The Mission of Christ | Sermon 10/15/2023

Apologia Utah

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If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel according to John, chapter 12.

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We're going to be in verses 27 through 36 in John 12 today. The title of the sermon today, church, is

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The Mission of the Christ. The Mission of the Christ.

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Starting in verse 27 of the Gospel according to John, chapter 12.

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Hear now the inerrant and fallible word of the living and true God. Now my soul has become troubled, and what shall

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I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour.

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Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came out of heaven. I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

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So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered.

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Others were saying an angel had spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes.

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Now judgment is upon this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

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And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

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But he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die. The crowd then answered him,

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We have heard out of the law that the Christ is to remain forever. And how can you say the

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Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? So Jesus said to them,

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For a little while longer the light is among you. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness will not overtake you.

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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.

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These things Jesus spoke, and he went away and hid himself from them. Thus ends the reading of God's glorious and magnificent word.

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Let's praise the church body quickly. Lord God, I ask that as the one proclaiming this message today,

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Lord, that you would illuminate your scriptures to your people. God, that you would not simply inform, but transform today.

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Lord, I'm ever dependent on you, need you today. We all need you today,

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Lord. That you would be our focus, that your word would reign supreme in our hearts and our minds.

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Lord God, I pray that you would cause us to see how great of suffering you were about to endure in that moment for us.

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God, I pray that you would allow us to love Christ even more deeply today after having heard this message.

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So Lord, please be with us. Let the enemy not snatch the word away. We pray this in Christ's name.

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Amen. So I am reminded of all the different men and women in the

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Bible who face some sort of mission or an objective. They face their fate or their coming destiny.

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Some of the most challenging times of a person's life will not necessarily be in the midst of their trial, but it will be in the time leading up to it.

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The waiting to embark on something that will be perilous for you, whether physically or mentally or spiritually, is often vexing.

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There are no details of this, but I can only imagine what went through Abraham's mind when in Genesis 21 the

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Lord told him to offer up his beloved son Isaac. Offer him up as a burnt offering.

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And though Abraham had faith, I wonder if confusion or doubt or anxiety or despair, anger or trepidation crossed his mind.

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I'm sure some of these things must have been going through his mind from the time that they packed their supplies.

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And with each step up Mount Moriah until the moment came and he was to put the knife through his one and only son, the son of his love, and all of a sudden

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God provided the ram and the thicket. He said, don't do it Abraham. What about Moses?

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All that Moses ever knew growing up in Egypt as the son of Pharaoh's daughter had been turned upside down, right?

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When Moses struck down the Egyptian for beating a Hebrew whom

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Moses had just found that he was kin to, the Hebrew, Pharaoh then tried to kill him.

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Pharaoh tried to kill Moses and Moses ran away. He left Egypt.

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He went across the desert. And from there Moses built a life in Midian.

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He found a wife. He made a family, right? We all know the story. Things were stable.

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That is until God makes them unstable in his purposes. He was then,

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Moses was then called to the mountain of God. And he came into the presence of the great

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I Am, Yahweh the Lord, the only God. And God then commissioned Moses to be the instrument in whom the

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Almighty would use to free his people Israel. Moses was worried about being able to stand before kings.

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He couldn't speak that well. He didn't speak eloquently, he said. He was clueless on how to accomplish such a mountain of a task.

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God, how am I going to do this? Me be the instrument to help rescue your people?

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Imagine as he took the journey from Midian back across the desert.

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And all of a sudden, with each step in view become the pyramids. Egypt is in his sights.

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And that moment he knew that he had to come back into what

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God had called him to, to be that instrument. But imagine that, facing down what he knew he couldn't escape, his fate, his destiny.

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Now, what about Esther? Imagine when Esther didn't know if King Ahasuerus would call for her execution as she approached him to plea on behalf of the

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Jews. If you remember in the book of Esther, anyone who approached the king without being summoned was to be put to death.

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And she had to go before him. The morning that Esther had made her plan with Mordecai must have been fraught with fear, maybe some worry, but hopefully a confidence in her

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God. When she approached the king, the wicked Haman, who had been scheming, was actually the one who was executed.

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He was put upon the gallows that he had designed for Mordecai. And then, of course, the

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Jews were saved. They were allowed to defend themselves on that day from those who would seek to destroy them.

