This is the manuscript of the sermon delivered at Christ Church on Palm Sunday March 28, 2021.
To see a video of the entire service click this link https://youtu.be/LPeRYa9Khl8
Sermon Scripture
John 12:20-36 CEV Some Greeks had gone to Jerusalem to worship during Passover. Philip from Bethsaida in Galilee was there too. So they went to him and said, “Sir, we would like to meet Jesus.” Philip told Andrew. Then the two of them went to Jesus and told him. Jesus said: The time has come for the Son of Man to be given his glory. I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life. If you serve me, you must go with me. My servants will be with me wherever I am. If you serve me, my Father will honor you. Now I am deeply troubled, and I don't know what to say. But I must not ask my Father to keep me from this time of suffering. In fact, I came into the world to suffer. So Father, bring glory to yourself. A voice from heaven then said, “I have already brought glory to myself, and I will do it again!” When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder. Others thought an angel had spoken to Jesus. Then Jesus told the crowd, “That voice spoke to help you, not me. This world's people are now being judged, and the ruler of this world is already being thrown out! If I am lifted up above the earth, I will make everyone want to come to me.” Jesus was talking about the way he would be put to death. The crowd said to Jesus, “The Scriptures teach that the Messiah will live forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus answered, “The light will be with you for only a little longer. Walk in the light while you can. Then you won't be caught walking blindly in the dark. Have faith in the light while it is with you, and you will be children of the light.” After Jesus had said these things, he left and went into hiding.
Text:
John 12:32-33 CEV If I am lifted up above the earth, I will make everyone want to come to me.” Jesus was talking about the way he would be put to death.
Introduction
We come today to the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. Yes he did rise from the grave and walked the earth as a man but His body after His Resurrection was a glorified body.
The event we just read about in John 12:20-36. occurred the day after He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on the borrowed donkey so the excitement about Jesus’ presence in Jerusalem was still running high. In the scripture that Jean read is the description of that triumphant entry which we remember on Palm Sunday.
The day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem was the first day of the
Passover celebration which was the feast celebrating the release of the Hebrews from Egypt when the death angel killed the first born of the Egyptians and passed over the homes of the Hebrews that had put the blood of a lamb around their doors.
The Sadducees had a tradition in which they believed the Messiah would show up four days before Passover. They kept the gates of the Temple open so that He could walk right into His rightful place. Because of this belief and tradition, nationalistic intensity was at its peak on this particular Sunday. The Romans would have all troops activated and on alert for this day. They feared the Jews would try another revolt under some religiously crazed radical as had happened in the past. Tensions were very high on that day.
That is the very day Jesus chose to enter Jerusalem on a donkey fulfilling the prophecy of
Zechariah 9:9 CEV Everyone in Jerusalem, celebrate and shout! Your king has won a victory, and he is coming to you. He is humble and rides on a donkey; he comes on the colt of a donkey.
They crowds had greeted him on Sunday with palm branches, a practice that had first been used when the Jews celebrated the deliverance of the temple and the city of Jerusalem from the Syrians. This was before the Romans conquered Israel and much of the known world. Through the years the palm branch had come to be used on coins and in the temple feasts as a reminder of that great victory. So when they waved the palm branches before Jesus, it was a symbolic way of encouraging Him to conquer the Romans. They wanted Him to be a military savior. They cried, “Hosanna!” which meant “Save us now!”or “Deliver us now!”
But Jesus came riding not on a warrior’s stallion, but on a donkey, to symbolize his mission as a man of peace.
A strange request.
The next day there is a strange request coming not from Jesus’ own people, the Jews, but from a group of Greeks.
John 12:20-21 CEV Some Greeks had gone to Jerusalem to worship during Passover. Philip from Bethsaida in Galilee was there too. So they went to him and said, “Sir, we would like to meet Jesus.”
Now these were most likely Gentile proselytes, people who were not born Jews but who had converted to Judaism and who worshiped Jehovah. They would have come as pilgrims to worship at the temple during the Passover.
We are not certain what prompted the Greeks to seek out Jesus, but it is entirely possible that they had been there when Jesus cleared the temple the day before.
