The Hour Has Come

John 12:20-36,

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

When Faye delivered our first child, I wasn’t ready. 

I mean no one’s ever really ready, right, but I really wasn’t ready. After our son was born, Faye was wiped out and fell asleep. The nurse came in to give us the “bad news” that there weren’t any postpartum rooms available. I say “bad news” because our delivery room was big and beautiful and comfortable, and the postpartum rooms at this hospital were fine but tiny. She wasn’t really giving us bad news. She was just being courteous and notifying us about the change. But the only place I had ever heard the word “postpartum” was with postpartum depression (again, I wasn’t ready). 

So I looked over at my sleeping wife and then said to the nurse, “Oh, you know she seems pretty happy right now, I don’t think she’ll need a postpartum room.” The nurse stared at me blankly for a second, and then said, “Okaaay, that’s great. . . .” In my mind, a woman had her baby and got to hold her baby, the baby she has carried and waited for all these months, and then immediately fell into some horrible depression. And so they must have these brightly colored rooms, with comfy pillows and happy music, to cheer her up — a postpartum room. The hour came, and I wasn’t ready. 

I believe that’s something like what’s happening in these verses. Jesus’s hour has been months in coming, years in coming, really centuries in coming — and yet when the hour finally comes, even his closest friends aren’t ready. The hour has come in the Gospel of John, the eleven-chapter pregnancy is ending, and the people are ready for a king to be born, but they don’t know what it really means for him to be king. They don’t know what kind of king he is.

And my prayer has been that God would make us more ready than they were, more ready than I was in that delivery room a little more than nine years ago. 

The Hour Has Come

Okay, John 12:20–36, this is a big moment in the Gospel of John. This is the hour. John wants us to know that something has changed in the story, and I know that because he’s been telling us that this moment would come. 

Back in chapter 2, during the wedding in Cana, when Mary tells Jesus that they had run out of wine, Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4).

Then in chapter 4, with the woman at the well, Jesus says, “The hour is coming . . . when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth . . .” (John 4:23).

Then in chapter 7, during the confrontation at the Feast of Booths, Jesus claims to be sent by the Father, and “so they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come” (John 7:30).

John’s telling us: an hour is coming, an hour is coming, an hour is coming, and then here in John 12, Jesus says . . . now. “The hour has come.” Verse 23:

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. . . .”

The time has come. 

And we should ask — he wants us to ask — the time for what? What hour is this? I believe that’s what our passage is all about this morning. Jesus is going to tell us what time it is, and he’s going to prepare us for that hour. He unpacks the hour for us in four ways (and those are my four points).

1. An Hour for Glory

So what is the hour? What time is it? The clearest answer is in the same sentence, John 12:23,

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. . . .”

So, point one, this is an hour for glory. 

Now, as Pastor David showed us last week, the people expected the Messiah to come in glory — to finally defeat all their enemies and take his throne as king. And they weren’t totally wrong! The humble, unattractive man they saw ride in on the donkey is glorious. All along the way, we’ve seen glimpses of his glory, like when he turned the water into wine. “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee,” John says, “and manifested his glory” (John 2:11). Or when he healed the paralytic, or fed the five thousand, or gave the blind man new eyes. This Son has been glorious all along and yet the hour has now come, the verse says, for him to be glorified. What does that mean? 

It means that the glory we have only seen in bursts and glimpses — bursts and glimpses like calming a terrible storm or raising the dead — the glory that the Son has had from eternity past, that glory will now break forth in full dawn before our eyes. The Son of God came in the flesh, in a manger, in the small, obscure town of Bethlehem, and then he lived in darkness, he took on and bore our darkness, and now he’s going to rise above the darkness and reveal who he really is. We’re about to see the sunrise in the Gospel of John. Jesus is going to pull the veil back from all of his unlimited power, wisdom, and worth. This is the hour. We’ve gotten these tastes in the story — glorious tastes — but only just tastes, and now Jesus has announced the full meal has finally arrived. And the people were so hungry. 

They had waited for so long. Their parents had prayed for a king, and their grandparents, and their parents before them. And now they’re under the heavy hand of Roman rule, with vicious soldiers and cruel taxes and public executions for those who resist. And into all of that darkness, Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. . . .” It’s time for the king to be king. We’ve seen these rays of light in his miracles, but now the sun’s going to rise in full strength. Morning’s coming. This is his hour.

