3.
Thirdly, we need to consider..."The Christ, "Jn. 12.23-50
Notice
three things here. First of all...
(a)
the fact of His death, 12.23-31..."that the Son of Man should be
glorified".
That
is, given His spiritual body, and given back His former spiritual
place...His throne, at the right hand of The Father, where worship
beyond our imagination takes place! He, like a corn of wheat, would
rise and bring forth fruit fit for eternity. That's why He's
referred-to in Paul's letters as..."the first fruits of them
that slept." His resurrection was the first, unto eternal life
future; this was His time; His "hour had come". He would
never be in the place of a servant again; He was to be "highly
exalted", and given a Name "that is above every name"
(Philippians 2)! That's a truth, and there's another truth here...if
you love yourself more that you love Jesus, then your life is lost!
That's the crux of His statement there in vs. 25(a), and a pretty
sobering thought it is. And vss. 25(b)-26 give us pretty clear
instruction..."If any man serve Me...". Just one more of
the many promises from the word of God...serve Him, follow Him,
receive honour from Him. What a heritage the believer has!
But
even having said all that He said, Jesus' heart is troubled (vs. 27).
You may think you've seen your share of troubles in life...in fact,
enough to last a lifetime; as the song says..."Nobody knows the
trouble I've seen!" But let me fill you in...Jesus' trouble was
His own impending death! All the time we've been reading that, "His
hour had not yet come", but by this time Jesus could smell the
stink of His own grave! His life was now numbered in hours, and at
this point His soul was troubled...not only with His own impending
death, but also with the burden of the sins of those seated with Him
at the table! And those who strewed palm branches along the way, and
of those gathered in the temple, planning His murder, and of us here
in the uncomfortable pew. When Jesus spoke of the burden of His
troubled heart, He wasn't simply sharing His pain with anyone who
would listen, He was pouring out His pain to the only One Who would
listen! This is, in fact, a prayer to His Father in heaven, for
deliverance. But notice how He puts it in vss. 27, 28(a)..."Father,
save Me...but I know My purpose, and I know Your will...be
glorified!" That's a prayer that few of us have ever prayed.
Jesus
knew that the predestined plan of God was in process; everything was
right with the world, because it was, and is in God's hands. Jesus
had, at Lazarus' tomb, looked death squarely in the eye, and He
didn't blink once! And He's looking at death, and the author of sin
and death, in the eye again, and what is His comment? "No
comment...Father, glorify Thy Name!" And then, a voice came from
heaven..."I have already been glorified by Your life, My Son,
and I will be glorified in Your death, as well"...the Father and
the Son, having perfect faith in One another! But our faith, and the
faith of the people standing by...vs. 29 (and 8.43). The natural man
really is incapable, of not only understanding, but even of hearing
God's word! "What was that sound?! Did it really come from
heaven, or was that some angelic language?" Do you know? Because
of our spiritual blindness and deafness, Jesus had no choice but to
go to that cross. That's what sin had done to us! And yet, Jesus told
those present (vs. 30)...to strengthen their little faith on the one
hand, and to prove their lostness, on the other. As God had been His
witness, His suitability was established, and the world was put on
notice.
You
know, there were three things that were accomplished by the
crucifiction of our Lord. First, as we read in vss. 31, 32, the world
was judged (and found wanting). Second the "prince of the power
of the air", that "old serpent", the Devil, would be
put on notice. Thirdly, the sheep of God would be irresistibly drawn
to their own Shepard..."I will draw all men unto Me", vs.
32(b).
Remember
John 6.44? See vs. 45..."And they all shall be taught of
God...and come unto Me"; and vs. 37..."All that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me...". Jesus knew that His death would
result in countless people coming to Him, from all nations and
kindreds and tongues, to believe and receive. That's the legacy that
He left for the children of men, that we should become, "the
children of God"!
Secondly,
concerning Jesus, the Christ, we have described for us here...
(b)
the form of His death, 12.32-36..."if I be lifted up from the
earth...signifying what death He should die".
He
knew! He knew what the manner of His death would be. You know what?
I'm glad I don't know the details of my death, and I'll bet you all
feel the same way! The crucified Jesus, Whose death was exactly after
the manner of scriptural prophecy, came down from heaven anyway! I
can't imagine any more painful, horrible way to die. It was, in fact,
a form of torture, and I'm not going into the details now. It's
enough to point to the cross, and let your imagination run amok, and
then be thankful you weren't there and then, in Jesus' day!
But
our patient Jesus...vs. 35, "...walk while you have light".
Those Jews probably thought that they had completely befuddled the
carpenter from Nazareth, but He was trying to teach them while, just
like many of us, they were unteachable. In their minds, they had
already learned more than they needed to know, when in reality, they
were only..."looking through a glass darkly".