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And they won. They survived. Church, there are so many examples of these sort of situations throughout

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Scripture where men and women had to face down what they were about to enter into.

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As Peregrine Took said from the Lord of the Rings, he said, I don't want to be in a battle, but waiting on the edge of one

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I can't escape is even worse. Right? It's often the waiting. It's often seeing what you have to do ahead of you that can be very challenging, even more so than being in the middle of it.

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Jesus is days away, days away from the cross, days away.

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It's in sight. His life's mission is right before him. Let's see how he faces it.

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So we saw last week that some Greeks requested to see Jesus. I told you, church, this was the beginning of the time of the

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Gentiles, the fullness of the Gentiles, which would then result in the hardening of the heart of the

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Jews, leading to what Jesus called his glorification. We understood that to be his crucifixion, right?

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He said his hour has come. The end goal of his mission is in sight.

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God who came and dwelt among us, who took on flesh, became like a man, like a slave, will soon endure the worst imaginable judgment poured out from the

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Almighty that this world has ever or will ever see. Destiny and fate, predestination and triune decree has brought the

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Son of God to this very hour, the hour that will split time in half,

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A .D., B .C., of course. And as if looking down a foreboding precipice that he must scale, he sees what he must endure very soon.

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And in verse 27, Jesus says, Now my soul has become troubled.

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My soul has become troubled. Oh my soul, my soul has become troubled.

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And what shall I say to this at what I'm facing? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose

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I came. So the Gospel of John, we've seen for many chapters now, from John 1, from the prologue, from the beginning, we've seen an emphasis on the deity of Christ that Jesus is

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God. We've seen it established over and over again. Jesus is divine. And yet, in his humanity,

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Jesus doesn't approach the cross as some sort of spirit creature who will not endure pain.

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Right? He's not looking at his hour with apathetic unconcern.

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Oh, no problem. That'll be easy. Like the Gnostics and Dossetists said, he's merely spiritual.

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Physical is evil. Physical and material is bad. No, Jesus looked at the cross because he was totally

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God and totally man, and he was about to face extreme judgment, extreme suffering.

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This word troubled means stirred up in the Greek. It's like the stirring of waters.

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The causing of turbulence, I should say, in waters. Kind of like a whirlpool where all the waters are going crazy.

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Maybe a storm at sea. Crazy, unsettled waters. When it points to an individual, it means inward turmoil.

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Being unsettled. Being highly disturbed. This is the word that was used to describe how

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Herod and all Jerusalem felt when the wise men of the east followed the star and came to Jerusalem and said, we're here to worship the king of the

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Jews. And they were troubled. Herod and the people were troubled. This was the word used to describe how the apostles felt when they were out at sea.

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And if you remember, there was a storm raging around them, and they looked in the distance, and it looked like a phantom, it says, was walking towards them.

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And it was Jesus. They were greatly in fear. Remember, he said, it is

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I. Do not be afraid. They were so troubled, they cried out.

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This word was used to describe how John the Baptist's father, the priest Zacharias felt when the angel appeared before him to give him the news of his son and the coming

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Messiah. Fear gripped him. And this is not the first time that this word has been used with Jesus.

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It isn't. In only the last chapter, in John 11, when

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Jesus had seen Mary and the people weeping over the death of Lazarus, it said that He had what?

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He became indignant in His spirit. He was angry towards death and the effects of death.

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And it also said that He was troubled. Troubled to the point of tears. You see, the last time

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Jesus felt this way, He wept.

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Jesus wept. Now these feelings in no way will change the majesty and power and glory from which

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He came and where He is going. But this simply speaks to the fact that He indeed came in the flesh.

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Jesus did come in the flesh. He tabernacled among us. As I said, totally

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God, totally man, no mixture of the two natures, no fusion, simply both at the same time.

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Mysterious, and yet what the Bible records as true. The author of Hebrews speaks to why

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He did this and why He felt troubled here, I think. Hebrews 2 .17 -18

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It's in your list or go in your Bible. It says, Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

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For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

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He had to be made like us, church. He had to be made like us so that He would become a merciful and faithful high priest.

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You see, Jesus experienced all the suffering, saw all the different effects of sin in this world, was tempted by Satan in the wilderness to bypass this mission, this hour, this plan, but He never sinned.

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He never sinned. But that also means that He knows the way you hurt.

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He knows the way that you suffer. He knows the ways that you are tempted because He was too.

