The last invitation, John 12: 36-50

Just a couple of months ago I was driving behind a great big John Deere combine tractor which was going down the road, moving from one field to another, and it reminded me of a verse of scripture, which to my mind is one of the saddest verses in the Bible.  It is found in Jeremiah 8:20 which says,  "Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Every year around the end of fall it seems that this verse comes to mind.  Once Labor Day passes, it is obvious around this town that the summer season has ended.  The opportunity for  many people to hear the truth preached has passed.  They go back to their homes and lives on the other side of the bay.  Obviously, we are still here preaching the word, but for many folks, their opportunity has passed.

And I cannot help but wonder how many of those people who came to our beach services were saved?  For that matter, I wonder how many people that are here today are truly saved.  I can’t tell by looking at you whether you are saved or not.  You all  look like fine, respectable people from here.  But God doesn’t look at us as man does - on the outside - but God looks at the heart.  He knows those who are His.  And He knows those who are not.  

Today’s text records the last time that Jesus preaches publicly to the multitudes.  This is really the Jews last opportunity to respond to the gospel of Christ.  John said in vs.36, “These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.”

And John goes on to explain I think, why Jesus hid Himself from them.  Because as it says in vs.37; “…though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.”  They had plenty of opportunity to believe.  Jesus had done many tremendous signs in Judea.  The seven signs that John records in HIs gospel were but a fraction of the total number of miracles that Jesus did in His ministry, and many of them had been in Judea. John 20:30-31 says,  “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  However, John says here in this passage that just a few days before His crucifixion they had not believed in Him. Harvest was past, summer was ended, and they were not saved.

It’s possible that for many people in His audience, it was simply a matter of procrastination.  They believed in Him to some degree, they recognized that He was doing incredible things, that He spoke like no man had spoken, some even believed that He could be the Messiah, but they had not committed themselves to Him.  They had not decided to walk with Him, to follow Him, to become His disciple.  Maybe someday, they might have thought.  “Maybe someday I will leave everything and follow Jesus.  I know that I should.  But right now I’m young.  Right now I have a good career opportunity that I want to pursue.  Right now I have a girlfriend that I really like and I don’t want to take a chance on losing her.  But one day I will.  One day I will become His disciple.” Whatever the reason, they just put off making a decision.

But I think in most cases, it was just simply a matter of unbelief.  It was just a matter of rejecting the truth because it wasn’t convenient.  It didn’t fit with what they wanted out of life.  So when you reject the truth in favor of another way, you are an unbeliever.  You are unsaved.  There are not many paths to God.  There is not such a thing as your understanding of God, versus my understanding of God.  There is no such thing as worshipping God as you understand Him. I saw a quote from Bishop Desmund Tutu the other day, which was on the sign of a Lutheran Church. He said, “Different faiths reveal the immensity of God.” I think Martin Luther was spinning in his grave at such a quote being on a Lutheran church.

No, there aren’t many faiths, many paths to God.  Jesus said that God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  And He also said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through Me.”  We must believe in God as He has manifested Himself to be.  Nothing less will suffice.  Jesus said, You MUST worship Him in spirit and in truth. But sadly, the majority of the Jewish people of the first century rejected Jesus, and consequently they were still dead in their sins, they were still unsaved.  And they would suffer the consequences of their decision.

But the fact they had not believed in Him did not affect the purpose and plan of God.  God’s purpose was to manifest Himself in the person of Jesus as Hebrews 1:3 says, “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.”  And His purpose was to redeem a chosen people from the earth to become His church, the bride and body of Christ.  

But John illustrating the Jew’s rejection quotes from Isaiah 53, one of the most famous Messianic passages of the Old Testament.  He quotes in vs.38, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?”  John says that this rejection by Israel was to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy of Isaiah 53.   

