Okay, well we're in John 12 again
this week and I want to focus on the verses 31 to 33. The title
of the message that I've given is that the hour is come, the
hour is come. John chapter 12 marks the end
of the earthly ministry of Jesus. The remaining chapters of John
are the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples at the supper,
there's the washing of the disciples' feet, and then there's his discourse
for three or four chapters through the rest of 13, 14, 15, 16, then
his high priestly prayer in 17, and then it's all about his arrest,
his trial, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. and time with
the disciples. But this marks the end of the
three and a bit years of his earthly ministry. And in it,
John has brought out seven signs to show that Jesus is God incarnate,
that he is God in flesh, God become man, that God who created
all things became a man. And that this one, this is what
John is showing, that this one, this man, And the one that Peter
said, there is none other name under heaven given whereby we
must be saved. His is the only name. He alone
is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father
but by him. This one is the only one qualified
and able to pay redemption's price for a multitude of sinners. He is the only one. God will
have his kingdom populated by righteous people. But we're all sinners, all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But in the doing
and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, he makes his people the righteousness
of God in him and thereby qualified. And how is he able? How is he
alone able? He alone is God. He alone is
the infinite God. He alone is the perfect, acceptable
sacrifice, the Lamb of God. He alone is the one who has no
sin of his own. The priests had to sacrifice
for their own sins before they could sacrifice for the sins
of the people in the Old Testament sacrifices. But he didn't, for
he is perfect. He is without sin. He knew no
sin. He who knew no sin, then was made sin, the sin of his
people, was made sin, didn't commit sin, was made sin, that
his people might be made the righteousness of God in him when
he answered the law's demands on their behalf. And thereby
he qualifies his people to be citizens of his kingdom. This
is what we look forward to as believing people is the kingdom
of God, that citizenship of that eternity. There are some beautiful
things in this life, in this world, but they're there because
the hand of God is on everything he's made. But there is so much
sin and corruption and lying and rebellion and violence. and
outrageous things happening in this world. God will bring it
to an end and God will judge it in righteousness. So by the
time we get to John chapter 12, I said last week that opinion
amongst those that heard and watched and observed the ministry
of Jesus was becoming more and more polarised. Many had believed
that he was the promised one, that he was the Christ promised
throughout the Old Testament scriptures. that he was that
one that was to come into the world, the one who would come
into the world and who would pay redemption's price for his
people. Many had believed that. There
were scattered Israelites from around the wider kingdom, Galilee,
that had come to this Passover feast in this last week of Jesus's
ministry. Many, many more, no doubt, were
indifferent, as you find in the population around us today. But
many of the Jewish leaders were violently seeking to kill him. He kept saying, you seek to kill
me. Why are you saying that? Because they did. They were seeking
to kill him. In chapter 11, he had raised
Lazarus from the dead, and many had seen and heard, and many
were coming all the more interested, and the Pharisees were getting
more and more annoyed at the people's reaction to him following
the resurrection of Lazarus. In verse 19 of John 12, the Pharisees
therefore said among themselves, perceive ye how Perceive ye how
ye prevail nothing. You're doing nothing in opposition
to him, basically. Behold, the world is gone after
him. Everybody's gone after him. Are
we not going to have any say in this man's progress, is what
they were saying. So it's the week of the Passover. There were
many visitors in Jerusalem, crowded, crowded, crowded. And he was
proclaimed, as we saw last week, when he rode on the colt of an
ass into Jerusalem, and they put palm branches before him.
And the much people, much people, verse 12, much people, the next
day much people that would come to the feast, when they heard
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and
went forth to meet him and cried, Hosanna, blessed is the King
of Israel. He that cometh in the name of
the Lord. All fulfilling clear prophecy,
as we saw last week. Clear, clear prophecy. Jacob's
prophecy, Daniel's prophecy, Zechariah's prophecy. That this
is how the true King of the true Israel of God would be seen and
would be proclaimed. Reading this account in John's
Gospel, and you know, I've been reading John's Gospel since my
late teens, I think, so, you know, 50 odd years. And I don't
think I ever am going to plumb the depths of what's here. It
is so profound. Every time you look at it, you
see something deeper, something, some other meaning that you hadn't
seen before. Hearing it opened up in preaching. And putting yourself in that
scene in Jerusalem in this last week of his ministry before the
Passover, what would you have thought about what you saw? You
know, put yourself in the place of those people, the indifferent
ones. What's happening here? Has a man been raised from...