Matthew 21:10-13 CEV When Jesus came to Jerusalem, everyone in the city was excited and asked, “Who can this be?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” Jesus went into the temple and chased out everyone who was selling or buying. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of the ones who were selling doves. He told them, “The Scriptures say, ‘My house should be called a place of worship.’ But you have turned it into a place where robbers hide.”
These Greek men may have been standing in the court of the Gentiles, the day before when, with fiery indignation, Jesus had cleared the court of money changers. Even though these Greeks were proselytes and had embraced the Jewish faith, they could not worship with the Jews. So it is possible that they were amused, and amazed, at what Jesus did and they wanted to talk to Him and find out more about this man.
2. Whatever the Greek's reason for seeking out Jesus, something about him drove them to find him and talk with him.
So they approached one of His disciples. They sought out Philip. Apparently Philip didn’t know how to respond, for some reason, so he went to Andrew and they both went to Jesus.
John 12:21-22 CEV Philip from Bethsaida in Galilee was there too. So they went to him and said, “Sir, we would like to meet Jesus.” Philip told Andrew. Then the two of them went to Jesus and told him.
3. Jesus gives a strange response to their request to see him.
John 12:23 CEV Jesus said: The time has come for the Son of Man to be given his glory.
Philip and Andrew came to Jesus telling Him there are some Greek guys that want to talk to you and His response was “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory.” That’s a pretty strange response.
Let's think about that. Jesus must have been deeply moved by this request from the Greeks. He must have seen in their coming the beginning of an innumerable number of Gentiles who would believe in him. But, before they could believe in Jesus with a true understanding of His ministry, the crucifixion and resurrection had to take place.
So Jesus didn’t agree to meet with them. Because at this time he was still Christ, The Anointed One, “in the flesh” who had come first to his own people as King of the Jews. In this role, he was not fully ready to be received by the Gentiles.
Of course there had been certain Gentiles, like the Syro-Phoenician woman and the Roman centurion and others, who had believed in Him.
Mark 7:25-29 CEV A woman whose daughter had an evil spirit in her heard where Jesus was. And at once she came and knelt down at his feet. The woman was Greek and had been born in the part of Syria known as Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to force the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said, “The children must first be fed! It isn't right to take away their food and feed it to dogs.” The woman replied, “Lord, even puppies eat the crumbs that children drop from the table.” Jesus answered, “That's true! You may go now. The demon has left your daughter.”
Matthew 8:5-10 CEV When Jesus was going into the town of Capernaum, an army officer came up to him and said, “Lord, my servant is at home in such terrible pain that he can't even move.” “I will go and heal him,” Jesus replied. But the officer said, “Lord, I'm not good enough for you to come into my house. Just give the order, and my servant will get well. I have officers who give orders to me, and I have soldiers who take orders from me. I can say to one of them, ‘Go!’ and he goes. I can say to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes. I can say to my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he will do it.” When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised that he turned and said to the crowd following him, “I tell you in all of Israel I've never found anyone with this much faith!
These were just two Gentiles that we know of that believed in Jesus and I’m sure that there were many more but before he turned to the Gentiles as a people, the loneliness and rejection of his own people had to happen.
John 1:11 says He came into his own world, but his own nation did not welcome him.
He had to be first lifted up on the cross and accepted as a sacrifice for sin for all mankind and not just as “a son of David and for the Jews only.
B. With that in mind here’s what He told Andrew and Philip
John 12:23 CEV ... The time has come for the Son of Man to be given his glory.
By this He meant the time was at hand when his mission would be expanded beyond the Jews.
In just a few days he would die on a cross and be resurrected on the third day, providing once and for all redemption from sin for anyone who believes in Him, Jew and Gentile.
Galatians 3:28-29 CEV Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman. So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of Abraham's family, and you will be given what God has promised.
The Greeks wanted to “see” Jesus. They wanted to be introduced to Him, to understand Him, to discover his mission. But Jesus implied that they could not really “see” Him or understand his mission yet!
Why was that?
Jesus knew that at this point these Greeks would see him only as a miracle worker, an appealing teacher, and a potential military leader. They were unable to see him in his role as Savior of the world.
