“The Hour Of Glory” John
Intro.: Norman Vincent Peale, the great guru of the
power of positive thinking, once asked J.C. Penney to tell him in as few words
as possible the secret to his outstanding success. Without a moment’s hesitation Penney replied,
“Here’s the answer in four words:
‘Adversity and Jesus Christ.’ He
then went on to explain how his father had been an impoverished preacher in the
hills of
The same is true for us. We often talk about the love, joy and
glorious hope we have by faith, without giving much thought to how it came to
us. The path that has led to our
salvation and to the greater glory of God was paved with blood, pain, sorrow,
and hell. Jesus walked that road for us so
that we may receive the glory of being called the children of God.
I.
Christ’s Purpose Was Always To Glorify His
Father. (vv.28-29)
A. Not many of us have dedicated our lives to
the glory of our parents, nor have we proved faithful in heeding the apostle’s
admonition to do all things to the glory of God. (nt. 1 Cor. 10:31) We are all a bunch of prodigal children who
have turned our backs on our Heavenly Father’s love, squandered away our
inheritance upon our shameful vices, and shamed Him by wallowing in the pig pen
of this world. As a result of Adam’s
fall we had lost the image of God; that image in which we were created so that
we could reflect our Creator Father’s glory.
So that His glory could again shine in this
sin darkened world God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be the
exact representation of the Father’s glory.
As the second Adam, He fully displayed the perfect image of God as the
Light to bring light to all men. He came
to serve us, to save us, and to begin the restoration of God’s glorious image in
us. Every word and deed of His life
served to bring glory to His Father.
At His birth the heavens opened and the night
was filled with the sound of angelic voices praising God and saying: “Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those upon whom His favor rests.” (Lk. 2) The Father
was glorified when His faithful Son humbled Himself to be born of a virgin in
order to save the children who had rejected His love.
Throughout Christ’s earthly ministry He
continued to bring glory to His Father as He healed the sick, caused the lame
to walk, the deaf to speak, the blind to see, the demon possessed to be set
free, and the dead to live again. More
glorious than all of this, however, was the message these wonders accompanied;
the message of repentance and forgiveness as God’s free gift through His Son.
B. The greatest revelation of God’s glory in
Christ didn’t actually come until the end.
The things which Christ to demonstrated His
power over the forces of heaven and earth displayed only one aspect of His
glory, but He repeatedly told His disciples that this was not His primary
purpose. His Father’s glory would be
fully revealed in another way. When the
crowds came seeking signs and craving miracles Jesus reminded them that His
hour had not yet come. (nt. Jn. 2:4) The hour in which He would be glorified and
bring greater glory to His Father was yet to be.
In
our Gospel Jesus prayed “Father, glorify your name!” (v.28) And the Father answered Him, immediately, “I have
glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” (v.29) Today’s
Gospel lesson reveals that…
II. The Hour Of God’s Greatest Glory Finally
Came Through The Death Of His Son. (v.23-24, 27, 30-33)
A. When Jesus arrived in
With His triumphant entry, His clashes
with the religious leaders, and His constant uncovering of the people’s damning
religion of self-salvation, Jesus met with ever increasing opposition. The people who greeted Him on Palm Sunday
grew weary of Him, the hatred of His enemies grew more intense, one of His
disciples prepared to betray Him, and by the end of the week the rest would
disown Him. In the end the religious leaders
would falsely accuse and condemn Him, the crowds would cry out for His
crucifixion, and the faithful would scatter like cockroaches away from the
light and into the darkness. Yet this
was the hour in which the Son of Man would be glorified, and the Father would
be glorified in Him.
B. Christ
understood that it was through the cross that he would be glorified and truly bring
glory to the Father.
Jesus knew what was in store, and
trembled. He told His disciples, “Now my heart
is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour?” In the Garden
we witness Christ’s anguish as He prays for that cup of suffering to be taken
away from Him, if it is possible. As
our epistle says Jesus, “offered prayers and petitions with loud cries and
tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard…” (Heb. 5;7) Imagine
knowing the horror which awaited Him:
The hatred and abuse of the people He loved and longed to save, the
physical, emotional and spiritual torture He would endure, the expectation of
the forsakenness of His Father, and the thought of experiencing the full weight
of God’s wrath for the sins of others, for your sins and mine.
