John Chapter 12:17-26

I worked with a lot of rock stars and got to meet a lot of rock stars. Same thing. I was amazed at how unhappy they were. They had all the stuff. They had everything the world had to offer, but they weren't happy.

Why? Because they hadn't found the Lord. And there's a lot of hurting people that are living for themselves. And there's a lot of very content, blessed people who may not have much that are living for the Lord. That goes against everything the world tries to teach us. And that's what Jesus is saying here. You know what? If you try to hold on to your life, you'll lose it.

But if you give it away to me, you'll find it. You'll discover what this life is really about. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. D.A. Brown is in the studio with us today. He's one of the associate pastors here at The Bridge. Welcome, D.A.

Hey, Bob. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited for everyone who's tuning in today. They are going to be blessed. It's important that we remember, while we try and find peace and fulfillment and other things, only following God will bring us lasting and true peace today. Pastor David discusses why this is important as we continue the teaching in the Gospel of John chapter 12.

Sounds good, brother. Here's David Magee with part two of his teaching, God is a God of multiplication. John chapter 12, verse 17. Therefore, the people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. For this reason, the people also met him because they had heard that he had done this sign.

The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, you see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the whole world is going after him. I like that verse.

Don't you? Look, the whole world's going after him. Praise God, I wish it was so.

I wish it was so. These guys are trying to wipe the followers of Jesus out. They're trying to wipe Jesus out.

That's pretty humorous now, isn't it? I mean, it's been like 2,000 years and there's been a lot of people trying to wipe us out. There's been a lot of people that have tried to kill off Christians.

There's been a lot of people trying to take the word of God away to discredit it. Nobody ever has, but they've been trying to wipe us out as Christians, as believers. Hasn't worked.

Hasn't worked. As a matter of fact, wherever they've persecuted the church, like right now, there's still a lot of persecution in China. There's a lot of persecution in India. There's a lot of persecution in a lot of different places. But in China and India, the church is flourishing.

It's growing. And so there's all these people coming to the Lord during the time of persecution. But notice it says, look, the world has gone after Him. That was the problem they had. Notice they didn't say, well, they prayed a prayer. They didn't say that. They said the world has gone after Him.

They're following Him. My point? Well, we use the term Christian.

We kind of throw it around, don't we? I mean, I hear people say Christian, and I'm not even sure what they mean by it sometimes. Looking at surveys, and it says 69% of Christians don't believe the Bible is the word of God. I'm not sure how you define Christians. It's like 67% of Christians don't believe in being born again? Wait a minute. How do you become a Christian? You've got to be born again.

So they're using a loose definition. I was one time at a music store, and I saw this guy, and his speech was peppered with profanity, and he was buying the stuff. And then he mentioned that he was buying the stuff for his church. And some of you know me.

I couldn't resist that. So I was like, are you a Christian? And he looked at me really offended, and he said, of course I am.

I'm an American. It was one of the few times in my life I was actually speechless. See, what we've done over the years is we've watered down Christianity, and we've made it into, and I've heard so many people say this, well, is he a Christian? Well, he prayed the prayer. Well, I'm glad he prayed the prayer.

What's he doing now? Is he following Jesus? See, you don't see in the Bible a separation of praying a prayer and following Jesus. Nowhere in there.

Nowhere did Jesus say, hey, look, I want you to pray this prayer. Okay. All right. Praise God.

Ask me to forgive you of your sins. Awesome. Okay. You're good. See you later.

He didn't do that. He would go up to him and go, follow me. Come on. Let's go. Went up to Matthew. Follow me.

Let's go. That's an interesting, you ever thought about the exchange between Jesus and Matthew and what the other disciples were thinking? Because you know Jesus, I mean, he blasted the Pharisees and scribes.

And if you were a disciple sitting there watching Jesus walk up to the Matthew, I know what I'd have been thinking. Oh, this is going to be good. Yeah. Mr. Tax collector. He's going to hear about it now, isn't he? And Jesus walks up to him and goes, follow me. He's asking him to join with us.

And you know what? Jesus keeps asking people like that to follow him, doesn't he? But the real question is, are you following Jesus? Are you following Jesus? Is Jesus leading you or have you kind of said, okay, Jesus, I'm glad you saved me. I'm glad you've forgiven me, but you know what? I can take it from here. Oh, friend.

