- 00:00
- from time to time I've heard it said that I tend to Be concerned about negative things about things that are
- 00:13
- Dishonoring to the Lord and I'm just mindful even as I've been driving around My hometown here
- 00:21
- Holden this last week Just thinking about Paul driving through Athens driving through Athens walking through Athens And being provoked in his spirit by the various idols he saw well
- 00:33
- I've been provoked in my spirit this week by various signs that I've seen I don't know if you've seen these or not, but I want to remind you that Titus 1 9 says that we need to refute
- 00:48
- The elders are to be exhorting a sound doctrine and refuting those who contradict sound doctrine this sign says it's it says 2017 egg egg drop you -know -dot -com
- 01:02
- So I went to the website because you know I just thought well, let's get in on all the excitements This is a little excerpt from the website
- 01:13
- What is an egg drop? I've been dying to know It is the most exciting version of the traditional
- 01:20
- Easter egg hunt you can find Tens of thousands of plastic eggs filled with toys will be dropped from a helicopter onto a grass field
- 01:28
- After the helicopter has safely left the area kids will then be allowed to go on to the field and collect eggs for safety reasons
- 01:37
- Kids are divided into age groups. I like that part right you don't want the 15 year olds running out there and tackling the two -year -olds
- 01:46
- This is why this is why register the registration form must be completed in advance and in its entirety because of the extremely high demand for participation
- 01:56
- Admission to the egg drop is limited when the tickets are gone. They're gone The egg hunt will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion listen to this after the conclusion of the final church
- 02:10
- Experience on that Sunday. It's not a meeting. It's not a worship service
- 02:18
- It's an experience It goes on some of you are probably thinking that you don't want to sit through church
- 02:25
- Just for your kids to go grab some eggs We want you to know this is no ordinary egg hunt but more importantly that our church exists to love people far from God and Move them to life in Jesus Christ Our church is real relevant and life -changing it features music.
- 02:47
- You will actually like Teaching about subjects that matter to your everyday life in a kid's environment your children will beg you to come back to It is so awesome that your kids will probably be more excited about coming back to church than the egg drop
- 03:07
- After starting with just 12 people eight years ago Thousands now call our church their church today and most of them were not attending church anywhere prior to our church
- 03:19
- Here's an added feature plus You can't celebrate Easter without recognizing
- 03:24
- Jesus Let me read that last one again.
- 03:32
- You can't celebrate Easter without recognizing Jesus a little tip of the hats to Jesus as it were
- 03:40
- Easter commonly referred to around here as resurrection Sunday It's really not even possible without Jesus But if you read all that there really wasn't much focus on let's see
- 03:52
- Scripture Jesus the resurrection the gospel any of that kind of thing
- 03:59
- This is marketing. Did you hear how many times you and your were mentioned in there?
- 04:04
- This is pragmatism and not Worship, we're here to risen or to worship the risen
- 04:11
- Savior here this morning We're going to look to his word to see what he has to say to us.
- 04:17
- Let's open up our Bibles to John chapter 12 The focus is not on Easter eggs or bunnies and you know what even if you have like an
- 04:29
- Easter egg hunt at your home I'm not after you if you want to give baskets to the kids. I like all that stuff.
- 04:35
- I think it's fun but the focus of Easter Is on the risen
- 04:42
- Savior. It's on the Lord Jesus Christ. I appreciate that.
- 04:49
- Amen John chapter 12 as we continue going through the gospel of John Picking it up at verse 20
- 05:01
- John 12 verse 20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some
- 05:11
- Greeks so these came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and asked him sir
- 05:21
- We wish to see Jesus Philip went and told Andrew Andrew and Philip went and told
- 05:29
- Jesus and Jesus answered them The hour has come for the
- 05:35
- Son of Man to be glorified Truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies
- 05:44
- 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
- 06:14
- The father will honor him now to catch us up to where we are
- 06:22
- Just by way of reminder really the word gospel means good news and John writes his gospel his book of good news his biography about Jesus with a point
- 06:38
- The Apostle John wants us to know that Jesus is the Christ the Messiah The Son of God and that in him and in him only is eternal life
- 06:50
- Last week we saw the triumphal entry Jesus on a donkey
- 06:57
- Representing not a conquering hero coming in to be acknowledged by the thunderous applause of men
- 07:05
- But really as the Prince of Peace And there were excited and enthusiastic people joining him as he came down the
- 07:15
- Mount of Olives from Bethany and there were excited people coming from Jerusalem because they'd heard about what he had done how he had
- 07:22
- Raised Lazarus from the dead and there were people running around who'd actually witnessed it and Telling people all about Jesus and what he'd done.
