John chapter 12, and verse 24.
The Lord Jesus says here, I tell you
the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls
to the ground and dies, it remains only
a single seed.
But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
The man who loves his life will lose
it, while the man who hates his life
in this world will keep it for eternal
life.
The Lord Jesus says, the man who wants
to keep his life will lose it, if
you lose it, you will keep it.
I believe it's an interesting paradox that as
Christians, on one hand, we all, and I
believe this is one reason why you're here,
we all want to be close to God,
we want to be near God, we want
to feel God.
But you know what, there is another tendency.
On the other side, we sometimes are afraid
to come too close to God.
And we rather have a little distance of
God.
As I heard one pastor once say, leave
God in heaven.
You know, keep a little distance.
Because we are afraid, if he comes too
close, he might intervene in areas that I
don't want him to intervene.
It's a certain, it's almost schizophrenic.
Why are we afraid to come too close
to God at times?
I often tell this story about, there was
a girl actually, she's from Australia, she might
be here, is Helen here?
Helen Jeffery, is she around?
Then I can tell the story, you know.
But many years ago, she came to Austria,
and she was not a believer, and she
told me so.
And I said, well, you can still come,
that's fine, as long as you, you know,
do kind of the things that we expect
you to do.
And she said, yes, she will.
So she did come, a great girl, she
did very well.
But whenever I spoke about the Lord, whenever
I had a devotion or whatever, she would
always just look into the floor.
She would never respond to anything about Christ.
And I remember it was the very last
week, she was with us for six months,
the very last week before she left, she
came into my office for whatever reason, and
I just asked her, I said, why do
you always look into the ground and just
try, act as though you are absent when
we talk about the Lord?
And after a bit of a longer talk,
she said, I'm afraid if I accept Jesus,
I lose my identity.
That was her fear.
And then I asked her, what are you
afraid of losing?
And of course, I said, who are you?
She said, well, I'm Helen, I'm afraid that
I lose to be Helen.
I said, well, Helen is just your name,
but who are you?
Well, I'm Australian.
I said, well, that's your country, but who
are you?
Well, I want to be a nurse, or
whatever she wanted to be.
I said, well, that's your profession, but who
are you?
And then I ran out of questions, she
ran out of answers.
And this evening, we separated, and I said,
Helen, sit down tonight, please, and write down
who you are, because I'd like to know
what you are afraid of losing.
And tell me tomorrow morning who you are.
The next morning, I remember, she came towards
me with a big smile, and I was
sure that she thought of something else.
But she actually said, I gave my life
to Christ, because I didn't know who I
am.
And now I know who I am, a
child of God.
But you see, although, as men, we have
a deep longing to be close to God,
we do have a fear to lose our
old life.
And even though many people know Christ, they
try to keep and find fulfillment in their
own identity, in their own life.
And then is the classic phrase that I
hear very often in the ministry, when Christians
say, I have tried everything, but I cannot
feel God.
I think, I'm sure, that, at least in
my experience, I've found that from whatever angle
you look at that problem, whatever problem you
have about God, the answer is always the
same.
And that is, we must first be broken
before God can fill us.
I have people say to me, they say,
nobody will ever break me.
I don't let anyone break me.
Well, I have an answer for those people.
You will be broken anyways.
Every person will be broken, either by the
lie or by God.
You see, an egocentric, proud person is already
a distorted, a broken person by his pride.
You will always be broken.
The question is only by whom.
If a man gets broken by God, then
God has a chance from the inside out
to reveal his character.
Just like pride distorts a person from the
inside out in a negative sense.
Now we have Good Friday today and the
Lord Jesus, as we think of this day
in particular, He was broken at and prior
to the cross.
We read in Matthew 26 that Lord Jesus
on the Garden of Gethsemane, He was deeply
troubled and afraid.
And He asked His friends to stay with
Him but of course they fell asleep.
Three times He prayed to the Father Lord,
if it's somehow possible do not let me
drink this cup yet not my will but
Your will be done.
And we read that His sweat fell to
the ground like blood.
Now the question is what made Jesus so
afraid?
Certainly not the physical pain.
He could bear that.
What made Jesus so afraid was the knowledge
and the terror of being separated from His
Father from His life.
Although at the same time while He was
separated He was in the perfect will of
His Father.
At the transaction of sin God the Father
was not near His Son.
He turned His back to the Son.
This is when Jesus cried out, My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?
And here is the thing that is important
to understand.
In order to keep up the fellowship between
the Son and the Father Jesus could have
done that.
He didn't have to go to the cross.
He could have kept the perfect fellowship with
His Father.
He could have sent a legion of angels
to destroy them and stay in touch with
His Father, but here is the point.
Had He done that for the rest of
eternity He would not be in the will
of His Father anymore.
