The Path of Glory - The Royal Procession - John 12:20-26

1:01Verse 20. Now, there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 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.

1:57Now, what is this about? What is going on here? If you just look back at verse 19, here's the Pharisees saying to one another, You guys aren't doing anything good at all. Look, the whole world has gone after him. And in this section in verse 20, all of a sudden, some Greeks show up. The world is going after him. The world is going after him. And so our study begins with this Greek inquiry. Verse 20: Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. Who were these Greeks? Well, they're Greeks.

2:44That's who they are. They're Greeks. They're not Grecian Jews. They're not Jews that happen to be living in Greece. They were Greeks. They were Gentiles. They're not prophets. Doesn't appear. They were Greeks, Gentiles. And this is who John wants to bring to our mind. And they were going up to worship at the feast. What were they doing at the feast? They were going up to worship. Don't you love how the scripture just kind of tells you? They were going up to worship at the feast.

3:26They were going as worshipers among this crowd, among the many throngs that were making their way up to Jerusalem and to worship. There were Gentiles. And they had boundaries. They could come, they could worship, but they could not go beyond the court of the Gentiles. Probably this inquiry happens shortly after Jesus goes in and clears the house in that court of the Gentiles. So they come up. Verse 21, then these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Now, why did they come up to Philip? Well, Philip has a Greek name. Maybe they were from the greater part of Galilee themselves and were maybe even familiar with Bethsaida, but for whatever reason, they felt comfortable to approach. Philip, and so they came to Philip. Now, what did they want? Well, again, the scripture answers the question: Sir, we wish to see Jesus. It's interesting, at a time when the Jewish authorities are seeking to kill Jesus, here comes these Gentiles wanting to see Jesus.

5:00So, what happens? Philip came and told Andrew. And then Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. The world is going after him. Now, look at verse 23. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Now, that is an odd statement. It seems incongruous with what's just been said. And Jesus makes this announcement. So we look at the Greek inquiry, Lord, or sir, we wish to see Jesus. And here's Jesus' announcement. He gets word that these Greeks want to seek him, want to see him, perhaps have an interview with him and to discuss some things with him.

5:58And Jesus immediately says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. The pathway for the Christ, for the King, for the Son of God, is going to be now glorified in the Son of Man. You might ask, what in the world does the inquiry of the Greeks have to do with Jesus saying, okay, the time has come, the signal. It's evident that Jesus saw in this coming of the Greeks a signal that the time for his glory had come.

6:46And it's a glory none of us expected, or none of these expected, but it's a curious, it's curious. How does this relate? Why does the coming of these Greeks all of a sudden trigger such a startling announcement? It's deeply profound, deeply profound what's going on here. I've been wrestling with this and not just wrestling, but enjoying going deep into this text all week long, and I just feel so rich having studied this passage this week. Unexpected, curious, deeply profound.

7:30And so I want to look at this statement in three segments. Just want to take it apart, three segments. First, notice Jesus saying, the hour has come. Now, up until this moment, the hour had always been spoken of of something in the future. Remember in John chapter 2 and verse 3, when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said, woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come. The hour of my glory has not yet come. Well, he turns water into wine. That seems pretty glorious. No, not the glory that's about to be revealed.

8:18And remember in John chapter 7, verse 30, they were seeking to seize him, and no man laid his hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Again, in John 8, chapter 8, verse 20, he's speaking in the treasury. And as he taught in the temple, no one sees him because his hour had not yet come. And you look through all the Gospels, and you just see this divine protection, that he was the one that was master of his own timing, so to speak. Or it was in God's hands. It was not in man's hands. And he was responding to the Father, doing everything that the Father had called him to do. He did nothing on his own accord. And then all of a sudden, these Greeks show up, and Jesus says, that's it.

9:11The time has come. Now, why did the coming of the Greeks signal to Jesus that his time of suffering had come? Look back at verse 23. And Jesus answered and said, The hour has come for the Son of Man. Notice the second part of this, the Son of Man. You remember Jesus in chapter 12, he had just, or actually chapter 11, I'm sorry, he had just demonstrated that he was the Son of God. You remember that? I mean, only the Son of God could raise the dead. Remember, in chapter 11 and verse 23, he's talking to Martha and he says, your brother will rise again. And Martha says, I know that he's going to rise again in the resurrection, the last day. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. Do you believe this? She said, yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even the one coming into the world. Let me tell you something. Only the Son of God, only the heir apparent to the power of God himself can raise the dead.

