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Guest (Male): For most people, they see death as the end. Jesus' death is actually the beginning of life for all of us, all of those who trust in him. He dies, but he's not going to stay dead. He will be buried and three days later, he will rise from the dead. That's the beginning, everybody. And I know that it's hard to get into our hearts, but it's true.

Announcer: Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply his word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon preview, verse by verse through the Bible. Jesus explains why he must die as our study of John continues in chapter 12, verse 20. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: So the Pharisees believe they're losing all their followers. They are tricking the people to follow them. And now they're upset because some of them may follow Jesus. And here's what we learned, and here's what we've seen, and here's what we're going to see: they will lead many away from Jesus. Don't let that be you and me. They are going to lead people away from him to follow them, to think the way they do. They're going to cause many to reject Jesus, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 53. We read it last time we got together.

So let's move on now because they are going to put him to death so people won't follow him anymore. And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. Remember, the Passover feast is coming up. The same, those Greeks, those Gentiles, came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee. He was from the city of Bethsaida, close to the border, in other words.

And they desired him, saying, "Sir, we would see Jesus. We want to talk to Jesus. Can you set that up?" Philip came and he told Andrew, and again, Andrew and Philip told Jesus. Remember, Jesus isn't just running out in the open like he was. He's kind of laying low. He's going to come out pretty quickly here and spend some time in the temple, and it will shock the people.

So what we have here is while we watch the religious leaders try to get the people of Israel to reject their Messiah because the religious leaders don't want Jesus to be the Messiah. He is, but they still don't want him to be. The Gentiles wanted to meet Jesus and they wanted to talk with him. And so the Greeks, these Gentiles, they ask Philip if they could speak with Jesus privately.

Now, we're not given the reason why the Greeks came to Philip. There's Peter, there's James, there's John, there's all the rest of the boys. But I don't know why he came to Philip. Maybe because it's mentioned he was from Bethsaida. He's out there near the border. So, in the Decapolis right across the road there, right across to the east, the Decapolis, the 10 cities, they were out there. They were all Gentiles.

Maybe it's because Philip is a Greek name. But anyway, that's just speculation. They did come to Peter. So Peter says to Andrew, "These guys want to speak to Jesus. What do you think?" So Andrew and Philip, they came to Jesus and they asked him could the Gentiles come and ask you some questions? Could they come and talk to you?

And what we see is Jesus starting to teach. And so some of the commentators say we don't know if they ever got a chance to. Nothing is said here. But Jesus, what he's saying, I think gives us a clue from Jesus' response. I think we can probably speculate that these men talked to Jesus, and I think we can speculate something of what they wanted to talk to him about just from Jesus' statements that come up next.

Let me read them. Verse 22: Philip came and he told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip told Jesus. "These Greeks, these Gentiles, would like to speak with you a little bit." And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour is come that the son of man should be glorified. Truly, truly, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit."

"He that loveth his life," he or she that loveth his life, "shall lose it. And he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. If any man serve me," or woman serve me, "let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my father honor."

Even though we don't know if these men got to speak with him, these men are there listening to this and I'm thinking it's sort of a clue. What do I mean? They wanted to talk to Jesus, and they know something that we all know, that all the Jews know. And what it is, is this: the word is out that the Pharisees are looking to arrest Jesus and want to put him to death.

They may be saying, "We've got a way to save your life. You can just travel with us. Let's just go after the feast." To keep him from being put to death by Jewish leaders. Listen to Jesus' response: "The time has come for the son of man to be glorified." Do you hear the language? It's my time. The father's telling me this is my time.

He's talking about, when he says "be glorified," he's talking about his suffering and his death on the cross at Calvary. And so what does Jesus say? Let me kind of paraphrase. "Truly, truly I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. It's all by itself," in other words. "But if it die, it brings forth much fruit."

Let me say it this way. A seed, a grain, a seed never produces fruit until it falls to the ground and what? Dies. It will not produce anything; it must die. Death is the way to life. Death is always necessary for a harvest. If you want your garden to just explode, something's going to have to die. You're going to bury that, it will die, and then bring forth hopefully much fruit, lots of tomatoes, lots of strawberries, lots of blueberries.

Truly, truly, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth fruit. "He that loves his life shall lose it, and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life." What did we just read? Don't neglect your soul. Neglecting my soul, your soul, will lead to eternal death.

So you could have had a really great life, a wonderful life, and had to separation from Jesus Christ for all eternity. You'd have nothing. "What does a man gain," Jesus says, "if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" You have nothing. It's gone. It was for nothing.

And the time on this earth, for some of you that are in your teens, trust me when I tell you, you won't be in your teens much longer. You'll be, if the Lord tarries, you'll be in your 70s going, "What?" Pastor MacDonald, he wrote this: "Those who count all things loss for Christ, they serve Jesus, they forgo things highly prized by people, by other people. These are the people who will keep their lives for eternity, eternal life."

