John 12:20-26 New American Standard Bible 1995
Greeks Seek Jesus
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; 21 these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip *came and *told Andrew; Andrew and Philip *came and *told Jesus. 23 And Jesus *answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. 25 He who loves his [a]life loses it, and he who hates his [b]life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 If anyone [c]serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone [d]serves Me, the Father will honor him.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Mathematics in God’s Garden
John 12:23-25 Amplified Bible
23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified and exalted. 24 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone [just one grain, never more]. But if it dies, it produces much grain and yields a harvest. 25 The one who loves his life [eventually] loses it [through death], but the one who hates his life in this world [and is concerned with pleasing God] will keep it for life eternal.
Plants and bushes multiply in a variety of amazing ways.
Raspberry bushes send out runners from their roots and start new shoots.
Grape vines, strawberry plans, potatoes, pumpkins and cucumbers and carrots all seem to need no help in producing a bounty of produce when one is planted.
So raspberry and blackberry patches are constantly ever expanding, and we are able to cut away plants easily for friends and family to start their own patches.
Planting eight cloves of garlic before winter produces eight new garlic plants, and each plant produces seven or eight cloves of garlic the next summer—a promise of good increase.
Jesus, an astute observer of life in God’s garden, chooses wheat as an example of amazing multiplication.
As he said, one kernel “produces many seeds.”
Today we know that one seed of wheat planted in the ground yields 20-25 kernels of new wheat.
Further, Jesus was making a more profound point.
Jesus is speaking of himself in this parable.
He is the grain of wheat.
He is the Son of God, compelling, compassionate, living the life of God in the midst of men, and yet wholly as a man.
Crowds everywhere left their work and followed him.
They sensed that here was a man who possessed the secret of life.
He had nothing that men thought was necessary to living.
He had no material possessions.
He did not even have a place to lay his head.
He had no influence with the authorities. Yet, everywhere he went, people sensed that he understood the secrets of life. So he was like a single grain of wheat, alone amidst other grains of wheat, sharing nothing with the others.
He could have remained that way.
He did not need to die.
He was no martyr to a failing cause.
He was not forced to the cross.
He had no need to lay down his life, for he could have returned to the Father.
There would have been no blame attached to him if he had.
He could have chosen to return to the Father, having demonstrated before all men exactly what God wanted man to be, and left us with that demonstration and gone back to heaven.
But, as he says, if he had done that he would have remained alone.
For the rest of eternity, though he would have been thronged with angels and all the other created beings of God’s universe, he would have been alone.
There would have been no one else like him in all the universe.
John 10:11-18 New American Standard Bible 1995
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
This is very important, because it gives us our first clue as to what our Lord is really unveiling here, the problem that affects so many of us — loneliness.
There is a difference between being alone and being lonely.
One can be alone and not be at all lonely.
Or you can be in the midst of a crowd, and be utterly lonely.
This is what Jesus is referring to.
He is not talking about being alone; he is talking about being eternally lonely.
Dr. F. B. Meyer once said, Many people complain of lonely and solitary lives.
They suppose their condition is due to the failure of other people.
It is, however, attributable to the fact that they have never fallen into the ground to die, but have always consulted their own ease and well-being.
They have never learned that the cure for loneliness comes from sowing oneself in a grave of daily sacrifice.
There he puts his finger upon the cause of this distressing loneliness that still bothers so many today.
It is an attempt to hold on to life, to grasp it for oneself, and this results in an undeveloped life.
Our Lord knew the deepest craving of the Father’s heart; that he might bring many sons to glory.
1 Timothy 2:1-6 New American Standard Bible 1995
A Call to Prayer
2 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in [a] authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and [b] dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the [c]knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony [d]given at [e]the proper time.
But to do that it was necessary that he die.
There was no other way by which what he was could be given to us.
John 1:11-13 New American Standard Bible 1995
11 He came to His [a]own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were [b]born, not of [c]blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:11-12 says, he came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.
As many as received him, to them he gives the power to share in the abundance of his own life.
But how is that life made available?
John 12:23-26 New American Standard Bible 1995
23 And Jesus *answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. 25 He who loves his [a]life loses it, and he who hates his [b]life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 If anyone [c] serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone [d]serves Me, the Father will honor him.
It is only available by dying to ourselves.
But we fear such dying, do we not?
What the Lord Jesus is saying to us in John 12:23-26 is that there will be, can be, no authentic deliverance from the loneliness and emptiness of this world’s life until we Psalm 51 learn to renounce that kind of living then live into Psalm 32.
Psalm 32 New American Standard Bible 1995
Blessedness of Forgiveness and of Trust in God.
A Psalm of David. A [a]Maskil.
32 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
2 How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
3 When I kept silent about my sin, my [b]body wasted away
Through my [c]groaning all day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My [d]vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. [e]Selah.
5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the [f]guilt of my sin. Selah.
6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You [g]in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with [h]songs of deliverance. Selah.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.
11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.
Just as a single wheat seed “falls to the ground and dies” then “produces many seeds,” his own death and his resurrection produces an over abundance of new life, acres and uncountable acres of harvested souls in a multitude of followers.
1 Corinthians 3:5-9 New American Standard Bible 1995
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own [a]reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s [b]field, God’s building.
From the first words of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation, we can trust in his sure promise of multiplication and eternal life as we follow him in dying to ourselves and serving others out of the over abundance of our new life in him.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father of all life, let us thank you for sending your one and only Son to die, rise, and multiply his life in all who follow him. Inspire and strengthen me to lay down my life and serve others. Lord, thank you for showing me that the way to life is through my dying to myself. I confess I fear such dying, so I ask that you help me to live this out.
Psalm 16 New American Standard Bible 1995
The Lord the Psalmist’s Portion in Life and Deliverer in Death.
A [a]Mikhtam of David.
16 Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
2 [b]I said to the Lord, “You are [c]my Lord;
I have no good besides You.”
3 As for the [d]saints who are in the earth,
[e]They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
4 The [f]sorrows of those who have [g]bartered for another god will be multiplied;
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
Nor will I take their names upon my lips.
5 The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
7 I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;
Indeed, my [h]mind instructs me in the night.
8 I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
10 For You will not abandon my soul to [i]Sheol;
Nor will You [j]allow Your [k]Holy One to [l]undergo decay.
11 You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 