JOH 12:25 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.
26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

As we consider our text this morning we must remember that the context has Jesus only days before the Passover and His impending sacrifice upon the cross for the penalty of our sins.

There was a group of Greeks who were seeking Him out as they had come to the Feast to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Philip was approached by this group to be the liaison between them and Jesus. Philip then went to Andrew to bounce this request off of him and they both decided to go to Jesus.

Instead of addressing this request in our text we’re told that Jesus responded in verses 23 and 24 by saying, “"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

This of course was to announce that the very purpose for which the Son of God came into this world, as He took on flesh while keeping His deity, was about to be fulfilled. And in the process of fulfilling it He would glorify the Father who sent Him.

But in the process of announcing His glorification Jesus explains that this would be through His death and resurrection which is what He meant by, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

And now as we come to our text our Lord further explains the attitude He has toward the Father and how each one of His people must have the same attitude of loving God above all as we follow Jesus’ example of loving the Father through our obedience.

Now this is a passage which can appear somewhat odd for we who look at words like love and hate in a way where there is only one explanation for such words. But as with any language we must not only look at the context of a passage, but also the figures of speech we might use in such circumstances as the writer is trying to drive home a point.

For example, we’ve all used words which are never meant to be taken literally, but are used to express a point. How many of us have used the word million to express a great number of something when in fact we knew that the number may have actually only been in the tens or hundreds?

In fact, just this last week one of the guys I work with made the comment that we got a lot of requests that day for work that needed to be done on two of the buildings we maintain. And he said, they’re giving us millions of requests, when in fact there were probably 10 or 15.

We do this all of the time. And so, when Jesus makes a statement that, “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, He is drawing attention to the necessity of making the right choice.

Keep in mind that the context is demonstrating how much Jesus loves the Father and how His love for the Father moves Him to obey the Father at all costs.

Now, He addresses His disciples and basically says, how much do you love Me? Are you willing to put aside things in this life that most people wouldn’t so that you might serve God?

Who is this man? This man is the same man the apostle John describes in his first letter to the church.

1JO 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does -comes not from the Father but from the world.
17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Here John is saying that the thing in which we place the most importance will be evident. If the world is the most important thing in a person’s life, (and by that we mean life where only self is being pleased), then it is indicative that the world has become that person’s god.

The person whose love for money drives them to get more and more without any concern for God; or the person who only thinks and acts in such a way where this life seems to be the end all, proves that they have nothing to do with God.

And that’s what John points out in that passage I just quoted. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” He can make that statement as he defines what the love of the world entails.

“For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does -comes not from the Father but from the world.”

In other words, the Father’s life is not in that person. He derives his life from the world and all it offers which of course is temporal and dying, which only leads to death. This is exactly what Jesus is saying back in our text. “The man who loves his life will lose it...”

In other words, the man who prefers this world above God will spend eternity without God as he will die in his sins, having made this world his friend and savior.

In contrast, “the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

What does this mean? Does this mean that a person who hates life will gain eternal life? Well, if that’s the case then suicide would be the great savior. No. What Jesus means is that a person who realizes that this world is passing away and that it offers nothing of eternal value is the person who also seeks the One who offers the way out of damnation, and an eternal relationship with his creator.

The person who looks at life and his impending judgment and wrath from a holy God, because of his sin, will conclude that this life is not what he will invest in for eternity. It does not mean that God expects us to despise the life He has given us to live out on planet earth until we one day meet Him face to face.

All throughout Scripture God demonstrates how we should view this life on planet earth as a gift from Him, but never to think that this life on earth is the ultimate gift which should consume our lives to the exclusion of God.

Solomon understood this even though he didn’t always put it into practice.

ECC 3:11 [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.
13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil - this is the gift of God.

But Solomon also understood that this life in this world is vanity if that is all we have and pursue.

ECC 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them"
6 Remember him - before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well,
7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Everything is meaningless!"

Without a relationship with God we can gain the whole world, but to lose our soul for eternity because this world is more important is not wise, but meaningless.

This is the contrast Jesus is pointing out in our text. Loving life in such a way where we exclude the Giver of Life will only result in death. In contrast, hating life in the sense that we love the eternal life we have in Christ will actually result in the most meaningful and joyous life we can have in this world.

