JOH 12:27 "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.
28 Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again."
29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30 Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine.

It’s interesting that this portion of Scripture starts with the statement from our Lord, “My heart is troubled,” which comes on the heels of what appears to be a triumph for Jesus.

You’ll remember that only a few verses earlier in this very chapter Jesus was welcomed and hailed as King of the Jews as He entered Jerusalem.

JOH 12:13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Blessed is the King of Israel!"

You would think that this would be a glorious time for Jesus as the crowds of Israel gather around Him in apparent support. For you and I this would appear to be one of those defining moments where we conclude that maybe, just maybe, all our hard efforts have finally paid off and someone actually appreciates what we are doing.

And yet, in the midst of this celebration Jesus knows that this moment is certainly a defining time for Him, but not in the sense in which the crowd thinks. That’s why He tries to put into perspective what His mission is as He talks about death, not triumph.

JOH 12:23 Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
24 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.
25 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.

Jesus was saying that part of His glorification included the reality that He must first die so that men may live. And it is in this context that He continues with the statement in our text this morning that, “My heart is troubled.”

He knows what is about to come upon Him. He knows that the people who are rejoicing in Him who believe He is their conquering King are misguided. He knows that in just a few short days many of these same people will demand His crucifixion.

He knows the suffering He will endure, from the insults and beatings at the hands of the Jewish leaders, to the scourging and torture of the cross itself, is all part of the cruelty He must suffer at the hands of men.

And as discouraging as all of that might be on one level, that is not the real reason for Jesus being troubled in His Spirit. The real reason has to do with the eternal consequences of being made sin for us as He will, for the first and only time in eternity, suffer the wrath of the Father on our behalf.

For all of eternity past Jesus has been in unbroken fellowship with the Father. And now, as He contemplates the penalty of sin He will suffer on our behalf, though He is guiltless, He knows that that fellowship is about to be broken.

And the reason it is about to be broken is because the wrath of God which we all deserve will now fall on the Father’s only Son. There is no clearer picture of the reality of this as when Jesus hang on that cross and for three hours darkness fell on the whole land. We read of this in Matthew.

MAT 27:45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" -which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

The Greek word for forsaken there in Matthew is very strong in that it means totally abandoned. And what this intimates is that the Father absolutely turned His back on His Son and instead of showing any compassion He instead gives Jesus His full wrath as our Lord hangs there for you and me as both God and men reject Him.

There is no way you and I can fully understand this rejection of the Son by the Father. We might look at this and say, well, it appears that the Jesus is only separated from the Father for those three hours at best and possibly six hours at worst as we include the entire crucifixion ordeal.

How can three or six hours be so bad when He knows that He’s going to be reunited to the Father in a relatively short time. How does that compare to a separation of eternity which is what men must suffer if they reject Christ?

But this is precisely where we don’t fully understand the wrath Jesus suffered, because this suffering was eternal in the sense that He endured God’s wrath for the world in an eternal environment. Remember, with God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day.

In other words, Christ suffering the Father’s wrath in the span of His time on the cross cannot be understood as a specific time period because the wrath He suffered was eternal in nature. And so, our deserved eternal penalty was squeezed into that short span of hours on the cross as Jesus bore that penalty.

This is what our Lord understood as He said, "Now my heart is troubled...”

And because of Christ’s willingness to suffer the Father’s wrath on our behalf we don’t have to pay that eternal debt and penalty to a righteous and Holy God. Paul points this out in a number of places in the Scriptures.

ROM 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

1TH 5:9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.
11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

It is precisely because of what Jesus would accomplish in bringing us out from under God’s wrath that He continues His thought in our text.

JOH 12:27 "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.
28 Father, glorify your name!"

By the way, when we read through the gospel of John one of the things we don’t see, which the other gospels include, is the agony in the garden just before Jesus is arrested. Instead, John shows our Lord’s agony here which actually started three or four days before His arrest.

Now, this does raise a question when we look at Jesus’ concern for what He is about to suffer. And the question is this. How can Jesus be troubled when time after time He tells us to trust God and not to be troubled. In fact, in chapter fourteen of this very gospel we read these words of Jesus.

JOH 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

JOH 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

In light of these words to His disciples how can Jesus say, “My heart is troubled?”

Two things need to be noted. The first one is that Jesus was showing how He was every bit as human as you and I, as the thought of death and separation from His Father was real. But unlike how you and I often don’t trust God, Jesus was not demonstrating any lack of trust in the Father, but was anticipating the cost of our debt as He willingly was about to take it upon Himself. This troubled Him as it would trouble any human being.

But the second thing we see is that this troubling of Jesus’ heart was set against His full trust in God. Notice what it says there in verse 27.

Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, now “My heart is troubled, what shall I choose?” No. He says, what shall I say?

The choice had already been made and there was nothing in heaven or on earth that was going to deter Jesus from the task at hand, and the reason for this is because of His love for the Father. And so, He raises the issue for His disciples, how can I ask the Father to save Me from dying in your place when it was for this very reason that I was born of a virgin to come into this world to redeem you?

His hour had now come and despite how the human feelings of Jesus were coming into play, He put His feelings aside for His love for the Father as well as for you and me, and so He can be speaking to His disciples one moment as He explains His choice, and yet in the very next breath break into prayer as He now points His heart heavenward.

What an amazing response to a prayer from Jesus which is really nothing more than normal conversation with the Father. This is how Jesus understood prayer. Just as the disciples were gathered around our Lord and just as Jesus was talking with them, He then turns His attention to the Father as if He were part of the immediate gathering of listeners.

And this is how we ought to view prayer. Prayer for the believer in Christ is the reality that we can now talk to God as though He is actually listening, because He is. In fact, He longs to hear from us. He loves to hear our praises of Him. He loves to hear about our problems as He is more than capable of solving them. He loves to hear of our concerns as He is able to increase our faith.

He wants to hear from us on a regular basis. And yet, because we often think of prayer as more of a formal approach to God instead of regular conversation between a child and his Father, we often wait to go God until someone says, okay let’s pray, as if we had to take a number and now it’s our turn.

It’s dinner time, it’s time to give thanks. It’s bed time, it’s time to talk to God about our day. It’s church time, it must be time to pray. Paul says, pray without ceasing.

1TH 5:16 Be joyful always;
17 pray continually;
18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

What Paul means by this is don’t relegate prayer to God to only those formal times we usually associate with prayer. Pray when you get up, pray when you shower, pray when you’re working, pray when lie down.

In other words, commune with your God all day, because that is what a relationship is all about, communication. And Jesus is in constant communication with the Father as is seen here in our text. “Father glorify Your Name.”

And guess what? The Father was listening the whole time as we see Him respond immediately.

JOH 12:28 Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again."

The Father essentially responded by saying to Jesus, “Son your entire life has glorified Me. You glorified Me at your birth. You glorified Me all during your childhood as you loved Me flawlessly. You glorified Me at Cana when you performed your first public miracle. You glorified Me at your baptism. Remember that when I spoke to you and told you how pleased I was with You?”

“Son, everything about your life has glorified Me, and you will glorify Me again as you obey Me even unto death. But you will also glorify Me when you walk out of that tomb alive.”

But in those nine short words, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again," the Father places His seal of approval on the One He chose to accomplish our salvation. The means to our eternal life, the crucifixion, is a go. That’s what the Father was saying to the only who was capable of doing that for us.

Now, what is heartening about this short prayer to the Father by Jesus is that Jesus gets an immediate answer as He did on every occasion but one. The one occasion where Jesus did not get an immediate answer is when He cried out to the Father on the cross, why have you forsaken Me? The Father was silent, but it didn’t mean He didn’t hear His Son.

You and I often think of prayer as coming to the Father but not always thinking the Father has heard us because we don’t get an immediate response, or the response we expect.

But remember, it is the Father who is telling us to come to Him every moment of our lives. He hears us and He does answer us immediately, but the actual carrying out of the answer may not come for days or weeks or months or years.

When the Father receives our prayers He has already determined His will concerning that request. How do we know this? Well, we know this because He knows what we need before we ask.

MAT 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

In other words, don’t view prayer with God as some sort of check list you have to repeat over and over again with words which only a lawyer would understand. Just talk with your Father as one whom you know listens and is able to answer. In fact, talk with your heavenly Father in such a way where you come confidently before His throne because you know He already knows.

Before you and I ever approach our God with our needs He’s already dealt with it. It’s just a matter of Him carrying out His will in our lives in His time frame as he encourages us to come to Him despite His foreknowledge of our needs. He just likes us coming to Him.

But again, we need to realize that though He has already answered our prayer, even before we ask, sometimes the answer is no. Or sometimes the answer is wait. And on some occasions the answer is, you got it right now.

But whatever the answer we should never doubt that our Father is unaware of our situation or that His love for us is anything less than an everlasting love with only our best in mind.

And the best for Jesus, in our text, is to know that what He is about to embark on, found in His sacrifice on the cross, is exactly what the Father wants for Him as He commends His Son and encourages Him to go forward that it might bring the Father glory.

What is interesting about this response from the Father is that in this case it was audible. In other words, not only did Jesus hear His response, but the crowds were in a position to hear it. Of course hearing the voice of God and understanding the voice of God are often two different things.

