Sermon: Faith with Feet: the Greeks

Let's take a moment and let's pray for the word before we hear it read and preached.

Our Father, we are thankful that you are a God who has kept us all of these years. We're thankful that you've kept us as you've given us your word, and there has been the faithful proclamation, and reading, and teaching of this word used in discipleship, in evangelism, in Sunday schools, proclaimed from pulpits, ministering on campus and in this community, and even to the ends of the earth through missionaries. And we're thankful this morning that it is upon this word that we stand, that it is

not an idle word, but it is living and active. And we know that this word does not work apart from you working by your Spirit, and so we pray yet again this morning that by your Spirit, you would take this word and plant it deep within us, that you would not only work through it, but that you would work it into us, and that you would receive the glory and the praise. And we pray all this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

John 12:20-26. This is the holy, inerrant, sufficient word of God. "Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.' Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, '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. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.'" Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Well, this is the final text in this short little four-week series that we were doing on faith and the Gospel of John before next week we start going through the Book of 2 Corinthians together. And as we looked at faith, these little faith encounters with Christ in the Gospel of John, you'll remember the first week that we looked at faith and regeneration, that regeneration precedes faith. The second week, we looked at the free offer of the gospel to come to

faith. And then last week, we looked at the elements of faith. We looked at the need for knowledge, assent, and trust. And this week, what I want to look at is what I'm calling faith with feet, or faith with obedience. And we're going to see that this morning from our text. Our passage begins with Greeks, those people that the men are said to be incredibly handsome and have funny last names. These Greeks approach Philip with a question for the ages.

These Greeks are, John tells us, quote, "Among those who went up to worship at the feast." That is, these are Gentiles, but they are Gentile Greeks who are proselytes of Judaism. They have come to believe in the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and they have gathered together with the Jewish people to celebrate the Passover, the great feast in Jerusalem. And out of all of the disciples, they approach Philip because it

seems that Philip speaks Greek. That's why we're given that detail, that Philip was from Bethsaida in Galilee, a Greek-speaking region. Jesus, and all of the disciples no doubt, spoke Aramaic. It was in Aramaic that Jesus taught, but Greek, not modern-day Greek, but what we call Koine Greek, common Greek. Common Greek, Koine Greek, was the language of commerce, and of trade, and of administration because Alexander the Great and the

Greek Empire had conquered the Mediterranean world, and so it became the language of commerce. And Philip, no doubt, spoke this language. It will also be, of course, the language that the New Testament is written in, Greek. So they come to Philip with one request, the greatest request, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." We don't know why. Did they hear about Jesus' miracles, and so they wished to see him? Or did they hear about his authoritative teaching?

He taught as one who had authority, and they wanted to see him. Or maybe it's because, as the other gospels point out, that it was at this very time that Jesus went into the temple and he drove out the money changers from the court of the Gentiles, where they were disrupting worship and the Greeks couldn't worship in the temple, these proselytes. But we don't know. But they come to him with this one question, this one needed thing,

"Sir, we would see Jesus." Our first point this morning, faith beholds Christ, Christ crucified. Faith beholds Christ, Christ crucified. "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." I've always been struck and have enjoyed listening to, you will see those different videos or man on the street kind of things that used to be on news reels. Now it's often YouTube videos, but where someone will go out and man on the street and do interviews, and often the question is something like, "If you could wish for

one thing, what is the one thing that you would wish for?" Or they will go onto a street corner and say, "If you could give the world one thing, one needed thing that it needs, what would you give the world?" Or if we put it in our context, they would go onto campus and say to a student at Michigan State University, "What is it that you hope to graduate with after four years at this university? What is it that you want to have accomplished?"

And in a very real way, the answer to all of those questions should be the same. "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." He's the needed thing. This is true for both the unconverted and the converted. The unconverted, those that haven't come to see Jesus, if they truly knew their own souls and truly knew what it is in need of and what it is thirsting for and hungering for, as we spoke about in a previous week, they would say, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

If they understood the needs of the world, and all of this destruction, and all of the disease, and all of the trials, and all of the suffering, and all of the temptations, and they looked out and said, "Oh, if there's one thing I could give the world," they would understand that what the world needs above all else, because the only thing that can bring healing to all of that is Jesus. "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." He's the one necessary thing.