Look
back to John 1.1-5. The darkness is well nigh impenetrable now...just
think what it was like for those Jews! Look at John 8.12 and
9.5...these Jews were really at risk, and no one knew it better that
Jesus.
There's
one more thing that I want to say about the form of His death, and
it's described-by some pretty big King James, Holy Bible words!
1.
The cross was substitutional...that is, His death was in the place of
us all;
2.
it was redemptive...that is, He paid the purchase price for all;
3.
it was propitiatory...that is, He cancelled the sins of all; and
4.
it was just...that is, just right, just in time, and just perfect in
its result; it satisfied all the prerequisites of God, for a
sacrifice for sin!
(c)
the focus of His death, 12.35-36
Read
vss. 35, 36.
It
sounds as though Jesus' public ministry had come to an end. In fact,
from here on, to the end of the Gospels, He will be found alone with
His disciples, and then before His accusers, for judgement and
crucifiction.
So,
in the last verses of chapter 12, Holy Spirit gives us a summary of
the many teachings of our Lord; and we can sum it up very nicely.
First of all, we will see in vss. 44, 45 His concern for souls; in vs.
46, His teaching that He is the "Light of the world"; in
vss. 47, 48, the danger of continued unbelief; and in vs. 50 the great
promise of everlasting life! But first, let's look at prophecy
("proof texts") quoted by John, here in vss. 37-41. In
chapter 53 of Isaiah the prophet had stated that the promised One was
to be "despised and rejected of men". As we've seen, the
miracles of Jesus were well documented in the gospels, ranging from
healing, to walking on the sea, to raising the dead back to life; but
"they", that is, the nation of Israel at large, "believed
not on Him", vs. 37.
You
know, I've said a few times that we only really half believe the
heart's real condition, when all we have to do is to look around us
in the world today, and see the very witness of those who, even
having heard, refuse to believe! Now, that's no excuse for us to
slack back on our evangelistic efforts, but neither should we be
beating ourselves up when the unsaved don't respond to the gospel
call; remember, "...they believed not on Hm". But back to
Isaiah. Chapter 53 tells of the treatment that Jesus was to
experience during His first visit to this earth, and the Jews still
refuse Him. In fact, they won't even acknowledge Is. 53, or discuss
the possibility that it could in any way describe the life and death
of Jesus..."Who hath believed our report?" But then we read
in John 12.39, 40, another quote from Isaiah, "...they could not
believe...". As a consequence of their continued rejection of
Jesus, they were already judged! That's a pretty solemn statement,
isn't it?!
Read
vss. 37-43...in vs. 37, "...they did not believe", in vs.
39, "...they could not believe", and in vs. 40, "...they
should not believe", because their hearts were hardened and
their eyes blinded! Over in 2 Thessalonians 2 we read that, "...the
mystery of iniquity doth already work...and the deceivableness of
unrighteousness has already begun its work in them that perish,
because they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be
saved". And there we have it, in John 12.40...the Lord's
response to the horrible treatment of wicked men, toward the Creator
and Sustainer of life. They had refused light, so their end would be
darkness; they had rejected Truth, so deceivableness would be their
lot in life. Lord, preserve us!
The
cry must be, as we read in Isaiah 55..."Seek ye the Lord while
He may be found, and call upon Him while He is still near!"
"These things saith Isaiah...", John 12.41. We needn't go
back to Isaiah 6 (where he describes his vision) to get the context;
suffice it to say that we need to have our own vision of "the
glory of the Lord", and realize that we are a people "of
unclean lips", or He will never be able to do in our hearts,
what He longs to do.
Read
vs. 42..."Nevertheless...".
You
know, a faith that does not profess Jesus cannot be a saving faith.
Let's look at some verses...Luke 12.8, 9; Romans 10.9; and John 9.22.
These people were not willing to forsake all, and follow Him. And
John 12.43, "...for they loved the praise of men...".
Now
as I've mentioned, in vss. 44-50 we have in essence, a summary
passage of Jesus' teachings. "And Jesus cried (out)", to
nobody in particular, perhaps as a prayer...perhaps to the disciples...perhaps to the four winds! He's appealing to God; He's speaking of
His light in this world; He's speaking of the risk of not believing;
and He's speaking of everlasting life. And He says that..."If
you believe (these things), and you believe Me, then you believe the
Father, Who told Me, and sent Me to tell you!" But particularly
notice vs. 48..."the last day".
There
will be a "last day"; the last day will be a day of
judgement, and the very word of Jesus will judge sin, and sinners in
"that day", Romans 2.16. So, as Hebrews 12.25 says..."See
that you refuse not Him that speaks, for if they escaped not, who
refused Him Who spoke on earth (Jesus), how much more shall we not
escape if we turn away from Him that speaks from heaven?!"
Heaven
indeed!
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