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 During the course of Christ's ministry, His Father's voice was heard from heaven on three separate occasions.

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 In today's study, we'll focus on one of these events from John 12,

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 the time when the Father's voice boomed forth for all to hear just prior to His Son's death and resurrection.

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 You know, there are professing Christians who think that all roads go to heaven.

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 Now, let me change that up for a moment. There are professing Christians, and I'm going to use

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 air quotes because I want you to understand the distinction. There are professing, professing

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 Christians who believe that all roads, or at least other roads, go to heaven. Amongst professing

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 Christians, that means people in pews like ours, amongst professing Christians, people who attend

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 churches on Sunday morning and the like, amongst professing Christians, 25 percent, one in four,

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 believe that all roads, or at least other roads, go to heaven. Do you believe that? I should hear

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 more no's. Dear heavens, no, we do not believe that. Now, amongst professing Christians, 52%,

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 52%, a majority, 52% of people who say Jesus is Lord believe that you access him in the future,

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 that your salvation is hinged based upon your work, something that you do. So you have 25%

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 that say, you know, Christianity could get you there, but so can this religion and that religion

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 and the other thing. And over 50% say, yeah, Jesus gets you there, but he gets you there alongside

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 things that you do to somehow merit it, earn it, and the like. Time doesn't exist for me to linger

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 on this point as much as I would like to, but here's what happens if you believe there are those

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 things. Here's what happens if you take Jesus and say, he's the means to heaven, and I don't know,

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 the outer space spaghetti monster belief in him would also lead you to heaven. If you believe two

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 things. This religion, that religion, this religion, this cult, what have you. If you think that it's

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 all equal, it all leads you to heaven, what does that do? It does two things. Number one, it neuters

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 the gospel. If you can believe in the outer space spaghetti monster or any other variations, any

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 other cultic beliefs, any other religion under the sun, Baal, Moloch, Asherah, they're all the same

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 thing. If you can believe in any of that stuff or any modern beliefs and deities and the like,

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 as a substitute for that, then that doesn't mean anything at all. So belief in anything outside

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 of the singular means of salvation through the personal works of Jesus Christ has the net effect

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 of neutering that of any value. But the second thing that it does, which is at least and probably

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 more egregious, is this. To believe that something else can or does save you, that robs, that steals

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 from the glory of God. You understand what happened on the cross? God the Son came down, was born in a

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 manger, a stinky manger, lived the perfect life for over 30 years, and then willingly went to a cross.

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 And when he was on the cross, the punishment for your sins was laid upon him.

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 And he died under the wrath of the Father in your stead.

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 Now, of course, he didn't stay dead.

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 Three days later, he arose.

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 He sits at the right hand of the Father for now.

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 But understand this.

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 If you think that something else can save you, it has the net effect of robbing and stealing from that

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 and stealing from the glory of the one who went to the cross.

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 There's any number of reasons why we don't believe that other roads can or do lead to heaven.

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 If you hear such a thing from any other belief system, and if you hear anything from another

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 belief system that puts your works as somehow equivalent or on top of that, again, it steals

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 glory away from God and a place it is on man, which is why a lot of people like it. People

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 want to have some sense of ownership in that. I accomplished something. He made it possible,

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 right? God made it possible, and then I did the rest. As if God somehow did all this stuff on

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 Calvary to die and be resurrected and go up to heaven. And right now he's sitting there at the

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 50-yard line in heaven waiting and watching on you to see what you're going to do with it. As if he

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 did 99% and you do one. Not the gospel, not the gospel, not the gospel. And yet, you heard the

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 statistics. A lot of people believe it. The start of the new year, I want to establish at the outset

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 that's not the way it works. This year, every time you see that table, this time, every time this is

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 open and read. It's to promote the person and work of Jesus Christ in all its fullness and nothing

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 else. Nothing else above it, nothing else in place of it, nothing else as a substitute for it. All

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 right, let's take a look now at this text that resonates with this greater point. Let's look at

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 verses 27 through 28, and then we'll work our way through, and we'll see how everything we see in

