The heart of Jesus was broken in death so that he might create within us a new heart.
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series V, Cycle B
Theme For The Day: The heart of Jesus was broken in death so that he might create within us a new heart. In the First Lesson the new heart is promised. In the Second Lesson, Jesus poured out his heart of suffering to the Father. In the Gospel Jesus promises that he will unite our hearts through the cross {draw all people to himself (v. 32)}.
BRIEF COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 31:31--34 (C, RC, E)
Written after the destruction of the nation by the Babylonians, the prophet promised that God will establish a new covenant with both Israel and Judah, not carved in stone but on the human heart. The covenant would be different from the one forged in the infancy of the nation, the wilderness wandering period during which God gave his laws to Moses. God had to take them by the hand (v. 32) and lead them out of Egypt. This portrays a relationship of childlike dependency. In the future God would imprint his will on their hearts, an image of maturity (v. 33).
Lesson 2: Hebrews 5:5--10 (C); Hebrews 5:7--9 (RC); Hebrews (1--4) 5--10 (E)
This lection is part of a larger section concerning Jesus in the role of high priest (4:14-5:14). It refers to Jesus' passionate prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, offered up to the Father with heart and soul. Jesus learned obedience (submission) by the sufferings of the cross. Christ's sacrifice made him perfect; that is, he completed his role as high priest. In so doing Christ becomes the source of salvation for all who have faith.
Gospel: John 12:20--33 (C, E); John 12:20--30 (RC)
Some Greeks, possibly just a term for Gentiles, come to Philip, asking to see Jesus. Perhaps they wanted to investigate the possibility of becoming disciples of Jesus. Philip goes to Andrew (who introduced Peter to Jesus) with the request. They both approach their Master. Jesus responds that it was now time for his ministry to add the crowning touch. While the synoptic gospels identify the resurrection as the time of glorification, John sees the crucifixion and resurrection in the same frame. The cross lifts up Jesus in all his glory and power. These Greeks who wanted an audience with the Lord can see him in all his glory on the cross. Like a grain of wheat, Jesus would have to die so that his life might bear fruit (v. 24). Those who follow him must be willing to lose their lives for his sake. Though the thought of dying on the cross distresses Jesus, he accepts it as his appointed mission (v. 27). Since the cross cannot be avoided, he asks the Father to glorify his name. God responds with a thundering voice. Those who hear it realize that Jesus is God's Son. Jesus exults that he will draw all mankind to himself through the cross (v. 30).
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 51:1--12 (C); Psalm 51 (E) - "Have mercy me, O God, according to your unfailing love" (v. 1).
Psalm 50:12 (RC)
Prayer Of The Day
Merciful God, we have beheld your glory in the face of your crucified Son. As we are transfixed by the wonder of your love, purify our hearts of sin and unite them with all who confess your name. In Jesus' name. Amen.
THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 31:31--34
Promise fulfilled. God promises through Jeremiah that in the future he will establish a new covenant with his people. In Christ that covenant has been established and that promise has been fulfilled. However, it's better than what Jeremiah prophesied; we not only know God's laws but we have his love in our heart.
School dismissed (v. 34). The time will come when we will not need to teach God's will or ways. Everyone will know the Lord firsthand. School will be dismissed forever in God's kingdom, where we will enjoy God forever.
Selective memory (v. 34). Depending our personality type, we choose to remember either the good things that happen to us or the bad things. Some people can recall in detail every affront to their dignity, while others retain only golden memories. God has made a conscious decision to forget the sins of his repentant children. He not only forgives our offenses, he treats them as if they never occurred.
Lesson 2: Hebrews 5:5--10
Passionate prayers. According to the writer of Hebrews, Jesus prayed passionately, with heart, mind and strength. No perfunctory pray--er was he. There was good reason for his passion. Not only was his future on the line but that of the whole world. Only prayer that comes from the heart is really worthy of the name.
How God answers prayers. The passage states that the Father heard Jesus' prayer (v. 7) even though he didn't grant what Jesus begged for (escape from suffering and death). Hearing our requests and granting them are two different actions. Sometimes God answers by saying "no" or "later" or "I have something else in mind for you."
A perfect Christ, a perfect Christian (v. 9). Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered and was made perfect but how are we to understand the meaning of "perfection"? The word actually denotes a sense of completion. The suffering he experienced as a result of his obedience made Jesus complete in his high priestly role as Lord and Savior. A perfect Christ indicates a life of complete submission to the Father's will. Whatever we suffer for the cause of righteousness completes and perfects the follower of Christ. This, of course, does not mean that we are free from sin.
