Dying to Live (II)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
The Apostle said in 1st Timothy chapter 1 and verse 15, "It is a trustworthy saying, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost." Christ came into the world to save sinners. The Shepherd came to lay down His life for the sheep.
When He came to this earth to give His life for His sheep, He was not only coming to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He had other sheep not of that fold, and He must also bring them into the fold. When He said those words—you remember when we studied that in John chapter 10—He was speaking of the fact that He would not save Jews only, but He would also save Gentiles. That explains why we're here today.
Indeed, as He says here in verse 32, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." Meaning all categories of men. "For God so loved the world, that He gave —His one and only Son,— His only begotten Son." In these verses, we're getting a small glimpse of the end of the ages, the age that was to come as Jesus encountered this request made by the Greeks to meet Him, these Gentiles. A glimpse of an age that was to come, the very age that we're living in right now, known as the time of the Gentiles.
This is the connection between the request of the Jews, the Gentile proselytes to see Jesus, and our Lord's proclamation that His hour had come, had arrived. He's come to save the world. Not every man without exception, but every man without distinction. But the saving purpose could only be accomplished one way and one way only. And there is no other way. There is no other option. There is no other alternative.
There would be no salvation without a sacrifice. There would be no life without death. It had to be accomplished that way. It had to be accomplished by death, the shedding of the blood. There had to be the death of the Son of God, the shed blood of Christ, the Lamb of God for there to be life indeed.
But we also discover here that not only would Christ have to die in order for us to be saved, there's also a sense in which we have to die in order to be saved. And I want us to see this together this morning. The first thing I want us to notice in verse 24, to pick up where we left off, the clear illustration.
Last week we considered the coming of some Greeks, verses 20 to 23. Then we consider the contrast with the Pharisees, verse 19 and verse 21. This morning we will consider together the clear illustration, this clear analogy that Jesus uses. And that's found in verses 24 through 26.
Look at the text with me. Verse 24: "Truly, truly,” — amēn, amēn. He's saying something here when he says that, this formula, this expression, amen, amen. He's saying something here that he wants us to particularly pay careful attention to. We can't miss this. We can't afford to miss this. This is underscored, underlined, bold italics. “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." Very simple agricultural example that He uses to make His point that there would be no wheat harvest apart from His death. No harvest apart from His death.
The grain of wheat, the seed of the wheat, doesn't produce anything whatsoever until the process of sowing and death takes place. Once the grain is sown and it dies, then from that death will come out a harvest, life. That's the illustration.
You say, well, what's the point of the illustration? It's a great question. Well, beloved, the point is clear. Despite the response of the crowds and the day of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, there wasn't going to be a kingdom without a cross. There wasn't going to be a kingdom without a cross.
He had not entered into the city to bring about a political kingdom that so many of the Jews envisioned. To be set free from the bondage to Rome. That is not why He came. He's come to bring about a kingdom not of this world. And that kingdom required that the King also be the Lamb of God.
You remember that, right? The Lamb of God. The Lamb of God that delivers His people by His very death, deliver them from the domain of darkness, that they may come into His marvelous light. Beloved, He came to die. Jesus came to die. He came to save His people from their sins.
And the first part of this explains, number one, under this heading, the clear illustration, the necessity of His death. He came to die. He came to lay down His life. This explains the necessity of His death. The first part, He says, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone." In other words, apart from the death of this grain of wheat, there will be no harvest. There is no harvest. This is the explanation of how disciples will be made. It's the only explanation how disciples will be made. Apart from Christ, apart from His life, His perfect life, His death, apart from His death on the cross, there would be no disciples. No disciples whatsoever.
There is no sheepfold unless there's a shepherd who gives His life, who lays down His life for the sheep. There's no way to approach a holy God if Christ doesn't die. And though that's simple for those of us who've been in the faith for some time, this is something we must declare to the world, that sinful man, lost, condemned, sinful man, cannot come to the thrice holy God directly. You don't just simply walk into the presence of the thrice holy God. Apart from reconciliation through the blood of the Lamb of God, there is no access to God. There is no reconciliation with God.
Jesus said that very plainly, didn't He? John 14, verse 6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man, — no one, no one. That means absolutely no one — comes to the Father but through Me." And in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, the apostle Paul echoes the same truth: "There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” And apart from Him, there is no way into the presence of God. There aren't different ways into the presence of God. There's only one way, and that's through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So apart from the death of Christ, there would be no harvest, there would be no kingdom, there would be no church, there would be no disciples. That's the meaning of the illustration. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains"—what?—"alone." There is the necessity of His death. Apply it to Him. Apply it to Him, the Redeemer. There's the necessity of His death—no death, no harvest. No death, no harvest.
J.C. Ryle puts it this way, commenting on this truth concerning the death of Christ: "The death of Christ was the life of the world. From it, as a most prolific seed, was to spring an enormous harvest of blessing to souls and of glory to God. His substitution on the cross, His atoning death, were to be the beginning of untold blessings to a lost world. To wish Him not to die, to dislike the idea of His death, as the disciples evidently did, was as foolish as to keep seed corn locked up in the granary and to refuse to sow it. I am the corn of wheat, Jesus seems to say. Unless I die, whatever you and your private opinion may think, My purpose in coming into the world will not be accomplished. But if I die, multitudes of souls will be saved."
But not only is there that in that illustration, the necessity of His death that we see here very clearly. There's also in that illustration, that clear illustration, the certainty of life. Not only the necessity of life, of death, but the certainty of life. Look at the text: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone." Now notice, “but if it dies,” — what happens, Lord? What happens?— "It bears much fruit." You see it? "It bears much fruit." Christ speaks in such a way as to teach us that if He dies, if He lays down His life, there will be a harvest. There'll be fruit. There will be fruit.
He puts it plainly, the verses we read now more than once last week and even this morning. Look at verse 32 and verse 33: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was about to die.” He will draw all people to Himself. There will be a harvest. There will be fruit from His death. There is no doubt about it.
We understand, don't we, that Jesus Christ did not come to this earth to die only to make salvation potential. Right? No, no. He didn't come here to die only to make salvation possible, available. No, no, beloved. He came to die in order to make salvation actual. He came to die in order to actually save His people from their sins.
His atonement accomplished redemption for all those who were given to Him as a gift by the Father before time. The Father before time gave a people unto His Son for redemption. And Christ came into the earth to lay down His life for the sheep, His sheep. And when He died on the cross, the harvest was secure. Make no mistake about it. They were all brought to Him. We were brought to Him through the preaching of the gospel and the powerful, effectual, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
There must be, of course, repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in order for there to be salvation. But mark it down. His death secured not only the end, but the means to the end. He accomplished redemption by His death. There will be a harvest. He's saying if there's this death, then inevitably, unmistakably, there'll be fruit.
Do you realize, beloved, if God is not sovereign in salvation, if salvation is not of the Lord, if indeed salvation is something like this—this is purely hypothetical, it's impossible—but if salvation were to be like this, you know, God says, I'm going to do my part. But it's not going to be effectual. It's not going to accomplish anything apart from man in his natural condition joining his will to Mine. I'm going to do everything from My end to save sinners. I'm going to set it before them, and then I'm going to leave it up to them. Can these dead bones, dry bones, live?
Do you understand that if that's the way salvation is, there was absolutely no guarantee that the death of Christ would bring about even one person to salvation? In fact, I would put it bluntly, biblically, there would be absolute guarantee that no person would be saved left to himself. Christ would have to come, shed His precious blood on a tree. He would have been raised from the dead. The gospel proclaimed to the ends of the earth. And no one received Him. No one would receive Him—which is impossible. Absolutely impossible.
