Follow Him – Sermon 22 March 2015

“Follow Him”

John 12: 20 – 33

At this point in time many were following Christ, but they failed to grasp what Jesus meant by “following Him”.

Still today there are many who call themselves Christians but truly they do not understand what it means to follow Christ the Saviour.

1. True Followers Die So They Can Grow (23-25)

When others tried to force their will upon Him Jesus replied that it wasn’t His time yet. We read in John:

– When His mother Mary told Him about the shortage of wine at the wedding feast, “My hour has not yet come.”

– When His brothers wanted Him to go to Jerusalem for the Passover, “My time is not yet here;” “My time has not yet fully come.”

– When He taught in the temple and the rulers wanted to lay hands on Him, “no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.”

Now Jesus stands before the crowd and says My hour has come. The time had come for Jesus to be glorified, but not in the way that they understood.

The crowds were thinking about an earthly kingdom that included only the children of Israel that would overthrow the Roman Empire. However Jesus was coming to establish a Heavenly Kingdom that included all people that would overthrow Satan’s empire.

This Kingdom would be established by a death Vv. 24-25

Jesus starts with an agricultural term they all understood, when you want to grow something you take a dead seed, bury it in the ground, and then it comes forth out of the ground and brings new life.

To enter into the Kingdom of God, we must go through the same process.

Romans 6:4-8 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. . . . For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

Also as believers we are called upon to produce fruit for the Kingdom. That means we must die to ourselves, our own ambitions, our own desires, our own agendas and surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. True Followers Must Submit to God’s Will (26-28a)

“Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me”

Serve – present tense which means the act of serving will not cease, we serve Christ our entire life.

Follow – has the idea of being a disciple, also in the present tense, Jesus is saying let him keep on following Me. That means we should never stop learning from our Teacher, we must never become unteachable.

“and where I am, there My servant will be also.”

We see the promise of Christ’s presence. However this promise is not conditional on our serving or our following, but it is His presence that empowers us to serve and follow Him. Serving and following the evidence of our faith. Vv. 27-28 Jesus’ sole priority was to carry out the Father’s will and to glorify God.

Jesus was not unemotional about the punishment, the suffering, and the crucifixion He was about to endure. It weighed heavily upon Him and was overwhelmed.

Jesus is teaching us that if we want to serve and follow Him then we must do what is right.

We make so many excuses, I don’t have time, it makes me uncomfortable, I might be laughed at or ridiculed.

Well Jesus was falsely accused, rejected, and beaten, spit upon, mocked, tortured and crucified because He only wanted to do what God told Him to do.

3. True Followers Hear the Word of God (28b-34)

We have 2 groups of people: one who hear and yet do not understand and those who hear and are drawn by faith.

The first group, those who are perishing, they hear the message but cannot imagine why the Messiah would die upon a cross. While the second group, those who believe and are saved, are drawn to Christ because of the cross.

As believers we hear and understand the word of God because we have the power of God (faith) and the wisdom of God (presence of the Holy Spirit) which allows us to hear God so clearly when so many others cannot.

4. True Followers Walk in the Light (35-36)

The light of revelation and the light of Christian walk, which is the teaching and commands of Christ, both should be acted upon with a sense of urgency.

Light of revelation – when God reveals through His Spirit the truth of Jesus Christ.

We must not continue to reject Christ because eventually darkness will overtake us!

The light of the Christian walk, if we have been changed by the power of the cross, then we will be sons of light.

Jesus tells us to walk while we have the light, that is to keep living a life that pleases and glorifies God.

God gives us opportunities each and every day; Ephesians 2:10 — 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

But the question is; are we choosing to walk in them?

We live in a time when it is becoming harder but at the same time even more crucial that we stand out as true follower of Christ:

– Are we dying so that we can grow?

– Are we submitting to God’s will?

– Do we hear God through His word?

– Are we walking in light?

In this season of Lent we should examine our hearts to see if we are really following Him.

Only then we can truly be His disciples.

Disciples who are obedient, trustworthy, committed and true Christians.

This should be our goal today as we pray to God seeking His blessing.

Krikor Youmshajekian