The Gospel of John - Outline Part 31 - Cultivating the Harvest

TITLE

John 12:20-50 – Cultivating the Harvest

EXPLANATION

Following Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, and all the acclaim that had accompanied Him, some Greeks desired to see Him.  They came to His disciples and requested an audience.  The disciples, not knowing how to respond, went and told Jesus.  Undoubtedly, the men’s confusion had to do with the fact that the people wanting to see the Lord were Gentiles.  This was a 1^st century Jewish culture of deep seated racism toward anyone not Jewish.  So, most likely, the disicples were uncomfortable with the thought of Greeks gaining access to their master.

Jesus, however, responds with a cryptic illustration of wheat seeds and death.  His point was that if a grain of wheat remains unplanted and in seed form it produces nothing.  However, after being planted, the seed “dies”; in other words, it transitions to a new form, that of a wheat stalk.  And in so doing the seed, having first died, ultimately replicates itself and produces a great harvest of wheat.  In the same way, Jesus was going to have to die in order that He could be resurrected, and the saving power of the gospel could be transmitted to the ends of the earth, thus producing a far greater harvest of souls than if Jesus had remained alive and in Israel only.  To be a follower of Christ it was and is a prerequisite to embrace this difficult doctrine.

In spite of the truthfulness of what Jesus said, at the same time this was a difficult proposition for Him to embrace.  He had to willingly walk into cruel physical torture, unimaginable spiritual agony, and eventually face the terrible sin-authored specter of death.  However, Jesus knew that it was only by enduring this process that He would be glorified, and His Father would be glorified through Him.

Such a difficult and perplexing teaching was impossible for man to comprehend in his own intellect and reasoning.  Jesus implored the people to walk in His light.  Regardless of how baffling His message was, and His impending death would be, the only alternative to faith in Christ was darkness.  The great perplexity of God’s plan of redemption through Christ was evidenced by the unbelief of the Jews.  As Isaiah had prophesied hundreds of years earlier, people would not believe, in fact could not believe, and it was the will of the Lord for this to be so.

Even though it was God’s will for most people not to believe in His Son, yet the people are still held responsible for their stubborn and hard hearts.  To reject the Son of God is to remain and walk in darkness, ultimately leading to eternal judgment.  Jesus’s message was the Father’s message.  Jesus’s words had the power of salvation in them.  To receive Jesus and His word was to receive the Father.  To reject Jesus and His word was to reject the Father.  Those who have rejected God have no grounds of complaint at the judgment of their soul.  They are complicit in their own condemnation and destruction.

APPLICATION

This doctrine is so counter-intuitive to the human heart.  In order for Jesus to triumph, He had to submit to temporary defeat.  This is not the way human brains are wired.  We think in terms of cause and effect.  Good causes lead to good effects.  Bad causes lead to bad effects.  We tend to think that good leads to better and eventually best.  Yet by taking this philosophical position, we ignore the clear and obvious facts that God has placed in the world all around us that in many cases reveals that this is not always the way things work.  Christ’s illustration of a wheat seed is a perfect example of this.  The seed must die in order to produce a great crop of wheat.  We know this as fact.  But, we are unwilling to apply those same principles to our theological understanding.  We think that if we desire to be first, then we must rise to the greatest position, over and above our peers.  Yet, Jesus taught that to be first in the Kingdom of Heaven one must be last on earth.

And so, in God’s grand vision of redemption, the tables are completely turned upside down on human reasoning and wisdom.  The most horrible evil the world has ever seen, the unrighteous murder of the Son of God, led to the most liberating freedom obtainable for all of humanity.  This is complete and utter foolishness to the mind of man.  This was the Apostle Paul’s point in 1^st Corinthians 1.  God has chosen the weak and foolish things of this world in order to shame the strong and the wise among men.

Even as Christians, I think we fight against and contend continually with our faulty reasoning that runs into conflict with God’s revealed truth.  We may know the gospel backwards and forwards.  Yet, in our heart of hearts, we often strive to manufacture our own success in ministry, we labor to accomplish the salvation of souls in evangelism, and we take ultimate responsibility for the condition of our children’s spiritual status.  To be sure, we have definite responsibilities in each of these areas.  However, ultimately the results are up to the Lord.  And, to the point here, He is often pleased to produce the greatest success through our most overpowering weaknesses.