WEBVTT 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:16.320 Welcome to City Church Dublin Sermon Archives. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:21.199 Join us this week as we continue to work through the Book of John in our series The Gospel of John. 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:27.280 A few years ago I was in a uh in a coffee shop. 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:28.480 It's not closed down, it's very sad. 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:37.359 It's a coffee shop that was in uh film base in Temple Bar, and uh they had large kind of uh floor-to-ceiling uh glass windows. 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:47.840 It was very easy to sit out, and you'd sit and kind of idle away with your flat white there and watch the uh the hustle and bustle of Temple Bar along the cobble streets there at uh at Eustace Street. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:55.119 And as uh as I was sitting watching one day, I was I realized that uh that something was going on outside. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:08.799 There was a uh there was uh a black BMW 7 series had gone down the street and had uh and had stopped, and there was uh guys with uh earpieces and black suits, and they were kind of stopping people kind of coming down the street. 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:16.000 And then there was another car, another black BMW 7 series came down and stopped, and this tiny little man got out of it. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:19.040 He was, of course, the president of Ireland. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:38.239 Uh Michael D himself uh got out and walked very quite unassumingly, very discreetly up the cobblestones uh into an art gallery that was that was there at the time, it's now a barber shop, but he walked into the art gallery there, spent about 15 minutes there, bought a painting, and off he went. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:40.719 There's no great fanfare, there's no press there. 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:43.120 He just thought, I'm gonna go art shopping today. 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:52.879 And so he arrived in Temple Bar, went in to meet Jason Shankey, who was the uh the uh sorry, Jason Sharkey, who was the artist, and bought the painting and off he off he went. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:56.000 It's very un very subtle, understated, quick. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.879 But that's how Irish people do authority. 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:09.919 We don't do we don't do pomp, we don't do ceremony, we don't do you know peacock feathers uh on uh on headdresses or or anything like that. 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:13.680 We kind of shy away from flashy shows of authority. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:25.439 Irish people tend to be quite sensitive uh to power plays uh and displays of uh of authority, not altogether without reason given our our history. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:51.520 But over the last couple of hundred years, there's been, or especially over the last maybe say 30 years, there's been a really deliberate move away in Irish society and and maybe in the uh in the home countries that you've come from uh as well, uh, to move away from established authorities, those established centers of uh of power and uh and rule and leadership and authority, like the church, for example. 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:59.680 Uh the the authority and the cachet of the the church and the the culture at large here in Ireland is uh is pretty much decimated. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.879 Nobody goes, oh, well, what does the what does the local bishop think? 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:04.960 Whatever, right? 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:15.520 Even the authority of the the family and uh and and being part of that uh that kind of that that blood-linked kind of community of people. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:24.960 Rather, the the shift has been away from those traditional structures to a focus on the individual as being the the center of our own authority. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:30.479 You know, I'm the I'm the captain of my ship, I'm the master of my my fate sort of idea. 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.800 Uh the French poet writing during the time of the French Revolution. 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:36.800 Uh, we see how how well that went. 00:03:36.879 --> 00:03:50.080 But there's a French poet called Denise Diderot, and he said uh about 300 years ago, 250 years ago, he said, man will never be free until the last king has been strangled with the entrails of the last priest. 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:52.319 Pretty graphic. 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:54.719 Pretty graphic. 00:03:55.199 --> 00:03:57.360 But it's not massively I did it. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:15.039 The issue that we have is that we bulk against authority, and yet adhering or following some sort of authority seems kind of inevitable. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:36.079 Even if it's uh what you think is your own, it's so much conditioned by the people around you, uh, by the by the value structures that our society kind of places, like a grid over your life and says, This is what this is what we like about you, this is what we don't like about you, this is what you should, uh, this is what you should kind of put forward, this is what we approve of. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:40.160 We're maybe not as free as we like to think that that we are. 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:54.399 I mean, there seems to be a kind of structure and in reality that there's a there's an inevitability to to following something, to following some sort of ideals, to following some sort of values. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:06.800 So the question then is not uh not so much one of uh do I uh do I follow something or not, but is what I'm following good? 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:13.279 Is the authority that I seek, is the authority that I follow uh good for me? 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:16.000 Is it leading to my my flourishing? 00:05:16.879 --> 00:05:18.560 Will it lead to our good? 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:31.040 And you need to have these ideas of authority and leadership in our minds as we come to our passage this morning, as we come to what Jesus is doing here. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:36.879 Because the triumphal entry, what we remember on Palm Sunday, which is today, look at that. 