John 12:20-26: Radical Faith

John 12:20-26: Radical Faith

Please take your Bible and open it to John 12. If you’re using the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 745. This morning, we’re going to continue our series of sermons walking through the Gospel of John passage by passage. And since the passage we looked at last week was so large, I’d like to actually circle back around to a few verses from last week that we didn’t get a chance to talk about very much, and I’d like to drill down on those verses. John 12:20-26. John 12:20-26: 20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 

You may have heard the story of Joni Eareckson Tada. When Joni was a teenager, she loved outdoor activities like riding horses, hiking, playing tennis, and swimming. But during the summer of 1967, all of that changed. While Joni was swimming with some friends, she dove into a lake not knowing how shallow it was and actually broke her neck as a result. And this injury caused her to be paralyzed from the neck down. She was now a quadriplegic. And for the next two years during her rehabilitation, Joni struggled. She struggled with life, she struggled with God, and she struggled with her paralysis. But a good friend helped her think more deeply about the gospel—the gospel she thought she already knew. And Joni thought to herself that if God could use the death of Jesus to accomplish good for the whole world, then certainly he could use her paralysis. And so she trusted God. She still didn’t understand everything, but she trusted. And you know what? God used her and is using her in incredible ways. She started a center called Joni and Friends International Disability Center and has become an international advocate for people with disabilities. She’s written over 50 books, been awarded 3 honorary doctorates, had a movie made about her, hosts a radio program that’s aired on more than 1,000 outlets, and she serves on the Disability Advisory Committee to the U. S. State Department. She’s been interviewed on “Larry King Live,” “ABC World News Tonight,” and elsewhere. And most importantly, she shares the gospel wherever she goes. 

And all of this has come as a result of her accident. Joni’s accident that made her a quadriplegic has, at the same time, been the catalyst for all of these other things she’s done and the difference she’s made in so many people’s lives. And in our passage in John 12 this morning, we see something very similar. We see that God’s best for our life comes in the way we’d least expect. That’s the main point of the passage. God’s best for our life comes in the way we’d least expect. And in this passage, that happens in two ways. There are two paradoxes we see related to God’s best for our lives. And we’ll spend the rest of our time unpacking these. Number one, creating life by enduring death. And that one relates to Jesus. And then this second one relates to us: keeping our life by hating our life. 

Creating Life by Enduring Death

So let’s look at the first paradox: creating life by enduring death. Now, before Jesus states this paradox explicitly, he first says something else that may sound a bit cryptic at first. In verse 23, Jesus states, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Now, “the Son of Man” is Jesus referring to himself. That’s why we see it capitalized. But what does he mean when he says, “The hour has come”?

Well, if you’ve been paying close attention as we’ve worked our way through the Gospel of John, you may have noticed that Jesus has made comments here and there about “the hour.” In John 2:2, when Mary asks Jesus to help the hosts of the wedding party get more wine, Jesus mysteriously tells her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” Also, in John 7:6, when his brothers mock him by telling him to go to a festival at Jerusalem so everyone can see what a big shot he is, Jesus responds to them, “My time has not yet come.” Then, in John 8:20, right after Jesus taught something the Jews found controversial, John records, “These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.” So in all of these passages, “the time” or “the hour” hasn’t come yet. It’s still in the future. But now, back in our main text in John 12, Jesus says that finally, “The hour has come.” In other words, we’re about to see some kind of climax. We’re about to see something Jesus has been talking about from the very beginning of his ministry.  

And that is none other than Jesus dying on the cross. That’s what Jesus has been talking about this entire time and what he is talking about when he says in verse 23, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” The way he’s going to be glorified is in his death. His death is the ultimate demonstration of his selflessness and love, and so it glorifies him. And, Jesus says, the hour has finally arrived for that death to take place. 

