John 12:27-29
“Now my soul 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. (NIV)
 
               Jesus had a laser-focus on His purpose.  He was to glorify the Father.  He entire life was to bring glory to the Father, not Himself.  This is interesting since it is by faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved.  Our whole belief system is certainly based on the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Yet, it was Christ who came and Christ who lived without sin, and Christ who died and rose again.  But Jesus said, “Father, glorify Your name.”
               In other places such as John 17:1, Jesus says, “Glorify the Son that He might glorify the Father.”  Throughout Jesus’ life, though He was God, remained submissive to the Father and came that the Father might be glorified.  And if He, Jesus, was going to be glorified, it was only so that the Father might also be glorified through Him.  What happens when we focus on the Son to the neglect of the Father. 
               It was the Father who sent the Son (John 3:16).  He did it out of love, but He also did it out of mercy.  In Isaiah, we see that it was the Father who inflicted His punishment on the Son:
Isaiah 53:4
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted (NIV)
               So, God struck Christ.  He did this by allowing Satan to have His way during this hour when darkness reigned (Luke 22:53).  The Father allowed the Son to be lied about, abandoned by those who loved Him, flogged, beaten, spit upon, and crucified.  And Jesus’ take is that the Father must be glorified.  Ok, what in the world?   I can see the Father being glorified for sending the Son, but as we glorify the Father for sending His Son, we are also glorifying the Father for being the punisher of the Son for our sins.  But what if we didn’t glorify the Father?          
               The Father is the Judge.  The Father developed this system by which Christ would need to suffer and die in order to reconcile the world back to God.  Why did He do it?  It is His nature.  He is holy and He is just.  Sin must be punished.  The Father does this as a means of discipline.  The wages of sin is death, yet He gives people time.  He gives time and mercy to people that I would not put up with even for a moment.  He is gracious, but it is His law and holiness that causes us to need mercy.  Holiness leads to abundant life.  The Father loves us so much that He gave His only Son that we might have eternal life.  But the Father also reveals to us the path to abundant life is found through holiness.  Jesus died because God doesn’t allow for any sin.  Why?  Sin destroys.  Sin hurts.  Sin kills.  And the Father doesn’t want any of this for us.  He doesn’t want our relationships to be destroyed.  He doesn’t want our blessings to be forfeited.  He doesn’t want us defeated by the works of the devil.  He wants us to be victorious.  He wants us to have a joy unspeakable, a peace beyond understanding, and a life increasingly abundant.  The Father, through the death of the Son, makes clear the path that brings joy and fulfillment.  We glorify the Father not only because He sent Jesus, but because He has made clear that He wants us to experience every blessing and the tiniest of sin steals a blessing.  We glorify Him for His strictness.  But He is strict because He wants the very best for us.  He doesn’t want us to miss even one drop of the ocean of blessing He has planned for our life.  Let us glorify the Father as the Son has glorified the Father.  We glorify Him for His mercy, but also for His desire for us to experience the full measure of His goodness.
Isaiah 35
The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
4 say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
8 And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
wicked fools will not go about on it.
9 No lion will be there,
nor any ravenous beast;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
10 and those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away. (NIV)
​

John 12:27-29
“Now my soul 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. (NIV)
 