To hate one's life means to love Christ more than one loves his or her own interests. It took a while for me. I'm sure you guys were quicker than this. It took a while for God to get my... he had me, I belonged to him, but I was halfway in and halfway out. And he had to take me out of that music and away from it because that's what I was shooting for. And that... he had something else in mind.

He didn't tell me at the time, but he did. So you've got to hate your life. To hate your life means to love Jesus Christ more than you love your own interest. In other words, to say, "Lord, whatever you say, whatever you want, whatever you think, whatever your will is." If any individual Jesus says serves me or wants to serve me, and all of us as Christians say, "Well, I want to! I do!"

To serve Jesus means, by the way, you must follow him. You're going to be where he is. And where is Jesus going, everyone? He's going from here in a few days to the cross. So he says, "If any individual serves me, let him follow me. Man or woman, follow me. Where I am, there also my servant will be. Now my soul is troubled."

Now think about that. Jesus is telling you and everybody who's listening what emotions he's feeling. "My soul is troubled. I'm really bothered on the inside. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause I came into this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then came there a voice from heaven saying, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."

And Jesus then spoke and said to the people, "This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes." And American, he didn't have to speak it out loud to me. I know he hears. And when he speaks, I hear. But he spoke it out loud for your sake, so that you could believe. Now think about this though. Because do you ever get emotional?

Oh, not you guys, but I mean, do you know others who get a little emotional at times and get their feelings hurt, or get afraid, or get angry? Ever get angry, or flustered, or frustrated, or confused? And the list is big, big. Even now, Jesus says that his soul is troubled. Why? Because he's talking about what's coming.

The cross is right ahead of him and he knows it. And he thinks about the suffering and the cross that he is headed for, and it churns him up on the inside. It brings out emotions. So while God allows us to see here and Jesus allows to see, we get a glimpse of Jesus' feelings.

And there are a couple times earlier on, remember he got angry? We got a glimpse of how he felt when Lazarus, everybody, he was dead and everybody's crying, and Jesus was angry. Not because they were crying, but because look what sin is doing to the people that I love, right? And he let us... he gives us a glimpse of how he's feeling.

You see, that's important. Why? Jesus is fully human, he has emotions. He felt hurt. He felt frustrated. He felt angry. But he never sinned in any one of those things, ever. So emotions aren't the problem, are they? We are and how we deal with them. We get a glimpse of his emotions, yes.

Jesus Christ was fully man, fully God in human flesh. Yes, he felt things too, just like you do and just like I do. He doesn't lash out at everybody around him, taking it out on them. What does he do, everybody? Oh man, you knew he was going to do this. He prayed. I'll read it to you again. Did you miss it?

"Now, right now, my soul is troubled. And what should I say?" In other words, I'm going to pray right now to the Father. "What should I say to him? Should I say, 'Father, save me from this, get me out of here, take me and take me away to the tallest mountain, take me on home, I changed my mind'?" He says, "Should I say that to my father? But this is the reason I came to the earth was for this hour, for the cross."

So he says, "Here's what I say: 'Father, glorify your name.'" You notice how he handles his emotions, everyone? He prays. He doesn't get angry and take it out on others. He doesn't just say, "Don't bother me, just don't bother me right now. It's not good to talk to me right now." He just prays, "Father, do what you want. You do what you want."

Instead of just taking it out on everybody else, taking it to the Lord in prayer. And I love it when he asks the people, "I'm going to pray now. My soul," he says, "is troubled. So I need to do something. What do I need to do? This I'm going to pray. What should I pray?"

I like it because the language, the idea is of course I'm going to pray. What else would I do? I'm being bothered, my soul is troubled. I've got to pray. "But what should I pray? Should I ask the Father to get me out of this whole mess?" He said, "I couldn't do that."

In other words, he says, "No, everybody, no. That's the reason I came here in the first place was to go to the cross, to suffer and die for the sin of the world. So here's," he says, "this is what I'm going to pray." And he prays to the Father, "I surrender," in other words. "Father, glorify your name."

I like this though. He didn't say glorify my name. He said glorify yours. That means Jesus is going to suffer so that God would be glorified. God says, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. I have glorified my name through you, and I will again." Everybody there heard the voice, but it looks like they didn't understand it.

Verse 28: There came a voice from heaven saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it." The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered, and others said an angel spoke. So they heard the voice, but doesn't look like they quite grasped what it said. God is showing them, if they will listen, Jesus Christ is his only begotten son. Out loud.

And so what do we read? "The people therefore that stood by heard it and said it thundered." Some didn't understand it as words at all. "Others said an angel spoke to him," because they heard a voice from the sky. Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of me, but for your sakes."

