“The Hour Has Come” [Matt's Messages] ~ Matt Mitchell

“The Hour Has Come”

Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of John

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

April 28, 2024 :: John 12:12-26

Verse 23 says, “Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

That is significant because, at this point in the story, everything changes.

Up until now, the hour had not YET come.

We’ve seen this “hour” again and again in the Gospel of John. For example: Chapter 2, verse 4. Chapter 7, verse 30. Chapter 8, verse 20.

Up until now, Jesus’ “hour” or “time” had not yet come. If someone tried to take Him by force and arrest Him, they could not. If they tried to stone Him, they could not. If they wanted to kill Him, they could not. He was untouchable.

Why? Because His “hour” had not yet come.

But now our Lord Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” And He’s talking about Himself. Jesus is the Son of Man. He’s taken that name over and over again in this gospel, as well. And He says that His hour has come. It’s now time for Him to be glorified.

It’s high time for Jesus to get glory! And, as amazing as that sounds, what Jesus says about it is completely counterintuitive. Not what you might expect.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s see how we get to this point where Jesus declares that “the hour has come.” Let’s back up to verse 12.

I’ve got three points this morning to summarize this portion of the Bible, and here’s number one:

#1. THE KING HAS COME.

In verse 12, this is the day that we often call “Palm Sunday.” This story shows up in all four gospels.

If you remember, the Jewish Religious Authorities have decided that they must arrest and kill Jesus. He’s gotten way too popular, and many people are talking and acting as if Jesus is a revolutionary king. The Jewish leaders are afraid there may be a revolt against the their Roman overlords. And they are afraid that they might lose their power if the Romans have to tamp down on a revolt.

So they’ve decided that Jesus has to go. They believe He’s a blasphemer anyway. Jesus says things that can only mean that He thinks of Himself as equal with God! And that can’t be true, and blasphemy deserves death.

“So, let’s kill Jesus. It will be good for everybody all around.”

And last week, we saw that they were planning to kill Lazarus, as well! Because Jesus had brought him back from the dead, which is pretty good publicity if you are claiming to be the Son of God!

The big question on everybody’s minds was whether or not Jesus would come that year to the Passover Feast. His picture was up on all of the wanted posters around Jerusalem. If anybody saw Jesus, they were supposed call 911 so he could be taken into custody.

Will Jesus show His face?

Here’s what happened. Verse 12.

“The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! ‘ ’Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Blessed is the King of Israel!’ Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, ‘Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt’” (vv.12-15).

Yes, Jesus shows His face!

Jesus is not scared. Jesus rides into town as the coming king.

A giant crowd has heard that Jesus is coming and grabs palm branches which ever since the Maccabean revolt 150 years before have been the traditional signs of victory to wave as the rescuing heroes march into town.

The other gospels tells us that some of them tossed their branches down on the road ahead of Him as kind of way of rolling out the green carpet to welcome the king. Excitement is in the air!

And the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.

The crowd is shouting, “Hosanna” which literally means “Save us!” but by this time basically means “Praise you for saving us!”

How “blessed” is He who comes in the name of the Lord! That’s from Psalm 118.

“Blessed is the King of Israel.”

They believe that Jesus is the King. And here’s the amazing thing: Jesus believes it, too.

Jesus does not stop them. He’s not like, “Oh, no, no. That’s too much. Guys, guys, don’t be yelling that. People will get the wrong idea.”

No, Jesus lets them call Him that. In fact, He encourages it. He finds a young donkey and sits upon it and rides regally it into town over the green carpet under the waving palm branches. And He lets them shout at Him. They are shouting! “Blessed is the King of Israel!”

And what does Jesus smell like?

Like pure nard, right? Do you remember? Do you remember what happened the night right before this? We studied it last week.

Just the night before, Mary of Bethany had poured out an entire jar of expensive perfume on Jesus, anointing Him with a fortune of perfume worthy of royalty.

And Jesus had not refused that either, and I’m sure He still smelled of it ungently.

The King has come!

Of course, this is a King unlike any other king. He does not ride in on a warhorse. He does not roll in a limousine flanked by tanks. He does not fly in on Air Force One. He rides in on a donkey which may have been a symbol of royalty but was also a symbol of humility. Salvation has arrived. Rescue is here! But it doesn’t look like they might expect.

They might be expecting someone to overthrow the Romans. A military king. A political savior. But this Messiah has set His sights on a greater enemy and a deeper rescue.

As usual, his disciples don’t understand what’s truly going on here. Look at verse 16.

“At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified [not that] did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.”

He hasn’t yet been glorified, and they won’t understand all of this until then. In fact, it will take the gift of the Spirit (which we will learn about in chapter 16) to fully understand this (see 16:13).

Jesus is fulfilling the Scriptures. Psalm 118, and this riding on a donkey is from Zechariah 9:9 where the LORD promises to rescue His people. Listen to what Zechariah says, with more context:

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit” (Zech. 9:9-12 NIVO).

