Good Afternoon! In preparation for the sermon I have struggled over and in all humility I would like to say what I believe is what I've learned from Scripture that don't want to say something that I have thought up I don't want to give you any of my theories on how things go but I hope I hope that what I convey to you will be the message of God and I do believe that that is what happens because when we prayerfully come before God he will not lead us astray today's passage is taken from John's Gospel chapter 12 verses 20 to 26 and the theme for this Sunday is mission Sunday the church that has to introduce Christ immediately different ideas will come to my investor where the sermon is going what is he going to say and that I struggled with this for quite some time which is part of the reason why it broke down there is this concept of why don't we understand what the Bible has been teaching us all in verse 20 we see very clearly that there are some Greeks who want to come and meet Jesus there are some people who are not choose but they want to know who this Jesus is and there may be different reasons for why that is and as I was doing some research I could figure out some reasons one is perhaps the heart of Lazarus's resurrection if we read earlier on in this passage we even know that the chief priests not only wanted to kill Jesus for the chief Reese wanted to kill Lazarus and the reason was because people had seen that life people had seen what happened to Lazarus and people were believing in Jesus and because of that people were leaving the Jewish faith and the subset the chief priests the chief Reese in addition to wanting to kill Jesus they also wanted to kill Lazarus because of his life testimony perhaps they heard about that maybe they wanted to see whose diseases that resurrected this man from the dead maybe maybe they had witnessed or maybe they had heard about Jesus cleansing the temple doing Jesus walked in the temple he was in the outer courts where the people were selling things for profit and Internet outer court the Jews and non-Jews are allowed to enter so it is quite possible these are Jews were coming for a festival so it's possible that these use perhaps saw that Jesus had done something very different than a radical and so they come to see who is this Jesus about maybe maybe they heard about his miracles maybe they were completely shocked and taken back by a person who could do such things maybe wanted to see what this man is all about whatever the reason is that was something profound enough for them to want to come and to seek out this Jesus and so they come to a disciple named Philip Philip is the Greek name it's not a Hebrew name nor his entry they come to a man with a Greek name and they asked him show us Jesus I can't help but thinking that doesn't apply to us people who are between two cultures people who could easily be approached and asked who is this Jesus and how often do we shy away this topic comes up quite often pluralism pluralism is the kind of go to subject when you don't want to offend somebody is very politically correct to believe and support pluralism is very easy to say that all religions are pretty much the same all had leads. Top of the same mountain many people think that that's a very respectful thing to say if it's honoring others were not causing problems with anyone was saying that they're all pretty much the same but I really wonder is that being respectful when we say that all religions are pretty much the same when we say that they all are different paths to reach the same one God what do we know about these paths see if I go to a Muslim and I tell the Muslim my friends see your your religion and my religion that pretty much the same how would he respond me not thoroughly studying his religion would be quite offended that I would have the audacity to believe that I know where his religion is aiming him and this I go to the Buddhist and save with his friend to your religion is pretty much the same as Hinduism I don't see how he would resist from slapping because Buddhism is that religion started because they could not tolerate some of the things within the Hindu concepts such as casters say when we say that all religions are the same are we really honoring them are we really respecting them when we are tending to know that we know what all of them are talking about wouldn't be much more respectful if we studied our own religion to know what it says and have dialogue with the other person and say friend this is what my beliefs are and he says this is my beliefs and we have a disagreement isn't that much more respectful than having this kind of fake political correctness has taken over our society and culture I think it is I think it is a serious problem and I think it's because we have not really gone into our own faith of one of the good things that I saw out of our adult VBS class is dispatched to want to know some of the recent things of our faith at first that I really struggled with that maven told Ocean about it my struggle with this idea that we could be in charge for this many years and not know the basics of our faith are and at first I was almost irritated offended angry and then I thought from the other perspective these are people who never done it before and finally they're getting it I'm so happy that they're actually thirsting for that but I think that those who came to the adult Bible study class will not be saying the same thing the base would have said before the Bible study class started that all of the same because when we study a little bit more deeply into our faith we limit this this character this is Jesus who is so different from anything that we've ever seen in all of history this is a person who will came down not just to show us a better way of life but whose life was the fulfillment of something that we had seen hinted towards in Genesis chapter 3 and we went over this with the adults and we talked about how in Genesis chapter 3 verse 21 after Adam and Eve had seen God did something very strange very crass you could say in a world of perfection in the world that saw no death in the world that saw no pain God takes an animal and kills it he killed the animal and he takes the skin of the animal and he makes clothing for Adam and Eve clothing to hide the shame that was produced when they had sinned against God one they understood sin is not something that can be taken lightly and I thought I was just eating a fruit that I was doing something casual I just told a little white lie I just seven yeah God you told me not to eat from the tree but what's the big deal with my farming hooted I really hurts but it was something very serious it was something that toward the relationship between them and God apart because big as a result of that shame and guilt entered into the world it was something very serious so serious that God had to take an animal and humans in order to remove the shame and Madison Avenue seeing something like this happened for the first time ever want to take it as a historical thing they had never seen a lot before they would probably be wondering what is this liquid flowing out of his animal so they understood the seriousness of sin but then I think they also understood something else very profound the grace of God because God said today on the day that you needed it you shall surely die in the Hebrew it is emphatic