John 12:20-26 "The Paradox Of Discipleship"

Um, it's John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

We're continuing our series in John.

John chapter 12, uh verses 20 through 26.

John 12 · chapter mention

This is a Grace and Peace 101 sermon.

I probably should preach it every three months.

Uh, it is it is such a key part of discipleship, but it also comes next in our in our series in John.

Let's pray.

Oh, let's read the text and then we'll pray.

Uh the text is on the screen if you don't have your Bible with you.

Now, among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.

So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Philip went and told Andrew, and 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.

Please pray with me.

Jesus, that we could hear your words and make them part of our story.

That we would take them deep to heart, that this word of yours would so shape us that we would live out of it.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You know, uh, sometimes what you think is going to be one of your peak moments in life turns out to be one of your lowest.

Some of you guys have heard this story.

It's one of the key moments in my life, some of you guys haven't heard it, but I want you to go back in time with me.

To 1997, some of you weren't alive yet.

And uh as a sports arena, but also it doubled as a concert venue.

And tonight it is oversold.

It holds 5,000, 6,000 tickets per sold, and people turned away.

I can hear through the huge concrete walls, the crowd was so excited that they were murmuring, and I could hear the murmuring from where I was sitting.

And the reason that everyone was there is because this was the first show, the kickoff show of our tour after we had released what had become like a hit record.

It was on Billboard, MTV, the whole thing.

And I was sitting there saying to myself, this is really happening.

Like I had been dreaming about playing a show just like this since I was 12 years old.

Except when I was 12, I started out as a bass player, but I was I was the lead singer, which is, you know, I mean, come on, let's be honest, Joe.

And I, you know, the people on the other side of the wall literally started chanting, like unprompted, started chanting the name of my band, and and I was like, oh my gosh, this has happened.

Like, my entire dream has come true.

And and we took the stage that night, and I was ready for like the thing that happens when your dream comes true, you know?

Like you really feel like a somebody, you know that, you know that how that happens when your dream comes true.

No, it was a good show.

But what I thought it was gonna was gonna happen just didn't happen.

I've never been more disappointed in my life, and I watched the finale of Lost.

I could have wept with how empty I felt after that.

Right?

This thing that I had given myself to wholeheartedly, this thing that my entire person was bent on since the age of 12, when I got it, it like vanished like a mirage when I reached it.

Now, I don't know if you've had an experience that extreme, but I think we've all been there.

Right?

We're some long-sought-after goal that's like a carrot in front of you.

You're you're trying to catch it, and when you do, you pursued that degree, and you worked so hard for it, and you thought it was gonna make you feel like a somebody, and you get it, and what happens?

That's cool, that's over with.

Well, that didn't really work.

On to the next thing, right?

The next achievement, the next promotion, the next uh you know, round of recognition and adulation that you get, the next vacation, the next big lifestyle change.

We've all had that experience.

What we think is gonna fulfill us fails to do so.

What's going on?

Because the thing is, is when you're looking to all these things to fulfill you, and they can't do it, what ends up happening is you ruin those things, right?

You can't appreciate them for what they are.

For instance, you know, if you're like, hey, a spouse or a family is gonna be the thing that totally fulfills me, and when they won't, when they don't because they can't, you set yourself up to be a very disappointed and bitter person who is taking out your disappointment on the people who can't fulfill you.

How does Jesus speak to this need for fulfillment that we have?

Well, he speaks to it in a paradox.

I don't know if you notice this.

We're gonna go deeper into verses 25 and 26, but I want you to get the big picture vibe of what Jesus is saying.

He say, he says in verses 25 and 26, 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.

So two things to catch there.

One, it's this counterintuitive, it's this paradox.

He's saying, to get it all, you gotta lose it all.

Did you hear that?

And then he's saying, if anyone would, I don't want to misquote the Lord.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

What's he saying?

Right?

Who sets this pattern of to get it all, you gotta lose it all?

Well, it's Jesus himself, isn't it?

He's gonna go to the cross, he's gonna give up everything, and what happens after is he he arrives at the greatest glory.

It's this go down to come up.

This, this lose it all to get it all is the fundamental dance step of discipleship.

When he says follow me, right?

He quite literally means follow me in this pattern, lose your life to gain your life.

I've said many times, we're not to be admirers of Jesus, but followers.

And what does that mean?

