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"Philip: Death Brings Life and Glory" John 12:20-33
By Clancy Nixon
April 2, 2006
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, Virginia
(Philip is speaking) You don't know me. You might think you know me, but you
don't. Though you hear from me often enough, like today, speaking to you from the
Gospel of John, most of me is hidden from you. Sometimes I wonder if I know myself. I
get confused, just like you. Spring forward, right? Life is full of paradox, and I want
answers. The good news is, as I've gotten older, I have learned a few things about what
it means to follow Jesus, to lose my life so I can find it.
Life was so much simpler before all this happened! Work hard, catch fish, raise
your daughters to be good Jews. All of a sudden, one warm Spring day like this one,
Jesus came calling. He showed up and just ordered me to go into full-time ministry for
him. He simply said, "Follow me." There I was, mending my fishing nets on the shore
of my hometown, Bethsaida-on-the-lake. Read John 2:43; my old fishing buddy John
tells you that Jesus came looking - for me. Phillip the ordinary, Philip the nobody
fisherman he came looking for me. You know, that is my favorite passage in what you
call your Bibles. You might want to open them to John Chapter 2 to follow my story. It
still amazes me that Jesus cared enough for me to come personally, and call me by name.
Jesus cares for you that much, too. John writes this: "Finding Phillip, Jesus said, `Follow
me.'" You hear these words he spoke, but you weren't there to see how his eyes shone
and burned into me. My jaw hung open. When Jesus looked at me, and said those words,
I melted and I wept. I heard my mouth say, "Yes, Lord," but I really didn't know what I
was getting into. I was thrilled. I wanted to tell someone about Jesus, but I didn't know
what to say it seems like it never comes out right when I say stuff. That same day, from
my front stoop, I called to my neighbor Nathaniel. I said to him, "come and see Jesus of
Nazareth." Pretty simple, huh? Beginner's grace. When Nat argued with me, something
about nothing good coming from Nazareth, I told him, "Zip it! You have got to see this
guy." After Jesus wowed him, Nat came along for the ride. Jesus was making me a fisher
of men!
It was so easy in those early days. Jesus did amazing miracles! When I say
miracle, I don't mean just things like him choosing me for his A-team. No, I saw
unbelievable things with my own eyes. If I didn't see them, I would not have believed
them. In my hometown, Bethsaida, Jesus healed a friend of mine named Issachar who
was blind. Jesus spit in his own hands, rubbed them together like his spit was some kind
of special salve, and put it on his eyes. He prayed for Issachar twice, and my blind buddy
received his sight. Jesus made life better for hurting people.
Then there was the feeding of the five thousand. Of the four gospel writers, only
my fisherman friend John mentioned my part in that miracle. I came off looking pretty
foolish. Since Jesus was teaching near my hometown, Jesus asked me where we could
buy bread for this crowd of hangers-on who swarmed around us. Silly me, I thought it
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was a serious question! So I told Jesus that eight months' wages would not buy enough
bread for that multitude. You see, I'm a practical man. I focus on how to get things done.
To this day, I can't tell you how Jesus did it. I can tell you that those five barley loaves
fed them all, and that the leftover scraps were from the same loaves! Once I got over my
shock, I saw Jesus was a great miracle worker, this man who was going to make all our
lives better in supernatural ways. Jesus had become famous, and I shared a small part of
that fame. I was in his entourage. Jesus taught me to cast out demons, and heal the sick
too! I became somebody. I got a new identity. That did not mean that I really knew Jesus
yet.
Later on, at the Last Supper in Jerusalem, Jesus began to blow our minds with his
"I am" statements. He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the
father but by me." I had to push him so he'd speak plainly to us, and not in riddles about
who he really was because at the time, we weren't sure yet! I blurted to Jesus, chapter
fourteen (14) verse 8, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." If I
wasn't from Bethsaida, I'd be from your Missouri the "show me state." What was I
doing? I asked Jesus to show us the Father, the One whom only Moses could see face to
face without being burned to medium rare like a Passover lamb at dinner! Jesus almost
lost it that time with me, but my ploy worked - he told us more. He said, verse #11, "I
am in the Father and the Father is in me." Look at verse 21: If you love him, Jesus
promises to love you and to show himself to you. Let me tell you, He kept that promise
for me, and he will keep it for you. He shows himself to you, and through him, you can
see what the Father is like. Jesus is God. I finally got that part.
Open your Bibles to John 12:20, found on page 1065. Let me explain how it was
for me. Some Greek god-fearers and seekers found me, and thought that I could get then
an appointment with Jesus. Maybe since I had a Greek name, they figured I'd be safe to
ask. They were gentiles who believed in God, but were not yet ready to make the leap to
become full Jews as proselytes. Maybe they attended Synagogue because they liked
Jewish theology, or maybe it was the matzo balls that drew them but these guys just did
not want to get circumcised. These Greeks came to Jerusalem to worship at the Passover
feast, as prescribed in the Scroll of Deuteronomy for all Jewish men. At the Temple, the
Greeks could worship in the Court of Gentiles, but were not holy enough to get any
closer to our Holy God. Holier than the Greeks were Jewish women, who were allowed a
little closer in courts for them; then the Jewish men had their closer court where the
women could not go. The Temple proper was forbidden except for priests; and the Holy
of Holies in the center of the building, which held the ark of the covenant, only the high
priest could enter, only once a year. These Greeks knew the score; they were barely
acceptable to observant Jews, who would not even eat with them. These outsiders called
me "Sir," and told me they wanted to see Jesus. They didn't know how to get to him. If
he was indeed the way to the Father, could they get close to him? Were they holy
enough?
