WWUTT 922 Walk While You Have the Light?

The supernatural power of God is evident all around us according to Romans 1 20 and all that has been made but those whose hearts are darkened will try to say

God had nothing to do with it when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text studying

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. We come back to our study of the Gospel of John chapter 12 this week and today we'll be looking at the section that goes from verses 27 through 36.

The Apostle John wrote that Jesus said now is my soul troubled and what shall

I say father save me from this hour but for this purpose I have come to this hour father glorify your name then a voice came from heaven

I have glorified it and I will glorify it again the crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered others said an angel has spoken to him

Jesus answered this voice has come for your sake not mine now is the judgment of this world now will the ruler of this world be cast out and I when

I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself he said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die so the crowd answered him we have heard from the law that the

Christ remains forever how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up who is this

Son of Man so Jesus said to them the light is among you for a little while longer walk while you have the light lest darkness overtake you the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going while you have the light believe in the light that you may become sons of light at the start of this section in verse 27

Jesus says now is my soul troubled and remember the event that we just read about yesterday some

Greeks came to Philip and said we would like to see Jesus and so Philip and Andrew went together to Jesus and told him there are some

Greeks here that want to see you and Jesus answered them the hour has come for the

Son of Man to be glorified this was showing to Jesus the providential hand of his father who is bringing this these events about to fulfill what had been spoken about by the prophets that the

Jews would reject Jesus but he would be a Savior not just for Jews but for Gentiles and so now that that his own whom he had come to John talked about this at the very beginning of his gospel he came to his own but his own did not receive him so now that the

Jews had rejected him we see that some Greeks are coming to him and they believe even though the

Jews have not and all of this is happening at the Feast of Passover that's that's what's being prepared in this week which is coming up toward the end of the week when

Jesus is going to be offered up as the Passover lamb and so some Greeks are there

God fearers who knew the law and came to Jerusalem to likewise celebrate the

Passover with the Jews and though the Jews which are there in abundance do not believe in Jesus these

Greeks believe in Jesus and they want to come to him and see him and so Jesus seeing that his father is bringing all these things about knows that the hour has come for the

Son of Man to be glorified and he says in verse 24 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 and he's talking about himself being buried in the earth and then coming forth and many are going to come to believe in him not just from the

Jews but also from the Gentiles the whole nation of men Jesus goes on to say verse 25 whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life if anyone serves me he must follow me and where I am there will my servant be also if anyone serves me

Jew or Greek the father will honor him remember that's the context we're talking about how some

Greeks came to Jesus and wanted to see him and so Jesus is saying my servant is whoever serves me whoever follows me there will my servant be and if anyone serves me the father will honor him among Jews or Gentiles right after Jesus talked about himself being buried in the earth he said whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life so the one who loves his life is like the seed that falls to the ground and remains alone it dies there and it doesn't bear anything but the one who loses his life who is buried with Christ in their sins and risen again to new life will bear much fruit there will be evidence of the salvation that has come into this man or woman's life and whoever serves

Christ the father will honor and so having seen now that the father is bringing these things about for Jesus to be crucified and not just beaten and put to death but that the wrath of God is going to be poured out on him

Jesus says now is my soul troubled his his soul is troubled again not because he knows he's gonna be arrested and tried though he is an innocent man he's gonna be put to death though he's done nothing wrong that's not why his soul is troubled his soul is troubled because he is going to take the wrath of God upon himself for our sake for anyone who would believe in him that's what was so terrifying to Jesus about the death that he was about to die not the manner in which he was going to die for certainly that was very very painful but that he was going to be the propitiation for our sins satisfying the wrath of God with with his death that is why his soul is troubled he is thinking about these things even in the days before they happen he is unsettled knowing that the wrath of his father is about to be poured out on the son but there was no one who could withstand that and live again except for the

Son of God Jesus Christ himself Jesus goes on to say and so what shall I say my soul is troubled what what shall

I say father save me from this hour no but for this purpose

I have come to this hour this is the reason why Jesus came to die to become a propitiation a sacrifice for the sins of his sheep of all those whom he means to save going back to talking about being the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep in John chapter 10 and laying his life down for his sheep he is laying his life down for those whom the father has given into his hand they are in the father's hand and no one can snatch them out of the father's hand

