Glorifying Jesus and Living Like Wheat
While we were in California, we saw these amazing Giant Sequoia trees. They are the biggest trees and some say the largest organism on earth. They can grow up to one hundred meters tall and thirty-three-meter circumference.
These massive and beautiful trees have humble beginnings. The seeds are encased in a hard cone. These will generally stay in the cone unless they are exposed to fire. The heat of the fire causes the cone to crack open and the seeds to fall out and germinate.
The intense “death” of the cone is the necessary first step in the transformation of this non-descript seed to flourish into a tree of amazing glory and splendor.
It is a story of humble beginnings. God instilled in nature the idea that humility comes before honor.
In today’s passage, Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
However, that glory would not come in a way that most people would expect. The first step would be death.
In today’s passage, we will see that Jesus deserves glory. And we will look at five ways we should give Jesus the glory He deserves.
I. Love the King
II. Live like Wheat
III. Listen to God’s Voice
IV. Look at the Cross
V. Live in the Light
I. Love the King
A. Jesus is King of the world.
We are now in the final days of Jesus’ life. In the last passage, we saw the triumphant entry. Jesus entered Jerusalem and the people gave him a king’s welcome saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” For that brief moment, the people recognized that Jesus was King of Israel.
In the Gospel of John, John highlights that Jesus is the Savior of not just the Jews, but the world. He makes it clear throughout that “whoever” believes in Jesus is saved.
Here he shows us clearly that Jesus is not only King of Israel, but King of the world.
12:20 – “Some Greeks” came and wanted to see Jesus. These were Gentiles who came up to “worship at the feast.” The feast was the Passover.
I believe John inserts this account here to make it clear that Jesus is King, not only of Israel but of the world.
Jesus also makes that clear in verse 32. “I will draw all people to myself.”
We are gathered here today from over 50 nations because Jesus is King of the world. He is not someone else’s king, someone’s leader. He is yours. He came for you. He didn’t come to save a select group of people. He came for men, for women, for old, for young, for rich, for poor, for South Americans, Africans, North Americans, Asians, Europeans, Australians, Islanders, and Antarcticans if there ever are any. Amen.
We give our King the glory He deserves when we love Him. We love because He first loved us.
II. Live Like Wheat
What does it mean that Jesus is King? The Jews were looking for a powerful, political leader who would launch a brilliant campaign and free them from the Romans. They welcomed Him to Jerusalem as a conquering King.
Right after this, Jesus said that the Son of Man must be glorified.
John 12:23 – The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
So far so good. They would certainly agree that their political leader should be exalted and praised. But what comes next is shocking.
Jesus starts talking about death and losing one’s life. Wait a minute. He was talking about being glorified and now He is talking about dying! What is going on?
The analogy of a wheat kernel
John 12:24 – 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.
Jesus often uses analogies that his audience would be familiar with. Keep in mind they were not plant botanists. They were farmers. To produce a crop, a grain of wheat had to first be buried. Being separated from the other grains in the stalk and buried in the darkness away from others was a symbol of death. A grain of wheat that didn’t go through that process could never be fruitful.
Jesus was telling all those who had an ear to hear that He was going to die. His “hour” had arrived and His time was almost up. The King of the world was going to die. Death would be the first step in His glorification.
Humility before honor and death before glorification seems counterintuitive.
God often does things that are counterintuitive.
From this, we learn the principle that God’s ways are not our ways.
• Every religion in the world except Jesus teaches good deeds as a path to heaven. But the Bible says that it is a free gift and cannot be earned.
God’s salvation plan was beyond their comprehension. They had seen Jesus heal the blind, make the lame walk, walk on water, and most recently raise a man from the dead. He had power over death and over life.
They expected Him to sit on a throne, not be buried in a tomb.
God’s ways are not our ways.
The cross is the greatest example in history of turning something bad into something good. It is also the greatest example of humility to glory. No one has gone lower than the cross. On the cross, Jesus endured the worst shame and torture man could heap on Him while at the same time facing the wrath of God.
Matthew 23:12 – Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
But no one will be glorified higher than Jesus either. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is King. And do you remember what happens at the end of the book of Revelation?
Jesus comes back on his white? Horse, defeats all His enemies, and sets up His throne.
Nick Vujicic was born without hands or legs. Growing up, he was sometimes very depressed. At age ten, he tried to end his life in the bathtub. But at age fifteen, he gave his life to Jesus and started an amazing journey.
