Sweating Blood and Still He Went | Mysteries in the Gospel of John

How did Jesus mentally frame the reality that He was going to be crucified? How did He perceive the fact that He knew in just a few hours He was about to have the nails pierced between His hands and His feet, and the spear thrust into His side, hanging on the cross alone, forsaken by all His followers? How did Jesus mentally frame this? What was His attitude knowing that this was about to befall Him? We're going to look today at the Gospel of John, and I'm in the 12th chapter, and I'm going to begin reading here in verse number 23. Hear the word of God. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. So when Yeshua said, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, He was speaking there about His forthcoming death. How did He understand that this was about to happen to Him? What was His relationship with this knowledge? The next verse says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. The first thing we want to point out is that Yeshua realized, this is important, that there was purpose in His death. Let me say that again. Yeshua, approaching His death, realizing He was about to die, realized there was a purpose in it. He wasn't the victim of randomness. He wasn't the victim of some random disease. He wasn't at the mercy of some ravaging sickness. He wasn't at the mercy of demons or devils. Jesus knew there was purpose in His death. Let me read it again. Jesus is approaching His death, and He said this about it. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, He's

speaking of Himself, comparing Himself to a grain of wheat, it remains alone. In other words, a grain of wheat, unless it goes into the ground and dies so that that shell can break open and the inner seed can come forth, it's going to be alone. It's just going to be a seed somewhere. If you leave a seed, a grain, a seed grain on a slab of cement, baking in the sun, not going into the earth and dying, it's going to just be that seed. It's not going to bear any fruit. But if the seed falls into the earth and dies, is buried, the shell cracks open, the inner essence comes out, and a plant comes forth. Jesus was speaking of His own death. If I don't die, then it's just going to be about me. I'm going to remain alone. But through my death, there's going to be abundant fruit. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Now, we understand this is true about Jesus. We understand it was only because Yeshua died for our sins that you and I could be reconciled to God, that we are the fruit of His sacrificial death, that we're the fruit of Him giving His life on our behalf, that through His life, the life of the just, the unjust, you and I were sanctified and made blameless in God's love. We understand that about Jesus, but how does that apply to you and I? Jesus speaks about this next. He says, he who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. So now what is Yeshua saying? Yeshua is saying that He understood that His purpose in this world was beyond living forever in this earth. He understood that His life in this world was beyond having as great a time as He could in this earth, taking all that the world has to offer, enjoying it to the max. That wasn't at all we all know how He thought.

Rather, He knew that there was a purpose in Him coming to the earth, and that purpose was to do the Father's will, which means dying to Himself because Jesus didn't emotionally want to go to the cross. We're going to look at this in a moment. Jesus prayed before going to the cross, and the agony of His soul, beloved friends, was so deep, it was so excruciating, this torture He knew He was about to face. His beard was going to be torn out. And his hair was gonna be turned out by those that crucified him. The nails in his hands and his feet, excruciating, not being able to breathe. The death of a crucifixion involves suffocating. You can't breathe. He knew that was about to happen. He was in agony about it. The Bible says in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed and it was so excruciatingly painful, this knowledge of what he was about to go through, that he sweated drops of blood. His body was in such trauma. There was such stress that every organ was put under trauma and stress to the max that his body sweat drops of blood. And Yeshua prayed, Father, if it's possible, let this cut pass from me. If I don't have to go through this, Lord, if there's another way, Father, let it be. But then he continued on humbling himself before the Father in the spirit of obedience, saying, but Father, not my will, but thy will be done.

