We Want to Meet Jesus

Father, we thank you for your great provision for us.

We ask that you would pour out the Holy Spirit upon us and make us a very generous people,

a people who desires to bless this city, bless other people groups right to the ends of the earth,

that you would help us, Father, not only to bless this city with the best of our talents and our gifts,

but also by the sharing of the gospel, by telling people of Jesus.

And we ask now, Father, as we pause to dig deep into your word, that you would dig deep into us,

that you would touch us at the level of our heart and shape us by the gospel.

And all these things we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So we're going to talk today about something that Canadians aren't supposed to talk about.

We're going to talk about death, something that Canadians aren't supposed to talk about.

And like when I say that, some of you might say, well, no, no, George, we can talk about death.

But usually what that means is we can say a few flippant things about death.

But if you were ever at a party and you made some comment about we're all going to die,

and I don't know, the person who's the least drunk or the most drunk would make some type of a flippant comment,

another person makes a bit of a joke, and then we'd move on to another topic.

But if you said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, time out here.

Like, what do you think death means?

Like, what do you think death means?

Like, what do you think about the fact that you're going to die?

Like, you know, maybe tomorrow or tonight or like in a few years.

And if you were to try to press the topic, the room, the temperature, it would get very chilled very, very quickly.

Because we can make the odd flippant comment about death, but we're not really allowed to talk about death.

It's something which is not very Canadian.

And in fact, it would even be viewed in many churches as something depressing.

And we don't come to church to be depressed.

We come to church to get a few positive and uplifting thoughts to help us through the rest of the week or whatever it would be.

But we're going to talk a little bit about death this morning.

And I'm going to talk about it because the Bible talks about death.

Like, what is it?

Like, what?

I've, I mean, I don't know.

In heaven, I might find out more of the story.

I will find out the whole story of my life and the meaning of my life.

And maybe there's been many times when I've been very close to death.

I know there's been some times I've been in the car and, you know, somebody starts to go into my lane.

And, you know, we're all going 115 kilometers an hour.

And I don't know.

It could very well be that if that person had just been a tiny little bit more inattentive or I had been a tiny bit more inattentive, I would have died in that accident.

But I've never had an illness yet.

I had one time when I thought they diagnosed me with a heart trouble that would have drastically changed and probably shortened my life.

But that turned out to be a misdiagnosis.

But I haven't on one level had to be close to my own death.

I have in terms of family members, obviously.

And as a minister, I've done lots of funerals.

In fact, I felt really, really bad about it.

And during the Arise, a couple of weeks ago in December, we had the Arise dance group here.

And there was a person who came to the church.

And she came up and she said, do you remember me?

And I have to confess, I said, you look familiar, but I can't remember you.

And then she told me, you did the funeral for my baby.

And I felt really bad that I didn't remember her.

Although it had been about 10 years ago.

But what does death mean?

Like, we all are going to die.

Every single one of you here, unless Jesus comes back, you're going to die.

And what does it mean that we're all going to die?

That you're going to die?

It's not an abstraction.

It will be real someday.

Like, it's funny, you know.

Why is it that we Canadians don't even want to think about that?

That it would be viewed as, like many of you would already say, or maybe if you're a guest,

you're going to go, okay, George, let's move on to another topic.

Like, you're pushing this too far.

It might be getting a bit uncomfortable.

But why is it that we feel so uncomfortable about talking about death?

Like, if you think about it, in a sense, death, from one point of view, is completely and utterly natural.

Like, nobody gets upset if we talk about gravity or the sun rising.

But we get very upset talking about something which is natural.

Why is it that we find death which is natural?

Why is it that on one level it's natural, but on a very, very fundamental level, we don't think it's natural?

We think there's something just wrong with death.

Why is that?

And if we live in a world where everybody dies, doesn't it seem then as if death wins?

And if death wins, how is it that life has any meaning?

Like, if you think about it for a second, well, actually, you could just do a little experiment.

I mean, I'm guessing the Sunday school has something you can stack on top of something else.

If not, next Sunday, I just ask you for a simple experiment.

Bring a pile of blocks.

Find some young kids.

And if you put the blocks out where the young kids are, one young kid will start to pile the black blocks on top of another.

And what will also happen when the blocks are all tied, piled up on top of another?

What is just as certain as the sun will rise tomorrow, another kid will knock the blocks all down.