He has now gone to over 44 countries to share the good news. Many untold millions have heard the gospel through this ministry.
He said, “I have a choice. I can be angry about not having limbs, or I can be thankful that I have a purpose. I choose gratitude.”
Were you ever shocked by the way God worked in your life?
He has a far bigger plan than what we can see. If He can make the greatest victory (the resurrection) out of the greatest apparent defeat (the cross), He can turn the worst looking news into something good.
We are to follow Jesus’ example of dying to self. Living Like wheat means loving Him more than your own life.
John 12:25-26 – Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
The world would say that glory is the way to glory. Success is the way to success. But Jesus gave us a different model. Dying to self brings fruit. Humility comes before honor.
Jesus set us an example of dying to self. He fulfilled these verses. He loved our lives more than His own. He was holy, perfect, glorious, and all-powerful. While we are sinful, wicked, mortal, selfish, and frail. He substituted His precious life for ours.
Here He calls us to follow His example. If He can give up His infinitely valuable lives for ours, how much more should we give up our sinful and lowly selves for Him?
What does it mean to hate your life?
This is not suggesting self-harm or depression. Neither is Jesus saying we should go around and constantly talk about how bad we are. A person who talks about themselves all the time, even if talking about all of their weaknesses, is likely very proud.
Here is another verse where Jesus talks about this.
Luke 14:26 – If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Jesus is not suggesting we come to Him and then go tell our parents, “I hate you.” He even told the Pharisees that their practice of donating to God money they were supposed to give to support their aging parents was horrible.
He is saying, “You have a choice to make.” Where is our priority? When there is a conflict between obeying our parents and obeying God, which will choose? If your spouse is pushing you to do something, but you know it is contrary to God’s will, which will you choose?
Our love for God should be so glorious, so huge that everything else fades in our sight and in our hearts. If our love for God should tower over our love for even our family members, how much should our love for God drown out our love for pleasure (food, entertainment, and wealth).
There are many believers who have chosen to hate their life in comparison with Christ. It is estimated that 70 million Christians have been martyred. Did you know that 45.5 million of them have been within the last century?
Jim Elliott – “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
What does it mean to love your life?
We often say that love is a choice. An action. When you love someone else, you make the choice to put their needs and interests above your own. That might mean that you sacrifice something for them. When you love yourself, you choose to put your needs and interests above others. It means that you are most important. You hold on to your life, your rights, your money, your time, and cyour stuff. You are looking out for number one. Number one is you.
The idea of being assertive is popular. The world says that a successful person needs to defend their rights, do what is in their best interests, stand up for themselves, and believe in themselves. Their idea is to look out for yourself because no one else is going to.
A quick search on Google showed that the idea of “self-love” is very popular. Some of the articles I saw:
• How to love yourself: 7 ways to cultivate self-love
• 33 ways to love yourself more
• How to love yourself: 22 tips from Therapists
Here were some of the tips I saw:
• Fish for compliments
• Eat alone
• Lock the door
• Splurge
• Pamper yourself
Jesus said, “Whoever loves His life, loses it.” Do we really need to practice or learn how to love ourselves? The problem is not that we love ourselves too little. It is that we love ourselves too much.
Love is a choice. We are either prioritizing our own life and pleasure or prioritizing God.
Many of the leaders did not follow Jesus because they were afraid of the Pharisees (12:42). They gave up eternal life because of fear of man. They preferred their position. They liked being respectable. They enjoyed those long and spiritual greetings. They wanted to keep their seat at the table of power. In the end, they chose their life and position over Jesus. That cost them their soul.
Loving our life means choosing respect, position, wealth, or pleasure over Jesus.
Jesus was reminding the disciples that following Him might cost them their lives, but that it was worth it. Most of them ended up dying for Christ.
Would you die for Him?
I believe that sitting here today many of us would say that we would be willing to die for Him. Peter also told Jesus that on the night before he denied Jesus three times.
However, we are not only called to die for Him. We are called to live for Him. Romans 12:1 says that we should give our bodies as a “living sacrifice” for Him. If we only think of it in terms like “dying for Him,” it seems to be a future and intangible choice which we will likely never face. But we can also think of it in terms of living for Him. That means making conscious choices to live for Him instead of ourselves. To choose Him instead of our own pleasure.
Will we be that grain of wheat which dies to itself in order to produce fruit for Him?
Here are some examples of choices between loving God and loving ourselves.