And so this is what Yeshua is referring to here when he speaks to you and I. He had this attitude, Father, not my will, but thy will be done. Paul said in reference to this, that Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Therefore, God highly exalted him and gave him a name above every name, the name of Jesus, Yeshua. Yeshua, every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, because Yeshua humbled himself in obedience to the Father to the point of death by going to that cross. So think about that in terms of what Jesus said after speaking of his own death. He said he was gonna go to the cross like a grain of wheat, and he was gonna die in that cross, and therefore his life wouldn't remain alone, but that through his death, the many would be justified and sanctified. And the very next verse, he talks to you and I about having the same mindset. And he says, once again, he who loves his life, again, he's following up with his crucifixion and his mindset towards it. And then he points to you and I that we need to have the same attitude, that our lives don't belong to us, that we need to be obedient to the point of death

in our walk on earth to the Father. So he says, he who loves his life, loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am there, my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. So let's take this apart a little bit so we can digest it. Yeshua says, he who loves his life, loses it. He who loves his life, loses it. And he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. So what does it mean that if you love your life, you lose it? Jesus is talking about that you so love that which the world can give you. You love living on this earth. You love all the things that you can do in this world. And because you're so in love with experiencing life in this world and the happiness, quote, that this world can give you, you're unwilling to deny yourself those things to obey the Father. So Jesus says, if we're unwilling to let go of our love of being honored by men, because that was the thing that kept many people from following him, is they like to be loved by other people, and they sought the honor of other people more than they sought the honor of the Father,

more than they were willing to obey the Father. They made a decision. Yeah, I love God, but I don't wanna lose honor amongst my family or amongst my friends or amongst my neighbors. Therefore, I'm not gonna stand out for Jesus. I'm not gonna be his witness. I'm not gonna be where he is. I'm not gonna do what he did because I don't wanna be rejected by the world. That's what Jesus is speaking about here. He who loves his life, you love being accepted by men. You love what the world has to offer you. You won't witness for Jesus publicly because you're afraid it's gonna cost you something. This is what Jesus is talking about. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world, by hating your life in this world, it means that you're not clinging to it. You're choosing to love Jesus first. You're putting him first. He who hates his life in this world, listen now, will keep it to life eternal, just like Jesus, right? He humbled himself to the point of death. Therefore, the book of Philippians tells us, therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name that is the name of Jesus. Every knee will bow and tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. When we humble ourselves. When following the Lord cost us something, God honors us. And this is what Yeshua speaks of. In the very next verse, he says this, if anyone serves me, just after he gets done telling us, we can't love our life in this world, we've got to put God first, which equates to hating our life in this world. Not that we can't enjoy things, not that we can't enjoy friendship and good times. I think Jesus had a good time at the wedding in Canaan, John 2. It's not that we don't love life, but we reject putting this world above our interest in the kingdom of God. And that means oftentimes being crucified in terms of our choices, we're crucifying, we're saying no to things that we might desire in the natural, but we're saying no, putting ourself to death to choose Jesus instead, just like Jesus said before he went to the cross, my father, not my will, but thy will be done. He said, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but thy will be done. And then he forsook his emotional pain, an agony of knowing what he was gonna go through on his way to the cross, and he chose obedience instead. This is what he's referring to.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. Okay, so we've gotta be willing to follow Jesus. What does that mean? It means being willing to do the father's will, even when we're rejected by men, even when it's gonna be painful, okay? Jesus says next, now my soul has become troubled. Now he's sharing with us the pain that he's feeling here, because he knows exactly what's gonna happen. He knows the pain he's gonna feel when those nails are thrust through his hands and feet and spear in his side. So the next thing he says, talking about how we need to lose our life for his sake, he says, 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. Think about it. Jesus is saying, oh God, I hurt inside. Now my soul has become troubled, he just said. Now my soul has become troubled. And he says, but how should I respond to this? I've got tremendous pain. I know what I'm gonna be dealing with. How should I respond to this? Should I say, father, save me from this? You see what's happening here?

Jesus says, oh my God, do I hurt? But what do I say? Father, save me from this? He said, but for this purpose, I came to this hour. Let me read it one more time, just to stress it. Now my soul, Jesus is speaking here, 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. So you see what he does? He puts himself down, he humbles himself. He doesn't allow his emotions to stop him from doing the father's will. He doesn't say, father, save me from this pain, because he knows that he came into the world for this very hour. He knows that ultimately, his coming to this world climaxed with him being crucified on the cross and his blood being shed from our sin. He knows this is why he came. So he doesn't ask to be delivered from death, but rather he commits himself to fulfilling the call of the father on his life. So after he says this and gives himself over to God, exalts God, he said, what should I say, Lord? Save me from this hour, but it's for this purpose, I came to the world. And he said, father, glorify your name. Verse 28, father, glorify your name.

