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Greetings to each one of you
today in His worthy name. Welcome to each one of you as
we consider His revealed Word. If you would, open your Bibles
to John chapter 12. The Gospel according to John
in chapter 12. You know, it really stood out
to me, I think there in Psalm 29, where you were reading, Gerald,
about the Word of God, how it thunders to us. Truly, truly a I believe that if we struggle,
if we find ourself in difficulty, it is because we have somehow
not availed ourselves of his provision, primarily given to
us in his word. Somehow, ultimately, we've fallen
short of accessing the bread which comes down from heaven. And I am challenged, time and
again, when I get into this scripture, into these passages, how it feeds
my spirit. And truly, it's a blessing. Well, it's been a little bit
since we were in the Gospel of John, and today we'll be looking
at John 12. beginning in verse 27 through
verse 36. And the context of this is right
following the triumphal entry of Christ and there into Jerusalem. And I want to read the text and
then we'll get just a bit of backdrop before we begin. So let's read John 12. beginning in verse 27 through
verse 36. Now my soul is troubled, and
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I came to
this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then
a voice came from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and
will glorify it again. Therefore the people who stood
by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, an
angel has spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, this
voice did not come because of me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted
up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. This, he
said, signifying by what death he would die. The people answered
him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever.
How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this
Son of Man? Then Jesus said to them, a little
while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the
light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness
does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe
in the light, that you may become sons of light. These things Jesus
spoke and departed and was hidden from them." Let's just bow our
heads for a word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, We
take this scripture, we take this text as your revelation
to us, and how that you're teaching us from this passage. Father,
I pray that this passage would become bread for us, that it
would be that which strengthens our spirit, it would give us
the grace, it would minister grace, to our needy hearts, Father,
that we would be given strength to stand in this evil day. Father, we pray that these words
and these truths would be realized in our own hearts by faith, that
your Holy Spirit would apply them. Lord, give us understanding
and give us utterance according to your will. Through Christ
we pray. Amen. So last time we spoke here
in the Gospel of John. I had it titled, The Humble King,
and if you remember, that was from chapter 12, verses 12 through
26. Christ's triumphal entry into
Jerusalem on Monday of Passion Week. Remember this passage in
the rest of the Gospel of John. is actually the end of this chapter
closes his public ministry and it goes into chapters 13 through
17 or at least through 16 are all private direction and teaching to his
disciples. Chapter 17 is the High Priestly
Prayer, is what is known as the High Priestly Prayer. But this
chapter, in chapter 12, reflects the closing of his public ministry
and of his invitation to the world in general, or to, yes,
whoever would hear Him. And it changes into a private
ministry with His disciples. So this was, I believe, this
triumphal entry, I believe was Monday of Passion Week, and this
entry marked the setting apart of the sacrificial lamb setting
apart or the public decoration by God. Here is your Passover
lamb, Israel. Here is your sacrifice. And if
you go back in Exodus, you remember that they were to take this lamb
apart, a lamb without blemish and without spot, and dedicate
it for the Passover, but they were to kill it on Friday, but
it was set apart from Monday. And so, it's very interesting
to me that this is the chronological order that we see here in John
12. That Christ came out in a public way from His hiding, as we've
seen in the last part of chapter 12, 11, And he came and was publicly
presented, we might say, as the king. coming. Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold
your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt." So it was
the humble king and our text here that I've read this morning,
beginning in verse 27, continues the teaching that Christ had
begun in verse 23. That is, the hour has come. The hour has come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. Now, here in the latter part of the
previous message, we spoke about this kernel of wheat, this grain
of wheat, or this kernel of wheat. He says in verse 24, most assuredly
I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground
and dies, it remains alone. And we know that if you put a
seed on a shelf and just look at it and admire it, it will
never produce for you a crop. It has to go into the ground
and break down and die. And out of that death comes profit there becomes a multiplication
he introduces this concept of dying produces so this kernel
of wheat does not remain alone if it dies it produces much fruit
and the principle is to focus on what is gained and not on
what is lost you see you give up the kernel to gain the head
of grain. You surrender your life in this
world, as it says in verse 23, you surrender your life in this
world to gain eternal life. He who loves his life will lose
it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for
eternal life. Then Christ defines this principle
even more narrowly. If you serve me, the end of verse
26, if anyone serves me, him my Father will honor. So if you lay your life down
and serve Christ, it will bear fruit in eternity. And it will bring forth, or the
Father will honor this one who does this. Now as we come to
our text today though, we see in verse 27 and following that
the King also took part in this principle. While I want to not forego this
as an example for us as believers. I want to, and we may come to
that, but I want to teach this from a, maybe we might say a
theological And let's see Jesus here in this
passage. Today the title would be The
King Triumphant. And that is almost a, it might
be a stretch for us here in the first part of this message because
point number one that I wanted to consider is Jesus counting
the cost. The second point I want to present
to you is winning what was lost. So it's primarily these two that
I want to point out of this passage, of this text today. Now, notice
what he says here. As he begins, he says, Now my
soul is troubled. This word trouble is a strong
word. It is a word that speaks of,
it simply means to stir or to agitate. And it is something
that is stirring under the surface and we might say is roiling the
water. It is like there's a boil on
top of the water, but there's something going on underneath
that is really stirring this up. And Jesus is saying here,
now my soul is troubled. And I think we understand this,
is that if you see water being roiled or stirred, that there
has to be something going on underneath of that to create
that disturbance. So it is a strong word that is
speaking of trial and trouble. Jesus is counting the cost here,
and notice what he says. He says, And what shall I say? It is almost like he's saying,
I'm at a loss as I consider what is before me. And he says, Father,
save me from this hour. He says now, in verse 27, now.