I hope that doesn't describe you because that, that's a tragedy. See, the first question is, do you know Jesus? Have you asked him to forgive you of your sins? But the next question is, are you following Jesus?

Are you following Jesus? Because Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life. And if you think the beginning and the end of it was praying a prayer, that's not it, friends. The pray and the prayer is the beginning of it. It's not the end.

It's the beginning of it. See, because our life begins to change. When you ask the Lord to forgive us of our sins, our life begins to change. Fruit comes from fruit trees and fruit should also come from Christians as they follow Jesus.

That's what should happen. And so the question is not just, have you prayed the prayer? The question is, have you prayed the prayer and are you following Jesus now?

Because oftentimes when I'm talking to people on the street or in restaurants or whatever, you know, they, they try to scoot out with it. Oh, I prayed the prayer. I prayed the prayer. When's the last time you've been to fellowship? Oh, let's see.

Uh, it's been about eight years, eight years since you've been to church. Oh yeah. Yeah.

You realize this book says to forsake, knock the assembly. Oh yeah. Yeah. But I prayed the prayer. But are you following Jesus now?

Oh yeah. I sort of maybe not really kind of that. That's the question. And keep in mind when I talk about fruits, we have fruit trees where we live. And, um, and often I take my prayer walk around the property and, and you know what I've never observed as I've walked past those fruit trees, I've never walked by the apple tree and heard the apple tree going, I'm making apples.

It never does that. It makes apples. I'll be okay.

I promise. It makes, it makes apples because it's an apple tree. That's what it does. It doesn't have to strain and get in the strife trying to produce fruit. It makes apples because it's an apple tree. We should have spiritual fruits because we have a relationship with Jesus. That's what Jesus was talking about when he talked about he was the vine and were the branches. So don't let fruit scare you. This it happens as you follow Jesus. There's fruit in your life. And the beautiful thing, and let me mention this, the beautiful thing about being a believer, and I understand even as I've said this following Jesus, some of you went, I've tried to follow Jesus. I have.

I've tried and I, and I mess up sometimes. Welcome to the human race. We're fallen. It's a fallen nature. We still struggle with our fallen nature. Now, I'm not trying to say be okay with your sin.

Don't read this the wrong way. But I am reminding you of what Paul said. Paul said, you know, the things I want to do, I don't end up doing them.

The things I don't want to do, I end up doing those things. That's the struggle. Part of our fleshly nature, Paul says in the book of Romans, is at war with God.

Strong words. But see, the beautiful thing is, even though sometimes we're prideful, sometimes we're arrogant, sometimes we get ourselves into situations where we're addicted, it's not our failures that define us as Christians. But it's our relationship with Jesus Christ. Somehow, and this is the mystery, somehow if you've asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins and you're following the Lord, the Lord looks down this morning upon you and he doesn't see a sinner anymore. He sees a saint.

A saint? Yeah, he sees you as sinless. You see, Jesus, the blood of Jesus was enough to cover your sins to forgive you of your sins. What an amazing thing. See, if God could see our sins still, even after we've asked the Lord to forgive us of our sins, that would mean the blood of Jesus wasn't complete, that it didn't do completely what it was supposed to do.

But it does do it. And when the Lord looks at you this morning, because you've asked him to, he sees you forgiven. What an amazing thing. What an amazing thing. Verse 20. Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast, and they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Oh, that's good stuff.

That's good stuff. King James says, sir, we would see Jesus. I like that. And, well, I don't have a pulpit anymore. We took it out. But back when I had a pulpit, there was on an index card written, sir, we would see Jesus.

And you know why? Because it reminded me that that's what I wanted to show you guys. It reminded me that that's why you were here.

You were here to see Jesus. And I needed to show him as accurately, as scripturally as I could, and not get in the way. And if I'm not doing that, I'm not doing my role. And let me say something else. If I'm encouraging you to be dependent upon me, I'm doing you a spiritual disservice.

Because at some point, I will disappoint you. I need to put your hand in the hand of Jesus, just like these people. Sir, we would see Jesus.

We want to see Jesus. I love Andrew, and I love Philip. Andrew was always bringing somebody to Jesus. That was kind of Andrew's thing. See, you don't see a lot of Andrew in scripture.