I and the father are one the sheep are not you know just this pen that has been set up and whoever wants to come into it they are therefore the sheep of God the sheep have been designated as sheep and Jesus as the

Good Shepherd goes out and finds them and brings them into the fold going back to the illustration that he had laid out in John chapter 10 he is dying for his people for those whom had whom the father had predestined from before the foundation of the world and through the preaching of this gospel him being lifted up and buried in the earth and rising again when we believe in it we have been called by the shepherd to follow him and we follow him because we know the shepherd's voice the spirit has conditioned our heart to know his voice we've been regenerated to hear the voice of Jesus and live but there was a voice that was spoken even here as Jesus is talking about these things and the people who are with him don't recognize it consider it as we go on Jesus says father glorify your name he is doing all of this for the will of the father that God may be glorified and by the way we as Christians we do all things to the glory of God just as Jesus did we are following the example of our

Savior Christ he did all things to the glory of the father even laying down his own life so we must do the same doing all things to the glory of God Jesus says father glorify your name then a voice came from heaven

I have glorified it and I will glorify it again the father will be glorified in the death of the

Son and his resurrection from the grave his ascension into heaven and being seated at the right hand of the throne of God and all of these things the name of the father will be glorified this is all happening at the feast of the

Passover or in the days leading up to that feast all the preparation that's going into it and there are tons of Jews there there are many

Jews that have come from all over the place from the dispersion all over the Roman Empire they've come back to Jerusalem for this feast and they are there to hear

Jesus say father glorify your name and then hear a voice from heaven respond

I have glorified it and I will glorify it again and the crowd that stood there and heard it this is verse 29 the crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered in other words they're kind of looking around that are like did you hear that what was that oh it was just thunder right right it was the articulate voice of God from heaven he spoke clearly from heaven and the people are so spiritually dark in their hearts that they deny that that was the voice of God they're looking at each other going oh it was just some thunder and then there were others that said an angel has spoken to him no we heard words that way that was words coming from heaven am

I the only one here that heard that it had to be an angel an angel was speaking to Jesus from heaven and Jesus answered this voice has come for your sake not mine let's consider again that these people hear the voice of God and they outright try to find excuses for what it is that they have heard even going to the absurd oh it was just thunder they're trying to give a natural explanation for something supernatural that had just happened

I think of this any time that I read an article about somebody coming up with a natural explanation for one of the miracles of Jesus I think of this verse right here where the crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered well there's a natural explanation for this voice that we just heard come from heaven several years ago when

I was working in radio this was over a decade ago I remember reading an article about this university professor who had come up with an explanation a natural explanation for Jesus walking on the water

I specifically remember this and even reading the article on the air so I went and dug this up and lo and behold

I found it this is an article that appeared in well several newspapers Wall Street Journal New York Times I'm reading it from Florida State University's website because it was a

Florida State professor that came up with this the New Testament story describes Jesus walking on water in the

Sea of Galilee but according to a study led by Florida State professor of oceanography Doran Knopf it's more likely that he walked on an isolated patch of floating ice the study points to a rare combination of optimal water and atmospheric conditions for development of a unique localized freezing phenomenon that Knopf and his co -authors call

Springs ice in what is now northern Israel such ice could have formed on the cold freshwater surface of the

Sea of Galilee known as Lake Kinneret by modern -day Israelis when already chilly temperatures briefly plummeted during one of two protracted cold periods between 2500 and 1500 years ago a patch of floating ice on the surface of the small lake would have been difficult to distinguish from the unfrozen water surrounding it the unfrozen water was comprised of the plumes resulting from salty

Springs situated along the lakes western shore in Tabgha an area where many archaeological findings related to Jesus have been documented blah blah blah blah blah on and on it goes so the short of it is that this oceanographer at Florida State University came up with a natural explanation for Jesus walking on the water it was an ice flow in the

Sea of Galilee I remember reading this article on the air 13 years ago when it was first published and saying now tell me which is more miraculous that Jesus was walking on the water or that he was walking on ice in the

Sea of Galilee in the middle of a storm tell me which one of those things is more incredible to you anyway it's absurd the lengths that people will go to to try to provide natural explanations for the miracles that Jesus did we don't want to recognize that anything supernatural took place so we're gonna give some sort of natural explanation to it you know what secular scientists do the same thing when trying to explain

