Jesus' soul is troubled as he contemplates his impending crucifixion, yet he submits to God's will for the glory of His name. The sermon highlights three instances where God's voice from heaven affirmed Jesus, emphasizing the Trinity and the intimate relationship between the Father and Son. These divine affirmations, occurring at Jesus' baptism, transfiguration, and just before his passion, underscore his purity, divine authority, and the redemptive purpose of his suffering. Ultimately, Jesus' "lifting up" on the cross is presented as the means by which he draws all people to himself, demonstrating his reign through grace, power, thoughtfulness, submission, and obedience, offering salvation to all who commit their souls to him.
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Go to chapter twelve and verse twenty seven. Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. The people, therefore, that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said, An angel spoke to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sake.
Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This, he said, signifying what death he should die. And people answered him, we have heard out of the law that Christ abided forever. And how saith thou the Son of man, must be lifted up? Who is the Son of man? This is a remarkable passage, and this morning we want to speak on sermons from the sky. God's speaking from heaven to his Son, who is on earth.
You have the Lord in this incident, and then the voice, the state from heaven, and the people to whom the Lord explains that voice. How remarkable it should start out in this passage. Now is my soul troubled. The Lord Jesus Christ here is beginning to realize why he came into this world, and the job he had to do, a sudden strong mental and spiritual agony, a strange struggle within, surged up as he thought of the hours that lie before him when he was going to go to the cross and make possible salvation for you and salvation for me.
His mind is perplexed. He says, what shall I say? I don't know what to say. And if I did, I wouldn't know how to say it. Such was the state of mind of the Lord Jesus as he tossed to the cross. But in all he recognized the will of God. He says, For their sakes, Father, it's your will that I go. Not my will, but thine be done. And although there were mysteries, the son of man didn't realize. Yet he was willing to be submitted to his Father who was in heaven. And his passion in life, his consuming passion for God's glory.
That's what he desired about everything else. He said to his Father in this passage, Glory by thy name. In all that I've got to do, in the task that's performed, Father, I want you to be glorified. That is the supreme purpose of my coming. That's the desire of my heart. That should be the desire of every Christian's heart. This voice was heard three times. You find it at his baptism in Matthew chapter three. You find it also in the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew seventeen. And here you find it on this occasion.
the significance of the voice. God spoke to him, and the people couldn't understand why this voice should come. But God spoke to his son, and this is a proof that the father and the son are too distinct for a people. God is in heaven. He's speaking to his son on earth. Now there are some people have difficulty with the Trinity, three people in one, three persons in one, Father, Son, and Spirit. Well, here you have the Father in heaven and He's speaking to His Son on earth. There you have the two.
And, of course, the Holy Spirit invisible. Two distinct persons. Oh, how wonderful the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son. And how both of them enjoyed that unbroken communion, one with the other. From the time Christ came into the world, he was in fellowship with his Father, which is in heaven. When at the age of twelve, he told others around him, I must be about my Father's business. The marvelous relationship between God the Father and God the Son. The first voice came from heaven when he was thirty years of age. And this was at his baptism.
For thirty years he lived in a more or less obscurity down in Nazareth. The time came for him now to begin his public ministry before the cross. Three and a half years. So at the end of that thirty year seclusion and the three and a half years ahead, that's when he got baptized. And that's when God opened the heavens and said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-being. Then on the Mount of Transfiguration, as we'll see a little later on, that's the second time, but now he's getting near the cross.
And then the third time is where we read here. And this is just before the cross, a matter of hours away. Thus you see the voice of God speaking to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did Christ say to the people on this occasion? In verse twenty-nine he said, The people therefore that stood by and heard the voice said, That it thundered others said, And angels spake to him. In other words, they couldn't seem to understand the meaning. Oh, there was just a noise. It could be thunder. Was it a cloudy day? We know not. But There was a noise.
Some say it was thunder. They didn't recognize the voice of God. Others said, well, it was an angel. It was an angel. People today are still trying to explain away the voice of God, trying to do away with the supernatural, trying to explain spiritual things in a logical sense. But that voice was heard. It was distinct, and it had a message. In spite of those who said it just under, in spite of those who said an angel spoke, that voice was clear and distinct.
