The Compelling Mission of Christ, Part 1

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18 as we look at the compelling mission of the Christ.

The compelling mission of the Christ. Our Lord came to this earth for a specific purpose. We realize that when our Lord came, it wasn't the living of his life that was so important as much as the giving of his life. All of his miracles, all of his acts of compassion, even all of his sermons, as great as they were, were nothing compared to his giving his life away. That's what he came to do. He came to the earth to die. We know that he came to reveal deity. We know that because in the beginning was the word and the word was with God.

The word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. That's John chapter one, verse number one. Then verse number 14 says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Our Lord did come to reveal deity. He did to show us God. It was Thomas who asked the Lord, show us the father and that will be enough. And Jesus said, well, if you've seen me, you you've seen the father. Why? Because as Hebrew says, he is the exact representation of his nature.

As Colossians tells us that in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. So he came to reveal deity that we might understand God. It's not enough for God to say, I love you. Didn't scream it from the heavens. He came to demonstrate his love toward us. And not only did he come to reveal deity, but the Bible also says that he came to ravage the enemy. If he reveals his identity, that is that he is the Lord God of the universe, coming to earth would cause him to, to ravage the enemy. For the whole world, as first John 5, 19 says, lies under the influence and under the power of the evil one.

So the Bible says to us in first John chapter three, verse number eight, the son of God appeared for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the devil.

He came to ravage the enemy way back in the book of Genesis, the third chapter, the 15th verse, the first prophecy concerning the arrival of the Messiah, that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head.

That was done at Calvary. Christ came to reveal deity. He came to ravage the enemy. He came to remove all our iniquity. Bible says in first John three, verse number five, and you know that he appeared in order to take away sins.

He appeared to ravage the enemy, to, to destroy the works of Satan. He, he appeared to take away our sins. He came to remove all of our iniquity. Why? Because we're dead in our trespasses and sin. We are separated from God. So in order for us to have access to heaven, our iniquity must be removed. So the Lord came to reveal deity. He came to ravage the enemy. He came to remove iniquity. He came to restore our dignity. You can't restore man's dignity unless you remove his iniquity. You can't remove his iniquity unless you ravage the enemy.

And you can't ravage the enemy unless you reveal deity himself in the fullness of who he is. And the reason he came was to die. He came to restore man's dignity, that which was lost in the fall. A man was created. He was created perfect. He was created ideal. Man made a choice. He sinned against God. And ever since his choice to fall into sin, God has always had a plan to redeem him and to restore him to his original condition. That's why the Bible says in first John three, verse number one, see how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God.

That's man's dignity. And Christ came to restore that dignity. And in restoring that dignity, he came that he somehow might be able to return in all of his glory and all of his beauty, because one day he will come again. He will come and he will set up his glorious kingdom. He will rule and reign forever and ever. Christ had a mission. It was a compelling mission. He never asked us to remember his miracles. He never asked us to remember his acts of compassion. He never asked us even to remember the sermons he preached, but he did ask us to remember his death.

For as often as you eat this bread, drink this cup, you do proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. He said, this do in remembrance of me. You must remember my death because the cross was was central to the mission of Christ. It was, it was everything about his mission. In fact, the cross was central to the mission and ministry of Christ. And if the cross is not central to your mission, you don't have a ministry. You don't have one, because everything about the gospel is centered around the cross of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Even when he was 12 years of age in Luke chapter two, as you recall, way back many years ago, when we were in Luke chapter two, that that he had been left behind at Passover. And when Mary and Joseph finally found him three days later, because they had set out going to back to Nazareth, it took them a day to get to where they were going.

After the end of that day, they realized Jesus wasn't with them. They had to travel back the next day. And then the following day they had to look for him. So it was on the third day that they find Jesus in the temple conversing with some of the religious establishment, talking to them.

And Mary says, where'd you go? Where have you been? Christ says, don't you know, I have to be about my, my father's business.

Even then at age 12, he understood his mission. He was born to die, to Passover. He's talking to the religious leaders about Passover, knowing that he is that, that Passover lamb, knowing that he was the lamb slain as Revelation 13, eight says before the foundation of the world. He knows who he is. He knows why he's there. He knows that he's 12. He knows that in a few short years, he will be that sacrificial lamb in Jerusalem. He knows all that. So he tells his mother, don't you know, I have to be about my father's business.

