Introduction:
Three Things Jesus Accomplished on the Cross that Glorify God (John 12:27-36):
- The world was Judged . (John 12:31a)
Acts 17:31 - "because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."
- Satan was Defeated . (John 12:31b)
- Salvation was Purchased . (John 12:32-33)
What Keeps People From Believing? (John 12:34-36):
- They think they already know all the Answers . (John 12:34)
- They are not aware of their Condition . (John 12:35b)
- They have no sense of Urgency . (John 12:36)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:02
Open up your Bibles to John chapter 12.
00:04-00:17
We're going to be picking up in our series, "Knowing Jesus." And last week, we saw Jesus spoke of His death in general terms, and how it affects us, disciples.
00:18-00:27
And in the passage we're looking at here, picking up in verse 27, Jesus speaks of His death in specific terms, and how it affects Him personally.
00:28-00:34
So look at verse 27. Jesus said, "Now is my soul troubled.
00:34-00:49
And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour.'" You know, when you read the Gospels, it's obvious that the cross was always on Jesus' mind.
00:50-00:54
You know? But not in a worried way.
00:54-00:58
But just in a, I guess we could call it a preoccupied way.
00:59-01:02
It just seemed like Jesus was always thinking about the cross. Have you noticed that?
01:04-01:07
Always preoccupied. Have you ever been there? You know, maybe you have a job interview.
01:08-01:23
You're not worried about it, but you know this is a big deal, and you're thinking about it, and what should I wear, what's it going to be like, and what are they going to ask me, and that event that's coming, it's just constantly circulating through your hard drive, right?
01:24-01:31
Or maybe you have an upcoming surgery, and you're not worried about it, but you're just like preoccupied with it.
01:31-01:34
Like, it's going through your head, and what's recovery going to be like?
01:35-01:36
What's the procedure going to be like?
01:36-01:37
What's the facilities going to be like?
01:38-01:40
You're just thinking about it.
01:40-01:46
And when you study the Gospels, it just seems like Jesus was always thinking about the cross coming.
01:46-01:47
This is coming.
01:48-01:51
And now, at this point, it's real close.
01:52-01:59
And Jesus is still thinking about that, the betrayal, the arrest, the mocking, the thorns, the being nailed to the cross.
02:00-02:03
It's all just right around the corner and He knew that.
02:03-02:08
But I want to remind you that Jesus wasn't fretting over the pain.
02:09-02:14
That's what most people talk about when they talk about the cross, is the pain.
02:14-02:23
The pain, "Oh, it hurts so bad and here's a study of how the spikes went through the nerves and it was so painful and so many sermons and articles and studies.
02:24-02:28
But you realize the Bible doesn't talk about the pain, the physical pain.
02:28-02:29
It just doesn't.
02:29-02:36
What Jesus was troubled over here wasn't that I'm going to endure some physical pain.
02:36-03:33
What Jesus was troubled over here was he was about to endure the wrath of God on himself for my sin and for your sin and for the sin of everyone who would ever believe in Him, Jesus was taking all of that sin on Himself to face the wrath of God. And Jesus' response is, "So what should I say about that? What are my options here?" And Jesus says, "I don't really have any options because this is exactly why I came. This event, this moment, this hour, everything that I have been doing for these last 33 years, especially these three years of ministry, Jesus said, "Everything is about this hour." It's right around the corner. You're like, "Well, what exactly?" Look at verse 28. What's the purpose that Jesus has come? He says, "Father, glorify your name." Jesus says, "Father, show them.
03:33-04:00
Show the world who you are. Show them, God. Show them, Father. I know how awesome you God show the world how awesome you are and that happened on the cross and Understand church that the cross is this one single event more than any other event in history That displays the attributes of God in one concentrated scene. Do we have an image here?
04:01-04:19
I just want you to so look at that image And where some people would look at that and say, "Okay, I see a Jewish man being publicly executed." This is the ultimate demonstration of God's glory, because this one scene says everything God wants us to know about Him.