They didn't seem to understand that God was speaking, and some of you sitting here don't realize or identify the voice of God. God is speaking. not in fields of thunder, not by an angel, but through his word, God is speaking to you. I hope you recognize his voice. If a voice says to you, you're lost. If a voice inside you tells you the time you were getting saved, if a voice speaks to you about your sin and you need a Savior, Don't mistake that voice.
That's the voice of the Spirit of God, and you better take heed and not try and explain it away. When you think of the voice that the Lord heard and some people heard, how wonderful that voice was. It was majestic. It was musical. It was mighty. In Revelation, like many waters, for as a lion roars, but it was meaningful. It had a full meaning. The Lord Jesus knew what the meaning was. He heard that voice, and it was clear and distinct to him. It had a message.
Here's the Son speaking, and you'll notice we read that verse twenty-seven. Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. And his prayer is, Father, glorify thy name. Now there's the Son speaking to the Father. Now the Father speaks to the Son. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, And God is now speaking to his Son. I have both glorified it. That is his name, and will glorify it again. God says, my son, I've glorified my name in your life.
From the time you were born until thirty years of age, you lived submissive to my will. You did not sin. You were without sin. You carried out my plan, my purpose. And now three and a half years of your public life, You've glorified me. You've never said a word you shouldn't have said. You've never had a thought contrary to my mind. You've never done anything that dishonored my name. That's your life. I have glorified my name. And I'm going to glorify it again.
And that's the cross you're going to. You're going to glorify me by that death. You're going to die on the cross. Here is this amazing voice that speaks from heaven. And the Father's answer. Jesus seeks to explain this. He says, turning to the people, you heard that noise. It wasn't thunder. It wasn't an angel. It was my Father's speaking. And he said, he spake what he did for your sake. Isn't that what he said? in verse twenty nine and the people therefore or in verse twenty eight this voice came not because of me but for your sake for your sake in verse thirty and Jesus said this voice came not because of me but for your sake this is not remarkable God speak to me concerning you people it's because of you And that's true.
What God said to His Son on that occasion, and what God's saying to you today, is for your sake, it concerns you. God wants you to be saved. He wants you to have your sins forgiven. He wants you to know you have everlasting life and you'll never perish. It's for your sake. Isn't that amazing? That's why Christ prayed, and that's why God answered, For your sake came I unto this hour. You notice the conflict with Satan in verse thirty-one. And what a conflict. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
There has been a conflict in the world from the time sin entered. And especially down the Old Testament days and centuries, there was the conflict between God and Satan. And when Christ appeared, the conflict increased, because here's God manifest in the flesh. God's not out there a great spirit, but he's here on earth in the person of Jesus Christ. And Satan now concentrates his power upon that one, that holy one, that sinless one, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a conflict. And he also describes in verse thirty-three, The kind of death he's going to die.
And he said, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me. He said, I'm not going to die by stoning. That's why they couldn't have stoned them, and they tried on several occasions, as we've been noticing in our study. And they took them to the brow of the hill. They were going to throw them over. They couldn't do that. And he was out on a boat one day, and a terrible storm came up, and the Bible makes a flame that Satan was in that storm, trying to cause that boat to drown, to go down, and take the Savior and the disciples with him. He couldn't do that. That's not the way he's going to die, either by stoning or being thrown over the hill or being drowned.
He's got to die on a cross. And this type of punishment was not introduced into the world until the Romans took over it. Prior to that, they had other means of punishment, capital punishment. But now, the Romans were the ones who introduced crucifixion. That's why Christ five or six hundred years prior to it, they pierced my hands and my feet. He predicted the type of death he was to die. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Now getting into these three occasions, over in the first one in Matthew chapter three, sixteen and seventeen, here is God witnessing to the holiness, the purity of the Lord Jesus.
I'm going to read it to you. In Matthew three and sixteen, and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw, John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lightning upon him, and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-being. The Spirit of God in the form of a dove, showing the Spirit has a form. There you have the Trinity at the baptism. No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him.
