48. Planted into the Earth

Covering John Chapters 11 to 13:

The Flow of Gospel Word goes from John 10, Life Abundant, to John 11, Resurrection Life, to John 12, Jesus planted in our earth, bringing forth many just like Himself. This is an important progression, and our hope is that we might catch a glimpse of what it means.

John and Jesus both are throwing in so many metaphors, we can hardly keep track. We must keep in mind that each metaphor gives us a view of our relationship with a God who shares life with us, but cannot give the whole picture. That means that each metaphor is limited. That’s actually how God works – He must show Himself through many, for He is vast. Yet God gives us clear guidelines. Jesus says “Door,” and we think Tabernacle. He says, “Seed,” and we think the reproduction of Life. These two metaphors rule all others.

Life Must Be Planted. This lesson, “Planted in the Earth,” and the last, “Life Abundantly,” are not conclusive in themselves. Rather, we are seeing through all, in particular, from Rivers Flowing Out into Jesus’ discourse in the upper Room, that the Spirit of God is laying out all the ways of seeing and thinking that we must have in order to comprehend the Tree of Life, John 14:20, Ruling Verse 10, John’s version of Paul’s Symmorphy.

Life must be planted in the earth. And in being planted into the earth, it brings forth many just like itself. Thus we see that many, many just like Jesus – coming out from the Earth – is a central part of the Abundance that is Life. Yet LIFE is very big and very dramatic. Life swallows up death. Life is every mundane moment shared with God. Life is Grace and Glory.

I Am the Resurrection. (Chapter 11) • 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one believing into Me, even if he should die, he will live; • 26 and everyone living and believing into Me, will never die into the age. Do you believe this?” – John Chapter 11 is a long story, but in it I have selected only five Gospel Verses for comments, including these two.

Consider “I am the resurrection and the life,” and “the seed (Jesus) must be planted in the earth.” Place those two thoughts into everything Paul says about the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, Philippians 3, and elsewhere. Jesus as the Resurrection is planted into your earth. And He is there to bring you forth just like Himself. The same Person who spoke to Martha is inside of you. Do you believe Him?

Do You Believe Him? Here’s the thing. You might think that, if Jesus Himself came up to you, just like He did to Martha, and spoke those same things to you, especially since you know that Lazarus is about to be raised, that you would then believe Him.

But you have the advantage right now that Martha did not have, not until the Day of Pentecost a few months later. Martha was looking at a Man on the outside of her, and you are looking at the exact same Man on the inside of you. Martha was looking at Resurrection and Life that was not yet part of the fabric of her humanity. You are looking at Resurrection and Life that is woven all through your spirit, your soul, and your body, still the same Man, but now part of you and you of Him. Do you believe Him, that you will NEVER die?

Fixing Our Eyes. We know that resurrection is that which swallows up our death, our outward form and appearance. To believe in Jesus is to fix that reality before our eyes, regardless of ALL else.

Life: Jesus as Resurrection and Life is the Seed to be planted into our earth (see John 12:24). The very same Jesus who spoke to Martha is inside of you, speaking the same Word into all that you are.

Kingdom: The defeat of death is a central goal of the Christian life. Resurrection Life swallows up our death, our outward form and appearance (see 2 Corinthians 5:4-5).

Ruling Verse 7: Confidence in the same Jesus inside of us requires us to look at every Word God speaks and know that God is telling us the Truth, including “shall never die.”

Sharing Hheart with God. • 35 Jesus wept.

– The one who sees Me sees the Father. – The Father wept.

This line from John is inside the context of also saying twice that Jesus was very angry, that He was agitated. That anger was directed at death, and all the pain it causes. Yet the weeping was the sorrow of God reaching out to share our own sorrow and pain as He shares every moment of our lives with us. Thus we know that in every moment, circumstance, and interaction, God says to us, “I am sharing just a little bit of My own agony for My people with you. Will you share it with Me?” We share Hheart with God when we know and confess that this sharing of Travail, God with us, is True.

Seeing God. When we see God through Jesus and the serpent together, a God who knows GOOD (and evil), we can hardly approach such a “God.” But when we take John 14:9 literally, knowing that the devil lied, and see God only through Jesus, we know that God made us like Himself, as He said.

