“Crucified for Glory” (John 12:27–33)

Series: “John: Life in Christ’s Name”Text: John 12:27–33

By: Shaun Marksbury Date: February 4, 2024

Venue: Living Water Baptist ChurchOccasion: AM Service

Introduction

Living in the South, we have seen our share of storms. Sometimes, these storms blow in on the bands of an Atlantic hurricane, and sometimes, they sweep up from warm moisture of the Gulf. They may provide torrential rains and lightning strikes as the trees bow in the wind. There have been a few nights we have awoken to weather alerts and sirens, and we’ve taken shelter in the center of our home. There’s an incredible power and intensity to these storms in the night. Yet, all storms eventually break up under the light of the sun.

After the rain, there’s a certain glory to seeing the sun break through the clouds. We see its radiance, its golden rays gilding the clouds, and we begin to feel differently about the day. This is especially so when we experience days of dreary cloud cover and humid conditions. The sun in its glory seems to recharge our batteries, giving us vigor. This is true, of course, at any point in the year except in the hottest of the summer months, when we desire the sun to shine a little less!

What do we mean, though, when we talk about glory? Essentially, glory is something which has weight or value to us, whether it be intangible (like the sun’s rays) or tangible (like gold or silver). When we apply glory to God, we consider the totality of who He is and understand His majesty and worth to us. We are seeing his attributes, His perfection, His splendor, His transcendence, and seeing how these come together in his eternal nature to bring about his loving purposes. Not only does considering God’s glory inspire awe within us, it also helps us to understand the precious nature of the salvation he brings.

This is what we read this morning. The Lord prays that the Father would be glorified, and the Father replies that He is glorified and will be glorified — centrally here through the cross. So, this morning, we will see that the cross glorifies as God’s purpose (v. 27), God’s revelation (vv. 28–29), God’s judgment (vv. 30–31), and God’s instrument (vv. 32–33).

The Cross Glorifies as God’s Purpose (v. 27)

“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

Jesus begins here by saying His soul — His inner man or being — is “troubled.” As one commentary notes, this verb is “filled with a deep sense that shock or trauma has come upon a person.” The Legacy Standard Bible translates that “dismayed.”

This comment might seem strange for a couple of reasons. First, some are troubled to find Jesus has feelings! Because of the prevailing themes of John, such as the presentation of Jesus as divine and victorious, some can’t comprehend Jesus’s trouble. Considering that John doesn’t record the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, they wrongly assume John presents Jesus as dispassionate and aloof. Jesus has emotional distress here and, in places like John 4:6–7, He also gets thirsty and tired. John isn’t a gnostic, so he doesn’t present Jesus as lacking a real body or real temptations. John does emphasize the divinity of Christ, but he allows us to see Jesus’s human side — Jesus identifies with us in His humanity.

Second, this seems like an odd follow-up to the fact that the Greeks were coming to Jesus. We’ve already seen that He didn’t directly respond to their request to come to Him, but that He instead instructed all potential disciples. Still, why would His soul shift from a possible point of joy in folks coming to Him toward such deep turmoil?

The answer is in the cross. Their coming and His teaching reminded Him as to what was next. From a human perspective, we can appreciate the desire to avoid pain and death, and crucifixion is one of the most horrific methods of execution ever devised. That would be difficult enough, but in Jesus’s case, He has the added weight of the sins of believers He must bear upon the cross. As Scripture says, the Father “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Because Jesus bore this sin, this means that He also became a focus for the wrath of God, receiving the blow that we deserve. So, though He ultimately knows He should move forward with this, it is a difficult prospect before Him, to say the least.

In fact, there’s a parallel between these verses and what we see in Gethsemane. His words parallel His prayer in Matthew 26:39, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” So, here, He asks a question rhetorically, speaking to Himself. No one will fully understand or appreciate the situation that He is in, so He’s not asking this question for counsel. Rather, because of His distress, He is reasoning aloud. It obviously was something on His mind quite a bit this week, but we know that, just as He would in Gethsemane, He decided to follow the divine purpose before Him.

What is the question He asks? This translation reads, “[A]nd what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’?” (There are questions as to how to best translate this, but this seems best fitting the context.) He doesn’t pray that the Father save Him (though, it would be understandable if He did). He is asking whether He should say or pray that.

He dismisses that thought out of mind, taking it captive (cf. 2 Cor. 10:5). He states, “But for this purpose I came to this hour.” He begins with a strong disjunctive in the original, stronger than the term usually translated “but.” He is not going to pray that the Father deliver Him from the time and purpose for which He came!

