John 12:37-50

00:00:00:27 – 00:00:24:14
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for starting off the week with us as we continue through the Gospel of John. We’re nearing the end of the 12th chapter. A response here. Sort of a well, an interesting passage today. Jesus, in the passage preceding this has spoken about his death. Some people have believed, some people have misunderstood.

00:00:24:19 – 00:00:52:13
Clint Loveall
It’s sort of one of those typical discourses by Jesus. And now we get both a reaction and then an interesting, an interesting thing that Jesus says. So let me jump in here. I guess we’re about halfway through verse 36. It’s one of those places where the division is kind of interesting, but I’ll just start with 36. While you have the light, believe in the light so you may become children of light.

00:00:52:14 – 00:01:16:37
Clint Loveall
And then he continued, after Jesus said this, he departed and hid from them. Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken, what the word was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

00:01:16:42 – 00:01:48:16
Clint Loveall
And so they could, and so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they may not look with their eyes, and understand with their heart and turn. And I would heal them. Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it for fear they would be put out of the synagogue.

00:01:48:21 – 00:02:01:10
Clint Loveall
For they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God. So. This is.

00:02:01:15 – 00:02:26:34
Clint Loveall
This is where the Gospel of John. I want to be careful with my biases here. I know you are a fan. These are the moments where I wish John would sort of be a little more clear. We have this thing here where they. Jesus. He hides from them, which is strange. Probably a better way to read.

00:02:26:34 – 00:02:50:56
Clint Loveall
That is just. He withdrew. He made it a point. Not to be out. He again, we’ve said it often enough in this gospel. Jesus is not hiding out of fear. This is a kind of withdrawal. He will make a very public appearance again in the near future. They did not believe in him. And in this, John sees again John’s not big on Old Testament quotes.

00:02:50:56 – 00:03:16:25
Clint Loveall
Not a certainly not as big as some of the other gospel writers. But here John sees this through the lens of Isaiah’s words. That God has hidden some things, and probably there is a connection here between the idea of Jesus being hidden from them and the meaning being hidden from them. He blinded their eyes. He hardened their hearts so they might not look now.

00:03:16:30 – 00:03:40:08
Clint Loveall
All of the gospels, have this idea that that the gospel is hidden enough, that someone has to seek it out, that it’s not just self-evident. And I think, Michael, we’ve kind of had that conversation throughout this book. Jesus does something. It seems obvious that that means he is who he says he is. And yet people turn their back and don’t believe.

00:03:40:13 – 00:04:06:07
Clint Loveall
And I think passages like this can be a little disturbing. The idea that God is hiding something from people. It’s it’s not. As I would read it, I don’t think this is saying God doesn’t want them to know, though you could certainly read it that way. I think it’s more this idea that the choice of whether or not to believe Jesus.

00:04:06:12 – 00:04:32:18
Clint Loveall
Fundamentally shows portrays an an inner decision that people have to make. And if if they have clouded vision, if they have hardened hearts, there’s no way that they’re going to see that. And then, of course, John follows it up and says, oh, but hey, a lot of people believed in him, although they didn’t confess it because they loved glory and not sure who that they is.

00:04:32:18 – 00:04:57:11
Clint Loveall
We’ll come back to that. But there is, I think, fundamentally in this text, kind of that thing we’ve seen before. A decision Jesus, Jesus fosters a decision by the people. And in this case, it seems to be hinted at that God has made that not maybe such an easy decision.

00:04:57:16 – 00:05:30:51
Michael Gewecke
So we have many more character groups in this book than I think John sometimes gets credit for. We talk at great length about the Pharisees, about the Jewish leaders and authorities, because they’re often a foil for Jesus. They’re often either arguing with him or especially in the last few chapters now they’ve really been seeking him out in an active, intentional way, to get rid of him because he’s a threat to power.

00:05:30:52 – 00:05:53:38
Michael Gewecke
We’ve talked about that a great deal. We also have the disciples. We also have the people who Jesus heals or does miracles for. And those are important characters, but they often lead to long discourses, and they often lead to conflict with the aforementioned Pharisees or Jewish leaders. So ultimately, I think it’s easy to get caught into the pattern of thinking that those are our only groups.

00:05:53:52 – 00:06:35:24
Michael Gewecke
But I would argue that there are other groups in the gospel. They’re the people who see the miracles, and it’s generally summarized as and many believed or many more believed, or many follow Jesus. And that group consistently gets mentioned at the end of miracle stories at the end of debates. And I think it’s really relevant because here, I think reading at the end helps clarify the meaning in the beginning, that the people who loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God are the people who are, scared of the idea of being put out from the synagogue, which is the human community and the place of worship.

00:06:35:29 – 00:06:57:36
Michael Gewecke
The place of recognition, the place where not just your faith has been given to you, but where you find the deep meaning of that religious connection. Right. But you go all the way back to at the end of the day, Jesus did miracles. And what do we do about the fact that the people who literally saw those miracles did not?