• I sometimes have the idea that at a certain time of day, I am off duty. After I put the kids to bed, then I can take some time for myself. If a kid comes to the room with a need after I have put them to bed, my first reaction is sometimes fleshly. I am annoyed that my space, time, and rest are encroached upon. Will I choose to love God by loving my children and caring for their needs or will I choose to love myself by putting my needs first?
• Your attitude toward marriage. Some approach marriage seeking what they can get out of it. I have seen divorces where the party seeking the divorce said things like, “I had to look out for me,” or “It wasn’t satisfying me anymore,” or “I owe it to myself to not stay in a loveless marriage.” These are the sayings of someone who is loving their own life. It is all about them and their feelings. Loving yourself leads to the death of the marriage.
• Your body. Our bodies are supposed to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to be good stewards of them. What would it look like if we chose to fully serve God with our bodies? Would we continue to put so much junk food into them? Loving the pleasures of food can literally lead to the death of our physical body. It can also make us less effective for serving God. I speak to myself as well as I ate altogether too much ice cream on my trip back to the US.
Do you see how all encompassing this is? If we choose to love God, instead of ourselves it effects how we spend our time, our marriage, the food we eat, and every single other aspect of our lives. While it is good to make an application and say, “I will change this or that area,” that is not enough. We need to cry out to God to ask Him to help us to come to the point where we can totally surrender to Him. Where we can stop loving ourselves and instead love Him.
In our family devotions this week, we came across this verse. It was an instruction from Samuel to the people after they had become entangled in idolatry.
1 Samuel 7:3 – Direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only.
Let us direct our hearts to the Lord. That is not just going to church or praying or reading our Bible. But genuinely pursuing Him.
III. Listen to God’s Voice (28-31)
John 12:27-28 – Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
One of the most wonderful truths in Scripture is that God speaks.
There have been many people and philosophers in history who have tried to understand contemplate the meaning of the universe. They try to understand who God is and what He is like. But in the end, they can only speculate on these issues. Some have even created new manmade religions, systems for trying to understand the world.
None of this is necessary. Though a created being can never understand the infinite Creator unless the Creator reveals Himself to the creation, the good news is that God has done exactly that!
God is not silent. He HAS revealed Himself to us. Parents want to educate their children and God also wants to teach us truths about Himself. He does not want us to walk in the darkness. Instead, He reveals Himself, His purposes, and His plans to us in a way that we can understand.
Hebrews 1:1-2 – Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.
God speaks. He speaks in many times and in many ways. One of these ways was an audible voice from heaven to the people.
This is what He said.
I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
It wasn’t the only time He spoke in an audible voice. He also spoke at Jesus’ baptism and at the transfiguration.
Think about how you would feel if you could hear God’s audible voice from heaven. For me, that would be very exciting. I would want to tell everybody. It would strengthen my faith. It would be a moment in my life I would remember forever.
But look at how they responded. This is incredible to me.
John 12:29 – The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
Can you imagine hearing the powerful, audible voice of God and saying, “It’s thunder?” That is how many of them responded. Many people say, “If I just had a sign, I would believe.” This verse, shows us that is often not true. They had a sign and they still disbelieved.
Why?
They they weren’t expecting to hear God’s voice. So maybe they weren’t listening. It seems they didn’t truly believe God in their heart. Maybe they were distracted or listening to something else. Instead of accepting the obvious miracle, they tried to explain it away rationally. But their conclusion made no sense. Even many of those who realized it was a voice came up with the wrong conclusion. They thought it was an angel. That is bad theology. Angels do not glorify themselves. They exist to glorify God.
The question is not whether God speaks. He does! It is whether we are listening. We don’t want to miss it when He speaks to us.
How does He speak to us?
• Through His Word
• Through godly counsel
• Through answered prayer
• Through the promptings of the Holy Spirit
• Through the testimonies of other believers
• And let’s not put God in a box. Sometimes He speaks through miracles, signs, wonders, a dream, or a vision.
What is keeping you from listening to God’s voice?
• Could it be that you don’t spend time in His Word?
o If you do, are you rushed or distracted?
• Could it be that you don’t really believe and are just going through the motions?
• Could it be you put God in a box and don’t believe He can do certain things?
• Could it be you explain away what God is doing as coincidence?
• Could it be you quench the Spirit and don’t listen to His voice?
I saw this four-point suggestion this week for developing intimacy with God.