04:20-04:22
For example, what do we see here?
04:23-04:23
You see God's holiness.
04:24-04:26
God will not tolerate sin.
04:26-04:28
Somebody has to pay for sin.
04:28-04:30
Justice has to be done.
04:30-04:55
done. And God says, "I'm going to punish Jesus Christ as if He lived your life, so that He can give you His righteousness, and I'll treat you as if you lived His life." But God says, "Justice has to be done. I'm not just going to overlook or ignore your sin." So this talks about God's justice, and obviously this talks about God's love. God says, "I love you so much. I don't want you to bear the wrath of your own sin. I'm going to provide a substitute.
04:55-04:57
This is how much I love you.
04:57-05:01
So we see God's justice, we see God's love.
05:01-05:02
Do you know what else we see?
05:02-05:03
It's God's wisdom.
05:04-05:10
How can God execute justice and demonstrate mercy at the same time?
05:10-05:11
God says, "Here's my solution.
05:11-05:13
I'll take your sin on myself.
05:14-05:14
I'll bear the sin.
05:15-05:28
I'll provide the payment." And I could keep this scene up here and I could talk until September about some of you are laughing and thinking, "He's going to do it!
05:28-05:34
He's going to do it!" But understand this scene, this is where God was glorified.
05:35-05:38
This is where God says, "Hey, here's who I am!
05:38-05:39
Do you want to know who God is?
05:39-05:40
Right there!
05:40-05:41
Right there!
05:41-05:43
This tells you everything you need to know about God.
05:47-05:49
Awesome!" It's a rare event.
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The Father answers.
05:51-05:52
Look back at your text.
05:53-06:14
Jesus says, "Father, glorify Your name." "Then a voice came from heaven." "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." "The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered." "Others said, 'An angel has spoken to him.'" Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine." Stop there.
06:15-06:20
the voice was for the disciples. The crowd actually seemed a little confused.
06:21-06:45
Like, "What was it? Was that thunder? Was that an angel? What was it? What exactly was going on there?" And there was confusion. I read one commentator this week said, "Oh, how it must have comforted Jesus to hear from the Father in this moment." And that's just not what's going on here, because Jesus said, "This wasn't for me. I know why I'm here. I know how I'm going to glorify God." That voice, that's for you.
06:45-06:46
That was for the disciples.
06:47-06:48
That was for people who have ears to hear.
06:49-06:52
Well, how was the voice for the disciples?
06:52-06:55
You know, there are people that struggled at the thought of Jesus dying.
06:56-06:58
And this was the Father saying, "Hey, hey, hey, this is the plan.
06:59-06:59
Okay?
06:59-07:08
This is the plan." Because many people in Jesus' day and in our day, they thought that suffering was evidence that God was mad at you.
07:08-07:12
I hear that all the time, and I've got to tell you, I cringe.
07:13-07:15
If you've said that in front of me, I'm just being honest with you.
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I cringe inside when people say, "Life's just been so hard, I've been dealing with all this stuff.
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I think God's mad at me.
07:21-07:28
I think God's punishing me." We equate suffering with God being mad at us, and that's just not true.
07:29-07:32
Jesus isn't dying because God is displeased with him.
07:33-07:35
God's voice from the heavens, this was confirming.
07:36-07:37
This is about my glory.
07:38-07:40
Like, okay, you said that a couple times, Jeff.
07:40-07:42
Jesus' death is about God's glory.
07:42-07:45
Jesus' death is about, can you be really specific what that means?
07:45-07:53
That's kind of an ambiguous term, like specifically, what does it mean that Jesus died for God's glory?
07:54-07:55
Can you be specific?
07:55-07:58
And the answer is yes, because Jesus got really specific here.
07:58-08:00
And on your outline, I want you to jot this down.
08:00-08:03
Three things that Jesus accomplished on the cross that glorify God.