For instance, in Isaiah 53:3 it says, “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”  Isaiah prophecies in this text that the Messiah would be rejected and despised.  Rather than being accepted and celebrated as the Messiah who had come to save the world, He would be rejected by the world, the very ones He came to save.  And we see this  being fulfilled in John 12.  The Jews for the most part had made up their minds.  The vast majority at that time rejected Him.  He didn’t fit into their plans, He didn’t fit their paradigm.  They rejected His message.

But what Isaiah is referring to in that phrase “the arm of the Lord has been revealed?”  The arm of the Lord means the power of the Lord.  And the power of God is the gospel.  Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Yet though the gospel was presented in power, by the very presence of God in the flesh, with all signs and wonders, they would not believe.  They chose to not believe. Because to believe means so much more than just an acceptance of certain facts. It is to follow, it is to humble yourself, to recognize your need for a Savior and confess Him as your Lord.  But they would not.  That’s why Jesus wept just a day or two earlier when He came into Jerusalem.  He wept over the city and said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent unto you; how often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen  gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Luke 13:34)  In spite of His miracles, they would not accept Him, they would not believe.

So then John says, because they would not, they could not.  That is the progression of unbelief.  They would not accept Him, so eventually they could not believe. Vs. 39, “For this reason they could not believe.”  Their hearts became hardened.  And again John quotes from Isaiah to illustrate his point, this time quoting  from Isaiah 6; “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” 

Many theologians want to get hung up on the doctrine of election at this verse.  But I don’t think that is the main point here.  I think it is speaking of the progressive nature of unbelief.  When you reject the truth repeatedly, there will come a point when you can no longer believe it.  Your heart becomes hardened to the point of becoming unfeeling, insensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  This is the danger of coming to church year after year and hearing the truth, but not believing it unto salvation.  Eventually, your heart gets so hard that you cannot believe.  Your capacity to believe is diminished every time you reject the truth.  You will not believe, therefore you cannot believe. John Murray said that if the Word of God does not quicken, it will deaden.  The fire that melts wax will harden clay.  

But blindness and hardness does not happen without involving the will of the people.  God’s hand is in the consequences of their choice.  Romans 1:18-22 describes this process of rejection; “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.”  And so Paul then says three times in the following verses of that chapter, that God gave them over.  God gave them over to impurity, He gave them over to degrading passions, and He gave them over to a depraved mind.  He gave them over to the very things that they wanted, and as a result they became so deadened that they could not believe.  

There’s a similar message in Ephesians 4.  The same progression of unbelief resulting in a hard heart that is cursed to being unable to respond anymore.  Eph. 4:17-19  “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,  being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;  and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”  Their futile minds and willful ignorance results in a darkened mind, a calloused conscience, living purely for sensual pleasure, and their heart becomes so hard that it is impervious to conviction.

It is a dangerous thing to reject the truth of God. It is a dangerous thing to quench the Holy Spirit. To harden your heart against the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  God is patient.  But there will come a time when the light goes out.  When He shuts the door.  Peter said that God was patient in the days of Noah. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, he said, for 120 years as he built the ark he was preaching the judgment to come.  And during that time God was patient, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.  But one day God told Noah to go into the ark, and the Bible says that God shut the door.  And the world was destroyed by the flood. 

You don’t know how much time you have.  I was in NY the other day, looking at where the Trade Center used to be. On the morning of 9-11, no one who went to work that morning, or got on a plane that morning, knew that would be their last day.  None of us know how much time we have.  None of us know when the Lord will return. But the Bible says that the world will mourn when they see Him who they rejected.  They will mourn and wail that they crucified the Almighty God, the Lord and Savior whose gift of eternal life they rejected.  The One to whom they would not bow.

