61. Pizza Party or Game Time? John 12b

G'day.

Welcome to Stories Of a Faithful God For Kids.

Dave here, if you don't know what I look like, you can actually now watch me recording these episodes on YouTube.

You can check it out there.

Now, picture it.

It's the day of the big game, the grand final.

The whole season's been leading up to this and you have gone to watch the game.

You've painted yourself in team colours.

You're wearing your team hat and your team shirt and your team underwear.

As you arrive at the stadium, there are thousands of other people, all dressed like you and singing your team song.

The minutes tick by until finally it's time for the teams to come onto the field.

First, the opposition team runs on the only team that your team hasn't managed to beat.

They look fit and tough and ready to play.

Now it's time for your team to come out.

The announcer calls out their name, the fans cheer and scream.

Every eye staring at the door that they're all going to come out from and no one comes out.

What's going on?

What's the problem?

Someone walks into the change rooms to see what's happening.

He gets to the end of the corridor, opens the door and there's the team all eating pizza.

Hmm.

There's something wrong with that scene, isn't there?

There's something that the team hasn't understood.

It isn't time to eat pizza.

There's plenty of time for that later.

Now it's time for them to play the game.

Now they have to be completely ready for the challenge.

Now they should be running out onto the ground as all the fans cheer.

It's bad if you do something at the wrong time, like putting on your pyjamas when you're meant to be going to school, or being asleep when the teacher's talking to you and just asked you a question.

Nothing's as bad, though, as doing things at the wrong time with Jesus, not understanding what time it is with Jesus and not doing what it's time to do with Jesus.

We're going to hear more about that from Jesus in today's story.

So get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God For Kids.

At the end of our last episode, the Pharisees, the people who really want to kill Jesus, were really frustrated.

They'd just watched Jesus ride into Jerusalem on a donkey with thousands and thousands of people calling out to him as the King.

Not just any king, but the King who God promised to send from long, long ago.

The King who was going to rule the world.

The King who'd bring peace to the whole world.

So many people were cheering Jesus and the Pharisees said to each other, you can see that nothing is going right for us.

Look, the whole world is following him, which is actually what you'd expect for the king of the whole world.

And if it's true, if Jesus is that king and the world is coming to the king, then what would you expect to happen next?

You'd expect him to.

To bring peace, to make peace between humans and God and between humans and humans.

Well, wouldn't you know it?

In the very next verse, some people want to come and meet Jesus.

Not people from Judea, not people from Israel, but Greek people, people from far away out in the world.

In other words, the world is coming to see Jesus.

In verse 20 of chapter 12, John tells us this.

He says there were some Greek people too, who came to Jerusalem to worship at the Passover feast.

They went to Philip.

Philip was from Bethsaida in Galilee.

They said, sir, we would like to see Jesus.

Philip told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

And then Jesus says something really weird.

He doesn't say, yes, they can come and see me.

He doesn't say, no, they can't see me at all.

In fact, he doesn't say anything about the Greeks, because Jesus is thinking about something much more important.

He knows that he's the king God promised to send.

He knows that the time is coming soon for him to do what God sent him to do.

And when the world comes to see him, he knows that that time is now.

Not in a year, not in half a year, but right now.

Now's the moment when God's going to show the world how great Jesus is.

He'll glorify him.

Jesus also knows that the way that'll happen and the way he'll bring peace with God and give eternal life to everyone who trusts him is by dying on the cross.

So he says in verse 23, the time has come for the Son of Man to receive his glory.

I tell you the truth.

A grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die.

Then it makes many seeds.

But if it never dies, it remains only a single seed.

This is big, right?

It's the most important moment in all of history.

The biggest moment in all of history.

And it's finally arrived.

Jesus knows what he's got to do in this moment, but he wants other people to know what they should do.

He wants us to know what we should do.

What we should do.

What it's time for us to do is to trust Jesus and follow him.

In fact, we need to trust him and follow him and listen to him and obey him, even if it means that other people don't like us for it.

If they don't like Jesus, they won't like people who trust and follow him.

If you want to make your life comfortable now, easy, just give up on Jesus.

But then you'll miss out on eternal life.

The way to get eternal life is to follow Jesus even when it's hard.

Because right now, in this moment, we're in the time when people won't always like us for following Jesus.

In the future, when Jesus returns, it'll mean happiness forever, without any pain at all.

But that isn't the time we're in right now.

Right now, even though it's really good to follow Jesus, it can be hard.

If you understand what time it is, if you understand that it's worth following Jesus right now, even when it's hard, you'll be doing exactly the right thing.

Jesus says in verse 25, the person who loves his life will give up true life.

But the person who hates his life in this world will keep true life forever.

Whoever serves me must follow me.

Then my servant will be with me everywhere.

I am my Father will honour anyone who serves me.

