Bringing Others to Jesus (John 12:20-26)

Audio 

Have you ever been going somewhere and made a wrong turn or missed your exit without noticing it, and suddenly found yourself lost in the middle of nowhere, with no idea where to go? Of course, you could ask someone for directions, unless you are a man. Asking for directions is on that list of things that detract from one’s masculinity. But then again, how do you know if you can trust the person giving you the directions in the first place? Of course, nowadays, you simply plug in the address to your GPS or your smartphone and you are well on your way. But I can remember that feeling of helplessness and vulnerability that comes upon you when you’re lost, and ashamed to admit it, or afraid to ask for directions. And I remember what that feels like spiritually as well.

I suppose it was around 20 years ago that I first read John Kramp’s excellent book called Out of Their Faces and Into Their Shoes.[1] In that book, the author compares what it is like to be spiritually lost apart from Christ and what it is like to be lost out on the road somewhere. He coins the phrase “lostology,” and enumerates a list of 24 laws of lostology. Here are a few of them, and they are true whether we are talking about someone who is lost geographically or spiritually:

• No one gets lost on purpose.
• It is easy to get lost.
• You can be lost and not know it.
• You cannot force people to admit they are lost.
• Admitting you are lost is the first step in the right direction.
• Just because you are lost does not mean you are stupid.
• It is tough to trust a stranger.
• If you are searching, the lost may find you.

It’s that last one that I want to focus on. Jesus said that He had come to seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10). And His mission is our mission. It could well be that the reason the church is not reaching more lost people is that we aren’t really looking for them. If you are looking for them, they might just find you. That’s what happens here in John 12. Jesus and His disciples have just arrived in Jerusalem for the Passover – the final Passover in the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. It is early in the week. By the weekend, He will be dead, and then by Sunday, risen from the dead. And it is here in this setting that a group of people that the Bible simply calls “Greeks” come to one of the disciples with a plea: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” The word “Greeks” was an umbrella term for all non-Jewish people. And the original language here implies that they were persistent: “they kept on saying, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’” They did not merely want to gaze upon Him; they wanted to “see Him” in the sense of meeting Him and conversing with Him.

If you are living on mission with Jesus, seeking the lost that they might be saved, you may have people who come to you in a similar way. Now, because most people who are lost don’t like to admit they are lost, they may not come right out as these did and say, “Could you please introduce me to Jesus?” They may, and I have had that happen on a rare occasion. More often, however, their plea to meet Jesus is veiled with other words and with unspoken communication. There is a hint of despair perhaps in their tone; an inkling of unsatisfied longing; a touch of heartbreak in their story. Beneath those words is the persistent plea, “Can anyone here introduce me to someone who can help me, who can change my life, who can transform me and save me?” In short, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” In those moments, you can be a part of God’s plan to bring that person to Jesus, and in this text we see how it so often happens.

I. Bringing someone to Jesus calls for teamwork (vv20-22a)

Have you ever been faced with a daunting task, all alone, with no one to help you? Try as you may, you just can’t do it, and you grow more and more frustrated and discouraged and you just want to give up. I’m sure many of us have faced that in some situation or another. And it is easy to feel at times as if this is how it goes with the task of evangelism, sharing the good news of Jesus with others. It is easy to feel like you are all alone in the situation, with no one to help you, and you are getting nowhere with the other person. If that happens enough times, you will eventually just give up and throw in the towel on the whole evangelistic enterprise. Maybe that is where you are with a friend, a family member, a coworker or a neighbor, or just some casual acquaintance you have made in your life. There is good news for you if you feel that way. You are not alone in this task. Of course, first and foremost, you have the power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through you. In fact, this is a prerequisite to being a witness for Christ. In Acts 1:8, Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses.” It is impossible to be His witness in the power of your flesh. You must be filled with the Spirit to be an effective witness. But beyond this, you have other Christians that can come along side of you to help you in the process. And we see that taking place here in the text.

The Greeks first came to Philip. Why did they come to Philip, and not any of the others? As we study the Bible, we are like detectives sometimes, looking for clues. What is there in this text that provides the motive for them choosing Philip? We have this phrase describing him as being “from Bethsaida of Galilee.” Bethsaida of Galilee was located in very close proximity to large concentrations of Gentiles. Perhaps some of them recognized him and knew him from there. That may or may not have been the case, but we know from the account of Peter’s denials of the Lord that Galileans had a distinct accent. The people said to Peter on that occasion, “The way you talk gives you away” (Matt 26:73). Perhaps they overheard Philip talking to someone and they recognized his Galilean accent.

Whether it was the accent, or a previous encounter with Philip that sparked the conversation, the idea here is that there was a point of commonality with him. For some reason, they did not view him as a random stranger, but someone they could trust. And this is the way that we connect with lost people who need Jesus. We establish relationships with them based on points of mutual interest. I think we call that “making friends.” C. S. Lewis said that friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”[2] Are we open to befriending, and being befriended by, people who need to meet Jesus? As we get to know that person on the basis of one common interest, it will be our growing desire to share with them our most important interest in life: the Lord Jesus. They may even begin the conversation and ask you to tell them more about Him.

Now, to some of you, the very idea of that sounds extremely intimidating. Sometimes people say, “Well, I just don’t think evangelism is my spiritual gift, so I will leave it to others to do.” Friends, the spread of the Gospel is not reserved for those with a specific set of spiritual gifts. God intends to use all of His people, regardless of their gifting, in the advance of His kingdom. Now, whether it is spiritual giftedness, personality, or some other factor, some people are genuinely more comfortable in sharing their faith than others. Some are more effective than others. And some, while unable to reach certain kinds of people, are uniquely wired to reach those whom others cannot reach. As we discover in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” Whatever your giftedness, whatever your ministry, whatever your effectiveness, it is the desire of the Lord Jesus to work through all of His people to bring glory to His name as His gospel spreads to all nations.

Maybe Philip was like some of us. Not as comfortable, not as effective, not as outgoing as some of the others, and here he is in this situation with a group of Gentiles saying, “Bring us to Jesus!” So, I want you to notice what Philip does. He “came and told Andrew.” Now, there are 11 other disciples he could have gone to talk to – well, 10 anyway; I’m certainly glad he didn’t go talk to Judas about it. Why did he come to Andrew? Well, for one thing, Andrew was his friend. They were from the same town and had likely been acquainted with one another for many years. But secondly, there is a really interesting thing about Andrew. Andrew was always bringing people to Jesus. He brought Peter, his brother, to the Lord. At the feeding of the 5,000, it was Andrew who brought the boy with the fish and the loaves to Jesus. He was just one of those guys who seemed to have a knack for bringing people to Jesus, so he was the natural choice for Philip to go to with this situation of these Greek-speakers who wanted to meet Jesus.

The point of all of this is to say that we cannot do the task of evangelism alone. Almost every evangelism training tool I know of focuses on the effort of the individual. I think God has a better plan – He intends to use a team, and that team is His church. As each one of us does our part, serving the Lord with our unique strengths and gifts, and as each of us builds friendships with people who need Jesus, we come along side of each other and help one another bring those friends to Him. Do you have a friend or family member, a neighbor or a coworker who needs the Lord and you haven’t been able to reach them? Why not ask some of your brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside of you, to join you for dinner with them, or for a social gathering of some kind, and keep doing that over and over again. There was an entire team of people who led me to Jesus, and most likely the same is true for many of you. It will be the case for those that we bring to Jesus as well.

