John 12:27-33
The Cross is Coming
In looking at this passage we have to remember the context. It is Passover and everything is Jewish right now. Millions of Jews are packed into Jerusalem for the most important Feast of the year. Thousands and thousands of people are hailing Jesus as the Messiah as He enters into the city. The excitement and the national pride is just teeming. Then there are some Greeks who have come to join in the worship as well. These Greeks ask one of Jesus’ disciples if they can meet Jesus. Now here is the question we have to ask ourselves in this strange passage: When Phillip and Andrew go and tell Jesus that there are some Gentile Greeks want to meet Him, why did Jesus begin to talk about His death?
Do you know why? Because His death was going to make it possible for all men to come unto Him. Do you want to go to God? Do you want to know God? Do you want to be heard by God? Do you want access to God? Jesus is saying without the death sacrifice that I am going to make with my own life you don’t have it. I am the way to God. I am the truth of God. I am the life of God. I am the only access to God. Jesus begins to speak of His own death and it is in His death that man would have access to God.
The title of the sermon today is “The Coming Cross”. Jesus is only days away from the crucifixion. I want us to see 4.5 things that are coming with the cross of Jesus in this passage.
The Conflict in Jesus (v27)
First, we see that there is Conflict in Jesus because the cross is coming. Notice verse 27, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’?”
Jesus says His heart is “troubled”. This is a Greek word that means to shake or to stir; it means to cause commotion and to cause to be agitated. Why would Jesus in His humanity feel this way? It’s because He was looking at the coming cross only a few days away. Second Corinthians 5:21 says that on the cross God was going to make Him sin. He was going to bear all the guilt and shame of the world’s sins on Himself. And because of that He was going to endure all the divine wrath judgment of God on Himself.
Going to the cross was not easy. There’s a reason His heart was troubled that day. There’s a reason He prayed a couple days later on the night He was betrayed, “My Father if it is possible let this cup be taken from me.” If there is anyway I don’t have to go through with this suffering please don’t make me go through with it. There’s a reason why a couple nights later He literally sweat droplets of blood while He was praying.
Did you know that is a real medical condition? It’s called hematidrosis. It’s a rare condition when someone is under such extreme stress that they literally sweat droplets of blood. There are tiny networks of blood vessels around the sweatglands and when someone is under the most extreme stress these blood vessels can rupture. Then, when the person sweats they have tiny blood droplets mixed with their sweat that comes out of their pores. Men who have received sudden news of their death sentence, or men who are about to go into battle have been reported to have this condition.
The point is that Jesus was under great stress as He got within days of the cross. The suffering He was going to endure was casting a shadow over Him the closer He came. There was great conflict within Jesus’ heart.
The Commitment of Jesus (v27b – 28a)
Now we need to see that although Jesus was distressed over the coming of the cross, He in no way was wavering about whether He would go through with it or not. That’s not what was going on in Him. His commitment to going to the cross and dying for sins was unflinching. Notice now, in verses 27-28a, the commitment of Jesus with the coming of the cross, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father glorify your name!”
His commitment was Two-Fold. First, it was a commitment to the plan of the Father for His life. It “was for this very reason that He came to this hour”. It’s the hour of His suffering and death. That is the purpose for why He came. Jesus hasn’t been quiet about His purpose in the last 3 years. He says to His disciples in Matthew 16:21 about His coming death, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things ant the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” In Mark 10:45 He says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
We’ve seen it already in John’s Gospel too. He is called “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. That indicates He is going to die as a sacrifice. In chapter 2 Jesus tells the Pharisees in the temple that they will destroy His body but He will rise 3 days later. In chapter 3 verse 14 He says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up” – that was a direct reference to His crucifixion.
The OT is very clear also that the Messiah must die. Daniel 9 talks about how the Messiah must be cut-off. Zechariah 12:10 says Israel will one day look upon the One whom they pierced. The most compelling passage is Isaiah 53 when it plainly says about the Messiah, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
His purpose for being born a man was to die for mankind. It is for this very reason that I came to this hour. Jesus was committed to the Father’s will for His life. Jesus was committed to the suffering and the death that the Father had planned for Him.
