The Hour of Glory, Arrived! (John 12:20-36)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:15.230 So John Twelve verses, twenty through thirty six. Now among those who went 2 00:00:15.310 --> 00:00:19.670 up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So they came to Philip, 3 00:00:19.829 --> 00:00:22.699 who was from both Sida and Galilee, and asked him, sir, 4 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:28.620 we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip 5 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:34.340 went and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them. The Hour has come for 6 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:40.250 the son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to 7 00:00:40.369 --> 00:00:44.289 you, unless of grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it 8 00:00:44.810 --> 00:00:51.200 remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. WHOEVER LOVES 9 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:56.359 HIS LIFE LOSES IT. Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it 10 00:00:56.479 --> 00:01:00.719 for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and 11 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:06.230 where I am, there will my servant be. Also, if any one 12 00:01:06.390 --> 00:01:11.709 serves me, the father will honor him. Now my soul is troubled, 13 00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:15.469 and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but 14 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:21.819 for this purpose. I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your 15 00:01:21.859 --> 00:01:26.739 name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and I 16 00:01:26.819 --> 00:01:32.659 will glorify it again. The crowd that stood there and heard it said that 17 00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:38.689 it had thundered. Another others said an angel has spoken to him. Jesus 18 00:01:38.769 --> 00:01:44.810 answered, this voice is come for your Sake, not mine. Now is 19 00:01:44.890 --> 00:01:49.200 the judgment of the world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast 20 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:53.840 out, and I, when I am lifted up from the Earth, will 21 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.879 draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of 22 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.310 death he was going to die. So the crowd answered him. We have 23 00:02:02.430 --> 00:02:07.310 heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that 24 00:02:07.430 --> 00:02:09.150 the son of Man will be lifted up? Who is this son of man? 25 00:02:10.509 --> 00:02:15.150 So Jesus said to him. The light is among you for a little 26 00:02:15.189 --> 00:02:20.819 while. Longer, walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake 27 00:02:20.939 --> 00:02:23.659 you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is 28 00:02:23.740 --> 00:02:29.539 going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you 29 00:02:29.740 --> 00:03:02.389 may become sons of light. Then please be seated in John Chapter Twenty, 30 00:03:04.270 --> 00:03:07.110 not the passage we just read, but in John Chapter Twenty, verses a 31 00:03:07.229 --> 00:03:12.830 twenty eight through thirty, we have these famous words. It is finished, 32 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:19.819 it is finished. Let me read them to you at the end of this 33 00:03:19.939 --> 00:03:23.419 is at the end of Jesus's crucifixion, right before he dies, and as 34 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:27.330 he dies, it says. After this, Jesus, knowing that all now 35 00:03:27.530 --> 00:03:31.849 was finished, said to fulfill the scriptures. I first a jar full of 36 00:03:31.969 --> 00:03:36.370 sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine 37 00:03:36.449 --> 00:03:39.409 on a his up branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had 38 00:03:39.449 --> 00:03:45.639 received this sour wine, he said it is finished. He bowed his head 39 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:53.240 and gave up his spirit. This is the end of the death of Christ. 40 00:03:54.080 --> 00:04:00.750 The beginning of that period of suffering is marked here in our passage, 41 00:04:00.830 --> 00:04:06.629 in John Chapter Twelve, where Jesus says the hour has come for the son 42 00:04:06.710 --> 00:04:13.819 of man to be glorified. It is arrived, is what we have here. 43 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:19.379 It is finished, is what we have in John Chapter Twenty, and 44 00:04:19.579 --> 00:04:26.009 so we have here this hour of his suffering, this hour even of his 45 00:04:26.449 --> 00:04:32.889 glory as well. No, is how he's have. In in verse twenty 46 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:36.490 three, it says the hour has come for the son of man to be 47 00:04:36.610 --> 00:04:43.279 