Right?

Isn't that how it works?

Trust me on this one.

If anybody has more than one kid, if one kid starts to make possum blocks on top of the other,

it's just a matter of time before another kid comes in.

In fact, sometimes when kids get really into knocking the blocks out,

the building kid gets maybe only three blocks up and some other kid with great glee comes and kicks it.

And the poor builder kid never knows if they're going to get three blocks up or eight blocks up or ten blocks up.

But one thing they know for certain is that the blocks will be kicked out.

But isn't that like life?

Like, don't every single one of us not know if we've just built three blocks and then we're going to die on our way home,

or whether we might get to build 20 blocks or 30 blocks high, but they will all be knocked down.

And if you see any kid who's trying to be the builder, building those blocks,

the one thing you know for certain is they start to scream in anguish and anger.

And if their mommy or their daddy is nearby, they scream for their mommy and daddy to come and fix it.

And if it's not fixed, they stop building because it's meaningless to stack blocks on top of another.

If some other kid at any random moment is going to come and knock the blocks down,

but isn't that life?

Like, is that one of the reasons we don't like talking about it?

That if at the end of our life, all that's going to happen is we die and death wins,

then, like, what is the point of having children, those of us who are able to have children?

Like, what is the point of bank balances and careers if it can just be taken away in a moment?

And why is it that, well, I guess we can start to see why it is that we don't want to think and talk about that.

See, it's very, very funny.

One of the things that many people would say about the Christian faith is that it's very, very impractical,

that it's sort of airy-fairy.

Yet, the fact of the matter is, is the Bible talks about things which go right to the very, very heart.

In fact, something like talking about death is far more practical than all sorts of other stuff.

And the Bible actually forces us, or tries to force us, to deal with these very, very fundamental issues

and what it means for the meaning of our life.

So, if you take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 12, we'll see why it is that I'm talking about this,

John 12 · chapter mention

because Jesus talks about it.

John chapter 12, verse 20.

John 12:20

And actually, those of you who don't have Bibles with you, we're going to put it up here on the screen.

And we're just going to read through the text again.

Maybe you didn't notice that it talks about life and death, but it does talk about life and death.

One of the references is sort of hard to get.

And so, just remember I said that the context of this, just as we're starting to turn to it,

is this book is written by a man by the name of John.

He was one of Jesus' very early disciples,

and he was one of Jesus' most intimate disciples.

And so, for three years, this fellow, three years and a bit,

this fellow, he traveled with Jesus all the time.

They camped together.

They ate together.

He would have known everything there is to know about Jesus for those three plus years.

And after Jesus' death and resurrection,

there were four biographies written, all based on eyewitness accounts.

And John writes his own eyewitness testimony of Jesus.

And John's testimony of Jesus is different than the others.

It really shows more the intimate side of Jesus.

It has far more of the intimate conversations that Jesus probably had with his disciples

than the other ones show.

And that's why the sermon series is called Knowing Jesus,

an intimate, John's intimate biography of Jesus.

And the way John, one of the ways that John organized his story of Jesus

is he wasn't concerned by chronology.

What he did is he sort of introduced who Jesus is.

And then for basically ten chapters,

he organized all of the chapters around remarkable miracles that Jesus did.

And he calls the miracles signs,

because signs communicate something.

And so John wanted to make sure that we understood that Jesus was communicating something

about the nature of reality, about who he is,

about what the real world is.

And these miracles are an attempt by Jesus to get us to stop,

to notice something, to see where it's being pointed to.

And so for the big, over half the book,

it's all sort of an unfolding of these remarkable miracles.

And then there's this sort of chapter of transition,

which we're in right now.

And then the next big section will be

the intimate conversation that Jesus has with his disciples

in that about five or six hour period

when he's in the upper room,

and he knows he's going to die the next day.

And that's the next big section.

Then there's the account of his death and resurrection.

So that's where we are.

And here's how it continues.

I've already told you about how the triumphal entry,

and now we have verse 20.

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast

were some pagans, some Greeks.

So these came to Philip, one of Jesus' disciples,

who was from Bethsaida in Galilee.

And they asked him,

Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Let's sort of pause there for a second.

Some of you Christians will know this is a very, very, very, very famous phrase.

What you might not know is that in churches that still have pulpits,

and there are churches that still have pulpits,

it's not uncommon that that phrase will be written on the pulpit.

