Dying with Jesus so that we can live with Him (3/3/19 John Series #48)

 

ATTN: A mother of a teen once told me, “Being a student is what’s priority for my child right now. Once he gets his education, then he can serve God!” I forget what I said back to the mother. But if I could say it now, I would say, “Ma’am, you are saying it’s okay for your child to go to hell. Don’t you know that Jesus said unless He becomes the priority of our lives, we have no part in Him?” (Luke 14:26)

It isn’t just the child that I worry about. I worry about the mother as well. Jesus is not her priority. Her child’s wellbeing is. In that case, she will not be His priority either when the judgment comes. If she remains that way, Jesus will say to her, “Depart from me. I never knew you”

That was the first half of the devotional I sent out on Friday morning to give you a little taste. If it sounds serious and harsh, well, I was simply mimicking the tone and the message that Jesus was conveying to the crowd.

TRANS: Today, we come to the second part of John 12 where Jesus just experienced the most exhilarating day as the crowd around Him bowed down to Him and cried out “Hosanna in the Highest and the king has arrived!” He could’ve taken over the world right then and there. People were ready and willing to made Him king. But Jesus, right as He was about to kick the field goal to win the Superbowl, says something that is a total downer.  He tells them to die because He is going to die!

How would you like to hear that on that last huddle right before you win the Superbowl. “Hey, guys, let’s die because I’m going to die…”

Three points I want to share with you through this passage today.

 

1. The way to glory is through death. (No death, no glory)
2. 23 Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” To be glorified is to be honored, recognized, or even to become famous. And the hour is referring to a particular time or an event that one has been preparing for. Jesus spoke of this “hour” many times in his ministry. When Jesus is prodded by his mother to help at the wedding, Jesus says, “my hour has not yet come.” When He was prodded by his brother to show himself to the world, He again says, “my time has not yet come.” When he was about to be arrested by the officials for blasphemy but He slid right by them, the writer explains it was because “his hour had not yet come.” But finally on the week that was going to be crucified, he says, “the hour has come.”

So, the “hour” is referring to that time when His mission was finally going to be accomplished – the mission of dying on the cross for the sins of the world. The “hour” was the time for Him to die… Then, why is Jesus saying that the “hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” To be glorified is something good. So, was Jesus mistakenly thinking that He was going to honored and made king of Israel, when He was really going to be crucified? Was he a poor soul who didn’t quite understand the political climate of the day and got caught in the political strife between the Jews and the Romans? Another revolutionary squashed by the mob?

No! Jesus was referring to the glory that He will have with the Father after His mission has been accomplished. John 17:4, (speaking to His Father) “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

Jesus wasn’t going to stay on the earth. He was going back to where He came from and have the glory He had with the Father before the universe began. However, before that, there was one more thing left to do – the very thing He’s come to the earth to do, which was to die for the world.

1. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. “

He’s saying this to tell the disciples what He is about to do. He is about to die. And this isn’t the first time where He told he disciples that He will die.

John 10:11, 18, “11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…. 18 No one takes it from me, but i lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.”

So, Jesus is going to be honored, recognized, and become famous in short time. But before that glory, there had to be death.

APP: “No pain, no gain in workouts?” “No death, no glory,” spiritually. Now, that would be true of us, but it shouldn’t quite apply to Jesus. You see, you and I had no glory before this life. So, to have glory in the next life, we must sow death. But the story is different with Jesus. Jesus had glory with the Father to begin with.  “5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” So, by dying, He would gain back the glory? Why? Did He lose His glory in the middle or something? Ah, He did! But He didn’t lose it as in it wasn’t taken from Him. He gave it voluntarily for a time. You see, when He came to earth as a human being, the Bible says Phil 2:7, “He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” So, Jesus voluntarily gave up His glory with the Father to be with us. What motivated Him? Why would Bill Gates leave his mansion and live among the homeless in Tacoma? LOVE. “God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son… “

The third stanza of my favorite hymn, And Can It Be goes, “He left His Father’s throne above,

So free, so infinite His grace; Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam’s helpless race:”

For us, the way to glory is through death. But for Jesus, He already had glory. But He willingly gave it up, so that you and I might have glory with Him.