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:37.519 Well done. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:39.120 Uh uh, you're welcome. 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:42.480 We synced everything up just nicely. 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:52.240 What we have on Palm Sunday is not just uh a nice, joyous uh scene of everybody being really happy that Jesus has arrived in time. 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:56.879 What we have from Jesus is an unambiguous claim to authority. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:01.279 It's an unambiguous claim to kingship. 00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:11.680 And so if you just bring the shutters down any time somebody mentions kind of authorities outside of the individual, then you'll miss all of the goodness that there is in this passage. 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:21.759 Because in the midst of the claim, this unequivocal and clear claim to authority, Jesus also tells us about the nature of the kind of king that he is. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:29.040 And the kind of king that he is, the kind of authority that he exerts, it's actually really good news for us. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:38.879 In a world where authority is kind of inevitable and where people abuse their positions of power, Jesus stands in contrast to all of that. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:49.360 And he shows us not only his claim to kingship, but the nature of his kingship and how it leads ultimately to our flourishing. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:58.319 Let's look first of all at his claim to kingship just briefly before we think more about the nature of it. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:01.279 His claim to kingship. 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:06.079 So John 12, John 12 is the the pivot of the book. 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:08.319 Everything kind of swings around John 12. 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:11.040 So people kind of say that there's two books in John. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:26.720 There's the book of signs, that is the book of miracles, uh, and that that's 1 to 12, and then from 13 through to the end, the book of glory, where we slow right down and we're just in the last week of Jesus' life, and he's teaching his disciples about where true glory, true glory, true greatness can be found. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:29.199 So we're we're making this transition. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:32.800 That's why we're going to pause the series now while I while I go away. 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:38.319 We'll be looking at parables in a couple of weeks' time, and then we'll pick it up again in the autumn. 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:42.639 But this climactic moment comes in uh in John 12. 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:52.000 And yes, all the way through, in a sense, Jesus has been kind of quietly disclosing that he is the Son of God, that he is the Messiah. 00:07:52.079 --> 00:08:08.240 You think of his interaction with the woman at the well, she says, Oh, uh, when uh when Messiah comes, he will uh he will reveal all things to us, and that that electric moment when Jesus looks at her and says, Uh, he who speaks to you, I who speak to you am He. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:26.639 But all the way through these 12 chapters, when it's when people have tried to push him forward, when people have tried to make him king, to get him to show his glory more, he's kind of shied away from it. 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:33.360 He said to his mother back in John chapter 2, they're turning the water in the wine, woman, what is this to do with me? 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:35.039 My hour has not yet come. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:38.639 He's been putting off the the hour. 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:46.080 But in verse 23 from our passage, something has happened. 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:52.320 Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 00:08:53.039 --> 00:09:02.240 The hour has come, and so he begins to receive worship, to receive honor as the king. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:07.679 How can we be confident that Jesus sees himself as a king here? 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:10.159 Well, by what he does. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:17.519 In the first few verses we we read to the next day, there's a large crowd that had come to the feast and heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:25.919 So they took palm branches and went out to meet them, crying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:39.840 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt, that is, a young donkey. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:49.519 Jesus deliberately orchestrates things so that the crowd are thinking, Oh, hold on a second, here we've got a we've got an Old Testament fulfillment. 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:53.840 John is quoting to us from the book of Zechariah, one of the Old Testament prophets. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:55.120 He's one of the minor prophets. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:00.320 That is one of the ones that you can barely find when you're kind of leafing through your Old Testament, but he's in there. 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:07.120 And in Zechariah 9, uh verse 9, it says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:17.360 Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a donkey. 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:24.799 Zechariah talks about how this king comes to his people to bring peace, not war. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:31.840 He's coming, having salvation and bringing salv, sorry, having righteousness and bringing salvation. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:43.039 And in verse 10 of Zechariah, he says that this kingdom will be extended from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:50.080 And so when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on this donkey, he is claiming universal kingship. 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:51.519 Make no mistake. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:56.000 This is not some object lesson about how we need to be really humble. 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:58.879 It's Jesus saying, I'm the king. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:00.960 And this is the kind of king that I am. 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:04.159 I don't ride a war horse, I ride a donkey. 