By Genuinely Trusting in Jesus

One of the most famous meteorologists is Al Roker. He has been the Today show weather guy for 40+ years. He even has a saying – after he gives the national forecast, he says “and here’s what’s happening in your neck of the woods” and it cuts to the local weather forecast.

The job of a meteorologist is to tell you what the weather is going to be like – today, tomorrow – the rest of the week. We listen to meteorologist so we can plan our activities. I ask Alexa every morning – “Alexa what is the forecast for today?” Will I need to water my garden today? The meteorologist predicts/forecast the weather – he gives us the forecast of what is to come.

In today’s passage, John 12:27-50 Jesus forecasts his death. He says - I can tell you what is coming. Jesus wasn’t guessing. He wasn’t looking at the sky, he didn’t put his finger up in the air to see if the wind was blowing - Jesus knew what was coming. If a weather forecaster gets it wrong – life goes on. If Jesus got it wrong – life would not go on. When you die – you died. The end. Period. No life with God. No heaven – if Jesus got this wrong. If Jesus got it wrong then we do not need to be meeting here today.

If you were about to die – you might want to gather the people around, you that you cared about and tell them what you believe to be important in life. That is what Jesus is doing here –

Enjoying Life in His Name - By Genuinely Trusting in Jesus

3 responses to the person and work of Jesus

Jesus is speaking to us in his last week before the cross. He is using the last week of his life to tell us to…

I. Follow Jesus’ Mission to Glorify the Father (vv.27-32)

Jesus came to glorify the father! His purpose. His mission. We must follow in his footsteps.

“Now My soul has become troubled; and what am I to say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose, I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” 29 So the crowd who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him!” 30 Jesus responded and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for yours. 31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.”

“This hour” Jesus was referring to the crucifixion.

Follow Jesus’ Mission to Glorify the Father…

A. Even when it’s painful (v.27 Read)

Jesus says these remarkable words—words that, frankly, seem out of place given all the celebration and cheers that were going on around Him – Remember – his triumphant entry just happened, people put down palm branches – they were excited about the Messiah – it was a celebratory day and environment, and Jesus says: "Now My soul is troubled . . ." (v. 27). Jesus, buddy, what’s wrong. What happened? This is how you would respond if a friend said to you “Now my soul troubled.” You would want to comfort them. It’s not what happened with Jesus yet – it is what is going to happen? Ever feel like that? Troubled at what is to come?

When Jesus speaks of His "soul", He speaks of His inner-self—the deep feelings that were an aspect of His full humanity. And in these words, Jesus lets it be known that—at this important moment, as He entered Jerusalem—His soul was inwardly "agitated", and "disturbed", He was "troubled" inside.

Why? The cross was an unspeakably cruel and humiliating punishment/torture. Jesus would not have been human if He didn't recoil at the thought of hanging on a cross.

Jesus knew that there were some things more dreadful than the physical agony and humiliation of what was about to come. Who could possibly imagine the agony this must have meant to Him? Nobody. Nobody else in this world past or present will ever experience what Jesus is going through at this time—to be the holy and righteous Son of God, and yet to bear the sins of all humanity? — and to personally pay the price for it?

In spite of the agony and pain that He was about to experience, He was resolved to obey the will of the Father. And so, when He asks in our passage, "And what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'?" He had a natural, normal, very human desire to avoid the agonies of the cross. But Jesus expresses His overcoming resolve when He says, "But for this purpose I came to this hour" (John 12:27).

Application: Is your heart ever troubled? What do you do when that happens? What are we to do when relatives die? When cancer strikes? When we lose our job? When life seems overwhelming? – No doubt our heart is troubled in those times.

We learn from the Master, who when His heart was troubled breathed this prayer, “Father, glorify your name.” – “Bob – that sounds good on paper but I am not sure I can do that. Bob – that is Jesus – He was able to do that but I am not sure in those circumstances that I can glorify God.” How do I get there? How do I bring myself to…

-If I must lose my health, I will glorify Your name in my sickness.

-If I must lose my wealth, I will glorify Your name in my poverty.

-If I must lose my good name, I will glorify Your name in my humiliation.

-If I must lose my life, I will glorify Your name in my death.

-You say to God - This is not my choice, but I know it is Yours. So, I will embrace it.

Can you glorify God – even when it is painful? Most of time we want the trial to end. “God help this to stop – make it go away” We want to get out of the mess. Jesus, in the end, doesn’t ask to opt out of the plan. “it’s going to be painful, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be humiliating – but I will press on.” Aren’t you glad that He didn’t opt out of dying for the sins of the world? His chief concern is that the Father would be glorified by His perseverance through the trial.

Jesus didn't come to this earth to simply be a great 'teacher' of religious truth; although He certainly was that. He did not come to this earth to provide us with a great example of sacrificial love to God; although He is the supreme example of that. He came to this world to demonstrate His love to us by dying on the cross on our behalf. In doing this He would bring glory to god.

Maybe you have faced this situation. You have a job to do. You know the work is going to be hard and perhaps even painful. You don’t want to do it. You put it off as long as you can. But finally, you must face it. The work needs to be done.