But when you read the Word of God and pay attention to what it says about the work of Christ, you find that there was something far more certain than that. There will be much fruit, actual fruit. Salvation is actual, not potential. Why? Because God not only accomplished in Christ all that is necessary to save sinners from the standpoint of the adequate, finished sacrifice, but God has also promised and proclaimed and declared and determined to do everything necessary to bring those people to His Son whom He has determined. He has determined to bring them before time and to save through the preaching of the gospel and through the work of regeneration, granting them as a gift, repentance and faith.
Salvation is of the Lord, beginning to end. Only Jesus saves. So the first way that this illustration is applied is to the Lord Jesus Himself. It speaks of the necessity of His death. It speaks of the certainty of life that will come from His death. He will draw all people to Himself and there will be fruit as a result. There will be a harvest as a result of His death.
But then He does something interesting. He takes this analogy, the same illustration, and now He broadens out the application. And this is amazing. This paradox of life coming out of death, life coming through death, doesn't just apply to the Savior. It also applies to those who are saved. Obviously, we're not talking about applied in a redemptive fashion.
You see, because He died, we have life. That's the primary cause of our life. His death—His death secured for us all of the benefits and the gifts through which He has brought life to us. But it is also true to say that He's brought us this life in such a way by the Holy Spirit that His disciples are made to die in order that they may have life.
Let me put it this way. We are saved by grace alone. Grace alone. Grace plus nothing. Alone. Grace plus nothing. By faith alone. Faith plus nothing. Christ alone. Christ plus nothing. But the faith that is the product of God's grace to us in Christ is a faith that brings about a willingness to die in order to have life. In fact, we are called upon through the gospel to surrender our lives, to lose our lives in order to have life that is found only in Christ. Exclusively in Christ. We're called to die. We're called to lose our lives in order to live.
What will be true? What will characterize a true disciple of Jesus Christ? Someone who is made alive indeed through His death, through the death of Christ. What will mark them? What will characterize them? What will characterize such an individual? Look at the text. Verse 24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Then He says this: "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him."
Four things. Four things we have here. Four characteristics that will mark a true disciple of Jesus. And the first one we meet with is this. Number one. A disciple of Jesus has lost his life. A disciple of Jesus has lost his life. If you are truly saved, you've lost your life.
Look at the text. He says in verse 25, "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life." He who loves his life. Let's start there. "He who loves his life loses it." This is an absolute statement of truth on the part of our Lord. No wiggle room. Absolute statement of truth. He wants us to know this in no uncertain terms. "He who loves his life"—whoever loves his life—what? "Loses it." Loses it.
What is He talking about? Look at the word life. The word life here is the Greek word psychē. Psychē. The soul. The soul of man. The personality of the man. Who he is. The man himself. If anyone holds on to—this is what He's saying—if anyone holds on to life as he has always known it, if he holds on to his life as he's always assessed it, if he holds on to his life as he's always lived it, if he wants to hold on to that life, Jesus says, he will what? Lose it. He'll lose his life. That is, he will perish without God. He will spend eternity separated from God. If he seeks to hold on to this life, his life, he will lose it. If he loves his life in this world, he'll lose it.
What kind of a man is it who holds on to his life? Clutches to his life? Well, this is the man who lives according to the way that seems right to him. You know, this is the way I've always lived my life. This is the way I look at life. This is the way I was raised to look at life. This is the way my parents looked at life. Or, I live my life differently than my parents. I have my own way. My own thinking. Life as it seems right to him.
To say it another way, this is the man who lives his life using the language of Ecclesiastes: under the sun. Under the sun, life lived without a heavenly perspective. Life lived as though God were not there. Life lived under the sun. This is the man who walks according to Ephesians 2. According to the course of this age. According to this world. According to the mindset of this age. This present age. This is the man who lives his life indulging the desires of the mind and of the flesh. Living according to the boastful pride of life.
And then at some point, this man is confronted with the claims of the gospel. Here is this man living life the way he has always lived it. He comes face to face with the truth of the gospel. The truth of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And this demand that if he wants life—true life—then he must be willing to relinquish his life and come all the way to Jesus, empty handed, Christ who is able to save. He must be willing to turn from life as he has always known it. Turn from his own ways and come all the way to Christ. Believing that the death of Christ is enough to pay for his sins. That Christ's merits are enough to make him right with God. Losing his life to gain Christ.
But, tragically, this man responds and says, no, thank you. No, thank you. I love my life like this. I want it to stay like it is. I love my darling sins. I love myself. He looks at his life and he thinks this life that he's lived out of fellowship with God, this life that he's lived in this godless fashion, he thinks it's a life worth keeping. I don't want to lose this. I don't want to give up this and that and the other. I don't want to give this up. I don't want to forfeit this. Oh, the pleasures of sin.
Isn't it amazing? I mean, if you've paid attention to this at all. Isn't it amazing that men think—what men think to be more valuable than their soul? Have you ever considered that? I don't want to stop getting high. I don't want to stop being promiscuous. I don't want to stop living for the stock market and accumulating wealth. Because that's their idol. It's not like having money. It's money has them.
Friend, have you noticed that your body is wasted away? Have you noticed that you've lost your relationships? Have you noticed how your children have turned out? What are you holding on to? What is so valuable? I don't want to lose this relationship. I don't want to lose this. I don't want to lose that.
This man says no. I love my life. Jesus says that man will lose his life. The way that seems right to a man ends in what? Destruction. Death. Proverbs 14:13: "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." The life that is lived under the sun indeed proves to be vanity of vanities. All is vanity. The life that is lived according to the course of this world is the easy path that ends in what? Destruction. Horrible tragedy. And the man who seeks to save his life, our Lord says, loses it.
Mark 8:35: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it." He will be eternally lost. He will be lost without God. He will be lost without Christ. He'll be lost without forgiveness. And he will be lost without hope.
And you know the word "lose it"? The word "lose" is a powerful word. Apollymi. Literally, it means to destroy. To perish. Given over to eternal misery in hell, to use the biblical definition. "For whoever desires to save his life” —will destroy it, will cause it to perish in hell,— “will lose it." People lose their wallet. They lose their rings and important documents. But the greatest loss of all is to lose one's soul. And it's permanent.
Jesus speaks in absolute terms. And He says if you continue to live your life your own way and do your own thing, what seems right in your own eyes, you will lose your life forever. Eternally. He speaks in absolute categories. There are only two options here: to accept or to reject. You're either saved or lost.
But notice the second part of the statement. In John 12:25, He says, "He who loves his life loses it." And now, just as certain as this statement—"and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life."
Second, a disciple of Christ has kept his life. Has kept his life. A disciple of Christ has kept his life. What does it mean to hate your life? Well, it is the opposite of loving it. It is the opposite of loving it. It means that the one for whom Christ died is the one who recognizes that he desperately needs a new life. The one for whom Christ died is the one who realizes that he doesn't have a life worth keeping, a life worth holding on to. He doesn't have a life worth clinging to in comparison. He hates it. And he's willing to forfeit it. He's willing to let go of it—all of it. He's willing to walk away from it.
We can say it this way: he has been awakened. His eyes are wide open. Now, it's not that his life is different all of a sudden than it was before. And he says, you know, for a while I had a life worth keeping, but now I realize I need a new life. You know, this life has kind of gotten worn out a bit. And if it was like it used to be, I would hang on to it and hold on to it. But now I'm willing to let go of it. It's not worth much anymore. No, no, it's not like that at all. That's not what we're talking about.
