It's all about victory

John 12

Introduction: I read a short piece of news this past week that brought huge crocodile tears of sadness to my eyes. In a news brief from Reuters, the actor and movie star Hugh Grant was lamenting the end of romance. According to the London Daily Telegraph, Grant said that fame had robbed him of the thrill of pursuing women. Defeated, Grant, who has millions of female fans, said meeting girlfriends had become complicated…
“When I was younger, the great excitement in pursuing women was the sense of romance and chase. But when you are a celebrity, you discover that you are no longer the pursuer, but the pursued. You have to think about what things do you reveal about yourself, how wary do you have to be that the women you meet aren’t more concerned with your fame and celebrity status.”
Oh, the pity of fame and fortune…what should be desirable and victorious is really sadness and defeat for this Englishman! (I see some of us have moist eyes now, too, and I hope the sniffling of sympathy in the congregation doesn’t become too much of a distraction!)
I have also been reading this past week the first volume by William Manchester on the life and times of Winston Churchill. And Mr. Churchill, another Englishman, is a wholly different man, in both character and stature, than is the pitiful Mr. Grant.
In his youth, Mr. Churchill was torn from his beloved nanny and placed in a brutal boarding school. His treatment at the hands of the bullies in the school was even worse than what he received from the sadistic headmaster. “Sickly, an uncoordinated weakling with the pale fragile hands of a girl, speaking with a lisp and a slight stutter, he (was) at the mercy of bullies.” One dreadful day, “they beat him, ridiculed him, and pelted him with cricket balls. Trembling and humiliated, he hid in a nearby woods.”
Manchester writes, “This was hardly the stuff of which gladiators are made. His only weapons were an unconquerable will and an incipient sense of immortality.
(Churchill, at the age of seven,) already was memorizing Macaulay’s tale of a man with two comrades barring a bridge to an army:
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
‘To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods?’”
Hugh Grant and Winston Churchill – one an adult, a confessed whiner, chasing skirts; one a youth, facing bullies, on his way to becoming acclaimed as a roaring lion – two men facing defeat, in different circumstances, with two entirely different stances, attitudes, and aims. I suppose the verdict will still be out for a season on Mr. Grant, but all historians recognize the place of Mr. Churchill in the annals of the world’s great victories.
With Mr. Grant and Mr. Churchill in mind on this Easter Sunday, I have a question for us: So how do we react when defeat is staring us in the face? What is our response when what we desire is elusively out of reach? How do we respond to the bully that is disaster? What would we do if our spouse were suddenly taken in death? What is our track record of countering the tormentors of adversity and tragedy?
What are we supposed to do when the one we love leaves us for another? How do we answer the browbeaters of harsh circumstances? Could we really make it if God were to call us to leave family and friends and serve Him in a far away place? Or perhaps worse, what if He were to call our child to minister in a place half way around the world? Is there a way to find victory and triumph when both appear lost and well-hidden, vanished and nowhere to be found?
There is a way, friends, and the way is called Easter. Easter is all about victory in a thousand different forms! Easter proved that what looked like victory for the devil on Friday was everything but! The enemy of our souls no doubt gloated across the universe on Friday at the death of the Christ. But then came Sunday! And Easter proved that what looked like defeat for Christ and His disciples on Friday was in fact the most marvelous of victories.
Easter is all about victory! As the Lord Jesus prepared Himself for those hours on Calvary, He had one last encounter with the crowds who followed Him. That encounter takes place in John 12. I would invite you to turn with me there, and let’s pick up where we left off last week with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We know that Biblical victories always have the element of a celebration parade, and that was what the triumphal entry was all about. We saw that last week.
Read with me John 12:27-36, keeping in mind that Easter is all about victory. “‘Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.’
Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.’ Jesus answered and said, ‘This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. (Even though the voice of God was for their sake, it appears that not many understood what was said. Some thought it thundered, some thought an angel had spoken. And what good is it that something is said if what is said is not understood? Well, some did understand, and John is one of them, for he writes here what was said by the voice of God from heaven.)
(Jesus continues:) Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.’ This He said, signifying by what death He would die. The people answered Him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’
Then Jesus said to them, ‘A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.’ These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.”
