John 12:24-26, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.’
Lord Jesus said these words when some Greeks asked to see Jesus.
V20, ‘Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; 21these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus.’
Jesus’ message to them was this, ‘unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it will remain alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit’. We cannot avoid the ‘way of the cross’ in our Christian lives. The way to spiritual growth is the way of the ‘cross’. This is the fruitful life, which bears much fruit for Christ. There are two groups of Christians, depending on how they live their Christian lives.
One group,is they are alone, not bearing fruits – They are going to the Church and are sharing the word of God and stay alone. There are no changes – no spiritual growth and no victory over sin, in their lives and are still living defeated lives. They want to avoid the way of cross and are living a shallow Christian life. The other group follow the way of cross, the narrow way and bear much fruit.
Matthew 16:22, ‘Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”’
Man’s interest (flesh) is always, to avoid the way of the cross – this is the voice of Satan. To follow Jesus is to die to our ‘self-will’. Jesus says, those who avoid; to die to their self-will, cannot be my disciple!
Jesus says, ‘If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.’
Luke 9:23, ‘And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’
The way of the life is the way of the cross – death to our ‘self-will’, daily in our lives. The grain of wheat dies and bears much fruit. If we want to follow Jesus, we need to carry our cross and deny daily.
Apostle Paul says,
1 Corinthians 15:31, ‘I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.’
He says, he dies daily!
2 Corinthians 4:8-10, ‘we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.’
He is always carrying about in the body, the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. The life of Jesus is always ‘giving fruits nature’. This life is manifested in our lives only through dying to our ‘self’.
Galatians 5:24, ‘Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.’ V25, ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit’.
We have to die to our self, with its passions and desires.
Galatians 2:20, ‘I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me’.
When we die to our self, ‘I’ is crucified with Christ, it is not ‘I’ who is living but Christ lives in us. Life of Christ will be manifested in us.
Galatians 6:14, ‘But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’ V15, ‘For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation’.
Apostle Paul says, ‘I am dead to the world and the world is dead to me’. This is the real circumcision in the heart! The attachments of this world need to be detached! This is how the real works of the cross are manifested in our lives.
1 John 2:16, ‘For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.’
When we say that the world is crucified to me, it means all that there is in the world – ‘the lust of this world, lust of this flesh and the boastful pride of life’ are crucified. This real circumcision will happen in our hearts, when we deny ourselves. There are many areas in our lives, where this death of our ‘self’ is not happening and this is the reason why, there is no spiritual growth in our lives! There are no fruits! There is no breaking of our hard outer shell. There is the resurrection power, when we die to our self! When we die, there is life and fruitfulness!
Philippians 3:10, ‘that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.’
We need to be conformed to His death. We need to die to our ‘self’ and experience the power of His resurrection, in our lives.
How do we know, we are dying to our self?
We need to apply this in our relationships, in our family life, at workplace. This outer shell of ours, needs to be broken. Our Lord will show us the areas where we need to die- our stubbornness, pride, attachments of this world, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us, the areas where we need to be broken, because God wants us to experience the real power of His resurrection in our lives. Our hearts need this circumcision, to be able to bear much fruit for Him, for His glory.
John 19:33, ‘but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.’
The soldiers did not break His legs, as they saw that He was already dead but one of them pierced His side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out! He was testing if Jesus really died or not. In many situations of our lives, how do we know if we are really dead or not? Others may pierce us, with a spear, through hurting words, making wounds in our hearts, by their words or by their actions; how is our response in those situations? How do we react? What is our attitude then? This is how we know, if our outer shell is broken or not.
John 12:26, ‘If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.’
When we follow Jesus; where Jesus is, there we will be also; if we die daily, carrying the cross daily, manifesting the life of Jesus daily, when we do this, following the narrow way, here in this world, we can follow Him in the heaven also.
Revelation 14:4, ‘These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.’
V5, ‘And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless’.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
Matthew 7:14, ‘For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.’
The gate is small and the way is narrow, that leads to life. Holy Spirit says that there are few who find it. God has a remnant; those who are really following Jesus. Pick up your cross and follow Him daily! Let us follow Christ daily! Let us take His Word, seriously in our hearts. When we have the desire to follow Jesus, God will help us. Holy Spirit will help us.
Let us not be like this rich young ruler who came to Jesus and went away grieving!
Matthew 19:20, ‘The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” 21Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property’.
Jesus loved him and showed him the areas where he needs to die, ‘to sell his possessions and come and follow Jesus’, but he was not willing and went away grieving!
We should not be like ‘the many disciples’ who came to Jesus and went away, saying that, ‘this is a difficult statement, who can listen to it?’.
John 6:60, ‘Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”’
If we really want to follow Jesus then we need to follow the way of the cross.
Luke 1:34, ‘Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.’
Like the Angel said to Mary, the Holy Spirit will do His work in our lives, through brokenness.
2 Samuel 24:14, ‘Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”’
David, in his distress, was saying, ‘Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great’. Let us also, fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great.
Jeremiah 32:27, ‘“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”’
Nothing is too difficult to Jesus. There is no problem that Jesus cannot solve in our lives!
Br.Zac told in a message encourages us that Throughout the New Testament, we can see one principle, ‘Many people came to Jesus with different needs – shortage of wine, shortage of food, sick people needed healing – Jesus provided and healed, every need was solved by Jesus. If we are seeking God, with all our hearts, coming to Him for all our spiritual needs, the more our God will help us. He will help us more in delivering us and in leading a victorious life! This is the life we want to have.
Jesus said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’.
Amen. May God help us.
