Different By Design

0:06Why are you here?

0:10Why, why, why did you get up this morning when your atheist coworker didn't get out of bed? I mean, this is a weekend day. It's a sleep-in kind of a day. Why did you get up? Why'd you get dressed?

0:24Why'd you get your kids up and make them come here? Why are you here?

0:30It has to be something more than, I've always done this on Sundays. It has to be more than, my parents brought me to church, and so I bring my kids to church. It has to be more than, we live in Texas, the promised land, and so that's why we go to church on a regular basis.

0:49You've got to have a bigger and deeper answer than, I've always done this. Why are you here?

0:59If you need help answering the question, I'll answer it for you. You're here because Jesus died for you, and that changes everything. You're here because you have a relationship with God the Father, the Creator of the universe, through faith that comes through Jesus Christ who died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead. And so now you can be here this morning and not be wasting your time.

1:22Because if you're not here because Jesus died for you, then you are wasting your time. And if Jesus didn't die for us, then all of us are wasting our time. And not just here, but at every other church in every other corner of the world that gathers on a Sunday morning to worship God, we're all wasting our time if Jesus didn't die for us.

1:46Because if Jesus never died for us, then we have no access to the Father. If Jesus didn't die for you this morning, then all those songs that we just sang, as great as they are and as deep as the words are, they mean nothing, because you've still got a massive problem, and that is that you're a sinner and He's holy, and you have nothing to bring Him if Jesus didn't die for you. But the good news is, and that's what the gospel is, right? Good news. Is that Jesus did die for you.

2:18And if Jesus died for you, that changes everything. If Jesus died for you, your life should look radically different. And one of the main evidences of that is what we're doing here this morning as the church. Take your Bibles and open up to John chapter 12. We're going to jump in in verse 20.

2:36John chapter 12, you'll remember last week we were in the passage of the triumphal entry as Jesus came in as the King and the Savior that was a little bit different than the King and the Savior that he was going to end up being for the people?

2:51And now on the back end of that, in John's Gospel at least, we pick up with this scene where a group of people come to the disciples because they want to see Jesus. Look at verse 20. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. Which feast are we talking about? We're talking about the Feast of the Passover.

3:11And so here you have a group that John just simply calls the Greeks that come up to the feast to worship. And this is a word in the Greek that means Greeks. That's profound. I know, super deep. Write that down.

3:24Greeks, Greek. Uh, yeah, this isn't Greek-speaking Jews is what I'm driving at here. This is a group of Gentiles. This is a group of people that were probably proselytes. Somebody in the Jewish community had told them about the God of Israel.

3:38They had maybe read some of the Torah. They had been exposed to Judaism, and they had thought, man, this— I think the God of the Jews is the right God, the true God. That, or perhaps some of them were pantheists, polytheists. They were there because, hey, they could add the God of Israel to all the other gods that they worshiped. And so this was a significant feast, so they're going to be in Jerusalem for this feast as well.

4:01But all that to say, this group of outside people, this group of Greeks, this group of Gentiles They come forward and, and they ask this question. They say, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Perhaps in a group like this you would have found people like Cornelius. Remember Cornelius from Acts chapter 10? He's described as a God-fearer, but he was a Gentile.

4:23And you remember Peter struggled for a while with the Lord about whether or not the Gentiles should be given access to Jesus. And so it's people like Cornelius perhaps that come up and they say, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Now, this is a massive request, and it's deeper than what first meets the eye, and it's deeper than what these Greeks understood they were asking. And that's something about John. See, John wrote his Gospel much later compared to the other Gospel writers.

4:57And so when John wrote his Gospel, he had the benefit of being able to write theologically As well as write the action, the biographical information of the Gospels. And so as John includes this here, he's communicating something to us through recording for us this request that's made by these outsiders, the Gentiles, the Greeks. See, for the Gentiles, as they came to the Feast of the Passover, they would have come to the Temple Mount as the Temple Mount would have looked like this. And maybe you can see there, you might have to squint if you're in the back, but In the center of this, this, this platform is the, the temple itself. That's the building in the middle there.

5:37And you'll notice that there's an inner set of walls around even that temple. Well, inside those walls, that's where the, the Jews themselves could get. If you were a Gentile, you could get into the Court of the Gentiles, and that's kind of the big empty space on the Temple Mount there. You could be there, but you couldn't get any closer to the presence of God than that. And even when we think about your typical Jew, well, they're going to be able to get into the Jewish courts there.