Jesus himself will tell the parable of the man who finds a treasure in a field, and when he finds that treasure in the field, he goes and he sells everything that he has so that he can go and buy that field because that treasure is so great compared to everything else. Jesus is the treasure in the field. The one necessary thing that everything else in life pales in comparison to. It's also true, though, for the Christian.

This is to be the chief desire of the Christian. Sir, we wish to see Jesus. You say, "But I've seen Jesus in faith." Yes, but you want to see more of Jesus. You can't have enough of Jesus because there is nothing better. Your great wish, your great hope, your great pursuit in all of life is just to see more and more of this one that you love until that one day that you're finally transported to glory, and your faith becomes sight,

and you see Him in all of His glory.

These Greeks provide what should be the raison d'être, the reason for being, for all people. Sir, we would see Jesus.

For preachers, that is a famous little phrase. I've been in many pulpits where that phrase, "Sir, we would see Jesus," sits as a plaque right here at the top of the pulpit. It faces the preacher.

And it faces the preacher because it's a reminder to him that what they want, whether they know it or not, what they need, whether they know it or not, is not a political discourse, is not an ethics lesson, is not a cultural and history tour. What they want and what they need is to see Jesus.

We have a lot of visitors here this morning. We will have a lot over these next couple of weeks here at URC. Some of you are visiting today. I will have the same conversation, and I will say almost the exact same thing probably two dozen times between this week, next week, and the following week. There'll be somebody that introduces themself to me that is new to the church and visiting. I say, "Oh, we are delighted to have you here." And

we are. I say, "It'd be great if you chose this is where you want to worship when you're at Michigan State University or you've just moved to the area. We would be glad to have you here, but do this for me. Find a church. Get plugged in. Don't keep wandering around. Get in a church, but make sure it's a Bible-proclaiming church, and you're hearing Christ week in and week out. You're seeing Him."

It's the one necessary thing.

Philip tells Andrew the request that these Greeks have made, a right request. Andrew and Philip tell Jesus, "These Greeks want to see you." And Jesus's response, it's not what we would expect in the text. He responds with what I would call an epochal declaration. He makes a statement about, quote, "the hour." But why is this response to the Greeks' inquiry? I want to spend a little bit of time just on this phrase or this little clause

here, the hour. This is not unfamiliar vocabulary from the lips of Jesus in the Gospel of John. He has said it over and over. He has spoken about the hour in John two when His mother Mary will come to Him, and she will say, "They're running out of wine. Can you do something about that, my miracle-working son?" And He says, "Oh, Mom, my hour has not yet come." He speaks again about the hour having not come, but it is coming when He speaks to

the woman at the well in John four. In John five, He again speaks about the hour coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. In John seven, the Jewish elites seek to arrest Him but are unable because John says His hour had not yet come. In John eight, the same is said as He's in the temple teaching. Quote, "No one arrested him because his hour had not yet come." It's the same refrain over and over and over for 11 chapters. The hour has not yet come.

The hour had not yet come. The hour had not yet come. The Gentiles, these Greeks, come and say, "We want to see Jesus," and His response is, "The hour has come."

And then He defines it. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

We're never given insight into whether these Greeks actually saw Jesus. They absolutely disappear from the account, but the context is all-important. Look back in your Bibles. Go back up to the verse right before our passage, verse 19, and look what the Pharisees say. Look, the world has gone after him, and immediately we see these Gentiles, these Greeks, coming after him. So you've got to put these two things together.

The hour, Jesus speaking about being glorified, the hour, being glorified, has come, and the Greeks are coming to Him.

Jesus then says in verse 32, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." All people, when I'm lifted up. John then gives a commentary in verse 33. He said this to show by what kind of death He was going to die. You have to put all of these together. The hour has come. The Gentiles are coming to Him. He's being glorified in His death.