This King was to come and rescue Israel and, more than that, bring peace to the nations. And He’s going to do it through the blood of His covenant. Sound familiar?

Now Jesus is coming and fulfilling all of these promises. Including reaching the nations. Not just Israel but “to the ends of the earth.”

The King has come and the nations are coming to Him. Look at verse 17.

“Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.

So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!’”

They are so frustrated, aren’t they?! They hate how popular He is. But we should rejoice with the crowds that the King has come.

And He’s not just come for Israel but for the Gentiles, too. That’s the point of the next little section. Verse 20. Proof that the whole world is interested in Jesus, there are some Greeks who are. Verse 20.

“Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we would like to see Jesus.’ Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.”

Do you remember Philip and Andrew from chapter 1? These are the guys who love to connect new people to Jesus. And they have more Greek-sounding names, and Philip was from a Greek-speaking section of Galilee.

So he was the natural connecting point for these godfearers who had come to Jerusalem to see what Passover was all about, and they heard about Jesus and wanted to have an audience with Him, an interview.

“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”

Isn’t that a great request?! That would make a great prayer every morning for you and me, wouldn’t it? As we open our Bibles or as we head out into our day, “I would like to see Jesus.”

The point here isn’t so much what happened to these particular Greeks as showing that the whole wide world was involved. Greeks could say, “We would like to see Jesus” and not be turned away. Pennsylvanians can say, “We would like to see Jesus.” And we won’t be turned away.

Because the King has come, we should come to the King!

We are welcome, and we rejoice.

It’s true that some of the people who were shouting “Hosanna!” on Sunday might have been shouting “Crucify Him!” by Friday.

But they were right to shout “Hosanna!” because Jesus is the rightful, saving King. And not just of Israel, but of the whole world.

And it’s at that moment that Jesus says verse 23:

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

#2. THE HOUR HAS COME FOR THE KING TO BE GLORIFIED.

This is where everything has been heading all along. This is the moment of truth. This is when Jesus is going to get the glory that He deserves!

But He’s going to get that glory by dying. His hour of glory is going to come through the hour of suffering and death. Next, week we’re going to see how troubling this is to Him (when we get to verse 27). He is not afraid of the Pharisees, but He is troubled by His hour. His hour means glory! But it won’t be easy. In fact, it will be awful. But it must be. It must be. This is why He came.

Jesus likens Himself to kernel of wheat. Look at verse 24.

“‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. [Here’s what that means:] I tell you the truth, 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.”

For a seed to really do its work and to really fulfill its purpose, it has to go through a kind of death. It goes down into the ground and is buried and is all but left for dead. But that “death” has a power to bring new life!

We’re seeing it our gardens right now, right? Buried seeds, rain, sun, and then bursting out of the ground comes, not just a seed or a plant but fruit with many seeds in it.

There is in one seed the potential for a field of grain!

One appleseed becomes an orchard.

One acorn becomes a oak forest.

One kernel of wheat becomes a wheatfield.

But only through death.

The road to glory always goes through suffering. The power of life comes from a powerful death. The hour has come for the King to be glorified which means that the hour has come for the King to die.

Up until now, nobody could lay a hand on Him. But by the end of this week, hands that should never have touched Him will grab Him, drag Him, flog Him, crown Him with nails, and nail His hands and feet to a wooden cross.

The seed will die and go down in the ground.

But then it will spring to life! And it will create new life, much fruit, many seeds, a great and bountiful crop of all who will believe!

The disciples did not understand this. Remember verse 16. Only after Jesus was glorified (after He died and after He rose again) did they realize that these things had been written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.

And that, in dying, He had done something beautiful to us.

Do you believe this?

Have you put your faith and trust Jesus and His sacrificial death for you? If you have not yet, it is my privilege to invite and urge you to do so right now. The King has come, and He has died and come back from the dead, and He is giving life in His name for all who will put their trust in Him.

And He has also shown us and told us how to live a fruitful, God-honoring life. Look at verse 25. Jesus goes on to say:

“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me” (vv.25-26).

#3. THE TIME HAS COME FOR US TO FOLLOW THE KING.

And by that, I mean to follow Him in death.

We, as Christians, are called to live in a self-denying self-sacrificing way, just like our Lord. Jesus says, paradoxically “The man who loves his life will lose it...” That means loving your life like an idol, like your life is the most important thing in all the world. People who try to hold onto their lives, selfishly putting themselves first above all others, will lose the very thing they are clinging to.

But Jesus also says (also paradoxically), “the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (v.25). He doesn’t meant that we have to hate our lives like loathing the next breath or something like that. “Oh, I just hate my life.” No, He means in comparison with loving Jesus and loving other people.

If we so love Jesus above anything else, and we choose Jesus, and we choose serving others over choosing ourselves and our desires and our lives, then (wonder of wonders!) we get to enjoy our life with Jesus for eternity!

