Death Brings Life

Happy Easter, you guys there. Great.

I am very awake. I already had we had one service

already this morning. So you guys got to bring your

energy level up with me now. It's good to see you.

My name is Kurt. I'm one of the pastors here.

If you're new, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Glad you chose to spend your Easter morning with us and we

hope you encounter the living God this morning.

If you have a Bible, you can go and open up to John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

If you don't, there's some under the seat in front of you.

Grab that one. I work full time here at the

church and so in one sense you could say part of my job.

I get paid to speak and say lots of words.

But all of us use lots of words every day and most of them just

come and go and we don't remember them.

Sometimes there are memorable things, powerful statements that

live on. Let me read a few and you can

fill in the blank if you know them.

How about this one? The only thing we have to fear

is fear itself. Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Martin Luther King Junior, one of my favorite manly movies.

Gladiator, anybody? What we do in life echoes into

eternity. It's a good movie.

Well, violent, but it's good one.

How about this one from the great Michael Scott?

You missed 100% of the shots you don't take.

Wayne Gretzky actually said that.

Benjamin Franklin, here's the last one.

In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death

in taxes. That's right.

I want to play on that one a little bit and paraphrase, make

my own paraphrase of what Jesus gets at in the text today.

And it's this Everyone lives and everyone dies, but the order is

up to you. Everyone lives and everyone

dies, but the order is up to you and I'm going to unpack this as

we go along in John chapter 12 today.

John 12 · chapter mention

Essentially, Jesus will teach us in these verses, you can live

now but die forever, or you can die now and live forever.

This is what Jesus is calling us to do.

He's calling us to follow Him in His death that we may have

resurrection life. Let me give us a quick

introduction to our series of especially if you're a guest or

less. We've been preaching through the

book of John. It's written by one of Jesus's

apostles. His name was John.

He was Jesus's beloved, at least that's what he calls himself,

Jesus's most beloved disciple. And we've been preaching through

this. It's been over a year now.

We've gotten a little bit more than halfway through the book of

John and and for Jesus's life. He began his public ministry at

about age 30 and did that for three years.

And so for three years, Jesus is teaching, he's doing miracles,

He's walking this earth. But now we find it in the last

week of Jesus's life. That's where we pick it up in

the text today. If you're here last week, it

started with the what's known as the triumphal entry.

Jesus at as the Jews are coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the

Passover, Jesus triumphally enters into the city of

Jerusalem to much fanfare. And then we're going to pick it

up in verse 20 today. And actually, before I get to

that, sometimes it could be helpful to take a minute of

silence and slow down and just let there be a little stillness

in our life. And so I'm going to give 15 or

20 seconds for us to do that. You might close your eyes and

you might during this time, just try to open your heart up to

Jesus and even tell him Jesus, what do you have for me this

morning? Have your way.

So let's do that and I'll read, pray, and teach.

John chapter 12, verses 20 to 26 follow along with me, John

John 12:20–26

writes. Now among those who went up to

worship at the feast were some Greeks.

So these came to Philip, who was from the Seda in Galilee, and

asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and told

Jesus, and Jesus answered them. The hour has come for the Son of

Man to be glorified. 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. Whoever loves his life loses it,

and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for

eternal life. 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. Let me pray.

Lord, thank you for this morning and give it this day.

We we celebrate your resurrection.

Thank you for this time that we have to to look to you in safety

and I pray for all of all of those listening today that you

would attune their hearts and their ears to you and your voice

speak and I pray Lord, you would wake the dead today.

Bring them to new life and you and I pray to the for the

disciples of Jesus. You would help them be full of

hope. Help me Lord now as I teach,

teach through these verses well and to honor you and point to

you. Amen.

Let's start back up at the beginning.

So we see that Jesus says it's time, right?

The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.

He starts by talking about the feast.

And again, I mentioned this briefly.

That's the feast of the Passover, where thousands of

Jews would come from all over Israel, and they would come to

Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

Among them are some Greeks, not necessarily people from Greece,

but it's most likely just a way to say people who are Jewish

converts, right? They're not Israel.