a man who died? And his body's, as they said,
to use the language of Scripture, his body's starting to stink
because he's rotting, he's four days in the grave. And Jesus
Christ come forth and I don't know how big a crowd, but it
was a great big crowd. Saw him come out of the grave,
wrapped up in his grave clothes and loose him, set him free,
let him go free. And a couple of days later, he's
sitting at a table in Bethany, enjoying a meal with Christ and
others before the end of that week. What would you have thought
about it all? You might have thought, like
I'm sure some of them thought, maybe this concerns my life. This concerns my death. You know,
it says with God are the issues of death. My death, my judgment,
my eternal destiny. Maybe this applies to me. Maybe
I need to pay closer attention to seek God's grace that he might
reveal divine truth in my soul, for that must happen. You cannot
do it by intellect. You cannot do it by natural reasoning. You cannot. It must be by God's
revelation in my soul. So please, Lord, be gracious
to me. Some did. Some sought it. Look
in verse 20. There were certain Greeks, Greeks,
Gentiles, Greeks, you know, the Greek empire by this stage had
been overtaken by the Roman empire. But the Greeks was that culture
that produced all of its philosophers. It was the place where Paul went
to Athens and reasoned with the philosophers in Acts chapter
17. There were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship
at the feast. Surely it was for Jews only,
wasn't it? No. The Old Testament Scriptures
constantly had said that the gospel of grace would go to the
Gentiles. What did God so love? The world,
not just the Jewish nation. God so loved a world of sinners,
of every tribe and tongue and nation. He loved a world of them
to call them out under his grace. And they come seeking Jesus. Here are people who are interested,
why were they seeking it? Because maybe this man has got
something to say concerning my immortal soul. So, first of all,
the first point, the hour is come. They come to Philip and said,
we would like to see Jesus. And Philip thinks, what should
I do? So he goes and tells Andrew,
another of the disciples. And Andrew and Philip then go
to Jesus and say, there are these Greeks who would like to see
you. And verse 23, and Jesus answered them, saying the hour
has come that the Son of Man should be glorified and when
you first read that you think he's more or less saying sorry
what have I got to do with a load of Greeks tell them to get lost
I'm too occupied with other things this week I don't think it means
that at all these were non-Jews that had come to the Passover
with the intention of worshipping God with the intention of honoring
God perhaps and I think highly likely, they had studied the
scriptures. Do you know, I'm sure the scriptures,
the Old Testament scriptures were widely copied. You know,
we knew at the birth of Jesus that the magi from the east,
from the regions of Babylon, I think it probably was, had
read the scriptures, Daniel's scriptures, and had thought,
now is about the time, and they had been guided to come, seeking
him to Jerusalem, and had found the infant Messiah. Maybe these
Greeks had studied the scriptures and they saw there the Messiah.
For why? For the Old Testament scriptures,
as Jesus said in John 5, 39, these are they which speak of
me. These scriptures, what are they
all about? Religion just thinks they're
telling us how we ought to live and some rather odd things in
the Jewish law. No, these are they that speak
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They'd heard of him. Could he
be the one? They wanted to see was this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
Jesus born of Mary, was this man the one that the Old Testament
scriptures spoke about? They were concerned because it's
a matter of eternal life and eternal death. So who is the
them in verse 23? Jesus answered them. I think
it's those Greeks. I don't think he's answering
Philip and Andrew, specifically, and telling them to tell the
Greeks to go away. I think he's answering the Greeks
who wanted to see him. Why else would the scripture,
why else would the Holy Spirit put in verse 20 that some Greeks
wanted to see him? Jesus answered them, the Greeks. I think those Greeks, because,
as I've said, God so loved the world, of Greeks as well as of
Jews. to whom he says here he says
the hour is come that the son of man should be glorified what's
he saying i think he's saying look there's lots of miracles
been going on but We're coming to the hour. The hour is come. It's now arrived. There are no
more miracles to see. If you've just come to Jesus
to see a magic trick performed, no, now is not the time. That
wasn't their purpose. That wasn't the purpose of the
miracles. There are no more miracles to see except for the accomplishment
of redemption by my death. That is what he is saying. The
hour has come that the son of man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. There are no more miracles to
see, except the accomplishment of redemption by my death. That
is what's going to happen. He's going to be glorified by
the accomplishment of redemption. You know, when Moses asked God
to show him his glory, he didn't show him his power, just like
Elijah hiding in that cave. The Lord was not in the earthquake,
the Lord was not in the wind, the Lord was not in the fire,
but the Lord was in the still, small voice of calm. Have you
heard a still, small voice of calm? Because the glory of God
is seen above all else, above all else, in his redeeming grace. Show me your glory, said Moses.
