John Chapter 12:27-37

As you go through and ask a cashier, how are you doing? I'm not doing so good.

Life is kind of hard right now. Oh, great. Glad to see. Be listening. Say, oh, you know what? I used to feel like that, but now I have hope in Jesus. It's another opportunity to be a light to the world. It's been said, and I kind of like the little story, that when Jesus went back up to heaven, an angel said, all right, that's awesome. You died for their sins and everything. You know, what's next? And Jesus says, well, I left those 11 guys down there, and they're going to go tell everybody. The angel looks over and goes, those 11 guys? And Jesus goes, yeah. And the angel goes, what's plan B?

And Jesus turns and says, there is no other plan. Jesus has given us a message of hope, of love, of encouragement, of forgiveness to offer the world. He's entrusted us with an understanding of the gospel, and we need to share that. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina.

D.A. Brown, one of David McGee's associate pastors, is here with us in the studio today. Who is supposed to be in full-time ministry? Everyone who follows Jesus.

Great answer, D.A. Now here's David McGee with his teaching, Embracing the Cross. So let's pick it up with verse 27 of John chapter 12. It says, now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose, I came to this hour. Now Jesus, as you remember, he's in the temple still, he's interacting with both the disciples and the public, and he again is talking about his death.

And he's not only predicting his death, but he's predicting the way that he's going to die. And Jesus, remember, you know, and we talked about verse 26 last week, and verse 26 it says, if anyone serves me, let him follow me. And I want to be a follower of Jesus, and look where Jesus is leading to, because he's saying, you know what, do I run away from this trouble?

That's not what he's saying. Jesus is embracing the cross. Again, your attention, Jesus wasn't the victim of some political conspiracy. Oh, in some ways he was, but that's not how he wound up on the cross. The cross was a plan. As a matter of fact, what we're gonna see later in the next chapter, we're gonna see that Jesus actually turned up the timetable of when he was going to the cross. Jesus was in charge here, and he willingly laid his life down.

He didn't run from resistance, he didn't run from tribulation. He embraced the mission he came for. The first life lesson, there is no crown without the cross. There is no crown without the cross. What we've tried to do in some areas of the church today is remove the cross. The word of God says that the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but it so stands for what we believe. Now, I think in some ways we kind of have drifted from what the cross really means. The cross was a place of sacrifice, a place of pain, a place of death.

And I think sometimes we forget that. But there is no crown without the cross. If you remember, that's part of what Satan's temptation to Jesus was.

I'll give you the world. And you don't have to go to the cross. See, there are things that we must, what did Jesus say, pick up our cross daily and carry them. And so those kind of stand for, the cross stands for our tribulations, for dying to ourselves, to dying to our selfishness and living for him. And let me help you out, guys, because every now and again I hear somebody say this, you know, they're talking about their wife or their husband and they say, oh, this is just my cross to bear. That is so not your cross to bear.

As a matter of fact, when you say that to somebody, you're really letting everybody know that your spouse has a cross to bear and it's you. So don't say that, don't say that. It's tribulation, it's these things that, resistance in the Christian life.

And we have that. And you can either just freak out every time it happens or you can grow through it. You can grow through it. To be honest, I used to get freaked out, and certainly in a traveling ministry going around on the road, a lot of stuff just goes wrong. I mean, in life, stuff goes wrong, but when you're traveling on the road all the time, 10 and a half months out of the year, it goes wrong at like 60 miles an hour all the time.

And so there were times, and to be honest, in the beginning of the season I would get anxious. And then God would come through and I would feel silly for being anxious. And I just got so tired of feeling silly when God came through. Don't be a fair-weather Christian in the sense of, well, I'm walking with Jesus as long as things go well.

I'm walking with Jesus as long as bad things don't happen. Wait a minute, hold on to Jesus. You ever seen a bulldog with a little chew toy? You're not getting that chew toy unless he wants you to have that chew toy because his jaws are just, they're locked.