They're not Israelites by descent, but they begin to

worship the God of Israel. And so they're also coming to

celebrate the Passover. Now they come find Philip.

Philip is one of Jesus disciples, maybe because Philip

is from Bethsaida, it's a little town in a region of Galilee

which was north of Jerusalem. Maybe they thought, let's go

talk to this guy. He maybe he'll get us in with

Jesus. And so Philip goes and talks to

Andrew and there's another of Jesus disciples.

And so tag team, Andrew and Philip go to Jesus and they say,

Jesus, the Greeks want to speak to you.

What do you, what do you want to do?

And Jesus doesn't really answer their question, but he says

something that essentially it triggers him when he hears that

the Greeks are seeking after him as well.

He says in verse 23, the hour has come for the Son of Man to

be glorified. Essentially Jesus is saying it's

time, it's go time. When John refers to the hour in

in his letter, he's talking about Jesus's crucifixion.

So Jesus is saying it's time. I'm I'm working towards the

cross. Previously it wasn't time.

And so there were times where people tried to make Jesus King

and he'd say, no, it's not my hour yet.

And he would get out of it. There were times where they

wanted to arrest him or to kill him and he knew that was coming.

But he said, no, it's not my hour.

It's not time yet. But now it's time, right?

The, the anticipation of Jesus is coming and of is he the

Christ, the one to save Israel? Is there kind of like when

you're, when you're pregnant, the anticipation of having the

baby, right? Or you're married, you're,

you're engaged and you're waiting to get married and

there's anticipation there, right?

To some of you fanatics, you're just waiting for football season

again. And the anticipation in the NFL

draft in college football, right?

The anticipation, there's so much anticipation.

Jesus's life has been building up to this moment, right?

When he when he began his ministry, he said the Kingdom of

God is at hand. And then he would teach in a way

that no one had ever taught before and he would work

miracles that only God could do. And he was merciful to people.

He was kind and merciful and gentle to the outcasts in

society, the poor and the broken, the oppressed, the

people that that were on the margins.

He loved them and he healed so many people.

So many people had Jesus touched them and healed them or kicked

demons out of them to set them free.

And all of this is important, but it's not the final thing.

It wasn't the hour yet. It was building up to this

moment. You might say it brought Jesus a

level of glory, right? He got a lunch, a bunch of

followers. He had some people believe in

him, He had some fame. But it wasn't the final act.

The final act of glory is coming.

And so he says the hour has now come for the Son of Man to be

glorified. How is he going to be glorified?

Well, in short, it's the cross and the resurrection.

I'll unpack this some more next week because it comes up again

in the next verses. But we will say, I will say

here, the path is unlikely, right?

Not like we might expect someone to come and not like, certainly

not like the Jews expected Jesus to come in power and to

overthrow Rome and and Israel is on top again.

And and they go from being the oppressed to the oppressors,

right? This is what they wanted.

But now he comes humbly on a donkey, self sacrificially

giving up his own life, dying for the sake of his people.

Now, to help illustrate this point, Jesus uses an analogy

about wheat. How many of you know about

wheat? Any wheat farmers out there?

I am kind of a wheat farmer, a son of a wheat farmer.

My dad's a farmer, mostly corn and soybeans, but he did plant

wheat sometimes. So I was texting about this

week, OK, so no other wheat farmers out there.

So here's and I anticipated this.

So don't you worry. I there's some little jars

containing grains of wheat and I want you all to take a grain of

wheat. Just one.

All right, Make sure there's enough for everybody.

So if you have those jars, pass it down your row and then

forward just kind of or pass it behind you, snake it around

until everybody gets 1. So there's like 10 jars running

around here. So if you don't get one, just

make sure you get your grain of wheat.

I thought that might be helpful because we don't live in an

agrarian society when Jesus is talking about wheat.

They all had a pretty good idea of what that meant, what that

looked like in their context. And so I'm going to try to help

unpack this a little bit for us. So let's take a minute.

Talk about wheat while you're collecting your grain of wheat.