When you go into John 13, Jesus is in the upper room with His disciples. This is the night before He is betrayed, and He goes to Gethsemane and then goes to Calvary. And John says this, "Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." The hour, which was linked to His being glorified, is then linked with His departing out of this world

and loving His people to the end. What is in view? The cross.

Jesus departs out of this world, as it were, by giving His life as a ransom for many upon the bloody cross. The hour for His death had come. Faith beholds Christ, but it's not just Christ, it's Christ crucified.

He said, "I came not to do my own will but to do the will of Him who sent me, and this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should raise up all that He has given to me on the last day," loving them to the end,

purchasing His people. How? By His blood, by submitting Himself in their place and receiving the just wrath of His Father for their sins, for their condemnation. Behold Christ. Christ crucified.

I want you to especially notice is what Jesus says, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." His glorification is now beginning. It has come now.

Now, that's fascinating

So he's been at it for 33 years in the flesh. He's done all kinds of miracles that have testified to who he is. Was that not glory evident? Surely, when he's on the Mount of Transfiguration, and John and Peter and James are there, they're observing his glory. And in a measure you could say, yes, that's absolutely true. John will say that at the beginning of his gospel, "We beheld his glory." But what Jesus is referencing here, what he highlights here, is his glorification

really began with what he ultimately came into the world to do, die upon the cross.

In a complete and an absolute sense, Jesus is glorified in his suffering.

Notice that it's not just through his suffering. He's glorified in his suffering.

We rightly often talk about no cross, no crown. The cross is the way to the crown. We understand that Christ's exaltation follows his humiliation. He suffered, he died, he was buried, he was raised on the third day, he ascended to the right hand of the Father, and now he reigns in glory over heaven and earth. But Jesus makes the point here, his cross is not simply the means to glorification.

It's not simply the means of his glorification. It's the beginning of his glorification.

And that seems so odd. You say, the cross, that's suffering. That's weakness.

That's glory?

It's counter-cultural to a people self-satisfied and independent in spirit and proud. Glorified in weakness? Glorified in suffering?

High and lifted up, substitutionary death upon a cross to make atonement for sinners before a holy God. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. This is so very important.

It's not just belief in Christ, it's belief in Christ crucified for sinners.

And so very important, Jesus explains the importance of it in verse 24. He uses that revelation emphasis by doubling down on language, "Truly, truly." And then he speaks of a grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying. He says, look, if you just take a grain of wheat and you put it on your table and you leave it there by itself, you could put it on your kitchen table and it's there tomorrow, it's there three days from now, it's there three months from now, it's

there three years from now. It could be there 30 years from now and nothing changes. Nothing's added to it. It's alone. But that same wheat germ, you take that and it falls into the earth and it dies, then there is abundance. If it dies, Jesus says, it bears much fruit. Not may, not can, but bears much fruit. When Jesus died upon the cross, when he was glorified upon the cross, he purchased his own, whom he loved to the end.

He didn't just make salvation possible, he secured it for those he came to die for.

He died bearing much fruit.

Faith beholds Christ, Christ crucified.

So here's a question.

It's the greatest application question I think there can be. Have you seen this Christ?

This Christ crucified, have you seen him? Sir, we would see Jesus.

And if you've seen him, now I'm speaking to the Christian, if you've seen him,

is it your greatest heart's motivation to see more of him? Sir, I wish to see Jesus.

You want to see more of the one that you love. I just want to see more of him.

Until finally I'm transported to glory and my faith becomes sight and then I'm gazing upon him in all of his glory. That's what I long for more than anything else.

Sir, we would see Jesus. Which leads to the second. Notice secondly that faith follows. Faith follows.