Why? Because even though this world is passing away, and even though it is filled with trials and tribulations, we have God who will never forsake us in Christ and will one day bring us home to Himself.

ROM 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If we view this life on earth from an eternal perspective, from God’s perspective, than our hatred of this world will take on a life of its own. Our hatred of our lives here will cause us to love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves.

Our hatred of our lives here will enable us to actually pursue and love life in a new and dynamic way as we serve our Almighty God in this world. In other words, hating our lives in this world, according to our text, has nothing to do with hating people, or the blessings from God in this world, or taking an attitude where instead of love in our hearts there is animosity.

That’s not what Jesus means. But what He does mean is not to put anything ahead of God. To do so only shows our love for something other than Him which is not healthy.

To love God above all shows that we have a relationship with Him in Christ and that His Spirit is in us and enabling us to live for Him instead of self.

And this is what Jesus meant when He demonstrated how a person faithfully serves his master.

MAT 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money, [the world’s ways].

Unfortunately not just unbelievers fall into this category of trying to serve two masters. There is always the temptation to try and keep a foot in the world and a foot in the Kingdom of God.

What do we mean by that? Well, let me tell you what I don’t mean by that. I don’t mean that we can’t associate with people of the world, or unbelievers, as long as those unbelievers are not the ones who influence us rather than we influencing them Godward.

To suggest that we isolate ourselves from the people of this world to the degree that we don’t seek them out for salvation is to be remiss in the great commission Christ gave us to go out into all the world with His message of hope.

This is what Paul was saying to the church in Corinth when he told them not to associate with the sexually immoral. And by that he meant the sexually immoral who were claiming to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

1CO 5:9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people -
10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

In other words, Paul was saying that the people of this world, those unbelievers who reject God, are the very ones we must be pursuing and loving with the truth.

If we choose to have no association with such people in the workplace, or in all other endeavors of life, then we would have to live in a different world, because all people outside of Christ fall into that category of immoral to the degree that their lives are lived for themselves and not for a holy God.

But this brings us back to what it means for believers to try and serve two masters, that of God and the world.

What we mean by this is that we pursue the things unbelievers pursue as it pertains to a life without God. Unbelievers pursue sin. Unbelievers pursue self to the exclusion of God. Unbelievers pursue anything and everything that will satisfy them in place of God. This is not what we as believers want to do.

What our Lord tells us is that if we love Him then we will not pursue the things of this world which bring dishonor to Him in our lives. At some point we need to come to grips with the gift of salvation we have in Christ and live it in such a way, by the power of the Spirit, where it is no longer my will being done, but His will being done in my life as I choose His will over my own.

This is why the apostle Paul continually taught the church to consider how we no longer belong to the world.

ROM 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Notice the practice of putting off and putting on. Paul says not to be conformed to the pattern of this world. That’s the putting off. But then we must follow that with putting on; the renewing of our minds with the things of God, specifically the word of God. Then, and only then, will we be able to test and approve what God’s will is.

To think that we can walk in God’s will and not seek and obey His will is not to walk in reality. That’s the kind of walking the world does. That should not characterize Christian’s and yet it happens.

By the way, the Lord Jesus’ half brother, James had some very strong words for Christians who want to keep one foot in the world while trying to keep one in the Kingdom of God.

JAM 4:4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

In other words, repent and grieve over sin as we humble ourselves to God and He will forgive our sin and lift us up out of the miry clay and use us for His glory.

Okay, so let’s assume you and I have opted for loving Christ and not the world. How should that manifest itself? Well, Jesus shows what that means in the next verse.

JOH 12:26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

How many times have Christians decided to serve Christ and they go gung-ho into the fray? That can be a great thing. But sometimes we go out into service for Christ without following Christ. That’s not the best place to be because in that instance we are doing things for Christ, but in not following Him, as we do it in the flesh, we are not really loving Him.

This was the problem with the Ephesian church which is described by Jesus in the book of Revelation as that which was apparently serving Him.

REV 2:1 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands:
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.