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:08.000 I don't come to slay the Romans. 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:10.639 There's bigger enemies than that. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:14.559 They come to bring salvation, they come to bring peace. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:20.080 He's making a claim of universal kingship. 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:25.360 Now there is a uh an application for us, something to be aware of. 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:29.200 That for Christians, this has got to be the model of authority. 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:38.320 All those who seek to be in authority or to have people under them do well to remember this model of leadership. 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:42.159 Our king comes in humility to bring peace. 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:44.240 That is his posture. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:49.600 And we'll see later he calls us to follow him in that sort of vein. 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:55.200 But it is a universal and unmistakable claim to kingship. 00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:59.279 And he is proclaimed by the crowd as king. 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:02.879 So you gotta imagine the scene now. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:11.919 So Jesus is is sitting on the on the donkey, he's he's riding in, and you've got to imagine that there is this there is this rotating crowd. 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:16.639 So they're they've got their palm branches and they and they lay them down and listen to everybody's going in. 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:17.840 Oh, we can do a crowd now. 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:18.480 Let's go. 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:29.600 Uh and they're laying down the palm branches, and Jesus kind of goes over past and they're running down the back and they're picking them up and they're bringing them around the front again, and they're kind of and they're calling to one another. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:34.159 Hosanna, and then the guys in the back are blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:38.960 It's this dynamic, swirling thing as it moves into Jerusalem. 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:39.679 Do you see? 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:50.799 It's not just this singular moment, it's that they're moving with him, bringing the palm branches and shouting to one another, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:53.440 Hosanna, which means save us. 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:58.720 Now we've seen already in these chapters people speaking better than they know. 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:03.919 It's the crowd shouting, save us to the king. 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:09.840 And like a snowball, it's it's it's growing and it's building. 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:19.840 And by the time it reaches the city, it is this carcophony of joy and delight, of commotion and and dynamism. 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:27.679 And in the mouths of the crowd, Jesus, in a sense, is making a statement about himself. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:30.080 He's like, Jesus doesn't need to say anything here. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:31.440 The crowd's saying it for him. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:34.000 They're quoting Psalm 118. 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:37.200 They're saying, This is the king who's come to save us. 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:43.279 He's the king that is going to sit on David's throne, as was long foretold and promised. 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:45.679 He is great David's greater son. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:57.200 And so as they as the noise gets louder and louder moving into Jerusalem, everybody begins to realize, without Jesus uttering a word, exactly who he is. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:03.279 The palm branches themselves were laden with symbolism. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:13.279 They were a symbol of joyous worship in the Old Testament, but particularly in the years leading up to Jesus' life, they become a symbol of something else. 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:18.000 They become a symbol of really Jewish nationalism. 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:28.799 They were printed on uh on seals and on coins, uh, the the palm branch as a as a sign of the nation became a national symbol. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:40.320 They were a symbol of liberation from oppression because they were used to to celebrate after the Maccabean revolt, which we uh thought about just a couple of weeks ago. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:48.720 And here again, the crowd, like Mary, like Caiaphas of last week, they're speaking better than they know. 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:58.480 They're praising this messianic liberator who will who they think will restore the nation to Israel and usher in the kingdom of God. 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:01.759 But here's what Jesus is not. 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:06.720 Jesus is no mere nationalistic leader. 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:10.799 Jesus doesn't drive around in a black BMW 7 series. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:17.919 His term of office will not run out. 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:22.240 He is not merely the king of the nation. 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:27.039 He is not the king of one people. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:29.279 That's what they don't get. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:40.000 The people don't realize that actually he is the king of the whole world, but there are some people who realize it. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:44.960 Who realizes that Jesus is the king of the whole world? 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:47.519 It's there in verse 19. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:49.120 It's actually the Pharisees. 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:51.360 The Pharisees get it. 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:54.159 The pennies beginning to drop, and they hate it. 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:56.399 It's like something going on here. 