John 12 - Walking in the Light

Well, thank you all so much for joining us here at Friendship Church. We greatly appreciate you taking the time out of your day to come and join us here. I know for some of the Cowboys fans this is kind of a tough day, but, you know, it's all right. You should be used to it. It's like 30 years, right?

So anyway, sorry I said no more cowboy jokes. My bad. Sorry, it wasn't necessary. So we are going to jump into John chapter 12. Now, this is an important chapter in the Gospel of John because if you didn't realize it, this is where kind of Jesus marks the end of his public ministry.

You see, the Gospel of John devotes about 60% of this gospel to the life of Jesus and about 40% of his gospel to the last week of Jesus. And this is kind of the last statements that we have from Jesus and the Gospel of John to the public. And so he makes some very important statements that we are going to read here. But before we jump in, I want to ask you this.

Let me preface it. Whatever your story is, no matter how broken, how messed up your life has been up to this point, no matter how good it's been or whatever it has been, let me ask you this question. How do we approach hard things in life? Because if your life has been a struggle up to this point, the Bible tells us that Jesus can make all things new. But how do we approach the hard things, even if it hurts, even if we don't want to do the hard thing, have the hard conversation?

The way that we approach these things is by letting our life give glory to God. And that's the testimony that we see in the life of Christ through the Gospel of John. Everything that he says, everything he does in his life gives glory to God the Father. And so, as we begin verse one of John chapter 12 says, Six days before Passover. And you see, this is a very small window that we have throughout the rest of the Gospel of John.

Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. And if you remember, John chapter 11, verse 35, the shortest verse in the Bible, says Jesus wept. He wept with Mary, he wept with Martha, but he kept. He wept even though he already knew that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He wept with them even though he didn't have to.

Right? He knew what was going to happen. And he didn't have to weep. He didn't have to show his emotion. He didn't even have to do it.

But he did because he was fully God and He was fully man. He wept even though he was fully powerful, yet he was fully humble. He was fully healer. At the same time, he was fully grieving as well. He wept for them, not because he was late, because we all know that Jesus is never late.

Amen. He wept not because he was delayed or because his delay produced the finality of death, but because of the gravity of the situation. He wept because he loved those that he wept with. And if he loved them enough to weep with them, we also know that he loved them enough to lay down his life for them. As we read in John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And so this is where we enter into John chapter 12. But we're going to realize that they are having a celebration. That's why they're celebrating, because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. What seemed to be one of the most horrible situations that they could face, Jesus redeemed. And so they prepared a dinner for Jesus.

Martha was serving Lazarus, was one of those reclining at the table with him. And then Mary or Miriam took a pound of very expensive oil of pure nard and anointed Jesus feet. She wiped his feet dry with her hair. And now the house was filled with the fragrance of oil. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus with all of those people around and poured out an over the top, extravagant gift of worship that cost her a great deal.

We know that that oil cost her about a year's, year's salary. And so it was something that was very costly to her, that was very expensive, yet it was still not enough to show her devotion. And so she, as she poured out this oil, this perfume that cost a year's salary, she took her hair, she unwrapped it, and she wiped his feet with her tears and cleaned them with her hair. And see what she's doing is she takes this position at his feet, she's taking the lowest, humblest place at his feet and worshiped with everything that she had. There's no act of worship that we can give God that is too extravagant for who he is or what he has done in our lives.

And so I'll ask you this question. Are you giving him everything, even if it costs you everything? Are you giving him everything that you can? Or are you holding something back from him because you feel it has too much value? If you're holding something back from God, let me warn you, those things that you're holding back from God, those things that you deem too valuable or too important are the things that become idols in your life.

When you place something above your devotion to Christ, then it becomes an idol in your life. We're going to jump down to verse 12. It says the next day, the huge crowd that had come up from the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. Remember, he's in Bethany, it's about two miles outside of Jerusalem. And so they took palm branches and they went out to meet Him.

And so this is what we celebrate normally on Palm Sunday. But as we walk through the rest of the Gospel of John, you'll kind of see all of these things connect and how they happen so fast. But the crowd saw that the resurrection that he had resurrected Lazarus. And so they came out to Meet Jesus. And so, if you can imagine with me, John doesn't kind of detail it, but this is what happened.

Jesus kind of crests the Mount of Olives, and there is a road that goes from the Mount of Olives into the Temple. And so as they crest the Mount of Olives, they would see this crowd of people all the way to the gates of Jerusalem. And they would be lined on both sides of the road holding palm branches. And they were shouting, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. And they would shout this continually.

