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Would you open your Bible with me please to John chapter 12.

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The greatest teacher in the history of the world was Jesus Christ.

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Using simple language, familiar illustrations, and common stories, he revealed the deepest

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truths of God and his kingdom.

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Sometimes, however, Jesus employed figures of speech which challenged the imagination

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of his audience.

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Sometimes he talked in parables.

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By parables he told stories from the everyday life of the people which were intended to

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communicate spiritual or moral truths.

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Parables at the same time served to conceal and to reveal God's truth, to conceal it from

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those who were rejecting him and to reveal it to those who were receiving him.

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And then sometimes Jesus spoke in paradoxes.

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He made a statement that was apparently self-contradictory in order to increase the curiosity and thought

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of his audience.

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Jesus employs a paradox in the text we're going to read in John 12.

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I'll begin in verse 20.

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And there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast.

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These therefore came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him

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saying, So we wish to see Jesus.

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Philip came and told Andrew, Andrew and Philip came and they told Jesus.

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And Jesus answered them saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

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Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it

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remains by itself alone.

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But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

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He who loves his life loses it.

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And he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.

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If anyone serves me, let him follow me.

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And where I am, there shall my servant also be.

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If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

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Notice the paradox in verse 25.

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Essentially, Jesus says that we must die in order to live.

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That paradox and the more full text talks about a spirit or an attitude that is so fundamental

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to spiritual life that to overlook it may imperil one's soul.

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The attitude that we're talking about is the attitude of humility or lowliness of mind.

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Humility is a distinctively Christian grace.

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It causes one not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

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The heathen religions of the world had no concept of humility.

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Aristotle taught that man ought to experience a high-minded self-sufficiency.

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And that idea is common throughout pagan religions and humanistic philosophies.

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Today, humanism tells us that man is autonomous, has no need of anyone or anything outside

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of himself, and that to promote oneself is the right, the most ethical thing that one

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can do.

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Out of that stands in contrast to what Christianity teaches, humility.

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Humility that is freedom from vanity.

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Humility that causes one to be aware of his unworthiness.

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Dr. Vernon Grounds has said, humility is that attitude which results from a fearlessly honest

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self-appraisal.

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A self-appraisal which neither minimizes one's achievements nor exaggerates one's failures.

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He goes on to say, it is the child of that radical theocentricity, that is God-centeredness,

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which gratefully acknowledges God's sovereign bestowal of gifts and his sovereign enablement

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in service.

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What he is saying is that humility comes from God-centeredness and our recognition that

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whatever we have or whatever we are or become, all comes from a sovereign God and not from

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ourselves.

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That which really produces humility in our lives is the worship of God.

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But when we worship ourselves, we become proud.

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Humbleness of mind is essential for one who would be a follower of Jesus Christ.

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It's not merely a possibility, it is an essential.

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In the first place, humility is essential for salvation.

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In fact, our text in John 12 really focuses on that theme of salvation.

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There are Greeks who come searching for Jesus, asking that they might have an interview with

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him.

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They approach some disciples who then go to Jesus for the purpose of introducing him to

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these Greeks.

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Notice that Jesus doesn't directly respond to them.

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The arrival of these Gentiles seems to signal something to Jesus.

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It is that his hour has come.

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Up to this point several times in the Gospel of John, he has said, my hour has not yet

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come.

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But the arrival of these Greeks, these Gentiles seeking for him, and perhaps him laying his

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eyes upon them and seeing them, caused him to realize that his hour had come for his

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sacrifice, the hour in which he would be glorified.

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As Isaiah said, he would see the fruit of his sacrifice and be satisfied.

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So now Jesus sees not only Jews but Greeks who would be purchased by his blood, not just

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Jews but Gentiles as well, that would be brought into the kingdom of God by what he had come

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to do.

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And he says, my hour has come.

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The theme seems to be salvation here.

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And in verse 25 he says, he who loves his life loses it.

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He who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.

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So Jesus is talking about eternal life.

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When I say that humility is essential for salvation, I am not saying that humility is

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a separate, distinct act apart from simple faith.

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But what I'm saying is that implicit in saving faith is humility.

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I believe that's why Jesus began the Beatitudes the way that he did.

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You remember the Beatitudes and how they begin?

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If not, look back at Matthew 5 and verse 3.

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Matthew 5 and verse 3.

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For theirs is the kingdom of God.