What has happened is he's been awakened to what his life has really been like all along. He just couldn't see it before. But now he sees it. He sees it. He sees it for what it is. He sees himself for what he is. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind”—oh, “but now I see.” I see.
He sees his sinfulness. He sees his emptiness. He sees his guiltiness before a thrice holy God. And he sees his utter helplessness. And he can't do one thing to save himself. He can't do one thing to change himself. A leopard can't change its spot. And a man can't change his own sinful, wicked, wretched heart. Deceitful heart.
But he also sees something else. Oh, he sees the hope that has been set before him by God. He sees that God has opened a way through the death of His Son for all of his sins—all of them—to be forgiven. To be canceled. And for this man to be made a new creature in Christ. And to be reconciled to a holy God. He sees this. He sees it for the first time.
And because he sees this now, the demand of the gospel that we repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ—that demand that says lose your life or forfeit it, lose your life for the life of Christ—that demand now no longer seems like a demand. Now it sounds like the most unbelievable, glorious, precious, gracious, merciful offer in the entire universe. And it is. It is.
God, You mean You will take me? Ha! I can't believe it. You will take me? Here's my life. Ruined. Undone before You. Not worthy to stand before You. Clothed in filthy rags. All my righteousness as filthy rags in Your sight. You mean You would receive me just as I am and transform me? Forgive me? Reconcile me to Yourself? Clothe me with the perfect righteousness of Your own beloved Son? Take my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh? Make me a new creature? You would do this for me, God?
This is not some difficult demand, is it? It's glorious. It's a glorious offer of mercy, of grace.
I wonder, I wonder, have you ever seen that? Where are you at today? Are you one who's holding on to your life? Or are you one who has hated his life? And Jesus says here—look at verse 25—that "he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life." A different Greek word than psychē. This word is zōē. Often associated with eternal life. Divine life.
Hold on to life as you've always known it and you will never know divine life. You will never know the life that is in Christ. You will never know eternal life. Hate life as you've known it. Turn from it. Abandon it. Forfeit it. Turn to Christ and God will give you life in His Son. Real life. Zōē life.
A disciple of Jesus has lost his life. That's what it means to be a disciple. We've lost our life. That's what the Lord does. He brings us face to face with whatever is most important to us. Whatever is your life, your god, He brings us face to face with that. And when He brings you to faith in Himself, the one thing that stands out to you is this: Are you prepared to turn away? To abandon? To forsake your idol? And follow Me? Just like the Thessalonians did. How you turned to God from idols. To serve the living God.
Are you prepared to turn away? When He brings you to faith in Himself, the one thing that stands out to you is this: Are you prepared to let go? To abandon? To forsake your idol? And follow Me? Now who do you choose? What do you choose? Will you lose your life? Will you lose what you've held on to all your life as making you important, significant, giving you meaning, giving you pleasure? Will you turn away from all of it?
And you know, you may be one who was brought up in a Christian home, grew up in Sunday school, Bible studies, memorized scriptures, been many times to different Christian retreats and nobody thinks you're lost, but you know, you know you're lost. Jesus says, you know you don't have Me. Now in order to have Me, you're going to have to admit that you don't have Me. Are you willing to lose the impression in the minds of others that you're My disciples, my disciple? Are you willing to be honest about your spiritual condition in order to have life?
And you know what? Even after the Lord saves us, beloved, even after He rescues us, doesn't He down the road of His discipleship of us, this road of discipleship, down this road of sanctification and conformity to the image of Christ, doesn't He continue to bring us face to face with who is more important and what is more important? We're cut from the same cloth. I know I need that reminder. Don't we go on choosing Him above all else?
And there are times in our lives, if we'll be honest before God, that we allow things to creep in that ought not to be there in terms of greater priority than they should have. And what happens is that we experience the coldness that comes into our lives when that occurs. And all over again, we must repent and place Him above all else because Christ must have the place of preeminence. Will you lose your life to have Him?
Look at Colossians 3 for just a moment. Turn with me to Colossians 3. We see a living example of this in verse 1 and following: "Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry."
Now let me make the obvious point. You realize, don't you, that he's saying this to believers. He's saying this to believers. You've died with Christ. Your life has been hidden with Him. Now seek the things above. You must go on putting to death what is earthly in you. Keep your foot pressed down on the pedal.
And realize this also, verse 6: "On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. In them you also”—past tense—”once walked when you were living in them. But now you also, lay them all aside." —You don't walk anymore in them, but you fight with those pockets of resistance. Lay them aside, all of them:— “wrath, anger, malice, slander, abuse of speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with its evil practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the One who created him."
That's what we must do. Put to death these things that are earthly because now our life is in Christ.
Our life is Christ. We must seek the things above. This was Paul's attitude about it himself. Turn over to Philippians 3, that familiar portion of the Word of God. Philippians 3. Notice this is his attitude about it.
Verse 1. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 1: "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation. For we are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more.” —Verse 5— “Circumcise the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ."
You know, I could have held on to all of that, life as I've always known it, Saul of Tarsus. I could have held on to all of that from an earthly point of view, but blessed be God, from a sovereign point of view, we couldn't have. He couldn't have. It was Christ's purpose to save him, and he would be saved.
But notice what he says in verse 8: "More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."
This is the value system. This is the set of values that is produced in the heart when God does His work. When God brings awakening. Now all that stuff that I thought was valuable, now I see it as rubbish. To be more specific, as dung. The stuff that the world would count to be righteousness. The stuff that the world would count to be reputation. It's all a trash heap compared to having that righteousness that comes from God, that is by faith in Jesus Christ. It's trash. It's dung compared to knowing Christ, and I am more than prepared and willing to lose it all, to have Christ my treasure.
Whoever hates his life in this world, whoever is willing to lose it all to have Christ, will keep it. Life eternal. 1 John 5:12: "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son does not have the life." Matthew 16:25: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
A disciple of Jesus has lost his life. A disciple of Jesus has kept his life. He hasn't lived his life in this world. He's hated it, and as a result, he hasn't loved his life in this world. Pardon me. He's hated it, and as a result, he's kept his soul. He has been saved, redeemed. God has given him life in His Son.
Back to John 12. There's a third thing that I want us to see concerning a genuine disciple, the characteristics of a genuine disciple. He's lost his life. He's kept his life. Thirdly, a disciple of Jesus is a servant of Christ. He's a servant of Christ. Look at verse 26: "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him."
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? What does it mean that you've been saved, have life? Well, you've become a servant of Christ. You've become a servant of Christ. And this service, by the way, is spiritual. It's spiritual service because you see the words there? Anyone serves, diakoneō, my servant, diakonos. We get the word deacon. Deacon. It's a spiritual service.
We're living for Christ in this world, in an active way, in concrete decisions. It's a spiritual service. It's worship unto God. It's worshipful. We worship Him as we live with Him and for Him. This service is spiritual. It's a spiritual service.
But it's also, the service is perpetual. It's perpetual. This is in the present active. If anyone keeps on serving Him, if anyone keeps on serving Me, it's a perpetual service, ongoing, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We live for Him all the time. We live for Him as a pattern of life.
And this service also, look at it, is submissive. If anyone serves Me, he must what? Follow Me. Follow Me. It is a pursuit. We follow Him. And how do we know where to go to follow Jesus? We find it here in His Word. It means to follow Him and no longer to walk according to the course of this world, but to live in such a way that you follow Christ step by step.
It means that you no longer follow the crowd, but you follow Christ. It means to follow Him if everyone followed Him or no one follows Him. By the grace of God, I will follow Him. It means to no longer follow the majority. It means to no longer follow the minority. It means to follow Christ submissively. It means to pursue Him. It means to love Him, to adore Him, to obey Him. It means to walk as He walked, an imitation of the very righteous lifestyle of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, I would speak as He spoke. I would live as He lived. I would rejoice in what He rejoiced over, and I would weep over what He wept over. I would make His priorities my priorities. I would make His goals my goals. I am to follow Christ.