Jesus found himself in that situation. His purpose for coming to Jerusalem on this occasion was so that he could be handed over to his enemies to suffer, and die, and have his body placed in the grave. People celebrated as he rode in on the donkey – “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” They were happy to see Him – they did not understand that He came to die. He was turning himself in. He was about to surrender. He was saying – I am guilty of being the Messiah.

When this happens – you pray.

The problem with many of us is that we don't turn to God enough for help. Instead of praying, we carry all our problems by ourselves and let others torment us from within. Instead of casting all our cares upon Him, we worry ourselves to death. Our prayers are very often a list of all the things we want.

The right way to pray is taught by Jesus Himself in vv.27-28 of our text. Jesus said, ““Now My soul has become troubled; and what am I to say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose, I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name.”” The key to understanding this correctly is the question What am I to say?' Jesus reveals that though praying for deliverance from that dreadful hour would seem to be right and logical for Him at this time, that is not what He should pray for.

That very hour was why He had come into the world. So, he should not pray for deliverance from that hour no matter how dreadful it was to Him. Instead of this, His prayer for that hour was, 'Father, glorify your name.' (v.28) This is a prayer of full surrender to the will of God. It was a selfless prayer. It was echoed in the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane, “yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

Don’t pray that God would be glorified and then go do your own thing. When we face difficult trials and painful experiences - Pray that God's name will be glorified, and leave it to God to decide how His name will be glorified. Maybe he will deliver you from the trial. Maybe he won’t. If He doesn’t pray for the grace to bear it? You may say the words of the Lord's Prayer 'Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.' God's name and God's will should be more important to us than our own need for deliverance?

In v.28 we see that immediately after Jesus prayed, 'Father, glorify Thy name,' the Father answered Him, “Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” This was affirmation! – This was answered prayer!

We must follow Jesus’ mission to glorify God - Even when it’s painful

We will never have to face the difficult task of dying for the sins of the world – we are still called to obedience. Whatever God asks, we should do what he asks and bring glory to Him.

Follow Jesus’ Mission to Glorify the Father by..

B. Believing in God’s timing (v.27)

We live in a fast-food and high speed world mentality – we want it when we want it. If we have to wait for more than 3 minutes for a cup of coffee at Starbucks or if a page takes to long to load – we get frustrated because we want it now.

-We want a new job – NOW.

-We want to do this project – NOW.

-We want to have kids – NOW.

-We want our sickness to go away NOW.

When we follow Jesus’ mission to glorify the father – we have to believe in God’s timing.

We have to believe that God knows what is best for us. We have to believe that God knows what we need and when we need it better than we do.

You and I can only see what is directly in front of us and God has a birds-eye view – or a God’s eye view – a heaven looking down view of what is further ahead in our life than we can see – we need to allow God’s timing to be supreme in our life.

John 12:27 - And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour?” But for this purpose, I came to this hour. – It was God’s timing

We had seen several occasions when it was mentioned that His hour had not yet come. But now in v.23, Jesus says, 'The hour is come, And in v.31 He said, Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.' The time had come. It was happening.

It was time for Jesus to do what he came to do. This was God’s timing.

Follow Jesus’ Mission to Glorify the Father…

C. Looking with an eye to the bigger picture (v.28, 30-32)

The death of Jesus might appear to be a victory for Satan, but really it signals his doom. The cross defeats Satan. God will cast him out of His presence and out of the earth into the lake of fire forever.

Jesus understood this bigger picture.

God had the bigger picture of life figured out before the world began.

God promised in the Garden of Eden that a Savior would come to crush the head of the serpent. (Genesis 3:15) That time had come. Jesus would suffer and die, but he would be victorious.

-God knew that Satan would tempt Adam and Eve.

-God knew that Judas would betray his son.

-God knew that Pilate would allow the Jews to put Jesus to death.
-After Satan and this world had done their very worst against Jesus, Satan was defeated at the cross.

-God saw the big picture.

You may not understand the big picture but I want to challenge you to…

II. Refuse to Doubt God Even When You Don’t Understand (vv.28b-43)

This is hard. Some of you think that you have to understand everything before you believe. REFUSE to doubt God! Why?...

A. Because God knows more than you (vv.33-36 Read)

33 Now He was saying this to indicate what kind of death He was going to die. 34 The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how is it that You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

They are saying, Jesus - “The scribes and Pharisees have taught us that the Messiah will live forever. Now You come along claim to be the Messiah and tell us you are going to die. Something doesn’t fit.

Note: Church – we can’t follow the scribes and Pharisees of this world and Jesus at the same time. You can believe what other people are telling you or you can believe what Jesus is telling you. Nobody is smarter than God. He will win every game of Jeopardy. He knows all the trivia questions. He knows everything on the internet. He knows how the world began and He knows how it will end.

They were just waving palm branches – Hosana – but already the mood is changing. They are no longer proclaiming Jesus as their King. They are now beginning to question who He is.

Jesus is telling the people about his death and they are shocked – what do you mean you are going to die. I thought you would live forever – They could not accept a suffering and dying Messiah.

