Ron Dunn Podcast - The Gathering Storm Of Victory

Episode Date: October 12, 2016

Ron Dunn preaches a message on John 12:20-26.

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. The Gospel of John, Chapter 12. And in these sessions that we're going to have together, I'm going to speak from the Gospel of John primarily,

except for one occasion, and around the theme of the gathering storm of victory, Jesus before the cross and after the cross. And I want us to look at just some of the things that he said before he went to the cross and some of the things that happened after the cross. And I trust that the Lord will speak to us during these days. The Gospel of John chapter 12, I want to read verses 20 through 26. The Gospel of John chapter 20, 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 wish to 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, say unto you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, just a single grain of wheat. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it. And 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, the father of modern psychiatrists, not a Christian by any means, but had a favorite story of a sailor who was shipwrecked on a tropical island. of this island decided to make him king for one year. And they put it to him like this. For one year you will be absolute ruler. You can have whatever you want. Ask for it

and we'll provide it At the end of that year we will banish you to a deserted island Where there will be no substance So you can either consume everything that we give you In the here and now this year or you can save it conserve it for the future so that you will it in the present or conserve it for the future. Now in a very real sense

that's all anyone can do with their life is we can consume it on the present without any forethought for the future, for eternity. And we can totally live our lives for the present and then face a bleak future. Or we can use what is necessary but conserve our life in such a way that it will bring forth fruit in the future. That's what the Lord is talking about in this passage of Scripture. He sees himself as a seed. And as long as that seed doesn't die,

as long as that seed remains in the sack, it abides alone. But if it dies, if it's buried in the ground, if it's covered up and dies, then it brings forth much fruit. Now, the Lord is talking here about his own death. You see, when these Greeks came and asking for Jesus, Jesus said, now my hour is come. Now, that's a very important phrase in the book of John.

My hour is come or my hour has not come. Now, if you go back from John 12 all the way to the beginning, you'll find that Jesus is constantly saying, mine hour has not yet come. But here is the turning point in the life and ministry of Jesus. At this point, he says, my hour has come. And the hour of which he's speaking, he tells us down in verse 27, now my soul is troubled and what should I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.

Father, glorify your name. Then a father, a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and will glorify it again. The Lord is speaking of his own death and explaining why he must die. His hour has come, the hour when he must fall into the ground and die so that he can bring forth much fruit and bring forth many lives.

But he applies it to his disciples. And he says to each one of us who follow him that we are like a seed. And there are two things we can do with that seed. We can consume it right now, satisfy the present, gratify the present, or we can bury that seed, let it die, and it'll bring forth much fruit. So I want to talk to you this morning for a few minutes on the dividends of dying. The first one is this, of course. Jesus says that

when we die, we bring forth much fruit. That the secret of fruitfulness is death. Now, I want you to listen as I read out of 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and you'll find this amazing principle reiterated. In verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says, But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. Always, in verse 10, 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 are always being given up to the death for Jesus' sake so that the life of

Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. Now here is the principle that he enunciates. So then death is at work in us, but life in you. Now here is a principle by which God operates. Death out of life, or life out of death, life out of death. Paul says, we're wanting life to work into you Corinthians. We're wanting to see fruit in your life we're wanting life to work in you and so the principle is that we always bear in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our life now if I were to ask you this morning the average Christian do you want to see Jesus manifest in your mortal body isn't that what we're all about that we want to see Jesus manifest in your mortal body? Isn't that what we're all about? That we want to have Jesus seen through us?

We want others to see Jesus through us? Well, there's only one way to do that. Paul says, I bear in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in my mortal flesh. So then, life works in you, but only because death works in us. And here is the principle. Life comes out of death. Every time somebody is made alive in Christ,

it's because somebody has died. Somebody has died. The only way that you and I could be made alive in Christ is that if Christ died. Paul says the only way in the Corinthians that life can be brought out in you is if death works in me. And I want to say to you that every time somebody is made alive in Christ Jesus,

it's because somebody has died. I don't mean they've died physically, but they have died spiritually. They have died to their own way. They have died to their own way. They have died to their own convenience. They have died to their own pleasure. They have died to something in their life so that others might be made alive.