And God said, I will hide you in this cleft of the rock, and
you shall see me go by. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. That is the glory of the Lord.
It's saving grace, glorified by the accomplishment of redemption.
He will be glorified by, if I can put it this way, the legal integrity
of the justification of his people by his death on the cross. You
say I don't understand it, I don't either. But I believe it, for
God the Holy Spirit gives faith to his people to believe the
truth of it. That when Christ died, the multitude
that was united with him before the beginning of time died with
him. He's the representative, he's
the federal head. What he did, they did in him.
And having died, the law of God the justice, the righteous justice
of God. God is perfectly, infinitely
holy. Anything, anything which is rebellion
against God in terms of I don't believe him or I don't believe
this which he says, it's calling God a liar. That is sin. And
God cannot tolerate sin. He's of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. And that sin must pay its penalty. In the economy of God, the infinite
economy of God, sin must pay its penalty. The scales must
be balanced. And there's only one thing that
does it to the satisfaction of the justice of God, and that
is the shed blood of the God-man, God himself, infinite in capacity,
God himself, infinite in power, in holiness, in justice. He,
by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, maintains the legal integrity
of the justification of a multitude of sinners. He says in verse
24, he must die. You've not come to see any more
miracles, you Greeks. The only thing to see is me dying. Just like a corn, a grain of
corn. Except a corn of wheat. Fall
into the ground and die. You know, do you do any gardening? Do you sow seeds? You know, they look the most
dead things and they are. You can keep them in a packet
and as long as you keep them dry and cool, they'll last several
years. And then you make them fall into
the ground. like a dead thing and the moisture and the contact
with the soil around them and something amazing happens. I nearly said miraculous but
of course you know I don't think that the things that happen all
the time are miraculous they're the normal things that God has
created but it's nevertheless a wonder that that little string
of DNA in that little seed becomes what it does and it bears fruit. I plan next year didn't do it
this year because we've just moved but i plan to make a vegetable
garden a small vegetable garden and i will sow some bean seeds
and they will climb up the poles and they will produce beans and
talk about fruit from one little seed one little seed which produces
one plant I don't know how many thousands of individual bean
pods will be produced. That's the scale of it. And he
says he must die like that and the result will be much fruit.
What shall happen in this Passover week when the Lamb of God, the
true Lamb of God, goes to the cross of Calvary much fruit shall
be produced by his death, by his resurrection. Many more people,
many more people than that which was visible Israel, the true
Israel of God, which includes the Gentiles, for there is no
difference. For read Galatians, that middle wall of petition
has been taken away. That's Ephesians, isn't it? The
middle wall of petition between Jew and Gentile, it's taken away.
All of his people of whatever race and tribe and kindred and
language will be saved by this act and they'll come to know
it because the Holy Spirit knows each and every one. And they
shall follow him and inherit eternal life. This is what he's
saying here. Shall keep it unto life eternal. They shall inherit eternal life. In verse 25 he says this. You
know, that's salvation laid before us. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. He that thinks it's in his power
to cling on at all costs to life, he that thinks he will grasp
every minute of it and every experience of it he can ever
have, Jesus says he shall lose it. He shall lose it. You know
like the parable of the man who built much bigger barns because
he had a big harvest and he said, what shall I do? He's had a great
big harvest and he hasn't got room to store. I know, I'll tear
down my existing barns and I'll build much bigger ones and then
I'll store all my goods and then I'll enjoy many, many years of
prosperity and riches because of all the goods that I have.
And God said to him, thou fool, This night your soul shall be
required of you. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. And he that hateth his life,
hateth in the respect that you just hold it as a gift from God
that is there for him to take and to do with as he wishes.