So if you see on the screen behind me, this is a head of

wheat, there's about 40 or so give or take grains.

So you're going to have one grain, there's about 40 of them

per head. Now on one plant, there could be

somewhere around 7 stems. So 7 stems of 40 give or take,

we'll just call it 300 grains. So in one plant, so you have one

little wheat, if the you planted that thing and it grew, you

might have 300 more at the end of the harvest season.

In farming, they measure, they measure using the bushel, right?

So a bushel, just picture a big bushel.

You know what a bushel looks like?

There's about a million grains. So I don't know if anybody's

ever counted, but give or take a million grains in one bushel,

you would get potentially 45 bushels of grain per acre.

So you're talking 45 millions of million grain kernels from an

acre of wheat field. Got another picture to show you.

There's a beautiful wheat field, you know, the amber waves of

grain. All right, it's a it's a

beautiful picture that eventually or ultimately started

with 1 grain and made lots and lots and lots and lots.

That is acres and acres of wheat.

OK, Does everybody have a grain? Or at least it's still going

around. OK, I still see again past, but

I'll keep going because I don't have time to pause.

What are you going to do with your grain?

Well, for now, I just want you to hold on to it.

But here's a suggestion. Maybe you should take it home,

Give it a name. I will call mine Walter.

What are you going to do with Walter?

Right. You could.

You could put him on your mantle.

You could. You could.

If you're really crafty, you could make a little necklace and

embed him in there. If you get a little Locket, put

him in your Locket. Right.

You could you could find ways to use Walter as a decoration.

Maybe he's just your little pet. Did he take good pair of Walter?

Right. Walter by himself, I'm sorry to

say, is worthless. OK, so if you take me up on my

vice, and some of you might actually do that just for

funsies, to have a grain of wheat by itself is pointless.

There are two purposes for Walter's life.

Both of them involve his death. You either grind it up and you

make flour so then you can feed your family, or you plant him so

he makes more Walters. But either way, if Walter wants

to serve his purpose in life, he needs to die.

He's pointless. And even said Jesus says in

verse 24, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat

falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, right?

One wheat grain is not worth anything.

But Jesus says if it dies, it bears much fruit.

So when Walter goes into the earth and dies, he produces much

grain. What Jesus is saying is I am a

grain of wheat. If I go and die, I will bear

much fruit. This is his purpose in life.

We celebrate Good Friday 3 days ago.

We call it good even though it was maybe the greatest oxymoron

in history. How can such a day be good?

Because on that day, Jesus is one of Jesus's 12 closest

followers betrayed him for a chunk of change, and then he he

kissed him, a sign of love and affection, so that they would

know which one to arrest. After a a little skirmish with a

sword, all of his disciples fled.

So Jesus is abandoned and alone. He is wrongfully detained.

He gets falsely accused. He gets beaten and mocked and

tortured and abused. The Romans do what they do best,

which is torture people. So they flog him.

They scourge him, taking this whip with bones and glass in it

and just mutilate his back. Most people bled.

Some people bled to death during that flogging.

Then Jesus carried this big cross as far as he could till he

couldn't anymore and someone had to carry it all the way to the

hill for him. And then they pounded nails into

him and hung him on there, where with excruciating pain he slowly

suffered and died. The worst part about it all,

because all of us are guilty to some extent.

Worst part about all is Jesus was perfect.

Jesus was completely innocent. No one has ever lived like that.

Man lived innocent in every way, spotless and died.

Now no honest person can refute the death of Jesus.

You don't have to believe in Jesus to acknowledge the fact

that he did die. He went into the ground, kind of

like Walter. Right now it says if a wheat

grain, a wheat goes into the ground and dies.

Jesus went into the tomb. He went into the grave, He went

into the the ground and we call it good because Jesus was our

substitute. He substituted our life for his,

the punishment that we deserve. Now, we don't usually think of

it that way. We don't like to because we

compare ourselves to each other. And you might say when we

compare ourselves to other humans, we'd say, well, nobody

deserves this kind of death. But that's the wrong comparison.

