The Hour Has Come

Well, good morning, everyone. It's good to be with you all here this morning. I'll invite you to turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John, the 12th chapter, and I want to read verses 20 to verse 36. And then, since I'm going to be going back to it quite a number of different times during our message, I'd also like to read the first chapter of John, verses 1 through 18. So follow along as I read.

John 12, starting at verse 20. "Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethesda of Galilee, and asked him, saying, 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.' Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But Jesus answered them, saying, 'The hour has come that the Son of Man shall be glorified. Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him my Father will honor.

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.' Then a voice came from heaven, saying, 'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.'

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. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out, and if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.' This, he said, signifying by what death he would die.

The people answered him, 'We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever.

How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?' Then 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. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of life.' These things Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them." Again, let's go to John chapter 1, verses 1 through 18. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light, but all thought that all through him might believe. He was not the light, but was sent to bear witness to that light. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and the glory as and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, 'This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me,' for he was before me, and of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.'" Now, going back to John chapter 12, the title of my message is "The Hour Has Come."

Several times in the Gospel of John, Jesus talks about the fact that, you know, the hour has not yet come. When his mother wanted him to do something at the wedding of Cana of Galilee, he says, "Woman, my hour it's not my time yet." All right? Later on, there are times when he encounters the Pharisees, and there's actually an attempt on his life, but he was nothing happened there because his hour had not come. Now, Jesus is saying, "The hour has come."

Okay? And he is anticipating he is preparing for his crucifixion, for his death. That's the hour that we're at right now. Of course, this is the Passover season. There are people there in Jerusalem, and there's this one group of people referred to as the Greeks.

Now, from what I can understand, these are actually Gentiles. These are Gentiles who have come to believe in the God of Israel and have laid aside their pagan ways and so on. They probably haven't actually been circumcised or entered into a covenant relationship, but we do know that throughout the Roman Empire, wherever there were Jewish synagogues, there were people there were Gentiles around them who were impressed by the idea of there being one God, of him being a God who had a covenant relationship with men, a God who said, "This is right, and that is not right." Whereas the pagan gods that the other peoples worshiped really were not gods who talked about what was right and what was wrong.

They talked more about, "What can you do to make me happy? How can you appease me? How can you appeal to me?" And, of course, all the stories and myths and so on about those gods some of them are rather dastardly people, so they are.

They're basically kind of superhuman kind of persons, but that was not and that was not the God of Israel. And there were Gentiles who were attracted to this God of Israel, to the true God. And so there's a group who comes to the feast of the Passover, and they said, "We want to see Jesus. We wish to see Jesus."

Now, that is a good aspiration. Do you want to see Jesus? These people wanted to meet Jesus. That is a good aspiration, and the question is, do we want to see Jesus? And then Jesus when Philip and Andrew come to him, say, "Master, these Greeks want to see you." And Jesus says, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified."

Now, when we think of glory, what do we think of? What do we mean by this term glory? And, of course, in John in the first chapter of John, it talks about the glory that Christ had, and we'll refer to that.

The new let me see. The dictionary of New Testament let me see. The New Testament dictionary that I have at home, which is a Greek dictionary of Greek words and so on, it's very helpful in this. And it says that the idea of glory, okay, or to glorify is these are kind of big words: the luminous manifestation, his bright revelation of himself.

So we have this idea of a luminous manifestation. There's this idea of brightness, too, okay, which John picks up. So when we think about glory, we're talking about the way in which God reveals himself in a very bright and clear and powerful sort of way.

And so he is glorifying Jesus is saying that, you know, "I'm going to be glorified here. This is the hour in which I'm going to be glorified." Now, we often think about glorification as being sort of like an ends kind of thing. We talk sometimes about the fact that, you know, when at the resurrection, we will receive a glorified body. We have that idea here. And oftentimes, glorification is connected with the whole idea of resurrection, of something being brought to light. But the interesting thing I find about this passage is that the Father is going to glorify Jesus in his death, in his crucifixion.

