The World Set Free at the Cross

(John 12:27-33)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
Last time we saw
Some Gentiles who wanted to see Jesus
Who wanted to get to know Him
Because they believed He was the Messiah.
These werent ordinary Gentiles
They were God-fearers
Who had adopted the God of Israel,
And the religion of the Jews as their own,
Except they werent circumcised.
They had come to Jerusalem
To worship with the Jews at the Passover,
But yet they were still separated from the Jews:
The wall that divided the outer court of the Temple
Which was as far as they could go
From the inner court
Which was for the Jews only
Continually reminded them of this.

We also saw that Jesus wanted to see these Gentiles.

Its true that He came in His earthly ministry

Mainly to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel,

But the hour was coming
When He would be lifted up
That He might draw all men to Himself.
Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth
and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (v. 24).
When Jesus would die,
The division that wall represented
Would be broken down,
And believing Gentiles
Would enter into the kingdom of God
Together with believing Jews.

B. Preview.
This morning, we see
That the work Jesus had to do
To bring this about wasnt going to be easy:
He would have to go to cross
And bear the full force of His Fathers wrath
To open that door.
But He was willing to do it
He was willing to lay down His own life
To free the world from Satans dominion
And make salvation available to all men.

This morning, lets look at two things:

1. What Jesus was going through because His hour had come.
2. What was going to happen to the world because His hour had come.
II. Sermon.
A. What was Jesus going through now that His hour had come?
1. We see first that He was struggling.
He says, Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, Father, save
Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour (v. 27).
Jesus struggling because He was human,
Because He was looking ahead:
To His betrayal, arrest, rejection, condemnation,
Beatings, mocking, shame, crucifixion,
And the wrath He would bear for our sins
That which would make Him shortly
Sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane
As He looked forward
Into the fiery furnace of Gods justice.
Being human, He didnt enjoy suffering
Any more than any of us would.

But what should He do?

Pray that the Father would save Him
From this suffering and death?
He will later struggle with this question again:

My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me (Matt. 26:39).

He knows it isnt possible;
Theres no other way.
Certainly, He knew it as God,
But He also knew it as man.

There is a difference
Between what He knows in each nature.
As God, He knows everything.
As man, He only knows what He learns
And what is revealed to Him.
Jesus knew this is why He came into the world
He knew this is what it meant to be the Messiah
That He would lay down His life for the world.

As He weighed both options:

First, not to suffer
Jesus did have a choice
Of whether or not to go through with this;
If He didnt
If He didnt take this punishment and die
His people would perish,
His Father would not be honored,
And His love for them would fail to save them

That wasnt an option.

Or second, to go through with it

To suffer and die
That He might free us from our sins,
Save us from hell,
And bring us to heaven
He came to the only possible conclusion:
He must obey.

And so He prayed, Father, glorify Your name (John 12:28).

The same conclusion He will reach in the Garden:
Yet not as I will, but as You will (Matt. 26:39).
Give Me the strength to carry out Your will
So that Your love and grace might be glorified
In the saving of Your people.

And what is the Fathers response?

Then a voice came out of heaven: I have both glorified it, and will glorify it
again (John 12:28).
I have glorified My name
Through You up to this point,
And I will glorify it again
By giving You the grace
To do what I sent You to do.

The Father would never leave Jesus

To do this work on His own:
He would be with Him
To help Him to the end.
Even on the cross
When the Father will lay our sins on Jesus
And punish Him in our place,
Though Jesus will feel the full brunt of His wrath,
He will know that He is doing this for us
That the Father who is punishing Him still loves Him.

Jesus already knew this was the case,

But the Father said it audibly
So that everyone else would know it as well:
John writes, So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that
it had thundered; others were saying, An angel has spoken to Him. Jesus
answered and said, This voice has not come for My sake, but for your
sakes (vv. 29-30).

2. Jesus surrendered His will to the Father

And was willing to suffer and die to give us life.
But He also left us an example to follow.

Does the Lord ever call us

To do things that are difficult?

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Of course He does
He calls us to be salt and light to this wicked world
Which means we will inevitably
Expose ourselves to hatred and rejection.

Do we ever struggle
With what it will cost us to obey?
Of course we do
We are human;
We dont like pain or rejection.

What can we learn from Jesus example?

a. His example teaches us first

That we also have a purpose
That theres a reason why were here,
Why the Lord saved us
And that is that we might be His witnesses:
That we might be living examples of His truth,
And that we might share His Gospel with others
That by living and sharing Gods truth
We might act as a preservative
To keep our society from going
Straight forward into Gods judgment,
And that by sharing His Gospel

We might be a light that points

Those who will perish in their sins
To the only One who can save them.
Thats why were here.
Everything else we have or do in this world
Is only that we might be able to do this more effectively.