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The one who calls us to serve and follow Him doesn't take the easy way out.

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He'll take the hardest road, the one that we could never go on so that our road leading to eternity is ever lighter.

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Significantly, infinitely lighter. This is the heart of our eternal high priest.

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Now, the Aaronic priests represented the people, but they had to offer what?

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Sacrifices for their own sin. Then they offered sacrifices for the people. And it happened year after year after year because both the priests and the sacrifices were not perfect.

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They were not. And so Jesus did not remain in heaven as God. He came down.

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He became like us, representing us as the final and holy high priest.

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He did not need a sacrifice for His sins because He is sinless.

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He did not need a successor to His priesthood office because He lives forever.

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He is eternal. All other human priests died.

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And He doesn't need to keep offering sacrifices because when He gave His life, it was such a powerful atonement that was paid for all the sins of all

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His people for all time. All this to say that Jesus was troubled on our behalf.

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He went through this for us. He was troubled so that we would never be troubled with the wrath of God.

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This was part of His priestly mediation. Just as the

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Aaronic priests were likely troubled, you understand what they had to do. They had to go into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God.

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They would put bells on their feet. They would tie a rope around their waist that if something happened in the presence of God and they died, and they just simply died because they're not sinless, you could drag their bodies out.

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So people were listening for the bells. People were seeing if the rope went slack. And they had to pull

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Him out. And so, these human priests were greatly troubled in that sense.

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But Jesus... Jesus will go before the Father and stand before the judgment seat as if condemned.

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And there is no rope. There are no bells. And no lock can be cast to put this task to someone else.

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It fell upon Him. This is His hour. This is His mission. You know, they've interviewed some of the fiercest soldiers in the military.

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Top fighters. Men who have been on stealth missions. I mean, just the ultimate of the ultimate.

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The best sort of fighters and soldiers. And they were interviewed, and they said,

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I bet you don't even get scared. And these men couldn't believe it.

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They were incredulous at that sort of question. They said, absolutely we get scared.

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Absolutely we get scared. Right before a mission, they feel like they want to vomit, right?

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They feel so sick with what they're about to encounter, with what they're about to have to do.

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But then they speak about some sort of resolve washing over them. That it's worth all the discomfort.

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It's worth all the terror. It's worth all the fear for the sake of the benefits of the mission.

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The benefits that will result in them being faithful. So it's a self -sacrificing thing.

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And that's what Jesus will do. He in no way is wavering in his commitment to do what he must.

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As much as he would want this cup to pass from him, greater is his obedience.

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Greater is his obedience. And so he is troubled. Why? Because expectant terror and obedience are clashing together.

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And so he's troubled. John Calvin comments on Jesus being troubled and says this,

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The death which he underwent must therefore have been full of horror, because he could not render satisfaction for us without feeling.

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He must feel in his own experience the dreadful judgment of God. And hence we come to know more fully the enormity of sin for which the

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Heavenly Father exacted so dreadful a punishment from His only begotten Son. We see now how intense and the gravity of sin because of the gravity and intensity of the cross, the payment made.

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He says, Let us therefore know that death was not a sport and an amusement to Christ, but that he endured the severest torments on our account.

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A .W. Pink speaks on Jesus' anguish and says, What occasioned this troubled nature?

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The insults and sufferings which Jesus was to receive at the hands of men? The wounding of the heel by the serpent?

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He says, No, indeed. It was the prospect of being made a curse for us, of suffering the righteous wrath of God.

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But the Savior will not shrink back. He will not shrink back from doing what he must to save us over Himself.

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He says, And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? And that's incredibly weighty when you think about it.

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Christ is so powerful. He's so authoritative. He's so divine. And He would pose that sort of hypothetical question.

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And so as Calvin described, for Jesus to say something like that, to save Him from this hour, that indicates how terrible the crucifixion would truly be for Him.

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But Jesus finishes by saying, For this purpose, I came to this hour.

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For this reason, I came. This is why I'm here. Not to be rescued or saved, but to be the one that gives

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His life for us to be rescued and saved. His mission was set before time even began, but the hour is finally here.

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And what is incredible, what is the prime example for us, is Jesus gets the focus off of Himself and His plight, and He turns it to the glory of God.