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:57.919 Because what look what they say? 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:02.720 The Pharisees said to one another, You see that we are gaining nothing? 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:06.960 Look, the whole world has gone out after him. 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:08.799 It's true. 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:10.080 They were right. 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:14.799 They might not have realized it, and they might have hated the implications of it, but they were right. 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:21.120 The whole world is going out after this humble donkey-mounted king. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:25.840 Jesus is not just the king of Israel. 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:28.000 He's not just the king of the jungle. 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:31.200 He is the king of the universe. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:33.440 He is the king of me. 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:36.879 He is the king of the whole world. 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:43.759 Let's think now about the nature of Jesus' kingship. 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:46.320 What kind of king is he like? 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:54.720 As we've already noted, this clearly isn't the arrival of uh the president of the USA on Air Force One. 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:59.840 Uh, you know, the beast isn't uh rolling through downtown Jerusalem. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:01.759 Not that it did very well when it came here. 00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:16.000 If you remember when it got beached at the uh USN embassy, uh there's no armored sedan, nor is this Julius Caesar riding into Rome uh after conquering the Gauls on his mighty war horse. 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:19.440 This is kingship, but not as we know it. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:31.920 Jesus riding on a donkey, he's riding on a beast of burden, seen as lesser in the eyes of the world to those majestic horses. 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:41.759 Uh there's a poem that I've put in here, and I forgot to put the author, so forgive me for not giving proper attribution. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:18:25.119 Perhaps if somebody thinks of it, you can tell me who the author who the author is, but it says this When fishes flew and forests walked, and figs grew upon thorns, some moment when the moon was blood, then surely I was born, with monstrous head and sickening cry, and ears like errant wings, the devil's walking parody of all four footed things, the tattered outlaw of the earth, of ancient crooked will, starve, scourge, deride me, I am dumb, I will keep my secret still. 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:42.079 Fools I also had my hour one far fierce hour and sweet There were shouts about my ears and palms beneath my feet. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:48.000 This is the way of the gospel. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:59.039 God uses the ridiculous things in the eyes of the world in order to carry the sublime and the majestic. 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:21.119 Why Paul might say of us who follow Jesus who believe in him, that we carry treasures in jars of clay, that we ourselves are like those disposable Chinese takeaway boxes, and that God has put the most precious thing inside them. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:23.920 This is the way of the gospel. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:28.960 Jesus rides not on a war horse, but on a donkey. 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:35.279 This king comes not to rule, but to serve. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:41.440 He is crowned not upon a throne, but upon a cross. 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:48.319 And this is a theme that will run through this this chapter and on into the next section. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:58.960 You see, in one sense, all the way through this chapter, people are beginning to realize that Jesus is the Christ, but they think that he's a uh a militaristic leader. 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.920 They think of him in geopolitical terms. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:08.880 They cannot get their head around this most crucial truth that the Christ has come to die. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.640 That the Christ, God's king, must die. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:20.880 The way to glory is the way through death. 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:27.839 The way to his glorious throne lies through the cross and the empty tomb. 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:31.839 That is what his kingship is like. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.119 Jesus' kingship is gentle. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:42.160 He is the one who offers rest, who says in Matthew's gospel that his yoke is easy, that his burden is light. 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:56.079 In Luke's account of the triumphal entry, when he comes into Jerusalem, and you can imagine this crowd kind of leading, uh leading him from uh uh Beth Seda all the way to Jerusalem. 00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:12.799 They're coming over the brow of the hill that would be the Mount of Olives, and they're coming up over this other side, and Jerusalem suddenly rises up out of the horizon, and he sees it for the first time, and in Luke's gospel, we're told that he does what weeps. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:15.680 It weeps. 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:22.799 He doesn't yell a battle charge, he weeps over Jerusalem. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:30.160 Oh Jerusalem, I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:39.200 He weeps over it in grief and despair, longing that he might gather those people under his good and loving rule. 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:41.599 Folks, that's the kind of king we need. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:59.599 That's the kind of king that calls to a part of us that longs not to follow people who will toss us aside, who will abuse their power and authority, but a king who would cherish us and who would. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.599 Weep over us and gather us to himself. 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:10.640 We've been told for years and years that we can be whatever we want to be. 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:15.039 As a result, many of us have no idea who we are. