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[0:00] Seeking God's blessing upon us, let us now turn back to chapter 12 of John's Gospel, where we read together John chapter 12, and especially the words we find in verses 27 and 28.

[0:24] John 12, verse 27. In the beginning of this chapter, we see from verse 1 to verse 19 how the Lord Jesus Christ looked upon his own death, which was only a matter of days away.

[1:09] He looked on it as a means of bringing glory to God. He looked upon it also as a way to defeat loneliness.

[1:21] The grain of wheat, if it's not put into the ground, he said, will remain alone. But if it's in the ground, it will bring forth much fruit. And it's a way of being fruitful as well as defeating loneliness.

[1:39] Now in this verse that we read there together, verse 28, he said, Father, glorify your name. We look first of all at the context in which these words were spoken.

[1:58] Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, and his fame is spread far and wide. He had become so popular that the Pharisees said, as verse 19 tells us, Look, the whole world has gone after him.

[2:15] The people we read here in the first part of the chapter were willing to crown him as king, and they cut down palm branches and they waved them about.

[2:27] And he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in lowly majesty. And all this had led those Greeks to come to Philip and say to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

[2:45] How glad Jesus would have been to hear of these Greeks who were wanting to come to him. How they were drawn to him.

[2:58] They were representing the millions upon millions who would be yet drawn to Christ through his death on the cross and through the gospel of his love and grace.

[3:11] And indeed, Isaiah 53, verse 11 was being fulfilled that day, which says, He shall see of the labor of his soul and shall be satisfied.

[3:23] But Jesus also knew that those Greeks and the many, many others could never be saved if he would not go to the cross.

[3:37] The grain of wheat had to die before those thousands upon thousands of precious souls would be brought into his kingdom.

[3:52] And therefore, as he spoke those words, Jesus was as if he was standing on the shore of a huge ocean. An infinite ocean.

[4:10] And with great courage, he went forward to meet that storm that was about to break over his soul in a few days' time.

[4:24] And he said, Father, glorify your name. There are three things we can pick out of this passage then, out of these two verses, 27 and 28.

[4:41] First thing is the anguish he experienced. Then the glory that he desired. And finally, the assurance that he received.

[4:53] First of all, then the anguish that he experienced. Now is my soul troubled, he said. Isn't it amazing that the one who stilled the storms for others on various occasions had such a raging storm within his own heart and soul?

[5:17] And that he refused to calm that storm until it had exhausted itself on him. In Gethsemane, he was heard to pray later on, Not my will, but thy will be done.

[5:37] He could have called 12,000 angels that would have gladly come to rescue him from his enemies and destroy those who were arrayed against him.

[5:51] On the cross he could have taken the drugged wine that he was given, that was in the sponge that was put to his lips, but he refused the drugged wine.

[6:05] That drugged wine would have eased the storm for him and made it easier for him to bear the pain. Why did he not take it?

[6:17] I believe the answer is that he wanted to experience everything of the penalty that his people deserved.

[6:30] He didn't want to leave any debts unpaid. So he said no to that drugged wine.

[6:43] He was going to endure all that his people deserved by way of punishment, so that they may come to be with him, eventually from every tribe and every race and every nation, into the calm of this harbour that he had prepared for them.

[7:11] I love those words in Psalm 107, and we often sing them at the death and at the burial service of a Christian.

[7:23] Verses 29 and 30, The storm is changed into a calm at his command and will, so that the waves which raged before now quiet are and still.

[7:38] Then are they glad, because at rest and quiet now they be. So to the haven he then brings which they desire to see.

[7:49] But there was no quietness for him. There was no calmness for him. There was no escape for him from the storm until it had exhausted itself on him.

[8:08] He could truly say deep calls, too deep at the noise of your water spouts. All your waves and your billows have gone over me.

[8:18] I wonder if you're here today and you're passing through a time of crisis or trouble. Remember that Jesus knows all about you.

