John 12:27-30

27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. God’s word for us this morning is ‘Keep moving'”

1) Keep moving

Please allow me to remind the context of these verses we just read. Jesus had just entered Jerusalem in all glory and a crowd of people were laying branches on the floor to welcome his entry to Jerusalem. A huge crowd of people that the Pharisees would compare to the “entire world” was shouting “Hosanna blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord” In Jerusalem Jesus had an appointment with his destiny where he was to become the savior of the world.

Just before he is on motion to Jerusalem Jesus had a goodbye dinner with Lazarus, Maria and Marta where Maria anointed his feet with an expensive perfume as if she felt already she was seeing him for the last time. Jesus knew what was going to happen in Jerusalem and the rest had no clue that this was their last dinner with him. But Maria is such a special character, she reminds me that some people that are close to you might feel what you know even if you don’t tell them.

Before he would enter Jerusalem there was an arrest warrant against him issued by the religious rulers, that anyone who knew where he was must tell so he is arrested. Now it’s important to highlight that at the time of Jesus, Jerusalem was under Roman rule. The Pharisees had a strong influence among the Jewish people but they were not the ones ruling in Jerusalem. So the arrest order which they issued against Jesus was not legally enforceable, it was already a stretch of authority.

There are times people will stretch over their authority because they think by doing so they might stop you from realizing your destiny. Some people would mind businesses that are not their business because they think they might stop you from being the very best of what God has meant you to be. But Jesus was moving freely to Jerusalem in all glory at the sight of those that issued the order to arrest him and at the sight of the entire world.

When you are moving towards God’s calling in your life, your persecutors are wasting their time. At the best they will help you achieve your purpose so keep moving. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in all glory and those that had issued an arrest warrant against him were watching, powerless. With their own words they were telling among themselves “see, the entire world has turned to him” God says to you this morning “keep moving”, don’t stop praising him, don’t stop serving him, don’t stop doing what you must do because the time when your persecutors could stretch over their authority had passed. Jesus was moving towards Jerusalem where he had an appointment with history, and as he moved, no one could do nothing about it.

• Keep moving towards your destiny because that’s the most powerful weapon you have against all those that are stretching the power of the authority to stop you from being the best of who you can.
• Keep moving towards your destiny because there is only one way to achieve what you came to do here on earth, and that way is when you keep moving.
• Keep moving towards your destiny because God is with you, and by moving you are giving to God the opportunity to silence those that want you death before you had achieved God’s purpose for your life.
• Keep moving because God will speak as you keep moving. The Bible says a voice came from heaven. God spoke from above as Jesus was moving towards his mission!

2) God’s glory

Let’s dive a bit here because Jesus had a dialogue with God, he prayed, and God answered in a way other people around could hear. What makes that I could pray, and God answers me immediately in a way that people around would notice something unusual?

Jesus was moving to Jerusalem for an historic moment. What he was going to do would impact the lives of millions of people across many generations. Then he asked God the Father to glorify his name and God the Father replied with a voice coming from heaven “I have glorified it” So the name of God was already glorified. The name of God is glorified when you keep moving instead of backing-off. Something much greater, something spiritual is always at stake when people try to stop you from moving.

When people preach to discourage you, when people are sending you messages or letters that are drawing you towards hate, inferior thoughts or to draw you into battles that are not yours. What is at stake in those moments is not you, it’s the glory of God. Jesus could have started hiding or seeking a lawyer to defend him that this arrest warrant was a stretch of authority. That could have been an interesting legal battle. But instead, Jesus entered Jerusalem.

The very thing that is at stake when you see that heavy adversity being deployed against you, to keep you from moving, is God’s glory. Too often we have reacted as if we were the target of adversity, the target of rejection, the target of estrangement. No, we are not the target, God’s glory in our life has been the target from the very beginning! And God says, “keep moving my child”. They might count you as already dead, but God says keep moving!

• Where they say you can’t serve God anymore because you are divorced, God says keep moving!
• Where they say you are done you can’t find another job anymore, God says keep moving!
• Where they say you are too old to find a partner, God says keep moving!
• Where they say your incomes are too small to get a house for your family, God says keep moving! Keep moving! Keep moving!