you will die knowing that that's what God had said to him we seen this God who pursues them in the garden where are you calling out to them meeting them asking what happened and then doing what needed to be done in order to bring them back because after they put on those clothes a little longer stood shameful before their mighty God their relationship was somewhat restored through that act so not only do they understand the seriousness of sin they understood the graciousness of their God the God who would do such a radical thing in order to bring them back and then the third thing that they would've understood is that something had to die in order that I might live is the concept that we have learned so many times the Hebrews had learned it year after year after year in a way Passover pointed towards it in addition to Passover pointing to the 10th and final play it as they made their exit out of Egypt were when they put the blood of perfect spotless lamb on their door posts they understood that the debt that we deserved will now have been taken by that animal we know the seriousness of it we know the grace of it and we understand that new life comes because of it each and every year the family got together and they haven't a barbecue agent every year they came together and they you really understood what this meant to them profits kept telling them remember what this means don't seem to keep doing the things that you're doing don't keep running after whoever other people are saying is the real God but the Israelites did when they went their own way and profit after profit after Prophet urged them pleaded with them cry over them say come back, until when the time came when Jesus comes down and we see this person who's radically different than everyone else and not only does he show us that this this is what life looks like he proved it to us improve it to us by going to the cross with the weather was a nice person he understood that when please look at the Hinduism there was something wrong with the unfairness of the cast so he sought to make a new religion he was a nice person Mohammed was a great leader he led many people people followed him people believed him he believed absolutely but there is one God and that was something about the Christian faith that bothered him because the Christians said that there's a thing called the Trinity and so this great leader leave something else and he lives his life accordingly Judaism has Moses has Abraham great leaders again with people who time and time again show us their flaws we have in Hinduism Vishnu who came down several times in different forms and who has helped humanity and who has shown his selflessness and then we have price Christ even the Quran admits was sinless Christ who even the Muslims believe what had a virgin birth we have a price to historians even say that he can and he had done miracles we have a Christ who many people had witnessed firsthand a Christ too many people had written about we have a Christ who claimed to be God we have a Christ who understood the problem of humanity in its essence knowing that there is a problem with a nice and that the solution cannot come from within but the solution comes to him and we have a Christ who died for us in no other religion do we find this Peter and Andrew could have thought that these Greeks were heathens undeserving to stand before their Lord they could've thought that way but I believe that they showed love to the I believe that they respected that it is very shameful it is shameful when the church attacks other religions and with attacks other people we don't need to attack other religions because if we were to proclaim our religion in its fullness people would be true on to it and the reason I cry is because at that line when that when there's a certain line becomes their I'm saying blot out all of my sins and I can't help but think how many times is my life actually push people away from Christ how many times has our lives as a church given a bad taste of who Christ is in the mouths of others and then we go arguing and then we go debating with theories and missiology of those things have its place I love to study theology I addle minded good debate about introducing people to Christ means showing them who Christ is to our own lives and it's not just about actions indefinitely involves speech you can't feed a person and help them to understand just by feeding them who Christ is by feeding them you are showing them the love of Christ not tell them where that love came from explained to them who this Jesus is a servant have we have we encountered cracks because if we have what I do why aren't we introducing him to any and everyone we come into contact with why is it that when we have an adult Bible study class we taken aback by the basics of our faith why is it that after year after year after year of learning through the Sunday school lessons that we still haven't understood what greases and how serious this sin problem is the different religions have their different takes on different aspects of life this idea of sin in and of itself is not necessarily found in other religions but everyone everyone understands that there is some problem with this world in order Barnes & Noble's of any major bookstore and one of the largest sections of that store is self-help because they all understand that there's something off the something wrong there is no society in this world that lives without police officers because everyone knows that if left to ourselves it would be anarchy because everyone deep down knows there will be or is this thing that is wrong with us and I do believe that when it is struggled with when it is wrestled with no matter which religion you are in you come to a point where you realize no works will at first set me right I can do as many good things is I possibly can but I will nap for the right and once we understand that that is the problem with humanity we see that Christ offers a solution Christ after he gets these Greeks to come and stand before him he then basically declares my time is come that set I waited for this this is now the beginning of a climax of my mission in life where where is Christ in our lives have we encountered his grace do we realize the seriousness of our sin for a merciful God who cannot tolerate disobedience not because he is some sort of and did vengeful person but he can't tolerate it because he knows the author of life knows how we can truly live and that's by listening and abiding by each and every word that proceeds from his mouth and so he gave us his son and his son showed us away and his son made away for us so that we could live if we have encountered him please introduce him to one of her friends would one of you please do this in order for a a a a a a a a you a you a you a law, or a you are in. A you a you a you a you a you a you a a a a a a a him will a you he you a the are you a you a you and you and him and him and Christ died for us so we could live in communion is the teaching element that Christ is given to us to communicate that newness of life which is found in him it is something that needs to be partake in him and the very seriously all those who desire to come and take part in that communion if you would stand and say the prayer of confession after me a I confess that I have sinned against you for father son and Holy Spirit in