Episode Transcript
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So John Twelve verses, twenty through
thirty six. Now among those who went
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up to worship at the feast were
some Greeks. So they came to Philip,
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who was from both Sida and Galilee, and asked him, sir,
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we wish to see Jesus. Philip
went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip
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went and told Jesus, and Jesus
answered them. The Hour has come for
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the son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to
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you, unless of grain of wheat
falls into the earth and dies, it
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remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. WHOEVER LOVES
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HIS LIFE LOSES IT. Whoever hates
his life in this world will keep it
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for eternal life. If anyone serves
me, he must follow me, and
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where I am, there will my
servant be. Also, if any one
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serves me, the father will honor
him. Now my soul is troubled,
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and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but
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for this purpose. I have come
to this hour. Father, glorify your
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name. Then a voice came from
heaven. I have glorified it and I
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will glorify it again. The crowd
that stood there and heard it said that
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it had thundered. Another others said
an angel has spoken to him. Jesus
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answered, this voice is come for
your Sake, not mine. Now is
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the judgment of the world. Now
will the ruler of this world be cast
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out, and I, when I
am lifted up from the Earth, will
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draw all people to myself. He
said this to show by what kind of
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death he was going to die.
So the crowd answered him. We have
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heard from the law that the Christ
remains forever. How can you say that
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the son of Man will be lifted
up? Who is this son of man?
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So Jesus said to him. The
light is among you for a little
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while. Longer, walk while you
have the light, lest the darkness overtake
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you. The one who walks in
the darkness does not know where he is
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going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you
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may become sons of light. Then
please be seated in John Chapter Twenty,
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not the passage we just read,
but in John Chapter Twenty, verses a
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twenty eight through thirty, we have
these famous words. It is finished,
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it is finished. Let me read
them to you at the end of this
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is at the end of Jesus's crucifixion, right before he dies, and as
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he dies, it says. After
this, Jesus, knowing that all now
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was finished, said to fulfill the
scriptures. I first a jar full of
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sour wine stood there. So they
put a sponge full of the sour wine
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on a his up branch and held
it to his mouth. When Jesus had
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received this sour wine, he said
it is finished. He bowed his head
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and gave up his spirit. This
is the end of the death of Christ.
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The beginning of that period of suffering
is marked here in our passage,
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in John Chapter Twelve, where Jesus
says the hour has come for the son
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of man to be glorified. It
is arrived, is what we have here.
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It is finished, is what we
have in John Chapter Twenty, and
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so we have here this hour of
his suffering, this hour even of his
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glory as well. No, is
how he's have. In in verse twenty
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three, it says the hour has
come for the son of man to be
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glorified, and yet we also know
that this hour involves his death. So
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we have these two things put together, two things that don't go together in
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this world. Glory, kingly power, magnificence, splendor royalty. Remember,
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we are coming on the heels of
a great parade where he was ushered into
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Jerusalem with cheers and cries. Save
us, Hosanna. Blessed is he who
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comes in the name of the Lord
Him, riding on this kingly donkey glory
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and yet also suffering. It is
finished, he said, as he gave
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up his spirit, taste of sour
wine in his mouth. Don't let the
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word our trouble you too much.
Just like an English words marking, time
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can have flexibility in other languages,
as it does here. The moment that
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we have, the thing that Jesus
says in John Twelve, the hour that
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is here. We don't have sixty
minutes from this point to the time when
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Jesus says it is finished. He's
speaking of a short period of time.
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That's how he's using our here.