So if, for instance, if you go to a very famous church,

All Souls Langham Place in England,

and there's a pulpit,

and usually with the pulpit there's a little bit of a,

you know, like a thing over here.

And what you might or might not know is it's very common in pulpits

to put right there so the minister sees it,

Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

As a reminder of what my task is as a preacher.

That the room, they want to see Jesus.

They don't want to hear my thoughts on debt,

or the transit way, or bicycle lanes.

I have views on all of those things, by the way.

You don't want to hear any of those things.

The congregation should be coming,

and I should be opening the Bible to tell you about Jesus.

It's this very, very famous phrase.

And so there's these pagans, again,

they've come to Philip, they'd like to meet Jesus.

That's what it means, see.

They can obviously, they've seen him,

rioting, but they want to meet Jesus.

They want to meet him and to get to know him.

And they say, once again, verse 21,

Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

So Philip went and told Andrew.

Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

And Jesus answered them.

So they make their request, and Jesus answers them.

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

Now just sort of pause here.

On one hand, this is a very unsatisfactory story.

He doesn't say, like what we would expect,

said, yeah, sure, come on, love to meet him.

Let's go over, tell him to come over here,

you know, get through the crowd.

So just before you, you know, because it puzzles people.

First of all, at the end of the story,

we don't know at the end of the conversation

whether Jesus met with him or not.

John, on one hand, ignores that particular part of the story.

We don't know whether he said yes or no later on.

What John records is something different,

because you see, in a sense, you and I are those pagans.

Jesus, John isn't writing his biography

so that all the people who were, you know,

he's writing the biography of Jesus

for people like us who want to see Jesus.

And so what John does is he records part of Jesus' answer.

He never ends up telling us, like, we're all maybe curious.

Well, did he meet Jesus?

Like, what did he say?

Like, John doesn't say anything.

He's not concerned about that part of the story.

But he's concerned that, you know, in a sense,

every single one of us, I mean, I think maybe apart

from Daniel Avitan, who's in the room, who's Jewish,

the rest of us are pagans.

And maybe there's another one or two of us here

who are Jewish.

We're pagans.

We're the pagans wanting to actually see

and try to get to know who Jesus is.

And so what John does is that John gives us part of Jesus' answer

that's very, very, very important.

You see, what he's going to say is we have to understand

something about Jesus is that Jesus isn't just a rabbi.

He's not just a miracle worker.

He's not going to be like an earthly king.

He's not a philosopher.

He's not intellectual.

He's not a mighty military commander.

He's not somebody with all sorts of degrees.

And his purpose isn't any of the things that go along

with those types of things.

If you want to see Jesus, well, Jesus actually, in a sense,

tells his disciples something really important about himself

so that when the disciples are telling others about Jesus,

they can communicate the part about Jesus

which is most important.

And so just go back and look at that thing,

the beginning of Jesus' answer.

We're going to read it.

I'm going to unpack it a bit more later on.

But the first thing he says then in verse 23 is,

the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

And, you know, this, just as a bit of an aside,

Jesus knows, we don't know if this happened immediately

after the triumphal entry or the Monday or the Tuesday

or the Wednesday, but Jesus knows that on Friday

he will be hanging on a cross after having been whipped.

He's stripped naked and he's hanging on a cross

and he's going to die.

And he says, my life has an overarching purpose.

That's what it means by the hour.

My life has an overarching purpose.

My life, and because it's true of my life,

it will be true of every other human life,

my life is not one dang thing after another and then you die.

My life is not just one succession of moments

measured by teaspoons.

My life has a purpose.

My life has a purpose.

And my, the culmination of the purpose has now come.

And, and it's going to be very interesting later on

when he says it's going to reveal God's glory.

And what we need to understand is that,

I mean, how would Hollywood try to display God's glory?

Hollywood tried to describe God's glory by,

I don't know, by maybe psychedelic visions

or by just the things which are unbelievably bright

that you can't look at.

It might try to describe it by glory and majesty,

by a mighty army, by a man with huge muscles,

by a woman who's unbelievably beautiful,

by any sorts of things.

But what Jesus is saying is that the most perfect illustration

of the glory of God will be me being naked,

nailed to a cross,

with my blood dripping down and my labored breath

and then me giving up my spirit and dying.

