THIRD QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #12
SEPTEMBER 17, 2022
“DYING LIKE A SEED”

 

 

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24, NKJV).

 

In the bustling city streets of Jerusalem, pregnant with residents and visitors for the Passover, certain Greeks came to Philip with a request.  “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  As this request came to the Saviour, He knew that the time had come.  Prior to this He would say, “My time has not yet come” (John 2:4, John 7:6).  But when this request came, like an alarm clock going off, He could say for the first time, “The hour has come.” The words of Isaiah must have come to His remembrance:

 

“Arise, shine; For your light has come!  And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:1-3).

 

Jesus knew that when the Gentiles would come that His hour had come.  And while the disciples’ idea of rising, shining and glory was quite the opposite of Heaven’s idea of rising, shining and glory, Jesus needed to yet once more give them the most central lesson of the Cross.

 

“But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor’” (John 12:23-26).

 

Jesus understood that glory as Heaven understood it was much different than the world understood it.  Glory had nothing to do with popular recognition by the crowds or being crowned king before the people that day.  The glory of the Lord rising upon Him was all about the self-relinquishing love of God being lived out in His life.  It was all about the Cross and dying to self.

 

This was the rhythm and song of His life.  “Nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done” was His lifelong prayer, continuing through His darkest hour in Gethsemane and on the Cross.

 

No life will come from saving yourself, protecting yourself, justifying yourself, defending yourself, living for yourself.  Life only comes, Jesus taught, from dying to self and living for others.  He demonstrated it with His life, taught it with His words, and proclaimed it with the greatest undeniable clarity in His death on the cross (Philippians 2:5-8).

 

But a physical cross would not be the instrument of His death.  It would merely be the platform of its display.  For that which caused the death of Jesus, that which wrung His heart with agony was the sin of the world, was my sin and yours, that was laid upon him (Isaiah 53:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21).  The wooden cross was merely an instrument that could only bring the first death, and as such was not to be feared.  But sin was that which would bring the second death, that according to Jesus was the one to fear (Matthew 10:28).  Jesus would experience that which the lost will ultimately feel as the sin which He bore pressed upon His heart and soul and gave Him the sense of separation from the One Who would never leave Him or forsake Him.

 

Even at the moment He was teaching the lesson of the Cross the weight of sin was being felt even more keenly as the hour approached.  "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose, I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name” (John 12:27,28).

 

The principal lesson of the Cross that Jesus was living out before them, and the onlooking universe is the lesson of life itself.  Jesus was teaching that there is no life outside of the Cross.  “He who loves his life (more than Me, more than the Way of the Cross) will lose it” (John 12:25).

 

The Way of the Cross is not simply something that Jesus does instead of you but is something into which He invites you (Matthew 16:24-26).  The self-sacrificing love of God fully displayed on the Cross is an invitation that includes you — an invitation to the same crucifixion of self (Philippians 2:5-8; Galatians 2:20) and living for God and others (Matthew 22:37-39). It is the invitation to life and the giving of oneself in reckless abandon as displayed in the broken alabaster flask and the prodigal gift of Mary.  That gift was a dim prequel of what was about to take place as His life would be poured out without measure and without reserve, for a world that barely noticed or cared.

 

We must ultimately see the Cross as more than simply a transaction for sin that gets me into heaven.  Jesus never taught that accepting the Cross event and the transaction leads to life.  But He did teach and show us repeatedly that life comes from dying.  The Way of the Cross is the only exit from this life of sin and the only answer to every question posed in this week’s lesson.

 

Does life feel like a crucible at times?  Do you ever find God’s instruction and leading for your life, though known to be true and right, hard to do?  Take heart.  Because the One Who bids us “take up your cross and follow Me” felt the same crucible you do.  He was tempted strongly, as you are, to follow a different way.  He was tempted at every turn and “resisted unto blood, striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4).  He took up the Cross and denied Himself, loving you and me to the end.  Rejoice, for He was victorious at every turn, and He gives that victory to you and me.  And it is that victory which He freely gives you that He knows will enable you to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him.

 

What would keep you from being a follower of Jesus today and to “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Revelation 14:4)?  If that is your desire, then “take up the cross” today.  Let us who have an ear, hear His call to life today.

 

~Kelly Kinsley

 

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Jesus says plainly, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23. The first requisite therefore to follow the Saviour is to deny self. And no man can be a follower of Christ without it. To deny self for Christ’s sake brings a person face to face with the cross. And to refuse to deny self for His sake, is to refuse the cross and so to become an enemy of the cross of Christ. Men may make vast pretensions to being followers of Christ, but so long as they refuse to deny themselves, so long they refuse the cross, and so long they are not His followers at all. He has placed the matter in its proper order: first deny self, next take up the cross to which self-denial brings us, and then follow Christ. There is no other way to get into the path where Jesus has walked, there is no other way to become a follower of Christ. A.T. Jones; SITI July 14, 1887.

 

Christ is the present Saviour of all men. He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” John says, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate [or Comforter] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation [sacrifice] for our sins.” 1 John 2:1, 2. Him “God hath set forth to be a propitiation [sacrifice] through faith in His blood.” Romans 3:24. His blood is now shed for us; He is now lifted up for us. The knowledge that the cross is set up in every heart, that He is crucified for us, makes a delight of the crosses which come to us, all the burdens to be born, all the habits to be given up, which are as taking our life, because they are our life. The knowledge that now Christ is crucified for us, that now are we crucified with Him, not in fancy but in fact, makes the presence of the cross a joy to us, for there we find Christ, and are brought into fellowship with His death, and live with Him. Being reconciled by His blood, we know we shall be saved by His life. To take up the cross is to take Him. To deny self is to own Him. To crucify self indeed is to take His life, and the life we live with Him is not one of hardness and discomfort, and the performance of disagreeable duties for the sake of joy by and by, but it is the constant springing up of life and joy; so that with joy and not groaning we draw water from the wells of salvation. It makes all the difference when we have His cross. “Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head.” Isaiah 51:11. E.J. Waggoner; PTUK February 22, 1894. (Emphasis supplied)