I sympathize with the Greek God-fearers. Not being full Jews, they were allowed
in, but only so far. I can relate. I grew up having a Greek name in a Jewish world. Maybe
my mother was a shiksa, I don't know. Jesus called me in to be an Apostle, but I was not
in the inner circle, like Peter, John, and James. How many of you really know me, Phillip
the Apostle? I fade into the background, a foil for the heavyweights. When these Greeks
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asked to see Jesus, I went and got Andrew to go with me to ask Jesus, since I was not one
of the weighty ones. There in John 12:23, Jesus speaks to the Greeks.
He began in an electrifying way, and then turns it upside down. Jesus called
himself the Son of Man, and his hour had come to be glorified. We Jews knew that term
"Son of Man" from the book of Daniel, chapter 7. Daniel describes the world powers
that have conquered and fallen away, the Babylonians, Medes and Persians. They were
such savage nations that they are described as beasts lion, bear, and eagle. Daniel saw a
new power to come, one that would be so just and gentle that it was depicted as a man.
All my friends dreamed of a golden age when our small and defeated nation would rise
up to be master of the world like you Americans are today. Because our power was so
weak, we understood that this was not possible through human power, but could come
about only through the hand of God. So we awaited the God's Messiah, who would
deliver us. So when Jesus said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,"
we all caught our breath. We thought the trumpet of heaven would sound, and victory by
arms would be ours. Heaven did speak, then, but it was to affirm Jesus' message about
dying on the cross, losing your life to find it.
When Jesus said he would be glorified, he did not mean what we first thought.
He meant that he would be crucified. He showed us that glory did not come through
worldly conquest or success, but through trusting in God, and believing in Jesus, even
unto death. Jesus came to carry a cross, not to wear a crown. His Kingdom began with a
crucifixion, not a coronation. Christ's death was the source of spiritual life for the world.
That is the mystery of the cross: the glory did not follow His shame and the death; the
glory was in the shame and the death. Jesus says when he is lifted up from the earth, he
will draw all men to himself. That is his glory and fame, as his death paid for our sin.
Let's read what Jesus said, verse 23, "Unless wheat falls to the ground and dies, it
remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves
his life will lose it." Jesus was saying that life comes only from death. Until a seed is
buried in a tomb of earth, it will not sprout and bear fruit. He was referring to his own
death. Jesus said that this is why he came. There it is in verse 27. More than for
teaching, more than for miracles, more than for his example the reason he came was to
die vicariously for these Greeks, and for you and me. I've learned that you cannot
understand Jesus apart from the Cross. He did not come to improve your life; he came to
transform it into something holy in this great exchange He dies so you can live.
It is a good thing that Jesus' death on the cross for us is his glory. If his glory was
his teaching or his miracles, then we could never measure up to him. I couldn't measure
up I was confused; I was saying the wrong thing; I was skeptical. I'm so glad my
salvation is not dependent on how well I perform. It's not about what we do; His glory
and our salvation are about what Christ has already done for us, not about what we do for
him. I am a practical and logical man, but saving yourself is not practical or logical. You
need a Savior and a Lord, and those jobs are already taken. He died for us so that we can
live forever. All we do to be saved is to believe in Christ, that his perfect life covers our
sin, so that God sees us as righteous in his sight.
This is good news for Greeks like you, and geeks like me! Jesus says, if you want
to see Him, look to the Cross. You don't have to be holy to get close to Him. You're not
holy. But when he sees you through His blood shed for you, He sees you as holy, and
you become His child. You become Somebody, like I did.
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If you'd like to experience that new life, you can pray with me now to receive it.
Let's pray with our heads bowed.
Father in Heaven, I admit that I am a sinner, that I am confused, that I cannot do it
alone. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong. I believe the good news that
Jesus Christ is your son, and that he died for my sins. I receive your gift of the Holy
Spirit to empower me to live a holy life. Thank you for loving me enough to save me.
With our heads still bowed in prayer, if you just now trusted Christ, please look up at me,
so Pastor Clancy can speak with you later. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
Do you want to know the rest of my story? The historian Eusebius tells it for us. I
was preaching together with Nathaniel in Phrygia. Through prayer, we killed a large
serpent in a temple devoted to serpent worship, and healed many people of snake bites.
For that they crucified us. An earthquake knocked everyone to the ground, and from the
cross I prayed for everyone's safety. Seeing the earthquake subside, the people demanded
that we be released. Though Nathaniel survived, I died that day. Don't cry for Philip; I'm
spending eternity in heaven. I look forward to seeing you there, on my turf. Amen.
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