That's what the original text says, that they would just continually shout this and scream this. But the reality is that they were praising Jesus because they thought that they were ushering in an earthly king. You see, the last time that they did this, it was during the Maccabees. And so they ushered in this one that they thought was going to be king, who actually came and conquered and pushed out the invaders. And so they thought Jesus was going to to be the one that was going to take this throne forever.

And so they came out with palm branches and were waving and singing this, the one that they thought was going to take his place as the rightful king of Israel. But Jesus had other plans. In verse 14, it says, Finding a young donkey. Jesus sat on it as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming.

Sitting on a donkey colt, Jesus rode in on a donkey signifying that he was coming in peace. If he was coming in judgment, he would have come on a horse. If he was bringing war with him, then he would have ridden on a horse. But Jesus came in signifying that he was walking in, not a conqueror, but coming in peace. One of the things that we don't see in scripture that kind of goes along with this story is that through historical research that they have, they believe that over 250,000 sheep were presented at the temple to be sacrificed during the week of Passover.

Over 250,000 sheep sacrificed. And so what they would have to do is the week before Passover, they would have to usher all of these sheep in, and they would have to be inspected, and they would have to be kept, and they would have to be prepared. So the imagery when we think about Jesus coming into the temple should be this. As we see Jesus coming down the Mount of Olives on the donkey and people waving their palm branches. The reality is he was most likely surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands of sheep.

And so they come in surrounded by sheep six days before Passover. He's not coming in as a king, but he's coming in as a lamb without blemish or defect. First Peter 1:19 says, because he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. According to Isaiah 53. 7, verse 16 says, his disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, they remembered that these things were written about him and what the crowd had done for him.

And so the crowd which had been with Jesus when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, kept on telling everyone about it. It was also for this reason that the crowd came out to meet him, because they heard that he had performed this sign. But let me ask you this question. When you praise God, when you worship him, are you praising a God that is revealed in the Scriptures? Are you praising a God that is testified to by the Holy Spirit?

Or are you praising and worshiping a God that you have designed and made in your own image? When you worship God, when you pray, are you praying to a God that meets your needs and does the things that you need him to do that conforms to your pattern? Or are you conforming yourself to the patterns of Scripture and worshiping a God that is found in the Bible and testified to by the Holy Spirit? You see, these people were worshiping and they were praising Jesus, but they were praising Jesus because they thought he was going to do something other than what he came to do. Verse 20 says, now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast.

And these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee. And they said, sir, we want to see Jesus. And Philip comes and tells Andrew, and Andrew and Philip come and tell Jesus. Has anybody read that verse and just kind of completely glossed over it before? Gotta admit that I have.

But here's what we don't really see just reading that verse up to this point, outside of a few exceptions, Jesus ministry has basically been to the Jews. But as we see in this last chapter of John, before Jesus separates himself from the crowd, we see that the Gospel message is opened up to all people. What's happening is that Jesus and his ministry is now being spread out into the entire world. Because as soon as Jesus was told that the Greeks wanted to see him, this is what happens. Immediately after Andrew and Philip say, there are some Greeks here that want to see you.

He says, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And so what we See now is that Jesus is saying that he is the Savior of the world. John means for us to understand that this context with this contact with the Greeks is that it ushered in the climax, the ultimate part of Jesus ministry. Jesus sees it as evidence that his mission has reached its climax. And now that the time has come for him to die for the sins of the world, both Jew and Gentile alike.

And he says, amen. Amen. I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it.

The one who hates his life in this world will keep it forever. If any man serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there also my servants will be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. To be a believer, to be someone that calls themselves a Christian, is to be someone that serves Jesus, that follows him.

It doesn't mean that you stop working at your job or you stop caring for your family or studying at school. It simply means you do all of the things that you already do as a servant or a follower of Christ. More importantly, it means that you have to lay down your life. When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and to die, to follow him and to die at the same time. If we follow Christ, we follow him in humbleness and selflessness, everything that goes against what the world teaches.

So we have to take everything that we have seen, everything that we've heard from this world, and throw it out the window. Does anybody in here want to live a blessed life? I think everybody does, right? Well, then we have to cry with those that cry. We have to mourn with those that mourn.

We have to serve others in such a way that you place yourself at the feet of others in order to reflect the love of Christ. But more than that, if we follow Christ, we must follow him all the way to the Cross. You see this cross that we have here, and we look of it, we look at it, and we think of all the good things that happened because of the Cross. But the cross was a place of death where we crucify everything in our lives that is not of him. Everything in our lives that do that does not reflect the pages of Scripture.

Luke 9:24 says, for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. If you love your life here and now, then the Bible teaches us that you will lose it forever. If what you have in this earth is more important than following Christ, then You will lose your life forever. Loving your life above Christ is a self defeating act.