And it is in my dying upon the cross

that God's glory is most perfectly revealed.

And that is an offense to every system of thought.

And it is an offense to religion.

And it is an offense to spirituality.

But this is what Jesus says shortly before he dies.

Let's continue to look at that verse 24.

When the Bible has the word truly, truly,

another way to translate it would be amen, amen.

It's John, it's Jesus communicating to his disciples,

okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

you might have fallen asleep,

you might be nodding off,

you might be thinking about, you know,

the cute woman who just walked by

or the handsome guy who just walked by

or whatever it is.

But whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

this is really, really, really, really important.

That's what he's doing.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

So, 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.

You know, it's almost creed-like in its simplicity.

And I have to think that not only, of course,

in an oral culture like that

would they have remembered words very well,

but I wonder, I mean,

this would probably be on one level easy enough to memorize,

and you wonder if Jesus said it over and over and over again

to his disciples when he was walking from one spot to another.

Because there's a rhythm and a balance to it.

I tried to illustrate that right with my hands.

Whoever loses his life,

whoever loves his life loses it.

Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

Where I am, there will my servant be also.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

So we don't know whether the pagans wanted to come to see Jesus

because they were impressed by his teaching or his miracles or whatever.

We don't know if they wanted to really just become his followers

or if they were going to try to squeeze Jesus into their categories of thought

and their systems of thought.

And what we can see here is that whatever type of,

no system of thought that's developed purely by human beings

will culminate in a place whereby God hanging on a cross,

a man hanging on a cross,

God hanging on a cross is a sign of the glory of God.

No system of thought will say,

okay, we begin here, we begin here, we begin here, we begin here,

we come to there.

No system of thought leads to that.

And Jesus said,

everything about me you need to understand is about the fact that I'm going to die.

And my death is accomplishing a very particular thing.

And then many people are puzzled by,

okay, well, look at verse 25.

What do you mean by whoever loves his life loses it?

Like, shouldn't we be teaching people to love their life?

You know, like, on one hand, what's a very common expression in Canada

and in North America, maybe even in England, probably,

in the English-speaking world?

Usually when they say it, it's in an ironic sense because it's not,

they don't mean it, it's ironic,

but they say, I'm living the life, right?

You could just imagine, you know,

somebody who's doing something really boring at work

and they're stuck in their cubicle

and somebody says, how's life going?

And they say, I'm living the life.

Not, right?

Because there's this sense that we are, like, living the life.

Like, that's what we value in Canada.

And living the life might be rock climbing or, I don't know, crocheting

or doing anything other than doing something boring

and sacrificial and monotonous.

And so why is it, he says, whoever loses his life,

loves his life, loses it,

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

Like, is the Bible telling us we should hate our life?

Some of you say, I already have that mastered.

I hate my life, so this is the text for me.

But that's not what it's referring to.

Well, this gets us back a little bit about death

to help us understand why it is that Jesus would say something like that.

And, you see, for many, many, many, many systems of thought

throughout the entire world,

the way that they would understand death

is that it's part of the cycle of life.

It's just a cycle.

You're born as a baby, and you live your life, and then you die.

And, you know, we all know from plants and stuff

is the death of plants helps with the soil and et cetera

and helps new plants to grow,

and it's just the cycle of life.

And we often say that

almost as if it's a good type of thing,

but for the ancients

and for people who really are enmeshed in that system,

it's a terrible thing.

You're trapped.

You're trapped.

You're trapped.

There's a movie that was very popular in the 60s

amongst the hippies called The Graduate,

The Counterculture.

And there's a scene in there.

It's all about a young guy back then who was young,

and he finishes his degree,

but he doesn't want to go on with life.

And he asks his parents, like,

what's the purpose of, you know, going...

It's basic...

Part of it is,

what's the purpose of going to university?

Well, the purpose of going to university is to make money.

Well, what's the purpose of making money?

Well, the purpose of making money is so that you can have a house

and so you can marry and you can have kids.

And what's the purpose of having all of those types of things,

having the money and the kids?

Well, the purpose of all of that is

that when they can go,

they can go to university.

And he says,

well, what's the sense of that

if it's just all like this circle?

And they didn't even bring in death,

but death is all part of it.

And so once again, we ask this,

like, what is it about death?

Why is it that on one hand,

death is unbelievably natural

and it seems as if it wins?