Okay? He's going to make something manifest. He's going to illuminate something. He's going to make something bright here through Jesus's death. And, of course, what is that? Well, Jesus goes on and talks about that if a grain falls into the ground, okay, it dies, but then it produces many, many, many more grains. And, of course, that's a metaphor of the fact that Jesus is anticipating his death, and his death will produce life for many, many, many other people. And then he makes this connection with us where he says that he who loves his life will lose it. And see, Jesus has given this example where he was willing to give up his life. He was not he wasn't going to grasp a hold of it, okay?

And it resulted in eternal life for us. And so, likewise, for us to take advantage of this eternal life, of this glory that Jesus glorious thing that Jesus has done, we have to be willing to lose our life. We have to be willing to give everything up for him. And we have this promise that he gives us that if we do that, okay, if we follow after him, if we do the same kind of things that he does, it will result in honor, okay? It will result in honor. Now, that's a little different word than glorify, or glory, okay? But God is now glory in this hour that Jesus is talking about, he's saying, "My Father is glorifying me."

He's illuminating. He's expressing. He's bringing forth in a very bright and powerful way what is happening here. "My servant will all if anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him my Father will honor." Later on, we're going to be looking at in the Gospel of John places where Jesus talks about, "I am in the Father, and my Father is in me." And then he talks about the fact that if you're in me, you're also in the Father. This participation that we have in who Jesus is and what Jesus has done is very, very powerful imagery in the Gospel of John.

Now, the thing that I find interesting here is that Jesus is very clear about the fact that the hour has come. He's very clear that this hour is an hour in which God is going to glorify him. But he also is very he understands very well that this is going to be a painful experience.

And he says, "My soul is troubled. My inwardmost being is troubled." Okay? You know, we don't sometimes we have things that we face in our life that we know are going to be painful. They're going to be difficult. They're going to be excruciating. But we go ahead and do it because of the benefit that it will have. In a sense, it's putting it's ignoring short-term gratification for a long-term benefit. Brother Wesley recently had a surgery on his knee, and he had a lot of pain. He probably still has a fair amount of pain.

But what's he looking forward to? The fact that when that pain heals and everything's all right, he's going to be able to walk without pain that he had experienced before. All right? And so Jesus is going to go through a very painful experience.

Okay? He's going to go through a very painful experience here. I don't think that he is going to enjoy that experience. He's not going to laugh his way through it. He's not going to shrug it off. It's going to be something rather excruciating.

Okay? "What shall I say?" he says. "Father, save me from this hour." And I think that it's I'm not sure how some of your translations render this, but in the New King James, it says, "What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour." In both cases, there's a question mark behind it. And I think that I would understand this to be saying, "Well, Father, what shall I say? Should I say, 'Save me from this hour'?" And this is kind of a rhetorical question. And, of course, the answer is no, because he says, "It's for this purpose that I've come to this hour. That's why I came into the world. It's for this purpose."

All right? So no, I'm not going to turn away from it. And then he goes on and he says, "Glorify your name." And a voice came from heaven saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." Let's turn back to John chapter 1, because if we look at verses 14 through 18, it says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Now, John starts out his Gospel here with this rather amazing prologue before he gets actually into Jesus's earthly ministry. And he starts out his Gospel talking about the Word. And it says, "In the beginning." And what does that sound like? What other book of the Bible does that sound like? Well, that sounds like Genesis, right?

Where in Genesis, it says, "In the beginning." All right? And here it says, "In the beginning was the Word." And this term Word is used in a very special way here in the prologue. Now, throughout the Gospel of John, the term here is Logos, okay, the Greek word Logos.

And throughout the Gospel of John, that term is used oftentimes in the plural, okay, where Jesus talks about the fact that you need to listen to my words, to the things that I say. And I think that's a very good thing to that he wants to emphasize because it refers to the particular of what Jesus says.

Now, I'm going to take I'm going to just say something here. Don't take me wrong about this. But, you know, sometimes we talk about principles. And that's all that's fine. I know what people mean by that. But you know what? Principles are an interesting kind of thing. You can kind of make this general sort of a principle. Something's a principle, sort of an idea, and so on. And then you can kind of do with it whatever you wish to. You can apply it however you want to apply it.

I see Jesus giving us commands. I see Jesus telling us to do certain things. I see Jesus being, in a sense, very specific about the kind of response about who he is and the kind of response that we're supposed to have toward him, okay? And the idea of Logos, or as it's translated here, the Word. And if you read commentaries, they tell you, "Well, you know, you can't quite get entirely the full meaning of the Greek and everything like that." But then they all omit the Word is about the best thing you can come up with.

