John 12 27 thru 36

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“I Will Draw All People,” John 12:27-36 (February 19, 2017) 27

“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. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” PRAY Every spring we set aside the weeks leading up to Easter to focus on the life of Jesus Christ, and this is the sixth spring we’ve done that through the gospel of John. In 2012, we started in John 1:1, and we’ve made it now to John 12 – skipping around a little bit but mostly going verse by verse through the gospel. John 12 marks the turning point in John’s gospel, and from this point forward the focus is on the last week of Jesus’ life – half of the book of John is devoted to it. And the question I want to address this morning is this: what happened on the cross? To the extent the average person knows anything about Jesus, they know at least this: he was born in manger, he worked miracles in his life, and he died on a cross. But what exactly happened on that cross? This isn’t a merely academic question. This gets to the heart of the Christian faith. Unless you know what happened on the cross, you can’t really know what it means to be a Christian or what it means to be saved. And, just as importantly, you can’t know how much God loves you unless you know what happened on the cross. We’ll try to answer that question three ways this morning, by answering three more questions: first, what happened to Jesus on the cross? Second, what happened to the devil on the cross? Third, what happened to you and me on the cross? First, what happened to Jesus on the cross? “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.” John 12:27. “The hour” in the gospel of John refers to the hour of his death on the cross. But Jesus says his soul is “troubled” by the approach of the cross. He doesn’t want to face death. He’s even tempted to beg off going to the cross, to get out from under the obligation of going. A few nights after this we read about something astounding. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before Jesus goes to the cross, Jesus really starts

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thinking about the cross. In fact, probably, God gave Jesus a vision, a preview, of what he would face on the cross. And we read this in Luke’s account of that night: “44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:44. And just like in John 12, Jesus is tempted to turn away from the cross and not go to his death. Now the question Christians have asked for centuries is this: why is Jesus so reluctant to go to his death? Jesus seems a lot less brave than many other Christian martyrs. Plenty of Christians have faced death joyfully, even thankfully. Church tradition tells us that Peter, when the Romans came to crucify him during the persecution of Emperor Nero, Peter requested that he be crucified upside down, because he said he was not worthy of dying in the same manner as his Lord. Another favorite example of mine from church history comes from England, where in year 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicolas Ridley, both bishops in the Church of England, were burned at the stake for teaching the Bible under the reign of Queen Mary I – Bloody Mary. After they were tied to the stake and as the executioners were about to light the pyre, Hugh Latimer turned to Nicolas Ridley and said, “Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall this day light such a candle in England as I trust by God's grace shall never be put out.” Brave words – but Jesus is tempted to turn away from the cross and ask God to save him from this coming hour. They were ready to face death, but Jesus is terrified of his cross. Why? And the answer is that Jesus, in his death, in his execution, faced something no other Christian martyr ever had to face. Jesus had to face hell. The physical pain of crucifixion was not the worst part of Jesus’ death. The worst part, the agony of Jesus on the cross, was going through hell. Now, when we talk about hell we are literally trying to describe the indescribable. Nowhere in the Bible do we get a comprehensive description of what hell is like. But there are three things we can look at that can give us some idea of what made Jesus’ experience of hell on the cross so agonizing for him. First, Jesus endured the wrath of God when he endured hell on the cross. In 1 Thessalonians 1:10 we read how “Jesus [is the one] who delivers us from the wrath to come.” Wrath, of course, means something like furious anger. Whose wrath is Paul referring to? The wrath of God, the anger of God. Every time we sin, every time we break God’s law in big ways or in small ways, it angers God. A lot of people don’t like to talk about this. In fact, this doctrine that God is wrathful toward human sin is always one of the big reasons why people say they can’t accept Christianity. I’ve heard it myself many times: “I could never be a Christian because I don’t believe in a God who gets angry at sin; I believe in a loving God who forgives everyone no matter what they’ve done.”