Definition: Jesus shows us the Father. Just as Jesus expressed anger against death, and wept in a shared emotion with those who suffered loss, so also does the Father. We know that the devil lied, that God does not know evil. We see God only through Jesus, now inside our hearts, making us like Himself.

Ruling Verse 9: We take John 14:9 and 15:12 literally. Knowing this same Jesus now through us inside our world, we weep with those who suffer loss. And we set ourselves against death, the enemy of all, for we share Jesus with God.

A Key Supporting Verse. 41 Then after they took away the stone, Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. • 42 And I am aware that You always hear Me; but on account of this crowd all around I said it, that they may believe that You sent Me.” 43 And having said these things, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” • 44 The one who had been dead came out, his feet and hands still bound with linen strips and a headcloth still bound about his face. Jesus said to them, “Release him and allow him to go.”

I am now seeing verses 41-42 as a key supporting verse to 1 John 3:16 via Psalm 22. When Jesus said, in His final moments on the cross, “You have answered Me,” those words saved us. Yet even more than those words, the TRUST in God that they meant.

The One Thing that Matters. There are three things that have no meaning whatsoever, and one thing that has all meaning forever. The first three are (1) all horrendous human emotions and judgments, (2) the worst possible of circumstances, and (3) the least effectiveness of ability. The ONE THING is, “Father, I give myself to You, as I am – for the sake of these whom You have given to Me. Oh God, You have answered Me.”

Covenant & Ruling Verse 8: In His final hours upon the cross, Jesus knew rejection of God, contempt for Himself, and contempt for humans, just as we do. The Words He spoke inside Himself joined us with the Father, “God, You hear Me. You have answered Me” (see Psalm 22). We follow Jesus.

Kingdom: As Jesus calls our brethren out from death, our job is to release them from all trappings of death into God.

Another View of God. (Chapter 12) 13 They took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, shouting: “You save us now! Blessed is the One coming inside of the name of the Lord. And the King of Israel!” • 14 Then Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat upon it, as it is written: 15 “Do not fear, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on the colt of a donkey.”

Jesus likely weighed more than the young donkey upon which He rode, and His head was likely below the level of most of the people around Him. This picture is meant by God to place “He humbled Himself” – to reveal God – into the visible awareness of the entire nation of Israel.

Definition: Jesus shows us the Father. God humbles Himself beneath of all, in the sight of all, as He enters into the Desire of His Heart, His City, the Church, to be known by all.

“Should Die.” 23 Jesus answered them saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. • 24 It is as I say to you. If a grain of wheat planted into the ground should not die, it remains alone. If it should die, however, it bears much fruit. – And the Lord God formed man of the soil of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). This is the earth, having already received the Spirit, into which Jesus is planted.

The words “should die,” as Jesus uses them here, clearly must fit the pattern of plant seed, that is, we define it, not as we think of “death” in other contexts, but only by this context. Notice the gap in Jesus’ words, from “seed alone” to “much fruit.” The “should die” takes place between those two. Jesus clearly means the seed “must become the plant.”

The Seed Becomes the Plant. The seed becomes the plant. The plant comes out from the awakening of the seed inside the soil. The plant is each one of us as individuals AND all believers together as the Church. The seed needs three things from the soil, water, oxygen, and warmth. The oxygen joins with the starches in the seed, softened by the water, to create energy, that is, fire. So – water and fire together awaken the seed. The first thing the seed does is send a root penetrating even deeper into the earth. The earth is our humanity. Jesus is planted into my earth.

Then the seed seems to disappear as the plant grows into the sunshine and no longer needs the seed for energy. But the seed has not disappeared, rather, it is written in the genetic code of every part of that plant. What is written then concentrates again as the new seeds at the end of the cycle.

The Seed Planted. The Seed planted is “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” This Seed contains all the genetic code of God, every Word God speaks. As the Seed awakens inside our hearts, as we acknowledge the Lord Jesus, so He sends Himself as a root deep into every part of our humanity. Yet we know the Word only as a vast panorama of mostly disconnected pieces, and we do not know where anything is supposed to fit. The Church does not “look like” Jesus.

