John 12.18–33
A sermon preached at Geraldton Anglican Cathedral 3 April 2022
We are nearing the end of our time with John. We have covered the first occasion some of his disciples met him, his first miracle where he saved a ruined wedding, the time he drove the traders out of the temple, his words to Nicodemus the Jewish leader about being born again, how he revealed himself to be the Messiah to a Samaritan woman, how he upset people by healing a cripple at the Pool of Bethesda, and how they tried to make his king after he fed the 5000. We are nearing Good Friday and Easter so I will jump forward to chapter 12 and an incident that happened a few days before he died.
John is said to have no interest in mission. This is unusual in the New Testament. Paul was the great missionary to the Gentiles. Luke tells how the gospel reached Rome. Matthew has the Great Commission. Mark tells of the healing of a Syrian woman’s daughter. Peter writes to Christians up on the Black Sea. But John has no interest in outreach beyond the Jews and the Samaritans—so they say.
Just a few days prior to his arrest, some Greeks approached one of his disciples and ask to see Jesus.” They are in Jerusalem to see the Passover celebrations. We have picked up John’s interest in the idea of “seeing.” “See: the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” “Rabbi, where are you staying?” “Come and see!” “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” “Come and see!” “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did?” And now, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Here you would think is the perfect opportunity for John to show an interest in cross-cultural mission, but he does not even tell us whether Jesus spoke to them, or even met up with them. Instead, Jesus gives a hard-to-follow speech, which seems to have nothing to do with anything. It makes you wonder was John a racist?
I mean, we know that the first real challenge to the spread of Christianity was Jews who did not want foreigners in the Christian movement—not without them going through complicated rituals to convert first to Judaism. Was John one of these? Before we draw that conclusion, I want to unpick what Jesus did say on that occasion, to see if we can perhaps find a clue. I take up the story at John 12.20.
Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Philip doesn’t know what to think about this. He finds Andrew and he doesn’t know either. When Jesus had sent them on mission he told them not to speak to Gentiles, “but to go only to the lost sheep of Israel.” They suspect he probably wouldn’t want to be bothered with these people. So, together they go and ask him. And as I said, Jesus seems to ignore the question, and we never learn whether he did meet up with them, or not.
But let’s follow carefully what he says, and look for clues.
Jesus said to Philip and Andrew, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
What does this mean? Who is this Son of Man, and what does it mean for him to be glorified?
We read from the Book of Daniel chapter 7 that Daniel has a dream in which he sees a terrible storm.
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea. Four great beasts … came up out of the sea.
The great sea is the world of humanity. Sometimes it is peaceful, but at other times it is like a storm-tossed ocean. Daniel sees four empires rising from the chaos. They are oppressive and cruel like wild beasts.
As I looked thrones were set in place and the Ancient of Days took his seat… The court was seated and the books were opened.
The Day of Judgement has come. God is about to judge the world. One by one the beast-kingdoms will be stripped of their power. Next Daniel sees a human figure, quite different to the beast emperors.
In my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations, and people of every language worshiped him.
This son of man does not arise from the chaos, but comes from heaven, and is given authority over the whole world. This must be what Jesus means when he speaks of the glorification of the Son of Man.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
So perhaps he has not lost sight of the Greeks. In reply to their question he says that the time for the glorification of the Son of Man has come. This means God is about to give the rule of his own empire—the kingdom of God—to this Son of Man. This kingdom will be over every nation and language-group. This will affect the Greeks, but how will it happen?
Come back to Jesus’ words!
Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
Jesus says that he must die. Unless he dies, he remains one man, but if he dies, he will bring about a great multiplication.
Next he speaks about disciples:
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 honour him.
Jesus’ followers, too, must be willing to die. Perhaps Jesus is indicating that there is no point in coming to see him like a tourist. But anyone who comes to him as a disciple—and that means total commitment—such a person will be received and honoured by the Father. We come next
to verse 27.
Now is my heart troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour? No, it is for this reason I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.
Jesus is disturbed. He knows what lies ahead of him. He wonders what to pray. Should he ask God to deliver him from death? No, this is what his mission has been leading up to. He will pray as he prays later in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, your will be done! It is your honour and glory I seek.”