When you compare yourself to the holy Almighty God who created

you, who tries to show you and teach you how to live, and if

you follow his ways, it will go well with you.

We don't, and we've rebelled against Him, and our punishment

is death. That is the wages of sin.

None can get out of that. The wages of sin are death.

But Jesus died in our place. He took on our shame.

He took on our guilt. Our sentence became His

sentence, the one of death he received.

And we received his righteousness.

And then today we celebrate his resurrection because he did not

stay dead. He came back to life.

He rose from the grave. It's a wonderful thing.

And you know what's amazing? The Jews celebrated what's

called the Feast of the first fruits the day after Passover.

So that would have been Sunday. So while the Jews are

celebrating the feast of the first fruits, Jesus came back to

life, kind of like it says in our verses, he will bear much

fruit or he came back to life. And this is this is wonderful

too. Jesus hasn't died yet, so he's

telling us what's going to happen.

He knows that he even knows the timing of it.

What a look to 1st Corinthians 15 for a minute to Paul goes on,

goes into this in more detail about Jesus being the first

fruits. In First Corinthians 15, Paul is

talking about the resurrection. And there were people in that

church who were denying that the resurrection happened.

They said Jesus didn't raise from the dead.

And Paul says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

This is maybe the most important thing about Christianity.

If Jesus did not raise from the dead, Christianity is like

Walter on your mantle. It's worthless.

If you're a Christian and Jesus didn't raise from the dead, you

are to be pitied. The Resurrection.

Is so important for the Christian that if it didn't

happen we should be living a lot differently but and this is what

Paul says in verse 20 but it did happen let me read for you but

in fact Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits

of those who have fallen asleep so fact Christ has raised from

the dead. This also is historical

evidence. It points to this reality.

People who claim that he didn't, there was a stunt double, there

was some of there's all kinds of conspiracy theories out there

about Jesus, but they are just that, like most conspiracy

theories, not true. Jesus rose from the dead and

Paul says it's a fact. It's a fact.

And actually, if you read First Corinthians 15, he appeals to

many. I think there were 500 people

who are still alive who could bear witness to the fact that he

is claiming here now. Jesus is the first fruits of

those who have fallen asleep. If I were to go next door to our

kids building and pull the five year olds and ask them to define

first fruits, they would be able to do it.

You know why? Because first fruits just means

the first fruits. It's not too complicated.

The first fruits that come, the first wheat that grows, the

first apple on a tree. Jesus is the first of the fruits

and I love how he says of those who have fallen asleep.

Paul's starting to erase the word death from the Christian

vocabulary because even though physically you die, it's just

like you're falling asleep. Because as Jesus rose from the

dead, so will you. He goes on in verses. 21 and 22

he says, For as by a man came, death by a man has come also the

resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also

in Christ shall all be made alive.

So he's comparing Adam the the the first human to Jesus.

And the first human Adam sinned and brought death into the

world. And because of Adam, all people

will die. This is an inescapable thing.

But in. Jesus, we have the resurrection

of the dead. In Jesus, we will all be made

alive. Paul says in.

Verse 23 But each in his own order.

Christ the first fruits. There it is again.

Then at his coming, those who belong to Jesus, so Jesus will

come back first. And he did, right?

That's what we're celebrating today.

Jesus is alive, He came back to life.

He is the first fruits, and all who belong to Him will also come

alive when he returns. Do you belong to Jesus?

If so, you are the next fruits, if you will.

Death brings life. Death of a grain brings abundant

grain. Death of Jesus the Savior brings

abundant life, raised from the dead for all who believe in Him.

This is the great hope of Christianity.

Now does that. Hope belong to you.

Does that hope belong to you? Jesus says maybe.

Why don't you examine yourself? He says, essentially in my

words, the order is up to you to live or to die, right?

Remember that phrase from the beginning?

Everyone will live. Currently you are alive and

everyone will die. I think that's pretty

indisputable fact as well. But what order do you do?

Do you live now but then die forever?

Or do you die to yourself now and then live forever?

