Scriptures That Have Touched My Life: If I Be Lifted Up
Part 2 of 5
Pastor Tony Nester
Text: John 12:32
Today I want to share with you another Scripture that has
touched my life. It's found in the Gospel of John, Chapter
12, verses 32. Here Jesus says:
{32} And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw
all people to myself."
Verse 33 tells us that Jesus is speaking of the kind of
death he will die. He is speaking of dying on the cross, of
being lifted up onto the cross beam, and hanging there to
suffer and die for our sins. And he says that his death on
the Cross will have the power to draw people to faith in
him.
People who are outside of Christianity find this hard to
understand. It makes no sense to them. Why would anyone be
attracted to a man dying from crucifixion?
The cross was the ugliest and most shameful form of death
inflicted on people by the Roman Empire. When you looked at
someone dying on a cross you were repulsed, horrified,
disgusted. Crosses were a tool of torture and death. Cross
were hated by those who were strapped to them. Any one
nailed to a cross became hideous to look upon.
This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:17-18 that the
message of the cross impresses unbelievers as
"foolishness".
Earlier in the Gospel of John Jesus said:
"No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent
me" - John 6:44 (NRSV)
Jesus was always looking for people who had come under the
Father's "drawing" power. He would repeatedly say, "If you
have ears to hear, then hear!"(1). "If you have eyes to
see, then see!" (2).
He was searching for people for whom God had unstopped
their ears - people for whom God had taken the blinders off
their eyes - people who were being drawn to him by the
Father.
Now in John 12:32 Jesus identifies the core of this process
by which God draws people to Jesus. The core of the process
is the Cross of Christ. It will be the Cross that w ...
Part 2 of 5
Pastor Tony Nester
Text: John 12:32
Today I want to share with you another Scripture that has
touched my life. It's found in the Gospel of John, Chapter
12, verses 32. Here Jesus says:
{32} And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw
all people to myself."
Verse 33 tells us that Jesus is speaking of the kind of
death he will die. He is speaking of dying on the cross, of
being lifted up onto the cross beam, and hanging there to
suffer and die for our sins. And he says that his death on
the Cross will have the power to draw people to faith in
him.
People who are outside of Christianity find this hard to
understand. It makes no sense to them. Why would anyone be
attracted to a man dying from crucifixion?
The cross was the ugliest and most shameful form of death
inflicted on people by the Roman Empire. When you looked at
someone dying on a cross you were repulsed, horrified,
disgusted. Crosses were a tool of torture and death. Cross
were hated by those who were strapped to them. Any one
nailed to a cross became hideous to look upon.
This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:17-18 that the
message of the cross impresses unbelievers as
"foolishness".
Earlier in the Gospel of John Jesus said:
"No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent
me" - John 6:44 (NRSV)
Jesus was always looking for people who had come under the
Father's "drawing" power. He would repeatedly say, "If you
have ears to hear, then hear!"(1). "If you have eyes to
see, then see!" (2).
He was searching for people for whom God had unstopped
their ears - people for whom God had taken the blinders off
their eyes - people who were being drawn to him by the
Father.
Now in John 12:32 Jesus identifies the core of this process
by which God draws people to Jesus. The core of the process
is the Cross of Christ. It will be the Cross that w ...
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