Well, if they couldn't understand it and they thought it was just thunder, how could it be good for their sakes? Well, listen. Jesus didn't need to have the Father speak out loud. Get it? He didn't need the Father to speak out loud. He knows the Father's listening. And when God speaks, he hears. God spoke it out loud. He goes, "This is for you. This is good for your sakes to hear what you just heard. It'll help you believe."

In verse 31 says this: "Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." This he said, signifying what death he would die. "Now is the judgment of the world." What does he mean? They're about to crucify their Messiah. God almighty in human flesh is going to be crucified very soon. Their king, their Lord.

Jesus' death on the cross was a judgment on the entire world. All the evil, all the sin. Jesus' death on the cross also was Satan's defeat. Not only is the everything judged now, but it was Satan's defeat. He said the prince, the ruler of this world, Satan, was totally and completely defeated at the cross of Jesus Christ.

He couldn't stand up to it. Even though Satan right now is allowed to run to and fro on the earth, Satan is a defeated foe. He has no authority over you. You belong to Jesus Christ. Christians are afraid of the devil. We're not told to be afraid of him. We're told to be aware of him.

Be careful, be sober, be vigilant, because the devil, like a roaring lion, looks around seeking whom he may completely destroy. We're not afraid that he's going to hang on to us and make us uglier or something. We know he has no authority unless God lets him, true? So we're not afraid of that. Halloween means nothing to us.

The people answered, "We have heard out of the law that Christ, the Messiah, will live forever. How do you say the son of man must be lifted up? Who is the son of man?" So they know now he's talking about being crucified, lifted up. "Well, what are you talking about? If you're the Messiah, the Messiah lives forever. We know that."

And Jesus said to them, I like this, "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walks in darkness knoweth not where he's going. While you have light, believe in the light that you may be the children of the light."

These things Jesus spoke, and he departed and hid himself. He didn't go into hiding, he just got out of everybody's way. See, the people are now confused because some of them know the scriptures. Remember, they've been studying it their whole lives. So they're confused.

The scriptures do teach that Messiah will rule and reign forever. He will come to this earth and rule and reign forever and ever. So they're saying, "If he's going to rule and reign for all eternity, how can he die?" Remember Isaiah 9, Psalm 110, Daniel 7, Micah 4, just a few, just to name a few, all say that he will live forever and ever.

Jesus has told them he's going to die. The thing is, we already know what happened. We watched it. He died and was buried, and on the third day he rose again from the dead. He's alive and he ascended back to the Father because the world didn't want him.

So Jesus, instead of trying to explain it all to them, simply says, "Your time of opportunity is limited." We all know it. We don't give it much thought, but our time of opportunity is limited to come to Jesus, isn't it? These lives are short. I know you're young, some of you, and you don't think so. These lives are short and it happens quickly.

The light will be with you only a short time. Come to the light, to Jesus Christ, and walk in the light. Walk by God's grace. Darkness, he says, is coming, and it will overtake you completely. What Jesus is saying, let me put it like this: the sun rises in the morning and lately, even here, right?

The sun comes out and it's just a beautiful, beautiful bright day and you can see all over the place. It reaches its the brightest, its brightest, at noon, noon-ish. And then it continues on and descends over the horizon into the evening, right? So you only have a certain amount of time to get done what you've got to get done before it's dark again.

The light comes up, you get going, and you only got so much time. It's dark again. We should, he says, because it's only a limited number of hours, only a limited time, we should avail ourselves of it while it's here, because the night comes and you can't see where you're going and no one can work.

Spiritually speaking, the one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who walks in the light. The one who rejects him walks in darkness and has no idea where he or she is going. You'll tell them they're headed for hell, they'll laugh at you. "I don't believe in hell" and so on. They're headed there fast as they can get there, but they have no clue. They're blinded, they don't see.

See, the person without Jesus Christ has no divine guidance. No divine guidance and you stumble through this life with no divine guidance. Do you remember before Jesus? I do. Do you remember before Jesus? You're stumbling through, you don't know what you're doing, you've got no clue, and you're just doing what you do.

Figuring out how you're going to get rich, figuring out how you're going to get one of these kind of car, right? You're clueless, you don't know. That's what Jesus is telling them all. "Accept the truth of God," he's saying, "while you have the opportunity." He says, "Your time is limited here. Believe the message while it is still being freely proclaimed."

Announcer: Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM.

You can download today's message in its entirety at northcountrychapel.com/studies. That's northcountrychapel.com/studies. If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho 83854, or call us at 1-800-572-8851.

That number again, 1-800-572-8851. Our mobile app is available for iPhone and Android. Download it to listen to full-length studies, watch the live stream of our services, or to find out more about church events. If you have been blessed by the teaching or have prayer requests that you would like to share with us, write, email, or call us as well. Please join with us every Monday through Friday as we study together verse by verse on Apply Within, sponsored by North Country Chapel. God bless you.