(Kitchener, on 2012) Overcoming Satan — Zac Poonen

Pressing On to Spiritual Maturity

Yesterday we were looking at Hebrews 6, where we have this expression, let us press on to maturity or to perfection. In many translations the word is perfection. And that means like a cup being full. God wants us to be full of the Holy Spirit and more and more of the nature of Christ to fill our heart.

That is the meaning of perfection. And God wants us to press on to it, not wait, saying, well, one day I'll become like Christ. We all have that hope that one day when Christ comes back we'll become like Him.

But how do I know whether that hope is a living hope or a dead hope? I want you to see a verse in 1 John 3. 1 John 3 says in verse 2, Beloved, we are the children of God. That is, if you are born again, this is written to those who have surrendered their life to Christ and been born again.

It's not for everybody. Now we are the children of God. But it has not yet appeared as to what we will be. When Christ appears, then we shall be like Him. That means we're going to have a body like His and we're going to have a complete nature exactly like Christ's nature.

And the reason is we shall see Him as He is. Now there are two things mentioned there. We shall see Him as He is and we shall be like Him. Please remember that. Many people think only when Christ comes we shall see Him as He is.

That's only one part. It's like two sides of a coin. One side of the coin is we shall see Him as He is. The other side is what people forget. That when He comes, we shall be like Him. So please remember for the rest of your life that when you think of the hope of Christ's second coming, there are two things in there.

One, we shall see Him as He is. And second, we shall be like Him. Now that's very important because when you go to the next verse, verse 3, it says, everyone who has this hope. Now what is this hope? This hope is not we shall see Him alone.

We shall see Him and we shall be like Him. So this hope is a double hope. If you have this double hope in you, you will purify yourself just as He is pure. Why is it so many Christians do not purify themselves pursuing the purity that is in Christ?

Why is it they sit back lazily and say Christ is coming and when He comes, He will take us to heaven. Is that what the Bible says? What did we read just now? When He comes, we shall see Him as He is and we shall be like Him.

According to this verse, how do you know you have this double hope? Listen to that verse. Everyone and I want you to read it carefully. Supposing this verse is said like this. Everyone who has this hope in him should purify himself.

That's not what it says. Everyone who has this hope in him should purify himself means that is an exhortation. This is what you should do. But that's not what it says. It's stating a fact, not an exhortation.

Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. That's like saying a cat when it gets dirty licks itself clean. There's a difference between that and saying a cat when it's dirty should lick itself clean.

You're not exhorting the cat to lick itself clean. If you're a cat, you will lick yourself clean. If you're a pig, you will not lick yourself clean. You've got to exhort the pig, hey, listen, you should be clean.

If you've got a dirty pig, you'll try to clean it. But if you've got a dirty cat, you don't have to clean it, you know. Did you know that? You can leave the cat to itself, it'll lick itself clean. Many people think this is an exhortation.

Hey, if I have this hope in Christ, I should be purifying myself. No, that's not what it says. It says you will purify yourself. That is the proof that you're really born again. That is the proof that you're really born again.

That you have a desire to purify yourself. It's not instruction. A cat doesn't tell its little kittens, hey, listen, you're cats. So, always remember to clean yourself. Is that what a cat... Is a cat teaching its kittens to be clean?

Does a pig teach its pigs, hey, you're little pigs, remember you must always be dirty. Don't try to be clean. It's nature, nature. You don't have to... Now, I want to apply this nature of the pig and cat to us.

You don't have to teach your little children, hey, you're born of Adam. You must learn to fight. You must learn to grab things for yourself. You must learn to tell lies. Because you're children of Adam, don't forget.

Do any of your children... Any of you teach your children to do that? You must also rebel against parents. And you must be stubborn. And you must say no to your parents. Because you're children of Adam, don't forget.

That would be like a pig telling its little piglets, you must be dirty. It's nature. It's nature. It's automatically dirty, the pigs. And these children, anywhere in the world, you don't have to teach them.

They will say no to their parents, they will disobey, they will rebel, they will tell lies, they will fight, they will fight for their toys with other children. It's nature. In the same way, a little cat doesn't have to tell its kitten, you got to be clean, you got to be clean.

