John 12:20-26 (Called To Be Witnesses)

Christ’s Kingdom and the Shift from the Old Testament to John 12

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. Over the last several weeks what we've been talking about is the kingdom. John chapter 12 is the Moment in the gospel of John where it shifts away from the prophetic ministry of Jesus where he's chasing people out of the temple with a bullwhip and where he's Calling people to repent where he's saying very prophetic things and John chapter 12 is this transition where we see the King?

Coming into his kingdom. We see the kingdom that's prophesied in the Old Testament through John 12. We see the king that's anointed by Mary in the beginning part of John chapter 12. And we see the king who rode into the city on a donkey in the very next passage.

Last week we showed how his disciples did not understand any of this. They saw Jesus riding into the city and they thought well, that's interesting. But they didn't get it they didn't understand the totality of it.

It says that it wasn't until after Jesus was glorified that they understood all of what this Event actually entailed it wasn't until then that they understood the prophecy of Zechariah and what Zechariah is saying that this king Will rule over all the nations.

So when he rides into Jerusalem and after he was risen from the dead, that's when they understood. Oh He's not just a Jewish king. He's not just our Savior. He's gonna be the Savior of the entire world.

He's gonna have all the nations and we talked about that last week. Well today We're gonna be looking into the next phase of this the next development in this one logical step. Next is okay. Jesus is gonna have all the nations.

He's gonna have all the world he's gonna gain them all for himself so that eventually just as just as Genesis 12 says so that Zechariah says and Micah says and all of these passages we looked at last week.

He's gonna have all the nations how today that's what we're gonna look at is how is he going to? Accomplish this and what we're going to see today is that he's going to use you and I to be his witnesses.

Today, we're gonna see two men in the Gospels Philip and Andrew who become witnesses for Christ and who serve as a model for you and I on how to be witnesses to Jesus in this generation and in the next generation and until the whole world is filled with Believers and Jesus Christ returns to give his father a completed kingdom.

So that's what we're gonna be looking at today if you will. Fastest introduction. Probably you've ever heard from me. Today, let's look at John 12 verses 20 through 26. And then we'll pray and then we'll unpack these passages together.

The Gentiles Seeking Jesus and the Hour of His Glory

So turn with me to John 12 now. There were some Greeks Among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These then came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and they began to ask him saying sir we wish to see Jesus and Philip came and told Andrew and then Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus and Jesus answered them saying 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. He who loves his life loses it.

He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. If anyone serves me He must follow me and where I am there My servant will be also if anyone serves me the father will honor him. Let us pray.

Lord we see in this passage. How you're going to own the nation's? How you're going to fill the world with your glory as the water covers the sea. How you're going to bless every family on earth through Christ.

Lord we see that You have deliberately chosen What by the world's standards might be an inefficient plan using us and Yet Lord for your great glory. You have decided to use us in your purposes. You could have you could have assembled for yourself a kingdom The moment you rose from the dead.

You could have looked down the potential corridors of time and you could have seen everyone in this room and every Christian Who will ever live and you could have assembled them out of dust because you did it in the garden where you made man out of the dust you could have done that and Yet Lord you chose to build your kingdom with all of the broken with all of the redeemed sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.

You chose to restore us to our God-ordained purpose in the garden we were told to be fruitful and multiply and Lord you've restored us to that plan and you've restored us to that purpose Lord today. Help us as we consider Creative Faithful God honoring ways that we can as your sons and daughters Extend your kingdom in New England.

Lord help us today to think about these passages in practical ways. Lord help us to think about How the wonderful missionary William William Studd said That one life shall soon be passed only what is done for Christ will last.

Lord help that to be our anthem as we joyfully Long to serve you in Christ's name. Amen. Jesus says in this passage that his hour has come. That is a fascinating thing that we should not skip over too quickly.

What is Jesus's hour? That's not the hour of his wake up in the morning. That's not the hour that he gets his cup of coffee. If they had such a thing in first century times. His hour is the moment of his death.

His hour is the moment of his greatest glory. His hour is when he will be lifted up onto a Roman cross the pinnacle of shame in the ancient world where only Criminals and miscreants were ever crucified and yet that is the moment of Jesus's hour and that is the moment of his glory.

