Thanks very much, Anne. Hello again.
Why was I born? Why am I living? What do I get? What am I giving?
Why do I want a thing I daren't hope for? What can I hope for?
I wish I knew.
That cheerful ditty was written almost 100 years ago by Oscar Hammerstein,
but for many people it would resonate today as well.
What is the point? Is there any purpose in life?
What should we be looking for?
It was maybe put a bit more succinctly and more recently by Lana Del Rey.
She wrote in one of her songs,
You and I, we were born to die.
Quite depressing, isn't it, to think of life without a purpose?
And yet I think many people today feel that,
that life is a bit pointless,
they don't know where they're going,
they don't know why they're here,
they don't know what's going to happen to them.
There's a website many of you may be familiar with called Quora.
On Quora, people can post questions on practical, intellectual, philosophical things,
and lots of people will pile in with their replies.
And if you type in something like,
Why was I born to die?
You might get answers that sound something like this.
We exist because of evolutionary pressures from the environment among us,
occurring over millions of years.
There is no purpose to our existence,
because evolution has no goal in mind or vision for how we should be.
Evolution doesn't have a mind, we just exist.
Any meaning or purpose we ascribe to life or death is manufactured by humans
to make our lives easier to get through,
because it's hard for people to accept a meaningless thing.
Depressing, isn't it?
Well, what I want us to take from this morning
is that life does have a purpose,
and our lives can have real purpose to them.
And we're going to see that because we're looking at the person
who had the most awareness of the purpose on his life of anyone,
Jesus Christ.
We're going to think about what that purpose was.
We're going to think about some of the people Jesus met
and interacted with in the passage that I read to us,
and the challenge that comes to us through them.
Now, usually I'm going to start in the middle this morning,
because I think that's where the core of the passage is,
and it's where we get most of the background to it from.
So we're going to start, I'm going to read verses 27 and 28,
where Jesus is speaking, and he says,
Now my soul 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, glorify your name.
Then a voice came from heaven.
I have glorified it and will glorify it again.
As we read through John's Gospel,
something that we find referred to many times
is the hour, Jesus' hour.
Three times in the earlier part of the Gospel we've looked at up till now,
Jesus says, My hour has not yet come.
That was when he did his first miracle at Cana,
and twice when people tried to seize him and couldn't,
because the time hadn't yet come.
And three times he says, My hour has come.
So it was at the start of the passage we read,
or at the start of the section that I'm looking at just now,
in verse 23.
He says it again, or said again about him,
in John 13 at the start of his upper room ministry,
and then again at John 17,
as the Lord prays to his Father.
The whole of Jesus' life was centered around the fact
that there was an hour coming.
What was that hour?
It was when he was crucified,
when he died on the cross for us.
And the whole of his life was building up to that moment
when he would go to the cross,
and when he would take our sins on himself.
I think we can learn three things about the hour
from the verses that I read just now.
First of all, it was an hour of agony.
Secondly, Jesus, as he looked forward to it,
he was troubled.
He says, Now my soul is troubled.
What shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour.
Mostly in the Gospels, we read,
Jesus is going resolutely towards Jerusalem.
He knows that it's God's will that he should suffer
and die on the cross,
and he is determined to fulfill that will.
But just once or twice,
we get a glimpse into what Jesus really felt
about what was going to happen.
The other obvious time is in the Garden of Gethsemane,
when he says,
Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me.
And he says,
What shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour.
Because what was in front of Jesus was truly awful.
I think at times it's easy to think of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross
and to kind of have almost in our minds,
well, he was God.
It wasn't as bad for him as it would have been for us.
Well, Jesus was man, fully man, as well as God.
And the betrayal by his friends,
the mockery, the whipping,
and the agony of crucifixion were very, very real to him,
as they would be to us.
We can perhaps begin to feel what that is like.
What I think is much more difficult for us to imagine and to understand
is that when Jesus was dying on the cross,
he was completely separated from his Father God.