We spoke last week about the essence of faith, knowledge, assent, and trust. And it's true. We've said this every single week. We are saved by faith alone, and yet our faith never remains alone. It's always, always, always accompanied by obedience, by repentance. Saving faith has feet. Jesus says, "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

As he says that, he's not teaching that a true disciple is a pessimist. He's not saying that a true disciple is a self-loather, is a crank in the world. He's not teaching that someone who follows him must constantly complain. No, that would be very un-Christian. He's not saying that those who follow him view life as just thorns and thistles and road construction and lumpy pillows. That's un-Christian. No, because he goes on to say right here, "Whoever hates his life will keep it

for eternal life." Why would you want to keep what you're running away from?

His point is that those who would see him are not overly invested in that which is passing and temporal and limited. Rather, they understand that there are things eternal that are to be their focus, that are to be their pursuit, that which lasts. The person coming to saving faith in Christ takes anything that would be a barrier between their soul and Christ and does away with it. Anything that would seek to steal away his affection, that would seek to

supplant Christ, that would surpass Christ, trump Christ, is cast off. It says nothing. Paul will say, "I count everything as loss for the sake of Christ."

If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

Serving Jesus means following Jesus. Faith follows

Remember at the end of this gospel, when Jesus and Peter are on the beach, and Jesus is doing that threefold restoration of Peter because Peter has denied him three times. And he will say to Peter, "Peter, do you love me more than these?" And Peter says, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." "Then feed my sheep. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep." And they get to the end of that, and Jesus is explaining to Peter, "Peter, you're

going to have to die quite a horrible death as you serve me. This is what it looks like for you." And Peter is looking over his shoulder. There's John following him and Jesus. He's back there, and Peter's saying, "Oh, great Caesar. Well, what about John? What happens to him?"

And you remember Jesus' response?

"What does that matter to you? You follow me."

Follow me. This is what it looks like. Real faith has feet. We're saved by faith alone and Christ alone, but that faith is never alone. It's accompanied by obedience. You follow me.

Now, this is not willing it, self-will. The same spirit that we talked about that very first week that regenerates you in Christ, that gives you new life, that gives you and applies to you the gift of faith and applies Christ to you, it is that same spirit that now inhabits you, that makes you a holy temple unto the Lord, that the apostle will say is willing and working his good pleasure in you. He's working it in you.

By the grace of Christ and the work of the Spirit, saving faith doesn't simply choose Christ. It yields to Christ. It's a life of pursuit and conformity to him, desiring it more and more, and disciplining this body and soul by his Spirit's power and by the grace that he extends to follow more closely after him.

The great goal of this life is not to finish with the most toys or degrees or digits in your bank account.

It's to look more like Christ and to see more of Christ, to be conformed more to Christ.

That's the goal.

We want to give him glory, and that doesn't come by simply believing and then walking away. It comes by believing and then living for him, following so closely to him. I was on my drive here this morning, and there was a guy that was so on my tail, I thought about stopping to ask him if he wanted to sit in my back seat. He was just there. You can be like that. You're following somebody so closely, you can't see around

them. You have to see everything through them. So following closely to Christ, it's how I see everything.

Just listen to these verses. "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do to the glory of God." "For me," the apostle said, "to live

is Christ." "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord. Do not be conformed to this world." Really? Then what? "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind."

Whoever loves his life loses it.

When we die to self, it isn't an end in itself. It doesn't work that way. Self is replaced with Christ. For me to live is Christ. It's Christ that displaces self. The essence of sin is self. It is self-reliance. It's self-seeking. It's self-exalting. It's self. That only gets out, you only work that out by displacing it, and the only way to displace that which is seeking to eat you alive, self is seeking to eat you. The only way to displace that is Christ.

Seeing him, following him.

Three quick closing applications. First, seek to see Christ.

That's the only way to displace self. You can't shed any sin. You can't shed any of your entanglements apart from Christ, and it's his work in you. And so you are seeking to see more and more of Christ, or maybe you are seeking to see Christ for the very first time. You are displacing self with Christ. Second, don't compartmentalize your life. Compartmentalizing is dangerous. It's even deadly.