10:25And then, in our. Chapter 12 and verses 12 following, we saw Jesus riding on a little donkey into Jerusalem. And by riding on a little donkey into Jerusalem, guess what he was doing? He was emphatically declaring himself to be the son of David. I am the king of Israel. Zechariah 9:9 says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. See, Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he got on that little donkey and walked in. And what, I mean, and went into Jerusalem. And what a royal entry that was. Only it was not what anyone would have expected. He didn't come in on a fiery horse. He doesn't come in as a conqueror by earthly standards. He's just endowed with salvation. He's humble. But he is clearly communicating he is the heir apparent to David's throne with all the rights over the Jewish nation that that involves. He was emphatic about that and careful to publicly disclose that, even though most people didn't put it together. Until after the fact, he is king.

12:06But now in verse 23, he refers to himself as the son of man, the son of man, son of mankind, representative, man, individual, associated with man. Throughout John's Gospel, when Jesus uses the expression Son of man, oftentimes, many times, it's in the context of the cross. Remember John 3:14? Jesus said, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. You remember again in John 6:53, Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourself.

13:18His title, his self view, or his view of himself as the Son of Man involves sacrifice for man. Right as the Son of Man, and they're going to, this is going to come up as we go on. And look in verse 34, the crowd then answered, We have heard out of the law that the Christ is to remain forever. How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man? So they understand Christ, rule, reign, Son of David, they understand that, but who is the Son of Man?

13:59Well, Son of Man is the one that's going to lay down his life for his people. And as the Son of Man, Jesus had to present himself to the Father on behalf of man. Look, Jesus wanted his blessing, wanting his father's blessing upon his people. But guess what? There was an irreconcilable issue here unless Jesus went and covered their sin and made atonement for their sins. It's not right for the Father, it's not right to ask the Father to put his blessing upon a bunch of sinful creatures unless this chasm can be covered, unless the offense could be removed. And so as the Son of Man, Jesus became the heir apparent of his people's sins.

15:02And he had to remove that personal offense through personal sacrifice. And so, this Son of Man, he sees himself as the heir apparent to man's sin and the one representing and having to deal and make atonement between God and man. Son of God, Son of David, Son of Man. And look back, and Jesus says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. To be glorified. You see, the time had come for Jesus to fulfill his duty as a son of man and be glorified. Listen to, and I would encourage you to turn to the words of Daniel chapter 7.

16:02Daniel chapter 7, specifically verse 13. And I do believe this is in Christ's mind, certainly during the Passion week, and I believe here. I think this text is large in his mind, and it will ultimately be the confession that he makes before Caiaphas that he will tear his garments and he will say, Okay. Arguments are over. Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man coming in the clouds, and it is on this basis that the mock trial ends. But here in Daniel chapter 7, verse 13, Daniel is getting this vision. He's seeing these beasts that are come on the earth and the different nations that are coming, and this one final expression of the Gentile Empire coming together. There was verse 11: I kept looking, behold, the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away. But an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. And then in verse 13, listen to these words. I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming, and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

17:41So here's the Son of Man, Son of mankind, one in the form of man. He comes up to the ancient of days, the glory of the Father, individual, and he was presented before him. Now, the whole idea behind presenting here isn't the case of displaying. Plane, like a runway model that might go down and start showing off some kind of clothes or some kind of something or other. It's like he's not just putting on display something. This isn't just some, here he comes. Oh, look at that. Isn't that curious to look at? You know, I love the new robe, you know, whatever. It's nothing like that.

18:20When the term carries the idea of placing oneself at the disposal of another to offer oneself, he presented himself to offer himself. It also is the language used when presenting a sacrifice. For instance, in Ezra 6:9, you remember 9 and 10, you remember Darius's decree to make sure that the temple had everything it needed to make sacrifice to God. It says this: whatever is needed, both young bulls, rams, and lambs for a burnt offering to the God of heaven, and wheat, and salt, and everything. He goes on, so that they may offer acceptable sacrifices. And that's the word, that they may offer, present to him acceptable sacrifices. And then, as you learn how the Greeks, before the time of Christ, translated this into Greek, they translated the Hebrew. They picked up a term that is very much.