That is the moment of his victory. That is the moment of his triumph. His hour is the very reason why he came he came to die. So that all of us might live. That is the hour that Jesus is talking about and his hour when it happens is Going to shake the foundation of the earth as they knew it the whole Gospels that we've been in so far.

John chapter 1 through John chapter 11 is Technically the Old Testament. Because Jesus hasn't risen from the dead yet. You've got men and women who are living under the authority of the priest under the temple system under the sacrificial system.

We're living in the Old Testament. When Jesus says my hour has come he's talking about shifting the world. Out of the Old Testament out of temples priests and feasts to a new era of redemption in Christ.

That is what his hour is talking about. Now so far in the Gospels. We've heard his hour has not come. That's the been the refrain that we've heard over and over and over again if you remember in John chapter 2 Mary comes to Jesus at this party and She says Jesus we ran out of wine and he says Woman, and that's very respectful in that day.

He says what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. He says his hours not yet come in John 2 John 4 when he's talking to the woman at the well and she says You know, I don't know when the Messiah is coming.

But when he does we're gonna worship and he says woman again respectful. I Tell you the truth that an hour will come when you will need to worship on this mountain or on that mountain. But you will worship in spirit and in truth.

He's alluding to a future hour, which means his hour had not yet come. When he heals the sick man in John chapter 5 and the Pharisees are angry at him. Why did you heal this man? How unloving of you? Because he was doing it on the Sabbath.

Jesus tells them at his hour had not yet come. When they try to seize him in John chapter 7 John tells us they could not do it because Jesus is our had not yet come. When they wanted to seize him again in John chapter 8 when they wanted to pick up stones and kill him in John chapter 10.

They could not do these things because John tells us his hour had not yet come. So now in John 12 When Jesus says my hour has come something has changed in the gospel of John. We have moved out of Ministry of Jesus and now we've moved into the mission for which he came was to give his life as a ransom for many.

We now in John chapter 12 when Jesus says my hour has come we are five Days away from the crucifixion of Christ. Now we've got John 13 14 15 16 17 and half of 18 to go. Before we get there, but we're five days from the crucifixion John 1 through 11 three and a half years John 12.

We have five days left. His hour has come. Come. The passion narrative begins in John chapter 12 the final week of Jesus's life now. Why did Jesus say that his hour had come here? Why is it because he's five days from the end and he knows it.

Okay. Yeah. But he says that his hour has come here specifically here because something happened that triggered Jesus to say that now my hour has come and you know what it is in this passage. The Gentiles began coming to him the Gentiles began coming to Jesus.

It says that a group of Greeks came to Philip. Philip and Andrew brought them to Jesus and Jesus doesn't even acknowledge Them and say hello. How are you? What's your name? He says now my hour has come which keys us into the kind of kingdom that Jesus is going to build.

He's not going to build a Jewish kingdom for Jewish people. He's going to build a worldwide kingdom full of Gentiles Jew and Greek slave and free male and female and when the Gentiles start coming to Jesus Jesus says that is what I've been waiting for.

That is going to initiate my hour that the world is going to come to me like the Pharisees say in John chapter 12 verse 19. The world is gonna come to Jesus when Jesus sees that he says now the hour has come now.

It's time for me to prepare to die. Because the nations are gonna come to me. That was the final prerequisite in Jesus's ministry now. It says the Gentiles came to Christ. Let's talk about that verse 20.

Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast very fascinating phrase here in verse 20 very fascinating. The word for Greeks in this passage doesn't mean people from Sparta.

It doesn't mean people from Troy people from Athens or any other ancient Greek city. This means Gentiles Greek at this time, especially what's called Kohen a Greek. Was the universal trade language of the world you may have as your primary language Hebrew or Aramaic.

You may have as your primary language Latin if you're of Roman descent. You may have all kinds of different primary languages. But your secondary language at this time that you did business with that you traded with was Greek just like today.

Where English is sort of the universal language that we that we do with business and with and with other things. So if you were to call someone Greek, especially if you were a Jew you were not appealing to the fact that they were Greek.