This service is also personal. Personal. Who do we follow? We follow Him. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me. It's personal. It's a personal pursuit that we may know Him. It's in the context of fellowship, knowing Christ, walking with Christ.
And this service that we offer is exclusive. Exclusive. “If anyone,” —verse 26,— “serves Me, He must follow Me. And where I am,” —notice,— “there My servant will be also.” Whose servant are you? He says, My servant. Whose servant are you? Nobody's but Christ. Nobody's but Christ. Then under Christ, we serve others. Unto the Lord. But we serve Christ. We are His servant. And this service, notice with me, is loyal. It is loyal service. If anyone serves me, He must follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. The disciples of Christ, as a pattern, where are they? They are wherever the Lord is. They're loyal to Christ. Where would we go? He has the words of eternal life.
Now, along the way, we may stumble. We may fall. We may be like Peter sometimes and stumble and fail. But at the end of his life, Peter was faithful, ultimately gave his life for Christ. These are the disciples of Jesus. They've lost their life. They found their life in Him. And they serve Him in this world. They serve Him perpetually. They serve Him submissively. Personally, exclusively, loyally, they serve Him.
I love how, S. Louis Johnson summed it up, and there's an application for us. Listen to what he said. Quote, "So what does this life come down to? Following our Lord. What does it come down to, following our Lord? He says, witnessing. He answers, no. Praying, no. Teaching, no. Singing, no. Preaching, no. Giving, no. Working, no. Following Him. All of these things flow out of following Him. Following the church, no. Following Him. It's very simple, isn't it? He says, follow Him. The rest will flow.”
He goes on to say, “what kind of path did He take? What kind of path did He take? He fell into the ground and died.”— Building on the analogy. That was the path. He fell into the ground and died. In other words, what God the Father wished Him to do was His determining principle.— “And I suggest to you,"— he goes on to say,— "you who are Christians in this audience, that the determining principle of your fruitfulness as a Christian, and your ultimate happiness as a Christian, will be the extent of which you follow Him and follow Him in death. Death to your pleasures. Death to your ambitions. Death to your goals. Those things are peculiarly yours, in which you put other things before the Lord Jesus Christ." End of quote.
Well, I must hasten. That brings us to the last thing He says here. He says in verse 26, "If anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him." Fourthly, a disciple of Jesus will be honoured. Will be honoured. Honoured. And it's a personal honour. I mean, if it's something that God is involved in personally, the Father will honour him. This is something the Father does.
And it's a promised honour. It's a promised honour. Not a wishful thinking honour. This is a promised honour. Christ promises this. "If anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him." He's holding out this promise to us. Whose acceptance are you interested in? Whose pleasure are you living for? Do you realize that if you follow Me, you have pleased the Father? This is acceptable to the Father. This is something the Father honours. God honours.
And notice it's a future honour. This is a future active "will honour." "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Come into the kingdom prepared for those who love My Son." And it may also be a martyr's honour. Maybe the same kind of glory that Jesus speaks of in verse 23 when He says, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." How is He going to be glorified? On a tree.
Look over to Mark chapter 10. Mark 10, look at verse 28. Mark 10, verse 28, Peter began to say to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You." Remember what was Peter's concern? This is right after the rich young ruler encounter. He's come to Christ. Jesus told that young man he had to take all of his possessions, sell them, give to the poor, follow Him. Then he would have treasure in heaven. The young man was saddened and went away grieving, the Bible tells us. And he was one who owned—for he was one who owned—much property. Jesus put His finger on his idol.
And Jesus talked about the difficulty in verse 23. “Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God." Why is it difficult? Well, because what is required to enter the kingdom of God is the loss of one's life to have His. Faith in Christ is that—the surrender of one's life to Him. And how many people who have much wealth think that it's real treasure. And compared to the value of knowing Christ, they consider it to be of a greater treasure and it causes them to live relying on their sense of independence from God, being dependent on no one else except their own wealth and power. That's why it's hard.
Verse 24, “the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were even more astonished, saying to Him, “Then who can be saved?" If this is what is required—the loss of one's life in this world, hatred of one's life in this world to follow the Son of God—then who can be saved?
And verse 27, “looking at them, Jesus said, With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." Do you realize, do you realize, beloved, you, believer, are a human impossibility? That I'm a human impossibility? But you are what you are because it was possible with God. Who brought you to see the relative trash value of your life compared with knowing Jesus? Who brought you to the place of surrender to Him, brokenness, repentance from sin, turning to Him for life? Who did that? You didn't do that. God did that. No preacher did that in you. No pastor did that in you. No one did that. God did that in you. No amount of persuasion could have ever done that in you. God did that in you. He gave you sight. He shined His light into your heart. He made you know who Christ really is and what you really were. He did that.
“And Peter,”— verse 28,—”began to say to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You." Lord, what about us? What about us? This is us. This is what's been done in us. What about us?
Look at verse 29. “Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, except one who will receive one hundred times as much now in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life." Isn't it wonderful that when you lose everything for the sake of Christ and the gospel, at that very moment, you gain everything? That is, you have fellowship with God, and in terms of all that you've lost, you've gained a hundredfold.
You say, what do you mean? Well, I mean that in this precious body, for example, I have houses. I mean, if something, God forbid, were to happen to my family, would you not take care of us? Well, you could say the same thing yourself. I have brothers and sisters. Maybe somebody here in this congregation, because of your relationship with Jesus Christ, you've lost your relationship with your earthly brother. Do you realize you have brothers here? You have sisters. You have fathers.
Some of you, you don't have any grandparents for your kids. They don't want anything to do with you because you walk with Jesus, but you have fathers, and mothers, and grandfathers, and your kids have people in Christ who love them, and are willing to teach them, and look out for them. You lost everything, but you gained everything. And let us not miss the point. Let us not miss the note—end of verse 30—along with persecutions. It's listed among the blessings of God.
Matthew 5:10–12, right? Makarios. “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for my name's sake.” You receive. You gain that, too. And this may be how the Lord chooses to glorify Himself and honor you, honor your faith in Christ, and in the age to come, eternal life. The Gospel presents a great apparent paradox. To have life, there must be death. Christ had to die in order for there to be a harvest. His death ensured a harvest. We had to die in order to enter His harvest, and that was not from us. That was a gift from God. The repentance that we experienced and the faith that we had in Christ was a result of regeneration, but then there's also this truth. We may have to die in order to see more into the harvest. We've lost our lives to gain Christ. Now, would we be willing to lose our life to see others gain Christ? We've gained houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, but are we willing to receive, also, persecutions for His sake and the Gospel's sake? And if in God's wisdom and sovereign plan, it becomes really difficult to be a Christian, if it really begins to cost more than it ever cost to be a disciple, will we be found where our Master is? Will we be found following Him? If we're truly His servants, we will buy the grace of God. Only buy the grace of God. As I close this morning, I wonder, what is it today that is more important in your life than Christ? What would you say that is? Let me put it this way. What would He put His finger on Himself and say, is it Me or is it that? Is it Me or is it them? Is it Me or is it her? Is it Me or is it him? Is it Me or is it that job, that career? Is it Me or is it acceptance of your family, acceptance of your peers? Is it Me or is it your reputation? Is it Me or is it that gain? Is it Me? Is it Me? And may we all be able to say today, “for to me, to live is Christ.” —and only then we would be able to say,— “and to die is” —what?— “gain.” Let's pray.