Many of these Christians were undoubtedly thinking they were serving Christ and yet, though their zeal was commended, they were rebuked for the one thing they were not doing as their first love for Christ was put on the shelf, which means there was no way they were following Christ.

To love Christ is to follow Christ. What does that mean? How then do we follow Him?

First, we must consider that the words, follow and love, are verbs. They are action words which demand action on our parts. For those of you who remember your days in the boy scouts or the girls scouts, when we were called to follow our scout masters on a field trip, it was assumed that we walked behind them.

If we had decided to sit on the side of the path while the scout master went on ahead that would hardly have been considered following. And yet, many Christians think that sitting on the sidelines, as long as the sidelines are on the path, is following.

Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (LUK 9:23)

The cross is an implement of death. If we would follow Christ effectively we must die to self daily and then actively seek Him and His will. To die to self simply means we must put Christ’s will ahead of ours and act on that by faith as we rely on His power.

It’s when we find that following Christ becomes inconvenient, or embarrassing, or hard that we end up throwing off the cross. But it’s only as we take that cross daily as we die to self daily that we will truly be able to follow.

Following Christ takes on many different forms as James Montgomery Boice points out in his commentary on John. He gives four particular ways.

The first one involves self-denial which is what we’ve already discussed. That’s an active form of following our Lord as we seek to please Him.

The second one is to follow Him in service. Sometimes we think of service as only something associated with working in and promoting a ministry in the church, which is certainly an important part of service. But service also involves other things in life that may not be of such a high profile.

A mother raising her children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord is following Christ, who loves the little children. A father going to work to provide for his family is following the Lord as he takes that responsibility seriously.

Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping the sick, visiting the prisoner. Did not Jesus say, what you did to the least of these of mine you did to Me? These things are not unimportant as we follow Christ in obedience in these areas.

ROM 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul is saying that one of the benefits of eternal life is a life which reflects the God who gave you life, which is holiness, a life which pursues God and His will.

And it’s no coincidence that it is the Holy Spirit who indwells us and fills us to accomplish that life in us.

ROM 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.

The fourth thing Boice mentions in the way of following Christ is following Him in faithfulness to His word. Here he points out that the shepherd of Christ’s flock must be faithful to teach and preach the word of God without compromise, and without taking the attention away from Christ in the way we teach it.

Preachers and teachers can be so consumed in their presentation and the stories and jokes they think are essential to that presentation, that more time is spent on frivolous stuff than on the word of God itself.

I’ve heard people say of certain preachers that what impressed them more than anything were the stories they told and how he made them laugh. And I’m thinking to myself, laughter is a good thing, but what did you learn in that forty minutes or hour that you devoted yourself to in that service that can change your life to God’s glory?

Following Christ is not a joke and not accurately handling the word of God and faithfully teaching the word systematically is not a joke. No teacher or preacher should ever take that for granted.

JAM 3:1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

But being faithful to God’s word is not limited to Preachers and teachers as it pertains to following Christ. Each one of us must be faithful to the word of God in terms of reading it, studying it, meditating upon it and most importantly being doers of it.

As we are faithful to God in seeking Him and His word He will be faithful to show Himself to us and guide us into all truth. This is where following Christ starts as we come to Him humbly and with the attitude that we want to be by His side through this life and the next.

But following Christ is no empty spiritual exercise. As we follow Christ the Father honors us.

Think about that. God will honor us as we love Him and serve Him and follow Him. To be honored by the Almighty God and creator on an individual basis is an amazing thing. “My Father will honor the ONE who serves Me.”

Don’t ever think that God doesn’t notice your life in Christ. Hopefully, He’s not having to notice things we would be embarrassed by, but rather He’s noticing what we do for Him in His strength, and as we do such things He personally honors us as He blesses us in a way that enables us to be better servants of His Son who served the Father all the way to the cross for you and me.

Honor God. Bring glory to His name. Follow Christ all of your days, and know that as we love the life we’ve been given in Christ as we flee the life of this world, we will be those lights set on a hill for all to see the One who has given us an eternal hope and home.

May all people be drawn to Christ and may our lives play a role in accomplishing that as Christ is seen in us as He works through us.

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