Preached Sunday, November 25, 2012 from John 12:44-50
Theme: In the closing words of His public ministry, Jesus declared why He made His first advent into this world.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, I ask you to turn in your Bibles with me to John 12—and to a truly remarkable passage. It’s remarkable because it contains the final words that our Lord spoke publicly before He went to the cross.
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These words were spoken by our Lord at a very important time and in a very public setting. It was only a few days before the Passover; and Jewish people from around the world had made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast. And what’s more, the people had just lined the streets to cheer as the Lord Jesus rode into the city on the colt of a donkey. It was the time of His triumphal entry—and of His impending sacrifice on the cross as the Lamb of God.
In some of the other Gospels, we’re told that Jesus came into the temple in Jerusalem at this time, and began to cast out the money changers, turn over their tables, and drive out the animals that were being sold there. His actions created quite a commotion; and the leaders of the people were opposing Him for it.
In John 12:42-43, we’re told,
Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:42-43).
As an aside; that’s so sadly like our own times, isn’t it? Many people today—if they are honest with you—will tell you that they “believe” in Jesus. But they’re afraid to say so publicly They’re afraid they might be laughed at, or that they’ll be criticized as narrow-minded and intolerant, or that they will lose the respect of others and be thought of as foolish. But the Bible tells us that it’s not enough to simply “believe” in Jesus. We must also be ready to publicly “confess” Him before others. Like it says in Romans 10:9-10;
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9-10).
Many back then “believed” in Jesus, but would not “confess” Him before men—just as many are hesitant to do today. But may God help us to not only believe in the Savior, but to also faithfully confess our allegiance to Him before the people of this world.
Now; the reason I think it’s important to notice how people were afraid to confess Him before men is because it serves as a contrast to the way Jesus’ spoke these last public words about Himself. Jesus spoke them out-loud and in a very public setting. In fact, in verse 44, we’re told “Then Jesus cried out and said . . .” That is to say, Jesus didn’t just simply speak these words; but shouted them boldly! You wouldn’t be thinking of this passage correctly unless you imagine Jesus standing publicly and shouting these words boldly before men. They were His final public words before He would go to the cross; and He wanted everyone to hear them.
And so; what were His final public words?—these words that He shouted so that all could hear? Verses 44-50 tell us that He cried out and said;
“He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 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. 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.”
And so; with the very loud declaration of those final words, the Son of God brought thirty-three years of His incarnate life on earth to a close—and put a ‘period’, as it were, to three-and-a-half years of public ministry. In them, He doesn’t say anything really very different from what He had said on other occasions. But they summed up what He wanted everyone to know about why He had left the glory of heaven and came to this earth.
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The significance of this passage was brought to my attention the other day when I was in a store. It was “Black Friday”. To be honest, I try to avoid stores on that day. I love Thanksgiving, and I am in awe of Christmas. But I’m not excited about Black Friday at all. But I had to get something; and so in to the store I went.
The first thing that struck me was that it was being treated like a new holiday. The clerks at the counter immediately greeted me with the strikingly incongruent-sounding words, “Happy Black Friday”. (As someone else said to me later, that sounds more like a curse than a greeting.) To be honest, very few people looked happy. Most folks looked a bit tired and cranky. And over the loudspeaker was the voice of Johnny Mathis singing, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year”. I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be horrible if that were true!”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; it’s our great privilege to let people know that that’s not what the holiday season is about. It’s about the fact that the Son of God has been born into the human family as our Savior. We must believe in Him sincerely; and what’s more, the people of this world desperately need for us to confess Him openly.
And in this morning’s passage, we have the content of what it is that we are to confess. As we begin to think about the Advent Season; we couldn’t do better than to think carefully about what the Lord Jesus said about His own advent into this world—just as His earthly ministry was about to come to a close.
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So then; why did Jesus say that He came into this world?
Look first with me at verses 44-45; and at how He said that He came . . .
1. TO SERVE AS THE FATHER’S REPRESENTATIVE (vv. 44-45).
He declared loudly, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.”