It's to follow this basic pattern of discipleship that is so counterintuitive to us.

We seek fulfillment through what?

More! That didn't work.

I need more.

That bowl of ice cream didn't make me feel 100% better.

I'll have more! Right?

This achievement didn't make me feel like a somebody, I need a bigger achievement.

He's saying, not that way.

You don't go up.

You don't aim up, you aim down to go up.

Now, somebody might point out, I have a spouse and children, and it it is pretty fulfilling to a certain extent.

And it's like, yeah, it is, but do you notice that these two things, getting married and having a kid, are two things that force you to do what?

Deny yourself.

And they're the most fulfilling things like that that people do.

But for the rest of us, right?

Like for all of us, even that is not going to be ultimately fulfilling.

They can't be Jesus for us.

Now, what sorts of things is Jesus talking about?

What do we need to lay down?

What what where are the areas that we need to aim down in order to go up?

Well, first of all, we have to talk about our motivation.

What gets us going?

What gets us to do things?

One of the things, and this is a big one, and I'm talking about some of you and me, it's our pursuit of human honor.

When you post something and you get that like, ah, it's like crack cocaine.

You want more.

Feels good, right?

You can't get enough of that.

Getting praise, getting told you did a good job at work or getting recognition of something, that gets us up in the morning, doesn't it?

It motivates us, but but there's a problem with it too.

And you all know what it is, is that it is vaporous.

It doesn't last.

Like being told you did a good job six months ago, you're like, well, I, you know, that stopped working after about three minutes, you know, and you've gone six months of like, I need more.

It can actually lead us into destructive patterns.

Some of us have a problem with people pleasing.

That is, you're gonna bend yourself into a pretzel, you're gonna compromise your values, your, your, your beliefs, or whatever, just to have people think well of you.

Also, it's just unending and it doesn't work.

Now, for Jesus, he had at his in his grasp more human honor than you or I could ever imagine.

Just before this text is the so-called triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

And the triumphal entry, you gotta picture it, right?

In in ancient Judea, he is being welcomed into Jerusalem by a thronging crowd who are singing his praises, who are welcoming him as the king.

They want to make him king.

He could be the inheritor of David.

Right?

Sit on David's throne in David's city.

Could you imagine?

That is a ton of honor.

Does Jesus take it?

No, he does not.

How does Jesus turn away from the crown?

And where does he go instead?

He forsakes human honor.

He ends up abandoned, humiliated, condemned, naked, tortured, and crucified.

Is that, is it is Jesus saying I don't need honor at all?

No.

It's that he's found a much greater honor.

When we look at the last verse in this text, he says, 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 you hear what he's saying?

He's saying that those who serve me are with me.

They receive honor with me.

What motivates Jesus?

It's not that he didn't want honor, it's that God's honor, the honor of God, is far great out is of far greater importance to him than all the human honor added up.

And that is for us too.

That promise is for if you follow me, you get the honor of God.

God looks at you and says, Well done.

That's not a like you're ever gonna get on the Instantalk.

God like.

Not that I've never been there.

Right?

You feel like you have to be spectacular to be fulfilled.

That you've got to outperform.

But what God honors is the unseen things that you do.

When you are just, you are fighting to get through a day keeping your anger in check because you have a problem with it, and you want to honor the Lord by treating others well, God sees that.

God honors that.

No one else does, no one else will.

When you're finishing another day sober, no one sees it.

No one knows.

God sees.

When you show up to work and you're not feeling like it, and you put in a quality day just because you want to serve the Lord, God sees and honors that.

For some of you, this is gonna hit close.

When that baby starts crying in the middle of the night, and you don't say, you get her, you, you, go, you get up and you change that spectacular diaper.

And you rock that baby in the chair.

No one sees, but it's beautiful in the sight of God.

God sees and honors it.

Instead of being motivated with the endless hamster wheel of human honor that does not satisfy, we have we are offered something so much greater.

When we follow Jesus in aiming low, in aiming away from human honor, we get something far greater.

We get the honor of God.

But not only do we need to lay down our motivation, but also our mission.

Our mission, what we're trying to accomplish.

Um, I heard a I heard an interesting story once about the actor Cal Penn.

You guys know Cal Penn?

Cal Penn, um I let's see.

He uh I knew him from the show House.

Um that was a that was an old favorite of mine, and and I heard an interview with him, and he was talking about he's an Indian actor, right?

