Please turn in the New Testament to John's Gospel, chapter 12. We're studying John's Gospel in our evening services and I want to read at this point from verse 12 to verse 26. John, chapter 12 and verse 12. The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's coat. His disciples did not understand these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him. The crowd that had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet Him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, We wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, 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. Whoever loves his life, loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. This is the holy and infallible word of the living God. The little city of Jerusalem was packed to overflowing with over 150,000 visitors from all over the known world come for the feast of the Passover. And John tells us that among those who went up to worship the feast were some Greeks. These would have been the people known as God-fearers. Gentiles but worshipping in Jewish synagogues, attracted by the God of the Jews. People who would have been allowed to enter the court of the Gentiles at the temple and worship there. Tourists always want to see the sites and the famous people. When visitors come to London, They're very happy if they can see the Queen while they're there. And in Jerusalem at this Passover, no one in the city was more notorious than Jesus of Nazareth. Everybody was talking about him. There was a strong rumor that he had raised a dead man named Lazarus and brought him back to life. There were people who had said they had seen this happening shortly before he had entered the city in a triumphal procession, surrounded and cheered by hundreds of supporters. It was widely known that the authorities hated him and wanted to arrest him. Who was this Jesus? And what was he going to do next? These Greek visitors decided that they would try to meet this famous person. They found one of his disciples with a Greek name, Philip, who came from the Greek-speaking village of Bethsaida. And they said, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. What was on their minds? How serious was their interest? We don't really know. Was it just curiosity? Were they struck by the way he had cleansed the court of the Gentiles and opened it up again for them to worship? We're not told and it doesn't really matter. were not even told if they did meet Jesus. I like to think that they did. But what is important, and this often happens in John, is a sort of a double meaning, a symbolism. John's a very profound thinker. And often in these incidents, there's a meaning beyond what those involved could have understood. In this request, there's a message conveyed to the Lord Himself and to us. And I think that's why John includes this request. It's the only gospel to mention this incident. These Greeks and their request. What can we say about the request from these Gentiles? Sir, we wish to see Jesus. The three things I want to note. First here we have a prophecy for the Savior himself. A prophecy for the Savior himself. Imagine the conflict, if you like, that he's now undergoing. He's still a young man. He knows that he is about to die horribly. The crowds are cheering him. But he's not taken in by that. He knows that those who cheered and shouted Hosanna yesterday will shout crucify him tomorrow. Their support is shallow. His disciples are loyal, but they're not strong and they're not stable. And He knows that they're soon going to run away. He knows that He has powerful enemies. He's absolutely committed to doing His Father's will. But He's also a true human being. And together with His commitment, He knows loneliness and sorrow. Both can exist in our minds. At once, we can be committed to doing the will of God, and at the same time, trembling, fearful and sad. John expresses the pathos of his mission. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. The crowds are going to turn against him. He is going to be nailed on a cross, despised and rejected of men. He himself will say in verse 27, Now is my soul troubled. Suddenly, the disciples tell him, There are Greeks who want to see you. And it's as if a window opens in the dark tunnel of the road to Calvary. And through that window, for a moment, the Lord sees a wide, beautiful prospect. For you see, in symbol In these few Gentiles, He sees the nations of the world. He sees men and women of every people and every tribe and every language coming to the Messiah of Israel. And they all have one request. We wish to see Jesus. The people have come from nowhere. from outside the covenant. And now they're coming. They want to see Him. The Greek word means to meet Him. Not just to set their eyes on Him, but to talk to Him. To get to know Him. In these few Greeks, He sees, as it were, the first fruits of the great harvest that's going to be reaped throughout the century. You see the paradox here. The Jewish leaders want to kill him. The Gentiles want to meet him. The Pharisees snarl in verse 19. Look, the world has gone after him. But they're speaking more truly than they realize. Jesus sees the whole world here. In this incident, God the Father is saying to God the Son, Your work is going to succeed. Your death is going to bear fruit. The peoples of the earth will come in faith to Israel's Messiah. And so in an outburst of solemn, holy joy, in verse 23, Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. That's his answer to this request. You remember how this truth was set forth by Gentiles at the very beginning of his life. Gentiles from the East came and said, We have seen his star when it rose, and we have come to worship him. When He comes to earth, the Gentiles bow before Him. Now He is about to leave this earth. The Gentiles come with the same desire. We wish to see Jesus. This is the graciousness of God the Father. He sends encouragement to His beloved Son when He needs it. What must this have meant to the Son of God as He looks towards Calvary and suddenly the Gentiles are there. The peoples of the world, we want to see you. There are seeking Gentiles at the cradle and at the cross. A wonderful thing. The rest of the New Testament is here. The growth of the early church is here. The history of the Christian Church is here. Missionary expansion is here. New continents opening up. You and I are here. Gentiles, most of us, seeking the Saviour. Here