00:06:57:36 – 00:07:20:51
Michael Gewecke
201 all proclaim that Jesus Christ was the Lord and the Messiah? And let me frame this question. Maybe in the Johannine way. Jesus came into the darkness as the light. Jesus is the light. We have that set up from the beginning of the book. I think it creates a theological problem that John is spending this entire book showing Jesus’s teaching about.

00:07:20:51 – 00:07:46:46
Michael Gewecke
And that is if Jesus is the light, how do people in the darkness see the light and it not move them? How can people see the light and that revelation not transform everything about them, not transform their imagination, not move them to be different people? I think this is the fundamental schism that John sees in the revelation of Christ, that there are some people who see it and there are some people who don’t.

00:07:46:46 – 00:08:05:11
Michael Gewecke
And I think the question between those two things is, why what? What is the operative, function there? And I think John’s never going to give us, you know, a simple this is the answer to that specific question. I think it pops up over and over and over again. Examples like this A quote from Isaiah, God is blinded.

00:08:05:11 – 00:08:26:11
Michael Gewecke
Their eyes harden their heart so that they might not look with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and heal them. I think that this is less about God’s intention for some to not see, and rather a beginning explanation as to it. When you are looking directly at the light of God, the revelation of God, then you don’t see him for who he is.

00:08:26:11 – 00:08:49:55
Michael Gewecke
I think John’s suggestion is there’s more happening there than meets the eye. It’s it’s even beyond human stubbornness that that God is in some mysterious way, Jesus is hid from them. And and whether that’s more about their heart or more about God’s providence, the history of the church has had long drag out fights about that. But that’s not the point that John’s making.

00:08:49:55 – 00:09:20:29
Michael Gewecke
The point that John’s making is, at the end of the day, these people’s temptation was not for the eternal revelation of God, but it was for temporary community. It wasn’t to be in the presence and to worship an eternal, all powerful God. It was the temptation to cling to earthly power in the midst of earthly connection that I that I think is the relevant point that’s being made in the text here, is that when you see the revelation of Christ, but it doesn’t move you what’s happening there?

00:09:20:29 – 00:09:27:42
Michael Gewecke
And there are many different kind of motivations that John gives. I think that this is one of those stories where he’s teasing that out for us.

00:09:27:46 – 00:09:59:43
Clint Loveall
I think certainly the church has been interested in the idea of the mystery of unbelief. And in our own denomination or our own theological background, this has been a significant discussion. And so here you have two aspects of that. You have God’s initiative, the idea that God makes belief somewhat difficult. And then you also have human agency. Some even the authorities believed in him.

00:09:59:43 – 00:10:34:17
Clint Loveall
So you have a difficulty in belief and nevertheless, you have in every instance those who come to belief. And so what is happening there? I think we remain where the church has always been. There is a mystery in that. Certainly the sovereignty and power of God is at work in those moments of belief. But perhaps there’s also something at work in the human heart that brings some people to belief in a way that others aren’t willing.

00:10:34:17 – 00:11:10:52
Clint Loveall
And, and the motivations for that, for, you know, what we see here within, there’s fear they believed, but they didn’t confess it. Now it there are in this last couple verses, Michael, I think it’s interesting. John forces a choice on us here. They believed, but they didn’t confess. Now, that’s very close in the Gospel of John to saying they didn’t believe very well, because for John, yeah, belief is always confession.

00:11:10:57 – 00:11:35:52
Clint Loveall
But let’s say that John is saying they, they had belief, but they were afraid. Ultimately they followed their fear that they would be put out of the synagogue. We saw that phrase before. And then there’s this interesting choice that has to be made in verse 43, for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God.

00:11:35:57 – 00:12:06:52
Clint Loveall
I think it’s there’s a question here of who they is. Is they a reference to the Pharisees who made the people afraid, or is they a kind of accusation against those who believe but didn’t confess or in some way? For John? Is it both of those? I think there’s a little bit of looseness there that I think pushes the reader to make a decision.

00:12:06:52 – 00:12:32:47
Clint Loveall
And the point of that, I think ultimately is for us to reflect on our own choice. What do we choose? In what ways does fear keep us from confessing, and in what ways are we tempted by human glory rather than God’s glory? Whenever we’re looking through the lens of the gospel at a critique of other people, we’re also, I think, always being asked to consider our own faith in our own life.

00:12:32:58 – 00:12:56:00
Michael Gewecke
Well, I think that phrase is going to be uncomfortable for many of us. I don’t think we certainly see it very often. The it’s a phrase they loved human glory. I think we would have to tease out what what is human glory? What is John mean by that? And I do think in the context here, this idea that there are people who would choose earthly power.