No matter how a mother and a father loved their child, and I've heard it said many times, I'd have been glad to have died for my daughter, my son. If I only could, you can. David would have died for Absalom his rebellious prodigal son. Oh, Absalom, Absalom, would God have died for thee, for Absalom died in his sins and went to hell. And though David knew he was going to heaven, he was willing to have died for his son, he couldn't do it. The only one who can die for man and save him is the one who knew no sin. We're all sinners, and one sinner can't die for another sinner.
Oh, the only one who can meet God's requirements and save my guilty soul is a sinless man, an only one ever walked this world, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And here is God announcing from heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. I find no fault in him. Here is God testifying to the purity of Jesus Christ. Then he testifies to his preaching. And this is where we come to a lovely passage over in Matthew seventeen five. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Hear ye him. Now God's adding three words here that he didn't use over in Matthew chapter three of the baptism. There God was pointing out and witnessing to the purity of Christ. Now he's witnessing to his preaching. Hear ye him. What a remarkable scene that was that day when Peter, James, and John went up into the mountain. And Christ appeared. He was transfigured before them. And there he stood white and glittering, his face shone as the sun. And appearing with him was Moses and Elijah.
Moses representing the law and Elijah the prophet. And poor Peter, he got so excited, he says, Lord, let's make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, one for Elijah. He was putting Moses and Elijah. on the same platform as Jesus Christ. And when that happened, God blotted out the picture, and they blotted out two characters, Moses and Elias, and they saw Jesus only. In other words, God saying to Peter, Peter, don't you dare put anyone on the same plane as my son?
Moses was a great man, but he was a sinful man. A Niger was a great man, but he was a sinful man. My son is sinless. Put the spotlight on him, and it says they saw no man save Jesus only. You see plenty of stars when you go out on a nice, clear night. Oh, the stars are numberless. But when the sun comes up, The stars disappeared. When Jesus Christ stood on that mount, his brightness shone, and the stars vanished. Moses and Elias had to leave the stage.
They saw no man save Jesus only. Because the law can't save you, and the prophets can't save you. The Ten Commandments cannot put away your sin. They'll condemn you. And the prophets cannot either save your soul as only one who can. And that's Jesus Christ. They saw no man save Jesus only. And he says, Hear ye him. The second time God speaks from heaven, he says, I want you to hear my son. You've been hearing Moses and the prophets and you're still alienated from me.
You're still in your sins going to hell. I want you now to hear my son. How wonderful to hear the words and the voice of the Son of God. You know, Peter never got over that picture. While I was away the past week, one evening before I went to sleep, I was thinking of a passage that Peter gives us in his second epistle. And I was so thrilled that it came into my mind. I got out of bed when I got my Bible and got my Bible ready. And I'm going to read it to you. Because Peter was on that mount. He was one of three.
Peter, James, and John. He never forgot that scene on the mount of transfiguration. And this is what you read over in Second Peter One, Sixteen. For we have not followed, says Peter, cunningly devised fables or myths, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory of This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. Peter never forgot that, that wonderful day on the Mount when he saw the Lord in his glory. And how Peter looked upon that scene, he saw Moses and Elias, and he thought they were equal with Christ, and they were taken from the scene, and he saw Christ only, and God said, You listen to him. What's in that message? The substance of that message on the Mount Defeater was the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That had some fulfillment when he came the last time. the first time, nineteen hundred years ago. But its full fulfillment remains for the future. Christ is coming again. And it's not far off. The coming and glory of Christ. For that picture we see on the Mount of Transfiguration sweeps on to the future. And the second thing is the reality of that message. He said these are not fables. These are not myths. These are facts. Has! Also the proof. Peter says we were there. Peter, James, and John.
It wasn't just some illusion I had as an individual. God says, by two or three witnesses, let every word be established. And the three of us were there. We saw. We not only saw, we heard that voice, and we know what it says. We know now what it was, and he said, from the glory, also is corroborated by God. For God, Christ received honor and glory from God. It can't get much evidence more conclusive than that. God gave honor and glory to his Son, and furthermore, the confirmation of it.
