Ron Dunn Podcast - The Dividends Of Dying

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

Ron Dunn begins a new sermon series "Gathering Storm"

Well, this morning I want you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 12. The Gospel of John, chapter 12. And in these five sessions that I have with you this week, I'm going to be talking about Jesus before and after the cross. The gathering storm of victory as Jesus approached the cross and was on the cross and then after the cross. The turning point in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ comes within the passage that we are reading this morning. The gospel of John chapter 20 verses gospel of John excuse me chapter 12 verses 20 through 26. Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethesda in Galilee, and said to him,

Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew. Then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone. It remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it.

Those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. Sigmund Freud, who was the father of modern psychiatry and not a Christian, had a favorite story. His favorite story was of a sailor who had been shipwrecked and washed upon a tropical island. The natives of that island took him and made him king, absolute ruler for a year. After that year, he was to be banished to a deserted island. And they explained to

him he had two choices. That anything he wanted, everything he wanted during that year of his kingship, would be given to him. Now he could take that which was given to him immediately and could use it, could consume it, enjoy it for the present, and then be banished to a deserted island without any resources. Or he had a second choice. He could take all that he received during that year of kingship and conserve it, and lay it back and lay it aside, so that when he was banished to that deserted island, he would have the resources enough to live.

Two alternatives. Two choices. And the fact of the matter is, you and I have two choices in life. And only two, there's no third alternative. We can either consume our life for the present, or we can conserve it for the future. We either can eat our lives, enjoy them for the present moment, or we can lay them aside and use them in such a way that there'll be future resources. Basically, this is what Jesus is saying as he enunciates this very important principle

in verse 24. He says, very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. So if you have a single grain of wheat, you can do two things with and eat it to satisfy present needs. Or you can let that seed die, put it into the ground and cover it up with dirt. And for all intents and purposes, it will die.

But in the dying, it will bear much fruit. A bag of seeds sitting in a warehouse or a barn is not worth much. It is only when that bag of seeds is sown into the newly plowed ground that it becomes invaluable. And the farmer must give up that present possession if he's going to have a future harvest. And Jesus here, when these Greeks came to him, you notice he didn't answer the Greeks, didn't say anything about them, but when the Greeks came to him, he said, well, the hour has come when the Son of Man should be delivered. And later on in the passage, he tells what that means. When the Son of Man should be glorified, it means it's time for his crucifixion. And as I think I mentioned last year in our series on John 17,

that the coming of the Greeks to Jesus symbolized the coming of the world to seek him, and so he knew it was time now that he should face the cross, and the time of his crucifixion was near at hand. And he explained what that was. His crucifixion was, it was not the death of a martyr, and it was not the slaying of a thief, but rather it was a grain of wheat sold into the ground so that it must bear much fruit.

And Jesus enunciates this principle of spiritual harvest and fruitfulness. And it is this, that if a grain of wheat is not sown into the ground, it abides alone. It remains a single grain of wheat. It abides alone. Those are almost condemning words as you and I think of them. For how many of us today would have to say and may have to say at the judgment seat of Christ, Here I am, but I'm alone. I have no fruit with me. I consumed whatever I had for the present. And I refuse to fall into the ground and die.

But I'm here, but I'm here alone. Jesus says, no, that's not the purpose of a grain of wheat. That's not the purpose of a seed. The seed is to fall into the ground and die. Therefore, it may bring forth much fruit. Much fruit. So I want us to look at this principle. In this verse, Jesus establishes that principle and then he goes on to tell us how that works out. Now the first thing is this.

If I am willing to die, and we'll see more exactly what that means in a moment but if I am willing to die my life I hate my life within this world and I'm willing to die and fall into the ground and be covered up then I will bring forth much fruit. Jesus says the consequences, first of all, will be fruitfulness in the life of the believer. Fruitfulness in the life of Jesus, of course. That's why he was dying. He was born to die. And if he had not died, what if he had not died? Well, he would be in heaven, but he would be alone. And none of us would ever be there with him. And neither would Abraham or Jacob or Isaac, nor none of the Old Testament saints would be there with him. He would be alone. And for Jesus

to have a gathering of fruitfulness into his life, if his life is to mean anything, he cannot preserve it. He cannot hang on to it. but he must be willing to die. And there is nothing in the scriptures that tells us so much how out of step with the world we are, because the last thing the world wants to do is to die, you see. Die to itself. We live in a culture where we've gone from worshiping God to worshiping self, from character to celebrities and from self-restraint to self-indulgence and from self-sacrifice to self-awareness. That's the whole theme of our