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Now, absolutely, God can forgive all sins – no doubt about it. More on that in a minute. But for someone to say, “I can’t believe in the wrath of God toward sin - I can’t follow a God like that” means they haven’t really thought things through. Friends, we all want a God who judges sin and we all want a God who will punish in righteous anger all sin. Imagine someone you loved was killed by a drunk driver. And after the investigation takes place you find out that this is this guy’s third DUI. So you go to court and you expect the judge to throw the book at him, and you want it to happen to bring some closure to you and your family. But when the time for sentencing comes the judge says to drunk driver, “You know what, I am not an angry, vengeful judge. I want everyone to know that I’m a loving, forgiving judge. We’re going to forget this horrible thing ever happened, and I’m going to let you go.” What would you say? “Wow, what a loving and forgiving judge! Why can’t everyone in the judicial system be like you?” No, you would demand that man be removed from the bench – you’d say he’s an awful judge. Why? Because a judge like that doesn’t hate evil enough to do anything about it. God will not make that mistake, he is angry at sin, he is angry at injustice, he hates evil and he will punish it all. But here’s the thing: how can God punish sin without punishing us? How can be pour his wrath out on sin without pouring his wrath out on sinners? You say, “Well, I haven’t killed anyone while driving drunk. I haven’t done anything really bad.” Ok, maybe not – but you’ve lied, you’ve gossiped, you’ve stolen, you’ve hurt people, you’ve certainly thought really awful thoughts about people, you've been jealous, you’ve gotten angry at your kids and spanked them when you shouldn’t have. And maybe some of you have actually killed someone. Maybe some of you have committed adultery. We’ve all sinned – I know I have. So how can God be angry at sin (which we all should want, we should all want evil to be punished) without being angry at us? And the answer is: on the cross, Jesus went through hell – he took on the wrath and anger of God toward sin – in order to deliver us from it. Only by enduring it himself could Jesus deliver us from the wrath to come. God can love us and forgive all our sins, but he can only do so and maintain justice by taking the punishment those sins deserve on himself, which is what he did in Jesus on the cross. Second, Jesus endured weeping and gnashing of teeth when he endured hell on the cross. We get this phrase from Jesus, and a lot of us have heard this phrase before and all at once these lurid images flash in our mind of the teeth of demons feasting on flesh or some such thing. That’s not what weeping and gnashing of teeth is about: 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do

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not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.” Luke 13:24-28. The weeping and gnashing of teeth is not something out of a horror film; it’s the language of loss, regret, and bitterness. These people Jesus is talking about thought they were going to be able to eat at the great banquet of the kingdom of God at the end of the age, but they missed it: they were cast out. You weep and gnash your teeth when you experience loss. I heard a preacher explain it this way once. Say you have a teenage son, and when that son is living with you in our house, the only thing you notice about his room is what a mess is constantly is. You go in there and you see his shoes and clothes all over the place and the bed is never made and the room smells like boy, and you say, “Oh my goodness – why can’t he ever clean this place up?” But say something happens to your son. Say your son gets sick and dies. Then his room is something different. You don’t walk in there and complain about the room. You don’t see the mess at all anymore. You don’t walk in and say, “Why can’t he ever make up his bed?” You say, “Oh, there’s his bed. There’s his clothes. There’s his toys.” And when you can bring yourself to go in his room, you sit down on that bed and your weep and gnash your teeth, because you’ve experienced this great loss. I use an illustration like that very carefully, because I personally can’t imagine losing a child, and I can’t imagine if you have actually lost a child how painful an illustration like that can be. But we are trying to talk about hell, here, so extreme realities require extreme illustrations. On the cross, Jesus lost someone, too. He lost something far worse than a child. If you lose a child you lose a powerful love relationship you’ve had for fifteen years. But on the cross Jesus lost the love relationship he’d had with the Father for all eternity. That’s all God has ever done inside the Trinity, you know – Father, Son, and Spirit pouring love into one another’s being. Only one time does the Bible record Jesus calling God “God,” instead of “the Father” or “my Father.” It’s when he’s on the cross, and he cries out, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46. Jesus calls him God because on the cross, in some sense we cannot fully understand, the Father abandoned Jesus. He turned his face away from Jesus. He let him go, while he poured his anger out on Jesus to punish our sins. Third, Jesus endured fire when he endured hell on the cross. The Bible says that all who trust in Jesus will inherit eternal life. Going to heaven means having eternal life. But those who do not trust Jesus go on to what Revelation 20:14 calls the second death.