08:03-08:07
All right, I'm still working on shortening the headings of these outlines, but I'm not there yet.
08:07-08:09
I'm a work in progress like you.
08:09-08:12
Three things Jesus accomplished on the cross to glorify God.
08:12-08:14
Jesus comes right out with it.
08:14-08:15
Now, first of all, look at verse 31.
08:16-08:21
Okay, so Jesus says, "This voice, "this was for your sake," verse 31.
08:22-08:26
"Now is the judgment of this world." Stop there.
08:27-08:30
First thing Jesus accomplished on the cross that glorifies God is the world was judged.
08:31-08:34
Like, what does that even mean?
08:34-08:35
Don't miss this.
08:36-08:37
It just simply means this.
08:38-08:42
The cross is the basis of God's judgment.
08:43-08:49
Not your works, not your accomplishments, not your attempts, nay, not even your motives, which a lot of people think.
08:49-08:50
I was a good person.
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God knows I've always tried to do the right thing.
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God will understand.
08:54-08:55
That doesn't do it.
08:55-08:57
The cross is the basis of God's judgment.
08:58-08:58
It's the cross.
08:59-09:01
The cross is the line of demarcation.
09:02-09:04
What matters is what you do with Jesus' sacrifice.
09:04-09:06
That's what Jesus is talking about here.
09:07-09:08
That's what Paul was talking about.
09:08-09:12
Acts 17 31, the cross judges the world.
09:12-09:19
This is where Paul says, because God, he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness.
09:20-09:22
Well, how's God going to judge the world?
09:22-09:24
Right here, by a man whom he has appointed.
09:25-09:31
And just in case you're unclear which man this is, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
09:31-09:43
So you see Jesus, his work on the cross, that's the judgment on the world, because failure to repent and believe in Jesus results in eternal separation from God forever in hell.
09:44-09:47
And people say, well, you know, a loving God wouldn't send someone to hell.
09:48-09:48
I don't believe in hell.
09:49-09:52
I don't think hell's real because a loving God wouldn't do that.
09:53-09:54
A loving God would not send someone to hell.
09:55-09:59
And my response is, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, God's love is not in question here.
09:59-10:00
God's love is not in question.
10:00-10:02
I have to ask you, what else could God have done?
10:03-10:04
What else could God have done?
10:05-10:08
We have rebelled against Him, so God says, "Here's what I'm going to do.
10:08-10:15
I'm going to send my Son, and He's going to be rejected and murdered, bearing the sin of the world on Himself.
10:16-10:28
He's going to take the wrath of the Father on Himself for your wickedness, and He's going to offer you eternal life as a free gift." God is saying, "Your sin will destroy you and condemn you here.
10:28-10:36
Turn from that and come and receive what I offer." And if you refuse that, what else is God supposed to do?
10:37-10:39
And that's why the cross is the judgment.
10:40-10:42
Jesus bore God's judgment on the cross.
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So you can take Jesus' gift, you can receive his gift, or you can reject that and you can bear God's judgment yourself.
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But the cross is the judgment.
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Second thing that happened on the cross, it glorifies God.
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Jesus continues, Satan was defeated.
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Look back again at verse 31.
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Jesus says, "Now will the ruler of this world be cast out." Satan is called the ruler of this world.
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Do I have to sell anybody on his influence right now?
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Do I have to sell you on that?
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Do I have to sell you that Satan has the world under his grip right now?
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He has this deceptive influence.
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He's not just influencing the world, he's deceiving the world.
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The world doesn't think that Satan is influencing the world because they are deceived.
11:27-11:30
But Satan was defeated at the cross.
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And now Satan, yeah, he's still fighting.
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He's still active, but now he's fighting as if he's a death row inmate, on death row, lashing out.
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He knows his time's coming, but Satan was defeated on the cross.
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Thirdly, salvation was purchased.
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Salvation was purchased.