6:06There was the court of the women and then the court of the men. But really it was only the priests and the Levites that were able to get into the holy place. And then even beyond that, you had the most holy place, the Holy of Holies, and that was reserved for the high priest, and that only once a year. And so you've this kind of hierarchy. Of access to God.

6:26And so for the Jews, they had the priests, and the priests were there to mediate between God and the people. The priests were there to represent the people before God, to go before him and, and bring their offerings and offer their sacrifices so that the people could have their sins atoned for and so that they could worship God. But even still, there was a separation there. The Gentiles didn't even have that. The Gentiles are on the outside even from that.

6:56And so here you have these Gentiles and they came up to Philip and they ask Philip this question and they say, sir, we wish to see Jesus.

7:08Why'd they go to Philip? We don't know exactly. Philip was a Greek name. Philip and his brother Andrew were also from Bethsaida, which was on the eastern side of the Jordan River in an area that was close to what's called the Decapolis.

7:21And that region was populated by a lot of Greeks, a lot of Gentiles. And so it's possible that they came to Philip because they maybe had known Philip, or maybe they just knew and heard his name and thought he'll understand, he'll help us out. But they go to Philip and they say to Philip, sir, we wish to see Jesus.

7:40John chapter 1, verse 18. John chapter 1, verse 18 says this, no one has ever seen God, the only God who's at the Father's side. He has made him known. John's speaking there of Jesus. And so here you have this group of Gentiles that come to Jesus and— or come to Philip and they say, we want to see Jesus, not even understanding in their request that they're asking to see the one who is the Son of God sent to reveal God the Father himself.

8:14And this group of Gentiles, they can't even get past the Court of the Gentiles on the Temple Mount. And so this question is massive. I also find it interesting and somewhat ironic that in John chapter 1, verse 46, Philip, the same Philip that the Greeks approach, Philip had gone to get Nathanael. And he had said to Nathanael, hey, we think we found the one that could be the Messiah, the King of the Jews. And Philip— or Nathanael's response to Philip was, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

8:40And what is, what does Philip say to Nathanael? He says, come and, come and see. Now you have somebody else going to Philip saying, we want to see. Same person. They want to see, they want to see Jesus.

8:54And so here's what I think is underlying this interaction here is this idea that the Gentiles were on the outside. They didn't have access to the Father, just like I talked about at the beginning. If we don't have access to the Father, we're wasting our time here this morning. And they needed Jesus the way that we needed Jesus. They just didn't realize it, but we need to understand as John's writing this for our benefit, you remember John wrote so that we might come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life in his name.

9:24And so as John's writing, he includes this interaction and he's setting the stage for what's about to happen. But what I want us to see here is If any of us are going to have access to the Father, it's going to involve the person of Jesus. These Gentiles didn't fully understand that, but it was going to involve Jesus. Think back to the way last week's passage ended. The Pharisees were upset and they said, you see, you're gaining nothing.

9:51What did they say? The what has gone after Jesus? The world has gone after Jesus. Now John is saying, here's some of the world, the Greeks, those on the outside, and they're coming. They want to see Jesus and they need access because the closest they could get again is the court of the Gentiles.

10:09And so though they didn't realize it, this question, this request, sir, we wish to see Jesus, was going to require more from Jesus than they could ever imagine. Ephesians chapter 2, take your Bibles if you've got them and turn over to Ephesians chapter 2, if you will. It's to the right a few books there.

10:27You're going to go Acts, you're going to go Romans, you're going to go 1 and 2 Corinthians, and then you're going to get into God's electric power company: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.

10:37Ephesians chapter 2, Paul writes about the necessity of Jesus for these Gentiles and also for you and me. Ephesians chapter 2, pick up in verse 11. The Apostle Paul says this: Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision— by the way, church, that's us, okay— by what is called the circumcision— that's the, the Jews— which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ. You were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world.

11:17That's the desperate plight of these Greeks as they're coming and saying, we wish to see Jesus. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile— which means to draw us near— might reconcile us both to God, Jew and Gentile alike, in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him, through Jesus, we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

12:10Through Jesus we have access, and that access is not just important for us, it's important for the Jews as well. Without him, they don't have access, is what he's saying there. Paul puts it a different way in Galatians chapter 3, verses 13 through 14. There Paul says this, he says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who's hanged on a tree.

