The Cost and Worth of Following Jesus

Transcript

I was really encouraged to be asked to preach again because it meant that last time wasn’t terrible. But I’ll admit that this sermon was a little harder than the last one. There’s quite a bit of propositional truth, very black and white statements in this sermon. And I’ll admit, I need to hear it as much as the rest of us. So yeah, we can dive into this text together. How do you determine what something is worth? Modern economics works because we assign value to objects or services in proportion to what people are willing to pay for them. And then as consumers, we count the cost. Is it worth $6.99 to receive my Amazon order in two days instead of five? Is a side of garlic aioli at PDX sliders worth the extra 75 cents and 150 calories? The answer is yes, by the way. Is an extra two, four, six or even eight years of higher education worth the potential for

a certain career? The costs that we’re willing to pay reveal what we care about. When you work long hours, striving for that next promotion at the cost of time with your family, what does that reveal about your priorities? When you procrastinate responsibilities for an easy escape into entertainment and media, what does that reveal about your heart? Those of you who are dating and engaged, is intimacy in marriage worth the wait? Or is the value of sex diminished to simply a cheap thrill rather than being protected in a lifelong commitment? And here’s the question that applies to all of us regardless of what stage of life we’re in. What does it cost to follow Jesus? Is it worth it? And for those of us who call ourselves Christians, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, how does the way we live display the value of the God who saved us?

Unexpected Worshipers

Does it reveal to the world that eternal life is worth the cost? Turn with me to John chapter 12. We’ll be looking at a short passage beginning in verse 20. And my hope is that we will see that following Jesus is costly, but it is worth it. And when we pay the cost, it puts the glory of Jesus on display to the watching world. We’re going to look at our passage in three sections, unexpected worshipers, glory and death, and finally, life and loss. Those are our points for today. Follow along with me in 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 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 will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. If you remember from last week, Jesus has just come into Jerusalem and he’s followed by a huge crowd, a procession of people that are expecting him to take his rightful rule as conquering king. They’re associating him with famous heroes and deliverers with the assumption that Jesus

will come to save the Jewish people from Roman oppression. And what we’ll see is that he hasn’t come to save from earthly tyrants, he hasn’t come to save from earthly rulers, but from the grip of sin and the consequence of death that comes with it. Our passage picks up right after this triumphal entry and right after we see the Pharisees’ response in verse 19. It says, look, the whole world has gone after him. The people’s perception is turned upside down. They’re not just wrong about what Jesus came to do, they’re wrong about who he came for. Gentiles are now coming to Jesus, coming to seek salvation and desiring the worship of God. And our passage foreshadows the fulfillment of God’s original promise to Abraham. It’s not only the Israelite people that would be blessed, rather it’s through the people of God that all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

And here we see a few Greeks, or rather representatives of the Gentiles, representatives of the non-Jewish world, which is most of us, and they’re coming to worship at this Jewish feast, they’re coming to seek Jesus out. We don’t know why these Gentiles approach Philip out of the twelve. It might be that Philip’s hometown in Bethsaida is the nearest city to where they’re from. Philip had a Greek name, but it’s a common Greek name during that time. John might be calling back to chapter one, and Andrew and Philip are responsible to bringing another one of Jesus’ disciples to meet him, but we don’t know the reason. What we do know is that this is a direct fulfillment to that statement that the Pharisees make in verse 19, look, the whole world has gone after him. The world is breaking out in anticipation. The world is longing for salvation, and they’ve come to the right place.