And it is not easy to make it as an Indian actor.

You don't you don't see many rom-coms where it's like the lead's Indian, right?

And uh and so he was having a hard time getting roles.

His first role was in the Harold and Kumar go to White Castle movies, right?

It's kind of like stoner idiot comedy.

I'm sorry if you like those.

Didn't mean to offend idiot stoners.

And then he got to play a teenage terrorist on 24, which is another old favorite of mine, but it wasn't exactly the sort of role he was looking for.

And then finally, after years of struggling and working, he landed the role of Dr.

Cuttner on House, which was like a a prime time, uh prime time network drama when that was a thing still, right?

And he was one of the main characters.

He was a you know three-dimensional character.

It was it was his dream role.

And I was watching it, and spoiler alert, it's been out a long time, you guys missed it, I guess.

But they killed him.

I was like, dude, why'd they kill Kuttner?

He was like one of my favorite characters.

And and I looked up, I I, you know, feverishly searched the interwebs.

I was like, why what happened?

Why'd they take Cal Pen off the show?

I love him.

Here's what happened.

Yes, it was a dream role, but he had gotten a call after Obama had been elected.

For whatever your politics, it doesn't matter for him, it was a huge deal.

He was asked to come and work in the White House, right?

And so for him, he was like, Well, yes, this is a dream role, but this is so much greater.

And so he left this thing that he had worked long and hard for because he found a greater mission.

In this passage, Jesus actually rejects the world's goals for him.

Not because he has none, but because he has a greater goal.

And he can't do both.

Right?

The goal of the people who were welcoming him into Jerusalem, they wanted a revolution.

They wanted him to kick the Romans out and re-establish the throne of David so that the Jewish nation could be restored to what it once was under David.

Okay, Jesus has a much bigger goal.

Where do we see this?

Well, um for for most of us, if we if we if we um if this is new to us, Jesus' answer doesn't make a ton of sense to us when they come to him.

Let's look at it again.

It says, now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.

Now, in this case, Greeks means non-Jews.

So to Jews, there were two types of people, Jews and Greeks.

So they would call you Greeks, right?

You don't speak any Greek, but you're Greeks.

Um, and so this is saying these were non-Jewish people who had come up to a Jewish festival in the Jewish homeland.

So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaide in Galilee, and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

This is not like we want to take a look.

It means we want an audience with him.

We want to become disciples.

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.

Now that might seem like a puzzling answer.

How is that an answer to these people want to come see you?

Well, for background, before in the book of John, a few times Jesus has said, My hour has not come.

That's all he said about his hour.

It's not yet.

But when these Greeks come, then he says, Now my hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

And in John, glorified means crucified.

What is it?

Why is it that when these non-Jews come to him, he says, mission on, let's go, mission accepted.

It's because his goal was not to reestablish the throne of David for the Jews only, but that all of the nations would come to know God.

He had a greater mission.

And these Greeks were the first people, the first non-Jews who were seeking him out, and it was a signal that his mission was underway.

Jesus invites us into God's mission.

He invites us to a greater goal than we have for ourselves.

Like our culture, let's just be real.

We worship the attainment of goals.

Motivational speakers out there, here's how you achieve your dreams.

Dream big dreams, dream a bigger.

Go get them.

Achieve.

Nothing wrong with that.

Unless you're expecting that to make you feel like a somebody.

Unless you're expecting that to actually make you feel like your heart is full.

I mean, think about how you get evaluated for a job.

Your resume is just all of your achievements, right?

This is a big deal in our society, but the thing is, is with each new goal we attain, we have yet to find one that's like, and now I'm done.

Now I'm cool.

I'm satisfied with me, with my life.

I'm fulfilled in my soul.

It doesn't work.

There's nothing wrong with our goals.

There's nothing wrong with getting a promotion, there's nothing wrong with achieving a certain lifestyle or whatever.

Within reason.

But in and of themselves, when our goals are only for us, they are not fulfilling.

However, when our goals are part of God's mission, when we tie our parenting, when we tie our workday, when we tie the things that we want to achieve, and we know that we are walking in God's purposes, I can speak from experience that when I am sure I am walking within God's purposes and I'm contributing to God's mission, those are the most fulfilling things.

Far more fulfilling than the things that were just for me.

You've all got lives.

Some of you guys are just are very young.

You're just setting out.