May I suggest that this Flow of Gospel Word that God is giving to us is that Genetic Code coming back together in concentrated form, making us now to be the many seeds just like Jesus, as Resurrection and as Life. – He that believes in Me shall never die.

Becoming Like Jesus. For nearly twenty years, now, I have been speaking Christ my only life in response to the words, “Speak what God says you are.” Nothing I have written thus far confirms to me that this is God’s way more than this picture just now. How could we ever be like Jesus except His Word become all that we are, in all of our relationship with the Father?

Life: Jesus is the Seed of God, every Word God speaks, dwelling in our humanity, written upon our hearts of flesh, planted in our earth. Individually and together, we are the plant sprung to life out from that seed. The same genetic code that is Jesus, Gospel Word, is now written upon us.

Speak Christ: As we speak every Word that is Jesus, now our own word as well, so Jesus makes us to be just like Himself, that He might bring us forth as the many seeds for God.

Hope Turned into Horror. • 25 The one who loves more his soul, his own story of self, loses it, and the one who loves less his soul, his story of self inside this world, will keep and protect it into age-unfolding life. • 26 If anyone serves Me, let him accompany Me; and where I am, there also My servant will be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will value and honor him.

The preachers do not know what verse 25 means, and they turn it into a horror of impossibility for everyone. By it, they insist that the “dying” of verse 24 has to refer to us, “Die, sinner, die.” Yet they themselves do not “do” verse 25, and they cannot explain how we are to accomplish such a thing. In short, John 12:23-26, among the greatest HOPE verses in the Bible, became for us the complete absence of hope inside the darkness of utter failure.

Losing My Soul. It is an extraordinary thing to me that no one I have ever heard preach has considered that seed to be Jesus planted into our earth. Rather, they say, “Just as Jesus had to die, so you have to die.” But God has One Seed ONLY, a Seed that brings forth one Kind only, monogenes, the Only Seed/Kind of God.

I know this by the experience of nearly twenty years. For me to allow Jesus to define me by His words now spoken in my mouth, takes TIME. And it takes a willingness in me to Trust in Him, that He is, in fact, writing Himself upon me. I must be willing to stop defining myself by my stupid imagination – that is, LOSE my own story of self, that I may gain it back again symmorphosed with Jesus, the same story of self, the same soul, yet brand new and filled with GLORY!

Another Story. You CANNOT ever lose your story of self except by one means only, you must receive the Words of Another, the Story of Another, the Soul of Another, not to replace your own story, but to come into union with it, that you and He might be one. There is no other way for verse 25 to happen, but it DOES, for Jesus speaks the Truth.

Covenant: Jesus planted inside of us as every Word God speaks is how we lose our fake story of self, by giving all that we are to Him. Yet He also gives us His own Story shared with ours. Thus we receive our souls back again brand new.

Kingdom: As we share soul with Jesus, in intimate fellowship, so we are with Him in all, even inside of the Father. As the Father values and honors Jesus, so He values and honors us.

Drawn into Psalm 22. • 31 “Now is the judgment of this world-cosmos; now the prince of this world-cosmos will be banished. 32 And if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to Myself.” 33 Now, He said this to signify by what death He was about to die.

The key words here are “I will draw all to Myself.” We know that this means each in their season. Yet it is those who come to Him inside themselves in this season that are the judgment of the world-cosmos. The world is judged as we refuse the words of the liar, specifically by being drawn into the Jesus of Psalm 22. We are the ones who banish the lie.

Ruling Verse 4: As those whom Jesus has drawn into Himself, the judgment of this world-cosmos also comes through us. The world is judged as we refuse the words of the liar, accusing God of knowing evil. We banish the lie.

Sharing God with Jesus. 44 Jesus then cried out, “The one who believes into Me, does not believe into Me, but into the One who sent Me. • 45 The one who experiences and partakes of Me, experiences and partakes of the One who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world-cosmos so that everyone who believes into Me should not remain inside of the darkness.

Verse 45 is a phenomenal statement, finding its meaning entirely out from the Seed that is Jesus planted in our humanity. By it we know that we share God with Jesus.

