This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day four of our look through John chapter 12 and daily
drive time devotions. We're going to look at verses 20 to 28 today. Yesterday we
looked at how the crowd responded to Jesus, the disciples, the leaders.

Today we're going to take a look at how a group later in the week responded to
Jesus. It teaches us some things about life and how to live the kind of life
that God has given us to live. Listen to what the Bible says in John 12 verses
20 to 22.

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast and
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. Interesting story here of how the news got
to Jesus. It's really a story about the courage of Andrew and Philip.

These Greeks chose to approach Jesus through Philip, a disciple with a Greek
name so that made sense. Remember that the Greeks were not Jewish and Jesus had
said that his ministry while on this earth was to Jewish people. That meant that
they had to ignore their own possible prejudices and to move past an easy excuse
to go and meet with Jesus and say could we talk together.

Now some people think that these Greeks had become converted Jews. I think that
they were Gentiles who had come to worship at this feast. Whatever, the courage
that they had that day helps us all and the response of Jesus to this invitation
is one that teaches us some incredible things about life, challenges some
thoughts that we have about life to the very core.

I'm so glad they asked that day because listen to what Jesus said. Jesus sees
the Greeks and he recognizes I'm heading towards the cross, this moment when I'm
going to give my life not just for the Jewish people but for all the people in
the world. So he says in verses 23 to 26, Jesus replied, "The hour has come for
the Son of Man to be glorified.

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. 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 will also be. My
Father will honor the one who serves me. " Look at what Jesus says in response.

He says death comes before life, losing your life comes before finding your
life, and service comes before honor. Death comes before life. He says unless a
kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.

It's when it dies that it produces even more. I've sometimes imagined this
kernel of wheat thinking about itself. Why would I want to fall into the ground
and die?

I mean, look at me. What a fine kernel of wheat I am. How round and brown and
smooth I am, and I'm going to put myself into the ground and give up something
of myself.

That's ridiculous. Why would I do that? That sounds psychologically warped to
me.

Well, a kernel of wheat can't think, but we can, and we think those kinds of
things about ourselves. But Jesus says it's only when you die to something that
you really find the life that I'm giving to you, something that's dead and in
the ground. You could think of it as a burial and something that is dead
forever, but Jesus says no, there's something alive there.

It's like a plant. There's something that's being planted, and he makes that
more clear to us in the next phrase, when he says 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. Losing your life, Jesus says, comes before finding your life.

Now is he saying here that we should hate life? Hate life in this world, be
negative about everything, never thankful about anything? No, notice he says
here, not the person who hates life, the person who hates his life, his life,
her life.

He's talking about your selfish life. You hold out for your selfish pursuits and
you'll die, Jesus says, but you give up your selfish pursuits for God's light
and God's life, and you will live. So here's the point.

What do you need to let go of? What needs to die? Jesus isn't talking about
things here.

Giving up some things might be the result, might be the end result of what he's
talking about here, but what he's saying is much deeper. He's saying, it's your
selfishness, self-focus, self-centeredness, self-promotion, self-protection.
It's your selfishness that has to be lost, and that's scary, but Jesus says,
that's where you find life when you give it to me.

And then Jesus also reminds us in these verses, "Service comes before honor.
Whoever serves me must follow me where I am. My servant will also be, and my
father will honor the one who serves me.

" You want to get close to Jesus, Jesus reminds us here, then come serve. Come
serve me. If you feel in your life like, I don't have the time to serve, there's
other things that I have to do first, Jesus is saying, you're missing out on not
only the life, the fellowship that I want to give you, but also the honor that
God wants to give you.

And then as Jesus talks through these truths about death and life, he also talks
through some things about what his own heart is facing that day. Listen to what
he says in verses 27 and 28, "Now, Jesus says, my heart is troubled. And what
shall I say?

Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason that I came to
this hour. Father, he prays, glorify your name.

And then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it
again. " Now that voice that came from heaven, here's the importance of that.
There were three times that the father spoke audibly to the son, at Jesus'
baptism, at the Mount of Transfiguration, and right here in John 12.

That's how important this is, this important moment of life. Jesus is going to
face a similar moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. In every one of our lives,
there is this moment that comes when we have to choose between one of two
prayers.

Will it be, "Father, save me from this hour," or will it be, "Father, glorify
your name? " Now I know what I would like to pray, and you're probably a lot
like me. I'd like to pray the prayer, "Father, glorify your name by saving me
from this hour.

" If you could just save me from this trouble, this difficulty, and that could
glorify your name, let it be that way. And God does sometimes do that. But God
also, God often works to glorify His name by working in our lives through even
the difficulties that we're facing.

So how do you pray about this? It's okay to pray, "Save me from this hour,"
especially if God has not shown you He wants you to go through this. And Jesus
knew He was to go to the cross, so He couldn't even pray that prayer.

But if you haven't yet been shown that this situation that you're facing, that
you're going to go through, this health situation or relationship situation or
job situation, if God hasn't clearly said to you, "No, I want you to go through
that," it's okay to pray, "Save me from this hour. " But once you realize that
the hour has come, once you realize that it becomes clear, "God is going to let
me go through this. God is going to allow this to happen in my life," then you
shift your prayer to, "Father, glorify your name even through this.

" In fact, as we pray today, let's pray just that. As we pray together today,
your prayer might need to be, "Father, save me from the hour of facing this
illness. You've gotten some news from a doctor.

Should you pray that prayer? " Well, of course. God tells us we should, as His
children, tell Him what's on our hearts.

So tell Him, "God, I would rather not face this illness. Could you save me from
this hour? " Your prayer might need to be, "Save me from the hour of losing this
job.

" Your prayer may need to be, "God, save me from the hour of facing the death of
this person that I love. Could you give them a few more months or a few more
years? " Your prayer might need to be, "Save me from the hour of my children
going through a heart ache.

" Or, "God, save me from the hour of life taking a twist that I never expected.
" Well, pray that prayer. But once you realize that it is an hour that you may
need to face, this is an illness that you're going to have to face.

This is a job that you're going to lose. This person that you love is going to
die. Maybe they have died.

You are going through the heartache of something that your children are facing.
Life has taken a twist, or you know that it is going to take a twist that you
never expected. It's become clear to you.

Once that becomes clear, then you begin to pray. This may be the most difficult
prayer you've ever prayed. I invite you to pray it now.

Then you begin to pray, "Father, glorify yourself even in this hour, even with
this difficulty that I'm going through. You glorified yourself in your son, even
through the difficulties that he went through. " God, I know I'm facing an
eternity in heaven where there will be no more sorrow or pain, no more hours of
difficulty, but I pray that while I'm on this earth, the hours of sorrow and
pain and difficulty that I must face.

I pray that you'd glorify yourself even in that. Glorify yourself in me, in the
growth that you work in my life, in the heart that I have towards you, and
glorify yourself in others as they see you in me, even through this. I pray
this, Jesus, in your name, amen.