Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

The Starting Gun

by Dave Wilkinson

John 12:20-26

March 28, 1999

Today is the last Palm Sunday of the Second Millennium. Next Sunday is the last Easter. Sounds important! Many people expect a lot to happen at the turn of the calendar. An apocalyptic fervor will certainly grip parts of the population. In fact, a few American Christians have already been deported from Israel for seeking to "hasten" the Second Coming of Christ through a few well placed bombs.

The Book of Revelation gives us a picture of what will happen at the end. I plan to lead an adult class on this Book beginning next Fall. I'm not jumping on a bandwagon. It just happens to be time to take up the topic.

The Book of Revelation is not meant to give us a good scare. It is meant to give us hope in uncertain times. It is filled with great images of all the good that God has in store for us.

One of my favorite images is John's picture of heaven being filled with a throng of humanity which "no one could number from every nation, language and tongue on earth." This morning we are going to look at how we can have a part if making that great future happen - as we explore our Fifty Day Adventure promise of impacting our world with the good news of Jesus Christ. We will do this though considering the Palm Sunday faithfulness of a Disciple named Andrew. It is clear that on Palm Sunday the religious leaders are afraid of Jesus. They are afraid that His popularity with the people will explode into a revolt -- a revolt that bring roman steel and the destruction of the nation. On Palm Sunday their worst nightmares seem to be coming true. Crowds of people greet Jesus as king as He enters the city. And when the leaders order Jesus to quiet the dangerous crowd. Jesus replies, "truly, truly I say to you, if these people were quiet the very rocks and stones themselves would start singing."

That is not the answer they are looking for from Jesus. In verse 19 of this chapter the Pharisees say to each other, "you see that you aren't doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him!"

Now, in our text for this morning, we see an example of the "whole world" going after Jesus. John writes: "Now there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these therefore came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him saying, 'Sir, we would see Jesus.'"

Now it is possible that these "Greeks" are converts to Judaism. It is also possible that they are God-fearers -- Gentiles who are attracted by the moral ideals and belief in one God of the Jews but who do not submit to all of the Jewish laws and the rite of circumcision. But it is not necessary that these Greeks be described as either converts or God-fearers. They might simply be tourists. The Greek was an inveterate wanderer, driven by a desire to find out new things. "You Athenians," wrote one of the ancients, "will never rest yourselves, nor will you ever let anyone else rest."

Five-hundred years before this first Palm Sunday, the Greek Herodotus had traveled the known world for the express purpose of "finding out new things." Archeologists exploring the monuments of ancient Egypt have found the names of early Greek tourists carved in the stone. Greeks traveled for trade and for war as other peoples did, but they were the first nation to travel also for the sheer love of travel. So it is not at all surprising to find a group of sight-seeing Greeks in Jerusalem for Passover. But the Greek

is more than a wanderer. He is characteristically a seeker after truth. It would not be rare to find a Greek who has passed from philosophy to philosophy and religion to religion in search of truth. The characteristic 1^st Century Greek is a person with a seeking mind.

These Greeks hear the commotion of the triumphal entry. They ask questions and learn a lot of fascinating things about Jesus -- including the fact that Jesus has recently raised a man from the dead. These Greeks want to meet this Jesus. So they come up to Jesus' disciple Philip -- perhaps because he had a Greek name and came from a Greek-influenced city in Galilee -- and say, "Sir, we would see Jesus."

Now anybody can see Jesus as He walks through the crowds. But what they want to do was "interview" Jesus. They want some quiet, private time to get to know Him.

Philip is unsure of what to do with their request. But then he thinks of Andrew who always seems to know how to handle these things. And Andrew knows that no one could ever be a nuisance to Jesus. He has learned that Jesus never turns away a seeker. And he knows that Jesus is able to deal with any trap -- if this request is some kind of sneaky ploy by the chief priests. So he takes Philip and they go to Jesus and tell Jesus about the Greek's request.

And Jesus responds in a very surprising way to what seems to be a simple matter. "The hour has come," He says, "for the Son of Man to be glorified."

Now several times in the Gospel of John, reference is made to Jesus' "hour." At the wedding at Cana; way back in chapter seven and again in chapter eight, we find that Jesus' hour has not yet come. Now that hour has come. The words of Philip and Andrew are like the sound of a starting gun to Jesus. They tell Jesus of the Greeks who want to see Him and Jesus replies, "the hour has come."

What is there about this seemingly simple situation that triggers such a major response from Jesus? We can only say that Jesus sees in these Greeks a sign from God. Once before, as we find in Mark's gospel, Jesus made a tremendous declaration about a seemingly modest event. The seventy returned to Jesus after being sent out to teach and heal. They told Jesus of what they had done -- the persons cured and the demons cast out. It was exciting but it was still, at best, only a tiny dent in the mass of evil in the world. But Jesus responds with a cry of triumph, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven!" The ministry of His disciples has begun. It is effective. It will go on increasing. The result is certain.

Now, as Jesus hears of these Greeks, He sees not only them but also who they represent. He sees the masses of non-Jews through the centuries, including us, who will seek Him and know Him and love Him and follow Him. The hour has come.

Jesus says: "The time has come for the son of man to be glorified."

This statement must have caused all those around Jesus to jump in amazement. Because to most of those around Jesus, his statement could mean only one thing. Back in Daniel 7 we find a prophecy of this Son of Man that Jesus identifies with Himself. Daniel describes in symbols the empires of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medea and the Persians. These empires are so cruel that they could only be described as wild beasts. But it is the vision of Daniel that a new power is going to come which will be humane and gentle. The symbol of this power is not a beast but a man:-- the heavenly Son of Man who will inaugurate the reign of God inhuman life. With the coming of the Son of Man, the day of savagery will pass and the day of perfect humanity will dawn.