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“This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14b-15. Those are the choices set before us: eternal life in Christ, the second death apart from Christ. But what does a second death in the lake of fire mean? It means death that goes on forever, eternal death, death that never ceases. Mark 9:47-48: “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’” The fire of hell is an unquenchable fire, a fire that never goes out, a suffering that never stops. So hell then is the place where, for all eternity, those in it endure the wrath of God combined with the searing loss of the love of God, and these two together mean endless destruction of the soul, endless breakdown of our humanity. It’s possible to get a taste of this on earth. If you experience enough loss and bitterness and anger on earth, sooner or later you don’t feel human anymore. How much more, then, if that pain never stops? That’s what the Bible says hell is. Now, obviously, Jesus did not literally burn on the cross, but on the cross Jesus did enter into the fire of hell in the sense that all the pain, and loss, and wrath of God we should rightfully experience in eternity was compressed somehow into six hours, and it tore his soul apart. The fire of hell destroyed Jesus on the cross. That was Jesus’ agony – hell on the cross. That’s why his heart was troubled, to say the least. That’s why he was tempted to pray, “Father, save me from this hour.” That’s why Jesus sweated “great drops of blood.” But here’s the thing: Jesus went through his agony for you. He did it so that you would not face the punishment your sins deserve but so that you could be reconciled to God, welcomed into his arms, adopted into God’s family and given the rights of sons. He went through eternal death so that you could have eternal life, even though he didn’t deserve eternal death and we don’t deserve eternal life! Do you see that? Now, if you are here this morning and you’re skeptical of Christianity, or if you’re skeptical of the kind of Christianity we preach here where we teach that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had to go through hell on the cross in order to turn away the wrath of God to save you from your sins … if that’s you, yet you still believe there is a God (and ninety percent of Americans do, and even more Mississippians), I want to ask you one question: you believe in God. Tell me, what does it cost your God to love you? Is your god a benevolent deity somewhere up in the heavens who wishes you well and maybe helps you out from time to time, and maybe even gives you guidance in some vague, abstract sense when you ask for it? If that’s your idea of God, what does it cost him to love you? The answer is: nothing. That kind of God “loves” you, if you want to call it love, without any cost to him whatsoever.

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But that’s not Jesus. If one thing is clear from the New Testament, it is that it cost Jesus everything, it cost Jesus something I literally cannot imagine, to love me. But because it did cost Jesus everything to love me, I know he will never let me go. My favorite hymn is “My Song Is Love Unknown,” and one line goes like this: “Here might I stay and sing, no story so divine: never was love, dear King, never was grief like thine. This is my friend, in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.” Friends, I don’t know what kind of god you walked in here this morning with, but can you sing that about him? That’s what happened to Jesus on the cross. Second, what happened to the devil on the cross? See, if this is your first time to Grace, I’m bringing all the stuff that should scare you off in one sermon – hell, the wrath of God, and the devil. If you can survive this sermon and want to come back, I think you’ll be in the clear. We do believe in a literal, real devil at Grace Bible Church. Now, if you struggle with the idea that the devil is real, let me ask you this: do you believe in God? If so, then you believe in a real, personal, supernatural being who is good. Why then is it such a stretch to believe that there is a real, personal, supernatural being who is evil? If you believe in a god then there’s no philosophical or logical reason you can’t believe in a devil. And Jesus says this in John 12:31: “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler [or, “prince”] of this world be cast out.” Pretty much all the commentators agree when Jesus says “ruler of this world” he means that person Christians call the devil. I won’t spend much time trying to explain the devil, because the Bible doesn't. The Bible indicates (I use that word intentionally, because the Bible never sets out to explain the origin of the devil) that the devil is a fallen angel. The devil rebelled against God in heaven, apparently before God created man on earth. And he has tremendous power because he’s called the “ruler of this world.” But have you ever wondered, “What’s his game? I mean, the devil is out there doing his work, leading people astray, but knows God will win in the end, right? He knows he’ll be cast into the lake of fire and destroyed forever in the end, right? So what does he hope to accomplish?” And I don’t know for sure, but maybe it’s something like this: plenty of times I’ve wondered if Jesus will really come back; if the second coming of Christ will really happen. It’s not that I doubt the Bible teaches that, it’s not that in my head I’ve doubted it, but in my heart sometimes I’m prone to think, “You know, it’s been two thousand years – is this really going to happen?” I think that even though, the longer I go as a Christian, I want the second coming to happen – I pray for Jesus to come back. Maybe it’s like that with the devil as well – he says to himself, “I know God cast me out of heaven a long time ago, and I know it’s prophesied that he will destroy me in the end, but it’s been an awfully long time – but will he really? Maybe it won’t happen after all.”

