem and already the opposition against him is beginning to
form, John says, "No
man laid hands on him to arrest him, because his hour had not yet come,"
(John 8:20).Yet now, when a handful of strangers come and the report is carried
to Jesus that a certain group of Greeks want to see him, suddenly, to his
disciples' amazement, he seems greatly moved with emotion and says, "Now my hour has come. The time has
come for me to be glorified." This first sentence excited their
hearts. This event seems to be to Jesus like a great
clock striking the hour, a momentous moment of his life when all that he had
lived for shall now find its fulfillment.
SERMON PROPER
Here when the Gentiles and crowds press down on him, Jesus shared
his hour had come to be glorified by God. Jesus came to the Jews then and to us
today with a new view of life. God is going to give him more glory
than he already has. But Jesus didn't mean the kind of glory they thought He
meant. The
Jews of Jesus’ day and most of mankind today look on glory as conquest, the
acquisition of power, the right to rule. But every
succeeding sentence after that, made them stagger. Jesus looked on glory as a cross. Using
the analogy of the seed being planted in the soil, Jesus was speaking about his
own death. Those who dreamt of a conquest, had their dreams turned into visions
of a cross. It didn't make sense. He says in verse 24, "Very truly I keep on telling you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to
the ground and dies, it remains, keeps on remaining
only a single seed. But if it dies , it produces and keeps
on producing many seeds.”
Every
basic seed or grain of wheat has a covering on the outside. As long as that
covering is on the outside, that grain cannot reproduce. It cannot grow. You
remember the “Grow green bean in brand essence bottle?” experiments? When that seed is put in the ground /cotton,
the rot and decay sets into that outer part and as it decays and decomposes,
the life that is inside springs out and then that seed begins to grow and
produce fruit. And that's exactly what Jesus says.
When
Jesus became incarnate, like a pure corn of the finest wheat, he fell to the
ground, and when at his death, "He made his grave with the wicked, and
with the rich in his death," he fell into the ground: and now what an
abundant harvest of glory to God, and salvation to souls, hath that death, and
grave of Jesus produced! Had Jesus never died, how would he have seen his seed,
and the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand? Had Jesus not descended to
the grave, how would he have been the life-giving, the soul-quickening root of
all his church and people? But now, by this one precious corn of wheat falling
into the ground, and dying, how hath the store of God been filled, and is now
continually filling, with his seed!
‘As long
as My body is alive, the life that is in Me cannot escape. It is when I go into
the grave, the death of My body releases the power of life within My person.’
If Jesus doesn't die, then He remains alone. He
doesn't produce life for anybody else because His life-giving power is like a
seed, it's only good if it dies. And that's why the Bible says, are you ready
for this? He can only put away sin by the sacrifice of...what?...of Himself.
That's the only way. That's the only way. The way of the cross
Well, you can imagine their reaction. They were waiting for a King
and He was talking about dying. Isn't it a marvelous thing that He was willing
to die? We're the...we're the harvest, did you know that? We who love Jesus
Christ, we're the harvest of His death,
we're the fruit that sprang out of that seed that died. God brought something
new, a new dramatic change the Blessed harvest...blessed harvest, through
his willingness to undergo the process of decay and destruction.
And the history of Christianity is just this, is one long harvest
yielded by the spiritual seed that was sown on Calvary's cross and that's the
way that God has ordained that Jesus could receive the insuppressible,
empowered life. He did not need to die. He was no martyr to a failing cause. He
himself said that he did not need to die. "No man takes my life from me," he
said, "I lay it down of myself, and I take it up again of myself,"
(John 10:18). This new beginning is made possible by the willingness of Jesus
to go to the cross.
This new beginning is the inheritance of everyone who believes in
Jesus. I remembered immersing someone in the waters of baptism but the
candidate would not have the waters cover all of him. It’s like I want the inheritance,
the new beginning that God has procured for me on the cross, yet I will not
completely die (be immersed). Jesus puts it to us plainly here,
first, we must die if we are to live. What he has done will have no
value for us, nothing of value can start till we have died to it. There is no
spiritual life for you, for me, for any man, except by dying into it. When Semanie was in Kindergarten, her teacher was
very exciting. She actually got in a box a few caterpillars and the children
had the opportunity to feed it daily and watch it grow. Then came the day they
turned into chrysalises. The outer layer turned darker and darker till it
looked like some dried leave. Then the teacher opened one of them, the
butterfly wasn’t ready… and it died without ever flying… the butterfly had to
go through the entire process of dying to its life and existence as a
caterpillar. Not one shred of caterpillar-ness must remain.