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:34.559 We've been told that we can create our own meaning, our own way in the world, and we find ourselves under the crushed under the weight of that expectation, riddled by anxiety because we don't quite know how to move forward and make the next decision for the best. 00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:35.839 What if it goes wrong? 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:37.680 What does that say about me? 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:39.359 What if I fail? 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:40.880 It's exhausting. 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:56.480 Exhausted and anxious, trying to make a name for ourselves to live up to the expectations of others, to make our parents like us, to make our friends approve of us, and some of them never will. 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:02.480 To try and get the fickle congratulation of the world. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:06.160 Life under the rule of King Jesus is not like that. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:15.839 He's on his way in this passage to put an end to all of those structures. 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:24.160 To put an end to our addiction to me, myself, and my and to give us rest. 00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:29.440 And by his death and resurrection, he makes us his. 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:39.119 And he makes us as he is, not self-seeking, but selflessly loving, as we'll see in just a moment. 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:57.119 The Pharisees acknowledged it in verse 19, but now it gets confirmed in verses 20 to 22. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:02.480 Now those who were among those who were worshipping in the feast were some Greeks. 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:07.759 So they came to Philip, who was from Beth Seda in Galilee and said to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:11.759 Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:13.279 We got some Greeks. 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:26.000 Greek is just a term for a non-Jew. 00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:30.720 Non-Jews were coming to Jesus. 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:38.160 And they were part of the fulfillment of verse 19, where the Pharisees were saying, the whole world is going out after him. 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:42.160 So we cast our minds back to chapter 1. 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:47.200 And I know it's it's so vividly from September, just right at the fore of your minds. 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:48.799 I can I can tell. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:51.599 But what do we read in chapter 1? 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:56.960 He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:14.000 But all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to be called children of God, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a husband, but of God. 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:24.160 The rejection of the of the Jewish religious leaders has is reaching its peak now in this final week of Jesus' life. 00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:30.160 The descent into their own darkness, their own willful blindness is all but complete. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:37.680 Their hostility has turned from vague opposition to Jesus to now murderous hatred of him. 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:42.880 He came to his own, but his own have not received him. 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:56.720 And it is precisely at that moment when the rejection of Jesus by his own people is most acute that John turns our attention to the rest of the world. 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:01.759 The Gentiles, the Greeks, the non-Jews are coming to Jesus. 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:07.680 And this is what is the turning point for Jesus up until now. 00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:09.359 The hour has been pushed off. 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:10.799 It's been a future thing. 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:12.559 The hour has not yet come. 00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:15.680 But now the whole world is watching. 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:20.240 Now the whole world is saying we want to see Jesus. 00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:26.480 The Gentiles are watching. 00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:31.519 Me and you, every tribe and tongue and nation turning their eyes to Jesus. 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:36.480 And Jesus says, now, glorify me now. 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:38.240 Everybody's watching. 00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:39.359 The world is watching. 00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:43.200 I have the attention of Jew and Gentile, every tribe and tongue and nation. 00:26:43.359 --> 00:26:45.359 Father, glorify me now. 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:47.119 The hour is now. 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:52.640 Do it now while they're watching, so that they might see my glory. 00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:57.119 And so that they might be called into the life that I have. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:26:58.960 Do it now. 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:03.680 That's why Jesus responds as he does, because it's strange, isn't it? 00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:07.039 Some Greeks, sir, would want to see Jesus. 00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:08.640 Philip goes down to you. 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:13.200 Okay, let's go. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:16.799 Jesus is some Greeks here for you. 00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:19.839 Now the hours come. 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:25.759 Verse 23, the hours come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:28.400 That's what it means. 00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:35.440 He's saying, in a sense, to the Greeks and to us, he said, You're you're right to look for Jesus now. 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:39.200 You're right to look. 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:41.519 Keep looking. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.440 Some of you here this morning are you're like the Greeks. 