You are destroying everything, the very thing that is attempting to save you, right? And in the original text what Jesus is saying is that if you love your life now, meaning you will not submit to the lordship of Christ, then you are right now actively losing your eternity. That's what the original text says. Like if you refuse to follow Christ, then you're actively destroying your life. You're actively, actively giving away your eternity.

And so what is the outcome of losing your life or hating your life in this world? It is a life of service and devotion to God. We are called to hate our life not in the sense that we disregard it, but in the sense that we freely lay down our lives for Christ. If your life is precious to you, then the only it is only because it is something that we give to Jesus. If your life is important to you, then lay it down at the feet of Christ.

And verse 27 says, now my soul is troubled. This is Jesus speaking. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But it's for this reason that I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name. And then a voice came out of heaven and said, I have glorified it. And again I will glorify it. Therefore the crowd that was standing there and heard it was saying, heard it was saying that it was thunder. Others saying, an angel has spoken to him.

But Jesus responded, this voice hasn't come for my sake, but for yours. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out. And as I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself. And he said this to show the kind of death that he was about to die.

That's literally what we just sang about. This is the song that we just got through saying speaks to this. Jesus knew what had to be done. He knew that the cross was inevitable. He knew that suffering and shame and pain was coming on the cross.

But the reality is that when he was lifted up, Satan the accuser was cast out as the ruler of this world. And Jesus took his place as the rightful ruler of all of creation. Colossians 2, 13, 15 when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him. When he pardoned us all for transgressions, he wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against us which was hostile to us. He took it away by nailing it to the cross.

And after disarming the principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphant over them on the cross. And the Bible says now that there is no exclusion of any class, any creed or any race in Jesus Christ. He says, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. And that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under it.

And every tongue will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Every single race, every single tribe, every single creed, everyone will bow down if anyway, we're just going to go on. The crowd answered him. We've heard from Scripture that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up?

Who is this Son of Man? The disciples didn't get it. The crowd didn't get it. But thankfully, once the Holy Spirit came, they all understood, right? So you're struggling with things in life.

You're struggling to understand what the Bible says, what God is doing in your life. I would encourage you to seek some guidance from the pages of Scripture and from the Holy Spirit. If everything in your life just seems chaotic and confusing, then you need to get into the Word and you need to rely on the Holy Spirit to help guide you and reveal God's truth to you in your situations. And so verse 35, and this is another section in this chapter. There's kind of.

It's kind of divided into four sections. It says, therefore Jesus said to them, the light is with you for a little longer. He said this multiple times throughout the Gospel of John. Walk while you have the light so that the darkness will not overtake you. The one who walks in darkness doesn't know where he's going.

While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become sons of the light or sons of God. And Jesus spoke these things. Then he left and he hid himself from them. As long as God's presence is in this world, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you have an opportunity to walk according to his Spirit. But there will come a time where there will be only darkness.

If you refuse the light, it's up to you. The light is available and present to you in the person of Jesus Christ. You either accept it or you reject it. But there will come a point where you are not able to accept the light anymore and you are forced to walk in darkness. The original text points to the fact that while you have to continually believe or exercise faith, so while we have to walk our faith out and live our faith out every single day, the moment that we believe in Christ.

We move from death to life. And that's what we're going to witness here. In just a few minutes, we have a couple of people that are going to be baptized that have decided that they are going to move from death to life. They have accepted Christ, they have died to their own self, and they have taken up the life of Christ. And we are going to celebrate that in just a minute.

The old has gone and the new is here. But verse 37 says, but even though he had performed so many signs before them, they weren't trusting Him. This was to fulfill the word of the prophet Isaiah who said, adonai, who has believed our report, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For these reasons they could not believe. For Isaiah also said, he has blinded their eyes.

He has hardened their heart so they might not see with their own eyes, nor understand with their hearts and turn back and I would heal them. I say, Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him so, meaning he saw the glory of Christ and spoke of him. Verse 42 says. Nevertheless, many, even among the leaders, put their trust in Christ. But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing Jesus so they would not be thrown out of the synagogue, for they loved the glory of men more than they love the glory of God.

Look, if you don't like the way that things are going in this world, in your life, in this country, then do something to make a difference. Stand up for Christ. Walk according to the word of God. Because like, here's the thing. If you're embarrassed to confess that you love Jesus, if you're embarrassed to live a life dedicated to Christ, then what makes you think that Christ is going to going to accept you with open arms?

If you're embarrassed of him here, do you think he's going to accept you for all of eternity when you refuse to live for him? And so.

Jesus cried out, whoever puts trust in me believes not in me, but in the One who sent me. Whoever beholds me, beholds the One who sent me as light. I have come into the world so that everyone who trusts in me should not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words, but doesn't keep them, I do not judge him. For I came to save the world, not to judge the world.