Then John speaks of some who were sympathetic to the teaching of Christ, who believed in Him, but not unto salvation.  Notice vs.42 “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.”  I believe that “rulers” refers to the ruling party of the Sanhedrin, the religious rulers of Israel.  Some of them believed that He was the Messiah. Nicodemus is one of those that we know of.  He had come to Jesus at night, afraid of being seen by the Jews.  But yet he said, ““Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”  So there was a form of belief there, they believed that God had to be with Him in order to do the miracles that He did.  But yet they are not confessing Him publicly.  Now I believe the scripture indicates that Nicodemus did become a believer.  But it wasn’t until His crucifixion or perhaps even later.  Tradition says that he did eventually become a believer and he was persecuted by the Jews.  He had been very rich and because of his faith he became a pauper.  He suffered a lot of persecution in his family as a result of his eventual confession. 

But I think at this stage in Jesus’s ministry, we can suppose that there were many like him.  Many that had a degree of belief, but an unwillingness to confess Him as their Savior and Lord and follow Him.  And we know that means that they were unsaved, because vs 43 says, “for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”  To love the approval of men is a hallmark of the unsaved.  1John 2:15-16 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

And we can know that they weren’t Christians, because he says, they were not approved by God.  That is what salvation is, being approved by God.  And how are we approved by God?  By our good works?  By our inherent goodness?  Because we go to church?  Or because we believe in God?  No, we are approved by God by being clothed in Christ’s righteousness alone.  Made faultless to stand before the throne, though faith in Him, by the transference of Christ’s righteousness to us, and by our sins being transferred to Him.  That is the only way to be approved by God.  Hebrews 11:1-2 teaches us that the only way to be approved by God is through faith in Christ.  It says,  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the men of old gained approval.”  But John says that these rulers were not approved by God because they did not have saving faith, that confessed Jesus as Lord, and renounced the world. 

And the supporting evidence of that fact is that John says they loved the world rather than the approval of God. They loved the approval of men more than the approval of God.  That is not evidence of being saved.  That is evidence of being lost. 

That is exactly what Jesus is referring to in vs. 46.  Jesus said,  "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”  If you come into the light, you cannot remain in darkness.  That is a characteristic of being saved.  1John 1:6-7 says,  “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”  

Believing the truth of Christ means that you leave the course of this world, you come out from the darkness of this world, and you walk in the light, even as He is in the Light.  If you love the Lord, then you will reject the world.  If you want approval of God, then you will not care about the approval of men.  

Now in response to this rejection of truth, notice what Jesus does.  He cries out in one last attempt to reach these people with the truth.  One last attempt to turn them.  One last invitation to believe in the truth of the gospel.  And He does this by restating the great themes of the gospel which He has been preaching all along.  

First of all, Jesus restates clearly His unity with the Father.  He states His divinity, as being equal with God.  Vs. 44 and 45, ““He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.  He who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.” Jesus is emphasizing  His unity with God the Father.  He would tell Phillip later in John 14, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Fundamental to our salvation is a the belief that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.  No one less than God could possibly atone for a world of sinners.  So that doctrine is fundamental.  You cannot be saved without believing that Jesus is One with God, He was in the beginning with God, and He was God.  Without believing that you cannot be saved.

Secondly, He says “I have come as light into the world.”  Jesus stressed that He is the truth, and the need man has to leave the darkness and  follow Jesus as the source of light, the source of truth, resulting in life.  As we said earlier, you cannot remain in darkness.  You have to come out of darkness into the light of truth, and walk in the light, even as He is light. His word is the light which we believe and walk in the truth.

Thirdly, He speaks of judgment to come. “And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”  The coming day of judgment is an important doctrine that needs to be emphasized today.  It is out of fashion to speak of judgment.  “Don’t judge!”  Or “Who are you to judge?” is the watchword of a superficial Christianity.  

But we are not the judge of who is saved and who is not.  I said that at the beginning of my message.  You all look alike to me from here. But God will judge the secrets of men’s hearts.  And Jesus said that we will be judged by His words.  The word of Christ is the law of God.  And you will be judged by God’s law.  