               The Father said that He had glorified His name and that He would glorify it again.  An essential component in God’s plan of salvation for the entire world is based on Him receiving glory.  When God is glorified, men take notice.  When they really take notice, they see the Lord for who He is and not the caricature of how the enemy wants man to see God.  So the Lord must be glorified and He will.  When Jesus was coming into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey, all the people had begun to believe He was the Messiah because of all of the miracles.  The religious leaders were furious to see the people worshipping this Jesus whom they believed to be a troublemaker.  They told Jesus to command the people to stop praising Him.  Jesus responded by saying, “If they do not praise me, surely the rocks will.”  In other words, nothing is going to stop God from being glorified.  If we don’t do it, the rocks on the side of the road are going to begin to speak!
               If He can glorify Himself or cause the rocks to cry out with praise to His name, why does He need us?  Well, He doesn’t.  He could make all the birds begin to talk like Balam’s donkey.  He could give the trees a mouth and let them speak, they would sing His glory.  But He doesn’t do these things.  He calls us to glorify Him.  But why? 
               The Lord gives backs us up when we glorify Him.  He shows up.  For Jesus on this day, the Father literally spoke from Heaven.  But for us, when we give Him glory, He draws us into His presence.  The Bible says that He inhabits or enthrones Himself in our praise.  We experience a greater intimacy with the Lord when we glorify Him.  Also, the words of glorification go into our spirit as well.  We are reminded of what we already knew.   In the Bible, David reminded Himself how good God was.  When we glorify Him, the words remind us of who He is and we are strengthened, encouraged. 
               By glorifying Himself through us, He has made us partners in the business or ministry of reconciliation.  The life we live and the words we use to glorify Him change the people we love.  We have a part in their life-changing experience with the Lord.  We have the joy of John the Baptist who introduced Jesus to the world. 
               He could glorify Himself in a million different ways without us, but He instead, He calls us to praise Him and when we do, we become more intimate with Him.  We receive strength for the moment.  And we have the joy of being instrumental in the lives of others as the Lord completely changes their life.  He gives us the position of partner and the opportunity to work with Him to change the world one life at a time.  He makes us partakers of the Master’s business and we experience intimacy, strength, and joy.  And those around us encounter the soul-saving glory of God.
John 15:15-17
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other. (NIV)

John 12:27-29
“Now my soul 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. (NIV)
 
               OK, so I know it is not a very spiritual movie, but do you remember Bruce Almighty.  Jim Carrey played Bruce Nolan, a television field reporter who gets disillusioned with God, played by Morgan Freeman.  God then gives Bruce all of His power so he can get a taste of how free will works.  Bruce, of course, quickly abuses the power.  He sets himself up in a crazy sports car only to find himself in thick traffic.  So as Moses parted the Red Sea so Bruce parted the traffic making a way for him to speed down the middle of cars moved to the side.  Well, yesterday, that was my prayer!
               Yesterday, my son Jaden had an orchestra concert.  I picked him up at home to get him there on time.  As I drove into our driveway, he called saying that he couldn’t find his black dress pants that he was supposed to wear.  My brain, which had so easily forgotten until this very moment, now remembered that I had thrown them out because they were stained.  At the time I thought I would go and get him another pair, but you know, I never did.  I looked at the clock realizing we had plenty of time to run to Walmart.  We got in the car and headed out to face 5 o’clock traffic to get to Walmart.  But lo and behold, I made a wrong turn down Culebra.  Should I do a u-turn?  No, I will just keep going and head over to Target, then back to his school.  But on my way, would you believe, I made another wrong turn and suddenly I was behind a great host of vehicles not moving, standing bumper to bumper.  I looked at the clock realizing things were not looking good.  Was I going to be that parent that brings their kid in after the concert has already started?  Would this be the embarrassing nightmare my child would never recover from?  Would my horn be loud enough to make everyone move out of the way?!?!
               Like a good pastor, I started to pray.  ‘Lord, move these cars OUT OF MY WAY!!!!....please 😊’  Pretty holy, huh? 
               Our Lord did not pray for a miracle to alleviate His suffering, but instead prayed that God would be glorified.  He denied Himself the prayer of the Father saving Him.  Because we are called to glorify Him and because suffering provides great opportunities to unveil just how marvelous God is, maybe we should change how we pray in suffering.  What do you think?  Maybe our only prayer shouldn’t be for miracles of deliverance?
               The example that Christ gives us is not to pray for relief, but to pray that we are used in our suffering to bring glory to Him.  At the same time, we don’t want to swing the pendulum so far this way that we never pray for miracles.  God has instructed us to pray for miracles.  Miracles also bring glory to God.  But, if you are like me, sometimes I pray earnestly for the miracle and then casually out of the side of my mouth, I might pray that God helps me to endure the suffering that He might be glorified.  We should pray for the Lord’s will.  His will is that He be glorified as the only source of healing, salvation, and eternal life.  But the methodology by which He will be glorified is a detail we are not always made privy to.  Will He glorify Himself by healing the cancer or giving grace enough to praise Him in the pain? 
               It would be nice if He would tell us exactly how He intends to receive glory in every situation, but He also receives glory when we wait in faith, not knowing what He will do, but trusting anyway.  Each day I wait for God to move requires more faith.  The increasing faith becomes a statement of just how big we believe God to be.  It is one thing to sing from the comfort of a padded pew about the faithfulness of God.  But it is a whole other level of praise to still trust in that faithfulness though God seems to have done nothing for days, or months, or years.
               I remember a saintly lady of our church who testified to how she prayed for her husband for decades.  He was not saved and she prayed every day and they were married for over 50 years.  It was on his deathbed that he called her to his bedside and asked her to pray for him and there, just a few hours before leaving this life, the Lord melted his heart answering a 50-year-old prayer.  How she wished he would have accepted Christ so many years ago, but her faithfulness to keep praying for 50 years and God’s answer to that prayer was a statement that God hears our prayers and never stops working on our behalf.  She kept praying and the Lord kept working, though no one could see His progress until the very moment.
               Was she glorified for an incredible faith and prayer life?  She was.  After all, I just referred to her as ‘saintly.’  But God was glorified all the more as the One who does the impossible.  We might think that God showed little mercy in waiting so long, but salvation is a choice.  God could not force this man to Him.  He had to love this man enough to overcome this man’s justification to reject God.  This man had rejected the Gospel.  He had rejected pleas from his wife.  He had rejected church.  He rejected the Bible.  He was angry with God.  Salvation seemed impossible, but then God reminds us that all things are possible for those who believe.  To God be the glory.
               So, let’s pray for the miracle, but let’s also acknowledge that God may want to delay the miracles to reveal His power to sustain us and deliver us even through the valley of the shadow of death.  Rather than praying for our comfort, let’s pray for His glory.
2 Corinthians 4:7-12
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. (NIV)
​