I want to point out one important lesson to learn: Loving someone is not always easy or pleasant. Going to the cross for us was not easy or pleasant. Jesus shows us that really loving someone means doing things that benefit them but come at a cost to you. And the real test is when the other person does not deserve the benefit of your love but you do it anyway. You are never more like Christ than when you give to benefit someone else at a time when they least deserve it. When God demonstrated His love for us we did not deserve it. We benefited from His love in that our sins have been forgiven and we’ve been given eternal life. But it cost God His Son.
Secondly, it was a commitment to glorifying the Father. “Father glorify your name!” Jesus was distressed in His heart and He says “what do you think I should say to God? “Save me!”? “Don’t let this happen to me!”? I will not pray for that, because this which I am about to suffer is the very reason why I came. Instead, I will say, “Father, glorify your name!” Amazing. In the midst of the greatest suffering known to man Jesus was concerned about one thing – the glory of the Father. And there was no other way for the Father to be glorified than for Jesus to be crucified.
I mentioned that passage in Matthew earlier where He prayed on the night He was betrayed, “My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me.” But what He says immediately after that is the model for every follower of Christ. “Yet not as I will, but, as you will.” How many times do we pray for God to remove suffering from our lives and never give even a thought to the glory of God; that perhaps this is the purpose of God for my life.
I like how Warren Wiersbe says it, “God does not expect us to be comfortable, but, He does expect us to be conformable.” Conformable to the image of Christ that is. And you can’t resemble the image of Christ at all if you don’t have an attitude that says to God, “Not as I will, but as you will”. My will is my comfort, but, God’s will is my conformity – my conformity to the likeness of His Son. And if Christ endured suffering that the Father would be glorified then we must look upon suffering as an opportunity to glorify God.
The Confusion of the Jews (v29-30)
The coming of the cross was showing us the conflict within Jesus, the commitment of Jesus, and thirdly, the Confusion of the Jews. Notice verses 29-30, “Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to Him. Jesus said, ‘This voice was for your benefit, not mine.’”
This is the 3rd time that the Father has spoken from heaven in Jesus’ ministry. The first time was in the beginning of His ministry at His baptism as found in Matthew 3. The 2nd time was in the middle of His ministry at His transfiguration.
The crowds are confused about what happened. Some thought that it was thunder, while others thought an angel had responded to Jesus. The point here is that they did not recognize it as the voice of God. They could not recognize God’s voice. This really is a picture of Israel’s true spiritual condition for centuries: Deaf to the voice of God. They were deaf to the voice of God in their own Scriptures. Jesus said to the Jews in John 5:39, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
They were deaf to the voice of God in Jesus Christ Himself. There stood the incarnate Word of God; God was in the flesh standing right in front of them and they did not recognize Him. They tried to stone Him in chapter 8 for claiming to be the “I Am”, the name of God. They tried to stone Him in chapter 10 for claiming to be one with the Father, which was a claim to be God. They could not recognize the voice of God in the Scriptures. They could not recognize His voice when He came in the flesh. And they could not recognize His voice when it thundered from the sky.
Still Jesus says that the voice they heard was for their benefit and not His. Whatever they said about what they heard, they heard something powerful come from the sky as a response to Jesus saying, “Father glorify your name!” If nothing else, the crowd had confirmation that Jesus’ voice is heard in heaven as they heard a voice from heaven respond to Him. And when the Father spoke He confirmed the life of His Son Jesus had glorified Him, and now, the Father was going to be glorified again in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The cross brings confusion to people who do not have spiritual understanding.
The Coming Judgment (v31)
Then we see that the Coming cross means there is a Coming Judgment. Notice verses 31-33, “’Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.”
On one hand the world has judged Jesus Christ and put Him to death. The total darkness, corruption and evil of this world culminated in the crucifixion of the Son of God. But, in that act God judged this world and the ruler of this world.
Satan is called many things in the Scriptures. He is called the Deceiver, the Tempter, the Accuser, the Adversary, the Father of all lies, the Slanderer, the Destroyer, the Murderer, the Serpent, the Dragon, the “Evil One”, the Prince of the Power of the Air, the god of this world, and here in John 12:31 he is called the prince of this world. He has dominion over this world system. He rules over a world of unbelieving, spiritually dead people. He holds them as his captives by his power. He is the most malicious, the most powerful, most intelligent, most hateful – rage-filled creature in all God’s creation. He had one goal and that was to remove God and become a god himself. He was thrown out of heaven because of His arrogant rebellion and now He has one goal – destroy the work of God. But his time is short.