Maybe someone in your family, someone in your circle of friends that you're praying for and praying for and praying for, but it may be that they're never going to be saved until, well, maybe the Lord says, I want you to fast and pray for that person

until they're saved. Well, that's going to take a little bit of death on my part. Maybe God wants you to go across the street and witness to your neighbor. That's going to take a little death on your part. Dying to your own timidity or dying to your own fear, you see. There is no life unless there is first death. I remember several years ago, I was, well, when I first started in this traveling ministry,

I was in a church in Colorado, and when I got there, the pastor made a mistake. He told me how much they were going to give me, you know, I mean, he made a mistake on that. He told me how much they were going to give me, and it was three times as much as I'd ever received in my life. And you know, so you know what happened, don't you? That's all I could think about all week long. Boy, I'd be glad when this week's over and I get that check. Boy, I thought, what, what, all I'm going to do with that, you know, and I was so thrilled with that and everything. And so one night I was sitting in the motel. I was, we were having a, you know and i was so thrilled with that and everything and so one night i was

sitting in the motel i was we were having a you know a pretty good meeting but you know it wasn't really you know there was no real life in that meeting and everything and so i was praying i was i was praying oh dear god send us revival oh dear god you know how you pray like that you know and you don't know what you're asking for. Oh, dear Lord, I want you just to come down and work. And all of a sudden, God spoke to me, not audibly, but I know when God's speaking to me, and you know when he's speaking to you. God says, all right, you want to have revival?

Give up that $3,000 or what was more than that. I'm embarrassed to mention it, but give up that offering. Why, Lord? And you know, I began to search whether or not this was the devil speaking. You can't be too careful, folks. You can't be too careful when it comes to money. It may be the devil talking to you, Lord.

I want to make sure there's a little Lord. And I wish I could just say yes sir just like that you know but I didn't I struggle for an hour and a half with the Lord I said Lord you know how much I need that what that'll mean to us God said you want to see revival you want to see people save yes lord i do that's what it's going to take and after about an hour and a half i i yielded to the lord i said all right lord that's gone and i got up that night and preached and i'm not taking credit for that i'm just trying to illustrate a point i got up that night and preached and I'm not taking credit for that. I'm just trying to illustrate a point. I got up that night and preached

and when I gave the invitation, just like a giant hand got me by the chest and pushed me back against the choir rail and I just let her go. And we had 28 people come to Christ on the first verse. And was that the way the whole rest of the week? I believe that a part of that was my having to pay the price. How badly did I want to see revival? How badly did I want to see that person saved? How badly

did I want to see that? He goes on to describe to us what it means to die. If you'll notice in verse 25, he says, those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Those who love their life shall lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Now, the way to understand this is to realize that John is using two different Greek words for life. The first word when he says, if you love your life, is our word psyche, the ego, the mind. The other word is the word zoe, for general life, life in general. But he pinpoints it here. He who loves his ego,

he who loves the intelligent side of his life, that part of his life that makes decisions, that part of his life that makes choices, that part of his life that controls what he does, it is the ego, he says, as long as he loves that and clings to it and says, I'm going to do things the way I want to do them. I'm going to have my way. He says he loses it. He loses it. Phillips translates it, he destroys it. And it's a present tense, which means he's already losing it. He's already losing it. That person who determines this is my life, I'm going to live it the way I want to,

I'll make my own choices and make my own decisions, he is already losing his life. He is already destroying his life. You know the Inuit Indians of Canada and Greenland? They have a very unusual way of hunting bear. They will take a bone, preferably a wolf bone, and Greenland, they have a very unusual way of hunting bear. They will take a bone, preferably a wolf bone, and sharpen both ends of that bone razor sharp.