This was brilliantly illustrated in Mack Stiles’ new little book on Evangelism. I would encourage every one of you to read it. I think it is in the church library, but if it isn’t I will fix that right away. In that book, Mack tells the story of Kelly. She was an exchange student from Brazil who came to Portland, Oregon. Her host family, Connie and John, took her to church with them, but she didn’t seem really interested. After her exchange year was up, they stayed in touch with Kelly and prayed often for her. Mack and his wife Leeann were speaking at their church one day, and over lunch, Connie shared with Leeann about Kelly. She said Kelly had become a flight attendant for Emirates Airlines and was based in Dubai. Mack and Leeann happen to live in Dubai. Connie and Leeann both wrote to Kelly and asked her to come to church at Redeemer one Friday, and she began doing so immediately. In fact, she started attending before Mack and Leeann even returned to Dubai. At the church, she met Hetty and Kanta, who invited her to lunch after the service. They offered her some books and invited her to their small group. By the time Leeann returned to Dubai, she met with Kelly over lunch, and Kelly essentially asked Leeann to help her understand the gospel and how she could trust in Jesus and be saved. Not long after, Mack baptized her. This is a wonderful story of how God used a team of people, over several years, multiple continents, and many opportunities, to bring a young woman to Jesus. But it is not a unique story. The same will be true for all of us as we labor together to bring others to Him. It takes a team to bring someone to Jesus. Are you a part of the team? I hope you are, and if you aren’t, I pray you will be.[3]

II. Bringing someone to Jesus requires prayer (v22b)

Philip and Andrew did the one thing here that we all must do if we would bring others to Jesus. They talked to Jesus about it. Not only can the mission of reaching the lost not be carried out successfully without prayer, but the opposite is also true. Prayer begins to malfunction in our spiritual lives when it becomes detached from this mission. Jesus has given us the blessed gift of prayer for the purpose of advancing His Kingdom. In John 15:16, Jesus says this: “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” Did you catch that? He chose us, and appointed us to go and bear fruit – that is, to go and bring others to Him – and the reason is so that whatever we ask of the Father in the name of Christ may be given to us. The mission depends on prayer, and prayer depends on mission. By integrating these two things, mission and prayer, the results of the mission are shown to be dependent on the power of God that is accessed through the prayers of His people. And, when that happens, it happens in such a way that God alone can get the glory.

Now, I have no doubt that here in this very sanctuary are people of God who believe deeply in the power and privilege of prayer. But my friends, may I ask, what is it that we are praying for? If prayer exists for the purpose of advancing the mission of Christ, then is it not deplorable how little of our prayer time is devoted to this? I have said this for years, and I don’t think it was an original thought, but I have forgotten the source: “We pray harder to keep saved people out of heaven than we do to keep lost people out of hell.” Several weeks ago, I had the chance to visit the first church I ever served. In our fellowship with the saints there, one said to me, “I want to thank you for changing the way I pray. You said that we pray harder to keep saved people out of heaven than we do to keep lost people out of hell, and ever since then, I have prayed more for lost people than ever before.” It is no surprise that this person is a very effective and fruitful witness for the Lord.

John Piper, in his book Let the Nations Be Glad, refers to prayer there as a “wartime walkie-talkie” that God has given us “so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the Kingdom of Christ advances in the world.”[4] But, as Piper says so well there, “the number one reason prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom.” Instead of using it “to call in firepower” as the mission of Christ advances, we are trying to use it to call “for more comforts in the den.”[5]

So my friends, do you know someone who needs to come to Jesus? I hope you do. And I hope that you have been talking to them about Jesus, and bringing them alongside of other believers who are talking to them about Jesus. But, we must understand that the battle for their souls is waged on our knees as we “come and tell Jesus” about them. It takes both: talking to them about Jesus and talking to Jesus about them. One without the other is never sufficient. But, our witness will be powerless unless we come to Jesus in prayer and tell him about those we would seek to bring to Him.

III. Bringing someone to Jesus demands a faithful proclamation of the full gospel truth (vv23-26).

There have been a plethora of books, videos, and training programs that have promised a quick and easy way to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Though well-intentioned, I am sure, these have in some cases done more harm than good to the cause of Christ. Rather than presenting a quick and easy way to share the Gospel, in some instances they have actually presented a cheap and false Gospel. The evangelical church in America today has embraced a pseudo-Gospel that is little different from the theological liberalism of the early 20^th Century that evangelicalism arose to counter. That pseudo-Gospel was well summarized by Richard Niebuhr in his 1934 book, The Kingdom of God in America:“A God without wrath brought man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”[6] That is a very pleasant sounding message, isn’t it? But it is a siren song of destruction because there isn’t a shred of truth in it. We are surrounded by people every day who need to be, and a good many who want to be, brought to Jesus. God help us if we pander a half-truth Gospel to them and offer them cheap grace and easy believe-ism. The Gospel is a free offer of grace, but it is not cheap. It is very costly.

In response to Philip and Andrew, Jesus explains the cost involved in the true Gospel. First He speaks of the cost to Himself – the cost to Jesus. In verses 23-24, He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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.” Jesus is that grain of wheat. He has fallen into the earth through His death and burial, but in His suffering and death, His glory was breaking through. It took a Savior dying on the cross to rescue us from sin and death and hell. The horror of the cross, with all of its physical torture and agony, was only a part of what was going on there as Jesus died. He was being forsaken by His Father. He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Here was God the Son being forsaken by God the Father in a way that defies our comprehension, as Jesus bore our sin under the full outpouring of the just and holy wrath of God. Every sin that you and I ever committed received its full penalty then and there, and Jesus took it for you. And He was being glorified through it, because He was rescuing sinners by laying down His life in our place, and He was vindicated by His glorious resurrection, having defeated sin and death and hell forever. The Gospel is good news, and it is a free offer, but it is not cheap because it cost the Lord Jesus dearly. He is that grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died, and by His suffering He has borne much fruit – countless lives through the centuries and all over the world whose lives have been ransomed by His grace through His blood.

But the Gospel is also costly for those who wish to share it. It is an interesting thing about seed, be it a grain of wheat or a pumpkin seed or whatever. It must fall into the ground and die in order to bear fruit. But the fruit it brings is also filled with more seed, and each of those seeds must fall into the ground and die to bear fruit. So, we who belong to Christ are the fruit that has come from His death, and if we would bear fruit for Him, we must undergo a kind of death as well. In verse 25, He speaks of this kind of death. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” What is it that keeps us from being the witnesses that Christ has called us to be? It is fear. And what is that we fear? We fear the cost – the cost to our reputation, the cost to our relationships, the cost to our security and standing, and in some cases perhaps a cost to our safety in certain contexts. We love our lives. But Jesus says if we love our lives, we lose them. That’s really not the best translation of that word there. More literally, if we love our lives we are actively destroying them. We are living for ourselves rather than for King Jesus; we are driving ourselves according to our own plans and agendas instead of His. We are forfeiting God’s best by abandoning the purpose for which He has called us. So, we must “hate” our lives in this world, knowing that the life we seek to gain and keep is beyond this world. The idea of “hatred” may seem too strongly worded for our comfort. After all, we were taught from a young age not to hate anyone, and here, Jesus is telling us to hate ourselves. In other passages, He calls us to hate others, and in some God Himself is said to hate some. But in the ancient Semitic idiom, to love one thing and hate another is to make a choice, to prefer one thing so strongly that our affection for the other appears like it is hated. Jesus is calling His people to love Him, to embrace His mission, to choose to live according to His plan and purpose in such a way that our regard for our own self, our standing, our security, appears as self-hatred. “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me,” Jesus says. He is going to the cross, to lay down His life for the redemption of humanity. He says, “Follow me.” Elsewhere He said that if anyone would follow Him, they must take up their cross. This is a call to die to self, and to embrace living by faith and obedience to King Jesus, and serving Him in all that He has called us to do. Chiefly, He has called us to bring others to Him as we bear witness for Him in the world. It is costly, yes, but obedience always is.

Finally, there is a cost to the one who wishes to come to Him. If someone can acknowledge in the heart of hearts, like the Greeks in this passage, that they really desire to know Jesus, we must not shrink from declaring to them the cost inherent the free offer of His grace. Freely, freely, Jesus laid down His life for you; freely, freely He offers to save you from sin and death and hell; freely, freely, He offers to wash you in His blood that you may be forgiven of your sins, and to clothe you in His righteousness that you might be welcome before God in heaven. It is a free offer. But, there is a cost. There is the cost of repentance. You must be willing to acknowledge that you are a sinner and that you desire to turn from the life of sin. There is the cost of renunciation. You must turn from all other beliefs and cling to Christ alone. There is the cost of reproach. You will not always be loved and appreciated in this world. You may suffer scorn and persecution for Christ in myriad ways. You will be called to the daily dying of yourself, your desires, your securities, your plans. You need to count the cost. But you also need to consider the alternatives. A difficult life here and now can compare neither to the eternal horrors of hell nor the eternal glories of heaven. Yes there is a cost, but in the end there is this assurance: “Where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor Him.” We endure the rejection of this world for the honors of heaven, the hardships here, for the presence of Christ there.