19:30Similarly used in Romans 12:1, therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable, God, which is your spiritual service of worship. This idea of presenting is one in the context of putting yourself at the disposal of another, and often in the case of self-sacrifice or in the case of sacrifice. And so, when you keep reading, when you keep reading Daniel and you begin to compare the sequence of what's happening in Daniel with what's happening in John 12 and following, you start getting an idea of what the connection between the Greeks' coming and the glory that the ancient of days gives the Son of Man. If we keep reading in verse 14 of Daniel 7, read this. So, here comes the ancient, he comes up to the ancient of days, was presented before him, and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

21:00And so, in John 12, and you can go back there, in John 12, the arrival of the Greeks signaled to Jesus that the time had come for him to be glorified. That is, time for the Son of Man to begin bringing in people on the basis of a new covenant, both Jew and Gentile. In fact, remember Ephesians 2:11, 12. Listen to these words speaking of the Gentiles. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. This was the case of those Greeks that came to Jesus. Outside the covenants, without God, or without hope in the world, outside of all that. And now they want to see Jesus. They want to see Jesus. They had no covenantal grounds to have a relationship with him for the whole world to go after him.

22:30As the Pharisees feared, Jesus would have to go to the cross. He says, You want to see Jesus? You want to see him? Then it's time for me to reveal who he is, who he really is. Yes, you've seen his power. Yes, you may even put it all together and say, This is the king of Israel. You may have figured out that he is the Messiah, but you need to understand he's also son of man, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. I mean, he probably had just cleared the temple. I mean, Jesus was a powerful figure, huge, very, very huge public scene. He goes, You want to see Jesus?

23:20You're going to watch him in the course of this week be stripped down naked and proceed to the cross. Then you can see him. You can't make sense out of his power. You can't make sense out of his kingship until you get this settled in your mind. You have to see him on the cross. And so he had to go. So the time had come for Jesus to be glorified. And what happens from here to the end of John and into the beginning of Acts is the procession of the Son. Son of man to the seat of glory. That's why I've entitled this the royal procession.

24:08And it's a procession that no one, or certainly hardly anyone, was expecting. He is not at all like earthly kings. His procession and ascension to glory will be totally different than what we would naturally expect. And it is in this context that Jesus sets forth the path of glory that he's going to take. And by the way, it's also the path to glory that he expects all of his followers to take. It is the only path to true glory. And if you remember in John 8:54, Jesus said, Look, there is no glory that matters anything except that of the Father. And so he is going to show what the path to glory looks like, and even what that is at the end.

25:04Although we can say certainly the specifics, Christ is speaking about himself, but then he'll turn to his disciples and call them to the same standard. And even though the specifics for Christ's followers are different, we're not called to atone for the sins of the world. The general principle, the general way to glory is the same as it was for him. Would you expect it to be anything else? If he is our king and he takes a path to glory, you can be sure all those he is king over are going to go down the same path. Principle is the same. So, what I want to do with our time this morning, or what's left of it, is I want you to see the pathway to glory that our Lord took so that you will follow him. Pathway to glory, three verses, very simple, straightforward teaching that we all need to internalize.

26:04First of all, verse 24 is the seed harvest illustration. He does it by illustration, okay? Starting out, look at verse 24. 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. Let's just make a few observations about a kernel wheat. Pull out a kernel of wheat, hold it up here. You all think about it. What can we say about it? Well, it's alone, right? It's singular. There's just one of them. Very basic observation. Second, the death of a seed, what is the death of a seed? Well, the death of a seed is when it ceases to be a seed and becomes a life-giving plant. Once it sprouts, it's no longer a seed. It is a life-giving seed. Life-giving plant.

27:03Now, what happens when that plant matures? It produces many seeds of the same kind, right? So, the death of the one seed means the generation of many living seeds. Very simple truth here: a seed, a little seed, loses itself to produce others. That's what it does. And with a little time, one seed can cover the earth. It's interesting. I remember in math class, one time my teacher told the story about a king who was very pleased with one of his subjects, one of his advisors, and asked him, This is a true story, and asked him what could the king grant his servant.

