If I Am Lifted Up
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Last week, as we began to look at this portion of the Word of God, we began to look at the motive and the motivation of our Savior as He makes His way to the cross. We saw that there was the dread of that unique suffering that He was about to undergo. His spirit was deeply troubled—’tarasso’—dismayed, agitated. He says that His soul has become dismayed.
Spurgeon, commenting on this, said, "In anticipation of Calvary, His soul was full of trouble, not that He feared death, but His death was to be a very peculiar one. He was to die, the just for the unjust. He was to bear our sins in His own body on the tree, and His pure and holy soul shrank from contact with sin. To stand in a sinner's place, to bear His Father's wrath, this bewildered Him."
John Calvin, commenting on the same, said the following: "Moreover, it was useful and even necessary for our salvation that the Son of God should be so affected. The chief thing to consider in His death is His expiation, by which He appeased the wrath and the curse of God. But He could not have done that without transferring to Himself our guilt. Therefore, the death which He underwent had to be full of horror, since He could not perform the satisfaction for us without apprehending the dreadful judgment of God in His own senses. From this, we learn better the enormity of sin, which the Heavenly Father exacted so dreadful a punishment from His only begotten Son."
Christ has come to His hour, and it troubles Him—deeply troubles Him. And yet, far from asking to be delivered from it, He looks into the face of it, and He chooses it. He deliberately chooses it. And He tells us what His motive and motivation is in choosing it. What was it that really was the driving force behind His choice, His willingness to come to this hour? He says, "for this purpose"—verse 27—"I came to this hour." Verse 28: "Father, glorify Your name."
Beloved, when we're struggling with powerful emotions, it is always right to submit your feelings—my feelings—to God's purpose to glorify Him, to glorify Himself. Our Lord is our example here in how to deal with our feelings. Jesus, the God-man, had human feelings, but He was free from all sin. And here, He honestly expresses His revulsion at the thought of the cross, but He quickly submits to the will and the glory of the Father. And, beloved, you and I ought to do the same.
If you're facing a difficult trial, and you are overwhelmed with powerful, powerful feelings, so that you don't even know what to pray, you can always pray, "Father, glorify Your name." Father, glorify Your name. Your aim, like Jesus' aim, should be to glorify the Father in everything. "Father, glorify Your name." This is His chief desire. This is the overarching motive and motivation—that His Father will be glorified.
But today, in the verses that follow, we find that there's something else that moves the Son of God. This is the chief thing. We saw it together. This is the overarching thing. This is the way that sums it all up, that the Father, indeed, would be glorified. "Father, glorify Your name." That's it. We see it here. It's captured beautifully, powerfully, succinctly, but in that is also the knowledge of what the product will be of His dying, what the outcome of His death will be, bound up in this.
We can put it in the language of Hebrews 12, verse 2: "for the joy that was set before Him"—for the joy that was set before Him. He knows what His death will do. He knows what His death will accomplish. He knows what His death will produce, and that moves Him to the cross. That compels Him to the cross. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross.
I want to begin this morning where we left off last Sunday: the desire of Christ for the glory of the Father. The desire of Christ for the Father's glory. Verses 28-30: "Father, glorify Your name." And we see that the Father gave Him assurance of this. The Bible says, "then a voice"—verse 28—"came from heaven: I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." The Son's desire is met now with the Father's assurance. And the Father tells us that He has been glorified. And I take it to mean in His Son. In His Son's life. The Son of God has already glorified the Father. He has been glorified.
Have we not seen the Father in His Son? If you've seen Christ, you've seen who? The Father. And Christ has made known that to us.
In John 14, verse 8, "Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you all so long and have you not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"
Or the Apostle John tells us in the opening of this Gospel, John 1, verse 18—you remember those words—"No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God" — the only begotten God — "who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him."
Christ, the ‘Logos’, the Word, has made God known to us. He has exegeted Him. He has revealed Him. He has revealed God to us. In Christ we see God incarnate. So that already in the Son's life, before the cross, before the garden, before the resurrection, the Father already has been glorified. His name has been made known in His Son.
As Lewis Johnson writes, "What a glorious view of God we would have obtained even if the Son of God had passed into heaven at this point." In other words, if I can insert this, has the Father already been glorified? Yes. So much so that even if the Son of God had passed into the heavens at that point, man would have already had a glorious view of God. But he goes on to say this: "We, however, would never have been able to profit from it. For lost in our sins, we would have never grasped the true meaning of His life and been able to receive the life that brings illumination and salvation."
The Father has already been glorified, seen in the life of His Son, seen in the teaching, preaching of His Son, seen in the miracles performed by His Son. He has made the Father known. Clearly known. I have been glorified, the Father declared. I have been glorified. I have glorified My name. The Father has glorified His name.
But, He doesn't just say that He has been glorified, but He says also what? He will be glorified. Verse 28: "I have both glorified it and"—what?—"will" —will— "glorify it again." Looking to the future. Looking to where the Son of God is headed. The Father will be made known. His name will be glorified. Even as His Son is humiliated and dishonored. Even as mankind, sinful mankind, wicked man, dishonors the Son, the Father will be made known. His name will be glorified. He will be revealed.
And the Father will be made known, seen in the love of His Son. The love of His Son, displayed on Calvary's cross.
You remember John 13:1, right? "Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." He loved them to the end. That lets us know who God is. God so loved the world, right?
Seen in His Son's suffering, He suffers in such a way at His mock trials, at the places where He was mocked and beaten and scorned and spat upon and dishonored. The way that He conducts Himself there, the way that He responds to all of it, speaks to us of God. The way that He suffers on the tree—so much so that people are converted. Truly, truly, this is the Son of God. And they come to faith as they witness all of this.
He will be glorified in His Son's suffering, in His Son's death. He will be glorified in His Son's resurrection. The Father will make His name known by raising His Son from the dead, demonstrating that He is the Lord who saves sinners, and that all that is claimed concerning Himself has been true, vindicated, validated, by raising His Son from the dead. The Father will testify to it by raising His Son from the dead.
And so, in the agony of Gethsemane, the agony of the cross and His death, the victory of His resurrection, the victory of His ascension, the victory of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the victory of the much fruit that has flowed down to this present day. And every single child of God in this place, you are that much fruit that has come from when the Lord God said from heaven, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." So He has been glorified and He will be glorified.