Jesus took our sins on himself.
And a holy God can't look on sin,
and Jesus felt he had been abandoned, forsaken by his Father.
And that, I believe, was the greatest suffering of all,
as he took the punishment for sin,
as he was separated from God.
And so he's looking forward as he comes to his hour,
and he is looking forward with dread to what is about to happen to him.
Second thing, though, it's an hour of obedience.
So he says,
Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?
No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour.
When we think of reasons why Jesus came into the world,
there are several.
He came to show us what God is like.
So we look at Jesus, and we can see God among us,
and how God lives.
He came to be an example to us,
to show us how we should live,
the kind of lives that should characterize us.
He came to bring us God's words.
We were thinking of that in the early service this morning,
that Jesus came with the word of God to speak to us.
But above all, he came to die.
The reason he came into this world was that he should die for our sins.
Only if someone was able to take the penalty for our sins,
take the punishment that was due to us,
could we be forgiven.
And no one but Jesus could have done that.
He was the only one who met the requirement of being absolutely sinless,
and therefore able to take the punishment for us.
And so whatever the cost,
Jesus was determined he was going to obey the will of his Father,
and he was going to go and to die on the cross.
The hour of agony was also an hour of obedience.
Obedience even to death on a cross.
Then the third thing is that it is an hour of glory.
Now you might think, looking at it superficially,
that someone dying on a cross is perhaps the least glorious thing
almost that you could imagine.
It's humiliation, it's shame, it's pain,
it's the mockery of people round about.
What is glorious about that?
And yet Jesus says,
the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
And then he says again,
Father, glorify your name,
and the confirmation comes from God.
I have glorified it,
and will glorify it again.
This is one of only three times when we hear that voice from heaven.
The others were at Jesus' baptism,
and at the transfiguration,
and at this third really significant moment in his life,
he gets again the affirmation from his Father.
Through the cross, Jesus is glorified.
Through the cross, God is glorified.
And Jesus gives us a little indication of what that was in the following verses.
So in verse 31, he says,
Now is the time for judgment on this world.
Now the prince of this world will be driven out.
The cross at Calvary might have seemed at that time to many people to be defeat for Jesus.
He had traveled around Galilee and Judea for three years.
He had enjoyed a lot of popularity.
We'll come back to the early verses of his entry into Jerusalem.
He enjoyed a lot of popularity.
And then he was nailed to a cross.
And people looking at that thought,
Well, that's him defeated.
I think the disciples felt that too,
because they didn't really understand what was going on.
But Jesus says,
No, it's not defeat.
It's victory.
When I die on the cross,
I will overcome the evil one once and for all.
The world is going to be judged through my action.
And the evil one, the print of the world, will be driven out.
Now that was not an immediate thing.
We still have the work of the devil.
We still have evil in our world as we see every day.
And yet the devil has been defeated.
And one day that will be obvious.
And he was defeated by Jesus dying on the cross.
By the punishment Jesus took,
and by the fact that he could shout at the end,
It is finished.
The work that God had given him, he had done.
And that is glorious.
The other glorious thing is in verse 32.
Jesus says,
I, when I am lifted from the earth,
will draw all people to myself.
This little incident was prompted originally
by a question for some Greeks.
She said,
We want to see Jesus.
And I think that is what triggered Jesus to say,
My hour has now come.
Because God's word was about to go beyond
just the confines of Israel,
beyond just the Jewish nation,
and to go into the whole world through Jesus.
And how did that happen?
It happened by being lifted up on a cross
and dying for our sins.
And the glory of Jesus on the cross
is what has attracted many of us to him.
And we are part of his reward
for what he did as he died for our sins.
So the hour that Jesus is talking about
is an hour of agony.
It's an hour of horrific suffering.
But it's also an hour of obedience,
of obedience to God.
And it's an hour of glory
as evil is defeated,
as Jesus is able to bring the whole world to him,
all those who will believe.