In other words, we need to follow our King’s example and be kernels of wheat. We need to choose to die a little every day to bring forth much fruit in the lives of others. Does that make sense? Jesus says that everyone who serves Him needs to follow His example here. V.26

“Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.”

I want to be where Jesus is. Both now and forever, and that means I need to live my life His way. And when I do, then the Father will honor me.

Isn’t that a crazy thing to read?!!! “My Father will honor the one who serves me.” I want that, and I want that for you. I want the honor that comes from the Father!

It follow our deaths. It follows our humbling ourselves and “hating our lives in this world.” “Humble yourself in the sight the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” Higher and higher!

What does this look like in day-to-day life? I’m sure you can come up with all kinds of ways in your own minds of following Jesus in a life of service and self-sacrifice. The hard part is doing it, not coming up with ideas of how it might look.

But, at the risk of losing my reward, let me give you an example from my own life of a time when, praise God, I did well. (It doesn’t always go that way, of course.)

It’s a story from our time on sabbatical that I promised to tell you someday after we got back.

We were enjoying an extended time in a beautiful seaside town called Sidmouth on the south shore of England along the English channel.

And I’ve shared pictures with you before about the hikes that we would go on together. Every morning I would go on one by myself. Often getting in 10 miles per day.

There’s a beautiful incline called “Peak Hill” that I would walk up several mornings a week. It’s quite steep. About 515 feet from the sea up to the peak, and that’s about a mile. So it’s like a 10% grade to walk up and then down. A good workout.

And one day, on my before breakfast walk, I encountered an older man, maybe in his 80's, standing by this sign and looking a little confused.

And I said, “Good morning.” And he said, “Good morning.”

And I said, “Beautiful day.” And he said, “Yes it is.”

And I said, “I’m headed back down to town now.”

And he said, “That sounds lovely. Would you like to take me with you?”

All of a sudden, I realized, “Oh, this guy is lost.”

And we started to walk back towards town. He tells me that his name is Ivor, and I piece together that he has wandered away from his home.

He’s gotten a mile out of town, uphill! Near the cliffs!

So we start walking down. And going down a steep hill is often harder than going up one. He really starts to struggle, and I’m not sure what to do. So I give him my arm. And before long I’m kind holding him up while we walk with my arm behind him.

And we’re talking.

This is my sabbatical! I’m supposed to be resting. I’m supposed to be having fun. I’m supposed to have no responsibilities. I’m supposed to be having breakfast!

But I am a Christian. I am a servant of Jesus. I know that “Whoever serves Jesus must follow Jesus; and where Jesus is, I need to also be.”

And Jesus was right there walking with Ivor down Peak Hill Road.

So we finally get down to town, and Ivor assures me that he knows the way to his home, but I am not at all convinced that he does.

So I keep walking with him. And he wants to turn down this road, “No, that doesn’t seem right. Maybe they’ve changed the roads here. No, not that one. It’s the next one, I’m sure.”

And I don’t know what to do next.

They don’t have 911 in England. They have 999. Do you call that for a something like this or only if there is a crime? I don’t know.

We have walked for like an hour now. I’m starting to think I’m going to try to steer him to where Heather is and see if she can help us with some food and some ideas of how to find out where Ivor belongs.

And then this nice English couple walks by and says, “Hello.”

And I say, “Are you from this town? Because my new friend here and I need some help.” And they call 999 and stick around helping me until the police come, and they give Ivor a ride home (wherever that actually was, I never knew).

I was sore for like three days after that! My back and my shins and my knees! Ooo!

I was confused about why that all happened. What was that all about? And I’m sure I may never know all the reasons. I did talk with Ivor about Jesus, but I’m not sure what he got from that conversation.

But then I saw that nice couple again on another one of my walks, and they stopped and introduced me to one of their friends.

And they told her the story of our helping Ivor.

They told their friend that I was a Christian pastor visiting from the United States on sabbatical. After 25 years of service, my church family had given me a three month sabbatical, and we were spending it in the UK.

And that day, I had spent most of my sabbatical morning investing it in helping Ivor walk down the hill.

And their friend said to me, “Well done, you.”

I said, “Well done to these two. I’m just glad I could help.”

And I think that was a small testimony to the transforming love of God.

I never saw Ivor again, but I did see that couple several more times on various walks around town before we left, and I pray that the Lord used that morning in their lives, too.

Afterwards, I kept thinking about how I might have not been a pastor at that point, but I was a Christian. I wasn’t on sabbatical from being a follower of Christ! I called to be a seed like my King.

And as wonderful as it felt for the English lady to say to me, “Well done, you,” how much more wonderful for God the Father to say it to me?

Jesus says in verse 26, “My Father will honor the one who serves me.”

I don’t know about you, but I want that! And I want it for you.

I want to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and enter the joy of your Master.” “Come be where I am.”

That means dying.

That means being like a seed.

But if you die, you will produce many seeds.

“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. [Jesus says...] Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me" (vv.25-26).

The hour has come to follow the King.

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