Ruling Verse 10: Because of “serve, accompany, and honor,” we place verse 26 into Kingdom. Yet we see that Kingdom comes out from Ruling Verse 10, the Living vibrancy of Covenant. Because we are inside of Jesus, we are also inside of our Father, and as we experience Jesus, so we experience God.

Continuing in the Metaphor. • 47 If anyone hears My words and keeps, guards, and watches over them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world-cosmos, but that I might save the world-cosmos. 48 The one who ignores Me and does not seize hold of My words does have one that judges him. • The word which I spoke will judge him inside of the last day. • 49 For I have not spoken out from Myself, but the Father Himself who sent Me, He gave Me the end completion, what I should say and what I should speak. • 50 And I perceive that His end result brought to completion is age-unfolding life. What I speak then, as the Father has spoken to Me, so I speak.

We continue with the metaphor of the Seed becoming the plant, that Jesus as Word has become our genetic code, which must then be “concentrated” until this Flow of Gospel Word is coming through all that we are.

To Measure Us. This is the judgment. The Word comes to us to measure us. It is looking for faith. There are two responses to the Word. Some keep it outside themselves, in their own minds. Some even “try” to do it. Others allow the Word to be Himself inside of them, knowing that He fulfills all that He is in us. Judgment and measurement are two words that change their meaning entirely according to our faith.

Definition: The Word Jesus speaks, the Word that He is, entering into us, comes to us to measure us. When we place it upon ourselves through faith, calling ourselves by that Word, so it measures us inside of Jesus as all Word fulfilled.

Definition: But those who refuse the Word made personal in them, then measure themselves against that Word. In this manner, they bring their own judgment upon themselves.

Comprehending God. Ruling Verse 2 teaches us that we are to comprehend God together, into all the reaches that God is. Most of the preaching I have sat under taught little comprehension of God, but rather, “what He expects of us.” If we do not know what God is; we cannot know what we are.

Ruling Verse 2: At the heart of being filled with all of God is that we are to comprehend God together. If we do not know God, what and who He is, we cannot know ourselves.

Definition: God is Word inside Himself. Jesus “hears” what God is and then speaks that same Word into us. We become by that Word. As we allow the Word to be all that we are through faith, so the same Word in God becomes age-unfolding life in which we walk.

Speak Christ: We speak the same Word that we might know God.

You Are Clean. (Chapter 13) • 10 Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed has no such need except to wash the feet, but is wholly and entirely CLEAN. And you all are clean, except not all. – • 14 If therefore I have washed your feet as your Lord and Teacher, you also are committed to wash one another’s feet. • 15 For I am giving you a pattern, that just as I do to you, so you also should do.

Ruling Verse 6: Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil consciousness; and our bodies washed with pure water.

Our commitment to “wash one another’s feet” comes only out from Ruling Verse 6. Thus it’s primary meaning is to see one another as already clean, regardless of our foolish mistakes. But it also includes the meaning of Galatian 6:2 – Restore such a one. Yet we do not exclude the occasional need to protect God’s people from one who hurts others with malevolent intent.

The Flow of Word out from God. Kingdom: To “wash one another’s feet” is to call one another by the purity and cleansing of Jesus, regardless of any ongoing foolish mistakes and daily frustrations. Again, Jesus is showing us God, for God is the One who humbles Himself that He might share our daily life with us. Thus, we restore one another from stumbling into God-with-me (see Galatians 6:1).

The pattern that is Jesus is not a pattern for us “to copy” on our own, for we can do nothing of ourselves. Rather, it is the pattern by which we are made as Jesus transfers His substance to us. This is the essence of the Seed becoming the plant.

Life: The Word flowing out from God is as the singing of music, the energeoing of electricity, the transfer of genetic code. We do not “copy” Jesus on our own, for we can do nothing. Rather, the singing, the energeoing, the genetic code becomes us, the essence of the Seed becoming the plant. The Pattern of music becomes us.  

The Embrace of Son and Father. 31 Then, after Judas had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified inside of Him. • 32 And if God is glorified inside of Him, God will also glorify Him inside of Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.