But, the Cross of Jesus Christ is where God stripped Satan of His power. In Hebrews 2:14 it says this, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil”. The point is that the devil has power over this unbelieving world but the cross of Jesus Christ has broken that power. If you are not under the blood of Jesus Christ you are under the power of Satan. You’re eyes are blinded (2 Cor 4:4). Your mind cannot understand anything spiritual (1 Cor. 2:14) In your heart you despise God and by the nature that is in you you follow the ways of Satan and are now- right now! – under the wrath of God.
But, by Christ’s blood you can be changed. You can be released from the bondage of sin and death. You can cry with Paul in 1 Corinthians “Where O Death is your victory? Where, O Death is your sting?”. And when Jesus says in John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die” when He says that you know that is true for you! That’s because when Jesus Christ died on the cross He made it possible to escape the dominion of Satan. Colossians 1:13 describes what the Father accomplished in Christ Jesus, “For he rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”. No longer captive. No longer held in fear. No longer under the power of sin and death. No longer blinded by the prince of this world.
The cross of Jesus was coming, and so too was the judgment on this world.
Conclusion: Coming to Jesus (v32-33)
I want to conclude with verses 32 and 33, “
The cross was coming. The question is: Have you come to the cross?
All men does not mean universal salvation. It does not mean everyone will be saved whether they believe in Jesus or not. Jesus is picking up on a theme that He has had throughout His entire ministry: salvation is going to go beyond the borders of Israel and men from every nation will come to Christ.
What does that mean? It means you have a response to make to Christ. It means you have to listen to what Christ has said, and look at what He did on the cross for you and you have to respond. Listen, if you haven’t responded by receiving Him, you have responded by rejecting Him. There are no other ways to respond to Christ. The cross of Jesus has come and Jesus went to the cross for your sins. Now is the time for you to hear God’s voice and come to the cross.
The Cross is Coming
In looking at this passage we have to remember the context. It is Passover and everything is Jewish right now. Millions of Jews are packed into Jerusalem for the most important Feast of the year. Thousands and thousands of people are hailing Jesus as the Messiah as He enters into the city. The excitement and the national pride is just teeming. Then there are some Greeks who have come to join in the worship as well. These Greeks ask one of Jesus’ disciples if they can meet Jesus. Now here is the question we have to ask ourselves in this strange passage: When Phillip and Andrew go and tell Jesus that there are some Gentile Greeks want to meet Him, why did Jesus begin to talk about His death?
Do you know why? Because His death was going to make it possible for all men to come unto Him. Do you want to go to God? Do you want to know God? Do you want to be heard by God? Do you want access to God? Jesus is saying without the death sacrifice that I am going to make with my own life you don’t have it. I am the way to God. I am the truth of God. I am the life of God. I am the only access to God. Jesus begins to speak of His own death and it is in His death that man would have access to God.
The title of the sermon today is “The Coming Cross”. Jesus is only days away from the crucifixion. I want us to see 4.5 things that are coming with the cross of Jesus in this passage.
The Conflict in Jesus (v27)
First, we see that there is Conflict in Jesus because the cross is coming. Notice verse 27, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’?”
Jesus says His heart is “troubled”. This is a Greek word that means to shake or to stir; it means to cause commotion and to cause to be agitated. Why would Jesus in His humanity feel this way? It’s because He was looking at the coming cross only a few days away. Second Corinthians 5:21 says that on the cross God was going to make Him sin. He was going to bear all the guilt and shame of the world’s sins on Himself. And because of that He was going to endure all the divine wrath judgment of God on Himself.
Going to the cross was not easy. There’s a reason His heart was troubled that day. There’s a reason He prayed a couple days later on the night He was betrayed, “My Father if it is possible let this cup be taken from me.” If there is anyway I don’t have to go through with this suffering please don’t make me go through with it. There’s a reason why a couple nights later He literally sweat droplets of blood while He was praying.