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He turns it to the glory of the Father. Verse 28, He prays out loud, Father, glorify

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Your name. Father, glorify Your name. Now you could read in your daily devotion, you could read this and quickly pass by something like this and think,

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Oh, Jesus is simply offering a praise to the Father. But I think context shows that really what this is, is a resolution to do fully and only what

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God has willed. In the midst of an intensely troubled soul that is facing down horrible and atrocious suffering,

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He essentially says, Father, I'll do what we have long planned to do. I'll do it.

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In His humanity, He defers to the Father. And this commitment to His hour is what glorifies the name of the

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Father. With that said though, I want to be clear, this isn't simply

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Jesus acquiescing to the Father. This is, okay,

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I'll do it. It's for Your glory. He's not just simply acquiescing to the Father. But Jesus is willingly, willingly and resolutely being the instrument that will save a people and vindicate the holy name of His Father.

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Because His Father's name has been smeared. It's been slandered. Sin has made a mockery of the name of God and Jesus is going to restore that for the name of God.

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Remember what He said in John 7 verse 18, He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true and there is no unrighteousness in him.

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You see, if he seeks his own glory, then he won't be seeking the glory of the Father. In this act, the name of the

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Father will be praised. In this, Jesus shows us that the glory of God is supreme.

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You see, we often do things to our own glory, do we not? We do things to our own glory.

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We do things to our own name. But we are to do all things to the glory of God.

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No one said doing what glorifies God is easy, but it's what's right. And that's why the

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Son says, Father, glorify Your name. The text then reveals something magnificent.

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It says, then a voice came out of heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

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This is the mighty and holy heavenly Father. His voice came down with power from the heavens.

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There have only been a few occasions where the Heavenly Father has spoken from heaven, and it's been audible, it's been heard upon the earth.

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In Jesus' ministry, there's been two other times besides this. First, it happened at the inauguration and baptism of Jesus Christ.

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If you remember, the Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove, and the

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Lord spoke from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Then, after that, at the

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Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus was transfigured into pure, unveiled glory, a bright cloud came over the apostles, and a booming voice came out of heaven and said,

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This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And then the

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Father added, Listen to Him. Listen to Him. So these are the two other times the

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Father has spoken. Each moment has been a monument in Jesus' life. The first was a heavenly endorsement at His inauguration and baptism as prophet, priest, and king.

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All righteousness was fulfilled there. His mission began there. Then, right after Peter's confession that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of the living God, right after that moment is when Jesus took him, John, and James, and they went on the mountain, and then

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Jesus transfigured. All of it was recorded, not only for their sakes, but for ours.

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More confirmation of who Jesus is, and that who He says He is, is really who

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He is. And now here, in Jesus' final week, at the end of His ministry, the

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Father speaks from heaven again. Now, what does the Father mean by this statement?

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I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again, referring to His name.

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What does He mean? And I don't have some crazy mystery for you.

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He means exactly what He says. He has done what the Son prayed many times.

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He has glorified His name. Previously, He'll do it again. He'll do it through His Son. He'll do it through the second coming.

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He'll do it through the final resurrection. He'll do it throughout all time. He will glorify His name and glorify

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His name and glorify His name because God is zealous for His own glory.

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Because being perfect and righteous and impeccable, being the only God in the fullness of deity,

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He can be for His own glory. If you and I were to be for our own glory, that would be sinful, but because God is

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God and He is sinless and impeccable, He can be for His own glory. He has the right.

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Look at Isaiah 48 in your bulletin there or in your

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Bible. Isaiah 48, verses 9 through 11. The Father proclaims to His people,

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For the sake of my name I delay my wrath, And for my praise I restrain it for you,

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In order not to cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

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For my own sake, for my own sake I will act. For how can my name be profaned, And my glory

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I will not give to another? And if you read through the lines, it literally says, For my name's sake, for the sake of my praise,

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For my own sake, for my own sake, How should my name be profaned?

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My glory I will not give to another. This is the privilege of the

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God of the universe. This is His. All of the heavens and the earth and all the creatures in them were made to proclaim the glory of God.

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This was our original purpose for being created, to enjoy God and glorify

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Him forever. And it remains our purpose even to this day, even more so now having been rescued by Christ.

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Now what's interesting, you might have seen the correlation already, is the cross is what results in grace for us.

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Does it not? The cross will result in grace for us, but it simultaneously will result in the glory of the

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Father. So hang with me here. In Christ, we see now a direct correlation so that when

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Christ glorifies the Father, when the Father is glorified, grace is given to us.