It was the compelling mission of the Christ that drove him each and every day. So when you come to, to Luke chapter 18, you read once again about that mission. This is what it says, Luke chapter 18, verse number 31. And he took the 12 aside and said to them, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and all things which are written through the prophets about the son of man will be accomplished for he will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon. And after they have scourged him, they will kill him.

And the third day he will rise again. And they understood none of these things. And this saying was hidden from them. And they did not comprehend the things that were said. Now, Jesus had alluded on several occasions to this event. If you go back and you look at Luke chapter, excuse me, Luke chapter five, verse number 34, these words are recorded.

Luke chapter five, verse number 34. Jesus said to them, you cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom was with them. Can you, but the days will come. And when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. Now they had no idea all that Jesus was saying, but he was speaking of himself and speaking of his imminent death. And then over in chapter 12, verse number 50, these words are recorded. Luke 12, verse number 50, we'll pick it up in verse number 49.

I have come to cast fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled, but I have a baptism to undergo and how distressed I am until it is accomplished. Again, he, he speaks of things concerning your death. He's alluding to them. He's not coming right out and telling them this. And so they don't necessarily understand all that Jesus is saying. Chapter 13, verse number 33, Jesus says, nevertheless, I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.

Again, speaking of the fact that he was going to die. Then over in chapter 17, verse number 21, Christ records these words. He says, chapter 17, I'm sorry, verse number 25, but first he that is a son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

So Jesus is, is throughout his ministry alluding to his death. But yet there are three particular incidences where he tells the men exactly what's going to happen. We, we, we've entitled it this way, the necessity of the cross, the certainty of the cross, and the brutality of the cross. They grow with increasing intensity and Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record them. John does not. John does something completely different, which we will see in a moment, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke all do the same thing.

They all speak about the necessity of the cross, the certainty of the cross, and the brutality of the cross. Let's do it in Luke's gospel. Luke nine, verse number 21 is where we speak. He speaks of the necessity of the cross. Luke nine, verse number 21, it says, but he warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone. What's that? That was that whole conversation that Christ had with his men in Caesarea Philippi about who do men say that I am. That's the ultimate question. Who do people say that, that I am?

Well, some say you're Jeremiah, some say you're Isaiah, some say you're one of the prophets, some say you're even John the Baptist. But who do you say that I am? That's the, that's the crucial question. Forget about the popular opinion. What's the, what's the personal opinion? And that's when Peter pipes up and says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. You're the Messiah. That's who you are. And that's when Christ would say, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven has revealed this to you.

And Christ gives that long dissertation about upon this rock, I will, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And you can hear the disciples listening to what Christ is saying as they, they understand that this is the Messiah. He's, he's going to build his church and hell can't overcome his mission. And then Jesus says, but you can't tell anybody what I just said.

And you, Peter, can't tell anybody what you just said. Instead, you must tell them these words. That's what's in the verse 22 of Luke nine. The son of man must suffer the necessity of the cross. He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

And that's what Peter would take him aside. Remember in Matthew's gospel and rebuke him. Oh no, no, that's not the way it's going to happen, Lord. It's going to be different than that. You don't understand who you are. We understand who you are, but you, you must have an identity crisis. You must have a, a self-esteem problem. Let me, let us help you understand who you are, Jesus.

And Christ said to him, get thee behind me, Satan. For you don't have in mind the purposes of God. You have only in mind the purposes of man because God has a purpose and he came to fulfill the purpose of his father. He must be about his father's business. This was his mission, the centrality of the cross. It was about all that he came to do. So he speaks to them about the necessity of the cross. Well, then he moves on and speaks to them about the certainty of the cross. That's in verse number 43.

They're all amazed at the greatness of God. But while everyone was marveling at all that what he was doing, he said to his disciples, let these words sink into your ears for the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. This is the certainty of the cross. Not only is it a necessity, it's absolutely certain it's going to happen. Notice what it says, verse 45.