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So the devil continues to wage war against God. And since he can’t get at God himself, because God is to glorious and powerful for the devil, he goes after the pinnacle of God’s creation: us. Humans. He drove a wedge between humans and God by tempting Adam and Eve into sin in the Garden of Eden, and ever since he has worked to exercise dominion and power over us and to keep us from God. “In their case the god of this world [talking about the devil] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4. Before the cross there was really was no way for people to be delivered from the devil’s power. You had the sacrificial system at the temple in Jerusalem in the Old Testament, but the blood of all those little lambs weren’t really getting anyone forgiven. The devil held all the cards. But when the true Lamb of God came to his cross, and shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins, suddenly the power of the devil was broken over the world. Now there’s a way to be reconciled to God. And wherever this good news is preached, the devil is bound and his power is broken over the people who hear it. There’s a place in the gospels where Jesus talks about this. Mark 3:27: “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.” Wherever the gospel is preached, the devil is bound, he’s kept from deceiving the nations, and his kingdom is plundered. People are rescued. You know what we’re doing when we practice evangelism? Liberating prisoners of war. People who don’t know the gospel are the devil’s captives, and we set them free when we tell the good news of Jesus to them and they believe. That’s what happened to the devil on the cross. Third, Jesus tells us what happened to you and me on the cross. Two things: first, we are judged by the cross. It is common for people to say that it doesn’t matter what you believe about Jesus, it doesn’t matter what think about doctrine, it only matters how you live. Were you good to people? Were you kind? Did you love your neighbor? Then you’ll be fine. It’s not important what you believe about Jesus himself, whether he was the son of God or anything else like that, but whether you followed his teachings. That’s what matters. That’s not what Jesus says. John 12:31a: 31 Now is the judgment of this world …” Jesus says, “One day the only thing that will matter is this: what did you think of me on the cross?” At one point Paul says this: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ …” Galatians 6:14. And the translation “far be it from me” doesn't get across how adamant Paul is here – Paul is using the strongest possible terms to say, “Nothing else matters but the cross of Christ.” The old King James said, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ.”

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Notice what Paul doesn’t say here. He doesn’t say, “God forbid that I should boast except in the teachings of Jesus.” He doesn’t say, “God forbid that I should boast except in Jesus feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish.” Paul here is saying just the opposite of what so many in our world say. Paul is saying that what really matters is not Jesus’ teaching, it’s not what Jesus told us to do but what he came to do. Do you see that? Can you say “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”? Friends, if you don't see the main thing about Jesus is that he came to die for you, then you are still in the grip of Satan. You’re still blind. Compared to the cross of Jesus, nothing else matters. We are judged by the cross. Second, we are drawn by the cross. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. John 12:31-32. In a lot of youth groups across the country it’s a common tactic to try and scare the kids into making a decision for Christ. So they’ll take the kids to some kind of event in a church gymnasium where a car crash is portrayed, for example, and the high school kids in the car all died and went to hell. And depending on the resources of the people who put on the event hell is more or less graphically portrayed, and depending on the acting skills of the kids involved the screams and sobs sound more or less genuine. But at the end of it all they’ll present the gospel, and ask the kids if they want to be saved. And of course many do, and so counselors will come and pray with the kids to receive Christ. Now, I’m not saying that no teenager has ever become a Christian at those events. Not at all – I’m sure some kids have. God can use all kinds of means to accomplish his purposes. In the book of Numbers, in the Old Testament, he opened the mouth of an ass to get Balaam’s attention. If he can use an ass, he can use one of these events. But what I am saying is this: no one is ever driven to the cross. You can only be drawn. Our job as preachers and teachers in the church is not to flood your imagination with fantastical images of hell, not to drive you to the cross or guilt you to the cross, but to preach the gospel of grace and mercy and love of Jesus Christ in such a way that you are drawn to him. Friends, this is the question after a sermon on hell: not are you scared to go to hell, but are you irresistibly drawn to the one who saves you from hell? Are you drawn by his love? Are you drawn by his mercy? Are you drawn by his sacrifice? When you see Jesus high and lifted up from the earth, dying on the cross for you, do you reject that, are you apathetic about it, or are you drawn? Can you sing: “My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me; Love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be. O who am I, That for my sake My Lord should take Frail flesh, and die?” Friends, that’s the only question that matters. No one gets saved

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because they are scared of going to hell, but only because the Holy Spirit puts in their hearts the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you have that love? Let’s pray.

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