If you have a Bible and you want to read along in our scripture reading, we're going to look in the Gospel of John chapter 12. We're going to read verses 27 through 30. As is the case sometimes, sometimes the Lord speak something into my heart and I don't know how to say what's in there. So you pray for me this morning that the Lord would speak to you as he sees fit today and your heart wouldn't listen to, your mind wouldn't listen to what I'm saying, but what the Lord is saying to you today is certainly the desire of my heart. John chapter 12, verses 27 through 30, says this, this is Jesus speaking, and I had a hard time deciding what to read, but I decided to make it as brief as possible to get to the point that we wanna make. Obviously this is in a much larger context, and we may or may not talk about some of that, but John 12, 27. Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said an angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. I'm gonna stop there. The title of the message today is gonna come from the first part of verse 28. It's what I hope to get across today, really contained in those four simple words. Father, glorify thy name. Now, The amount of truth that is packed into these verses are very overwhelming to me to even try to preach on because there is so much here. There is so much that we can learn and that the Lord is trying to teach us. And I am so grateful that the Lord has left behind his word. I know I said this last week, but it just resonates so deeply in my heart how thankful I am for scriptures like this that I can be filled up and know that I haven't even exhausted the beginning of what's there. And I so appreciate that about the Lord's word. And as I've read, we went through this Book of John, a couple years ago on Wednesday nights, and it's always amazing to me how you can go through something so thoroughly and not see anything that the Lord shows you one day that's so right there. And that's how I feel today, somewhat about this text. And I'm gonna try, if the Lord will help me, to just say a few things that I hope would be for your good. As I was studying this this week, that verse 27, which I hope to get to here in a few minutes, is really what captivated my attention. Just everything about it is just very notable that Jesus is telling us, and I think we can't read over things like this, that now is my soul troubled. So it wasn't, but now it is. So something's going on with him spiritually. There's a change that has happened. We read in the book of Luke, chapter 9, prior to this, if you line up the chronology, Jesus had set his face to go to Jerusalem at this point. If you know what that means, you know that that means he's going to die. And so he had been given all of this responsibility on earth to fulfill the will of the Father. And the aim of his life was to glorify his Father. So in verse 28, the objective that he's stating has not changed. But the hardship and able to accomplish it has. I can't even comprehend saying that because If I said to you, now go and live a perfect life the rest of the day, you'd say, I can't do that. So Jesus has been given the assignment for 33 years, go live a perfect life. And that was the easy part of his assignment. I say that partially in jest and partially not. Now he has to do the hard part. And yet, whether it was the easy part or the hard part, all of it was aimed at the same thing, to glorify the Father. Now, one thing I want to do this morning is I want to look at, and I'm going to be very quick with this first part, I think, in chapter 11, because chapter 11 is a beautiful chapter. you're all familiar with, with the resurrection of his friend, Lazarus. And yet we see a similar thing happening really in both to some extent, or at least as I saw it this week. Lazarus is sick and his sister sends word to Jesus And so they're in this difficult position, and they're wanting not spiritual salvation, but a natural salvation to occur of Lazarus, their brother. And for anyone that has suffered loss or been in a similar situation, you know the desperation. We heard some of it this morning in the testimony, right? That there's this fear, there's all these unknowns, there's this, grasping forth for what we would call normal. And so evidently, as this whole chapter reveals to us very clearly, Jesus and this family have an abnormally close relationship. And it mentions that, you get that sense multiple times through this chapter when it says, Lazarus, the one whom he loved. Or when it says, right after Jesus speaks to the apostles, it tells us just point blank, Martha, her sister, and Lazarus, Jesus loved them. We learn later on, as he's at the tomb of Lazarus, that there's a lot of emotion, and there's a lot of weeping, and Jesus wept, and then people are looking at what he's doing and saying, wow, how much did he loved him? So, I first of all want to plant our feet within this picture that all of these things are taking place and what has first been established is how much that Jesus loves these people. Because that's an emphasis of chapter 11, is that despite all the events