I'm grateful for the many of you who have been praying and coming to the church in fact to pray. This last week every morning there were folks who came and were praying for the ministry of the spring conference as well as for the Nehemiah campaign. And God is answering prayer. We want along the way to be sharing some of those answers to prayer with you. And we may be able to do that tonight to some degree. And if not then next week.
God is doing some amazing things and you're going to be thrilled as you begin hearing what God is doing already in preparation for the upcoming weeks. Would you open your Bible please with me to John chapter 12. As we think this morning concerning the theme, the hour has come. John 12 and I'll begin reading in verse 12.
On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet him and began to cry out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. When Jesus finding a young donkey said on it as it is written, fear not daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming seated on a donkey's colt.
These things his disciples did not understand at the first, but when Jesus was glorified then they remembered that these things were written of him and that they had done these things to him. Also the multitude who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead were bearing him witness. For this cause also the multitude went and met him because they heard that he had performed the sign.
The Pharisees therefore said to one another, you see that you are not doing any good. Look the world has gone after him. Now there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These therefore came to Philip who was from the side of Galilee and began to ask him saying, sir we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew and Andrew and Philip came and they told Jesus. And Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.
Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am there shall my servant also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 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 thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven. I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. The multitude therefore 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, that is exclusively for my sake, but also for your sakes. Now judgment is upon this world.
Now the ruler of this world shall be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. The Son of God left the palace halls of his Father's house and departed from the realm of the Eternal. He came down, down, down to our sin-cursed existence, to the realm of death and corruption. Laying aside his visible glories as God, he entered our world by becoming one of us, by becoming human in every respect without diminishing his deity.
His purpose in coming was to give his life as the ransom for captive sinners, to provide the propitiation for offended holiness, to fulfill the plan of God for the redemption of a remnant of humanity. He was sinless, and he remained so completely as he obeyed from his heart the law of God. All of his earthly life, all of his earthly life, had to be lived within the time plan of God. He could not die at any time, or for that matter, at any place, or in any way.
He had to die at the time, at the place, and in the way which was planned by his Father. He did not come as an adult. He could have, but he did not. He had to experience certain things and accomplish certain goals before he could achieve his ultimate saving purpose, in other words, come to his hour. For example, he had to be tempted. He had to be proved to be sinless. He had to train disciples to carry on his message after he would depart.
He had to present himself to Israel and be rejected by his own. All of those things had to be done before he could come to his hour, the purpose for his entrance into the world. Satan sought to short circuit God's fully accomplished program for Christ. Turn back with me and John to the seventh chapter and notice what takes place in verse 30.
Because of Jesus' claims in this chapter, in verse 30 it says, they, the religious leaders, were seeking therefore to seize him, and no man laid his hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Then look again in chapter 8 and verse 20 where once more Jesus has made certain claims regarding who he is, that in fact he is God. And in verse 20 it says, these words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.
In other words, there were attempts to seize him, there were attempts to kill him, but he could not be killed until his hour had come. Now his hour had come. Jesus himself says, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. The time for his glorification had arrived. But I have a question. What is the glory that will be manifested in this hour that he speaks about? He says, now is the hour, this is the event, this is the occasion when the Son of Man will be glorified, but what glory?
What is manifested here in this hour? In what sense is the Son of Man glorified? I think as we understand the answer to that question, we'll see something also of the glory that he has called you and me to share with him. Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified. What is that glory? Number one, the glory of his humility. The glory of his humility. John omits in his record most of the last week of our Savior and proceeds in his narrative directly to the upper room.
There the Passover meal was shared with Jesus and his twelve disciples. One of them was a traitor of course, and Jesus knew that from the beginning. John makes that clear in chapter six of his gospel in the sixty-fourth verse where it says, but there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew, says John, from the beginning. Who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him.
Then again in verse seventy, Jesus answered them, did I myself not choose you the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil? Now he meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. Jesus knew that there was a traitor among them and yet he prepared for all this meal because he loved each of his disciples, including Judas. In humility the son of God clothed himself at that meal as a servant.
He took a towel and a basin and then knelt down before each of the disciples and washed their feet. As the drama of that occasion unfolded, Judas eventually left and Jesus makes it clear that as Judas was leaving and in what he was going to do, that he, the son of man, was going to be glorified and God too was going to be glorified. What is it that prompted? His demonstration of his humility as he washed the feet of his disciples.
Well as we read other accounts of that supper, it seems as though the thing that caused Jesus to take that action, to demonstrate his humility, was the fact that his disciples were in an argument. Their argument was over who was the greatest among them. Can you imagine that? They were not sensitive at all to what was going on around them. They did not perceive it and we cannot harshly judge them because had we been there, we would undoubtedly be just like they were.