When He came to this earth to give His life for His sheep, He was not only coming to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He had other sheep not of that fold, and He must also bring them into the fold. When He said those words—you remember when we studied that in John chapter 10—He was speaking of the fact that He would not save Jews only, but He would also save Gentiles. That explains why we're here today.
Indeed, as He says here in verse 32, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." Meaning all categories of men. "For God so loved the world, that He gave —His one and only Son,— His only begotten Son." In these verses, we're getting a small glimpse of the end of the ages, the age that was to come as Jesus encountered this request made by the Greeks to meet Him, these Gentiles. A glimpse of an age that was to come, the very age that we're living in right now, known as the time of the Gentiles.
This is the connection between the request of the Jews, the Gentile proselytes to see Jesus, and our Lord's proclamation that His hour had come, had arrived. He's come to save the world. Not every man without exception, but every man without distinction. But the saving purpose could only be accomplished one way and one way only. And there is no other way. There is no other option. There is no other alternative.
There would be no salvation without a sacrifice. There would be no life without death. It had to be accomplished that way. It had to be accomplished by death, the shedding of the blood. There had to be the death of the Son of God, the shed blood of Christ, the Lamb of God for there to be life indeed.
But we also discover here that not only would Christ have to die in order for us to be saved, there's also a sense in which we have to die in order to be saved. And I want us to see this together this morning. The first thing I want us to notice in verse 24, to pick up where we left off, the clear illustration.
Last week we considered the coming of some Greeks, verses 20 to 23. Then we consider the contrast with the Pharisees, verse 19 and verse 21. This morning we will consider together the clear illustration, this clear analogy that Jesus uses. And that's found in verses 24 through 26.
Look at the text with me. Verse 24: "Truly, truly,” — amēn, amēn. He's saying something here when he says that, this formula, this expression, amen, amen. He's saying something here that he wants us to particularly pay careful attention to. We can't miss this. We can't afford to miss this. This is underscored, underlined, bold italics. “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." Very simple agricultural example that He uses to make His point that there would be no wheat harvest apart from His death. No harvest apart from His death.
The grain of wheat, the seed of the wheat, doesn't produce anything whatsoever until the process of sowing and death takes place. Once the grain is sown and it dies, then from that death will come out a harvest, life. That's the illustration.
You say, well, what's the point of the illustration? It's a great question. Well, beloved, the point is clear. Despite the response of the crowds and the day of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, there wasn't going to be a kingdom without a cross. There wasn't going to be a kingdom without a cross.
He had not entered into the city to bring about a political kingdom that so many of the Jews envisioned. To be set free from the bondage to Rome. That is not why He came. He's come to bring about a kingdom not of this world. And that kingdom required that the King also be the Lamb of God.
You remember that, right? The Lamb of God. The Lamb of God that delivers His people by His very death, deliver them from the domain of darkness, that they may come into His marvelous light. Beloved, He came to die. Jesus came to die. He came to save His people from their sins.
And the first part of this explains, number one, under this heading, the clear illustration, the necessity of His death. He came to die. He came to lay down His life. This explains the necessity of His death. The first part, He says, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone." In other words, apart from the death of this grain of wheat, there will be no harvest. There is no harvest. This is the explanation of how disciples will be made. It's the only explanation how disciples will be made. Apart from Christ, apart from His life, His perfect life, His death, apart from His death on the cross, there would be no disciples. No disciples whatsoever.
There is no sheepfold unless there's a shepherd who gives His life, who lays down His life for the sheep. There's no way to approach a holy God if Christ doesn't die. And though that's simple for those of us who've been in the faith for some time, this is something we must declare to the world, that sinful man, lost, condemned, sinful man, cannot come to the thrice holy God directly. You don't just simply walk into the presence of the thrice holy God. Apart from reconciliation through the blood of the Lamb of God, there is no access to God. There is no reconciliation with God.
Jesus said that very plainly, didn't He? John 14, verse 6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man, — no one, no one. That means absolutely no one — comes to the Father but through Me." And in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, the apostle Paul echoes the same truth: "There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” And apart from Him, there is no way into the presence of God. There aren't different ways into the presence of God. There's only one way, and that's through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So apart from the death of Christ, there would be no harvest, there would be no kingdom, there would be no church, there would be no disciples. That's the meaning of the illustration. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains"—what?—"alone." There is the necessity of His death. Apply it to Him. Apply it to Him, the Redeemer. There's the necessity of His death—no death, no harvest. No death, no harvest.
J.C. Ryle puts it this way, commenting on this truth concerning the death of Christ: "The death of Christ was the life of the world. From it, as a most prolific seed, was to spring an enormous harvest of blessing to souls and of glory to God. His substitution on the cross, His atoning death, were to be the beginning of untold blessings to a lost world. To wish Him not to die, to dislike the idea of His death, as the disciples evidently did, was as foolish as to keep seed corn locked up in the granary and to refuse to sow it. I am the corn of wheat, Jesus seems to say. Unless I die, whatever you and your private opinion may think, My purpose in coming into the world will not be accomplished. But if I die, multitudes of souls will be saved."
But not only is there that in that illustration, the necessity of His death that we see here very clearly. There's also in that illustration, that clear illustration, the certainty of life. Not only the necessity of life, of death, but the certainty of life. Look at the text: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone." Now notice, “but if it dies,” — what happens, Lord? What happens?— "It bears much fruit." You see it? "It bears much fruit." Christ speaks in such a way as to teach us that if He dies, if He lays down His life, there will be a harvest. There'll be fruit. There will be fruit.
He puts it plainly, the verses we read now more than once last week and even this morning. Look at verse 32 and verse 33: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was about to die.” He will draw all people to Himself. There will be a harvest. There will be fruit from His death. There is no doubt about it.
We understand, don't we, that Jesus Christ did not come to this earth to die only to make salvation potential. Right? No, no. He didn't come here to die only to make salvation possible, available. No, no, beloved. He came to die in order to make salvation actual. He came to die in order to actually save His people from their sins.
His atonement accomplished redemption for all those who were given to Him as a gift by the Father before time. The Father before time gave a people unto His Son for redemption. And Christ came into the earth to lay down His life for the sheep, His sheep. And when He died on the cross, the harvest was secure. Make no mistake about it. They were all brought to Him. We were brought to Him through the preaching of the gospel and the powerful, effectual, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
There must be, of course, repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in order for there to be salvation. But mark it down. His death secured not only the end, but the means to the end. He accomplished redemption by His death. There will be a harvest. He's saying if there's this death, then inevitably, unmistakably, there'll be fruit.
Do you realize, beloved, if God is not sovereign in salvation, if salvation is not of the Lord, if indeed salvation is something like this—this is purely hypothetical, it's impossible—but if salvation were to be like this, you know, God says, I'm going to do my part. But it's not going to be effectual. It's not going to accomplish anything apart from man in his natural condition joining his will to Mine. I'm going to do everything from My end to save sinners. I'm going to set it before them, and then I'm going to leave it up to them. Can these dead bones, dry bones, live?
Do you understand that if that's the way salvation is, there was absolutely no guarantee that the death of Christ would bring about even one person to salvation? In fact, I would put it bluntly, biblically, there would be absolute guarantee that no person would be saved left to himself. Christ would have to come, shed His precious blood on a tree. He would have been raised from the dead. The gospel proclaimed to the ends of the earth. And no one received Him. No one would receive Him—which is impossible. Absolutely impossible.