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Verse 32, Jesus says, "And I, when I am lifted up "from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
11:59-12:03
So on the cross, the world was judged, Satan was defeated, salvation was purchased.
12:03-12:08
Jesus said, "When I'm lifted up." Now in those days, that was a figure of speech, right?
12:09-12:12
You're gonna see here in a second, they all knew exactly what that meant.
12:13-12:14
But that was just a figure of speech.
12:14-12:15
We use those things, right?
12:16-12:20
Like if I said to you, "Hey, she got the ax at work." You all know what that means, right?
12:21-12:22
And that was the same thing here.
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Jesus says, "When I'm lifted up." They're like, "Oh, we know what that means.
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It means crucified." And Jesus said, "When I'm lifted up, I'll draw all people to myself.
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Now, obviously that doesn't mean every single person in the world is going to be saved because of Jesus.
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We've already seen just in our study in John how much rejection there has been.
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That's not what he's saying at all.
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When Jesus talks about all people, he means Israel, those Greeks that came earlier, them, every tribe, every nation, every background, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, salvation has been purchased through Jesus Christ.
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Now last week we talked about some paradoxes and I love this because in Jesus' statement, he lays out so many more paradoxes.
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Think about it.
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First of all, the world was judged.
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We said, you know, when Jesus was on the cross, the world thought they were judging him.
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He was judging the world.
13:18-13:20
When Jesus was on the cross, Satan thought he won.
13:21-13:22
You know, Satan had this whole plan.
13:22-13:25
You know, he entered Judas and Judas sold him out.
13:25-13:34
You know that we're gonna be getting to some of that here down the road, well, Satan thought he won, like, took care of him, but it was the cross that Jesus used to defeat Satan.
13:34-13:40
See, the world thought surely, surely, Jesus being crucified will end his influence.
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And Jesus said it's that death that will draw people to him.
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All of this driven by one reason.
13:50-13:51
One reason, why would you do this, Jesus?
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Why would you go through with this?
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Why would you?
13:54-13:57
Jesus had one motivation, and it was to glorify God.
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How are you gonna glorify God, Jesus?
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Because I'm gonna condemn evil, I'm gonna cast out the enemy, I'm gonna purchase salvation for everyone that'll come to me.
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That's how I'm gonna glorify God.
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All right, that's like the introduction of the sermon.
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Because, okay, we're here and we see what Jesus said, and maybe you're like me.
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You look at Jesus and you're like, why wouldn't everybody just flock to Jesus?
14:22-14:29
Why wouldn't everybody just drop everything as soon as they hear the gospel message and just run to Jesus?
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What's the downside here?
14:33-14:37
Can you give me a reason to not believe in Jesus?
14:38-14:40
Can you give me a compelling reason to not follow Jesus?
14:40-14:41
Does anybody have one?
14:42-14:43
What's the problem?
14:44-14:50
And look, you guys fill out your friendship registers and you have to know that I pray for those every week.
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and we have members of our prayer team praying for those every week.
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I know what you're praying for.
14:55-15:15
And I see the names and I pray for the people, but so often what we see, pray for my neighbor who doesn't know the Lord, pray for my parents who don't know the Lord, pray for my coworkers who don't know the Lord, and names are given, and we have all of these people in our lives that we've been praying for.
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I got them in my life too, people we've been praying for.
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And after a while, you're like, Why won't they receive Jesus?
15:22-15:23
I don't get the hesitation here.
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What's the problem?
15:25-15:29
I mean, from what I can see, this looks like a pretty sweet deal.
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Jesus takes my sin and shame and wickedness, and he takes it away from me and says, "I'm going to give you the righteousness of God, promise of eternal life, co-heirs with Christ, glories of heaven forever and ever." Who's not taking that deal?
15:47-15:50
People just kind of baffle us with their rejection of Jesus.
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And then they reject Jesus because there's some sin in their life that they like better.