So you see how he hated his life there? He didn't put his self-interest first. He didn't put his comfort first. He didn't let his pain determine his decision, but rather what he did is he put the father first and fulfilling the father's will first. So he put down everything and he said, father, your kingdom come, your will be done. 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. Isn't that interesting? People heard the voice, but they were so trapped in the natural world. They were so. so not in touch with the glory of God that they heard the noise and they didn't realize it was the Father's voice and gave it a natural explanation. I wonder how many times you and I do that. God's doing things in our life and rather than giving God glory, giving Him thanks, recognizing that He's the one that's doing these little miracles, instead we think it's just chance and we're thankful for good luck or we give it some natural explanation.

You know, you think of a doctor and somebody supernaturally recovers, but the doctor oftentimes won't admit that that person supernaturally recovered. They wanna give it some kind of a natural explanation. I'm not picking on doctors. I love doctors. I'm so thankful for my doctors. So I'm just giving an example. I mean, it happens to all of us. God's doing things in our life, children of God. You lose something and you find it. Sometimes you might thank God for leading you to that lost object, but sometimes you just think, oh, I found it. No, sometimes God led you to find it. I mean, there are so many little things that God is doing all the time for us. And we need to wake up and realize that this isn't just random chance. This is God intervening in our life. Let's not be like these people that were standing around Jesus and the Father spoke saying, I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again. And the people heard the voice, but they said, oh, it thundered. Other people were saying, an angel has spoken. They didn't have the spiritual faith and discernment to recognize.

They just heard the voice of the Father. I wanna encourage you and challenge you. Don't think that the things that are happening in your life are just chance, are just good luck, that things just worked out that way. When something good happens in your life, beloved, give God glory. Give God credit. Recognize the Lord's favor is upon you. He's the one that's going before you. I remember years ago when I was in the business world and I needed a transition where I was. And so I opened up the paper when I made up my mind that I needed a transition and I opened up the paper. I hadn't opened up the paper and looked for a job in years. And of course I'm going back over 20 years ago now. But I opened up the paper 20 years ago and sure enough, there's an ad for a motivational speaker. I mean, how many ads are there for motivational speakers? I mean, I don't think there's hardly ever an ad for a motivational speaker. By the way, when I was motivational speaking, I realized in a short period of time that my message was Jesus. And so I took my message out of the business world and I made up my mind to go to the world and preach Jesus once and for all. And that's when my ministry exploded. But it was God that had me open the paper on that particular day.

And it was God that led that company to put an ad in the paper that day for a motivational speaker in Columbus, Ohio. I didn't think that was random. Beloved, open yourself up and recognize that the little things that happen in your life, they're divine synchronicities. Wake up to the little things that God is doing for you and give him glory. Let's not be like the people around Jesus that said, oh, it thundered, okay? Let's wake up and give God thanks for everything. The fact that you woke up this morning and I woke up this morning, that itself is a gift that our heart is still beating, right? Okay, so if the Father speaks, I will glorify my name again and then it says in the 29th verse, so the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered. Others were saying an angel has spoken. Jesus answered and said, the voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Beloved, Jesus knew the Father was with him always. He didn't need to hear the voice. I wanna challenge you today. Know that God is with you. Don't look for another miracle all the time. Just know that God is with you. Miracles are oftentimes for unbelievers. The greater miracle is to know that God is with us,

whether there's a sign, like a voice coming from heaven or not. In the book of Numbers chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. ♪ Yeh-va-re-che-che-ya-weh ♪ ♪ Va-yeesh-ma-re-cha ♪ ♪ Ya-eh-sh-ma-re-cha ♪ Yisraa Yahweh b'navei lecha vi'chuneyecha Yisraa Yahweh b'navei lecha ve'asem lecha Shalom The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.