12:36So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles as well, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. And so again, this idea that we on the outside, the Gentiles, might be brought in and might be given access to the Father through the Son— these 2 passages help us understand Jesus' response. Because the Greeks come to Jesus, they say— or to Philip, they say, we wish to see Jesus. Philip goes to Andrew, hey, they want to see Jesus. Andrew goes and gets Jesus and says, hey, they want to see you.

13:07What do you half expect from Jesus at this point in time? You half expect Jesus to say, bring them. Where are they? Bring them here. But he doesn't do that.

13:18And unless we understand what's really going on in the beginning of what's unfolding before our eyes here, this response seems somewhat abrupt because Jesus' response is this. He says in verse 23, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

13:33Okay. But what do you want me to tell the Greeks?

13:36The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. It seems abrupt until we understand something in John chapter 12, the anointing of Jesus by Mary, the triumphal entry. And this question now by the Greeks, we wish to see Jesus, is indicating and setting up the reality that all of this was, was opening the door to the hour dawning for Jesus. In John's Gospel, the hour is significant, yet this is super significant for us, church, because until now Jesus has continually said, it's not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet. My hour hasn't come yet.

14:12It's not yet. This is the first time that he says, my hour has come. And the reason is, is because he knows what's around the corner, and it has to do with the anointing by Mary. It has to do with the triumphal entry, and it also has to do with this request from the Greeks. Because without this hour coming to be, the Greeks could never have access to Jesus, which means they could never have access to the Father.

14:35And so that's why Jesus says, my hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus knew that this question indicated a greater reality, that it was time for him to open not just access for these Greeks but access for everyone to the Father that could only come through the impending death that was going to define his hour. Point number 1 this morning, church, is this: appreciate the unfolding of God's salvation plan. Appreciate the unfolding of God's salvation plan as we're watching it right here before our eyes. You can flip back over to John if you're still in Ephesians.

15:12Appreciate how this is happening right now. We're watching it unfold, and we get the advantage of knowing the rest of the story. The disciples are living this real time, trying to wrap their minds around what's going on. What does he mean his hour is about to come? Is the triumphal entry just happened?

15:30Is he— is now the hour? What does he mean? You and I, church, we get to see this knowing that he's talking about his crucifixion. He's talking about his resurrection. He's talking about his ascension to glory and how much all of that matters for us and makes it so that we're not wasting our time.

15:47This morning. And so we're watching the unfolding of God's salvation plan before our eyes, and I just want us to make sure that we haven't grown so familiar with the death of Christ and the hour concept that we've lost an appreciation for this.

16:05All of this was always part of God's plan.

16:10Hebrews chapter 7, take your Bibles if you've got them, flip over to the book of Hebrews. This morning's one of those sword drill mornings.

16:19Hebrews is even further to the right than Ephesians is. Some of y'all are singing the song right now in your head right now.

16:29Hebrews, chapter 7.

16:32One of the main messages of the book of Hebrews is, hey, Jesus is better than the Old Testament system, because Jesus is the fulfillment of it.

16:41And so even as the Jews were there to celebrate the Passover, maybe they, they could get a little bit closer to God than the Gentiles could. They still had a massive problem that needed to be solved by Jesus. And he came to do that. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 23, begin there. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 23, it says this: The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

17:04In other words, they needed to continually raise up new priests in the Old Testament sacrificial system because the priests that they had were dying.

17:13But he holds— Jesus does— his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. We have a high priest who holds his office permanently, which is why we have access to the Father on a permanent basis.

17:58Your salvation is, yes, about when you first repented and put your trust in God. In a very real sense, that is when your access to the Father began, when you repented from your sins and trusted Jesus Christ for salvation. But in another sense, your salvation, your access to the Father began in what we're reading right now in John 12. Your access to the Father is bigger than your individual testimony. Your access to the Father is part of not just your individual story, but the story of God saving his people.

18:29And I just want us to appreciate that, that the sovereign plan of God that we're watching unfold, and it's this, this, this tapestry that is weaving together, and you and I get to be a part of that. And so it's this progression that we're seeing unfolding here in John's Gospel. We are the Greeks, sir. We wish to see Jesus. And without his sovereign plan unfolding, we'll never see Jesus.

18:55But because it was unfolded, we're forgiven and we have the hope that we have. In fact, not only that, we have what Paul writes— not Paul, sorry, back up. I don't think Paul wrote Hebrews, just to clarify. Flip back a few pages, Hebrews chapter 4. If you went back to John's Gospel, go back to the right a few books again.

19:14Hebrews chapter 4. What we're talking about right now is why we have the reality of Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews 4:14-16.