You were appealing to the fact that they were a Gentile at this time. The world had been so thoroughly Hellenized and when I mean that I mean it had been made to look like Greece that the Jews Used this term Greeks often as a derogatory statement.

The Jews were purist at that time. They didn't want anyone to infect their culture. So they looked at the outside world with disdain and hatred. They would say all those are the Greeks. They had lots of phrases actually that they made up to look down their noses at other people at that time.

The Jews at that time were fairly ethnocentric at that time. The Hellenization of the world had happened to such a degree that there was actually a division among the Jewish people. There were groups of people called Hellenized Jews, which are people who lived in the Greek world subpar to the Hebrew Jews.

Who lived in Jerusalem? So that's sort of the dynamic that you have here where you have people who are outside of Israel called the Greeks and people who are inside called the Jews. Now why? Would the Greeks want to come and worship with the Jews when the Jews hated them?

Why would they want to do that? Why would they want to go to their crummy old Passover festival when they weren't welcome? Anyway, that's a question we need to answer and the Old Testament. The Jews were supposed to welcome the nations in it says that they were to be a light to the Gentiles.

It says that that their temple would radiate the glory of God to the nations. You remember in the time of Solomon where the whole world was hearing about this beautiful era of God's power and glory and the Queen of Sheba Came to see it and people from the nations came to see it.

The Jews were always supposed to be a people who welcomed the nations. You think about in Egypt when they're in slavery, it says that when they left Egypt. It doesn't say that a group of ethnically pure Jews left Egypt.

It said that a mixed Multitude left Egypt, which means that there were both Jews and Egyptians who decided to leave. There were Egyptians in the book of Exodus who saw the power of God who saw God do these amazing Plagues.

There were probably Egyptians who painted blood over their doorposts just like the Jews and when they saw that God protected their firstborn son. They said we're going with them. Because we know their God is real our gods are not.

The man Caleb not a Jew the woman Rahab not a Jew. All throughout the Old Testament we see Ruth even. We see time and time again that it's not about ethnic Jewishness, it's about spiritual Jewishness that matters to God.

Israel got their name because they wrestled with God. Israel got their name from Jacob who said I'm not gonna let go of you until I get a blessing. Israel was always about a spiritual relationship with God not a national ethnic relationship.

But by the time of the New Testament The Jews had become so focused on their ethnic identity. That they hated everyone else that they hated. That's not a stretch. To say there was rare Gentiles that we know from the scriptures who put up with that.

Who came to Jerusalem? Anyway, we think about the Ethiopian eunuch. Who would have been looked down upon by the Jews, but he came and he worshipped. Anyway, we think about Cornelius the Centurion in Acts chapter 10 these people who were Gentiles.

Who were fascinated with Yahweh who wanted to know? But we can't even imagine we can't even imagine what it must have been like for them. To walk into Jerusalem and to have everyone look at you and say you're not welcome.

You're not one of us. Here here's this little area of the temple that we've devoted to you. But we filled it so full of animals and manure that you have nowhere to pray, but that that's for you. We can't even imagine what it must have felt like for them to come and worship this God and yet we have these examples.

There were some who actually tried to become Jewish people now, this was not supposed to be a very complicated issue. When we see Ruth coming into the nation of Israel. She became true Israel because of her marriage to Boaz.

We see people in the Old Testament. There's rules and there's laws on how they could become Israelites. What the time of Jesus? That was a very difficult process. You had to deal with a lot of Racism from the Jews you had to deal with a lot of hatred.

You had to grind it out and bear with it. And if you became a Jew. Let's say you were Roman you wanted to become a Jew and if you finally did you would at best be a second-class citizen. You would never be fully in.

This is exemplified even in the way that the temple itself was constructed. At this time the temple was one building and there was three layers. There was the inner layer the Holy and then the Holy of Holies.

Outside of that there were courtyards. The first courtyard was called the courtyard of the priest. That's where only the priest could go in and worship and serve and offer sacrifices on behalf of Israel outside of that.

There's a now another courtyard. It's called the courtyard of the men and at that time heads of households Would bring their animals into the courtyard of the men. They would leave their wives and their children in the court of the women.

