Believing is Seeing - John 12:12-26
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12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” 16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” 20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 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.
Main Point
Main Point
Truly seeing Jesus requires a belief.
Introduction
Introduction
Today is Palm Sunday.
It is the Sunday that begins Holy Week and commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.
This is a very important moment in the Bible.
We know this because it is an event that is recorded in all 4 Gospels.
Matthew 21:7-11, Mark 11:7-10 , Luke 19:35-40, John 12: 12-19 .
The accounts in Matthew, Mark and Luke are very similar in what they include. They are almost verbatim in some instances.
But John’s account is very different.
What follow’s in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s account of the triumphal entry is a series of Jesus’ teaching and parables that probably all happen in the few days leading up to His crucifixion.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all talk about Jesus cleansing the temple, cursing the fig tree, and teaching parables to the crowd.
But John does not write about any of that. Instead we have this scene where a group of Greeks come up to the disciples and say “We want to see Jesus.”
Why is this?
Why does John find this moment important enough to include in His gospel?
This is what I want to look at this morning.
But before we do that, I think we need cover some context first and set the stage so to speak.
Context
Context
John through the lens of belief
John through the lens of belief
First, I think it is important to understand that John is writing his Gospel with the theme of “belief” at its core.
It is a very thematic book.
The Greek word for believe is “Pisteuo”. It means to “believe, have faith in, or trust.”
And to understand just how central this is in John, all we have to do is look at the number of times he uses this word.
Matthew uses some form of this word “believe” 11 times.
Mark uses it 14 times.
Luke uses it 9 times
But John uses it 98 Times in the gospel of John!
And if that is not enough, John makes his intent very clear near the end of the Gospel.
31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Keep this in the back of your mind as we look at our text today.
Looking at the book of John through the lens of belief is going to help us understand the text on a deeper level.
Setting the Stage for the Triumphal Entry
Setting the Stage for the Triumphal Entry
Second, I think we need to understand all the events that led up to this moment.
I always had a hard time understanding why Jesus was crucified a few days later after the triumphal entry.
Crowds are praising him and waiving palm branches and rejoicing, but then a few days later we see a crowd crying out “Crucify Him!”
I used to think that there was one crowd and once they saw Jesus was not going to overthrow the Romans they changed their mind somehow and wanted him dead.
But as I read the book of John and studied this passage, it became apparent that there are two different crowds here.
But you really don’t understand this fully until know the background and the context for this event.
This moment is the apex of Jesus’ ministry here on earth.
It represents a time when Jesus has reached such amazing heights of fame and awareness. People are seeking him out. Rulers are hearing about Jesus and wanting to know more. He has rock star status drawing thousands of people to see him and hear him speak.
It is quite incredible to see these events unfold and see Jesus work out his death in God’s perfect timing.
John spends a lot of time setting the stage for His entry into Jerusalem and he does so for a reason.
As you work your way backward from John 12 you will see that he is often showing two opposing groups of people. One group who is believing in Jesus and the other who is not.
Let me give you some examples to show you what I mean.
We see in our text today that the crowd that saw Lazarus raised from the dead is here and continue to bear witness about Jesus. They are going around telling everyone what happened and it is causing a stir.
Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead just a few months before he enters Jerusalem.
It is really the tipping point for the Pharisees.
This is the climax of their hate for him.
They are so concerned that people are believing in him that they fear the Romans will come and take their place away.
They are so angry about people believing in Jesus that they even want to kill Lazarus.
So in the previous chapter we are given a glimpse of these two groups after Lazarus is raised from the dead.
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
Did you see it - One group was beginning to believe that Jesus was the Messiah because of the miracles he had done and his teaching. but then another group goes and tells the Pharisees about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
And as you see these instances of division you start to see they are often paired with the desire to put Jesus to death.
53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
We don’t know exactly how long, but it is only a few months before this we read of division again in John 10 after Jesus is teaching.
19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.
then John 10:24 .
24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
So Jesus basically says that He and God are one.
Then in John 10:31 we read.
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
But again John points out the other side in verse 42.
42 And many believed in him there.
And a few months before this scene in in Chapter 10 we see division and the desire to kill Jesus. This is probably about one year before Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand.
30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
By the time we get to Jesus entering Jerusalem, John has made it very clear that there is division among the people and this division is growing more and more wide apart and intense.
John is showing this division because he is tying it to believing.
