Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21
So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22
Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.23
And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.25
Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26
If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
Our focus this morning is on Jesus’ words in verses 23-26. Anyone who loves his life will lose it while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for
eternal life. Whoever serves me MUST follow me: And then comes the promise: And where I am my servant also will be.
This kind of language strikes us as a bit extreme. Jesus is often found saying these kinds of things; Saying that we have to hate our mother and father, that we have
to gouge out our eye if it offends us and cut off our arm if it continues to sin. Jesus is, among other things, calling you and me, calling anyone who wants to be a Christian to a radical and exclusive life that has Jesus as the Master of all. What I want
us to explore as we begin this morning is why? Why this kind of life, what is God doing to us, what is His purpose?
We could say, well: He is worthy of that kind of life, He is worthy of everything we are and there should be nothing, not one area held back, after all He didn’t hold
anything back for me, but gave up everything, he gave up heaven, and then suffered and died for me…I owe Him, that is why. All of that is true. But it is far, far from sufficient, from telling the whole story. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Jesus is worthy of our
praise, worship, honor in everything, even if there is no heaven.
Let me tell you one of my major frustrations with modern understandings of the Christian life, there seems to be three types of people:
First, are those who go to church, but who don’t know Jesus. They go because they are supposed to go, either because of the culture or family expectations; they attend
church but they have no faith. I know this type of person far too well, for I was this person for years.
Then there is the second type of person who has been “saved” but treats salvation more as a past thing than a present reality. They believe in God, but their lives
have many places where one would never know that to be the case. More to this in a minute.
And then third, is the one who listens to these radical words of Jesus and desires to learn the life of total surrender to Xp in everything.
The first group is pretty straight forward, but of course no one in that group admits this to be the case until the Holy Spirit convicts them. The second group is
quite content in a luke-warm relationship with Jesus because the think that such is the Christian life. And that is the mask that is getting ready to come off. My concern is that folks in this second group and possibly some in the third are missing something,
and that something is the reason Jesus says that being a Xn is so radical. So, men are missing the thrilling part, the “I can’t believe He loves me this much” part, is not understood and therefore, is not experienced.
You ready, here is why Jesus calls you to this radical life.
Sometime ago I read a book called, The King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, by Tim Keller, he writes talking about the Trinity, but in this we
see God is doing in our lives. Keller writes:
In the words of my favorite author, C. S. Lewis, “In Christianity God is not a static thing … but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama,
or a dance. So why does Lewis choose to dwell on the image of the dance? (Now, listen carefully here, because he is going to start to attack our very problem) A self-centered life is a stationary life; it’s static, not dynamic. A self-centered person wants
to be the center around which everything else orbits. I might help people; I might have friends; I might fall in love as long as there’s no compromise of my individual interests or whatever meets my needs. I might even give to the poor—as long as it makes
me feel good about myself and doesn’t hinder my lifestyle too much.
Self-centeredness makes everything else a means to an end. And that end, that nonnegotiable, is whatever I want and whatever I like, my interests over theirs. I’ll
have fun with people, I’ll talk with people, but in the end everything orbits around me. If everyone is saying, “No, you orbit around me!” what happens? Picture five people, ten people, a hundred people on a stage together, and every one of them wants to
be the center. They all just stand there and say to the others, “You move around me.” And nobody gets anywhere; the dance becomes hazardous, if not impossible.
The Trinity is utterly different. Instead of self-centeredness, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are characterized in their very essence by mutually self-giving
love. No person in the Trinity insists that the others revolve around him; rather each of them voluntarily circles and orbits around the others. And if it’s true, that this world has been created by this Triune God, then ultimate reality is a dance. “What
does it all matter?” Lewis writes. “It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us. . . .”
If this is ultimate reality, if this is what the God who made the universe is like, then this truth bristles and explodes with life-shaping, glorious implications
for us. If this world was made by a triune God, relationships of love are what life is really all about. You see, different views of God have different implications…If God exists but is unipersonal, there was a time when God was not love. Before God created
the world, if there was only one divine person, there was no lover, because love can exist only in a relationship. If a unipersonal God had created the world and its inhabitants, such a God would not in his essence be love. Power and greatness possibly, but
not love.
But if from all eternity, without end and without beginning, ultimate reality is a community of persons, (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) knowing and loving one another,
then ultimate reality is about love relationships. Why would a triune God create a world? If He were a unipersonal God, you might say, “Well, he created the world so he can have beings who give him worshipful love, and that would give him joy.”
But the triune God already had that—and he received love within himself in a far purer, more powerful form than we human beings can ever give him. So why would
he create us? There’s only one answer. He must have created us not to get joy but to give it. He must have created us to invite us into the dance, to say:
Now, here is the point of why I quoted Keller at such length, Here is the ‘why’ to the radical call that He extends to you as well as the reason for every trial, suffering,
difficulty you have ever been made to go through:
He must have created us not to get joy but to give it. He must have created us to invite us into the dance, to say: If you glorify me, if you center your entire
life on me, if you find Me beautiful for who I am in myself, then you will step into the dance, which is what you are made for.
That is the purpose of God’s love for you, even the purpose when Jesus tells you have to die to live, you have to hate your life and seek life Him…It isn’t because
Jesus is some self-absorbed deity who can never have enough slaves singing his praises, it is just the opposite. Jesus wants to bring you into the dance of love’s perfection, of Joy’s endless depths, He wants you to experience the reality of God…He wants you
to experience that joy, that perfection, that glory with your brothers and sisters!
But that cannot happen as long as you are demanding others to orbit around YOU. It can’t happen when YOU are about you. It can only be done when YOU are not the focus,
when your life is not about YOU at all but about orbiting around the Triune God, even as the persons in the Trinity do! Paul says in 2 Corinthians: For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And
he died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Why, why should you no longer live for you but for Him who died and was raised again, because He is worthy? Yes, absolutely, but not only that, because in that life, you
get to dance!!! In that life the Lord has something for you, and that something is God Himself. You get to experience the life, through faith, of God, of perfect love, making no demands that others, especially not God, orbit around you, but just the opposite.
Prayer: Father, please forgive me for my absorption with myself. I too often demand others to revolve around me and am self-referential in most things. I am too
big when I have nothing to be proud of. I pray that You would give me the grace to put Jesus at the center this day and to leave Him there! I pray that my life; words, desires and behaviors would revolve around Him who has loved me and given His life for Me,
that I might enter into the fellowship of my God…and dance! In Jesus name, Amen.
Gospel Song: All to Jesus I Surrender