As a matter of fact, they've had instances when bullfrogs. Please pray for me. When bulldogs are fighting, they've had instances where they actually had to pry their jaws apart to get them to let loose. That's the kind of hold I want to have on Jesus where somebody would have to pry me away from Jesus. I'm holding on so tenaciously. Get a hold on Jesus and keep a hold on Jesus. Verse 28, Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

Therefore, the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Another said an angel has spoken to him. But Jesus, in verse 30, Jesus answered and said, this voice did not come because of me, but for your sake. See, the reason the voice came was so that people would hear and people would bear witness.

It was Father God given approval of God the Son. And see, there's a lot of things that happened in the life of Jesus that happened for the benefit of those around to see. That's like the stone, and I've mentioned this before, but have you ever thought about the stone? Why was the stone rolled away? The stone didn't need to be rolled away so Jesus could get out.

That's bad theology. And I've seen the pictures of the little angels and they move the stone and then Jesus comes. That's kind of a weird picture because Jesus was not in the tomb alive waiting going, hey, somebody move the stone.

I can't get out. He wasn't in there doing that. He was risen in power and glory. The stone got moved away so people could see in to see that the tomb was empty. I had the pleasure of going to the garden tomb in Jerusalem and I can verify. It's empty.

He's not in there. Now, it came to build the faith of the people around. Do you know one thing that builds your faith? And the word of God tells us Romans chapter 10 verse 17 says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. This simple verse, with a simple verse, it's amazing to me that more fellowships, more churches, more people don't focus on the word of God because this builds your faith.

I have so many people come up to me and they go, you know what, I was like stagnant as a Christian. I wasn't growing. I hadn't grown in 10 years and I've grown more here in three months or six months or one year or two years than I have anywhere else in my life.

To God be the glory. It's because you're eating good food. Now, we tell our kids that, right? You got to eat good food to grow. I mean, if they were always eating cotton candy and ice cream, those things are nice every now and again, but if they were always eating them, we'd go, you can't do that. You won't grow like that.

Well, we eat good food here. If you want to grow, if you want your faith to increase, hear the word of God. Hear the word of God. And we've done a lot of things to help you to hear the word of God here by putting like the teachings are online to bless you guys.

You know, we're doing the television, the radio thing. Why? So people can hear the word of God. Because as you hear the word of God, you grow in your faith. When you don't hear the word of God, you wither. You wither.

Maybe you've been through a season of withering. Grab ahold of the word of God and wither no more, amen. Jesus continues in verse 31 and he says, now is the judgment of 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 peoples to myself.

This, he said, signifying by what death he would die. The victory that Jesus won on the cross is complete. It is complete. He is still allowing the enemy, the ruler of this world, if you will, to operate for the moment. But at some point in the future, that all stops. That all stops.

And aren't you glad? The enemy is still operating, but it is on borrowed time. And again, Jesus here is predicting not only his death, but the way he's going to die on the cross. On the cross. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. Hey, Bob, we're excited about all the people who are tuning in today, and we want to take a minute to pray for the listening audiences in these cities. Hamburg, Indiana, Cherokee, Iowa, Creston, Des Moines, Marshalltown, also in Kansas, Emporia and Hutchinson. God, we thank you for everyone tuning in today. Lord, we pray that they would be ready for you to speak to them. Lord, if some are sick, we pray that you would please heal them. And God, we pray for the pastors and churches in this area, that the churches would be reignited in their faith. Lord, that they would turn to you with all their heart, soul and strength to love their community. And Lord, that these pastors would be reminded, you have called them. You are going to bless the work that you've called them to do, and that they would not grow weary in doing good. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 34, the people answered him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. And how can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man? Now, understand, Christ, I know we think of that as the name of Jesus. That wasn't really the name of Jesus. That was a title for Jesus. That word Christ in the Greek is Christos, or the anointed one. Okay, so Jesus was his name, Christ was his title, if you will.

So when they say we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever, that's not necessarily his name, it's the title that they're using. And they say the Son of Man must be lifted up. Who is the Son of Man? You know what's awesome? Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man more than any other title.

I want you to think about this for a minute. This is the Son of God, creator of the universe. And the title he uses more than any other 87 times in the four gospels is the Son of Man? That's humbling to me.

You know why? He's identifying himself with us. He's identifying himself with us.