15:55-15:59
Like, you know, I hear what you're saying about what God offers, but I like my addiction better.
15:59-16:01
I like my pornography better.
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I like my wrong relationships better.
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I don't get it.
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I don't understand.
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Why won't people believe in Jesus?
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Well, here's the sermon today.
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I want to show you why people won't believe in Jesus Christ.
16:18-16:26
Because people today don't believe in Jesus for the same reasons that this crowd right here didn't believe in Jesus.
16:27-16:30
So on your outline, what keeps people from believing?
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And I want this to not only educate, but also to encourage for all of you who alongside of me are praying for the lost in our lives.
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and we get discouraged and we're baffled.
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What keeps people from believing?
16:48-16:57
We're gonna see three things here as a response to Jesus laying all this out, giving us his purpose, how he's gonna glorify God.
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Look at how this crowd reacts.
17:00-17:01
What keeps people from believing?
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Letter A, write this down.
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They think they already know all the answers.
17:05-17:11
Verse 34, "So the crowd answered him, "we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever.
17:12-18:48
"How can you say that the Son of Man be lifted up. Who is this son of man? Stop there. Right out of the gate. They demonstrated what could be the number one reason that people, especially in our culture, won't come to Jesus Christ. Did you see it? Here's why. They think they already know. They think they already know. When the truth is, they really only know a part of the Bible. But that little part they know. That's like the only thing that's relevant to them. Here's what I mean. You see this crowd. Jesus says I'm gonna be lifted up. They knew that man crucified. They're like, "Wait, but we thought you were the Messiah and now you're talking about being crucified." So they're like, "Well that doesn't line up with our theology because you know what the Scriptures say. You know what the law says." They knew verses like Isaiah 9-7, right? They're like, "Well you're talking about being crucified, but that doesn't quite work for us, fella, because we know our scriptures and our scriptures say, and this is exactly how they talked, our scriptures say of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. So you see this idea of being crucified, that ain't biblical pal, and they knew 2nd Samuel 7, they knew Psalm 89, they knew these parts of the Old Testament that said the Messiah would reign forever, but those were the only parts of the Scriptures that they were willing to consider. Messiah is forever. This much we know.
18:48-19:14
Messiah is forever. Messiah is forever. Didn't I just prove it with my proof text? Messiah is forever. What about all the passages of His suffering? These are just a couple off the top of my head here that I wrote down. Isaiah 53.5, Zechariah 12.10, Daniel 9.26, all of Psalm 22. What about of those, what about countless others that say the Messiah is going to suffer and die?
19:14-19:15
What about those?
19:16-19:20
"Well, we do not concern ourselves with those." They're like, "That's not our Messiah.
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You're talking about death." No, no, no, no, no, no.
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That's not part of our theology.
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And you got to help me out here.
19:29-20:37
Is it more obnoxious or is it humorous that the Messiah is standing right in front of them and they take it upon themselves to school him about the Messiah. Like, "Oh no, the Messiah is not going to be crucified." And Jesus is like, "Really? Really? Oh, I do tell." But church, that's the problem that we face today. The people in your life that you've been witnessing to and praying for and sharing. I've seen it so many times and you have too. They know a couple of verses. They know something that they heard once upon a time somewhere. I think I went to VBS or Sunday school or something when I was eight and I think I might have heard this thing once upon a time somewhere and that's all they're willing to consider because they're experts, right? They already know all the answers. And like this crowd, when God doesn't deliver according to their selective theology, now God's the problem. Do you see that? When God doesn't deliver according to their little limited scope of theology, then God's the problem.
20:38-20:40
I mean, I've heard these things, so have you.
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God promised healing, and it didn't happen.
20:44-20:49
I was praying for my grandma, I was praying for my neighbor, I was praying for my child.
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It didn't happen.
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You know, the Bible says, "By his stripes we are healed." And I believed that!
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And my child died anyways.
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Well, the context of that passage, "By His stripes we are healed," the context of that passage is from Isaiah 53, by the way.
