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I. "AND NOW I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE IT HAS COME TO PASS THAT WHEN IT IS COME TO PASS, YOU MIGHT BELIEVE."
A. The cross could have been viewed as a great mistake in human history, except that it had been planned by God long in advance.
1. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
2.
Luke 24:45. Then He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day."
B. By telling them of the events before they happen, they will not look upon them as great tragedies, but will realize that Jesus is truly the Son of God.
1. Jesus had prophesied to them of the crucifixion, and of the resurrection.
2. Jesus had predicted the total destruction of the temple, not one stone left standing upon another.
3. The purpose of speaking of these events before they took place was to cause them to believe that He was the Son of God, after they saw the fulfillment of His word.
C. Prophecy becomes a great apologetic, it is one of the strong proofs that the Bible is the word of God.
1. God Himself challenged the false prophets to prove their cause and show something that was to happen.
Isa. 41:21-23.
2. In
Isa. 42:8,
9 He said, "Behold I and the Lord, new things will I declare before they spring forth."
II. "AFTER THIS I WILL NOT TALK MUCH WITH YOU FOR THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD COMETH AND HAS NOTHING IN ME."
A. Before the day is over, He will be hanging upon the cross. The three years that He has been instructing them in the ways of the Lord are about over. The Holy Spirit is going to take up the task of guiding and teaching them.
B. Jesus makes reference to Satan as the prince of this world.
1. Jesus gives this title to Satan three different times in the gospel of John.
a. 12:31. Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out.
b. 16:11. Of judgment for the prince of this world is judged.
2. Paul calls Satan, the god of this world, and in
Eph. 2 he refers to him as the prince of the power of the air.
C. By what virtue is Satan the prince of this world?
1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.
2. God gave the earth to man. "Have dominion over the earth."
3. Adam forfeited the right to Satan.
4. Jesus came to redeem the world back to God.
D. Jesus will soon be going with the disciples to the garden of Gethsemene. The chapter ends with the words, "Arise, let us go hence."
1. Their in the garden the battle of the ages will be fought and won by our Lord.
2. It is there that His sweat will be like great drops of blood falling to the ground.
3. It is there that he will fully yield Himself to the will of the Father and go on to the cross to pay the price of our redemption.
E. Jesus said that the prince of this world had nothing in Him.
1. There was nothing in Him to which the devil could appeal.
2. Satan appeals to our fallen flesh. Jesus was sinless.
3. Satan was to make one final assault against Jesus. He tried to entice Jesus after the forty-day fast to exchange the world and the glory of the world for Jesus falling before him and worshipping him.
a. Satan is now going to try to destroy the Savior.
b. He had sought at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus to incite the crowd in Nazareth to cast Jesus over the brow of the precipice.
c. He had sought to entice Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the temple.
4. In the garden of Eden, God had said concerning the serpent that he would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. This is about to take place, but in so doing, his authority would be destroyed.
III. "BUT THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT I LOVE THE FATHER AND AS THE FATHER GAVE ME COMMANDMENT, EVEN SO I DO. ARISE, LET US GO HENCE."
A. Just a little earlier Jesus had equated their love for Him with their obedience to His commandments.
1. "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me."
2. Again He said, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words."
3. He now equates His love for the Father by His obedience to His commandment.
B. The cross proves God's love for the world, and the love of Jesus for the Father.
1. Again it is so wrong to try to divide the God of the New Testament from the God of the Old.
2. His great love for man was revealed in the Old Testament. It was proved in the New.
3. It was the Father that commanded the Son to come and to give His life as a ransom for sin.
4. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
C. Paul tells us that God has commended His love towards us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
D. John wrote, "Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
E. It is interesting to me that Jesus seeks to draw our attention to the Father's love for us, not His love.
1. He was always pointing men to the Father.
2. Even so, the Spirit is always pointing men to Jesus.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
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