John is showing us that when it comes to believing in Jesus, you can ultimately only have two different camps.
Those who believe and those who don’t.
This theme of belief and unbelief are represented by a group who believes and follows Jesus and one who wants to have him killed.
This did not happen overnight.
This division had been happening over the course of Jesus’ entire ministry.
This should not surprise us.
We are reminded in Luke 12:51 that Jesus brings division.
51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
These two groups represent the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world living in tension and at war with one another.
Exposition
Exposition
With this theme of belief and these two opposing groups in the back of our mind we can now come back to our text and I want to really spend our time today looking at vs. 20-26.
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 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.
I will tell you that when I read this for the first time it confused me.
There were a couple things that struck me odd.
As I have mentioned no other gospel gives this scene.
Why is this important to John? Why does he feel the need to point out that some random Greeks asked to see Jesus?
And why was Jesus’ response not a normal response like, “bring them to me” or “I will meet with them after dinner.”?
Was Jesus confused?
Of course not,...... Jesus’ response was perfect.
And I want to show you why.
First let’s strip away all the other words and hone in on what the Greeks say and Jesus’s response
The Greeks asked Philip - “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Jesus responds to Philip and Andrew - “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
Let’s think about each of these statements for a moment.
Let’s deal with the Greeks first.
One commentary I read wrote this.
We wish to see Jesus
We wish to see Jesus
“The mention of Greeks is significant. They were the wanderers of the ancient world and the seekers of truth. These Greeks were probably God-fearers who attended Jewish synagogues and feasts. Their coming was symbolic of the coming of Gentiles to worship God through Christ”
Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 317.These were Greeks who came to worship but they were not Jews so they were not allowed into the inner sanctuary of the Temple.
John is bringing the Greeks to the forefront because this moment symbolizes that the Gospel is for the whole world.
In this culture, you had Jews and then Gentiles. The Gentiles being anyone who was not a Jew.
For John to bring a people group who are not Jews into the picture is fascinating because he is doing it intentionally.
John is alluding to the fact that the call to believe in Jesus is for all people.
This is not the first time John touches on this idea.
35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
For the Jews of that day, there was this mindset that Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans and deliver them, the Jews, from earthly bondage.
Jesus was supposed to be for them only, in their minds.
But Jesus came to deliver all people from spiritual bondage.
So when we see Greeks saying that they want to “see Jesus” we are being shown that Jesus came for all.
Believing is Seeing
Believing is Seeing
There is another important aspect as to why John is calling this moment out.
I believe that it is because John often ties believing together with seeing.
This is why John talks about Jesus being the light.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John 1:14 (ESV)
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus is the light that reveals himself so that people may believe in him.
Without this illumination from Jesus we would still be in darkness.
Because John ties believing and seeing so closely together he is really saying that there is “seeing Jesus” and then there is “truly seeing Jesus”
The reason the so many people wanted to “see” Jesus was really to see the miracles he was doing.
You have heard the phrase “Seeing is believing”?
This is kind of how the Jews approached Jesus.
This is how we approach Jesus sometime.
They thought that they had to see signs in order to believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
John 4:48 (ESV)
48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
John 6:30 (ESV)
30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
They thought they had to see miracles in order to believe that he was the Christ.
John is making a point in his Gospel that the only way we get to “truly see” Jesus for who he really is, is by first believing in him .
In other words for the Christian, “believing is seeing”.
True spiritual sight must be preceded by believing.
We see this in scripture over and over again.
John 3:3 (ESV)
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:36 (ESV)
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 11:40 (ESV)
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
We can fast forward to the room after the Jesus is resurrected when he appears to his disciples and the famous scene with Thomas.
John 20:27–29 (ESV)
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Believing in Jesus is truly seeing him. And it does not require a physical manifestation of Jesus.
The Hour Has come
The Hour Has come
Now let’s go back to Jesus’s response to the Greek’s request to see him.
We looked at the phrase “Sir, We wish to see Jesus.”
Jesus’ response is “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”.
The phrase “hour has come” is also significant in the Book of John.
Jesus speaks of the hour that is coming as the moment when he is to be crucified and usher in the New Kingdom.
This phrase is used over and over again in the Book of John.
Jesus’s response to the Greek’s request is so significant and yet confusing, until you understand the Book of John that you really get it.
John has been building on these themes of belief, seeing, light and revelation and here we get the Greeks wanting to see Jesus.
We are not told of the Greeks true intentions here but I do believe that the Greeks symbolize the rest of the world in darkness.