Before we go back and look at the rest of the passage,
let's just take this challenge for ourselves.
Do we believe that?
When we look back on Jesus,
when we look back on the cross,
do we understand how much he went through for us?
Do we understand the extent of his obedience to God?
Do we understand the glory that is there?
And have we taken him for ourselves?
Have our sins been forgiven by trusting in him?
Now let's go back,
and we'll just walk quite quickly
through the whole of the passage.
And this time as we go through,
what I particularly want to look at
is how Jesus challenges us
and how people respond to him.
So there'll be two things there as we go along,
the challenge of Jesus
and the response of the people.
So I've headed the first part of the passage,
coming as a king.
This is the very familiar story to most of us
of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem,
Palm Sunday.
John tells us slightly differently
from the other Gospels,
and I want to focus particularly
on what John has to say to us through it.
And the first thing we might notice
is that there are two crowds
in the section from verse 12
through to verse 19.
There's a crowd that's come to Jerusalem
for the festival.
Many of them probably had come from Galilee,
so they would have seen the miracles
that Jesus did when he was there,
and they already would have an idea
of how special he was.
The second crowd is in verse 17,
and that is the crowd that had witnessed
the raising of Lazarus
that we looked at two or three weeks back.
That miraculous event
where Jesus brought back to life
someone who had been dead for four days.
And these people too would be coming
in the crowds,
and they were talking to others
about the wonderful things
that they had seen.
And as these two crowds come together
and others along with them,
the atmosphere becomes one of celebration
and one of anticipation.
So they see Jesus coming into Jerusalem,
and they think this could be the moment
when Jesus frees us from the Romans.
We have this great, powerful man
who can do such wonderful things,
a charismatic figure.
He's the one who's going to finally
free us from the bondage of Rome.
And what does Jesus do?
He sits on a donkey.
He finds a donkey,
and he sits on it to go through the crowd.
It would have been a familiar sight
in many cities
for a victorious emperor or general
to come back
and for the crowds
to throng around him.
And he would be on a war horse,
the biggest horse you could imagine,
so that he was seen
as someone who was really powerful
and was really to be feared.
Jesus chooses to come
and to sit on a donkey.
And by that,
I think he's saying
that his kingship at that time
was not in overthrowing the Romans.
He was coming as a king,
but he was coming as God's king
as the one who would do God's will.
And I think that's the quotation from Zechariah
that the disciples say
they only understood later.
That's the significance of that.
It's the king coming,
but he's coming in humility.
He's coming as the servant king.
He's coming as the savior king
rather than as one
who is going to come at that stage
with military might.
And yet the people don't understand.
Most of the people want him to be king
and want him to go
and overthrow the Romans.
The disciples may be rather confused.
John says they only understood later
the significance of what was happening.
And the rulers, the Pharisees,
they were worried.
They thought he's becoming
just a bit too popular.
And so that would have made them
even more resolved
that they would get rid of him,
that they would ensure that he died.
But he was coming as a king,
but not as a king
that the people expected.
The middle section,
and we've talked quite a lot about that already,
so we'll go through it
a little more quickly now,
I've called going like a grain.
And there's this wonderful picture
at the centre of it
of the grain of wheat
that falls into the ground
and dies.
Now again, we might think about
some of the reactions
around to what's said here.
The Greeks, I think,
were more than just curious sightseers.
They actually genuinely wanted
to see and to understand Jesus.
At the end, the people were saying,
well, we don't understand.
They couldn't accept
what Jesus was saying to them.
But in the middle,
there is this challenge.
The hour has come
for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Jesus says,
unless a grain of wheat
falls into the ground and dies,
it remains only a single seed.
But if it dies,
it produces many seeds.
Now we look at that
and think that is true of Jesus.
That is what has happened with Jesus.
Jesus died on the cross
for our sins,
and he brought many,
many millions of people
to know God
and to have eternal life.
And yes, it certainly is true of Jesus.
But the application he gives
is not to himself.
