Sermon Tone Analysis

We have been going through the Gospel of John, and today we travel through a section that happens before the crucifixion during that Passion Week.

And I want to share with you out of John, chapter 12 a message just entitled, Living the Gospel.

Taking the gospel message and transforming it in our lives.

Using this Easter, this spring, this time of awakening and new life as an opportunity for all of us to begin to live out the meaning of the gospel.

Not just to know it, not just to study it and then put it on a shelf, but what Paul says when in Galatians 2:20 he said, /"I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Jesus Christ now lives in me.

And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who gave Himself for me."/

The apostle Paul puts in such succinct language what should be true for all of us.

The crucifixion is something we follow.

We follow Christ, and we are where He is.

He said in our last lesson, "If it's suffering, we suffer along with Him." Paul said, "I want to know the fellowship of the suffering.

I want to know what it is to so give my life to God that I can rejoice even in times of suffering.

That that becomes a fellowship only believers can understand."

Jesus is talking to a crowd that is gathered.

In that crowd are some Greeks that have come by way of Phillip and Andrew to see Jesus.

They wanted to talk to Him personally.

They perhaps were on that road at Palm Sunday.

They perhaps had heard about His healing of Lazarus sometime earlier.

They want to know about Him.

Jesus really begins a broader conversation and we pick up on that.

He mentions that unless a grain, a single little grain of wheat dies and is buried, that it really doesn't do anybody any good.

But when it is buried, it grows and it produces fruit.

And so too He must die because without His death, all He has done is really just a small thing.

But the resurrection, the crucifixion, the death, the burial…it makes all the difference in the world.

So Jesus…in today's text in John 12, verse 27…reflecting on His coming death, His coming burial says, /"Now My soul is troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'?

But for this purpose I came to this hour."/

You know, all of us can follow in those footsteps as well.

We can't just be fair-weather believers who are willing to call ourselves Christians as long as being a Christian is popular, as long as it brings success, as long as it brings fair weather.

But we have to determine in our own hearts even in the difficult times, even in the moments of suffering, even those times when claiming the name of Jesus means it is going to be dark times, means we will not have the friends.

We will not have the popularity, maybe not even the financial success we might otherwise have.

We question our hearts and we say, "Father, does it have to be that for me?

Do I have to so follow Christ that I have to suffer embarrassment, I have to suffer humiliation?"

And then we realize it's for this purpose that Christ has brought us to whatever the situation is in our life.

It's for this purpose that He would be glorified that you're having the difficulty you're experiencing today.

It's not that God has forgotten about you.

It's not that God is so busy with the world affairs that He doesn't have time to deal with your individual problem.

It is that God has brought you to this point.

If you were with us a couple of weeks ago we talked about, /"The hour had come."/

Jesus says, /"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified."/

And sometimes those dark clouds are our hour for God to bring His glory through our life.

You know that word /glory, doxa/ in the Greek…we get the word /doxology/ from that and so forth…but it's probably a word we could think of like the word /spotlight/.

For God to get glory in your situation, your difficulty, whatever you may be going through in life, it's as though a spotlight is shined.

And you are the focus of attention, but it is God who will get glory through your surrender to Him in that condition, in that situation.

So that when that bad diagnosis comes for you or a loved one, when that promotion doesn't come your way, rather than a pity party you let that light shine and you reflect the light of God.

And you let God be glorified to others in your lack of response, your lack of despair, the fact that you can still have joy and His song on your lips.

Jesus said, "Do I want to try to get out of this?

No.

This is why I came."

Jesus never thought for a moment that the predicament He was walking into was because God had somehow neglected, or forgotten, or ignored, or failed to take care of Him.

He knew the perfect will and plan of God.

Well, after He makes this statement, in verse 28 He says, /"'Father, glorify Your name."/

Let the spotlight that's going to fall on the Cross bring glory to You.

And for the third time a voice from heaven came saying, /"I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."/

But notice: /"Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered; others said, 'An angel has spoken to Him.' Jesus answered and said, 'This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.'"/

Isn't it interesting?

The voice of God speaks audibly.

Now a lot of people say, "Boy, if I could just hear the voice of God speak audibly, I'd never miss a service.

I'd always obey.

I'll begin to give twice what I give now and then add $5 to it…so what's that…$5 in total.

If only I can hear God's audible voice."

But listen to what happens.

You know that you can hear the voice of God and not understand it?

You can hear the voice of God and misconstrue it.

The disciples…now listen to me…heard Jesus say time and time again, "The Son of Man must go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of the Pharisees, be crucified, die, be buried, and rise again on the third day."

He said that very succinctly.

He said that very clearly.

It wasn't buried in theological jargon.

It wasn't with complicated words only an educated mind would understand.

It was in a very simple, Aramaic, and Koine Greek.

He just spoke very plainly, and they never understood it because they had their minds set on another kind of Messiah.

They had their minds set on an earthly kingdom.

They saw in Jesus a Messiah, and their preconceived notion…they way they had learned, the baggage they bring into this conversation…causes them not to understand any difference, to not to see the truth because they have a preconceived notion, and that gets to us.

We have preconceived notions, do we not, of how God ought to act?

How God ought to respond: God ought to make me better.

God ought to send money in the mailbox to cover my problem.

God ought to send me a spouse.

God ought to take care of my children's problem.

And when God doesn't do that, when God speaks to us…now listen…in a different way, we don't understand it.

We think it's thunder or maybe an angel speaking to somebody else.

God sometimes speaks very clearly to us through the circumstances, through His Word, and we sometimes…because of our preconceived notion of how God ought to be…don't see Him.

Maybe the Lord is speaking very clearly in your difficulty today.

And He says, "I am here.

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

I will bring you through this dark valley like a Good Shepherd brings His sheep.

All you need to do is to follow Me…to follow Me.

While you have this opportunity, let the spotlight shine on your situation so the Son of God, so the Father is glorified.

And I will take care of you."

And you need to see that the answer is not what you're thinking it has to be.

It is nonetheless a powerful answer; nonetheless a powerful work of God.

But the people who stood by and heard it, they didn't understand.

They had on their mind an earthly Messiah.

And even the clear voice of God sounds garbled when you have your mind already made up.

Now not everybody was that way.

Obviously John who writes this Gospel, he knows what the message is.

He writes it down for us.

He clearly understood.

But so many times, two people can hear the same thing, and it will be two different messages.

Two people can see the same circumstance, and see two totally different scenes before them because we don't listen to the voice of God.

So they…in verse 29, /"Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered; others said, 'An angel has spoken to Him.'"/ But, /"Jesus answered and said, 'This voice has not come because of Me, but for your sake.'"/

Then verse 31, /"Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out."/

And then notice verse 32: /"And/ [in other words, the ruler is going to be cast out, Satan is judged] /And I, if I be lifted up from the earth/ [if I am crucified, if I am nailed to that cross, and that cross lifted and set into place], /will draw all peoples to Myself.'