And I believe what he's saying, he's referring back to verse
23 when he says, the hour has come. That, you know, before in John,
you would occasionally come across this, where especially, I think,
the first occasion I think about it is in, when Jesus made water
into wine, and Mary came to Him and says, hey, you know, they're
running out of water, they're running out of wine. He said,
well, what is that to do with me? My hour's not yet come. And
you read of that occasionally, where He responds, well, my hour
is not yet come. Now He is saying, the hour has
come. The hour has come, and here He
is, maybe somewhere, I mean, He's within two or three, probably,
maybe four days of His crucifixion. And He says, the hour has come
that the Son of Man should be glorified. And so, as He considers
the fact that His hour is here, He says, my soul is troubled. My soul is trouble." And we see
here the Lord's humanity very clearly. We see it clearly here
that the one who could calm the wind and the waves of the Sea
of Galilee with a spoken word was agitated in his heart. He was even anxious at heart. And you might say, Hmm. You know, how can that be? Mark
14, 34 says, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful. Exceedingly sorrowful,
even to death. You know, he is so distraught
that he says it is even to death. Matthew says, deeply distressed. Luke says, and being in agony. This was all consideration, this
is not the physical part of his suffering where he was on the
cross and suffering the piercing of his hands and feet. No, this
was a consideration of what was coming in his hour. This was
the garden of Gethsemane. This was And here, while he's
not necessarily in the garden, this is an account of, this is
in a way, in a sense, a beginning of his travail. Now my soul is
troubled. And I think this should really
speak to our hearts in that the nature that Christ had taken
on, which was human nature, right, our nature, It conflicted with the mission
that he was on. That there was this tension between
what he had to do and who he had literally lowered himself,
as Philippians 2 said, and he took upon himself the likeness
of man. And he had taken this humanity
upon him. And in his humanity, he was agonized. And we could say even traumatized
by what he faced. He says here, what shall I say? He understood
that this hour, this hour that he faced represented a break
in his relationship with his father. That is something that
from eternity past had never occurred. This gospel describes
Christ as He who is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared Him. This Jesus
was in the bosom of the Father from eternity past. Now as he
reflects upon this coming hour, or this hour that is at hand,
you know, we might say, well, his hour was not right now, but
he does say, now my soul is troubled. And it is as if we could say
that he knows that his time is here. Well, why did this hour represent
a break in his relationship with his father? Why? Because of his
father's holiness. Though Christ was a lamb without
blemish, yet he was our sin-bearer. He was our sin-bearer. And I
believe his soul recoiled from the cup of divine wrath. Truly, I don't think Saman knew
that I was going to go to Isaiah 53. But I want to go there a
bit. I didn't know he was going to
go there either. So, Isaiah 53, I want to read
the last three verses. And I want you to reflect here
with me. Notice what our text today says,
now my soul is troubled. Well, notice what he says in
Isaiah 53, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Isaiah 53
verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering
for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Verse 11, he shall see the labor of his soul and
be satisfied. I think the King James says the
travail of his soul. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous
servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great and
he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured
out his soul unto death. There you have it again, his
soul unto death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors and he bore the sin of many and he made intercession
for the transgressors. You know, it is almost difficult
to comprehend that God the Father was pleased to bruise his son. He was pleased to bruise him. He was pleased to bruise him. Well, as he contemplated, this coming
hour, his soul was troubled. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour." Now this, in the New King James,
it reads that, Father, save me from this hour, as a question.