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It's all about sin.
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He's talking about healing us from our sinfulness.
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That's what he's talking about.
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Do you even Bible?
21:20-21:24
He's not talking about believing in Jesus means you'll never catch a cold.
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But there again, we know one little snippet out of context, and that's all we're willing to consider.
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Or how about this one?
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"Well, God promised to prosper me and it didn't happen." You know, I used to believe in the Bible.
21:35-21:36
God promised to prosper.
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Did God promise to prosper us?
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Yeah, He did, actually.
21:40-21:42
You read Joshua 1, read Psalm 1.
21:43-21:47
God promised, yes, He's promised, but do you know how God defines prosperity?
21:47-21:49
Or maybe a more stinging question is this.
21:50-21:55
Have you done your part to honor God with the stuff that He's entrusted to you?
21:56-21:58
Because it is through that that God prospers.
21:59-22:09
So if they, the people you're trying to reach, if they don't see something fulfilled, they either don't understand the big picture or they misunderstood the promise.
22:10-22:14
Either way, they blame God and they refuse to believe.
22:15-22:16
So what keeps people from believing?
22:16-22:18
One is they think they know all the answers already.
22:19-22:22
Secondly, letter B, jot this down, they're not aware of their condition.
22:23-22:25
Why don't they believe they're not aware of their condition?
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And look at verse 35.
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"Jesus said to them, 'The light is among you for a little while longer.
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Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.
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The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.'" Have you ever been in the dark in an unfamiliar room, stumble around blind?
22:46-22:50
You're like, "Jeff, I stumble in the dark in familiar rooms." Right?
22:51-23:01
Well, that's true in the moral sense that people don't know where they are, and people don't know where their condition is ultimately going to take them.
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This is the problem that you're dealing with with the unsafe people that you're trying to reach.
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They're not just blind.
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They have a condition worse than that.
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They're blind and they're unaware that they're blind.
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They're stumbling around in the dark, banging into everything, and they're, I can see fine, I can see fine, I can see fine, and they're stumbling.
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Like, dude, you're in the dark, come to the light.
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Oh, I can see fine, I can see fine.
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And Jesus here is like, come into the light.
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And we echo, come into the light, I can see fine.
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And these people that we love, we're praying for, they're just constantly blindly hurting themselves.
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Whether it's being in a bad relationship or drugs and alcohol or laziness or patterns of bad spending, that we look at these things and we're like, Doesn't everybody know that living like this is going to hurt you?
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It's not going to lead you anywhere good?
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Doesn't everybody know that?
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And the answer is no.
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Not everybody knows that because the people that are invested in living that way are completely blind to it.
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You are killing yourself, dude, and you don't even realize it because you can see fine.
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They're so used to walking in the dark, as Jesus said here, it's overtaken them.
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They're accustomed to it and they refuse to believe.
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So the people that you're trying to reach, they don't realize their condition, they won't come into the light until they realize they're in the dark.
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And they're not going to seek Jesus' healing until they realize the nature of their affliction.
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So some people that you're trying to reach, they're just not aware.
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They think they have all the answers, but they're not aware of their true condition.
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And finally, what keeps people from believing?
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No sense of urgency.
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Look at verse 36, Jesus said, "While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light. While you have the light. You realize Jesus said that twice. He said in verse 35. He says it again in verse 36. While you have the light. While you have the light. You know what that tells me? It tells me you don't have forever. You don't have forever. Jesus said believe. Become adopted sons and daughters of the light. Like when should that happen? Now. When God is speaking, that is the critical hour. Do not miss it.
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God is so patient and God is so merciful.
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But I have to tell you, eventually, eventually time's up.
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Like in Noah's day, remember Noah building the ark, preaching, rejected by everybody?
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If you study that story, there's a very chilling statement that is made.
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When the rains came and the floods started, the Bible says that God shut the door to the ark.