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 today's passage just doubles down, triples down on this idea that Jesus is the only way. Let's look

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 verse 27 and this is jesus speaking now my soul is troubled and what shall i say father save me

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 from this hour but it's for this purpose this purpose the cross this purpose that i came to

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 this hour father glorify your name and then a voice came from heaven it's only the third time

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 this happens that a voice comes from heaven so it must be significant right then a voice came from

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 heaven saying, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it yet again. All right. For this purpose,

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 I've come to this hour. In our study of the book of John, you've noticed that the idea of the hour,

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 the hour that was coming, comes up multiple different times. We started back when we did

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 the miracle of changing the water into the wine. Remember, Mary sins for Jesus. Hey, maybe you can

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 help us out here. Woman, my hour has not yet come, right? This idea of his hour not yet being or not

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 yet coming. It comes up time and time and time again. Here, however, we see that the hour is nigh.

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 The hour has come. My soul is troubled. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. It's for

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 this purpose that I came to this hour. You know, even several chapters earlier, the hour was not

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 yet come. John 7, the people, the Pharisees sought to take him, but no one laid a hand on him because

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 his hour had not yet come. Well, here he uses the language to explain it's come. It's here. It's at

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 the door. Now, furthermore, beyond the fact that the hour has come, Jesus establishes here, he says,

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 this is the whole reason I came. He had done a lot of cool stuff. I mean, if you had followed

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 Jesus around across the three years of his public ministry, you had seen stuff that no one had ever

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 seen before. You had seen miracles that people thought couldn't happen, couldn't exist. I mean,

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 dead people just don't rise. Lame people just don't walk. Blind people don't just see. And he

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 did this stuff all the time. And on top of that stuff, he cast out demons. He cast out demons in

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 a way that everyone recognized that's exactly what he'd done. For three years, he'd been doing all

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 sorts of amazing stuff, stuff that no man in the history of this planet has done. But here's the

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 thing. None of that would save you. None of that would save you. None of it would save Peter, Paul,

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 James, John, none of it. None of the miracles, none of those miracles would do it. However,

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 there was something that would. There was something that would happen. For all the things that Jesus

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 did, for all the laughing he did, crying he did, teaching he did, talking he did, miracles that he

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 did, none of that would save people. But there was something coming that would. There was a singular

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 work above all other works, a singular work that defined the singular hour which he had come to

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 this planet in which to serve, minister, and act and lay down his life. And it was coming right

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 around the bend so in these verses we see father what should i say save me from this hour and for

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 the benefit almost of the people around him he goes no no no guys this is why i came here should

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 i tell the father save me pluck me out of this guys i'm not looking forward to this my soul is

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 troubled to say his soul is troubled that's our english understanding of it the more you parse

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 the words it actually kind of means my soul is repulsed horrified not just troubled like you know

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 to wonder how I'm going to pay my taxes this year or something like that. Not just troubled along

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 those lines, just horrified at what's about to happen. But he says, guys, I'm not going to go

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 to the Father and say, take me out of here, because this is why I came. The stuff you've

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 seen me do, God bless it, he's used it. Lazarus over there is walking around because it's something

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 I came to do, but I've come to do something much cooler, something much more important,

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 something much more necessary, and it's coming up. In fact, this whole trip into Jerusalem,

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 him it's for the last time. The whole story he just told the Greeks and the Jews there about the

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 wheat coming to die, he says, it's me. He keeps telling them this, and they never seem to believe

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 that. Now, with that said, why was his soul troubled? Sometimes theologians linger on that

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 a little bit, and they say, well, hold the phone here. Has anyone ever read, in this room, has

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 anyone ever read Fox's Book of Martyrs? Just out of curiosity. I see some hands. Fox's Book of

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 Martyrs. Oh, that's a hard read. That's a difficult read. Why? Think of the title. Fox's Book of

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 martyrs. It's a record of the martyrs of the early church, or many of the martyrs of the early church,

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 and the means and way in which they met and faced their death. But the purpose is not this macabre

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 thing to explain gruesome ways of dying or being tortured or what have you. That's not the point.

