Synoptics - John 12:27-32

John 12 what? I figured that was about where we were.

I remember talking about some stuff from 24 and 25, so. We're going to have to dock

George's pay as the official taker of the notes, that's all I can say. That's all

I can say. There we go, see? The official official.

Wow, what? Did you all not get the note that I was going to be here this morning or something? I mean, the place is packed out.

We're dragging out chairs. I guess you all heard it was only going to be 110 today or something.

Hey, it's time to get out and enjoy this great weather. Actually, I know they're predicting for Wednesday, 91.

91, so I'm like, wow. For us, that's like get the jackets out, cover over the pool, cover your sensitive plants.

Might get a little nippy. Frost warning, yeah. It won't last for long.

My prognostication is it will not stay that way. I think it is, yeah.

Alright. We are in John chapter 12, and the reason I wasn't exactly sure where is because I know what section

I'm focused upon having to figure out exactly how to explain it and make sure that it's fully understandable, but we've been going through the

Synoptic Gospels. We are into, in the Synoptic Gospels, the point where Jesus has entered into Jerusalem, and exactly where everything in John fits with that is sometimes difficult to exactly say, but in the

Harmony of the Gospels, they sort of throw John in at this point, and so we're going to do a little catch -up through the

Gospel of John. I love teaching through John, so it all fits together, and it does make the synoptic study a very, very long, long study, but that's okay.

We're into doing things decades. Oh, now, after all that effort, now George shows up.

Okay. Alright. Well, we just voted to Dr. Pei, brother, but hope you don't mind that at all.

And this could be really bad because he's going to sit right next to Brick, so the entire room the feng shui is going to just lean way over to...

I'm going to have to stand like this. I'm going to have to...

Well, okay. I was going to say, I'm going to have to stand like this, but the Callahan boys are going, hey, what about us over here?

Are we chopped liver? I think we've got a little... We got Mike? We're sort of leaning things the right direction here.

Okay. Alright. That's really not what feng shui is all about, guys. It's a different thing, but anyway.

Anyway, so we're in John chapter 12 and other sources have informed me that we're on verse 27, but we'll get an official confirmation eventually from the official taker of notes here.

But as we noticed last time, John chapter 12 is a transitionary chapter. You have the end of Jesus' public ministry and going into the private ministry that he has in 13, 14, 15, 16, and then the high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, and then betrayal in John chapter 18.

If you just look at the Gospel of John and you look at the proportionate amount of material, a huge amount of emphasis is placed upon this one period of time that you do not have at all in the

Synoptic Gospels. Very, very important material. Of course, when we think about theologically speaking, you just think of these chapters.

You think of chapters 14 and 16, the theology of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 15, the vine, the branches.

Chapter 17, the high priestly prayer, the relationship of the Father and the Son. Really, really deep stuff, and so it's very important to cover that as well as part of the

Gospel story. But we also saw last week that in John chapter 12, we have a very difficult theme that comes out here, and that is you have

Greeks who are seeking after Jesus. There are Greeks, they come to Philip. Philip's a Greek name, so they figure maybe this is our inn, and this guy is from our area, so we can all get together.

And we saw, just in a brief overview, the fact that Jesus does not grant their wish.

And there's, I think, a large portion of evangelicals in the world would just shudder to think that Jesus doesn't grant their wish.

Now, we don't know what happens to them later. Obviously, Jesus knows that, you know, what's coming, the preaching of the

Gospel, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the day of Pentecost, were these

Greeks in the thousands that were saved and the day of Pentecost, or in the outreach to the church thereafter.

You know, we don't know. It's not that Jesus doesn't care, but it is that Jesus has priorities that are not necessarily the same as a lot of people today have.

And that is, might they have been offended when Philip comes back to them and goes, sorry.

You know, the biggest thing in our mind in our day is, well, God's purposes could never include the offending of anybody.

That's not what my Bible says. I read the Old Testament, and there's a lot of places where people were offended.

You know, we've been going through Jeremiah on Sunday evenings. Wow, I don't know. I think a lot of things Jeremiah said were extremely offensive to a large number of people.

In fact, for a long time, Jeremiah is the minority prophet amongst the majority of the people who are saying, well, he's got the temple of Yahweh.