What are you gonna do?

How are you gonna set your goals?

Is it all about your own personal kingdom goals?

Or are you thinking through how does this work?

How does this scholastic or academic goal, how is this part of what God is doing in the world?

How is this part of what God is doing in restoring all of creation?

And if you if you really want to talk through that, I'm always game to get croissant and a coffee together and talk through that.

And and you know, a lot of the time you don't realize how you're doing it, and sometimes it may be time for a change.

If you want to know what it is, to what Jesus is talking about, how we give everything up in order to gain something far greater, part of that.

It's not only it's not only what motivates us, but what we're trying to achieve.

We need to be about what God is doing in the world, not just what we want to do.

But ultimately, when Jesus says everything, it means everything.

Right?

When he says life, he means life.

Like literally.

Now, in um back in seminary, we had a couple of friends who were serving at a church in St.

Louis and one of the tough parts of St.

Louis, of which there are many.

And uh one of the things that they were doing for his like pastoral internship is they were prov they had a the church had a van and they would go pick up women who were in prostitution who lived in this area and drive them to church because they didn't have to go way to get to church otherwise.

One time when they were doing this, a car pulled up next to them and shot up the van with them in it.

Now they aimed away from the people, but it was a really clear message from the men who made money off these women.

Don't do this.

Don't take away our workers.

And they I remember them wrestling with do we stop?

Right?

Do we not do this anymore because our lives have been threatened?

They went back and they kept doing it.

Some of you guys might be saying, hang on.

Um, are you saying that in order to follow Jesus we have to be actually willing to lay down our actual, not metaphorical lives?

The answer is yes.

You're like, is there a JV team for Christianity that I could join where you don't have to do that?

And the answer is no.

Jesus in verse 25 is very, very plain about this.

He says, Whoever loves his life loses it.

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

Now, something going on in the Greek there that doesn't totally come across in English is that there's two different words that are getting translated, life.

So when he says, whoever loves his life loses it, that's the word suke, from which we get psyche, but think of it, the way John is using it is to refer to your temporary life.

Your life in right, this iteration, which is gonna end in death.

He says, whoever hates his life in this world, that again is the word suke.

And then when it says he will keep it for eternal life, that is the word zoe, which if you've been here for other times, this has come up in the book of John.

In John's usage, don't try this in other New Testament books, only in John, when John uses the word Zoe, he means eternal life, which refers to not only the length, but the quality of it.

Eternal life doesn't just mean everlasting life, it means life as God intended.

Life without evil marring it, life without a broken body, life without a world that is that is corrupted, right?

He's saying if you're willing to give up your temporary life, you get eternal life.

It is that ultimate paradox that to gain everything, we must lose everything.

Jesus promises us something far greater than the life that we have.

He promises us eternal life.

And what that means, and why this is important, if we're if we're talking about my need for fulfillment in my soul, why is this important an important part of that?

Well, here's the deal.

If you live as if this life, this temporary life, is all there is, it sucks a lot of the joy and the hope out of it, doesn't it?

Hey, eight clock is ticking, get to it.

You need to have the best experiences you can while you can still enjoy them.

You need to get it, you need to keep it.

It actually makes sense of being selfish.

Why would you give something away?

Why would you sacrifice anything to anyone?

Right?

This is your one go-around, this is all you get.

It doesn't make sense that you would that you would take a diminishment to your precious few years so that someone else could enjoy it.

So what?

Who cares?

That's that's their problem.

It actually makes sense.

But if there is something greater waiting for us, then it makes all kinds of sense for us to live generously, for us to live self-sacrificially, for us to live bravely.

Isn't that funny?

That if you if you live in the in the anxiety that this is all there is, it really ruins it.

And if you live as if there is a world to come, it makes you a far better person with a far more joyful and hopeful life.

Look, if this life is all there is, think about it.

Like like we come from a society in which there's a lot more material wealth.

Most people in world history don't have it.

And if if this life is all there is, that that what then then yeah, they're that's hopeless.

For the people who are born with broken bodies and broken minds, yeah, there's there's no remedy for that.

That's what it means.

It's as C.S.

Lewis once said if you live for the next world, you get this one in the deal.

But if you live only for this world, you lose them both.

This is one of the great keys of discipleship.

That to gain it all, you have to lose it all.

As Jesus says.

That the way to true joy is not through pursuing joy.