He that hateth his life in this world, he that doesn't grasp
onto it in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal. Powerful words. You know, the
very opposite of what this world thinks, isn't it? You know, with
all the COVID thing, and I know dear friends, some dear friends,
believing friends, have died of COVID illness. I don't underestimate
it. I know it's a nasty disease. But the way this world has gone
mad in its lunacy, trying to keep his life in this world,
trying to keep life in this world at all costs, and at every turn
being proven ever more foolish in the economy of God. So then,
he will accomplish his purpose only by a bitter way. You know,
he says there's no more miracles, but he's going to fall into the
ground and die, that it bring forth much fruit, but it's a
bitter way. Verse 27, now is my soul troubled. This is God who is man. The man is saying, now is my
soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour. Take this away from me. You know,
if it be possible, this cup be taken from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done. He says, I can't have this. hour taken away from me. I can't
be saved from the painful consequences of this hour arriving. He says,
for this cause, I came to this hour. This is the very, why did
Jesus Christ come into the world? Why was he born? Why did he grow?
Why did he minister all this time? It was for this hour. It
was for this culminating point in history. It was for this time
that he came and for that bitter way that he had to go. Father,
glorify thy name through the death that is about to be accomplished.
Then there came a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified
it and will glorify it again. So the Greeks did witness the
miracle of a voice from heaven. And in verses 31 to 33, Jesus
makes clear the manner and the purpose and the result of his
impending death as the Passover lamb at the end of the Passover
feast. The hour of his crucifixion,
mine hour is come. The hour is come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. The hour of his crucifixion. Look in verse 32. I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. What's
he mean? Verse 33. John's very helpful
like this. If you think, I don't know what
that means, just read on, just look at the context. This he
said, signifying what death he should die. Ah, right, that's
what he's talking about. When Jesus Christ is lifted up,
what's the scripture referring to? Is it referring to his cross? Is it referring to his ascension
from the earth back to heaven? Is it referring to what we do
now, preaching the gospel of grace, lifting him up, making
him be known, lifting up the banner? Well, verse 33 makes
it clear. It means the cross, the cross.
Good Friday, the end of the week, the start of the Jews' Passover
feast. Here, the Lamb of God is going
to be lifted up on a cross. You see, the Jewish laws, the
law of Moses, the prescription for capital lawbreakers, that
means lawbreakers deserving of death, and you can read the Old
Testament scriptures to see, but the law's prescription for
that death was stoning by your peers. It was society together,
corporately, through stones, at the guilty person, down in
a pit, and it sounds brutal, I know it sounds brutal, and
it was brutal, but it was so that the whole society would
say, we're getting rid of this sin from our midst, and they
all together. It was almost like a pre-firearms
firing squad. Who fired the killing shot in
the firing squad? We don't know. That's why. There
was enough of them there that they all had a shot together. Bang. That's the firing squad.
Fires at the person condemned to death. And you don't know
whose bullet was the one that was the fatal one. But the whole
troop bears the responsibility for taking that man's life. Well,
so it was with stoning. But a special curse was reserved
for those guilty of the worst crimes. You read about it in
Deuteronomy 21 and verse 23. It talks about the body being
hanged on a tree, hanged on a tree. And in Galatians, Paul expounding
this, says what the law says. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. saying that Christ has delivered
his people from the curse of the law by being made a curse
for us. How was he made a curse for us?
He was hanged on a tree. What was the tree on which he
was hanged? It was the Romans' cross. For the Romans, the method
of execution of the Roman Empire, the way of executing criminals
was to hang them on a cross of wood, to die a painful, lingering,
shameful, the crowd pouring scorn and insults at them, a shameful
death. It was the shame of the cross.
the shame of the cross, the curse of that law. Cursed is everyone
that hangs on a tree. Though the Jewish leaders sealed
the conviction of Jesus falsely for the capital offence of blasphemy,
they who were the Jewish leaders convicted the Son of God, convicted
God in flesh of the offence of blasphemy. How could that be? But they did. It was Roman law
that determined that not by stoning, but at the Passover, he, Jesus,
the Lamb of God, would be lifted up on a cross of wood to die. On a cross of wood. That's what
happened. The hour has come. The hour, this hour, will seal,
look, it says, verse 31, now that this hour has come, now
is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. Now I shall draw all men unto
me. Those are the three things I
want to see very briefly before we close. The hour will seal
the judgment of this world. Now is the judgment of this world,
this world, this kingdom of Satan. Since the fall in the Garden
of Eden, this world, when Adam, who was the viceroy of God, viceroy,
vice king, from the French, you know, roi, the king, le roi. This world, the kingdom of Satan,
since the fall, will seal its conviction guilty under the justice
of God. This week, culminating in Christ's
death, is the pivot of history. This that we're looking at, 2,000
years ago. This is the pivot of history.