00:12:56:00 – 00:13:16:17
Michael Gewecke
And by the way, we just literally in the story, Clint had reference to the people who had the earthly religious power literally putting a price on Jesus, his head, or saying, we’re going to seek him out. Maybe there wasn’t money involved in that, but they said, we we want to, if you see him, we’re going to, do harm to him.

00:13:16:30 – 00:13:37:45
Michael Gewecke
There was an intentionality in in their calculus. I think what we need to recognize is that ultimately, this is not just a matter of what happened to the Pharisees. There’s also a kind of reading of church history in this. And I know we’ve said this before, but it bears repeating that, this book is one of the older gospels in terms of its dating.

00:13:37:49 – 00:14:07:01
Michael Gewecke
And so you have Christians who are beginning to hear about, if not experience themselves, real persecution. Right. And then there’s the idea that there are some people who saw the revelation of Christ, but in fear that they might be kicked out of a safe place, that they might be kicked out of the order of life that they knew and was comfortable to them, that at that moment their conviction faded, and they were unable to confess the truth of what they saw in Jesus Christ.

00:14:07:01 – 00:14:43:39
Michael Gewecke
Well, to that Christian who receives this book, there’s, you know, both great comfort in those who believed and saw. By the way, this this note here, that even the authorities had people who believed. Right. So even people of very high stature. But yet it’s essential that we remember that there’s also a kind of conviction in this that if we’re the kind of people who see the revelation and who do not respond to that revelation, that that that is very bad for our souls, that’s a very negative turn in our lives because there’s only one way, right?

00:14:43:42 – 00:15:23:13
Michael Gewecke
Jesus literally says, there’s one door, right? There’s one way into the pen, and that’s only through the shepherd. And I think that kind of extreme language, which in John is always offset with this also equally but opposite extreme language about all who believe and anyone who confesses like this is a very grandiose statement. But where we are right now, I think he’s, very much on the opposite end of that tense of relationship where where what John John is saying is that there are some people who see the revelation of Christ and for what he calls human glory for earthly reasons.

00:15:23:18 – 00:15:50:21
Michael Gewecke
They choose the temporary over the eternal. They choose the limited over the ultimate. And that kind of choice in John is a harrowing choice that that’s a dark and to be avoided choice at all cost, because ultimately that’s the repudiation or rejection of the divine revelation of God. If if Jesus is who he claims to be in this gospel, that’s the ultimate rejection of what God wants for the world.

00:15:50:25 – 00:16:17:34
Clint Loveall
Well, and we also have to, I think, recall that, you know, these are John’s these are parenthetical. John is giving us some insight here outside of the story. John is giving us why something happened and why people are afraid. And I think John uses the next section in which Jesus comes back and yeah, to the forefront and speaks as a way of kind of continuing and even clarifying this.

00:16:17:35 – 00:16:40:25
Clint Loveall
Let me let me read this next few verses, then Jesus cried aloud, whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my word and does not keep them.

00:16:40:30 – 00:17:02:17
Clint Loveall
For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge on the last day. The word that I have spoken will serve as a judge, for I have not spoken on my own, but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.

00:17:02:22 – 00:17:34:59
Clint Loveall
And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore I speak just as the father has told me. These are fascinating words. I think my coin and maybe in a culture in which the church has gotten and sometimes deserved a reputation for being judgmental, I. I think it’s fascinating to hear Jesus say, I don’t judge anyone who hears my words but doesn’t keep them.

00:17:35:04 – 00:18:01:15
Clint Loveall
Now, Jesus goes on to say that they will be judged, but Jesus speaks to his first purpose. And it is, I think, a helpful reminder and an important reminder that as Jesus understands it, his first purpose is not to judge, but to speak the word, to share the truth of God, the one who receives me. Great. The one who doesn’t.

00:18:01:30 – 00:18:26:20
Clint Loveall
I don’t judge them now. The word will judge them. God will judge them. But Jesus is saying, it is not my point to judge. And if we, you know, think back to that famous verse. John 316 God so loved the world, gave his only son. But the next verse says, he did this in order, not that the world would be lost, but so that the world through him might be saved.

00:18:26:20 – 00:19:02:08
Clint Loveall
And so again, this idea that Jesus fundamentally is about bringing people to God now is their judgment. Yes, throughout all the Gospels there is a there is a cost of denying or being stubbornly opposed to the word. But that is not the first priority that Jesus has, certainly not the first priority that he speaks. And I think these words and in these verses are a really nice reminder of that.

00:19:02:13 – 00:19:29:09
Michael Gewecke
Well, there’s a way that this teaching of Jesus, I think you’re exactly right, Clint, to point out that there’s a kind of Johannine sandwich happening here where you’ve got red letters with a Johannine black letter, you know, John’s narrative in between, where John does some describing work. I think that it’s good that we extend this conversation out to this section for the very purpose of correcting what might be.