That's an amazing thing. Think of what Jesus could have said. Think of the things he could have said. You know, he could have been, and we have a way of kind of working these ways into our speech, don't we?

What we do, how we do it, and those sorts of things. You know, Jesus could have said, well, you know, the rule of this world, which by the way my daddy created, you know, he's on the way out, and me, I created the earth too, and I've been here a long time, and my daddy's this, and he doesn't do that. Why? Because that would have put distance between him and us. But rather he uses a term, the Son of Man, to identify that he was 100% God and 100% man. Boy, that's humbling, isn't it?

Because so many times we say things to impress people that aren't necessary, that put distance between us and them. Now, see, their confusion is, in the Hebrew scriptures, in the Old Testament, Jesus is prophesied as coming as the lion and as the lamb, and some of the people were looking for him to be coming as the lion this time. Well, last time, the first time he came, he came as the lamb to slaughter.

Now, when he returns, he will return as the lion of Judah. But they were looking for this, and so there was some confusion, and they didn't really understand the scriptures. Matthew 22, 29 says, Jesus answered and said unto them, You do err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. And this is what's really happening in this instance, is they're erring because they don't know the scriptures. They have forgotten such passages as Isaiah 53, which Jesus is getting ready to quote from in a minute. And they've forgotten those things, and they err.

And you know what? A lot of err that we have, a lot of err that comes into the church comes because we don't know the book anymore. We don't know this Bible.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Take the time to read because he took the time to bleed. And we need to know this book because when we get out of this book, we get into err. And out of the last 2,000 years since this canon was completed, we are probably living in the most scripturally illiterate generation of Christians ever. We just don't know the Bible.

We just don't know the Bible. Now, if you're a new believer, I understand this. I understand that you just came to the Lord and dear God the other night said, I'm new to this whole Bible thing, and I've been here a few weeks, and I'm loving it because you actually teach the Bible. Praise God. You got saved here a few weeks ago.

I understand that. But what I don't understand is when a believer who's been a believer for five, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, doesn't know the Bible, doesn't know the Bible. Yeah, I was reading. I was reading about Joseph, you know, and I didn't see anything in there about Mary. Well, where were you? I was in Genesis.

That's a different Joseph. That's not like, see, we need to know this Bible. We need to know this book.

We need to be digging in it. Why? Because it will keep you out of error. And it's a supernatural book that can separate you from your sin, an amazing thing. It's been said that this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book. But we need to be in the Bible because the Holy Spirit and the Holy Word will help to keep us out of error. You know, I'm teaching verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

I'm not leaving anything out. Do you understand what that, now, I mean, anybody can get wacky, okay, but you know what it helps to happen, though? There is, it's almost impossible for me to take a couple scriptures, one from here, one from over there, one from over here, and twist them and try to see what I can get them to say.

I don't do that. See, because if I took a verse and I said, well, this means this, and the next verse is, well, it don't mean that. Well, I mean, it wouldn't say exactly that, but, you know, it would point towards that's not the interpretation. I'm in trouble. But because we teach line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, there's a safety in there.

There's a safety in that. So verse 35 says, Then Jesus said to them, A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. And while you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.

These things Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them. And he mentions children of the light. Who is the light?

Now, this is an interesting thing. John chapter nine, verse five, Jesus says, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. But when Jesus ascended to heaven, we became his lights. Matthew chapter five, verse 14 says, You are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. It's important for us to be lights in a dark world, to be sources of hope and love in a world that's dark and fearful and scary and hurting. And we need to shine forth in this world. Now, let me talk about something because I hear people say this sometimes. People say, Well, mine is a silent witness. I just prefer to let my light shine.

Yeah, well, in love, I don't mean to hurt your feelings or anything. The problem with that little strategy is your light is not that bright, okay? I mean, it's not like people are gonna watch you and get, you know, oh, look at the glow. He's glowing. There's something about him.

Why do you have that glow? You know, that doesn't happen. That doesn't happen. And I know there's truth in, I think, was it Augustine or St. Francis? Somebody said, you know, preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words. That's kind of cool, meaning live out the gospel, and I like that saying, and to some degree, agree with that saying. The problem is you still have to communicate to somebody how they get saved. You have to tell them.