But there's something strange about the voice that comes from heaven. The voice that comes from heaven and says this, but notice what Christ says. He says concerning this voice down in verse 30—look at it—"The voice has not come for My sake, but for your sake." For your sake. The voice is for your sake, not mine.
But here's what makes this really curious. Apparently, people didn't understand the voice, right? They didn't get it. How did they respond to it? Verse 29: so the crowd of the people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had what? Thunder. I think I hear thunder, some of them said. Others hear it. They recognize something supernatural in it. There's something supernatural. This isn't something explained by nature. We read others were saying an angel has spoken to Him. They don't attribute it to God. They don't attribute it to the Father. They attribute it to an angel. It must be an angel.
What do we make of this? What do we make of this? This voice comes. They don't understand it. They don't recognize it, and yet Christ says it wasn't for Him. It was for them. You know, I think that we have here sort of a divine object lesson. That's what we have here. A divine object lesson. The Son has clearly exegeted the Father. He's revealed the Father clearly. The Son has clearly explained the Father. The Son has clearly revealed the Father. The Son has clearly made the Father known.
The Father has clearly testified to His Son by His life and through His teaching and through His miracles, the miracles wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father has testified of His Son. God has been glorified. God will be glorified. But get this. That doesn't mean that all men will recognize it. The Father has been glorified. The Father will be glorified, but we're not to conclude from that that all men will recognize that glory just like this voice.
Some are going to witness the glory of God and attribute it to something explained by nature, and some are going to witness the glory of God and they may even be willing to acknowledge something supernatural to what they've seen, but they will not attribute it to God. Don't we see this in our own day? Don't we? I mean, we see it in our own day. You've experienced it, no doubt. Some look at Christ and they say, well, He was a good man. Nature. Natural. He was a good man. He was a good teacher. A wise teacher. Others see in Christ something supernatural, but they will not say this is God in human flesh. They will not say this is the Savior of the world.
And in both cases, when you fall short of a right biblical understanding of Christ, whether you take Jesus, you reduce Him to something explained by nature, or you take Jesus and you explain Him by something supernatural, but not God in human flesh, the only Savior given to mankind—when you fall short and you're understanding in either direction—what have you missed? You have missed the glory of God. You have missed the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us what happens when God shines His light into a human heart so that for the first time, people rightly see, rightly understand the Son. What do we see? "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
When you rightly see Jesus, when you biblically see Jesus, the Christ of Scripture, what do you see? You see the glory of God. The glory of God.
"Father, glorify Your name." "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." I have glorified it in You, My beloved Son. I will glorify it again in You, My beloved Son. But that doesn't mean everybody is going to recognize it. You can have clear testimony and it still be attributed to nature or to angels and not understood by sinful men.
And when the gospel goes out, there are some people who simply say, it's a noise. It's a noise. That's all. That's all there is to this. You're making noise. It's noise. It has no real sense of meaning to them at all. And the Apostle Paul puts it plainly when he says, "But a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are" —what?— "foolishness to him," —foolishness— "and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually examined." 1 Corinthians 2:14.
And then there are some individuals who sense that there is meaning in the gospel, but they haven't really grasped it for themselves.
Spurgeon applying this says, "They did not understand the voice of God or the cause of the voice speaking to them. If the men of the world in our Savior's day did not understand the Father's voice to the only begotten, do not expect that the men of the world today will understand the divine voice in your heart. They will reckon that you are in error and that God has not spoken to you. It has only thundered. They will be ready to invent all kinds of stories of angels and I know not what so as to get rid of the voice of God to you. But you know it. If you are God's children, you know His voice and you also know what He means when He speaks."
And the question I would ask is whether the mission of the Son of God encompassed this. Did Christ anticipate this? Would He have been disillusioned by this? And we know the answer. Yes, His mission accounts for this. Yes, He anticipated this. No, He wasn't disillusioned by this. He never came to this earth thinking that all men would recognize the glory of God. He came to this earth to accomplish a specific salvation mission, and that mission would be accomplished, and nothing—absolutely nothing—was going to derail it.
He would save His people from their sins. He would lay down His life for His sheep. His sheep know His voice. He would gather into one both Jews and Gentiles into one flock. The desire of God's Son, the desire for Christ, is to glorify the Father.
Now, the second thing that I want us to see: not only His desire to glorify the Father, but also notice that He's going to die for the glory of the Father. The death of Christ is for the Father's glory, and we see this in verses 31 to 33. His death will glorify God. He's speaking of His death. Look at verse 31: "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was about to die."
He's going to be lifted up. In other words, He's going to be lifted up on the cross. He's going to be crucified. He's going to die on a tree. But what's going to be accomplished there? The glory of the Father? Yes. Yes. But there's something else embedded in that. To the glory of the Father. Again, the joy set before Him—the joy set before Him.
What is going to accomplish, to be accomplished at the cross? Well He mentions—three things. Three things are mentioned.
Number one, look at them with me. There's going to be a great demonstration. We might even say a great declaration of something. Verse 31: "Now judgment is upon this world." Now judgment is upon this world. There's going to be a demonstration of what? Judgment. There's going to be a demonstration of judgment. There's going to be a declaration of the cross, of the judgment of this world.
Question: In what sense was judgment accomplished at the cross? Beloved, in this sense. The cross is your condemnation. It is God's witness against you if you reject Christ—if you reject Christ. At the cross, not only does it speak of salvation, it also speaks of judgment. Judgment. It is the testimony of God to the world that there is a way for man to be reconciled to God. But it's also a testimony from God to the world that if you reject His Son, His only begotten Son, this is the judgment of sin.
The cross speaks to the real guilt of our sin. The cross speaks to the real hardness and impenitence found in the hearts of men, wicked men, that they would crucify the Prince of life. It speaks of man's real hatred toward God. It speaks of the real crime committed against the Son of God. At the cross, the world's hypocrisy is stripped away. Who we really are spiritually by nature, left to ourselves by nature from Adam since the fall, is exposed at the cross.
Let me ask us today, what would mankind in his natural condition since the fall—what would mankind do to God if God will allow it? Answer: he would kill God. He would murder God. The Bible says that man's a God hater. Man is a God hater. Is that not true? I mean, is man really a God hater? Since the fall, do people really hate God? What's the answer? How do you know? Look at the cross. Look at the cross. The cross reveals it, doesn't it? There's what man would do to God if given an opportunity: Crucify Him. Crucify Him.