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Good comes to us. When the Father is glorified, good comes to us. That's kind of the basis of Romans 8 .28

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when you think about it too. All things work for our good and for the glory of God.

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Our good and God's glory have a direct and profound correlation at this point.

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When you glorify God, you don't simply praise Him. You benefit yourself. Your spirit will be pleased and at peace within you.

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And that is what Jesus shows us in His example here. At the troubling of His soul, the glory of God brings peace and resolution to this situation.

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And so what they mean for evil for Jesus will soon work for good.

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He must cross the bridge of the cross, and the glory will be astounding.

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John then tells us when the Father spoke from heaven, it wasn't only the apostles who heard it.

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Verse 29, So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered.

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Others were saying an angel had spoken to him. So a crowd of people were nearby, and at the prayer of Jesus, they heard what sounded like thunder.

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Some recognized that it was in direct response of what Jesus prayed. And what's interesting is in the book of Revelation, it says that the throne of God emanates lightning and peals of thunder.

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Pure power. Pure power radiating from the throne of God.

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The psalmist says it over and over again. If you do a concordance search on thunder throughout the

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Bible, it's pretty astounding. At the sound of your thunder, Lord, at the sound of your voice, the people fled.

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Psalm 29, 3 -4, The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders.

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The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic.

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And it's all throughout Job as well. Job says in one situation, God thunders with his voice wondrously, doing great things that we cannot comprehend.

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At Mount Sinai, in the presence of God, the people shook with fear because God thundered from the top of that great peak.

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You know, you ever had a storm going on? Maybe you were outside or maybe you were simply in your room.

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Maybe you were trying to sleep even. This actually happened a few weeks ago. I feel like there was a great storm a few weeks ago and we were laying in bed and just heard this huge crack, this huge boom.

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I mean, the sort of thing that just shakes the whole house is tremendous, you know?

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It just totally woke me up out of my sleep. And that's God. It sounds like an explosion, right?

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And it's frightening, honestly. Anyone here afraid of lightning? You're like, you know, storm's going on, you see lightning, and you're like,

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I don't want to be outside. It's like, you go underneath a tree and apparently, like, you don't want to be under a tree in a lightning storm because it acts like a lightning rod.

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And it just comes down. So I guess it's more safe to just stand out in the open. You're like, okay, that's terrifying, right?

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Lightning? But that's God's lightning. That's God's thunder.

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There are dozens of Scripture verses that demonstrate these things about God. And so I want to let you in on a little secret today, church.

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To this day, to this very day, when there is lightning and thunder in the sky and in the heavens, that is still

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God. That is still God to this day. The Lord is still the one behind the wonders of the sky.

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The weather wasn't put on autopilot at the formation of the canon of Scripture. And it's like, well,

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I guess it's just science now. It's just thunder, it's just lightning, it's just whatever is happening in the sky.

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No, it's still God. It's still the Lord. It may not be Him speaking the way

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He is here to Jesus, but to this day, if you hear thunder, it is

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God. I want you to know that. When you hear thunder, it is God. It is Him.

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And we ought to remember that. It's not just a storm, it's God's storm. When I hear thunder and lightning now,

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I really do try to stop, and I tell my wife and my daughter, I said, man, God is showing us

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His power right now. I encourage you to do that. Wow, God's showing us His power. He's speaking.

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He's booming His voice from heaven. You know, honestly, that should comfort you.

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You have children. Maybe you have some children who are afraid of thunder and lightning. They hear it outside. It's going on in the car.

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And you should tell them, I want you to know Scripture says, sweetie, God sends the lightning bolt where it should go.

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It's Him. It's Him who has the storehouses laden with snow. It's Him who sends the storm where He wills.

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That ought to be a comfort to you. It's Him. He thunders.

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It's Him. So the same God who holds you when you think you're in the cradle of your bedroom,

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He's the same God who holds you even in a lightning storm. And children, listen to that.

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God is the one who sends the lightning and thunder. We ought not to be fearful of that. You know,

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I think about it, too, in this way. What that would mean, then, since God is the

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God of lightning and thunder and not in the weird mythological Greek way in that He's the creator over all things,

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He's not like Zeus or some sort of, you know, whatever, false deity like that.