Look at verse 25. This is where Jesus is getting

at that He says whoever loves his life loses it.

Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it forever.

Let me take some time and unpack these things because He gives us

these two options, right? Love your life and lose it.

Essentially. Love your life so much now that

you hold so tightly to it because you think it's all you

have, but then you will lose it and when you die, it's gone.

Or heat your life in this world. You think so little of this

life. Because you're thinking.

About the next life. And you will.

Have that eternal life, but you cannot have both.

And so I want to, I want to tease these things out a little

bit more. And as I'm doing that, I want

you to think about where are you?

Which order have you chosen? Death.

And then life or. Life and the death.

Let's start with life and then death.

Jesus says I'll repeat it again. Love your life now and lose it

forever, right? You're choosing life.

Then I'm going to ask a, a couple of questions for each of

these that I think will help us identify that.

Who do you follow and who do you serve?

And these these are in the verse in the verses as well.

So who do you follow and who do you serve?

When we're thinking about those who, as Jesus says, loves his

life and loses it, who do you follow?

Think about that very memorable scene from Finding Nemo doesn't

know that one with the seagulls. What do they say?

Mine mine, mine, mine, mine, mine what about your life mine.

If you follow yourself, you answer it like those seagulls

it's about me. Who do you follow?

You say my life, my choices, my way, my desires, my Kingdom.

And we try to accumulate all of these things and build up our

own lives to see what kind of house we can have and how we can

live here. You are your own rule ruler and

you would say to God, don't tread on me, God, don't tell me

what to do. The entire aim and focus of your

life is on this life. That's what he means by loving

your life now. It's all about the here and the

now. It's all about what you can see

and what's in front of you. Yolo.

And so you, you live it up and you live for yourself.

Years ago a. Acronym was popularized with

WWJD, right? What would Jesus do?

And in theory, a Christian would live like that, but you would

probably say WWID, What would I do?

You follow yourself and you have to, you have to look at your

life and examine it. Who do you follow?

If you love your life now, it means you're following yourself.

Or if you look at your life and you see who you follow.

That's what it means. But secondly, let me.

Add to that, who do you serve, right?

Who do you serve? And Jesus is going to talk about

serving in verse 26. So we'll get there in a moment,

but who do you serve? Sometimes when we love our life,

it's because we love ourself. It's because we love ourself and

we live and sometimes believe or treat God like He is here to

serve. You do.

You believe that? Or maybe do you live that way,

like God is here to serve you? God wants you to be rich and

happy and satisfied and of course healthy and comfortable.

God never tells you no. You can do what you want.

Your bumper sticker. Says follow your own path, said

God to you, follow your heart, live your own way and you

actually treat God as if he's like the big rich father in the

sky who just just loves it when when his son or daughter calls

him every once in a while. And you say, Oh well.

I mean, I but God asked me to pray that prayer that one time.

I even got baptized. I show up to church sometimes.

God's just happy that I'm at church today, right?

As if you're like, OK, all right, God, OK, Father, get off

my back. I got you.

I put to church on Easter for crying out loud, right?

But the reality is you serve yourself.

It's a kind of a la carte Christianity, you know, where

you you walk down the line and you get to pick and choose.

What do you want from Christianity?

Oh, I like, I like the peace that comes.

No anxiety. That sounds nice.

Let me take some of that. Oh, blessings.

Yeah. Oh, oh, eternal life.

Yeah, I'll take that. Oh, repent from your sin.

Well, I don't know about that. Oh, biblical sexual ethics.

Oh, you know, oh, say something that might offend someone else

because Oh no, I don't want that part of it, right?

You pick and choose what parts you want, give your life to God,

serve other people Well, no, it's all a cart.

You'd pick and choose what you want.

You're loving your life now. And the result?

It's tragic because you will lose your life forever.

That is all you get. And then when you die, what

next? Your life is gone.

There's not second chances after that.

If there is no life after death, then that is the correct order

and you should not do anything but live for yourself.

If there's no life. After death.