glorified, and yet we also know that this hour involves his death. So 48 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:47.439 we have these two things put together, two things that don't go together in 49 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:56.550 this world. Glory, kingly power, magnificence, splendor royalty. Remember, 50 00:04:56.589 --> 00:05:00.750 we are coming on the heels of a great parade where he was ushered into 51 00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:08.259 Jerusalem with cheers and cries. Save us, Hosanna. Blessed is he who 52 00:05:08.300 --> 00:05:15.939 comes in the name of the Lord Him, riding on this kingly donkey glory 53 00:05:16.540 --> 00:05:23.769 and yet also suffering. It is finished, he said, as he gave 54 00:05:23.810 --> 00:05:32.689 up his spirit, taste of sour wine in his mouth. Don't let the 55 00:05:32.930 --> 00:05:43.959 word our trouble you too much. Just like an English words marking, time 56 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:50.230 can have flexibility in other languages, as it does here. The moment that 57 00:05:50.350 --> 00:05:54.550 we have, the thing that Jesus says in John Twelve, the hour that 58 00:05:54.750 --> 00:06:00.310 is here. We don't have sixty minutes from this point to the time when 59 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:04.819 Jesus says it is finished. He's speaking of a short period of time. 60 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:12.180 That's how he's using our here. Sometimes, we, we are words for 61 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:15.459 time, can be flexible, and that's what he's doing here. The point 62 00:06:15.540 --> 00:06:20.569 is to collapse, if I could put it that way, to put together 63 00:06:20.649 --> 00:06:27.850 these various events so that we would understand them as one thing. This hour, 64 00:06:28.170 --> 00:06:31.370 this thing that's beginning here, and we'll go through the next several chapters, 65 00:06:31.410 --> 00:06:36.399 is part of the same thing, and that's important because when we think 66 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:40.439 about Jesus is death. What does it mean? How are we to understand 67 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:45.160 it? We don't wait until John Twenty to start thinking about that. In 68 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:48.389 fact, we've been thinking about it since chapter one, I hope, but 69 00:06:48.709 --> 00:06:56.790 also here in John Twelve. So what Jesus does here is he begins to 70 00:06:56.990 --> 00:07:01.779 help us to understand directly what this period, this particular period of his suffering, 71 00:07:01.980 --> 00:07:08.339 means. How are we to think about the death of our king, 72 00:07:09.579 --> 00:07:13.980 the death of our Lord, the death of the one we call Hosanna to 73 00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:18.569 save us? How do we think about it? How do we feel about 74 00:07:18.610 --> 00:07:27.649 it? How do we act in light of the death of Christ? Well, 75 00:07:27.689 --> 00:07:31.519 these things are it explained in part here, and there will be continuing 76 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:39.040 teaching to us, so let's give our attention to it. One of the 77 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:43.839 things we learn here is that the death of Christ is one that is indeed 78 00:07:44.509 --> 00:07:48.949 glorious. It's, of course, exact opposite of everything that you would think 79 00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:55.189 about when you picture the death of Christ. Bleeding, suffering, shame, 80 00:07:56.149 --> 00:08:03.019 mocking. His garments are divided, his head is bleeding, there's pain and 81 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:09.660 the king dies, and yet all throughout this passage he wants us to understand 82 00:08:09.699 --> 00:08:16.009 it as glorious, glorious, glorious all over the place. For example, 83 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:22.769 as we read in twenty three, Jesus answers them, his disciples, speaking 84 00:08:22.810 --> 00:08:26.279 on behalf of these gentiles, these Greeks, he says that our has come 85 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:31.439 for the son of man to be glorified. Now, right off the this 86 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:35.559 parade, you would expect. Right, yes, finally here we come. 87 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:41.320 Jesus is accepting this mission that we've all been waiting for him to fulfill, 88 00:08:41.509 --> 00:08:45.389 that we've all been hoping for. He's coming to Jerusalem on his donkey. 89 00:08:45.629 --> 00:08:48.470 Here he is in the city and he says it's time to be glorified. 