Then he explains why exactly he needs to die. And this is the paradox we’re going to focus on. Verse 24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” So that’s where we see the first paradox: creating life by enduring death. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

I remember when I was a child, my family decided one year to grow some sunflowers in our backyard. And I remember how tall those sunflowers grew. If you’ve never seen a fully grown sunflower before, they’re a lot taller than a person than you’d think. And I also remember how many seeds were on those sunflowers. Just a few sunflowers filled up an entire large bowl with their seeds. But imagine if we hadn’t harvested the seeds and those seeds decided that they wanted to stay right where they were on that plant forever. They didn’t want to do what seeds typically do and fall to the ground. Instead, they liked being a part of that beautiful yellow flower and wanted to stay there. Well, of course, I don’t think we’d be seeing any more sunflowers. Because unless the seeds fall to into the ground and in a sense die, they’re never going to produce what they were meant to produce. They’re never going to create new sunflowers. Instead, Jesus says, the only way those seeds can be fruitful is if they endure the pain of death. 

And, Jesus says, it’s the same way with him. The only way he could be fruitful and rescue us from our sins is if—just like a seed—he died. You see, here’s the situation. The Bible teaches that all of humanity has sinned against God. We’ve broken God’s laws and committed crime after crime against each other and ultimately against God. Even if you usually think of yourself as a good person, the Bible says you’ve still sinned in more ways than you know. And because of our sin, we deserve to face God’s wrath. That may sound pretty extreme to you, but that’s how serious sin is. That’s how big of a deal it is when we rebel against the God of the universe. However, even when we were in this wretched and vile condition, for some reason, God loved us. And he didn’t just love us a little bit. He loved us so much that he sent his own Son to live on this earth for 33 years and then die on the cross to take the penalty for our sins. That’s why it was so necessary for Jesus to die. Jesus was dying in our place and taking on himself the judgment we deserved. And not only did he die, he also resurrected from the dead. And through his death and resurrection, we can be totally free from sin in every way. We can be free from the penalty of sin in hell, we can be free from the power of sin in our lives presently, and one day, we can even be free from the presence of sin when we’re welcomed into heaven. All of that comes through the cross, and it comes when we turn our lives over to Jesus and put our trust in him alone to rescue us and do for us what we could never do for ourselves. So that’s why Jesus says what he says in verse 24, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Keeping Our Life by Hating Our Life

But not only do we see that paradox of creating life by enduring death, we also see another paradox in this passage—our second paradox. And that is keeping our life by hating our life. Keeping our life by hating our life. Look what Jesus says in verse 25: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” So let’s unpack that a little bit. That first part, “whoever loves his life,” is referring to people who make their life all about themselves. They’re in love with all of the pleasures and enjoyments this earthly life has to offer—earthly riches, earthly success, earthly ambitions, earthly fame, earthly pleasure. They make their life all about acquiring those things. Ironically, however, people who “love their life” in that sense will actually end up losing their life, Jesus says. And not only that, he says something equally unexpected in the second part of the verse: “whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” So the way to get eternal life in heaven is actually to hate your life here on earth. As we mentioned last week, I don’t think Jesus is talking about being suicidal or anything like that here. Rather, hating your life means that you’re willing to renounce everything else—everything you have and everything you desire to have—in order to follow Jesus. The requirements for following Jesus could not be more radical. You have to be willing to give up everything.

I remember in college, my friends and I enjoyed playing poker a lot. And we wouldn’t play for money since none of us really had any money, but we would just play for the sake of playing. And sometimes, if you had a really good hand or wanted to bluff and make people think you had a really good hand, you would go—as it’s called—“all in.” You would slide all your poker chips to the middle of the table and bet everything you had on winning that hand. That’s what it means to go “all in.” You’re not holding anything back. And that’s the kind of commitment Jesus says is necessary to be his disciple. You have to be willing to give up everything. 

Jesus explains this idea more fully in Luke 14, so let me read what he says there. Luke 14:25-33: 25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. 