And yet on the other hand,

in our deepest longings and yearnings,

we think to ourselves that death isn't natural,

that life is natural.

Nobody in Canada would say,

I'm living the death.

No, I'm living the life.

That's what we want to live.

We want to live the life.

We don't want to live the death.

And so you see,

even, and for these pagans,

in all pagan religions,

this image of the seed that dies

and bears fruit

is part of that very imagery

of the cycle,

which is a cycle of fate

and you're trapped.

Because the fact of the matter is,

and the two movies that have come out

over the last years

that talk about this cycle,

one of them was the Tom Cruise one.

I can't remember the name of it right now.

And he gets that alien blood on him

and now he starts living this cycle.

He can't die.

He just comes back

and keeps going over and over and over again.

And of course,

the famous Bill Murray movie,

Groundhog Day.

And for people who are trapped,

even in this cycle

of coming back to life and death

and back to life and death,

it's experience as a prison,

not as something rewarding.

And their goal is to escape it.

And you see,

that's what the gospel does.

We're going to talk about it in a moment.

It's both,

what Jesus is doing right now,

he's going to explain in a moment,

and he's even doing it a little bit

by using this image of hating this life,

to try to help us to understand

why it is that on one hand,

death appears to be

completely and utterly natural.

On the other hand,

we think it's profoundly unnatural.

And why it is that our hearts

do not long to be told

about the cycle of we live

and then we die

and then somebody else lives

and they die

and somebody else lives

and somebody else dies

and then they die

and it goes over and over

and over and over and over again.

And our hearts long for that to break

and there not to be a circle

and there not to be a sort of a line

that just goes a short length

and then something or other cuts it

so that we die,

but there's something that endures,

that we break from the prison,

we break from fate,

that fate is not to be our destiny.

There's something within us

that longs for that,

that tries to help us

to understand why it is

that death seems more like an enemy

than the something

that is just merely a natural thing.

And he starts to catch our attention with it

by this little phrase

about hating our life.

And that will become

a little bit more clear

if we just go on

with what he says next in verse 27.

Now is my soul trouble.

Verse 27,

now is my soul trouble.

He's just talked about the fact

that he's going to die.

And he says he's troubled by it.

This has been commented on

by many people

over many, many years.

There's all sorts of people

throughout history

who have gone to the firing squad

or execution like this.

The person who's,

humanly speaking,

most responsible

for the book of common prayer

under torture,

he had renounced

the Christian faith

and then he renounced

his renouncing

of the Christian faith.

And he,

because he renounced

his renouncing

of the Christian faith

by embracing

the Christian faith,

he was going to be burned

in the stake.

And he asked

that when he was burned

in the stake,

he reached out his hand,

the hand that had signed

the letter

to renounce the faith,

he reached that out

that that would burn first.

And why is it

that so many human beings

have faced death

and not been troubled?

And Jesus is troubled.

Look at verse 27.

Now is my soul troubled.

And what shall I say?

Father, save me from this hour?

And then he responds,

but for this purpose

I have come to this hour.

Father,

glorify your name.

Hallowed be your name.

So,

what's going on here?

Well, let's just start

to unpack all of this

in our last few minutes.

If you could put up

the first point,

that would be really,

really great.

And the first point

is this,

is this,

is Jesus,

Jesus is the seed

that died

to bear much fruit.

That's the point

of the story here.

It's,

if you look at it,

he says it very,

very clearly.

Truly, truly,

remember I said that means,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

even if you're falling asleep,

whoa, whoa, whoa,

don't,

even if that's all you remember,

just remember this.

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.

And Jesus is that seed.

He is that true

and greater seed.

On one level,

you see,

here's the thing,

is if Jesus is in fact

what he claims to be

and we believe it's true,

why?

Because he defeats death,

which we're going to talk

about that in a moment.

He is the one

who rose from the dead.

He has defeated death.

He has defeated that

which causes death.

He has done it

not as a way

to show how powerful God is,

although it does show

how powerful God is,

but he does it

for human beings,

ordinary human beings

like you and me.

And that's what he's saying here.

He did not come

to not die.

He came precisely to die.

And his death

isn't just some type

of an illustration.

It's not something

that bears fruit

by inspiring all of us

as to how remarkable it is

that he died in such a way.