Some of us only have a little experience of the new beginning but
it quickly disappears and revert back to the same people we were before we
believed in Jesus. There appears to be little difference. Why? Because we were never resolute about not
carrying any of what is previously within us. We think we have some
good stuff inherent in us and we think God wouldn’t mind us keeping them. But
we fail to realize that these “old things” will stifle us from allowing God’s
life to re-make us. In fact if you remember, Paul, a righteous Pharisee
according to their law faultless had this to say, "But what things were gain to me, these
I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the
excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish [1) any refuse, as the excrement of animals, offscourings, rubbish, dregs a) of things worthless and detestable], that I may
gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from
the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is
from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.... 我 为 他 已 经 丢 弃 万 事 ， 看 作 粪 土 ， 为 要 得 着 基 督" Philippians 3:7-10. The
Chinese translation of this word “rubbish” is nearer what it is supposed to
mean. 粪土 Paul was saying that all his Jewish practices with the legal and moral
laws, he considered them detestable as excrement of animals, to be discarded
and gotten rid off as quickly as
possible.
Reflection Questions:
Have you a fine-spun righteousness of
your own? It must die. Have you any faith in yourself?
It must die.
Count EVERYTHING as loss, EVERYTHING.
The morality/goodness you felt inherent in you, put that away. It will keep
you from desiring what the Spirit will work in you because it is easy to fall
back on the familiar [the old nua nua T-shirts that Pastor Helen spoke about a
few weeks ago]. 2. Does your Christian life lack vibrancy? 要死不死的样子。The
newness is not there. “I ‘m still the same person before I believe in Jesus
Christ.” God wants to make you alive with His transforming power.
He wants to
make NEW everything in you. God has something infinitely more desirable than all
that we can ask or imagine… a life
filled with His goodness… where the beatitudes will not sound hollow but be the
norm that we will exhibit…
Next, we must surrender everything to keep it. " Anyone who loves
their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in
this world will keep it for eternal life. Those who love their
lives dearly and has always lived that way, Jesus says, “Brother, you can never
have spiritual life, hope, joy, peace, heaven, except by giving everything up
into God's hands.”
Many of us spend our entire lives trying to figure out who and
what we are. We spend so much time trying to live life
OUR WAY, and in the end WE ARE NEVER EVER SATISFIED!!! . We worry decades of our life away trying to hold on
to this temporal existence, letting true life pass us by because we are too terribly consumed with OUR LIVES, to
actually LIVE A LIFE WORTH LIVING!!! But Jesus Christ calls each of us not to
Our life, but He calls us to be part of His life!!!
John 10 v 10B “I am come that they might have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly.”
Matthew 16 v 25 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
We fail to realize that our lives by themselves do not carry
eternal value. That is why when it is stripped of all that is valuable to us,
the worth of our lives hits rock bottom.
Many successful persons reach their old age and find no reason to live
after retirement. Jesus speaks with warning: "Suppose a person lives for safety
and security and for self; suppose WE gain the whole world; then suppose that
WE find that life is not worth living, what can WE give to get life back
again?" And the grim truth is that WE cannot get life back
again (no take 2, ng in acting). In every decision of life WE are doing
something to OURSELVES; we are making OURSELVES a certain kind of person; we
are building up steadily and inevitably a certain kind of character; we are
making OURSELVES able to do certain things and quite unable to do others. It is
perfectly possible for a person to gain all the things they set their heart
upon, and then to awaken one morning to find that they have missed the most
important things of all. God, life, family, friends, and eternity…
Jesus said
of the people who would be His disciples, "Let him deny himself." We
will understand the meaning of this demand best if WE take it very simply and
literally. "Let him say
no to himself." If a person will follow Jesus Christ WE must
ever say no to OURSELF and YES
to Jesus Christ. WE must say NO
to OUR OWN natural LOVE of ease and comfort, and personal self-satisfaction. WE
must say NO to every course
of action based on self-seeking and self-will and self-desire. WE must say NO to the instincts and the
desires which prompt US to touch and taste and handle the forbidden things. WE
must unhesitatingly say YES
to the voice and the command of Jesus
Christ.
Jesus invites us to begin to taste the life that he is giving to
us. The eternal life. Our lives begin to become more and more priceless as it
is joined to Christ. The value is not in its being an extraordinary long life. John
shares with us about this eternal life 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they
know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” It
is rather a life of discovering and knowing God, understanding how our lives
are purposeful as the Lord allows his power, his life to flow through us. And this
new experience known as eternal life holds value and grows in value into
eternity.