- 07:30
- This was quite a scene all the Palm fronds and everything being waved and the noise and the carrying on And we said that there were three groups the crowd the ones chanting
- 07:44
- Hosanna very excited They believed that Jesus was the appointed deliverer not to deliver them from sin, but to deliver them from Rome Then there were the disciples who were just Kind of mind -boggled not really understanding what was going on, even though they'd had all this teaching
- 08:02
- They were confused and they didn't understand it. John says Until after Jesus was wrecked resurrected.
- 08:09
- They didn't understand what was going on Then there were the Pharisees their concern was
- 08:18
- Time was wasting They had to put a stop to this whole Jesus thing before they said the whole world goes after him
- 08:26
- They could see that they were losing their grip so to speak on the people they were going to they were in danger of losing their places of position of authority of rule if Jesus were allowed to somehow capture the mind of The people of Jerusalem the people of Israel the
- 08:45
- Jews Now this morning we're going to see
- 08:51
- One innocuous inquiry a question and two glorious responses drawn from the text so that we will understand both the necessity and the meaning of Jesus death the implications of his death
- 09:08
- So first we're gonna have a question and then we're gonna have two answers one question two answers
- 09:14
- And our Lord makes it plain that his death was necessary. Why for us to live?
- 09:21
- He then explains what it means to follow him no one here should leave this morning
- 09:28
- Unclear on what it means to be a Christian what it means to be a follower of Christ first we're going to see our innocuous inquiry the the
- 09:40
- Greeks want to meet Jesus They want to meet this man with all the tumult surrounding him
- 09:47
- Look at verse 20 now among those who went up to worship at the feast Were some
- 09:52
- Greeks Well, they're here for Passover and when it says that they went up to worship
- 10:00
- The picture there is that they went up where? To the temple that's where you went to worship
- 10:09
- Now the Greeks could not go You know into the inner Places of the temple they would be stopped at the outer court the court of the
- 10:17
- Gentiles, but nevertheless they were there For this great big Ceremony for Passover and they went up to worship
- 10:25
- They were likely either God fearers meaning that they understood that there was one God They were sort of on the outside of the
- 10:33
- Jewish religion. They could have even been proselytes There's a little disagreement with different commentators take that but they certainly were
- 10:43
- What we would call monotheists and there's no doubt that they'd heard about Jesus They probably heard about the wonderful things he'd done certainly had heard about Lazarus because of all these people running around Testifying to what he had done how he'd raised
- 10:58
- Lazarus from the dead and so they wanted to they wanted to to meet him
- 11:05
- They wanted to talk to him So they go and they make their requests known look at verse 21
- 11:12
- So these came these being the Greeks came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and asked him
- 11:20
- Sir, we wish to see Jesus Now there are a few
- 11:26
- Curiosities a few things that aren't really clear in the text number one. We don't really know why they approached
- 11:32
- Philip I mean, it's not like Philip was the most prominent of the disciples Some speculate is because he had a
- 11:39
- Greek name I don't know if he was wearing a shirt that said Philip or I like Greeks or maybe you know
- 11:47
- I it's not really it's not clear. It's not in the text Some think that he probably spoke
- 11:53
- Greek because he was from an area where Greek was often spoken up in Galilee and Bethsaida We don't know but it is interesting.
- 12:01
- Isn't it that John actually mentions? Where he was from there, why would he do that if that had no pertinence so that seems a reasonable thing to conclude now
- 12:12
- It's possible also that these Greeks were from Decapolis, which is near Galilee and perhaps they either
- 12:22
- Knew Philip or they'd heard that he was from that region. And so, you know, maybe they thought he'd be more approachable
- 12:28
- We really just don't know Maybe they heard him talking We don't know But we do know that they're very polite when they go up to him because when you see that sir, that's the same word
- 12:40
- Courier that's often translated Lord, right? So they go up to him and they're like, sir
- 12:48
- We would like to meet Jesus But the second curiosity is we don't know exactly why they wanted to see
- 12:55
- Jesus it doesn't say there We want to ask him this we want to hear about that. None of those things are here
- 13:04
- But it's not much speculation to say that they saw in Judaism and monotheism a coherent worldview that maybe the
- 13:13
- Greek System of philosophy didn't make all that much sense to them and they wanted it.