Yet
our Lord knew that this was the reason He had come into the world. It was His purpose to die so that we may have
life. To prepare His disciples He said: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified. I tell you the truth, unless
a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single
seed. But if it dies, it produces many
seeds…what should I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it was for this
very reason I came to this hour.”
(vv.24, 27) As in death a seed becomes the source of life
for many, Jesus tells us that through His death upon the cross, and
resurrection from the grave, He would become the source of eternal life for all
who believe. It was in this awesome
display of God’s perfect love, “that He would not spare His own Son but gave Him up
for us all” (Rom.
C. Jesus said that when He would be lifted up,
that is lifted up on the cross, He would draw all
people to Himself. His sacrifice, his holy life lived for us and
innocent death suffered for us, has brought salvation to all people. And through the proclamation of the Gospel,
when Christ on the cross is lifted up before the eyes of people, the Holy
Spirit draws people from every nation, tribe and language to the glory of God’s
love. Through that Gospel the Lord draws
people to Himself, works faith in their hearts, and bestows upon them the gifts
of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Christ’s sacrifice is the greatest
revelation of God’s glory, because through it our Lord says, “Now is the time of judgment on this world;
now the prince of this world will be driven out.” (v.31)
Praise God, the time of this world’s judgment, of God’s just sentence
upon our sin has come and gone. There on
the cross in that hour when God’s perfect justice and perfect love met, our sin
was judged and for us our Savior died.
In His words “It is finished!” he assures us that our sins have been paid for and God’s
just anger has been satisfied. Because
of Christ’s hour of glory, the prince of this world has been driven out. He has no more power over us; no more power
to accuse us, no more power to condemn us, no more power to terrify us, no more
power to control us, no more power to kill us, and no more power to claim us as
his own. By the power of the Holy
Spirit He has been driven out, and…
III. By Faith We Now Share In Christ’s
Cross And Glory. (v.25-26)
A. Thank God we are here this morning/evening
because we have been drawn to Christ through the message of the cross. By God’s grace we are among those whom the
Holy Spirit has called by the Gospel to receive life and salvation. Even now we are a new creation through
Christ; “created in Christ Jesus to do the good works which God prepared in
advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). In the waters
of Holy Baptism the Lord has begun the restoration of that image which was once
lost; that image which serves to reflect His glory.
The Holy Spirit through God’s gifts of
Word and Sacrament has filled us with the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Christ. Drawn to the cross which
He has blessed, and gazing upon His blood stained brow, we again know the
perfect love of God which Adam and Eve experienced before the fall and that
perfect love drives out all our fears.
No longer do we hide from God’s presence, or try to cover our sins with
the fig leaves of our own skimpy works.
We know that we have been covered with the skin of the sacrificial lamb,
with the robe of Christ’s righteousness.
The image of God has returned to us, because it is no longer we who
live, but Christ who lives in us.
B. And
with Christ living in us through the working of the Holy Spirit we can now have
the same attitude toward life that our Lord Jesus had. By faith we are ready to lose our lives for
the sake of our Father’s glory, for the sake of the Gospel, and for the sake of
those whom Christ loves and wants to draw to Himself. Jesus told his disciples, “The man who
loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life. Whoever
serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.” (vv.25-26a) In
the knowledge of God’s perfect love, and in the certain hope of being with
Christ, we are able to lose our lives in service.
C. In our Spirit worked lives of service our
heavenly Father honors us. He gives us
the joyous privilege of being lights in the world to reflect the glory of
Christ to others. He gives us the
blessed opportunity of being the seeds through whom others
may receive the gift of life in Christ. The
glory we share as cross-bearers of Christ is God’s gracious gift to us.
With Christ we pray, not “Father save me,”
but “Father, glorify your name!” And the
Father’s beautiful answer is: “I have
glorified it, and will glorify it again!”
Jesus promises us: “My Father will honor the one who serves me.”
Concl.: Dear brothers
and sisters in Christ, now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified, and for the Father to be glorified through Him. Now is the hour when sin is judged, and the
prince of this world is driven out. Now
is the hour when the Son of Man is lifted up for your salvation. Now is the hour when He has drawn you to
Himself. Now is the hour of your
salvation and you receive the honor of being declared holy in Christ. Now is the hour of God’s greatest glory! Amen.