The Son and the Father

One of the reasons we know something has changed in the Gospel of John is that Jesus is suddenly talking about his own glory. Up until now he’s been focused on the glory of the Father. “I do not seek my own glory,” John 8:30, “there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.” 

Or 7:18: “The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true.” But now, the hour comes for the Son to be glorified. 

Even here, though, in the hour of the Son’s glory, look how Jesus prays: “Father, glorify your name.” Verse 27:

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.”

My hour’s coming and I know what I have to do. Should I pray and ask the Father to spare me from the thorns, the nails, the wrath? No, this is why I came. I came for the glory of my Father. And so he prays, “Father, even in my hour of glory, glorify your name.” And how does the Father respond? He glorifies the Son, next verse:

Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 

The Father’s actually speaking to two audiences here. 

First, to Jesus: “I have already glorified my name in you these last thirty years (and in all the endless years before that), and now I will glorify my name in you again in this hour.”

But there’s a second audience here. We know that if we keep reading, verse 29,

“The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30 Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not mine.’”

The message was for him (only he understood the actual words), but the thunder was for them. This was the Father’s way at the end of Jesus’s earthly life to say what the Father said at the beginning of his ministry, at his baptism: This thunder booms the chorus, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 17:5).

2. An Hour for Agony

So, the hour is an hour for glory, but that glory doesn’t come like the people expected. No, this hour is an hour for glory, but, second, this hour is also an hour of agony. We’ve already heard this, verse 27:

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?”

Now you and I already know why Jesus would want to be saved from his hour of glory (and he’s tried to tell his disciples what’s about to happen), but you can still imagine their confusion. Wait, it’s finally time for you to receive your glory as king, and you want the Father to rescue you from that glory? Shouldn’t you want your hour of glory? 

Why is your soul so troubled now?

Because he knows that his glory comes through terrible agony. Verse 31,

“‘Now is the judgment of this world, now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”

So not just agony, but death. For the king to enter his glory, he had to die. This hour is a dying hour. 

He wants them to get this, and so he holds up something he knows they’ll understand, verse 24:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

They’re ready for the grain of wheat — the seed — to finally bear some fruit. They want the harvest! They’re starving for a king and all the good he’s going to do for them. And yet he reminds them that for a seed to bear fruit, it has to die first. The plant doesn’t die, but everything that makes a seed a seed breaks down and falls away — it dies, it gives everything — so that new life might spring up out of its death. And if that little seed dies, it produces 30, 60, 100, sometimes 300 new grains in its place. That’s a miracle. And that’s what’s happening in this hour.

But how could the promised king die? He can’t die, right? The crowd is confused, and for good reason, verse 34:

“We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?”

The Christ was supposed to be different. So many kings have disappointed us and died. The Messiah was supposed to never leave. 

What they couldn’t see yet is that this Messiah reveals his power and glory by dying to save sinners. We needed the cross to see what kind of king he is. That’s why this can be an hour of both glory and agony — not just agony and then glory. Because the Good Shepherd dying for his sheep sets him apart from every god the world has ever known. 

Why is this an hour of agony? God made the universe — wheat and seeds, trees for beams, metal for nails, thorns for crowns — and he wrote out history to highlight the glory of his grace. This is what Ephesians 1 says, that in this Christ, in Jesus, God sets forth “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and on earth.” And in that plan, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, so that in him we might have redemption through his blood — through his dying — “to the praise of his glorious grace.” Not just to the praise of his glory (of his power and wisdom and holiness), but to the praise of his glorious grace. And the glorious grace he showed us cost him terrible agony. Even death on a cross.

His hour of glory is an hour of agony because his glory is to rescue sinners like you, like me — to the praise of his glorious grace. 

3. An Hour for Victory

This brings us to the third point. This is an hour of terrible agony, but don’t mistake his agony, his death for defeat. Don’t mistake glory for easy — no, this is going to be excruciatingly hard. He’s going to have to die. But don’t mistake his dying for losing, either. This is an hour for great agony, but it is also, third, an hour for victory. And this really is how an hour of agony can be an hour of glory. Because it’s by extraordinary agony that he achieves his victory. Hear verses 31–32 again: 

“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

I see great victory in these two verses, two great victories actually.

First, this is the hour of victory over Satan.

“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. . . .”

Now why did Jesus call Satan “the ruler of this world”? Does that mean Satan is the ruler of this world and God is not? Absolutely not. No, God is the capital-R ruler of this world and every other one. Every ounce of influence Satan has for now, has been granted by God for the glory of God. No, God’s working all things and uniting all things, even evil, to the praise of his glorious grace. And one reason he’s allowed evil up until this hour, is so that evil could be crushed in this hour.