So, would you bring others to Jesus? God has uniquely gifted you and wired you to be part of His team – the Church – through whom He shines the glory of the crucified and risen Christ into the world. If you do your part, in fellowship with other believers doing their part, God will use His team to bring others to Christ. But not apart from prayer. We must talk to Jesus about those we would wish to bring to Him. We must plead for their souls before the throne of grace, with more fervency than we have prayed for any other thing. And then we must speak the whole truth of the Gospel: the cost of Christ’s suffering and sacrifice and the cost of following Him by faith and obedience, even as we embrace the cost of proclaiming that message.

---

[1] John Kramp, Out of Their Faces and Into Their Shoes (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995), 185.

[2] C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1960), 65.

[3] Mack Stiles, Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus  (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2014), 79-83.

[4] John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 45.

[5] Ibid.,49.

[6] H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (Chicago: Willett, Clark & Co., 1937), 193. 

Digital Church

This past Sunday, the Greensboro News and Record featured a lead story on the use of technology, social media, and electronic gadgets in church. I was literally bombarded with questions about the article on Sunday morning before and after our worship service. I probably tip my hand on this issue a bit when I admit that I do not read the newspaper, but rely on Twitter to bring me news of interest. The fact is, I love technology, gadgets, and social media, and I use them often for (and even at) church! I was an "early adopter" to harnessing the power of technology for ministry, dating back to my first attempt to create a free webpage for my church in 1998 posting sermons online way back when using RealAudio streaming, and "beaming" sermon and lecture notes from one Palm Pilot to another. So, I actually welcome and celebrate the new attitude that is emerging about the use of tablets and smartphones.

It is undeniable that we now live in a digital world. In a recent Supreme Court case regarding privacy and the routine search of mobile phones, Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged that smartphones have become “such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy” (source). In the old days (which were just a few years ago), a church could simply ask congregants to power off their devices as they prepared for worship. Today, this would be, to extend Chief Justice Roberts' metaphor, akin to asking someone to sever an appendage.

There is legitimate concern that the use of phones and tablets during worship could be a distraction. Indeed, it can be one both for the user and those seated in his or her proximity. However, let us be honest -- distractions in worship are not a 21st century innovation. In Acts 20, we read of Eutychus who fell asleep and fell out of a window while Paul was preaching. In the intervening centuries, people have come up with all sorts of ways to prevent such defenestrations: coloring in the open spaces of letters on the bulletin, drawing pictures and passing notes on the backs of visitor cards and offering envelopes, daydreaming, etc. So, while we do not want to encourage people to play Angry Birds during worship services, if they do, it is merely a recent twist on an old issue. The only prevention of this is to have a safeguarded heart that is disciplined to stay "plugged in" to the act of worship that is taking place. Out of love for one's neighbor and a desire to not be a stumbling block, one should beware of such distractions. If one must engage in technological diversions during worship, he or she should at least have the decency to be discreet about it! It is one thing if you miss out on worship because you need to clear a level of Candy Crush. It is another for your Candy-Crushing to occupy the attention of those around you.

There are other distractions that need to be guarded against as well, on both sides. On the part of the user, one should be careful to keep their devices held so that others are not tempted to look at them, and one should be mindful of lights and reflections. In a darkened sanctuary (which many churches now woefully employ) the shining light of one's smartphone or tablet screen will inevitably draw attention from others and could be considered disruptive. Consider the atmosphere before powering up. Additionally (I regret that this even needs to be said), one needs to guard one's heart against pride. Far be it for me to make blanket accusations, but in a small percentage of cases (hopefully, it is just a small percentage), the person using the device may be intending to send out the signal to those nearby, "Hey, check me out! I have a nifty gadget! Are you not envious of how technologically savvy I am?" This is sinful, and needs repentance. Such repentance may necessitate a "fast" from technology in worship until the heart is remedied and purged of such an obnoxious attitude.

Then there is this: I have personally experienced the painful distraction of sitting behind someone who is using their phone or tablet in a perfectly legitimate way, but the glassy screen shines a terrible reflection of glare right into my eyes. In some cases, I have moved, while in others I have asked the person to adjust the angle of their device or situated myself so that the glare was blocked. And then, on the part of the "bystander," I would advise the simple advice of minding one's own business. It is tempting to look onto a nearby screen, but one needs to be more focused on his or her own Bible, hymnal, notebook, or personal meditation than on that of the neighbor in the pew.

There are actually many good, beneficial uses of technology and portable devices in worship. These are what excite me and why I welcome and celebrate these innovations:

1) Bible Apps - From YouVersion to the Logos Bible App to a host of others, many church-goers are relying on their smartphones and tablets as their primary Bible. Why begrudge this? This person has his or her Bible at-hand 24 hours a day. Few others could make such a claim. So prevalent is this phenomenon, that in one recent conference I attended, the speaker made the humorous quip, "Everyone please turn on your Bibles and scroll with me to the book of Isaiah." Searching by word, subject, chapter and verse is fast and easy on these Apps, and I am all for people finding more facility with their Bibles.

2) Note Apps - From the native "Notes" app on iOS devices to apps like Evernote and Google Drive, a person is able to take notes during worship and have those notes accessible at all times and retrievable by search or index. How many others carry their sermon notes with them everywhere they go?

3) Referencing - Sometimes during a sermon or even in the singing of a hymn, one will encounter a word or phrase that is unfamiliar or intriguing. How many of us have said, "I need to look that up when I get home," only to forget about it somewhere over lunch. The gadget-user has the ability to look it up on the spot. Rather than being a distraction, this can become an enhancement to their experience in worship. I have never met anyone who carries a Bible Dictionary and Commentary with them into worship, but the smartphone and tablet provides users with these and a host of references at the fingertips as needed.

4) Social Media - Several years ago, someone came to me with a concern about some of our young people who were "texting" during worship. I said, "Oh, that is a shame. I am sorry you were distracted by that. I will have a word with them." But then, after the service, I pulled up my Twitter and Facebook feeds and found that these young people had actually been tweeting quotes from my sermon and lines from the hymns we were singing. They were, in effect, becoming "broadcasters" of what was taking place in our worship service to an audience larger than our sanctuary would accommodate. I decided that I would not have that word with them after all. Instead, I had a word with the one who brought the concern to my attention. I asked, "How many people have you shared the message from last Sunday with?" The answer was none. I rest my case.

5) Photos and Videos - Rarely, if ever, do I see people bringing in cameras to a typical Sunday morning service. But, there have been several times when I have received via email or social media a photo of a significant moment in the service or a video of someone's baptism or a special music offering from a soloist or ensemble. One of my most cherished photos is from a service several years ago in which two of my predecessors at Immanuel joined me in the serving of the Lord's Supper. Had someone not had their smartphone or tablet with them and in use in worship, I would not have that moment captured. I would urge one caution here. I have noticed of late that the contemporary worship posture is often that of having both hands raised in the air, with the iPhone grasped between them recording the whole thing. I have no objections to recording things, but I doubt there is a need to record everything (unless in the case of #9 below). And, I can't help thinking that sometimes "capturing the moment" hinders us from "experiencing the moment." Better to be engaged in worship here and now, than to be preoccupied with preserving it for later.

6) "Check-In" Services - Whether it is Foursquare or the Facebook check-in feature, it is always a joy for me to see as I scroll through Sunday's timeline how many of my friends were gathered for corporate worship in a local church. I also marvel at the testimony that this can be to unchurched friends and loved ones. They are having brunch on their veranda in their bedroom slippers and they turn on Facebook and find that a dozen of their friends were in worship. I actually use an app called "Checkmate" that automatically checks me in on Foursquare whenever I walk in the door of the church.

7) Giving - Long gone are the days when people carry around a pocket full of cash or a checkbook. And, lets face it, churches are always asking for money for something. In addition to the giving of one's regular tithes and offerings, a financial tool like Paypal, a bank's mobile banking app, or similar app, enables someone to contribute "on-the-spot." The next time you see someone fiddling around with their smartphone, they may actually be making an offering to advance the spread of the Gospel around the world!

