Sermon Tone Analysis

Palm Sunday some 1,980 odd years ago, Jesus entered into the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem riding on that donkey of peace.

A King who had come in peace.

Really a King who had come to die.

In that time, in that place was a mixture of sympathies.

There were those who saw in Christ a true Messiah, a Savior of the world.

There were those who saw in Christ a political Messiah, a leader who could militarily help them overthrow Rome and incite a revolution.

And there were those who saw in Christ a false teacher, a blasphemer.

Ones who did not see His miracles or His signs, did not hear His words or watch the character of His life, and see from that that He was whom He had claimed to be.

Jesus moves on from that Palm Sunday.

And one of the first events is that He cleanses that Temple.

He had done it at the beginning of His ministry…and at the beginning of our study of John…but He does show again here during this Passion Week to once again show them that they had reduced Temple worship, the worship of God to just purely external things.

They had marred the picture of what the Temple was itself symbolic of, and what Christ Himself was the reality of.

And that is worshiping God and living in His presence.

Part of being in the presence of God, part of what that Temple was to symbolize was God's dwelling place.

When Ezekiel tells us that God will dwell in our hearts, when Jeremiah reminds us that on that day when we call out to Him that He will hear us and He will be with His people, part of that presence of God is our being His servant.

He is our King, and we are His servants.

That distinction is very clear in the Scriptures.

In today's text, when we look in John, chapter 12, we want to see how that Jesus uses an approach by some Gentiles, some Greeks, who had desired an audience with Him to teach just this truth, really for us to understand today.

I call this message The Hour Has Come, and I invite your attention to John, chapter 12.

Beginning in verse 20, it says, /"Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.

Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.' Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus."/

John includes this encounter we have of these Greeks.

Many have speculated…Were these Greek-speaking Jews?

But most likely because of John's distinction these are Gentile Greeks who appreciate the worship of the Jews and have come to the Passover.

They are not proselytes, most likely, and it could well be that…for instance, they may have seen Philip passing from the court of the Gentiles where the Greeks would be allowed to gather, seeing him passing on into the inner court where only a Jew could pass on pain of death if a Gentile tried to cross.

And it may be that Jesus was in that inner court teaching or ministering at the time, and so they couldn't personally go and talk to Him, so they grabbed Philip.

I more likely think it's because John points out that Philip is from Bethsaida.

Bethsaida is the home of Philip.

It's the home of Andrew.

It's the home of Peter.

And it's a city that was filled with Greeks because it bordered the Decapolis, which was a Greek controlled territory.

And they may have known Philip because of that.

Bethsaida was a small village at that time, and they may have recognized him.

Certainly, Philip is a Greek name.

Andrew also is a Greek name.

And probably Philip knew Greek living in that multi-cultural neighborhood, and perhaps they were able to communicate with him as well.

I say all of that because it is the approach of these Gentile Greeks that causes Jesus to respond in the strange way that He does.

They come to Philip and say, "We want to see Jesus."

What a pure desire on their heart.

The Jews said, "We want to see a sign."

The Greeks say, "We want an audience with the Teacher."

Philip perhaps remembers when Jesus had given them instructions much earlier in the ministry to only go to the house of Israel, and so here come Gentiles, and Philip may be wanting to seek counsel with Andrew.

Andrew is one of the inner circle.

Andrew, Peter, James, and John...those are the four whom seemed always to be the closest, the inner circle of Christ.

And Philip perhaps goes to Andrew in order to seek advice.

"Should I allow these Gentiles to come to Jesus?" Jesus is probably is so popular at this time.

Perhaps even these Greeks were there on the road on Palm Sunday.

They saw the reaction of the crowd.

Maybe they were a part of those crying out, "Hosanna!"

And now they want an audience, but there may be a lot of people who want an audience.

And so Philip goes to Andrew to see whether or not maybe to let these through.

Andrew decides to take Philip's request…really the request of the Greeks to Jesus Himself.

And so he does, and in verse 23, Jesus answers this way.

It says, /"But Jesus answered them, saying, 'The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.'"/

Now you'll remember at the beginning of our study in John when the very first acts that we see Jesus do after baptism, the first miracle that is recorded is turning water to wine.

And you'll remember at that wedding feast at Cana when Jesus' mother comes to Him and says that the host has run out of wine, that Jesus says to her, /"My hour has not yet come,"/ that "My time is not here, the time to manifest and display who I am, the time to fulfill My purpose for coming is not here."

That is what the hour means.

That is what it means that the hour has come.

Your purpose, your plan, your potential has arrived at the apex of the timeline when God intends to use it.

Now let me say, friends, that for all of us there is an hour when God desires to use us in a particular and purposeful way.

It's not a 60-minute time.

It may be a season of time.

It may be a decade of time.

It may be a time that is the culmination of years and years of mistakes and tribulations and learning and spiritual growth.

But for all of us there are those moments when God has appointed for us to be the ones to lead out, for us to be the ones to take the charge of ministry, for us to be His witness, for us to be His hands and feet.

And in the approach of the Gentiles, Jesus says, "My hour has come."

/"The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified."/

Now to an idle ear, especially one that is looking for revolution, well this might sound a certain way.

Right?

It may be Jesus signaling that it's time for us to mount our horses and charge the Romans.

It's time to be glorified.

But Jesus means something entirely different.

My friends, God desires to bring you honor.

He desires to have Himself glorified through you, through the hour, through the purpose that He has designed in your life and the circumstances in your life to bring about.

And so it is with Jesus.

His glorification, the shining moment of Jesus' ministry will be His death.

It will be His burial.

It will be His resurrection.

The glorification of God will come through the suffering of Christ.

And the glorification, the vindication of our service to God will be no less than our suffering for Him, our being willing to sacrifice for Him.

Look at the agricultural example Jesus gives of this to remove any notion that He is there to politically overthrow anything.

He says in verse 24, /"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.

He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.

If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."/

Jesus says a grain of wheat in and of itself doesn't do much.

That really the life that is in the grain of wheat only comes about when it dies.

In other words, when that seed is buried into the ground.

It is in the burying of the seed that the life of the seed comes to focus.

It is in the burying and the death of the single individual seed that the fruit of the life that is contained in that seed ever shows itself.

Jesus is saying, "Unless I die, the fruit of My ministry will never blossom, will never be shown.

But if I die, much grain will be produced.

If I die, it will be far more beneficial.

It will reach out to these Gentile Greeks.

It will reach out to these Jews who believe.

It will reach out to the entire world, to those who will receive Me as Savior, if that seed is buried."

My friends, you're just one life.

You're just one soul, just one individual.

And in and of yourself, we're really no different than a single seed.

Because if we take our spiritual life, like the DNA that is in that seed, and if we keep that hard shell around it, and we keep it up here on the surface, and we never surrender to Christ, we never allow ourselves to die to self, we never allow our old ways, our prejudices, our desires, our inclinations to be buried, we'll never do much.