[8:34] And he has been that way before. It's not new to him. It's new to you. But he knows all about you.

[8:47] And even as the way darkens, you can trace his footsteps there. You can realize this is not a new way somebody else has walked this pathway before me.

[9:02] And you realize that it dawns upon you that it was the Savior. For every pang that rends your heart, he knows all about it.

[9:18] For he suffered in your place and in your stead. He has been there before you.

[9:28] He will not ask you or ask me to go into any dark passage that he has not been there himself before.

[9:43] Listen to that verse in Isaiah 33, verse 9. In all their afflictions, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.

[9:56] I wonder if you feel guilty at times that you are finding yourself in the depths of trouble so often. Remember this, that it is not a sin to be afflicted, but the Son of God himself was afflicted.

[10:18] It's how we react to the affliction that counts. And remember that whatever your problem may be today, God is greater than your problem.

[10:35] It's not a sin to say in the midst of your troubles, if it is possible, let this cup pass over me, as long as we don't forget to say, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

[10:54] The anguish that he experienced. Then there's the glory that he desired. Father, glorify your name. In other words, Jesus was asking the Father, glorify your name through whatever you put into the cup for me.

[11:13] you are the one who is filling the cup. May you be glorified through everything that you have placed in that cup.

[11:28] If we're asked, why did Jesus die? The answer that comes to our lips right away is he died for his people. He died for sinners to be saved.

[11:41] and that's quite true. But this verse speaks of a deeper reason for his death. You see, Jesus did not pray initially, Father, save sinners from being eternally lost.

[11:58] No, he prayed, Father, glorify your name. The glory of God was the chief end and the true object of Christ's death.

[12:13] It was in order that God's name might be glorified that Jesus wanted to see sinners saved in every generation.

[12:25] His death had this as its aim and as its goal, that people everywhere would see the glorious attributes of God, that heaven and earth and hell would recognise what a great God he is, and that by his death all those attributes might be blazed abroad, that men and women everywhere and heaven and hell would know that he was a righteous God, he was a holy God, a just God, a God of love and a God of mercy and a God of grace.

[13:13] That's why Jesus said, Father, glorify your name, and indeed he was glorified by the death of Christ on the cross, for it showed his justice.

[13:28] In the death of Christ, his son on the cross, we see God opening the way of salvation, paying the ransom price for his people, making it possible for us to go to heaven at last, to be with himself, while at the same time, remaining a holy and a just God.

[13:53] You can't put a finger on God and say that he did something that was unjust, just, because he remained a just God, and at the same time he punished sin with the punishment that it rightly deserves.

[14:13] God was glorified in the death of Christ, for it showed his justice. It also showed his wisdom, for it testified of the wisdom of God.

[14:30] Who is as wise as our God? There's no one. Only God in his great wisdom could have devised the plan of salvation. The wisest of men, and the higher intelligence of the angels could not do it.

[14:48] when God unveiled the plan of salvation for all to see. Peter wrote to the church, and he said that the angels gazed upon the plan of salvation with adoring wonder, which things, he said, the angels desire to look into.

[15:12] His wisdom was seen, and he was glorified. in that sense, God was also glorified in the death of Christ on the cross, for supremely it displayed his love for sinners.

[15:32] God's love from the very beginning of time was not as clearly seen as it was on that day at Calvary, as he bled and suffered and died in the room and in the stead of his people.

[15:50] I often think of how the diamond sparkles so beautifully in the jeweller's shop against the black cloth that the shopkeeper spreads over the counter before he places the ring or whatever you are wanting to buy on the table.

[16:16] It's as if the black cloth brings out the sparkle that is in the jewel. And so it is with the love of God.

[16:30] It shines more brightly and more beautifully and more clearly against the back cloth of our unworthiness and of sinfulness. All the divine attributes of God are completely and perfectly glorified in the atoning death of Christ.