But they did not understand this statement and it was conceived from them so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this statement. Why were they afraid to ask him about the statement? Why did they not understand it? Because they still did not have in mind God's purposes, but their own purposes. Why? Verse 46. And an argument arose among them as to which of them might be the greatest. They could not get themselves out of their own minds. It was always about them. So here is Christ bearing his soul.

Let me talk to you about the necessity of the cross. Oh no, that's not what it's about. Oh yes it is. Let me talk to you about the certainty of the cross.

We don't want to hear about that. Why? Because we want to be great in the kingdom of God. And then you come to our passage today, Luke chapter 18. And Luke chapter 18, he speaks of the brutality of the cross. He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon. And after they have scourged him, they will kill him. It speaks of the brutality of the cross. But as Christ would share this with his men, he never ever did not tell them about the victory of the cross. He had to always help them explain and understand the victory of the cross.

They didn't hear that. It's like people, you know, sometimes you come to church, you only hear one thing. You don't hear the whole sermon. You just hear a part of it. And you know, it doesn't go along with what you want to do. You kind of can't count on that. And all of a sudden your mind begins to wander. And all of a sudden you get so upset because that didn't go with your own personal lifestyle. And you don't hear the whole sermon. They didn't hear the whole sermon. They heard about the necessity of the cross, the certainty of the cross, the brutality of the cross.

They thought, oh no, that can't be. But they didn't hear about the victory of the cross. They missed that. So the man will rise again. He kept telling them he will rise. I will be victorious. He is the victorious warrior. He will rise again. He will declare himself the victor. But they never heard that part. They missed the whole aspect about the victory of the cross. See, we can't afford to miss that. As we talk about Christ's compelling mission, he came to die. That was the whole reason he came to earth.

He had to be the sacrificial lamb. Everything in the Old Testament would point to the arrival of the Messiah and the death of the Messiah. Everything in the New Testament looks back at that Messiah and his death and all that it accomplished. It is the key point in redemptive history. It's the pinnacle of the message of the gospel, the cross of Christ. And so many times we forget about the victory of the cross. So before we get into the text, and there are four points I want to cover with you about this text, you can't forget about the victory of the cross.

You just can't. And that's what the disciples, they always missed. They didn't get it. It's not because, it's just simply because they didn't want to get it. It wasn't that they didn't hear it, they heard it. But they never let it sink in. And so we need to let it sink in and understand the victory of the cross. What is that victory of the cross? Simply this, without the cross, pardon is never received. Pardon is received through the cross. That's why it's so victorious. Let's know what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter one, verse number seven.

It says, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. There is no forgiveness without the cross. Pardon is received because of the blood that was shed on Calvary's cross. You see, there had to be a sacrifice. There had to be a sacrifice that would atone for the sins of man. It wasn't good enough just to cover the sins of man. That's what the whole sacrificial system did. There had to be a removal of man's sins. There had to be a taking away of the sins.

There had to be a cleansing from sin. And the only way that could happen is for that Passover lamb to be sacrificed, the ultimate Passover lamb. That's why Paul says, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. There had to be that removal of sins. It had to be that way. Way back in the Old Testament, remember back in Genesis chapter three when Adam and Eve sinned? Well, what did Christ do? He sacrificed an animal and covered them with animal skins. He set the tone for sacrifice, letting them know that through the sacrifice of blood there can be an atonement for sin.

So when you come to Genesis chapter four, you have Cain and Abel, right? And we realize that Abel offered a right sacrifice because it was a sacrificial sacrifice, whereas Cain did not. He didn't offer the right sacrifice because God had established a pattern. And when you come to Genesis chapter 22, you realize that everything about that sacrifice was designed to be a substitute. That's why Moriah is so important. Talked a little bit about this on Wednesday night with King David, right? Because it was King David who saw the angel about to slay Jerusalem on top of Mount Moriah, which is right above the city of David there in the land of Israel.

All of it would become Jerusalem in time, but he saw that angel on the threshing floor of Arun of the Jebusite about to slay Jerusalem. He fell down and he just cried out to God for forgiveness and God forgave him. But it was on that same mountain way back in Genesis chapter 22 that Abraham would take his son Isaac up to that mount to slay him because God said, take now your son, your only son, and take him up to the mountain and kill him. So that's exactly what Abraham did. Tied him up, was about to slay him, and God stopped him.