19:25Hebrews 4:14-16. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Church, the reason we can draw near is because the hour came and Jesus stepped into it.

19:59Without the hour, without the death of Christ, Hebrews 4 doesn't exist. Without the death of Jesus for us, we're still in our sins. Without the death of Jesus, we have no confidence. Without the death of Jesus, we can't come before the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. And all I'm trying to get us to understand and to see and to appreciate this morning is that's bigger than the moment that you first came to Christ.

20:22Yes, it's about that, but that's part of this massive sovereign plan of God for salvation that you and I get to be a part of. Again, in our text, we are the Greeks, we are the Gentiles. We're not those on the inside, we're not those with access to the Father. We're the strangers and the aliens and the exiles, the foreigners on the outside. We're the ones saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus.

20:50And because of what Jesus is going to do in His hour, we can.

20:57What is that hour going to look like? Look at verse 24 back in John's Gospel. Back in John's Gospel, look at verse 24.

21:05Jesus continues and He says this. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

21:22So he said, the hour has now come. And now he's talking about death. We don't have it recorded in John's Gospel, but in Matthew's Gospel, we have 3 times already before this interaction that Jesus has predicted His death with His disciples. Matthew 16:21, from that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and on the 3rd day be raised.

21:52Matthew 17:22-23, as they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And he will be raised on the 3rd day. And they were greatly distressed.

22:08Matthew 20:17 through 19, as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside on the way, and he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and and crucified.

22:31Even in John's Gospel, though it's not as explicit as that, he's already alluded to his death. Even in this same chapter, John chapter 12, as he was at the, the table reclining and Lazarus was there and Mary showed up to anoint his feet with the perfume, right? Jesus says there in verses 7 and 8, leave her alone that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.

23:00And then in verse 24, we get this other reference now to death. And though it's a metaphor and it's more subtle, the disciples probably should have picked up on the fact that Jesus was alluding to himself and that his hour was somehow going to involve his death.

23:15Jesus is the seed, and the seed to bear fruit is going to need to die. Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, verse 11. Isaiah 53, verse 11 says this: Out of the anguish of his soul— this is a prophecy from the prophet Isaiah written about 700 years before the death of Christ, but it's all about the death of Christ. Isaiah 53:11: Out of the anguish of his soul, out of his death, he, Jesus, shall see and be satisfied.

23:43By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous And he shall bear their iniquities. And so Isaiah 53:11 is saying the same thing as John 12:24. The seed has to die to bear the fruit. Isaiah 53:11, out of the anguish of his soul shall the righteous one, my servant, see and be satisfied. Why?

24:04Because by his sacrifice many will be made righteous. The fruit will come from that.

24:11And so this is about the death of Jesus, which again, like we talked about in point number 1, is the only way that we have access to the Father. It's the only way we're not wasting our time here this morning. But this is a pivot verse, because this is about more than just Jesus' death. This is also going to be about our death. Right after this, Jesus is going to talk about us losing our life.

24:33Hey, you want to save your life? Lose it.

24:36You love your life? You don't need to love your life, you need to hate your life. And he's going to talk about us following him.

24:45And so what Jesus is setting up here is this metaphor with this idea of the seed and the fruit. And I kill every plant that I've ever had before. I just do. So I'm not a good one to fully understand this, but even I get this. Okay.

24:59The seed is planted in the ground. The seed becomes no more, right? Because from that seed comes what? The plant. So that seed has to be destroyed for the plant to grow.

25:10If you dig up at the bottom of a tree, you're not going to find that tiny seed that you planted in there anymore. The root system grows. I'm over my skis already on this illustration. So I don't even know. I'm going to stop there with the root system.

25:21Anyways, the seed's not there anymore, but it's now produced a tree. What's that tree going to produce eventually? More rhymes with feed, starts with an S, more seed. And so that seed in the tree is going to then scatter and it's going to fall to the ground. And what's that seed going to do?

25:38It's going to die to produce what? More trees. And then what are those trees going to produce? More seed. So you see, as Jesus is saying this, it's a brilliant metaphor because yes, words, choking, die.

25:53I'm good. I'm fine. Yes. He's talking about his own death and the fruit that's going to come from that. But then he's also telling us, hey, get ready because you guys are going to be involved in this too.