Gospel: John 12:20--33
We wish to see Jesus (v. 21). Jesus had a way of drawing people to himself. Some Greeks came to Jesus with the request, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." There is a sign on the inside of the pulpit at my church with these very words. The problem is that most people don't feel free to approach Jesus directly. They want and need to be introduced. That's where we come in. We who have come to experience Jesus' love and grace are called to share him with others. Most people will not be so bold as were the Greeks who came to Philip with the request to meet the Lord. We will need to anticipate their need to see Jesus.
Glory in the cross (v. 23). Jesus speaks of the cross as his hour of glory, a different perspective than we find in the Second Lesson from Hebrews, where Jesus prays passionately that the Father might provide some other way than the cross. The Christ we see in John is viewing the cross from the vantage point of the resurrection. The glory of the cross is the glory of God's self--giving love that could not be destroyed.
You can't find your life until you lose it (vv. 24--25). Jesus compares human life to a grain of wheat which must first die in order to give rise to new life. In the same way, Jesus teaches that we must first lose our lives before we can find them.
What to pray in time of trouble (v. 27). The prospect of the cross caused a very human response within the soul of Jesus. He was troubled. The first instinct when confronting trouble is to run, to escape. Jesus did not pray that God would spare him suffering or remove the cross. No, he prayed for the strength to carry through the Father's will. We would do well to pray in the same manner, asking not for escape but for strength to accomplish whatever the Lord has in store for us.
The magnetic Christ (v. 32). Jesus viewed his cross as the magnet that would draw all manner of people unto God. "And I, when I am lifted up...will draw all people to myself." As we lift up the Christ who gave his life on the cross, human existence will come together, drawn by the irresistible force of God's great love.
SERMON APPROACHES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 31:31--34
Sermon Title: Growing Up In God
Sermon Angle: The images of the relationship which God established with his people, as he brought them out of Egypt, are familial. Taking his people by the hand (v. 32) suggests a parent leading his child. In the same verse Yahweh refers to himself as Israel's husband. Both images suggest dependency to the people of Jeremiah's day. The new covenant that Jeremiah predicts states that the source of Israel's morality would come from within rather than from without. The morality of a child comes from outside himself. "Momma told me not to do it." Or, "if you do this, you'll get spanked." When a person becomes mature, the intellectual, ethical and spiritual center comes from within. Jeremiah suggests a future time when God's people will have grown in God.
Outline:
1. When we were children, our sense of right and wrong came from parents (moral and spiritual immaturity).
2. For the Jews of Jeremiah's time, morality was also external (the law).
3. Jeremiah envisions an internal source for morality (the new covenant of the heart).
4. The new covenant is fulfilled in Christ and marks the attainment of spiritual maturity.
Sermon Title: The New Deal
Sermon Angle: To lift the nation out of the depression, President Franklin Roosevelt came up with his "New Deal." The government was going to reach down and help all the citizens of the land. The "New Deal" marked a fundamental shift in the relationship between the government and the people. The Republicans' "Contract With America" promises yet another covenant between the government and the citizens, which heads in an opposite direction from the "New Deal." The new covenant that Jeremiah holds up promises a new deal of a different sort. He holds up the prospect that God will relate to his people in an entirely new manner. He will put his laws and precepts within us and make himself personally known to his people. This new covenant has come through Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Outline:
1. Jeremiah realized the provisional nature of the Old Covenant and the need for a new covenant (a new deal).
2. The new deal (covenant) involved a new way for God to relate to his people.
- God would change the hearts of his people.
- God would communicate to his people heart to heart (personal relationship).
- God would forgive his people's sins.
Lesson 2: Hebrews 5:5--10
Sermon Title: The Source Of Salvation
Sermon Angle: Jesus, the One who gave his life to God in perfect submission, becomes the source of salvation to all who have faith. The world offers other sources of salvation - success, sex, power, even good works. We need to ask our people to name the source of their hope for salvation. Jesus is the only true source of salvation. The Evangelism Explosion program by James Kennedy opens by getting the potential converts to state whether or not they are sure of going to heaven. If they do think they are going to heaven, they are then asked how they know this is true. The purpose here is to get them to disclose the source of their salvation. Is the source some concept of good works or God's grace?
Outline:
1. Are you going to heaven when you die? If so, what is the basis for your belief? Do you think you'll get there merely because of your church affiliation? Or do you expect to arrive there because you're a good person?
