Revelations from the Word

(Back to Index)

 



A voice was heard from heaven

by Jean-Louis Coraboeuf

"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. Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out" (John 12:27-31).

Because He was man, Jesus needed to hear the voice of God, which spoke to Him in an audible way at least three times:

  1. at the time of His baptism, "A voice made these words heard: He is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17),

  2. on the mountain at the time of His transfiguration, "A voice made these word heard from the cloud: This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: listen to Him!" (Matthew 17:5),

  3. in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the eve of His death, "A voice came from heaven: I have glorified Him and I will glorify Him again" (John 12:28).

The voice of God the Father was heard:

  1. by John the Baptist and by Jesus because it was important that He was recognised before a witness as Son of God, who had come to totally accomplish His will,

  2. by the three disciples, Peter, James and John, in order that they had confirmation that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and that His disciples had to listen to Him alone,

  3. by the crowd because they had to know that God had judged the world, that Satan was going to be thrown out and that God was glorified through Jesus, because He had "accomplished everything".

God the Father was with His Son from the beginning to the end of His ministry. Jesus wanted to totally accomplish the will of His Father, and so He spent a lot of time in prayer and saw heaven open above Him. Jesus only accomplished that which He saw His father doing (John 5:19), we must, we too, as beloved sons of God (Ephesians 5:1), become imitators of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1):

  1. to remain in His Word,

  2. to spend time in intimacy with Him,

  3. to accomplish His will,

in order that God the Father may be glorified. As the Father took pleasure in His Son Jesus, He will also take pleasure in us, His adopted sons.