You have to talk to them. So let your light shine. You know one of the things you can do, and this is a great way to open up a conversation when you're talking to somebody, say, You know what? Somebody at work, somebody at school, whatever, say, You know that I'm a believer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you go to church, and that whole thing's important to you. You know, what is it that you think that I believe? I'm just curious what your perception of what you think I believe is, and listen carefully to their answer, because a couple things happen when you do this. Number one, instead of you talking, it's them talking. You're listening, and so often, we're so busy trying to tell people about what we believe, we're not listening to what they're saying.

We've got a monologue going when it should be a dialogue. And when you say, Okay, what is it you think that I believe, and they may think you believe weird stuff. Well, something about, he's gonna snatch you by the hair of the head or something, I don't know what all your, you know, say, Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what, that's Harry Christian, and we don't believe that. Here's what I believe, and it's an awesome opportunity for you to share with them exactly what you believe.

But be lights. You understand everybody in here that knows Jesus is supposed to be sharing with other people? They may be sitting there going, Oh, no, no, no, no, that's your job, Pastor David.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Not according to Ephesians 4. I'm supposed to equip you guys to do the work of the ministry. Do the work of the ministry? I'm not in the ministry.

Yes, you are, or you should be anyway. Let me ask you a question. Do you know Jesus? Do you, if you're in here and you know Jesus, guess what? You're in full-time ministry.

I know we use that term for those who vocationally are doing something in the church or something, but you understand all of us are supposed to be in full-time ministry, always looking for an opportunity to share, and if you're open, it's amazing the opportunities that God will create for you if you're listening. As you go through and ask a cashier, How you doing? Man, I'm not doing so good. Life is kind of hard right now. Oh, great, glad to see you.

Be listening and say, Oh, you know what? I used to feel like that, but now I have hope in Jesus. It's another opportunity to be a light to the world, because the life lesson here is we are to be lights to our community and to our world. This is God's plan. It's been said, and I kind of like the little story, that when Jesus went back up to heaven, an angel said, All right, that's awesome. You died for their sins and everything. What's next? And Jesus says, Well, I left those 11 guys down there, and they're gonna go tell everybody. The angel looks over and goes, Those 11 guys? And Jesus goes, Yeah. And the angel goes, What's the other plan?

What's plan B? And Jesus turns and says, There is no other plan. Jesus has given us a message of hope, of love, of encouragement, of forgiveness to offer the world. He's entrusted us with an understanding of the gospel, and we need to share that with a lost and dying world and be lights. Verse 37, But although he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in him. That is a scary verse to me. Even though he did so much before him, they did not believe him.

And let's also recognize he was speaking. They heard his words, and they didn't believe. You have Judas, he's just this enigma. We're gonna get into that next week.

But Judas was with him for three years, heard all the words, saw the miracles, and never really believed. That's kind of scary to me. And you know what? And it can be extremely frustrating to me if I allow it. You see, what I do here is I teach the word of God, because I can do that. What I can't do here is make you believe it. Oh, loved ones, I would if I could.

You know, some way I could just, you know, rub my Bible on your head till you got it in your heart, we'd be doing it at the front door. But it can't work like that. It doesn't work like that. And you need to understand that in your life as well. You can't make anybody believe anything.

The Holy Spirit has to empower you, and it has to be His words. Now, you can speak up for God and be in His life, but you cannot make them believe. And you know, people thinking they can has led to stuff like a lot of the weirdness. You see people yelling at people and shouting at people and sticking their foot in the door like they're selling vacuums or something. I mean, if you sell vacuums, I'm not slamming you.

That's a fine, I probably should find another analogy for that, but you can't make anybody believe it. And what I do here is present the truth, I teach the truth, and there are people that hear it that don't get it. And to be honest, my heart sometimes wants to focus on those people, and I can't allow that. Oh, I pray for them.

I'm heartbroken over them. But the reality is there's people that are getting it, and I can't make the people who don't get it, get it. See, because there's a thing as I speak these truths, you have to hear the word and you have to apply it. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe You died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe You were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for You all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him, and He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit CrossTheBridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross The Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to CrossTheBridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much He would have you give either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross The Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, D.A., before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.