Probably just under 2,000 years ago. Because his death fulfilled
Genesis chapter three and verse 15. In Genesis chapter 3, we
have the fall in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent beguiled
Eve. And Adam, though he was not deceived,
but for the sake of his wife, he ate of the forbidden fruit.
And God pronounces his curse. upon creation. In verse 14 of
Genesis 3, the Lord God said to the serpent, because thou
hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle and above every
beast of the field. Upon thy belly thou shalt go
and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will
put enmity between thee, the devil, and the woman, Eve, and
between thy seed, all the satanic forces that come from you, and
her seed, the seed of the woman. the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah
promised. It, the Messiah, shall bruise
thy head. That's a fatal wound. Thou shalt
bruise his heel. That's a painful wound. He will
cause pain, but the seed of the woman will mortally wound Satan. You see, the blinding from this
moment, the blinding of all but a fraction of humanity, which
in Old Testament days before Christ came, it was to Israel,
this small nation. in the Middle East, that the
truth of God was revealed, but all the rest were effectively
blinded. All the nations of Gog and Magog,
the wider empires, the great empires that tried to subsume
Israel in the Old Testament, they were all blinded, but not
Israel. In Israel there was light, there
was light. But now that Satan, now that
this hour has come, the world in its rebellion against God,
will commit its most wicked crime in murdering the innocent son
of God, and here's an open-shut case that the judgment of this
world is done, but it's the pivot of history when, from then on,
The world in general will not be blinded by Satan because he
is being cast out. When God laid aside his glory,
as it says in Philippians chapter two, seven and eight, speaking
of Jesus, it says, but he made himself. He who was in the form
of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men. and being found in fashion
as a man, looking like a sinful man, he humbled himself. He who
is God, with all the glory of God, humbled himself and became
obedient unto death. Which death? Ah, the most shameful,
the worst of all deaths, even the death of the cross. He when
he laid aside his glory as God, put himself under the power of
sinful man. You know, he was made for a little
while lower than the angels, and they committed that most
dreadful crime, and so therefore they are judged. This world is
judged. This world is judged for what
it did at that pivot in history. You say, we wouldn't have done
that, but Anymore, you might say we wouldn't have supported
the evil empire of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. But if you were
there, you know, flesh and blood does irrational things. Look
at the way in which the majority go along with the tyranny of
governments around the world today regarding restrictions
to try to prevent the spread of COVID. People just go with
the flow because it's easy. But these, going along with that,
it pales into insignificance compared with this crime that
they committed in crucifying the Son of God. As Peter preached
on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.23, him Jesus, being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. It was
all in the purposes of God to accomplish the salvation of his
people. Nevertheless, you are dead, plumb, guilty. You have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord
of glory. They were judged guilty. Now
is the judgment of this world. And so long as you continue to
reject the rightful rule of God, you will bear the same guilt
and condemnation. Because be in no doubt, you know,
John 3, 16, God so loved the world that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Then in
verse 18, but if you don't believe, you're condemned already because
you have not believed in the name of the Son of God. So, The
world is judged. Secondly, this hour will cast
out Satan. This hour, when the Lamb of God,
the Passover Lamb, comes to the Passover to bear the sins of
his people, will cast out Satan. We read it at the start. Look,
there it is. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, in
John 12 verse 31. But look over to what we read
in Revelation chapter 12. In Revelation chapter 12, We
read from verse seven, didn't we? In it, there's the woman,
which is a picture of the church, gives birth to a child, which
is the Christ that comes, and he accomplishes salvation, and
he ascends back to heaven. And there was war in heaven.
Michael and his angels, heavenly forces for God, fought against
the dragon. And the dragon fought, and his
angels. What were they fighting about?
If you look further down, Satan is the accuser of our brethren.
Satan was saying you've got people in heaven who are sinners and
they have no right to be in heaven because they're sinners. You're
violating your own justice, he's saying to God. Michael and his
angels are fighting against the devil and his angels over this
issue of are the saints in heaven, the Old Testament saints in heaven,
are they justified to be there? Or is the justice of God being
violated? Because the accuser of the brethren
says that they are being violated, the justice of God is being violated.
But They don't prevail. Why? Why don't they prevail?