- 13:19
- They'd heard about Jesus They knew that he was a teacher and they wanted to learn more from him having witnessed the spectacle of Jesus writing in a
- 13:29
- Jerusalem on the back of a junk a donkey while the crowds are shouting Hosanna Hosanna And it's getting louder and louder and louder
- 13:37
- There might be something to this Jesus person. Maybe we should go hear him. Maybe he'll teach us some new philosophies, you know shades of the
- 13:47
- Areopagus But John really doesn't tell us their motivation they just want to meet
- 13:52
- Jesus Then notice also that Philip seeks help.
- 13:59
- He seeks help verse 22 Philip went and told Andrew Andrew and Philip went and told
- 14:04
- Jesus It's like maybe Philip is like well, you know, I don't really want to bother the
- 14:10
- Lord with this Let me go talk to Andrew Andrew and I are pretty close Between the two of us.
- 14:15
- Maybe we'll make a good decision. I again our text doesn't really tell us But it's unlikely that it's again mere coincidence
- 14:23
- That the two men of the disciples who have clearly Greek names Philip and Andrew Are the ones that they wind up dealing with?
- 14:35
- May you know it's possible I was contemplating this last night. I thought well, maybe Philip and Andrew are just so loud as Greeks often are.
- 14:46
- I Don't know Again, we don't get all the details
- 14:54
- But Whatever the reason is the two of them go to the Lord with this request this innocuous inquiry
- 15:02
- They want to meet Jesus Now we get our first glorious response our first glorious response there is glory in the death of Jesus There's glory in the death of Jesus Now we don't typically think of that.
- 15:20
- I mean if we're gonna think of glory and death, you know It usually has to do with some kind of war some kind of battle some sort of amazing sacrifice
- 15:30
- But Jesus is gonna explain that We do know that this
- 15:37
- Coming of the Greeks this desire of the Greeks had some kind of special significance to Jesus.
- 15:42
- Look at verse 23 and Jesus answered them and by the way, he's not directly addressing the
- 15:49
- Greeks Jesus answered them the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified now, that's a
- 15:56
- Strange answer, isn't it? Jesus the Greeks would like to meet you Okay The hour has come for the
- 16:03
- Son of Man to be glorified It almost seems like a non sequitur like it doesn't follow but for him it's a signal that this is the time
- 16:11
- That the hour has arrived and you say well, what's the hour? Well the time of his death?
- 16:19
- several times either Jesus or John in the Gospel of John Jesus or John the narrator had talked about his hour for example in John 2 for when
- 16:31
- Mary the mother of Jesus comes to him and says look they're out of wine at this wedding right the wedding at Cana And what does
- 16:38
- Jesus say? He says woman? What does that have to do with me? My hour has not yet come I'm not going to reveal myself to these people because it's not time for me to do that Because that's going to lead to my death
- 16:52
- To his brothers when they were preparing to go to the festival of booze in Jerusalem in John 7
- 16:59
- They were getting ready. They wanted Jesus to come with them John 7 verses 6 to 8
- 17:04
- Jesus said to them my time has not yet come But your time is always here the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of About it that its works are evil you go up to the feast
- 17:18
- I am NOT going up to this feast for my time has not yet fully come It's not time yet on the temple mount later on in chapter 7 after he'd finished teaching the crowd and correcting the
- 17:31
- Pharisees he says or John says So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him why?
- 17:40
- Because his hour had not yet come John 8 when he's teaching really kind of holding court.
- 17:49
- He's being questioned by the Pharisees again under Solomon's portico He says in verse 20
- 17:56
- These words he spoke this is John talking or writing He spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him why?
- 18:05
- Because his hour had not yet come So now now his hour has come now.