culture is discovering ourselves and being free to be ourselves and discovering all that is within ourselves. And nothing so strikes against the grain of today's culture as do the words of Jesus that if we are to bring forth fruit, we must die. We must die. Nobody wants to die, not physically, not spiritually. Nobody wants to die to themselves. No, we have the idea that we must live and realize ourselves and come to the consciousness of all that we are within ourselves. Do not deny ourselves, but recognize and accept ourselves so that we can be the person God wanted us to be. And yet the Lord comes along with direct contrary advice, and he says, no, the life is not to be saved. The life is to die so that it can bring forth much fruit. And if we're not being fruitful

as we ought to be, it's simply because we have not yet learned how to die to ourselves. You see, the secret of fruitfulness is that life comes out of death. Paul echoed this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. When he talks about his ministry, he says, We're always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we're always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. Now watch it in verse 12. So death

is at work in us, but life is at work in you. And I want to say to you, anytime life is working in somebody else, it's only because death is working in somebody else. For anybody to live, for anybody to be born again, for anybody to be saved, it requires somebody to die. It required Jesus to die, and now for you and me to bear fruit and to win those that are lost, it requires of us the same thing, that we must die. Die to ourselves. And die to our own plans and our own wishes and our own will.

And to be covered up, out of sight, so that they no longer see me. Sarah is a great example of this life out of death why do you suppose God took a barren woman and said this woman is going to be the woman mother of generations that's not the way we would have done it why did God and it says from the very beginning that Sarah was barren and had no children,

why would it be that God would make to that woman a promise, a motherhood, and then wait until Abraham was a hundred years old, impossible for him physically to bear children. Sarah had always been dead as far as having children was concerned. And Abraham, he said, was as good as dead being a hundred years old. And yet out of that death came life of Isaac. Why do you suppose God did it that way? To demonstrate this principle that life comes out of death. That's the way of God. That's the way God works.

Contrary to natural reasoning, God works in this way. Life comes out of death. This can get you in a little trouble. I remember some years ago I was in the first church as I had entered into this traveling ministry. I was in the first church that I knew was going to give me a great love offer. And the pastor had already sort of hinted that it would be around $3,000. And this was back in 1975. That was a lot of money back then. It's a pretty fair amount now, you know, in fact.

And so I was happy to go to that meeting. And I kept thinking, boy, I can't wait to get my hands on that $3,000. I thought of the bills we could pay off. I mean, man, you know, we were in debt like everybody else. I thought, boy, this is going to push us. This is going to get us out of debt. And all I could think about all week long was that cotton-picking $3,000 love offer. And so I'm sitting in my motel room one night,

one afternoon before the service, and I'm praying, God, give us revival. God, bless. God, come down. And Lord, let there be life born tonight. And do you know what, God? You know what he brought up?

He brought up that $3,000 love offer. And basically what he says is, how badly do you want to see me work? How badly do you want to see life? How badly do you want to see fruit born this week? Oh, Lord. Not knowing what was coming, of course, in the arrogance of ignorance. Oh, Lord, I'll do anything. I'll do anything. And God said, I want you to, whatever the offering is, I want you to take it and give it away. Well, we talked about that for a while. Actually, we didn't talk about it. I talked about it. God said what he had to say on the matter,

and that was all he was going to say. I struggled with that for several hours. I'm sorry to say. And finally I got down on my knees, and I said, Lord, yes, I know it. I'm thinking more of that $3,000 preserving myself than I am of seeing what you do in this meeting. I'll do whatever you say, and I'll give it away. Oh, it was hard. But I had to die to that. And that night we had 28 people saved.

I don't know if there's any correlation or not, but it sure makes a good story. But that's the way it is, folks. Good story. That's the way it is, folks. Life comes out of death. And every time somebody is saved in your church, it's because somebody has died. They've died to convenience in order to pray. They've died to their time in order to visit. They've died to their embarrassment in order to share the gospel.

Somebody has died. And until people are willing to die, there'll be no fruitfulness. And we can have all the conferences and conventions we want on why we are so barren, but the main reason we're so barren is because we're so alive to ourselves. But he goes on to explain this. He says in verse 25, those who love their life lose it, and

those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. He's talking about fullness of life. We already have eternal life. But John speaks of eternal life in two planes. For instance, in John 10, he says, Jesus came and he said, I came that I might bring life and life more abundant. There is life and then there is life more abundant.

And he says, there'll be fullness of life, life abundant. But it's only for those who hate their life in this world. Then they will keep it for eternal life. Those who love their life lose it. Now, it's interesting that two different Greek words are used here to translate the word life. The first two words translated life is our word psyche. The last word in eternal life is zoe, like zoology. It's the quality of life in general.