Did you know that is a real medical condition? It’s called hematidrosis. It’s a rare condition when someone is under such extreme stress that they literally sweat droplets of blood. There are tiny networks of blood vessels around the sweatglands and when someone is under the most extreme stress these blood vessels can rupture. Then, when the person sweats they have tiny blood droplets mixed with their sweat that comes out of their pores. Men who have received sudden news of their death sentence, or men who are about to go into battle have been reported to have this condition.
The point is that Jesus was under great stress as He got within days of the cross. The suffering He was going to endure was casting a shadow over Him the closer He came. There was great conflict within Jesus’ heart.
The Commitment of Jesus (v27b – 28a)
Now we need to see that although Jesus was distressed over the coming of the cross, He in no way was wavering about whether He would go through with it or not. That’s not what was going on in Him. His commitment to going to the cross and dying for sins was unflinching. Notice now, in verses 27-28a, the commitment of Jesus with the coming of the cross, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father glorify your name!”
His commitment was Two-Fold. First, it was a commitment to the plan of the Father for His life. It “was for this very reason that He came to this hour”. It’s the hour of His suffering and death. That is the purpose for why He came. Jesus hasn’t been quiet about His purpose in the last 3 years. He says to His disciples in Matthew 16:21 about His coming death, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things ant the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” In Mark 10:45 He says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
We’ve seen it already in John’s Gospel too. He is called “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. That indicates He is going to die as a sacrifice. In chapter 2 Jesus tells the Pharisees in the temple that they will destroy His body but He will rise 3 days later. In chapter 3 verse 14 He says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up” – that was a direct reference to His crucifixion.
The OT is very clear also that the Messiah must die. Daniel 9 talks about how the Messiah must be cut-off. Zechariah 12:10 says Israel will one day look upon the One whom they pierced. The most compelling passage is Isaiah 53 when it plainly says about the Messiah, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
His purpose for being born a man was to die for mankind. It is for this very reason that I came to this hour. Jesus was committed to the Father’s will for His life. Jesus was committed to the suffering and the death that the Father had planned for Him.
I want to point out one important lesson to learn: Loving someone is not always easy or pleasant. Going to the cross for us was not easy or pleasant. Jesus shows us that really loving someone means doing things that benefit them but come at a cost to you. And the real test is when the other person does not deserve the benefit of your love but you do it anyway. You are never more like Christ than when you give to benefit someone else at a time when they least deserve it. When God demonstrated His love for us we did not deserve it. We benefited from His love in that our sins have been forgiven and we’ve been given eternal life. But it cost God His Son.
Secondly, it was a commitment to glorifying the Father. “Father glorify your name!” Jesus was distressed in His heart and He says “what do you think I should say to God? “Save me!”? “Don’t let this happen to me!”? I will not pray for that, because this which I am about to suffer is the very reason why I came. Instead, I will say, “Father, glorify your name!” Amazing. In the midst of the greatest suffering known to man Jesus was concerned about one thing – the glory of the Father. And there was no other way for the Father to be glorified than for Jesus to be crucified.
I mentioned that passage in Matthew earlier where He prayed on the night He was betrayed, “My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me.” But what He says immediately after that is the model for every follower of Christ. “Yet not as I will, but, as you will.” How many times do we pray for God to remove suffering from our lives and never give even a thought to the glory of God; that perhaps this is the purpose of God for my life.
I like how Warren Wiersbe says it, “God does not expect us to be comfortable, but, He does expect us to be conformable.” Conformable to the image of Christ that is. And you can’t resemble the image of Christ at all if you don’t have an attitude that says to God, “Not as I will, but as you will”. My will is my comfort, but, God’s will is my conformity – my conformity to the likeness of His Son. And if Christ endured suffering that the Father would be glorified then we must look upon suffering as an opportunity to glorify God.
The Confusion of the Jews (v29-30)
The coming of the cross was showing us the conflict within Jesus, the commitment of Jesus, and thirdly, the Confusion of the Jews. Notice verses 29-30, “Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to Him. Jesus said, ‘This voice was for your benefit, not mine.’”
This is the 3rd time that the Father has spoken from heaven in Jesus’ ministry. The first time was in the beginning of His ministry at His baptism as found in Matthew 3. The 2nd time was in the middle of His ministry at His transfiguration.