JOH 12:29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

Again, it is apparent that the crowd heard something. Since there was no instant replay they didn’t get a second chance to hear the voice and so there is some confusion as to what they heard.

Some said it was thunder while others said an angel had spoke to Jesus. What this tells us is that both groups understand that the sound was associated with something heavenly. In fact, with the first group who thought they heard thunder, they may very well have understood that God spoke to Jesus through the thunder. For a Jew this was well understood.

For example, when God spoke to Israel from mount Sinai, as He was about to deliver the law to Moses the very thing that distinguished that event was thunder from the mountain associated with God.

EXO 19:16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.

They weren’t trembling because of thunder and lightning and thick clouds. They had all seen and experienced these natural events before. But they trembled because this event was the result of God showing His presence in a unique way which is seen in the next chapter of Exodus.

EXO 20:18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance
19 and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."

This thunder in our text that these people associated with the prayer of Jesus to the Father must have triggered what they had learned of the thunder found at Mount Sinai when God showed Himself in power.

As to why they didn’t understand what the Father spoke to the Son we can only guess, but the likely answer is that they didn’t have ears to hear. The other answer is that though God wanted them to understand that He was addressing His Son, it was a communication that was meant only for Jesus.

This, by the way, is not unlike what happened with the Pharisee by the name of Saul who was on his way to Damascus to persecute the church.

ACT 9:3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
5 "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.
6 "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.

The question is, what sound did they hear? Did they hear the same voice Saul heard, and did they understand it? Well, in this case we know they heard something, but they didn’t understand it. Later in the book of Acts Paul recounts this actual event and here’s what he said.

ACT 22:6 "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.
7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?'
8 "'Who are you, Lord?' I asked. "'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied.
9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

Saul’s companions heard the voice, but didn’t understand it. Why? Because God wasn’t speaking directly to them. Though they would benefit from the voice of God indirectly the Lord only wanted Saul to understand His voice.

Now, how did the companions of Saul benefit from the voice of God indirectly? Well, in this way. Saul had been blinded by the heavenly light and he could no longer travel without assistance. Who ended up helping him? His traveling companions.

ACT 22:11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
12 "A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.
13 He stood beside me and said, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 "Then he said: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.
15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.
16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.'

Where were Saul’s companions when Ananias was used of the Lord to miraculously give Saul his sight back and then tell Saul of the risen Christ’s instructions for his life? They were right there by his side. God blessed them with His power and will for Saul and in turn you can bet that they were prompted by Saul to embrace this Jesus who spoke to him.

Whether they believed or not, we’re not told, but the blessing they received in being in the presence of God and His new servant Saul was no less real than it was for Saul.

And this is why Jesus can say in verse 30 of our text, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine.” They didn’t understand the voice, neither group. The second group thought angels were talking with Jesus, but apparently even this group didn’t understand the correspondence.

So, how did they benefit? They benefited by understanding that everything that Jesus was saying about Himself as being the One who would die for the nation, the One who received the adulation and praise from these people as being the King of the Jews, was true as this heavenly voice acknowledged it.

What they did with that revelation would be something else. And this is the difficult part of being a Christian who has been entrusted with the truth as we declare the Father’s voice found in His word.

Sometimes we think that if only God spoke audibly to someone what a help and blessing that would be in convincing them that there is a God in heaven who wants them to come to Him. The fact of the matter is that He has already done that.

He has already spoken and those words have been given to the prophets and apostles and have been written down in the book we have before us as the infallible and Holy Spirit inspired word of God.

God has revealed Himself in nature. He has revealed Himself in His word and He has revealed Himself in these last days, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, through Jesus Christ Himself.

HEB 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

The question now is, who is listening? Do people have ears to hear? From some of the responses we get we have to wonder if anyone is listening. But you know the answer is that ultimately it doesn’t make any difference who’s listening. What is important is are we declaring the truth of Christ through our lives and our lips? Are we thundering for the Lord?

God is the one who is able to open our ears and our eyes, just as He did with Saul on the road leading to Damascus. That is His job if you will as His Spirit enables people to hear the truth. Our job is to declare the truth as we are faithful witnesses to that truth of who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross and how He raised from the dead three days later. And that’s what Saul, later called Paul, understood as well.

ROM 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

Let’s reveal God’s truth. Let’s speak God’s truth. And may we encourage people to be blessed by God as they place their faith in Christ whose righteousness is the only righteousness which enables us to live with our Creator forever.

May His voice be heard in and through us to the world as we faithfully love Him and serve Him all our days. Thunder on to His glory!

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