#23: “The Hour has Come for the Son of Man to be Glorified”
SCRIPTURE: John 12:20-50
INTRO:
Jesus has just shown Himself to be the most courageous man
of all time: He has ridden into Jerusalem on the colt of a jenny,
accompanied by two groups of thousands of cheering people, and
witnessed by men who have the authority to demand his execution,
while knowing that within a week He’ll be dead, executed by one of
the most excruciating forms of capital punishment known to man.
The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was, in a sense, the victory lap
after a three-year race.
In all probability, Jesus went from Bethany into Jerusalem each
day of his last week. He would go into the temple courts where He
would have both the most sympathetic and the most challenging
audiences, challenging the rulers to either recognize His
Messiahship or arrest Him.
There were three temple courts in Jesus’ day: the extreme
outer court was “the court of the Gentiles”; the next court was “the
court of women”; and the inner court was “the court of Israel,”
reserved for Jewish males. It was in the outer court that