At that moment a strange thing happened. A voice came from the sky.
Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.
Three times in Jesus’ life a voice came from heaven: at his baptism a voice spoke to him, at the transfiguration God spoke to his disciples, and now, a few days before his death, the crowd hears a voice.
I have glorified it (my name), and I will glorify it again.
God is going to be glorified through Jesus’ obedience and trust—all the way to death. It seems as if not everyone understood this voice; it must have been a freaky thing at the time. The only meaning I can give to it, is that this was one of the things they remembered after his resurrection. When Peter preached for the first time on the Day of Pentecost 3000 people believed. What they had seen and heard of Jesus, how he died, and some of the strange things that had surrounded his life, convinced them he must be the Son of God. This voice must have been one of those strange things.
Jesus goes on:
Now is the judgement of this world; now is the ruler of this world cast out; and I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.
Here is the glorification of the Son of Man again. The Judgement is about to take place. God is about to dethrone the beastly powers. Jesus is about to be lifted on a cross to die. And then a great multiplication will take place, and he will draw all people to himself. And that, of course, will include the Greeks.
We don’t know whether he met with them, but it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that he is about to die for them; he hasn’t forgotten them at all, and nor has John. Through his death Jesus will make a way for them into the presence of God and into his everlasting kingdom.
How that all works is a subject for another sermon. The thing to notice now is that the four beasts of Daniel’s vision have become one: “the ruler of this world,” the Devil. That is because the dictators who do such damage—we are seeing it played out once again in the Ukraine—these rulers are puppets of the Dark Power, “that Hideous Strength,” as C.S. Lewis calls him. This “world-ruler,” as Psalm 110 calls him, is about to be stripped of his authority—because of Jesus’ death—and Jesus will come out of death to be the legitimate ruler of the whole world.
This is unbelievable and extraordinary, if it isn’t true. And yet it is what Jesus said when Andrew and Philip told him about the Greeks. Did he really think the Day of Judgement was to take place then? Did he really think God was about to make him the king of the world? You would have to dismiss it as the raving of a madman, if it was not for the fact that God raised him from death—and one other thing. Look back at verse 19.
The Monday before he died Jesus rode into Jerusalem. The crowds gave him a Messiah’s welcome, throwing palm branches in front of him, shouting “Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel.”
But note the reaction of the Pharisees!
Look, this is getting us nowhere. See how the whole world has gone after him!
This was a terrible exaggeration, but you can understand how they felt. The whole world was not going after him, only a crowd of Galileans and Jerusalemites, many of whom would turn against him before the week was over. But many years later John remembers these words. And as he looks back over the fifty years that have elapsed since Jesus died, it seems like the whole world has gone after him. The gospel has spread from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria and to Syria, to Cyprus, to Asia, to Greece, to Rome and to Spain. It seems that a great multiplication is taking place. Also in Arabia in the east, and Egypt and Africa, and even as far as France and England. John has seen this, and been part of it. “Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
And it still does. There was a time when some of those countries turned their back on him—Turkey, Palestine, Egypt. These were once Christian countries. But as they turned away, others were drawn to him: Germany, the Ukraine, Russia.
The great tragedy of the 20th and 21st Century is the great turning away of the western world from the one who it once recognized as King of kings, and Lord of lords. But he is drawing others to himself: Africa, India, South America, South East Asia, Korea, China. When missionaries were expelled from China in 1948 there was estimated to be a million Christians in China. The number is now above 70 million. Churches are springing up in Nepal, the one country that 50 years ago boasted of having no Christians. Today there will be above 20 million Anglican Christians in church in Nigeria, as well as the others. Truly, the miracle of multiplication leading out from the cross of Christ goes on. God is building his kingdom. The day is surely approaching when it will be complete, and the Lord will return from heaven, and God will be totally glorified in the glorification of his Son.
I hope you will want to be part of this movement, and that you will not turn away. Jesus is drawing people of every nation to himself. “Go and make disciples from every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and see, I am with you until the end of the age,” he said. “Come to me all who labour and are hard pressed and I will give you rest.” “See, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in, and I will eat with him and he with me.”
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