It's nature. And there you see, new birth is not just a good resolution. That is psychology. And unfortunately, psychology has replaced the Holy Spirit in Christendom today. And lot of people, lot of preachers are preaching psychology.

How to improve yourself. That's not only in the church. You go to these management seminars that are conducted in big companies. They get some management consultant to teach people how to work better and how to behave better with your workers and your colleagues, etc.

That's not Christianity. Christianity is a change of nature where God does something inside us and brings us and makes us partake of his nature. Let me turn you to 2nd Peter, chapter 1. I believe, personally, this is the greatest promise in the whole Bible.

The greatest promise in the whole Bible is not that your sins will be forgiven. Your sins will be forgiven is only like cleaning a dirty glass. The heart is cleaned. But why do you clean a dirty glass?

Why do you clean the cups and glasses in your house? Why do you put them in the dishwasher and clean it? What for? Is it for decoration? When there are clean cups put on the dining table, is it for decoration?

No! The whole purpose of a cup and a glass is to pour something inside it. So the cleansing of your sin or the cleansing of your heart is not the end. Just like the cleaning of the cup and the cleaning of the glass in a dishwasher is not the end.

It's only the beginning. In that, something has to be poured. In your heart, something has to be poured. And the cleansing from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ is only the preparation for that something to be put inside your heart.

What is it? 2nd Peter, chapter 1. It speaks of these precious and magnificent... Verse 4, by the way. 2nd Peter, chapter 1, verse 4. He has granted to us very great, precious promises. And what is the greatest promise of them all?

What is the purpose of all these promises? That through them, you may partake. I prefer the word partake to this NIV translation. To partake. In the NASV, it says partake of the divine nature. Like the kitten partakes of the nature of its mother cat.

It's not instruction. The kitten has partaken of the nature of the mother cat. The piglet has partaken of the nature of the mother pig. The children have partaken of the Adamic flesh nature we have. Even if you're born again, it's your spirit that is born again.

Your flesh is still the Adamic nature. So, when a born-again, a born-again husband and a born-again wife have a child, that child is not born again. That child gets the nature of Adam from where? From its born-again parents.

And even if those parents are filled with the Holy Spirit, the child is still born with the nature of Adam. You all know that. Wonderful, holy parents get children who are disobedient and stubborn, tell lies, fight, quarrel, because the nature of Adam, because they are born of the flesh.

And they need to be born again and filled with the Spirit before they can get the nature of God in them. But this is the greatest promise in the whole Bible. That we can partake of His nature. Do you know that there's absolutely nothing that God can give us which is greater than His own nature?

And I don't know whether you realize that that is the greatest gift that God can give you. I feel sorry for all these people who are asking Jesus to give them material gifts and not the real nature that God wants to give us.

I mean, when you're seeking for material things and say that Jesus has come to just bless us with physical healing and material things, we're babies. We're like children who are satisfied with toys and candy and chocolates.

And when you're grown up, when you're 20 years old or 25 years old, if you ask your dad for a gift, you're not going to ask him for a chocolate or a toy car. You'll probably ask him for a real car, right?

Not a toy one. I can't imagine a 20 year old asking his dad for a toy car. Give me a real one. And to ask God to give us material things as a blessing is like 20 year olds asking their dad for a toy car.

Is that what you want? A mature Christian will ask God, give me your nature. And the only way he can communicate his nature to us is through the Holy Spirit. Now there's a lot of difference between imitating Christ and partaking of his nature.

Partaking of Christ’s Nature Rather Than Imitating Him

There's a very famous book in Christendom written by a Roman Catholic monk called The Imitation of Christ by a man called Francis Kempes. The Imitation of Christ. Now Imitation of Christ is a pig trying to act like a cat.

Or a dog trying to act like a cat. Let's take the example of a dog. You've got to train your dog now. You've got to behave like a cat, okay? And you know there are people who train dogs to do amazing things nowadays.

They train dogs to sit and stand and go and pick that stone or pick up that stick which I throw. It's amazing what they train dogs to do. And I suppose somebody could be clever enough to teach a dog to say meow.

Don't say bow wow. Say meow. And I suppose there are people who could train that dog to say that and say now from today onwards you've got to behave like a cat. And you train that dog and it always says meow meow meow like a cat until it meets another dog who barks at it and shows its teeth and suddenly the real nature of the dog comes out again.