8) Messaging - Be it text messaging, iMessaging, or even email (do people still do that?), some people use their gadgets to send messages during worship. Isn't that a bad thing? Well it could be, but it is not inherently worse than passing a note down the aisle. But, often, during Sunday services, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, and when I check it after the service, someone in the congregation has sent me a message with a question about the sermon, a prayer request or asking for information about a ministry or project in the church. I have done this myself. If the Lord lays someone on my mind that I have been praying for, or if I learn of a need, I will quickly jot out a message to them.

9) "Skype" and similar video conferencing apps - Let's suppose you have a friend at church who is out of the town or out of the country on business, on a mission trip, or on a military assignment. Or, perhaps your friend is sick and cannot attend church today. Wouldn't it be great if you could let them know everything that happened, sing for them every song that was sung, repeat the sermon verbatim to them, and even fill them in on the announcements and prayer concerns? Well, you can. Using Skype or Google Hangouts, Tango, or a host of other Apps, that person can be sitting at home, in the hospital, in a lean-to on a remote island, or anywhere else in the world, and catch the entire service -- even if your church doesn't do online live streaming of the services. As their very good friend, you merely pop up the app on your device, and connect them into the service. If you are going to do this, make sure your battery is charged, and you might want to sit somewhere where you can set your device up on a pew edge or a windowsill or something, and try to not be a distraction to others. But by all means, do it!

Maybe I have left something out ... if so, you can let me know in the comments. How do you use your smartphone or tablet in worship?

And, by all means, the next time you are tempted to condemn someone who does use these things during worship, keep in mind that they may be reading their Bible; they may be taking notes on the sermon, sharing a quote from the Scripture, the songs, or the sermon with more friends than you will this week; they may be capturing a significant moment with their camera; they may be making a contribution. But if they are playing Free Fall, ask them how to clear level 87, because I just can't beat that level!

Fire away in the comments! I'd love to get a rousing discussion going here on this subject!  

When the World Goes After Jesus (John 12:12-19)

Audio 

The Gospel According to John is remarkably unique when compared to the other Gospels of the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, and Luke record so many of the same incidents in the life and ministry of Jesus that they are known as the “Synoptic Gospels.” The word “synoptic” means that they “see together.” John provides more unique incidents than any of the others. He was writing this Gospel decades after the others were completed, and had the ability to fill in details and information that the others had omitted. Therefore, when John records the same incidents that the Synoptic Gospels record, it is because these events are extremely significant in redemptive history. The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the Sunday preceding Passover is one of these events. So important are the events of this final week of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry that nearly half of John’s Gospel is devoted to it. We call this week “Passion Week,” because this week culminates in the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the week begins here at this point in John 12, and continues to the end of the book.

In the passages leading up to this one, we have been seeing the growing antagonism and animosity toward Jesus, culminating in the decision of the Sanhedrin to apprehend and execute Him. In 11:53, we read, “From that day on they planned together to kill Him.” But so far, the plan is futile. Try as they may to silence Jesus and intimidate His followers, we can see their exasperation in verse 19 as they say, “You see that you are not doing any good.” In other words, “This is useless! It is getting us nowhere!” Why are they so frustrated with the futility of their plan? Because after seeing the demonstration of the people celebrating the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem, they have concluded, “Look, the world has gone after Him.”

Certainly there is a bit of hyperbole here. At no point in history has the whole world gone after Jesus. But the public response to Him was overwhelming upon His entry into Jerusalem. And since that time, multitudes have continued to go after Him. Many have believed and trusted in Him as Lord and Savior. Others are merely intrigued and curious about Him. But one thing is true, and has been since He came into the world: the world simply cannot ignore Jesus Christ. So it will continue until He returns. Indeed, the world is going after Him. In the account of His entry into Jerusalem, we see a glimpse of what this looks like when the world goes after Jesus.

I. When the world goes after Jesus, their expectations will be challenged (vv12-15).

A few years ago, I was in Louisville for a meeting and a friend texted me and said he knew of a place we could go that had the best steaks in town. So, I loaded up a car full of pastors and we drove over to this place – it was a hole in the wall on the bad side of town – and we went in and said, “We’re here for the best steaks in town!” The waitress just looked at me funny and chuckled as she said, “We don’t serve steak.” I asked, “Did you used to serve steak? My friend said you had the best steaks in town.” She said, “We’ve never served steak. We are famous for our fried chicken.” Everyone at the table was looking at me like, “What have you gotten us into?” But we ordered the fried chicken and it was excellent. In fact, it was so good that I’ve been back several times since. But, there was that initial disappointment that was a little hard to get over. We had our minds set on steak, and all they offered us was chicken. Our expectations were challenged.

There’s a similarity in that story with the one we have just read. The people coming out to meet Jesus and cheer Him on as He entered Jerusalem had high expectations of what He was coming to do. They had gone to great effort to gather the palm branches that they would wave and spread out on the roads as He entered. The palm branch was a symbol of the nation of Israel and it was a symbol of victory. They indicate that the people expected Jesus was coming in to bring victory to the nation over its political oppressor, the Roman Empire.

Then they began to shout, “Hosanna!” That’s a familiar word for most Christians; we hear it often in our songs and sermons and Sunday School lessons. But what does it mean? If you look it up in Greek, you find the Greek word underlying “Hosanna” here in our English Bibles is “Hosanna.” That’s not helpful. Basically, the English translators just transliterated the word, meaning that they simply made the Greek word an English word. So what does the Greek word mean? Well, it actually comes from Hebrew, and when the word was written in Greek, the Gospel writers essentially did the same thing. They just carried over the Hebrew word. In Hebrew it is Hoshiya-na, and it means something like, “Save us now!” In the Old Testament, it is found in only place: Psalm 118:25. What is interesting here is that they go on to exclaim the rest of the words from Psalm 118:25-26: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” This passage had come to be one of great significance for Israel as they awaited the Messiah. It was a plea for God’s deliverance, and then a praise, by faith, that the deliverance for which they asked is, in fact, coming. It is as if they are saying, “Lord, we pray that you will save us, and we bless the name of the One who has come in Your name to do so!” But then they go on to add words that are not in the Psalm – “Even the King of Israel.” And here is where their expectations go astray.

It is clear from their jubilant praise that they expected Jesus to come in as a warrior-king, metaphorically riding on the white war-horse, to overthrow Israel’s oppressors. Their minds were set on a political king, who would establish a political kingdom by military might, to rescue them from earthly oppression. But this is not how Jesus came. Ironically, He came in riding, not on a white stallion, but on a young donkey. The donkey is not a symbol of power and triumph, but a symbol of humility and servanthood. And it is this picture of the coming King mounted on a donkey that Scripture had foretold about the coming Messiah. The ruler who would come from the tribe of Judah was promised in Genesis 49, who would tie his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, before washing his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes. It was this imagery that was captured in the prophecy of Zechariah that John quotes here. While the people were expecting one kind of King, this King came, in the words of Zechariah, “righteous, and having salvation, humble, and moutned on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9). At the sight of Him coming, the people of Jerusalem (the daughter of Zion) should not fear, but in the words of Zechariah, should rejoice greatly and shout in triumph.

They were rejoicing and shouting in triumph, but with the wrong expectations. They were rejoicing and shouting in triumph because they thought that Jesus was coming to throw off the oppression of Rome. But in fact, Jesus was coming as the righteous and humble king, to serve humanity by ransoming His people from their sins, at the cost of His own life-blood. He was not what they wanted, but He was what they most desperately needed! Better to die under Roman oppression with sins forgiven before God through His atonement than to die as free men while still enslaved to sin. And so if these would truly go after Jesus, they must have their expectations challenged and see Him, not as the King they wanted, but as they King that that needed.

It is still the case today. If the world would go after Jesus, they must have their expectations challenged. It is with great shame that the leading spiritual export of the United States today is that theological garbage known as the “Prosperity Gospel” which proclaims that if one will follow Jesus, he or she will be free from sickness, free from poverty, and will be able by faith to simply name it and claim it, whatsoever they ask. Around the world, multitudes are led astray, rejoicing to welcome a Jesus that will make their wives fertile, and make their livestock healthy, and make their incomes greater, and their children successful. Here at home, it is on every television station and in a vast majority of books sold under the heading of Christian literature. And it is a lie! What is more deceptive is the subtle variety of this that creeps into even Bible-believing evangelical churches. People are told that if they follow Jesus, their business will succeed, their marriage will be better, their children will always obey, their golf game will improve, and so-on, and so-on. They are promised that nothing bad will ever happen to them, and if it does, then it is evidence that one’s faith is weak. Friends, I plead with you to adjust your expectations accordingly when you go after Jesus! He has not promised to make you healthy, wealthy, popular and beautiful – that is, at least not in this life. The Bible promises suffering and hardship for the people of God, and we are not suddenly immune to the pressures and problems of life in these fallen bodies in this fallen world. I believe it is true that life here-and-now is better by far with Jesus than without Him, but I also believe that it is “through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). It is better to leave this world, beaten and broken by the hardships and sufferings of life, and know that eternal life with Jesus awaits because He has come to impart salvation through His shed blood to rescue us from sin and its eternal penalty. How much worse off is the one who has it all here and now, and departs this world to enter eternal condemnation in hell because they were not saved from their sins through the blood of Jesus? 