90 00:08:50.909 --> 00:08:54.309 And then he says this. He be helps us to understand that, and 91 00:08:54.350 --> 00:08:56.980 he says truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of 92 00:08:58.059 --> 00:09:03.460 wheat fall falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But it 93 00:09:03.940 --> 00:09:09.529 but fit dies, it bears much fruit. So right at the moment when 94 00:09:09.570 --> 00:09:16.850 Jesus is talking about his glory, he immediately starts talking about death. How 95 00:09:16.009 --> 00:09:20.570 will these Greeks, how will the Jews? How Will Philip and Andrew and 96 00:09:20.769 --> 00:09:28.039 all the others find? I'M GLORY IN CHRIST? Well, he says let 97 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:31.519 me explain it to you. I want you to understand. It's going to 98 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:35.679 be like a tiny seed, or a, sorry, a grain of wheat. 99 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.909 That's what it's like. What do you mean? Like a grain of 100 00:09:39.950 --> 00:09:41.470 wheat? Well, you know what a grain of wheat does. If you 101 00:09:41.669 --> 00:09:46.309 just sort of set it on your counter, does nothing. They has to 102 00:09:46.389 --> 00:09:50.750 go into the ground. It has to go into the ground and only then 103 00:09:52.269 --> 00:09:56.019 does it and when it does, it rises up and produces much fruit. 104 00:09:58.220 --> 00:10:03.419 so He's beginning to help us, help them to understand something, that it's 105 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:07.730 not only glorious, but that his death is also necessary. Just as it's 106 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:11.889 necessary for a grain of wheat to be put in the ground in order for 107 00:10:11.929 --> 00:10:18.090 it to bear fruit, Christ must be put into the grave, Christ must 108 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:24.600 die in order for the fruit, the glorious fruit, to be born. 109 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:33.360 If you're ever looking for a nice way to explain to someone, maybe your 110 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:37.350 children or a friend, why it was necessary for Christ to die, here's 111 00:10:37.389 --> 00:10:48.269 a God given example, very helpful. But then Jesus continues on and we 112 00:10:48.389 --> 00:10:56.460 begin to understand this is this death is going to require some difficulty, perhaps 113 00:10:56.539 --> 00:11:01.659 not as easy as just putting a grain of wheat into the ground, because 114 00:11:01.659 --> 00:11:05.450 he says in Verse Twenty Five. Whoever loves his life loses it, and 115 00:11:05.529 --> 00:11:09.889 whoever hates a strong word, is life in this world, will keep it. 116 00:11:13.250 --> 00:11:15.850 Then again, in verse twenty seven, he says, now my soul 117 00:11:16.090 --> 00:11:22.679 is troubled, reminder to us that Jesus is fully human. But he says 118 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:26.559 this, he says in what shall I say? Father, save me from 119 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:31.600 this hour, but for this purpose. I have come to this hour, 120 00:11:33.149 --> 00:11:37.990 Father Glory. And then he says, father, glorify your name. See 121 00:11:39.029 --> 00:11:41.830 what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is looking death in the face and he's 122 00:11:43.789 --> 00:11:50.460 he's not saying whatever. No big deal for me, I'm God. No, 123 00:11:50.740 --> 00:11:58.940 his soul is troubled. He will bleed sweat, or if you will 124 00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:05.009 sweat blood. They're in the garden of the Semite. He will suffer great 125 00:12:05.210 --> 00:12:09.649 things, both in his body and in his soul now and in the coming 126 00:12:09.690 --> 00:12:16.559 days. His soul is troubled, just as your souls are troubled when you 127 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:22.440 face a suffering, imminent suffering and struggle. His soul was troubled. But 128 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:28.399 notice how he understands this moment, and it's how we ought to understand this 129 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:33.269 moment that he is about to go through. This is what shall I say? 130 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:39.549 Save me from this hour. No, I won't say relieve me from 131 00:12:39.549 --> 00:12:43.950 the suffering, take me out of this. I don't want to go through 132 00:12:43.110 --> 00:12:48.620 this. It's too hard. Why? Because this is why I came. 133 00:12:50.379 --> 00:12:54.940 This is the whole point of everything that has been happening. For this purpose, 134 00:12:54.740 --> 00:13:01.850 for the suffering. I have come, for the trouble and his soul, 135 00:13:03.090 --> 00:13:05.250 for the suffering in his body. For this purpose I have come to 136 00:13:05.370 --> 00:13:13.360 this hour and then back to glory. Father, glorify your name. So 137 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:18.480 this glory that Jesus will achieve, this glory that the father will achieve, 138 