But on that occasion as he gathered to eat a Passover meal with them, the main theme of conversation among them was which of us is the greatest? And they were all jockeying for number one position. It seems to me that it must have been at that point that Jesus simply arose without saying a word and began to wash their feet. And then after supper they went out to the garden of Gethsemane.
In doing so they passed over the Kibrin Brook there in the valley to the east of Jerusalem and entered into the garden where again we see the humility of the Son of God. We see his submission as he says, not what I will but what thou will. The commentary upon that, the apostle Paul said he was obedient unto death, even the death of a cross, humility. But after his arrest in the garden, Jesus was tried before both Jewish and Roman authorities. It was a mock trial in both cases.
There was no justice, laws were broken and yet the Son of God did not protest, he did not argue. There was complete dignity on his part. He was under control. There were only quiet words of witness as Isaiah the prophet said, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers. So he did not open his mouth. In actuality it was not Jesus who was on trial was it? But it was the world. But we see the glory of his humility manifested in this hour.
And that humility is powerful folks. Genuine humility attracts like a magnet attracts iron filings. Arrogance, pride, boasting, self-centeredness, self-preservation, all of that repels. It does. But humility attracts. Was it not that very passage that I quoted from Isaiah that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading when he asked Philip of whom does the prophet speak? He was attracted by what it said of this one.
And at that scripture Philip simply began to present to him Jesus and the glory of his humility. I want to suggest to you that that is the same glory that you and I are called to share. It seems as though that's contradictory in our worldly minds because we think of glory as self-promotion, of preeminence, as upfront, the top of the heap. And yet glory is found in humility not in all the rest of that junk.
That's why the apostle Paul said, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. What attitude, Paul? Well, don't let everybody look after his own things only, but also the things of others. Consider others more important than yourselves. Let that attitude be in you as it was in Christ Jesus. James says, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord. Peter joins in and he says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.
You and I are never wrong when we humble ourselves. Remember that humility is not thinking badly about ourselves. Do not confuse humility with an inferiority complex. But humility is when we choose to put others before ourselves. Humility looks after our own things, but not just our own things, also the concerns, the issues, the things of others. That's humility. And that's exactly what Jesus Christ was manifesting in his hour. The glory of his humility.
And is it not that glory of his humility that attracts you to him in worship? May I suggest secondly that it was the glory of his love that was manifested in his hour? Love that was demonstrated at the cross for us. The world thinks of the cross as a relic, as an adornment or a piece of jewelry. Others see the cross as a mistake, as an unfortunate thing that simply got out of control so that Jesus was put to an untimely death. Then there are those who see the cross as weakness.
They say surely God doesn't utilize such a humiliating thing as a cross. That was the idea of the Jews in that day. Then there are those who see it as foolishness, the worldly wise, like the Greeks of Paul's day. They said why, why the cross? Why is that necessary? Man is sufficient in himself. And to think that such a despicable, bloody event could have an impact on the world, that is foolishness. The Paul says that in fact the message of the cross is both the wisdom and the power of God.
Jesus was glorified in his cross work. It revealed his deep, eternal love for lost sinners like you and me. For God so loved the world, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, herein his love, not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Jesus was glorified at the cross and it was his love that was manifested. You cannot look upon that scene in your mind, in your imagination.
You cannot look into the eyes of the Savior and view his bleeding body hanging there without having your own heart touched and warmed by the love, the glory of his love that was demonstrated. Beloved you and I are called to share the glory of his love. We are called to share the glory of his love by our own love for each other. I mean by our own sacrifice for others, our seeking the welfare of others, whether they appreciate it, whether they respond to it or not.
You and I are called to share the glory of that love. The world does not know that glory. This kind of love is unique to God. Behold what manner or what foreign kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us. This love, agape love, comes from God. It is not a love that is known in the world. The world can know a friendship love. It can know an emotional love.
It can know a sincere love but it cannot know this love for this love is a love that can only be known by those who are called of God into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ. We are called that we might share the glory of this love with him and with each other. When there is an atmosphere of agape love in a church, in a home, it makes it like heaven on earth because it is this love that rules and dominates heaven.
When we pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying for that love to be transposed into our existence, to be brought into our lives that we might share the glory of that love with others. The cross today stands forever as a symbol not of man's cruelty but of God's love. When you see a cross, is that not your thought? To show his love for us, God gave his son. Of course, one question that we have to ask is have you received his gift that he has given?
God to give it is one part, but the rest of the story is that you must receive that gift for yourself. You say, well I have always been raised in a Christian home, a religious home, I have grown up in the church. The question is has there been a decisive point in your life when you have received God's love gift in his son? He gave his son on the cross that you might receive his son and eternal life.