They would come and they would bring their animals to the priest and they would offer those sacrifices on behalf of their family. Then they would leave the court of the men and they would after they fellowship with some other brothers or whatever.

They would leave the court of the men and they would go back and join their families in the court of the women. So that's the second courtyard. The third is the court of the women. That's where women and children were allowed to go.

That's where the offering Buckets were where you could put your tithes and offerings. That's where fellowship and life happened. That's where people danced and and rejoiced to the Lord but outside of that there was a fourth courtyard and that was called the courtyard of the Gentiles or the court of the nations.

This was supposed to be a place where the nation's could come and worship God. This was supposed to be a place where they could come and pray. This was supposed to be a place where they could come and say let's imagine that they're from Ethiopia.

They come and they say Dear God. Make it so that we can become like Israel that we can know you. Make it so that we can know you in spirit and in truth. They were coming there to pray Jesus even when he cast out these money changers and said he says my house is supposed to be a house of prayer.

The nation's were supposed to come and be welcomed. You're supposed to lay out the red carpet for them and say come and pray we're all supposed to be looking forward to this moment where the all the nations the world become true Israel and They did not welcome them.

They did not lay out the red carpet. In fact, there's examples of this in the Bible. There's a man named Lucius Vitellius. Lucius Vitellius is a Syrian governor of Rome. So he's top-level Roman. He's not the Emperor, but he's a Roman governor of a Roman province.

He has all kinds of power and authority and he records for us that he came to the temple in Jerusalem To see what the Passover was all about. What an opportunity for Israel to welcome him in and say this is who God is and Imagine the governor of Syria goes away from there overjoyed at who God is changed for the rest of his life.

He rules differently. He leads differently. What an opportunity that they totally squandered his recording to us is that it was that he could not enter past the gate of the Gentiles and he dared not do it because It would set off a war between the people.

He walked away saying even though I'm a governor I'm Damaged goods. God doesn't want me. God doesn't care and his people hate me. We see this in the New Testament Where Paul is accused of this very thing in Acts chapter 21 27 through 29 the Jews Lied about Paul in order to get the crowd turned against him.

So they would arrest him and kill him now watch what their accusation was. When the seven days were almost over the Jews from Asia Upon seeing him in the temple began to stir up the crowd and they lay hands on him crying out Men of Israel come to our aid this is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and The law and this place and besides he's even brought Greeks into the temple.

Can you believe it? And he is defiled the holy place. For they have previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. This is the backdrop For John chapter 12 where the Greeks are coming to Christ.

This is the animosity that the Jews had towards them and they were coming anyway. They were coming anyway. Because when God begins that good work in you He will draw you even if you're persecuted even if you're hated even if you are judged even if you are Looked down upon.

These are the Greeks that we see in John chapter 12 and something caused them To seek Jesus they came to seek Judaism. They came to seek Yahweh, but something changed where they now Left the temple and they start looking for Jesus.

Why did that happen? Verse 21 says the Gentiles these then came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and Began to ask him saying sir, we wish to see Jesus. What happened that made them want to seek Christ?

Now first of all, we need to understand what a contrast this is. Of course. The Pharisees are wanting Jesus dead. They're the Jews. They want the God who made them to die. They had the Old Testament they had the prophets they had everything and yet they were so blind look at these Greeks.

They have nothing to go on. Other than the fact that they're interested and intrigued in Jesus and they say we want to see this man. What a contrast between the Jewish leadership and the aristocracy who should have bowed the knee and worshipped Jesus.

Now, why are they coming to Jesus? Well, the first reason maybe is they heard about Lazarus. They heard about this man who was raised from the dead. You can't keep quiet even in an era without the Internet.

You can't keep quiet when a dead man four days dead raises back to life at this point. Jesus entered into the national conversation at that time. You could say that that event went viral. What in the world?

We'll have to remove this part of the sermon. Oh my goodness maybe. Maybe this will be my cross to bear. I get stung while I preach the gospel. Maybe we should just. He was a football player not a baseball player.