They tell Philip, we wish to see Jesus. In this context, it probably means more that they want to talk to him, they want to interview him in the same way you might hear a school principal or a boss say, I need to see you in my office. John’s highlighting here in the Gentiles’ pursuit of Jesus a contrast with the Pharisees, with the religious leaders, and even with the crowd that’s going to be calling for Jesus’ execution in a couple of days. Later in the chapter, John gives an explanation for this. They love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. And what we’re seeing is John 1, 11, and 12 being put on display. He, that is Jesus, came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children

of God. I think there’s a few lessons for us here. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what your upbringing was like, what your emotional or spiritual baggage that you might have, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been around the Christian world or if this is your first time in a church. If you seek Jesus, if you want to know him, if you want to be in a relationship with him, you can seek him and you’ll find him. Trinity Church. This has implications for our evangelism. When we think about people who are different from us, people who don’t fit our personality or our culture or social status or political views, who don’t look or act or talk like us, are we quick to judge for them that they will reject Jesus? We don’t know why Philip decided to play this game of telephone with Andrew and Jesus.

It’s possible that they were more willing to share Jesus with their fellow Jewish brothers than they were with outsiders. But Romans 10 makes it very clear. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone. There’s no distinction between Jew and Greek. We hold the gospel out to all who can hear. And if you’re here and you wouldn’t consider yourself a Christian, we’re so happy that you’re here. We want nothing more than for you to meet Jesus this morning as he’s displayed in his word and in the lives of his people. It doesn’t matter if this is your first or 500th time in a church, if you seek Jesus, if you receive him, if you believe in his name, he welcomes you into a relationship with him. But there’s a warning here. We don’t know the hearts of these Gentiles. These people might have been what are called proselytes or full converts to Judaism by

circumcision, or they might simply be what is known as God fearers. They might just be attracted to Judaism by its morals and teachings. Does that describe you? Are you simply attracted to the morality and the teachings of the Christian worldview without a willingness to submit your allegiance to Jesus? You’re not made a Christian just by your interest. You’re not made a Christian by participating in Christian activities or by attending church. You aren’t a Christian just because you were raised in a Christian home. A Christian is someone whose heart has been transformed by the gospel, by the saving work of Jesus. A Christian is somebody who has new loyalties, new devotions to the God who has rescued them from sin and death. And as we’ll see later in the passage, a Christian is someone who has counted the cost, somebody who has still submitted themselves to him and still surrendered their lives to his lordship.

So why are you here this morning? Are you hoping to just fill some kind of void in your life with a sense of spiritual fulfillment, with community? Are you hoping to improve your life with external ethics or with a sense of belonging? Friends, the Bible is very clear. What unites us together is not a sense of unity, a sense of affinity towards one another. If what we’re doing here this morning is not real and true, if it doesn’t have eternal consequences, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. We’re gathered around spiritual and eternal realities. What unites us together, what makes us belong is a new identity, a new hope for eternity, a new ruler in our hearts and our lives. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you belong before you’ve submitted yourself rightly

Glory and Death

to Christ. Don’t deceive yourself into receiving just the morals and religiosity without receiving Christ and the salvation that he offers. Because what he offers is greater hope than anything this world can offer, any value that we can give to this world, greater than any cost that we could pay in this life. Jesus is worth following because he meets our deepest need and grants us eternal life. Look with me again at verse 23. 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. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus is using the term hour here not literally, but as a reference to an event, specifically his death on the cross.

And I want to point out three things here in this section, and first is the significance of this event. Jesus meets our deepest need. Jesus’ hour of glory is the reason that he came to earth. Yes, he was a good teacher. Yes, he was a moral example. Yes, he brought healing to the sick, the blind, and the lame. Yes, he performed miracles and he put the power of God on display. But the reason he came was to die. While he ministered to people, while he performed miracles, his hour had not yet come. While he taught and healed and raised the dead, his hour had not yet come. But now, on the eve of his crucifixion, his hour had come. The hour had come for him to meet our deepest need. And what is our deepest need? What is it that Jesus came to do? Well, the book of Genesis recounts for us the creation of mankind, as in the image of

God, designed to reflect the perfection of God’s character. We were designed to live with God. We were designed to obey his word. We were designed to rule over his creation as his representatives and his ambassadors. But because Adam and Eve rebelled against God, because you and I rebel against God, because we reject his word, because we fail to uphold his commands, God, in his holiness and his justice, can no longer dwell with us. God must reject us. The holy and infinite God can no longer live with sinful man. We can no longer experience the joy and goodness of living under his perfect rule. This is why Jesus had to come. God himself had to intervene in human history as a representative and as a substitute for you and me, because apart from Christ, we have no way of returning to a right relationship with God.