If you have not received him, will you do that today and open your heart that you might share in the glory of his love? And then think with me thirdly regarding the glory of his power. Now is the hour, said Jesus, for the son of man to be glorified. In what sense? The glory of his humility, the glory of his love, and now the glory of his power, which we see clearly evidenced at the empty tomb. In the Gospel of John, turn back a page or two to the tenth chapter and look at verse 17.
Jesus says, for this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. What is Jesus talking about? He's talking about his resurrection from the dead. Certainly as he had the authority to lay down his life as a sacrifice, he had the authority, the exucia, that is the power from God to take it up again.
We see here the glory of his power as God the Son. He came and suffered in humility. But now at the tomb on that first Easter morn, his power is demonstrated as he is revived and his body is changed into a glorified body, the first fruits of the kind of body that you and I will have in the resurrection. And he comes forth from that grave as victor and conqueror over death. The glory of his power is seen in this hour when he is glorified.
The suffering which began in a garden was overshadowed by surprise in another garden. The grief was turned to joy, the tears to laughing because of the empty tomb. It reveals his glorious power. And once more, beloved, that is the same glory that you and I are called to, that we might share in the glory of his power even now at this moment. That power, that very same energy that raised him from the tomb is the energy that works dynamically in you who believe.
And through that power within you that God has placed in you in the person of his spirit, he is able to do exceeding, abundantly beyond all that you could ask or think. You and I are called to share in the glory of his power. It is a power that we also exercise in prayer as we come into the very presence of God and we pour out our hearts to him. And it is a power that one day is going to change these lowly bodies to be fashioned like his body of glory.
That power that is inside of us now is going to change the very structure, the very makeup of these physical, mortal bodies. And we will in that instant of time be changed to immortality, to incorruption. And how? By the glory of his power. The Son of Man is to be glorified in this hour, said Jesus. How? By his resurrection from the dead. We see the glory of his power. But then think with me finally, of the glory of his position.
Where the Son of God was raised from the dead, lived among men for a period of weeks, and then returned to heaven. He stood with them on the Mount of Olives and after blessing them and commissioning them, he was lifted up from them and taken out of their sight bodily, he went up into the air, was hidden from their sight by the clouds, and then entered into the heavenly dimension. And he is seated today at the right hand of God the Father. Listen to how the writer of the book of Hebrews puts it.
We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need, the glory of his position. His humiliation was swallowed by exaltation.
He is the great high priest who today ministers before the throne of grace. He ministers there in the first place to defend his own as our advocate. When the accuser of the brethren comes before God and accuses us because of our failings and our sins, we have a defense attorney, an advocate who stands before God, who is the propitiation for our sins and intercedes perfectly before us, before him, as our defender. And he has the right to do that because he paid the price for our sins.
Satan has no standing to accuse us because those sins have been paid for, past, present, and future. Why as he may, to undermine us before God, we have one who has a glorious position before the Lord, before the Father in heaven. And he exercises that position to do the work of advocacy on our part, but not only so, he also uses that position to pray for his own, to pray for you, for me, as our intercessor. And he ever lives to do that.
He will ever exercise that position as the intercessor of his people. The same Jesus is enthroned also as a sovereign. He is seated at the right hand of God, which doesn't mean that he has literally been seated in a throne for 2,000 years of earth time, but it's a positional statement. He is at the right hand of God, there at that place of authority, designated authority, and he is there to reign. He reigns now over a hidden kingdom in the hearts of his people.
But one day he will reign over a visible kingdom, an earthly kingdom, as he returns to the earth. Now because he has that glorious position, you and I have access to God directly. And not only that, but we are seated with him in the heavenlies. We share a calling to the glory of his position. Not that we will ever become deity ourselves, but even now we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, Ephesians 1.
And we shall one day be seated on a throne of glory with him, and shall reign with him over the new heavens and the new earth. What a wonderful calling God has given us. Isn't it great that even now you and I can interpret life from that position as seated with him in the heavenlies? A few months ago I met a friend of mine here in the Twin Cities and he said, how are things going? And I responded, I don't know what I said.
And he said, isn't it great that we can look down on all of those things, being seated with him in glory? I thought, wow, what a great statement. So often you and I live under our circumstances. We're in the midst of them, and we get harassed and hurried and oppressed. But the fact is that we have a calling to be seated with him, and we are seated with him.
And you and I have the perspective of being able to look down on life, look down upon our circumstances with understanding, with gratitude to God, with faith in the Lord, that all of it in the end is going to come out to his ultimate purpose before our good. Jesus said, now the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. How was he glorified? By his humility. A humility that you and I are called to share as believers.
A humility that will enable us to remain one of heart and mind, to serve one another. How was he glorified? He was glorified in the cross as his love was demonstrated. A love that you and I are called upon to know and to express to others. Jesus said, by this shall all men know you are my disciples if you have this kind of love, the kind of love I've demonstrated at the cross. How was he glorified in that hour? By the power that was demonstrated in his resurrection from the tomb.
