Our text for this morning comes from John's Gospel, John chapter 12. It's not so much a resurrection theme as it is more of a Good Friday theme. It is more of the suffering of the Lord Jesus that leads eventually to that resurrection. So John 12 and verse 27, this account happening just a few days before the Lord Jesus went to his death. Jesus speaking, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, an angel has spoken to him. And Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. These verses show us what Peter meant when he said, there are some things hard to be understood. As men, there are depths here which we have no line long enough to measure. This should not surprise us. It should not shake our faith. The Bible would not be a book that is breathed out by God if there were not things that we did not understand. Even with all the Bible's things that are hard to understand, let's take confidence that it contains thousands of passages which the least educated may easily comprehend. And even here in this passage, as we look at it steadily, we may gather from these verses lessons of considerable importance. First, as we think of the mystery here, I want to point out that we have the amazing record of God talking to God. Jesus prays to his heavenly Father and God the Father speaks audibly from heaven with a loud voice that many wrongly interpreted to be thunder. The point is they heard something mysterious. Surely God talking audibly to God is not something that happens every day. Here we confront mystery and the miracle. In fact, If you can accept that God the Father miraculously spoke to God the Son, then you are well on the way of believing that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead. The New Testament is full of the miraculous. Second, I point out that we have the mystery of Jesus being troubled. We see him who could heal diseases with a touch, cast out demons with a word, and command the waves and the winds to obey him in great agony and conflict of spirit. Now, how can the God-man Jesus be in agony? If the death of Jesus is only before us as something of a good example, then some believing martyrs have gone to their deaths quite calmly and would be a better, at least a calmer example to Jesus in death. However, if the Holy Jesus is in agony because he knows that his father is about to load on him all of the sins of his people and as a holy and perfect and sinless being, he has an aversion to having the sins of the mass of humanity loaded onto him. Let's move from these mysteries. prepared to see some things great. So if you have a handout sheet before you and care to use it, notice Roman number one. A great gospel suffering shared. First of all, A, Jesus' agonizing cry. Verse 27, now is my soul troubled. This one who could bring peace to others has agony in his spirit. This word of troubled is used by the Lord Jesus in John 11 and verse 33. It's one week before he goes to his death. He is at the tomb of Lazarus' friend. And as he looks on the reality of death, as he sees the sisters weeping, he was troubled in his spirit. He was moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. John 13 and verse 21, this is the very night of the betrayal. We read, after saying these things, that one of you is going to betray me to the disciples. We read in John 13, 21, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified, truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray. It's after, not before. And then later that night in the Garden of Gethsemane across the Kidron Valley, Jesus began to be sorrowful and troubled and he said to those inner circle of disciples, my soul is sorrowful even to death. So Jesus agonizing cry, secondly B. Notice Jesus revealing questions. Again in verse 27, now is my soul troubled and here are the questions. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. And if we take, as I think we should, these two questions together, it shows that Jesus is not actually saying, save me from this hour. He's definitely going to pray that when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane. But here he is simply showing that it's on his mind. He knows that he is moving towards the cross. He knows that at the cross, God will take sin and load it on him. And in anticipation of that, there is this aversion to death, there is this trouble, and there is this desire, at least, to be spared of this death. Thirdly, see, still in verse 27, notice Jesus' believing confession. Now is my soul troubled, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. This hour, this is the appointed time. Jesus is aware that all of his life, all of his earthly ministry is moving to this point, to this hour when he will go to the cross. It is His destiny. It is something that He has prophesied that would be coming to Him. He certainly knew it. This idea of the hour guiding Jesus, John 13, this is at the Last Supper. Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come. He's at that final point of his life. So we've seen his agonizing cry, his revealing questions, the believing confession, but this is why I came here. He's where the truth of Matthew 121, you shall call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. So it's long been known what Jesus is about. Now, fourthly, D, now from verse 28, Jesus' God-honoring petition, but for this hour I've come, but for this purpose I've come to this hour, verse 28, Father, glorify your name. And isn't this wonderful? The Lord Jesus, as he knows that this weight of pressure, this weight of being sin-bearer is being loaded onto him, he rises above his own personal inconvenience, his personal suffering, and he said, whatever I'm going through, I want you, God, to glorify your name. And what an example Jesus is in this. It's the same thing as he will say later in the garden, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And our Lord is a wonderful savior to us, a wonderful example in this, that when we are in suffering, when we are in difficulty, We are to rise above that and say, well, it's not just about me. It's not just about me getting out from under this trial, out from under this burden. But a key part needs to be my resolving my will into God's will and wanting God to be glorified. And in that high priestly prayer to come from Jesus later on, Jesus is able to pray to his Father, saying, I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. Jesus' God-honoring petition in the midst of his anticipated pain, it is, Father, glorify your name. And now E, notice the gospel explanation. Why? Why was Jesus troubled in his soul? Well, Jesus is troubled in his soul because he is bearing the sins of his people. Jesus knew that he was going to the cross. 700 years before the Lord Jesus was born of the Virgin, Isaiah was given this prophecy from God and certainly the God-man would have been able to read Isaiah 53 and verses 4 through 6. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. Jesus knew that this prophecy was talking about him personally. The text goes on. The prophecy goes on. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. We've turned away from God. We've forgotten him. We want to live for ourselves. And in the midst of our sin, God graciously laid on him the iniquity of us all. The Lord Jesus Christ familiar with the Old Testament scriptures would have known that this is a prophecy of himself. Jesus was troubled because of substitutionary atonement. That means that all the sins of his people come off of those people and it's put on Jesus at the cross. And then God takes the perfect righteousness of Jesus and gives it to all of those people who had their sins removed and put on the Lord Jesus, those who believe. Peter puts it this way. Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. He suffered in their place. Paul puts it, in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he, the father, made him, the son, who knew no sin, he knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Do you get the sense of the direction of this passage? There's movement where the Father makes him to be sin, the one who knew no sin. He pulls the sin off of others, puts it on him, made him to become sin. But he's not done yet. Then he takes the righteousness of Jesus and puts it back on those who were formerly sinners. What an amazing thing. It's so wonderful. to wonderful so simple, to wonderful almost to believe. But it is the message of the gospel. So why is it that Jesus is suffering? Why is he troubled? Well, it's because he knows that he's going to bear his people's sins. Further, Jesus suffered his father's hellish wrath for his people. What we're going to see is that there is an approving father came out in our call to worship. It comes out here in the following verses where the father speaks audibly and says that he has glorified his name and he's going to glorify his name further. He's going to be glorified in this son. There is an approving father, the all-knowing father, looks on his son and says, yep, he is sinless, he is perfect, he will be the sacrifice. And yet there is coming a time when Jesus is on the cross, you know about that darkness that comes at noon and stays there for three hours. And during that time of darkness that symbolizes God's hellish wrath being put on Jesus, it's at that point that Jesus cries out from the cross, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is why Jesus is troubled. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit have never had an argument. There's never been a rift. And now Jesus must be abandoned by the Father and the Father must put his hellish wrath onto the Lord Jesus and extinguish his life. John talks about this in his epistle. And this is love. Not that we loved God. but that he loved us and sent his sin to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation, what is that? It is the appeasement of God's wrath. God has anger against rebel sinners. That anger is transferred towards the Lord Jesus Christ as all of their guilt is loaded onto Jesus. If you don't understand Jesus on the cross being loaded with the sins of his people, you do not understand the gospel. You do not understand. the central purpose of the cross. And so when we read in this passage of Jesus being troubled and he needs to share that he is agonizing in this decision, the only way to understand that is to know what Jesus knew. and that is that the Father's wrath was coming to him. The great gospel suffering shared, Roman numeral one. Roman numeral two, a great gospel miracle performed. First of all, A, what the Father did, what the Father did. Now, verse 28, there's the prayer, Father, glorify your name. What the Father did comes next in verse 28. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. Three times during Jesus' earthly ministry, God the Father spoke up. Three times he speaks from heaven. At the baptism of the Lord Jesus, at the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus. And here, just a matter of three, four days before he goes to the cross, God is speaking up and he is saying, I love my son. He's perfect. I have perfect delight in him. I am glorifying my name through the God-man. And that's what is being said by God the Father here. You see, Jesus is going to die in shame, but he is not going to die in the shame and the disappointment of the Father's disapproval. And isn't it wonderful that the details of our Lord's death God is going to put that darkness on the land. He's gonna put the sins on the Lord Jesus. There is that three hours of darkness from noon until about three in the afternoon, but then the heavens break. Then it is that Jesus has borne the sins of his people in that event. And at the end, he can say, Father, Father, receive my spirit. What the father did, he is speaking up here about his son. In some ways, it's like that glad father that speaks of his son, that speaks of my daughter. You know, sometimes parents can get a little exaggerated in their praise, but it's really wonderful. It beats the other extreme, doesn't it? But here is God the Father. I have glorified my name and I will yet glorify my name. I will glorify my name through this event of my son enduring my hellish wrath. So what the father did now be why the father did it. Just days before Jesus' death there is this message where the Father speaks of His glory and He is anticipating what Jesus is anticipating, coming to the cross. And the Father knows that he will be glorified as Jesus goes through this event. J.C. Ryle comments, this miracle was meant to show the intimate relations and the unbroken union of God the Father and God the Son throughout the period of the Son's earthly ministry. Baptism, transfiguration, right here going to the cross. The all-knowing Father shows his complete approval of Jesus as our Messiah, our Redeemer, and our Savior. And unbelievers who would have heard this voice, well, how loud was it? What language was it? Well, I assume Hebrew. How loud was it? Well, loud enough that they could think or they could try to push away its meaning. Well, it was thunder. It really wasn't an audible voice. Think of their guilt and judgment as they take God speaking from heaven. No, no, it could not be God speaking from heaven. It must be thunder. But think of what this voice would have meant to the disciples if they were to take it all in. What it would have meant to them later. Jesus comes to the point of his death, and just before, God the Father speaks from heaven, saying that he's delighted in his son, saying that he has glorified his name through him, and he will yet glorify his name. My Jesus, who went to the cross, was absolutely perfect. He was absolutely sinless. How do I know that? Well, because God the Father is saying this in his words. The great gospel suffering shared. Secondly, the great gospel miracle performed. God speaks from heaven. And now thirdly, Roman numeral three, a great gospel prophecy announced And here we are in verse 31 and verse 32. He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. And I want you to see, first of all, A, man's deliverer is exalted. Man's deliverer is exalted in Christ's death. When Jesus is saying something here about him being lifted up, well, it's about his death. And how do we know that? Well, we can look at the parallel to John 3 where The parallel, I'll go ahead and read it, John 3, 14. And Moses lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent on the wilderness. You remember that Israelites were sick. There was a brass serpent that was put on this pole and it's lifted up. And when they look, then they're healed. Believe and be healed. And in a similar way, Jesus is to be lifted up on a pole. Jesus is to be lifted, what does that mean? Well, verse 33, it means to show by what kind of death he was going to die. He's gonna be lifted up on the pole and that's the instrument of his death. He's gonna be lifted up on the cross. So Jesus knows what is going to happen to him. In fact, the Lord Jesus on three different times speaks to the disciples and just says, I'm going to die. Listen to this one in Matthew chapter 20. It's the third of the three, I believe. Matthew 20 and verse 17. Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, took the 12 disciples aside on the road and said to them, behold, we're going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests, to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles, the Romans, to mock and discourage and to crucify. And the third day he will rise again. Jesus kind of knew what was going to happen to him. It's the knowledge of that that causes him to be agitated, causes him to be troubled, and it's not something that he can just easily dismiss. No, it's a big deal to him. On a merely human level, Jesus' shameful death on the cross looks like a defeat for him and a victory for the devil. At the end of the day, Jesus is dead and in the tomb. And the devil might think it's time to party. Yet the Lord Jesus, as he's troubled, he's looking forward to his death. He knows he's going to be lifted up. And he's speaking about the kind of death, verse 33, that he's going to die. But he goes on and talks about the one who's going to be lifted up, the one who's going to be dead, is going to be gathering all men to himself. There's the exaltation. There's the plain blessing that Jesus anticipates. And I, if I be lifted up on this pole in death, that's not the end of me. That's the beginning of my work of drawing all kinds of men, women, boys, and girls to myself. So just like God planned, the sins of Jesus' sheep go to the perfect Jesus who dies for others, and that perfect righteousness of Jesus then goes to all of those believing sheep. man's deliverer, exalted. He knows that he's going to do something after he's dead. B, the devil is judged in Christ's death. Verse 31, now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. The ruler of this world is the devil. And if you're familiar with your Bibles, you know that the prophecies of Jesus go all the way back to the first book in the Bible, Genesis. Third chapter in verse 15, God speaks to the devil and God says that there is going to be this conflict that goes on and that this one later we come to know as Jesus. is the one who destroys the devil. Listen to it. Genesis 3 15. The father speaking. I will put enmity between you and the woman you the devil and Eve. She's going to become a believer and I'm going to put she's come into alliance with you against me. I'm not going to let that stand. I'm going to put an enmity between you. You two are going to become enemies. Then in Genesis 3.15 it goes on, and between your seed, devil, and her seed, both of you are going to have descendants. And there's going to be an unbelieving humanity, and there's going to be a believing humanity. And there's going to be irreconcilable differences between them. And then finally, the promise in Genesis 3 15, he shall bruise your head. That one that is coming from the woman is going to be in a conflict with you and you're going to hurt his ankle, but his heel is going to come down and crush your head. On the cross, it looks like the devil is one. Jesus is dead and in the tomb. but Jesus will win. He will be raised from the dead. Now, let's go back 700 years before the Lord Jesus, that Isaiah prophecy where sins were going to go to Jesus, but a little later there, Isaiah 53, now verse 10, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt. You know what happens to offerings in the Old Testament. They slit their throat, the blood comes out, they die. Every sacrifice is going to die. But this one who is spoken of here is the offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Next verse. He shall see and be satisfied. Next verse. God says, son, if you become the guilt offering, if you will become dead, You will yet be one who is seeing things and one who is alive to see things and one who is alive to accomplish things. And when this is all said and done, Father speaking to the son, we're going to be sitting around dividing the booty. We are the victors here. Here at the cross, Jesus will defeat the devil and that leads to what happens eventually at the end of time, where the devil, fallen angels, and those who reject God are cast away into the outer darkness. Jesus may have an aversion to being loaded with the guilt of man's sin. but he is committed to God's plan. He is committed to God's plan of destroying the devil, God's arch enemy, the one who worked to ruin all of the beauty and all of the wonder of this world. So man's deliver exalted, that was A. The devil is judged, that is B. Now thirdly, C, sinners are drawn. Sinners are drawn in Christ's death. Verse 32. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. This is not universalism. This is not that every single individual is going to be in heaven. No, that contradicts the Bible. This is a common way of speaking that those from all kinds of walks, those from every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue, not just Jews, but this gospel is going to the ends of the earth. I will draw all kinds of men and women, boys and girls to myself. All will draw all people to myself. A little number one. What does this verse say about you and as an unbeliever? Someone sitting here this morning is an unbeliever. Not everyone is a believer yet. Well, what does it say about you? Well, through a saying that you need to be drawn to God. And if you need to be drawn to God, that implies that you're not with God. There is no one who is a natural Christian. The only way that we become a Christian is when, in a sense, we turn our back on ourselves and say, no, you're not the most important person in the universe. God is. You're not a Christian from your mother's womb. But in your natural state, not only are you distant from God, but you would never come on your own. How do I know that? Well, Jesus said it. John 6 and verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day. But the way that God the Father is going to draw sinners, he's gonna be working through the sinner's own heart and mind. That leads us to a little