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:24.519 the singular glory that God will achieve father, son and Holy Spirit, is 139 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:30.629 a glory that will come through suffering. It must come through suffering. This 140 00:13:30.950 --> 00:13:35.710 purpose that Jesus came for is a purpose that was set before the world even 141 00:13:35.750 --> 00:13:41.220 began, when God, and his eternal will, decided that it would be 142 00:13:43.059 --> 00:13:48.179 that he would give his son that we might be saved, that he would 143 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:54.299 be glorified. And in this we do see another message that John has been 144 00:13:54.379 --> 00:13:58.850 preaching to us throughout this book, that this is the work of our divine 145 00:13:58.970 --> 00:14:03.649 God. Are One god in three persons, Father Son, and Holy Spirit. 146 00:14:05.809 --> 00:14:07.889 Jesus, the son of God. He is the son of God and 147 00:14:07.929 --> 00:14:11.799 he speaks to the father and he says, father, glorify your name. 148 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:16.799 And indeed this voice comes from heaven and says, I have glorified it and 149 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:24.200 I will glorify it again. God is at work in this moment, in 150 00:14:24.389 --> 00:14:31.190 this suffering, in the crucifixion. So we see that it is glorious. 151 00:14:31.269 --> 00:14:33.389 We see that the death of Christ is necessary. We see that the death 152 00:14:33.389 --> 00:14:37.940 of Christ is difficult. We see that the death of Christ is the work 153 00:14:39.139 --> 00:14:45.340 of God, the father and the son and also the spirit. We also 154 00:14:45.379 --> 00:14:52.610 see that it is a work for all people. Here is Jesus in Jerusalem. 155 00:14:56.049 --> 00:15:00.009 He is about to be arrest it and betrayed by his own people, 156 00:15:00.049 --> 00:15:07.279 and Greeks come to him, gentiles, Pagans come to Philip and Andrew and 157 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:13.919 say we want to see Jesus. Jesus says, if the world essentially he's 158 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:16.480 saying, if the world is going to see me, if the world is 159 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:22.629 going to know me, I must die, and that is why he dies. 160 00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:31.990 He says in Verse Thirty Two, and I, when I am lifted 161 00:15:31.029 --> 00:15:37.100 up from the world, will draw all people to myself. And we have 162 00:15:37.259 --> 00:15:43.779 seen that Philip and Andrew and Peter and Paul, in you, in his 163 00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:48.299 disciples, this those who have followed him, as he calls us to do 164 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:54.649 here. His word has gone out to all the world and continues to do 165 00:15:54.730 --> 00:16:00.409 so. The Glory of Christ is seen in his people, in the spread 166 00:16:00.450 --> 00:16:07.960 of his Gospel, as Satan, as Satan is overcome. The light shines 167 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000 in the darkness, John says at the beginning of the Gospel, and the 168 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:15.039 darkness has not overcome it, it does not overcome it, and here is 169 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:22.789 Satan. In verse thirty two, Jesus says now is the judgment world. 170 00:16:22.149 --> 00:16:27.909 Now the ruler of this world will be cast down, the former, the 171 00:16:29.070 --> 00:16:33.740 one who for so long had blinded the world to the Gospel of God. 172 00:16:36.700 --> 00:16:41.179 He will be put under the feet of the Messiah. This is, of 173 00:16:41.259 --> 00:16:45.779 course, hard to understand for the Jews and others who were there, for 174 00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:48.769 those who had paid attention to the law, as we have in verse thirty 175 00:16:48.809 --> 00:16:55.129 four, because they understood that the Messiah the Christ, same word, different 176 00:16:55.169 --> 00:16:59.409 language, that the Christ was going to live forever. Right. They were 177 00:16:59.490 --> 00:17:03.119 thinking about perhaps that great prophecy in Daniel when this great rock would come and 178 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:10.559 destroy the kingdoms of this world and establish the kingdom forever. This great son 179 00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:14.240 of Man, is Daniel, proclaims, who would be the Lord's anointed one, 180 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:18.309 who would establish this eternal Kingdom of God? What do you mean? 181 00:17:18.430 --> 00:17:22.190 He's gonna die? What do you mean he's going to be lifted up? 182 00:17:22.710 --> 00:17:29.869 That's exactly what would happen. It's exactly what would happen, and through that 183 00:17:30.140 --> 00:17:41.059 death the whole