Or, Reviewing the Word of Life
Scripture: John 12:44-50
Date: June 9, 2013
Speaker: Sean Higgins
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The last of the seven laws of teaching, as listed by John Milton Gregory, requires the liberal use of review. We do not learn things deepest that only skim our thinking. An old Latin proverb states, repetītiō est māter memoriae, “repetition is the mother of memory.” Digging a deep hole takes more than one scoop from the shovel.
Repetition by teachers can be, and has been, abused. As Solomon might have said, stating the same thing as if copied and pasted from an earlier lesson is wearisome to the body. Yet review and repetition cements understanding and, in some cases, calls attention to the urgency of the matter. As King David wrote, the sun runs to take its position every morning. God has yet to think that that repetitious circuit of glory is in a rut.
John 12:44-50 reviews some of the major themes we’ve covered in the first twelve chapters. The review comes as the last public discourse of Jesus. Beginning in chapter 13 He spends His final days before the cross away with His disciples. That means that these words are the final words of His public ministry as John tells the story. All the refreshing in this paragraph will be familiar to those who’ve read or listened carefully to the preceding.
We will review four key words, four central branches in the public ministry of Jesus as John prepares us for the personal ministry of Jesus in chapters 13-17. When you find a branch with a lot of fruit, you may have to shake it more than once. John shakes four branches of the gospel with four fruitful words.
Believing is seeing and the deal is two for one. Or, we see by believing alone and the one we see is never alone.
And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. (John 12:44–45, ESV)
One reason for saying that this paragraph is a review stems from recognizing no context for this outburst by Jesus. It’s mid-way through the book and John provides no frame of time, place, or audience. Last we knew Jesus had departed and hid Himself from the crowd (verse 36). Yet cried out usually indicates a word meant for a crowd, so these words of Jesus summarize His message for the three years of His ministry.
Another reason to say that this paragraph reviews the Gospel is because John wants us to believe. Believing in Jesus is why he wrote (20:31). Believing falls out of this paragraph in a way that would make Isaac Newton proud. And believing in Jesus is what the majority of Jews did not do. Even though Jesus did many signs, they did not believe (verse 37). Their disbelieving fulfilled God’s prophetic judgment so that they could not believe (verse 39). Even the many authorities who believed would not confess it openly because they loved the glory that comes from men (verses 42-43). What is that?
It’s a typical response, but deadly, just as swallowing poison is typically followed by death. By rejecting Jesus they rejected God. Loving the glory that comes from men puts men in God’s place. Putting men in God’s place ensnares many souls. Men need to believe.
Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.” All along Jesus claimed to be sent by His Father on a mission.
Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:23–24, ESV. See also 4:34, 5:30, 36; 6:38, 44; 7:16; 8:16, 26, 42; 9:4; 10:36; 11:42)
We’ve read it over and over, chapter after chapter. Believing one is believing the other; it’s a two-for-one. Disbelieving one is also disbelieving the other. There isn’t believing in “God” without believing in Jesus. There isn’t believing in Jesus without believing in God.
So also, whoever sees me sees him who sent me. It’s a sort of double-vision, a good kind. The seeing means grasping, understanding who He really is, and understanding one is understanding the other. Father and Son are a package deal.
The religious authorities were deceived to think that they could believe in Jesus and treat others as God. The rest were deceived to think that they worshiped God without believing in Jesus, without locating worship in the person of the Son. Believing in Jesus is a two-for-one, and it’s the wrong one without the Father and Son.
Reviewing the light also reminds us about the dark world Jesus came to address.
I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. (John 12:46, ESV)
In the fourth and fifth verses in John introduced us: “The life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Jesus had just warned about darkness overtaking those who will not believe and walk in the light (12:35-36). In other words, like believing, the branch of light is thick enough to build on.
Jesus came into the world as light. This is one reason for His incarnation; He (and He alone) makes reality visible. The light of sight goes right through Jesus and following Him is the only option for vision, everything else is an optical illusion. He is necessary because darkness is real, too.
Jesus came so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. Darkness means ignorance, misunderstanding, and deception. Darkness dominates without Christ and all men start as slaves of ignorance. Extending the illustration we could say, Jesus is the lens of the world. A camera lens opens to let light in. Most men are looking through lenses that are painted black. No light gets in and they can’t see. After a while, they assume that something is wrong with the lens—and there is—but they just pick up a different blackened lens. Jesus came so that all who look through Him as the lens will truly see.
Salvation is the point of these verses even though judgment is mentioned the most.
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. (John 12:47–49, ESV)
The second half of verse 47 reviews another reason for the coming of the Son: Jesus came to save the world. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29). He came to lay down His life for His sheep, sheep who are scattered all over the world (10:11, 16; 11:51-52). He came to save, to deliver, to give life.
In coming to save, however, He corroborated the judgment. If the world was fine, the world needed no savior. If the world needed a savior, then the world was in trouble. Jesus came to save from judgment because judgment already was. In taking it, He proved that it needed to be taken. He came not to give judgment but to take it on behalf of others. That means, though, that those who are not saved by Him are still under judgment.
This reviews John 3:17-21. It also reviews that judgment is only escaped in Jesus. To escape a man must hear and keep Jesus’ words. A man must receive and not reject His word.
Those who hear but do not keep the words are in trouble. Omission kills. Passive persons are enemies not only those who aggressively attack Jesus. “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.‘” (John 8:31).
John reported about this group in verses 42-43. Jesus told a parable about the foundations of two similar houses distinguished by those who hear and do and those who hear and don’t. So many hear the words, they hear the truth, they stand under the branches but run when the fruit falls. They collect words and frame them on Facebook walls. But they don’t keep the words.
Here’s the problem for this guy: the very words he hears will judge him on the last day. It’s as if the defendant listened to the sentence read by the judge: Guilty. Then the judge stands up from his chair, takes off his robe, and comes down to pay the bill. He doesn’t come down to judge; he’s already pronounced judgment. He comes down to save. All those who refuse his help will be judged by the word they heard.
None of the review is new. None of this review came from Jesus alone.
For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” (John 12:49–50, ESV)
Jesus reviews the reason why believing, light, and salvation leads to eternal life. The reason it works is because it is divine. Jesus has not spoken on [His] own authority or “of Himself.”
Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (John 5:19, ESV)
He spoke what He heard from His Father and His Father gave Him a commandment.
His commandment is eternal life. What does that mean? How can eternal life be a command? It’s because His Word brings us into fellowship with Him.
I have seen a limit to all perfection,
but your commandment is exceedingly broad.
(Psalm 119:96, ESV)
There is no limit to the truthfulness, goodness, and beauty of His command. It is life.
A few things:
Mind the gap between Father and Son - there is none. They are two persons unified in purpose.
Mind the gap between hearing and keeping - if there is one, there is judgment.
This message is a two-for-one. It is a review of the key themes in John’s Gospel so that his readers would believe. It is also a call for us to believe. More than instruction, it is an invitation. It isn’t just a message about eternal life, it is a mandate to eternal life. You will not wash the feet of others as a disciple if you do not believe that Jesus did it for His disciples (chapter 13).
Do you believe in Jesus? Then you also have the Father. Do you see the light? Then you are not in darkness. Do you trust Jesus? Then He is no longer your judge. Do you hear the Son? Then you have eternal life.
If you know 12:44-50 well, as a review of John 1-12, you will be dangerous in the darkness.
[A man’s] repeated readings of … one book give him a mastery of the subject which makes him a dangerous antagonist on his chosen field. (John Milton Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching)