His glory. We'll be reading from John 12 as we continue through the Gospel of John. If you'd open your Bibles, please, to John 12. We'll begin in verse 20. John 12.20 and go through verse 26. It always fascinates me when you talk to someone who's older, and they speak of an event that happened maybe when they were 18 or 20 or 21. How vibrant it feels. You can see it in their eyes and in their voices. They're talking about something as if it happened just yesterday. And it seems that when you're young, things do feel more fresh and vibrant and powerful and real, although all of our experiences are real. But there's such a clarity and excitement. I remember hearing a World War II veteran. His name was Thomas Griffin. He lived in Cincinnati. I was based in Ohio. He was a Doolittle Raider. For those of you who don't remember your World War II history, maybe as well as you should, right after Pearl Harbor, the United States military, especially the Navy, was on its heels. much of the Navy had been destroyed at Pearl Harbor, and Roosevelt wanted a way to get at Japan. He asked the Defense Department, if you will, to find a way to get at Japan. They had no way to get there. They didn't have planes that had long enough reach. The Navy seemed to be fairly much destroyed, and the Japanese Navy controlled the Pacific Well, there was a man named Doolittle who had, Jimmy Doolittle had a plan. They would put bombers, light bombers on an aircraft carrier, and they would kind of sneak this aircraft carrier way, way, way out close to Japan. The bombers would take off on pretty much a one-way mission. They would bomb Tokyo in really a symbolic gesture, and hopefully everyone would survive. That was basically the plan. You would think that no one would volunteer for such a mission. And yet the bomber that was used, they pulled the three or four squadrons in existence. And every man stood forward and said, send me. So they chose the best. And Thomas Griffin was in one of the aircraft that was sent to Japan. He survived. Unlike many of them, he survived. All the planes reached their target in Tokyo. Then they all either crashed in China or bailed out over China. before the plane crashed. Thomas Griffin, we went to his house in 2008. He was old. This event had happened 60 years before, over 60 years prior, 1942. So almost 70 years before. And yet when he spoke of that mission, you could see his eyes just light up. He was only in his early 20s. And yet it was as if he remembered every detail. I'll never forget it, and neither will my kids. Well, John writes about this last week of Jesus' life in chapters 12-21. All of the events that happened in that week seem to have been so impactful to the young John that he remembers details that no one else has told us about. It's so significant and so clear in his life, in his young life, that even speaking decades later, it feels like when you read these last 10 chapters of the Scriptures in the Gospel of John, that you are almost there. He remembers details, words, and events that you wouldn't expect an old man to remember, and yet it's the same phenomenon. He remembers it because it impacted his life so much. He spends over half of his entire letter speaking of the events of this last week. It's important to Him, and we're grateful to the Holy Spirit for giving Him remembrance. So with that said, we will not be surprised that John remembers very detailed phrases, words, things that happened from this last week. Please stand for the reading of God's Holy Word. This is John 12, beginning in verse 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 went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. 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 my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Amen. May you please be seated. The grass withers. The flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we do pray that You would, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, because of the blood of Christ, that You would open our eyes to understand Your Word, that we would be encouraged and challenged, that You would teach, rebuke, correct, and train us in Your holy Scriptures Lord, You and You alone can do this for us, and we pray that You would feed Your sheep, in Jesus' name. Amen. The seed must die. Jesus said the seed must die, and He's speaking of Himself, but He's also speaking of us. The seed must die, yes, and we are to follow in His steps. We'll talk about three particular things from this passage. First, we'll see that Christ has a global mission. We'll also talk about, secondly, Christ's glorification, and it's a deadly glorification. The Son of Man must be glorified in death. And thirdly, we'll see that Christ also calls us to sacrifice. So the global mission, the glorification, and then our own call to sacrifice. The global mission, what are we talking about? Well, if you remember in verse 19, the verse just prior to this, the Pharisees, the leaders of the Jews, are saying to each other, the whole world has gone after Him. Again, these words, John remembers exactly what was said about Jesus. And these words actually say something about the mission of