He came to be the King, but He had come to be a King in a way that the people did not expect, or even want. That is why, before this week is out, some of this very crowd crying “Hosanna,” will begin to cry out, “Crucify Him!” They were not willing to receive the Jesus who did not meet their expectations – the One who was not exactly what they wanted, but who was what they most desperately needed. This brings us to the second point here in the text …

II. When the world goes after Jesus, they must see the greatest demonstration of His glory in the cross (v16)

When Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, he had one burning desire in His heart. He longed to see the glory of God. After experiencing the presence of God in the burning bush, seeing God bring judgment upon Egypt through the unfathomable plagues, seeing Him part the Red Sea to bring His people out of bondage and wipe out their enemies, seeing Him lead His people by a visible pillar of fire by night and cloud by day, after seeing countless miracles, and meeting with God on the top of the mountain where He received the Law inscribed by God’s own hand, Moses could still look toward heaven and cry out, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” Do you long for the glory of God? I imagine that in the heart-of-hearts of every human being who has ever lived, there has been this insatiable yearning. Every desire that we have for things that are beautiful, things that are majestic and splendid, things that are truly great, is ultimately rooted in our desire to behold the glory of the Lord. David prayed, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that shall I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.” He longed for God’s glory to be displayed.

Maybe you have been in worship services before, when the music was beautiful and the praise was emotional, and the hairs on your arms stood on end, and you thought, “We have beheld the glory of God!” If there was ever a time of public, corporate worship such as this, it was on the Sunday when Jesus entered into Jerusalem. Their exuberance and celebration would make most church’s Sunday services look like an insurance seminar. There was singing, there were tears, there were hands lifted high, there was an emotional fervor. But this is not where Jesus’ glory was most greatly displayed. Notice if you will in verse 16 that the disciples did not yet fully understand all that was taking place there on that day. They didn’t understand the cries of “Hosanna!”, the massive public celebration, the calls for Jesus to be their King, and most of all they did not understand the donkey. And then notice this key phrase half-way through verse 16: “But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.” It is pointing to something yet future. Jesus had not yet been glorified. But soon, He would be. And when He was glorified, everything changed.

So, when and where was Jesus “glorified” in this ultimate sense. There are indicators throughout John’s Gospel. In Chapter 7, when Jesus spoke of living water that He could give, John says, “This He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (7:39). Later in Chapter 12, Jesus will say, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). In Chapter 13, as Judas leaves the upper room to go cash in on his promise to betray the Lord unto death, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him ” (13:31). So, when and where is Jesus most “glorified”? It is clear that His glory is most expressly demonstrated in His death and resurrection.

That’s not what you expected is it? It is not what anyone expected either. It is in the betrayal, the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus that He shines with the greatest glory. It is centered on the cross – the things leading up to it, and the things that follow after it are included, but the cross stands at the center of it all. The reason why the cross is the focus of the greatest demonstration of the glory of Jesus Christ is because the cross is the reason for His coming into the world. He came to die on this cross to rescue us from sin and reconcile us to God. In the cross, the mercy, the love, the grace, the power, the wisdom, and the holiness of God-in-Christ are put on grand display. Here He bore our sins, so that in God’s holiness, the penalty of sin could be paid in full; while in God’s mercy, sinners could be saved. Here He poured out His life and His love, through His blood, that you might be brought near to God for eternity. Here, He made it possible for you to be cleansed of sin and covered in His righteousness, that you might be filled with His Spirit, and transferred into His Kingdom as the adopted sons and daughters of God.

Is the cry of your heart to behold the glory of God? You will find it displayed nowhere more clearly than in the cross of Jesus Christ. If you would go after Jesus, look to the cross upon which Christ died for you, and there you see the glory that your heart desires and that you were created to behold! The cross of Christ must become the center of our lives, the focus of our very existence. It is only as we see all of life and all of history through the glory of Christ manifested upon the cross that the things of this world and the world to come begin to make sense. The disciples didn’t understand what was going on around them, until Jesus was glorified. Then, filled with His Spirit, they perceived the purpose and plan of God in the things that they witnessed and experienced. The same will be true for us. It is only as we see the cross that we behold the glory of Christ, and all other things are illuminated by the brilliant light of His glory. 

Now we come finally to verses 17-19, where we find this …

III. When the world goes after Jesus, it will be because His people have testified faithfully to Him (vv17-19)

Every now and then Donia and I will go to a great restaurant or find a shop that we love, and we tell our friends about it. Pretty soon, we go back, and it is more crowded than it was before. Soon thereafter, we go back, and can hardly get in the door. So, we’ve learned a lesson. Now when we find some place we really like, we say to each other, “Let’s let this be our little secret.” That way no one will ever find out about it, and the crowd won’t get too big. Obviously, this is not how the people who had experienced the power and grace of Jesus felt about Him. On the contrary, they couldn’t stop talking about Him. And it was through their testimony that we find that the world was going after Jesus.

There are two groups of people that comprise this multitude that have gone after Jesus. Verse 17 tells us about one of the groups. These were those “who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead.” Verse 18 tells us about the other group. These are those who “went and met Him because they heard that He had performed this sign.” Now how did they hear that Jesus had raised Lazarus? Because verse 17 says that the group that was with Him when He did it “continued to testify about Him.”

Surely, the Lord in His omniscient wisdom, His omnipotent power, and His complete sovereignty, could have chosen to bring the world to Himself by any means whatsoever. And given His manifold perfections, we must trust that He chooses to always and only do that which He deems to be the best thing. And beloved, what He has chosen to do, by His grace and mercy, is to entrust the winning of the world to Jesus into our hands. Each of the four Gospels, and the book of Acts, record for us in five different ways the final words of Jesus to His disciples before He ascended into heaven. And in each of those writings, we find those last words to contain what we call “The Great Commission.” That it is recorded in five different ways must only mean that He spoke it to them in different ways over and over again as if to drill into their heads that the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ has been entrusted to His church. How will your family members and friends go after Jesus? How will those who live within this nation who are yet unsaved go after Him? How will the unreached multitudes go after Him – the over 251 million people who live among 3,052 people groups that have no access to the gospel, and the 4 billion who live among 6,546 people groups with limited access to the gospel? My friends, they will only go after Jesus as we who know Him and have experienced the power and grace of His salvation continue to testify about Him. We must go and make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19). We must go and tell others that He who died for them is risen from the dead and will receive them (Mark 16:6-7). This gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed to all the nations, and we are the witnesses who must proclaim it (Luke 24:46-49). As the Father sent the Son into the world, so He has sent us into the world to testify of Him (John 21:20). We have received power because the Holy Spirit has come upon us, and we are His witnesses in our own community, in our nation, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). The book of Revelation tells us that Jesus was slain to purchase for God with His blood those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Rev 5:9), and we see the vision there of His throne surrounded by those from every nation and tribe and people and tongue (7:9). It will happen. God has declared it. And He has determined that the means by which He will bring the world to go after Jesus is through the ongoing testimony of His people. We must proclaim the glory of King Jesus and His bloody cross until He comes. Then the world will go after Jesus.

Spurgeon on "Sudden Bereavements"

Twice in recent months, I have had the privilege of viewing some of the items in the Spurgeon collection now housed at Midwestern Seminary. At the latter of these two events, the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore, the Seminary was giving away posters bearing one of Spurgeon's more notable quotations:

"If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies." 