All right?

Among the Greeks, particularly in Greek philosophy, the Logos was often associated with reason, with the faculty of being able to think through things, to and it was often connected then to the idea of how things were structured, had to do with understanding and wisdom and stuff like that.

And that is probably an important thing to keep in mind because for the Greeks who heard this term Logos being used, well, yeah, we're familiar with that term. It has a certain meaning and a certain connotation. But I think there is another meaning of Logos, which is very important and actually, I think, is much more germane to what John is talking about here at the beginning of his Gospels.

In the Septuagint, the word Logos is used to translate the idea that God is communicating himself to us. It has to do with the idea of revelation, of God speaking. Now, in the first part of this chapter of chapter 1, we see God doing something. He is acting. He is creating. He's making something. And one of the things that's so very interesting about God is that when he speaks, things happen.

You know, just as it was in Genesis, God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. So when God says something, it happens, okay? And here we see in this particular in John, he says that, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Well, what is the distinction that it's making here, being with God and being and being and was God? And then it goes on to say, "He was in the beginning with God."

Well, the idea of with God, I think, is a reference is a is connecting us with the idea that God the Father and God the Son, that God the Son is with God the Father, okay? And then it goes on to say here that without him, okay, without him, nothing was made that was made. It was made through him. God the Father did everything that he did through God the Son. And that picks up in Hebrews. It says, "God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory in the express image of his person and upholding all things by the Word."

Now, there, that's interesting. That's a different word. It's not Logos. It's Rima, which is sort of a declaration of his power, okay? So we have God, the Word of God, communicating to us, revealing his will to us, revealing his character to us, telling us what he is to expect. But most importantly, I think, also proclaiming to us his means, his plan to restore us to the place where we ought to be.

I think that's so very important. That's why Jesus came into the world, okay? He came into the world to restore us to the place where we ought to be, the place that our first parents lost through their sin. He came to deal with the whole problem of sin.

All right?

And as it says here, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth." The idea of grace is the idea of giftedness, the idea of graciousness. The idea of truth, of course, is the idea of what is right as opposed to what is wrong, what is for real as opposed to what is false. And here Jesus is full of grace. He has gifts. He has things to give to us. And he also has truth.

And I think one of the things that's so interesting is that people want to actually separate those two things. They want to talk about a God who is gracious, who is loving, who is kind, who has done so many wonderful things for us. Or sometimes people want to talk about, "Well, God is truth. You know, we have to get everything lined up just right," and so on. And that's really where the emphasis is.

When you oppose those two things, you create a false dichotomy because Jesus is full of grace and full of truth. He keeps those things together. And we need to keep those things together also. All right. Let's go on back to chapter 12.

Now, one of the things I noticed here in both verse 23 and in verse 34, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. That is his favorite way of referring to himself as the Son of Man. In verse 23, he says, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified." And then the people there, probably these same Greeks, maybe some other people, okay, they're answering 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?"

Now, when you think of the term Son of Man, what kind of comes to your mind? Well, isn't it sort of a reference to our humanness, our humanity, and so on? It's Jesus's favorite way of referring to himself. He often refers to himself in the third person. And through all the Gospels, he refers to himself as the Son of Man. He doesn't that often occasionally. He doesn't that often refer to himself as the Son of God. But he often refers to himself as the Son of Man. And why does he do that? Why does he pick up that phrase and that self-identification? Well, he is actually referring to an Old Testament prophecy. Turn your Bibles to Daniel chapter 7.

No, excuse me.

Yeah, Daniel chapter 7.

Okay, verse 9.

"I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.

A thousand thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousands stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were open. I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking. I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. And as the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed." Now, I think the Jews were familiar enough with their Bibles that when they heard Jesus talk about the Son of Man, this passage from Daniel came to their mind. In fact, there is occasion on which when he uses this phrase in his trial where the high priest accuses him of blasphemy because he's identifying himself with this person in Daniel who comes to the Ancient of Days. And the Ancient of Days, I think, is referring to God the Father. And one of the things you'll notice here, it says that his hair is bright like wool.