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 The point is to demonstrate how they faced this death. And as you read Fox's Book of Martyrs,

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 you'll notice something interesting, that many of the people who faced their death on behalf of

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 Jesus Christ, they went to their own death singing, confident. They walked to their own crosses. The

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 funeral pyre was lit on their own back, and as it was lit, they would sing and pray and have a peace

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 and a serenity. Now, here's the thing. If these individuals, these people like you and I, could go

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 to their own death singing, then why do you think Jesus Christ was troubled and horrified and

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 repulsed, and why in the Garden of Gethsemane did he sweat like big drops of blood? Why? If all these

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 saints, like men and women like you and I, went to their deaths singing, what's the deal with him?

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 Why was he so troubled? Well, here's the thing. For all of the death and dying that saints have

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 been doing across all the ages, no one has faced a death like Jesus Christ. Now, what do I mean by

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 that? Well, we don't have time to unpack the totality of the cross, but we know this much.

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 What happened on Calvary was not simply the passing into the next life. You and I, when God

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 eventually calls us home, it's going to be like that. Dying is no good, but death's going to be

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 easy. Death is going to be like that, and we'll be transported into God's presence. But think of

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 Jesus. When he went to the cross, everything got dark. And while he was on the cross, in a way that

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 we don't fully understand, our sins were imputed to him as if he's the one who did it. And then

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 what happened? And then the wrath, cup of God's wrath, the Father's wrath, was poured out on him,

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 the Son. You and I don't have words to even attempt to understand it, but one thing that was helpful

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 to me, another pastor shared this, he said, you know, one of the hardest things for you and I in

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 this life. One of the hardest things we could ever experience is to lose someone you love,

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 to watch them slip from your hand into eternity, one of the most difficult things you can experience.

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 But here's the difference. On Calvary, it wasn't simply a death in that sense, but God the Son.

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 What happened with his relationship with God the Father is that they didn't slip hands and let go,

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 but God the Son was forsaken for that moment by he, the Father. My God, my God, why hath thou

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 forsaken me? And the wrath of God was turned on against the Son, because when the Father looked

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 the Son, it pleased the Father to crush the Son, which is what we see in the book of Isaiah.

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 What Jesus faced, no man has faced, and he knew it was coming. Have you ever had to go to the

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 dentist, and for the day or two beforehand, you just live in dread of what's going to happen?

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 I've told the story before. I won't linger on it, but when I was young, I had this great fear.

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 I had an overnight experience at a friend's house. My friend Warren, oh my stars, Warren had been to

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 the dentist only a few weeks earlier, and Warren, the next day, I'm supposed to go to the dentist.

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 I'm sleeping over at his house. It was kind of a weird dynamic because when kids slept over at

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 this house, they slept in all these different rooms. So I was placed in this one room all by

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 myself for a sleepover, which seemed kind of weird. But I'm in this room all by myself for

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 a sleepover. My friend has filled my brain with all the scary things that were about to happen

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 in the dentist because he told this story of his experience at the dentist as if the drill was,

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 you know, eight feet long and the needle was like a tube they put in their mouth.

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 I thought I was going to die. I literally thought I was going to die. It was the worst night I've

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 ever had. To this day, I guess God's been very kind to me because that was the worst night I've

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 ever had of sleep. It's that night. I didn't even sleep. I just dreaded it. I dreaded it. I dreaded

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 it. I dreaded it. It was far worse than the actual experience. But I felt every moment before I even

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 felt it for real. I felt it there at night. I felt it. I anticipated it. Dear heavens, what Christ

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 anticipated, knowing exactly what was going to happen, not a false understanding of what was

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 going to happen, knowing exactly what was going to happen, of course his soul was troubled. As a

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 side note, I need to close the loop on that story. You know what was interesting? I prayed harder

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 than I'd ever prayed up until that point in my life. I had never prayed the way I prayed that

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 singular night. And what was fascinating, and it's one of the few times when I look at my own life

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 and I say, I think a miracle occurred. Because what happened was the next day I did go to the

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 dentist, but the whole time I'm like super anxious about what's going on in my mouth. Like every tool,

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 everything he does, even the little mirror, all of it's freaking out. And I'm very attentive to

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 what's going to happen, and I'm anxious about the needle, the needle, the needle. That's what I

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 thought was going to be the worst thing, because I hated needles. Well, he gets around, he does the

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 thing, and all my mind recalls is that at the end of this process, he says, I'm all done. And I'm

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 like, what? And then so I'm trying to talk through my mouth, but I ask him, what about the needle?