As if, Spurgeon says, "as if in Christ's death the world was judged and condemned—and so it was. Nothing ever so convicted the world of high treason against God as when men said of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's well-beloved Son, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours.’ The shedding of the blood of Christ upon the cross is the crimson evidence of the deep transgression of human nature. Now is the judgment of this world."
Crucify Him. My heart was gripped at this point. I marveled, and I trust you'd agree with me. Isn't it the wonder of wonders that at the very time man was expressing his hatred toward God, God was expressing His love toward man? How can this be? How can this be? Isn't it amazing? Romans 5 verse 8: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
But the cross also strips away the hypocrisy of sinful man in another way, because man wants to imagine that he's a God lover. Man wants to say, you know, you know what, if there was a way for me to come to God, I would. If there were a way for me to please God, if there was a way for me to approach God, I would. I would come. The cross cries out, here's the way. Here's the way. Here's the way opened by God Himself, the shed blood of the Son of God, and anyone who wishes to be reconciled with God, let them turn from their sins and come to the Son of God and you will have fellowship with God. Here's the way. Will you come? Will you come?
So that when man walks away from the truth of the gospel, he what? Exposes himself. You don't love God or else you would come. The cross represents the judgment of the world in that the cross will take away every lost man's excuse. Every single one. And it shows us, shows us all for what we are by nature apart from the grace of God. It shows us that we would, what we would do with God if given the opportunity. And it shows man that he doesn't really want to be reconciled to God, for the way is open and if left to himself, man will not come.
Spurgeon goes on to say, "I dare say you have heard people use pretty phrases about the dignity of human nature and so on. These, they are lying phrases, for human nature is as bad as it can be. If you want proof of that assertion, behold how God Himself came here among men, incarnate virtue robed in love. Did men love Him? Did they fall down before Him and do Him homage? The homage of the world was, ‘Crucify him. Crucify him.’" —He goes on to say— "The world hates virtue. It cannot bear perfection. It might endure benevolence, but absolute purity and righteousness it cannot. Away with. Its native instincts are wrong. It is not towards the light that men are going. Their backs are to the sun. They are journeying into the thick darkness."
That was revealed at the cross. That was revealed at the cross. Now judgment is upon this world.
The cross would demonstrate the sinfulness of men, but there's a second thing that's going to take place there on the cross when Christ would be crucified. And looking at it from from the standpoint, of course, of John 12, looking to the cross, the second thing is there's going to be, from our vantage point, a great victory, and looking at it from Satan's vantage point, there's going to be a great defeat.
"Now judgment is upon this world," verse 31. "Now the ruler of this world will be cast out." Who is the ruler of this world? Who is the ruler of this present present age? Satan. Satan the deceiver. And at the cross—at the cross—Jesus says he's going to be defeated. At the cross, he was defeated.
Pastor MacArthur writes, "Satan was dethroned at Calvary. Again, this is a reversal of what you might think. It looked like Satan won. It looked like Satan triumphed, and the devils of hell thought there was a triumph. Satan had conquered Christ at the cross, they thought. But in reality, Christ had crushed his head, dealt him the death blow. Now Satan fights from death row. He is a vanquished enemy. He has nothing on Christ. He has nothing on us. He is a conquered, defeated foe."
In the death of Christ, beloved, Satan was stripped of any claim against believers—mark it down—any claim. And when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, the rule of sin is broken. Sin has no longer dominion over us. The rule of sin is broken in our lives. Satan has no claim upon us, for the blood of Jesus answers for all of our sins. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He can accuse us day and night before God, but he has no solid ground upon which to accuse us because the Son of God has answered for our sins.
You see, that by which Satan held men—the guilt of their sins—is now borne by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and dealt with permanently, once and for all.
And so in Christ, now we can sing with Horatio Spafford, "My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord oh my sou!l"
And we can sing with Martin Luther, "And though this world, with devil filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us the Prince of Darkness grim we tremble not for him his rage we can endure for lo his doom is sure one little word shall fell him".
He was defeated there but also was demonstrated the cross his final defeat at the cross and in the resurrection of Christ was demonstrated the fact that Satan is a defeated foe.
Revelation 12:10, "Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their witness, and they did not love their life even to death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath knowing that he has only a short time."
One commentator said, "The cross and the resurrection spelled Satan's defeat. These events marked the glorification of all He renounced and the reversal of all He sought to attain." You know the prophecy back all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 to that protoevangelium, that first gospel God said, I will put enmity pronouncing this to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." And the offspring of the woman came the Lord Jesus Christ the God man, God incarnate the deliverer for mankind came and indeed His heel was bruised, He was wounded for our iniquities. But at the same time at the cross while He was wounded for our iniquities, what was He doing? He was crushing the serpent's head, He was crushing the serpent's head and our victory was attained by the Lord Jesus Christ a great demonstration of the world's sin, a great demonstration of Satan's defeat.
Colossians 2:13, those precious words remind yourself every time you face temptation; "And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions. Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." When you would crucify someone you would take their offenses and you would nail it to the tree and God is telling us here that all of our offenses were nailed to the tree of Jesus, all of them, all of them so verse 15, "Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having" —what?— "triumphed over them in Him."
There at the cross is our forgiveness, there the cross is a demonstration, a powerful demonstration of the victory of the champion of our faith the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 2:14 puts it this way, "Therefore since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
He took to himself flesh and blood, the Word became flesh that He might set us free and conquer the enemy of our souls and He did he did and this is set before Him, John 12, this is what He knows is coming he says in verse 31, now this hour now "Now judgment is upon this world;" —this world— "now the ruler of this world will be cast out."
But there's a third thing he says here in terms of what would be accomplished on Calvary's cross, the third thing that moves him to the cross, there's a third thing that he's looking forward to, it is the joy set before him, in verse 32 particularly if I am lifted up, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."
Our Lord endured all of this because He looked beyond all of this to what lay on the other side. The joy the joy set before Him. What is that? The joy of seeing His offspring come to faith in Himself through the merit of His own finished work on Calvary's cross. He looked beyond beyond the shame of the cross, beyond the horror of the cross to the joy that would come to the Father whereby He would purchase a people through His own precious blood.
