Church Planting
Read: John 12:20-26
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
When the non-Jewish ‘Greeks’ came to see Jesus, it triggered a profound realization for Jesus, one that had been set in motion before the foundation of the world: the time had come! After a lifetime of serving God and three intense years of teaching the Jewish people, the pivotal moment had finally arrived.
He had been telling His followers (His learners) over and over for years, “The time isn’t here yet.” So many “not yet’s.” There had been so many moments of waiting. How many times had He escaped a controversy just to continue teaching another day? How many hundreds of decisions guided His steps through dusty villages and countless conversations, all finally leading Him to Jerusalem? And at that moment, when the ‘Greek’ people came to speak to Jesus, He knew with certainty that the time for His Glory had come.
How did He know? What made Him realize that this was the moment when people would finally see Him for who he really was? He was God in Human Flesh, the Creator of the World and the Rescuer for Humanity. He was sent specifically to the people of Israel, the Jewish nation. So at this moment when people in foreign clothes speaking a different language, walked up to show Him honor, did He feel in his bones that the turning point had come?
But what exactly would ‘glorification’ mean in this context? His Father had revealed that “Glory” for Him was for the world to see and know Jesus as God, for all He is in all His power and majesty. But to see that would be to see Him be summarily sentenced to die on a wooden execution stake. How could He use that word “glory” for his unjust, extrajudicial killing, forced by the very religious leaders who held the oracles of God? This was to be a gross miscarriage of justice carried out under the authority of a pagan foreign army. And this, Jesus, is what You meant by ‘glorification’?
Because He knew. He knew His life wasn’t just a sum of moral teachings; those would never be enough to rescue mankind and let us see God for who He is.
And Jesus’s willingness to die wasn’t only a great demonstration of self-sacrificing love (as if an example could save mankind).
No. His glorification by the cross was infinitely more.
- When shouts of accusation falsely maligned Him in court, His silence pleaded His own righteousness for mankind. From the seed that died at Calvary, Glory to God in Jesus Christ, for He would stand to intercede for them.
- Torn by merciless iron nails, His flesh would become the true mercy-giving food for all who partake in it. From the seed that died at Calvary, we see His amazing kindness in sharing His Body broken for us.
- He willingly poured out His blood to pay the penalty for every sin committed, so God can forgive every wrong action done by all who trust in Jesus. His offer of justification and a “not guilty” judgment for all of mankind would spring from His life-blood poured out at Calvary.
- Wrapped in a death shroud, His dead heart would beat to life again, and He would walk from the house of decay into a world where death had been conquered. When that stone was rolled back, the fear of death was rolled back for millions. From His tomb we saw Glory to God.
From His death and burial, new life would shoot up for everyone in the whole world who accepts His offer. In the rocky soil of Calvary in a dusty, occupied part of Jerusalem, Jesus became the foundation of the Church, the original Church Plant. And just weeks later, His Spirit breathed life and fire into His gathered collection, His Church, which would become visible and spread to new regions, new nations, and eventually to us.
But Jesus wasn’t the only one to lay down His life in order to bring life. The promise of life through death was for all. He said, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me.”
So He wasn’t the only one to die for the life of the world: He was the first. Every local gathering of His Church begins with planting the life of men and women who lay down one life for the fruit He wants to grow.
- Church planters die to the comforts of a large community of teachers where they and their families are easily fed by the Word.
- Church planters die to the joys of large worship gatherings with hundreds of voices praising God together and live to hear a handful of voices together.
- Church planters sacrifice having an established local church organization with its financial buffers and live week-to-week with limited resources and substantial risks.
When men and women plant a church, there are numerous ways the seed dies: the loss of predictability and delegation in the work of ministry; the loss of established structures; the loss of visible successes; the loss of stability. Compared to the value of eternal life — and the joy of bearing fruit for God — church planters turn their backs on many of the joys of the established church gatherings.
Pastor Bruce Milne wrote, “Death proclaims that there is nothing in our lives which is finally fit to endure to eternity.” It is to this we were called: to follow in His footsteps. We lay down as dead all the parts of life that were not made to last forever in order to gain the Treasure a million years from now.
For the cause of our King Jesus, you were called to lay down your life, your energy, and your reasonable preferences because they are not fit to endure eternity. Some of us will be called to physically be killed like He was, knowing His promise that death is the gateway to bring us to Himself. Some of us will plant our lives in the soil to start new churches. And in all of our sacrifices, we aim for our lives to bear much fruit as we are energized by His living love that encourages the living faith in others and rescues them from sin to live for God.
