Verse 27, “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.  Father, glorify Your name.”

Up until this point, Jesus has been saying how His hour had not yet come.  At the wedding of Cana when Mary had said, “Jesus show them, they are out of wine,” He leaned over and said to her, “My hour has not yet come.”  In Chapter 7, right after many had turned away from Him and followed Him no more and His brothers were telling Him to go up to the Feast of Tabernacles, He said to them, “I’ll continue in Galilee for a bit because they hate me there in Jerusalem and My time has not yet come.”

But then He does go up and we find Him speaking boldly to the Jews there in the temple teaching…and they marveled it says there in 7:15.  And they wondered openly and discussed, “Could this be Him?”  But the Sanhedrin grew angry as Jesus openly proclaimed, “The Father knows Me and I know Him because He sent Me!”  And they sought to take Him, but it says there in 7:30 that they could not…because His hour had not yet come.

And even yet again, after He had set free the adulteress in Chapter 8, we read there in verse 20…”no one laid a hand on Him, for His hour had not yet come.”

But as we encounter Him here, with His friends, His disciples, surrounded by a multitude that had come to Him there in the city, He says back in verse 23, “The hour has come.”  And what’s so real here, so intriguing is that Jesus openly shares that He is “troubled.”  He’s terrified, He’s no doubt saddened, and He’s no doubt intense with aggression and resolve!  He is about to enter into the hour in which He sets right the lives and eternity of His creation that were horrifically stolen from Him. 

And so He looks into the camera and says, Lucifer, I’m coming for you!  What an awesome moment as Jesus is filled with inner turmoil and yet He understands His purpose, He understands His Father’s will and He does two wonderful things…He submits to the Father’s will and even more, He calls out for His Father’s glory!   He says yes, I will walk in Your will…why?  Because it is YOU Father that I desire to glorify!

How glorious it is when we submit to the Father’s will…when we accept His ways over our own…when we walk by faith!  When we say, “this is painful, this may even kill me, but nevertheless, God…glorify Your name!”   At that moment a peace not of this world, that cannot be removed, that cannot be shaken, that cannot be stolen…enters. 

When you no longer live but Christ lives through you…what can man do?  When you finally just ask that question to that co-worker or when you broach that topic finally with your friend about Jesus…and God brings about His glory…man you just emerge!  You are filled with strength from on High and God is glorified.

And that is exactly what happened here as Jesus, in pain, in trembling, in terror and intense…calls out to His Father.  Look at the rest of the verse there in 28, Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”

God says to Jesus, My name is glorified now through You Son and the hour has come…I will glorify it again.  Now interesting here, people hear different things…look at verse 29, Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered.  Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”  So interesting because Jesus would say to John much later, while John was on the island of Patmos…He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.  There are some that lack faith and therefore even as God continually speaks to them, calling them to Himself, they are unable to hear.  And back in verse 28 John tells us that he heard a voice, yet others heard nothing but an inaudible rumble. 

But check out what happens next which is extremely important for us to see…Jesus clears up the confusion.  And when we have someone that doesn’t see, and doesn’t hear and can’t follow the truth that you are trying to teach them, take them to Jesus.  Drop the theological teaching for a moment…hey bro you really shouldn’t take the Lord’s name in vain…hey homie you really shouldn’t get drunk and party all of the time…hey, don’t touch that!  What are they going to want to do?   TOUCH THAT!  That’s our busted sinful nature!  That truth that rules without relationship always equal rebellion!  And so man, introduce them to Jesus!  He will clear all the other stuff up at His pace!  And DON’T let yourself judge them unworthy to come to Him…they simply cannot see and they cannot hear because they are not alive…take them straight to THE life, Jesus!  And make Him the subject and object of your witness…not their sin!  Because He will just clear it all up…look at verse 30…

Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.  So He clears it all up…that was not thunder, that was not a camel backfiring…no…this voice came that you might see and hear and believe and be set free! 

Verse 31, Now is the judgment of 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 peoples to Myself.  This He said, signifying by what death He would die.  So the world condemned…the probation period of this fallen system over and its doom sealed with the coming of God Himself to save His people.  And in doing that, the ruler of this world received his sentence, his death sentence if you will…and then finally the result…the love displayed and the triumph secured at the cross of Calvary, in that He would draw all men and some would hear the voice of God as it were and find eternal life…a life not ruled by the sin nature of the flesh but by the Spirit of God.

