86
John 12:27 JESUS TROUBLED IN SOUL

Introduction:
	
	A crowd of several thousand people had accompanied Jesus
down Mt. Olives and into the city of Jerusalem.  They
proclaimed Him to be the promised Christ, the King of
Israel.  Those who had witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus
then went throughout the great masses of people who were
gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover and testified that
they had witnessed when Jesus called Lazarus from the grave.
The result was that the great majority of the masses of
people from throughout the whole nation of Israel had become
excited about the prospects of having Jesus to be their
king.
	Yet in our text last Sunday Jesus announced to the whole
general public that He had not come to be their king.
Rather He had come to die.   This kind of announcement was
totally unexpected by the people.
	In our text today Jesus makes another unexpected
announcement.  He announced to the people that He is greatly
troubled in soul.  V. 27, "Now is my soul troubled..."  This
is strange announcement coming from One who has just been
proclaimed to be the new king.  This announcement reveals
several important things to us.

I.  It revealed the humanity of Jesus

	Let us keep in mind that even though Jesus is very Deity
God, the Second Person of The Holy Trinity, yet He had been
born into human flesh and physically He was an ordinary
human being.  As Deity God dwelling in human flesh, He was
an extraordinary human being.  But as far as His flesh
nature was concerned, He was an ordinary human being.
	He had all the fleshly human weaknesses that we have
except for sin.  Jesus did not inherit the sin nature of
Adam because He did not have an earthly father.  He did not
have the sin nature and never in His whole life did He ever
commit sin.
	Yet He had such weaknesses as getting tired, hungry and
thirsty.  Earlier, at Jacob's well in Samaria, He had become
tired and sat on the curb of the well to rest while His
disciples went into town to buy food.  When a Samaritan
woman came, He asked her for a drink of water and later on
the cross, He cried out, "I thirst!"  While with His
disciples in a boat out on the Sea of Galilee, He was tired
and fell asleep and when a storm came up and threatened to
sink the boat, the disciples got scared and woke Him up.  He
had the human weakness of being able to feel pain.  I am not
sure that He ever stomped His toe or hit His thumb with a
hammer while doing carpentry work as a young man, but if He
did, it hurt just like it would hurt anybody else.
	Yet Jesus makes a statement about Himself right here
that lets us know that He not only had human physical
weaknesses, but He also had human emotional weaknesses.  He
said that He was troubled in soul.  That it, He was deeply
disturbed in His soul.  He was experiencing unrest down in
His soul.
	We are to understand by His statement that this was no
small unrest.  This was no minor unrest.  This was a very
deep emotional unrest.  Let me try to illustrate it by my
own unrest when I learned of the death of my oldest brother.
I was in Garland, Texas attending our state associational
meeting when I got the news that my brother had died.  I was
to preach the annual sermon at that night.  When I got the
news that my brother was dead I became so deeply disturbed
that I could not control my emotions.  I sobbed
uncontrollably from the moment, about mid afternoon, when I
got the news, until it was time for me to go onto the
platform that night to preach.  I somehow got sufficient
control of myself that I was able to preach the message.
But for many years I could not talk about my brother's death
without my voice cracking up.
	I think that is somewhat like the deep emotional
disturbance that Jesus was experiencing at that time except
that He must have been even more disturbed than I.  He knew
that He was about to go to the cross and when He said, "My
soul is troubled" I think His voice cracked and He had
difficulty controlling His emotions to keep from breaking
down and sobbing before all that great crowd.
	Let me tell you that when Jesus went to the cross and
was nailed there to that cross, He was not exempt from the
physical pain and suffering just because He is Deity God.
He was God and He still is God, but was also a human being
and He suffered the same kind of physical pain and agony
there on the cross that any other human being would suffer.
He also experienced a deep emotional disturbance just
thinking about what He was about to suffer on the cross.

II.  It also revealed His foreknowledge

	Jesus not only knew that He would suffer, but He knew
just how horrible His suffering would be.  Jesus knew things
about the future that others did not know.  When it came
time for Him to pay taxes to the Roman government, Jesus
told the Apostle Peter to go fishing.  He told Peter that he
would catch a fish and that there would be a coin in the
mouth of the fish.  Jesus told Peter to take that coin and
to go and pay taxes for himself and for Jesus.  Jesus not
only knew that there would be a coin in the mouth of the
fish, but He knew that it would be large enough in value to
pay taxes for both men.
	On another occasion the disciples had been fishing all
night and had caught nothing.  Jesus spoke to them and told
them to cast their net over on the far side of the boat
toward the deeper water.  They did and caught so many fish
that their net began to break.  Jesus knew those fish would
be there.
	Jesus not only foreknew that He would go to the cross,
but He foreknew just exactly how much pain and suffering
would be involved.  Furthermore, He knew exactly how much
suffering that we would all have to endure if He did not go
to the cross.