- 18:12
- It is time for Jesus to die, but notice how he describes it Not I've been dreading this moment
- 18:20
- But it's time to be for him to be glorified and if you were listening to him you might think that this is the logical extension of his triumphal entry right if you're one of the
- 18:30
- Disciples and you're sitting there, and you're listening to him You're like okay, we just saw this great big parade and all these people chanting chanting
- 18:37
- Hosea Hosea Hosanna Hosanna God save you know
- 18:42
- God deliver. This is the time begging and pleading with God and Now he's saying this is the time for me to be glorified the
- 18:49
- Greeks are here and everything you might think well This is it. This is as good as it's gonna get it You know our ministry is gonna get even bigger.
- 18:56
- You know who knows what Jesus is up to maybe he is gonna Take the kingdom right now Now we're sitting there.
- 19:04
- It's easy for us because we know what he meant But it's very difficult to think of death on a cross as being glorified as we go through this week
- 19:17
- And as we contemplate the suffering that he went through we would never think I Would be looking forward to that it's painful to consider all that he went through in a few days
- 19:32
- He's going to suffer merely in the anticipation of What he was going to be dealing with When he's in the
- 19:40
- Garden of Gethsemane praying we know that he's going to be betrayed by one of his disciples
- 19:46
- Judas Iscariot He's going to be abandoned by the rest of them The crowd that so adored him when he entered on the back of that donkey
- 19:58
- It's just a few days are gonna be chanting for his crucifixion He's going to be scourged.
- 20:05
- He's gonna be beaten with a whip It's gonna be physically beaten beaten he's gonna be spat upon jeered mocked
- 20:14
- Sneered at by criminals and This is the time of his glorification
- 20:20
- This is the apex of his time on earth. That's not how we think about it
- 20:29
- But thankfully Jesus immediately explains it verse 24 Truly truly I say to you
- 20:35
- Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit
- 20:43
- Now we ought to by this time recognize those first two words truly truly when Jesus says that what's he saying?
- 20:49
- He's saying in the Greek. Amen. Amen If you have King James, it says verily verily which
- 20:56
- I like I don't know why Probably if I could just keep that from the King James, I'd enjoy that.
- 21:05
- What does that mean? This is indeed true This is the way it's meant to be when we pray right and somebody says amen, what are they saying?
- 21:15
- They're saying Lord. Let that be. Well, that's that's like in a postlude, right? We're saying amen.
- 21:21
- That's how I want it to be well, this is Prefacing it saying this is the way things are going to be.
- 21:26
- Amen. Amen. I'm telling you exactly what is true What exactly must take place?
- 21:37
- This is of the highest importance and he wants to draw our full attention to it. He wants to underline it as it were
- 21:45
- Now it's a it's really an odd kind of word picture for us. Why because we're not used to thinking about Seeds and that kind of thing.
- 21:52
- We're not we don't live in an agrarian society. We're not farmers any farmers here besides Guido senior
- 22:00
- He likes to garden But it is very simple.
- 22:08
- It's also a profound example Look, let's put it this way if you have a kernel of wheat or even if you have a whole bag of wheat
- 22:15
- Now a bag of wheat wouldn't be as much fun to just carry that around right a 40 -pound bag of wheat and just carry it Around all the time, but if you had a little kernel and you just kind of looked at it
- 22:24
- You walked around with it You put it on a table and looked at it You stuck in your pocket, you know after a week after a month, you would just have a little kernel of wheat
- 22:34
- That's all you'd have but once it enters the ground and dies
- 22:42
- It can yield many more grains of wheat and if you had an entire bag full of wheat and you planted that you'd have a lot more and The picture here really is
- 22:53
- It's a spiritual one, but it really comes from Isaiah 53, I mean the whole the whole picture to really get a full idea
- 23:01
- I don't want you to turn there because I'm just gonna read a couple verses Isaiah 53 verses 10 and 11
- 23:10
- Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush him. He has put him to grief
- 23:17
- When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring He shall prolong his days
- 23:24
- The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul.
- 23:29
- He shall see and be satisfied By then by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities
- 23:44
- He shall see his offspring this seed that goes into the ground will have
- 23:50
- Offspring That's kind of the picture. His offspring can only come about when?