Sometimes, we, we are words for
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time, can be flexible, and
that's what he's doing here. The point
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is to collapse, if I could
put it that way, to put together
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these various events so that we would
understand them as one thing. This hour,
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this thing that's beginning here, and
we'll go through the next several chapters,
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is part of the same thing,
and that's important because when we think
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about Jesus is death. What does
it mean? How are we to understand
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it? We don't wait until John
Twenty to start thinking about that. In
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fact, we've been thinking about it
since chapter one, I hope, but
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also here in John Twelve. So
what Jesus does here is he begins to
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help us to understand directly what this
period, this particular period of his suffering,
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means. How are we to think
about the death of our king,
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the death of our Lord, the
death of the one we call Hosanna to
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save us? How do we think
about it? How do we feel about
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it? How do we act in
light of the death of Christ? Well,
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these things are it explained in part
here, and there will be continuing
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teaching to us, so let's give
our attention to it. One of the
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things we learn here is that the
death of Christ is one that is indeed
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glorious. It's, of course,
exact opposite of everything that you would think
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about when you picture the death of
Christ. Bleeding, suffering, shame,
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mocking. His garments are divided,
his head is bleeding, there's pain and
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the king dies, and yet all
throughout this passage he wants us to understand
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it as glorious, glorious, glorious
all over the place. For example,
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as we read in twenty three,
Jesus answers them, his disciples, speaking
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on behalf of these gentiles, these
Greeks, he says that our has come
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for the son of man to be
glorified. Now, right off the this
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parade, you would expect. Right, yes, finally here we come.
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Jesus is accepting this mission that we've
all been waiting for him to fulfill,
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that we've all been hoping for.
He's coming to Jerusalem on his donkey.
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Here he is in the city and
he says it's time to be glorified.
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And then he says this. He
be helps us to understand that, and
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he says truly, truly, I
say to you, unless a grain of
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wheat fall falls into the earth and
dies, it remains alone. But it
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but fit dies, it bears much
fruit. So right at the moment when
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Jesus is talking about his glory,
he immediately starts talking about death. How
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will these Greeks, how will the
Jews? How Will Philip and Andrew and
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all the others find? I'M GLORY
IN CHRIST? Well, he says let
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me explain it to you. I
want you to understand. It's going to
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be like a tiny seed, or
a, sorry, a grain of wheat.
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That's what it's like. What do
you mean? Like a grain of
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wheat? Well, you know what
a grain of wheat does. If you
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just sort of set it on your
counter, does nothing. They has to
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go into the ground. It has
to go into the ground and only then
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does it and when it does,
it rises up and produces much fruit.
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so He's beginning to help us,
help them to understand something, that it's
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not only glorious, but that his
death is also necessary. Just as it's
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necessary for a grain of wheat to
be put in the ground in order for
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it to bear fruit, Christ must
be put into the grave, Christ must
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die in order for the fruit,
the glorious fruit, to be born.
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If you're ever looking for a nice
way to explain to someone, maybe your
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children or a friend, why it
was necessary for Christ to die, here's
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a God given example, very helpful. But then Jesus continues on and we
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begin to understand this is this death
is going to require some difficulty, perhaps
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not as easy as just putting a
grain of wheat into the ground, because
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he says in Verse Twenty Five.
Whoever loves his life loses it, and
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whoever hates a strong word, is
life in this world, will keep it.
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Then again, in verse twenty seven, he says, now my soul
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is troubled, reminder to us that
Jesus is fully human. But he says
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this, he says in what shall
I say? Father, save me from
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this hour, but for this purpose. I have come to this hour,
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Father Glory. And then he says, father, glorify your name. See
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what Jesus is doing here. Jesus
is looking death in the face and he's
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he's not saying whatever. No big
deal for me, I'm God. No,
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his soul is troubled. He will
bleed sweat, or if you will
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sweat blood. They're in the garden
of the Semite. He will suffer great
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things, both in his body and
in his soul now and in the coming
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days. His soul is troubled,
just as your souls are troubled when you
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face a suffering, imminent suffering and
struggle. His soul was troubled. But
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notice how he understands this moment,
and it's how we ought to understand this
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moment that he is about to go
through. This is what shall I say?
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Save me from this hour. No, I won't say relieve me from
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the suffering, take me out of
this. I don't want to go through
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this. It's too hard. Why? Because this is why I came.
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This is the whole point of everything
that has been happening. For this purpose,
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for the suffering. I have come, for the trouble and his soul,
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for the suffering in his body.
