The Decisive Word - John 12:36-50 - August 30, 2026

Guest Preacher: Give you thanks for this time that we can gather together. And we pray for your help. God, I pray for your help. Lord, I pray that you would fill me with your spirit, that you would fill your people with your spirit, that you would be here present among us and take your heart or take your word and sink it deep into our hearts, Father. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. We give ourselves to you in this time, Lord. Speak to us, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Have you ever received a a word of bad advice? Honestly, there are times when I will willingly and purposely give bad advice. if I am with some friends and we are entering into a building, and I see my friend walk up to the door, which is supposed to be pulled open, and I see him struggling to push it open, I will often say, Hey man, you gotta push a little harder. Like And it's humorous for me to watch them. for a few moments struggling to push open a door that is meant to be pulled open, and they are not quite so happy with me after that advice, but I find it humorous. they, on the other hand, are not are not so thrilled with my word of advice. But it raises a question what do you do with a word? What do you do with a message from someone? And that's a question that is. Lingering around our text today, John 12, verses 36 through 50. And in this passage, we see Jesus wrapping up his public ministry. And from here on out, in the book of John, we are going to see Jesus engaging people in more private settings. Now, the book of John from the very beginning has been narrating the great works of Christ, his message to the people, his message to the crowds. But here we are seeing Jesus begin to retreat from the crowds. And sandwich between these two narratives the the narrative of Jesus' public ministry and the narrative of his suffering and death, his crucifixion and resurrection. Between these two narratives, we have our passage today. In some ways, this passage acts as kind of a pivot passage, if you will. It occupies an important place in John's gospel, and it challenges us in some critical ways. And perhaps more than anything else, this passage forces us to consider what do you do with a word? What do you do with the word when that word is the word of God? Do you dismiss it as fiction? Do you reject it as irrelevant? Or do you receive it as a word of supreme importance for your life? Now make no mistake about it. What John is letting us know today is that our ultimate fortunes rise or fall based on what we do with The word of God. In other words, how we respond to God's word reveals our hearts and determines our future. So let's take a look at this passage, John chapter 12, starting verse 36, and we can see two main things in this passage. We're gonna see the unbelief of the people, and then we're gonna see the message of Jesus. So let's look at it together. John 12. Starting in verse 36, halfway through, it says this. When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him. All right, so here we see Jesus is retreating from the crowds. And if you'll remember from the previous passage, Jesus has just said, I'm the light. And the light is only gonna be with you a little while longer. And here we see Jesus withdrawing. In effect, it is the light withdrawing. And notice how he he phrases this here, the writer. He says that Jesus departed and hid himself. All right? There's an element of judgment that you can hear in this. Jesus is not just saying, hey guys, I gotta go. No, he is withdrawing for a reason, and we see that reason right here in the very next verse, thirty-seven, though Jesus had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him. Several years, many months of ministry in the public, among the crowds, speaking the message, miracles, signs, wonders, the word of life. After so much time in public ministry, here's the outcome: widespread unbelief. Though Jesus had stoked their curiosity with his teaching, amazed them with his miracles, yet they did not believe. They were fascinated by Jesus, yes, but they were not moved to repentance. They were intrigued by him, but not inclined to take his word to heart. How easy it is for us to think of Jesus as an interesting and inspiring figure, let yet overlook the fact that Jesus makes a total claim on our lives. Jesus is not interested in our fascination. He is interested in our hearts. And he wants our wholehearted devotion and will not accept anything less. But right here in the text, we see the crowds. Rather half-heartedly dismissing Jesus and his message. And this warrants an explanation. How could it be that the creator of the universe would come to earth in the form of a man and human flesh, being born among his chosen people to serve as their redeemer and their king, and yet his own people rejected him? How could that be? You see, this is a question that troubled many people in that day. And you can understand why. You had Christians making this claim that Jesus is the divine Son of God, that he is the Savior and Lord of all creation, and that we must receive Him as such. And yet His own people rejected Him. How