Christ. Because in the very next verse, we read about people of the world, these Greeks. There were Greeks who went to worship at the feast. These are Greek men. They're not Jewish. Not part of the covenant family of Abraham. Part of the world, if you will. And they came up to worship at the feast. Why would the Greeks come to the feast? Why would John mention this? There's at least two reasons. According to Mark, Jesus has entered Jerusalem at this time through the golden gate, and then immediately went and cleansed the temple. He cleansed the court of the Gentiles from all the money changers and those who were selling animals. He drove them all out. In effect saying, this is a place of worship for the Gentiles, and you've turned it into a market. See, there was a wall, a dividing wall, Paul calls in Ephesians, the dividing wall of hostility that kept the Jews from the Greeks, the Jews from the Gentiles who would worship God in the temple. And yet not even the court of the Gentiles was able to be used before that because it had been filled with money changers. It had been filled with those who were selling animals that were to be sacrificed. All of this was approved of by those in leadership. And Jesus drove them out. So perhaps these Greeks had seen what had just happened and thought to themselves, we also want to meet Jesus. Perhaps He is calling us to worship God as well. Perhaps He's the one who's remembering that God is not just for Jewish people, God is for all people. So these Greeks, we don't know, but if that they had seen that event, maybe that's what caused them to want to come to Jesus. But there's also a theological reason why we think that maybe these Greek men came to Jesus, and it's that they represent the world. Look, the whole world has gone after him. These Greeks are kind of a prophetic picture of the mission of Christ. He came first to the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. In John 1.11, we read that he came to his own, His own people. And His own people did not receive Him. And a few verses later we're told in John 3.16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. What's being pictured here is part of the message of the gospel, indeed of the whole New Testament. The dividing wall of hostility spoken of by Paul in Ephesians 2 will be torn down by Jesus. The covenant promises will be applied to both Jews and Greeks. So these men are a kind of first fruits of what Jesus said would happen. He said in John 10, just a few weeks ago, we studied this scripture, that He would bring sheep who are not of this fold. Speaking of the Gentiles. Someday that would happen. And you might think, wow, this is a new thing that Jesus is talking about. Actually, it's not. If you go all the way back to Genesis, after Noah had been on the ark, and he came out with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, he foretold that the descendants of Japheth, meaning the world that was not empowered to know the Scriptures, that wasn't chosen by God as the descendants of Shem were the Jews, the descendants of Japheth would live under the tents of Shem. Even Noah foretold and prophesied that eventually, someday, that the descendants of Japheth, the world, would come under the tents of Shem. So this is one of the messages of Scripture. And we see that these Greeks do, in a large measure, represent the world. And also we see the great contrast. Again, John loves contrasts. We see the contrast of the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders who don't want anything to do with Jesus. He's their Messiah. He's their Jewish Messiah, their Savior. They want nothing to do with Him. Then we see these Greeks, these Gentiles who want nothing more than to be with Jesus, to meet Him. They want to see Him. Well, they go to Philip. We don't know exactly why. Maybe because he was from Bethsaida in Galilee that had a large Greek Gentile population. We don't know. Philip tells Andrew, and Andrew and Philip go tell Jesus. We're not told the details of why this happens. Although I think it is interesting that Andrew, whenever we see him, we don't know much about Andrew, but he's always bringing people to Jesus. He brought Peter, his brother, to Jesus. He brings, maybe, these Greek men to Jesus. We're actually never told whether they get to meet Him or not. Dr. Sproul said that this is the reason why his church is called St. Andrew's Church. Because they want to bring people to Jesus like Andrew did. Well, regardless, we don't know if these people ever got to see Jesus or not. But we do see something of Christ's response. In verse 23, Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. So they bring this request to Jesus, and it almost seems like His response is a little out of place. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified? What exactly are you saying? But it's not out of place at all. He's responding to the situation rather than to the exact people in front of him. He's using this event to point to his whole mission. The hour has always been something in the future. If you remember all of our references to this hour in John, they're always in the future. John 2, his mother says to make wine, and he says, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. The hour of His glorification hasn't come. John 4, the woman at the well. He says, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father. His glorification, the time of His revealing has not yet come. It's always in the future. John 7, they were seeking to arrest Him. Same in John 8, but they were unable to lay a hand on Him. Why? His hour had not yet come. But now in the week of His death, Jesus proclaims for the first time, the hour has come. The hour has come. And from here on in the gospel, it is imminent. He, the sovereign God, the Son of God, His hour had come to fulfill all of His mission. And when this hour would come, We must remember that He was the Son of God, the Sovereign God. He was in complete control. He knows the time. He knows the place. He knows the hour. And the hour has come for the Son of Man. Let's look at that phrase, the Son of Man, to be glorified. The Son of Man. It's a phrase, a title that He uses of Himself very frequently. Probably comes from Daniel 7. It's one of Daniel's visions. Verse 13, he says, I saw in the night visions and behold. With the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. To him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all people's nations languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. So, He uses this term, Son of Man, referring to the hour that's about to come upon Him by the foreordained plan of God, that He would die and suffer on the cross. And yet, if you had heard this for the first time, you would not connect these two things. The prophecy of Daniel 7, that He would be given dominion and glory in a kingdom, and yet the words that He's been telling His disciples all along, that I'm going to go to Jerusalem and die. You probably would not be able to put those two things together, and yet Jesus constantly refers to Himself as the Son of Man, because He wants us to put those things together. He's being glorified. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. How? In His death, His burial, and His resurrection. It's a deadly glorification. Why else could Jesus say things like this? Right after Judas departed the upper room to betray Him, Judas is leaving the upper room to go and betray Him to death. The very next verse, Jesus says, now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. Wait, what? A guy just left your most intimate gathering, and he's going to betray you? How can you say, now is the Son of Man glorified? Because He's talking of the work the Almighty had planned forever, that He would come and save His own. And later in this same chapter, in John 12, Jesus will talk about this next week. Jesus says, shall I say, Father, save me from this hour that's coming? He says, no! But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your Name. It was His glory to do the will of the Father. What we pray every day when we pray through the Lord's Prayer in our minds, when we say, Holy be Thy Name, this was His guiding light. This is what He chose and strove to do every day, in every word, thought, and deed, to glorify God's Holy Name. the name of His Father, to be perfectly obedient in submission to His Father while on earth. That's how we can say it's a glorifying thing that He would die in obedience to His Father's wishes. This also reminds us that His death is not an accidental death. It's not a death to be regretted. It's not an unfortunate turn of events. We wish that they had listened to Jesus so that maybe He wouldn't have had to die No, this was always the plan. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. The God-man would be glorified and dying for those whom the Father would give him, including Greeks. He would be largely rejected by his own people, but he would die for a world of sinners. And the shame of the cross would be his glory. He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And the Lamb of God, would soon be sacrificed. It was a deadly glorification. He says in verse 24, "...truly, truly, or amen, amen, or verily, verily..." In other words, listen up. "...truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone." But if it dies, it bears much fruit." He explains this deadly glorification, if you will, by saying, this is what it's going to be like. It's going to be like a grain of wheat that falls to the earth and dies. This is what I'm going to do. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. You remember, when Jesus first began His ministry, Satan came to tempt Him. And Satan offered Him all the kingdoms of the world. He was deluded himself because he didn't know that Christ already owned all of His creation. But he was offered all the kingdoms of the world to give Jesus a way to have all the glory and honor without going through all of the Father's will. And he was all alone when he was tempted by Satan. But he was not going to take the easy road of the world, the flesh, or the devil. He was going to go the Father's way. And He compares Himself to a grain of wheat. If you take a grain of wheat, kids, and you want to grow it, you have to plant it. You can't just put it on the counter. It's not going to grow on the counter. You have to dig a hole and bury it and then water it. And then it's going to grow. This is what Jesus is saying. He has to die and be buried. Jesus is that kernel of wheat. who dies and who is buried. And yet the seed grows and bears much fruit. In Galatians 3, he's described as the seed of Abraham. Jesus is the seed of Abraham. And the fruit is also described in chapter 3, verse 26. For you are all the sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, we all become part of Abraham's family because of faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Verse 29, And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. You see, the death of the one seed, Jesus, makes all of us who have faith in Him seed as well. It's a fruit-bearing death. If it dies, it bears much fruit. You see, there's no question in Jesus' mind that it will bear fruit. This is another point that we must always remember. Jesus didn't die just thinking, I hope this works. Can you imagine? I hope this bears fruit. There's a view of Christ and His death that is absolutely wrong, and I want you all to hear this. If you ever hear someone say that Jesus died just to make it possible for men to come to salvation, that is not what the Scriptures would teach us. He made it possible for all, but He secured salvation for none. That is not correct. We must put that aside. It's an offense to the Holy God. He did not come to live perfectly, to bear our flesh, to die on the cross, to be buried, to rise from the dead, to ascend into heaven, only just to hope that someone would believe in Him. It's as if He's sitting in the bleachers and He's just watching the game and He's hoping that you make the right choices. He's hoping you cross the finish line, but He doesn't know. He's made it possible, but He doesn't know for sure. No. His sacrifice was for those whom the Father had given Him. He came to save them. He knew that He would bear much fruit in His death. All those whom the Father had given Him, He said, would come to Him. And He would raise them up on the last day. The New Testament refers to these people as the elect. Those who had been predestined. The chosen. those who had been adopted as sons. And He would personally subdue all of them to Himself by the Spirit of Christ. Truly, the seed died and would bear much fruit. Period. It will happen. And did happen. Just as a point of theological application, if you will, regarding the spiritual nature of Jesus' work, regarding what Jesus did to save us, you have to remember that the cross, the perfect life, the death that Jesus is speaking of here, and the resurrection of Jesus, this is the center of our religion. Jesus, His person and His work, including His death. Christianity without the cross is not Christianity. It's a sham. Christianity without the resurrection, which was preceded by the cross, without the resurrection, we might as well just stop doing church. If Christ hasn't risen from the dead, then what are we doing here, Paul would say. But we proclaim boldly to all of our friends, all of our neighbors, all of our family, that we believe in Jesus, died and rose again, and is coming again in glory. What exactly did He do? He was born as a man. He lived a perfectly righteous life. All of the commandments of God that we break every day, He obeyed them perfectly. Why? Because our prayer, Holy be thy name, that was His life. To glorify the name of His Father. And He always did. Never once sinning in His whole life. He was the perfect Lamb. But then He suffered and died at the hands of wicked men. And the death on the cross was more than just a physical death. While on the cross, He took the eternal wrath of God on Himself for everyone whom He came to save. He bore all the wrath of God that was due to us. We will never be able to fathom what He took on Himself. We will never be able to fathom the wrath, the eternal wrath, that He took for us. And finally, after His death, He rose again on the third day in victory. Because He died and rose, He is called the firstborn of the dead, and He is exalted by the Father to His right hand, and He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords, now and forevermore. Amen. Glory. Hallelujah. This is the gospel we proclaim. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So when Jesus said, I will die, I will be buried in the ground and bear much fruit, and this is my glorification, this is what He sees. And without these necessary elements of the cross, our faith, as I said, is worthless. This is why He said He had to come and fall to the ground and die. This was His humiliation. But then He would also rise again. And all of it was part of His glorification. All of it. It was a deadly sacrifice. Let's look at the third point. He now calls us as well. He's just described His own death as a seed, and then He calls us as well to give up our own lives. In the Scriptures, there are certain words that I just love. One of the words is whoever. Whoever. Kids, it's a word that you even know. The word whoever. Whoever means anyone. It's a wonderful word for Christians. It's a wonderful word for people who read the Bible. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever or whoever would believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. We love the word whoever. You don't have to be Jewish. Anyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. We love that word, whoever, when we read it in John 3.16, because that could mean us. We don't like it so much when we read it in John 12. And I also think it's interesting that Jesus doesn't coddle His followers. He doesn't use soft words to try to lure them in the way preachers are tempted to today. He doesn't promise an easy life or assure them that their best effort would be good enough for Him. He tells them plainly in every gospel. If you're not all in, then you're not in at all. He says to them over and over again in so many ways, you have to be all mine. Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your name? Didn't we cast out demons? Didn't we do many mighty works in Your name? And He says, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you evildoer. He cannot be more clear that there are many people who think they are His but are not. What's the difference? Those who are His are radicalized, if you will, by the Holy Spirit. They live for a different purpose. Their lives are lived for Him and not for themselves. They're willing to lose everything for the sake of Jesus. They will do anything to follow Him. They will lose anything for Him. And that's what He says in verse 25, just after saying that He's going to die and produce much fruit, He applies that same paradigm to us in many ways. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. These kinds of statements are not unique to this part of John. He says these things all over the Scriptures, all over the Gospels. In Matthew 16.24, he says much the same thing. He says, if anyone would come after me or follow me, Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. In Luke 9.23, he says the same thing, but he adds the word daily. If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. We must lose our life. We must hate our life in this world. In other words, we must live solely for Christ. And the reward for those who live in this way is to have eternal life. He who loses his life, whoever hates his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life. So we, I think, are disarmed by just how simple this is. What Jesus says isn't hard to stand. You don't need to go to seminary to understand these words. You just need to be able to think. You don't even need to be able to read to understand these words. You just need to be able to hear them and understand the words. They're simple words, and this simplicity is part of their power, I believe. It's not difficult to understand. We just don't like it. And the difficulty is that we who claim to follow Jesus, we must do it. What must we do? We must lose our lives. He who loves his life loses it. This isn't the PhD level of Christianity. This is 101. This is entering Christianity. You live for Jesus now. It's for everyone who is Christ's disciple. All Christians lose their lives. All Christians must come and die. Well, what exactly does he mean by lose his life? To hate your life in this world? I mean, we all want eternal life. What is he saying? Is this some new works righteousness? No, he's just showing the logical outcome of a soul that's been transformed by the Holy Spirit. This is what you will look like. You'll hate your life in this world. Meaning, you'll deny yourself and you'll have your eyes fixed upon Christ. You'll think more of your life with God than your life in this world. And this is counter-cultural in any age. Not just today. Can you imagine Americans thinking of self-denial? Pop culture, whatever. The last thing most Americans think of is self-denial. We're taught by the culture that to deny yourself is really foolish. Narcissism, which used to be repulsive to Western society, is now openly embraced. It seems like many people are on Facebook or Instagram just to highlight themselves. What is narcissism? Kids, I'll explain it to you. Narcissism is this preoccupation with yourself. You think you are the center of the universe. You think everything revolves around you. And you pursue your own gratification at the expense of everything else. You admire yourself more than anyone else. So what does this produce? This produces a narcissistic attitude toward how you live life. Well, I want it and I want it now. I'll do that thing regardless of any consequences. I want a hamburger. I'm going to go get it now. I want a new car. I'm going to go buy it now. We're going to be in debt for 10 years. It doesn't matter. Go get it. You want to sleep with another woman? Forsake your marriage vows? That's okay. Just do it. You want to look at pornography again? Just look at it. It doesn't matter. God will forgive you. Just do it. Seize this moment. Who cares? And from the moment you are born, you are told to indulge. You do the thing that makes you happy. What do you want in life? Well, I just want to be happy. I'll do whatever it takes to make me happy. To get as much as possible, to enjoy everything as much as possible, and then to ensure that