Do you notice that He declares, three times in this passage, that He was “sent”? In verse 49, He lets us know specifically that the one who sent Him was God the Father. In other words, Jesus came into this world in a way that was true of no one else who has ever walked upon it. The rest of us were already somewhat ‘in’ it when we were born on it. But He was not originally ‘in’ it. As the first chapter of John’s Gospel makes clear, He existed eternally in heavenly glory before He was born upon this earth in Bethlehem; and He came into it as one who was “sent” to it by God the Father.
And He lets us know that He was sent into this world as one who is so united to the Father who sent Him, that to believe in Him is to also believe in the Father. In fact, He says that to “see” Him is to “see” the Father. The word that is here translated “see” means to gaze upon in a contemplative and thoughtful way. And so, to gaze upon Jesus and to contemplate Him is to gaze upon and accurately contemplate the Father.
This is just like some of the other things He had said about Himself. In John 5:23-24, He said
“that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:23-24).
A little later in John’s Gospel, Jesus would tell the apostle Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Do you remember what God the Father once said about Jesus? At the mount of transfiguration, God the Father spoke of Him from heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matthew 17:6). That’s because He was the Father’s sent Representative. In fact, at the very beginning of John’s Gospel, we’re told,
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John 1:18).
There are many people who claim that they have a relationship with God, or a deep knowledge of God; but they make this claim apart from Jesus Christ. In fact, some will even say, “I believe in God; but I don’t believe in Jesus Christ.” And by Jesus’ own testimony, this is impossible. The only way to have a relationship with God the Father is through His Son. To believe on Jesus is to believe on God the Father; and to see Jesus is to see God the Father. All that can be known of God the Father is known through Jesus the Son; and to try to know God apart from Him is to disbelieve in God the Father Himself and to be in error concerning Him.
No wonder Jesus shouted this. There is no other way to have a relationship with the Father but through Him. That’s why Jesus came into this world—to serve as the Father’s sent Representative to us. God wants us to know Himself; and we can know and see Him only through Jesus.
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Moving on, we see that He also came . . .
2. TO SHINE AS A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS (vv. 46).
Jesus said, “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (v. 46).
When I think of this, I think of the old days in the movie theaters when they had ushers. I’m just barely old enough to remember that. Nowadays, of course, when you go into a movie theater, you’re left pretty much on your own to stumble and bumble along in the dark. When the movie is over and the lights come on, you never know—you might find that you’d been sitting the whole time long with somebody else’s family! But back in those days, ushers would have little flashlights. If you needed help, they’d check your ticket to help you find your seat number; and then they’d shine the light on the floor in front of your feet and walk you to you were to go. Jesus said that He is like a light that shines for your feet, illuminating the path and showing you where to go; so that you won’t stumble around in the darkness of this dark and fallen world.
The people of this world abide in spiritual darkness. This fallen world is a very dark place; and apart from Jesus, we don’t know God the Father, and we don’t know how to live in a way that pleases Him. We would be like people groping around in the spiritual darkness—not knowing where to go. But Jesus was sent from the Father into this world so that we would no longer have to grope around in the dark. By His sinless life, by His perfect obedience to the Father’s will, and by His clear teaching and instruction, He has served as a light in this world. We no longer have to “abide” in darkness. We can come into the light.
At the very beginning of this Gospel, John tells us,
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:4-5).
As Jesus Himself said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12).
If what Jesus said about Himself is true, then only He is that light. There is no other. But we don’t need to search for another. How grateful we should be that Jesus shouted at the end of His earthly ministry that He came as a light into this world! It was as if He were shouting to all of fallen humanity, “Look at Me—the Representative of the Father—and walk in light!”
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Notice thirdly that Jesus said He came . . .
3. NOT TO JUDGE THE WORLD BUT TO SAVE IT (v. 47).
He said, “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” (v. 47).
Now; I believe we should take this only to be in reference to His first advent—that is, the advent that we celebrate on Christmas. The Bible tells us that He will come again into this world; and when He comes that second time, He will come as the one that the Father has ordained to judge the world in righteousness. But He came the first time—not to judge the world—but to be the Savior of all the people in this world who would walk in His light and trust Him.