is it that we can affirm all of those things about Jesus, and yet His own people just simply reject? Dismissed him. It's a fair question. So, how are we to understand such widespread unbelief? Well, on the one hand, it is surprising, and we hear that in the tone of the verse, though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe. So we can say, in some sense, that that's surprising. How could that be? And yet, on the other hand. It's not totally unexpected, according to John. If you remember in John chapter 1, he prepares the reader for this outcome. He says in John chapter 1 that Jesus came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. It was a foreshadowing of what would come in what we see here in John 12, right? But additionally, we see that the unbelief of the crowds is rooted. And prophetic expectation from long ago. And we see that here in the next verses. John trying to explain the unbelief of the people quotes some important Old Testament passages that were written many centuries earlier. And this is what he says. Again, though Jesus had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be. Fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. So here we see that the rejection of Jesus actually fulfills the prophecies from long ago. That people would look to Jesus and with hard hearts they would reject him. Right? And it's fair to ask, why is that, right? It may not have been totally unexpected that he would be widely rejected by his people, but why is it? What is the reason for such widespread unbelief? And the answer is. Is provided for us here. And these two passages from Isaiah, these two references that John makes here in this section of his gospel account, they're doing a lot of heavy lifting. All right, they're explaining a lot to us. And in particular, we see here, as he quotes from Isaiah, again, they had blind eyes and hard hearts. You see, the widespread unbelief that Jesus faced at the end of his public ministry was rooted in a problem with their eyes and a problem with their hearts. We might say that the people had impaired vision and improper love. And we can see that here. So let's look at it. Number one, at the root of unbelief is impaired vision. These two references to Isaiah, these two passages, create somewhat of a paradox for us, all right? The first passage that John is drawing from is Isaiah 52 and 53. And if you're familiar at all with the Old Testament, the Bible, the works of Isaiah, you'll recognize this as a famous servant song. It is a famous passage which prophesies that the coming Savior, who we have come to know as Jesus, would come as a humble. Servant. And in that passage, Isaiah declares this, talking about Jesus, he says, His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. And, like a root out of dry ground, he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with. Grief. And so here we see this passage picturing Jesus as a lowly and humble servant figure, a dishonored and disfigured servant. Now, in the second passage, John here quotes from Isaiah 6, which gives us quite a different picture. In that passage, Isaiah sees the Lord. And he says this He says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. So here we see a scene of glory and majesty. Now let's think about this. John is mapping both of these passages onto Jesus to help us understand who Jesus is. But look at what he says in verse 41. John says, Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. In other words, John is saying that Isaiah in this passage looked and saw the glorious Jesus Christ. But think about it. These two things, these two images that we get, they're not all that similar, right? On one hand, John is trying to communicate to us via Isaiah the prophet that Jesus is the lowly servant of humble appearance. And then on the other hand, John is picturing Jesus as the exalted and honorable enthroned king and Lord over all creation. These two things are different. And so we can sit here and ask ourselves, well, which one is it? Is he the exalted king or is he the humble, lowly servant? And the answer is yes. Yes, he is both. And John is intentionally doing this to form and shape our understanding of who Jesus is. And this is what troubled the people of Israel. You see. Their vision was impaired. They weren't seeing clearly. Isaiah says that the people were blind. They were looking for an exalted king, yes, but they did not anticipate their king taking on the humility of a servant. Though the Lord and Savior of the universe was right before their eyes, they were blind. And if we're honest, we can all wrestle with this kind of impaired vision. How often do we turn away from the beauty that God is offering to us in Jesus Christ and instead look to other things to satisfy? It might be a relationship that we look to. It might be a website that we look to. It might be a bank account. It could be any number of things. The question is, what are you looking to? What are you looking for? What are your eyes gazing on? Our hearts will follow our eyes. And God is calling us to look on Him and find in Him. Our heart's satisfaction, the satisfaction of our deepest longings. He's calling us to