For this purpose I have come to
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this hour and then back to glory. Father, glorify your name. So
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this glory that Jesus will achieve,
this glory that the father will achieve,
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the singular glory that God will achieve
father, son and Holy Spirit, is
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a glory that will come through suffering. It must come through suffering. This
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purpose that Jesus came for is a
purpose that was set before the world even
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began, when God, and his
eternal will, decided that it would be
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that he would give his son that
we might be saved, that he would
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be glorified. And in this we
do see another message that John has been
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preaching to us throughout this book,
that this is the work of our divine
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God. Are One god in three
persons, Father Son, and Holy Spirit.
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Jesus, the son of God.
He is the son of God and
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he speaks to the father and he
says, father, glorify your name.
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And indeed this voice comes from heaven
and says, I have glorified it and
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I will glorify it again. God
is at work in this moment, in
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this suffering, in the crucifixion.
So we see that it is glorious.
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We see that the death of Christ
is necessary. We see that the death
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of Christ is difficult. We see
that the death of Christ is the work
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of God, the father and the
son and also the spirit. We also
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see that it is a work for
all people. Here is Jesus in Jerusalem.
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He is about to be arrest it
and betrayed by his own people,
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and Greeks come to him, gentiles, Pagans come to Philip and Andrew and
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say we want to see Jesus.
Jesus says, if the world essentially he's
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saying, if the world is going
to see me, if the world is
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going to know me, I must
die, and that is why he dies.
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He says in Verse Thirty Two,
and I, when I am lifted
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up from the world, will draw
all people to myself. And we have
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seen that Philip and Andrew and Peter
and Paul, in you, in his
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disciples, this those who have followed
him, as he calls us to do
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here. His word has gone out
to all the world and continues to do
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so. The Glory of Christ is
seen in his people, in the spread
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of his Gospel, as Satan,
as Satan is overcome. The light shines
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in the darkness, John says at
the beginning of the Gospel, and the
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darkness has not overcome it, it
does not overcome it, and here is
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Satan. In verse thirty two,
Jesus says now is the judgment world.
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Now the ruler of this world will
be cast down, the former, the
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one who for so long had blinded
the world to the Gospel of God.
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He will be put under the feet
of the Messiah. This is, of
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course, hard to understand for the
Jews and others who were there, for
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those who had paid attention to the
law, as we have in verse thirty
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four, because they understood that the
Messiah the Christ, same word, different
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language, that the Christ was going
to live forever. Right. They were
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thinking about perhaps that great prophecy in
Daniel when this great rock would come and
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destroy the kingdoms of this world and
establish the kingdom forever. This great son
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of Man, is Daniel, proclaims, who would be the Lord's anointed one,
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who would establish this eternal Kingdom of
God? What do you mean?
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He's gonna die? What do you
mean he's going to be lifted up?
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That's exactly what would happen. It's
exactly what would happen, and through that
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death the whole world, both Jews
and Greeks, would be saved. So
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this is how we ought to understand
the death of Christ. The death of
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Christ is not just a example for
us to wonder at. The death of
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Christ is not just some sad thing
that happened to a great man at one
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point in time. The death of
Christ is not a pretend thing or a
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lie. It is something that happens, something that even Christ's enemies said happened,
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indeed made happen. And this is
how we ought to understand it.
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And that's why is Christians, we
celebrate the death of Christ because it's glorious,
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it's wonderful, it saves us,
though it's difficult. It is this
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perfect trinitarian work that was planned before
the ages began, that calls us into
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this heavenly calling, this holy citizenship, that we would be called sons of
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light, as he says in the
final verse. You have the light,
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believe in the light, that you
would become sons of light. Earlier we
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recited the nicene creed, and in
the creed it says that Jesus is God
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of God right, that he is
God of Very God, that he is
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the son of God and fully God. And then what does it say after
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that? He says he is light
of light, he is everything that the
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father has, because he comes from
the father, he is born of the
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father and yet fully God. Now
that is, of course, an amazing
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thing in itself. And now add
to this that you all can be called
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son of this light. Jesus is
a son of the light, and you
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can be a son of the light, of course, in two different ways.
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Jesus, the eternal son of God, and US adopted children, but
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those who are being made into the
image of that son, adopted into that
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family that we might call God,
our father, as Jesus taught us to
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pray, our father. Why?