28:09And the servant said, Well, if you will take a chessboard and a grain of wheat, and if you'll put the grain of wheat on one square of the chessboard, and then if you will, on the next square, give me two grains of wheat, and then on the next square, four grains of wheat. Grains of wheat. In other words, just double that grain of wheat every time. The king's like, sure. Of course, then he had his accountants go start figuring it out and found out he had been duped because there isn't that much grain in the whole world when you just start exponentially going up like that. So he had the servant killed. And, you know, moral of the story: don't get too clever with your king, right?

28:53But one seed with a little time can reproduce and fill the earth. Now, how does all this relate? Well, if we just boiled this one last lesson of the wheat kernel, and this is Jesus' main point, is that the way to fruitfulness is through death. The way to fruitfulness is through death. For the seed and for the seed, capital C, capital S, through Jesus. The way to fruitfulness is through death, whether that be for individuals or whether that be for our Lord. So how does this relate to Jesus? Well, Jesus' death is going to result in many more after his kind. A new kind of humanity. A kind of humanity that doesn't live to please self, but loves doing the will of the Father. That's the new. Kind of humanity. A humanity that's alive, connected to the Father, who loves the will of the Father, who loves to carry out what the Father desires.

30:16And Jesus' death is going to bring forth a plentiful harvest. But if he doesn't die, there is no harvest. He would remain the only righteous one. But you can see something beautiful about Jesus here. He doesn't want to be singular. He wants us. He wants his people. And Jesus has already expressed this same truth, right? He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven to give life for the others. He says that same truth here.

30:57He doesn't want to be the only righteous person. And so he dies to produce many more after his kind. So that is the seed harvest illustration. Look at verse 25, and this speaks of the spiritual reality that he is connecting. Verse 25, he who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life is it. In this world, we'll keep it to eternal to life eternal. And the two things really need to notice here: two important truths that anyone wishing to follow Christ needs to clearly get their mind around. Number one, notice who loses his life. He who loves his life loses it. Are you listening?

31:58The one who is loving his own life is the one in the process of destroying it. That's a straightforward translation. And the word for love here is the word philosoph, affection. The one who is having affection for himself or his own life, the one who is affectionately drawn to the things of his own world is in the process of ruining, killing, destroying, and losing his life. You see, self-love is the downfall of the human race. The person who is loving his life will ultimately lose it, and it cannot be any other way.

32:54Because to love yourself is to deny God's sovereignty, to deny. Deny God's rights and his prerogatives, and it's to elevate self above all of that as the pinnacle one to be pleased. And what it does is it elevates an idolatrous view of self. And that is the heart of all sin. So if you are committed to yourself, if you have affection for your own life, you're in the process of destroying the very thing that you treasure.

33:46He who loves his life loses it. Notice the second thing you need to, second truth here. Notice who keeps his life. The one who, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. Notice that the one who is abhorring his life in this world, key phrase, important, is the one who is preserving their life from escaping. I like this word keep here. It's the same expression used in Acts 28, 16 when it talks about Paul being in prison, and there was a soldier who was keeping him. Or who is guarding him. You see, the one who hates his world or abhors this worldly adornment, this cosmos, worldly, that is the person who is despising the quality of worldliness. That's what he's expressing. That worldly adorning the self, that quality of worldliness. The one who is in the process of rejecting, denying, abhorring, hating this quality of worldliness, this is the one who will keep it forever.

35:18It's paradox, right? If you're the one who is affectionate towards your own soul and you cherish and you love and you pamper and you elevate it to the exclusion of others, you're the one that is destroying the very thing that you want to save. Listen, asserting yourself is not just a personality problem, it's a spiritual sickness. And if you have elevated yourself above God, you are spiritually diseased. Who is the one who life passes by? It's the one who lives for himself or herself.

36:07Is life passing you by? It's passing you by if you are living for yourself. You're in the process of destroying the very thing that you think you love. What is passing by is this world. And those who set their hearts on this world are also passing by with it. This is not the kind of life that endures forever. And that's what Jesus wants to communicate to his disciples. And he does it by demonstration. He knows that there's a better way to live. What is that better way? The Father's will, even if it includes a cross.

37:01And listen, this principle applies to everything we do. This principle applies to every relationship, every marriage, every parenting, child relationship, growing up under your parents' authority, all of this stuff, or how you relate to one another, friends. Listen, the one who dies well lives well. And that's what Jesus is saying. And the one who loves self destroys. Self. Listen, you know why so many marriages break up? Because one or both parties are absolutely infatuated with themselves and will not yield. And so they are in the process of destroying the relationship. That's what sin does. It absolutely destroys relationships.

