Faith + Life

Delivered 29 March 2009

 

Text:  John 12:20-33; Hebrews 5:5-10

 

Good job!  Did you do something different with your hair?  That meal was…..  Oooh…did you do this painting?  Did you make that quilt?  Oh…pastor…today’s sermon was just what I needed to hear!  Or, more commonly, (muttered) “good sermon, preacher.”

 Compliments make me feel a bit awkward.  In the past decade, that’s been the result of a huge dose of genuine humility.   I’m at a point when I just want to be me and do that which I do in relative quiet and obscurity.  Maybe that’s a telephone call at just the right time…  Maybe a sermon really did have an impact on you…or a Bible study lesson….  Maybe I did something that you needed and didn’t expect and still don’t know that I did.  If it was good, it’s from God.  Don’t thank me… Thanks be to God.

 I have a strong suspicion that I would absolutely hate the fame and notoriety that come with a truly popular public life.  That wasn’t always the case.  As a teenager I would have welcomed fame and fortune.  It would have been nice for you to recognize my…  Yes, I should have been name Joseph!  I loved recognition.  I had a “me” wall covered with certificates and awards.  I like getting my photo in the paper and in the yearbook. 

 Looking back, I find the praise to have been empty.  It was nice at the time, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s really pretty bland.   Even though I still see myself in many of Peter’s faults, I think I have more in common with the disciples that we don’t know… Those who simply lived the Way…

 But…from time to time, we all get a little case of the Joseph-complex, don’t we?

 Do you?  How do you feel about public praise and notice?  Are you motivated by such recognition?  If so, do you handle it in healthy ways, or do you find yourself always fishing for compliments and vying for public acknowledgement?  If so…why do you do that?  Is it to cover some interior pain?

 As I think about where I’ve been and the people I’ve observed, it seems that many more of us are motivated by trying to medicate pain deep inside…just enough to cover it up or soothe it for the moment.   It seems that there are far too many people who don’t want to heal…they just want to forget for now…  Pity…  Is that the case for you?

 Are you comfortable laboring in secret?  Yes, I mean truly in a way where no one knows…or at least few know… what you’re doing.  Are you okay if someone else gets the credit?  Is it okay if they take your moment of glory?

 Glory.  There’s a word that we like to use.  A common connotation is “great praise,” or “honor,” or “renown.”   Think of it in terms of praise for deeds of valor or excellence.  Think of “honor” as how those deeds reflect on the family…like “honor your father and mother.”  (By the way, study the word used for “honor”…it doesn’t mean “obey.”)   In these cases, glory can be healthy.  It can be healthy for nation, for the community, and for the family.  It can be…depending on how it’s received and processed…that is…depending on the emotions and reactions it evokes. 

 

What about this connotation:  adoring praise?   

 

 That literally is the utmost, the highest, the most superlative praise or honor.  Who deserves that?

 

 Here’s another connotation: worshipful thanksgiving. 

 

Oooohhh….  That’s getting to high praise, indeed! 

 

Those last two connotations seem to be more in line with our ideas of glory, aren’t they? 

 

At this writing, the NCAA basketball tournament is in high gear.  Think about the athletes on the championship team.  Which do you think they will receive:

 

Great praise and renown…

 

Or…

 

Adoring praise? 

 

Come on… Be honest!  

 

Consider the case of a star entertainer.  Which do you think they might receive?

 

Great praise…

 

Or…

 

Adoring praise…

 

Or…

 

Worshipful thanksgiving?

 

Again…be honest! 

 

What about the case of Jesus? 

 

Wouldn’t it be easy for Jesus to exalt himself?  Wouldn’t he deserve it?  Let’s think about him resume for a moment…   The Word eternally God and eternally with God…  He set aside the prerogatives of divinity as if taking off a coat, and took on the problems and weaknesses of the creation…of us…as if putting on our coat.  He lived the life we do…and, in that one moment on the cross, knew separation from God for the first time in eternity. (I don’t know about you, but, for me, whatever Hell may be like, nothing can be worse than separation from God.) 