I told you all we need to pray that the Lord would protect us from the enemy. All right. Why were the Greeks coming? Well, perhaps they heard about Lazarus again. It's hard to keep news of a dead man being risen quiet.

This would have been the talk over all the town. This would have been something that you know. We say today went viral. This would have been something that everyone would have been talking about. Everyone would have heard about Jesus entered into the national conversation of the life of Israel by this miracle.

Everyone understood it even if you remember the two men walking on the road to Emmaus after Jesus is. After Jesus is crucifixion and Jesus shows up and they can't they don't even recognize Jesus and they go walking with him and Jesus is Asking what are you guys talking about?

Tell me what you've been what you've been conversating about. They say are you the only person who hasn't heard these things? From Lazarus. Being raised from the dead to Jesus entering the city on a donkey to Jesus cleansing the temple.

This city was a buzz with what Jesus a buzz with what Jesus was doing and they were wondering. What these things meant. So the Greeks would have heard about this, even though they just probably arrived in the city.

They would have heard that these things were happening. So maybe that's part of it. I don't think that's primary why they came but I think that may be part of it. The second reason why they may have came was because the temple had just been cleansed.

Now we have to do some work here because the Gospels don't make this easy for us. For instance John tells us that the temple cleansing happened in John 2 at the very beginning of Jesus's ministry. The Synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke say that the temple cleansing happened right after he rode into the city.

Matthew 21 says that he rode into the city. Everyone was cheering then he went immediately to the temple and he cleansed it and now everybody's angry. So when did it happen? Did it happen at the beginning or did it happen at the end?

I believe that it happened at the end and I believe that it happened at the beginning. And now that we're all thoroughly confused. Let me unpack what I mean. There's several different theories on when this happened.

The first theory is That John's chronology is out of order. This is what scholars say. They say that John is not interested in chronology. He's interested in theology and John is putting something that happened at the end of Jesus's life he's taking it and then placing it at the beginning of Jesus's life for a theological reason and the theological reason they say is Because Jesus in Jerusalem in the Gospel of John are at odds with one another.

They're constantly there's this bubbling hatred that the Jews have towards Jesus that began Early on in Jesus's ministry, so they'll argue that they took the temple cleansing moment as an example. To show that this is how these things began and they got worse in John 5 John 7 John 10 and and they move it To the front and they say that this is John just telling an accurate story, but an inaccurate chronology.

I don't find that satisfying at all and The reason I don't find that satisfying is because John is the most chronological of all the Gospels. The very reason that we say that Jesus had a three and a half year ministry is because of John.

The reason we know that he went to Jerusalem four times for four different Passover's is because of John. Why would the guy who wrote the most chronological gospel take one of the most important events and?

Move it so far out of its current chronological order. To just prove a point. That's the first thing. The second thing is The temple cleansing at the end of Jesus's life caused the Jews to hate him so furiously that they murdered him.

So if John's trying to tell the story of mild annoyance to deep frustration To murderous hatred you would think that he would take a very minor event and put it in the beginning. Instead of a major event and then downplay it that doesn't make any sense.

The third is If John were trying to do that, he could have used other stories to do that. There's plenty of things that John could have mentioned to demonstrate that theme of hatred with Jerusalem or Jerusalem hating Jesus.

But he didn't do it that way. So I don't find that theory satisfying at all. Second theory. John was right. The temple cleansing happened in the beginning of Jesus's ministry and the other three Gospels Messed up the chronology.

I Also don't find that satisfying because three gospel writers you're saying Cared more about their theological point than accuracy. So they they took it out of the beginning and added it to the end. I just don't think that that makes any sense so then we're left with the third and I believe this is what is right?

There were two temple cleansings there was one at the beginning of Jesus's ministry and There's one at the end. The early temple cleansing is the one that John tells us about where Jesus goes into the temple and he cleanses it.

Why? Because they filled the court of the Gentiles that place where the Greeks were supposed to come and worship. They filled it with animals with money changers with industry with business. They filled it so full that the Gentiles could not even come in and worship and Jesus comes and he says this is Wildly inappropriate he chases them out.