In order to be in the will of
His Father the Lord Jesus had to be
broken and for Him it meant to be
separated from His Father.
In other words Jesus could have avoided the
cross and leave the world as a garbage
dump or He allows Himself to be broken
and so save the world.
The cross on which Jesus Christ our Lord
was broken where He was separated from His
Father is the heart of the Gospel together
with the Resurrection.
Sometimes we can get so excited about the
Resurrection that we forget what was leading to
death.
And it's my strong conviction if anyone has
just to some extent understood the cross he
cannot say I've tried it but it didn't
work.
If anyone says I know one thing he
has not understood the cross even in the
slightest way.
You know what's interesting to notice you see
it in movies you see it in personal
talks whenever a believer or unbeliever says where
is God in this God forsaken world you
know what's interesting somehow the cross is present.
The cross seems to be present even in
the most tragic and most forsaken moments in
this world.
There's a very moving story from Eli Wiesel
he's quite a famous Jewish man the winner
of a Nobel Prize and one of those
few who survived the Holocaust.
And he tells a story where in a
concentration camp they were forced to watch the
hanging of three Jewish people two of those
Jewish people were grown up men and one
of those Jews was a teenage boy.
And as all three of them were led
to the gallows and were hanged there the
two adult men they died fairly quick but
for some reason the little boy struggled on
the gallows for half an hour and could
not die and they were forced to watch
for half an hour this little boy hanging
there and Eli Wiesel tells how somebody behind
him whispered where is God?
where is God?
and he felt the same question.
And then he writes somehow from inside there
came a quiet voice that says God is
hanging there on the gallows Theologian Jürgen Bultmann
he said every other answer would have been
blasphemy Now the question is this can any
other faith any other religion apart from Christ
on the cross give an answer to such
a question Is it the Lord Jesus when
he died on the cross he bore our
guilt he bore our sorrows and by his
wounds we are healed You see Christ is
not only real on the victorious side of
life which is the resurrection Christ is just
as real in the deepest depth of our
life That's the cross He's there on both
sides He's done it all A couple of
months ago when I was speaking in Germany
at a conference there was a woman, she
shared the conference she spoke one evening she's
a theologian a psychologist and she lives together
with her man in Puerto Rico her name
is Aline Westermeyer and she told a story
about a little boy called Julio Puerto Rico
it was and she told the story she
met this man but when this man Julio
when he was 8 years old a little
boy something was stolen from the neighborhood and
everybody was convinced it was Julio who is
the thief and his father he was an
officer in the army and he came home
and he heard that his son has stolen
although he didn't and the father says my
son will never steal again and he took
his boy and took him into the house
and he and Julio of course screamed I
wasn't the one in zone but he didn't
believe him he had to lay on the
floor and he gave him 60 lashes with
his bell with an iron end after 30
lashes he was so exhausted he had to
rest but he finished it and the boy
was almost dead it took him about 2
weeks to get the boy back to life
again so to speak and of course this
incident left the traces in this boy he
came to know the Lord in the mid
20's this Julio through whatever I forgot what
it was but he never made it in
his Christian life it just never worked depression,
all kind of things kept on coming he
was about in mid 30's when he met
this woman, Aline Westermeyer she was telling the
story and of course she's a psychologist so
she went with him through his past and
of course they came to the incident with
his father beating him and so on and
he told the whole thing through and then
she asked him I thought it was very
interesting she asked him please tell the story
again but this time take Jesus with you
always take the Lord Jesus with you so
he told the story again from the beginning
and he said my father is walking with
me to the house and she said where
is Jesus and they were talking and praying
it through and he said Jesus he's on
my side he's coming with us so what's
next yeah we go in the house and
my father tells me to lie down on
the floor and so on and she says
where is Jesus and after a while he
said well he's with me and then he
said now my father starts beating me he
says where is Jesus and then he said
Jesus is lying on the floor instead of
me it was interesting because in Julio's life
this completely changed his life as a Christian
more than his rebirth but I believe what
we need to understand is that the crucifixion
and Christ on the cross is not only
a historical thing of course it is but
it's irrelevant today he bore our sorrows by
his wounds we are healed and I I
like to sometimes read Philip Yancey if you
heard about him but he said a good
quote he said the way God works he
says God holds back he is hiding he
cries, why?