But as the Jews went through times of persecution and trouble, this figure of the Son of Man became narrower and narrower. By the time of Jesus, the average Jew understood the Son of Man to be an irresistible, divine conqueror who will smash the way to world dominion for God's chosen people.

To the Jews the Son of Man stands for the undefeatable world conqueror sent by God. So for Jesus to say, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" is to cause those who hear it to catch their breath. As Dr. William Barclay states it, "They would believe that the trumpet call of eternity had sounded, that the might of Heaven was on the march, and that the campaign of victory was on the move." But then as Jesus continues, these hopes are dashed. For instead of conquest, He begins to talk about sacrifice and death.

We will never understand Jesus nor the attitudes of the Jews toward Him, until we understand how He turned their ideas upside down, replacing dreams of conquest with a vision of a cross. For when Jesus said glorified, He meant "crucified."

First Jesus said: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Jesus is saying is that only by death comes life. The grain of wheat is ineffective and unfruitful as long as it stays in the sack or in the silo. As long as it is safe and secure it cannot do a thing. But when it is thrown into the cold ground and buried there as if in a tomb, it bears fruit. But if it doesn't die, it remains by itself.

This is certainly something we find to be true in our lives. Any time we reach out to others it involves a kind of death --the death of other options, the death of a measure of freedom, the unique kind of inner death that comes from the possibility of rejection.

A person who doesn't care is saved from a great deal of grief. For example, people who refuse to have children can avoid the trouble children bring with them. As an old adage goes, "When children are little they walk on your feet. When they are big, they walk on your heart." And if you allow yourself to have friends, you open yourself to pain at their misfortune. And if you marry there is the certainty of tension and the possibility of painful divorce. But if you shut yourself inside yourself then you cannot be touched by any misfortune short of a direct hit. And if you shut yourself inside yourself -- if you refuse to fall to the ground and die for others -- then Jesus says that you will remain alone. You will be protected in your carefully crafted shell until you die and when you do die, no one will notice. But if you do give yourself for others -- as Jesus did every day of his life -- then you will have fruit in your own life and in the lives of those around you.

When Jesus looked at the fruit of his own self-giving, He saw His disciples and the others who followed Him. And now, here are the Greeks as well -- forerunners of a great church.

Then Jesus said, "He who love his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world keeps it for life eternal." This is something that Jesus said several times. We find it in each of the gospels. What Jesus taught is that the only way to have life is to give it away for the sake of God and His kingdom. Being where Christ is involves being open to others. Being where Christ is means being willing to suffer for the sake of others. Being where Christ is means carrying the Gospel of Christ. The Christian life cannot be lived as the safe life or as the closed-in life. It must always be the vulnerable life if we are to bring our world to Christ.

Are you available?

Milton Cummingham, a missionary, shares a time when he was convicted of his own failure to share the Good News. He had just settled in for his flight from Atlanta to Dallas. Next to him was a young girl with Down's Syndrome. She turned to Milton and, in all innocence, asked, "Mister, did you brush your teeth this morning?"

A little awkwardly, Milton answered, 'Well, yes., I brushed my teeth this morning."

"Good," the girl responded, "'cause that's what you're supposed to do."

Her next question was, "Mister, do you smoke?"

This one was a little easier on Milton. When he said no, the little girl answered with approval, "Good, 'cause smoking will make you die."

The third question was even easier to answer. The young girl asked, "Mister, do you love Jesus?"

Milton answered with confidence, "Well, yes, I do love Jesus."

"Good, 'cause we're all supposed to love Jesus," she replied.

Just then, another man settled into the seat beside Milton. He was intent on reading a magazine. Immediately, the girl urged Milton to ask the new fellow if he had brushed his teeth that morning. Milton wasn't about to disturb the stranger, but the girl wouldn't leave him alone. Finally, he gave in. He said, "Mister, I don't mean to bother you, but my friend here wants me to ask you if you brushed your teeth this morning." When the man noticed the girl, he realized that her question was innocent enough, and he answered that yes, he had brushed his teeth that morning.

With a sinking feeling, Milton realized where this was going. Next, the girl urged him to ask the stranger if he smoked. Milton and the man went through the second question. And sure enough, the girl wanted Milton to ask the third question: did this man love Jesus?

Milton protested that the question was too personal, that he just wouldn't be comfortable asking it. Remember, Milton Cunningham is a missionary. But something in him made him uncomfortable about sharing the Good News with his fellow passenger. But the young girl persisted, and so Milton said, "Now she wants to know if you love Jesus."

At this, the man's face darkened. He began to talk about his desire to know God. He was at a point in his life when he was searching for God, for meaning, for purpose in life. But he didn't know where to turn. So Milton Cunningham explained to the man how to have a relationship with God, and how to find salvation through Jesus. He was able to witness to a person in deep need, a person who was in need of God. And it all started with a simple question, asked by a child with simple, but sincere motives.

It is amazing what God can do with anyone who is simply available--available to walk in Christ's footsteps -- available to take a courageous stand when necessary -- available to share their faith when the opportunity arises. It's such a simple thing really. It is to say when God calls, "This is Jeff Smith or Sally Jones or Willy Davis or Andrew the Disciple or whatever your name might be. I'm available."

The result of this is to be honored by God Himself. Jesus said, "if anyone serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."

What Jesus is talking about in this Palm Sunday passage is life -- His life and the life of we who are called by His name. It is the life we are commissioned to call others into. It is the kind of life where giving means receiving, death means life, serving means receiving honor and glory means the cross.

Some Greeks come to Philip and say, "Sir, we would see Jesus." if we would see Jesus, we will see Him as we give of ourselves in His service as His faithful disciples. There is no other way.