But when you read the Word of God and pay attention to what it says about the work of Christ, you find that there was something far more certain than that. There will be much fruit, actual fruit. Salvation is actual, not potential. Why? Because God not only accomplished in Christ all that is necessary to save sinners from the standpoint of the adequate, finished sacrifice, but God has also promised and proclaimed and declared and determined to do everything necessary to bring those people to His Son whom He has determined. He has determined to bring them before time and to save through the preaching of the gospel and through the work of regeneration, granting them as a gift, repentance and faith.
Salvation is of the Lord, beginning to end. Only Jesus saves. So the first way that this illustration is applied is to the Lord Jesus Himself. It speaks of the necessity of His death. It speaks of the certainty of life that will come from His death. He will draw all people to Himself and there will be fruit as a result. There will be a harvest as a result of His death.
But then He does something interesting. He takes this analogy, the same illustration, and now He broadens out the application. And this is amazing. This paradox of life coming out of death, life coming through death, doesn't just apply to the Savior. It also applies to those who are saved. Obviously, we're not talking about applied in a redemptive fashion.
You see, because He died, we have life. That's the primary cause of our life. His death—His death secured for us all of the benefits and the gifts through which He has brought life to us. But it is also true to say that He's brought us this life in such a way by the Holy Spirit that His disciples are made to die in order that they may have life.
Let me put it this way. We are saved by grace alone. Grace alone. Grace plus nothing. Alone. Grace plus nothing. By faith alone. Faith plus nothing. Christ alone. Christ plus nothing. But the faith that is the product of God's grace to us in Christ is a faith that brings about a willingness to die in order to have life. In fact, we are called upon through the gospel to surrender our lives, to lose our lives in order to have life that is found only in Christ. Exclusively in Christ. We're called to die. We're called to lose our lives in order to live.
What will be true? What will characterize a true disciple of Jesus Christ? Someone who is made alive indeed through His death, through the death of Christ. What will mark them? What will characterize them? What will characterize such an individual? Look at the text. Verse 24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Then He says this: "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him."
Four things. Four things we have here. Four characteristics that will mark a true disciple of Jesus. And the first one we meet with is this. Number one. A disciple of Jesus has lost his life. A disciple of Jesus has lost his life. If you are truly saved, you've lost your life.
Look at the text. He says in verse 25, "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life." He who loves his life. Let's start there. "He who loves his life loses it." This is an absolute statement of truth on the part of our Lord. No wiggle room. Absolute statement of truth. He wants us to know this in no uncertain terms. "He who loves his life"—whoever loves his life—what? "Loses it." Loses it.
What is He talking about? Look at the word life. The word life here is the Greek word psychē. Psychē. The soul. The soul of man. The personality of the man. Who he is. The man himself. If anyone holds on to—this is what He's saying—if anyone holds on to life as he has always known it, if he holds on to his life as he's always assessed it, if he holds on to his life as he's always lived it, if he wants to hold on to that life, Jesus says, he will what? Lose it. He'll lose his life. That is, he will perish without God. He will spend eternity separated from God. If he seeks to hold on to this life, his life, he will lose it. If he loves his life in this world, he'll lose it.
What kind of a man is it who holds on to his life? Clutches to his life? Well, this is the man who lives according to the way that seems right to him. You know, this is the way I've always lived my life. This is the way I look at life. This is the way I was raised to look at life. This is the way my parents looked at life. Or, I live my life differently than my parents. I have my own way. My own thinking. Life as it seems right to him.
To say it another way, this is the man who lives his life using the language of Ecclesiastes: under the sun. Under the sun, life lived without a heavenly perspective. Life lived as though God were not there. Life lived under the sun. This is the man who walks according to Ephesians 2. According to the course of this age. According to this world. According to the mindset of this age. This present age. This is the man who lives his life indulging the desires of the mind and of the flesh. Living according to the boastful pride of life.
And then at some point, this man is confronted with the claims of the gospel. Here is this man living life the way he has always lived it. He comes face to face with the truth of the gospel. The truth of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And this demand that if he wants life—true life—then he must be willing to relinquish his life and come all the way to Jesus, empty handed, Christ who is able to save. He must be willing to turn from life as he has always known it. Turn from his own ways and come all the way to Christ. Believing that the death of Christ is enough to pay for his sins. That Christ's merits are enough to make him right with God. Losing his life to gain Christ.
But, tragically, this man responds and says, no, thank you. No, thank you. I love my life like this. I want it to stay like it is. I love my darling sins. I love myself. He looks at his life and he thinks this life that he's lived out of fellowship with God, this life that he's lived in this godless fashion, he thinks it's a life worth keeping. I don't want to lose this. I don't want to give up this and that and the other. I don't want to give this up. I don't want to forfeit this. Oh, the pleasures of sin.
Isn't it amazing? I mean, if you've paid attention to this at all. Isn't it amazing that men think—what men think to be more valuable than their soul? Have you ever considered that? I don't want to stop getting high. I don't want to stop being promiscuous. I don't want to stop living for the stock market and accumulating wealth. Because that's their idol. It's not like having money. It's money has them.
Friend, have you noticed that your body is wasted away? Have you noticed that you've lost your relationships? Have you noticed how your children have turned out? What are you holding on to? What is so valuable? I don't want to lose this relationship. I don't want to lose this. I don't want to lose that.
This man says no. I love my life. Jesus says that man will lose his life. The way that seems right to a man ends in what? Destruction. Death. Proverbs 14:13: "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." The life that is lived under the sun indeed proves to be vanity of vanities. All is vanity. The life that is lived according to the course of this world is the easy path that ends in what? Destruction. Horrible tragedy. And the man who seeks to save his life, our Lord says, loses it.
Mark 8:35: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it." He will be eternally lost. He will be lost without God. He will be lost without Christ. He'll be lost without forgiveness. And he will be lost without hope.
And you know the word "lose it"? The word "lose" is a powerful word. Apollymi. Literally, it means to destroy. To perish. Given over to eternal misery in hell, to use the biblical definition. "For whoever desires to save his life” —will destroy it, will cause it to perish in hell,— “will lose it." People lose their wallet. They lose their rings and important documents. But the greatest loss of all is to lose one's soul. And it's permanent.
Jesus speaks in absolute terms. And He says if you continue to live your life your own way and do your own thing, what seems right in your own eyes, you will lose your life forever. Eternally. He speaks in absolute categories. There are only two options here: to accept or to reject. You're either saved or lost.
But notice the second part of the statement. In John 12:25, He says, "He who loves his life loses it." And now, just as certain as this statement—"and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life."
Second, a disciple of Christ has kept his life. Has kept his life. A disciple of Christ has kept his life. What does it mean to hate your life? Well, it is the opposite of loving it. It is the opposite of loving it. It means that the one for whom Christ died is the one who recognizes that he desperately needs a new life. The one for whom Christ died is the one who realizes that he doesn't have a life worth keeping, a life worth holding on to. He doesn't have a life worth clinging to in comparison. He hates it. And he's willing to forfeit it. He's willing to let go of it—all of it. He's willing to walk away from it.
We can say it this way: he has been awakened. His eyes are wide open. Now, it's not that his life is different all of a sudden than it was before. And he says, you know, for a while I had a life worth keeping, but now I realize I need a new life. You know, this life has kind of gotten worn out a bit. And if it was like it used to be, I would hang on to it and hold on to it. But now I'm willing to let go of it. It's not worth much anymore. No, no, it's not like that at all. That's not what we're talking about.
What has happened is he's been awakened to what his life has really been like all along. He just couldn't see it before. But now he sees it. He sees it. He sees it for what it is. He sees himself for what he is. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind”—oh, “but now I see.” I see.