world, both Jews and Greeks, would be saved. So 184 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:45.009 this is how we ought to understand the death of Christ. The death of 185 00:17:45.130 --> 00:17:52.450 Christ is not just a example for us to wonder at. The death of 186 00:17:52.569 --> 00:17:56.849 Christ is not just some sad thing that happened to a great man at one 187 00:17:56.890 --> 00:18:02.359 point in time. The death of Christ is not a pretend thing or a 188 00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:08.000 lie. It is something that happens, something that even Christ's enemies said happened, 189 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:14.349 indeed made happen. And this is how we ought to understand it. 190 00:18:15.430 --> 00:18:21.869 And that's why is Christians, we celebrate the death of Christ because it's glorious, 191 00:18:21.910 --> 00:18:25.990 it's wonderful, it saves us, though it's difficult. It is this 192 00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:32.259 perfect trinitarian work that was planned before the ages began, that calls us into 193 00:18:32.339 --> 00:18:37.460 this heavenly calling, this holy citizenship, that we would be called sons of 194 00:18:37.660 --> 00:18:42.410 light, as he says in the final verse. You have the light, 195 00:18:42.569 --> 00:18:47.809 believe in the light, that you would become sons of light. Earlier we 196 00:18:47.970 --> 00:18:52.369 recited the nicene creed, and in the creed it says that Jesus is God 197 00:18:53.529 --> 00:19:00.640 of God right, that he is God of Very God, that he is 198 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:04.079 the son of God and fully God. And then what does it say after 199 00:19:04.119 --> 00:19:10.630 that? He says he is light of light, he is everything that the 200 00:19:10.670 --> 00:19:14.230 father has, because he comes from the father, he is born of the 201 00:19:14.309 --> 00:19:19.910 father and yet fully God. Now that is, of course, an amazing 202 00:19:19.950 --> 00:19:26.259 thing in itself. And now add to this that you all can be called 203 00:19:26.619 --> 00:19:32.500 son of this light. Jesus is a son of the light, and you 204 00:19:32.579 --> 00:19:36.579 can be a son of the light, of course, in two different ways. 205 00:19:37.180 --> 00:19:45.130 Jesus, the eternal son of God, and US adopted children, but 206 00:19:45.529 --> 00:19:52.569 those who are being made into the image of that son, adopted into that 207 00:19:52.809 --> 00:19:57.839 family that we might call God, our father, as Jesus taught us to 208 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:07.750 pray, our father. Why? Because we're his children. Amazing. So 209 00:20:07.789 --> 00:20:14.109 I don't know what kinds of emotions this brings up in you. For me 210 00:20:14.470 --> 00:20:22.059 I find courage and love. Love for God, love for this world that 211 00:20:22.180 --> 00:20:26.259 he is come to save, courage knowing that I have everything in Christ, 212 00:20:26.299 --> 00:20:30.940 if he has died for me so that I can become a son of the 213 00:20:32.140 --> 00:20:37.210 Living God, a child of light, and I can face the suffering and 214 00:20:37.490 --> 00:20:41.609 the things that are difficult in this world. I can indeed even hate my 215 00:20:41.890 --> 00:20:48.289 life, not to hate a good thing that God has given me, but 216 00:20:48.450 --> 00:20:52.640 to hate it in the way that I attach myself to it and the way 217 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:59.119 that I hope in it and look to it and seek it above all things. 218 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:02.119 I can set that aside and say I want nothing to do with that. 219 00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:07.349 I want my life to be in his life, my life to be 220 00:21:07.430 --> 00:21:11.150 in his. I'm willing to lose it so that I might gain it for 221 00:21:11.430 --> 00:21:22.900 in him. Joy, inexpressible joy, really, to know that we won't 222 00:21:22.940 --> 00:21:29.500 have to die, to know that even our deaths will be turned into just 223 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:33.970 another thing, that God is doing good in us, for his good purposes, 224 00:21:33.569 --> 00:21:41.009 that we will be granted in Christ sons of eternal life, that the 225 00:21:41.170 --> 00:21:49.640 darkness will not overtake us. The darkness does want to overtake us. Satan 226 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:55.680 may not be over us, anymore, but he's certainly around and he prowls 227 00:21:55.720 --> 00:22:00.670 around like a roaring lie waiting to devour us. He tries to hurt us, 228 00:22:00.710 --> 00:22:07.349 he tries to harm us. The darkness creeps. It's insidious, but 229 00:22:07.509 --> 00:22:11.349 we don't have to fear it. It will not overcome us, because we 230 00:22:12.390 --> 00:22:23.380 are sons daughter's light, courage, joy, peace, patience, knowing that 231 00:22:23.500 --> 00:22:30.450 God is doing all these things