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That means that when it storms and there's thunder and lightning and people reject

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God, that thunder and lightning and that storm is a testament to their unbelief.

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It is. So every time that happens and they continue to reject God and they don't recognize that that's

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God, it adds condemnation to their account. That's heavy. It kind of reminds me of that moment with Paul when he's still

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Saul at the time and he's on the road to Damascus. Because in this moment, some people heard thunder, some people didn't make out the words or they thought an angel was speaking.

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I don't know if they heard some sort of words at all or maybe everyone just simply heard thunder.

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But with Saul on the road to Damascus, what does it say?

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It said a bright light shone all around him and his companions and then Jesus spoke from heaven.

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And it says specifically there that his traveling companions were not able to understand the words of Jesus.

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That's what's happening here. They can't understand it. We know why

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Jesus spoke to Paul then, but why did the father audibly answer Jesus now?

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And Jesus answers that, verse 30. He answered and said, this voice has not come for my sake but for your sakes.

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This is for you. What you just heard is for you. He says, I didn't need that.

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This was for you. Seems to me like the father's voice at his baptism, his father's voice at his transfiguration, this is more heavenly confirmation and endorsement of the son.

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This voice comes not for me but for you and so it acts as further messianic attestation.

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It attests to the fact that he is the son of God when heaven roars and thunders.

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And the voice of the Lord along with the hour that has come marks a change. Verse 31, things are progressing.

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Verse 31, now, now judgment is upon the world. Judgment is upon this world.

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Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Something has happened with the coming of his hour.

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Some trigger has been pulled. Greeks came and caused Jesus to recognize his hour is coming and because that hour is the cross, he's deeply troubled.

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But overshadowing his concern for himself is the glory of his father in this hour and Jesus' prayer resulted in an audible voice from heaven and only he understands what the father says.

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Nevertheless, it serves as a supernatural verification to the crowd of his divine origin and the divine importance of what's taking place here.

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But what does that all mean? Greeks came. Jesus sees his hour is coming.

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Things are changing and he's greatly troubled. What is going on here? I think he explains that in the following verses.

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I see five main emphases of what Jesus says. Number one, the hour of the sun is the time for judgment of this world.

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That's what he says. And I would tell you, I don't think it's the final judgment.

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It's not the final judgment. But judgment has come. When the light comes into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light, they are judged already.

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All creation will either be on his side or another side. And this goes in line with John chapter 9 after healing the blind man.

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939, for judgment I came into this world so that those who may see, who do not see, may see and those who do see may become blind.

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So you could say it this way, at this hour, for judgment he's come into the world so that those who do not hear may hear and those who say they already hear the word of God may become deaf.

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See, those who think they hear the voice of God, men like the Pharisees, they won't hear it. And those who have not heard

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God's voice will hear it from the lips of Jesus Christ. But there is also something else to this judgment that is now upon the world.

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The second emphasis on this hour that has come shows simultaneously at the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of the

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Son of God, there will be a declaration of condemnation of the ruler of this world.

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The ruler of this world will be judged and cast out. He's also called the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2.

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In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul says the unbeliever follows his agenda and he calls him the god of this age or the god of this world, lowercase g of course.

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Our battle has not been against flesh and blood but against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness.

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This is Satan. This is the adversary. This is the devil. Who was once an angel named

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Lucifer. Remember in Luke chapter 10, Jesus reported that he saw

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Satan fall like lightning from heaven. And a lot of people come to the point in Isaiah 14, speaking of Lucifer, God says, how you have fallen from heaven,

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O star of the morning, son of the dawn. You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations.

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But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.

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I will ascend to above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high.

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And God says, nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.

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And so Satan was cast from God's presence. He was cast from the garden of Eden.

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You remember in Genesis 3, the serpent was cast out of the garden. Now Jesus reports, in this moment, somehow the ruler of this world will be cast out.

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And even so, one day the devil will be cast not just from heaven, or from a garden, or from the world.

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But it says he will be cast into a lake of fire that burns forever, according to Revelation 20.

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And we talk about it quite a bit. I'm often mentioning Genesis 3, the proto -evangelium, the first gospel.

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It said the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The death blow is coming. At the crucifixion and resurrection of our

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Lord is where the ruler of this world is ultimately defeated. His schemes to curse

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God's creation, to curse mankind, will all be in vain because God himself will give the blood that is demanded for the life of each and every single believer there ever was, is, and will be.