As the Son of God, He would not have had to be born into humanity in order to be the judge of the world. But He did have to be born into the human family in order to be our Savior. And that’s what He did. He left the glory of heaven in accordance with the Father’s will, was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, and was born in Bethlehem as one of us; grew up in the midst of this dark and fallen world without committing any sin, walked upon the earth in perfect obedience to the Father’s commandments; and finally took all the guilt of human sin upon Himself as the sinless Lamb of God and died on the cross in our place.
And this was done out of love for us—Jesus’ love for us and the Father’s love for us. In John 3:13-17, it says;
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:13-17).
Don’t ever think that God the Father is nothing more than a wrathful God who is only interested in punishing sin and destroying sinners. It’s true, of course, that He does punish sin. If He left sin unpunished, He would no longer be a holy God. But He is also a merciful God, and has placed the punishment for our sins upon His own sinless Son. The very fact that the Son of God was sent by Him into this world to pay the penalty for our sins is proof that God Himself loves us and wants to save us from judgment.
No wonder Jesus was willing to shout this to the world!
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Now; it’s true that not everyone will receive the Father’s gift of salvation. Not everyone will walk in the light that Jesus brings. Not everyone will believe in God by believing in Him. Even though He shouted, many folks ignored Him. Many still do today. Some even reject Him in a spirit of defiance.
But what we see next is that everyone will be judged by what they do with Him. Jesus next tells us that He came into this world . . .
4. TO ESTABLISH EVERYONE’S STANDING ON THE LAST DAY (vv. 48-49).
Jesus said, “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. 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.”
This is truly remarkable! The Bible warns us that judgment will come and the wrath of a holy God will be poured out. But do you realize that it won’t be because people have sinned? Ultimately, no one will be judged unfit for heaven because they were a murderer, or a thief, or an adulterer, or a perverted person, or a liar. It will be because Jesus came to this earth and spoke the words that God the Father gave Him to speak; and they rejected His words and did not receive them. And those words—which they rejected and thought that they were done with—will meet up with them again and judge them on the last day. Jesus spoke—even shouted!—the words that the Father gave Him to speak; and they did not receive His words and rejected them. That, ultimately, will be the charge against them.
Back in Matthew 24:35, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” This is being validated to us by the fact that they are still here—and we are hearing them today! On the last day, every word that Jesus spoke will stand—along with all the words that His Holy Spirit gave to the prophets of the Old Testament era to the apostles of the New Testament era to speak as His spokesmen. Not one word will fail. And so, people will be judged for what they knew of what He said, and what they did with it. As it says in John 3:19-21;
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God (John 3:19-21).
He once told the leaders of the Jewish people who were rejecting Him that . . .
the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life (John 5:37-40).
One reason Jesus came into this world was to put every man and women in it at the crossroads of a decision. They must either receive His words and believe on Him, or not receive His words and reject Him. And what they do with what He has said will determine their eternal destiny. He told His disciples, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22).
Oh, how glad I am that Jesus shouted—and that I am among those who heard and believed! I hope you have heard and believed too.
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And for those of us who who have heard and believed, and have received His word, notice finally that Jesus came to . . .
5. TO DECLARE THE COMMAND OF GOD THAT LEADS TO EVERLASTING LIFE (v. 50).
At the very end, He shouted—and how glad we should be that He shouted this!—”And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak” (v. 50).
The mission that the Father commanded the Son to fulfill—which He fulfilled perfectly; and the words that the Father commanded Him to speak—which He declared boldly and publicly; all lead to eternal life. Earlier, He said;
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:37-40).
In John 8:51, He made this promise; “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”
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That’s why Jesus came. Those are the reasons Jesus Himself declared for why He came—even crying them out with a loud voice. He came as the Father’s sent Representative, to shine as a light in this dark world—not to judge sinners, but to save them. He came to put all people on the crossroads of decision—knowing that they will ultimately be judged by the words He spoke. But He spoke these words in obedience to the heavenly Father, so that we might believe on Him and be saved.
Let’s remember these things during the season of His advent. But more—let’s receive them personally. Let’s be very sure that we hear His words words, believe what He says about Himself, and faithfully confess Him to others.