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 Oh, we did that. God is my witness. I was attentive to every instrument going in my mouth. I never

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 knew, never knew that anything had gone in there. I don't recall any words about it. I don't occur

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 anything happening, and I don't remember any pain from it. It was the best experience I've ever had

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 in the dentist chair, and it was the one I prayed up the most, for what it's worth. God listens to

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 prayers of little eight-year-old children in the dark, scared. I've always looked back at that and

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 remember the time when God listened to the prayer of eight-year-old me and was responsive. And I

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 know that hasn't changed. Whatever the case, Jesus here, he's troubled with a troubling that transcends

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 any troubling we've ever felt. So what does he do here? What does he do? Well, he says, I'm not

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 can run from it. I can't run from it. This is why I'm here. And so he says the opposite. He says,

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 instead of running from it, I will embrace it. Father, glorify your name. Through what I do,

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 through the road to the cross, when I'm lifted up, glorify your name. And at that moment,

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 the most wonderful thing happens. It's, again, it's like the clouds burst, the voice comes down,

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 the Father's voice is, and it says this, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again.

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 This is, in Greek, the word doxa, glorify, glory.

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 This is why we get doxology, the doxology in church.

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 This is what's going on, the glorification in the name of God.

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 Let's look at the next few verses, verses 29 through 34.

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 Now, therefore, the people who stood by and heard it,

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 listen to this, how weird the response is.

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 The people who stood by and heard it said what?

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 They said it had thundered.

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 They said it had thundered.

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 And others said, an angel has spoken to him.

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 Now Jesus answered and said, this voice did not come because of me, but it came for your sake.

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 Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I,

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 if I'm lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. Now this he said, signifying by

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 what death he would die. And the people answered him and said, we have heard from the law that the

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 Christ remains forever. How can you say the son of man must be lifted up? Who is this son of man?

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 let me stop there and mention something. You and I, when we hear the word lifted up, we go,

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 I think that means something like the cross. It's probably what he's referring to. In their context,

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 they knew exactly what he was talking about. Jesus was saying he was going to be crucified,

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 and by saying he was going to be crucified, it was definitely going to be a Roman thing,

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 because the Jews didn't crucify anyone. Number one, they couldn't under Roman law, but number two,

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 even if they could kill someone, they didn't use crosses. They stoned people. You weren't lifted

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 up. You were thrown down, cast down, cast over the edge of something, so your legs broke, and then

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 stones were pelted down upon you. But Jesus here says, son of man must be lifted up. All right,

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 let's go back to this voice. Now there's four questions we could ask about this voice from

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 heaven. Number one, what was it? Number two, who heard it? Number three, what did they hear? And

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 number four, how did they respond? Well, the first question, what was it? It's answered in the text.

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 This is God's voice. God the Father speaks at this time. So who heard it? Well, what we see here is

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 that everyone heard it. Everyone heard the voice speak. But see, what did they hear? Well, that's

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 more open to dispute here. What exactly did they hear? They said, at least some of them said, well,

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 maybe we heard thunder. Others thought, no, I think it was the voice of an angel. There seemed

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 to be some discrepancy about exactly what they heard. And then the fourth question, how did they

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 respond? Now, let me tell you, there's different views on this. Some people think that what

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 happened there was a voice comes down and the only one who understood it was Jesus. Maybe his

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 disciples, maybe his disciples. That's what some believe. And they think that the others, you know,

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 it was like, you ever watch Charlie Brown, watch Charlie Brown, the cartoons. And anytime like an

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 adult speaks on the phone, it's like, wah, wah, wah. You know, that some people think that's what

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 happened. Wah, wah, wah. They just hear something like that. Thunder, it's an angel speaking or

