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, and maybe rightly so. 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 with the idea of being glorified, at least on a superficial level. For the disciples, this statement was probably what they have been looking forward to hearing 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 glory indicated. He indicated that He had a different view of glory 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 He means 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 says 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. And 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, someone 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 midst into heaven, whether through death, or in the manner of Elijah, 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 on glory, isn’t it? We don’t normally associate glory 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.
So 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 to this glorification. We kind of started with the last one first. But Jesus says starting in vs.31 three things will happen as a result of HIs glorification; Number one, “judgment is upon the world.” Number two, “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, judgement was 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. Each was symbolic of the two choices men have to make. Either to recognize Him as 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 that spiritual deadness about through his seduction of Eve in the Garden of Eden. He brought all men into captivity to sin, and he was the architect of this world system which keeps men caught in the rushing current of sin until they are eventually dashed headlong into destruction.
But praise 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 the cross, 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 powerless enemy. His only weapon is lies and deceit by which He convinces man to reject the truth. In that way only can he hold men in the clutches of death. But Christ delivered those who will turn to Him from the sting of death. 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 glory 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 in praise. Though we should do that. It doesn’t refer to lifting Him up in preaching. Though we should do that. 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 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. There question in vs.34 is almost incredible for for us, 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 doctrines that they feel might be confrontational or difficult. And as a result the church has an 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 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 an hour of special 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 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.
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." Last Wednesday night we talked about having a darkness of the mind as emblematic of being lost. 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. And 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 devices 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 a son of light. When you respond to the light you will become enlightened. 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 lost 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 lost 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. 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 ourselves. 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 world, that they may really live for Christ. When we die to ourselves then we will see fruit, 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 lives.
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