They don't prevail because the lamb has now been slain. The
child has come, has grown, has gone to the cross, has shed his
blood. Verse 11, they overcame him, the devil, by the blood
of the lamb. It was the accomplishment of
redemption by the word of their testimony. They loved not their
lives unto death. They didn't grasp hold of it.
Many were martyred, but The blood of the lamb was what accomplished
redemption and what defeated the dragon. And so in verse nine,
that great dragon was cast out. When? When Christ died on the
cross. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world in Revelation 13 and verse eight. He's the
lamb slain in the justice of God outside of time from the
beginning of time, but he's cast out of heaven and salvation has
come and the kingdom of God and so on and so forth. Satan is
cast out by the blood of the Lamb. By Christ's death on the
cross, Satan's power over all God's creation is broken. Christ's
death has sealed the destruction of Satan. The destruction of
Satan. That's when I said he bruised
his head, I said it was a fatal, mortal wound. Read what Hebrews
2.14 says, through death, through the death of Christ, he might
destroy him, the devil that had the power of death. That is the
devil. He's destroyed him by his death.
And we see it in Revelation 20 verse 10 that the devil is cast
into the lake of fire. That's it. It's finished, ended. For a short while now, in a little
season now that I believe we're in, we're in a little season,
Revelation 20, he is permitted to deceive the nations once more
as we see it so widely on all sides, but soon it will be ended
eternally. The hour of Christ's being lifted
up on the cross disarmed Satan. So you know those verses I love
to quote from Romans 8. Who shall bring any charge against
God's elect? Won't the accuser of the brethren
bring a charge against them, that they're not fit to be in
heaven? That you, if you're Christ, are not fit to be in heaven?
Christ has died! How can he bring that charge?
There's nothing outstanding on the charge sheet against the
people of God. The sins of Judah and Israel
shall be sought in that day of judgment, says Jeremiah 50 verse
20, and they shall not be found. Why shall they not be found?
Because Christ has died and paid for them. The strong man is bound,
as Jesus said in Matthew 12 verse 29. He's come into the strong
man's house and bound him. In the moment of Satan's seeming
triumph over the Christ of God, Satan himself is led in chains,
as Colossians 2.15 says. He made a show of him openly.
So for God's believing people, Satan is cast out. And Romans
6.14 says, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are
not under law, but under grace. So finally, It's the hour when
Christ will draw men of all sorts, of all nationalities to himself. If I be lifted up from the earth
will draw all men to me. Here were a few Greeks wanting
to see Jesus and him speaking to them, I believe. And his followers
were in a minority. But in that hour, and henceforth,
he would be seen by multitudes, you think, the multitudes that
have seen Christ. Not physically, not with physical
eyes, a few hundred then, a few hundred saw him risen from the
dead, but multitudes. By the enlightenment of God's
spirit under the preaching of the gospel, he would be seen
by multitudes as the only one who has accomplished redemption
of his elect by free grace, the free grace of God. And if free
grace, what's that hymn we often sing? And if free grace, why
not for me? Oh, it's only for the elect.
And if free grace, why not for me? Come unto me, all you that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come, you
who thirst, come to the waters, come to the waters of life. Multitudes
would heed that call and come to see that God has commended
his love to his people in that Christ lifted up on that cross,
bleeding and dying for his sinful people, that there he has commended
his love to them, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Why are they drawn to him? Why
are they drawn to Christ lifted up on the cross? Because clearly
the price of redemption and salvation and eternal bliss and of citizenship
of the kingdom of God has been paid and fulfilled. As the prophecy
we read in Daniel last week, Daniel 9, 24, he came to finish
the transgression, to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation
for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness, which
is the righteousness that qualifies for eternal glory. Because his
spirit has been sent out to equip preachers, to embolden disciples
to testify, to proclaim salvation from sin's curse, to fulfill
Jacob's prophecy. What was Jacob's prophecy? Remember
it? Genesis 49 verse 10 from last
week. Unto him, Shiloh, peace, the
peacemaker. Unto him, the Christ of God,
the Messiah, the descendant of the tribe of Judah, the lion
of the tribe of Judah. shall come and accomplish salvation.
And Jacob's prophecy said this, unto him shall the gathering
of the people be, shall the gathering of the people be. I, if I be
lifted up, will draw all men unto me. Will you be part of
that great gathering? Amen.