God stopped him. And God said to him that the Lord God will provide himself as lamb. And that's why in John 8, it says that Abraham rejoiced to see his day. What day? The day that the Messiah would be a substitute for the sins of man. And so on that place, Moriah, foreseen by God, God says, I will make a provision.

I will make a substitute. And so what you have all throughout the Old Testament is this pattern developing of what it is God's going to do by providing a blood sacrifice through his son, the Messiah. And so we need to have forgiveness of sins because we are dead in our trespasses to sin. We are alienated from the life of God. We are separated from God. We are born sinners. And so in order for us to receive the life of God, there must be a sacrifice to atone for our sins. And that's where Christ comes in.

He is that ultimate sacrifice. He comes to die for us. And so pardon is received. That's the victory of the cross. In him, we have the forgiveness of sins. The Bible says in Titus 2, 14, Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a people of his own, zealous for good works.

Galatians 3 says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. And what does he do? Psalm 103 says he separates our sins as far as the east is from the west. That's the victory of the cross. Now we will see in our study of of Luke 18 that these men did not comprehend a Messiah that would die. They should have known that. They just didn't get it. Like most Jews today, they don't get it. And so pardon is received. But on top of that, you must realize that our penalty is removed.

That's the victory of the cross. Our penalty is... What's our penalty? The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is the eternal life. The soul that sins, it shall die. That penalty is now removed because death signifies our separation from God. We are born dead. That means we were born separated from God. If we don't rectify that before we die, then we will be eternally separated from God. And that's what eternal death is all about, the second death.

And so we must understand that while we breathe and while we live, we must rectify the situation. We must look to God, cry out to him in mercy, asking him to forgive us our sins so that we can be reconciled to God, that we can no longer be his enemy, but we would be a child of the living God. You know the verse, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That penalty now is removed because pardon has been received.

That is because we're forgiven, because we're cleansed in the blood of the lamb. We escape eternal death. And then another aspect of the victory of the cross is that purity then is reclaimed. Purity is reclaimed. Hebrews chapter 9, verse number 14, or verse number 13, for if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling, those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offer himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

And for this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant. In other words, what Christ does is he cleans our conscience. He cleans our lives. Purity now has been reclaimed. Why? Because when God sees us, he sees Christ in us. He sees the purity of Christ. He sees the holiness of Christ. That's why over in the book of Colossians chapter 1, these words are written. It says, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

Purity now is reclaimed. Why? Because the penalty has been removed. Why? Because pardon has been received. That's the victory of the cross. On top of that, there is point number four, and that is peace is restored. Peace is restored. That's why the Romans 5, verse number one, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Peace now is restored. I'm no longer the enemy of God. I'm the friend of God. I've been reconciled to God. I'm no longer on the side of Satan, taken captive by him to do his will. Now I have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, and now I am a servant of the Lord God of Israel. Peace has been restored, and the peace that God gives is beyond all comprehension because he is the God of peace, and he wants to keep us in his peace. And so not only is there a restoration of my life with God so that I am at peace with him, God grants me his peace so that now as I live in a hostile world, I am granted the peace of Almighty God.

Peace has been restored. Power is revealed. That's the victory of the cross. Power is revealed. First Corinthians chapter one, verse number 18, says this, for the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

The cross reveals to us the power of the living God. I mean we know there was power around the cross because of the earthquake and the saints that were raised from the dead during his time on the cross. We understand the power that was revealed there at the cross. We understand that that centurion was saved. We know that one of the thieves was saved on the cross. So we know the power was revealed there, but that power is continually being revealed as we understand what it is Christ does when he saves us from our sins.

That's why Paul said in Romans chapter one, verse number 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

That's why Christ said and you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses all around the world. Why? Because with salvation comes the Spirit of God. With the Spirit of God comes the power of God that enables us to accomplish great things for the kingdom of God. So power is revealed, purity is reclaimed, peace is restored, pardon is received, all because of the victory of the cross. And lastly privileges are rewarded because of the cross. Romans chapter eight, verse number 31.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all? How will he not also with him freely give us all things? The privileges are rewarded to those who are the children of the living God. The love of God, the love of God's been shed abroad in our hearts, the peace of God, the joy of God. Romans 14, 17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We have been granted the eternal riches of God.