26:03And so this is a pivot verse because now he's drawing us into God's sovereign plan of salvation. And so he's comparing his life and death to the seed and saying that, that he's going to bear fruit and that fruit is going to bear more fruit and more fruit and more fruit and more fruit and more fruit. Here's the thing, y'all. Jesus led his disciples to faith in him, who then went out and led more disciples to faith in Jesus, who then went out and led more disciples to faith in Jesus. Eventually someone led the person that shared Christ with you to faith in Jesus so that they shared Christ with you.

26:29And you came to be one of his disciples, guess what your job is now? Keep the chain going. Point number 2 this morning is this: pursue more kingdom fruit for Jesus. Pursue more kingdom fruit for Jesus. Y'all remember getting chain letters, chain emails that are like, you need to send this on to 15 people, and if you do, God's going to bless you, and if you don't, you're going to stub your toe every morning for the rest of your life and step on 10 Legos on the way to the bathroom.

27:00It's like, that's extreme. What did you typically do, or what do you do with those? Delete, right? Spam, you send that away. Nobody wants a chain letter, except for the gospel.

27:14Don't break the chain of the gospel. When it comes to God's salvation plan, keep the chain reaction going.

27:23Bill Parcells, some of the men in the room, you just paid attention for the first time this morning. Welcome to church.

27:30Bill Parcells, right? Famous football coach. These are some of the names that came from Bill Parcells' coaching tree: Bill Belichick, Nick Saban, Josh McDaniels, Jim Fossil, Tom Coughlin, Romeo Cronell, Sean Payton, and Todd Haley. There's more than that too. And then think from just Bill Belichick's coaching tree.

27:55How many coaches have come out of his tree that are now coaching and leading other teams and winning games?

28:03See, that's what's known as the coaching tree, where you kind of look at one and you go, wow, look at how many coaches have come from this one person's influence. Church, I want to ask you this morning, what's your evangelism tree look like?

28:15How many branches are there on your evangelism tree?

28:21Another fun thing to think about, kind of an exercise to think about, is who— whose evangelism tree are you a part of? Who shared the gospel with you so that you came to faith in Jesus Christ? And maybe you even know who shared the gospel with them. Such a cool thought to think about. We were reading about the flood not long ago with my kiddos, and one of them asked, so all of us are related to Adam?

28:47And all of us are related to Noah?

28:50Yeah, at the end of the day, that's, that's the biblical account. That's what it says. Well, likewise, all of us, our evangelism tree comes back to Jesus and the disciples going out and making more disciples, making more disciples, making more disciples, and making more disciples. And here's the thing, y'all, here's what I want you to hear. Jesus didn't die for the branch to end with you.

29:12He didn't die for you to be the last one. He died so that you keep the chain reaction going.

29:21Don't be the domino that doesn't get to the next one.

29:261 Corinthians 9:16.

29:31In fact, yeah, go ahead. Why not? Turn over to 1 Corinthians. So you're in John, you're going to go Acts, Romans, then 1 Corinthians. You're not turning as far this time.

29:40Less paper cut risk. You're welcome. Okay. 1 Corinthians 9:16. All of us need a little bit of this mindset.

29:51The apostle Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 9:16, for if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. All of us need to feel that a little bit, church. Woe is me if I don't share the gospel. Woe is me if I don't evangelize my neighbor.

30:10Woe is me if I don't tell my coworker about Jesus. Woe is me if I don't raise my kids to know the gospel. Woe is me.

30:20That governed Paul's life such that that was about— that was everything that he was about. And he goes on to talk about that. Look down the page. Look at verse 19. He says, for though I am free from all.

30:33I've made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak.

30:59I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I might share with them in its blessings. Church, that's what we need to have as our mindset. Your job, the reason you're still here is because God has people in your life, in your neighborhood, at your workplace, at your dinner table who need to hear the gospel. And need to be brought into saving faith with Jesus Christ.

31:31The Apostle Paul before Agrippa in Acts 26, when he says, hey, are you looking to make me a Christian? Paul says, yep, you and everybody else that hears me.

31:40Or Jude chapter 20, as Jude is writing to the church to contend for the faith, one of the things that he says— Jude chapter 20, Jude verse 20— what kind of Bible does that guy have? Jude verse 20. He says this, he says, you beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Okay, Jude, what am I supposed to do while I'm waiting for the mercy that leads to eternal life? Verse 22, you have mercy on those who doubt.

32:07Save others by snatching them out of the fire, and to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. So Jude says, wait for the mercy from God that's ultimately going to deliver us. And in the meantime, go after everybody else that you can reach. Similarly, 2 Peter chapter 3, 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 9 through 13. This is the passage where Peter says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but he's patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance.