It's not about that

because the image here

isn't that just,

the image is that

because the seed dies,

there is fruit,

much fruit.

Without,

you see,

the death of the seed

means fruit

comes into existence

with life.

That's the point

of the analogy.

It isn't that this inspires.

It isn't that this

can be used to teach.

It is,

although it can,

it is that the death

of Jesus

will bring life

and existence

into existence

for others.

You see,

the fact of the matter is

is that death wins.

you and I

are a cut flower.

We are a cut flower.

And what this text

is saying

is that as a result

of what Jesus

will do

by his death

and his resurrection,

when we put our faith

and trust in him,

we have a life

that comes from him

that gives us

life and existence

in a way

that we did not have

and could not have

without our faith

and trust in him.

So it's not a matter

of an example.

It's a matter

of actual fruit.

The fruit,

without the seed dying,

and if it's a coin

that dies,

no fruit happens.

If it's a rock that you,

sorry,

if you put a rock

in the ground,

nothing happens.

You put a coin,

you put a $1,000 bill,

a $10,000 bill.

I don't know how big

a bill,

you know,

you put that

in the ground,

nothing happens.

It just stays there,

but the seed dies

and fruit comes

into existence

that wasn't

in existence before

and would not

be in existence

without the death

of the seed.

So that's what

Jesus means

when he says,

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.

But what is this

about him being troubled

and what is it

about,

well,

if you could put up

the next point,

death is a sign

and instrument

of the Lord's judgment

on the bent

human desire

to be God.

Death is a sign

and instrument

of the Lord's judgment

on sin,

on you and me

who are sinners,

who cling to our sin

and cannot leave our sin,

who have this human,

this desire to be God,

which sort of explains

all sin,

and we've bent

our nature

and our world,

and death

is a sign

and an instrument

of the Lord's judgment.

See,

when the Lord made us,

if you read the whole

overarching story

of the Bible,

God made all things good

and he made human beings

to be at home

in this world

that he had made good.

And he made human beings

to be able to be naked

and unashamed

with each other

and to be naked

and unashamed

not only with each other,

but to be with each other

naked and unashamed

while they are naked

and unashamed with God,

who could walk with them

in the cool of the garden,

in the cool of the day,

in a place that he had called

for them to learn

how to tend

and to manage

and to work

and to cultivate

and to make even more beautiful.

And that is how God

made human beings to live

and there would have been

no death.

And death

comes into the world

when human beings

decide that they are

no longer going to trust God,

that they are no longer

going to, in a sense,

allow God to be God

and them to be creatures,

but that we human beings

want to be the center ourselves.

We want to be

the maker of our own lives.

We want to be the definer

of our own lives.

We want to be God.

Whatever happens to God,

we don't care,

but we all know

that there can only

ultimately be one God

and that explains

so much conflict

that goes in families

and schools

and businesses

and in this world

and the United States

right now,

the Congress wants to be God

and President Trump

wants to be God

and the Republicans

and the Democrats

and they all want to be God

and there's fighting

and it's not all fighting

but it comes up so much

and so often with ambition

and whether it's sexual sins

or intellectual sins

or greed or whatever,

all of it comes

from our human desire

which is a bending

of who we were,

a breaking of who we are

that we desire to be God

and what we see it

is that desire

that brings to be God

to disconnect ourselves

from God

and be our own God.

It is as a result of that

that death

comes into the world

and all death

is a sign of the fact

that we are under God's judgment

and in fact

is the instrument

of God's judgment

and that's why

on one level

death is completely

and utterly unnatural

but we understand

and experience it

as not something

that we want.

Our culture

because we don't want

to talk about it

it doesn't give us

any language

so only the Christian faith

only the Christian faith

I think gives an account

of this fundamental

human experience

of death

being natural

yet us not feeling

it's natural

and somehow wanting

to avoid it

because we want

to avoid

the Lord's judgment.

