The Motive for the Cross

John 12:27-34

Praise and Prayer

what motivated Jesus to go to the cross? Why was He willing to die? and why should we be willing to lay down our lives?

There are many things in scripture that we may never fully comprehend. For example, the Trinity. How can God exist in three persons; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit yet these three be one God.

The incarnation of Christ. How can Christ be fully God yet fully human at the same time? Furthermore, how can the bible be the inspired Word of God, yet actual letters written by men?

There are many things about God that we have to accept because He is God and we are not, and we may never fully know the answers until we get to heaven.

The motivation for the cross is one of those things. How could Christ bring glory to God through the suffering of the cross? That is the subject of this great passage tonight.

John 12:27–34 NASB95

“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

Jesus has come to Jerusalem for the final week of His life. On Friday He will become the Passover Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

But before we get to the cross, John gives us intimate details of the ordeal Jesus faced on the way.

The synoptic gospels use Gethsemane and the prayer of Jesus to describe His suffering on the night He was arrested. John describes this agony for a week.

There have been some Greeks who came to Phillip asking to see Jesus, Vs. 20. The Greeks represented the Gentile world, and their request was a pivotal moment for Christ.

Having been rejected by the Jews, He now has assurance the Gospel will spread to the whole world.

Up until that point He had consistently said His hour had not yet come. The hour referring to the time for His death on the cross. Now, He says the hour has come and He is preparing to die.

The point; the Motivation of the cross was the glory of God and the salvation of the world.

I. The Troubled Soul of the Son Vs. 27-28a.

Here we see Jesus is beginning to anticipate the agony of the cross. It is weighing heavy on His mind.

Vs. 27a “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say.”

The word “troubled” is the word “tarasso” and means to be stirred, or distressed and agitated.

It is the same word used in Luke 12:49 when Jesus is talking about accomplishing the task the Father has sent Him to do, He said, ““I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!” So, Jesus has stress kindled in His soul in anticipation of what He is facing.

However, I don’t think it was the physical suffering of the cross that was causing Him trouble. It was the fact that on the cross, He would be separated from the Father and would carry the weight of the sin of the world.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Jesus was sinless and had no sin of His own to suffer for. Yet He would bare the wrath of God’s punishment for all sin. We see that take place in Matthew 27:46,

When Jesus is hanging on the cross, it says, “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?””

That should be a solemn reminder for us. Jesus was forsaken by the Father because of your sin and mine. He took upon Himself the wrath of God on the world!!

It is no wonder His soul was troubled we cannot understand the agony the humanity of Christ was going through as the moment grew near.

For the first time in all of eternity, the Son of God was separated from the Father and it was for our sin He was separated!!

Notice the struggle. Look at the middle of Vs. 27, ‘Father, save Me from this hour.”

There was a struggle taking place inside of Him in this moment. It is important we understand though, Jesus was not backing out of this moment. He was fully commited to accomplishing the will of God!!

In fact, there was never a time when Jesus was out of the will of God. The scriptures testify to that, Jesus Himself said in John 8:29 “ I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.””

In fact to be out of God’s will would be a sin and we know Christ was sinless. So, the key to understanding this prayer in Vs. 27, is to realize we are seeing the incarnation of Christ. We are seeing both His humanity and divinity at the same time!!

As a man, His soul is in distress but as the Christ He is tenacious!! Look at the end of Vs. 27, “But for this purpose I came to this hour.”

This was the very reason He came into the world. He was born to die!! And there was not a moment of disobedience in His heart. He was surrendered to the will of God and He was going to accomplish all He was sent to achieve!!

It is important we understand that from the divine standpoint Jesus had to die. There was no other option, the cross was a must. I will give you a couple reasons,

The perfect life that Jesus lived, couldn’t save us there had to be a blood atonement. Leviticus 17:11 “‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’”

The book of Hebrews explains this better for us. Hebrews 9:22 “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

So, for our sins to be forgiven, Christ had to die!!

2. The death of Christ was prophecy and it had to be fulfilled. God had spoken it, and it had to come to pass!

For Jesus not to die for the sin of the world would mean He would cease to be God and that was not going to happen.

For example, Isaiah 53:4–5 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”

So, Jesus willingly went to the cross and laid down His life for our salvation. He met all the demands of a Holy God for sinful man, so that we can come to God not based on our own merits, but on the blood of Jesus!!