This is how some Christians are. They are trained in church you must be nice, you must be kind, you must be forgiving and all that. They try to act like that till somebody really provokes them. It could be their wife at home or their husband or somebody and boy the old dog comes out again.

I mean it's difficult to pretend to be a cat when you're really a dog. But supposing you had a cat at home and you told that cat listen you must always say meow behave like a cat. Cat will say no problem.

Absolutely no problem. When you're caught off guard will you behave like a cat? Sure. You can catch me anytime I'll only behave like a cat. Because of nature. Do you see the difference between nature and training?

Nature. If the Christian life is the imitation of Christ that means I'm basically still a child of Adam but I have to now behave like Christ. Because I've been taught in the church I must behave like Christ.

I must behave nicely because I'm a Christian. That's not Christianity. It looks like it. It's a painted fire. It looks like a fire from a distance but there's no light, there's no heat because it's a painted fire and I'll tell you a lot of Christians do not have real Christianity because they haven't opened their being to the Holy Spirit.

You cannot partake of God's nature in any other way except by God communicating His Spirit to you. You know when God created man He created man with the capacity to receive His nature. There's nothing else in all creation that has that capacity.

We need to understand that. And God made the planets. The planets can't get His nature. The planets are very obedient. You know that the planets have obeyed God for thousands of years without even disobeying Him for one second.

But they can't partake of His nature. Just because you obey God in different things that doesn't mean you're partaking of His nature. The planets obey. The trees obey the laws of nature but they're not.

They can't partake of God's nature. So in the same way when God made the angels. Even the angels could not partake of God's nature. Do you know that Gabriel and Michael archangels have got tremendous power but they can't be children of God.

When somebody says you're like an angel that's not a compliment. I'll tell you that. Somebody once told me Brother Zach your wife is like an angel. I said rubbish. She's the daughter of God. She's no angel.

Why do you want to degrade her to an angel? I don't want to be like an angel. I'm a son of God. Do you know that sons of God are way above angels? We're supposed to partake of His nature. We're not like angels who cannot partake of His nature.

It's something like saying this pulpit even if you pass electricity through it 10 ,000 volts it cannot produce light. It doesn't have the capacity to produce light. But you pass 110 volts through that little bulb and it gives forth light.

What's the difference between that bulb and this pulpit? This pulpit is much bigger than that bulb. It's because that has got the capacity to receive electricity and give forth light. The angels are like this.

They have great power but they can't manifest God's nature. But we are like that bulb. The capacity to receive the Holy Spirit and manifest the nature of God. If only we could see this. It is not the imitation of Christ but partaking of His nature and the only way to do it is by allowing our whole being to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Being Filled With the Holy Spirit

I told you yesterday it's like opening the blinds. You don't have to plead with the Holy Spirit. Oh Holy Spirit please come into me. You don't have to plead with the sunlight to come in if you open the blinds.

If you keep the blinds shut no matter how much you plead with the sunlight it will not come in. But if you open the blinds you don't have to plead with the sunlight. It's just waiting to come in. And I want to tell you the secret of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

You don't have to plead. There are a lot of people Oh God fill me with the Holy Spirit. I remember one man saying I have prayed to God for 40 years to be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. It never happened.

You don't have to plead with the Holy Spirit. If you don't surrender your life you can pray for 100 years nothing will happen. It's like keeping the blinds closed and saying I'm praying I'm fasting and praying the sunlight will come in.

I say brother open the blinds. You don't have to pray and fast anymore. So I say you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit just surrender every area of your life to Him. That's all you got to do. And that's how we partake of God's nature and as we partake of that nature that nature battles with the flesh with the nature of Adam it's a great conflict.

In Galatians chapter 5 this is how we grow to maturity. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17 it says here the flesh lusts against the spirit. Now the word lust has sometimes got a bad connotation but it's an old English word which means a strong desire.

That's all it means. In the King James version it says the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit lusts against the flesh. All it means is the desire of the flesh is dead against the Holy Spirit and the desire of the Holy Spirit is dead against the flesh.

These are opposites to each other. They are completely against each other. And if you allow the Holy Spirit His way He will keep you from doing the things that your flesh wants to do. You see what a wonderful verse that is.