Again back to Spurgeon quote, "The Pharisee said the world has gone after Him, but Jesus says no not while I am riding in state through the streets of Jerusalem but when I am lifted up and hung upon the cross then it shall indeed be true I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. The crucified Christ of Calvary is the mighty magnet that is to attract multitudes of trembling doubting ruined sinners who by grace shall be drawn unto Him and find eternal life in Him."
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." This is most interesting isn't it? You see the word draw in this verse, it's the Greek word ‘helko’. Every time by the way this word is used in the New Testament, every time it's used in the New Testament, the drawing is successful, the drawing is successful. There's never a time where you see this word used, something is drawn and there's resistance sufficient to withstand the drawing, you never see that. You do see resistance sometimes but every time the resistance is overcome and the drawing is effectual and there's obedience from the heart, it's effective, it accomplishes what it set out to do. Always, the drawing is successful. I will draw all men to myself.
Now Jesus says that if He's lifted up from the earth dying in this fashion on Calvary's cross suspended between heaven and earth the result will be that all men all men will be drawn to Him and if the use of this word is consistent with the rest of its usage in the New Testament it doesn't just mean drawn like an interest, but it means brought to Him by faith. All people will be brought to him. What is He saying? Well certainly remember I trust He cannot mean all people without exception, He cannot mean every single person will be drawn to Him. If that's true what do you have? Universalism, universalism. Did the death of Jesus Christ on the cross mean that every single human being ever born will be in heaven one day? No. So what does he mean?
This word, all, does not mean all men without exception. He means all men without distinction. That is, when He's lifted up on Calvary's cross, it's going to mean the salvation of the world. In other words, all people, people will be drawn to Him from every tribe, every race, every nation, every tongue. It's going to be the salvation of the world. He's troubled, dismayed, but what moves Him forward, what motivates Him, what His motive is, the glory of the Father, and included in this is the result of His death, which is the judgment of the world, the casting out of the ruler of this world, and the drawing of people all over the world to salvation in Him. And what strikes me in the language here, when He talks about each of these three things, is not one of them—not one of them—is described as potential. Not one of them is described as potential. Not one. Every single one is described as something that is what? Definite. Definite.
Look at the text: "Now judgment I" —is— "upon this world"; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth," —what's the next word?— "will draw all men to Myself."
Now we've talked about it before—I'll say it again, beloved—Jesus did not die a vague death intended to accomplish a vague result, just hoping that someone would take Him up on it and be saved, hopefully. He came to this world with a definite mission in mind, and He accomplished it. He finished it so that we can trace our salvation, yes, back into the eternal counsels of God, the electing purpose of God, but we can also say that we can trace our salvation to the cross. He died to save us.
And let me say this, dear friend, do you realize that the cross of Jesus Christ has settled the destiny of every single one of us in this place? Do you realize that? Do you realize that the cross of Jesus Christ has settled—settled—the destiny of every one of us in this place? It speaks of all of our destinies. The question is, in what direction? In what direction? And so I ask, will the cross one day speak to your judgment? Or will the cross speak to your salvation?
At the cross, were your sins atoned for? At the cross, were your sins paid for? What's the answer? The answer is, only—only—if you embrace the Son. Only if you repent of your sins and come to Jesus and look to Him for life. Only if you come to Him as Lord and Savior will the cross ever speak of your salvation. And for every other man, woman, young person in this place, the cross will one day speak to your judgment—your judgment.
Can you say that your motive is the same as God's Son today? We've looked at that last Lord's Day, 1 Peter chapter 4: we're to arm ourselves with the same purpose, the same mindset, the same thinking that Jesus had. "Father, glorify Your name." Is that your passion this morning? "Father, glorify Your name." We talked last time about some ways that God may choose to glorify His name—maybe in sickness, maybe in times of leanness, maybe in great difficulty. And you know what? He may even choose to glorify His name in your dishonor here on earth.
Have there been believers slandered for their good works? Absolutely. And did God work through all of that in many instances to magnify Himself and to make His gospel known? Yes. And can you, can we honestly say—again, not flippant words, glib cliché—can we say, Lord, that is my chief desire. Glorify Yourself. Lord, it troubles me to think of certain ways that You may glorify Yourself. But just like my Lord, not asking to be delivered from it, but instead looking right into the face of it, I will say, "Father, glorify Your name."
Can you say that because you've seen God's Son in the gospel suspended on Calvary's cross. You've seen Him in the tomb. You've seen Him raised from the dead. And you said, He is the Christ. He is the Savior of the world. And I've turned from my sins to Him. I've given my life to Him. For to me, to live is Christ. And so to die is gain. Is that your story?
If not, if not, well, the good news is that this very day, right where you sit, right now, if you will turn from your sins to Christ, He will save you. He will save you. He is the Savior given to mankind. He's the one who can reconcile you to God. Will you come to Him? Will you turn to Him? Will you be saved today? Will you live for Him? Will you follow Christ? And wherever He's at, will you be found to be His servant? Will you serve Him?
And then if you say no today, if you say no, then realize there's a witness against you that speaks to the fact that you're a God-hater. You're a God-hater. It speaks to the fact that you don't really want to be reconciled to God. That witness is the same thing that witnesses to our salvation, and it is the cross of Christ. It speaks of your judgment.
May every soul listening to me in this place today come all the way to Jesus Christ, that the cross would speak of your salvation. That's my prayer. That's my prayer.
Come to the child of God, dear child of God, dear beloved of God. The joy set before Him was the great harvest of redeemed men and women to the glory of the Father. The joy that is set before us is Christ. It's Christ. He is our joy. He is our exceeding joy. He is our satisfaction. He is our everything.
Everything in this book that it says about Him intensifies our love for Him and our desire for Him to be our final reward. Behold Him, look to Him, the joy set before you, beloved, and before me, Christ Jesus. He is God's final revelation. He is the heir of all things. He is the creator of the world. He is the radiance of God's glory. He is the exact imprint of God's nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power.
He took on human flesh. He made purification for our sins. He sits at the right hand of majesty on high. He is God enthroned forever with the scepter of uprightness. He is worshiped by the angels. He rules and reigns and His rule will have no end. He was crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering. He is the founder of our salvation. He destroyed the one who had the power of death, the devil. He delivered us from the bondage of fear. He is a merciful and faithful high priest. He made propitiation for our sins. He is a sympathetic high priest because of His own trials. He never sinned. He became the source of eternal salvation. He appears in the presence of God on our behalf. And He will come back one day to take His people home. And He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Blessed be His name.