00:19:29:09 – 00:19:54:47
Michael Gewecke
Some people’s temptation would be, quite frankly, to go into the comments of this video or to rant off the air here a little bit about how well, obviously this text, this previous text is about God obscuring people’s vision and Jesus’s hiding from people. Obviously, this is be really easy to get involved in a kind of debate or theological fight over some stuff that the church has spent a lot of time on.

00:19:54:52 – 00:20:18:01
Michael Gewecke
But I think, Clint, that we’ve got to balance that with this text. You need to read this section that immediately follows the other. You have to read this in red, by the way, and you have to remember that Jesus is is saying here, everyone who believes in verse 46, he goes on that he’s not judging those who hear the words and can’t keep them.

00:20:18:12 – 00:20:38:31
Michael Gewecke
I think the point I want to make is that what Jesus is doing is not just teaching us something theological for our heads, he’s teaching us something about our hearts. It it would be very easy to be anxious when we find ourselves in situations where we don’t have the right confession, where as strong of a confession of faith that we would like to have.

00:20:38:36 – 00:21:04:52
Michael Gewecke
But there are times where we don’t have the right words, or we don’t feel the faith in the way that we would like to, or that we would have the ability to navigate difficult circumstances exactly how we think that God would have us do so. And friends, the great and and wonderful good news is that Jesus Christ has come speaking the word, and anyone who has the ears to hear that word, the time of day to stop and listen, that is enough.

00:21:05:06 – 00:21:29:52
Michael Gewecke
There’s a kind of redemptive, holy, piece that lives over a text like this where Jesus, I think, reaches through the pages of Scripture and says to each and every one of us that don’t worry that I’m here, right? The revelation is coming to you. Your only task is to simply listen and to respond. And ultimately, whether you think you responded rightly or not is not germane.

00:21:29:52 – 00:21:52:44
Michael Gewecke
It’s not the point. The point is we want to see Jesus and then everything that follows that we want to be with hearts filled with faith. And wherever you are on that journey, I do think there’s a devotional kind of bent to this text. I think it’s about us as Christians understanding Jesus’s real purpose. His purpose wasn’t to come and hide himself and make puzzles for people, right?

00:21:52:55 – 00:22:14:22
Michael Gewecke
His real purpose was to come and save. And it’s a scandal that some people don’t see that, that some people aren’t moved by that. And yet it’s a scandal that Jesus not only predicts, but Jesus has come to address explicitly that there are those people who he seeks out he, that those are the people that Jesus has come to save.

00:22:14:31 – 00:22:25:52
Michael Gewecke
Everyone is is included in that desire and in that purpose. And I think that this balances the text really importantly. And one shouldn’t hear the one word without the other.

00:22:25:57 – 00:23:03:11
Clint Loveall
That’s well said. I also think, and there’s a sense in which, you know, you could get onto shaky ground theologically here, but I also think there’s a sense in which what Jesus is saying is my task is to be faithful. I have a charge from the father, which is to preach the word. When the word is preached, then people have a decision to make what to do with it, and then God has a decision to make about what happens in the aftermath of them believing or not believing.

00:23:03:16 – 00:23:33:27
Clint Loveall
And I think one of the themes that we see John highlights throughout the book in regard to Jesus is Jesus faithfulness. And here we hear him saying, if they don’t believe, I don’t judge them for that. My task is to preach the word. The father has given me the commandment to speak and I speak, and then people have to make a choice what to do with that.

00:23:33:32 – 00:23:58:28
Clint Loveall
And is there mystery in that? Yes. But for Jesus’s part, he is saying, I am doing what I was called to do faithfully, and I think John resonates with that. I think John, will have I can think of some big examples of that coming up in the not too distant future in this gospel, but I think I, I, I think that’s part of the story as well.

00:23:58:33 – 00:24:17:42
Michael Gewecke
Let’s not beat around the bush here. The truth is, as John tells the gospel, there are times when Jesus says things that will make you scratch your head. And I think a faithful response to that is to sit under it and to inquire inquisitively, Jesus, whether you have to say to me today, I might certainly hope today there’s been some hope, there’s been some encouragement.

00:24:17:51 – 00:24:41:40
Michael Gewecke
There’s also been some conviction. When we see the revelation of God that should do something that should change us in a meaningful way. And this isn’t just heady stuff. Do you like this video? This has been helpful. Helps others as they try and navigate these waters. But do subscribe because tomorrow when we engage the conversation about Jesus washing his disciples feet, that is a practical way that Jesus demonstrates the kind of service that he came to give.

00:24:41:51 – 00:24:50:33
Michael Gewecke
And this is the beautiful pairing of John. You have one thing, one day and another the next. And so I hope you will join us for that. And glad you’ve been with us today.

00:24:50:36 – 00:24:51:21
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.