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 something like that. Here's my view. I think they all heard the voice of God. And I think they all

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 heard it audibly in a way they could understand it. But I think many rejected it. Now, why do I

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 think that? Well, what did Jesus say? He said, this voice was not for me only. In fact, it wasn't even

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 principally for me. This voice was for your sake. When the father says he glorifies his son, we'll

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 glorify him again. Some people's response, maybe through the hardness of their hearts, maybe because

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 they were still blinded by Satan. Maybe they didn't understand at all. I don't really know. But some

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 people, they chalk it up to, gosh, the rumble, you know, a jet engine went and fired something. And that's

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 the propensity of man. Every time Jesus did a miracle, what did the people do? Well, they

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 chalked it up to some explanation. Dear heavens, biblical scholars, I'll use the air quotes again,

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 biblical scholars still do that to this day. They'll say, you know, when God parted the Red

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 Sea, you know, the Red Sea really wasn't that deep. You know, it was pretty easy to go from A to B.

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 They'll try to take the miracles of Jesus, like he didn't really walk on water. You know, it was

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 some parlor trick or something. They'll try to change what happened, or at least the substance

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 and meaning behind what happened to negate it of it being miraculous. Well, that's sort of what's

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 going on here. The people hear the voice of God. And the response of some is saying, no, not God.

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 Nope, nope, nope. It's thunder. It's thunder. You rubes, you really believe that was God's voice?

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 Give me a break. Sometimes thunder sounds like the voice of God, you know? So that's sort of what they

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 explain here. But something's kind of interesting, though, when you think about this. You have the

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 voice of God booming forth, booming forth just prior to the greatest victory this world has ever

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 known. And we're going to see that in just a moment. Remember what Jesus is going to say. He's

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 going to say this voice didn't come for my sake, but for your sake. The judgment of the world is

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 here. The rule of the world is going to be cast out and the like. So that's what he's about to

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 say to explain this voice. But remember in that ancient context, what happened when one nation

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 went against another nation? What happened just before a mighty victory? What happened before

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 something was going to be conquered. Remember Jericho? Remember trumpet blasts? Throughout

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 antiquity, when one nation was about to seize victory, when one army was about to face another,

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 one of the principal things that would occur was that there would be trumpet blasts to announce

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 the coming victory and frankly to intimidate the enemies. But with that said, giant sounds like

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 that throughout scripture, including in Jericho, implied the coming and imminent victory of God

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 himself. And when Christ returns, what's going to happen? The trump shall shout, right? The trumpet

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 blast will occur at that time. Well, here you get something even better than the trumpet.

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 Before the greatest victory this world has ever known, instead of just a mere trumpet booming

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 forth, the voice of God booms forth. And then Jesus says, you know, it wasn't just for my sake,

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 it was for your sake. It's for all who are listening. And gathered around him that day

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 were Jews and Greeks. He says, this is for your sake, that you might know and remember.

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 The trumpet blast is nothing compared to the voice of God booming and glorifying the Son

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 at this time. So what does Jesus say in this text? Well, again, verse 30, he said,

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 the voice didn't come from me, but for you. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of

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 this world will be cast out. And if I'm lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.

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 All right, so the voice of God was the preamble to three things here. Number one,

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 the judgment of the world was nigh. The judgment of the world had come. God's law would be fully

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 exonerated and fulfilled in a very real sense there on Calvary. But secondarily, we see Satan's

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 defeat. I thought about lingering on this particular concept above and beyond everything

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 else we see in today's text, because we sometimes skip over it. Jesus is here saying, what's going

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 to happen on the cross is not merely my paying for your sins. What's going to happen here is

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 that the tyrant of this age, the prince of the power of the air, the one who's been ruling the

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 hearts of men. Remember when Jesus talked to the Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil. It's

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 His will that you want to do. On Calvary, Jesus says, that tyrant, he's going down. Victory will

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 be had on this particular day through what I'm about to do on the cross. If you think of a jail

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 cell, if you have prisoners within the jail, one of the individuals they're most anxious about in