Let's pray.
Spurgeon, commenting on this, said, "In anticipation of Calvary, His soul was full of trouble, not that He feared death, but His death was to be a very peculiar one. He was to die, the just for the unjust. He was to bear our sins in His own body on the tree, and His pure and holy soul shrank from contact with sin. To stand in a sinner's place, to bear His Father's wrath, this bewildered Him."
John Calvin, commenting on the same, said the following: "Moreover, it was useful and even necessary for our salvation that the Son of God should be so affected. The chief thing to consider in His death is His expiation, by which He appeased the wrath and the curse of God. But He could not have done that without transferring to Himself our guilt. Therefore, the death which He underwent had to be full of horror, since He could not perform the satisfaction for us without apprehending the dreadful judgment of God in His own senses. From this, we learn better the enormity of sin, which the Heavenly Father exacted so dreadful a punishment from His only begotten Son."
Christ has come to His hour, and it troubles Him—deeply troubles Him. And yet, far from asking to be delivered from it, He looks into the face of it, and He chooses it. He deliberately chooses it. And He tells us what His motive and motivation is in choosing it. What was it that really was the driving force behind His choice, His willingness to come to this hour? He says, "for this purpose"—verse 27—"I came to this hour." Verse 28: "Father, glorify Your name."
Beloved, when we're struggling with powerful emotions, it is always right to submit your feelings—my feelings—to God's purpose to glorify Him, to glorify Himself. Our Lord is our example here in how to deal with our feelings. Jesus, the God-man, had human feelings, but He was free from all sin. And here, He honestly expresses His revulsion at the thought of the cross, but He quickly submits to the will and the glory of the Father. And, beloved, you and I ought to do the same.
If you're facing a difficult trial, and you are overwhelmed with powerful, powerful feelings, so that you don't even know what to pray, you can always pray, "Father, glorify Your name." Father, glorify Your name. Your aim, like Jesus' aim, should be to glorify the Father in everything. "Father, glorify Your name." This is His chief desire. This is the overarching motive and motivation—that His Father will be glorified.
But today, in the verses that follow, we find that there's something else that moves the Son of God. This is the chief thing. We saw it together. This is the overarching thing. This is the way that sums it all up, that the Father, indeed, would be glorified. "Father, glorify Your name." That's it. We see it here. It's captured beautifully, powerfully, succinctly, but in that is also the knowledge of what the product will be of His dying, what the outcome of His death will be, bound up in this.
We can put it in the language of Hebrews 12, verse 2: "for the joy that was set before Him"—for the joy that was set before Him. He knows what His death will do. He knows what His death will accomplish. He knows what His death will produce, and that moves Him to the cross. That compels Him to the cross. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross.
I want to begin this morning where we left off last Sunday: the desire of Christ for the glory of the Father. The desire of Christ for the Father's glory. Verses 28-30: "Father, glorify Your name." And we see that the Father gave Him assurance of this. The Bible says, "then a voice"—verse 28—"came from heaven: I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." The Son's desire is met now with the Father's assurance. And the Father tells us that He has been glorified. And I take it to mean in His Son. In His Son's life. The Son of God has already glorified the Father. He has been glorified.
Have we not seen the Father in His Son? If you've seen Christ, you've seen who? The Father. And Christ has made known that to us.
In John 14, verse 8, "Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you all so long and have you not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"
Or the Apostle John tells us in the opening of this Gospel, John 1, verse 18—you remember those words—"No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God" — the only begotten God — "who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him."
Christ, the ‘Logos’, the Word, has made God known to us. He has exegeted Him. He has revealed Him. He has revealed God to us. In Christ we see God incarnate. So that already in the Son's life, before the cross, before the garden, before the resurrection, the Father already has been glorified. His name has been made known in His Son.
As Lewis Johnson writes, "What a glorious view of God we would have obtained even if the Son of God had passed into heaven at this point." In other words, if I can insert this, has the Father already been glorified? Yes. So much so that even if the Son of God had passed into the heavens at that point, man would have already had a glorious view of God. But he goes on to say this: "We, however, would never have been able to profit from it. For lost in our sins, we would have never grasped the true meaning of His life and been able to receive the life that brings illumination and salvation."
The Father has already been glorified, seen in the life of His Son, seen in the teaching, preaching of His Son, seen in the miracles performed by His Son. He has made the Father known. Clearly known. I have been glorified, the Father declared. I have been glorified. I have glorified My name. The Father has glorified His name.
But, He doesn't just say that He has been glorified, but He says also what? He will be glorified. Verse 28: "I have both glorified it and"—what?—"will" —will— "glorify it again." Looking to the future. Looking to where the Son of God is headed. The Father will be made known. His name will be glorified. Even as His Son is humiliated and dishonored. Even as mankind, sinful mankind, wicked man, dishonors the Son, the Father will be made known. His name will be glorified. He will be revealed.
And the Father will be made known, seen in the love of His Son. The love of His Son, displayed on Calvary's cross.
You remember John 13:1, right? "Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." He loved them to the end. That lets us know who God is. God so loved the world, right?
Seen in His Son's suffering, He suffers in such a way at His mock trials, at the places where He was mocked and beaten and scorned and spat upon and dishonored. The way that He conducts Himself there, the way that He responds to all of it, speaks to us of God. The way that He suffers on the tree—so much so that people are converted. Truly, truly, this is the Son of God. And they come to faith as they witness all of this.
He will be glorified in His Son's suffering, in His Son's death. He will be glorified in His Son's resurrection. The Father will make His name known by raising His Son from the dead, demonstrating that He is the Lord who saves sinners, and that all that is claimed concerning Himself has been true, vindicated, validated, by raising His Son from the dead. The Father will testify to it by raising His Son from the dead.
And so, in the agony of Gethsemane, the agony of the cross and His death, the victory of His resurrection, the victory of His ascension, the victory of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the victory of the much fruit that has flowed down to this present day. And every single child of God in this place, you are that much fruit that has come from when the Lord God said from heaven, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." So He has been glorified and He will be glorified.
But there's something strange about the voice that comes from heaven. The voice that comes from heaven and says this, but notice what Christ says. He says concerning this voice down in verse 30—look at it—"The voice has not come for My sake, but for your sake." For your sake. The voice is for your sake, not mine.