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Notice that.

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Jesus begins with those that are poor in spirit.

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And then he moves ahead to say, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

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What is our Lord doing?

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Well, in giving of the Beatitudes he is expressing what is part and parcel of salvation.

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He begins with poverty of spirit that then leads to the mourning of repentance.

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Humility gives birth to repentance and on it goes through the Beatitudes.

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Dr. Warren Wiersbia said, the word humility is another way of saying poor in spirit.

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He says, I think it was Andrew Murray who said that humility is that grace that when

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you know you have it, you've just lost it.

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He also said, humility is not thinking mainly of yourself, it is simply not thinking of

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yourself at all.

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Wiersbia goes on to say, this explains why blessed are the poor in spirit is the first

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of the Beatitudes.

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For until we admit our need, we can never receive what God has for us.

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The person who is self-satisfied and self-sufficient, who feels no need for God, is not poor in

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spirit.

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The point I'm trying to make is this, when I come to the cross for salvation, I can bring

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nothing of my own pride, my sinful ego, or my boasting.

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Rather I must lay all of that aside and come empty handed, as it were as a beggar, to the

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cross.

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Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling, says the hymn writer.

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In coming to the cross, I must recognize my essential unworthiness.

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I must think of myself as is appropriate for a sinner to think of himself, as being without

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hope apart from God.

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And as one who is poor in spirit, I then reach out in faith to lay hold of the mercy of God

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extended to me because of what Jesus did on that cross.

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You see, humility is the only proper reaction for a sinful creature in the presence of a

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holy creator.

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Humility comes from sin consciousness.

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Isaiah the prophet, who was perhaps the most righteous man externally in his day, when

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he was aware of God's presence in the temple and aware of his own sinfulness, cried out,

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O is me, a way of saying I am judged, I condemn myself.

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He was poor in spirit and humbled.

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Despite the fact that man is created in the image of God and therefore has inherent dignity

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and worth, still he is only finite and is an agent of rebellion against the Most High

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God and is unworthy.

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The apostle Paul agrees with this, doesn't he?

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For in Philippians chapter 3, he gives us a list of his credentials externally.

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He concludes by saying, and according to the righteousness that is by the law, he said

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I was blameless.

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He measured himself against the external code of the law and he said I am blameless, but

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he said all of that that I might boast in, he says I gladly lay aside.

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He says it is nothing but a pile of rubbish so that I might know Jesus Christ and not

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have my own righteousness which is after the law, an external righteousness.

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But he says that righteousness which is given to me by God in Jesus Christ.

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When I come to the cross, I have to recognize that my righteous deeds are like filthy rags.

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I must lay those rags aside and receive from God's mercy a robe of perfect righteousness

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that he gives to the sinner who comes impoverished of spirit.

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The bad knee, the humbled mind, the repentant heart are all a part of what is saving faith.

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And as Jesus said, it is the poor in spirit who are blessed to inherit the kingdom of

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heaven.

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Isaac Watts lived from 1674 to 1748.

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He was of course an Englishman and has been called the father of English hymn-nity.

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In his day, Isaac Watts was a radical because he challenged the tradition of the church

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at that time of strictly singing only from the book of the songs.

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He was a pastor but he had to retire early at the age of 38 in fact because of his ill

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health and became a tutor and a private chaplain to the family of Sir Thomas Abney.

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Isaac Watts was a brilliant man.

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He authored some 60 volumes covering various themes.

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In addition to that, he wrote over 600 hymns or paraphrases of the songs, what we might

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call today scripture songs.

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Isaac Watts wrote what is acclaimed by music scholars as the finest hymn in the English

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language.

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The words go like this, When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory

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died, My richest gain I count but loss, and poor contempt on all my pride.

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Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ my God, all the vain

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things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.

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Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, Love so amazing,

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so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

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How well he captures in that hymn what we're talking about.

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A humility is essential for salvation.

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We come to the cross bringing nothing of our own righteousness, nothing that we claim is

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merit for ourselves, even the good things of our lives.

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By recognizing our sinfulness, we cry out to God for mercy.

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Humility is also essential for service.

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Jesus says in verse 26 of John 12, If anyone serves me, let him follow me.

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And where I am, there shall my servant also be.

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If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

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No attitude of the soul for serving the King is more appropriate than that of humility.

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For he himself exemplifies too is what humility is all about.