This is why we need a Savior. If there were no judgment to come, if there was no eternal damnation, then we would not need a Savior.  Jesus came from God not to judge us, but to save us.  He spoke the word of God which we will be judged by.  But Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our sin.  He came to take our place by offering Himself as our substitute. The judgment that was due to us has fallen upon Him.  Going back to Isaiah 53 we read, “But He was pierced through for our transgressions,He was crushed for our iniquities;The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”  Only by faith in Him, can we appropriate His substitutionary atonement for ourselves. To reject Him is to remain condemned.

And then He offers the invitation to salvation.  “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”  Notice that  Jesus correlates the gospel of Christ with the law of God, and the law with the commandment of God.  And He says His command results in everlasting life, eternal life.  The word of Christ, the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation.  It is the means of believing unto eternal life.  Believe His gospel and you will receive eternal life. You will be delivered from the judgment which results in death, and instead be given eternal life. 

Paul said in Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  

Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as the children of Israel did.  Do not love the world and the approval of men as the rulers did.  Do not put off this invitation to life.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  You do not know if you will have tomorrow.  Today, call on the Lord while He may be found.  As Isaiah 55:6-7 says, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

Glory through suffering, John 12:(23-26)27-37

The Bible says that God’s ways are not our ways.  Nor are His thoughts our thoughts.  And in John’s gospel we see ample evidence of that.  In fact, John shows that what man might think is logical,  natural, and common sense, may not be the truth of God. The truth of God is often counterintuitive.  A classic example of this is found in verse 25, as Jesus says, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.”  Jesus said that same statement slightly differently in Mark 8:35 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.” That’s counterintuitive. It’s illogical, that if you want to save your life you must lose it.  But that is the truth of Christ.

And the teaching of Christ is full of that kind of doctrine that is in opposition to “normal” thinking.  Today we are looking at another such anomaly.  In vs. 23, Jesus said that the hour had come for Him to be glorified.  I’m sure that the disciples were glad to hear that.  Because everyone wants to be glorified, don’t we?  We all secretly love it when we finally get the recognition that we think we have deserved. When we finally are vindicated, or we finally get that raise or promotion.  We may act like we are humbly surprised, but inwardly we are saying “YES!  Finally!”  

So we all can relate to the idea of being glorified, at least on a superficial level.  For the disciples, this statement was probably what they have been waiting to hear for  three years.  That meant Jesus would come into HIs kingdom, and they would be seated on thrones on His right hand and left hand.  Isn’t that what James and John asked Jesus to grant them? In Mark 10:37 They said to Him, "Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory."   Isn’t that what all the disciples secretly were looking forward to?  Being exalted, glorified with the Messiah in His earthly kingdom?  

Well, it turns out that Jesus had a different idea of what glorified indicated.  He indicated that He had a different view of what it meant to be glorified because immediately after He made that statement, He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  Illogically, He went from talking about glorification to talking about dying. And then He went on to talk about losing your life to gain life, which I quoted from earlier, and said if you wanted to be honored or glorified by God, then you must follow Him, presumably even to death.  So His statement that suffering was related somehow to glorification was not only true of Jesus, but it is true of His followers as well.  

Now in today’s passage, we hear Jesus say that He will be glorified, then He prays that the Father would glorify His name, then the Father thunders from heaven saying He has  glorified it and He will glorify it again, and then Jesus says that this will be accomplished when He is lifted up.  Now at that point we can imagine the disciples starting to scratch their heads. By now they are starting to question their comprehension of glorification.  What did He mean to be lifted up?  Perhaps some thought it might mean being lifted up on a throne. That would have fit with their theology.  Or, some might understand that to mean that He would be glorified when He would go to heaven.  

The latter idea was probably the most popular interpretation of what He said, because the crowd responded in vs.34, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”  They obviously interpreted His words to mean that in some way or another, being lifted up was to be taken out of their presence into heaven, whether through death, or perhaps in the manner of Elijah, taken up in a whirlwind. 

But that is not the meaning of what Jesus said. John makes it clear in vs.33 that Jesus is talking about glorification through crucifixion.  Vs.33, “But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.”  Now that’s different perspective of glorification, isn’t it?  We don’t normally associate glorification with suffering.  But that is exactly what Jesus is talking about.