Because we're his children. Amazing. So
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I don't know what kinds of emotions
this brings up in you. For me
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I find courage and love. Love
for God, love for this world that
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he is come to save, courage
knowing that I have everything in Christ,
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if he has died for me so
that I can become a son of the
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Living God, a child of light, and I can face the suffering and
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the things that are difficult in this
world. I can indeed even hate my
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life, not to hate a good
thing that God has given me, but
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to hate it in the way that
I attach myself to it and the way
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that I hope in it and look
to it and seek it above all things.
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I can set that aside and say
I want nothing to do with that.
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I want my life to be in
his life, my life to be
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in his. I'm willing to lose
it so that I might gain it for
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in him. Joy, inexpressible joy, really, to know that we won't
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have to die, to know that
even our deaths will be turned into just
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another thing, that God is doing
good in us, for his good purposes,
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that we will be granted in Christ
sons of eternal life, that the
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darkness will not overtake us. The
darkness does want to overtake us. Satan
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may not be over us, anymore, but he's certainly around and he prowls
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around like a roaring lie waiting to
devour us. He tries to hurt us,
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he tries to harm us. The
darkness creeps. It's insidious, but
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we don't have to fear it.
It will not overcome us, because we
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are sons daughter's light, courage,
joy, peace, patience, knowing that
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God is doing all these things according
to his perfect plan. As far as
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how we might act, Jesus tells
us exactly what kind of effect this has
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on us, or should have on
us. We ought to follow him.
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We ought to follow him with everything
that is in us. In our prayer
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earlier are our confession. We said, forgive us, Lord and make us
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zealous, disciples. Zealous describes our
attitude for our master. We are his
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defenders, we are his spokespeople.
We are willing to put our our lives
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on the line in order to defend
his name, to speak well of him,
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to to make him known. Disciples
describes our imitation of him, doing
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what he does, following where he
leads, going where he goes. That's
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what it means to be a disciple
round here. In the first century there
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was a sort of a revival of
this word disciple. It had been around
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for a long time, but in
what is called the second sophistic movement,
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train teachers that were training people to
be orders. Basically, this word became
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very popular because these orders would call
disciples to follow them and as a big
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deal, a really big deal in
the first century, and these disciples would
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do everything that they could to follow
their teachers down to the clothes that they
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would wear. They would pay attention
to their teacher. How does he walk?
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What's his gate? Does he style
his hair and assert it's always a
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him. Sorry, it just the
way it was. How does he style
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his hair? What kind of clothes
does he wear? How fast does he
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walk? How slow does he walk? What's his manner of speech? What
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are his little ticks? They'd pay
attention to it all. That was the
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educational system there, and the more
you did that, the better the disciple
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you were. Jesus is saying,
be my disciple. Now, interestingly,
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the scriptures don't have us or give
us any details really about the things that
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the world would pay attention to.
They don't tell us how tall or short
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he was, how he styled his
hair, what he wore. Really not
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in any great detail, not in
any way that we can follow. But
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what do we have? We have
his actions, we have his words,
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we have his will, we have
his spirit. We don't have to dig
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down deep within ourselves and try to
figure out these things. The spirit is
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revealing them to us through the scriptures, is making them known and as we
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pay attention to what Jesus says here
in John Twelve and other places, we
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become more and more like him.
Through the work of that spirit, we
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follow him, we are his disciples. We follow him primarily through faith,
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through trusting in him. What is
the primary thing that he says? Believe
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in me, trust me. That's
what it means to follow me. And
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so we have a verse like Verse
Twenty Six. If anyone serves me,
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he must follow me, and where
I am, there my servant will be.
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Also, if anyone serves me,
the father will honor him. Why?
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Because he honors Christ, he glorifies
Christ. So if you desire to
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follow the Lord Jesus, you won't
do any good and trying to figure out
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how to style your hair or change
your clothes, but you will do an
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infinite amount of good, if I
could put it that way. In putting
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your faith in him, in hearing
what he says and willing to go where
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he goes, even to death for
his name. Jesus promises us that whoever
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believes in him will have eternal life