2. Christ is the only source of our salvation; through him, we experience God's grace (v. 9).
3. Return to the source of your salvation in whose Name you were baptized.
Gospel: John 12:20--33
Sermon Title: An Eye Exercise That Creates Community: Seeing Jesus
Sermon Angle: Our text begins with a request to see Jesus. Later in the reading (v. 32), Jesus speaks of himself being lifted up from the earth (so that all could see his sacrificial love) and drawing all people unto himself. Focusing the eyes of your soul on the One who gave his life for the world brings us into a community of grace that has no end.
Outline:
1. Some people are born with weak eye muscles (lazy eye) which can be strengthened through exercise.
2. The eyes of our soul become fuzzy unless we focus on Jesus.
3. Christ was lifted up on the cross so that we might focus on his grace and love.
4. Exercise the eyes of your faith daily as you look up to the crucified Christ.
__________
Joseph Sardler experienced a fortuitous accident in 1981 when he stumbled over his dog's dish, tumbling headlong down the basement stairs. Sardler had been blind for six years, due to optic nerve damage, but when he hit his head during the fall the miracle of sight was restored to him. He stayed up all night gazing at pictures and flowers and the stars in the heavens. Sardler can't thank and praise God enough for returning to him the ability to see. Sometimes it takes something like what happened to this man to open our eyes to the presence of Jesus in our lives. A hospitalization, the loss of a job or a divorce, to name only a few, can stimulate the optic nerve in our spirit to see the One who was lifted up on a cross for us all.
__________
Sermon Title: Doorkeepers
Sermon Angle: Secretaries and receptionists are doorkeepers, who grant or withhold access to the boss. They serve the vital function of bringing into their boss' presence those whom he would most like to see and screening out those who will only waste his time. The Greeks referred to in this text (vv. 20--21) came to Philip, requesting to see Jesus. Philip and Andrew were the doorkeepers, who sought to bring these people into the presence of Jesus. Our calling as the church is to refuse access to those who oppose the gospel and grant access to those who really want to meet the Lord.
Outline:
1. Secretaries are doorkeepers, granting or withholding access to the boss.
2. The disciples were doorkeepers for Jesus (vv. 20--22).
3. The church is the doorkeeper for the Lord.
- What we do intentionally or unintentionally affects access to Jesus.
4. Are you introducing to Jesus those who want to see him and know him?
Sermon Title: The Appointed Time
Sermon Angle: When Philip and Andrew approached Jesus, the Lord announced: "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified" (v. 23). Jesus had a sense of destiny. The hour had come for him to commit the supreme act of God's self--giving love on the cross. Earlier in his ministry he sometimes withdrew from hot spots of trouble because his time (hour) had not yet come. The writer of Ecclesiastes (chapter 3) reflects that there is "a time and season for everything under heaven." There is a time to be born, a time to marry, a time to follow and, finally a time to die. That appointed time had come for Jesus. It would not only be a time of grief and sorrow (v. 27) but, more importantly, a time of glory and victory (v. 28). Will we be ready to embrace our "appointed time" and will it be a time when God is glorified?
Outline:
1. Everything has its proper time and season (an appointed time).
2. For Jesus the appointed time came for him to give his life on the cross.
- This was a time of trouble. (His humanity recoiled at the prospect of death.)
- This was also a time of glory. (His death would bring eternal life.)
3. The appointed time has come for us to take up our cross (vv. 25--26).
4. In Christ, we become ready for our appointment with death.
__________
Baseball has become so identified with the American way of life that it has become a gauge of the nation's pulse. The baseball strike of 1994--95 caused people to reflect not only on the state of the game but on the spiritual health of the nation. Catholic theologian and ethicist George Wiegel felt that the only thing fans could do was "pray for the conversion of the human heart." He shared that we could only pray that the hubris of owner and player alike would be exorcized during the Lenten season of 1995. "Neither side shares a basic sense of what is right or wrong and so they can't communicate ... All they care about is power and money."
Jesus summed up the problem and the solution of what is wrong in the world this way: "...unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (v. 24).
Sermon Title: Christ Is The Magnet, We Are The Steel
Sermon Angle: Jesus glories in the cross as he proclaims: "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (v. 32). Jesus had a magnetic attraction when he walked on this earth but in death his magnetic pull increased dramatically. He has the power to draw all people to God through himself; all they have to do is place themselves within the force--field of his love and grace.