But if there is life after death, you must wrestle with and

answer this question. And I would say just this is

Jesus's warning to you and the life that you are living, you're

living it up now. But there will be a day where

you stand before your Maker. You cannot claim Jesus as your

Lord and Savior if he's not actually your Lord, if you don't

actually follow him, if you don't actually worship him.

That doesn't make any sense. He's talking to somebody

recently and he and he told me that and he was like, Oh yeah, I

think all, all religions and paths kind of go in their

certain way. And as long as you believe, it's

true enough. And then he goes, but Jesus is

my Lord and Savior. Like what?

No, he's not. You can claim it.

You can say I prayed this prayer.

You can even believe in God. Well, do you know there are

spiritual beings called demons and they believe in God?

They don't worship. Him, they don't follow him, but

of course he's real. But do you follow him on

Judgement Day? When you stand before your

maker, which all people will, are you going to open your hand

up and say, oh, look, I got Walter, you're going to open up

the Locket? Look, I kept Walter safe.

He's still alive, all alone. You'll lose your.

Life, if you hold tightly to it and love it here, please hear me

on that. And I love this country.

I love where I was born. But it is Christianized enough

that many of us have enough church to be going to hell and

not realize it. Because we prayed.

Some prayer because we believe in God.

But we don't follow. Him we don't serve, Him we are

living for this life. The alternative, Jesus says, is

to hate your life now so that you can keep it forever.

This is the one who sees that there's two choices.

There's two things that will happen, death and life.

And you say actually, I'll take my death now because I want to

live forever. When Jesus says in verse 25

whoever hates his life in this world, he does not mean it

literally. Like, OK, Christians are just

loathsome people. Like I hate my life.

No, that's not what he means. It's a figure of speech.

It's a comparison. He's trying to help us show this

contrast. To say how much you love and

live for the next life is so strong that it looks like hate

in this life. Let's take.

Let's take my love of my wife. I'm married and I love her.

She's wonderful. I love her so much that I hate

all other women. I don't actually hate all their

women. OK, in case this goes on Spotify

and someone, you know what I mean?

I love her so much that it looks like hate compared to all the

other women. I have three awesome children.

I think they're the best. I think they're better than your

children. Maybe not true, but I love them

more than I love your children. In fact, I love my children so

much, it's like I hate your children because I love them so

much. You, you see what I'm getting

out here? So this doesn't mean I actually

hate them. He's talking about let me.

Let me let me read from Luke 14 because Jesus.

Jesus teaches it a little bit differently in Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

These verses will be up on the screen.

He's trying to help us see what does it mean to hate your life

now. He says in verse 20. 5 Now great

crowds accompanied him, and he turned and he said to them, now

pause there. That's key.

The great crowds. I don't know how many people in

here, I don't know that I describe this as a great crowd,

but there's a lot of people. You call this a, a great crowd

of people. And Jesus was awesome.

And so people flocked to him and followed him.

And oftentimes he would do miracles like feed them lunch.

Who doesn't love a free lunch? So they're following Jesus and

the great crowds are here and Jesus sees that and he gives

them this warning. Let's look at the verses.

He says if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own

father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes even his

own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Jesus is not. Teaching us to hate the ones

that we love the most. But he is saying I am so

valuable, I am so great, I am so worthy, that you need to love me

and follow me in such a way that it looks like hatred to the

things that are most important and valuable to you, even your

own life, he said. And it's pretty definitive.

You cannot be my disciple if you do not love me so strongly that

it looks like hate. The last verse 20. 7 Jesus says

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot

be my disciple. Now Jesus bore a cross.

He's talking about crucifixion, where you literally would carry

this massive wooden cross to your death.

And he says if. You don't carry your own cross

and follow me. Come after me.

You can't be my disciple. So when Jesus?

Says in verse 25 in our verses, he who hates his life in this

world, he's talking about dying to yourself.

Not an actual death, but a death to self, a death to me in mine.

That you would be so devoted to Jesus that it looks like you

hate your own life. You think so little of this life

because in comparison to the next life, this is enough.