These are opposed to each other but you're the one who decides which is going to win. I heard of a illiterate man who was born again. You know illiterate people can also be born again. We have a number of them in our own churches in India who can't read or write but they are born again and they know Jesus Christ as Savior.

One of our elders in one of our churches can't read or write but he knows the Lord and he preaches. I asked him actually how do you preach in your church when you can't read the Bible? He said somebody has been kind enough to load an audio version of the Bible into my cell phone and I listen to the Bible every day.

So it's amazing how you don't need to be very intelligent. You don't even need to read and write to know the Lord and I've seen wonderful brothers like this. We think that because we can read and write we are so clever we can understand.

We can understand the Bible but knowing the Lord is a completely different thing. And so this illiterate man was asked how has it been after you become a Christian born again? He says well in the beginning there was only a black dog inside me.

Now there's also a white dog and the white dog is always fighting with the black dog inside me. He was talking about this flesh and spirit fighting against each other. So they asked him which dog wins?

He said that depends on which dog I give food to. If I feed the black dog that wins. If I feed the white dog that wins. It's a very simple illiterate man's way of saying who is going to win? Which nature is going to win in you?

Is it the Holy Spirit or your flesh? That depends on which you feed. You know for example you got a computer and you can go to the computer and feed the white dog or the black dog. That's up to you. But that will determine who is going to win finally in a battle.

Sure. You can read books and books can feed the white dog or the black dog. You can feed the Holy Spirit, this new nature that's come inside you or you can feed that old nature. Flesh fights against the spirit, spirit against the flesh.

And what did we read in the beginning that if you have the hope that one day I will become totally like Jesus Christ you will purify yourself. Now many people do not know this truth about purifying themselves.

Let's look at that verse again. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 3. We shouldn't forget this. 1 John 3 verse 3 Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as Christ is pure. Everyone. So if you don't purify yourself as Christ is pure what does that prove?

According to this verse. You don't have this hope. If you have this hope in you, you will purify yourself as Christ is pure. If you're not doing that you may say as much as you like I'm waiting for the coming of Christ but you don't have that hope in you.

You don't have the hope that one day you'll be like him. Because it says everyone. As I said this is not an exhortation. You should start purifying yourself from tomorrow. Everyone who is born of a cat will cleanse itself.

Everyone who is born of a pig, maybe you have to keep on exhorting the pig. Come on, keep yourself clean. You don't have to exhort a cat. It's automatic. It's a desire that comes in. I really feel that psychology has taken the place of the Holy Spirit in many a pulpit.

We are training people to be good when they should be receiving the nature of God within them and being filled with the Holy Spirit within. There's a lot of difference in these two dear brothers and sisters.

Being trained to be good. You know, some people think Christianity is a self-improvement program. You come to the church and learn to be nice and speak nicely and tell lies. No, it's partaking of God's nature.

And it's because we don't seek to partake of God's nature that we are like the dog who's trying to behave like a cat and sometimes we start behaving like the dog again. We're not supposed to be like that.

That's why it's so important. The early Christians urged people, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit. You must be filled with the Holy Spirit. And unfortunately that doctrine has been so misused and abused by so many Christian groups where they just think it is only speaking in tongues.

But I say the main thing, I'm not against speaking in tongues. Praise the Lord for that gift. But the main purpose of the Holy Spirit is to make us like Jesus. Never forget that. God gave us His Spirit so that we can partake of His nature.

The greatest gift that God can give us. Everybody knows that God gave His Son on the cross. But do you know that God gave His Spirit also? The third person of the Trinity? The Son died on the cross for us and the Spirit was given to come and dwell within us so that we can partake of His nature.

And that's how we grow into maturity. As we allow the Holy Spirit to stand against this fleshly nature of ours. And that's why God allows us to be tempted. Some of us wonder why. I wish I could live a life without temptation.

But if you live a life without temptation, you'll never be strong. You'll never be an overcomer. How do you tell a person who's weak to become strong? Well, there are two things he needs. One, he needs to eat good food.

And the other, he needs to do a lot of exercise. If he only eats food, he'll become fat. If you eat food and do exercise, you'll become strong. Do you know the difference between a strong person and a fat person?