32:40But the day of the Lord will come. Like a thief, and the heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for— and here it is, church— hastening the coming day of God? How in the world can you speed up the return of Christ?

33:07Only one way. You know how? Sharing the gospel. Eventually the last person to be saved is going to be saved, and Christ is coming back for his bride. You want to get there faster?

33:17Share the gospel with more people. Bear more kingdom fruit for Jesus. Pursue more kingdom fruit for Jesus. You're a seed planted in your neighborhood. Are you bearing fruit there?

33:27You're a seed planted in your workplace. Are you bearing fruit there? You're a seed planted as a parent. Are you bearing fruit there? You're a seed On your kid's soccer team, are you bearing fruit there?

33:38Listen, I get it, you can't save anyone, I can't save anyone, I understand that. But you can sideline yourself, you can take yourself off, you can kill the branch on your evangelism tree that led to your salvation. And someday, church, I know this to be true, you're going to stand before the Bema Seat of Christ, and I wonder what he's going to ask you if he says What's your evangelism tree look like? And you're left to say, I don't have any branches.

34:09Why not? I don't know, it was too awkward. I was too busy with other things. I prayed that somebody else would share the gospel with them.

34:21I didn't have the gift of evangelism. You didn't give it to me.

34:26Church, all of us need to be about pursuing more kingdom fruit for Jesus.

34:35But it's not just that. This fruit looks like a life following him, and that life following him looks radically different now. It looks radically different than what we used to look like in the life we used to live. And he goes on to describe this for us in verse 25: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

35:01The word keep there means guard it, preserve it, protect it for eternal life. So he's saying, if you want to guard your life, your eternity with him, with the Lord, with Jesus, then this life is about not loving your life here in all of the trappings that this world provides, but forfeiting it. It's not about loving this world, but hating this life that you have here.

35:27One commentator, D.A. Carson, put it this way: the person who loves his life will lose it. It can't be otherwise, for to love one's life is a fundamental denial of God's sovereignty, of God's rights, and a brazen elevation of self to the apogee, the peak, the pinnacle of one's perception. And therefore an idolatrous focus on self, which is the heart of all sin.

35:55Peter said this, 1 Peter 2:21, for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. Meaning that this life as a believer, as a follower of Jesus, is meant to be lived following an example of suffering. He himself, verse 24, bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

36:22Becoming a disciple of Jesus means embracing a pattern we find first in him. But what does this mean, to hate my life?

36:31How, how do I understand that? Well, how about Luke 14:26? This isn't the first time Jesus has mentioned hating something. If anyone comes to me, Luke 14:26, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. So Jesus has already mentioned this before, but what does it mean to hate?

36:56Surely the ESV went a little strong on this translation. It's got to mean something else. Well, you can look up every other occurrence of this word in the New Testament. You're going to find it translated as hate every other time except for one where it's translated as to despise. So if you would rather despise your life than hate your life, I'm fine with that.

37:12That's okay.

37:15All that to say, we have to wrestle with this term and its implications. What does it mean to hate my life? Well, I think what Jesus is driving at is that our love for him, our devotion to him, our affection for him is so immense that it makes every other relationship that we have on this planet look like hatred. By comparison, that we are so consumed and sold out for Jesus that everything else takes a backseat. It doesn't mean that you are neglectful of your wife or that you hate your children or abuse anyone.

37:49It simply means that no one is unclear about your first love in your life, that no one has a question about where your allegiance ultimately lands. It means that when people look at your relationship with your spouse, they understand that you love your wife as an extension of your love for God. When they look at the way that you raise your children, they understand that your care for your children is more about your stewardship of a resource that God has put in your life than it is about the fact that you want to raise the next generation of kids with a 4.0 GPA who go to Ivy League schools.

38:21It means that you are a fully sold-out follower of Jesus.

38:26In the '70s, the language that they used is you're a Jesus freak.

38:33If you think maybe that's extreme, can I suggest that's only because we've drifted so far away from that paradigm? We've drifted so far away from that being the standard, and we live in the Bible Belt where it's just easy to say, I'm a Christian, because it really doesn't cost us much. But let's go back to what Jesus said first to his disciples, Matthew 16:24, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his— what?— cross. What was a cross meant to do, church? It was meant to kill.

39:06Did Jesus know that?

