Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Road to the Cross | Ep. 288 | Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

Jump in with us today as we continue to look at the way John describes Passover Week in his Gospel. After the Triumphal Entry, we see the Pharisees seeking to preserve their own lives while Jesus was seeking to lay His down for the sake of the world. He had a love for the Father and the whole world in mind as He humbly walked toward His death. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, thanks for hanging out with us on the Daily Drive. I hope you're having a great day. My name is Bro, and we spent a few minutes here diving into God's Word just trying to get to know him better. And to do that, we've been walking through the fourth book in the New Testament called John. It's a book all about Jesus. And as I have said many times on this podcast, Jesus came not only to lay down his life for our sins. Don't get me wrong, that's a huge deal. But he also came to show us what God is really like. And as we look at the life of Jesus, our perspective of God begins to come into sharper focus. Well, we left off yesterday in John chapter 12

with Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. He rides in to the applause of a frenzied crowd anticipating a political Messiah. Our conquering hero is here to wipe out our Roman oppressors. They'd heard so much about this man, Jesus. All the miracles he was doing. I mean, blinded eyes were open and paralyzed people were walking around. He was feeding multitudes with a sack lunch

and lepers were cured and water was turned into wine and to top it all off. He had just raised this guy named Lazarus from the dead. Yep, dead man came out of a tomb, and many people saw it. And John writes how all of them now were spreading the words, so tons of people who had come to Jerusalem for the biggest and most important festival of the year called Passover, they began to line the streets cheering his arrival. They're a bit misguided in their chance of Hosanna, which means save us, save us,

from the oppression of Rome, our king is here, and if this man can summon the dead back from the grave, then nothing, or no one, can stand in our way. And while the people are going nuts, Luke records that Jesus had tears in his eyes, perhaps knowing their fickle hearts, perhaps foreseeing the destruction of Jerusalem a few decades later, or perhaps internalizing the crushing realization of what was getting ready to happen to him, or maybe just surrendering in the moment to the will of the father to do it his way instead of giving the crowd what they wanted. But Jesus is emotional, and the crowd is going crazy. And here, John, as he often does,

introduces us to the party crashers. Yep, you guessed it, the Pharisees, the ones plotting to kill Jesus. Verse 19. So the Pharisees said to one another, See, this is getting us nowhere. Look, how the whole world has gone after him. I think when they say that about the whole world, what they were really saying is,

our whole world is about the crumble, because that's the real issue here. Remember how they were constantly operating out of self-preservation mode? We've got to protect our ways, our rituals, our fortune, our position, our kingdom, our religious empire, our power. And look, look at this. This is exactly what we have feared the entire time. The people have turned. All of the people they're deserting us and actually going over to his side. We have waited way too long to do something about it.

this guy, the whole world has gone after him. Now of course in the moment they were exaggerating. This was a crowd of people in one city called Jerusalem, not the whole world. But little did they know. They were speaking prophecy. They were speaking what one of their own Nicodemus had heard from Jesus in John chapter 3 when he said, for God so loved, the world that he gave his only son. Jesus would in fact become a worldwide Messiah as the good news of God's love would spread to the four corners of the earth, giving hope to everyone. And gang someday, the whole world, the whole world, every tongue and tribe and nation, will bow before him. Now, I like how John here transitions from the Pharisees saying, the whole world is going after him and goes right into verse 20 and says,

there were some Greeks, some non-Jewish people who came to Jerusalem for the Passover. It's like John was saying, and speaking of the whole world, well, these Greek visitors show up and say to one of the disciples named Philip, we sure would love to meet this Jesus we've been hearing so much about. They're foreigners from the whole world, just want to meet Jesus for themselves. Well, Philip and Andrew, go tell Jesus that these people had come, and Jesus responds this way in verse 23. He says, now the time has come for the son of man to enter into his glory. Jesus has frequently said, it's not my time, this is not my hour, this is not the day, and now he says, it's here.

Verse 24, I tell you the truth. Unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels, a plentiful harvest of new lives. And Jesus' death would bring life to countless people. And then he invites these guys into the same kind of give up your life mindset. He says in verse 25, those who love their life in this. world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me because my servants must be where I am,

and the Father will honor anyone who serves me. This is a central theme of Jesus' teaching. The way up is down. To become great, you serve. To live, you have to die to yourself. If your goal is the same as the Pharisees to hang on to your way, your comfort, your stuff, your rights, your power, if you live your life in self-preservation mode, you will miss out on real life. But those who throw their life in the trusting and serving Jesus will not only experience life to the full, but Jesus said, the Father will honor them. And then Jesus gets pretty vulnerable with these guys. He kind of processes some very personal internal strife going on right in front of them.

I love how Jesus opens up with his friends, and we would do well to follow his example. He doesn't repress it, doesn't try to pretend that he's fine, but he says, guys, you know what? Verse 27, now my soul is deeply troubled. The same word used here is the one used when describing the deep agony he experienced at the tomb of Lazarus when he wept and grieved and felt deep anger over death. He says, guys, my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, Father save me from this hour?

But this is the very reason I came. This is the very reason I came. I am the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I am the atoning sacrifice. I am the way for the broken relationship between God and people to be restored. So, Father, bring glory to your name. John writes, then a voice spoke from heaven saying, I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.

Through the birth of Jesus, through the life of Jesus, through miraculous signs of Jesus, the way Jesus moved among all the people, I have already brought glory to my name through him, but just wait, I will do it again, and he would. John writes that when the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, others thought it was an angel speaking, and then in verse 30, Jesus tells him, this voice was for your benefit, not mine. I don't need any more validation, but you do. This was said for your benefit. You might remember in that late-night conversation with Nicodemus back in John chapter 3, Jesus references the time in Old Testament history.

When the people of God had left Egypt, they were in the desert, and they had turned their back on God once again. They'd flaunted their rebellion in his face once again. They'd taken his goodness for granted. Once again, they worshipped other gods once again. And as a real attention-getter, God sends all these snakes. And then he instructs Moses to lift up a bronze snake on a pole and tells him, anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.

And even though in the moment Nicodemus couldn't see it yet, Jesus was saying to him, there's a day coming very soon when I will be lifted up on a pole, on a cross, and anyone and everyone who looks to me will not only be saved from the snake might of sin, but they will live forever. He says it again here in verse 33 at John chapter 12, and when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself. And John reflecting back, writes in verse 33, he said this. to indicate how he was going to die. Now, the word used here for lifted up means exalted. The Roman cross was a horrible tool of torture and execution, certainly not a place where people were exalted, but it would be for Jesus.

It would be for Jesus. I was driving home from preaching last weekend, and I was listening to a Carrie Underwood channel on Sirius XM, and she just breaks out this old, old, hymn that I can remember from my childhood and start singing on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame, and I love that old cross for the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. The place meant for shame became a place of exaltation, and as he was lifted up for us sinners, he drew us back to God. And I'm so grateful for

for Jesus allowing himself to be lifted up on an old rugged cross. So grateful for the way that that single kernel of grain would die and produce a harvest of changed lives, including mine. Have a great day. We'll see you back tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m.

and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.