And Jesus could see that the heart of their problem was the problem of their hearts - hearts of doubt and unbelief. That is why instead of attempting to answer their question, He gave them a loving final warning. He warned them that their time was running out. If they would humble themselves now and believe in Him, they would become children of light. Their hearts would be enlightened by God to understand truth.

Today there are some who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior because they cannot bring themselves to accept that everything the Bible says about Him is absolutely true. If you insist on allowing such doubts to stop you from coming to Christ, then you may miss your opportunity altogether. Church, Jesus calls you to humbly accept those things that you do not fully understand and have faith that the Lord will make them plain to you as you surrender your heart to Him.

It is very sad that even in the time of Jesus so many people who had the privilege of seeing Him in person, hearing Him and experiencing His miracles ended up spending eternity in that outer darkness. Verse 37 tells us that “But though He had performed so many signs in their sight, they still were not believing in Him.' They had not listened to the urgent warning of Jesus 35 So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; also, the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.”

Jesus is saying – I am here with you – the light – walk with me, learn from me, believe what I am telling you – while you still have me here on earth. I don’t want the darkness – Satan – to overtake you. Believe in me so that you will become sons of light.

Understand - This took place only a few days before Jesus went to the Cross of Calvary. By this time most of the miracles of Jesus had already been done. Jesus is saying you have seen me:

-Turn water into wine

-Heal the Nobleman's son

-Heal the paralytic

-Feed the multitudes

-Walk on water

-Heal the man born blind

-Raise Lazarus from the dead.

Now believe in me.

Jesus was about to make the ultimate sacrifice for all of humanity. But John declared the sad reality that most of the people rejected Jesus. Jesus urged the people in Jerusalem to walk in the light of salvation while he was still with them. Without Jesus, they will remain in the darkness of sin and be sentenced to an eternity in the torments of hell.

I want to challenge you to Refuse to Doubt God Even When You Don’t Understand…

B. Because God is bigger than our fears (vv.42-43)

John 12:42-43 - Nevertheless many, even of the rulers, believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, so that they would not be excommunicated from the synagogue; 43 for they loved the approval of people rather than the approval of God.

The rulers. The Pharisees wanted to maintain a public image of themselves They enjoyed the respect, the influence and the praise of being rulers.

Many will go to great lengths just to build up a good public image and maintain it.

I have some friends who are in the ministry who have an IG account. They have listed themselves as Public Figures. I read this and I think to myself – what makes you a public figure? Sometimes we are so afraid of being insignificant that we have to give ourselves a title to feel important – to exalt ourselves. We are afraid of being small. Friends, we ought to be small.

This desire to be loved and accepted by everyone is wrong and sinful, particularly when it is done at the expense of confessing Christ before men. A person who loves the praises of men more than the praise of God is person who loves the world. God makes it clear in 1 John 2:15 'If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.'

You say – what is the big deal? Why didn’t they just go against the Pharisees? The Pharisees were the dominant custodians of the Jewish religion, and they were totally opposed to Jesus. They absolutely refused to recognize Christ as their Messiah, because he had exposed their hypocrisy.

They opposed to Jesus and anyone who followed Him. So, if you were a Jew and wanted to follow Jesus you risked being excommunicated from the synagogue. You say – “So what” Well, in those days, when a Jew was excommunicated, he could not simply go and join another synagogue. He was an outcast, ostracized by society and no one was to have any contact with him! No one would employ them or do business with them anymore. So they had to choose – publicly declare their belief in Jesus or have a private faith so that they could impress the rulers and Pharisees.

Joshua said “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” He chose wisely. When others chose to serve man and other Gods – he took his stand. He proclaimed his intentions.

Today we face the same dilemma. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (NLT)

Maybe money is not a problem for you. Perhaps something else is dividing your service to God. Like Joshua, have you made a clear choice to serve the Lord?

Friends we must…

III. Choose to Obey the Words of Jesus (vv.44-50)

A. Because Jesus was sent by God (vv.44-45)

B. Because Jesus speaks only the Words of God (vv.47-50)

– He is not acting alone but in conjunction with the father.

Choose to obey the words of Jesus…

C. Because there is a judgment for rejecting Jesus’ words, but life for accepting them (vv. 48,50)

We are reading the words of Jesus in his final week - These people keep rejecting Jesus. They keep choosing other things over Jesus… And this has been the story from the beginning… Man has loved and served the creation rather than God… Yet here we see God in the flesh pleading with people to believe… He would be perfectly just to destroy everyone, but instead He seeks and saves.

We must believe in the person and work of Jesus—that He is who He says He is and has done and will do all that His Word says.

Jesus is closing out His ministry the way He began it, by calling people to repent and believe in the gospel.

What are you choosing over Jesus?

Jesus said I have come so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. Judgment for rejecting Jesus or Life for accepting Jesus.

He is calling you to repent and believe – will you answer?

Conclusion:

Al Roker is a great meteorologist and a good forecaster.

Today in John – Jesus forecast his death.

I can’t forecast when Jesus will return. It could be today. I urge you not to reject the words of Jesus. He may return today – so we should live accordingly.