Father, save me from this hour, is that what I should ask? Is
that what I should say? Father, save me from this hour?
The commentaries gave thought on this that, It should just
simply read that this was a petition that he gave to his father. Father,
save me from this hour. And we know that this is a prayer
that he made in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, deliver me
from this hour if it would be possible, but if not, let thy
will be done. And here, the equivalent is,
glorify thyself, Father. But he says, Father, save me
from this hour. You know, Matthew Henry makes
this comment. He says, the sin of our soul
was the trouble of his soul. And so here we see the start
of his travail. And to pray for deliverance is
not inconsistent with surrender. It is not inconsistent. The prayer
could simply be, help me through this. Save me in this hour. Save me from this hour. Help
me to go through this hour. Because in the next breath, our
Lord said, but for this purpose I came to this hour. Truly, for Christ to count the
cost here. He recognized that this is the
purpose that I have come to this point. I've come to this hour.
But He was counting the cost. Think about it this way. The
sin of the world. The death of the cross. The wrath
of God. upon the sin and the resulting
separation from His Father in this hour, I believe, abhorred
Christ. I believe it was something that
He recoiled from. But yet, let me point something
out. There was something worse than that. For Christ, there was something
worse than going through with the death on the cross, the wrath
of Almighty God poured out upon him, the sin of the world resting
on his pure and undefiled shoulders, or something worse. And that
is to draw back from fulfilling his Father's will. That is worse
in Christ's eyes. That would have been worse then. And so as he counted the cost
and he reflected on what it was going to be like and how he was
going to deal with it. To come short of complete submission
to his father's will was worse. That's what we see here in verse
Verses 27 and 28. But for this purpose I came to
this hour. And he says, Father, glorify
yourself. Father, glorify your name. Isn't
this something that should kind of rattle our chain a bit? He was volunteering to do this
for us. And so to come short of this
complete submission, this was the price that he paid. But when we come to verse 28,
Father glorify your name. We come to this place, we see
that the great battle is won. The battle is won here. He says,
Father, not my will, may you be glorified, may you be exalted
out of whatever I go through, may you glorify your name. For
this purpose, I came to this hour, Father, that you might
be glorified in this hour, you see. He consecrated the hour of his
suffering to the glory of God. He did. Now, as we consider this, the Lord's
desire that God would be glorified, I want to just think a little
bit about. In our sin, we've wronged a holy
and a glorious God. As the Scripture says, for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I think that's
what sin is. It is falling short of the glory
of God. It is missing the mark. It's
falling short of that. So now that we have fallen short
of the glory of God, we are unable to make right this treason. We
are unable to appease Him whose honor we have trampled on. We await the justice and the
sentence from a thrice holy God. Holy, holy, holy. This treason that we've committed,
we have literally, that's what treason means, is that we've
given our allegiance to the enemy. That's what treason is. Our allegiance
is now to the enemy. And so, He says, Father, glorify thyself. This heavenly Father, this great
and holy God, is one who will vindicate His honor through our
destruction if no other way is found. Think about that. God in His holiness, had to deal
with sin. He had to. Herein is Christ's purpose revealed
here. He prayed, Father glorify your
name as it were in my sacrifice. Maintain your honor, your integrity,
Your holiness, your glory through this hour of my suffering. You understand that Christ was
saying, vindicate your holiness and your perfection in my sacrifice. Maintain your integrity. Pour it out on me, He says. Father, glorify Your name. You
see? An amazing statement. I just want to consider here,
as we think of this huge principle
of renouncing self, dying to self,
denying self. The scripture, the Lord teaches
a lot on this, to deny self, to take up your cross and follow
me. Well, consider what's going on
here. Our Lord did the same and much
more. He's not asking something from
us that He's not giving us an example in. And by the way, He did this while
we were yet enemies, right? While we were dead in our trespasses and sin,
He did this for us. And so now, He is asking us to
serve Him. But I would like to just ask
you, and I would just like to, I recognize here, you can look
out over this group of people, And I promise you that there
is agitation somewhere here. There is. If it's not out there,
it's back here. There's turmoil. Each one of
us represents some trial in this hour, truly. Truly, each of us has our hour
of trouble, of suffering. Now while I may look out there
and not see a lot of waves or anything, but there is unrest
underneath. It's the nature of our lives.