 

Even though we see where Jesus…the Word made flesh…deserves glory, we read in Hebrews 5:5 that “…Christ did not glorify himself…”

 

Jesus had a focus.  His focus was on his purpose…on the Father’s will.

 

In John 12, we read about Jesus being glorified.  Yes, he knew that he would receive glory…

           

1)      Jesus would be glorified in his atoning death.

2)      Jesus would be glorified in his fulfilling the Father’s purpose.

               (Remember the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane?)

3)      Jesus would be glorified by focusing others on the Father.

 

No Joseph-complex there….

 

In fact, Jesus prays, “Father, glorify your name.” 

 

What focus Jesus has!  The hour has come… This is the last week of Jesus’ human life and he’s focused on, “Father, glorify your name.” 

 

Imagine…you have some dreaded disease.  You’ve had the diagnosis for months.  You knew the prognosis was death.  Now, you know it’s close…  The time is very near…  You’re family is gathered around your bed…and all you can think of is “Father, glorify your name.” 

 

Perhaps that’s easy since heaven or hell loom very near…  What about time when heaven and hell seem farther away?  What about…now? 

 

In his book It, Craig Groeshel tells about a ministry in which he was involved in college.  If I recall the story correctly, he said they didn’t really know what they were doing.  It started with he and a few friends gathering for Bible study before going to their frat house.   Before long, the were several people involved…and their lives were being changed…transformed…  College kids with no training and no extensive library.  Just open hearts and minds…seeking God.  

 

This ministry grew.  They had a single focus: to get college students to encounter God in the Bible.  It was working!  People were discovering or rediscovering God!  Then…they lost it.  The lost that thing that Jesus had.  They lost…focus on “Father, glorify your name.” 

 

Pastor Groeshel says it all started with a bake sale.   They raised $34.50.  Then…they had to decide what to do with it.  From then on they were concerned with raising money, with budgets, with expansion…  It was gone.  Their single-minded focus on God was gone…and so their ministry fell apart.[1]

 

What about us?  What about our lives?  What about our work?   Do we have it?

 

Are we focused on God and on his Glory alone? 

 

If we’re honest with ourselves, don’t we sneak in wherever we find a place?  Don’t we insert our own agendas?  Don’t we seek our own prestige?  Don’t we use God’s name for our own purposes? 

 

How do we focus on God and on him alone? 

 

Some of you have taken advantage of our study opportunities.  We’ve been considering prayer, study of the Bible, fasting, service, submission, and worship.  All of these are ways that we place ourselves humbly before God.  All of these are ways in which we surrender our own agendas to God’s agenda.  All of these are ways in which we get out of the way and let God work within us.   They’re not mechanisms for earning anything.  They’re simply ways to focus on God. 

 

Have we done that?

 

How do our committee meetings turn out?   There’s a great sign of how well we are focusing on God…how we approach each other while discussing business matters.  How are we doing? 

 

What would our lives look like if we did focus on God and his Glory alone?   

 

Start at home…  How would your life be different?  Your marriage?  Your life with your children or with your parents?  

 

Now, do the unthinkable.  Take God to work…or to school. Focus on worshipping God at work…  Worship him in every moment.  How does that change your day? 

 

Now take God to church.  Does your favorite program focus on God and his Glory alone?  Is your church doing too much to even remember that God is the reason you here in the first place??????? 

 

Focusing on God alone…  Jesus did it all the way to the Cross.  You and I find it hard to do for a few minutes, yet, we’re followers of the Christ, right?  We struggle to love the least and the lost, right?  We struggle to pray for our enemies, right?  We even struggle to be nice to people of other races, right?  All because of Jesus, right? 

 

We can also focus on God and his Glory alone.  Jesus set the example.  Let’s ask him to teach us how to follow.