It's to us.
The grain of wheat
that falls into the ground
and dies and then springs up,
Jesus says,
we should be like that.
Anyone who loves their life
will lose it,
or anyone who hates their life
in this world
will keep it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me
must follow me
and where I am,
my servant also will be.
My father will honour
the one who serves me.
So the challenge to us is,
are we willing and able
to follow the example of Jesus?
Are we willing to give our lives
for him,
perhaps literally,
but certainly in terms
of the sacrifices
that we are prepared to make?
Jesus never promises
that life with him
will be easy.
Indeed,
at the moments
of his greatest popularity,
these are the moments
when he issues
these kinds of challenges.
John chapter 6,
defeating of the 5,000.
The people want
to make him king.
And then Jesus gives
some very difficult teaching
about the bread of life
and what that means.
And most people then decide,
well, actually,
we're not going to follow him.
because their trust in him
was very superficial.
And maybe he's doing
the same thing here.
You've got people
who feel he's very popular,
who feel he's someone
really to be admired
and looked up to.
You've got others
who are wanting
to find out more about him.
And Jesus says,
if you follow me,
it will be difficult.
Don't come expecting
just to be part
of a victorious army
that will sweep the land
and will get rid
of all the Romans.
If you follow me,
you have to be willing
to make sacrifices.
I think that's a very good lesson
for us as well.
If we're Christians,
if we believe
in the Lord Jesus,
we need to be willing
to make sacrifices
for him.
Often when we think
about Christian service
and we talk to people,
and if you become
a new member of the church,
we talk to you
about how you can serve.
Often we think about
what are the things
people will enjoy?
What are the things
they're good at?
These are the things
that we'll ask them to do.
And quite right,
we want people
to enjoy their service.
We want them to do things
they're really gifted for.
But not all Christian service
is like that.
And in our service,
there will be times
when there are things
that are really hard
that God calls us to do.
And like Jesus,
we need to be willing
to do them.
I talk frequently
and I don't apologise
for it about my grandparents.
My grandparents
were missionaries in India.
And one of the yearly events
of the missionaries in India
was a festival
at a place called
Antarvedi.
It was just a few miles
from there
where they were working.
And it was a massive
Hindu festival.
But a quarter million
or more Hindu people
used to come
on pilgrimage
every year.
And they came to bathe
at the junction
where the Godafri River
flows into the Bay of Bengal
to bathe, I think,
for washing away of sins.
But it was a huge event
and a real festive atmosphere
and there were stalls
and all sorts of things there.
And the missionaries
used to go every year
and they would stand
and they would hand out tracts,
they would sell gospels
and they would talk to people
who were willing to listen.
And more often than not,
they had a really hard time.
People would shout abuse at them
and sometimes they would
throw things
and it was only the rubbish
the missionaries feel
they got off fairly lightly.
I was struck by something
that one of the missionaries
wrote about this.
He says,
we attend in fear
and shall be very glad
when it's over
kind of feeling.
It was something they felt
was God's will for them to do.
It was the right thing to do.
But it was really difficult.
They didn't look forward to it.
They didn't enjoy it.
But they had the satisfaction,
I'm sure,
looking back,
of knowing that they had done
what they thought was right.
And for us too,
there may be situations
which are really hard for us.
Perhaps when we put somewhere
where people are not sympathetic
to Christians
and we need to let people know
who we believe in
and what we stand for.
And that can be really,
really difficult.
And yet we can know
that Jesus has been through
something much,
much more difficult
than we ever will.
And that when we face
these things,
he will be with us.
We are the grains
of wheat
that need to be willing
to sacrifice ourselves
for the great harvest
that can come from it.
Finally,
just very briefly,
let's look at the last
couple of verses.
Verses 35 and 36.
Jesus told them,
you're going to have the light
just a little while longer.
Walk while you have the light
before darkness overtakes you.
The theme of light
is one that we get
throughout John's Gospel.