He's never going to allow that to be destroyed. Who is this false prophet, etc., etc. And of course, it ends up Jeremiah is the one who is correct.

So, there also comes out a theme here that we will develop where Jesus talks about the judgment of God and blinding people and hardening their hearts and literally bringing judgment upon them in the presence of great light.

And that's not a theme you hear a lot about. I think it's a weird person who wants to just constantly dwell on something like that, but it's an unbelieving person who doesn't want to hear what the

Word of God says about everything. There's a balance there. I mean, I've met some people that just, you know, the really scary

Calvinists who, you know, ooh, let's talk about the decree of reprobation.

And you just want to go, ooh, okay, thank you very much. I don't want to meet you in a dark alley. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a discussion of reprobation.

There is. Peter talks about those who beforehand were marked out for this condemnation. You do have to talk about those things.

But to rejoice in them, different thing. That theme comes out here, too. And unfortunately, what happens in a lot of evangelicalism today is that if that's a difficult theme, if that's a difficult concept,

I'm not going to talk about it. Don't want to offend anybody. Don't want to make anybody uncomfortable. I've told you all many times before.

I've got a lot of visitors, though. But, you know, sometimes, I imagine a lot of you who attend regularly sometimes walk out and go, does that guy still think he's teaching a seminary class?

And in some ways, that's true. But you can all blame David for part of this, because David goes off to school and then writes back after a couple years of school and goes, man,

I'm glad you talked about that stuff in there. Now I know why you're talking about it. Yeah, it's because that's what's out there.

That's exactly right. Got to talk about where the world's attacking us. And it got to talk about everything the

Word of God says. Just got to do it. But part of my reason for very frequently challenging everybody,

I don't care what you do. I don't care what your background is. I don't care what kind of job you got, what your educational background is.

I think as Christians, we are called, we must be called to use our God -given minds and intellects to apply to the fruitful thing we can ever do, and that is the study of God's Word.

And I don't buy this dumb -it -down, the least common denominator thing.

I say call the least common denominator up to a position of fruitfulness, up to a position of challenge.

And part of where this comes from is a conversation I had at the church

I was at before here. I've only really as an adult been at two churches. And I taught an adult

Bible study class, even though I was a young adult at that time. I was a seminary student, so they're like, hey, go for it.

But I had been teaching in Romans, and I had sort of left the quarterly.

Some of you don't know what a quarterly is, those of you who do. But I had left the quarterly because it was trying to force me to cover all of Romans in like six weeks, which was just like, right.

And so I tried to get into some serious theology in the class, and I was asked to meet with –

I know some of you have met this story, but I'm catching everybody up on it. I was asked to meet with the minister of education.

I mean, in large churches, you have a minister of everything. You know, minister of sports, minister of singles with blonde hair.

I mean, it's just, you know, a minister of left -handed singles with blonde hair. It just depends on what church you're in. But I was meeting with the minister of education, and I'll never ever forget – a wonderfully nice guy.

I'm sure he had the best motivation. But I'll never ever forget what he said to me. He said,

Jim, here's how we want you to look at it. Every day when you get up to teach, you want to look out over everybody in that room, and there are a whole lot more people in that room than there are in this.

I mean, these Bible study departments were little small churches. And we want you to imagine that everybody in that room, this is the first time they have ever been in a

Bible study class. Every week. Every week. So you are to be at the most introductory basic level every single week.

Don't build a foundation. Don't lay a foundation, then build – no, no, no, no, no. Every week, pure mother's milk.

Never, ever go beyond that. And I didn't flourish well in that situation.

And it just seemed to me to be a fundamental violation of a scriptural command that we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we look at texts like this, and when we start looking at difficult subjects, it just doesn't cross my mind to go, oh,

I think we'll just skip over that part. You've got to deal with it. Because if you don't deal with it here,

I have seen the results of people bringing those issues to people's attention outside the family of faith to their detriment as an attack upon them.

You deal with it here, you struggle with it here in the family of faith, and then when you encounter it out there, you're ready to deal with it.

That's just – that's where I come from, and that makes it different, shall we say.