- 23:57
- After he is crushed it pleased Yahweh to crush him There's only after his death after the death of Jesus that his soul made an offering
- 24:10
- For guilty that's part of it, right? He without that There is no offering for guilt without him dying on the cross
- 24:19
- Is only after his death that many will be accounted righteous 2nd
- 24:27
- Corinthians 521 he made him who knew no sin to be sin on the cross why that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ and in dying
- 24:43
- Jesus will in fact bear much fruit Jesus will be glorified in another way on the cross and it's because of The cross because of his suffering on the cross that we can really get a better picture of some of the divine attributes
- 24:59
- You want to talk about glorification? We'll put the attributes of God up on display
- 25:04
- Well, how are the attributes of God kind of highlighted on the cross? Well, there are several
- 25:10
- I'm just going to mention a few if you think about God and you think about the attribute of justice
- 25:17
- Well, you have to think about the cross The price for all sin has to be paid and For anyone to be able to enter heaven the price for their sin had to be paid at the cross
- 25:32
- Why because no sinful man could pay his own way Could satisfy the demands of a holy
- 25:39
- God for sin It had to be Jesus. It had to be the spotless
- 25:44
- Lamb of God suffering on that cross It also highlights the faithfulness of Christ of God Philippians would tell us that he was obedient even to the point of death on a cross
- 26:01
- Revelation 19 describes Jesus this way then I saw heaven open and behold a white horse
- 26:06
- The one sitting on it is called faithful and true. It's just part of who he is.
- 26:13
- He's faithful And in righteousness he judges and makes war We also see the love of God 1st
- 26:22
- John 4 9 and 10 in this the love of God was made manifest. It was put up on display. You couldn't miss it.
- 26:28
- How? That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him
- 26:36
- In this is love not that we love God But that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins
- 26:44
- The satisfaction for our sins and that happened on the cross We also see the holiness of God on display that is to say that he is
- 26:59
- Entirely separate from sin that he cannot abide sin that as Habakkuk says his eyes are too pure to what?
- 27:07
- Even even look on evil mark 1534 and At the ninth hour
- 27:16
- Jesus cried with a loud voice Eloi Eloi Lema sabbathini, which means my god my god
- 27:22
- Why have you forsaken me In his humanity
- 27:28
- Jesus experiences separation from the Father abandonment by the
- 27:33
- Father there's no break in the Trinity here, but there is separation between the man
- 27:43
- Christ Jesus and the Father There are many more attributes we could point to on the cross.
- 27:49
- But here's the points the cross was not a moment of defeat It was not a time where the forces of darkness won
- 27:58
- But this was a victory for Jesus Christ for God Was exaltation and glory
- 28:06
- So we've seen one innocuous inquiry The Greeks want to meet Jesus and our first glorious response there is glory in the death of Jesus and the second glorious response is there is glory in the death of believers
- 28:23
- Glory in the death of believers Just as an aside, you know one of the one of the painful aspects of being in a ministry and one of the joyful Aspects of being in the ministry is experiencing death
- 28:41
- Death on the scale of which I have never experienced in my life really But when you're with a believer
- 28:50
- It's a great joy It's sad yes, but it's a great joy Why because you know where they've gone and in one sense as we go back to the text
- 29:04
- Everyone is like that wheat illustration that Jesus uses every human being is like that wheat
- 29:09
- Illustration that he uses to talk about himself, right? He gets planted into the ground He dies in other words, and he sees the fruits the
- 29:18
- The the way that the father uses that death in the lives of many to regenerate them to grant them eternal life
- 29:25
- But every single person is like that wheat illustration too and he kind of expands on it look at verse 25
- 29:33
- First part of it. He says whoever loves his life Loses it Now just suppose that every one of you in here is a grain of wheat
- 29:44
- I've just demoted you to grains of wheat a little grain
- 29:51
- You can carry around and look at and all this other thing, but ultimately a grain of wheat by itself is worthless.
- 29:58
- It's just a seed Unbelievers value themselves
- 30:04
- They just think oh, they're a beautiful seed and they just like to look at that seed and just kind of say Oh my precious
- 30:14
- How does the Bible talk about unbelievers? It uses that wheat is illustration, but it talks about them as chaff the psalmist says in Psalm 1
- 30:30
- The wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away Therefore the wicked that is to say the unsaved will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous when
- 30:43
- John the Baptist Was talking about Jesus Introducing his ministry
- 30:50
- And he said that Jesus would gather his wheat the believers and burn the chaff with what unquenchable fire
- 30:59
- Now we live in a world where even professing Christians Are walking around with their little wheat seed, right?