And then they'll freeze it in blubber and lay it across the path where the bears go. And they'll lay and wait, and after a while, here comes a bear waddling through, and all he can smell and sense is that blubber. And so he just in one scoop takes that blubber into his stomach without realizing that he's killed himself. Because every time he moves, every time he walks,

the sharp edge of that bone is slicing into him, cutting him. And he starts to bleed internally. And finally, he bleeds to death and drops. And that's when the Indians come then and take him. And Jesus says that those who determine, I'm going to live my life the way I want to,

are already destroying it. Right now in the very process of living, they're destroying their lives. But if it dies, it'll bring forth much fruit. But there's a second thing he says. He says that not only will it bring forth fruitfulness, but it'll bring forth fullness. Now, he makes an interesting statement in that 25th verse. He says, those who love their life shall lose it, and those who hate their life in this world shall keep it for eternal life.

Well, I thought we already had eternal life. Well, the answer to that is, yes, we do. We already have eternal life in Christ Jesus. But here, he says that if you die to this life, you will keep it unto eternal life. In other words, there is a deeper significance of that. For instance, I think you can best illustrate it in John 10, when Jesus says, I am come that they might have life and what? Have it more abundantly.

You see. So you can have life and then you can have it more abundantly. Evidently that means you can have life and not have it so abundantly. And so I tried to figure out what does abundant life mean. And I compared it to health. I know what abundant health is and I know what health is. You can have health and not have it abundantly. Everybody here today has health,

but some of us don't have it abundantly. You say, what is abundant health? I believe abundant health is when everything works. That's when everything works. And as you get older, things stop working. Have you noticed that? Well, not all of you, but some of you old enough to know what I'm talking about.

Things stop working. You know, there are times when I wish, I said the other day to my wife, I said, I wish I was nine years old. I'd like to be nine years old just for an hour. I'd like to know what it is to get up out of the chair and walk across the room without creaking and groaning and popping. I'd like to run around a block without needing artificial respiration or any other kind. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to climb a tree?

Not a big one, but a tree, you know, just to climb a tree. Why, nowadays I can hardly walk down these steps without breaking my neck. I've got health, folks, but I don't have it abundantly. Abundant health is when everything works. Now every Christian has life, but not every Christian has abundant life. And abundant life is when everything works. When your prayer works and your faith works, promises God are fulfilled in your life and you can witness and people are moved and God blesses your life to bless the

lives of others you see so there will be a fuller life a fullness of life and of course the Bible makes this very clear that the more you give away of yourself, the more you save yourself.

Isn't this what Jesus said? Well, there's one other word that I want to mention. And that is faithfulness. The other dividend of dying is faithfulness. Jesus says in 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 now watch this

whoever serves me must follow me. Well, that sort of makes sense, doesn't it? It's hard to serve Jesus if you're not following him. But whoever serves me will follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Wherever you find Jesus, you ought to find his servants. Now, the only problem I have is that a lot of times you don't find Jesus and his servants in the same place. You see, if I'm going to follow Jesus, I need to know where Jesus is, don't I?

I need to know where he's going. I need to know where he's going. I need to know where he is. I'm convinced that so much of the time we're ineffective in our service for the Lord because Jesus is in one place and we're over here in some other place altogether different. By the way, where do you think Jesus would be if he came back to this earth today? Well, I'm sure he'd come to Sherwood Baptist Church first. But then he'd probably make a few calls

on some of the homeless around here. And he might hang around some of the street corners and talk to some of the prostitutes. And he might go to the hungry and try to feed them. And the naked and try to clothe them. You reckon that's what Jesus would do if he were here? See, every one of us has to decide for ourselves. I can't decide it for you, nor can anybody else,

but everyone has to decide it for ourselves. Let me ask you a question. Are you where Jesus is? Are you where Jesus is this morning? You say, I've committed my life to Christ and I'm trying to serve Him. Well, then you must be where Jesus is. Are you and Jesus in the same place?