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 the jail is the warden, because the warden has the ability to administer additional punishment,

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 and the warden really is the one in charge of incarcerating them. Well, it's as if God the Son

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 is looking at the planet Earth, and it's as if he's saying, this is prison planet,

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 but I have come to set the captives free. And what happens on Calvary will have the net effect of

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 knocking over the walls of the prison, allowing the prisoners to be liberated. That's what's

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 going to happen, only it's far more than that. It's not that Jesus came to knock down one wall

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 of the prison, but to flatten the whole thing. And if that happens, if their prison walls are

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 flattened and the prisoners run free, how afraid are they at that point of the warden? Not much.

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 Here he says that the ruler of this age will be cast out.

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 He's defeated.

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 His power is done.

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 I'm the one who holds the power of death and Hades in my hand.

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 And this ruler will be cast out.

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 The ruler of the prince of the power of the air, he will be cast out.

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 And that's one of several castings out that will happen.

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 If you look in the book of Revelation, the final casting out of the devil will occur where?

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 In the lake of fire.

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 He'll be cast into the lake.

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 So here on the Calvary, this is what Jesus says is going to happen.

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 And the third thing Jesus says is going to happen is that people are going to be drawn to him.

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 If I'm lifted up from the earth, when I'm lifted up, when I'm lifted up, he says it's going to be

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 like the bat signal. All of planet earth is going to see this and be drawn to me. Remember the

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 concept of the bat signal shines in the sky and it gives everyone hope and everyone sees it and

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 they know that there's this virtuous warrior for justice that's out here. Well, this is far greater

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 than any bat signal. When Jesus was lifted up, the victory that would occur on Calvary would be so

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 victorious that the implement he was put to death upon, the cross itself, would 2,000 years later no

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 longer be looked at as an implement of defeat, but an implement of what? A victory. I see a cross on

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 your robe. Why? It's not a symbol or a sign of defeat. You wear it. Why? Because it's a sign

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 of victory. And Jesus says what's going to go down on Calvary is going to be the greatest victory,

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 and it's going to draw all peoples to me like the greatest bat signal ever known. Now, the people,

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 they hear this, right? They're hearing this stuff. And it's not like this is the first time he said

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 this stuff. He says it a lot. They just kind of tune him out a whole lot. Remember when Peter,

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 he tried to explain this to Peter, and Peter says, no, I don't think it's going to ever happen

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 to you. People regularly didn't understand or expect what Jesus was going to say, but he

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 regularly explained that this had to happen. But they're confused here in these verses.

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 They answer him, and they say, wait a second. Jesus, Jesus, we have heard from the law that

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 the Christ, the Messiah, remains forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?

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 And it's like their brains break right there. How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up?

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 And they draw the conclusion, you must not be the son of man.

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 Because that's what they ask him.

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 They say, who is this son of man?

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 We heard that the real dude, when he shows up, when the real guy shows up, it ain't going

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 to be a no donkey.

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 When the real guy shows up, he's not going to go to no cross.

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 He's not going to be lifted up.

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 Rather, rather, he's going to be victorious in all the ways that we would fully expect

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 him to be.

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 What is this?

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 How can you say the son of man must be lifted up?

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 Who is this son of man?

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 Because it can't be you.

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 This is why in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul would talk to the Jews and he'd say this.

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 He'd say, you know what the cross is to you?

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 It's a stumbling block because you can't get over it.

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 You don't understand that the whole Old Testament anticipated this is exactly what had to go down.

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 Have you not read Isaiah 53?

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 You have not studied, read, understood, accepted what had to happen.

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 And because of this, to the Jews, the cross is a stumbling block to this day.

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 And that's true 2,000 years later.

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 A stumbling block to this day, and Paul goes on to say to the Greeks, it's just foolishness.

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 Cross? Really? For the Messiah, the Son of God, came down to a cross? Born in a manger,

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 rode in a donkey, went to a cross? Can't be the right guy. Paul says that's what the world

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 believes. The world is dead wrong. All right, let's look at our final verses, verses 35 and 36.