Anyway, so, we are picking up with verse 27, then, and let's go ahead and review the text.

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. Father, glorify your name.

Then a voice came out of heaven. I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. So the crowd 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.

Now judgment is upon this world. You might want to start marking the uses of world in John, because we're going to be running across a lot of them here.

Now the ruler of this world will be cast out, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, would draw all men to myself.

But he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die.

The crowd then answered him, we have heard out of the law that Christ, the Christ, the Messiah, is to remain forever.

And how can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? So Jesus said to them, for a little while longer the light is among you.

Walk while you have the light, so darkness will not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light. These things

Jesus spoke, and he went away and hid himself from them. But though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him, this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke,

Lord who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, read that just in case

I went by too fast, for this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes, and he hardened their heart, so they would not see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.

These things Isaiah said, because he saw his glory, and he spoke of him. Nevertheless many, even the rulers, believed in him, but because the

Pharisees they were not confessing him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men, rather than the approval of God.

Well as I said, a lot of material there. Jesus says 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. Now very very often you will hear people saying, well you know, one of the reasons you can't really trust the

New Testament, is because you have such a completely different presentation of Jesus in the

Gospels, and generally the idea is, well Mark gives you this very low view of Jesus, a very human

Jesus, and John gives you a very divine view of Jesus, where he's in control of everything, etc.

etc. I think that requires a very biased and shallow reading of both

Mark and John, for that matter, a very biased and shallow reading.

The reality is that if we listen to Mark carefully, we will see numerous references to a very exalted view of Jesus, the things that Jesus says about himself, the fact he identifies himself.

Interestingly enough, the very same terminology that is found here in John chapter 12, the Son of Man, in the

Gospel of Mark, that he forgives sins, he speaks in a way that no mere prophet could speak. And the same way in John, you do not have a

Jesus who is just this heavenly figure, just sort of floating around, and oh yeah,

I'm going to die on the cross, I know what's going to happen afterwards, and it's no big deal. That's not there either.

Jesus quotes actually from the Old Testament, my soul has become troubled, and he applies this to himself, and he says, what shall

I say? Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But it was dia tuta, it was for this reason that I came this hour.

In this phrase, the hour, you see it all through John. Woman, my hour has not yet come.

They could not season because his hour had not yet come. Now his hour has come. Now his hour has come.

And the purpose that he has, and the clarity of that purpose, he knows what the hour is.

He knows that the hour will glorify the Father's name. He knows that the hour is necessary.

He knows that yes, the Father has sovereignly appointed the day and the hour of everything, and it is that conviction, of course, that is forefront in what

Jesus says here. And interestingly enough, in five chapters, but again, this is all in one fairly short time period, in a very short period of time in his high priestly prayer, you have here,

Father glorify your name, John 12, 28. Then you get into John chapter 17. Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which

I had in your presence before the world was, John 17, 5. And so you have this idea of the hour has come and the focus of the hour, yes, cross, salvation, all those things, but we tend to see that first and foremost.

What is the overarching theme in the gospel? It's the glorification of God.

And I really think one of the difficult traditions that we struggle to get out of our thinking and out of our minds is that the gospel is first and foremost about us.

That it's a man -centered thing. It's a program that God has put together, but its success or failure is completely dependent upon the cooperation and activities of men.

When you have that view of the gospel, you've got the wrong foundation.

The emphasis is always going to fall on the wrong, the emphasis is going to fall on the wrong syllable. You know what

I mean? And it's going to sound weird. And it's going to be subject to imbalance, because when

Jesus talks about the hour coming, shall I say,

Father, save me from this hour? Shall I say, save me from this hour? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.

This is why I came, was for this very purpose. Now, I don't want to rush through this because there's so much stuff to be talking about, but for this purpose,

I came to this hour. As Jesus said in the Synoptic Gospels, it is necessary, not convenient, not this is the best plan.

It is absolutely necessary that the Son of Man go to Jerusalem, be betrayed in the hands of the Son of Man, beaten, crucified, buried, rise again the third day.

Jesus says it is absolutely necessary. Now, the fundamental view of God's sovereignty over human events that is found here, we,

I would imagine, all of us, to a person, already embrace the view of God's kingship and authority that underlie these words, but so many others will read this and they will speak of it and not realize what's really underlying this kind of a statement.