It is. We go through these, especially
there's periods of unrest. There's exceptional periods of
trial. And I want to recognize that
that's probably, that is here today. I can't see it, but it's
there. Various different ones of us
have different things that we're struggling with. That is our
hour of trial. I mean, you know what it is. You know what you're dealing
with. I could name two or three or
four different families that I know here that have a trial
currently going in their lives. A current trial. What do you
do with that? My soul is troubled, he says. But then he goes in John 14 and
he says, Let not your heart be troubled. Why should you be troubled if
I am troubled? I am bearing this burden for
you. Let not your heart be troubled.
And then verse 27 of John 14 he says, Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid. Trust in Him. Trust in Him. This is maybe the hour of your
trial. We sang this song, I picked this
hymn, hymn number 112, because a lot of these things reflected
the truths of this passage. You know how the stroke of justice
fell on Christ. It was aimed at me, but Christ
interposed. He intervened and He took that
blow that was aimed at me. To prove His love, my heart to
win. You see, Christ gave Himself
for me. And we begin this hymn, down
to the depths of woe, Christ came. He did. He came down to
set me free. And then the last verse. The last line here, Yes, soon
this waiting hour on time's swift wing shall flee. Soon he will
come in glorious power, Jesus himself for me. One thing that is important if
you are in a time of trial, in this burden that's heavy on your
heart, that is causing you unrest of spirit and heart, is to recognize
it's just for an hour. It's just for an hour. Jesus said, I came for this, I came for this
purpose, I came to this hour. I want to tell you, there is
purpose in your hour too. There's purpose. There's purpose for you. And
it is a short time. This waiting hour will soon fly
away on swift wings. And you and I must understand
by faith that this is an hour now. It is now, yes. But this
is a season of time. By the way, this hour is a time
frame that Jesus would pass through. It is a set time, yes. It is a set time, but it is a
short time. It is a short time. It is not
forever. And so, whatever your trial is, Come to your Father, as it says
here, Father save me from this hour. Make your appeal to the
one who is your Father and recognize and submit yourself to this purpose
that He has for this hour. You know, this is probably one
of my greatest challenges, is to be willing to submit to the
purpose that God has for whatever trial I'm in. The trial is not one of my choosing.
And it's not one of your choosing. But there's purpose in it. And
if we recognize that God has a purpose, he's sovereign. And
it is just for a season, dear ones. It's just for a season. Let's continue here. The second point I want to bring
out is has to do with this purpose,
obviously. For this purpose I came to this hour. But that is winning
what's lost. Winning what's lost. And as we go down, in verse 30, by the way, this voice
came from heaven saying, I have glorified it and will glorify
it again. I think that is probably referring back to his baptism
and his transfiguration. There were three occasions where
this voice came from heaven. And Jesus simply said, this voice
was for your sake. It was to bless you guys. It was not because of me, but
it was for you. But then in verse 31 he says,
now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will
be cast out. How do we understand this great
statement? How do we understand these twin
declarations? Now is the judgment of this world.
Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Well, I want to
think with you a little bit. When God created the world and
man, He made man His representative in the earth. He made him his representative
in the world. He was given God's image. We bore and we do bear the image
of God. It is marred, obviously, but
it was not so when God created him. He was created perfect and
whole. And he was given the responsibility
of the earth, and man committed treason. against God by obeying
God's enemy, Satan. That's what happened. Now think
with me. Man gave his allegiance over
to the devil. He did when he sinned. He obeyed
the enemy. He committed treason against
God. I believe that Satan began to
govern man. and what had been entrusted to
man, the earth. As long as this state of treason
existed, Satan had a rightful claim to the world and to man.
We might have a bone to pick with that. I'm happy to discuss
that. But I believe Obviously, when
man obeyed Him, He surrendered to Satan's governance and man
fell. And as long as this offense against
the Creator existed, the imposter was in power on the earth. He is called here
the ruler of this world. Now, an interesting passage is
found in Luke chapter 10, and you don't have to turn there.
I'll just read a few verses in Luke chapter 10. This is the
account where the 70 that Christ had sent out to minister were
returning. This is what they said in Luke
10 and verse 17. Then the 70 returned with joy
saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.
And he said to them, in verse 18, I saw Satan fall like lightning
from heaven. Amen. Behold, I give you the
authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the
power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are
subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written
in heaven. Now, I want to just simply point
out that Christ said, I saw Satan fall from where? He's seen Him
fall from heaven. And if you go to Isaiah, I wrote
that text down somewhere. I believe it was in Isaiah 14.