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Think of what he says in verse 24, about himself.

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I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself

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alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

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As Jesus said those words, he was looking at those Gentiles who had come to seek him

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out, recognizing that they too were part of the fruit for which he was about to die.

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Jesus says regarding his own service for God, that he was as a grain of wheat, which would

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abide by itself unless it fell to the ground and died, but if it did that, just as a grain

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of wheat germinates and produces a stalk with a head of grain on it, much fruit, unless

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he died, there would be no fruit.

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And he died and we are a part of that fruit today.

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The Lord Jesus was humble even to the point of the death of the cross.

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Philippians chapter 2.

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Paul recounts for us in that passage and we need to turn to it because I want to look

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at something else in that chapter.

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Philippians chapter 2.

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Our memory verse in fact comes from here.

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Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind that each of you

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regard one another as more important than himself.

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He says, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests

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of others.

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Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.

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Our sovereign, Savior came into the world and himself exemplified to us what humility

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is all about.

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It is giving oneself for the sake of others.

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It means not only to look after your own concerns, but others, others.

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Jesus came to die and you and I are here that in our living we too might die.

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Die to ourselves.

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That is the way Paul lived.

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In fact in this chapter he gives some other examples of humility and he is one that he

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gives.

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He points to himself in verse 17.

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He says, even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service

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of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

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Paul is imprisoned not knowing what the future holds as he writes these words.

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He sees his life passing by.

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He has given himself to service for people like the Philippians and he looked upon his

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life at that moment as being poured out like a drink offering upon the altar in Jerusalem.

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He says my life is simply being poured out, but he says I rejoice.

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Why?

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Because Paul had the attitude of humility.

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He was here to serve.

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Whatever that required of him to serve others, whatever that meant in God's will for his

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life he was willing to do it even if it meant pouring out his life upon the altar.

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He points then to Timothy as well.

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Verse 19, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I also may

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be encouraged when I learn of your condition.

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For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.

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Think of how many people brush shoulders with Paul.

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And yet Paul as he looks over all of those people that were around him, all of the possibilities

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says that Timothy is the only one at least there with him at the moment who had the same

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heart that he did, the heart of humility.

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How was that exemplified?

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By being concerned for their welfare?

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Others, others, others?

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He says in verse 21, they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.

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Isn't that a sad verse?

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God forbid that that verse should be written over the life of any of us.

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That we have lived our lives looking after our own interests and not those of Jesus Christ.

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But Jesus said if anyone follows me he must have this attitude of humility.

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Others before oneself.

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And then Paul points to another example of Epaphroditus verse 25.

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He says I thought it necessary to send to Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker

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and fellow soldier who is also your messenger and minister to my need.

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This is the man who came from the Philippians with a gift for Paul, they're in prison.

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Paul boasts of him as being a brother, a fellow worker and fellow soldier.

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And verse 26, because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard

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that he was sick.

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Indeed he was sick to the point of death but God had mercy on him and not on him only but

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also on me lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

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Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly in order that when you see him again you may

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rejoice and I may be less concerned about you.

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Therefore receive him in the Lord with all joy and hold men like him in high regard because

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he came close to death for the work of Christ risking his life to complete what was deficient

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in your service to me.

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So Paul lifts up Epaphroditus to these people who knew him well and he says this is a man

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that you should hold in high regard because he also exemplifies my spirit.

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He was willing to risk his life for the sake of serving me and Jesus Christ.

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We read about people like this, we admire them and we marvel at them but there are people

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like Epaphroditus and Timothy sitting right here in this auditorium.

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Now I thank God for the people who serve Jesus Christ with a sense of even reckless abandonment

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who are willing to say God whatever it takes, whatever the cost may be, I will serve you

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and serve others.

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Who say as Paul said here, God I am willing to pour out my life that I might minister

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to other people in your name.

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Those kinds of people we ought to hold up in high regard because they set an example

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for all of us to follow for they follow the Lord Jesus.

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That example of humility is essential for our service.

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Kenneth Kirk is quoted in the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Encyclopedia.

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Let me tell you what he says, without humility there can be no service worth the name.

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Patronizing service is self-destructive, it may be the greatest of all disservices.

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If we would attempt to do good with any sure hope that it will prove good and not evil,

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we must act from the spirit of humility.

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You see what Kirk is saying?

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He's saying that if I serve others, then my motive is wrong.