I mean, I've debated folks who have so emphasized the freedom of man in events in time that, for example,

I had one say once just a few years ago that Paul could have resisted the activity of God in his conversion in the

Damascus Road experience. At that point, God just would have had to find somebody else.

So, if God has to find somebody else, that means the entire timetable of God's dealing with his people, and hence the specifics of it, is a malleable thing.

It's sort of a sliding scale thing, and the whole foundation of prophecy and God's knowledge of the future, all of that just falls apart.

But the emphasis was so much so that, well, you know, but for it to be a real conversion, then

Paul had to have been able to say no. When you think about that, for it to be a real resurrection,

Lazarus would have to have been able to say no. Really? Think about the ramifications of what that would mean.

And there are some forms of theology that sort of view the cross as somewhat of an afterthought.

That God's initial purpose in saying Messiah was to actually set up the physical kingdom right then and there.

And if God had said, if Israel had said, yes sir, we're with you, then that would have been it.

There wouldn't have been a need for a cross, etc., etc. You just go, whoa, really? It seems that in Jesus' understanding, this hour is a fixed thing.

The nature of this hour is a fixed thing. And for this purpose I came to this hour.

Therefore, Father, glorify your name. So there is no question on Jesus' part of these things that does not make the troubling of his soul any less.

We really, we really flatten out and make, we really rob of its beauty, the idea of God's sovereign decree, when we do not realize that it involves everything that happens in time.

And in fact, it's the very foundation of how things happen in time.

And why they happen the way that they do. What I mean by that is, well,

I've had to use this illustration and it does sort of help. My Muslim friends have the doctrine of Qadr.

Qadr. Qadr means God's power or, as it fleshes out, literally,

God's predestination. And most of them believe that the hour of one's death is written upon one's forehead at the hour of one's birth.

Actually, before that. It's about 40 days, according to Islamic tradition, 40 days into the development of the child, an angel comes and writes the scroll for the child.

Whether the child is male, female, they're a little off on that. Whether the child is going to be happy or sad, a

Muslim or non -Muslim. When they're going to die, the whole nine yards. Rich, poor, it's all written 40 days into the development of the child.

And it's fixed at that point. That's it. And a lot of Arminians say, yes, that's exactly what those

Calvinists believe, too. And if a Calvinist is like a Muslim, then they must all be wrong together.

And Muslims believe in God. Calvinists believe in God. But anyway, how is our belief different than that?

I mean, we do believe. I mean, it's very clear in Scripture. Precious in the sight of the

Lord is the death of saints. Our days are written in His book. God is sovereign over these events.

He has a purpose in all of this. What's the difference? The difference, I think, is fundamental.

And that is that Allah, in Islamic theology, is a transcendent being that does not become personally involved in the creation.

The God of the Old Testament does. And then, in an amazing way, does so in a way that even the

Old Testament prophets could not fully comprehend. That is, He enters into His own creation in the Incarnation.

God is personally involved. In fact, His personal involvement, which we call providence, when

God acts in time, and that time is formed by His sovereign decree.

That's providence. He is providentially involved. He acts personally in time.

He is a part of the drama that brings about His own glory. He doesn't just go, Okay, creation.

Glorify me. He is intimately involved in bringing that about.

And that becomes the very basis upon which the actions in time have meaning.

God chooses to invest those actions in time with meaning.

And so, Jesus knows the hour is coming. And yet, His soul is troubled. Because He knows what

He's got to go through. He knows not just the beatings and the whippings, which as any human being,

He knows what He's going to be facing. But He knows far more than that.

What it's going to mean for the sinless one to be made sin. And that is what troubles

His soul. That is what troubles His soul. And yet, in all of that, what is

His foremost goal? Father, glorify Your name. Father, glorify

Your name. And when He makes this request, then a voice came out of heaven,

I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. So, when the

Son of God requests that the Father glorify Himself, there is a supernatural speaking from heaven.

Not an overly common thing. But a supernatural speaking from heaven.

I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Now, the crowd who stood by and heard it, some were saying that it had thundered, which is understandable in the sense that you weren't expecting a voice from heaven.