39:11Yes. Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And lest we think that that's like, well, I did that at the moment of salvation. I died to myself positionally in Christ so that I'd be sanctified, and now I I'm good to go to live my life now from here on out, because after all, I'm not under law but under grace. So, Pastor, quit preaching to me about having to deny myself.

39:30Okay, Jesus says this in Luke 9:23. He says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. Okay, we just heard that. But then he adds this: daily. Every single day, church, the call on our life is to die to ourselves, to take up our cross, to deny ourselves, and to follow him.

39:49And here's the thing. We're not being asked to do anything that Jesus didn't do first. We're simply being asked to follow Him. Verse 26 in John chapter 12, if anyone serves me, he must follow me. He must follow me.

40:01Where I am, there will my servant be also. And if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Philippians chapter 2 explains what Jesus did. Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 8, Paul says, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

40:25And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Church, it's in following his example that we will be kept for eternal life. It's in realizing that when we come to Christ, we are laying our lives down at him and at his feet, saying, I am It's surrendering this life being about me. It's not about me anymore, it's about Him. And it's saying, I'm going to live a life that looks radically different than the life I used to live, which is ultimately going to be noticed by those around us.

40:53It's going to cause them to stop and go, huh, that's different. Because point number 3, we're going to embrace the paradox of living for eternal life. Embrace the paradox of living for eternal life, this upside-down living, because the world is not going to tell you to hate your life. The world is going to feed you, you need self-affirmation, you need self-care, you need to get away, you need to get out of those toxic environments of the church where they're talking about God and Jesus and obedience. You need to get out of all that stuff.

41:22That's not what you need. You need to take care of yourself. Jesus says you need to die to yourself.

41:33We talked about this in our community group this last week.

41:37How much time we waste on temporal things.

41:45We were lamenting as a group, and I'm sure you can resonate with this, how there's those days where you wake up and, man, you nail it. You do your daily Bible reading first thing out of bed. You're like, man, feeling good about this. I did my daily Bible reading. You pray, you pray for your kids before they go to school.

42:00You're patient with everybody at home. You're like, this is good. You get in the car, you're listening to some Christian music, you're listening to some podcasts, and then you get to work, you settle in at work, you're like, this is good. And then that one coworker shows up and all your patience just vanishes and you snap. And you go, what happened?

42:21I did all this stuff this morning. I gave God 30 whole minutes this morning. What gives? Why is my flesh here all of a sudden?

42:33Maybe you haven't been there. I've been there.

42:37And it's because we fall prey to this trap that we have a transactional relationship with God, that if I give him my quiet time, if I give him his due in the morning, then the rest of my day I'm going to be good. That's not the relationship he wants with us. That looks like, God, I'll, I'll, I'll hate my life to the point that I'll wake up earlier than I want to.

42:58But then I want to get back to loving the rest of my life, my comfort, my agenda, my plans, my kids, my stuff. And don't interrupt any of that because I gave you your 30 minutes, God. You don't need any more from me. We did our work together. Isn't that enough?

43:17The answer is no.

43:21How much of your day is focused on the temporal rather than the eternal?

43:26How much of your thought process is about this life rather than the life to come? Jesus told a parable of a rich fool who built his barns and filled them up. And after he had them full, he thought to himself, man, what should I do with all of this wealth? I got an idea. I'm just going to build bigger barns.

43:46And so he tore them down and he built bigger barns. And Jesus said, you fool. You fool! This night your soul is going to be required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

44:03This paradox of living for eternal life, church, is what's going to make you rich towards God. Letting go of the grip on the idols of this life, letting go of the idol of comfort, the idol of ease, the idol of I don't want to be in an awkward situation with my neighbor when I try to tell them about Jesus. Letting go of the idol of your health, letting go of the idol of your time.

44:26Those are the things that are going to store up the riches for you with God. Matthew 16, Jesus put it a different way another time. He said this, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his— what? His soul.

44:42What will it gain a man, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return? For his soul. How much time we spend focused on temporal things. You know what another byproduct of that, church, that I feel like exists rampantly in our culture?

44:59It's one of the reasons why we're doing a whole women's retreat about it, is the anxieties, the fears that we have. How many anxieties and fears are there in your life because your focus is on the here and now instead of the then and there? Because your mindset is governed by the temporal rather than the eternal, because you love this life More than you love Christ.

45:22Again, I'll be honest, church, one of my greatest fears is getting to heaven and finding out how much time I've wasted.

45:29King Solomon wrote a whole book about it, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 2. In Ecclesiastes chapter 2, he's like, you want pleasure? There was nothing that my eyes saw and that I wanted that I didn't give them. That's what he says.