That reminds me of a sermon I preached a few Sunday’s ago, and we were talking about worship.  If you remember I told you that a principle of hermeneutics is the principle of first mention.  That is, if you want to know the meaning of a word or phrase in scripture, find the first time it is used, and that will provide a template for the way you should interpret the phrase throughout the Bible.  So worship, we found, was first mentioned in Genesis 22, when Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac on the altar, and he said to his men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  So we saw that worship was related to sacrifice.  That is an important distinction that seems to have been lost in today’s concept of worship.  And that’s another example of the counter intuitiveness of a lot of Christian principles.

So then in a similar way in today’s passage, we will see in a moment that the phrase “to be lifted up” is prefigured in the Old Testament as well. But for now, let’s just notice that glorification is related to suffering.  But the question is how is it related?  How does Christ’s suffering and death produce His glorification? Well, it is brought about when He is lifted up and draws all men to Himself.  Christ’s glory is the redeemed mankind, which is the church. If the church is the bride of Christ, then we are the glory of Christ.  1 Corinthians 11:7 “A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.” So mankind is the glory of God, as woman is the glory of man, and so Christ’s glory is the church.  

 Paul in Ephesians 5 says that Christ laid down His life for His bride, in order to redeem her.  In Ephesians 5:27, he says “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”  Christ suffered so that He might redeem mankind, who was made in His image, that they should be remade in His image, glorious, holy, clothed in His righteousness, that they might glorify Him, and glorify the Father through Him.

Now Jesus gives us three elements of His glorification.  We already mentioned the last one.  But Jesus says starting in vs.31 three things will happen as a result of HIs glorification; Number one, “now judgment is upon the world.”  Number two, “now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”  Number three, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all men to Myself.”  

Let’s look at them in order. Number one, now judgement is upon the world. John 3:19 says "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”  Jesus said He did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  He was the truth, and His gospel divided between truth and error, between light and darkness. But they would reject Him and crucify Him, condemning themselves. 

The Jewish people thought they had judged Him.  In reality, He had not only judged them, but He had judged the entire world.  They thought that they had brought Him into their court and rendered their verdict on Him.  In reality, He had brought them into His court and rendered His verdict on them.  The cross would condemn and judge the world.  Everyman would be judged by what He did with Jesus on the cross.  Two men would die on the cross next to Jesus in just a few days.  They were symbolic of the two choices men have to make.  Either to recognize Jesus as their King and Savior, or reject Him.  That was the judgment that came upon the world in His crucifixion. 

So all that is true about judgment.  That is what a King does in His kingdom.  He renders judgment upon His kingdom.  But there is another sense of what He means, I think.  And that is that God judged the sins of the world in crucifying Jesus.  God’s judgment fell upon the sin of the world not by condemning the world, but by condemning Jesus to suffer the penalty of the sins of the world, so that the world might be saved.  That is what I think the primary meaning of Jesus’s statement is speaking of.  And that is borne out by the next effect of His glorification.

The second effect of His glorification is that the ruler of this world will be cast out.  Who is the ruler of this world?  Satan, the prince of the power of the air, is the ruler of this world. Eph. 2:1-2  says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,  in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”

Satan brought about that spiritual deadness through his seduction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Thus he brought all men into captivity to sin, and he is the architect of the world system which keeps men caught in the rushing current of sin until they are eventually carried headlong into destruction.

But praise be to God, Satan’s rule was overthrown at Calvary.  Again, this is counter to what you might think.  It looked like Satan won when Jesus was nailed to the cross.  It looked like Satan triumphed, and the devils of hell rejoiced.  Satan seemed to have conquered Christ at Calvary, but in reality, Christ had crushed his head, dealt him the deathblow.  Through His resurrection, Ephesians 4:8 tells us that Jesus led captivity captive.  Satan lost his grip on the world, because Jesus overcame death and sin through the cross.