Peter said we weren't in a trance. We knew it more than thunder. We knew it wasn't an angel. It was a literal, audible, clear, distinct voice. We heard it. And we saw the one who spake it. Yes. You can't get around this, can you? The divine assurance of it. And he tells us plainly, we have unto you a more sure word of prophecy, that one vision made all prophecy sure the coming and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You remember the Lord had a walk with two disciples in Luke twenty four. And he used language, I couldn't use talking to you this morning. He says, Oh, fools and slow hearts. Now the Lord Jesus used that language to those two on the Emmaus Road. This is what he said. Then he said unto them, O fools and slow of heart, I believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory, and beginning at Moses and the prophet he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the thing concerning himself. That occasion on the mountain confirmed all the prophecies of the Old Testament, the absolute certainty of their fulfillment in the coming and goal of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How wonderful all these things are. And now you've come to the third reference to the voice from heaven. That's our passage. He said in verse twenty-eight. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. What was that? He had glorified it in the past. Now God says, I'm going to glorify my name when you get crucified. We've spoken of this purity at the first voice from heaven. Then of the fact of his power, coming to reign, his power and glory.
But now is passion. This is his death. And if you were to read Luke's account of the Mount of Transfiguration, he uses this word. They spake. Moses and Elijah spake of his deceased. Or the word is Exodus. And you know what the Exodus speaks of? The redemption of Israel out of the land of Egypt. They were talking about Christ's death on the cross. That's why we come to that amazing verse. I, if I be lifted up, verse thirty-two, one, thirty-two, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
This is connected with the third voice of God from heaven. He said, I'm now going to glorify my Son. Jesus Christ knew the time had come, he said, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. Did he not draw them unto him at his birth? His magnetic birth? Why, he drew the attention of the hearts of the workers, the shepherds, the wise men, even wicked Herod, heard of his birth, the one to kill him? Yes, he had a magnetic personality at his birth. through the attention of the great men.
And in his life, even at the age of twelve, you find him in the temple and the learned men are asking him questions. He got the attention of the intellectual of his day, the intellectual, the learned men, the doctors. There was something magnetic about this boy of twelve. And it says they could not get at him because of the press. The crowds came around. One time, four thousand. Another time, five thousand. Their eyes focused on this man. We've never seen the light. Even children came to him and clamored upon his knees.
They came to him from every quarter of the Bible says. And he could not be hid. How magnetic he was in his birth. He got the attention of all these classes. And in his life, How magnetic. People were drawn to this man. Drawn to him. Some out of curiosity. Some out of concern. Some come to see something out of curiosity. Others come. I'm concerned. I want to see this man. I want to talk to him like the Greeks we spoke about. Two weeks ago, we would see Jesus. But now his passion.
This is the great magnet, his magnetic passion, his sufferings and death upon the cross. He said, now if I be lifted up, he's got to be lifted up. Here you leave his person to his passion and his deity to his death, his character to his cross. Christ possessed those three things before he went to the cross. He possessed his person, magnetic person, his deity. And he also possessed a sinless character. But that's not going to save us. He's got to leave that. His sinless personality as a man.
And also the fact of his deity and his character, he's got to go to the cross. Because without the cross, man couldn't be saved. Had Christ remained in his personality on earth and his deity and character without sacrifice, you and I would never be saved. He had to be lifted up on the cross. Now, this is made plain for you in your Bible. Three times in your Bible, he speaks of being lifted up. The first one, the reason for it being lifted up is in John three, fourteen. He says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That crucial believer in him should not perish but have everlasting life. There is the reason for his death. That's why he had to die, that you may not perish but have everlasting life. Then he gave it another reason why he's lifted up over in John eight and twenty-eight. When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He. He was speaking to his skeptics. He says, You have some doubts as to who I am. But when I am lifted up on the cross, you'll know who I am.
You'll know then. Because I'm going to do something you've never seen before. I'm going to wield the power then. that no man has ever wielded in life. Our wield is in death. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. And so you have the reason for the cross, the revelation of the cross, and the rain of the cross. Did he rain? Yes, he did, that the cross lifted up on the earth. That's his death. Lifted up out of the earth. There's his resurrection. Lifted up from the earth.