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:55.279 You've you've come to the disciples here in City Church, and you're you're kind of saying, I want to see, I want to see Jesus. 00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:58.160 I want to see this guy that you follow. 00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:00.559 Keep looking. 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:03.039 Keep looking. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:09.200 It's part of what it's part of my job. 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:23.680 On the on the lectern, on the pulpit where I used to study, there was printed John 12 21. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:27.680 Sir, we would see Jesus. 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:31.680 That's the job of every Christian leader. 00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:34.400 That is the job of every preacher. 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:36.319 It is the job of every pastor. 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:38.319 It's the job of every Christian disciple. 00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:41.279 Sir, we would see Jesus. 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:49.680 And Jesus' response to everybody who says that is that, yes, come, look, look now. 00:28:50.079 --> 00:28:52.160 I'm about to be glorified. 00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:57.920 I'm about to turn all of the categories of power and wisdom on their head. 00:28:58.079 --> 00:29:01.839 I'm going to show you true power and I'm going to show it to you in weakness. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:04.720 I'm going to show you wisdom and I'm going to show it to you. 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:09.359 And it's going to look like folly, but it's going to be the wisest and most glorious thing in the whole world. 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:11.759 Do you want to see my love for you? 00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:13.920 See me stretched out on a Roman gibbet. 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:15.680 Do you want to see my glory? 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:17.440 See me crying with thorns. 00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:18.240 Keep looking. 00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:20.000 Don't take your eyes off me. 00:29:20.240 --> 00:29:21.839 Because this is what really matters. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:23.200 You've reached the moment. 00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:25.039 You're looking at just the right time. 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:27.039 Keep your eyes on me. 00:29:28.319 --> 00:29:30.640 Folks, that's what Good Friday's all about. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:46.400 On Good Friday, we turn our eyes and the eyes of our hearts deliberately to look and to see the glory of Jesus. 00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:51.359 Come and look with us this Friday night. 00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:56.400 Look and behold the man of sorrows. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:00.240 The glorious Son of God. 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:04.720 Jesus is saying, Don't take your eyes off me. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:11.839 The road to glory for Jesus leads him to the cross. 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:13.440 And this road is necessary. 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:22.000 Verse 24, truly, truly, he says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. 00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:26.319 But if it dies, it bears much fruit. 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:30.640 The going and dying of Jesus is necessary. 00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:42.640 If Jesus turns from this road and turns from the cross and goes another way, it is though he is a seed that remains in the pocket. 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:48.400 Jesus, no, I need to be planted into the grind by my death. 00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:53.680 Because if I if I die, I will bear much fruit. 00:30:54.319 --> 00:31:04.640 Fruit from every tribe and tongue and nation, from Jew and Gentile, men and women, from all over the world. 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:07.440 But you know what, guys? 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:09.759 Jesus doesn't just stop there. 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:19.759 The application is actually in these last couple of verses, verses 25 and 26, because he doesn't just say see it. 00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:22.559 He wants you to follow it. 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:26.400 He doesn't just say watch me as I do it. 00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:29.119 I'm gonna do it. 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:31.039 I'm gonna do it for you. 00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:38.079 And what it means to be my follower is to walk this road behind me. 00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:42.079 To do this with me. 00:31:42.799 --> 00:31:45.519 Don't just see it, follow it. 00:31:46.720 --> 00:31:48.240 And that's our final point. 00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:59.599 There's this universal claim to kingship, there's the humble nature of his kingship, and then finally, follow the king. 00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:02.720 Verse 25 and 26. 00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:05.200 Whoever loves his life will lose it. 00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:09.599 Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:12.880 If anyone serves me, he must follow me. 00:32:13.039 --> 00:32:16.640 And where I am, there will be my servant also. 00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:21.039 If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:28.079 This is the dynamics of the Christian life. 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:30.799 This is the dynamics of Jesus' life. 00:32:31.519 --> 00:32:41.359 Not just to observe and to admire, but to emulate, to walk in, to follow him on this road. 00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:44.640 That this is ultimately good for us. 00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:49.279 What is the dynamics of the reality that you live in? 00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:50.079 Let me tell you. 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.480 Let me give you a really important piece of information. 00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:56.720 Everything that you value, everything that you pursue, here's the dynamics. 