“Last Words From The Light” Screen 1 John 12:12-36; 44-50 04-30-17
Chapter 12 records the end of the public ministry of Christ.
(The triumphal entry is recorded in all four Gospels.)
John 12:12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Screen 2 Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
“The next day” - connects to verses 9-11. Read these verses from my Bible.
“the large crowd” - there were two crowds in the mul tude that day. One who had followed him from Bethany (about 2 miles outside Jerusalem) and one who were in town for the Passover. Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles (Booths) were the three most important feasts to the Jews and all males were supposed to be present in Jerusalem, if at all possible. On one occasion a census was taken of the lambs slain at Passover - the number was 256,000. There had to be a minimum of 10 people per lamb so, about 2.7 million people would have been present at the feast. In the first century, Roman historian Tacitus es mated 600,000 people lived in Jerusalem. So the city would have been about four mes larger during the feast.
John 12:13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, Screen 3 crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
“palm trees” - were par cularly linked to the Feast of Tabernacle's, but, obviously were available at Passover as well.
1 “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Hosanna means “save now!” This is a quota on from Psalm 118:25-26. This was sung at Passover and was characteris cally the conqueror’s psalm. The people of Jerusalem shouted this for Simon Maccabaeus over 100 years before Christ, when he had won a great military victory over the Syrians (The Almost Messiah).
Screen 4 John 12:14-15 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is wri en, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;behold, your king is coming, si ng on a donkey's colt!”
It would have been impossible for him to address the crowd(s) at this point, so he acts here in this verse. John is loosely quo ng from:
Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Screen 5 of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salva on is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
With us today, the donkey is laughable but in the East it was a noble animal. See Judges 10:4; 2 Samuel 17:23; 2 Samuel 9:26. Kings rode them. But, when the king came riding up on a horse, he was the bent on war; when he came riding on a donkey he was coming in peace. (Jesus was and is the prince of peace.)
John 12:16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus Screen 6 was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been wri en about him and had been done to him.
2 We are given an aside here from John about the disciples missing the point - so did the crowd. In these verses, Jesus is plainly said to be the Messiah > but he's not the kind of Messiah the populous wanted him to be.
BE CAREFUL WHEN CREATING AND WORSHIPING THE KIND OF MESSIAH YOU WANT!
Accep ng Christ in his totality is important.
John 12:17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of Screen 7 the tomb and raised him from the dead con nued to bear witness.
It appears Jesus has rebuilt his ministry with the public back from the “ashes” of: Screen 8 John 6:66 “Many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”
John 12:18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard Screen 9 he had done this sign.
Bethany was close to Jerusalem - “about two miles”.
John 12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining Screen 10 nothing. Look, the world has gone a er him.”
It took a lot of courage from Jesus to be so public with his entry into Jerusalem. Six mes his enemies have already tried to stone him.
“The Pharisees” - lurking in the background were Jesus’ enemies. The Pharisees, as they are named throughout the Gospel. No ce what they say, “Look, the world
3 (some transla ons include “whole”) has gone a er him. This statement represents another turning point in the Gospel of John.
John 12:20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.
None of the other Gospels tells of this occurrence. “Greeks” were probably not proselytes but God-fearers. A proselyte had fully converted to Judaism - circumcision and all. A God-fearer had not. A Greek was known then to all of the ancient world as a seeker a er the truth. Greeks were known to have tried many religions and many philosophies in search for truth.
John 12:21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and Screen 11 asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
“Philip” - Greek name (means “lover of horses”. They want to meet Jesus. Now understand, if indeed they were just God-fearers and not proselytes, they were forbidden by the threat of death to go any further into the Temple compound than the Court of Gen les (see Acts 21:28).
“Bethsaida in Galilee” - sounds like the Greeks may have been from some place near Galilee - i.e. Decapolis.
“we wish to see Jesus” - i.e. we want to meet Jesus.