Privileges are rewarded to those who believe in the effectual work of the cross of Christ. The story is told of the Roman centurion who had a son and a slave. And the son had rebelled against this Roman centurion's authority. And so he disinherited the son, but he loved his slave. And so he gave everything he had to his slave. His slave was named Marcellus. And so he had to inform his son of what he was doing. So on his deathbed, he called his son in to his room and he told his son the news, because you rebelled against my wishes and against my authority, I have disinherited you.

I've given everything over to Marcellus, but yet I will grant you one thing. You choose what one thing of mine you want and it's yours. And without hesitation, the son says, I choose Marcellus because Marcellus had everything. When you choose Christ, you get everything. You get everything because he is everything. And see, we forget that the whole victory of the cross is so crucial because the disciples missed all that. They heard about, yeah, the son of man must suffer. The son of man is going to suffer.

And when he suffers, he will be spit upon. He will be mocked. He will be scourged. He will die. That's all they heard, but he'll rise again. They missed that. They missed the victory of the cross. Folks, you can't miss the victory of the cross. That's why he came to die. He came to die for the sins of the world. He came to rescue you from the enemy. He came to rescue you from the adversary. You've been enslaved by him to do his will. So the only way that you can be rescued is to believe in the power of the cross.

So Christ gathers his men together. He takes them aside privately in Luke chapter 18. And we got a few minutes left, so at least let's go back to it and cover a few verses so at least we covered something of the text. In Luke chapter 18, he took the 12 aside and said, behold, stand amazed. Stand amazed. You need to be amazed at this. You need to understand this. We're going up to Jerusalem. Now we're just days away. We've been telling you we're years away. We've been telling you we're months away.

Now we're just days away. He's going to go up to Jerusalem on his journey up to Jerusalem. They're going to go through Jericho. There's going to be two blind men. We know that Bartimaeus is one of them. We don't know what the other guy's name is, but we know Bartimaeus is one of them. He's going to heal two blind men on his way into Jerusalem. He's going to, he's going to save Zacchaeus and we'll hear the whole story about Zacchaeus and and all that God does. He's going to give a parable and then he is going to ascend Jerusalem for that Passover week.

So we're just days away. And he gathers his men around. He's got to get him aside privately. He's got to tell him one more time. Listen, I told you about this. I told you about its necessity. I told you about its certainty. I got to warn you, it's going to be brutal. It's going to be horrendous. It's going to be horrific, but I'll rise again. I'm going to rise again, but I got to tell you, you need to know. Why do you need to know? That's point number one.

I get the point number one, right? Point number one, the prophecies about God will be accomplished. He says, we are going up to Jerusalem and all things which are written through the prophets about the son of man will be accomplished. There you go. The prophecies about the son of man will be accomplished. That tells us that everything he's doing has already been spoken about. That which was determined in eternity was delineated in prophecy. And before it was ever demonstrated on Calvary, it was declared by deity.

In other words, everything was predetermined in eternity past. The Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. Well, all that was delineated through the prophets of old about the arrival of the Messiah, his coming, his death, his resurrection. And before it was ever demonstrated on top of Mount Moriah on Calvary's hill, Christ declared everything about his death. He mapped it out in detail because he said, no one gives his life. The son of man came to give his life away. See, he came to give it away.

No one takes my life from me. I die on my own initiative because he knew everything. You see, I told you earlier that that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all talk about these elements of the cross, but John doesn't. John refers to it as the hour, and he refers to it on seven separate occasions. Seven. Always calling it the hour. Seven is the number of completion, the number of perfection. And it all began in John chapter 2. Turn with me in your Bible to John 2.

Turn quickly so you don't miss lunch. John chapter 2. Remember that wedding at Cana in Galilee. And on the third day, there was wedding in Cana of Galilee.

That's important. Why does John say it's the third day? He says that because Christ is going to reference the hour. And the hour is the hour of the crucifixion. But on the third day, he rises again.

There's no need to mention the third day. But if you mention it in conjunction with the cross, then you understand the significance of the resurrection and what that resurrection is going to do because Christ sets the tone for all of his miracles in his mission by using this one in Cana of Galilee as his very first miracle to turn the murky, dirty water into that precious, glorious new wine because Christ came to take your dirty, murky lives and turn them into the most beautiful of all wine because of his blood.