Outline:
1. Already in life, Jesus attracted those outside the Jewish people (vv. 20--23).
2. In his sacrificial death, he has the power to draw all people to God (v. 32).
3. Situate yourself within the circle of his sacrificial love.
4. Then let Christ's magnetic power work through you to draw others.
BRIEF COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 31:31--34 (C, RC, E)
Written after the destruction of the nation by the Babylonians, the prophet promised that God will establish a new covenant with both Israel and Judah, not carved in stone but on the human heart. The covenant would be different from the one forged in the infancy of the nation, the wilderness wandering period during which God gave his laws to Moses. God had to take them by the hand (v. 32) and lead them out of Egypt. This portrays a relationship of childlike dependency. In the future God would imprint his will on their hearts, an image of maturity (v. 33).
Lesson 2: Hebrews 5:5--10 (C); Hebrews 5:7--9 (RC); Hebrews (1--4) 5--10 (E)
This lection is part of a larger section concerning Jesus in the role of high priest (4:14-5:14). It refers to Jesus' passionate prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, offered up to the Father with heart and soul. Jesus learned obedience (submission) by the sufferings of the cross. Christ's sacrifice made him perfect; that is, he completed his role as high priest. In so doing Christ becomes the source of salvation for all who have faith.
Gospel: John 12:20--33 (C, E); John 12:20--30 (RC)
Some Greeks, possibly just a term for Gentiles, come to Philip, asking to see Jesus. Perhaps they wanted to investigate the possibility of becoming disciples of Jesus. Philip goes to Andrew (who introduced Peter to Jesus) with the request. They both approach their Master. Jesus responds that it was now time for his ministry to add the crowning touch. While the synoptic gospels identify the resurrection as the time of glorification, John sees the crucifixion and resurrection in the same frame. The cross lifts up Jesus in all his glory and power. These Greeks who wanted an audience with the Lord can see him in all his glory on the cross. Like a grain of wheat, Jesus would have to die so that his life might bear fruit (v. 24). Those who follow him must be willing to lose their lives for his sake. Though the thought of dying on the cross distresses Jesus, he accepts it as his appointed mission (v. 27). Since the cross cannot be avoided, he asks the Father to glorify his name. God responds with a thundering voice. Those who hear it realize that Jesus is God's Son. Jesus exults that he will draw all mankind to himself through the cross (v. 30).
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 51:1--12 (C); Psalm 51 (E) - "Have mercy me, O God, according to your unfailing love" (v. 1).
Psalm 50:12 (RC)
Prayer Of The Day
Merciful God, we have beheld your glory in the face of your crucified Son. As we are transfixed by the wonder of your love, purify our hearts of sin and unite them with all who confess your name. In Jesus' name. Amen.
THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 31:31--34
Promise fulfilled. God promises through Jeremiah that in the future he will establish a new covenant with his people. In Christ that covenant has been established and that promise has been fulfilled. However, it's better than what Jeremiah prophesied; we not only know God's laws but we have his love in our heart.
School dismissed (v. 34). The time will come when we will not need to teach God's will or ways. Everyone will know the Lord firsthand. School will be dismissed forever in God's kingdom, where we will enjoy God forever.
Selective memory (v. 34). Depending our personality type, we choose to remember either the good things that happen to us or the bad things. Some people can recall in detail every affront to their dignity, while others retain only golden memories. God has made a conscious decision to forget the sins of his repentant children. He not only forgives our offenses, he treats them as if they never occurred.
Lesson 2: Hebrews 5:5--10
Passionate prayers. According to the writer of Hebrews, Jesus prayed passionately, with heart, mind and strength. No perfunctory pray--er was he. There was good reason for his passion. Not only was his future on the line but that of the whole world. Only prayer that comes from the heart is really worthy of the name.
How God answers prayers. The passage states that the Father heard Jesus' prayer (v. 7) even though he didn't grant what Jesus begged for (escape from suffering and death). Hearing our requests and granting them are two different actions. Sometimes God answers by saying "no" or "later" or "I have something else in mind for you."
A perfect Christ, a perfect Christian (v. 9). Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered and was made perfect but how are we to understand the meaning of "perfection"? The word actually denotes a sense of completion. The suffering he experienced as a result of his obedience made Jesus complete in his high priestly role as Lord and Savior. A perfect Christ indicates a life of complete submission to the Father's will. Whatever we suffer for the cause of righteousness completes and perfects the follower of Christ. This, of course, does not mean that we are free from sin.