A world of difference. Some fat people, you just touch them, they'll fall down. But a strong person, he's not going to fall down if you push him. And the devil can knock down a lot of spiritually fat people.

Spiritually fat people are people who are bloated with knowledge of the Bible. They know everything. They know the Bible. They've gone to meetings. They know how to sing the songs. But they haven't become strong because they have not fought.

That means they have not exercised. Exercise comes in temptation. That's why we need the Bible to read the Bible and become that's the spiritual food. And then we also need to be tested and tried in different situations.

That's the exercise we get to become strong. And that's why we read this lovely verse in James chapter 1. Now only you can understand it. James and chapter 1. It says here, count it all joy. Verse 2. James 1 verse 2.

Consider it all joy or pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds. Trials of many kinds. How many Christians obey that verse? Hey, another trial. Hallelujah. Praise God. That's wonderful.

I had one yesterday but a tougher one today. Praise the Lord. Consider it pure joy. I don't think you'll find many Christians like that. It's like two people going to the gym and seeing all these barbells and different machines and the fat man who's not interested in becoming muscular.

He says, hey, this is not for me. But the man who's really interested in being muscular, he says, wonderful. This machine, that machine, that machine. I'm going to spend a couple of hours here. But the lazy man says, ah, who's going to stand here.

I get bored after five minutes on the treadmill. I feel like going home. See, that's why some Christians are like that. They don't understand the purpose of trial. The whole purpose of trial is to make me spiritually strong and powerful to face every situation that can ever come my way.

I mean, if you have a child who's only eating, eating, eating, eating, just sitting lazily and eating potato chips and hamburgers in front of a television, he's going to be fat. He's not going to be strong.

You want your child to do some exercise and keep itself fit. It's exactly the same with God. God wants us to face trial and overcome. The whole purpose of trial, dear brothers and sisters, is to make you strong.

And if you want to know the great example of it, Jesus Christ himself was tempted when he came to Earth as a man. Temptation did something in him. I want you to see this verse. Sometimes we don't read the Bible carefully.

What happened when Jesus was baptized? He was filled with the Holy Spirit. We read that. Let's turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter 4. In the previous chapter, Luke chapter 3, is where he was baptized by John the Baptist.

And you know the story. When John the Baptist baptized him, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. Luke 4 verse 1 says, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan. He was filled with the Holy Spirit at his baptism in the river Jordan.

And then what did the Holy Spirit do next to him? It says he led him into a desert. Does the Holy Spirit lead us to deserts? He led Jesus to a desert. Some people think that the Holy Spirit means he'll only lead us to fruitful gardens and a comfortable life.

No. Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, was led to the desert and it says in the next verse, he was led there, verse 2, to be tempted by the devil for 40 days. Does the Holy Spirit lead us to the place?

He doesn't tempt us, that's for sure. God doesn't tempt anybody. But does he lead us to be tempted by the devil? He led Jesus. And if you're following in Jesus' footsteps, he'll lead you. And during those 40 days, he fasted.

And it says here, at the end of the 40 days, verse 13, at the end of the temptations, the devil finished all his tempting, he left him. And what was the result of this temptation? See the next verse, verse 14.

Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. Did you see the difference between verse 1 and verse 14? He went full of the Spirit, was tempted for 40 days, and came with the power of the Spirit. This is Jesus as a man.

And he went and started preaching and fulfilling the ministry. So there we see the reason why, even if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you still need to face temptation. So that you can come forth from that strong in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So that you can accomplish mighty things for God. So, it's not enough even to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You need to face temptation and overcome it. And then you become strong. So the, like I said, the Bible, knowing the Bible is like eating food.

And when you face temptation, that's exercise. With food and exercise, the fat is converted to muscle. You know that's true. Physically, spiritually, the equivalent is reading the scriptures and facing temptation.

So don't, that's why James says, consider it all joy, when you face all types of temptations, because you're going to come out as a very strong person at the end of it. The trouble with a lot of Christians is, they want to become mature, but they don't want to go through any trials.

It's like the man, the fat man who wants to become muscular, you know, he sees these pictures of these muscular he-men and he says, boy, I'd like to have muscles like that. But you know what that guy did to get those muscles?