Being somewhat of a researcher by nature, I decided to go find the source of this quotation and read it in its larger context. I have read the full quotation in the past, but never "plowed the entire field" from which "this flower was plucked." A quick search led me to Spurgeon's sermon numbered 349, "The Wailing of Risca," delivered December 9, 1860 at Exeter Hall. The "Risca" to which Spurgeon's title refers, is a Welsh town that was once known for its rich coal deposits. On December 1, 1860, 140 miners were killed in an explosion in a mine there. A week later, Spurgeon delivered this message. In it, he recounts some of the details: 

Last Saturday week some two hundred or more miners descended in health and strength to their usual work in the bowels of the earth. They had not been working long, their wives and their children had risen, and their little ones had gone to their schools, when suddenly there was heard a noise at the mouth of the pit;—it was an explosion,—all knew what it meant. Men's hearts failed them, for well they prophesied the horror which would soon reveal itself. They wait awhile, the foul gas must first be scattered, brave men with their lives in their hands descend into the pit, and when they are able to see with the dim miner's lamp, the light falls upon corpse after corpse. A few, a handful are brought up alive, and scarce alive, but yet, thank God, with enough of the vital spark remaining to be again kindled to a flame; but the great mass of those strong men have felt the grip of death. Some of them were brought up to the top with their faces burned and scarred, with their bodies disfigured by the fire; but many are discovered whose faces looked as if they sweetly slept, so that it was scarcely possible to believe that they really could be dead, so quietly had the spirit quitted the habitation of clay.

As I read on, I came to the context from which the now famous quotation ("If sinners be damned ... ") was taken. And I must say, I was greatly blessed and helped by the great preacher's words. In speaking to a community of souls who had been shocked by the tragedy of sudden grief, Spurgeon's words are fitting for all who have been touched by tragedy, suffering, and grief. The entire sermon can be found online here, but allow me to share this extended portion of it. This is the first of three "points" that Spurgeon delivered in the message, which he heads with the phrase: "I. Our first sorrowful theme is SUDDEN BEREAVEMENTS." I have underlined for emphasis several salient quotations and major ideas that were most beneficial to my soul. 

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Alas! alas! how soon may we be childless; how soon may we be widowed of the dearest objects of our affections! O Lord, thou hast shown to us this day, how soon thou canst blast our gourds and wither all the fruits of our vineyard. The dearest ones, the partners of our blood, how soon can death proclaim a divorce between us—our children, the offspring of our loins, how soon canst thou lay them beneath the sod. We have not a single relative who may not become to us within the next moment a fountain of grief. All that are dear and precious to us are only here by God's good pleasure. What should we be to-day if it were not for those whom we love, and who love us? What were our house without its little prattlers? What were our habitation without the wife of our bosom? What were our daily business without our associates and friends to cheer us in our trials? Ah! this were a sad world indeed, if the ties of kindred, of affection, and of friendship all be snapped; and yet it is such a world that they must be sundered, and may be divided at any moment.

From the fact that sudden bereavements are possible—not only to miners and to women whose husbands are upon the sea, but to us also—I would that we would learn profitable lessons. And first let us learn to set loose by our dearest friends that we have on earth. Let us love them—love them we may, love them we should—but let us always learn to love them as dying things. Oh, build not thy nest on any of these trees, for they are all marked for the axe. "Set not thine affections on things on earth," for the things of earth must leave thee, and then what wilt thou do when thy joy is emptied, and the golden bowl which held thy mirth shall be dashed to pieces? Love first and foremost Christ; and when thou lovest others, still love them not as though they were immortal. Love not clay as though it were undying—love not dust as though it were eternal. So hold thy friend that thou shalt not wonder when he vanishes from thee; so view the partakers of thy life that thou wilt not be amazad when they glide into the land of spirits. See thou the disease of mortality on every cheek, and write not Eternal upon the creature of an hour.

Take care that thou puttest all thy dear ones into God's hand. Thou hast put thy soul there, put them there. Thou canst trust him for temporals for thyself, trust thy jewels with him. Feel that they are not thine own, but that they are God's loans to thee; loans which may be recalled at any moment—precious benisons of heaven, not entailed upon thee, but of which thou art but a tenant at will. Your possessions are never so safe as when you are willing to resign them, and you are never so rich as when you put all you have into the hand of God. You shall find it greatly mitigate the sorrow of bereavements, if before bereavement you shall have learned to surrender every day all the things that are dearest to you into the keeping of your gracious God.

Further, then, you who are blessed with wife and children, and friends, take care that you bless God for them. Sing a song of praise to God who hath blessed you so much than others. You are not a widow, but there are many that wear the weeds, and why is it not your lot? You are not bereaven of your spouse, but there is many a man whose heart is rent in twain by such a calamity,—why is it not your portion too? You have not to follow to-morrow your little ones to their narrow graves—early flowers that did but bud and never ripened, withering alas! too soon. Oh! by the sorrow which you would feel if they were taken away, I exhort you to bless God for them while you have them. We sorrow much when our gifts are taken away, but we fail to thank God that he spared them to us so long. Oh! be not ungrateful, lest thou provoke the Lord to smite very low the mercy which thou dost not value. Sing unto the Lord, sing unto his name. Give unto him the blessing which he deserves for his sparing favors which he has manifested towards you in your household.

And then permit me to remind you that if these sudden bereavements may come, and there may be a dark chamber in any house in a moment, and the coffin may be in any one of our habitations, let us so act to our kinsfolk and relatives as though we knew they were soon about to die. Young man, so treat thy hoary father as thou wouldst behave to him if thou knewest he would die to-morrow. When thou shalt follow him to the grave, amidst all thy tears for his loss, let there not be one tear of repentance because of thine ill behaviour to him. And you godly fathers and mothers, to you I have a special message—your children are committed to your care; they are growing up, and what if after they be grown up they should plunge into sin and die at last impenitent! Oh, let not the fierce regret sting you like an adder,—"Oh that I had prayed for my children! Oh that I had taught them before they departed." I pray you so live, that when you stand over your child's dead body you may never hear a voice coming up from that clay, "Father, thy negligence was my destruction. Mother, thy want of prayer was the instrument of my damnation." But so live, that when you hear the funeral knell, for a neighbour even, you may be able to say, "Poor soul, whether he is gone to heaven or to hell, I know I am clear of is blood." And with double earnestness be it so with your children. "Yes," says one "but I have thought of teaching my children more of Christ, and being more earnest in prayer for them bye-and-bye," but what if they should die to-morrow? "Yes," says the wife, "I have thought of speaking to my ungodly husband, and trying to induce him to attend the house of God with me, but I was afraid he would only laugh at me, so I put it off for a month or two." Ah! what if he dies before you have cleared your conscience of him? Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

In the light, then, of sudden bereavements, let not another hour pass over your head, when you have reached home, before you have freed your conscience of the blood of your children's souls. Gather them together around you this afternoon, and say to them, "My dear children, I have learned to day that you may die; I knew it before, but I have had it impressed upon my mind by a solemn incident. My dear children, I cannot help telling you, that as you must die, I am anxious that God's Holy Spirit should graciously lead you to repent of sin and seek a Saviour." And then, when you have told them the way to salvation in simple terms, put your arms about their necks, and bid the little ones kneel down and pray, "O God! upon their infant hearts, stamp thou, the image of thyself. As they are in the image of the earthy, so make them in the image of the heavenly, that at the last I may be able to say, 'Here am I, and the children thou hast given me.'"

A Life Transformed by Jesus (John 12:9-11)

Audio 

In 2010, a biography entitled Unbroken brought a man named Louis Zamperini into the public eye.[1] His story is a fascinating one, and later this year, it will hit the big screen in a major motion picture. What is it that is so captivating about the tale of this now-96-year-old man? As a young immigrant boy in California, he gained a reputation as a troublemaker. He was so good at outrunning police officers, that one officer told him he needed to use his speed for something good, like athletics, to keep him out of trouble. He did just that, and qualified for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. During that Olympiad, Zamperini roomed with Jesse Owens, was invited to a personal meeting with Adolph Hilter, and was apprehended by the Gestapo for climbing a flag pole on a government building to steal a Nazi flag (which they let him keep when they released him). During World War II, he was a bombardier on a B-24 Bomber that crashed into the Pacific, killing most of the crew. Zamperini and two other crewmen survived for 47 days on a liferaft, even being shot at from a Japanese aircraft as they drifted. Eventually they were captured as Prisoners of War by the Japanese. He endured torture in the prison camp for three years until the war ended. Any one of these details of Zamperini’s story worthy of attention. But it was what happened after the war that really makes his story remarkable.