So first, Jesus says in verse 26 that “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Of course, Jesus doesn’t mean that you literally have to hate your family. Rather, he’s using hyperbole to make the point that, in order to be his disciple, you have to be so devoted to him that all other allegiances—even those to your own family—seem like hatred in comparison. Then he says in verse 27 that you also have to be ready to carry your own cross. You have to be ready to endure all of the hardships and difficulties a life of discipleship can bring. Then after that, Jesus talks about counting the cost. Before you decide to become a disciple, you first need to make sure you’re ready to pay the price. Jesus says it’s kind of like building a tower. Before you start building a tower—or maybe nowadays a house or an addition onto your house—before you start building anything, you first need to sit down and make sure you have enough money to complete the job. Count the cost, Jesus says. Or if you were a king thinking about going up against another king in battle, you would want to make sure your army was big enough to actually win the battle. The point again is that you have to count the cost. And in the same way, Jesus teaches, that’s what you have to do with discipleship. And look how he sums everything up in verse 33. He ties it all together and gives it to us in a nice, clear sentence: “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

So that’s what’s necessary. Renouncing all that you have. Now, keep in mind that doesn’t necessarily mean God will actually make you get rid of everything you have and become homeless and hungry for the rest of your life. That’s not what Jesus is saying. Rather, you have to renounce everything in the sense that you’re willing, if necessary, to let go of whatever God calls you to let go of as you follow Jesus on the road of discipleship. You’re not holding onto anything. You may still possess material comforts and social standing and other things you enjoy, but you’re holding it all with open hands, perfectly willing to lose any or all of it as you follow Jesus and live the way he tells you to live. It’s kind of like taking out a mortgage on your house—or maybe a second mortgage for some of us. Even though you may live in the house, you don’t actually own the house. Ultimately, the bank owns the house. And until you pay back your loan, it’s their house, not yours even though you still get to live there. And in the same way, when you become a disciple of Jesus, it’s like you’re giving everything in your life to him. He may still let you hold onto it and continue to enjoy some of it, but ultimately, it all belongs to Jesus and is his for the taking. According to Jesus here in Luke 14, that’s the mindset of a true disciple—a true Christian. They’ve renounced everything they have. Or, going back to our main passage in John 12, you could speak of it in terms of hating your life. You’ve so given your life over to God, it’s as if you hate it.

However, there is a draw here. There’s a reward. There’s a reason sane people would actually want to do this. As Jesus says in the second part of verse 25, “whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” If you’ll decide to hate your life now, you’ll gain eternal life then. You’ll gain so much more in the future than you ever gave up in the present. In another passage, Jesus says you’ll receive back a hundredfold. He states, in Matthew 19:29, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” You’ll get back a hundred times as much as you gave up. For those of you who like numbers, that’s a 10,000% return on your investment. 

I think David Livingstone puts it quite well. David Livingstone was a missionary to Africa in the 1800’s. And he was one of the first Europeans ever to navigate through the African interior. No European had ever before set foot in many of the places where David Livingstone set foot. And to say the least, it was quite dangerous. This guy was attacked over thirty times by lions and other wild animals. His life was constantly threatened also from illnesses like malaria and dysentery. At one point, he completely lost contact with the outside world for six years and was presumed to be dead. But the reason he did what he did and went where he went was because he understood that Jesus has called us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. He believed in advancing the gospel so much that he was even willing to die in the course of doing so. 

And many of us would look at David Livingstone’s life and admire him for the sacrifices he made as he worked to spread the gospel. But listen to what he says about that. Listen to what he says about the idea of him making a sacrifice: “For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. . . . Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”

In other words, Livingstone says, when you consider the immeasurable riches stored up in heaven for those who serve Jesus well, nothing we do here on earth—no matter how dangerous or costly—could ever be considered a sacrifice. And eventually, Livingstone did end up dying in a remote African village from a combination of malaria and internal bleeding caused by dysentery. But in line with what he said, don’t think for a moment that even his death was a sacrifice. I have no doubt that David Livingstone received back a hundredfold in heaven. And so will you if you’re faithful to follow Jesus in going wherever he calls you to go and doing whatever he calls you to do. 

Conclusion

So let me challenge you to renounce everything you’ve been pursuing that’s been competing with God’s purposes for your life and give yourself entirely to him without reservation. Let your life be marked by an all consuming passion for the Lord and for his glory and his purposes. And here’s a very practical way you can do that. This may not be on par with the dangers and hardships David Livingstone faced in Africa, but this is something very practical and also relatively easy you can do to use your life for God’s glory and help advance the gospel.