The cross glorifies God’s purpose in redemption. Jesus, therefore, isn’t going to rob the Father of the glory of the cross by turning away from it. He knows it’s the Father’s purpose because of what God has already revealed, which the next couple of verses underline.

The Cross Glorifies as God’s Revelation (vv. 28–29)

“Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.”

Having that moment of distress, Jesus does now pray. He says, “Father, glorify Your name.” Just like in the psalms, He reasons through His pain and comes to the correct solution. He submits His human will to the divine will, seeking what we all should seek: the glory of God.

Of course, God answers prayer, but this was a surprising reply! The verse continues, “Then a voice came out of heaven.” This sudden voice from heaven is heard two other times in the Gospels, at the baptism and then at the transfiguration of our Lord (Matt 3:17; 17:5; Mark 1:11; 9:7; Luke 3:22; 9:35). This third time was an immediate response to the Lord’s prayer.

The voice of the Father reveals, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” How and when did the Father already glorify His name? This would be throughout Christ’s earthly ministry: We’ve read several times that the Father testifies through works of Jesus. All the miracles our Lord performed, the words He spoke, and His active obedience to the Father all glorified the name of God. The Father has already seen His name glorified through Christ.

And the Father says He will glorify it again. In the concluding work of Christ, the Father will glorify His name by providing salvation to sinners through the atonement of the cross. Then, He will glorify His name through the resurrection of Christ, providing eternal life to all who believe!

A voice from heaven is an instance of divine revelation. However, the natural man does not receive or always understand divine revelation (1 Cor. 2:14). So, there is competing information from the crowd as to what just happened. Some heard only thunder, just like how Paul’s companions would later heard the sound of the Lord’s voice but couldn’t understand (Acts 9:7; 22:9). As one commentary notes, “Thunder was often associated in the Old Testament with the voice of God,” so they should have, at least, interpreted this as a heavenly response to Jesus’s prayer. It’s amazing how some only hear noise when they hear the glorious revelation of God.

Another group hears, though they misunderstood. They believe that they just heard an angel. This is, of course, closer to the mark; an angel is a messenger sent by God with His word or to carry out His purpose. Though they misjudge the cause for the voice, they at least affirm that it is divine in origin.

Yet, this response wasn’t for Jesus’s sake, as we see in the next verse. Jesus didn’t need this response, for God has already given a clear revelation in Scripture concerning the person and work of the Messiah. Because we have the sure word of Scripture, we shouldn’t need such special revelations, either, which is Peter’s point in 2 Peter 1:16–19.

Still, since God’s revelation is still unfolding at this point, even if everyone in the crowd couldn’t understand His words, He gives the people a special grace to confirm everything they’ve thus far heard in Scripture about the Messiah. This includes His death on the cross, regardless whether they want to accept it. If they don’t accept it, though, then God’s revelation serves as judgment, as we read next.

The Cross Glorifies as God’s Judgment (vv. 30–31)

Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

As we noted, Jesus didn’t need the voice from heaven to confirm His ministry. Perhaps it was nice to have, but His faith was in the written Word. The voice was for their sakes, so they would receive the truth.

However, it doesn’t seem like they will. So, Jesus warns in the next verse that judgement is coming upon the world. In fact, He says it is “now” — He even repeats the word “now” twice in this verse. Just as He said back in v. 23 that the hour has come, so has now the judgment. Since the cross is so close, this judgment is immediately upon those who don’t choose to obey.

This is what He means referring to the world. The term “world” in this sense is the system of man against Christ, whether it be the religious side run by the Sanhedrin or the political and military power of Rome. This rebellious world follows after Satan, “the ruler of this world.” This is the way that the term world is used in Ephesians 2:2, where unbelievers walk “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience,” and the New Testament often refers to the devil as having a power over this world (John 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph 6:12; 1 John 4:4; 5:19). Because the world was in the process of rejecting Jesus, even condemning Him to a cross, He says that this very cross will stand as judgment against the world.

How is that? This judgment will be upon the ruler of darkness. As Hebrews 2:14–15 says, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” The domain of the devil, which includes evil spirits and perhaps even the men they inspire, will experience attack and defeat at the cross of Christ. In fact, it is this judgment upon Satan that explains how the godless world system under his sway is judged. What appears to be a victory of the darkness over the light will, in fact, provide the means by which those trapped in darkness can finally step into the light. The hold of Satan over unregenerate hearts will always be broken by the gospel of the cross!

This judgment will lead to a future eventuality, hence the future tense of “will be cast out.” Judgment could also rightly be said to be a re-ordering, a reformation. If taken in that way, then we could see a futuristic aspect in this. The cross will reform hearts. Moreover, it will establish the future kingdom of Christ, which will bind Satan for a thousand years. In the eternal state, the Prince of this world will finally be cast out, and death and hell with them. God will ultimately and finally cast out the devil, and he will never again have power over the world or its people.