If thats why were here,

Then there really isnt any other right choice
Than to do what He has called us to do
Even if we must suffer for it
And sometimes we will suffer.

b. His example reminds us, second,

That He is with us,
Even as the Father was with Him
And lo, I am with you always,
Even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).
He hasnt left us
To do these things on our own.
He will be with us to help us
To strengthen and empower us
Even to help us to know what to say
When we need to say it (Matt. 10:19).

c. His example reminds us, third,

That even if we must suffer
For doing the right thing
Even if others hate us
And reject us
Jesus will always love us,
Even as His Father loved Him.
What difference does it make
If the world hates and rejects us,
If there is One
Who will always love us?

d. Fourth, His example reminds us

That both the He and His Father
Will publicly own us,
Not only here on earth,
But also on the Day
When it will matter most:
The Day of Judgment.

If we faithfully serve Him here,

He will say to us on that Day,
Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me

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something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was
a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick,
and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me (Matt. 25:3436).
He could just as easily say
And likely will say,
If we are faithful
To His commission
To bring His Gospel to others
I was lost and in darkness,
But you brought Gods truth to Me.

If we will do His work here

He will own us there.
Being hated by the world
Is a small price to pay
For eternal life and blessing.

B. Second, What was going to happen to the world

Because His hour had come?

1. We just saw what this hour meant for Jesus,

But what did it mean for the world?
It meant that the world
Was going to be released from Satans tyranny.
Jesus says, Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will
be cast out (v. 31).

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Adam was originally

Given the privilege
Of being Gods vicegerent
His deputy
The one who would rule under Him
Over the creation.

But when he sinned and fell away from God,

He handed that authority over to Satan.
We read in Lukes Gospel,
When Jesus was being tempted by the devil,
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time. And the devil said to Him, I will give You all this domain
and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I
wish (Luke 4:5-6).
Notice Satan said, It has been handed over to me,
And I give it to whomever I wish.
If he had been wrong about this
Jesus would have challenged him,
But He didnt.

The Fall brought the world under Satans control

Because it brought about the corruption of every heart.
Thats why Paul calls him, the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4).
The Lord has always been ultimately in control of the world,

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But He allowed Satan to exercise a great deal of influence

Thats why most of the world was in darkness
Before Jesus came.

Jesus was about to change all of this:

By going to the cross,
By suffering Gods wrath,
By His offering Himself
As a sacrifice for sin,
He would crush the head of this usurper,
And take the world back
This crushing blow would be delivered all at once,
But the world would be taken back gradually.

We read in our passage earlier this morning,

But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has
come upon you. Or how can anyone enter the strong mans house and carry
off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will
plunder his house (Matt. 12:28-29).
Jesus bound Satan on the cross,
And now that he is bound
Now that he has been cast out
Jesus is free to plunder his house,
And He does so through the work of His church
That is, through us

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Which is exactly what the Great Commission is all about.

Jesus says, And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.
But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die
(John 12:32-33).
Hes saying, If I am lifted up
If I lay down My life on the cross
I will draw all men to Myself
Not absolutely everyone who has ever lived,
But all kinds of men
In other words,
He will plunder Satans house
He will fulfill the Great Commission;
His kingdom will advance.

Satan took control of the world when Adam fell,

But the second Adam was taking it back.

2. We saw earlier that we have a purpose:

Jesus calls us to be His witnesses
To share the Gospel with others.
Sometimes we find this difficult to do
Because of the possibility
That we might have suffer for it
And none of us like pain.

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Weve also seen three encouragements
To help us overcome this barrier:
Jesus will be with us
To help and protect us
That even if everyone hates us,
He will still love us
And that if we will do this
If by His grace, we will be faithful to Him
He will not only own us here,
But on the Day of Judgment
When it will matter most.

But here is a fourth encouragement:

Jesus through His cross
Has crushed the head of the serpent
He has cast him out as ruler of this world,
And has bound him so that his house can be plundered.
Satan isnt bound absolutely,
But he is bound in the sense
That he cant stop the church
From taking back this world.
Jesus will draw all men to Himself
Through the Gospel.

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Since this is true,
We can know that as we evangelize
The Lord will convict;
And He will convert:
He will gather His lost sheep
From every nation under heaven.

What more do we need

To give us the confidence
That we will succeed
As we set out to do
What our Lord has saved us to do?

Let me just say in closing

To any here this morning
Who havent received Jesus
As Lord and Savior:
His victory over the enemy of our souls
Also means that He can
Plunder you from Satans house,
And He will,
If you will only trust Him
And turn from your sins.
Dont stay in Satans house:

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One day its going to be burned down,
And if youre still in it when it does,
You will burn with it forever.
Listen to Jesus who calls you to Himself:
Come out of the world,
Come out of Satans kingdom,
Come to Me and be safe. Amen.
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