I now see that this back-and-forth glory of which Jesus speaks is the agreement He is with the Father, to save you and me inside Their embrace. This Glory is the Church. Jesus then said that they could not “follow Him” yet – the foundation for John 14.

Covenant: This mutual exchange of Glory between the Father and the Son is – the giving of us to Each Other inside Themselves. The Church is the Glory of God. Jesus gives us to the Father and the Father gives us to Jesus. Inside this mutual embrace is found our Salvation and our fellowship together inside divine Fellowship forever.

Jesus’ Deep Desire. • 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you should love one another; just as I have loved you, so you also are committed to love one another. • 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you possess love inside of one another.”

In the next chapter, John 14, and the next lesson, “Inside of Me,” we will gain our focus from John 14:20. Here, however, I want to place this almost desperate Desire of Jesus into the full meaning and context of the Seed planted into our earth. In actuality, this metaphor goes back to Chapter 8, when Jesus stooped twice in order to write Himself as Word upon the soil of our hearts. This is the most important “be just like God” verse, stated in this way by John for the first time, Ruling Verse 8. Jesus becomes COMPLETE only in our love for one another.

The Only Goal of Salvation. Then consider that these two verses join Ruling Verse 8 and Ruling Verse 9 together. This is the fundamental Truth behind my strongest claims, that the ONLY goal, the ONLY Salvation, is that the people of this world must see Christians loving one another with pure hearts fervently. There is no other Salvation or Goal. Ruling Verse 8 must become Ruling Verse 9.

Ruling Verse 8: This first time that Jesus speaks “love one another” into us is inside His urgent desire to be planted into us as the One who alone will make that LOVE happen.

Ruling Verse 9: Ruling Verse 8 must become Ruling Verse 9, for there is no other Salvation on offer for creation. All created things must see Christians loving one another so that they might know God and live.

The Apocalypse. Definition: When Jesus said, “By this all will know,” He was speaking of the Apocalypse, of that moment when the cover comes off the eyes of all and they SEE Christians loving one another, just like Jesus. This revelation of Jesus Christ through His Church is the only way through which creation will see and know God.

We are compelled by the meaning of this flow of Gospel Verses in John 11-13 to include an additional comment on the Form for God through Jesus. In all of these things, it is the Church that is the primary topic and goal.


The Church. The Form for God through Jesus: God WANTS a Church in which to dwell, that He might be Himself through her towards all creation. Jesus WANTS us to be with Him inside of the Father. As Father and Son gave us to Each Other, inside of Psalm 22, so Their Desire was fulfilled. The Church is the Glory of God, His deepest Value and the end result of all His accomplishment, Christian Community. Jesus as the Seed becomes the Church as the Plant. And it is out from that Church that we become the same as Jesus, many seeds again for the Father’s glory. The Goal of Salvation is the Church as the Form for God through Jesus. As the new seeds, we give ourselves to the Father for her sake.

From Seed to Seeds. Jesus came into the Church on the Day of Pentecost so that He could make us to be just like Himself, many seeds made entirely after the pattern of the first, yet now able to bring forth the same life in others. This quality of Jesus is a quality, not of Spirit nor of physic, but of Soul. It was inside His Soul that Jesus joined us together with the Father. It is inside our souls that we do the same for one another.

The pattern we have seen, of Jesus showing us a God who humbles Himself for our sakes, the He, Father God, might share all with us at our level, is so beautiful. And thus we see the Ekenosis, that the same God, humbling Himself now with us, again shows Himself to others as He is.

Let’s Pray Together. “Lord Jesus, You have humbled Yourself twice for us, for our sakes, that You might make us to be just like Yourself. You have brought us inside Yourself into the same Fellowship You enjoy with God our Father. You have written His Word all through our souls. You have made us to be Your Resurrection and Your Life.
 
“Lord Jesus, we give ourselves utterly to You that You might return with us into the Father, in giving ourselves with You for the sake of all our Christian brethren. Lord Jesus, this is Your glory, this is the Father’s Desire, that we would love all our fellow Christians with the same Love that You are, that we would give ourselves for their sake, just as You also do.

“Lord Jesus, You have found faith inside our earth. You have fulfilled the Father’s Glory.”