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In the end my service may be disservice.

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And instead of building up others, it may ultimately undermine them and destroy them.

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Therefore when I serve, I must serve with humility.

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Death to oneself, drivenness, and self-desire for recognition, and self-drive for achievement,

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death to all of that is necessary in order to serve Christ fruitfully.

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May I say that there is no death that comes harder to any of us than death to our own

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desires.

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We are driven by self to find expression for self's gratification, and self's fulfillment,

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and self's independence, and our self's rights.

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And we must bring all of these to the altar of God and slay them as they are expressions

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of the self-life in order to experience the fullness of the life of God.

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It is only the humble attitude of sacrifice that will allow us to practice that kind of

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commitment.

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But when we do, it allows us to bear fruit that will really honor God.

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It really will.

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And when we serve Jesus Christ that way, one day we too will be honored.

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We really will by God.

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God has ways of humbling us, doesn't he?

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Did you ever think of God as having a sense of humor?

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I know God has a sense of humor.

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I remember one occasion back in the first year that we were here in the Twin Cities

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when Bob Ricker, who was Pastor at Grace Edina at that time, and myself were exchanging pulpits

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on Sunday evenings.

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Some of you remember those Sundays?

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They were great experiences, especially in the summertime when we had no air conditioning

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here and I got to go to Edina on Sunday evenings and preach in an air conditioned church.

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I was all for the pulpit swap on those Sundays.

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I remember one Sunday evening wanting to deliver my soul of the message that God had laid in

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my heart.

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And of course, wanting to make a good impression in this church that I was brand new to in

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Edina as well as here.

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Wanting to put my best foot forward.

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So I put on a good, nice looking suit, you know, and dressed up and went and preached

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in a way that I thought was acceptable.

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On my way home, I decided to take off my coat and when I did, I found out that my coat had

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ripped from here all the way under my arm.

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And every time that I lifted my arms in the service and gesture, this flap of white lining

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would open up on this side.

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A way to impress people.

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Well, I laughed about that, I thought, God, you're right.

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You know, what does it matter what we wear or whether we impress people?

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Let our service be from humility.

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Reminds me of the preacher who preached well, he thought, one Sunday morning.

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And on his way home, he was waiting for his wife to say something and she didn't.

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So he decided to prime the pump and he said, dear, there are so few great preachers in

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the world today.

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She let a couple of seconds appropriately pass and she said, yes, dear, and there's

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one fewer than you think.

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Humility is the acceptance of the place that is given to us by God.

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It can never be a place in the front of the pack or in the rear of it.

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It is possible for us to be too big for God to use, but we can never be too small for

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God to use.

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Humility is essential in service.

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And finally, humility is essential for sanctification.

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I draw this out of the text by way of application.

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Dying and as a result of that, the production of fruit in the life.

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The work of God's spirit within us, changing and transforming us into the image and likeness

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of Jesus Christ depends upon our attitude.

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Ego centricity will hinder the work of God's ministry in this regard.

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Self-centeredness quenches his Holy Spirit, but humility of soul is the atmosphere in

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which the Holy Spirit works to make us like Jesus.

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Again I would quote Warren Wiersbeck.

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It is difficult to conceive, he says, of a Christian growing in grace apart from humility.

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True poverty of spirit is the soil out of which the fruit of the spirit can be cultivated.

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That's a great statement, isn't it?

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True poverty of spirit is the soil out of which the fruit of the spirit can be cultivated.

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He goes on to say, certainly the seed of God's word could never be planted in the hard soil

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of a proud heart.

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Pride always makes a slave out of a person while humility sets that person free.

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When you live to promote yourself, you are bound to become a slave of people or things

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or circumstances.

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You are never really free to be yourself because self has already enslaved you through pride.

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Are you free this morning from that?

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Maybe a better question is, is the Spirit of God free to accomplish his work within

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you, that work for which he lives in you, to change you to be like Jesus?

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Pride and ego lock the Lord in the chapel of our hearts, as it were, and does not allow

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him to go throughout the rest of our house.

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It locks him up in that one small room.

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When we take the key of humility and unlock that door, the Lord is free to walk into every

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room in our lives and there change it to be what would please God.

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Augustine stated that the secret of sanctity or holiness is, as he put it, humility, humility,

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humility.

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He is right.

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Was it not the boasting and pride of the Corinthians which caused Paul to scold them, calling them

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fleshly, calling them babes in Christ?