Because they don’t have the authority over your life, Jesus has the final word. It may seem as if they have a say, but as you keep moving, God will glorify His name in your life! So as you go out from this place this morning, don’t you ever let anyone put you on the corner again, don’t let anyone discourage you, Don’t allow people to stop you from moving towards your destiny, because God is glorified when you keep moving!

3) The inner enemy

Now I will talk about the inner enemy. Verse 27 Jesus says: “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour“

Do you realize that the magnitude of what was to be achieved in Jerusalem was so intense that even Jesus’ soul was troubled? Going on the cross to bear upon him the sins of the entire humanity, that’s a great deal! Nobody had done that before. Now Jesus was moving to do something which nobody had ever done before him, and nobody would ever do after him.

Let me tell you something: the mission which God has imparted into your life is so unique to you, that no one else before or after you can do it. Your calling is so uniquely linked to you and the features that God has put in you, that you don’t really need to be like someone else.

Let me break this a little bit down:

• You don’t need to look like a Hollywood star to get the partner that God has meant for your life.
• You don’t need to be someone else than who you really are, to effectively serve God where God has put you.
• You don’t need to have the CV of someone else, to effectively work where God wants you to work.

Jesus didn’t need to be Moses, Elijah or King David, He was Jesus and He was as good as he was. You are as good as you are for your own mission. We see in the Bible that his soul was troubled in front of the magnitude of what was to happen a few days later. And that tells me Jesus experienced the same kind of emotions and feelings ordinary people like us have.

Before this moment the adversity was from the outside with the arrest warrant issued against him. Now Jesus is going through a different stage, he does not have to deal with the adversity outside anymore, he had to deal with the adversity inside. He had now to deal with the fear, the trouble, the emotional uncertainty that comes from the inside. Are you sure you want can do this?

On the journey towards fulfilling our destiny we do not only deal with the people from the outside that want to keep us from moving, but we often deal with the fears inside. The fears inside can be sometimes stronger because from childhood you’ve been told ways of thinking about yourself, what you can do and what you cannot. Your own life experience might have brought some limiting beliefs and now you might feel like a prisoner, trapped, yes trapped in living a life which deep in you, you know is not fulfilling.

But God says, “I don’t care what you’ve been told, I have a plan for you!”

4) A purpose-driven life

Despite the emotion and the trouble which he felt, Jesus said “but it is for this hour that I came”. It is for this purpose that I came. Would you let the fears from the inside stop you from achieving the very purpose of your life? If not, speak to them and let them know what the very purpose of your life is.

Have you noticed that Jesus not only had a purpose-driven life and he knew exactly why he came on earth? At the time of a difficult choice, knowing his purpose helped him to keep moving. Because he knew his purpose, he could confess it to himself that He came for this hour.

• It might be painful but that is what I came for.
• It might be challenging but that is what I came for.
• It might seem unachievable but that is what I came for.

When your life has a purpose and when you know the purpose of your life, you can deal more effectively with the enemy inside, the fear that is stopping you from deploying.

5) Recognizing the touch of God

The Bible says that “The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him“ but Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine.

Let’s break this down and we shall be done for today. God speaks from above, a voice is heard but some are saying this is the Thunder and some are saying that it is an Angel that had spoken. Can you imagine the importance of this moment, that God who created everything, the one that has authority over the entire universe, takes the stage and speaks from above during a specific event? God was watching the affairs of the earth and got involved.

Let me say, God watches even today over your affairs and he gets involved. Don’t think that you are listening to this message today, alive as you are because you are too good. It’s not just by chance that you miraculously kept hope in situations where other people would despair. It’s not by chance, God has been involved for long into your affairs, given you life, given you understanding, given you grace, protected you from dangers you did not even see.

Some people will unfortunately see the Thunder where God speaks. They see a natural event when God from Heaven speaks to the circumstances of their lives. O give praise to Jesus because If you are here alive today and survived everything you have survived, it was not all by the power of natural events, it was not the thunder, it was not an angel. It was God speaking from above.

Let’s stop taking things for granted and recognize when God speaks to set the records straight. God speaks because He cares, God had spoken many times to the circumstances of your life. And Jesus would say “this voice was for your benefit, not mine”. Yes, even today God continues to speak for your benefit. Some may not like it but God speaks for your benefit.

So rise today! Arise and praise the goodness of Him whose name is glorified when you keep moving! Brothers and sisters, KEEP MOVING!