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 Then Jesus said to them, a little while longer the light is with you. So walk while you have

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 the light lest darkness overtake you for he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going

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 while you have the light believe in the light that you may become sons of the light now these things

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 jesus spoke then he departed and was hidden from among them you know on calvary a number of different

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 things happened but one of the things that happened was that it became this bone chillingly

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 dark now why is that interesting well here's the thing the greatest light that the world had ever

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 known, came to mankind, walked, breathed, and dwelt amongst them. And then collectively, mankind went

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 over and turned off the light switch and put them on a cross. See this? The greatest light. Light is

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 revelatory. I've explained before, when I go into that kitchen, if I don't turn on the light, I'm

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 going to stumble on that stool. It happens every single time. I'm slowly learning to turn on the

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 light. But that said, the light is revelatory. It leads you. It teaches you. It shows you the right

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 path. When you have a good idea, if you draw a cartoon of you having a good idea, what do you

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 draw above your head. A light bulb goes on, right? Lights give us illumination. They teach us,

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 instruct us, and what have you. Well, Jesus is saying in these last two verses, verses 35 and 36,

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 he says, look, I'm the light. You've been following all these other guys all over the place.

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 Then the greatest light man could ever have, God himself, God in the flesh, came and stood in front

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 of you, looked you in the eyeball, and you heard his words from his lips to your ears. You have the

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 greatest access to light that any man, woman, or child has ever had, what are you going to do about

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 it? The light's not going to be here long. What are you going to do about it? Well, we know what

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 the people would collectively do about it. They would turn off the light. They would turn off the

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 light. And that hasn't changed over the ages. What did Paul say in the book of Romans, in the start

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 of Romans? He says, this is natural to us. We hate the light. We hate the light. We're like bugs

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 scurrying about. Our sinful nature doesn't like to be exposed. So in Romans chapter 1, what does

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 Paul say? He says, since the beginning of the world, God's invisible attributes have been clearly

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 seen, being understood by the things that are made, so that they're without excuse. Because

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 although they knew God, they didn't glorify him, doxa, glorify him as God, nor were they thankful,

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 but they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Earlier in that same

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 chapter, Paul says, you know what man does? He suppresses the truth. He turns off the light. He

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 turns down the dimmer switch. Jesus is standing in front of people and saying, hey, you have the

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 light what are you going to do about it the light isn't going to be here always now what light this

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 morning let me close with this thought what light have you been given what light do you have well

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 the light we have principally comes through a couple different means number one number one it

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 comes through god's spirit god's spirit instructs us teaches us convicts us leads us number two

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 leads us in what the word god has given us his spirit in our hearts has given his word right in

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 front of our eyeballs. And beyond that, in real space and time, he sent his son. In the personal

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 work of Jesus Christ, God was made flesh and dwelt among us. If there's a greater light you could ask

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 for than what he's given us, I don't know what it is. It's just so weird because we keep asking him

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 for more. It's like, God, if you would just write your plan for me in my alphabet serial, that would

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 be great. If you would put it in the clouds, I think I'd respond, no, you wouldn't. You could see

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 God's plan for your life written in the clouds. And you know what you would do with that 10 minutes

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 later, you would chalk it up to some celestial weather meteorological event, some odd thing by

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 which the clouds came together to give you this word or this message. You would find a way to

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 deny it and suppress it. Mankind would. I think it was thunder. I think it was this. I think it was

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 that. You have the light. This morning, if you're on the outside looking in at all this stuff,

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 if you're on the outside looking in, this morning, you, through the presentation of the gospel of

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 Jesus Christ, the opening of his word, his spirit's presence in this very room, this is as light as it

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 gets. When you hear, when you see, when your heart has this light shine upon it, how do you respond

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 to this? Does it motivate you and convict you and cause you to want to respond in some substantive

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 way, or do you find yourself turning from that? Collectively, mankind turns from it, but you're

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 not responsible for mankind as a collection. You're responsible for you. This morning, the light of God

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 has been shined onto your heart, into your ears, and into our collective presence. How will you

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 respond? How do you respond? You still have the light. There's still time. So use it. Let's pray.