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All spiritual growth and development was there because they boasted in human teachers and

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in their own giftedness and were not characterized by humility.

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So Paul told them, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

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That is our only boast, isn't it?

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You and I need not fear God's work in humbling us.

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As you see, whom God would greatly use, he must first humble.

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And so when God chooses to break us, it is so that in the end we might become more usable

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by him.

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Some of us are going through that experience of being broken.

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That does not happen pleasantly.

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It is painful.

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And it does not usually happen quickly.

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It is drawn out.

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God has ways of humbling us, particularly when we do not humble ourselves.

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That is why it is so much better when we take the initiative and do what he says to do,

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humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due season he may lift

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you up.

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But there are times when we humble ourselves that God yet sees a need for further humbling.

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And so he brings failure.

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He brings heartache.

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He brings demotion.

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He brings disappointment.

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At first it sears us and stabs us and we wonder, God, what are you doing?

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And because he loves us so much, all God is trying to do is to break us of that ego that

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hinders him from having more power in our lives, making us more like Christ, making

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us more fruitful in our service.

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Humility is a grace that not only enables us to be more used by God and to know God

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better, but it is a grace that helps us in our human relationships.

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There is nothing that breaks up friendships or marriages or relationships at work faster

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than ego.

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I find that in my marriage when I am stubborn, which I can be occasionally, but when I'm

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proud about something, it will cause the relationship between me and my family to be strained.

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When I am stubborn about something or proud about something, it destroys relationships

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with others.

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But humility brings us together.

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Humility brings us together.

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If you're experiencing a strain in relationships with others, that's something you may want

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to look at and consider before God.

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Humility is essential for salvation.

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Dr. James Simpson from Edinburgh, Scotland.

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In 1848, discovered that chloroform could be used as an anesthetic to render people

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insensible to the pain of surgery.

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Many of us have benefited from his discovery.

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I'm glad he made it.

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Some years after that discovery, he was speaking at the University of Edinburgh.

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One of the students asked him, Dr. what do you consider to be the most valuable discovery

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of your lifetime?

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Dr. James Simpson replied, my most valuable discovery was when I discovered myself a sinner

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and that Jesus Christ was my Savior.

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In order for us to discover Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have to first discover that

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we're sinners in need of that Savior.

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Humility is essential for salvation.

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We must come to God broken and humbled, recognizing our need of the Savior before we can receive

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him.

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Have you come to him that way?

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Are you a Christian?

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Have you bowed the knee, opened your heart in faith, and received him?

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But humility is also essential for service.

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Dr. John Mitchell said, the great leaders of men in all fields have not been the arrogant

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and the greedy, but the servants.

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The real servants are the true nobility.

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The greatest of all, the Son of God himself, declared that he had not come to be served,

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but to be a servant and to give his life a ransom for many.

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Beloved, that's why we are here too, to follow in Jesus' steps and to lay down our lives

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that there might be much fruit rise from that.

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For some of us that will mean going to a mission field somewhere, even when others say it's

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a terrible waste of life, and laying down our lives in humility for Jesus' sake, knowing

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that that's what we must do to follow him.

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For others of us it involves other commitments, but the point is if we would serve him, it

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means that we lay down our lives to him in humility.

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Then humility is essential for sanctification.

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As Jonathan Edwards said, nothing sets a person so much out of the devil's reach as humility.

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Andrew Murray wrote, humility is perfect quietness of heart.

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It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against

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me.

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It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to

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have a blessed home in the Lord where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father

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in secret and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness when all around and above is troubled.

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If you and I would live, we must first die.

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How is it that God wants you to die today?

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Let's bow together.

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Jesus said if we seek to grasp, to hang on to, to covet for our lives, in the end we

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lose them.

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But if we lose our lives for his sake, we gain them and eternal life as well.

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In order to live we must die.

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We must be as that seed that falls to the ground.

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Where is the battle in your life today?

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Where is it that self is driving you, dominating you?

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Where is it that pride is enslaving you?

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Will you right now at that point bring death?

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Will you choose to die that you might live?

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Lord Jesus, apply that to my life and to the life of every hearer this morning.

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And show us the grace of humility that so exemplified you as you laid down your life

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for us.

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Teach us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of the Father that he might exalt us

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in his time and his way.

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We pray this in Jesus' name.

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Amen.