“The ruler of this world is about to be cast out.”

But at the cross, doesn’t it seem like Satan won? His enemies thought they won. Surely Satan thought he’d won. He never would have done what he did if he’d known what was about to happen. He killed the incarnate Son of God. He killed the Messiah who was supposed to remain forever. And in that moment, in that hour, Satan lost everything. To be clear, he was never in control here, and he was never winning. Jesus told us, just two chapters before, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). And when he laid it down, he had already won. 

“Through death,” Hebrews 2:14–15, Jesus destroyed “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” 

Does it look like Satan has the upper hand in your life? Are you going through something right now that makes it seem like the ruler of this world is in control of your body . . . or of some painful relationship in your family . . . or of some difficult situation at work? He’s not! For a brief time, he’s been given a measure of influence in this world and in your life, but he is on a leash. Your Father in heaven rules over the ruler of this world, and so, like the cross . . . your hour of agony can become your hour of greatest spiritual victory. . . .It’s so much easier to see this in other people’s suffering, right? This hard hour in your life really might be the moment when Jesus’s glory and reign will be most obvious through you. 

That sure sounds like victory over Satan to me.

There’s a second victory here, though. This hour of agony is also an hour of great victory over unbelief. Where do I see that?

“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

When I’m lifted up on the cross and killed and abandoned by everyone, then, at that lowest of all moments, I will draw all people to myself. I’ll win all my sheep back from sin, death, and shame. I’ll make my awful grave my conquering throne.

And that’s exactly what’s happening in these verses! Did you notice in the first verse, verse 20?

“Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.”

When he says he’ll draw “all people” to himself, he doesn’t mean every person (we see this clearly because lots and lots of people, then and now, reject him and run away). No, he means all kinds of people from everywhere — Jewish people and non-Jewish people. When this king comes, he’s not just winning people from Israel, but from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. 

And what does this victory sound like in the moment? It sounds like verse 21, when the Greeks say to Philip,

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

That’s the sound of victory. These people were dead in their trespasses and sins, following the course of this world, trusting the evil ruler of this world, living out the passions of their flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. But God, “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved them, even when they were dead in their trespasses, made them alive.” 

And when mercy did that to them, their desires changed and they said,

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

Is there any better anthem for Advent? “We wish to see Jesus.” And that brings us to our last point, the fourth way Jesus unpacks this hour.

4. An Hour for You 

This is an hour for glory, for agony, for great victory — this is Jesus’s hour. But this isn’t only his hour. Fourth, and lastly, this hour is an hour for you.

When he’s lifted up, he says, he will draw all people to himself — but not all people. Again, they ask him how the Christ could die if he’s supposed to remain forever. Now, verse 35:

So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” 

Jesus was ready for his hour. The question is are you ready for this hour? Some of you are walking in darkness this morning, and I don’t want the darkness to overtake you. While you have the light — he’s still inviting you to come! — while you have the light, believe in the light and walk in the light, that you may become forgiven and loved children of light.

Now, Jesus warns us that walking in the light will bring some agony. Notice that he doesn’t say here, “I’m going to die so that you don’t have to.” It’s true that those who believe will never face divine judgment for our sins. We’ll never experience condemnation. But that doesn’t mean we won’t have to suffer, verse 25:

“Whoever loves his life loses it [he’s not talking about himself anymore] and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

In other words, if you want to live with me, you’re going to have to die with me. You’re going to have to pick up a cross to follow me. He bore our greater agony, the judgment we deserved, but he doesn’t spare us from all agony in this life. 

Through that agony, though, we also receive his victory and glory. Next verse:

“If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

Do you hear that? The Father doesn’t only glorify his Son. No, the hour is coming when the Father is going to honor you. For now, we pray like Jesus, in our hours of darkness and heartache, “Father, glorify your name.” And here in these verses, you can almost hear the thunder — the thunder of him responding, “I have glorified my name in you thus far — and I will glorify it again.”

Following Jesus will come with some agony. But it will also come with great glory, your glory. The Father will honor you — if you believe in the light and walk in the light. You can’t have his victory while you walk in darkness. The one who walks in darkness doesn’t know where he’s going. Some of you don’t know where you’re going right now. And the hour’s come. Don’t let the darkness overtake you. Walk while you have the light.