The picture you get here is of light, of brilliance, of fire, of glory, okay, of glory, okay? And then as Daniel was watching one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, all right? And so Jesus' the interesting thing here is that actually, Jesus' identification as the Son of Man, okay, is a proclamation, is assertion that he is the Son.

He is the Word that became flesh and dwelled among us. He is that Word who was with God, the Word who was God, that Word that became flesh and dwelled among us. And so he took upon us his took upon himself our humanity and so on. But it also, I think, speaks to the fact of his identification as God. And I think that's a very important thing for us to keep in mind.

Now, the

so when they ask him this question and notice the reason they ask the question is because he has just said that, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself." Now, don't you hear echoes there of that passage in Daniel where it talks about the kingdom is drawn from everybody, from all nations, and so on, okay?

And they're curious, "Well, what do you mean by this?" Because we understand that the Messiah is going to, you know, rule forever. He's going to remain in ever. They understand that somehow or another, when he's talking about being lifted up, that he's referring to his death. They get that. And they're puzzled by that because you're going to go away.

But the Messiah is supposed to come and stay. You know, I think Jared read the passage from Isaiah, you know, that, you know, his kingdom will be forever, okay? And that's what they're pulling from. They're pulling from that idea. Of course, their problem is is that they don't actually really understand the whole picture. They're only getting glimpses of it. They're only getting parts of it. And it looks to them like a contradiction. It's not a contradiction. It's that they only have part of the picture.

And the other thing that's really interesting here is that Jesus says that now, in this hour, the hour that has come, okay, there's going to come judgment. And who's going to be judged? The ruler of the world. And who's that ruler? That ruler is Satan. Okay, so we see in the hour that Jesus will be lifted up, Satan will be dethroned from his power here on the earth.

God has reasserted his authority over the earth. And now people can respond to what Jesus is going to do.

Now, that idea of being lifted up, Jesus makes references to that a number of different times. He says, "Just as Moses was lifted up in the desert, so will the Son of Man be lifted up." But you know where that the term lifted up is also used? It's used in Philippians. And there, it is translated as highly exalted.

Who is being highly exalted? Jesus is being highly exalted, okay? Why? Because he emptied himself, okay? He emptied himself for us. And so the Father has now highly exalted him. Again, that whole idea of being glorified.

You know, Jesus Paul says that Jesus endured the shame of the cross. He endured the pain of the cross for the joy that was set before him. Not that the process of crucifixion was a fun experience or a joyful thing or not something he shrugged off, okay? But he did it for the he did it because he knew that by doing this, he would offer his life as a ransom for many. It would be the means by which to save those who would believe in him. And that's what he goes to in the next section here.

Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer, the light is with you." Of course, he talks about the fact the prologue talks about the fact that Jesus is the light, okay? The Word is the light. He's the light that lightens every man, all right?

And so Jesus says, "The light is with you. Walk while you have the light. Let's darkness overtake you." Elsewhere, John talks about the fact that, you know, men love darkness because their deeds are evil. And this idea of light and darkness is all through the Gospel of John.

And he says, "The one who does not who walks in darkness does not know where he is going." What a that is a contrast to those who are following the glorified Christ, the one who illuminates things, who makes things bright and brilliant and glorious, okay? They can see their way because Jesus is the light.

Elsewhere, he says in John, as we'll get to it later on, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me." And the reason why we can see the way to go is because Jesus is light. He shines a spotlight. He shines a bright brilliance on on the path that he is going.

Jesus says to us, "While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of the light."

Back in the prologue, John says, "And he came unto his own, and his own received him not. But to whoever received him, whoever believed in him, he gave them the power to become the sons of God."

The hour has come. The hour has come.

And Christ is glorified. Christ has been lifted up. And he said, "I will draw all men unto myself if I'm lifted up." And the question for each one of us is, have we made our hour coincide with this hour that Christ brings?

Have we responded to the light? Have we responded to the glory that God brings, to the illumination that God brings, to the rescue that God brings, to the fact that he has given his life as a ransom for many? Each one of us have to, if we have not already, have to make that decision to follow the light, to listen to what God says, to see what God has to reveal to us so that we too may, as he says, have eternal life.

That's all I have to share.