It's pretty awesome to have God the Father honour you for following Jesus.

What's also awesome is that Jesus knows exactly what time it is.

He knows what he needs to do at this time.

Even though it's scary, even though it hurts, he isn't caught in the locker room eating pizza.

He doesn't run away and say, I don't want it to be this time right now.

He says in verse 27, now I am very troubled.

What should I say?

Should I say, father, save me from this time?

No, I came to this time so that I could suffer.

And then he uses that word again.

Glory.

Greatness.

He wants his Father to show the world just how great he is.

So Jesus prays, father, bring glory to your name.

And then a massive voice booms out of the sky.

I have brought glory to it and I will do it again.

And people are like, what was that?

Some think it was thunder.

Others are like, nah, man, an angel spoke to him.

But Jesus says, that voice you heard, it wasn't for me.

It was for you.

You see, God wants them to understand the time they're in.

The most important, the most amazing, the most wonderful time in all of history.

Jesus tells them that time has come.

The time's come for the world to be judged all the evil that people have got away with, they're not going to get away with it anymore.

Also, now's the time for Satan to be defeated.

Satan is that snake who was in the garden at the beginning of the world.

The one who hates God and wants to be God and wants us to listen to him instead of God.

Jesus is about to defeat him.

And Jesus is about to save people from all over the world by dying on the cross.

This is why it's the most wonderful time in history.

Evil defeated, Satan beaten, heaps of people saved.

This will all bring glory to God.

People will see how great he is.

But the people listening to Jesus, they're about to miss the moment.

They don't understand what time it is, what they should be doing.

What it's so important to do at this moment is trust Jesus, listen to Jesus, learn from Jesus.

Right back at the beginning of the gospel, John told us that Jesus is the light.

He helps us see the truth.

The truth about God, the truth about ourselves, the truth about the world.

If you want to know the truth, stay in the light.

Keep listening to Jesus.

But Jesus is about to leave these people.

They're not going to see him again.

It's like the light's about to be switched off for them.

So it's now or never.

Now's the time to believe.

Will they do what they need to do at the right time?

Jesus says in verse 35, the light will be with you for a little while longer.

So walk while you have the light.

Then the darkness will not catch you.

He who walks in the darkness does not know what he is doing.

So believe in the light while you still have it.

Then you will become sons of light.

And then as soon as he says that he leaves, he hides himself from them.

It's like the light suddenly goes out.

They had him with them for three years.

Teaching the truth, shining the light of truth.

Will they believe him?

Will they trust him?

Will they follow him?

Sadly, for a lot of them, the answer's no.

And the reason is God's punishing them for their sin.

They've rejected him and ignored him and loved themselves more than him.

And God said, okay, when I come, then when I send my son, Jesus, God in the flesh when he comes to give life to everyone who believes in him, you won't be able to have it.

God had said that in the Old Testament through the prophet Isaiah.

Verse 40 tells us what Isaiah said God would do.

Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes.

He has closed their minds.

This is so that they will not see with their eyes nor understand in their minds.

This is so they will not come back to me and be forgiven.

In other words, don't wait for a better time to start trusting and believing in Jesus.

If you miss the right time, if you wait too long, God might just say, enough's enough, no more chances.

I won't let you believe in Jesus anymore or be forgiven anymore.

Other people there do believe in Jesus.

They do believe he's the King.

They do believe that God sent him.

And yet they don't want anyone to know about it.

They still want people to like them more than they want God to like them.

They still prefer people to tell them they've done the right thing rather than have God tell them they've done the right thing.

And so they stay quiet.

They don't want anyone to know that they believe in Jesus.

But Jesus said before, don't be like that.

Don't try and keep trusting Jesus quietly.

It's not the time for that.

Now's the time to tell people about Jesus and how great it is to believe in him and how you believe in him, even if it means some people won't like you for that.

Because Jesus loves to help people, he has one last go at telling them the truth.

He tells them that he really is the light that shows the truth.

He really has come from His Father in heaven.

He doesn't make stuff up.

He speaks the truth of God.

He reminds people that a time's coming, the last day of the world where it'll be really obvious how people have treated Jesus.

No one will be able to hide.

Have they listened to what he says or have they ignored him?

If they've listened to and trusted Jesus, they'll have eternal life.

If they haven't, there won't be any more chances when that time comes.

Jesus words are so helpful for us as well as the people back then.

They remind us, don't wait for the last day.

Understand the time you're in now.

Now's the time to trust Jesus.

Now's the time to listen to his words.

Now's the time to live the way he wants us to live.

Back in Jesus Day.

The time for Jesus to go around publicly speaking to large crowds is over.

Instead, Jesus is going to spend some time with his disciples, getting them ready for what's about to happen.

Preparing them for a time when they won't see him anymore.

But that's a story for next time.

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Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.