He used to go to the gym every day and work out and work out and work out and if you're too lazy to do that, you're not going to get those type of muscles. So when God takes us through trial, the purpose is to make us muscular Christians.

Trials as the Training Ground for Christian Maturity

So I want to say to all of you, my brothers and sisters, don't ever be afraid of trial. Whatever it is, God allows us to go through physical trials, financial trials, He'll never forsake us. That's His promise.

He has promised, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And I can tell you that God's taken me through numerous trials in 53 years I've been a Christian. When I was working in the Navy, in full-time Christian work, in all types of situations and in those trials, I've come to know something about God's ability and power which I could never have known if I had not gone through those trials.

I mean, think of the stories in the Gospels. The disciples get into a lake and there was a storm. Mighty storm, so mighty that the water came into the boat and they were afraid of sinking and they see Jesus getting up and stilling that storm and they reach the other side.

Now which would you prefer? Tell me, if you were in that boat, would you say, Lord, please take us through to the other side without a storm. Let's have a peaceful trip to the other side of the lake. Would you prefer that or would you prefer Lord, if there is a storm, let's face it and let me see your mighty power stilling that storm.

I know what I would choose. I choose to face the storm and see the mighty power of God stilling that storm rather than going through that lake without a storm. So, I find that many many situations that the disciples went through, where the Lord trying to teach them, I can handle any situation.

Is there not enough food for everybody? Okay. We'll multiply the loaves. They were always facing situations where human resources was not enough. They needed the mighty power of God to solve that problem.

There would be a demon possessed person there and the mighty power of God would cast the demon out. So, what Jesus was teaching them in all those situations that you read in the Gospels is God can help you through any situation.

Don't be afraid of facing a trial. It's in those trials that you come to know God. You know, if ever you see a man whose ministry has blessed you, you can be pretty sure that he's gone through numerous trials and that's how he got that ministry.

And you think you can get that ministry just by studying the Bible? You can't. Because the Bible says the Old Testament was like that. In the Old Testament, you know, you didn't have to go through trials to get a ministry.

What did Moses do? He went up to the mountain and he heard God and he came down and preached it. And the Old Testament prophets are mostly like that. They heard what God said and they would go out to the people and say, this is what God has said.

God’s Comfort in the Midst of Trouble

But in the New Covenant, the ministry is very different. Let me show you how Paul got his ministry. I turn to 2 Corinthians 1. Verse 3. I want to read verse 3 and 4. First of all, verse 3. 2 Corinthians 1 .3.

Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Now that word comfort means more than just consolation. Think of the last four letters in that word.

Fort. Fort is a picture of something strong. And comfort really means strengthening. Make me like a fort, impenetrable by the devil. The God of all strengthening. That's how I read the word comfort. Because I believe it comes from the word fort.

Now we go to the next verse. This God of all strengthening comforts me or strengthens me in all my troubles. Why does He strengthen me in all my troubles? So that I can strengthen others who are in trouble.

How do I strengthen them? With the same strength I received from God when I was in trouble. Think of that verse. Instead of comfort you strengthen. God who strengthens me in all my trials and troubles so that I can strengthen others who are in trials and troubles.

With what? With the same strength and power I got from God in my trial. So supposing you are a person who's never been through any trials. You don't experience God's strength at all. And somebody comes to you who's gone through trials.

You can't give him any strength at all because you've never been through anything yourself. You always pray, Lord, please let me escape from all these difficulties. Don't take me through any trials and just give me a peaceful life on the earth.

Don't let me ever face a storm in the lake. Well, then you'll never know how Jesus can still the storm. I want to face numerous storms in my life so that I can see the mighty power of God that can handle that situation.

Yeah. And so you see the weak Christians are the ones who are always trying to escape difficult situations. The strong Christians are saying, God, you planned this. You planned it so that I can become a strong Christian at the end of it.

Jesus Faces the Cross for God’s Glory

Let me show you another verse in John's Gospel in chapter 12. John's Gospel chapter 12. This is Jesus was approaching the cross. I mean, he completed his ministry almost by this time. The next chapter is the Last Supper.

So this is almost the last day before the Last Supper. John chapter 12. And Jesus was facing the hour had come for whom he says in verse 23. For many days he said the hour has not come. The hour has not come.