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Blood for blood. Blood for blood. Judgment is upon the world, and the ruler of this world will be cast out.

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The images of one being driven away, expelled, removed.

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The scripture says this failed devil is bound from being able to deceive the nation, so as to stop the gospel.

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The gospel continues to go forth. The cross binds the adversary spiritually.

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This is the Lord Jesus' world. You think about it, in Matthew 4, Satan was trying to offer him all the world and said, if you just bow down and worship me,

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I'll give you all this, this bootleg kingdom. And Lucifer, Satan, would become

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God. And so Jesus will go through this hour, he will go through this crucifixion, and all of it will be his.

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He is the king. He rules and reigns now. This is his throne. This is his footstool.

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This is everywhere the eye sees and doesn't see is his. It's no longer the ruler of this world.

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It's no longer his. He is bound the strong man, as he gives in his parable.

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All of this is his. And so the cross may have seemed for a moment like Satan's victory, but it was actually his greatest defeat.

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When Jesus was thrown, the devil lost whatever throne that he tried to build in this world. Now, the third emphasis on Jesus' hour is in verse 32.

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He says, And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

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We know what Jesus means here because we know the whole story. We know this echoes back even to John chapter 3 with Nicodemus, when he said that the son of man had to be lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness.

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You remember when I preached on that, we went back to Numbers, we took a look. The people, to receive healing, had to look at the serpent lifted on the rod to receive healing and salvation.

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And so Jesus likens himself to that. He has to be raised on a wooden rod that is a cross.

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And from there, he won't only draw Israel to himself, he will draw all types of men to himself.

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And that's the fourth emphasis of his hour. It's not only the

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Jews will look to him for salvation, but he will draw all men to himself.

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It's like as if the cross was lifted up upon a pinnacle, which the whole world can see from its vantage point.

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Jesus, for 2 ,000 years and will continue until he returns, be the one whom is raised up and we see as the solution, only by his

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Spirit, of course, where all men and women from all points of the globe will look to him as the one whom they can be saved.

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And we've spoken about this before in John 6. This statement doesn't mean that all men and only men will be saved.

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Oh man, only men get to be saved, right? We don't look at it that way. We understand the context.

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It doesn't mean that all men without exception will be saved. Because Jesus had already said that Judas is the son of perdition, that he's going to hell.

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Isn't Judas part of all men? Why does Judas go to hell but everyone else?

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And so what he means by he will draw all men to himself, it means all men, not without exception, but all men without distinction.

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Men and women of all types, of all nations, all tongues, all over the world. It's not going to be simply

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Israel. It's going to be everyone. Everyone's going to see this Messiah. There's going to be people from all over.

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Now the fifth thing is Jesus has kept emphasizing the word now. He has kept saying the word now actually for several chapters.

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And even in this moment he says now the judgment of the world. Now the casting out of Satan, the ruler of this world.

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Now the exaltation of the Son of Man, the lifting up of the Son of Man, of the drawing of all men and women from all over the earth.

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Do you get that? The judgment now, he says, the ruler of this world cast out now, being lifted up now, and then all men and women drawn to him.

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And he uses this word now. These things almost seem as if eschatological, futuristic.

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But we've seen it time and time again in the Gospel according to John. We see it throughout

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Scripture. There is the already and not yet principles. There is the beginning of these promises.

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These already and not yet aspects of salvation history. And we look at things linearly, right?

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On a linear plane. But God has started something with the crucifixion of Jesus, and it's still happening to this day.

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These things are not fulfilled in their ultimate and complete senses yet. This word lifted up can also mean exalted.

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So John explains in verse 33, but he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die.

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This is not about the exaltation of a king that they're thinking of. This is about the kind of death he will have.

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So the crowd is confused. Look at verse 34. The crowd then answered him,

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We have heard out of the law that the Christ is to remain forever, and how can you say the

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Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man? Now what's interesting is in this discussion,

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Jesus never said, Son of Man. Maybe they heard Him say it before. That's interesting.

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He said, I must be lifted up. Nevertheless, they are not incorrect.

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They are right. The Son of Man must be lifted up. But amazingly, they have even understood that the rule and reign of the

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Messiah is forever. His throne is eternal. They said the law, which would mean all of the

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Old Testament Scriptures speak to this, the Christ is to remain with us forever.