A power that you and I now can draw upon in our lives. A power that indeed is working in us to do beyond all that we could ask or think. How was he glorified? By the position that he resumed in heaven. By being taken back into the presence of God and there now as advocate and high priest of his people. A calling that you and I share as we can come directly to the throne of grace ourselves through him. And we're seated with him.
And one day we'll sit with him on a throne of glory when he comes to reign in his kingdom. This is a glory that you and I are called to share because in that hour he was glorified. His hour was the appointed time. God's time. God's way. God's place. And it was all signaled to begin by what we call the triumphal entry. There was not a whole lot of triumph there frankly, though we call it that.
The real triumphal entry is going to take place when he comes again to the earth and enters into the city of Jerusalem. That will be his true triumphal entry. But on that day, two thousand years ago, there was a crowd of people coming with tremendous enthusiasm in the direction of Bethany over the Mount of Olives. And Jesus was there in the front of that crowd. And word got to Jerusalem that Jesus was coming. And they heard what had happened in the resurrection of Lazarus.
And they came running out from Jerusalem and somewhere on the Mount of Olives, those two crowds converged, came together. And with great exultation and enthusiasm, they began to cry out, Lord, save, save now. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And they took off their coats and threw them on the ground so that he might ride over them. They waved the palm branches in the air. And as they were doing that, Jesus wept. Jesus burst into tears because of his burden for Jerusalem.
He said, Oh, if only you had known your hour, your time of opportunity. He says, now it's too late. He pronounces judgment on Jerusalem and enters on into the city only a few days later to be rejected by Jews, condemned by Jews and Gentiles, and put on the cross to die. Beloved, because of that hour in his life, you and I came to a point, an hour in our own experience, when we came to receive him, to trust him. To the nation of the Jews, Jesus said, you've missed your hour. It was too late.
But thank God in this day of grace, there is still an hour for you if you've not responded to him. Behold, today is the day of salvation. Now is the appointed time. You say, I'm not sure my hour has come. Listen, my friend, this is your hour. You are not guaranteed of another opportunity, another day, another hour. This is your hour. And this is the time when the Son of God comes to you in grace. And he beckons for you to come to him and for you to receive him, to trust him. Will you do that?
Will you make that decision today and let his entry be one of triumph into your heart, into your life? Will you cry out, as did the multitudes of that day, Lord, Lord, save? Except that you do it with more personal meaning. Lord save me. And he will. And what a triumphant hour, my friend, that will be for you. And then you will be called to share in all of his glory. Let's bow together. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, as the Spirit of God speaks tenderly to our hearts.
I wonder if you sense very, very personally and genuinely that this is your hour. Whatever your past has been, whether it has been religious or irreverent, whether it has involved church and ritual or you come today to a church for the first time, if in this moment you sense within your heart an agitation, a conviction for your sinfulness, and you're willing to say to Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus Christ, come into my life. I receive you. Lord save, save me. He will hear that cry of yours, my friend.
Do not turn him away. But at this moment, extend your faith to him, will you? Within your heart, speak to him and receive him now. If you've done that this morning, and if that is your heart's attitude, you are trusting in Jesus Christ. I want to invite you to slip your hand up and then put it down. But in slipping it up, say, Pastor Cole, today I did make that decision. This is my hour, and I am trusting in Jesus Christ alone for my salvation. Would you put your hand up and then put it down?
I want to pray for you. I'm not going to come back and get you or point you out, but I would like to pray for you. Yes this is my hour, and I receive him today. Is there one? Is there one? Not to those of us who are the children of God. But we are sharing in his glory as we ought to be in humility, in love, in power, utilizing our position in Christ. On this day, as we think of his triumphal entry, let's commit ourselves afresh to him, to follow him obediently.
Lord, I pray that we will indeed enter into the fullness of the calling that we have in Christ. Lord, let none of us remain on the periphery of this. But I pray that all of us will plunge fully into the glory that you've called us to. And may we experience in our own walk with you humility and love. May that dynamic power that indwells us as the children of God energize us and fulfill in us your perfect will.
And may we today interpret life from the position that we share as seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Deliver us from living under our circumstances to interpreting them from on top and seeing your hand at work. We give ourselves afresh to you, O Son of God, Son of David. We thank you that you've called us in fellowship with yourself. We bless you. Amen. Would you stand together with me, please? And would you sing with me? Sing hallelujah to the Lord. Sing hallelujah to the Lord.
Sing hallelujah, sing hallelujah. Sing hallelujah to the Lord. Once more. Sing hallelujah to the Lord. Sing hallelujah to the Lord. Sing hallelujah, sing hallelujah. Sing hallelujah to the Lord. The Lord from our hearts and our lips receive that word of praise as we depart from the service this morning. We love you and we go forth from here to serve you in this world. Amen.