Jesus trades his perfection. Jesus trades his obedience for our sin and our rebellion. And then he takes our sin, our shame, the wrath of God that we deserve, and he bears it on the cross. His hour had come, and Jesus testifies that about himself. The son of man must suffer and die and be delivered into the hands of men. He meets our deepest need, which is the need for salvation from our sins. Second, not only does Jesus meet our deepest need, he meets our deepest need perfectly and finally. It’s complete. It’s absolute. It’s unlike the sacrifices in the Old Testament under the Mosaic law. When Jesus says, the hour has come, he’s using what is known as the perfect tense of the verb. He’s highlighting the completion of an action that has ongoing effects. You might say, the hour has come and stays with us.

And the writer of Hebrews picks up on this language when he says, Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins. And then he sat down at the right hand of God. I don’t know what you think your deepest need is this morning. I don’t know why it is you’re here, but I can say with confidence that whatever your felt need is, it’s rooted in the existence of sin. This might be your own sin. Maybe your circumstances are the result of bad decisions. Maybe your relationships are filled with conflict, with resentment, with bitterness because of your own arrogance, your own hurtful words. Maybe the pursuit of constant entertainment has left you aimless and weary under the weight of duty and responsibility. Or it might be the result of sin in others. Maybe your fractured view of self is a consequence of abuse, or neglect, or other perversions

of authority. You might be the victim of very visible displays of evil, like physical violence, like shameless slander. Family, whatever the case, Jesus meets your circumstances by meeting your deepest need perfectly and finally, and he points you toward your eternal hope. Jesus came to abolish sin and death. This doesn’t mean that your experience of pain and suffering in this world will disappear when you place your faith in him, but it does mean that your hope is not in this life alone. We can look through our present circumstances, through the affliction and loss to an eternity with Christ, where there will be no more sin, no more suffering. Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Every year we thought was wasted, every night we cried how long, all will be a passing moment

in the Savior’s victory song. Use your present circumstances to point you to Christ, who suffered in your place, he’s bared the awful weight of sin so that we could experience eternity in the presence of God. And friend, if you’re not a Christian, you can receive this hope today by turning from your sin, by placing your faith in Christ. Repent of trying to, by your own strength, fix yourself. Repent of turning to other people, or education, or the government, or philosophy in order to find salvation and deliverance. And trust that Jesus accomplished everything for you on the cross, and it was effective, it was final, and it was full. Believe that by his work on the cross he has paid for your sin, he has suffered with you, and he now freely offers you right standing with God and an eternity in his presence. Believe that he will carry you through this life, that by the power of his Holy Spirit

he will give you perseverance, endurance, and patience, and he will surround you with his body, the church, to help you continue to the end. I’d be happy to talk more with you about this after the service, or you can talk to anyone in this room who has placed their faith in Christ. It will help you to learn what it means to follow Jesus, and why he is our only hope in life and death. Third, because Jesus meets our deepest need perfectly, and finally, he deserves glory and exaltation. Jesus here refers to himself as the Son of Man, and other gospel writers use this title in reference to his suffering. John in chapter 3 speaks about the Son of Man as one who is descended from heaven, but must be lifted up on the cross. And then later in chapter 12, the crowd even asks him, how can you say that the Son of