So why is it

that Jesus

understanding this

why that helps us

to understand

something about

why it is

that Jesus did not

on one level

he did not want

to come to this

point of death

because you see

if Jesus is going

to deal with death

in a way

that you and I

can have life

and existence

in life

Jesus can't

just sort of

somehow both

defeat death

he has to

defeat that

which causes

the death

if you could

put up the next

point

that would be

very helpful

when Jesus

died

he bore

every reason

that you have

been judged

and the judgment

itself

when Jesus

died

he bore

every reason

that you have

been judged

and the judgment

itself

see the fact

of the matter

is that in

many many many

many things

if we think

about it

for a second

on one level

sin is its own

judgment

its own punishment

and we understand

that there's a type

of a fitness

between it

I just finished

reading a novel

and in the novel

the bad character

because I like

novels where

there's like

you know

murders and all

that type of

stuff and

justice at the

end

but you have

this sense

it's written

by a non-Christian

it's just a

very very common

type of novel

and in a sense

the big evil

of the man

in his life

is that he

kills people

and the

particular

protagonist

the way he

killed the

protagonist's

loved one

was by

throwing them

out of a

window

on the

20th floor

of a

building

and the

person died

to their

death

and he's

an evil

man

and he's

a bad

man

and when

the judgment

finally comes

for this

bad fellow

how does

he die

he dies

by being

pushed out

of a window

to his

death

and the

reader goes

yes

there's

something

fitting

that the

sin that

he committed

is the

faith that

he endures

so you see

there's two

different images

in John

I'll give you

John's gospel

in a moment

but in

and so why

is it that

Jesus in a

sense is

hesitant

it's not

that he's

lacking

courage

but Jesus

is going

to experience

something that

he has never

experienced in

his entire

life

he is going

to drink

something that

he has never

drunk in

his entire

life

something is

going to

touch his

lips

and touch

his heart

and touch

his body

that has

never touched

his entire

life

because you

see

while I

have not

been able

to live

my life

without being

bent

and out

being in

rebellion

against God

and not

without being

able to

sin

the Bible

tells us

that Jesus

lives the

life that

I could

never

live

that Jesus

lived his

life and

he never

sinned

he never

fell prey

to envy

he never

fell prey

to the

form of

sin

that is

anger

that he

never

felt

he was

never

prone

to

pride

that he

never

was

prone

to

wishing

murder

for other

people

or being

selfish

that he

was

tempted

by all

of these

things

and he

was able

to resist

the

temptations

another

sermon

as to

all this

means

about the

depth

of human

experience

but he

was able

to

experience

these

temptations

without

ever

partaking

of them

and in

several of

the

gospels

the

image

which

is

given

upon

the

time

of

Jesus

death

when he's

in the

garden

of

Gethsemane

and he's

struggling

with what

he's about

to do

the next

day

die on

the cross

and they

use this

biblical image

of the

cup

and in the

biblical image

of the

cup

it's this

old image

that it's

as if

and we can

just sort of

think of it

as a

sorcerer

or something

like that

in a

fantasy

novel

that takes

the evil

out of a

person's

heart

and the

evil deeds

that have

been done

and they

take it

out

and they

turn it

into a

type of

a

liquid

that all

goes into

the cup

and then

somebody

has to

drink

that

cup

and so

the

image

is as if

all of

George's

pride

all of

his

anger

all of

his

envy

all of

his

sexual

sins

all of

his

desires

at times

that he

wanted

that

wished

that

somebody

would

die

or

that

they

would

be

obliterated

and all

of

those

things

that

are so

cling

to me

they are

drawn

out by

God

and as

they are

drawn

out by

God

they are

distilled

into a

liquid

that goes

into an

unbelievably

foul cup

and in

that

unbelievably

foul cup

is not

just

George

there's

Louise

and there's

Jason

and there's

Shirley

and there's

Ross

and there's

Daniel

and there's

Christine

and all

of their

foul

stuff

and the

image

is

that when

Jesus

is dying

on the

cross

that he

takes

that

cup

and his

lips

have never

touched

that

and he

drinks

that

cup

and that's

what he

bears

when he

dies

John's

gospel

doesn't

use this

image

but if

you go

back

and you

read

John

from the

beginning

you'll

see that

the first

way that

Jesus

is

introduced

is the

same

image

but a

different

one

behold

the Lamb

of God

who takes

away the

sin of

the world

it's the

same

image

the image