because he is longing for something that can
never be reached with power he is a
king who does not want forceful submission but
love therefore he chose the slow and hard
way of becoming a man he chose the
way to love and death instead of forcing
Rome Jerusalem and all powers of the world
into its knees it was a conquest beginning
from the inside it's a conquest beginning from
the inside don't you sometimes ask I asked
myself that the other day Lord Jesus why
don't you just come down and do some
great miracle why don't you just reveal yourself
in some mighty way that everybody can see
who you are but as Charles quoted in
the previous lecture remember what the Lord Jesus
says by this the world will know that
you are my disciples if you love one
another you know why I want miracles so
that I don't have to love as much
if God chose himself with miracles with great
power I can just stand on the side
and say to these non-believers you see
I told you but that's not the way
that the Lord Jesus is choosing he chooses
the slow and the hard way the way
of love and I don't believe it changes
until he returns because that's the way that
the Lord Jesus is he does not want
forceful submission he wants to change us from
the inside out when you feel nothing of
the Lord Jesus when your faith has become
dull and boring let me ask you this
one question have you ever come to the
cross knowing that you must choose one life
either your own which you want to keep
or the life of Christ we hear a
lot today about Christ having died on the
cross for our sin but we hear very
little that we are crucified with Christ that
our life is not our own you do
not belong to yourself but to Christ and
this is where we need to make a
decision we either come to the cross and
submit surrender to the Lord Jesus or you
turn your back as a Christian walk away
from the cross and then comes the famous
question I cannot feel God there is one
lie that Christians love to believe you know
what it is Christians love to believe that
they can keep their old life and at
the same time be near God that's a
lie if you want to keep your own
life I know one thing about you you
feel nothing of Christ because you can never
have both it's one life not two Lord
Jesus says the man who loves his life
he will lose it the man who loses
his life he will gain it the Lord
Jesus says in Matthew 10 I just quoted
Matthew 10 verse 39 he says whoever finds
his life will lose it whoever loses his
life for my sake he will find it
in Colossians 3 Paul puts it in another
way he says Colossians 3 verse 3 for
you died by the way do you know
that you died have you been at your
funeral at your white one I'm serious if
you have not been at your funeral you
have a problem for you died and your
life is now hidden with Christ in God
in Galatians 1 it says I'm crucified with
Christ I no longer live Christ lives within
me now somebody will say well Hans Bitter
that sounds ok but how can I know
that this is true well I want to
close with this and remind you that spiritual
truth can never be discerned by thinking but
only by obedience you see there is a
difference between the Greek thinking and the Hebrew
thinking in the Greek thinking the recognition of
truth comes by reasoning and that's what we
have grown up with we reason we reason
can it be so and we reason about
it if you try to find the truth
which is Christ by reasoning you will never
find Him the Hebrew way of thinking is
different if you want to find the truth
in the Hebrew thinking it's only by one
way by obedience it says in Exodus I
think it's chapter 2 or 3 Moses stands
before the burning bush and God says to
Moses Moses go to Egypt and you will
worship me with all the people on this
mountain if Moses would have reasoned could it
be that I worship with all the people
of Israel at this mountain he would still
be praying today in front of the burning
bush how could Moses find out whether what
God said is true only by one way
obedience he had to go fascinating stories also
were Joshua with a couple of million people
standing in front of the Jordan and God
says to Joshua walk across the Jordan and
I can see Joshua saying do you see
the river says yes I know walk across
the Jordan and I love it because the
priests they went first and it says when
the first priest put his foot into the
water the river stopped running but not before
how could they find out whether what God
said is true not by praying not by
contemplating just by obedience by the way you
know it's fascinating when the priests stepped into
the water the water stopped flowing but you
know where it stopped flowing about 30 kilometers
north at a place called Adam you know
what that means the water was still running
for a few hours until it was dry
same with prayer sometimes we pray you know
God does something but maybe 30 kilometers north
still flowing but he does it I like
the story with a man I think it's
Luke 4 with a shriveled hand standing there
and says if you can heal me and
Jesus says yes I will and he says
stretch your hand and I can see this
man saying Jesus that's my problem it's shriveled
if you heal it I will stretch it
the Lord says no I want you to
stretch it and then it will be healed
it's so beautiful it says and he stretched
his hand and he was healed it's always
it's always that way so if you wonder
how this works there's only one way to
find out by obedience go into it that's
my prayer for my own life that's my
prayer for you I'm looking forward to what
God is doing this weekend Father we thank
you for the privilege of belonging to you
we thank you for the joys that you
have set before us in your son Jesus
Christ thank you Lord Jesus that you endured
the cross that you were broken in order
to be in the will of God in
the perfect will of your Father at the
cross where you were separated in fellowship but
still united in purpose Father in the same
way I pray that we have the courage
and the trust and the obedience to allow
you to break us to become earthen vessels
so that the treasure within us can shine
forth Lord Jesus I thank you so much
that you endured the cross but not only
that that you rose again that you won
the victory over death Father I thank you
for the son that you sent by your
free choice in order to save us thank
you Lord Jesus for your obedience and Lord
only you can do and live the life
that we are supposed to live so Lord
help us to trust you enough to let
you break us so that your life can
find its fulfillment even in people like us
this I pray and trust in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen