Lifting up Christ
John 12:31-33 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
33 This he said, signifying what death he should die.
We will take our text from Verse 32, where we get the title of our message, which is “Lifting up Christ”.
We want to notice three points from this verse.
There wasn't any question in Jesus’ mind that He would be lifted up, but it was a matter of when He would be lifted up. I think that was His meaning.
But what did He mean by being “lifted up”? Verse 33 answers that question… “This he said, signifying what death he should die.” In other words, by the death of the cross. That was the only form of execution that Jesus could have meant. Death on the cross also best fits His own prophecy of His death in John 3…
John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
There were various means of execution employed in those days, but the cross was the most shameful, humiliating, and painful. And it was used for the vilest and most wicked offenders against society!
In the case of Jesus there could be no more appropriate means of death than the death of the cross. First, execution by the cross best fulfilled the prophecy in Psalm 22 (Read Psalm 22:1-3, 6-8, and 12-21). Only the death of the cross could adequately explain the prophetic meaning of this Psalm!
For another reason, Jesus had to best represent those whom He was dying for! Jesus had to become as a vile sinner, and as a wicked malefactor in order to best picture the wicked, vile sinners that He was dying for. The cross was the lowest, most dishonorable, most humiliating means of execution of that day, and therefore it was used for the vilest, most wicked of men who were guilty of the most heinous of crimes.
Therefore, the cross best fit our Lord's foreordained purpose of dying in the place of wicked, vile sinners. And for Jesus’s death to be substitutionary, the penalty must fit the crime, as it were.
And the death of the cross best fits the just punishment of every sinner for whom Christ died! Can any true believer in Jesus disagree?
Speaking of the awfulness of the death of the cross, Paul said…
Philippians 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
And speaking of what Jesus had to become to be our sin substitute, Paul said…
2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The cross suited this purpose perfectly! Speaking of the curse of death by means of the cross, Paul said…
Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Peter also reiterated Paul’s words. When speaking about our Lord's death on the cross, Peter said…
1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
And then there is one other way that Jesus can be “lifted up”, and that is by the preaching of the cross of Jesus. We preach Jesus crucified for the remission of sins, that sinners might hear the message of salvation and be saved from their sins! In this way Jesus is lifted up, and He is exalted and glorified as the only Saviour, and the only hope of sinners! Can you see Jesus lifted up on that cross for your sins?
2. Secondly, I want to consider the words “will draw…” from our text.
John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
There are at least two possible meanings of Jesus’s words “will draw” in this text.
To “draw” could be the natural curiosity of men, to witness some spectacle, which Jesus certainly was a spectacle to the sinful world back then. Or to “draw” could be the sinful desire of men who love the darkness of sin, and hate the light of truth and righteousness. They are naturally drawn to join in alliance with the devil to try and defeat the purpose of God, and to make a mockery of Christ. In this way they added to His shame and reproach when He suffered, bled, and died for the likes of those wicked sinners who would be drawn to His crucifixion!
And then to “draw” could also mean the drawing power of the Holy Spirit of God, who would draw men to Jesus by the power of the gospel. I believe this is what Jesus was meaning here in our text. Jesus said that no man can come to Him except the Father draw him…
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
And because Jesus was lifted up on the cross, God draws men to the cross of Christ where they can look upon the Saviour and live forever!
We might also consider the word “will”. Jesus said in our text “will draw…”. “Will” is a verb expressing future action. “will draw” is an action that will take place at some time in the future. The question is WHO WILL DRAW…? In the context I believe that God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit “will draw all men… ” to Jesus. Men don't draw themselves to
Jesus! No beloved, people are running away from Jesus! But only God can draw people to Jesus, which leads us to our last point…
The crucifixion of Jesus would be an attraction that would be known and attended by people from all walks of life from all around the Roman world. It was Passover week and people from all over the world would be there to celebrate the holiday, including both Jews and Gentiles. Religious leaders and government officials were there. Poor people and wealthy people were there. People with different colors of skin and people who spoke different languages were there for the occasion. So, in the natural sense, all kinds of people would be there when Jesus was crucified.
Some would be the followers of Jesus. Some of His close friends and earthly family, including His mother, were there. But most of the people there were His enemies. All the religious Jews were there, who were jealous of Jesus because He drew the people away from them. They hated Jesus because He preached against their sins, and their hypocrisy, and their false doctrines.