[16:54] We can only mention a few of them for the time is passing and none of them subtracts from the others in any way whatsoever.

[17:08] You know how the sunbeam when it passes through a prism is broken up into its various beautiful sights and colours.

[17:24] You would never know that the sunbeam had those seven beautiful colours that you see in the rainbow on a rainy day with the sun shining but when the sunbeam passes through the prism those colours come to view they come to light and you admire them.

[17:48] Where were they before? They were there but there was no means of discovering them until the prism was placed there and the sunbeam passed through the prism the atoning death of Christ on the cross is the glorious prism through which the love and the mercy and the grace of God passes and is displayed in all their beauty and in all their holiness all his attributes are seen more clearly through the cross and that was part of the joy that was set before him that enabled him and made him willing to endure the cross despising the shame yes there was countless precious souls going to be saved by his death that was thriving him on his people would be there in such a large number that no one would be ever able to count them that spurred him on but this spurred him on above everything else that

[19:08] God the father was going to be eternally glorified through his sufferings his obedience and his death on the cross that was the glory that he desired and finally there was the assurance that he received the assurance he received then a voice came from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorify it again here God the father is testifying to the fact that he has done something already and that he is going to do something in the future as well I have glorified it he said and I will glorify it again what does he mean what is he referring to when he says I have glorified it well surely the father was glorified when

[20:11] Jesus came as a little baby into the world the incarnation of Christ glorified God incarnation we have in the incarnation the greatest mystery that this world has ever known I'm sure like me many of you are interested in what scientists can do in our day and generation and will read of their ability in the field of genetics it's amazing and it's astounding what they can do in the field of medicine and genetics today but the wonder of all wonders is this that God came and became a man in this world that the word that was with

[21:12] God from all eternity became flesh and dwelt among us this is something you don't find in any of the other religions of the world the creator the God becoming one with his beings with his creatures to save them from their sins and their wasted lives but here we have in the gospel something that is unique God the creator becoming one of his creatures to identify with them and take upon himself the penalty that they deserved when the angels began to sing that night above Bethlehem's slopes their theme was the glory of

[22:16] God glory to God they said in the highest on earth peace goodwill towards men and there was also the thirty sinless years that Jesus lived in Nazareth and that glorified God as well I have glorified it already he said indeed he had in his infancy there as a child obedient to his parents as a young man working at the tools in his father's workshop or so he was said to be the father of Jesus Joseph the carpenter and throughout all these years you would find the pity condescension the long suffering of God clearly seen and all these things continued during his ministry he didn't change once he began his ministry what he was as an obedient child in

[23:28] Nazareth so he continued obedient to a greater father than Joseph ever could be he lived a perfect life and through Christ God has shown us the kind of lives he wants us to live in this world so that we will bring glory to his name so that we fulfill our chief reason for being in this world to glorify God and to enjoy him forever God the father also spoke of the future I will glorify it he said I will glorify it again that's what it says here and that word again doesn't just mean again once more it means again and again and again and again it's like an echo that goes on repeating and which gets louder not fainter that's the echoes that we hear in this world when we shout out something on a calm day and there's a rocky precipice in front of us we hear our voices coming back but as the seconds go by the voice gets less and less and then eventually dies away hello and it comes back hello hello hello until it dies away but when

[25:35] God the Father said I will glorify it again he meant that it would go on repeating again and again louder louder and louder and louder the cross and the death of Christ and all that he suffered there is going to continue throughout endless eternity to glorify God in heaven with the saints and the angels and all the people who will be there from every country and every nation and generation they will be praising unceasingly praising God for sending Jesus into the world to die the resurrection of Jesus on the third day brought glory to God as well as his death when the women went out to the grave with their spices they found the grave empty the stone had been rolled away who could have done it he's not here he's risen the angels told the women he's going before you into Galilee and he'll see you there go and tell his disciples and don't forget Peter tell him too that he is risen that the grave is empty do you not think that that glorified