But here's what makes this really curious. Apparently, people didn't understand the voice, right? They didn't get it. How did they respond to it? Verse 29: so the crowd of the people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had what? Thunder. I think I hear thunder, some of them said. Others hear it. They recognize something supernatural in it. There's something supernatural. This isn't something explained by nature. We read others were saying an angel has spoken to Him. They don't attribute it to God. They don't attribute it to the Father. They attribute it to an angel. It must be an angel.
What do we make of this? What do we make of this? This voice comes. They don't understand it. They don't recognize it, and yet Christ says it wasn't for Him. It was for them. You know, I think that we have here sort of a divine object lesson. That's what we have here. A divine object lesson. The Son has clearly exegeted the Father. He's revealed the Father clearly. The Son has clearly explained the Father. The Son has clearly revealed the Father. The Son has clearly made the Father known.
The Father has clearly testified to His Son by His life and through His teaching and through His miracles, the miracles wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father has testified of His Son. God has been glorified. God will be glorified. But get this. That doesn't mean that all men will recognize it. The Father has been glorified. The Father will be glorified, but we're not to conclude from that that all men will recognize that glory just like this voice.
Some are going to witness the glory of God and attribute it to something explained by nature, and some are going to witness the glory of God and they may even be willing to acknowledge something supernatural to what they've seen, but they will not attribute it to God. Don't we see this in our own day? Don't we? I mean, we see it in our own day. You've experienced it, no doubt. Some look at Christ and they say, well, He was a good man. Nature. Natural. He was a good man. He was a good teacher. A wise teacher. Others see in Christ something supernatural, but they will not say this is God in human flesh. They will not say this is the Savior of the world.
And in both cases, when you fall short of a right biblical understanding of Christ, whether you take Jesus, you reduce Him to something explained by nature, or you take Jesus and you explain Him by something supernatural, but not God in human flesh, the only Savior given to mankind—when you fall short and you're understanding in either direction—what have you missed? You have missed the glory of God. You have missed the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us what happens when God shines His light into a human heart so that for the first time, people rightly see, rightly understand the Son. What do we see? "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
When you rightly see Jesus, when you biblically see Jesus, the Christ of Scripture, what do you see? You see the glory of God. The glory of God.
"Father, glorify Your name." "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." I have glorified it in You, My beloved Son. I will glorify it again in You, My beloved Son. But that doesn't mean everybody is going to recognize it. You can have clear testimony and it still be attributed to nature or to angels and not understood by sinful men.
And when the gospel goes out, there are some people who simply say, it's a noise. It's a noise. That's all. That's all there is to this. You're making noise. It's noise. It has no real sense of meaning to them at all. And the Apostle Paul puts it plainly when he says, "But a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are" —what?— "foolishness to him," —foolishness— "and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually examined." 1 Corinthians 2:14.
And then there are some individuals who sense that there is meaning in the gospel, but they haven't really grasped it for themselves.
Spurgeon applying this says, "They did not understand the voice of God or the cause of the voice speaking to them. If the men of the world in our Savior's day did not understand the Father's voice to the only begotten, do not expect that the men of the world today will understand the divine voice in your heart. They will reckon that you are in error and that God has not spoken to you. It has only thundered. They will be ready to invent all kinds of stories of angels and I know not what so as to get rid of the voice of God to you. But you know it. If you are God's children, you know His voice and you also know what He means when He speaks."
And the question I would ask is whether the mission of the Son of God encompassed this. Did Christ anticipate this? Would He have been disillusioned by this? And we know the answer. Yes, His mission accounts for this. Yes, He anticipated this. No, He wasn't disillusioned by this. He never came to this earth thinking that all men would recognize the glory of God. He came to this earth to accomplish a specific salvation mission, and that mission would be accomplished, and nothing—absolutely nothing—was going to derail it.
He would save His people from their sins. He would lay down His life for His sheep. His sheep know His voice. He would gather into one both Jews and Gentiles into one flock. The desire of God's Son, the desire for Christ, is to glorify the Father.
Now, the second thing that I want us to see: not only His desire to glorify the Father, but also notice that He's going to die for the glory of the Father. The death of Christ is for the Father's glory, and we see this in verses 31 to 33. His death will glorify God. He's speaking of His death. Look at verse 31: "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was about to die."
He's going to be lifted up. In other words, He's going to be lifted up on the cross. He's going to be crucified. He's going to die on a tree. But what's going to be accomplished there? The glory of the Father? Yes. Yes. But there's something else embedded in that. To the glory of the Father. Again, the joy set before Him—the joy set before Him.
What is going to accomplish, to be accomplished at the cross? Well He mentions—three things. Three things are mentioned.
Number one, look at them with me. There's going to be a great demonstration. We might even say a great declaration of something. Verse 31: "Now judgment is upon this world." Now judgment is upon this world. There's going to be a demonstration of what? Judgment. There's going to be a demonstration of judgment. There's going to be a declaration of the cross, of the judgment of this world.
Question: In what sense was judgment accomplished at the cross? Beloved, in this sense. The cross is your condemnation. It is God's witness against you if you reject Christ—if you reject Christ. At the cross, not only does it speak of salvation, it also speaks of judgment. Judgment. It is the testimony of God to the world that there is a way for man to be reconciled to God. But it's also a testimony from God to the world that if you reject His Son, His only begotten Son, this is the judgment of sin.
The cross speaks to the real guilt of our sin. The cross speaks to the real hardness and impenitence found in the hearts of men, wicked men, that they would crucify the Prince of life. It speaks of man's real hatred toward God. It speaks of the real crime committed against the Son of God. At the cross, the world's hypocrisy is stripped away. Who we really are spiritually by nature, left to ourselves by nature from Adam since the fall, is exposed at the cross.
Let me ask us today, what would mankind in his natural condition since the fall—what would mankind do to God if God will allow it? Answer: he would kill God. He would murder God. The Bible says that man's a God hater. Man is a God hater. Is that not true? I mean, is man really a God hater? Since the fall, do people really hate God? What's the answer? How do you know? Look at the cross. Look at the cross. The cross reveals it, doesn't it? There's what man would do to God if given an opportunity: Crucify Him. Crucify Him.