Many people would be there just to celebrate the slaying of the Son of God. They would be there to join in the festivities of mocking and the taunting, and blaspheming the Lord of glory. Yes, beloved, the death of Jesus on the cross would draw all men of every kind, of every class, of every nation and people of that day and time. It would bring mortal enemies together over their hatred for Jesus. Pilate and Herod, who were enemies and rivals in the Roman empire, became friends that day. The Sadducees and the Pharisees, who sharply disagreed on religious matters, joined together hand in hand in their hatred for Christ. People of every group, and of every class united their voices in harmonious hatred when they cried out “crucify Him, crucify Him”!
This would be a day when people from all over the world would be in harmony and unity for the first time, over their common hatred for the perfect, sinless, harmless, loving, compassionate Saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ! We won't see such unity again until the battle of Armageddon!
And yet, beloved, there are other possible ways to interpret our Lord's words “will draw all men unto me.”
Some people today would interpret Jesus as meaning “all people of the human race. That all people would hear the gospel and have a chance to accept it or reject it of their own free wills. But there are some major problems with that theory. First, there have already been billions of people who have lived and died who never heard of Jesus, who were already suffering in hell for their sins. For the most part, the Gentile nations knew nothing about Israel's Messiah, and the salvation that He would bring to the world.
In addition to this, all people don't hear the gospel today. Some nations such as China, and some Middle Eastern nations make it a crime to preach about Jesus, punishable by imprisonment or even death. Millions of people in the world today never even hear about the gospel of Jesus.
I will take it one step further, most Americans never hear the true gospel of the grace of God, but only perverted gospels of works, and easy believism, and prosperity gospels; none of which can save the soul! So don't assume that just because we live in a nation where we have religious freedom, that people will hear the true gospel of Jesus. Satan, that great counterfeiter, is working overtime to see that they don't!
But some will say “that's not fair”, and “God would not be fair if He didn't offer salvation to every person”! Well beloved, they will have to take their argument up with God. But I can tell you that God doesn't owe anyone the “chance” to hear the gospel. All men have sinned against the Holy God of heaven, and by nature they hate Him and despise Him! And if you have any doubt about that, just look at what they did to His Beloved Son! No beloved, no one deserves to hear anything from God except “depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”! (Matthew 25:41).
The plain truth is, if you have been able to hear the message of Jesus and His dying love for sinners, then you are blessed of God, because you didn't deserve to hear it, and God didn't owe it to you to allow you to hear it! You are one of the privileged people in the world whom God has given the honor to hear the blessed message of salvation and eternal life!
Be that as it may, you might still be like one of the crowd around the cross of Jesus that day, who is still in rebellion against God, and still rejecting Jesus, and salvation through His death on the cross! You are living proof that people still “will not come” to Jesus “that they might have life”, even though the gospel is preached unto them.
But there is still another possible explanation of Jesus’s words… “will draw all men unto me”, and this is the one that I believe best fits the teaching of the Scriptures.
By “all men” means people of all kinds. People of all nations and languages, and colors, and ethnic groups, and social classes… young and old, male and female, and every other possible human distinction.
And more specifically, it means that from among all these people of all kinds, there is a special people that God has chosen to be His own people, whom He has foreordained to save by His marvelous grace through the gospel of His Son Jesus, who died on the cross for their sins. These are they to whom it was given of the Father to hear, and to come unto Jesus that they might have life!
I don't know who they are, but only God knows who His elect are. All I know is that whosoever cometh to Jesus, and believes in Him shall be saved from their sins, and shall receive the gift of eternal life! Beloved, the only way that any of us can know that we are one of God’s chosen people is for us to hear the gospel, and believe in Jesus as the Son of God and our Saviour, and then follow Him according to His commandments!
In conclusion, was Jesus talking about you when He said… “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
Jesus was in fact lifted up from the earth on the cross as He said, but are you drawn unto Him?
Well, you are here this morning. Jesus has been lifted up in the preaching. But will you believe?
Consider yourselves to be blessed of God. You could be like the billions of people who never heard the gospel, and never had the opportunity to come to Jesus and believe in Him!
I pray that God will open your heart and give you faith in Jesus this very minute, that it would be well with your soul!
I pray that you will be able to say with Paul… “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day”!