Notice the trust at the beginning of Vs. 28. “Father Glorify thy Name.”

The ultimate desire of Jesus was to bring glory to God. And in a way that is difficult for us to understand Jesus achieved that through the suffering and shame He would endure on the cross.

It reminds me of what Paul wrote when he was suffering in prison, Philippians 1:20–21 “according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

That should be the desire of every believer in the world! No matter what we face in this life our hearts desire and prayer has to be Father use this, whatever it is, for your honor and glory!!

II. The Response from the Father Vs. 28b-30

John 12:28b “Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.””

There were so many ways God had already been glorified by Jesus. He was glorified by the immaculate conception of Christ. He was born into this world through the work of the Holy Spirit without any help from man. That is a picture of our salvation. We are born again not by the will of man but by the will of God!!

The Father was glorified by the perfect life of obedience Jesus lived, another example of how we bring glory to God through a life of obedience!!

But notice God says, “I will glorify it again.” God the Father was going to use the death, the resurrection, every word and every work of Christ to bring Him glory!!

Notice in Vs. 29, the sound of the Fathers voice thundered!! “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.”

John wants to make it clear to us that this was an audible voice that spoke and it was loud, and the people standing by thought it was supernatural!!

Notice that even though they were not sure if it was thunder or an angel, they recognize it came from above and was speaking to Jesus!!

Look at the explanation of the voice by Jesus Vs. 30. “Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes.

This is only the third time we hear from God the Father in the New Testament, and all three times He speaks in approval of His Son.

Was at His baptism, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Was on the mount of Transfiguration, “This is my Son, listen to Him.”

Now He answers the prayer of Jesus and says “I have been glorified and I will be glorified again.”

Each time, that God speaks the Heavens are declaring their approval of Jesus and the people who were standing by should have recognized that and recieved Him as their Savior!!

III. The Ruin of Satan Vs. 31. “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

The judgment of this world is referring to the work of Christ on the cross. The cross represents either the atonement for sin or the condemnation of sin.

All people fall into these two categories and will be judged based on your response to what Jesus has done for you. You either stand before God on the day of judgement in your sin and on your merits or you stand before Him in the righteousness of Christ.

Obviously, the ruler of this world who will be cast out is Satan. When Jesus died and rose again it was the death blow to Satan and the demons of the world.

Because it brought an end to the penalty of the law that was against us and the fear of hell and death that lied before us!!

Colossians 2:14–15 “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

Satan’s power over man is now broken by the cross and he now stands condemned, destined for the lake of fire!!

IV. The Reaping of Sinners Vs. 32-33

John 12:32–33 ““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.”

The phrase lifted up speaks of how Jesus would die on the cross. This is the third time He used that phrase to describe His death. John 3:14, John 8:28.

The phrase “will draw all men unto Me” does not mean that all people will be saved. We know that because we see people who live and die on a regular basis that reject Jesus and the free gift God offers them to be saved. But what this means is that all who put their trust in Him will be drawn to Him and saved!!

John 3:16–18 ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Through Jesus God offers us forgiveness and grace. The opportunity to live and dwell in His presence for eternity. But God doesn’t force us to believe. He grants us the privilege of faith!!

V. The rejection of the Sinner Vs. 34

Notice this crowd refused to accept and believe.

“The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

This crowd represents all the sinners of the world, They say, “who are you?” Who is the Son of Man? We don’t know you or recognize you.

This teaches us there will always be people who reject Christ. The people in this story rejected Him because He wasn’t the Messiah they were looking for. they were not looking to be saved them from their sins but from the Romans.

People today reject Jesus because He is not the Messiah they are looking for. They want a Messiah to accept their sin and let them be whoever they are. A Messiah that will lead them to prosperity. That’s why so many people are fooled by the prosperity gospel and the likes of Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copelands of the world.

But Jesus is the Messiah who came to reconcile us to a holy God and save us from His wrath against our sin so we could be forgiven.

Conclusion

The point; the Motivation of the cross was the glory of God and the salvation of the world. Christ willingly suffered to honor the Father, Defeat the enemy and save our souls!!

Our response to Christ’s sacrifice should be to endure hardship in this world by identifying with Jesus and standing with Him in faith. The cross calls for us to live in obedience to God and bring glory to the name of Jesus in the same way He glorified the Father!!

What was the motivation for the Cross? The glory of God and our eternity!!