But you know what you see over and over? He's bringing people to Jesus. In John chapter 1, verse 40, it says, one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew.

He's one of the first. Simon's Peter brother. He first found his own brother Simon, or Peter, Simon Peter, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christos in the Greek, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. So Andrew brought Peter to Jesus. And then a few chapters later, John 6, verse 8 and 9, one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter, again said to him, there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many? He's the guy that brought the little boy to Jesus.

Again, do you realize that's the normal thing? Somehow we've twisted that as well, and we think, oh, well, they have the gift of evangelism. Now, granted, there are some people that are very good at evangelism that God has supernaturally gifted.

But you know what? We're all supposed to be bringing people to Jesus, every one of us. And if you're sitting there going, Pastor David, isn't that kind of your job?

No, it's not my job. Ephesians 4, 12, 13, 14 says, I am to equip you guys to do the work of the ministry. You see, what happens this coming week, you'll be eating with people that I don't know.

You'll be working with people that I don't know. You have a relationship with them where you can invite them to this place and be assured I'm going to invite them to Jesus. And so what we're doing is we're partnering together to reach those people with the gospel.

That's what's supposed to be happening. And maybe you're sitting there thinking, well, I don't want them to think I'm what, that you know Jesus? Let me ask you a question. Scripture seems to indicate that we may be able to see the people who are suffering. Do you want to see the people that you see on a regular basis, family, friends, coworkers, suffering because it was too much trouble for you to invite them? I think when you think in terms of eternity, it becomes obvious what you should do. And we try to very consciously, now we are not what's termed the seeker sensitive church.

Let me say that. We're not a seeker sensitive church in that we water everything down so it's just this homogenous blend that offends nobody but Jesus. We're not that. And remember, in the book of Revelation when Jesus is knocking on that door, that letter's to a church and he's standing outside trying to get in. But what we do want to do is be aware that people come in not knowing Jesus.

And so whenever I use terms that I call them Christianese, you know, that we Christians all understand, you know, if you grew up in the church you go, oh yeah, that's what sanctification, you know, I try to stay away from those terms or if I use those terms to fully explain them. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor DA Brown. Hey, Bob, we're excited about all the people who are tuning in today. And we want to take a minute to pray for the listening audiences in these cities.

Hamburg, Indiana, Cherokee, Iowa, Creston, Des Moines, Marshalltown, also in Kansas, Emporia and Hutchinson. God, we thank you for everyone tuning in today. Lord, we pray that they would be ready for you to speak to them. Lord, if some are sick, we pray that you would please heal them. And God, we pray for the pastors and churches in this area, that the churches will be reignited in their faith. Lord, that they would turn to you with all their heart, soul and strength to love their community. And Lord, that these pastors would be reminded, you have called them. You are going to bless the work that you've called them to do, and that they would not grow weary in doing good. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee, as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 23, But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it produces much grain. Jesus knew the time had come. And this is kind of a strange answer. Philip came and said, hey, there's some, and Philip and Andrew brought the guys, and they said, hey, there's some people that want to see you. And Jesus says, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

But he's answering their question. They want to see Jesus. And Jesus is saying, you know what, for them to seek me clearly, without the stain of sin between them and me, there's something I got to go do. There's something that must be done so the Greeks and the Jews and you and me can have a relationship with the Lord. There was something he had to do. And there was no other way.

And Jesus, rather than leave us lost in our sins, went and died for us. And he gives us this picture. Now, it's also interesting. He uses nature here because the Greeks were into nature, and they taught about nature, and they talked about nature. And he uses that picture to talk to them. And he uses these words about planting and dying.

And there's an interesting thing in here, too. Do you understand that planting involves multiplication? Planting involves multiplication.

What do you mean by that, Pastor David? We have a garden. We garden. And so we go through. We till up the ground. We add the horse manure and all this other stuff to the ground.

We till it up. And we put a seed, one seed, in each hole. Now, I would be fairly disappointed if one seed came up in the sense that after the plant grew, there was just one seed.

That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for fruits and plants that multiply. When I plant one zucchini squash seed, I know and I'm expecting like 50 zucchini squash to come out of that plant.

Why? Because that's just multiplication. That's what God does. The life lesson here, God is a God of multiplication. God is a God of multiplication. So when he saved you, do you understand the concept?