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It's possible they derived this from multiple places. It's all over Scripture. Some that I've thought of is

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Isaiah 9, verse 7. There will be no end. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over His kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. The Messiah is coming. This is going to be a forever thing.

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Ezekiel 37, verse 25 says, a shepherd is coming. We talked about this in John 10, that Christ is this shepherd.

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He is the good shepherd. The Lord says that this shepherd who is like David, His servant, will be the people's prince forever.

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The word forever is used. Many, many other passages say that His throne is established forever and ever.

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And with that, they don't think Jesus is talking about being lifted up on a cross to die.

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They think He means exalted to heaven. But why would the

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Messiah come and not rule on an earthly throne? Why is

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He not going to become the king that they wanted Him to be and destroy their enemies? Why would the

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Messiah come and not vanquish their foes? What is He here for then? Right?

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Why would the Messiah come and in short time be exalted to heaven?

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Jesus responds in verses 35 and 36 to the inquiry of the crowd. He doesn't give them a direct response.

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That will be for later. And He says, for a little while longer the light is among you.

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

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

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So the light is personified here. He's speaking of Himself. It's as if He's saying, for a little while longer

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I am with you. Walk with Me while I'm still here so that darkness will not overtake you.

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Because remember in the ancient world you could only work and walk while there was still light.

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There weren't big lanterns. There weren't big generators that could make spotlights and machines.

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You could simply work and walk while there was light out. When it became dark you couldn't do that.

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We saw Him talk about that earlier. Definitely couldn't travel. And He says the darkness makes it so you do not know where you are going.

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While I am here, believe in Me and you will become God's children.

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So He strongly urges them to trust in Him before He leaves.

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This is an invitation to stay with Him. Learn from Him.

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Believe in Him. And when He goes to the cross, maintain that belief so fiercely.

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This is their opportunity to be with Him. And once He ascends at Pentecost, only those who receive the

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Holy Spirit will walk in light. Because when you believe in the light, you become children of light.

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You are no longer children of darkness or slaves of sin. Colossians 1 speaks of this reality.

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He rescued us from the domain of darkness, transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved

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Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Church, light and darkness will go head to head at the cross.

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And light wins. And that's what's amazing is even in the darkest and darkest of places, one small spark divides darkness.

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Right? It's incredible. The dark day at Calvary dawned at the first light of an open tomb.

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The dark day at Calvary dawned at the first light of an open tomb. That's for sure.

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After He spoke these things, the latter part of verse 36 shows He went away and hid

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Himself from them. Jesus has often acted out His judgments,

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His words to the people. So He talks about this foreboding departure and the coming of darkness.

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And then He solidifies that promise with actually departing from these people and hiding Himself. It's interesting.

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But this will be the telling introduction for the passage next

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Sunday in which we see the craziness of unbelief. Next week, we're going to see the theology of unbelief.

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The fact that these people were all around Jesus and they could walk away and turn from Him.

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But there you have it, church. There is no one in history who has faced what

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Jesus faced, and especially knowing exactly what will happen in accomplishing

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His mission. He got to know every detail, but He proceeded forward.

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He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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To be righteousness embodied and then to become sin? To be the source of all blessing and to become a curse?

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To be righteousness embodied and evil and wickedness that was done by others was put to your account?

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That's what Jesus did. He was the life to take the billions of people's deaths.

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He was the light so that we wouldn't experience darkness forever. And through it all, the mission was accomplished.

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It was finished. And so my exhortation to you as your pastor is every time you face down a calling in your life, every time you face something where you stand on the vantage point of it, where you haven't yet to enter it and you see it coming, you know something hard is happening,

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I want you to remember the lengths that Jesus went for you to give you the life that you have and the life to come.

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He faced down the mission here for you and I so we can face down the rest that this life has to offer with confidence because of the grace that we have in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray, church. Lord, we thank you for your

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Word. We thank you, God, that we got a glimpse into the humanity of the divine

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Lord Jesus Christ and He became all these things for us.

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That He was tempted in all ways, afflicted in all ways, tested in the most extreme way, and yet without sin.

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But He knows what we've gone through. He knows what we face. Lord, let that reality, let that truth be something that encourages us to move forward in this life with the trials that we face.

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Help us to remember the Lord Jesus went through the worst of the worst so that we would have the best of the best.

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Lord, encourage your church now. Pray this all in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.