is the heart cry of the elect. The future of the faith is here. Many of us born outside the covenant, but brought in by the mercy of God. No matter how discouraging the situation, there will always be those who will come with this request, we want to see Jesus. This is a prophecy for the Savior and it has been fulfilled and it's being fulfilled today in thousands of places on the surface of this planet. There are men and women coming for the first time saying, we want to see Jesus and it's going to be fulfilled until He comes again. A prophecy for the Savior. But secondly, we have here a program for the church. A program for the church. We sometimes need to ask ourselves basic questions. Why are we here? What are we doing here this evening? Why do we want to maintain this church? Well, we could give a number of reasons, I expect. We have various activities, and we think they're worthwhile. But is there one dominating goal? Is there one guiding principle? by which our life as a church should be directed. Surely no church could do better than to make this their program. We want to show Jesus. We want to see Jesus. This is, of course, in line with the everlasting purpose of God. This fits in with the flow of history. It's God's purpose that in everything, He might be preeminent. God has highly exalted Him, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. That's what you're saying to me, as your minister. Sir, we wish to see Jesus. For many years, I had those words printed out and stuck here on the top of the pulpit. The little label fell off some years ago. Perhaps it's time to put it back. So that every time I stood up in every service, these words were at the top. Sir, we wish to see Jesus. That's what preaching is for. You've got varying personalities and interests, your different ages, different circumstances, different stages in the Christian life. How can I feed you all at once? This is the only way we wish to see Jesus. In the word of God, we have the scriptures, he says, that testify about me. That's why the architecture of Reformed churches is as it is. At the center of the church, at the focus of the church, is not an altar. It's a desk on which is the Word of God. And the Word is over the sacraments. And the Word is over everything else. And the Word is the focus of everything. And all the sight lines fastened on the Word Because the Word brings us Jesus. We find the Savior in this book. And it's through the steady, patient, faithful teaching of the Bible, the whole counsel of God, that we see Jesus. And that's why I love Reformed doctrine and why we're committed to it. Not because it's profound, though it is. Not because it's satisfying, though it is. but because it shows us Christ in His majesty and His glory. This is what you as a people ask of your elders in the church. You want to see Jesus in them. You want to see Jesus in their faces, in their lives, in their counsel, in the way they treat you and behave towards you. And we can think this evening of men who served as elders in this church and are now in heaven. What do we remember? What do we remember about them? Most of all, first and foremost, isn't it the Christ that we saw in them, with whom they walked and whom they exemplified in their lives. Very often our elders show Jesus in ways that they themselves don't realize and wouldn't acknowledge. And I say to you, my fellow elders, you show Jesus to our people more than sometimes you think about yourselves. And this is what we in turn desire for you who are members of this church. Not just that you will participate in the programs of the church. Not just that you'll be easy to manage. What we want from you, we want to see Jesus. That's what it's all about. You remember Paul to the Galatians 4.19, My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Until Christ is formed in you. Cooperate with your leaders. Their desire is to see Christ in you. Those of you who are parents, this is who your children need to see in you. This is what your children are saying to you fathers and you mothers. We need to see Jesus, to see Him in your faces, to hear Him in your voices and in your counsel. Sabbath school teachers, youth leaders, this is the request from those for whom God has made you responsible. We wish to see Jesus. This is who we need to see in Christians, with whom we have a problem. At times we get irritated with one another. We're all imperfect. And at times, sadly, we offend one another and hurt one another. And at such times, try to see Jesus in the other person. Try to see them as one whom He loved and for whom He died. Look past the faults and the eccentricity. In 10,000 years they'll be gone and there'll be nothing but the likeness of Jesus. Try to look at them now as they will be in heaven. And in all our interaction, that's what we need from each other. In every church meeting, that's what we need from each other. When the elders meet, when the deacons meet, when the various committees meet, when the congregation meets, Let us hear Jesus from each other. Let us see Jesus in each other. Let that be our motivation of every one of us. I will seek to show Jesus. I will seek to speak like Jesus, to love like Christ. Let it be our ambition that our church will be a place where Christ is seen in the worship and the preaching and the sacrament in the fellowship, in the lives and faces of the members. This is the secret of peace and unity and prosperity. Without His presence, this is just an empty shell. With His presence, it is more beautiful than any temple. Do you remember Psalm 84? I can only remember the old version. How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts to me! The tabernacles of thy grace, how pleasant, Lord, they be! What a noble program for a church. We wish to see Jesus. We wish to show Jesus. The church who does that will be certain of God's blessing. A prophecy for the Savior. A program for the church. And thirdly, a priority for the world. A priority for the world. We wish to see Jesus. And you'll say, now wait a minute. Your neat little headings begin to break down here and your application of the text begins to break down, if only that were the case. If it were only true that crowds of new people were coming up to us all the time and saying, we wish to see Jesus. Surely you'll say to me, our problem is the reverse. Nobody seems to want to see Jesus. We go out on doors. We give out literature. We speak to