Thus, the cross brings about another glory to God. The evil and the wickedness of man will come to an end as he repents and turns to Christ. The deceptions of the enemy will become empty as he loses his sway over redeemed man. And the final defeat of sin and Satan lies on the horizon when, as Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” This is done through the cross, as we see next.

The Cross Glorifies as God’s Instrument (vv. 32–33)

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.

There's quite a bit that this verse reveals about the work of the Lord on the cross, and, as such, it has engendered quite a bit of debate. There’s a question as to what this is an image of, what the drawing of people might mean, and whether all means all. Let’s consider this for a moment.

First, these verses obviously refer to crucifixion. They say here that this refers to His death, such as in John 8:28. It’s possible that “lifting up” was a common idiom of hoisting a person upon a cross. Here, not only does John reveal to the reader that this refers to “the kind of death” He’ll experience, but the people understand Him of speaking of death in v. 34.

This is the same image Jesus used with Nicodemus — just as the serpent was “lifted up” in the wilderness, He provides eternal life (John 3:14–15). Here, He also says His death somehow effects people, describing a drawing effect. Previously, He spoke of the Father drawing; in John 6:44, He says “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (same word). Here, He says He will do it Himself.

To understand what He means, consider other instances of this word. In John 18:10, the word refers to Peter drawing out his sword. In John 21:6, this word is used of the disciples trying to haul in the great catch of fish. In Acts 16:19, it refers to the hauling away of bound Paul and Silas to the authorities. Because of the drawing power of God, a sinner finds his heart desires drawn in a new direction, toward Christ (cf. John 12:32). This is a reference to a sinner being drawn to salvation.

Who are the ones drawn to Him? Some have suggested that, since it says “all” here, it must mean every man, woman, and child. This would be a view known as universalism, where every person eventually comes to salvation. This is an attractive view because no one enjoys to ponder the horrors of hell. However, Jesus has been just as clear that a person must believe in Him for this work to be efficacious for them. John began by saying that only those who receive Jesus by faith are given the right to become children of God (John 1:12). Moreover, Jesus said that there will be many raised to a resurrection of judgment, not life (John 5:28–29), so universalism doesn’t work biblically.

Some Christians have developed another theory — that this drawing is merely a prevenient grace. Perhaps “all” does mean every man, woman, and child, but the drawing Jesus speaks of here is less than salvific, only helping people to choose to respond. In other words, the whole world is “wooed” by the cross, though only those who choose to believe will be saved by it. This is a much closer view to Scripture, but there may be one that is better. Besides, as Simeon prophesied in Luke 2:34, many will oppose and fall before Christ, so not all are drawn to Him.

We must consider the immediate context. The Greeks have just come to Jesus. All does mean all, but it means it apart from a solely Jewish concept — the cross is open to every tribe, tongue, and nation. It’s the instrument for all kinds of people, Jew or Gentile. This view has the better exegetical case, and it doesn’t require us to use a different understanding of “draw” here. When Jesus is placed upon the cross, He will draw individuals from the entire world of nations.

Of course, this isn’t done through the simple existence of crucifixes upon church doors or hanging from necklaces. Instead, this is referring to drawing which will occur through the Holy Spirit regenerating hearts. The Spirit and His Word work together to awaken sinners to their need for salvation, and their spiritual eyes will then naturally fixate upon the cross. They see the full atonement for sin there, come, and believe in Christ.

Jesus came for this purpose. So, as v. 33 says, He signified what kind of death He would die. The fulfillment of this is in John 18:31–32, which says, “So Pilate said to them, ‘Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.’ The Jews said to him, ‘We are not permitted to put anyone to death,’ to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.” He chose the cross as the instrument of our salvation.

Conclusion

We don’t like to think about the cross, but God is glorified through it. It also glorifies God’s Messiah, too, which is what we see next time. So, it is important that we see the value of the cross.

If you’ve never known that the cross is necessary for the forgiveness of your sins, I hope that you will take this knowledge to God in prayer. Ask Him to place your sins there. Jesus will willingly bear your burdens so you never have to carry them again. This glorifies the Father, and it pleases the Son to pay for your sin so that you’ll be redeemed. Trust in the Lord Jesus and be saved.

If you’ve already called out to Him for salvation, I hope that you will see this work as finished. You don’t have to fear whether Satan can conquer you again, for the cross conquered him. If you find yourself wandering toward the worldliness of the past, remember the deliverance you have in Christ and turn back toward Him. Follow Him and His Word in thanksgiving for all He has done!