That's his ascension into God's presence. But think of that. And with this we're going to close. He reigns from the cross. He does. On the cross he utters seven words. A man crucified. Racked with pain from head to foot. And you read over in, I think in one of the Psalms, The Lord reigneth, and the translation is from the tree. Did he reign while on the cross? Yes. He reigned in grace, for he says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. A man in such pain and such a position.
Yet he says, I can pardon them. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Here he is reigning in grace. forgiving his enemies. He reigned in power when he said to the thief at his side, undoubtedly the only Bible that the thief saw, or anything relative to Christ, was on that superscription that Pilate put there. This is Jesus, the king of the Jews, and the thief said, This is a king. And the king reigned. And he proved he was a king. He said to the thief, today shall thou be with me in paradise. He was saving people while he was nailed to the cross.
Here is Christ in his mighty power reigning from the tree. Then his thoughtfulness and his love for others. Mary, his mother, there's your son. John will take my place. And John, there's your mother. And John took Mary to his own home. Why wasn't he thinking about himself? nailed at the cross, he was thinking about others. His love and thoughtfulness were there reigning. He was a sovereign, and his submission. He cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Nevertheless, not my will. Thine be done. His mind was clean, clear, and keen, active.
I'm doing your will, Father. Oh, how he reigned. In his submission to the Father's will. And his humiliation. The next cry, I thirst. I thirst. He wanted something to drink. He says, I thirst. Showing his humanity. And he was a man. And also his humiliation. Humiliated. Yet he reigned. And his obedience. Obedience unto death. He said it is finished. I've finished the work. His mind scanned the whole realm and range of Scripture, right from the first prophecy to the end.
And he says, I fulfilled all concerning my coming into the world. And when he saw that all was now fulfilled, his mind was clear, not fogged by pain, he was in command, he was in control, he was reigning on the cross. Father, the work's done. is finished. And he said, The seventh cry, For thy hands, I commend my spirit. How wonderful! What trust, what repose he reigned, in weakness and defeat! He won the meek and crowned. He fought all his foes beneath his feet by being throttled and throttled down. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, thou draw all men unto me.
Jesus Christ lost a battle. Only temporarily, but he won the war. He said concerning Satan that Satan would bruise Christ's heel. Satan won that little battle by punishing Christ physically. But it says Christ will wound Satan's head. That will be fatal. He'll win the war. And you may be on your side now, but friend, it's nice to be on the winning side. Jesus Christ is going to reign. He's going to reign. He says, now if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me.
Will he draw you this morning? We spoke at the funeral the other day about committing into his hands, and Christ uses that in the last verse. You've got a soul. It's precious. It's priceless. It's perishable. It's punishable. And you're powerless to save it. You've got a precious jewel in your hand, your soul. And you're liable to lose it. If you keep it in your hand, you'll lose it. If you'll commit your soul to Christ, that nail-pierced hand, he'll save it. He'll secure it. He'll satisfy it forever.
And he's reigning. He's not on the cross now. He's not a crucified monarch now. He's a reigning monarch. and he has the power to save you. Satan's got his covetous eye on your soul, and it's in your shaky hands. Won't you put it in his hand? In the hand of the Son of God. He'll save it. He'll keep it. He'll use it forever. The choice is yours. And if I be lifted up from the earth, he says, I'll draw men. unto me. Will you be drawn this morning to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ?
I trust you will. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comes into thy presence, we ask thy blessing on thy holy word. We thank thee for the person of Christ. We thank thee for what thou hast revealed concerning him. And these sermons from the skies, we thank thee. For what thou hast said concerning thy son, and thou has urged all men to heal him. Even his own mother rebuked those at the wedding when she said concerning the Lord Jesus whatsoever, he saith unto you to us. We're not to hear any pope or cardinal or preacher or priest or church, but Jesus.
Oh God, may someone this morning listen to his voice. For he says we must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. May they come to Christ and come now. We ask that in this worthy and precious name. Amen.