- 31:07
- I just love my life. I'm so valuable. What a beautiful little wheat seed. I am Jesus says that loving this life loving your life means losing eternal life
- 31:24
- Anyone who loves their life will lose it. In fact a better Interpretation of that a better a better understanding of that is not even losing.
- 31:39
- It's destroying Your life Jesus is clearly not talking about our mortal life.
- 31:48
- We know that because everyone's going to die He's speaking about eternity Friends your best life now will result in your worst nightmare for all time
- 32:01
- Eternity facing the unrestrained wrath of Almighty God Nobody's gonna get to heaven singing.
- 32:08
- I did it my way That's not how it happens if You put yourself first that is to say if you value your life
- 32:19
- If you just think I'm going to do it my way the Bible would say that you are fitting yourself for destruction now believers
- 32:34
- True believers are like that wheat to look at verse 25 again, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life
- 32:44
- Whoever's willing to be buried to give up their life To hate their life, you know, not meaning that by the way, this isn't like some kind of Facebook mantra right kids get on there and say
- 32:56
- I hate my life. That doesn't mean they're going to heaven Right, that's not that's not what Jesus is talking about.
- 33:02
- You know, I hate my life. That's my status. Okay heaven No, this is really about grasping the meaning of grace what it is to have the unmerited the demerited favor of God To look at yourself and realize that there's nothing good in you you don't walk around going
- 33:26
- Oh, what a beautiful seed of wheat. You're just like I Have nothing to offer you Lord. There's nothing in me of good only that which you created me
- 33:41
- Christians know that they deserve the wrath of God for their sins. They hate their sins
- 33:48
- They long to be what delivered from this body of death Believers hate this life in that they long for the next one
- 34:00
- There should be nothing in this life that you're looking forward to more than you are being with Jesus Christ What does it mean to love
- 34:09
- Jesus? I can't wait to be with him now to return to that grain of wheat analogy
- 34:22
- Believers are willing to be spent for the good of the kingdom of God. What do we do in baptism?
- 34:27
- Which we're gonna do next week, right? It is identifying with Jesus in what in his death and burial and resurrection
- 34:38
- You have to be willing to die with him To be used by him and then you will rise with him to meet him for all eternity
- 34:50
- Now he talks about discipleship about following him the high cost to following him Look at verse 26, and I want you as I read this to just hear the number of times
- 35:00
- Jesus refers to himself if anyone serves me
- 35:06
- He must follow me and where I am There will my servant be also if anyone serves me
- 35:17
- The father will honor him Five times in this verse he refers to himself
- 35:23
- You get the idea that it's pretty important to be serving him to be following him
- 35:35
- Having your priorities, right? It means putting Christ first Again look at the emphasis on serving
- 35:44
- Christ serve or servant is mentioned three times in here And even as you think about serving or as I thought about serving
- 35:52
- I just thought you know, it's hard to get away from What the master says during the the parable of the talents, right?
- 36:00
- When the one servant invests five talents and he gets five more. What does this master say?
- 36:08
- Well done Thou good and faithful servant King James again the guy with two talents does the same thing well done
- 36:21
- You have been faithful over a little I will set you over much Enter listen to this enter into the joy of your master
- 36:32
- Isn't that what you want to hear? When you stand on Judgment Day, don't you want to hear?
- 36:39
- Well done thou good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your master
- 36:47
- That's the heart of a Christian That's the heart of somebody who loves Jesus It's that kind of heart
- 36:57
- Again that can only be granted by the Holy Spirit That God the
- 37:03
- Father Jesus says here will one day honor or reward And notice there aren't a whole lot of choices given here
- 37:11
- You know if you want if you would like if it pleases you It says must and will
- 37:21
- There are no options here This is not you know, some optional flowchart.
- 37:26
- This is like One Direction. This is what you do Do these are series of things
- 37:33
- Christians must follow Jesus in another passage in Luke 9 He says this and he said to all if anyone would come after me that is to say follow
- 37:42
- Jesus Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever would save his life familiar words will lose it
- 37:53
- But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself
- 38:03
- If he walks around with a seed and just says how precious I am and how I deserve this or that For whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him will the
- 38:13
- Son of Man be ashamed when he Comes in his glory and the glory of the
- 38:18
- Father and of the angels Christianity is not a hobby It's not a cultural choice, it's not some kind of title that you just slap on yourself.