God made a prophecy to Adam and Eve way back in the garden, that though the serpent would bruise His heel, He would crush His head.  So now Satan is a defeated enemy.  His only weapon is lies and deceit by which He convinces man to reject the truth.  Only through lies can he keep men in the clutches of death.  But Christ delivered those from the sting of death who will turn to Him.  Hebrews 2:14 says that, “Through death He rendered powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, so that He might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”  So the second effect of Christ’s glorification is that He defeated death and the devil. 

The third effect of Christ’s glorification is what we spoke of earlier, verse 32.  “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.” If I am lifted up doesn’t refer to being lifted up on a pedestal. Or lifted up in celebration.  It refers to the Old Testament example I mentioned earlier, that Jesus gave in John 3:14-15  "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;  so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”  

Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole in response to God sending vipers into the camp of the Israelites.  As the consequence of their rebellion against God they were bitten by the serpents and were dying from their poisonous venom.  But God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and raise it on a pole, so that whoever looked at the serpent on the pole was healed.  They escaped death.  So to be lifted up then is a picture of being crucified. 

He is saying, “If I am crucified, I will draw all men to myself.”  All men, meant all Jews, all Gentiles, people from every tongue, tribe, nation of the planet. He said, I will draw them all to myself.  He, at the cross, provides the work by which all can be saved. This is the grain going into the ground and dying and then bearing fruit, as He said back in verse 24.  It is because He is crucified that He can draw men to Himself.  It is in death that He gives life. 

But in spite of all of the miracles that Jesus had done, in spite of all of the truth that He had preached, even in spite of the voice of God that thundered from the heavens in vindication of His Son, yet the multitudes do not believe.  Their question in vs.34 is really incredible considering all that they had been exposed to.  They ask, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

Their question indicates a fundamental flaw in their belief system.  They believed in God.  They believed in the scriptures.  But their belief was selective.  They heard what they wanted to hear.  They believed what they wanted to believe.  They accepted some of the word of God, but not all of it.  They accepted passages from Isaiah, Daniel and Zechariah that talked about the enduring nature of the Messiah’s kingdom.  That He would rule on the throne of David forever.  But they neglected so many other texts that talked about a suffering, rejected Savior, who would be the Lamb that was slain for the salvation of the world.

We see the same thing today in the church. Church doctrine today is selective.  People have come up with a picture of God that is compatible with their world view.  We worship the God we wish Him to be, rather than the God who is. Preachers neglect certain doctrines that they feel might be confrontational or difficult.  And as a result the church has a partial understanding of truth.  Which means that we have only a partial understanding of God.  Which puts our whole faith in jeopardy. Because Jesus said the truth shall make you free.  But a partial truth is not really the truth at all, and thus as an antidote it’s power is diluted.  You can believe some things in the Bible and still be dead in your sins.

As a second step of unbelief, these Jews missed their present opportunity. Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.” As far as we can tell, this was the multitude's last opportunity to hear the words of Jesus. It isn’t recorded that Jesus ever spoke to the multitudes again. After he had spoken these words it says that He hid himself. When he next appears he is with his disciples in  the Upper Room. This was the last hour of opportunity; the crowd had a last chance to believe. Jesus tells them, "Walk while you have the light." When God is speaking, while His word is illuminating your mind, that is the critical moment.  Don't let it pass. There is no guarantee that you will get another opportunity. 

That’s one of the frightening things about my ministry as a pastor.  Many times I have had the feeling that I was the messenger, the means which God had provided that day for someone to hear the truth of the gospel.  Perhaps the only one, or the last opportunity that they would ever have.  Yet, I can’t help but wonder many times people have let their opportunity pass.  

In Genesis 7 we learn that the patience of God compelled Noah to preach the gospel for 120 years, to give ample opportunity for men to repent of their wickedness.  But the day came when it says the Lord shut the door, and judgment fell upon the world.  It is a dangerous thing to presume upon the grace of God.  Today is the day of salvation.  Don’t squander this opportunity.  Don’t sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate.  Don’t sacrifice the eternal for the temporal.