everyone in the world knows that I'm as happy as I possibly can be. I've lived my best life now. No inconvenience should ever slow down our pursuit of happiness. For a narcissist, nothing should get in the way of you being happy. Because it's all about you. Not the commandments of God. Not the Lord's Day. Not the words of Jesus. What is right is what I say is right. It's all about me. And this is narcissism, kids. So can you imagine any idea more opposed to what Jesus is saying here? than this narcissistic life that many Americans live in, that maybe you live in? Jesus says, hate your life, lose your life. But the culture says, no, actually, you need to be embracing and loving this world and all that it has to offer. That's where happiness comes. Reject this call to self-denial for the sake of Christ. To live for others and live for God. to follow God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. Forget that. Live for yourself. We're called to take up our cross and to follow Him. And this is the way to eternal life. I was listening to some newsmen who were talking about things that are changing in our culture. And one is, well, these men were actually, all three of them who were talking, were all formerly alcoholics and drug abusers. And they mentioned this same dynamic, that the world would tell you, you need to be high, and you need to be drunk, and that's where true happiness is. This is what you do when you wanna be happy. You go party somewhere. You find a bunch of other drunks and a bunch of other drug users, and you party together, and this is true happiness. And these people are now sober, and they're looking back on their former life, and they said, isn't it interesting that the world tells you that that's where true happiness and freedom is, but the reality is true happiness and freedom comes in sobriety. Now these men, I don't know if they were Christians or not, but they're nailing the same point. True happiness and freedom comes in serving Jesus, not following your own way. Hearing His call to death. taking up your cross and following Him. And the cross, to take up the cross, this was a horrible thing to consider in the first century. The cross was the most cruel way to die. It was meant by the Romans to be a slow and agonizing death. You were beaten or flogged. You carried your cross to a place near a highway so everyone could see you. Then you were crucified, nails put into your hands and your feet. As you hung there naked, for all the world to see, to be mocked, and also as a warning to those who would dare come against the empire. It was a humiliation and a curse. It was a huge insult to your dignity as a human being. It brought humiliation and shame and death. So for Jesus to say to lose your life or elsewhere, to take up your cross, is to say something pretty dramatic and revolutionary. Who would want to do that? Who would want to go die? in such a shameful and humiliating way. Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship, describes it this way, taking up our cross. He says, "...it may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him. For it may be a death like Luther's, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time. Death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man and his call. Jesus summons the rich young man who was calling to Him to die, and was calling Him to die, because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die. With all our affections and our lusts, But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and His call are necessarily our death as well as our life. The call to discipleship, the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, means both death and life. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. This is for all followers of Jesus Christ. So I would challenge you this morning. Have you actually died? Are you just kind of playing with religion? Are you just kind of playing with church? Is Jesus Christ really what you live for? Or do you live for yourself and occasionally add a little Jesus to your life? Well, I'll read my Bible a few minutes this morning. Well, I'll go to church on Sunday. Are there areas of your life that are off limits? Like, no, you can't look at that, Lord. What I do on Sunday after church, that's up to me. Your word will not instruct me, period. No, you can't look at this part of my heart, Lord. I always ask You for forgiveness. I'm going to do that thing no matter how many times. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. And I'll ask You for forgiveness. But You can't touch that. Are the commandments of God Your loving joy and pleasure? If not, You're not carrying Your cross. So what does it look like to die? To lose your life? To hate your life in this world? He tells us in the next verse, you must follow Him. If anyone serves Me, you must follow Me. And where I am, there My servant will be also." He expects everyone who follows Him to do what He did. To follow Him. To walk as He walked. You must follow in His steps. If you would please open your Bibles to flip to the right to 1 Peter. 1 and 2 Peter, 1 and 2 and 3. John, Jude, and Revelation. It's near the end. 1 Peter 2. That's where we're told that we must follow in Jesus' steps. 