that are occurring, it is the writer John, through the inspiration of the spirit, wants to make sure that the reader knows Jesus really loved these people. And yet as Jesus is called for to come and to do something, and what we're gonna learn later is that they believed in the miraculous power of Jesus. They did. But in their minds, there seemed to be a natural limitation. So likely, they were onlookers to him, opening the eyes of the blind, because it references that, and they kind of reasoned, well, if he did that, then certainly, if he had come a couple of days ago when he was on the downhill and he was getting worse, he could have healed him. But now that he's dead and four days are past, the limitations of God have been met. Do you see that? They believed that Jesus had power and that Jesus loved them. But in their natural minds, based upon their circumstance, they still conceived of a God who had limitations. And I can confess to you this morning that when it seems to be in people's lives a endurable suffering, there's this natural part of me that says, yeah, God can help you. But then you listen to some types of suffering in the world, or you experience some type of suffering in the world, or you're a witness to something, and the depth of it is so great that you just kind of, and you don't understand God's permissive will in the situation. We reason, you know, God can have a purpose for this kind of bad and this kind of bad and this kind of bad, but as it continues to go down and sin darkens and it begins to be a type of darkness that is the plague was that you could feel it, the darkness of pain and sin and suffering. Even with Christians that have faith in God, there seems to be a limit to our faith as to God's good intent in terrible suffering and hardship. So Jesus, he loves these people, and he says something in verse four of chapter 11 that is profound, and it's kind of a It's thematic, this is the second time we've seen this in three chapters. Remember, two chapters go to chapter nine, you have this long thing about the blind man. The whole story is about the blind man. And at the very beginning, the apostles asked, is he blind because of his sin or his parents? And he says, he's blind that the works of God may be shown in him. Now we come to a similar situation here with Lazarus. Lazarus is sick, but his sickness is meant for the glory of God. Now, my flesh does not want to accept that. I don't want to accept that certain tragic things that occur are necessary in order for me to be a vessel and a conduit for God's glory, but it is. And listen, when we surrender to the Lord, really surrender our life to the Lord, that's what we're surrendering to. is that Lord, I want my life and all that there is to be a conduit for your glory. And that is what the call to being a disciple of Christ that we've talked about on Wednesday night is solidly about, is that it is gravitating away from the benefits to us and towards the glory of Jesus Christ. Whatever you can do with me, do it that your light would shine to the world and that the Father would be satisfied in the canvas that you are painting my life into. That's what I want with my life. Because listen, there is coming a day that we sung about where all of the sorrow will be over and where the pain and suffering will be retired upon this earth and one day be altogether annihilated once and for all. But until then, we offer our lives as a living sacrifice and say, God, let my life resound unto your glory. and help me not to trust my flesh. We can read in the chapter 11, there's this pattern that goes forth that you can see, and I don't have time to get into all of it, where they're responding so similar to how people of faith, but shallow faith respond. And when I say shallow faith, I'm not saying I have more faith than they did, more shallow than what they needed. Their depth of faith was still great. but God wanted to expand it. So you might say in yourself, you know, in these areas of my life, I'm trying to allow God to get glory. And God speaks back. let me get more glory, let me expand this. And that's what he's doing here, is as long they seem to be by the scripture's depiction of them, faithful followers that are doing, you want to be them, if you're putting yourself into the text, they're doing the right things, and yet in this text, God is expanding how that they can glorify the Father. And so we learn. at Jesus, Martha, you'll notice, look at verse, I guess 21 is where we'll start reading for just a moment. It says, I want to pause there for a moment. Man, what a perfect theological response. She's right. But her lens is limited. She's not saying the whole picture here. She's right. I really want to emphasize that. She is right in what she is seeing. Lazarus will. not dead, will in the future still rise on that last day. But Jesus had so much more reserved for her. And you know what it was about? He was wanting her to see God's glory in Christ. Jesus is not just the Messiah that came to deliver them from Roman bondage He's not just the Messiah that came to do some nice miracles that could have prevented her brother's death He is the resurrection and the life And I want to reiterate this morning that even today Christ is the resurrection and the life and In him we live and move and have our being. And if you wonder why that you don't have the vibrant spiritual life, maybe it's because of the limited lens through which you are looking at Christ prevents him from being the full life, the abundant life that he is. He doesn't just give life, he is life. True life is found in Him. He says to her, I am the Resurrection. I love that, I love that's just, there's so much there I don't have time to get to. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Jesus is, she's giving the right theological response, she's trying to do everything the right way. Listen, we can, We could be the Martha here, like, I don't wanna say, back up. We are the Martha. Our natural disposition is to, as Christian people trying to do the Christian thing, from the limited scope that we have set onto God, we apply what we know and how we see and what we think, even if it's theologically correct, and we limit what God does and what he can do and who he is and who he wants to be in us. Jesus corrects her, but she probably doesn't perceive the correction. So you go to the next page, and they go to the tomb. There she is. Jesus is there mourning. And Jesus says something absurd. Roll the stone away. It seems like, Martha, it's not clicked yet. what he's doing and who he is. She begins to panic, you know, I would guess the same way that if you had a loved one that by opening the casket it would have a stench. You would feel that very personally offensive. You don't want for the pride of your loved one for that stench to, you know, be the last memory. Roll the stone away and she gives that initial response. No, no, no, stop, stop. He's going to stink and we don't want to do that. Here's what Jesus says in verse 40. Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. He is stretching her. You know, when the Lord stretches us, I just don't like it, right? And I say that I don't, but I do. It's this weird thing because the very nature of our faith being stretched means that we have a limit that we don't want to cross. And that's a self-erected boundary that, God, I will allow your presence and your you to be all the way up to here. But that direction is really scary. And I'm not ready to let you there. The Lord stretches us and praise God that he does that, but experientially, while you're going through that, there is this natural resistance that we fight and we consider all the inconveniences and the pains of the flesh, and yet, Jesus, thankfully, is pressing her. He's pushing her because what she's about to see and experience and know is far greater than the boundary she's trying to prevent him from going to. And listen, the same is true for all of us. There is a life of faith that is greater than you could ever know right now, in this moment, or that you could ever conceive of is a better way to put it. that there is a communion with God, there is a perceiving of His glory and His presence and His identity and who He is and there's a knowing of that that is right now beyond the grasp that you have and beyond the grasp of what I have. But God, praise God that he does not allow her to stay within this comfort zone, within this convenient, within this appropriate place that she wants to guard herself from. But he presses her and he's saying, no, no, no. I told you if you would believe, you would see the glory of God greater than what you know. Believe me. He consults his father. He prays. He thanks the Father for hearing him. And he says, I know that the reason why I'm saying this is not for me, but it's so that the people standing by will hear me say all of this. That's kind of how I feel about the scriptures. You know, all these events could have occurred and God could never left them behind for us. But man, what a benefit it is that he says it in front of us. These stories. He obviously cries out, Lazarus, come forth. And everything they thought they understood about Jesus was suddenly broadened to a place they had no previous conception of. You mean this Jesus who I've been following can raise people who have been dead for four days decaying? It's like when the apostles were out on the sea, and he's sleeping in the boat, and he comes and calms the sea. Like they had already believed in him, but not that far. And they look at one another, Who is this man that the winds and the seas obey him? So, here's what I wanted to pick up from chapter 11. She is, her, Lazarus' family is troubled. And their lack of faith, lack of trust in the Lord and their response was limiting what God could do, what God was trying to show them. They didn't conceive of who He was and what He was accomplishing in the bad, the hard, the suffering. We turn over to chapter 12. So in here, we have the natural human response to hardship. And in chapter 12, now we have the perfect one, and that is in Jesus. Jesus is facing the cross. He knows where he's going and the pain and the trouble that he is facing is