Let's see if I can find that for you. Yes. He says, I saw Satan fall
and he said here in Luke from heaven. And in Isaiah 14 verses
12 through 15, you don't have to turn to there now, but just
for your consideration, that's an account where Lucifer had
risen up in his heart and said, I'm going to be like God. And
he glorified himself and he rose up in pride and he was cast out
of heaven. Now, interesting that Jesus said,
well, I saw him fall out of heaven. Is it any stretch for my followers
to then see his demons be subject to you guys? You know, that's
kind of the logic here. I saw him being thrown out of
heaven, but now here in our text, He says, now is the judgment
of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
I believe this is speaking of a different casting out. Satan
was cast out of heaven onto the earth, and that's where he is
rampaging. But in the death of the Lord
Jesus, here, in Christ's atonement for
sin, he won back what was lost. Here it says, the judgment, now
is the judgment of this world. This word judgment simply means
decision. Now the verdict is in. The judgment
on the earth is fallen. The sentence is not fully implemented,
dear ones. But we're still dealing with
this enemy. But he is a defeated enemy. The judgment that Christ won
here in His hour of trial, this hour that He's referring to.
He says, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler
of this world is cast out. This judgment of this world and
its ruler is accomplished by the sacrifice of Christ. Dear
ones, this is a truth that we must get a hold of. You're not
obligated to sin. You're not. And that is, in a
sense, why when you were unconverted, you were a slave to sin. For
you to sin now is committing treason again, isn't it? It's almost worse for a believer
to sin, if there's such a thing. It's almost because he is no
longer a slave to sin. He's no longer a slave to his
appetites. He is no longer a slave to the
enemy, to Satan, because he's been delivered. This judgment
of this world and the ruler being cast out, that was accomplished
on the cross of Calvary. The verdict is in. This is the
fulfillment of Genesis 3.15. This bruising of Christ's heel
was this hour of suffering that he was meeting. That was the
bruising of Christ's heel. But what did it accomplish? He
bruised the enemy's head. Satan was dealt a death blow
on the cross. Praise God for that. Satan was
dealt a death blow. Now is the ruler of this world
cast out. He is cast out from his place
of prominence. His administration is handicapped. His administration is not even
applicable. I mean, we are, as children of
God, free from his dominion. We are translated out of the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. We are
under, praise God, a new administration. We're under the administration
of the Lord Jesus. You know, before that, we were
under Satan's administration. Remember in Matthew 4, in the
wilderness temptation, Satan wanted to bargain with Christ.
Do you remember that? Satan wanted to make a trade.
He said, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and
their glory if you just simply commit treason. If you would
just simply worship me, Satan said to Christ. Christ said, I can't, you know,
I can't do that, that's reserved for God only. God only is the
one that you're to worship. And by the way, He could have
said, I don't need to negotiate with you, I'm going to take them
away from you. Because He did. I will take them away from you. show you some scriptures out
of Colossians 2. If you would please turn there
to Colossians 2 and verse 13 through verse 15. There are a
few scriptures here that I want to point out for our consideration. For us to understand that this
is current, this is our position currently. Yes, the sentence
against Satan is not fully implemented. I understand that. But we are
under the administration of Christ and therefore that is a current
administration. Notice in verse 13 of Colossians
chapter 2, And you, being dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision
of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, that would
be Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses. Verse 14, having
wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against
us, which was contrary to us. Now, what is that handwriting
of requirements? It's the debt that you owed God.