Especially in this particular context where a lot of people are wondering, what's He talking about? Because there's going to be confusion here expressed in just a moment about this

Son of Man, that the Messiah is going to abide forever. So, you're not expecting a voice out of heaven. And so, when the voice comes, some are saying it has thundered.

Some say an angel has spoken to Him. Jesus, so often, does not satisfy the mere curiosity of the crowd.

Have you noticed that? So often, Jesus doesn't say, that was the

Father speaking to me and verifying what I was saying is true. He doesn't say that. Jesus answered and said, this voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes.

Now, judgment is upon this world. Now, the ruler of this world will be cast out. 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. This voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes.

He doesn't repeat what it said. But He does indicate what its purpose was.

And that in the glorification of the Father, judgment comes upon this world.

Now, once again, we've talked about it many, many times before, but it always bears repetition.

You have to avoid the Strong's exhaustive concordance of the

Bible method of exegesis. It will almost always turn into eisegesis.

Exegesis, reading out of the text its meaning. Eisegesis, reading into the text a meaning that its author did not intend.

When you look up a word, such as the word world, and you come up with a meaning, in fact,

I've actually heard people say, what you do is you look at the Bible, and when a word is first used, that's its meaning.

And you just read it and never have the use of the Bible. Man, by the time you get to the New Testament, I think you're so completely confused that you're ready to get a show on TBN or something.

But, just thought

I'd wake you all up at that point. Is that what that is?

I had no idea. Between 20 and 22, huh? Okay, all right. You just can't do that.

Words have, I mentioned last week, a semantic domain, a range of meaning, and their meaning is determined by the context in which they're used.

And, it has been well said that John himself uses this term, kosmos, in at least ten, probably about fourteen different ways.

And sometimes he'll use it in the same paragraph in multiple ways. So, if you try to take, well, kosmos means every single person who has ever lived.

Now, judgment is upon this every single person who's ever lived. For God's love, every single person who's ever lived.

Love not every person who has ever lived. I mean, it just, it turns language into mishmash.

It makes absolutely, positively no sense at all. Now, judgment is upon this world.

Now, the ruler of this world will be cast out. Now, the term world very often has a synonym or a term that is used along the line called age.

This age. And, in general, in general, when we're talking about this world in context like this, we're talking about the system of things that stands not only fallen, and hence not in the right relationship to God, but actively in rebellion against God.

And certainly, the ruler of this world being cast out is a part of this judgment upon the world.

So, this announcement that the hour has come, and this hour which involves the death of Christ, this hour which involves the cross, this hour then becomes the center point in history.

Really, Paul views it that way especially. He develops this more, but it's clearly seen here as well.

Everything before the cross looks forward to it. Everything after the cross looks back to it. It becomes the very center point of history.

Which, if Jesus was who we say he was, makes perfect sense. I mean, if the incarnate one gives his life, that is going to obviously be extremely important.

The ruler of this world will be cast out. Cast out of what? Cast out of the world? Well, we know that the ruler of this world continues to walk about and seek destruction of God's people, as Peter says.

So, it's not the sense of being excluded. But, it is the sense of being removed from a position of authority, a position of power.

There's something fundamentally changes when death is defeated on the cross of Calvary.

And, by the way, I learned something this week. I thought I'd share it with you real quickly. The term

Calvary, I was listening to a fellow I know. I met him briefly once, and we have sparred ever since then in various forms.

He was pointing out that if you want to have the cross of Calvary, you've got to use the

King James Version of the Bible. Because it's not in your modern translations.

And, that was supposed to be an argument. In case you're wondering, why is that? Calvary is the

Latin term Calvaria, which means skull. And, hence, modern translations render the text

Dalgatha, which means place of the skull.

But, the King James translators were significantly... Well, think about it. Back then, what was the language of scholarship?

Latin. You had to be able to speak Latin, read Latin. I mean, advertisements in shop windows were in Latin.

Imagine if that happened now. That shop would go out of business very quickly. But, so they were much more comfortable with Latin.

And so, instead of translating it all the way into English, maybe they felt it was too vulgar a term, skull.