Are you all on the same page this morning? Are you and Christ in the same vicinity? Are you together? Of course, there's a double-edged promise to that. He says, wherever I am, there will my servant be also. Which means that wherever a servant is, there will Jesus be also you say what do you mean by that

well I talked to a couple who were getting ready to go just a couple of weeks ago go as missionaries to Cambodia that's one of the less glamour places to go, by the way, as a missionary. And I know they're going to have hard times

when they get over there. And I've talked to too many missionaries, too often to know that they, many times, fill with discouragement and despair. Feel like they're forgotten by the rest of the world. But I'll tell you something, if they're where Jesus is, then Jesus is where they are.

They're not alone. They're not alone. He is with them. In His mercy and His compassion, He is with them in his man his mercy and his compassion he is with them well there's one last word and that is this and it's the word favor one of the dividends of dying is favor that That last verse is very interesting. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. Well, whoever you serve, they will honor you most of the time. We all like to be honored.

All of us like to be honored. But I think the question boils down to whose honor do you want the most? You know, in this world, if you want the world's honor and the world's favor, you can get it. And that may be all you get. Whose honor do you want the most? Whose favor do you want the most?

The Father's fathers God's if you and I were called to stand before him today would we have the father honor us I tell the I hate to tell this story, it's so, so old. But it may be so old none of you have ever heard it. But it is so appropriate for what we're talking about. This is so old. This is as old as Michael. Older. Older. Well, it seemed back years ago, there was an old missionary and his couple who had served in Africa all their lives.

And they were returning home on the ship. This was their homecoming. On the same ship was Teddy Roosevelt. He was returning from a big game hunt, safari. And when the ship pulled in the dock, there were thousands of people and newspaper reporters to greet Teddy Roosevelt. But there was no one there to greet this old missionary and his wife. Well, later on, they were checked into a motel, and his wife could tell that he was very, very upset.

And she says, what are you upset about? He said, well, he said, I've been gone for 40 years, and now I've come home, and not a single person here to meet me. And his wife said, I've been gone for 40 years and now I've come home and not a single person here to meet me. And his wife said, oh missionary, you're not home yet. That's an old story. But it's a good one, isn't it?

There is an honor beyond the honors of this world. And on all the honors of this world and when all the kingdoms of this world have fallen into dust and all the honors and trophies of man have been forgotten there will still be one whose honor we shall seek and his honor will last for eternity and that's the father's honor

and you can have that you can have that by serving him for this cause I came into the world and may I say to you for this cause you came into the world also that you might die and thereby dying bring forth much fruit. I can't think of anything sadder than to someday stand before the Lord Jesus and say, Lord, here I am. He said, well, where are those that you brought with you?

Oh, I didn't bring anybody with me. Well, I'm least here. And Jesus said, you were a seed that was meant to bring forth much fruit. Where is your fruit? Where is your fruit? Now would you pray with me now for a moment, I want us to stand. Joe's going to lead us in two or three verses of a hymn. I want to give you an opportunity this morning

to respond to what God wants you to do. Perhaps there's someone here this morning to respond to what God wants you to do. Perhaps there's someone here this morning that's never been saved. You've never trusted Christ as your Savior, never had that experience where you and Jesus became one. And you cannot honestly

say today that your sins are forgiven. We want to give you an opportunity to do that when we stand in a moment. All you need to do is slip out where you'll be standing. Pastors and others are going to be here at the front to meet you. You won't be by yourself. There'll be someone to talk with you. Maybe there's someone that God is leading into the fellowship of this church. You believe this is where God is happy to put your life,

happy to put your work. Maybe some just need to come and kneel at this altar. Maybe the Lord has touched your heart this morning about some issue in your life that you need to die to. And you need to handle that today. Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ

who, although enjoyed the riches of glory, count them as nothing, and although he might come and not just be a man, but be a man of humble means, and not just be a man of humble means, but just be a man of humble means, but to be a man who humbled himself even to the point of death. And that he died for us,

that he might bear much fruit, and we are that fruit. And I pray this morning that we also may bear much fruit, knowing that the cost of that fruit is our own death to self, our own death to our ego, our own death to say we'll do things my way.

So, Father, take this time of invitation. Use it to bless your people, we pray in Jesus' name. Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.