PM Home Bible Study Group; July 10, 2013
John 12:44-50
Theme: In the closing words of His public ministry, Jesus declared why He came 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 evening’s passage is important because it marks the close of an important division in the story of John’s Gospel. It closes-off the section that tells us of his public ministry. That public ministry began in John 1:19 with the testimony that John the Baptist declared about Him, and with His presentation to the world as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). What follows after this evening’s passage will be John 13-17—the longest single recorded conversation in the New Testament. It tells the story of our Lord’s private conversation with His disciples concerning His sacrifice for them—and the life that would follow.
But our passage this evening is important for another reason. It contains what are—according to John—the last words our Lord declared publically concerning Himself and His mission to this earth. He spoke them clearly 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 the story of this declaration correctly unless you imagine Jesus standing and shouting these words in the public square so that all could hear. This 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.
Our Lord, in crying out these words, didn’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. They give us a sense of what He would want us to declare about Him in this world.
Note that, according to His own words . . .
1. HE CAME TO SERVE AS THE FATHER’S REPRESENTATIVE (vv. 44-45).
A. We’re told, “Then Jesus 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'” (vv. 44-45). If you look carefully through this public declaration as a whole, you’ll see that He declares three times that He was “sent” (vv. 44, 45 and 49). And 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, in a sense, already ‘in’ the world when we were born upon it. But He was not originally ‘in’ it; because He was not ‘of’ 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.
B. Furthermore, 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’s Gospel. 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.” A little later in this 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? 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). The Father, as it were, pointed Him out to all and said, “Hear Him!”, 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).
C. There are many people who claim that they have a relationship with God, or a deep knowledge of God, or some deep experience of ‘spirituality’; but who claim to have this relationship apart from Jesus Christ. In fact, many today have grown accustomed to saying, “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! What a mercy it was that He did so! There is no other way to have a saving relationship with the Father but through Him!
2. HE CAME TO SHINE AS A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS (vv. 46).
A. Our Lord went on to loudly declare, “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (v. 46). In the old days, movie theaters had ushers who would walk the isles with little flashlights. They would shine the light on the floor in front of your feet and walk you to you needed to go. If we may use that as an analogy, Jesus is here declaring that He is like a light that shines for our feet, illuminating the path to spiritual life and showing us where we should go; so that we won’t stumble around in the darkness of this dark and fallen world, but will be led to life.
B. The people of this world abide in spiritual darkness. And the fallen world in which they live is itself a very dark place. Apart from Jesus, we can’t perceive God the Father as He truly is, and we wouldn’t know how to live in a way that pleases Him. 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. 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). And as Jesus Himself has 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).
C. If what Jesus said about Himself is true, then only He is that light. There is no other. In fact, to reject Him and search for another would be to choose to live in spiritual darkness. But praise God—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 to Me—the Representative of the Father—and walk in light!”
3. HE DID NOT COME TO JUDGE THE WORLD BUT TO SAVE IT (v. 47).
A. He went on to say, “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). We should take this only to be in reference to His first coming into this world—that is, with reference to the advent that is told to us in the Gospels. The Bible makes it clear—and even He Himself clearly promised—that He will come again a second time into this world; and when He comes then, He will come as the one whom the Father has ordained to judge the world in righteousness. But that was not what He came the first time to do. He didn’t come 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.
B. This helps us to appreciate the reason why our Lord came to be born into the human family as one of us. He already eternally existed as the Son of God; and as such, He wouldn’t have had to be born into this world in order to be its judge. But He did have to be born into the human family in order to be our Redeemer. And that’s what He did in His first coming. 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—dying on the cursed cross in our place. He didn’t come to judge, but to save.
C. And let’s never forget that 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). We should never think that God the Father was only wrathful—only interested in punishing sin and destroying sinners. It’s true, of course, that He does punish sin. If He left sin unpunished, He could no longer be a holy and just God. But He is also a merciful God, who has placed the full 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 the Father Himself loves us and wants to save us from judgment.
4. HE CAME TO ESTABLISH EVERYONE’S STANDING ON THE LAST DAY (vv. 48-49).
A. It’s of course 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 when He spoke these words, many folks back then ignored Him. Many still do today. Some reject Him in a spirit of defiance. But what Jesus said next reminds us that everyone who rejects Him will eventually be judged; and that judgment will be based on what they do with Him and with what He said. He loudly declared, “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” (vv. 48-49).
B. The Bible warns us that judgment will come and the wrath of a holy God will be poured out for sin. But ultimately, no one will ever be judged unfit for heaven because they were a murderer, or a thief, or an adulterer, or a perverted person, or a liar. Rather, 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 were pushed away into irrelevance—will meet up with them again and judge them on the last day. Jesus spoke—indeed, even shouted!—the very words that the Father gave Him to speak; and they did not receive Him and rejected His words. That, ultimately, will be the charge that will condemn them. 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). 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).
C. You might say that one reason Jesus came into this world was to put every man and woman in it at the crossroads of a decision. His coming has drawn a circle upon this world; and people must either choose to come into the circle where He is, or remain outside the circle in the place of condemnation. They must either receive His words and believe on Him, or refuse His words and reject Him. And what each person does with what He has said now determines 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). How glad we should be that Jesus shouted these words! And how grateful we should be to be among those who heard and believed!
5. HE CAME TO DECLARE THE COMMAND OF GOD THAT LEADS TO EVERLASTING LIFE (v. 50).
A. Finally, having spoken of the Father’s will concerning what He was to say and speak, Jesus shouted, “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 from the Father that He fulfilled perfectly, and the words from the Father which He declared boldly and publically, all lead to eternal life.
B. Earlier in John’s Gospel, 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). Soon after Jesus spoke those words, many of His followers left Him. When He turned to the twelve and asked, “Do you also want to go away?” Simon Peter spoke up and said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:67-69). Later, in John 8:51, He made a promise that every sinner in the world can fully trust all the way to heavenly glory; “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Those words tell us why Jesus came into this world. They give us the reasons that Jesus Himself declared—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, and have everlasting life.
Let’s receive these words personally as we should. Let’s be very sure that we hear His words, believe what He says about Himself, and faithfully confess His own self-declaration to others.