00:32:56.960 --> 00:32:59.200 Suffering now, glory later. 00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:01.279 You do this all the time. 00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:03.680 Delay gratification. 00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:05.599 You suffer now. 00:33:05.839 --> 00:33:11.200 You bust yourself studying or working now because you're working for something. 00:33:11.359 --> 00:33:13.279 You're working for glory later. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:15.759 For what will it give you? 00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:21.519 You're saving and saving and saving for a mortgage or for for an engagement ring or whatever it is. 00:33:21.680 --> 00:33:22.640 Suffering now. 00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:25.759 You're forgoing things, suffering now. 00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:26.240 Why? 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:27.680 Glory later. 00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:34.960 This is the dynamics of reality, and they are embedded here by the God who made us. 00:33:35.519 --> 00:33:41.680 Suffering now, glory later, is not just the road for Jesus, it is the road for us all. 00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:48.559 Jesus saying, the way that I am going to bear much fruit is that I'm hating my life now. 00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:50.480 I'm hating my life. 00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:53.599 I'm dying to the world. 00:33:54.079 --> 00:33:55.839 I'm dying for you. 00:33:56.720 --> 00:33:58.079 Now follow me. 00:33:58.400 --> 00:34:00.319 Die with me. 00:34:04.079 --> 00:34:26.719 If you love your life, that is, if you see your life as your own, as yours to govern however you want, as something that you possess in and of yourself, as is your own to manage and to govern selfishly, you will lose it. 00:34:28.639 --> 00:34:30.400 You will lose it. 00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:40.960 The tighter you grip on to your life and your control of it, the more that it will slip through your fingers like sand. 00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:43.199 You ever felt like that? 00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:45.760 We see this. 00:34:46.960 --> 00:34:49.760 We see this in various areas of life. 00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:52.400 I mean you think of think of work life. 00:34:53.840 --> 00:34:55.599 Who's the worst boss? 00:34:57.440 --> 00:34:58.320 You raise your hand. 00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:12.320 Your really bad boss is a boss who is who is narcissistic, who's controlling, who's insecure, who's micromanaging, who's gripping on to their position. 00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:17.360 They don't want to be seen ever as a as a failure. 00:35:17.599 --> 00:35:22.559 And what they end up doing is by gripping onto that, they end up squeezing you. 00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:27.760 You feel crushed under that scrutiny and expectation. 00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:31.119 It's a horrible environment to work in. 00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:36.320 Because they're clinging on to their life. 00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:57.119 The worst marriages are the marriages where one or both spouse is unyielding, selfish, always looking for their own way, never wanting to flex or give a little. 00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:14.000 They begin to crush all the joy and the goodness out of the marriage that everybody becomes miserable. 00:36:16.079 --> 00:36:30.320 But when you die to yourself, to your own love of your life, that is, having everything your own way, governing yourself, your own selfishness. 00:36:31.280 --> 00:36:37.119 The promise of the gospel is that actually all of those dynamics improve. 00:36:39.199 --> 00:36:45.199 The relationships that you enter into become more fulfilling and more joy-giving. 00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:49.360 And it is the same with our God. 00:36:50.480 --> 00:37:00.239 It is only when we die to ourselves, by repentance and faith, turning away from our sin and from our selfishness and turning to God. 00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:01.760 That's what it means to die. 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:07.599 When we die to ourselves, that's when we find life. 00:37:07.840 --> 00:37:10.159 That's what Jesus is promising us here. 00:37:10.480 --> 00:37:13.360 Find life as it was meant to be. 00:37:14.239 --> 00:37:18.559 Find rest in Him, our servant King. 00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:22.559 And what does dying look like? 00:37:22.719 --> 00:37:25.920 Well, he gives us a couple of images here as we conclude. 00:37:26.239 --> 00:37:29.280 It's following and it's service. 00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:32.960 Following, it's realizing that I'm not the leader. 00:37:33.199 --> 00:37:36.239 I'm not the center of my own universe. 00:37:36.320 --> 00:37:39.199 I'm not the locus of my own authority. 00:37:39.840 --> 00:37:44.960 That there is one to follow, and it is good to follow him. 00:37:49.039 --> 00:37:55.039 Seeing the goodness of that authority outside of ourselves and to serve. 00:37:57.679 --> 00:37:59.280 Serve him and to serve others. 00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:01.440 That is to forget ourselves. 00:38:03.119 --> 00:38:06.000 There is a freedom in self-forgetfulness. 00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:09.519 It's true. 00:38:13.039 --> 00:38:15.679 What did Jesus say about himself in Mark 10, 45? 00:38:15.840 --> 00:38:24.719 The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many. 00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:36.960 There is freedom and there is joy in that sort of dynamic, in following the King, and laying all of that we are and have down at his feet and saying, I follow you. 00:38:39.519 --> 00:38:50.239 I'm getting my palm branches, and I'm walking with you on that road to the cross, and I'm crying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 00:38:50.719 --> 00:38:51.679 And the result? 00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:57.679 That last clause of verse 26, the Father will honor him. 00:38:58.159 --> 00:39:00.000 The Father will honor her. 00:39:02.320 --> 00:39:03.840 See, to live that sort of life. 00:39:03.920 --> 00:39:08.880 It's not just a life of abject like asceticism. 00:39:09.519 --> 00:39:15.679 Or we have to, you know, beat ourselves up and flagellate ourselves, and we can have no fun and no joy and nothing. 00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:17.039 It's not that's not what I said. 00:39:19.119 --> 00:39:21.360 But there is something greater to be gained. 00:39:22.239 --> 00:39:24.800