is of

as if

God

brings

one of

a

you know

that I

lay my

hands

on a

lamb

and the

image

is that

as I

lay my

hands

on the

lamb

all of

those

things

I've

just

described

my

pride

my

anger

my

arrogance

all of

those

things

they

come out

of me

and they

go on

the

lamb

and it

dies

and the

image

is as

the

son of

man

is in

a

sense

every

human

being

who's

ever

existed

we

one

after

another

put our

hands

on

Jesus

on

his

head

and all

those

things

that we

have done

are on

him

and he's

been

tempted

by pride

but never

been tempted

by sexual

sin

but never

succumbed

he's been

tempted

by anger

but never

succumbed

tempted

by greed

but never

succumbed

and now

he will

taste and

experience

not

the whole

worlds

and that's

why he

hesitates

before his

death

you see

when Jesus

died

he bore

every reason

that you

have

been judged

and the

judgment

itself

if you

could put

up the

next slide

that would

be very

helpful

the good

news of

who Jesus

is and

what he

accomplished

for you

calls you

to hate

your life

in this

world

and follow

and serve

him

the good

news of

who Jesus

is and

what he

accomplished

for you

calls you

to hate

in quotes

your life

in this

world

and to

follow

and serve

him

some of

you have

heard me

if you've

heard me

speak

there's

what we

call

idioms

and I

use the

example

you know

a person's

a few

bricks shy

of a

load

or they

have a

screw

loose

or you

know

and they're

not really

meant literally

and hate

here in the

biblical text

is an idiom

and it's

an idiom

it's a way

of expressing

something

very starkly

which basically

says to

completely reject

or to

completely give

a failing

grade

and so

what Jesus

is saying

listen

how do you

respond

I am going

to accomplish

something

that you

cannot

accomplish

for yourself

I am going

to accomplish

the death

of death

in my

death

and I am

not only

going to

accomplish

the death

of death

in my

death

but the

death

of that

which causes

death

will be

dealt

with in

my

death

as I

drink

that

cup

as I

bear

in myself

as the

Lamb of

God

that which

you cannot

deal with

for yourself

and I'm

going to

do this

all for

you

how are

you to

respond

you're

to respond

by saying

and I

cannot do

this by

myself

father

but I

know

that my

life

my

life

capital

M

capital

Y

my

life

in this

world

where I

am

bent

where I

am

far

from

you

I

reject

that

I

that

fails

a life

where

death

wins

that

fails

I

reject

that

and I

come to

you

and I

follow

you

and the

language of

service is

the language

of ownership

you serve

who you

belong to

and it's

the

Jesus says

you need

to say to

your life

in this

world

it fails

I

reject it

it is

past

I

come

to

you

I

will

follow

you

I

will

serve

you

because

I

am

yours

and that's

how we

respond

just in

closing

you know

there's

this very

look back

I don't

know

if you

can put

it back

up on

the

screen

Rebecca

verse 25

and 26

it says

whoever loves

his life

loses it

and whoever

hates his

life in

this world

will keep

it for

eternal

life

see how

that

excuse me

what that

means

and then it

says if

anyone serves

me he

must follow

me

so you

begin by

following

and then

the serving

is it

and where

I am

there will

my servant

be also

if anyone

serves me

the father

will honor

him

it's an

image of

what it

means to

be in the

Christian life

and for

all eternity

I am

with

Jesus

and I

am

with

Jesus

being

honored

by my

father

my

father

in

heaven

that

is the

Christian

life

that

begins

now

and goes

for all

of

eternity

we'll only

be on the

far side

of death

that once

again we

can be

naked

and unashamed

with one

another

and naked

and unashamed

with our

father

and walk

with him

in the

cool of

the day

and we

walk

with

Jesus

but that

begins

now

the life

I live

now

is with

Jesus

honored

by my

father

as I

follow

and serve

Jesus

and just

in closing

you know that

phrase

I will

follow

how does it

go again

sorry

if anyone

serves me

he must

follow me

Jesus says

you know

wherever you

are

it's very

simple

isn't it

but it's very

profound

and hard

to know

what it

means

like if

you are

an assistant

deputy

minister

and you

are a

follower

of

Jesus

what

Jesus

says

is

as

an

assistant

deputy

minister

follow

me

if

you're

a

stay-at-home

mom

or stay-at-home

dad

follow me

if

you're

retired

follow me

if

you're

a teenager

trying to

navigate

high school

follow me

if

you're

in med

school

follow me

if

you work

in

construction

follow me

if

you're

unemployed

follow me

it

doesn't

tell you

exactly

what

it's

going

to

mean

but

on

one

hand

it

is

a

very

very

very