He sets the tone for transformation because that's what salvation is. And on the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and Jesus also was invited and his disciples to the wedding.

And when the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they had no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what do I have to do with you? Now, you know, I don't know about you, but I could never address my mother that way. Woman, what do I have to do with you? My dad would backhand me into the next week. But in those days, this was a respectful term. Okay. So Jesus wasn't being disrespectful to his mother. He is being very respectful to his mother. Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come.

First reference of the hour in John's gospel. What hour? The hour for which he came the cross. My hour has not yet come. And then you go over to chapter seven, verse number six. Chapter seven, verse number six is the second mention of the hour.

He says, my time is not yet at hand, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it and its deeds are evil. Come up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come. Speaking of that hour, what time? The time of his death. And then it says in chapter seven, verse number 28, these words, he says, Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, you both know me and know where I am from. And I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true whom you do not know.

I know him because I am from him and he sent me. They were seeking therefore to seize him. And no man laid his hand on him because his hour had not yet come. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to seize him, but they couldn't because of the hour. The whole hour was controlled by the sovereignty of almighty God. Go to chapter eight, verse number 20. It says these words, these words, he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come. Chapter 12.

It says these words, chapter 12, verse number 27. Now my soul has become troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour. But for this purpose, I came to this hour. Father, glorify thy name. What's the hour? It's the hour in which the son of man will be glorified. What hour is that? It's the hour of his death. Check the 13, verse number one.

Now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he should depart out of this world to the father, having loved his own. He loved him to the very end. In other words, he knew about the hour. The time had come, this is the eve of the crucifixion. He knows about the hour. So when you come to John 17, in his high priestly prayer, this is what he says. Verse number one.

These things Jesus spoke and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that the son may glorify thee. John refers to it as the hour. It's the hour for which he came. It was that, that time which he would die on Calvary's cross for your sins and mine. Why don't we take you through all this? Because when Jesus speaks of these things, as he declares to everyone about his impending death, it's not something new. It's everything the prophets had already spoken about.

And so he's fulfilling the divine timetable. You need to know this because God is in complete control of his death. His death was not an accident. It wasn't a miscalculation by him. It was all planned by him. Every single detail was planned. So much so that he could finally say in John 19 30, it's finished.

What's finished? Everything that had been prophesied by the prophets of old was fulfilled. I can die now.

And the text says that he pillowed his head. He didn't slip up and say, oh, thank God it's over. No. He said with a loud voice, it is finished. What was finished? Everything that was prophesied, everything had been fulfilled, everything to the minute detail about his death. And that's when he could give his life away. Away. And why did he do that? He had to remove your iniquity. It's the only way you could do it. It was only that sacrifice that could do that. Nothing else could. And in removing that iniquity, he ravaged that enemy, that enemy that had taken you captive to do his will.

He wants to set you free from Satan's domain. He wants to be able to restore that dignity that was lost in the fall. He wants you to be able to experience the joy of his presence continually. I wonder if you understand the victory of the cross. The cross is the compelling mission of the Messiah. That's why he came. Next week, we'll go back to point number one and take you through some of the main points of the Old Testament to show you how the prophets of old spoke about this.

That's why on his resurrection on the road to Emmaus, he was with two of his disciples. They didn't recognize him because he didn't let them recognize him. And they said, where you been? Have you heard about all the events that took place in Jerusalem? Well, you had your head in the sand, where you been? And Jesus says, what things?

Of course, he knows all the things. What things? And they tell him, oh, you foolish and slow of heart, not to believe all that the prophets had said. He missed it. He missed it. You know, I think about that and think, you know, there's some people who go to church and miss it. They miss the purpose for coming. They miss the message of the cross. They miss the offer of salvation. They miss it. Don't miss it. Understand Christ came to die for the sins of the world. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today, the greatness of your kingdom, the opportunity we have to study your word for the brief moment that we have.

It opens our eyes and our hearts and minds to the reality of the cross, the mission of the Messiah. If there'd be one here today who does not know you, may today be the day of their salvation. They want to experience the victory of the cross. Pray in Jesus name. Amen.