John 12:27-29
“Now my soul 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. (NIV)
              
               Someone once told me that Blue Bell ice cream was not healthy.  I slapped them in the face and said, “Satan, get thee behind me.”  Well, maybe that is what I wanted to do, but of course, I just thanked them like a good pastor should 😊.
               Wouldn’t it be great if those things in life that are enjoyable and pleasurable were intertwined with our God-given purpose in life?  When I played football, I loved to hit people.  It was so fulfilling to have a great form tackle where I explode with my helmet right under their facemask making their head snap back and lifting their feet off the ground, then driving their bodies into the ground.  The endorphins are rushing through my brain even now as I think about it.  Well, what if that was my purpose in life?  I could just walk around and tackle people.  I enjoy golfing.  Wouldn’t it be great if life was just a ginormous golf course?  Off the streetlamp, beaming the Cadillac, under the cop car, through the legs of unsuspecting shoppers, through the mall into the pot hole of the back-parking lot-hole in one!
               Well, none of those things are my God-given life.  I love teaching and preaching Scripture, but even this is not my purpose from God.  I am called to teach and preach, but this is not my purpose.  Preaching and teaching are the methods God has called me to use in fulfilling my purpose.  That purpose is to bring glory to God in a way that unbelievers increase in their faith until they are disciples of Christ.
               Jesus said that it was for this very hour of crucifixion that He had come to glorify the Father.  His suffering was the Father’s glory.  Not always, but many times, God is glorified most in our suffering.  It would be great if bringing glory to God was always a pleasurable experience, but very often, it is through suffering.  I will never forget one of the last times I saw my friend, Art Grajeda.  Suffering to the point of death with cancer, Art lay in bed.  But on this day, he was not wearing the typical hospital gown.  He had a button-down shirt on.  Sharon, his wife told me that he made them put it on him because it was Sunday and he wanted to be ready for church.  Art couldn’t really talk, but he smiled as she told me. 
               I thought to myself how often we don’t want to go to church.  I thought about how often, I am not focused in on the presence of God.  My mind is not consumed with a desire to commune with God.  Between the winces from the excruciating pain, Art smiled and just wanted to be in church.  He wanted me to pray for everyone else.  He was depressed but blessed.  He wasn’t clinging to anger, but He held tight to the Anchor of His Soul, Jesus.  He suffered.  God was glorified, and I was touched on a deep level.
               Times of suffering are opportunities to give God glory.  How big must our God be for us to still hold on to Him in times of trouble!  How great His love that contents our heart as others betray!  How strong is He to hold us together when our life is falling apart!  To God be the glory…even as we suffer.
               Will this change our mindset in suffering?  I don’t know, but it should.  To glorify God is our purpose.  We were created to exalt our Maker, the Savior of our soul.  Certainly, in good times, we can glorify God, but if we abandon Him in our suffering, we nullify our mountaintop testimonies.  Lord, help us to accept suffering as spiritual surgery where the Great Physician can cut away our sinful flesh as we choose to give glory to God though the pain mounts.
Proverbs 14:32
When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down,
but even in death the righteous seek refuge in God. (NIV)
​