In 1949, a young upstart evangelist named Billy Graham had begun preaching in his first crusade in Los Angeles. Louis was an alcoholic, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and his marriage was falling apart. Tormented by his dreams and memories of Prison Camp, he fantasized about tracking down his tomenter and killing him in cold-blooded vengeance. At her wits end, Zamperini’s wife attended the Billy Graham Crusade, and there she met Christ. She came home and begged her husband to attend the crusade with her. Zamperini recounts the tale: "I was a mess.… I fell apart after the war. I was a drunk. I suffered terrible nightmares and was having marital problems. But my wife was a determined woman who dragged me down to see Graham. I walked out mad the first time. I didn't want to hear that I had sinned. Just to shut her up, I went back." And when he went back, Louis Zamperini gave his life to Jesus Christ and his life was radically changed. He says, “That night when I got home from the Crusade, it was unbelievable. I didn’t have a nightmare, and I haven’t had one since.” His marriage was restored, and he and Cynthia stayed together until her death in 2001. Louis began to travel the world speaking to audiences about his faith in Christ. He became a missionary to Japan, and found opportunities to preach the Gospel to the very guards who had tormented him, whom he had once dreamed of killing. Louis Zamperini is a wonderful, living example of a life transformed by Jesus![2]

His story is no less remarkable than that of Lazarus in John 11-12. And it is no more remarkable than the story of any sinner whose life has been transformed by Jesus Christ. Like Lazarus, we have been brought from death to life through Jesus. In Ephesians 2, Paul reminds us,

You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:1-7)

If you are in Christ, you have been raised from death to life, in an even greater way than Lazarus. You and I were dead in trespasses and sins, going through life according to the way of this fallen world, marching to the drumbeat of Satan, and fulfilling, or at least trying to, every sinful desire that we had with no regard for the things of God. But God saved us by His mercy, His love, and His grace, and made us alive in Christ. And now He intends to use our transformed life to bring glory to His name. Lazarus becomes a great role model for us in this, and here in our text we see the effects of a life transformed by Jesus. These things were true of Lazarus. Our prayer should be that these things would be true of us as well. So what are these effects of a life transformed by Jesus?

I. A life transformed by Jesus catches the attention of others (v9)

Have you ever crossed paths with someone who had changed remarkably since the last time you saw them? A few weeks ago I ran into an old friend I had not seen in over 20 years. He hardly recognized me. Let’s just say I’ve put on a few pounds since I saw him last. But there was one other thing that took him by surprise – I was at a Christian conference. The last time I saw this guy, I was a hard-hearted unbeliever. At first he was very confused to find me there, but I was glad to share with him how Jesus had changed my life.

Now, in our text today, we read about a group of people who came to the home where Jesus was having dinner. It seems understandable that they would want to come and see Jesus. They have heard amazing stories about this Man, and some of them had heard Him teach and seen Him do miracles. Now, word is going around that He’s in town and they want to see Him. That makes sense, doesn’t it? But notice in verse 9, “they came, not for Jesus’ sake only.” They also came “that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.”

Imagine the conversation. “Wow, Lazarus, you really look great. The last time I saw you was, let’s see, oh yeah, at your funeral when you were dead and wrapped up in grave clothes and placed in a tomb. You have really changed a lot since then!” He sure has! His life has been radically transformed by Jesus Christ! He’s been raised from death to life! And if you know Jesus, your life has been transformed in the same way. And that ought to catch the attention of others.

Does anyone who has known you for a really long time ever say things like this to you? Do they ever say, “You know there’s something different about you. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but ever since a certain time, you’ve just changed.” Maybe they notice that you talk about God, about Jesus, about the Bible more now than you ever did. Maybe they notice that you’ve cleaned up your vocabulary, changed some lifestyle habits. You’re doing strange things now, like hanging around the church a lot. They notice that there is a peace and joy in your heart that you never had before. Your attitude and outlook on life is changing. You are talking about things you are praying for, and how God has answered. You’re loosening your grip on the things of this world and clinging more tightly to a steadfast hope in Jesus. Maybe you haven’t even noticed the change that much in yourself, but it has caught the attention of others. When you’re not around, they are talking amongst themselves, “Hey, have you noticed this about our old friend? What’s going on with them? Something’s changed about them.” Yes indeed, something has changed. Your life has been transformed by Jesus Christ.

You know, the transformation process is ongoing throughout our entire lives. God won’t be finished changing you until you get to heaven, but the process has already begun. Sometimes, the progress is slow, and we can get discouraged as we wrestle with thoughts and habits that we want to put behind us, but they keep rearing their ugly head. Here’s something you can do if you are wondering about your progress in the Christian life. Find someone who has known you a long time, maybe since before you were a Christian, a friend or a family member, and say, “Can I ask you something? I want you to be very honest with me. Can you see any difference in my life today from all those years ago?” They may notice changes that have taken place in your life that you don’t even notice yourself. And if they don’t notice any changes, let that be a cause for you to reexamine your faith in Christ. If He isn’t changing you, then something is wrong. Maybe you were not really saved when you thought you were. You might think, “Oh that would be a terrible thing to realize!” No, actually it is a wonderful thing to realize, because you could see the need to turn urgently and desperately to Christ here and now and be truly saved! But if Christ has saved you, He is transforming you! He has begun a work in your life that He will be faithful to continue and complete.

He’s still working on me, and He’s still working on you. The change that is taking shape in you is evident to others, even if you don’t notice it in yourself. John Newton, that great pastor and hymn-writer who gave us, among many others, “Amazing Grace,” was at one time, before he became a Christian, the captain of a slave-trading ship. After years of growth and transformation in the Lord, in his old age, he said, “Though I am not what I ought to be, what I wish to be, and what I hope to be—yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was—a slave to sin and Satan!”[3] Can you say that of yourself? I’m not what I ought to be or what I want to be, but thanks be to God I am not what I used to be! Can your friends and family members say that about you? A life transformed by Jesus catches the attention of others. They can see that you were once dead, but have been raised to life by Jesus Christ. You are being transformed, and they notice it.

II. A life transformed by Jesus leads others to faith in Jesus (v11)

I hope it is OK to say this here without being judged too harshly: I love watching movies. And when you go to see a movie, you have to get popcorn right? I think it is a law. For $27 or something like that, you can get a little bag of popcorn that has 12 pieces of popcorn and 9 unpopped kernels down in the bottom. But for 10 cents more, you can get a tub of popcorn that large enough to hold baptisms in, and they slather it with that gooey butter and all of that salt. Popcorn never tasted better than when you’re watching a movie. Now, why do movie theaters sell popcorn? Well, in case you didn’t know, they make very little profit off of your movie ticket. They make their greatest profit off of two things: popcorn and drinks. They know that if you eat that big tub of salty popcorn, by half-way through the movie, you’re going to come back out to the lobby and pay $39.50 for that barrel of soda that it cost them 12 cents to serve you because the salt has made you thirsty! That’s pretty smart of them, isn’t it? They make a huge amount of profit on one very simple principle. Salt makes people thirsty.

Jesus Christ said two things that are related to that very simple principle. First, when He was speaking to the woman at Jacob’s well in John 4, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). He has a soul-satisfying, living water that He can give to thirsty souls which, unlike any other fountain in this world, can quench the thirst forever. That living water is Himself. Nothing else in the world provides everlasting satisfaction. You know that. You’ve tried. You’ve drank from other fountains, as it were, seeking satisfaction, and you got thirsty again. But Jesus satisfies forever. He is living water. But Jesus also said to His followers, “You are the salt of the earth” (Matt 5:13). There are many points of application to these words, but certainly one of them is this: Salt makes people thirsty. Your transformed life is being used by God to awaken a spiritual thirst in people that only Jesus can satisfy. Your life catches their attention, and then, amazingly, God uses you to bring others to Himself.