He sees his sinfulness. He sees his emptiness. He sees his guiltiness before a thrice holy God. And he sees his utter helplessness. And he can't do one thing to save himself. He can't do one thing to change himself. A leopard can't change its spot. And a man can't change his own sinful, wicked, wretched heart. Deceitful heart.
But he also sees something else. Oh, he sees the hope that has been set before him by God. He sees that God has opened a way through the death of His Son for all of his sins—all of them—to be forgiven. To be canceled. And for this man to be made a new creature in Christ. And to be reconciled to a holy God. He sees this. He sees it for the first time.
And because he sees this now, the demand of the gospel that we repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ—that demand that says lose your life or forfeit it, lose your life for the life of Christ—that demand now no longer seems like a demand. Now it sounds like the most unbelievable, glorious, precious, gracious, merciful offer in the entire universe. And it is. It is.
God, You mean You will take me? Ha! I can't believe it. You will take me? Here's my life. Ruined. Undone before You. Not worthy to stand before You. Clothed in filthy rags. All my righteousness as filthy rags in Your sight. You mean You would receive me just as I am and transform me? Forgive me? Reconcile me to Yourself? Clothe me with the perfect righteousness of Your own beloved Son? Take my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh? Make me a new creature? You would do this for me, God?
This is not some difficult demand, is it? It's glorious. It's a glorious offer of mercy, of grace.
I wonder, I wonder, have you ever seen that? Where are you at today? Are you one who's holding on to your life? Or are you one who has hated his life? And Jesus says here—look at verse 25—that "he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life." A different Greek word than psychē. This word is zōē. Often associated with eternal life. Divine life.
Hold on to life as you've always known it and you will never know divine life. You will never know the life that is in Christ. You will never know eternal life. Hate life as you've known it. Turn from it. Abandon it. Forfeit it. Turn to Christ and God will give you life in His Son. Real life. Zōē life.
A disciple of Jesus has lost his life. That's what it means to be a disciple. We've lost our life. That's what the Lord does. He brings us face to face with whatever is most important to us. Whatever is your life, your god, He brings us face to face with that. And when He brings you to faith in Himself, the one thing that stands out to you is this: Are you prepared to turn away? To abandon? To forsake your idol? And follow Me? Just like the Thessalonians did. How you turned to God from idols. To serve the living God.
Are you prepared to turn away? When He brings you to faith in Himself, the one thing that stands out to you is this: Are you prepared to let go? To abandon? To forsake your idol? And follow Me? Now who do you choose? What do you choose? Will you lose your life? Will you lose what you've held on to all your life as making you important, significant, giving you meaning, giving you pleasure? Will you turn away from all of it?
And you know, you may be one who was brought up in a Christian home, grew up in Sunday school, Bible studies, memorized scriptures, been many times to different Christian retreats and nobody thinks you're lost, but you know, you know you're lost. Jesus says, you know you don't have Me. Now in order to have Me, you're going to have to admit that you don't have Me. Are you willing to lose the impression in the minds of others that you're My disciples, my disciple? Are you willing to be honest about your spiritual condition in order to have life?
And you know what? Even after the Lord saves us, beloved, even after He rescues us, doesn't He down the road of His discipleship of us, this road of discipleship, down this road of sanctification and conformity to the image of Christ, doesn't He continue to bring us face to face with who is more important and what is more important? We're cut from the same cloth. I know I need that reminder. Don't we go on choosing Him above all else?
And there are times in our lives, if we'll be honest before God, that we allow things to creep in that ought not to be there in terms of greater priority than they should have. And what happens is that we experience the coldness that comes into our lives when that occurs. And all over again, we must repent and place Him above all else because Christ must have the place of preeminence. Will you lose your life to have Him?
Look at Colossians 3 for just a moment. Turn with me to Colossians 3. We see a living example of this in verse 1 and following: "Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry."
Now let me make the obvious point. You realize, don't you, that he's saying this to believers. He's saying this to believers. You've died with Christ. Your life has been hidden with Him. Now seek the things above. You must go on putting to death what is earthly in you. Keep your foot pressed down on the pedal.
And realize this also, verse 6: "On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. In them you also”—past tense—”once walked when you were living in them. But now you also, lay them all aside." —You don't walk anymore in them, but you fight with those pockets of resistance. Lay them aside, all of them:— “wrath, anger, malice, slander, abuse of speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with its evil practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the One who created him."
That's what we must do. Put to death these things that are earthly because now our life is in Christ.
Our life is Christ. We must seek the things above. This was Paul's attitude about it himself. Turn over to Philippians 3, that familiar portion of the Word of God. Philippians 3. Notice this is his attitude about it.
Verse 1. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 1: "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation. For we are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more.” —Verse 5— “Circumcise the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ."
You know, I could have held on to all of that, life as I've always known it, Saul of Tarsus. I could have held on to all of that from an earthly point of view, but blessed be God, from a sovereign point of view, we couldn't have. He couldn't have. It was Christ's purpose to save him, and he would be saved.
But notice what he says in verse 8: "More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."
This is the value system. This is the set of values that is produced in the heart when God does His work. When God brings awakening. Now all that stuff that I thought was valuable, now I see it as rubbish. To be more specific, as dung. The stuff that the world would count to be righteousness. The stuff that the world would count to be reputation. It's all a trash heap compared to having that righteousness that comes from God, that is by faith in Jesus Christ. It's trash. It's dung compared to knowing Christ, and I am more than prepared and willing to lose it all, to have Christ my treasure.
Whoever hates his life in this world, whoever is willing to lose it all to have Christ, will keep it. Life eternal. 1 John 5:12: "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son does not have the life." Matthew 16:25: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
A disciple of Jesus has lost his life. A disciple of Jesus has kept his life. He hasn't lived his life in this world. He's hated it, and as a result, he hasn't loved his life in this world. Pardon me. He's hated it, and as a result, he's kept his soul. He has been saved, redeemed. God has given him life in His Son.
Back to John 12. There's a third thing that I want us to see concerning a genuine disciple, the characteristics of a genuine disciple. He's lost his life. He's kept his life. Thirdly, a disciple of Jesus is a servant of Christ. He's a servant of Christ. Look at verse 26: "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him."
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? What does it mean that you've been saved, have life? Well, you've become a servant of Christ. You've become a servant of Christ. And this service, by the way, is spiritual. It's spiritual service because you see the words there? Anyone serves, diakoneō, my servant, diakonos. We get the word deacon. Deacon. It's a spiritual service.
We're living for Christ in this world, in an active way, in concrete decisions. It's a spiritual service. It's worship unto God. It's worshipful. We worship Him as we live with Him and for Him. This service is spiritual. It's a spiritual service.
But it's also, the service is perpetual. It's perpetual. This is in the present active. If anyone keeps on serving Him, if anyone keeps on serving Me, it's a perpetual service, ongoing, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We live for Him all the time. We live for Him as a pattern of life.
And this service also, look at it, is submissive. If anyone serves Me, he must what? Follow Me. Follow Me. It is a pursuit. We follow Him. And how do we know where to go to follow Jesus? We find it here in His Word. It means to follow Him and no longer to walk according to the course of this world, but to live in such a way that you follow Christ step by step.
It means that you no longer follow the crowd, but you follow Christ. It means to follow Him if everyone followed Him or no one follows Him. By the grace of God, I will follow Him. It means to no longer follow the majority. It means to no longer follow the minority. It means to follow Christ submissively. It means to pursue Him. It means to love Him, to adore Him, to obey Him. It means to walk as He walked, an imitation of the very righteous lifestyle of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, I would speak as He spoke. I would live as He lived. I would rejoice in what He rejoiced over, and I would weep over what He wept over. I would make His priorities my priorities. I would make His goals my goals. I am to follow Christ.