But when he uses the verb psyche, he's talking about the ego. He's talking about the inner person. He's talking about the ego. He's talking about the inner person. He's talking about the mind that makes decisions, that makes plans, that charts its own course. He's talking about the inner will. And he says, unless a person hates, unless a person hates that inner will and is willing to treat it as hated in this world, he cannot enjoy the abundance of life that is in Jesus Christ. You've got to hate that. That's what dying to Christ is. That's what dying is.

It is taking your independent self. You're wanting to do it your way. Your plans. Your vision. Your ego. And it is burying it into the ground. And it is hating it. Here again, man, we just are in such conflict with the philosophy of the world. It's interesting also in this passage

he says that those who love their life lose it. It's really the present tense. Those who love their life are already losing it. Phillips translated, destroys. Now think about this for a minute. This is so paradoxical to man's way of thinking. If you love your life, your ego, and you're going to retain it and guard it at any cost. You are actually, even right now, in the process of losing, of destroying. You know who the Inuits are?

They're the Eskimos of Canada and Greenland. You know how they hunt bear? They take a piece of bone, preferably bone of a wolf, and they whittle each end to a sharp point and they coil it and freeze it in blubber and they lay it along the it in blubber. And they lay it along the path that the bears travel.

And they wait and watch. And a bear comes along and he smells that blubber. And he swallows it. He's just killed himself. but he doesn't know it. He thinks by eating this, he's going to save his life, but he's just killed himself. And the Indians follow along at a distance. And they watch that bear as he weakens because every movement that that bear makes, the sharp points of that bone tear into his flesh and lance his stomach and he begins to bleed internally and finally dies. He thought he was saving his life, but the moment he swallowed that blubber, he killed himself.

And it's tragic that many people today think that they're saving their lives. I'm number one. Look out for number one. Nobody tells me what to do. I have a right to do with my body as I please. I have a right to choose my own course of life. I have a right to my own way. And the minute you do that, you have killed yourself.

A slow death. Well, there's one last word. When we die, not only will there be fruitfulness, and not only will there be fullness in sharing the abundant life, but there will be faithfulness. Look at verse 26. Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also.

Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. Service is an outgrowth of this. You can't get away from it. Because no man will serve two lords at the same time. He'll hate the one and love the other. And it is only as we die to our own egos and our own wills and our own selves, then that we are qualified to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we will follow him. Now watch this. Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also.

Now there are two things about that. Number one, that where Jesus is, that's where we'll be. I want to know where Jesus is, that's where we'll be. I want to know where Jesus is. Wherever he is, that's where we ought to be in our daily life. Maybe one thing for one person, maybe another thing for another person. If Jesus Christ came to Colorado Springs today,

where do you think he would be? Where do you think he would be? Where do you think he would go? I have an idea he might go down on Skid Row. I have an idea he might go down on the street and talk to the homeless. I have an idea he might not go the places we go. But I want to tell you something, wherever Jesus is, there will his servant be also,

if you're really his servant. We need to ask ourselves in our own individual lives, as far as I'm concerned, where is Jesus? Where is he? And wherever he is, wherever he's ministering, that's where I will be. But it means another thing. It means that wherever I am, there he is also. I'm not alone. I'm not alone. Because you cannot separate the servant and his master. Where Jesus is, that's where I'll be. But conversely, where I am, that's where Jesus will be. And so no matter where I am, in the most desolate place perhaps

that I could ever imagine being, and I feel isolated and cut off from everybody else, but Jesus is there. Jesus is there. That ought to be enough for us. Back when Eisenhower was president, there was a story in the newspaper, a little article about a reporter who called the church that Eisenhower would attend each Sunday. And he said, is the president going to be in your services Sunday? And the pastor replied, I don't know, but Jesus will be here, and that ought to be enough incentive to get you out. Wherever I am, Jesus is there. And then he ends with his promise, and my father will honor him. Spurgeon used to tell the story, imaginative story,

about a prince and his servant who were traveling. And they fell into the hands of bandits. And the servant was with him, the prince. And the prince was more than likely going to be killed, if not ransomed. But the prince fell ill, and the servant began to minister to him. There came a day when the servant had an opportunity to escape and save himself,

but he stayed with the prince, ministering to him. And then the king found out where they were and sent an army and rescued him. Now, Spurgeon said, now, who do you think the king is going to honor? He's going to honor that servant who stayed by his son. He's going to honor that servant who stayed by his son. I don't have time to go into

what all that may mean. You need to do a little work for yourself. You study it for yourself. But that ought to be enough for us that whoever serves Jesus will receive the honor and the favor of the Father.

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