As if, Spurgeon says, "as if in Christ's death the world was judged and condemned—and so it was. Nothing ever so convicted the world of high treason against God as when men said of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's well-beloved Son, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours.’ The shedding of the blood of Christ upon the cross is the crimson evidence of the deep transgression of human nature. Now is the judgment of this world."
Crucify Him. My heart was gripped at this point. I marveled, and I trust you'd agree with me. Isn't it the wonder of wonders that at the very time man was expressing his hatred toward God, God was expressing His love toward man? How can this be? How can this be? Isn't it amazing? Romans 5 verse 8: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
But the cross also strips away the hypocrisy of sinful man in another way, because man wants to imagine that he's a God lover. Man wants to say, you know, you know what, if there was a way for me to come to God, I would. If there were a way for me to please God, if there was a way for me to approach God, I would. I would come. The cross cries out, here's the way. Here's the way. Here's the way opened by God Himself, the shed blood of the Son of God, and anyone who wishes to be reconciled with God, let them turn from their sins and come to the Son of God and you will have fellowship with God. Here's the way. Will you come? Will you come?
So that when man walks away from the truth of the gospel, he what? Exposes himself. You don't love God or else you would come. The cross represents the judgment of the world in that the cross will take away every lost man's excuse. Every single one. And it shows us, shows us all for what we are by nature apart from the grace of God. It shows us that we would, what we would do with God if given the opportunity. And it shows man that he doesn't really want to be reconciled to God, for the way is open and if left to himself, man will not come.
Spurgeon goes on to say, "I dare say you have heard people use pretty phrases about the dignity of human nature and so on. These, they are lying phrases, for human nature is as bad as it can be. If you want proof of that assertion, behold how God Himself came here among men, incarnate virtue robed in love. Did men love Him? Did they fall down before Him and do Him homage? The homage of the world was, ‘Crucify him. Crucify him.’" —He goes on to say— "The world hates virtue. It cannot bear perfection. It might endure benevolence, but absolute purity and righteousness it cannot. Away with. Its native instincts are wrong. It is not towards the light that men are going. Their backs are to the sun. They are journeying into the thick darkness."
That was revealed at the cross. That was revealed at the cross. Now judgment is upon this world.
The cross would demonstrate the sinfulness of men, but there's a second thing that's going to take place there on the cross when Christ would be crucified. And looking at it from from the standpoint, of course, of John 12, looking to the cross, the second thing is there's going to be, from our vantage point, a great victory, and looking at it from Satan's vantage point, there's going to be a great defeat.
"Now judgment is upon this world," verse 31. "Now the ruler of this world will be cast out." Who is the ruler of this world? Who is the ruler of this present present age? Satan. Satan the deceiver. And at the cross—at the cross—Jesus says he's going to be defeated. At the cross, he was defeated.
Pastor MacArthur writes, "Satan was dethroned at Calvary. Again, this is a reversal of what you might think. It looked like Satan won. It looked like Satan triumphed, and the devils of hell thought there was a triumph. Satan had conquered Christ at the cross, they thought. But in reality, Christ had crushed his head, dealt him the death blow. Now Satan fights from death row. He is a vanquished enemy. He has nothing on Christ. He has nothing on us. He is a conquered, defeated foe."
In the death of Christ, beloved, Satan was stripped of any claim against believers—mark it down—any claim. And when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, the rule of sin is broken. Sin has no longer dominion over us. The rule of sin is broken in our lives. Satan has no claim upon us, for the blood of Jesus answers for all of our sins. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He can accuse us day and night before God, but he has no solid ground upon which to accuse us because the Son of God has answered for our sins.
You see, that by which Satan held men—the guilt of their sins—is now borne by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and dealt with permanently, once and for all.
And so in Christ, now we can sing with Horatio Spafford, "My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord oh my sou!l"
And we can sing with Martin Luther, "And though this world, with devil filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us the Prince of Darkness grim we tremble not for him his rage we can endure for lo his doom is sure one little word shall fell him".
He was defeated there but also was demonstrated the cross his final defeat at the cross and in the resurrection of Christ was demonstrated the fact that Satan is a defeated foe.
Revelation 12:10, "Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their witness, and they did not love their life even to death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath knowing that he has only a short time."
One commentator said, "The cross and the resurrection spelled Satan's defeat. These events marked the glorification of all He renounced and the reversal of all He sought to attain." You know the prophecy back all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 to that protoevangelium, that first gospel God said, I will put enmity pronouncing this to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." And the offspring of the woman came the Lord Jesus Christ the God man, God incarnate the deliverer for mankind came and indeed His heel was bruised, He was wounded for our iniquities. But at the same time at the cross while He was wounded for our iniquities, what was He doing? He was crushing the serpent's head, He was crushing the serpent's head and our victory was attained by the Lord Jesus Christ a great demonstration of the world's sin, a great demonstration of Satan's defeat.
Colossians 2:13, those precious words remind yourself every time you face temptation; "And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions. Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." When you would crucify someone you would take their offenses and you would nail it to the tree and God is telling us here that all of our offenses were nailed to the tree of Jesus, all of them, all of them so verse 15, "Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having" —what?— "triumphed over them in Him."
There at the cross is our forgiveness, there the cross is a demonstration, a powerful demonstration of the victory of the champion of our faith the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 2:14 puts it this way, "Therefore since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
He took to himself flesh and blood, the Word became flesh that He might set us free and conquer the enemy of our souls and He did he did and this is set before Him, John 12, this is what He knows is coming he says in verse 31, now this hour now "Now judgment is upon this world;" —this world— "now the ruler of this world will be cast out."
But there's a third thing he says here in terms of what would be accomplished on Calvary's cross, the third thing that moves him to the cross, there's a third thing that he's looking forward to, it is the joy set before him, in verse 32 particularly if I am lifted up, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."
Our Lord endured all of this because He looked beyond all of this to what lay on the other side. The joy the joy set before Him. What is that? The joy of seeing His offspring come to faith in Himself through the merit of His own finished work on Calvary's cross. He looked beyond beyond the shame of the cross, beyond the horror of the cross to the joy that would come to the Father whereby He would purchase a people through His own precious blood.
Again back to Spurgeon quote, "The Pharisee said the world has gone after Him, but Jesus says no not while I am riding in state through the streets of Jerusalem but when I am lifted up and hung upon the cross then it shall indeed be true I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. The crucified Christ of Calvary is the mighty magnet that is to attract multitudes of trembling doubting ruined sinners who by grace shall be drawn unto Him and find eternal life in Him."