according to his perfect plan. As far as 232 00:22:30.529 --> 00:22:34.450 how we might act, Jesus tells us exactly what kind of effect this has 233 00:22:34.569 --> 00:22:40.049 on us, or should have on us. We ought to follow him. 234 00:22:41.490 --> 00:22:45.279 We ought to follow him with everything that is in us. In our prayer 235 00:22:45.319 --> 00:22:51.640 earlier are our confession. We said, forgive us, Lord and make us 236 00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:59.150 zealous, disciples. Zealous describes our attitude for our master. We are his 237 00:22:59.349 --> 00:23:03.589 defenders, we are his spokespeople. We are willing to put our our lives 238 00:23:03.829 --> 00:23:08.509 on the line in order to defend his name, to speak well of him, 239 00:23:10.029 --> 00:23:17.940 to to make him known. Disciples describes our imitation of him, doing 240 00:23:18.180 --> 00:23:25.500 what he does, following where he leads, going where he goes. That's 241 00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:30.369 what it means to be a disciple round here. In the first century there 242 00:23:30.529 --> 00:23:36.170 was a sort of a revival of this word disciple. It had been around 243 00:23:36.289 --> 00:23:41.920 for a long time, but in what is called the second sophistic movement, 244 00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:48.200 train teachers that were training people to be orders. Basically, this word became 245 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:56.029 very popular because these orders would call disciples to follow them and as a big 246 00:23:56.069 --> 00:24:00.509 deal, a really big deal in the first century, and these disciples would 247 00:24:00.509 --> 00:24:07.869 do everything that they could to follow their teachers down to the clothes that they 248 00:24:07.950 --> 00:24:11.420 would wear. They would pay attention to their teacher. How does he walk? 249 00:24:12.619 --> 00:24:18.180 What's his gate? Does he style his hair and assert it's always a 250 00:24:18.220 --> 00:24:22.700 him. Sorry, it just the way it was. How does he style 251 00:24:22.940 --> 00:24:26.210 his hair? What kind of clothes does he wear? How fast does he 252 00:24:26.329 --> 00:24:29.410 walk? How slow does he walk? What's his manner of speech? What 253 00:24:29.490 --> 00:24:33.690 are his little ticks? They'd pay attention to it all. That was the 254 00:24:33.849 --> 00:24:37.569 educational system there, and the more you did that, the better the disciple 255 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:45.240 you were. Jesus is saying, be my disciple. Now, interestingly, 256 00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:51.000 the scriptures don't have us or give us any details really about the things that 257 00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:53.390 the world would pay attention to. They don't tell us how tall or short 258 00:24:53.430 --> 00:24:56.750 he was, how he styled his hair, what he wore. Really not 259 00:24:56.910 --> 00:25:00.950 in any great detail, not in any way that we can follow. But 260 00:25:02.069 --> 00:25:06.750 what do we have? We have his actions, we have his words, 261 00:25:07.059 --> 00:25:17.259 we have his will, we have his spirit. We don't have to dig 262 00:25:17.539 --> 00:25:22.009 down deep within ourselves and try to figure out these things. The spirit is 263 00:25:22.210 --> 00:25:32.170 revealing them to us through the scriptures, is making them known and as we 264 00:25:32.250 --> 00:25:36.480 pay attention to what Jesus says here in John Twelve and other places, we 265 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:41.880 become more and more like him. Through the work of that spirit, we 266 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:48.720 follow him, we are his disciples. We follow him primarily through faith, 267 00:25:49.950 --> 00:25:56.869 through trusting in him. What is the primary thing that he says? Believe 268 00:25:56.950 --> 00:26:03.630 in me, trust me. That's what it means to follow me. And 269 00:26:03.869 --> 00:26:07.660 so we have a verse like Verse Twenty Six. If anyone serves me, 270 00:26:07.859 --> 00:26:11.940 he must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be. 271 00:26:12.180 --> 00:26:18.019 Also, if anyone serves me, the father will honor him. Why? 272 00:26:18.450 --> 00:26:25.130 Because he honors Christ, he glorifies Christ. So if you desire to 273 00:26:25.329 --> 00:26:29.970 follow the Lord Jesus, you won't do any good and trying to figure out 274 00:26:30.009 --> 00:26:36.480 how to style your hair or change your clothes, but you will do an 275 00:26:36.599 --> 00:26:40.519 infinite amount of good, if I could put it that way. In putting 276 00:26:40.519 --> 00:26:45.720 your faith in him, in hearing what he says and willing to go where 277 00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:52.150 he goes, even to death for his name. Jesus promises us that whoever 278 00:26:52.269 --> 00:26:53.910 believes in him will have eternal life