John 12:22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Andrew had introduced Peter to Jesus back in John 1:41. So what did Jesus say? Screen 12 Monday, all day, I wrestled with what I am about to share. If you read verses 23 -
4 36 Jesus appears to ignore the Greeks. But Tuesday a.m., the Holy Spirit showed me that everything that comes a er verse 22 is actually directed toward the Greeks/Gen les. Within these verses is contained Jesus’ very first Gen le sermon. (He had preached to Samaritans, in John 4, but Samaritans were considered partly Jewish.
John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man Screen 13 to be glorified.
Screen 14 ➡ 3 1/2 years of public ministry in the making ➡ 33 years in the making ➡ from eternity past in the making
Jesus drops a bomb here! So many mes before he had said, “My me has not yet come” or “his me had not yet come”. Jesus is not being reckless in front of his Jerusalem enemies -he’s being calcula ng and precise!
“Son of Man” - (A Gen le related term) This tle which Jesus uses for himself Screen 15 goes all the way back to Daniel 7:13. In Daniel 7:1-8 the writer has been describing the world powers which have held sway - the Assyrians - ALL GENTILES - the Babylonians, the Medes and the Persians. They were so savage that they could only be described as wild beasts. But Daniel’s vision saw - not a savage beast - lion, bear, leopard - but a new power coming into the world that would be gentle, humane and gracious so that it could be depicted as a man. The Son of Man was believed by the Jews to be restrained un l the right me - the correct hour - and when he came would smash the way to world empire for the Jews. But he says “to be glorified” - when Jesus saw this . . . everyone would have “hit the roof”. BUT when Jesus said “glorified” - it means something far different than
5 what either the Jews or Gen les would have wanted. In John, “glorified” means the crucifixion/death, burial and resurrec on of Jesus.
Now, he explains (Jews heard him too but it’s depicted to Greek/ Gen les).
John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth Screen 16 and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Uses an agrarian parable/saying . . .
John 12:25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this Screen 17 world will keep it for eternal life.
“God has become primary and human existence has become secondary.”
John 12:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
In this verse, Jesus says anyone is welcome to serve and follow him (Gen les, too). No ce “if anyone” - if anyone was directed specifically at the Gen les/Greeks. Just Screen 18 like he said in John 10:16 “I have other sheep that are not of this fold.”
John 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me Screen 19 from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
This is Gethsemane - like in John’s Gospel.
“Father, save me.” The people back in verse 13 had cried out for Jesus/Messiah to save them. Now, Jesus cries out to the only one who can truly save someone - God.
6 John 12:28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
“Then a voice came from Heaven” - In the Synop c Gospels, the Voice is Screen 20 men oned in connec on with Jesus’ bap sm (Ma hew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22) and the transfigura on (Ma hew 17:4-6; Mark 9:5-7; Luke 9:33-35).
John 12:29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Screen 21 Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
(Greeks) and Gen les and Jews alike.
John 12:30-31 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. Screen 22
“ruler of this world” - Satan himself. While Satan thinks he is going to win because of Jesus’ death, actually he is judged and cast out because of it.
John 12:32 And I, when I am li ed up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
“draw all people to myself” - You Greek’Gen les, too . . . (He would not be stoned - but crucified.) Jesus will divinely enable whosoever will come to himself by dying on the cross.
John 12:33-34 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Screen 23 34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be li ed up? Who is this Son of Man?”
7 (They understood he would die here.)
“We have heard . . .” - The Jews thought the Son of Man will never die (from Screen 24 Daniel 7:13-14.)
John 12:35-36 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a li le while Screen 25 longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the Screen 26 light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.
(John 37-43) These verses speak like an “aside” in a play, with John giving a Screen 27 statement on the unbelief of the Jews (primarily), but again, Gen les prompted the whole message/sermon back in verse 23.
John 12:44-50 44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, Screen 28 believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in Screen 29 me may not remain in darkness. 47 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. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the Screen 30 word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on Screen 31 my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his Screen 32 commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
8 This ends Jesus’ last sermon - his public ministry is over.
Now it’s all personal un l the crucifixion.
21 mes Jesus use a personal pronoun in these seven verses. It really is all about Screen 33 him!
Prayer and Invita on
Please ask Ma to help me with applica on when you get the sermon typed.
Recap 34
9