DNA we have a library coursing through our veins an entire library of information that makes up who you are contained in each and every one of your cells we call it

DNA the building blocks that make up who you are God designing you and fashioning you in your mother's womb to be this person made in the image of God a library of information none of us would walk into a library and think that that happened by accident that nature just sprung up a library we know that building was constructed and that somebody wrote all those books that are contained there in that library but secular scientists those who want to deny the awesome power of our

Creator who designed the entire universe will reject that there's a creative genius behind the information that is in your

DNA and instead of attributing that information to a supernatural cause they will try to say that all of this stuff just happened by careless accidental processes there's got to be some explanation for this that doesn't include

God and these people these Jews right there with Jesus hearing a voice from heaven in their darkened hearts they respond the same way there's got to be a natural explanation for this the crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered others now they have some sort of superstitious leaning enough to say well an angel has spoken to him and Jesus answered this voice has come for your sake and not mine they may not understand it now but some of these who are here will become the believers at Pentecost a little more than 50 days from now when the

Apostles will come back into the city preaching the gospel in languages that everybody can hear and understand so so though they may not get it now the

Spirit will open their heart to understand it after Jesus has been lifted up after he's been buried risen again from the dead and ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of the throne of God Jesus answered this voice has come for your sake not mine now is the judgment of this world now will the ruler of this world be cast out this is in reference to Satan and a decisive blow that's being inflicted upon Satan Revelation chapter 20 talks about Satan being bound up for a thousand years so that he might not deceive the nations any longer and that's what

Jesus is making reference to here Satan had deceived the nations they did not know

God and did not fear him but after Jesus died was buried rose again and ascended into heaven defeating

Satan binding him for a time then the gospel of God would go out into the world in the nations that had previously been deceived by Satan and did not know

God there would be many whose blindness would be lifted and they would hear the gospel because of the power of the

Holy Spirit that had gone out into the hearts of men and through the hearing of the gospel they would turn from their sin and they would worship

God and be saved and the people of God would be made up from men of every nation

Peter talks about in first Peter chapter 2 once you were not a people but now you are

God's people once you would not received mercy but now you have received mercy speaking to all those who have come into the family of God by faith in Jesus Christ Satan blinding the nation's

Jesus is inflicting a devastating blow with his death and then conquering death the to undo the works of Satan first John 3 8 the reason the

Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil and so Jesus goes on verse 32 and I when

I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself Jews and Gentiles he said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die his crucifixion being lifted up so the crowd answered him we have heard from the law that the

Christ remains forever how can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up who is this son of man you know it's the covenant that God had made with David where he says on your throne

I will establish my kingdom forever Daniel sees one who is like the Son of Man who was going to reign on a throne forever so they're saying hey we've read in the law and the prophets that this

Son of Man is going to remain forever yet you're talking about dying so how can you say that the

Son of Man is going to die he's going to be lifted up and die who is this Son of Man are you saying that you're him that's that's what the people are asking

Jesus so Jesus said to them the light is among you for a little while longer and again that's in reference to himself we're seeing a lot of what

John had started his gospel with coming back into these passages that we've been reading yesterday and today so the light came into the world as John talked about in John chapter 1 and Jesus is saying to the saying to them the light is among you now for a little while longer walk while you have the light less darkness overtake you the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going while you have the light believe in the light that you may become sons of light coming back to Peter again 1st

Peter 2 9 you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light and John again in 1st

John 1 7 if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin so turn from the ways of this world walking in darkness stumbling in darkness and walk in the light of day

Jesus Christ our Savior no longer walk after the pattern of this world but instead walk in the light as he is in the light and then we have fellowship with one another with others who are walking in the light for the blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all unrighteousness let us pray our wonderful God and Savior I pray we take these things truly to heart that we may know what it means to live for Christ and walk as he walked in this world living unto righteousness and not unrighteousness that we would submit ourselves fully unto

God as as those who desire to walk in holiness and be right and just before you pleasing unto

God our Savior who has delivered us from death having given his son to die in our place may you be glorified in all that we do and we give all praise and honor and glory unto your name

Jesus Christ amen Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues you can find a link to the blog our website www .tt