Understanding that Easter is all about victory in a thousand different forms, let’s make a few observations from John’s message here that may help us improve our reactions when we face defeat. One, we see Jesus troubled. “‘Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”
I hope we are not surprised to find the Lord Jesus feeling just like we have felt in the face of defeat. This death at His doorstep, this climb up Mt. Calvary, would be imposed unjustly, would be cruelly executed, and would brand Him as a criminal and a rebel. The Lord Jesus finds that alarming; in fact, our text literally says, ‘Now my soul has been thrown into confusion.’ Commentators suggest that the Lord Jesus is close to breaking under the strain of what He knows to be coming. The dangers and the senselessness of this coming crisis are close to overwhelming Him.
That is just how you and I have felt at different moments in life: troubled, confused, nearly hopeless, on the verge of being overwhelmed.
What is so very important to see here is that in life, there can be no victory without conflict! We cannot experience the thrill of victory without having faced the possibility of defeat. What meaning can there be to victory if there has not first been struggle and conflict? Remember John Kennedy’s comments about Theodore Roosevelt, made in New York City on Dec. 5, 1961?
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, if he wins, knows the thrills of high achievement, and, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Our text here in John’s Gospel suggests the Lord Jesus obviously had some reservations, but there would be no question that He would go to the arena! No cold and timid soul was He!! “Shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour!” To me, Easter is all about victory, but victory will always come with a price. Yes, I’m too much like Mr. Grant – I’d rather whine in the face of trouble than get into the arena and make a difference, perhaps even conquering.
Perhaps many of us have forgotten that the tingling, exquisite sense of victory must be preceded by the agony of conflict. The one who has known cruel and depressing grief, who has clawed and scraped his way up out of that muddy pit of grief, straining with slippery fingers and sliding feet, that one knows something of victory!
Easter, dear friends, is all about victory, and the Lord Jesus has known our conflict, our trouble, our struggle, our pain, and our sweat and blood. Easter’s message is that He passed through the arena to make a way for us to also pass through. He spent Himself painfully in a worthy cause, and He opens the door for us to follow, for us to know the same kind of victory.
A second observation comes from verse 31. “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” Time is drawing near for victory over Satan. The cross that the Christ would mount on Friday would spell defeat for the devil. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus on Sunday would publicly confirm that defeat.
The Lord Jesus would conquer the evil one through His own death and resurrection from the dead. Easter is all about victory, victory over the primary instigator of evil. Of course, Satan is still active in our world. I’m reminded of Paul’s comments to the Ephesians where he writes,
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air (read Satan here), the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:1-7)
Though the evil one is still active in our world, his power has been broken, his end is certain, and his desperate actions only bear the imprint of futility.
Easter, dear friends, is all about victory, victory with a price and victory over the Evil One.
There is a third observation I want to make and it comes from a little preposition. In verse 32, the Lord Jesus says, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” The preposition, ‘from,’ as it is used here, means ‘out from.’ As the text makes clear in verses 33 and 34, the crowd understood Jesus to be saying that He would die on a cross. Everyone understood that to be lifted up was to be crucified on a cross. But ‘out from’ suggests more than being suspended above the earth on a cross; it also connotes being brought up out of the earth.
The Lord Jesus was trying to make clear that He would not only be elevated on a cross, but He also would be exalted up by means of resurrection, out from the earth. Merrill Tenney makes the comment that the verb lifted up is used in John exclusively to refer to Jesus’ death, while elsewhere in the New Testament it means ‘exalt.’ ‘Lifted up’ thus lends itself well to the double meaning of both the cross and the resurrection.
The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus would be God’s instrument for bringing men to redemption. When the Lord Jesus was lifted up on the cross, and when the Lord Jesus was lifted up, out from the earth by way of resurrection, He would draw all kinds of people to a new experience of life.
Easter means the victory where all men are drawn to Christ. They would be made alive together with Christ. They would be saved by grace. They would be raised up together to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And the ‘they’ I have in mind would be all kinds of people.
We understand this from our context, where we saw last week the Greeks who had approached Philip with a desire to see Jesus. So we understand John to be offering the Gospel to those beyond the Jewish nation. There would be men and women, boys and girls, from every nationality, race, and social standing who could be and would be redeemed.
Easter is all about victory, victory with a price, victory over the Evil One, and victory we call redemption to a new way of life for all kinds of people.