This is what? Choosing death looks like now

right? To choose death now so you can

have life later. Death to self, death to my.

What does? Hate look like in your life?

Well, let's go back to those two questions.

Who do you follow and who do you serve?

Look at the beginning of. Verse 26, Jesus says if anyone

serves me, he must follow me. That's where I was getting those

two questions, the follow and the serve.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Well, it means you submit to him.

You submit your life to his. You say I am no longer in

charge. Jesus, you are in charge of my

life. Jesus is your Lord.

You, you follow his words you, you follow his purposes, you

obey him. You know Jesus said many times

if you love me, you obey my commandments.

So we can't treat Jesus commandments as optional.

It's actually a sign of our love.

It's a sign of our following him.

It's not Ala carte Christianity. Our lifestyle changes.

Our lifestyle becomes like his. We might change that my to his.

His life now, not my choices, his choices, his ways, his

desires, his Kingdom. That's what we live for now, to

help those that are in His Kingdom and help people come

into His Kingdom. He also says to serve me if

anyone serves me. What does it mean to serve Jesus

in regards to hating your life in this world?

Well, maybe we could flip the page to John 13.

We'll get to this in a couple months.

Jesus says this a new commandment I give to you that

you love one another. My God, there's the good part of

Jesus. I like love one another as I

have loved you. You also are to love one

another. How did Jesus love us?

To death. So yeah, it sounds great, but

there's a there's a dying to self that's involved and we are

to love one another and even says people will know we are as

disciples by our love. So to serve Jesus is to love one

another, to care for people, to serve them, to pray for them, to

help them, not to slam them online or cast judgement towards

them. Do you speak the truth?

We speak it in love. We also serve the poor, give our

money away, help people be reconciled to God.

That's loving. That is to serve me.

That's to follow Jesus. That's to hate your life now

because you gain it for eternity.

This is the best investment you could ever make.

That's the result. He says keep it for eternal

life, etern. Imagine that eternity with God.

I I was trying to think about that this week.

I not the smartest, but I just think for any of us, what is

eternity? How do we even think about

eternity? And yet that's what he says.

We will keep this life forever. Joy with God, pleasure with Him,

peace and satisfaction, eternal, abundant, wonderful life with

God forever. As Jesus resurrected to new

life, so will you and you will be with him forever.

I want to give us a brief glimpse of what that will look

like, just to try to help stir this up.

If you're a Christian, to remember that's where your hope

is. Your hope is in the

resurrection. Your hope is in your

resurrection because Jesus came back to life, but also to those

of you who are not Christians. Or maybe you're realizing as you

examine your life, if you do so soberly, oh, maybe it is more

for this life than I realized. Maybe I follow a version of

Christianity that is actually very cultural, not godly, and

means I'm loving my life now. But I want to give you a taste

of what is to come. Why you would repent of your

sins and put your trust in Jesus.

Revelation 21 The apostle John wrote this same guy that wrote

this letter had this vision in Revelation.

So here's what it says. Then I saw a new heaven and a

new earth for the 1st heaven and the first earth had passed away

and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the New

Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a

bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from

the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with

man. He will dwell with them, and

they will be his people, and God Himself will be with them as

their God. He will wipe away every tear

from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for

the former things have passed away.

But there's a there's a heavenly city that is coming like a bride

adorned for her husband, beautiful and majestic for us.

And it says the dwelling place of God is with man.

We're going to be with him forever, and he's going to wipe

away all tears, all brokenness, all sadness.

Death is gone. Mourning, crying, pain.

I know some of you are in pain, some of you have physical pain,

you've hurts in this life. Some of you have internal pain.

He's going to wipe it away and heal everything.

That is what is to come. In the next chapter, John

describes it more like this. There is a river of the water of

Life, brightest crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of

the Lamb, flowing through the middle of the street of the

city. On either side of the river

there's the Tree of Life, with its twelve kinds of fruit,

yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for

the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything

accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it,

and His servants will. Worship Him.

They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads

and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp

or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign

forever and ever. We can say finally the end of

daylight savings time. God is there.