This service is also personal. Personal. Who do we follow? We follow Him. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me. It's personal. It's a personal pursuit that we may know Him. It's in the context of fellowship, knowing Christ, walking with Christ.
And this service that we offer is exclusive. Exclusive. “If anyone,” —verse 26,— “serves Me, He must follow Me. And where I am,” —notice,— “there My servant will be also.” Whose servant are you? He says, My servant. Whose servant are you? Nobody's but Christ. Nobody's but Christ. Then under Christ, we serve others. Unto the Lord. But we serve Christ. We are His servant. And this service, notice with me, is loyal. It is loyal service. If anyone serves me, He must follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. The disciples of Christ, as a pattern, where are they? They are wherever the Lord is. They're loyal to Christ. Where would we go? He has the words of eternal life.
Now, along the way, we may stumble. We may fall. We may be like Peter sometimes and stumble and fail. But at the end of his life, Peter was faithful, ultimately gave his life for Christ. These are the disciples of Jesus. They've lost their life. They found their life in Him. And they serve Him in this world. They serve Him perpetually. They serve Him submissively. Personally, exclusively, loyally, they serve Him.
I love how, S. Louis Johnson summed it up, and there's an application for us. Listen to what he said. Quote, "So what does this life come down to? Following our Lord. What does it come down to, following our Lord? He says, witnessing. He answers, no. Praying, no. Teaching, no. Singing, no. Preaching, no. Giving, no. Working, no. Following Him. All of these things flow out of following Him. Following the church, no. Following Him. It's very simple, isn't it? He says, follow Him. The rest will flow.”
He goes on to say, “what kind of path did He take? What kind of path did He take? He fell into the ground and died.”— Building on the analogy. That was the path. He fell into the ground and died. In other words, what God the Father wished Him to do was His determining principle.— “And I suggest to you,"— he goes on to say,— "you who are Christians in this audience, that the determining principle of your fruitfulness as a Christian, and your ultimate happiness as a Christian, will be the extent of which you follow Him and follow Him in death. Death to your pleasures. Death to your ambitions. Death to your goals. Those things are peculiarly yours, in which you put other things before the Lord Jesus Christ." End of quote.
Well, I must hasten. That brings us to the last thing He says here. He says in verse 26, "If anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him." Fourthly, a disciple of Jesus will be honoured. Will be honoured. Honoured. And it's a personal honour. I mean, if it's something that God is involved in personally, the Father will honour him. This is something the Father does.
And it's a promised honour. It's a promised honour. Not a wishful thinking honour. This is a promised honour. Christ promises this. "If anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him." He's holding out this promise to us. Whose acceptance are you interested in? Whose pleasure are you living for? Do you realize that if you follow Me, you have pleased the Father? This is acceptable to the Father. This is something the Father honours. God honours.
And notice it's a future honour. This is a future active "will honour." "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Come into the kingdom prepared for those who love My Son." And it may also be a martyr's honour. Maybe the same kind of glory that Jesus speaks of in verse 23 when He says, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." How is He going to be glorified? On a tree.
Look over to Mark chapter 10. Mark 10, look at verse 28. Mark 10, verse 28, Peter began to say to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You." Remember what was Peter's concern? This is right after the rich young ruler encounter. He's come to Christ. Jesus told that young man he had to take all of his possessions, sell them, give to the poor, follow Him. Then he would have treasure in heaven. The young man was saddened and went away grieving, the Bible tells us. And he was one who owned—for he was one who owned—much property. Jesus put His finger on his idol.
And Jesus talked about the difficulty in verse 23. “Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God." Why is it difficult? Well, because what is required to enter the kingdom of God is the loss of one's life to have His. Faith in Christ is that—the surrender of one's life to Him. And how many people who have much wealth think that it's real treasure. And compared to the value of knowing Christ, they consider it to be of a greater treasure and it causes them to live relying on their sense of independence from God, being dependent on no one else except their own wealth and power. That's why it's hard.
Verse 24, “the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were even more astonished, saying to Him, “Then who can be saved?" If this is what is required—the loss of one's life in this world, hatred of one's life in this world to follow the Son of God—then who can be saved?
And verse 27, “looking at them, Jesus said, With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." Do you realize, do you realize, beloved, you, believer, are a human impossibility? That I'm a human impossibility? But you are what you are because it was possible with God. Who brought you to see the relative trash value of your life compared with knowing Jesus? Who brought you to the place of surrender to Him, brokenness, repentance from sin, turning to Him for life? Who did that? You didn't do that. God did that. No preacher did that in you. No pastor did that in you. No one did that. God did that in you. No amount of persuasion could have ever done that in you. God did that in you. He gave you sight. He shined His light into your heart. He made you know who Christ really is and what you really were. He did that.
“And Peter,”— verse 28,—”began to say to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You." Lord, what about us? What about us? This is us. This is what's been done in us. What about us?
Look at verse 29. “Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, except one who will receive one hundred times as much now in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life." Isn't it wonderful that when you lose everything for the sake of Christ and the gospel, at that very moment, you gain everything? That is, you have fellowship with God, and in terms of all that you've lost, you've gained a hundredfold.
You say, what do you mean? Well, I mean that in this precious body, for example, I have houses. I mean, if something, God forbid, were to happen to my family, would you not take care of us? Well, you could say the same thing yourself. I have brothers and sisters. Maybe somebody here in this congregation, because of your relationship with Jesus Christ, you've lost your relationship with your earthly brother. Do you realize you have brothers here? You have sisters. You have fathers.
Some of you, you don't have any grandparents for your kids. They don't want anything to do with you because you walk with Jesus, but you have fathers, and mothers, and grandfathers, and your kids have people in Christ who love them, and are willing to teach them, and look out for them. You lost everything, but you gained everything. And let us not miss the point. Let us not miss the note—end of verse 30—along with persecutions. It's listed among the blessings of God.
Matthew 5:10–12, right? Makarios. “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for my name's sake.” You receive. You gain that, too. And this may be how the Lord chooses to glorify Himself and honor you, honor your faith in Christ, and in the age to come, eternal life. The Gospel presents a great apparent paradox. To have life, there must be death. Christ had to die in order for there to be a harvest. His death ensured a harvest. We had to die in order to enter His harvest, and that was not from us. That was a gift from God. The repentance that we experienced and the faith that we had in Christ was a result of regeneration, but then there's also this truth. We may have to die in order to see more into the harvest. We've lost our lives to gain Christ. Now, would we be willing to lose our life to see others gain Christ? We've gained houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, but are we willing to receive, also, persecutions for His sake and the Gospel's sake? And if in God's wisdom and sovereign plan, it becomes really difficult to be a Christian, if it really begins to cost more than it ever cost to be a disciple, will we be found where our Master is? Will we be found following Him? If we're truly His servants, we will buy the grace of God. Only buy the grace of God. As I close this morning, I wonder, what is it today that is more important in your life than Christ? What would you say that is? Let me put it this way. What would He put His finger on Himself and say, is it Me or is it that? Is it Me or is it them? Is it Me or is it her? Is it Me or is it him? Is it Me or is it that job, that career? Is it Me or is it acceptance of your family, acceptance of your peers? Is it Me or is it your reputation? Is it Me or is it that gain? Is it Me? Is it Me? And may we all be able to say today, “for to me, to live is Christ.” —and only then we would be able to say,— “and to die is” —what?— “gain.” Let's pray.
Recent
Archive
2026
January
February
March
April
May
July
August
September
2025
January
February
March
May
June
July
August
September
October
Categories
no categories