incomparably weighty compared to losing a sibling. The two cannot be compared of the suffering and the hardship, which is something that I delight so much in my walk with the Lord in, is that there is no place I can go that he has not gone infinitely deeper in his humanity. He knows how I feel and he knows how you feel, period. The reality is you don't know how he felt because of the depth of where he went. He's sitting, he's gonna face Jerusalem and he says this, now is my soul troubled. See what had precipitated this was that there were some Greeks that wanted to come and hear the gospel. I don't think I personally fully understand the dynamic there altogether, but I think a part of it was potentially his ministry was about to broaden to the Gentiles. And so they're wanting permission, these Greeks are, we wanna come see him, we've heard about him. We wanna have some interplay back and forth with him. That ministry was gonna be reserved for the church in the book of Acts. Jesus' ministry was to the Jews. And so he's saying, no, now's not the time for that. Now, I am pivoting from proclaiming the gospel to the Jews to accomplishing the atonement for the sins of the world. That's where I'm headed now. And in light of that, he's saying, my soul is troubled. But then listen to what we learn in the response of Jesus that is so necessary, and this is what Christ wants in us when we face troubled thoughts and times. Listen to what he says here. And what shall I say? I think that's worth pausing over. You ever had trouble? What do I say? I'll give you an example. When I go to the hospital or at the side of someone who is sick and dying, everything about the fleshly desire of the family, myself, I want them to live. I want them to remain with us. But in truth, I don't know that that's what I really want. And it has nothing to do with the loss of love for them. It has nothing to do with the fervor and the passion in which I enjoy their company and their life. But in truth, what I know about my perspective is I am biased. I want them for me. I want them for their family. I don't want them to be deprived of the joy and experiences that I expect are forthcoming. But I don't know what the will of God is. And what I know is that God's will is meant for our good, period. Not just like it's a good option. It is meant for our supreme good. There is no greater good than God's will be done on earth, whatever that will is, and whatever temporary pain that invokes upon us. God's will is best. I told you before, but when my son had a heart defect at three months old, and I'm holding him thinking that open heart surgery is gonna be happening, what do you pray? Lord, take him if it's your will. I can't say that. But here's what I can say. Lord, what shall I say? What do I say? Everything in me wants to keep him. But I want your will to be done. I do. I want it to be done. I can't go there. I can't go. I want your will to be done. I really do. Lord, I love my son. What do I say, Lord? Then he says what the temptation is for us to say. Save me from this hour. Save me from the cancer. Here's all the reasons. Save me from the loss, the job loss. Save me from the pain of whatever. Save me from this hour. I don't want to face this. I don't want to do this. And Jesus is speaking in observation of the temptation to pray that. What shall I say, save me from this hour? For this hour I was born. I mean, think about it. Jesus was born. We die as a consequence to our own sin. We don't live to die. We live as a product of our, we die as a product of our sin. Jesus lived to die. all the while his mission was clear. I am here to die. God has sent me, the Father has sent me here for the singular purpose, or the ultimate purpose, rather, to die and atone for man's sins. And as much as people are being healed, and as much as some people are coming to know me, all of that will be for naught if I don't go and die. Salvation cannot be free and full and available to all unless I go to the cross. And God has predestined this to be the hour. Now is the time. I cannot spend even two or three more days or two or three more hours going and convincing the world of my identity. God has pivoted and I must go and face the cross. And in Christ, we find the courage of no other man than to face the cross of Calvary. And oh, in those moments that I'm afraid to even offer in prayer those things that I hold too sacred, Oh God, give me the courage of your son, Jesus Christ, that I could face the hour that God has destined to be in my life, as Jesus did. Jesus faces it. He knows, for this cause came I into this hour. So then he says this last statement that is, I think, profound. Not, okay, Lord, I'm ready to go. Let's go. That's not what he says. It's almost like, I was saying a moment ago, like, I'm not saying this is why Jesus said this, so don't attribute that, but it's almost like, I'm not going to say what need be done. because it's too much, it's too afraid. Now, let's ask this question, was Jesus ever afraid? Yes, he was. The scriptures actually tell us he was afraid. I'm gonna read one verse, prove it to you in Hebrews chapter five, verse seven, it says this. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared." There was a fear Christ had here. His humanity is on full display. And despite his fear, his prayer is, Father, glorify yourself. Here's where I think that this is helpful to us. Christ calls us to go places we don't want to go in the same way that his son was sent to a place he did not necessarily want to go in his flesh. And it was fearful. And yet in all of that, he recognized. I can't be saved from this hour and glorify The Father. So Father, glorify thy name in me. And what did Jesus do? He continued to step forward. It's amazing to me that when we get to this point, there's all these trigger points that happen from this point until his death. You know, these moments like the Passover feast is coming. So imagine as he's walking into Jerusalem and he sees all these people bringing lambs. You know, like, that lamb means something different to him than it does everybody else. That lamb is going there to die, and he's walking with it to go to die. All these things that begin, he's serving the Lord's Supper for the first time, and he says the words, this is my flesh. This is my blood that is shed for you. And yet, what is marvelous about Jesus is he continues walking forward. Why? To glorify the Father. This morning, the Father at this point, and I'm done, the Father at this point responds from heaven to Jesus. I think, what is there, three times where this happens, I think? Three times in Jesus' life where there's a voice that comes from heaven Verse 28, he said, the father says, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. I'm not going to go long into this, but I wish I could. Verse 29, all the people around him thought it thundered, or an angel had spoke. They misunderstood. the voice that came from heaven confirming Jesus' determination to do whatever it took to glorify the Father. So let's unpack that half second. When you walk by faith in a world that is faithless, in a world that has preset expectations of who God is and how he works and what he does, when you live within a, it can be within a church, within a denomination, within a larger culture, within a family, within a friendship, and all these limitations, the Marthas of the world, good people, not being this resistant, harsh, difficult, not the Pharisees, good people who have limited God and his purposes, and God calls you out and you take that impossible step without God's grace to do what is right amidst all the people who misunderstand and don't appreciate and don't applaud and none of those things, and you follow God in the path to Golgotha where your flesh will die, and people are saying, why are you going there? Why are you going to that, isn't that extreme? And yet the closer you step to Golgotha, the more you find life in him. The more you surrender to him, the more you find inside Christ is real and he is something that you previously did not know. And God, I love when God does this occasionally. I hope if you've walked with God for any time, you've had this experience where God confirms in your heart His leadership in your life. And I used to go try to prove it to people, you're wasting your time when you try to do that. You're wasting your time when you try to prove it to yourself. Just resting in that voice that doesn't thunder from heaven, but speaks still and small the depths of your soul and confirms, I am being glorified in you. And I will be. Everybody else thought it thundered. You know? Everybody else thought it was something else. but who cares, we know what it was. That's what we believe, isn't it? As Missionary Baptists, isn't that one of the points that we step on is that God speaks to us with clarity and sureness in the heart, and that from that point, that is the evidence upon which our faith is built, is God's voice. And whether we wander in the wilderness, if we don't know what we're doing for long periods of time, but then God confirmed it in our soul, let us rest even in the suffering that God is doing something that is going to broaden our understanding of who he is and bring us into more abundant life than we presently understand. Jesus. Praise God for his example this morning that we can look to. so thankful that Jesus calls us not to tread the path ourselves, but just to follow His path. And at every step of wherever you are at right now, you say, you know, I haven't heard from God for a while. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. I just don't know what to do. Jesus did that for 30 years too, right? 30 years without a directive, a specific this and this and this. 30 years of silence. where he was just banging a hammer on pieces of wood, all of it to the glory of his Father, because there was a time coming where he would be deployed. This morning, I pray, I told you I didn't know how to get any of this out. If that was convoluted and confusing to you, I apologize, but Lord encouraged me through it this week. I pray that God will help us have the same spirit of Christ that whatever God does, that in us, he would be glorified.