It's by giving yourself away.

That the way to true fulfillment is not by seeking fulfillment, by seeking to serve, by seeking to follow Jesus to the cross.

Jesus speaks to this deepening we have in this paradox.

That the way up is actually down.

And the way down is up.

That the last or first and the first or last.

It's all over the place, right?

Jesus does this frequently.

He's asking us not to be miserable.

He wants to lead us to joy.

He's asking us to exchange these things that fail that we think are gonna fill us up.

He's asking us to ask you to exchange what fails for what fulfills.

Only he can.

And there's only one way to follow him, and that is to the cross.

You can't follow Jesus and not end up there.

Because that's where he goes.

That makes sense, right?

Yeah, okay.

I found this to be true.

You know, back um a long time ago, I don't want to tell you tell you how long ago that was, you know, in '97, you could do the math.

I thought that I was on the right track to perform it.

Because after that show didn't didn't do what I thought it would, I just chased more.

I was like, well, if I become more successful, right?

So you get to these higher levels of success, and it never happens.

And eventually for us, we are banned, we declined in popularity where we couldn't really make a living at it anymore.

And um we had to come off the road, I had to get another job.

And for me, I had not gone to college, I had no work experience or skills, unless you consider rocking the mic a skill.

Can't, you know, jobs rocking the mic.

None.

And uh I got the only job I could.

I worked my connections, and I got a job as a$10 an hour house painter, which I had never done.

And I remember showing up for the first day of house painting, right?

All these seasoned, grizzled house painters knew what they were doing, and the boss just goes, go up the ladder.

And I look, and it's one of these ladders, you know, it's literally as high as this ceiling.

And uh I see all the other guys on ladders and they're painting the other underside of the awning.

I was like, okay, I suppose I could do that.

I'm really afraid of heights, by the way, so this is a good choice for me.

Um, and so I go up, I go up, and I'm trying to keep it together because I do not want to cry in front of these guys out of fear.

They're so high.

I'm painting to the best of my ability and trying not to trying to be brave and lean out a tiny, but it was probably this much, but you know, I thought it felt like this.

And then I couldn't reach anymore, so I was like, well, what do I do now?

And I saw some of the guys, they would just climb down the ladder and they would they would pick up the ladder and move it over.

I was like, okay, that seems pretty intuitive.

So I climbed down the ladder and I pick it up.

And those of you with experience, you see my folly, don't you?

What did I do wrong?

So, guys, when you have a 30 or 40 foot ladder that's extended, don't pick it up on either side.

Not this.

You want to go high and low like that.

Why?

Leverage, that's why.

As soon as I pick this thing up, it it just starts to come back on me almost like, oh, oh, 'twas hubris that brought me here.

And you know, just my little thumbs are trying to hold up this huge ladder, you know, this 30 feet of leverage above me that is bearing down inexorably.

And I was like, I haven't been here 40 minutes, and this is really happening today?

When you know, two weeks ago I was playing my last concert in what had been my dream job, and this is happening right now.

This all goes through my head as the ladder comes.

Have you ever heard a big aluminum ladder fall like that?

It's it's loud.

And all the other painters were like, ah.

Now, you might think that had to be a pretty low moment.

And you'd be wrong.

This is one of the weirdest parts of my whole life.

Is what should have been a low point, right?

Here I was working at$10 an hour in a low-status job that I was bad at, and my, you know, my previous dream career had failed.

I felt in that moment greater joy than I had felt.

Almost ever.

Why?

Because I knew that Jesus was with me.

I I have no other explanation than that.

It isn't anything that I did, it isn't like any special program of discipleship.

I was simply walking with Jesus and I knew in that second that God loved me.

Period.

I because here's the thing: when you lose it all and you find out when you got nothing left, you got nothing left to make you feel like a somebody, and this thing doesn't crush you when it happens, you're like, oh, I don't have anything, and Jesus actually is enough.

Isn't that amazing?

Right?

Isn't that counterintuitive?

I just had to lose everything I was going after to be truly happy and fulfilled.

How about that?

It's almost as if Jesus isn't calling us to misery when he calls us to the cross.

He's calling us to joy.

He's asking us to exchange what fails for what fulfills.

Please pray with me.

God, that we could hear your word, that we could be disciples, that we could not just admire you for going to the cross, but follow you there.

That we could know the glory and joy that only comes from being your disciple.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.