Man must be lifted up? All of this language of lifted up, exaltation, pulls from the Old Testament, specifically in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53 is a popular passage that foretells Jesus as the suffering servant, but right before, at the end of chapter 52, he writes, behold, my servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. There’s almost a paradoxical tension here. Glory in the midst of shame, exaltation through death. Wordplay and use of language like lifted up, which means to exalt or to elevate, and yet Jesus is going to be lifted up on a Roman cross. Jesus illustrates this truth in this short parable in verse 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. If agricultural illustrations aren’t your thing, I learned recently about a Japanese

form of art called kintsugi, or if you’re American, kintsugi. It’s where you take broken pottery and you mend the pieces using gold, silver, or other metals, and what you end up with is a unique piece of art, maybe a bowl or a cup or a vase that highlights not what is complete, but what is fractured. The goal is to show that there’s beauty in what is broken. There’s splendor in what is destroyed. What’s your impression of what Christ has done for you? What do you focus on? I think because of movements like the prosperity gospel that claim that you can summon God’s blessings at will, parts of the church have become, they’ve ended up with a victorious or conquering spirit, and we can downplay the victory that exists in the death of Christ. Yes, he rose from the grave three days later as a display of his power.

Yes, he proclaimed that the father had accepted his sacrifice, but first he died. Jesus’ resurrection gives us hope, but it was his substitutionary death that was effective for our salvation. It was as our iniquities were laid on him that he atoned for our sin. We can’t minimize the suffering of Christ as just a means to an end, something that was required for his resurrection because there’s glory in it. Jesus deserves exaltation for his death because without him, that’s what we deserve. It was shame for him, but it was salvation for us. Death on the cross meant life for us. In the same way that a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies alone and produces fruit, so Jesus in our place dies so that he might bear the fruit of salvation in our lives. We read this earlier in the service from Philippians 2, and being found in human form,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. This is why we praise him. This is why Jesus is both the theme of heaven’s praises yet robed in frail humanity. This is why we sing about the wondrous mystery of Christ, who though he suffered, though he bled and he hung on a cross, he was still the lamb in victory, the God of life yet slain by death. So what is it that we praise Jesus for? This could be for us personally. This could be in our worship service. Does our worship of Jesus lean into this tension of exaltation through suffering, of glory through death?

Life and Loss

Or are we left with a disconnect between the mountains of our praise and the valleys of life? Family, it matters how we think about Jesus, how we think about his suffering and his glory because as we’ll see in our last section, it applies to us. It applies to everyone who would follow Jesus because he calls us to join him in laying down our lives for the sake of glory and honor. Look at verse 25, 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 will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. The reality of glory seen in death is not exclusive to Jesus. The same is true for all of his followers, everyone who would believe in his name, everyone

who would receive the gift of eternal life. If it wasn’t clear already, here’s the answer to the question I posed at the beginning. What does it cost to follow Jesus? Following Jesus will require your life. This is in a way John’s version of the teaching of Jesus on the cost of discipleship. This is seen in the other gospels like Matthew, Mark, and Luke. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. When Jesus uses the language of whoever, he’s applying the principle of verse 24 of glory and fruitfulness in death to us and to anyone who would serve him, anyone who would follow him. We are the grain of wheat that must fall to the earth and die before it bears fruit.

We are the broken pottery that is made beautiful not by our own work, but by the God who creates new life in us. We are jars of clay that manifest the surpassing worth of God. We are those who are weak, who boast in the sufficiency of his grace and the power of Christ in us. Whoever loves his life loses it. Another way to translate this would be whoever loves his own life will destroy it. To pursue life apart from God is to bring destruction on yourself. You may be successful in this life, you may be well-respected by the world, you may have all the comforts and pleasures that this world offers, but you will face eternal destruction on the other side of death. Jesus provides here an alternative. Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. And this is an attitude that opposes the selfish pursuit of life that we seek apart from God.

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 6. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. Christian, where is your treasure? Are there costs associated with following Jesus that you are unwilling to pay? Things in this world that you hold on to with a death grip, literally. I think we can sometimes treat our relationship with God like a contract where we define the terms. We take a piece of paper, we write two hours on a Sunday morning, 10% of my take-home income,

maybe a quick prayer before meals or five minutes for a Bible reading plan a day, and then we sign our name at the bottom. A relationship with Jesus that’s on our terms is one that has failed to submit to his rule in our hearts. It has failed to truly follow him and his example of giving up everything so that we could have life. Family, when I say that we need to count the cost of following Jesus, we’re not writing a contract and then choosing how it is that we follow him. No, we’re taking this blank paper, we’re signing our name at the bottom, and then we’re letting God fill it out. What would he write? What could he write? Could following Jesus cost you your career, your reputation, your relationship with family? Is it worth the daily fight of putting to death sin and idolatry?

