A Troubled Soul and the Choice That Changed Everything

John 12 starting in verse 20 now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks So these came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and asked him sir. We wish to see Jesus Philip went and told Andrew Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus and Jesus answered them 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 alone But if it dies it bears much fruit Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life If anyone serves me he must follow me and where I am there will my servant be also If anyone serves me the father will honor him Now my soul is troubled and what shall I say father save me from this hour But for this purpose I have come to this hour Father glorify your name Then a voice came from heaven I Have glorified it and I will glorify it again The crowd that stood there heard it and said it had thundered Others said an angel has spoken to him Jesus answered this voice has come for your sake not mine Now is the judgment of this world now will the ruler of this world be cast out and I When I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die Man Well, the men could come and hand out the symbols. That's what these are.

You're about to hold two symbols something symbolic in your hands For those who are baptized believers to remember Christ's death upon the cross Well, just briefly a brief thought from here look at verse 27 My soul is troubled and then here the the man Christ Jesus the man Christ Jesus fully God fully man, but he lived as a man He asked a question It's applicable for us right your soul's troubled And you asked the question. What should I say? What should I what shall I say? My soul is troubled. What shall I say? And then there's a statement a Possibility and it has a question mark right after it father.

Should I say father save me from this hour? The Christ is deeply troubled His soul is troubled. He asked the question What do I say in this moment of my soul being deeply troubled and he gives a possible answer to that Do I say to my father? Save me from this hour Rhetorical question in a way and was his answer. Yes.

Is that what he ends up saying? Does he say father save me? What does he end up saying father? What? Father glorify your name What? was The thought in his mind that had him say father glorify your name rather than father save me from this hour And the answer is right there in verse 27 father save me from this hour, but But for this purpose I have come to this hour So the Lord Jesus Right here. He knows the purpose of God for his life He's reflecting on the purpose of God for his life and that Thought that this is God's purpose. So how could I say save me from this hour? Instead the Lord Jesus says father glorify your Name, I appreciate seeing Christ.

I would say he's wrestling here His soul is troubled. He's asking how he should respond. He has a hypothetical response.

Should I say father save me? Nope This is God's purpose that I'm at this hour. My response is father glorify your Name his feelings were real But he did not let his feelings Overrule the very purpose of God in his life. You see that and that's I mean, that's something we all face We've got real feelings in the midst of a trial and yet he doesn't let those feelings dictate his response to God He doesn't say save me from this hour.

He says father glorify your name in this hour He chose the will of God over relief and escape. What was the mission? Was read Zack read it in those verses prior The mission was a corn of wheat falls into the ground and it dies And what happens when it dies it bears much fruit If the Lord Jesus did not go to the cross he abides alone he abides as the one righteous man But this is reminding us Christ did not go and abide alone. He did die and We are the much fruit that he refers to right there That's referring to us verse 24 Truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls Into the earth and dies it remains alone.

If that doesn't happen it remains alone, but if it dies Which is what Christ has done it bears much fruit So you and I Christian this is a reminder We're part of the much fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so his death was not tragic It was necessary to bring life to many to bring life for you and for you and I This congregation you're here Christian because Jesus did not follow his feelings He didn't follow the feeling father save me from this hour He looked at the very purposes of God and he lived those out even on the death You and I got to do the same thing All right And as we remember Christ and his death for us we're gonna live out his purpose in our life and it is death in This world. What does he say right there in verse 25? This is if we think like him This is what we're gonna be able to say whoever loves his life loses it.

Whoever hates his life in this world We'll keep it for eternal life So we are people who? We hate our life in this world That doesn't mean we're miserable people but in comparison to eternity and love for God People are gonna think you hate your own life in this world Because you're so sacrificial for the things of Christ and then he says in verse 26 if anyone serves me He will follow me and where I am there. My servant will be also And so that's we're the much fruit and we're people who lose our life we're people who follow Christ and so when trouble comes We got to bring our fears to the Lord. We got to say like the Lord Jesus father Just glorify your name in this even in this death my dying to expectations and trials in my life Father don't say we say save me from this hour.

Get me out of this God brought us into the trial. We should be able to say father get glory out of this I don't know what this is gonna look like but Lord get glory out of this trial in my life And we see that's what Christ did And so that's that's our example brethren and so here we here we have these symbols Right. The son was given a body and that body had died.

He died And so let's eat this in remembrance of the death of Christ. Let's drink this remembrance spilled blood Father we are incredibly grateful For your son who is tempted in every way Like we are Yet without sin Father we're thankful that we can read these verses that your son Instead of saying father save me from this hour And going that route of avoiding the cross Said father glorify your name Because you brought him into that purpose and that hour of life of his life And so Lord, we remember the death of your son Father we are grateful for the death of your son. We can say like we want to say like Paul I hope we can say like Paul for I've determined to know nothing among anything except for Jesus Christ and him crucified And Lord, we say what Paul it is our eager expectation that whether by life or by death you will be glorified in our lives Father Glorify yourself through us Lord get honor get praise Lord even when our souls are deeply troubled or that's when thoughts like that come in our mind What do I say? How do I pray? And father we see your son He thought he thought of certain solutions, but then he thought of but this is the purpose of God So Lord help us to think like your son help us to make right conclusions Lord we just look to you.

We need you And we're thankful for this reminder of what your son has done Lord everything else As hard as trials can be Lord in one way compared to what your son endured Lord, it can't our trials are not that big but they are And yet they're not in light of eternity Lord help us to think of eternity Lord help us to be a people who set our mind on eternal things Lord help us be a people who love your son more Lord. Help us be a people as we've seen right now Lord I don't know what songs are gonna be son or I don't know what what you've put in our door the sister Dorothy's heart to play But Lord use these very words that we've seen to minister to our souls to encourage our hearts Lord to set our feet on higher ground And so we thank you for symbols to remind us of your son. We thank you for songs that we can sing We thank you for brethren that we can love and exhort one another Lord.

We thank you for the preaching of the word Lord, we pray make us more like Christ today in his name. Amen