He cleanses the temple and he purifies it and he says my house will be called a house of prayer. That happened early in Jesus's ministry at the end of Jesus's ministry. He comes back on his final week and guess what?

He sees. The animals are back. The tables are back. The industry is back. These Jews who were supposed to love the nation's so hated them. That they failed to uphold Jesus's purifying of the temple and they reverted back into their Gentile hating ways in Jesus infuriated cleansed the temple again.

Now if that's the case, why didn't John mention it? Why didn't John mention the second temple cleansing? That's a question we need to wrestle with. This is where I would say that there is theological reasons for it.

John mentions the temple cleansing because that's a prophetic act that's something a prophet would do and he mentions it in chapters 1 through 11 because that's John's telling of Jesus the true and greater prophet.

In John 12. John's theme has been kingship. He's don't he's the king who's been anointed. He's the king whose road into the city. He's the king who the nation's are coming to in that theme. John Who was the latest gospel to write his book said Matthew Mark and Luke have already covered this part.

Sufficiently, and I'm gonna continue to talk about Jesus as King. We know that John said in chapter 20 that if he wrote every single thing that Jesus did There would not be enough room on earth to contain the books.

So we've already learned from John that he's taking certain events. He's choosing certain things and he's lining them up for a purpose, which is what John 20 33. I hope we have memorized it by this point.

These things have been written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God by believing in him you will have life in his name. John's telling us that I didn't tell you everything.

Imagine what heaven will be like when you walk up to John and you say, all right, brother. Where's that library with all those books that you could have told us about tell me more. I want to know more.

We've got all eternity. Just keep talking. Won't that be amazing. But for now, he didn't give us everything. I think that's an adequate reason for us to believe that there's two temple Cleansing's and John didn't feel the need to tell us about the second one because Matthew Mark and Luke already did.

But he tells us about the first one and he tells us why it happened. Now we have to bet our bottom dollar that the Greeks heard about this. Think about it. The temple is the area where they want to worship God and they've not been welcomed and now you've got this Jewish man who comes in and he cleanses it and he chases out the Jews that were looking down their nose at the Greeks.

And he chases out the ones who who were crowding that area so that they would have nowhere to pray. You can imagine maybe the Greeks were standing there watching Jesus do this and they're like I have got to meet this guy.

I'm gonna go pray first because I haven't been able to do this my entire life. But after that, I'm gonna go find this guy and I'm gonna talk to him. You have to imagine something like that happened. This would have been front page news on Jerusalem Post of that morning.

And it's likely that they would have been there to see it because they came to worship. That's the only reason a Gentile would go to Jerusalem is that they had some Fantasy that the Jews would let them worship there and Jesus fulfilled their wildest dreams.

So they want to come meet him. They want to come talk to him. So I think that's part of it the first part the second part I think the two things that we've mentioned so far that he cleansed the temple and that they heard about the death and Resurrection of Lazarus those things are true.

But ultimately I think that the reason why they came to Jesus more than anything else is that they were drawn by God. We've learned in the gospel of John so far that no one comes to Jesus unless the father who sent him draws them to him.

So maybe they saw Jesus cleanse the temple. Maybe they saw Lazarus walking around alive and he's like I'm not dead anymore. Maybe they saw those things. But ultimately underneath all of it God had been drawing them.

God had been moving them. We don't think that the chronology of Jesus's life was up for grabs. Do we? We don't think that Jesus was like That his men his ministry could have been ten years long. We think it was exactly as long as it was supposed to be.

We think the Gentiles came to Jesus exactly when they were supposed to come. Jesus determined that he was gonna die at Passover. Is it really that hard to believe that God purposely and Sovereignly draw those drew those Greeks to him on that day on that week.

Right before his death. I don't think so. So here we have three reasons why? These Gentiles were coming to Jesus and it all sets off a new era of redemption where the world the Gentiles you and I Are now a part of that legacy.

Those Greeks that sought Jesus were the first in line of 2 ,000 years of Gentiles seeking after him of which we are now beneficiaries and Just as a side point Paul talks about what how magnificent and Transforming the life of Christ actually is when he says in Ephesians 4 chapter 13 through 15.