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." This is most interesting isn't it? You see the word draw in this verse, it's the Greek word ‘helko’. Every time by the way this word is used in the New Testament, every time it's used in the New Testament, the drawing is successful, the drawing is successful. There's never a time where you see this word used, something is drawn and there's resistance sufficient to withstand the drawing, you never see that. You do see resistance sometimes but every time the resistance is overcome and the drawing is effectual and there's obedience from the heart, it's effective, it accomplishes what it set out to do. Always, the drawing is successful. I will draw all men to myself.
Now Jesus says that if He's lifted up from the earth dying in this fashion on Calvary's cross suspended between heaven and earth the result will be that all men all men will be drawn to Him and if the use of this word is consistent with the rest of its usage in the New Testament it doesn't just mean drawn like an interest, but it means brought to Him by faith. All people will be brought to him. What is He saying? Well certainly remember I trust He cannot mean all people without exception, He cannot mean every single person will be drawn to Him. If that's true what do you have? Universalism, universalism. Did the death of Jesus Christ on the cross mean that every single human being ever born will be in heaven one day? No. So what does he mean?
This word, all, does not mean all men without exception. He means all men without distinction. That is, when He's lifted up on Calvary's cross, it's going to mean the salvation of the world. In other words, all people, people will be drawn to Him from every tribe, every race, every nation, every tongue. It's going to be the salvation of the world. He's troubled, dismayed, but what moves Him forward, what motivates Him, what His motive is, the glory of the Father, and included in this is the result of His death, which is the judgment of the world, the casting out of the ruler of this world, and the drawing of people all over the world to salvation in Him. And what strikes me in the language here, when He talks about each of these three things, is not one of them—not one of them—is described as potential. Not one of them is described as potential. Not one. Every single one is described as something that is what? Definite. Definite.
Look at the text: "Now judgment I" —is— "upon this world"; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth," —what's the next word?— "will draw all men to Myself."
Now we've talked about it before—I'll say it again, beloved—Jesus did not die a vague death intended to accomplish a vague result, just hoping that someone would take Him up on it and be saved, hopefully. He came to this world with a definite mission in mind, and He accomplished it. He finished it so that we can trace our salvation, yes, back into the eternal counsels of God, the electing purpose of God, but we can also say that we can trace our salvation to the cross. He died to save us.
And let me say this, dear friend, do you realize that the cross of Jesus Christ has settled the destiny of every single one of us in this place? Do you realize that? Do you realize that the cross of Jesus Christ has settled—settled—the destiny of every one of us in this place? It speaks of all of our destinies. The question is, in what direction? In what direction? And so I ask, will the cross one day speak to your judgment? Or will the cross speak to your salvation?
At the cross, were your sins atoned for? At the cross, were your sins paid for? What's the answer? The answer is, only—only—if you embrace the Son. Only if you repent of your sins and come to Jesus and look to Him for life. Only if you come to Him as Lord and Savior will the cross ever speak of your salvation. And for every other man, woman, young person in this place, the cross will one day speak to your judgment—your judgment.
Can you say that your motive is the same as God's Son today? We've looked at that last Lord's Day, 1 Peter chapter 4: we're to arm ourselves with the same purpose, the same mindset, the same thinking that Jesus had. "Father, glorify Your name." Is that your passion this morning? "Father, glorify Your name." We talked last time about some ways that God may choose to glorify His name—maybe in sickness, maybe in times of leanness, maybe in great difficulty. And you know what? He may even choose to glorify His name in your dishonor here on earth.
Have there been believers slandered for their good works? Absolutely. And did God work through all of that in many instances to magnify Himself and to make His gospel known? Yes. And can you, can we honestly say—again, not flippant words, glib cliché—can we say, Lord, that is my chief desire. Glorify Yourself. Lord, it troubles me to think of certain ways that You may glorify Yourself. But just like my Lord, not asking to be delivered from it, but instead looking right into the face of it, I will say, "Father, glorify Your name."
Can you say that because you've seen God's Son in the gospel suspended on Calvary's cross. You've seen Him in the tomb. You've seen Him raised from the dead. And you said, He is the Christ. He is the Savior of the world. And I've turned from my sins to Him. I've given my life to Him. For to me, to live is Christ. And so to die is gain. Is that your story?
If not, if not, well, the good news is that this very day, right where you sit, right now, if you will turn from your sins to Christ, He will save you. He will save you. He is the Savior given to mankind. He's the one who can reconcile you to God. Will you come to Him? Will you turn to Him? Will you be saved today? Will you live for Him? Will you follow Christ? And wherever He's at, will you be found to be His servant? Will you serve Him?
And then if you say no today, if you say no, then realize there's a witness against you that speaks to the fact that you're a God-hater. You're a God-hater. It speaks to the fact that you don't really want to be reconciled to God. That witness is the same thing that witnesses to our salvation, and it is the cross of Christ. It speaks of your judgment.
May every soul listening to me in this place today come all the way to Jesus Christ, that the cross would speak of your salvation. That's my prayer. That's my prayer.
Come to the child of God, dear child of God, dear beloved of God. The joy set before Him was the great harvest of redeemed men and women to the glory of the Father. The joy that is set before us is Christ. It's Christ. He is our joy. He is our exceeding joy. He is our satisfaction. He is our everything.
Everything in this book that it says about Him intensifies our love for Him and our desire for Him to be our final reward. Behold Him, look to Him, the joy set before you, beloved, and before me, Christ Jesus. He is God's final revelation. He is the heir of all things. He is the creator of the world. He is the radiance of God's glory. He is the exact imprint of God's nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power.
He took on human flesh. He made purification for our sins. He sits at the right hand of majesty on high. He is God enthroned forever with the scepter of uprightness. He is worshiped by the angels. He rules and reigns and His rule will have no end. He was crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering. He is the founder of our salvation. He destroyed the one who had the power of death, the devil. He delivered us from the bondage of fear. He is a merciful and faithful high priest. He made propitiation for our sins. He is a sympathetic high priest because of His own trials. He never sinned. He became the source of eternal salvation. He appears in the presence of God on our behalf. And He will come back one day to take His people home. And He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Blessed be His name.
Let's pray.
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