people. And very few seem to show the slightest interest. We're going about saying, would you like to meet Jesus Christ? And they're saying, in effect, no thank you. We're not interested. How many tens of thousands of homes have we visited in the last 35 years in this community? What has been the response? Almost nothing. Now that's true to some extent. People are not interested in Jesus. And it would be foolish to pretend they are. It would be a sort of evangelical romanticism, imagining that there are tens of thousands of people hungering for the gospel. That's not the case. And yet, He's the one whom they need to see. And I believe that more people may want to see Him than we may realize. And I give you this to think about. Not everybody who rejects church or who rejects religion is consciously rejecting Jesus Christ. Not everyone who rejects us is consciously rejecting Jesus Christ. They may think they are. We may think they are. But they may not have seen Him. We may not be showing Him as clearly as we imagine. And they reject us and we say, well, they've rejected Christ. But are we sure they've seen Christ and heard Christ? Maybe it's just us they're rejecting. Sometimes we're just too remote from them. We're not really interested in them. Could it be that our lives don't really measure up to our profession? Do they see in us sometimes a dull, lifeless traditionalism? Religious people doing religious things. But are we sure they hear and see the Lord Jesus? Is it possible what they're rejecting is substandard Christianity? That's a frightening thought. Paul, you remember, speaks searingly to some Jews in Romans 2.24 where he says, The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. because of you. You're such poor ambassadors, he says. There's so much hypocrisy and unbelief that they turn away from God and it's your fault. And sometimes I think we're a bit too quick and it's a bit too comfortable for us to say, oh well, they're not interested in the gospel. They've no time for Jesus Christ. That is often true. Don't know that it's always true. And we really must listen to the confused murmur of lost men and women around us and what they are in effect saying, even if they're not saying it. We need to see Jesus. They need to see Him in our lives and faces and conversation. And it's our calling to show the best, the greatest, the kindest person who has ever lived. And to show how God the Father sent Him to earth in love for lost sinners like ourselves, and to show and explain what He has done for our salvation, and how glorious it is to trust Him and love Him, and what a difference it makes for this life and for the next life, and how He can meet the deep hunger of our hearts. Do you children and you young people in this congregation understand that? Do you understand that church isn't just about doing things and keeping rules and being good? Although it is these things, but before all that, It's about coming to know the best friend that anyone could ever have. The one friend who will love you, and he'll never fail you, and he'll never leave you, and he'll never let you down, and he'll save you, and he'll be everything to you that you could ever want. That's what it is. That's what it is. And if we who are older If we have made it seem dull to you, I'm sorry. And I want you to forgive us. We don't mean to do that. We don't want to do that. We want to try to show you how wonderful it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ. The world is entitled to ask this from us. We're Christians, after all. Men and women dominated by a commitment to Jesus Christ. And that's why we're here. As you go to work tomorrow morning, that's your motivation. I want to show Jesus Christ. The people who meet me will see Him and hear Him. As you talk to your neighbor at the school gates or over the fence, let this be your priority. Lord, help me to show you to other people. A novel was written, must have been a hundred years ago now, by Charles Sheldon called In His Steps. We smile at it now when we read it. It's naive. It's romantic. The theology is terrible. I wouldn't recommend it. And yet there's a grain of truth in it. People trying to live as Jesus would live. You don't need to be clever. You don't need to be gifted. You don't need to be able to argue. You don't need to have your head packed full of knowledge. You need to love your Lord. and be growing more like Him. And this is the evangelism that will count. This is the only evangelism that will count. People won't be won by campaigns and gimmicks and strategies, but by men and women who are like Christ and who tell of Christ. And this is the mainspring of our lives as believers. We wish to see Jesus. And it's simple. And yet it's so profound that a billion years from now, if we're still counting years, we'll not have come to the end of it. There'll still be more to learn, more to see, because we're talking about a person And while you can get to know something about a person quite quickly, you never get to know everything. Even with a human being, there's always something new to find out. Do you still have that passion every time you open your Bibles? I want to see Jesus. Every time you kneel in prayer, every time you come in this building, we wish to see Jesus. Is that true of you? Is that what you want? And what is so special about our salvation is that this longing is going to be satisfied. For at the last, in heaven, you and I and all God's children will make this request for the last time. And we will never need to ask again. For we'll see Him forever and ever and ever and ever. For although what we will be has not yet appeared, we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him. as He is. Amen. Let us bow in prayer. Lord, many of us can say that we once were lost, but now are found. We're blind, but now we see. For you who spoke into the darkness and caused the light to shine have shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we thank you for revealing your Son. And we pray for any here who have not yet seen the Lord Jesus, that you will open their eyes, that in repentance and faith they may see Him and love Him. And help us, O God, to gaze at Him day by day. And as we gaze to become more like Him, help us to show Him in the world that others may see Him in us and be led past us to the Savior Himself. And we thank you, O God, that at the end we shall see Him forevermore. In His name we pray. Amen.