You know there’s something neat here in the Greek.  The word used for ‘draw’ here is the same word used in John 18 when Peter ‘drew’ his sword.  Its “helko” in the Greek and to me, it says Hell K-O because just as Peter drew his sword, God drew His at the cross of Calvary to rescue His bride! 

Verse 34, The people answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’?  Who is this Son of Man?”   Again they only half understand the scriptures because they have mixed them with their own wills.  They desire practical (here and now) salvation from the Roman oppression and in doing so they have accepted some scriptures into their applied memory banks and dismissed others like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.  And that is a real danger we face which is why we must reject the “I feel, I say, I believe” mentality of this world and our flesh and look to the Word of God alone.  What does the Word of God say?  That is the highway to holiness!

Verse 35, The Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you.  Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.  Now remember, Jesus is back in Jerusalem and therefore He is again surrounded by the Jews and watch how He doesn’t spend any time with them at all compared to chapters before.  Why?  Because even this is a sucker question…it’s a questions that oozes pride…”we know, we understand, we have concluded” when truly seeking God leaves you hanging on His every word.  And so He doesn’t answer their question, He answers their need.  Get saved!  You don’t even know where you’re going!

“While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”  These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.  Quite sad indeed as Jesus is hidden from them.

(Read verses 37 – 41)

He had done great signs!  The sick were healed, the blind received their sight, the sinners were saved, the Jews were confounded, the dead were raised…yet there is somewhat of a misconception that if only one would see a miracle, if only one would get the proof they so very often demand…all of their questions answered…then they would surely believe.  Yet all of these public, undeniable miracles and they still did not believe.  Verse 39 is most interesting, it actually says they could not believe.

This is the ultimate penalty of the unpardonable sin.  The continual denial of God and the constant rejection of His Holy Spirit.  The human brain is very interesting in that brain patterns are created as we do or say certain things.  Take for example, playing an instrument.  Can you unlearn that?  And so as you allow the lies of philosophy and false logic of scientific theory to take the place of absolute truth, what you’re doing is learning to play that instrument…yet for your spirit it’s sound is that of taps played at a soldier’s funeral.  A pattern or trench is dug in the brain and suddenly your pattern of thought is such that it will not even have the ability to hear, understand or accept truth. 

Can you teach a person in their 80’s to play Modern Warfare on the XBOX?  They may be able to push buttons but will they ever hang with the gamers of today?  No Way!  Their brain patterns are fitted to pencils and typewriters and tools that make things…today our kids program computers that make products on assembly lines and type emails…so vastly different. 

Can you teach Billy Graham to dance to hip hop?  NO!  Well why is that?  Because the brain patterns are set you see and especially important for you young people, beware what patterns you are laying into your dome!  Beware what trenches you are allowing to be dug because how difficult it is, once you have decided, to turn from your own acceptance and understanding to something contrary.  Again, what does the Word of God say?  That should be your pattern, your trench!

Verse 42, Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.  Why did they not confess Jesus?  Pharisees…nah…that’s just the agent…the real reason, fear.  Fear is the foe of faith man and how sad it’s consequences as we see a group here who internally cry out for the truth yet their fear traps them amongst a lie…and therefore they have zero peace!

Finish out by reading verses 44 – 50.  So we know Jesus was hidden from them that hated Him, and therefore He cried this out no doubt to His inner circle and maybe even the Greeks that had come to find life.   Notice He is very clear here.  His statements are undeniable…that if you have seen Him indeed you have seen God because they are One.

Notice also how Jesus says that His words, what God had commanded Him to speak, are everlasting life…WHAT DOES THE WORD OF GOD SAY?  Do you want everlasting life?  Then drop the circumstantial and finite logic that you cling to so wrongly and walk by faith…trust Him at His word and find everlasting life!

Next week we will enter into a period of 24 to 36 hours stretched out over 5 chapters!  The microscope zeros in on Jesus and intense the scene will be as we open next week in the upper room!