John 12:27-29
“Now my soul 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. (NIV)
              
               I know people, and probably you do as well, that love to talk.  They love the sound of their own voices.  They want everyone to know that they know a lot or at least that they are ‘in the know’ of everyone else’s business.  The Bible says that because God is God and we are no out, we should make words few (Ecc. 5:2).  Using our words to build up our own reputation as if we can heal or save, but we can’t.  But when God speaks, He can live up to His own words.  His words draw attention to Him as the Supreme healer and the only Savior of the world.
               When Jesus cries out, “Father, glorify your name!” it was not for Him, but for those around Him and they are still for us today.  Why was it necessary for the Father to send out His voice from the Heavens?  Was it was not enough for Jesus to glorify the Father?  The Father spoke from the vastness of the Heavenlies, yet in the language of those near Christ.  Some thought it was an angel speaking.  Some thought it was only thunder.  The voice from Heaven was powerful in both sound and word.  And this is not the only time that the Father did this.  He also spoke from Heaven when Jesus was baptized.  He said, “This is my Son, whom I love.  With Him, I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
               We might not think it was necessary for God to audibly speak, but we must remember the times.  Jesus was not what the people were expecting.  They believed the Messiah would be a military leader and Jesus was not that.  The experts in religion accused Jesus of being under the power of the devil.  The people weren’t sure who He was.  They had been taught one thing their whole life, but Jesus was not like the stories they had heard about the Messiah.  To those who believed in Jesus as the Messiah, they would have believed Jesus was the Son of God by His own words. For those who had already decided that Jesus was not the Messiah, nothing would have convinced them.  But some people were truly seeking the truth.  Their eyes and hearts were open.  For them, to hear Jesus say He was the Son of God might not have been enough. But then to hear a voice from Heaven affirming Jesus put an end to their confusion.  The voice of God from Heaven sealed the deal. 
               When Jesus died and rose again while claiming to be the Son of God, it was all the evidence needed to exalt Christ.  Now, we don’t need a voice from Heaven because we have the testimony of the early disciples who saw Jesus risen from the dead.  And we have the Holy Spirit to bear witness with our spirit.  But back then, they needed more. 
               To some degree, things are like they were then.  For those who have already decided that Jesus is Lord, they don’t need more evidence.  For those who have no doubt that Jesus is not god, it will take a miracle for them to change.  But for those truly seeking the truth about God, our words about the Lord are essential.  We must use our words to glorify Christ.
If a person lives a good life, morally and ethically, there is value in that.  However, a good life does not necessarily glorify God.  At the same time, if a person speaks about God all the time while their life is a mess, God is not glorified.  Think about it.  If I say to you, “Come and follow Jesus like me,” but then you see that I am overwhelmed with broken relationships, depression, suicidal thoughts, addictions, and bitterness, why would you want what I claim to have?  God is glorified by the man or woman who lives a holy, prosperous, peaceful, loving life while giving God praise with their lips.  Living a good, holy life is very beneficial to the one living it, but to help others, we need to use our words.  People need to know that our faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit give us the strength to maintain holiness even when we are challenged, depressed, angry, tempted.  If we don’t testify about Christ as the source of our life, even if we live a holy life, we will be glorified, not Him.  People will think we are all that and a bag of chips.  But if we will acknowledge our Lord, He will receive all the glory.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths. (KJV)
​