The crowds are confused about what happened. Some thought that it was thunder, while others thought an angel had responded to Jesus. The point here is that they did not recognize it as the voice of God. They could not recognize God’s voice. This really is a picture of Israel’s true spiritual condition for centuries: Deaf to the voice of God. They were deaf to the voice of God in their own Scriptures. Jesus said to the Jews in John 5:39, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
They were deaf to the voice of God in Jesus Christ Himself. There stood the incarnate Word of God; God was in the flesh standing right in front of them and they did not recognize Him. They tried to stone Him in chapter 8 for claiming to be the “I Am”, the name of God. They tried to stone Him in chapter 10 for claiming to be one with the Father, which was a claim to be God. They could not recognize the voice of God in the Scriptures. They could not recognize His voice when He came in the flesh. And they could not recognize His voice when it thundered from the sky.
Still Jesus says that the voice they heard was for their benefit and not His. Whatever they said about what they heard, they heard something powerful come from the sky as a response to Jesus saying, “Father glorify your name!” If nothing else, the crowd had confirmation that Jesus’ voice is heard in heaven as they heard a voice from heaven respond to Him. And when the Father spoke He confirmed the life of His Son Jesus had glorified Him, and now, the Father was going to be glorified again in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The cross brings confusion to people who do not have spiritual understanding.
The Coming Judgment (v31)
Then we see that the Coming cross means there is a Coming Judgment. Notice verses 31-33, “’Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.”
On one hand the world has judged Jesus Christ and put Him to death. The total darkness, corruption and evil of this world culminated in the crucifixion of the Son of God. But, in that act God judged this world and the ruler of this world.
Satan is called many things in the Scriptures. He is called the Deceiver, the Tempter, the Accuser, the Adversary, the Father of all lies, the Slanderer, the Destroyer, the Murderer, the Serpent, the Dragon, the “Evil One”, the Prince of the Power of the Air, the god of this world, and here in John 12:31 he is called the prince of this world. He has dominion over this world system. He rules over a world of unbelieving, spiritually dead people. He holds them as his captives by his power. He is the most malicious, the most powerful, most intelligent, most hateful – rage-filled creature in all God’s creation. He had one goal and that was to remove God and become a god himself. He was thrown out of heaven because of His arrogant rebellion and now He has one goal – destroy the work of God. But his time is short.
But, the Cross of Jesus Christ is where God stripped Satan of His power. In Hebrews 2:14 it says this, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil”. The point is that the devil has power over this unbelieving world but the cross of Jesus Christ has broken that power. If you are not under the blood of Jesus Christ you are under the power of Satan. You’re eyes are blinded (2 Cor 4:4). Your mind cannot understand anything spiritual (1 Cor. 2:14) In your heart you despise God and by the nature that is in you you follow the ways of Satan and are now- right now! – under the wrath of God.
But, by Christ’s blood you can be changed. You can be released from the bondage of sin and death. You can cry with Paul in 1 Corinthians “Where O Death is your victory? Where, O Death is your sting?”. And when Jesus says in John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die” when He says that you know that is true for you! That’s because when Jesus Christ died on the cross He made it possible to escape the dominion of Satan. Colossians 1:13 describes what the Father accomplished in Christ Jesus, “For he rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”. No longer captive. No longer held in fear. No longer under the power of sin and death. No longer blinded by the prince of this world.
The cross of Jesus was coming, and so too was the judgment on this world.
Conclusion: Coming to Jesus (v32-33)
I want to conclude with verses 32 and 33, “
The cross was coming. The question is: Have you come to the cross?
All men does not mean universal salvation. It does not mean everyone will be saved whether they believe in Jesus or not. Jesus is picking up on a theme that He has had throughout His entire ministry: salvation is going to go beyond the borders of Israel and men from every nation will come to Christ.
What does that mean? It means you have a response to make to Christ. It means you have to listen to what Christ has said, and look at what He did on the cross for you and you have to respond. Listen, if you haven’t responded by receiving Him, you have responded by rejecting Him. There are no other ways to respond to Christ. The cross of Jesus has come and Jesus went to the cross for your sins. Now is the time for you to hear God’s voice and come to the cross.
Comments
Post a Comment