Is it worth ending a relationship that is causing you to sin? Is it worth years of faithfully serving in a church with little or no recognition? Could it be worth decades of gospel work with an unreached people? Is following Jesus worth sharing the gospel in the face of rejection? Is it worth devoting time away from the distractions and media of this life in order to be with the Lord, to hear from him, to confess sin, and to align your heart with his in prayer? Is there a cost that you would be unwilling to pay? And what does that reveal about your heart and where your allegiance is? Following Jesus is costly, but it is worth it. And for those of you who have counted the cost, who value Christ above all else, I just want to provide two encouragements. First, our hope is not in this life alone.

We talked about this earlier, but I want to add a few things. We see in verse 26 that anyone who serves Jesus, the Father will honor him. Paul picks up on this concept in Colossians 3. He writes, For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. I’ll be honest, I don’t understand fully what that means, what it means that we’re going to share in the glory of Christ, but there are aspects of, you know, his future resurrection that are yet to be revealed to us. At the very least, it doesn’t mean less than this. Nothing that we have done for the sake of Christ, nothing that we have done for the sake of his gospel will be wasted. All of the glory and honor and reverence and value that we ascribe to Christ will be magnified

by all of God’s people throughout human history. It will be then shared with us. The Father will honor us. Second, the loss of our lives, the death of self in us, it bears fruit in other people’s lives. In the same way that Jesus’ death bears the fruit of salvation in our lives, so it is that when we suffer, when we count our lives as lost for the sake of Christ and his gospel, he bears the fruit of salvation in others. In Colossians 1, Paul talks about how in his suffering, in his toil for the gospel, he’s filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of the church. This is not to say that Christ’s saving work on the cross was incomplete or ineffective, but rather that the church is built on the continuing work of his followers sharing the gospel. The work of salvation was done on the cross, but the responsibility of bringing the good

news to people was given to his people, his followers. Is that reflected in your life, in the conversations and interactions that you have with nonbelievers? Are you willing to lay aside your comfort and your reputation in order to lead others to Christ? Can we declare with Paul, I am not ashamed of the gospel because it’s the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes? I want to end where we began. The costs we are willing to pay reveal what we value. When we count the cost, when we follow Jesus despite the cost, we are displaying to the world what salvation is worth, what eternity with Christ is worth. I want to be clear that verbally declaring the gospel, it is required for people to believe it. But before we ever open our mouths, people are looking at our lives. They’re looking into our churches.

Do our lives display a value for Christ, for his gospel, for his church? Or do we live in a way that makes grace seem cheap and his sacrifice seem meaningless? There’s glory in death. There’s life in loss because Christ suffered and died in our place, and we’re called to follow after him. We’re called to count our lives as lost for the sake of knowing Christ. Let’s be a people that are marked by our devotion to Christ alone over anything this world can offer. Amen? Amen. Let’s pray. Take a moment and consider all the ways that you hold on to your earthly treasure, all of the things in this life that you value more than Christ. Consider the ways even this week that you have not displayed the value of your salvation, the hope you have of eternity, but instead have been ashamed of the gospel and self-seeking

in your relationships. Close those things to him. Lord, we ask that you would give us the strength to count the cost and to follow Christ. We are prone to wander, and we need you to bind us to him. Help us to see the glory that is found in Christ’s death, in his suffering, in his sacrifice for us, and help us to imitate that example so that you might produce fruit in our lives. Help us to be bold with the gospel. Help us to find our hope not in this life, but in eternity with you. Help us to show the world that we value Christ above all else. We ask in his name, amen.