They symbolize a lost and broken people seeking restored sight.
They symbolize a people on the outside looking in.
It is at this moment, when the rest of the world is looking to see Jesus, that Jesus says “the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.”
In other words....
The hour has come for me to pay for the sins of the whole world so they can truly see me.
The hour has come for me to fulfill the Lord’s purpose for all people so they can see me.
The hour has come to reveal myself to all people so they can truly see me.
Jesus is not confused!
Jesus is about His Father’s business.
He is aware that man’s need is not to see Him physically and see signs and wonders but to “see” Him as our Saviour and to see our need for a Savior.
Jesus’ response is our good news.
The time had come for him to be glorified and to glorify his Father.
He is telling the Greeks, the Jews and every person on this planet that we can now come see Him if we believe in him and follow him.
I am convinced that John is intentionally making sure we see that the Gospel is for the whole world.
John even points to this at the resurrection.
Remember the sign Pilate made and had hung on the cross that read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
Do you recall that it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek?
All four Gospels tell us about this inscription on the cross but only John mentions that it was written in three languages.
Do you think that was a mistake?
Even there we see the symbol of Jesus calling all people to himself.
God was sure to announce that Jesus was the King of the Jews in all 3 languages at a time when all nations were coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
You cannot tell me that God is not in control.
God takes a sign that was meant to mock him and the Jews and turns it into a universal call to all people.
Whoever loves his life loses it.
Whoever loves his life loses it.
Now, what about the rest of this passage.
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. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 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.
Jesus is certainly speaking of himself here in verse 24. Jesus is the grain of wheat that must die in order to bear fruit.
We who believe in him are the fruit of his death and resurrection.
Verses 25-26 are certainly directed at all people and bring us back to this idea of division and they point us to the application of this message.
In the kingdom, of God there are those who love their earthly life and those who long for heaven.
And they are the same people who don’t believe and those who do.
They are the ones who are blind to Jesus and the ones who are not.
But there is one problem with Belief that we must deal with and I think this is why Jesus talks about following and serving Him.
You will recall that in James 2:19
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
You see - belief alone is not enough.
Belief in Jesus must be followed by being willing to serve Him.
The reason the Demons are not in heaven is that they are not willing to serve him.
If you are to be on the believing, seeing, and worshiping side of Jesus you cannot love this earthly life more than the life we hope for with Jesus.
A life that truly seeks to see Jesus is one who first believes in him but then follows and serves him.
But we cannot serve Him unless we follow Him and we cannot follow him until we believe in Him.
If we first want to see signs before we believe, follow, and serve him, our hearts are not right.
A heart that seeks physical signs first is a heart that is bound to a physical world.
You might not be asking God to raise people from the dead or part the Susquehanna river.
Your signs may sound more like, “God help me quit smoking then I will believe.”
“God take this fear from me, then I will know you are God.”
“God heal this person, and then I will know you are God.”
It will never matter how many miracles God does in your life if all you are seeking for is signs and proof constantly.
A heart that believes in Jesus is a heart is not bound to this world. It is a heart that realizes, this world is not our home.
We live in a broken world were people kill each other and cheat on each other, disease takes loved ones from us early, children die of starvation, people are still sold into slavery, and the list goes on and on.
Miracles are amazing and they bring us so much joy and the helps us see the glory of God, but only when our heart is right with God.
And so being a believer in Jesus means that we lay our life down to serve him. Being willing to follow Him and obey Him.
It is in that place we will be able to truly “see Jesus”
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, you, me and every person on this planet falls into one of two categories.
You either believe Jesus is the Son of God and serve him and see him clearly or you don’t believe in him and are still waiting for a sign.
You either shout Hosanna or you shout Crucify him whether you are aware of it or not.
As we worship this Holy week, let us be reminded and thankful that Jesus calls all people to himself.
The gospel is not just for the Jews . Jesus did not die just for the nice people of the world.
God came to save sinners, which includes all of us.
Let’s examine our hearts.
Do we wish to see Jesus prove himself over and over again with miracles, or do we wish to really see him as the example of self sacrificing love that served the Father and died for us?
Are we first seeking feelings of peace or a mind that is settled as proof that he is Jesus ?Before peace and proof come we need to come to the cross and simply believe.
It is only then that we will truly be able to see him.
Oh God grant us eyes to see and ears to hear. Help us to believe that we may see You.