III.  It revealed how great His love is for God the Father

	It was God the Father who had come up with the plan that
He should go to the cross.  The Father had planned fro Him
to go to the cross  in order to spare lost sinners from
eternal torment.  On a number of occasions Jesus made
mention publicly of the fact that it was God the Father who
had sent Him into the world and who was now sending Him to
the cross.
	Jesus loved God the Father to the extent that He was
obedient to the Father's will.  Even though He knew in
advance that He would suffer and even though He knew just
how great that suffering would be, yet He was obedient the
will of God the Father.  A little later when He would come
into the Garden of Gethsemane He would pray to God the
Father and say, "Father, if it be possible let this cup pass
from me.  Never-the-less, not my will, but thine be done."
He was obedient to the will of God the Heavenly Father even
to death --- even to death on the cross.

IV.  It also revealed how great His love was for lost
	sinners.

	Jesus was willing to go to the cross and to suffer, not
only because He loves God the Father who desired for Him to
go there, but He was willing to go there and suffer because
He loves lost sinners.  Jesus knew how great the suffering
for Himself would be on the cross, but He also knew how
great the suffering of the unsaved would be if He did not go
to the cross.  His love for God the Father, who wanted Him
to go to the cross plus His love for the unsaved caused Him
to be willing to go to the cross and to suffer the full
penalty that was due to lost sinners.  He was willing to
suffer that they be spared from suffering in eternity.
		He said, "...and what shall I say?  Father, save me
from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour."
Just knowing what He was about to go through caused Jesus to
be deeply troubled within.  He said, "What shall I say?
Shall I pray to God the Father and ask Him to spare me from
this suffering?"  The idea is, "I cannot do that.  The cross
is the reason that I came into this world.  I came to go to
the cross and suffer!  I will not ask the Father to spare me
from that which I came to do.  I could ask to be spared only
if there is some other way for lost sinners to be spared."
	Jesus knew that every man, woman, boy and girl would
have to suffer the penalty of his own sins unless He would
go to the cross.  With His great foreknowledge, He knew
about each person.  He knew them all by name.  He was able
to look down through the pages of time and know about each
person who has ever been born into this world.  He knew
about me --- and He knew about you!  He knew about all our
sins.  He knew my sins and He knew your sins.  He loved us
in spite of our sins and was willing to die for us that we
would all have opportunity to be saved.
	II Peter 3:9 says that He was not willing for any to
perish, but desired for all to come to repentance.  He
wanted all to be saved.  He still feels that same way.
Jesus does not desire for any to perish.  He still wants
every lost sinner to repent and place his faith in Him and
be saved.

V.  A word of caution
	
	Listen!  God the Father has loved you so much that He
sent His only Son to the cross of Calvary.  Jesus Christ has
loved you so much that He was willing to go to the cross and
suffer in your stead that you may be spared from suffering
for your sins.
	You may receive pardon and forgiveness of all your sins
by placing your faith in Jesus and trusting in Him to save
your soul.  Every person who has ever trusted in Jesus for
the salvation of his soul has been saved.  John 1:12 reads,
"For as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God."  John 3:18 says, "He that believeth
on him is not condemned..."  John 3:36 reads, "He that
believeth on him hath everlasting life."
	Furthermore, all who will yet turn to Him and place
their faith in Him for the salvation of the soul, and will
do it while there is time in this life, that person will be
saved.  John 3:14-15 says, "And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be
lifted up:  That whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have eternal life."  John 3:16 says, "For God so
loved the world that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have everlasting life."  Romans 10:13 says, "For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved."
	Yet I sound out the warning to you that there is no
other way under heaven for any man, woman, boy or girl to be
saved and go to heaven.  One cannot be saved by his own
works of righteousness.  Titus 3:5 reads, "Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
he saved us..."  Acts 4:12 reads, "For there is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."
In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the
life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me."
	Furthermore I warn you that a man cannot be saved by
good intentions.  He may very well intend to put his faith
in Jesus some day and be saved, but until he does trust in
Jesus he is lost and hell-bound.  If he dies unsaved he will
remain unsaved forever.  There will be no second-chance for
him in the hereafter.

	Conclusion:

	I am going to ask our musicians to come forward and we
are going to sing an invitation hymn at this time.  I am
going to ask that every saved person in this building be in
prayer for those who are unsaved.  I am going to ask that
every unsaved person in this building to look by faith to
Jesus Christ, who is on the throne of God in heaven.  I am
going to ask you to ask Jesus to save you.  I am going to
ask you to trust Jesus to save you.  I am going to ask you
to do it right here right now in this service before it is
too late.
	I am also going to ask every saved person to surrender
your life to Jesus.  if there are those who wish to come for
membership in this church, then we invite you to come.