45:44He says, anything I coveted, anything I desired, anything I wanted, I said, give it to me, and I got it. All of the pleasures of this world, all the things in this life that we can be tempted to love more than Jesus, Solomon says, I got it. And what does he say at the end? He says it was all vanity. It's the steam that comes off the cup of coffee.

46:06Feels like you should be able to grab it, and then it's gone. It's vanity. And so what do we do? Well, he helps us. Ecclesiastes 11, he says this: listen, if a person lives many years, okay, let him rejoice in them all, but let him remember that the days of darkness are going to be many.

46:21Old age is coming, the end is coming, and all that comes is vanity. Rejoice, young man, in your youth. Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know Know this, that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment. So Solomon's helping us understand what it looks like to hate my life here.

46:42It doesn't mean that we are Eeyores. It doesn't mean that we're hermits. It doesn't mean that we shut ourselves off from society and culture at all as a whole. He's saying, look, enjoy your life, but enjoy it in light of the fact that you are one day going to stand before the Lord. Enjoy these things as what they are, a gift from him to be enjoyed.

47:00In fact, earlier in Ecclesiastes, he says, No one can enjoy these things unless God gives them the ability to enjoy them. So enjoy your family, take vacations, make the memories, have fun. We just had a wedding yesterday. That's a good thing to celebrate that and rejoice in that. We're not going to sit there with the bride and groom as they're up front going, you guys just got to hate your life.

47:22You got to hate this marriage. This is not going to be fulfilling and satisfying. You don't even need to go on a honeymoon. It's not going to be fun. We're not delivering that message, right?

47:32Because that's not what it means, and we understand that. What it means is we don't put anything above Jesus in our affections. It means that what we have in our life that we love are things that we love because they make us love Jesus more. And if we have something in our life that's not making you love Jesus more but making you love him less, that's an idol. Get rid of it.

47:53Solomon says this at the end of the book. He says, the end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. And so, church, we embrace that paradox of living for eternal life.

48:09It's going to look different than your neighbors. It's going to cost more than it cost them, but the ROI is going to be way better than theirs, unless you get after pursuing them as more kingdom fruit for Jesus.

48:26Parents, when you think about this, what are the values you're instilling in the lives of your kids about this world versus the world to come?

48:36Let me ask it a different way. What's being caught by them more than what's being taught by them?

48:42It's not hard to teach our kids that we should love Jesus more than we love anything else, but what are they learning from how you live your life?

48:51Husbands and wives, what does your relationship communicate about where your affections ultimately lay? Are you looking at your spouse as your Savior, or are you loving your spouse as an extension of your love of your Savior?

49:09Singles, are you using this unique season in your life To serve the Lord even more freely than you might otherwise if God brings a relationship into your life.

49:25That's Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. You're free from these anxieties. Are you fully devoted to serving the Lord?

49:35Just Christian in general, church, are we living in such a way that people would look at our life and say, huh, That's different.

49:45That's different. Admittedly, this is a hard balance to find, this balance of embracing this paradox of how can I love my kids, love my wife in such a way that ultimately is an extension of my love for Jesus. There's so many pursuits, there's so many things, there's so many distractions in this life that can pull us away. But an awareness of this at least is imperative for us to be able to give intentional thought to how to be there. How to live this out, how to live this way.

50:12The Christian life is different.

50:15It's different, and all of it matters because Jesus died for you.

50:22Again, that's why you're here. You're here because Jesus died for you. If you're not, then you're not here for the right reason.

50:33This is about him, and the only reason we can come here and have access this morning like we do is because of his death and the forgiveness that he secured for us at the cross. I'm going to pray.

50:47God, thanks for this morning, for your kindness to us, your goodness, your love. Thanks for Jesus. Thanks that you did give him for us and for our sins, that we would have access to you. Thank you that we can be righteous not in our own righteousness but in his. Thank you that we have forgiveness when we do sin.

51:06Thank you that we have the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. Lord, thank you.

51:14Father, we are blessed to have this body of believers around us as well, that you saved us not into a life of individual rogue Christianity but into a life where we get to love each other and encourage each other and stir one another up towards love and good deeds. Even as we sang at the beginning before the sermon, by faith the church was called to go in the power of the Spirit to the lost.

51:38God, I'm so grateful for Jesus. Without him, we truly are wasting our time. But with him, this is one of the most important things we can do all week long. So we pray that you'd be pleased with our offerings this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.