I think as we come
to the end
of Jesus' public ministry,
John is very deliberately
reminding us
of the very start
of his Gospel.
where John says
the light came into the world
and the darkness,
now shone in darkness,
and the darkness
could not overcome it.
Then we have chapters 8 and 9
where Jesus talks about
being the light
of the world.
We have that great miracle
where he gives the blind man
back his sight.
And now at the end
of his public ministry,
Jesus gives a very
stern warning.
He says,
you've had the light.
I've been with you.
You've had the opportunity
to believe
and to follow me.
And that opportunity
is about to go.
I won't be here
very much longer.
What is your response
to that?
Will you believe
in the light
while you still have time?
Or will you choose
still to walk in darkness
and to walk
in your own way?
If you have the light,
you can live life
with a purpose.
You can see
where you're going.
You can see
what the right thing
is to do.
If you're walking
in darkness,
then life does become
a bit aimless
like we were thinking
about at the beginning.
Only in the light
is there true
fulfillment.
Now, we're not
in an identical situation.
Jesus hasn't been
physically among us.
But in many ways,
it's very similar.
The call still comes
to walk in the light.
To look at Jesus
and to see in him
everything that we should be
and to take his guidance
through the Spirit
about how we should live.
And for all of us,
there will come a time
when that's no longer
possible.
We don't know
how long we've got
in this world.
And it's really important
while we have
the opportunity
to trust in Jesus,
to accept forgiveness
through him,
and to live lives
that are obedient to him,
that are walked
in the light,
that are walked
the way
that Jesus
walked.
Let's all make sure
that we do live
in the light
of Jesus.
Let me end by going back
to where we were
at the beginning
and talking about purpose.
One of the most
influential Christian books
of this century
was by Rick Warren
from Saddleback Church
in California
called
The Purpose Driven Life.
And Rick Warren
identifies five
particular purposes
that each Christian
should have.
and they're very much
connected
and not surprisingly
with the kind of purposes
that we as a church
would have,
the priorities
that we would give.
And the challenge
for us
if we're Christians
is
do we fulfil
all
these purposes?
Or are there some
where we think
yes, that's quite good
and others
we're not really
taking heed of?
So the five purposes
I've paraphrased slightly.
We want to worship God.
We want to recognise
the greatness of our God
and to bring to him
the worship
of our voices
but the worship
of our lives
as well.
We want to love others.
We want to show
the love that Christ had
to everyone
round about us
and to do it
unselfishly.
To look for the interests
of others
rather than
our own interests.
We want to become
like Jesus.
That's what we call
discipleship.
Becoming like Jesus
and following
his example.
We want to serve God
serve him in the church
and serve him
among one another.
And we want to reach out
we want to witness
to others
to tell them
about Jesus.
Are these not
five great purposes
for us to have?
Life is not
meaningless.
Life is not
pointless.
Life that is
truly lived
to the full
it is life
that seeks
to glorify God
as Jesus did
in everything
we do.
And that's reflected
by our attitude
to God
our relationship
with him
it's reflecting
our relationships
with one another
and it's reflected
in our relationships
with those
who don't yet know
the Lord Jesus
as we would seek
to witness
to them.
Let's live life
with a purpose.
Make sure
that we know
Jesus
as our saviour
but also
that we follow
him
as our Lord.
Let's pray together.
Father we thank you
for your word
this morning.
Thank you for the
challenge that Jesus
brings us
that we should be
like him
that we should be
willing to give
our lives
for your glory.
And we thank you
for the tremendous
example he sets
and particularly
for his death
on the cross
that great purpose
for which he came
into the world
that hour
that was always
in his mind
as he went
around
and that hour
when he took
on himself
our sins
and the punishment
that we deserve.
We thank you for him
and pray that all of us
will put our trust
in him
and will choose
to follow him
and to enjoy
real purpose
in our lives.
We give you our thanks
and we commit ourselves
to you now
in Jesus name.
Amen.