So, they used the Latin, Calvaria or Calvary. And, that's where that came from.

So, just should anyone go to you, does your Bible have Calvary in it?

You can go, yes, because that means skull. And, it's right there. Yes, ma 'am.

Yeah, that's one of the parables. I would hesitate to go there.

It would seem to me that in light of the conjunction of 31 and 32 and 33, that we're talking about specifically the crucifixion.

If I am lifted up from the earth, which is how crucifixion takes place. You're lifted up from the earth.

It brings about suffocation eventually due to exhaustion and blood loss. If I be lifted up,

I'll draw them into myself. It seems to me that the casting out of the ruler of this world means the breaking of the bonds of death.

As Paul says, death, where is your sting? You know, where is your victory? That bondage is broken.

The promise has been made literally from the garden. He will, you know, from the from the protevangelium.

But, I would tie it primarily to that. It may be appropriate to make a connection to a parable or a story or something like that.

But, I think it's the primary focus that he has here is the breaking of the power of death, which has been prophesied all along.

So, the ruler of this world, his authority is ended. And then we have four minutes.

I feel like I'm in a debate here. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, would draw all men to myself.

Now, could we talk tactics here for a moment? Tactics sometimes, we're in a political period, so tactics isn't a good word.

Tactics is, Christians don't want to use tactics. That's a political tactic. Tactics just means thinking ahead as to how you might be able to explain

God's truth in an efficient way to somebody else. Because, look, we all know, you go to John 6 and you say, no one can come to me unless the

Father has sent me, draws him, I'll raise him up on the last day. Um, yes, but God draws everybody to Jesus.

It says so in John 12, 32. Well, what is

John 12, 32 actually about? And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

Now, is this the same drawing? And does the term all men mean every single human individual?

It certainly can't mean every single human individual who has ever lived, because there are countless numbers of people who are already dead at this point in time.

That can't be it. So it would have to be, I will draw all men in the future.

Now, think about it for just a moment. We are in the midst of a discussion. Greeks have come seeking

Jesus. Sorry, brother. They didn't get to see Jesus, but it has nothing to do with you being Greek.

Don't want you to be offended. It's okay. No offense taken. Good. I just want to make sure, you know, just, you know, all of a sudden struck me.

Oh, hey, wait a minute. Yes. Go ahead.

Pontos. Right. Every, right.

Or everything, depending, depending, depending on its use. Right. You've, yeah.

Pon. You've heard of pantheism. Everything is

God. Pon. There's, there's your, there's your, there's your, there's your term. Here you have Pontos. And when you, you can't explain it.

That's why, that's what I mean by tactics. You can't explain it. Maybe this way. And we'll have to pick up with this next week,

I guess. But this is one way you might be able to think about it. I've frequently just asked people.

I said, so what you're telling me is you understand, even though in this context. You have non -Jews coming to Jesus and he's going to hide himself from them.

So from the Jewish perspective, you had the Jews and you had everybody else. And so you've got everybody else coming to Jesus and he's going to hide himself from them.

Even though that's the context. You're going to tell me that the cross draws every single human being.

What does Paul say the cross is? It's foolishness. It's the stench of death.

It actually is something that repels. So how do you put all this together? Now, you'll find out pretty quickly if the person you're talking to thinks it's even relevant to try to put everything together.

Sometimes they, oh, that's just gone. That's Paul. They contradict each other. Now you know who you're talking to. But if you're talking to somebody who actually believes the scriptures.

You can at least begin to challenge them. Are you telling me that what Jesus is saying here is that the cross is attractive to everyone?

What does drawing mean? And then next time we run out of time.

Next time we'll talk about how to show from the gospel of John what he's talking about here is the same drawing, but it's of all kinds of men, not the concept of every single human being who has ever lived or ever will live.

So we'll pick up with John 12, 32. And I will remember that very clearly no matter what time we get to start next time we are together.

So let's let's close the Word of God. Father, we thank you for this time, the freedom we continue to have to open your

Word and to consider it. Help us to remember these things. May this not just be an exercise for us, but may we review these things, consider these things.

And, Lord, may we be useful instruments in your hands as we seek to present your truth to others. We pray these things in Christ's name.