Jesus continued by illustrating what he meant by his statement “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
4. Here's the illustration:
John 12:24 CEV I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat.
A kernel of wheat is a small husk covering a small piece of grain. A scientist could tell you everything that is inside that tiny kernel of wheat. But when you and I look at the grain, you cannot see what's inside!
What do we do with a grain of wheat, or any seed? We put it in the ground, and it dies, it disintegrates. But that is not the end of it! Something else happens. We wait and a tiny blade appears, then the stalk, the head, and finally the full head of grain.
A. Jesus’ message was that no one could truly see him until he died.
The power and intended result of his life would not be released until he experienced death. Jesus’ life was perfect and sinless, but no one is saved by Jesus’ life. He performed many miracles in his earthly ministry. He even performed miracles on the day of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem;
Matthew 21:14-16 CEV Blind and lame people came to Jesus in the temple, and he healed them. But the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses were angry when they saw his miracles and heard the children shouting praises to the Son of David. The men said to Jesus, “Don't you hear what those children are saying?” “Yes, I do!” Jesus answered. “Don't you know that the Scriptures say, ‘Children and infants will sing praises’?”
But there was no saving power in his earthly ministry until He died.
John 12:24 CEV I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat.
It’s not the life of Jesus that saves you. You’re saved through his death and Resurrection.
The miracles that He performed were simply a demonstration and proof of his deity. It was his death that provided salvation. No these Greeks could not see Jesus yet, but if they waited awhile, they could see him in a way that they could never have seen him before!
B. Jesus was saying that you can't find eternal life until first there is a death - His death on the cross.
The grain of wheat, Jesus, would fall into the ground and die. And through that death, life would spring forth and a harvest would result.
5. So what was Jesus saying to us today?
First, he was telling us that true life is released only after a death takes place. While the grain of wheat was preserved in safety and security, it was unfruitful. Jesus is saying that only by giving our lives away do we receive life.
Commitment to Christ means taking up your cross daily, giving up your hopes, dreams, possessions, even your very life if need be for the cause of Christ. Only if you willingly take up your cross may you be called His disciple or follower. Jesus is telling us that greatness comes only by service and the reward is worth the price.
Let's go to:
Luke 9:46-48 CEV Jesus' disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he had a child stand there beside him. Then he said to his disciples, “When you welcome even a child because of me, you welcome me. And when you welcome me, you welcome the one who sent me. Whichever one of you is the most humble is the greatest.”
The reward of humility and service is well worth the price you pay.
Conclusion
So this Palm Sunday remember that true life is not realized until you identify with God through Jesus Christ. Then you learn that life is found in giving yourself away so that Christ may be top priority. Hear him say to you, “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”
Invitation
Jesus’ life gives you a good example to follow. And his teachings offer guidance and wisdom. But you need more than that. You need a Savior.
Why? The Bible says you’ve blown it. You’ve made mistakes. You’re not perfect. You don’t measure up to your own standards, much less God’s. You—just like every other human who’s ever lived—have sinned.
The Bible also says justice demands punishment. If you do the crime, you do the time. If you break God’s laws, you pay God’s penalty. According to the Bible, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NLT).
In other words, somebody has to pay for all the things you’ve done wrong in life. And this is where God said, “I’ll do it!” He stepped up to the plate. Jesus Christ—God in human form came to the earth and said, in effect, “I will pay for your sins.”
His death and Resurrection opened the door for your salvation. When Jesus died on the cross, everything you’ve ever done wrong—and everything wrong you will ever do—was paid for. “Through the blood of his Son, we are set free from our sins. God forgives our failures because of his overflowing kindness” (Ephesians 1:7 GW).
When Jesus stretched his arms out as wide as the cross, it as like saying, “I love you this much! I love you so much it hurts. I love you so much I’ll die for you so that I won’t have to live without you.”
Ephesians 3 says God’s love is so wide, long, high, and deep that humans can’t fully understand it. You needed a Savior, and Jesus loved you enough to be that for you. If you haven’t accepted his salvation yet, now is the time.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! …To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!
The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’
Sermon Audio
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