1 Peter 2, beginning in verse 21. Peter says we must follow in His steps. We must suffer like Christ. Verse 21, For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." We must walk in Christ's steps But here's the interesting thing. Who is he speaking to? Go back up a little bit. Look at verse 18. This is all in the context of slaves serving their masters. Earthly slaves living at the time of Peter. He instructs them slaves be subject to your masters with all respect. Not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing. When mindful of it, God Mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it when you sin, if you're beaten for it, if you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. To this you have been called. because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in His steps." He's speaking to slaves who have unjust masters, and He's saying, you need to be like Christ. Embrace the suffering that He sends to you. Walk in His steps, similar to a slave serving a master. We are slaves of Christ. We belong to Him. We have been purchased with a price. Again, speaking of slavery, Paul in 1 Corinthians 7.22 says, For the one who was a slave when he was called to faith is the Lord's. And the Lord is the Lord's free person. So if you're a slave, you're actually free in Christ. Because He's your ultimate master, is what he says. Similarly, the one who is free when he was called is Christ's slave, Paul says. You were bought at a price. If you serve Christ, you are to follow in His steps, and that means serving the Father wholeheartedly as a slave would serve a master. We desire nothing more than to please our Master. We've been purchased with His own blood. You can see why Paul and Peter and James and John all call themselves slaves of Christ. Mary, when the angel Gabriel tells her she's going to be the mother of Christ, she replies, I am the Lord's slave. Their lives are committed to God totally and completely. They live to do His will, to obey His commands. So much so that they would consider themselves His slaves. This is what Christ is referring to when He says that we must follow Him. We must live like He lived in service to the Father. This is our call today. To hate the world, to love our Savior, to lose our lives, to gain eternal life, to turn aside from our own way and follow Jesus on the road to sacrifice. Truly, if Christ has called you, He's calling you to come and die. Die to yourself. So we've seen that the seed must die, Jesus must die, and secondly, He's calling all of us, His own purchased people, to die. And I'll conclude with verse 26. If you do this, there is great reward. He says, if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. Again, we think that pursuing Christ means only hardship and difficulty. It's like the alcoholic or the drug user who thinks that getting off of those substances will only bring harm and discomfort to their lives. The reality is it's the only freedom they'll ever experience. In the same way, for those who would be Christ's, you will only find true life and true freedom when you are wholeheartedly serving Him. If you give up your earthly inspirations and your earthly motivations, this is true life. It's an eternity of joy. It's a faith that is based on the foundation of Christ's own sacrifice on the cross. It's a faith that sees the gravity of Christ's mission to save the world. It's a faith that calls us to a life of sacrifice and service, to put aside our own selfish and worldly interests, our own happiness, our own pleasure, to forfeit our own souls and pursue Him alone. To love God and to love others. To obey the commandments. Not only will there be justice when Christ returns, not only will those who persecute you and the church be brought to justice at that time, but you will live forever with great reward. Everything you've done or every word you've said will be appropriately rewarded. The Father will honor you. We want to hear these words when we enter glory. Well done, my good and faithful slaves. Enter into your rest. This is our motivation to take up our cross, to die to ourselves. We want to be like Christ. So I pray that you would set your mind on things above and not on earthly things like those saints in Hebrews 11, that you would set the hope of your heart in heaven. your eternal inheritance. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you so much for your word, your word and your example. Thank you, Jesus, for calling us to live like you. To live not for ourselves, not for this world, but to give up our life in this world that we might have eternal life. To live like you. To live as a slave of the Father in heaven. Lord, we pray that we truly would be enabled by Your Holy Spirit to live lives that glorify You. And Lord, if there are any in this congregation or in the sound of my voice who realize today that they really do not live this way and may not really know You, may You, by Your Holy Spirit, work in their hearts and bring them to true faith and repentance. In Jesus' name, Amen. Would you please stand and sing our hymn of response together?