37:54But the one who is dying daily, listen, and this is the skill of life. Learning to die daily. Taking up your cross. The one who lives well, dies well. The one who cultivates the skill of dying. And I'm not just talking in the big issues of life. I'm talking about the little issues of life. Oh, here, yeah, no problem. You go ahead and talk. No, let me get that door for you. No, let you go first. You go first. Not as an idolatrous focus on other people, but on a loving, right relationship with the focus on Christ.

38:33Listen, we could talk all day on this principle. Glory, relationship, joy is on the other side of the cross. It's on the other side of death. The path to glory, the path to good relationship, it's on the other side of the cross. First, you see that between God and man, but you also see that with each other. And intuitively, we know this, right? We know that the ones who live for themselves are to really be esteemed little, right? There's no nobility and just loving yourself to the exclusion of others.

39:26Listen, we know, think about the many blessings that have come into this world through people who have forsook their personal safety or their personal security or their own selfish gain or their own selfish advancement. And think about the many people who have put themselves, who have recklessly, if you could even say that, spent their strength and given their strength so that others may benefit from it. Think of all the, you can compare this to soldiers. You can think about there is no freedom unless there is a love beyond self.

40:06But listen, we understand that by service comes greatness. And the people who this world is going to remember the most are those who truly served, gave of themselves. Listen, don't be one of those people who goes through life only to get what you can. Out of it, you may become rich, but one thing's for sure: you will never experience meaningful love. You may be pitied, but a loving relationship you cannot know until you learn the art of dying. Husbands learn to die, children learn to die, wives learn to die. All of us, this is the way of our master, and he doesn't provide another way.

41:04The one who lives well dies well and knows how to take up his cross. So, we've looked at the seed harvest illustration, we've looked at the spiritual reality. Now comes the exhortation: If anyone serves me, he must follow me. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And that is the non-negotiable command. Here is the command in the passage: he must be following me. You see, it doesn't do any good just to just to renounce yourself.

41:46Because even in renouncing yourself, you could easily have your focus on self. Something has to be replaced, yourself has to be replaced. I love how D.A. Carson said it: self must be displaced. By another, the endless, shameless focus on self must be displaced by focus on Jesus Christ, who is the supreme revelation of God. And this change of focus ensures both the death and glorification of the person who follows. And that's what it does. It's interesting to note that Jesus' crucifixion is the path to glory.

42:38And it's not just what happens on the other side that is glorious, his resurrection and his ascension that is included in his glory and his second coming. But we really see in the cross his glory revealed. He is Son of God. He has power to call out of the people, out of the grave. He is King David. He is the greater David. And all that goes on, but he is also the Lamb of God who was slain for his people. And not just his Jewish people, but for the earth, for the Greeks, Gentile world. So if you want to follow Jesus, you have to focus on him and not yourself. That's it. And listen, you inevitably, as you go through life, and he wants you to know this before you even follow him, he wants you to know that you are going to have to give up a slew of earthly prospects. Why? Because he has absolutely no use for your fallen aims and your fallen ambitions. He has no use for them.

43:55Jesus came into the world to lead us out of the world. And so the ambitions and the advancements and all that is associated with this worldly adorning, he's not even going in that direction. So if you love those things, you might as well know that now. He's not leading there. He's not leading so that you can adore yourself. In fact, he's leading you to stop adoring yourself. And he does so by example. And that's the exhortation. Next, I want you to see the reward, the reward.

44:39And it's an incorruptible reward. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. And if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Notice the reward. There's the presence of Jesus. Where I am, there my servant will be. Where I am, there my servant will be. And listen, he is going to the cross. Greeks are wanting to come question, talk to him, his disciples. He says, Yeah, I'm going to the cross.

45:20And where I am, there my servant will be also. But he goes beyond the cross, he goes through, goes to the cross, through the grave. And so, wherever the one who wants to serve him, whoever wants to follow him and wants to serve him, the reward always has to be with Jesus. That's the reward, the presence. Where Jesus is, we have to be in order to serve him. You know, you think about a waiter, right? And that's the word here: deacon, my diakonos, my deacon, deaconess. Whoever is the servant must be, will be where I am. And like, I don't know if anybody has gone to a restaurant lately and had a drone fly in and take your order. And I think that may be coming, but anyway, that's shame on us, shame on our society. But a waiter is a personal relationship. A waiter comes, let me find out, gets to read what is it that you want, and there's an interaction, and that's what a deacon is. Deacon is. That is what a servant is. Somebody has to be in proximity with the Lord. And so the presence of Jesus is the reward, and he promises to never leave.