John 12:27-29
“Now my soul 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. (NIV)
 
               I love to watch Track and Field events during the Olympics, especially the relays.  Every now and then, one runner will take the baton and their speed overshadow the others.  They will gain ground on everyone so fast and awe strikes the crowd of people with a universal gasp.  The speed of a runner is his glory.  The strength of a weightlifter, the sacrifice of a mother, the beauty of a painting, the harmony of a choir, the chorus of a song, and the wisdom of the sage are glorious.  The first time I heard Susan Boyle sing on Britain’s Got Talent was glorious.  Glory is the element of a thing that causes the opinions of those who behold it to be suddenly elevated above all the rest. 
               Jesus said that He came for “this very hour” meaning His death and resurrection that the Father may be glorified.  The need for the Father to be glorified or to glorify Himself could seem unnecessary.  Why would the most Glorious Being need to be glorified?  But when we understand the nature of glory, it has little to do with the object being glorified.  Glorification of something is about the opinion of those who notice the object.  Before Susan Boyle began to sing on television for the first time, she could already sing, but the world didn’t know it.  And when the first note came out of her mouth, her glory shone and continued to shine to the tune of more than 20 million albums.  Glory was not in her talent.  Glory manifested when the crowd heard her sing for the first time.
               The fact that God, the Creator of all things glorious, needs to be glorified is a reflection of the opinion of mankind about Him.  He is omniscient-knowing all things.  Nothing is a mystery to Him.  He is omnipresent-seeing all things everywhere at all times.  Nothing is hidden from Him.  He is omnipotent-all powerful.  Nothing and no one can stand against Him.  He is who He is.  Within His own makeup, He is invisible and silent to mankind (most of the time).  He is a mystery unseen and unheard.  His ways are higher than ours so even those who seek God struggle to grasp His magnificence because it stretches further than the human mind can go.  God needs to be glorified because the world’s opinion of Him does not capture His essence.  He must be glorified.
               Mankind has formed all kinds of opinions about God.  Huitzilopochtli was God to the Aztecs who required human sacrifice.  Ra was God to the Egyptians.  The Pharaohs were considered also to be God as direct descendants of Ra and could perpetrate any wicked thing and call it Divine.  Loki was a Norse god of mischief who designed clever, but harmful plans against the other gods.  For the Muslim, Allah is God.  For the Hindu, the names of God are many from Krishna to Buddha.  L. Ron Hubbard is God to the Scientologist.  Some Gods are harsh and angry.  Others are exceedingly sexual.  Most are considered to be flawed in some way.  People worship the sun, the moon, the stars, animals, and even Elvis Presley.  All of these work to confuse mankind of the true identity of God.  Jehovah, the God of Christianity and Judaism, is seen by some as compassionate and gracious while others see Jehovah as intolerant and unloving.  The world is confused when it comes to God and His character. 
               The God of Christianity whom we believe to be the only God desires to save mankind by reconciling the creation back to its Creator.  But out of love, He has given mankind the freedom to choose whom He will worship as God.  He doesn’t coerce anyone to follow Him.  He gives them a choice.  But how will anyone choose a god they believe to be harsh, uncaring, angry.  Our God must be glorified so that the world will see His true identify.  When they see Him as He is, no other god can come close to His goodness and power.  But the world will never see Him unless He is glorified.  This is why Jesus said to the Father, “Glorify your Name.”  And a voice from Heaven spoke saying, “I have glorified it and will again.”  In the plethora of man-made gods and goddesses from mythology to new age, the One True God must be glorified.  Without glory, man will be helpless to find the one true God in the sea of so many false gods. 
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To God be the glory, great things He hath done,
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.
-Frances Crosby