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It wasn't Noah's place to say, "Okay, I gave you opportunity." It was God saying, "I gave you opportunity and you refused.
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Now your time is up." And that's why Jesus just kept emphasizing, "Look, you have the light now.
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You have opportunity now.
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You can't wait forever." And this next verse might be just as chilling as God shutting the door.
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Look at the rest of verse 36.
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It says, "When Jesus had said these things, He departed and hid Himself from them." Let that sink in.
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three years, they had God walking around, saying, "Here's who I am.
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"Here's what I've come to do.
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"Here's how the kingdom works." And for three years, and then it's over.
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Then it wasn't like we can't find him anymore.
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He hid himself.
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This, in John's gospel, this was the last chance that any of these people could have heard Jesus speak publicly.
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Like, "Wait a minute, there's a lot of John left here." Well, when you get to John 13 through 17, And that's all for the disciples.
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But this is where Jesus' public ministry in John, this is where it came to an end.
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And as Jesus pointed out, the people that you're trying to reach, they have no sense of urgency.
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There's no thought of their death.
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When they think of getting right with God or spiritual matters or getting religious or going to church or however they define it, it's always, "I'll get to it later." You know, "I'm going to do my own thing now, but maybe Jesus later." the light's always gonna be on, right?
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Like Motel 6, right?
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We'll leave the light on for you, that's God.
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He's always gonna leave the light on for me.
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Is that true?
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The answer is no, that is not true.
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Because whatever path you're on right now, spoiler alert, whatever path you're on right now ends with meeting Jesus Christ face to face.
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And eventually you're going to die, and if you have not received him, your opportunity to receive his gift will have ended.
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That's why you have to receive Him today.
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So those of you who love the Lord and are sitting here and watching this stream, you're like, yeah, I see that.
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I see that in the unsaved people I'm trying to reach.
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So what do I do about that?
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What should I do?
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All these things, yeah, it's the same thing.
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What should I do?
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You need to point them to the cross.
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You need to lovingly point out their condition.
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You need to show them the urgency and you need to give them the whole story.
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God has to draw them.
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Yes, absolutely, but as we've studied, God partners with people.
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He partners with you.
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And I wanna let you in on a little secret.
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You know, when you submit those prayer requests with your names of people, I pray for the people a little bit, but when I get those requests, you know who I'm praying for mostly?
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I'm praying for you.
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Yes, I lift those people up, but I spend my time praying for you.
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I'm praying for you to have opportunity to tell them.
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I'm praying for God to speak through you and open that door.
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And when that happens, that they would recognize God's voice.
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I'm praying for you to truly know His purpose when you get the word out to the lost.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we see the same principles of play in our day that we see in your word here.
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that the glorious invitation of eternal life is given, and people just refuse it.
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Father, that's why I want to pray for this church.
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Those who would call this church their church.
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Father, I lift these people up to You, and ask Father that You would equip them to be able to share Your story, the whole story, with the lost in their lives.
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Father, I also pray again that You would give these people eyes to see how You're working.
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Because sometimes, God, we want to share the gospel with them and baptize them an hour later.
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It's a process, an urgent process, but it's a process.
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So God, I just ask that we would rest in Your sovereignty and have the wisdom and discernment to see how you're using us to be sons and daughters of light in a dark world.
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Thank you, Father.
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Thank you for the testimonies we're going to be hearing of the lost people that you're going to be saving.
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We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 12:27-36
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Jesus said in John 12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world…” What exactly does that mean? How is the cross “judgment of this world”?
Let's get practical. Think of those you want to reach with the Gospel, and be specific on these answers:
How can you show someone that they don't understand God's Word like they think they do (John 12:34)?
How can you help someone see their true condition (John 12:35)?
How can you help someone have a sense of urgency (John 12:36)?
Breakout
Pray for someone, by name, that you know who needs to know Jesus. Pray for one another to have the opportunity to minister the Gospel to that person.