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Book: John
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John 12:27 The Troubled Soul
I. Why was His soul troubled?
A. In verse 23 He declared, "The hour is come that the Son of Man
should be glorified."
1. In chapter 2 at the beginning of His ministry He said
to His mother when she suggested that he work a miracle
to help out the embarrassed host of the wedding party,
"My hour has not yet come."
2. In chapter 7 when they sought to arrest Him and could
not John gives the reason that His hour had not yet
come.
3. Again in chapter as He was teaching in the Temple no
man laid hands on Him for His hour had not yet come.
4. What is meant by His hour to be glorified?
5. In the next chapter verse one we read, Now before the
feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour
was come that he should depart out of this world unto
the Father.
B. He was to be glorified by dying on the cross, His soul was
troubled because the time had come for Him to die on the cross.
1. Many times we are troubled because we do not know the
will or purpose of God in allowing some tragedy to
befall us.
2. It is hard, sometimes impossible for us to equate pain
or problems with a loving God. We are troubled when
adversity crosses our path.
3. Look at what men of God have endured at the hands of
the sinful throughout history.
a. Righteous Abel was killed by his wicked
brother Cain.
b. Look at what righteous Joseph endured. Sold as
a slave by his own brothers; falsely accused of
rape by the wife of Potiphar; falsely
imprisoned for years in a foreign land. If
anyone had a right to believe that God had
deserted him it was Joseph.
c. Hebrews 11 gives us the list of the men of
faith from the Old Testament period.
HEB 11:36 And others had trial of [cruel] mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
HEB 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were
slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and
goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
HEB 11:38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts,
and [in] mountains, and [in] dens and caves of the earth.
d. Finally look at our Lord. Talk of injustice,
history is full of it.
e. The age old dilemma is why do the ungodly
prosper and the righteous suffer persecution?
Its troubling.
II. What did He do concerning His troubled soul?
A. He prayed.
1. Father save Me from this hour.
2. Again in the garden when He prayed He asked that if
were possible the cup of death might pass from Him.
3. In the book of Hebrews we are told that He endured the
cross despising the shame.
4. Save Me from this hour, let this cup pass from Me. That
petition was expressing His personal desire from His
man side.
5. What an example this is for us when our souls are
troubled. Take your troubles to the Lord.
a. The Bible tells us to cast all of our cares
upon Him for He cares for you.
b. Paul wrote to the Phillipians don't be filled
with care over things, but in everything by
prayer and supplications with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God.
B. He reasoned.
1. "For this cause came I to this hour."
a. This is the purpose for My coming into the
world, to give My life as a ransom for sin.
b. This is the hour He had been moving toward
since He began His public ministry.
c. This was the means by which He was to give to
the world proof of the greatness of the
Fathers love.
d. This was to be the expression of supreme love.
"Greater love has no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends."
2. The Father is in control, He is working out His eternal
plan of redemption for mankind.
a. Even though it is distasteful and painful, the
eternal good that will come from it is more
important than My temporal comfort.
3. When our souls are troubled we need to stop and reason.
a. God loves me.
b. God is at work in my life.
c. He is working according to His eternal
purposes.
d. God is going to bring eternal good out of this
trial.
e. Hebrews 11 tells of those who were tortured not
receiving deliverance, that they might receive
a better resurrection.
f. Many times when we insist on deliverance, we
are obstructing God's eternal purposes in our
lives.
g. God said through Jeremiah, For I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the
LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to
give you an expected end.
4. Paul who endured so much suffering for the cause of
Christ said, "For I know that the present suffering is
not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
revealed. Again he said, "For our light affliction
which is for a moment worketh an exceeding eternal
weight of glory."
C. He committed. "Father, glorify Thy name."
1. In the garden when He requested that if it were
possible that the cup pass from Him, He added,
"Nevertheless, not what I will, but Thy will be done."
2. You do Father what you know to be right and best from
the eternal standpoint.
3. Here is where many people fail.
4. This is the test of true faith.
a. Not to insist on my will being done.
b. Not to demand that God acquiesce to my will,
but to submit the issue to Him.
c. In the past, I have been so wrong in what I
thought was right.
d. As I look back from this great vantage point,
I can see the great wisdom of God when He
said, "No."
e. I am equally thankful for the prayers that He
did not answer as I am for those He did answer.
5. It was to this commitment that the Father responded.
"I have glorified it and I will glorify it again."
6. God always responds to the prayer of total commitment.
7. Jesus saw the purpose of the cross and realized that
the love of God for man will ever be demonstrated
through His death on the cross, this love will draw
men unto God. This is what He meant in verse 32 when
He said, "And I. if I be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto Me." being lifted up signified His
death on the cross, drawing all men unto Me, signified
the result of His being lifted up on the cross. When
troubled by circumstances that you do not understand.
A. Pray. Prayer changes things. Sometimes what prayer changes is
your mind concerning the circumstances.
B. Think it through to the eternal purpose that God is working
out. Learn to see things from the eternal perspective, rather
than the temporal.
C. Commit. "For I know in whom I have believed, and persuaded that
He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him.
II Tim. 1:12. Jesus was fully committed to the will of the
Father. "I came not to do My own will, but the will of Him that
sent Me." "I do always those things that please the Father."
"Nevertheless not what I will but Thy will be done." "The cup
that the Father has given Me to drink, shall I not drink it?"
The final word from the cross, "Father, into Thy hands, I
commit My spirit."
D. Commitment is the key to peace. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on Jehovah."
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