46:47Second element of this incorruptible reward is the honor of the Father. Let me go back and just read to you a portion of Daniel 7 again. Remember, I kept looking in the night visions in verse 13, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son, a man was coming up, and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nation, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. So this incredible kingdom that will outlive all these others, and this glorious one that comes forth, who is presented before the ancient of days, he's the one to whom this kingdom and this dominion and this glory is given. And it's that all peoples, all nations, of men of every language would serve him, and it's an everlasting dominion. And then we read these words in chapter 20, in verse 26. And this is speaking about, well, let me just read verse 25. He will speak out, speaking about the little horn. He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the highest one, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion, this is the beast, this little horn that he's controlled, will be taken away, annihilated, and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to, and I want you to hear this, the people of the saints of the highest one. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey him. It's interesting as you read that passage at the end of it. It's not like the kingdoms will be given to the Son of Man. No, it's given to his saints.

48:56Father, honoring. And that's what Jesus is saying here. Where I am, there my servant will be also his presence. And if anyone serves me, the Father will future honor him and honor him with an everlasting dignity. And that's the only glory worth having. And it's the kind that cannot end because of the quality of it. It originates from God and it cannot end. That kind of honor cannot end. Well, in conclusion, I don't know if the Greeks ever got a chance to see Jesus or not. We don't know. They just kind of disappear from the narrative. But we can be sure of this: that in order to see Jesus, we must understand him on the cross. And that's what he's being communicated here.

50:05It's not simply the Son of God, power. It's not simply the Son of David, right to reign over the Jewish nation and all that. Or even the Son of Man in His power and glory, but the Son of Man on the cross as the Lamb of God. In order to see Jesus, you've got to see Him there. You can't make sense out of Him. And so Jesus said, Okay, they come. It's time for me to be glorified. And it's not just turning water into wine. It's not just even calling the dead out, though that testified to His glory, His glory is what He does with that power, with that ability, with that heart of love. That is what is truly glorifying, is that He would spend it. To please the Father and redeem his people so that his Father's blessing could be upon the people he loves.

51:09That's Israel's king. And listen, mankind needed a king to show us that the Father's will could not only be trusted, but celebrated. This is something Adam didn't do, right? He didn't trust. He communicated, no, the Father's will must be held suspect. But we needed a king to show us that the Father's will could not only be trusted, but joyfully submitted to, even in the midst of a horrifying crucifixion. And this is what Israel's king showed to the whole world.

51:52And this is why the Father is pleased to bring the nations to bow down at his feet. Listen, Israel will be the head of the nations. And that is because the Father is going to bring the nations to his feet. Because of Israel's king, that is why Israel will be head of the nations. But you must understand, the feet that we're bowing down to are wounded feet. Those wounded feet crushed the mindset of the serpent that has taken root in all of us. That prideful, arrogant love of self.

52:51Listen, it's right to bow down to him, not just because he's more powerful, but because he is just and we are sinners. And earth needs a king who is not driven by the spirit of selfishness, who wants to spend and be spent for no other reason but for himself. And as you think through all of this, the Father's love for us that was displayed in Jesus' love for us is the most selfless, over-the-top expression of love that has ever been made.

53:28And to reject it, to elevate your self-love to a point of rejecting this kind of love is to bring a heavy shame upon yourself that can never be removed or lightened for all of eternity. But by his grace, we can come. So let us learn the art of dying. Let us come and die to self. Let us die. Ask him. That we may live. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we bow our hearts before you, we recognize that you are the living God, that it is just and right for you to have not gone to the cross, but it was an act of mercy and love and justice for you to take our sins to the cross.

54:27You showed us the way to glory is by dying. Help us first to die to ourselves and focus on you. And let that focus, that elevation of you in our lives be reflected in how we relate to one another. Father, we just thank you for the example of our great King. Help us to respond in a way that pleases Him most in Christ's name.