“A. Prioritize Unhurried Time with God – Don’t rush.
B. Let Go of the Clock
C. Deepen Your Understanding of Scripture – Don’t just read for knowledge, but let His Word shape and transform your heart.
D. Embrace the Stillness?”
https://www.youtube.com/@thebeatagp/community
Jesus said that the ruler of this world will be cast out. Let us not listen to this world. Rather, let us listen to God’s voice.
IV. Look at the Cross (32-34)
John 12:32-33 – And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
Jesus uses the terminology of being “lifted up from the earth” to signify that He was going to die on a cross. It was a very visible and public way to die. Anyone who wished could go and observe Jesus’ death. That was important because it established Jesus’ death as being credible. There were many eye witnesses who reported that Jesus did die. It wasn’t a fake death and then a fake resurrection. It was a real death.
More than this, Jesus public and visible death was an announcement to the world that salvation is available to all. It wasn’t only offered to a select group or a secret club. It wasn’t only for certain people of privilege. It is for all.
Jesus said that He this would happen to “draw all people to” himself.
The cross shows us the seriousness of sin. It highlights the shame and guilt sin brings. It shows us the terrible consequences of that sin, the pain and the wrath of God. It reminds us of God’s justice. But it also reminds us of God’s love. It reminds us of God’s compassion. His mercy. His grace. All of these things are offered the world.
If you have never come to Christ, the message for you today is “Look at the Cross.” Look at Jesus’ love. Look at what He did for you there. He invites you to come.
I believe that many of you here today have already come to the cross. You have already received the salvation He gives. Today you are invited again to look at the cross. Remember what Christ went through on your behalf.
• This should inspire you to share the gospel.
• This should inspire you to be grateful and stop complaining.
• This should inspire you to live a changed life. Of all the things that might motivate you to live a holy life and avoid temptation, the cross is number one. What is the number one temptation you are facing in your life? Whatever is coming to mind, that is why Jesus died. He came to set you free from the power of that sin. His sacrifice should motivate you to love Him, to put the sin to death, to serve Him,
1 Peter 2:24 – He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
He took your sins that you might die to sin. When you are tempted, Look at the Cross. Draw near to Him. The closer you come to Him the more you will hate the sin. He has the power to take that desire away from you and change you from the inside out. Come to the cross and lay it as His feet. When you look at the cross, it helps you live a changed life. That glorifies Jesus. That honors His sacrifice.
IV. Live in the Light (35-36)
John 12:35-36 – So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
I believe that the light here refers to Jesus. Jesus called Himself the Light of the world. So we could paraphrase this verse like this.
“[I am] among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have [Me], lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have [Me], believe in [Me], that you may become sons of light.”
The historical context of Jesus’ words is that the people He was ministering to largely did not believe in Him. They had seen His signs and wonders and didn’t believe. They had seen Him raise Lazarus from the dead and didn’t believe. They had heard God’s voice from heaven and didn’t believe. In next week’s passage, He goes into more detail about their lack of belief.
It is as if Jesus is saying to them, “Time is running out! Hurry up and believe! Soon I will not be with you physically anymore.”
If they believed in Jesus, they could leave the darkness behind and enter into the light. More than that, they could become sons of light. As His light transformed their hearts, minds, actions, and words from the inside out, so they in turn could reflect that light to others.
Now Jesus is not physically present with us. But the light of the gospel is still shining. In Jesus’ day, they didn’t know how little time they had until things would change drastically. In our day, we don’t know how much time is left either. The same call to repentance is given throughout Scripture. Today is the day of salvation.
Don’t wait around. Don’t think “I will enjoy myself first and one day in the future I will follow Jesus.” Firstly, that would be wasting your life today. Secondly, you don’t know if you will have that chance.
Life is uncertain and the future is not guaranteed. Jesus came to give us the choice to live in the light or in the dark. Every day we choose to live in and reflect the light, is a good day. We can go to sleep that night with no regrets.
How do give glory to our wonderful Savior?
The best way is to live for Him each day. Live in the light.
Conclusion
Five ways to glorify Jesus.
I. Love the King – Is Jesus King of Your Life?
II. Live Like Wheat – Do you die to self on a daily basis?
III. Listen to God’s Voice – Do you listen to God’s voice or are you distracted?
IV. Look at the Cross – Does the cross motivate you to say “no” to temptation?
V. Live in the Light – Are you hiding yourself and your actions from others or reflecting the light?
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