The one who rejects me and doesn't receive my words has a judge. The word that I spoke will judge him on the last day. The incarnation and the cross were not necessary. If Jesus only came to judge us, he didn't need to add humanity to His Deity in order to judge us. But he did need to do it in order to rescue us and redeem us.

But the reality is we have to remember that there are inescapable consequences for rejecting Jesus in this life. He says, for I did not come on my own, but the Father Himself who sent me has commanded me what to say and to speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Therefore what I say, I say just as the Father has told me. Jesus asks nothing of us without giving us the strength to perform it.

His commandments never seek to destroy our lives, but to foster, to strengthen, and to heal the them. Mary shows us what it looks like to humble ourselves and worship with everything that we have, holding nothing back regardless of what the people around us think. I'm not talking about necessarily being the loudest in the room. I'm talking about being the lowest in the room, deeming nothing too important to lay at the feet of Christ. Are you holding something back?

The triumphant entry shows us that Jesus came not to take the throne of Israel, but to take his place on the throne of our hearts. He has conquered anything and everything that can oppress you spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally. Do you walk in the victory that he has already already secured for you, even though he came on a donkey? One day he will return not as the suffering servant, but as the King of kings and Lord of Lords. That's why he says, walk in the light while you have the opportunity to.

Because Revelation says, then I saw heaven open up and behold the white horse one riding on it was called Faithful and True, and he judges, and he makes war in righteousness. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and many royal crowns are on his head. He has a name written that no one knows except Himself. He is clothed in a robe dripped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses, and from his mouth comes a sharp sword.

His words are the judge, and so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he shall rule them with an iron rod, and he treads the winepress of the furious wrath and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, which is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This chapter also teaches us in the Fallen Seed that if you want your life to truly matter both here and in eternity, then you have to lose it. Do you want the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in your life. Do you want people to look at you and to recognize that there is something different about you? Then you have to lay down your ideals, you have to lay down your desires. You have to lay down everything that you want in and of itself and pick up the life of Christ.

And then Jesus discourse about the light tells us to walk in the light while the light can be found. Now we're going to celebrate a couple of people here that have chosen to walk in the light. But I want to challenge you. While the acceptance of this gift of salvation is free to us, it comes at a great cost. I think we sometimes we throw away.

Hey, salvation is free. Salvation is free. Salvation is free. But it does come at a great cost. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once penned these words.

The grace that we receive through the cross of Christ is costly grace. It is a treasure that is hidden in the field. I think sometimes we forget how important what Christ did on the cross is for us. It's a hidden treasure in the field. For the sake of it, a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.

It is a pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all of his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It is the call of Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows after him. This grace is costly because it calls us to follow. It is grace because it calls us to follow Christ.

It is costly because it cost a man his life. And it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin. And it is grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son.

Ye were bought at a price. And what has cost God much cannot and must not be cheap for us. It is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but he delivered him up for us. Costly. Grace is the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ, who laid down his life on the cross and who took it up just a few days later and is now at at the right hand of God the Father.

And he is interceding for us as he sits beside God the Father. If you will please stand with me.

Look, I know that there's a lot in this chapter, but the reality is that these were Jesus last statement to the public.

And he said time and time again, I'm the light. Walk in it. But walk in it now before there is only Darkness.

And so I want to encourage you to make sure, first and foremost, that you are walking in the light, that you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. But secondly, to make sure that you are following after Christ with everything in you. But to make sure that you're following after the Christ that we see in the Scriptures. Because there are things in our lives that we might place above Christ we might deem as too important or too costly, or we've spent so much time of our life trying to make sure that we have this thing, that we don't want to lay it down at the feet of Christ. But the reality is, those things that we deem too important to give up to Christ are the things that become our idols, the things that force us to manipulate the way that we see God so that he fits into our box.

What we're about to witness, what we're about to watch here with these baptisms is. Is an outward representation of an inward change. If you haven't had that inward change yet, then the prayer team is here. We're gonna spend just a few moments in prayer, and then we're going to celebrate with these baptisms. But here's the thing.

If you haven't made that inward change yet, you can. If you haven't decided to follow Christ with everything in you, or if you. Or if you're confused about that decision, you thought, hey, maybe I. Maybe I made that choice at once. But now, like, I understand that I didn't, then we want to pray with you and for you.

But also if you want someone to pray with you about laying something down about getting rid of something in your life, then we are here to pray with you and for you. But we're not going to spend a long time here waiting. So if you want to pray, they're going to lead us in worship for just a moment. So I would encourage you to step out now so that we can pray. We want to pray with you and for you.