People often speak of religion as a part of their life. I'm a Midwesterner. I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a lawyer. I'm a Christian. But Christian is not a compartment of your life. Christ is your life. For me to live is Christ. It is not I who live, the apostle said, but Christ who lives in me.

If your life is a house with all kinds of rooms, Christ is not a room alongside Midwesterner or even father or wife. Rather, it's the air of the room. It's what you breathe. It's what you move in. It's what you dwell in.

At work or in our marriages or in our parenting or in this or that friendship or in my free time, when on vacation, am I thinking and living as Christ is the air that I breathe?

As a Christian, a follower of Jesus, I'm to follow him at all times, in all places. I'm a Christian lawyer, a Christian husband, a Christian college student, a Christian hospital patient, a Christian vacationer. And yet, in many ways, that's not even right or sufficient because it's not as if Christian or Christ is an adjective put upon something else. Rather, Christ himself is the substance. I'm marked by his name. I've been baptized in his name.

He's what I am. I'm Christ man. He's purchased me. He's bought me with a price. He's loved me with an eternal love. I'm his.

Paul could say for me to live is Christ, whole life consumed with Christ.

I'm seeking to follow him as a student. Yes, I'm taking business classes, but I'm not seeking to be mastered by business theory or philosophy, but Christ. Austin Farrar at C.S. Lewis's funeral said this about C.S. Lewis: "Lewis is the most thoroughly converted person I ever met." What a commendation. Every part of his life informed and dominated by the fact that Christ was crucified for him.

Finally, take comfort in the promises. Jesus gives three of them in this passage. Verse 25, "Whoever hates his life in the world will keep it for eternal life." Eternal life, everlasting. That's the promise. You lose it from me, you get to keep it forever. What a promise.

But notice a second promise. It's not some isolated, unfulfilled, limited eternal life. Second, verse 26, "And where I am, there will my servant be also." It's eternal life. Wonderful. But it's not just eternal life, it's eternal life with Christ, the one I love, the one who so loved me that He died for me. He makes His home with me. I have eternal life, unending life, day after day after day after day, forever, and it's with Him,

who is more lovely, is a greater treasure than anything I can imagine, anything under the sun or above the sun. I'm with Him.

Eternal life with Christ, that's the promise. We'll see Him as He is

if we serve Him. Eternal life with Christ. Finally, the third promise in honor. "If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." From sinner to servant, to honored by God for all of eternity.

Eternal life with Him, honored. What greater promises could there be?

And notice

that our relation to the Father is founded upon our relation to the Son. Follow me. Serve me.

The world thinks it's a silly crucified savior.

What weakness.

What foolishness. Say, "Tone it down a little bit, would you? You are too zealous about this religion thing.

Couldn't you just leave Christ out a little bit when we're together as a family or with friends? Couldn't you just tone it down a little bit? Does everything have to be centered upon Christ?

You're a zealot."

Jesse Ryall reminded the Christian of this. He said, "The world may pour contempt on our religion and laugh us and our Christianity to scorn, but when the Father honors us at the last day before the assembly of angels and men, we shall find that His praise makes amends for all."

Eternity with Christ, honored forever.

The Son of Man hung upon that cross, and it was glory begun because it honored the Father and secured the salvation of sinners such as you and I, and He secured for us the very promises of God.

This is why this should be the refrain going on and on in your heads every day of your life until you actually see Him. Sir, we would see Jesus. Let me see more of Jesus. Let me have more of Jesus.

What a savior. What a salvation. Let's pray.

Our Father, we are thankful

for the gift of Your Son for sinners, for revealing Him to us by Your Word and by the power of the Spirit. And oh, that every soul in this room would see Jesus, and that every single one of us that have seen Him would not treat it as trite or small or something of the past, but something that informs us day after day, hour after hour, that we just want to see more of Him, following closer and closer to Him, conformed more and more to His likeness until that day

when our faith becomes sight and we shall see Him in all His glory. How we long for that day, and yet don't long for it enough. But because we long for it, we pray with the apostle, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quickly." It's in the strong name of this crucified savior for sinners, Jesus, that we pray. Amen.