Gospel: John 12:20--33
We wish to see Jesus (v. 21). Jesus had a way of drawing people to himself. Some Greeks came to Jesus with the request, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." There is a sign on the inside of the pulpit at my church with these very words. The problem is that most people don't feel free to approach Jesus directly. They want and need to be introduced. That's where we come in. We who have come to experience Jesus' love and grace are called to share him with others. Most people will not be so bold as were the Greeks who came to Philip with the request to meet the Lord. We will need to anticipate their need to see Jesus.
Glory in the cross (v. 23). Jesus speaks of the cross as his hour of glory, a different perspective than we find in the Second Lesson from Hebrews, where Jesus prays passionately that the Father might provide some other way than the cross. The Christ we see in John is viewing the cross from the vantage point of the resurrection. The glory of the cross is the glory of God's self--giving love that could not be destroyed.
You can't find your life until you lose it (vv. 24--25). Jesus compares human life to a grain of wheat which must first die in order to give rise to new life. In the same way, Jesus teaches that we must first lose our lives before we can find them.
What to pray in time of trouble (v. 27). The prospect of the cross caused a very human response within the soul of Jesus. He was troubled. The first instinct when confronting trouble is to run, to escape. Jesus did not pray that God would spare him suffering or remove the cross. No, he prayed for the strength to carry through the Father's will. We would do well to pray in the same manner, asking not for escape but for strength to accomplish whatever the Lord has in store for us.
The magnetic Christ (v. 32). Jesus viewed his cross as the magnet that would draw all manner of people unto God. "And I, when I am lifted up...will draw all people to myself." As we lift up the Christ who gave his life on the cross, human existence will come together, drawn by the irresistible force of God's great love.
SERMON APPROACHES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 31:31--34
Sermon Title: Growing Up In God
Sermon Angle: The images of the relationship which God established with his people, as he brought them out of Egypt, are familial. Taking his people by the hand (v. 32) suggests a parent leading his child. In the same verse Yahweh refers to himself as Israel's husband. Both images suggest dependency to the people of Jeremiah's day. The new covenant that Jeremiah predicts states that the source of Israel's morality would come from within rather than from without. The morality of a child comes from outside himself. "Momma told me not to do it." Or, "if you do this, you'll get spanked." When a person becomes mature, the intellectual, ethical and spiritual center comes from within. Jeremiah suggests a future time when God's people will have grown in God.
Outline:
1. When we were children, our sense of right and wrong came from parents (moral and spiritual immaturity).
2. For the Jews of Jeremiah's time, morality was also external (the law).
3. Jeremiah envisions an internal source for morality (the new covenant of the heart).
4. The new covenant is fulfilled in Christ and marks the attainment of spiritual maturity.
Sermon Title: The New Deal
Sermon Angle: To lift the nation out of the depression, President Franklin Roosevelt came up with his "New Deal." The government was going to reach down and help all the citizens of the land. The "New Deal" marked a fundamental shift in the relationship between the government and the people. The Republicans' "Contract With America" promises yet another covenant between the government and the citizens, which heads in an opposite direction from the "New Deal." The new covenant that Jeremiah holds up promises a new deal of a different sort. He holds up the prospect that God will relate to his people in an entirely new manner. He will put his laws and precepts within us and make himself personally known to his people. This new covenant has come through Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Outline:
1. Jeremiah realized the provisional nature of the Old Covenant and the need for a new covenant (a new deal).
2. The new deal (covenant) involved a new way for God to relate to his people.
- God would change the hearts of his people.
- God would communicate to his people heart to heart (personal relationship).
- God would forgive his people's sins.
Lesson 2: Hebrews 5:5--10
Sermon Title: The Source Of Salvation
Sermon Angle: Jesus, the One who gave his life to God in perfect submission, becomes the source of salvation to all who have faith. The world offers other sources of salvation - success, sex, power, even good works. We need to ask our people to name the source of their hope for salvation. Jesus is the only true source of salvation. The Evangelism Explosion program by James Kennedy opens by getting the potential converts to state whether or not they are sure of going to heaven. If they do think they are going to heaven, they are then asked how they know this is true. The purpose here is to get them to disclose the source of their salvation. Is the source some concept of good works or God's grace?
Outline:
1. Are you going to heaven when you die? If so, what is the basis for your belief? Do you think you'll get there merely because of your church affiliation? Or do you expect to arrive there because you're a good person?