There's no more light. He's just there and He's always

on. We don't.

How wonderful is that going to be?

There's this amazing river flowing through the middle of

the city with this awesome tree with twelve kinds of fruit.

It's going to make the the fruit that we taste on this life taste

like garbage. That's how good it's going to

be. The heat that leaves on the tree

or for the healing of the nations.

There is so much division between people in this world, is

there not? And yet God's tree will bring

unity and healing from all of those wounds and all of the

hurt. And did you notice it?

Says his servants will worship Him.

His servants will worship him in heaven.

If you are not his servant on earth, what makes you think

you'll be a servant in heaven? Or it begins now with living our

life for Jesus as we serve Him and we worship Him now.

Now I would say that's enough and we could just end the

teaching, but there's a couple more things in these verses I

got to talk about. That's not it.

Jesus says His servants receive honor.

Look at the end of verse 26. If anyone serves me, the Father

will honor him. How about that?

Isn't that incredible? The Father of all creation,

right, The Maker of the heavens and the universe is going to

honor you. If you're a servant of.

Jesus. I mean, we all.

Love to be honored. We all love to be praised, don't

we? You know what that feeling is

like when someone who's really important and they're telling a

good story about you, right? Maybe it's somebody you respect

or you love a lot, or maybe it's your boss or your professor or

something over here and they're just doting on you and it feels

so good. Then it right there the, the,

the creator of the universe is going to honor you if you're a

servant of Jesus. How amazing is that?

And we get heaven. And everything that comes with

it. But there's more.

Jesus says where I am. This is in verse 26.

Where I am, there will my servant be also.

Where I am. There, my servant will be also.

It's probably meaning a couple things, Meaning heaven.

When I'm going to be there, you're going to be with me.

I think it's now as well. If you choose to.

Die now. I know it's been kind of, you

know, it's a lot to talk about death, death to yourself, self

sacrifice. Yeah.

But there's gain in this life. There is good here.

He gives us his Holy Spirit to live in US.

Jesus is with us here and now. What comfort?

What security that we have that the the amazing, wonderful Jesus

who loved so well. He was so kind and warm and

gentle and peaceful. His presence was amazing.

That Jesus lives in you if you die to yourself now and nothing

can separate you from that love. This is what comes to those who

choose this order. Death, then life.

We finished with this. Verse from Romans 65.

Paul puts this promise like so, and I think this is a helpful

one to finish on because it's just very clear what it means to

be a disciple of Jesus. He says if we have been united

with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with

Him in a resurrection like his. You will not have the

resurrection of Jesus if you are not united with Him in his

death. And that begins now, doesn't

begin with your physical death on the earth.

It begins with a death to self now to be united with Jesus, to

be one with Him and together inseparable.

As Jesus. Died.

Sacrificing. His own life, choosing death

first. Because Jesus did this, we die

with him, and it's like we went to the grave with Jesus.

But as Jesus. Resurrected and defeated that

grave and came back to life, we too will be resurrected.

So here's the question, Are you united to Jesus?

Have you chosen to die with him? Die to your sins, die to

yourself, die to your way, and turn and call him Lord and

Savior. To all of you who?

Have not trusted in Jesus's death.

I would ask why? What is keeping you from doing

that? It requires faith, I understand

that. But but can you trust in Him

because He's calling you today. He's bidding you to himself.

Come to me and die that you may live.

Life in Christ begins with death, and you will never regret

that decision. Life and death are not.

Negotiable, right? And you can't, you can't get out

of those two, but the order is up to you.

And so which do you choose? Choose death now so that you can

live forever. I would say, choose death today.

Turn and follow Jesus. And to those of you who would,

who would answer that? And say Amen.

And yes, I have and I do, trusted in Jesus's death on that

cross as my own. Remember the promised life to

come. It is our hope for this life.

It is our promise. In this life, as we think about

the next one, remember the honor from the Father that is coming

to you. And in the meanwhile, until we

see that day. Serve.

Jesus and follow Jesus with your whole life.