Thirdly, their question indicates that they did not realize the depravity of their present condition. Jesus defines their condition in vs35: "He who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.” Eph. 4:17-18 Paul said, “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.”  

The sad part is that the spiritually blind do not realize that they are in darkness.  It is a spiritual darkness that prohibits them from having insight into the life of God.  That is why Jesus relates the truth to the light so frequently.  When the light of truth shines upon man’s heart, then that is their opportunity to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  But as in the case of these Jews, they had seen the light, but they rejected it, because Jesus said, they loved darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil.  They loved evil.  So they rejected the light, and so they found themselves driven to darker and darker deeds. Romans chapter 1 chronicles that downward spiral once a person has hardened their heart and rejected the light that was given to them.  

It says in Romans 1: 21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.”  And then it goes on to say that eventually God gave them up.  God gave them over to their own destruction.  That’s what happened to the Jews.  God gave them up eventually.  He left them to their own wisdom and their destruction came upon them like a woman in labor.  In just less than 40 years - one generation - their country was in ruins, their temple was destroyed, their people were killed or scattered, and their way of life was gone.  It is a dangerous thing to reject the light of God when He gives you the opportunity.

So  these Jews willfully rejected their last opportunity. Like so many people today, they thought that they had plenty of time to debate the pros and cons of the gospel.  But Jesus said, "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light."  It’s important that you act in faith to the light that has been given to you.  If you are waiting for full understanding of every doctrine before you believe, you will probably never believe.  God gives us enough light that we might believe the light that we have been given, and then when we do that, He promises to give us more light. Psalm 119 says “your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.”  That is why Jesus talks about Christian faith in terms of walking, following, being a disciple.  Though salvation has a definite moment of origin, salvation is a journey of faith, not simply a destination.

But when you act in faith in response to the truth you have been given, then something amazing happens.  Jesus says you become children of light. When you respond to the light you will become enlightened so that you may believe more truth. And in the process, you begin to shine light as a reflection of Christ’s light in you. So that others are able to see the truth of the gospel. 

Well, the crowd missed their last opportunity. Vs. 36 says, ”When Jesus had said this, He departed and hid himself from them." They no longer had the light.  They missed their opportunity to believe.  I pray no one here today has chosen to reject the light of Christ.  Today I believe the light of the gospel has shown clearly that Christ came to earth to save sinners, to redeem mankind from death and the power of Satan, so that they might be reconciled to God.  Who would reject such an offer?  I would urge anyone in that condition that they might look up at Him who was lifted up on the cross, that they might be delivered from the viper’s deadly sting of death.  I believe it is just that simple.  And yet for some people it is so hard to do.  Because if you would be saved, you must first admit that you are in need of a Savior, that you are dead in your trespasses and sins, and without Christ you will die in your sins and face the judgment of God.  Christ has died to set us free from that judgment.  Look to Him today and live.  He is the source of salvation, He is the source of light, He is the source of eternal life.

And if you have been born again as a child of God, you have believed in Him for salvation, then I hope from this passage today you will understand that glorification will come through suffering the loss of what is valued by this world.  Even as it was with Christ, so it is with His disciples.  We must take up our cross and follow Him. 

Romans 8:16-18  “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” 

We are glorified with Him when we die to our old nature, and put on the new nature, so that we might bear fruit. If we want to be fruitful, then we must learn to die to our old nature.  That is the secret to fruitfulness.  And fruitfulness is the means to glorification.  I’ve been praying for a revival in this church and in this community.  But I don’t believe that we are  going to see a revival until Christians start to die to the lusts of the world, that they may really live for Christ.  When we die to ourselves then we will see the fruit of righteousness, and then the Lord will bring a harvest.  Let us pray that we might lose our life for the gospel’s sake, that we might save souls for the kingdom of God.