 

2. Death is hating this life.

So, when Jesus says that it is now time for him to be glorified through death, he is inviting us to die with him so that we can be glorified with him. But what does it mean to die? He’s not telling us to die physically with Him by committing mass suicide. He means for us to hate this life. “25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

So, we are to die by hating this life. If you are surprised by that language, not only did Jesus tell us to hate our life but also to hate our family! “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26

“But I thought we were to love everyone?? What is this “hate” language by Jesus? We are supposed to hate our family in order to follow Jesus? What is that about?”

“Hate” does not mean to despise. It’s not: “My life sucks. I hate it. I wish I had someone else’s life? So, we go moping around because we are so miserable?” That’s not the way we hate our life. No. “Hate” in this context is a comparative term. It means to slight something because we prefer something else. For example, God said, “Jacob I love and Esau I hated.”  (Malachi 1:3) But if you trace their lives, they were both immensely blessed. God gave Esau riches, fame, and many children. He made him prosperous and die of good-ole age. So, where is the hate? The “hate” is in the fact that God preferred Jacob over Esau by choosing him to pass down the line that would arrive at the ultimate Messiah. The ultimate honor went to Jacob over Esau, and therefore, Esau was overlooked and slighted in comparison to Jacob. That’s the hate in this context.

So, to hate life is to love God so much more that you do not regard your life as too important. Paul said it best:  “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24. He was hating his life because He preferred God and His kingdom more than his life. He was willing to sacrifice His life to benefit God and His kingdom.

Allow me to give more examples of people who hated their life.

Hebrews 11: (Fatih Hall of fame)

1. A) abel gave the best portion of his animals to God and not leftovers. He hated his life by taking the leftovers. B) Noah worked on the ark in obedience to God and gave the best portion of his life to God.. Not when he was old and past the age of enjoying life. [He didn’t think I’m going to enjoy life when I’m young and come back to God right before I die. That would be hating (slighting) God]
2. C) Abraham left his place of comfort, living in a foreign land in a tent rather than a palace that he could afford. Later, he gave up his most prized possession in his son, Isaac. He “hated” even his only son in preferring God to him.  
3. D) Moses hated his life by siding with his people who were slaves rather than siding with the king and the dignitaries.
4. E) Rahab the prostitute abandoned her own people and sided with God’s people.
5. F) Many others “hated” their lives by choosing to be tortured, mocked, and flogged, and imprisoned in preference to glorifying God.  

 

APP: How can we hate this life as to show our preference for God? God gave you a great musical ability. Rather than using it and making it big in the Hollywood, you decide to stay small and edify the Christian community even if your name never gets out of it. For some of us, it’s leaving the cushy and comfort lifestyle of the U.S. and living somewhere else for the purpose of mission. Others of you, giving up that cushy job and taking a job that pays next to nothing to help the underprivileged kids. For most of us, it’s standing up for the gospel and appearing like fools and religious nuts as we tell the world the so called narrow minded message: Jesus is the only way and there is no other way! When you hate your life like that, it will feel like death when you see your friends driving nice cars, living in nice houses, and taking exotic vacations, and you see their pictures on social media, and you are giving up so much. But here’s pleasure you can take. He who laughs after death is the real winner.  

 

3. Jesus is our ultimate example.
4. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

We are to follow Jesus to His death, and then we can follow Jesus to His glory. While meditating on Matthew this week, I had a thought that never occurred to me before: “Did Jesus ever get sick while on earth? We know He got hungry, thirsty, and even tired and sleepy. But did He ever get sick? Matthew 8:16, “He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

Wait, it doesn’t say, He healed our illnesses and eliminated our diseases, which He did. But it says, “he took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” So, the way I interpret this is that as He was healing people of their diseases, He was taking on their diseases to His body. He was literally absorbing their sins, disease, sickness, blindness, adultery unto His body and when He died on the cross, all of that died with Him. “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 cor 5:21

If I may draw a graphic picture to illustrate the point. The Son of God, the Holy One, became like a menstrual cloth and soaked up all the dirty, vile, and evil things of the earth. And when He became saturated, He was tossed outside the gate like an old rag never to be seen again.

All of our greed, lust, racism, gossips, selfishness, pride, were put on Jesus and died with Him on the cross. Now, the life we live we live in the body, we live by faith in Christ who loved us and die for us.

Charge: Will you die to yourself by hating your life? Will you hate your life by preferring Jesus to everything you consider precious so much so that others around you will notice what is really driving you? Would you look to Jesus who soaked up our sins when you get weary and tired of dying to yourself. Let Him give you the strength to continue to put yourself to death.