John 12 20 33

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Pastor Timothy Patoka 5 Sunday In Lent – March 18, 2018 Jesus’ Death Glorifies God (John 12:20-33) th

1) Jesus’ willing death glorifies the Son of God 2) Jesus’ guilty death glorifies God’s name 3) Jesus’ death shares God’s glory with his children When you were in school, how many trophies or certificates of achievements did you receive? Whether it’s sports or extracurricular activities, just about everyone gets these visible signs of glorification. I remember how as a kid I would lie up my soccer trophies and medals on my dresser just right to make sure that when a person entered my room, they saw all the glorious things I did. In the Student Union at my college was the display case with all its trophies. And guess which trophy was right in the middle? The biggest, the best-looking one of them of all. Sadly this year’s March Madness trophy will not be with our Wildcats. But thankfully they have other trophies to show their glorified sports program. Why is it that we make a big deal out of trophies or certificates of achievements? It’s because of what they represent. That this person, this team, this organization, has made it to the top. When you look at those trophies or certificates, you see the person glorified for their accomplishments. But suppose God were to have a display case of his own trophies and certificates. What would you expect to find right in the middle? Would it surprise you if it was the cross with Jesus on it? That’s what our verses for this morning from the Gospel of John chapter 12 show us. Because it is through Jesus’ death on the cross we see how God is glorified – his Son, his name, and his children. When we come upon Jesus in John chapter 12 we see him in the final days of his earthly ministry. He’s in Jerusalem during Holy Week and it’s crowded because of the coming Passover Festival. Jewish believers from all over are coming to Jerusalem including some Greeks who want to see Jesus for one reason or another.i They ask Andrew, one of the 12 apostles, who in turn asks Philip, who in turn together go to Jesus. But instead of answering with a simple yes or no, Jesus shows us how his coming death would glorify God’s Son. He tells us, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell 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” (John 12:23-24). Jesus would glorify himself by dying on the cross. And he illustrates it with a kernel of wheat that falls to the ground, dies, and produces many seeds. Now I may not have a green thumb, but I did some research on wheat to understand Jesus’ illustration.ii When the wheat plant is fully grown, it looks like dry tall grass. It’s brown, it has a skinny hollow stem, and it’s topped off with a bushy head of full of kernels, full of seeds. Assuming you don’t harvest it, those kernels of seeds will eventually fall to the ground, die, and produce many seeds so as to 1


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