It is happening here in the text. Notice in verse 11 that “on account of him [Lazarus] many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.” They were going away from their empty religious traditions. They had tasted of them and drank deeply from that well for years, and it left them entirely unsatisfied. Their religious upbringing had done nothing to help them with the real problems and issues they were facing in life. They have offered sacrifices a plenty, they’ve memorized rules and tried hard to keep them, they’ve gone through one ritual after another. And inside, their souls are as arid as the Sahara Desert. But then they notice Lazarus – a guy who was dead just a few days ago, and today is eating dinner at a table with Jesus Christ, who raised him from the dead. Here is a man whose life has been transformed in a way that none of them have experienced! And here is a Savior who made it all possible. Is it any wonder that, because of Lazarus, many of them were turning away from their former beliefs and turning to faith in Jesus?

When I think about how God brought me to faith in Jesus, I think about some wonderful people that He placed in my life at just the right time. I began to notice something different about them that I did not have, but I desperately wanted. They had a love, a peace, and a joy in their hearts that I had never seen before. It wasn’t that they were perfect – I saw them sin often with my own eyes. But I also saw them wrecked by their sin, and repenting of it before the Lord with brokenness. I heard the delight in their voice as they talked about Jesus as if He was a living person who was in the same room with them. They didn’t grumble and complain about their church. They loved going to church, and wouldn’t miss it for anything. They loved their Bibles, and read them on their own time, even when they didn’t have to, and they loved talking about the Bible. And as they talked about it, it was like they were giving me CPR. They were being salt in my life, and I was getting thirsty for the living water that Jesus Christ can supply. So, like these in our text, I can say that “on account of Nate, and on account of Mike, and on account of Dick and Judy, and Paul, and Steve, I went away from my old way of life and belief, and believed in Jesus.” They were as surprised by it as I was when it happened. But God wasn’t surprised. This is the way He chooses to operate. He uses the salt of a life transformed by Christ to awaken a thirst in other people’s souls that can only be quenched by Jesus.

And you will find that it happens to you. You’ll be spending time with someone, just living your life for the glory of Christ, and speaking of Him and His Word as you interact with them, and one day, they will say to you, “Friend, you have something I don’t have, but I really want it.” And you will have the glorious privilege of leading them to Jesus. Because of you, they will believe in Him. So, a good question to ask yourself is, “Can others tell that the difference they see in me is because of Jesus?” Is Jesus creating in you something that is attractive to them, something that they want for themselves? Now, if you are a cantankerous curmudgeon who is always grumbling about stuff that bothers you, they probably don’t want that. They already have enough of that. But, if they see the sweetness of Jesus flowing through you in words and deeds that express faith, and hope, and love, and joy, they will want it. If you will make it your singular aim each day, for God to use your transformed life to bring someone else to faith in Him, it will happen. There is nothing God wants more for you than for your life to be used for His glory in bringing others to faith in Jesus. I don’t know that God has ever let this prayer go unanswered: “Lord, please use my life today to impact someone for Christ.” Can you pray that prayer? If you can, God is able to answer it in ways that you have never dreamed possible.

Now, you may have noticed that we skipped a verse. Well, we can’t do that. We need to back up to verse 10 and see one more effect of a life transformed by Jesus.

III. A life transformed by Jesus invites opposition from others (v10).

When your life is being transformed by Jesus, you are raising a gigantic banner for Christ over your life. Your life is becoming a gigantic flagpole for Jesus, and you know what happens to big flagpoles? They get struck by lightning. Not everyone you meet is going to be delighted about your newfound faith in Jesus. We don’t do a very good job covering this in our new believer discipleship courses. We talk about assurance and Bible Study, and Baptism and prayer and all that, but we don’t usually say, “Oh, and by the way, there are going to be some people who hate you now because of this.” We don’t say that, but we should. Just look at Lazarus.

In verse 10, we read that “the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death.” At first glance you might think that is a typo. You might think that it’s supposed to say “they planned to put Jesus to death.” Well, they did plan that, but notice the word also. They also have their sights trained on Lazarus. Why? Because he is leading people to Jesus. They just thought that Jesus was the only problem they had to eliminate. No, Lazarus presents another, two-fold problem for them. First, he is living proof – literally, living proof – that Jesus is Who He claims to be and that He has the power of God to save and transform lives. That’s a problem, because they are trying to convince people that Jesus is a fraud. Lazarus walking around breathing air, eating dinner, and being alive is proving that Jesus is no fraud. But then also, he presents another problem. Notice that it is not the Pharisees who want to kill him, but the chief priests. Now, the chief priests are mostly Sadducees, and the Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection – not now, not ever. (That’s why they were Sad-You-See … ba-dum-dum). This is a core tenet of their worldview and belief system, and here is this guy who is proving them wrong because he is in fact alive after being dead. That’s a problem.

Jesus warns us that this will be the case for many of us. He says in John 15:20, “A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” The Bible has some very specific promises about suffering for your faith in Christ, namely, expect it. First John 3:13 says, “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.” You present the same problem to those who oppose God as Lazarus did. They say God isn’t there and Christ is not the Lord and Savior. And yet, here you stand, a life transformed. How can you explain it? Your entire life has been turned upside down. You don’t do the things you used to, and you don’t even want to! You are doing things that you used to think were strange, like praying and going to church and listening to long sermons. And a few of you even enjoy it! Strange people! How can you explain that? It is only the transforming power of Christ, and your life is a witness to them that they are lost and wrong and that their soul is in peril. They are mad at God for existing and mad at Jesus for saving sinners, and mad at you because you are living proof of it. You contradict their entire worldview, and they want you to just sit down and shut up. And in the worst cases, they will shut you up if they have to.

I always wondered, how do you threaten Lazarus? “We’ll kill you.” Lazarus would just say, “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. What else have you got?” What about you? They say, “OK, you have crossed the line for the last time, and this means death.” Well, what are the promises of Jesus? “I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” What’s that? You want to send me to be with Jesus forever? Not a problem! Paul says in Philippians 1:21 that to live is Christ and to die is gain! You can’t threaten a Christian who believes his Bible and longs to be with Christ. They can try, but they just can’t shake you.

Right now, the eyes of the world are on Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, a 27-year old mother in Sudan, who has been charged with apostasy for converting from Islam to Christianity. She is on death row. She gave birth to a baby girl last Tuesday, and is expected in coming days to receive 100 lashes, and once her baby is weaned at age 2, she has already been sentenced to death by hanging. They are telling her, “Renounce Christ, and you can live.” She has said that she would rather die than to forsake her faith in Christ. We are rightly outraged by this, and people are saying, “Call your Congressman and ask them to lobby the State Department to do something.” There’s nothing wrong with that. You can do that. But you should also pray. God can do what the State Department cannot. God can strengthen her faith so that she will cling to Jesus even if she is put to death. And God can use her transformed life to bring many in that nation that is held hostage by false religion to Jesus. We want to see her free. She wants to bring glory to Christ, by her life or by her death. And the steadfast resolve of her transformed life is powerfully testifying to the whole world that Jesus is better than life!

You can expect opposition if you follow Jesus. That is a promise. It might not be death threats, but it could be. It might just be mild inconveniences. It might mean severed relationships, a lost job, a dent in your income, a mark on your resume, or something like that. But when you embrace suffering for Jesus – and it is important that we clarify, for Jesus – you are demonstrating the evidence of a transformed life. Some people will hate you for that. You need to expect that. But, others will take notice, and by your living witness, even God forbid by your dying witness, some will be drawn to Jesus.

When the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel in Athens, Acts 27:32-34 says, “some began to sneer, but others said, ‘We shall hear you again concerning this.’ … But some men joined him and believed.” That’s how it goes with a transformed life. Some will take notice. They’ll say, “We’re not sure what it is that is going on with you, but we want to know more.” Some will be led by your life’s testimony to embrace Jesus for themselves. And others will just sneer, and oppose and attack you. That’s what they did with Jesus, that’s what they did with Lazarus, and that is what they will do with you. Many will notice, some will believe, and others will oppose. Those are the effects of a transformed life. May God grant that our lives would produce those same effects as we live this transformed life that He is working in and through us.

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[1] Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (New York: Random House, 2010).

[2] Details drawn from various online sources: http://www.louiszamperini.net/?page=bio; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Zamperini; http://billygraham.org/story/louis-zamperinis-story-of-survival-and-redemption/; http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/02/local/me-then2. Accessed May 29, 2014.

[3] John Whitecross, The Assembly’s Shorter Catechism Illustrated: Illustrated by Appropriate Anecdotes (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1876), 57.