2. Christ is the only source of our salvation; through him, we experience God's grace (v. 9).
3. Return to the source of your salvation in whose Name you were baptized.
Gospel: John 12:20--33
Sermon Title: An Eye Exercise That Creates Community: Seeing Jesus
Sermon Angle: Our text begins with a request to see Jesus. Later in the reading (v. 32), Jesus speaks of himself being lifted up from the earth (so that all could see his sacrificial love) and drawing all people unto himself. Focusing the eyes of your soul on the One who gave his life for the world brings us into a community of grace that has no end.
Outline:
1. Some people are born with weak eye muscles (lazy eye) which can be strengthened through exercise.
2. The eyes of our soul become fuzzy unless we focus on Jesus.
3. Christ was lifted up on the cross so that we might focus on his grace and love.
4. Exercise the eyes of your faith daily as you look up to the crucified Christ.
__________
Joseph Sardler experienced a fortuitous accident in 1981 when he stumbled over his dog's dish, tumbling headlong down the basement stairs. Sardler had been blind for six years, due to optic nerve damage, but when he hit his head during the fall the miracle of sight was restored to him. He stayed up all night gazing at pictures and flowers and the stars in the heavens. Sardler can't thank and praise God enough for returning to him the ability to see. Sometimes it takes something like what happened to this man to open our eyes to the presence of Jesus in our lives. A hospitalization, the loss of a job or a divorce, to name only a few, can stimulate the optic nerve in our spirit to see the One who was lifted up on a cross for us all.
__________
Sermon Title: Doorkeepers
Sermon Angle: Secretaries and receptionists are doorkeepers, who grant or withhold access to the boss. They serve the vital function of bringing into their boss' presence those whom he would most like to see and screening out those who will only waste his time. The Greeks referred to in this text (vv. 20--21) came to Philip, requesting to see Jesus. Philip and Andrew were the doorkeepers, who sought to bring these people into the presence of Jesus. Our calling as the church is to refuse access to those who oppose the gospel and grant access to those who really want to meet the Lord.
Outline:
1. Secretaries are doorkeepers, granting or withholding access to the boss.
2. The disciples were doorkeepers for Jesus (vv. 20--22).
3. The church is the doorkeeper for the Lord.
- What we do intentionally or unintentionally affects access to Jesus.
4. Are you introducing to Jesus those who want to see him and know him?
Sermon Title: The Appointed Time
Sermon Angle: When Philip and Andrew approached Jesus, the Lord announced: "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified" (v. 23). Jesus had a sense of destiny. The hour had come for him to commit the supreme act of God's self--giving love on the cross. Earlier in his ministry he sometimes withdrew from hot spots of trouble because his time (hour) had not yet come. The writer of Ecclesiastes (chapter 3) reflects that there is "a time and season for everything under heaven." There is a time to be born, a time to marry, a time to follow and, finally a time to die. That appointed time had come for Jesus. It would not only be a time of grief and sorrow (v. 27) but, more importantly, a time of glory and victory (v. 28). Will we be ready to embrace our "appointed time" and will it be a time when God is glorified?
Outline:
1. Everything has its proper time and season (an appointed time).
2. For Jesus the appointed time came for him to give his life on the cross.
- This was a time of trouble. (His humanity recoiled at the prospect of death.)
- This was also a time of glory. (His death would bring eternal life.)
3. The appointed time has come for us to take up our cross (vv. 25--26).
4. In Christ, we become ready for our appointment with death.
__________
Baseball has become so identified with the American way of life that it has become a gauge of the nation's pulse. The baseball strike of 1994--95 caused people to reflect not only on the state of the game but on the spiritual health of the nation. Catholic theologian and ethicist George Wiegel felt that the only thing fans could do was "pray for the conversion of the human heart." He shared that we could only pray that the hubris of owner and player alike would be exorcized during the Lenten season of 1995. "Neither side shares a basic sense of what is right or wrong and so they can't communicate ... All they care about is power and money."
Jesus summed up the problem and the solution of what is wrong in the world this way: "...unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (v. 24).
Sermon Title: Christ Is The Magnet, We Are The Steel
Sermon Angle: Jesus glories in the cross as he proclaims: "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (v. 32). Jesus had a magnetic attraction when he walked on this earth but in death his magnetic pull increased dramatically. He has the power to draw all people to God through himself; all they have to do is place themselves within the force--field of his love and grace.
Outline:
1. Already in life, Jesus attracted those outside the Jewish people (vv. 20--23).
2. In his sacrificial death, he has the power to draw all people to God (v. 32).
3. Situate yourself within the circle of his sacrificial love.
4. Then let Christ's magnetic power work through you to draw others.