There is a fourth and final issue addressed by our text that is related to Easter. The Lord Jesus, with a sense of urgency, tells His listeners to put their trust in the light. “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (vs.36) Earlier in chapter 9, He had said, “Night is coming when no one can work.” If those listening to the Lord Jesus wanted to walk with certainty, they needed to make a decision at once. After His death, it was likely they would find themselves trying to get around in the darkness.
It is not a quirk of circumstances, friends, that it was dark for three hours over all the land, from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, while Jesus was being crucified. A spiritual night had come. God died. God died bearing the sins of the whole world, all the sins of the past, the present, and the future. I guess it took three hours to figuratively place them on the sacrificial Lamb of God.
How sad for these listening to the Lord Jesus speak to be so close to victory, only to be overtaken by the darkness. How sad for some among us today to be hearing God speak through His word, to delay making a decision, only to be overtaken by the darkness. I was reminded this past week of a fellow coworker in Vietnam who was called ‘Red.’ He was just a few days away from rotating back to the States, to a choice duty station with Marine reserves in New Orleans, when he was killed in a rocket attack on our base at DaNang. As far as I know, he never responded to the Gospel I shared with him on several occasions while we were together at Phu Bai.
How sad to be exposed to the light, to fail to believe, and then to be overtaken by the darkness.
Easter is all about victory that can remain outside our grasp if the darkness overtakes us. Easter urgently calls us to decision. Who knows what will happen between today and next Easter? Did you notice all the references to time in these few verses? ‘Hour’ is used twice, ‘Now’ surfaces twice, ‘When’ and ‘While’ are used three times, and ‘a little while longer’ is used in verse 35. This passage vibrates with urgency.
“Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
Easter, friends, is all about victory, victory with a price, victory over the Evil One, victory we call redemption to a new way of life, and victory that demands an urgent decision to trust and believe lest it slip away from our grasp.
(Conclusion) Easter: it’s all about victory!
Let’s celebrate Easter with the rite of laughter.
Christ died and rose and lives.
Laugh like a woman who holds her first baby.
Our enemy death will soon be destroyed.
Laugh like a man who finds he doesn’t have cancer, or he does, but now there’s a cure.
Christ opened wide the door of heaven.
Laugh like children at Disneyland’s gates.
This world is owned by God, and he’ll return to rule.
Laugh like a man who walks away uninjured from a wreck in which his car was totaled.
Laugh as if all the people in the whole world were invited to a picnic and then invite them.
(Joseph Bayly, Psalms of My Life, David C. Cook, 2000)
Sure, life will be very difficult at times. Yes, there will be struggles, inequities, injustices, and, yes, sometimes the outcome will seem to be uncertain. Yes, there will be days when we will feel like Jesus felt, confused with a troubled heart. But God has called us to this hour, and we cry out, “Father, glorify your name!”
Yes, the Evil One still roams about, seeking whom he may devour, but his days are limited and his power has been broken. He is a roaring lion, but he has no teeth. He appears to be dangerous, but he is already defeated. His world system has been weighed in the balances and he has been found wanting.
Yes, we still have this sinful nature, with its desires and thoughts and cravings, but we have been given the keys to the door of redemption, to a new, redeemed way of living. There is no longer a need to be like my friends; there is no longer any profit in acting like they do. Redemption through the blood of Jesus, forgiveness of sins, glorious rich grace that God has lavished up on us, seated with Christ in the heavenly realms…what, my friends, is the appeal of that old way of living???
Yes, we are prone to hesitation, to fiddling, dithering, wavering, and vacillation, but victory can be grasped if we act before the darkness overwhelms us.
Wouldn’t today be a good day to decide to give up, forever, whining like a Hugh Grant and being overwhelmed by the hard circumstances of life? Wouldn’t today, Easter Sunday, be a good day to decide to hold the bridge against the enemy with a few good friends, walking in the light, trusting in the light, being known as sons of the light?
Wouldn’t today, Easter Sunday, be a good day to be born again, to acknowledge our sin, to accept Christ’s payment on the cross for that sin, to become a new person with options for victories in all of life’s days?
Wouldn’t today, Easter Sunday, be a good day to decide to walk in the light, to decide to laugh again, to start over with a clean slate, to sleep at night with a clear conscience, to face each new day unafraid?
Easter: it’s all about victory, triumph, winning, and conquering. “Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.”


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