number two. How is it that Jesus draws sinners to himself from every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue? Well, first of all, there is an attractive love. When you start to think, why is Jesus upset? Why is he agonizing? Why is he crying out? Why is he sharing this? Well, sinners begin to see in the cross the invincible love of the Lord Jesus. We see this one who came from heaven. lived a life of self-denial, a life of benefiting others, and he comes to the point where this love is seen in his death on the cross. What do you do when someone does something really nice for you? You say, well, I like that person. There's something pleasing in it. And as you, as a sinner, see what you deserve and see what Jesus has done. Yes, I'll take that person's sin. Yes, I'll take that man's. I'll take that woman's sin. When you see that, there is an attractive love. When men see the love of the Lord Jesus, they're drawn. There are enemies that come to him and say, I am sorry for being your enemy. And God works and turns enemies into his friends, an attractive love. But there is as well an attractive forgiveness. The Savior draws us to him by seeing not only what he's done, but seeing what he gives to us. He forgives us. He cuts us loose. This word of forgiveness is a word that when a donkey is tied up in a stall, they cut the donkey loose, they take away the knot, they free it. This is a word that is used of divorce. Husband and wife join for a lifelong commitment and then they are cut loose, they are divorced. And while we may not like the concept of divorce, what we do like about this concept is that it gives us the picture of forgiveness, where God, where we are tied to all of our sins, we are married to it, there is this, it's mine, it belongs to me. But in the gospel, God divorces us from our sins, and it's wonderful how Bunyan got this several hundred years ago. Christian with a burden tied onto his back, he comes to the place of the cross, and he sees the attraction of the Lord Jesus, and the ropes are cut, and that burden of sin, his guilt, rolls down into the tomb, and he never sees it again. My hero, when you are troubled with your own guilt, when God helps you to see that you really are a selfish person, you don't like that. You don't like to see how your selfishness comes out. When you see that, please see Jesus too. and see the attraction of forgiveness that what I feel, the sense of guilt, why it's there in the evolutionary system, it's just an evolutionary hangover. Well, it's still hanging over pretty well. Guilt. When you feel guilt, look to the attraction of Jesus Christ's forgiveness. Thirdly, there is an attractive change I'm sure that there's great attraction in the Lord Jesus beyond his love, beyond his forgiveness, and that is the change that he works him in. Have you seen a drunk whom God changes into a Christian? Have you seen someone who is hooked on drugs and having to live in a halfway house, because there's nothing else he can do, be converted, and end up years later preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have you seen it? When you see it, it's a little hard to dismiss. Have you seen a selfish woman exchange her love of self for love of Christ and love for those around her? There is no true, deep, tender, living conversion except through the cross. And that's the attraction of the cross. There we see his love. There we see that he's willing to forgive. There we see that he transforms sinners. There's something attractive when you see that God has been at work and God has taken out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. Thousands of years before heart transplants ever happened, God was doing them. Taking out that spiritual heart of stone and giving a heart that beats for him. Oh my here. Please understand this morning why Jesus was in agony. Jesus is in agony because he knew what was going to happen in a matter of days. He knew that God was going to somehow take the collective guilt of all of his sheep and lay it on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that one who had had his father speaking from heaven saying, I love my son at his baptism. I love my son at his transfiguration. And I love my son just as he's finishing his life and going to the cross. He is perfect. He is sinless. And all of that is going to be broken as the guilt of his people comes on him and he cries out, my God. Have you forsaken me? That's why Jesus was in agony. May God use his love to draw all of us to himself. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for this good news. We do not like to think on the fact that you're an absolutely holy God, but we are delighted to know that you, the absolutely holy God, are also the embodiment of love. And from before the foundation of the world, you had this plan of your son being born, living in perfection, and then going to the cross. We thank you for planning this, Father. We thank you for bringing this into reality. And we thank you for us having the opportunity of considering this good news here this morning. We pray, Lord Jesus, that your work back 2,000 years ago would still be attractive. Draw some with your love, with your forgiveness, and with your change that you bring. We pray this in your mighty name, Lord Jesus.