He desires to use you to reach a whole bunch of others. In verse 25, he continues, he who loves his life will lose it. And he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

See, now this is one of those things that seems to be an enigma until you really stop and consider it. You know, what he's saying, Spurgeon said this, and I like this quote, men have been helped to live by remembering that they must die. Men have been helped to live by remembering that they must die.

In some ways, what I'm getting ready to say is going to be kind of astounding. In some ways, you get to pick where you die. Pastor David, what are you talking about? Nobody gets to pick where they die. Oh, in a spiritual sense, they do. You see, you can die to yourself and your carnal nature while you're on earth, and that's really as close to spiritual death as you'll be. Or you can choose not to do that, and there's a death yet coming in your spiritual.

You see, Jesus said, you know what, if you try to hold on to your life, it's going to fall through your fingers like so much shifting sand. And some of you have experienced that. I've experienced that. You know, you look at Hollywood and you see that. You see people, they're famous, they got money, but do they really have what they're looking for?

I don't think so. They can't seem to stay married for very long. They're in and out of drug rehabs. They just don't strike me as very happy. And yet in human wisdom, we've decided to hold them up as this is the people we should imitate.

This is the people that we want to be like. How sad. How sad.

I worked with a lot of rock stars and got to meet a lot of rock stars, same thing. I was amazed at how unhappy they were. They had all the stuff. They had everything the world had to offer, but they weren't happy.

Why? Because they hadn't found the Lord. And there's a lot of hurting people that are living for themselves and there's a lot of very content, blessed people who may not have much that are living for the Lord. That goes against everything the world tries to teach us. And that's what Jesus is saying here. You know what, if you try to hold on to your life, you'll lose it.

But if you give it away to me, you'll find it. You'll discover what this life is really about. The life lesson there is only following God will bring you lasting and true peace and joy. You may get temporary peace.

You may put some chemicals in your body that for a little while you feel like you're at peace. But the only way to have true and lasting peace is to follow God. To ask him to forgive you of your sins, start there and then begin to follow the Lord. He continues in verse 26, if anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him my father will honor.

This is simply saying almost the same thing again. If anybody serves him, let him follow him. Again, we should not make the disconnect that has happened in the church today of, okay, you get saved and then you do nothing. You pray the prayer and then that's it.

No, no, no, no. As I look around the landscape of humanity, all the heroes, all the different people in history, you know what, there's only one person that I really, really want to be like, and that's Jesus. Now to be like Jesus, you know what I need to do? I need to follow him.

How do I learn how to follow him? He left us a whole book to dig into, to discover the deep, deep pleasures of. And we can discover in this book how to follow him.

And you know what? On that day, and again, that day is coming. On that day when he returns, I want to be found faithful. I want to be following him so that I hear those words, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And from this day until then, I want to be following Jesus because he's worthy to follow and also he's given us the ability to follow him. You see, even your failures, they don't keep you from following him.

See, if your failures condemned you, none of us could follow him. We just give up and say, well, you know, I blew it. I blew it yesterday. I blew it last week. I blew it, you know, a year ago.

I'd just blown it so I can't follow anymore. No, no, no. Jesus says, you know what? Ask me to forgive you of those things. I'll forgive you of those things and you can get back on the path, not to the right, not to the left, but to the path and follow Jesus. Are you following Jesus? This morning, can you look at me with a clear conscience and go, yeah, I'm following Jesus, man. My whole heart, passionately, I'm following Jesus. It's the number one priority in my life. Or has something happened, friend, where that disconnect happened and you begin to think, well, I prayed the prayer. I think I'm good.

I think I'll get in. The Lord has a better plan for your life than that. It would be a tragedy to consider that you sat and heard the challenge to follow Jesus this morning and didn't decide to do just that. Perhaps this morning, as I've been talking about Jesus and your view of Christianity is you do the best you can and you hope your good outweighs your bad. That's not Christianity. That's not biblical Christianity.

Biblical Christianity is this. Your bad will always outweigh your good. You can't fix yourself. You can't forgive yourself. And you're not even the one that needs to be seeking forgiveness from you need to seek that from the Lord. That's the tough news.

That's the bad news. The good news is Jesus wants to do it this morning in your life. He's waiting for you to simply ask to be forgiven. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him. And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at PO Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life.

The Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.