- 38:29
- I'm a Christian. There are no days off You're a
- 38:34
- Christian 24 -7 even while you're sleeping Jesus said to take up your cross daily
- 38:44
- Sort of what does that mean? Are we to be without sin? Are we to be flawless? Never make what we like to call mistakes
- 38:55
- No, but the picture is this and you know, and here's how I want to get out of the The treadmill of kind of self -improvements some people think that when they
- 39:06
- Stumble when they fall when they sin when they fall in the mud when they're just covered with mud that they get up and And they they correct their course and they and they just I will not fall again.
- 39:21
- It's really not the right way. I Slip and I fall and I get in the mud and I'm ashamed and I and I I'm just disgusted with myself because my sin
- 39:31
- But I look up at my captain I look at my Savior I keep my eyes fixed on him
- 39:38
- I start running again toward him why because he's paid it all He's done it.
- 39:44
- I am NOT doing it. I am NOT being for I am NOT earning forgiveness
- 39:51
- He died once for the sins of all who would ever believe Christianity is not a set of rules.
- 40:01
- I Can't give you a list of things to do to be a Christian But it is a settled conviction
- 40:12
- Your focus is entirely on Christ. You follow him not out of obligation But out of love and joyful expectation.
- 40:21
- Are you obligated? Yes, but it's not drudgery You're just thinking I can't believe that Jesus would die for me.
- 40:27
- I can't believe the Father would save me I can't believe the Holy Spirit would sanctify me if you are willing to die to yourself
- 40:42
- You will live forever. You will live eternally in glory Friends, it's impossible to think that you might be indifferent to Jesus in this life and yet be in love with him in heaven
- 40:56
- I can hardly wait to get to heaven because then my attitude will change that's not going to happen It's not credible to think that those who refuse to follow
- 41:06
- Jesus in this life will somehow follow him into the next I Love Jesus, but I don't follow him is a blatant
- 41:18
- Contradiction now if you've not considered the claims of Jesus upon your life and yet you call yourself a
- 41:26
- Christian. I Would urge you this morning to consider the condition of your soul
- 41:32
- Are you really in Christ? Are you trusting him fully? If you're not following him
- 41:41
- If you're not serving him You are not in him. You have no forgiveness of sins
- 41:49
- If you're not serving him, you cannot expect to be honored by the Father on the last day
- 41:55
- The good news isn't that if you try harder you can get to heaven. The good news is that Jesus saves sinners
- 42:03
- There is no sin that you can commit to exclude yourself from the love of God if you are in Christ Jesus He died he was crushed that he might see his spiritual offspring
- 42:18
- Those who have been born again those who entrust their souls to him alone his death his burial his resurrection
- 42:26
- We are not here this morning to recognize Jesus We're here to preach
- 42:33
- Christ and him crucified we are here to worship our God and our
- 42:38
- Savior To proclaim the only way to heaven The cross alone is payment for sins
- 42:48
- It is the very reason that Jesus came to earth to glorify himself
- 42:55
- The resurrection is not about bunnies The resurrection is not about eggs or airdrops
- 43:07
- The resurrection is about Jesus paid it all and our hope is all in him
- 43:15
- Let's pray Our father it is
- 43:28
- Mournful dreadful to think about the hundreds or thousands of pulpits during this week that would profess to draw near to you, but would neglect your word
- 43:52
- Would neglect the person and work of Christ would fill their services with bromides and affirmations
- 44:04
- Aphorisms of blessing and prosperity and goodness and would not focus on the cross
- 44:16
- The very reason The very hour that he came the fixed time
- 44:25
- That he might die so that we might live
- 44:31
- That we might live eternally father our hope
- 44:43
- Is entirely Completely in the finished work of Jesus Christ as payment for our sins father for anyone here
- 44:57
- Who is not sure where they stand Lord, would you
- 45:08
- By your spirit Convict even right now
- 45:15
- Of their need to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for those who have been trying to justify themselves by their own works even
- 45:26
- Unknowingly and now they've been now they see that Father I pray that you would deliver us from that Not that we ought to go and sin all the more heaven heaven forbid
- 45:40
- But that we might know That once we are in Christ, you cannot love us more because you love us as surely as you love your son