That's what it was. You owed God Everything that you could have
possibly done and more to make right your treason. He said,
he had my name up here. That said, he owes me. I have a debt against him that
I could never pay. Right? Because I had committed
treason. I had committed treason against
God. I had given my allegiance to the enemy. And this was a,
this was written down. This was a handwriting against
me. But here he says, having wiped out this handwriting, he
blotted out the ink of my indebtedness, of that document that said, of
my mortgage. Okay? Handwriting of requirements
that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken
it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Now get the
next verse. having disarmed principalities
and powers. He made them a public spectacle. He made a public spectacle of
them, triumphing over them in it." You see, Satan used that
debtedness to keep me in bondage. He was always saying, look, you
owe God this. And he was saying it, he was
telling the truth for one time. But when Christ came and died
on the cross, that certificate of debtedness was wiped away
and that disarmed, you see, that disarmed our enemy. He had no
rightful claim to me now. You referred to, Brother Chris,
that scroll being that deed, that deed of, I'm not sure, You know, what I think of that,
but that, to me, that sounds, that rings true with the fact
that there was a deed that was handed over to the enemy. And
Christ bought it back, and it was through His death on the
cross, having nailed this notice of debtedness to the cross, and
He completely disarmed principalities and powers. Now, we have another
scripture very similar to this in Hebrews 2.14, where He says
this way, Inasmuch then as the children had partaken of flesh
and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through
death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that
is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage." You see, because we
were always afraid to die, There was this fear that controlled
our lives. We were afraid to die. And there
was a reason for that. We were afraid to meet God because we committed treason. We committed
treason. And if that treason has never
been made right for you, you should be afraid to meet God. You should be afraid to meet
God and I would say that you are afraid to meet God if that
treason has never been made right through the blood of Christ. Scripture in Revelations 11 15
It says this within the seventh angel sounded and there were
loud voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have
become the kingdoms of Our Lord and of his Christ and he shall
reign forever and ever You know truly As we look at this passage in John
12 Jesus is telling us that that this hour of His trial, this
hour of His suffering, He is looking through that, and He's
considering what He's winning back. He has counted the cost,
and now He is winning what's lost. He has looked at the cost,
He's willing to pay that price, that price of suffering, all
that He gave, that we understand that he gave,
that we celebrate here every Lord's Day. But he is saying,
it is not for nothing, I am winning back what was surrendered to
the enemy, and I have won it back. But Christ continues here
in verse 32, and he says, and if I, and I, if I am lifted up
from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. You know,
in the hour of his suffering, he dismantled Satan's administration. He disarmed him. And He wrested
us away from Him. And now He is drawing His people
to Himself. If I am lifted up, that is speaking
about His crucifixion. That lifting up, that despicable
thing that is saying He's not good enough for heaven or earth.
He's between. He's lifted up between heaven
and earth. And the earth has rejected Him,
and even His Father has forsaken Him because He is our sin bearer,
lifted up from the earth. But as He disarmed the enemy,
Notice he's drawing his people in. I will draw all people to
myself. And I want to point out something.
Not only is the salvation of Christ through Christ, but it
is also to Christ. I will draw all people to myself. Here is the unity of the church
of Jesus Christ. that every one of us who has
been drawn by Christ, by his lifting up from the earth, by
his crucifixion, he will draw all peoples, he says, to myself. He will draw all to myself. This, he said, signifying by
what death he would die. The people, in verse 34, just
quickly want to comment a little on these people. It seems like
these people are actually antagonistic. They said, we have heard from
the law that Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son
of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? And if
you go down to the end of this passage in verse 36, these things
Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them, almost
like He hid Himself from them. They understood from the law
that Christ, that the Messiah would have an eternal kingdom, but the same law also spoke of
a suffering servant and one whom God would raise up. He would
not let his soul suffer corruption. He would not let him in the grave. It seems like, and this is something
Matthew Henry pointed out in his commentary, that they seem
very selective. Well, how would you, who is this
son of man? This Messiah should not be dying. He remains forever. And true,
he does remain forever, but he was resurrected. Praise God. So these did seem to be antagonistic. And we'll see next time as we
look at verses 37 and following, how that even though He had done
many signs, they would not believe in Him. But I want to close with
a reading out of Ephesians 6 as we think about our great position
in Christ, what this suffering hour of the Lord Jesus accomplished. I want to remind us that we have
great reason to have hope. In Ephesians 6 and verse 10,
I want to close this passage. This is what it says, Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his
might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places. Therefore, take up the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand." Brothers and sisters,
we do wrestle, don't we? We do wrestle against principalities
and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
age, against hosts of spiritual wickedness in heavenly places,
but they're all defeated. They're actually as, what was
it, in Pilgrim's Progress, the lines are chained. They're chained,
brothers and sisters. We can move past them. We have a defeated foe. And let's take courage. Let's take on the whole armor
of God that we might be able to stand. And just consider, as we close,
consider this example of the Lord Jesus. In each of our personal
trials, whatever it is that you or I are facing, notice once
again what Christ did. He took them to his father. But then he submitted to the
purpose that his father had for him. And then even more than
that, he said, As it were, Father, glorify Yourself in my trial. Glorify Yourself in my hour of
struggle. And so, may the Lord bless each
one of you as we consider this passage. Thanks for your kind
attention, and we'll be dismissed.
The King Triumphant
Series John's Gospel of Jesus Christ
Is.53:10-11, Luke10:17-20,
| Sermon ID | 21824181546598 |
| Duration | 1:00:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Colossians 2:13-15; John 12:27-34 |
| Language | English |
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