Reflection Question
Have you experienced this eternal life as a Christian all these
years? This assurance and certainty that your life is fulfilling, priceless
because of what the Lord has been doing in you? Are your hoarding your life?
Reserving all for yourself?
Not once or twice but many times Jesus insisted
that the man who hoarded his life must in the end lose it. , and the man who
spent his life must in the end gain it. William Barclay made this observation,
“No doubt we
will exist longer if we take things easily, if we avoid all strain, if we sit
at the fire and husband life, if we look after ourselves as a hypochondriac
looks after his health. No doubt we will exist longer--but we will never live.”
We will not truly lived to experience the radical joy, peace and freedom that
comes from risking our lives for the sake of Christ. What are some of these loves of ours that we
are too engrossed and consumed with that we do not have any room left to enter
into life eternal? Matthew chapter 10 records for us a powerful, powerful
statement of Jesus. Verse 37, "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me…” Did you get that? "… anyone who
loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” 38Whoever
does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He that findeth
his life shall lose it. He that loseth his life for My sake shall find
it."
You shall have everything
in Christ when you are willing to have nothing of your own. A
full surrender of everything to God is the only way to keep it.
Some of God's people find this literally true. I have known a mother keep back
her child from God, and the child has died. Wealthy people have worshipped
their wealth, and as they were God's people, he has broken their idols into
shivers. You must love your all if you would keep it, and renounce your most precious
thing if you would have it preserved to you. Living to serve self, living to get only
what YOU want out of life, in the end only brings bitterness and eternal
despair…But He who lives for God WILL GAIN ABUNDANTLY AND POSSESS ETERNAL
LIFE!!!!!!!
This principle leads to verse 26. "If any man serves Me, let him follow Me. Whoever serves me must follow {habitually
follow this command or call} me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."
The Lord Jesus sets a criterion for those who would serve him.
With his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, many people are excited to join his
cause. They are thinking of the honors they will receive being in the service
of the King-to-be candidate. But Jesus
plainly says that they must meet the criterion that he sets which is to follow
him. To follow him in what sense you might ask? To follow him means to imitate him in what he does. And in this
context, it means to follow him into death. If it's persecution, that's what it
is.
With this statement, Jesus separated the crowd from
the true disciples. We are not unlike the
many people who crowded around Jesus for a place in his “cabinet”… and I must
say that some of us have served Jesus
without following him. Some serve:
·
Motivation: For earthly honors, to be seen by others how hard it
is we’ve been serving, to impress people we want to know. We enjoy the ministry
for our own sakes, not for Christ’s. We
may even enjoy ministry for it’s own sake. We like it for ourselves.
·
Means and methods: with earthly methods that go against everything
that Jesus stands for…
and yet at the back of our minds, we want to end up
·
where Jesus would be i.e. exalted at the right hand of God.
·
Receiving honor from the Lord.
In Matt 7:22-23 “22 Many will
say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in
your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I
will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” It is in dying, when we are not afraid or
sorry that we’re being poured out daily for the Lord that is to follow after
Christ. Like Paul in Phil 2:17, “17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink
offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and
rejoice with all of you.”
My brothers and sisters, let us not shrink from the exertion that would
see us “buried, hidden and even dying” yet bearing fruit to the glory of the
Lord. Let us raise the condition/degree of our consecration that we may be found
more worthy of our Lord and of his glorious cause.
CONCLUSION
This simple parable talks about consequences, the consequences of
trying to protect our lives is the loss of our lives. The consequence of
spending our lives for God and His Kingdom is eternal life.
Picture
in your minds the white thing thrusting up out of the earth into the sunlight
and turns green, and becomes a blade. Then it grows into a long stem, and
begins to form a head with new kernels of wheat, each like the original and yet
each one different; no duplications, and yet the reproduction of one life. At
last that grain of wheat finds itself fully developed, becoming what God
intended it to be, because it consented to the process of dying.
Reflection Question:
1. Are your living a shallow, mediocre, indeterminate
Christian lives because you have not yet discovered this divine Lordship at
work?
2. What aspect in your dying are you afraid of? During
this week of the Lent season, consider starting anew:
1.
We want to be resolute
about one of our “old familiar things” that stifle us from allowing God’s life
to re-make us.
2.
Identify one love of ours that we keep
us too engrossed and consumed with that we do not have any room left to enter
into life eternal and renounce it? Have you experienced this eternal life as a
Christian all these years? This assurance and certainty that your life is
fulfilling, priceless because of what the Lord has been doing in you.
3.
Following Jesus’ all the way to that
great humbling experience to serve the Lord.
Do you see your faith as a Sunday matter? Do I compartmentalize my life?