[27:19] God of course it did for the resurrection shows God's power over sin and death and hell and all the powers of darkness they were robbed of their victory they thought they had the victory a couple of days before but they lost their victory Christ says Paul in Romans chapter 1 verse 4 Christ declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead declared to be the son of God with power power the father the father was glorified in the resurrection he was glorified again at the ascension when

[28:23] Christ ascended to the right hand of the throne of God as those golden gates opened for him and welcomed him back God was glorified the mighty conqueror has returned then ten days after that the Holy Spirit was poured out as never before upon the church three thousand precious souls were swept into the kingdom in that one day don't you think God was glorified on the day of Pentecost of course he was I have glorified it and I will glorify it again and again every conversion is a miracle of God's grace and it brings glory to God it shows his power it shows his authority over Satan and over sin and every saved sinner who lives a consistent and obedient life by the grace of

[29:44] God glorifies him so if you want to glorify God today then live in God's power live by the strength of his grace in a way that is pleasing in his sight and he will be glorified in your life if you do that and if I do that and every saved sinner that is fully sanctified and made perfect in holiness and enter into glory at the day of his death glorifies God as well you can picture them coming in through those golden gates into heaven one by one and every one of them glorifies God the work is now complete in them sanctification is finished now it has reached its climax and the angels looking on on the parapets of heaven as they see one by one

[30:54] God's children coming home to the house of many mansions say to one another aren't they beautiful aren't they beautiful they are all so like Jesus every one of them and God is glorified and on the last day when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall come to an end Jesus shall appear he'll come for his church here on earth and the dead in Christ shall rise first I'm so glad that the Bible says that that the dead in Christ the Christians rise first from their graves I wouldn't like to be rising from the grave along with the heathen along with those who died without

[31:54] Christ that went to hell and then came back from hell to get the body that was put in the grave I wouldn't like to be witnessing that it's going to be an awful awful sight Dougal Buchanan pictures it and he says that the soul of the lost shall come back from hell to claim the body at the graveside and the soul will say to the body you ugly filthy body do I have to enter into you again and spend the rest of eternity in you I wish I had never seen you but the dead in Christ will rise first and they will be there caught up in the air those that are living on that day and who are trusting in

[33:05] Christ shall be changed and they meet the Lord in the air and they go to be forever with the Lord and when the church is brought home when the bride of Christ is brought home and she is complete arrayed in the beauty that Christ has given to her arrayed in the white beauty of his own holiness with all the jewels that he gave her glittering to the glory of God will God not be glorified of course he will and for endless eternity so we have the anguish he experienced the glory he desired and the assurance that he received father glorify your name a voice from heaven said I have glorified it and

[34:14] I will glorify it again don't you wish if you're not already a Christian that you'll be among that number I hope your prayer is Lord number me among your people make me a captive Lord of your love and of your grace and mercy may he bless to us these thoughts on his word let us bow in prayer heavenly father we thank you that the best is yet to be that I indeed have not seen and yet hath not heard of all the things that are awaiting us and it has never come into the heart of man many things have come into the heart of man of beauty and riches and honour and all the rest of it but nothing has come into the heart of man to compare with what is awaiting the people of god in eternity with himself so lord bless us now as we close and as we sing your praise again oh may we do it with all our hearts in jesus name we ask it amen we're going to close the meeting the service by singing in psalm 72 the last three verses psalm 72 17 to 19 his name forever shall endure last like the sun it shall men shall endure last like the sun it shall men shall be blessed in whom are blessed all nations shall him call now blessed be the

[36:49] Lord our God the God of Israel for he alone the wondrous works in glory God excel and blessed be his glorious name to all eternity the whole earth his glory fill amen so let it be amen now may the grace of the

[37:56]  Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit the comforter rest upon you and remain with you and with all your love and all God's people here and everywhere both now and forever more amen skill you you