look on Christ and live. As the psalmist says, those who look to him are radiant. Friends, look to him. That's what faith is. We look to Christ. A.W. Tozer defines faith as the gaze of the soul upon a saving God. And when we lift up our inward eyes to gaze upon God, we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us. What are you looking to? We see here in the text that a root of unbelief is impaired vision. Additionally, we see that at the root of unbelief is a heart problem. At the root of unbelief is improper love. Is an improper love. Look at what it says in verse 42. John explains, nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. You see, the authorities here they believed, supposedly, but that faith wasn't true faith. And why not? Because they would not. Confess that faith. We remember the words of Romans. The book of Romans tells us that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith comes with confession. Saving faith requires confession, but these authorities were not willing to do that. They weren't willing to confess this faith. Faith. Why? Why weren't they willing? Verse forty two, again. For fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it. Now Pharisees were religious leaders in that day, and for fear of them they would not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. See, in that day a profession of faith in Christ publicly came. With significant social implications. And in fact, all over the world today, there are many, many places where someone's profession of faith in Christ comes with social implications. People, believers, face communal rejection when they decide to be to start following Jesus. You see, faith is not a private matter. No how no matter how much our culture would want us to confine our faith into this little siloed area that's called our private beliefs. No. Faith is a is not a private matter. Faith has public consequences, and these authorities were not willing to face those consequences. You see, they were they were intrigued by Jesus, but not interested in acknowledging him as Lord. And this kind of response remains common today. You know, many people look to Jesus as a fascinating character and moral teacher, but if that is the sum total of our view of Jesus, we've got it all wrong. Again, Jesus isn't interested in our fascination. He's interested in our wholehearted submission and worship. Looking deeper, we can ask, well, why was it that they weren't willing to confess it publicly? Why were they so afraid of being put out of the synagogue? Verse 43, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. They harbored an improper love. You see, these leaders they loved a certain kind of glory, and that glory didn't match with what they saw in Jesus. They wanted a different kind of glory. Again, these two references to the book of Isaiah are explaining a lot for us because they're helping us to see that in reality, glory is wrapped up with humility. And they wanted no part of that. No, no. They wanted no part of a glory that included humility. They wanted glory from the people. They wanted the praise of man. They wanted themselves to be high and lofty in the eyes of others. And this love for personal glory wrecked whatever faith they supposedly had. True faith is incompatible with self-promotion and self-glory. And that's a heavy word. In what ways do you value the praise of others over the love of God? Are you willing to risk your reputation for the sake of the gospel? Let's let today be a day for us to turn away from improper loves and embrace the love of God in Christ Jesus. may the Lord give us eyes to see the goodness, the beauty, the wonder, the joy, the greatness of his love for us in Christ Jesus, which he is holding out for us. So, what do we see here in this first part of the text? We see here that at the root of unbelief. Is impaired vision and improper love. The people were expecting a Savior to come, yes, but when he came, they missed it. They missed it. They rejected Jesus and they rejected his word because they looked for and longed for the wrong things. Their eyes were impaired and their hearts were impoverished. Friends, what are you looking for? What are you longing for? And what will you do with this word? Now, if we see here in the first part of this text the unbelief of the people, we see in the second part of it the message of Jesus. So verses 44 and onward, verses 44 through 50 act as a kind of summary statement of Jesus' ministry and message. Again, Jesus is wrapping up his public ministry here. And from now on, the narrative of John is going to turn to a different subject matter. And so right here. What we have here is in effect, in some ways, Jesus' closing message, his closing address to the world, to the public, to the crowds. And we can see it in three parts. First, we see a review of his message. Verse 44 says, 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. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. Here we see a strong claim to the divinity of Jesus. As one commentator puts it, to hear Jesus is to hear God in word. And to see Jesus is to see God in action. He's not a normal man. He's not just a moral teacher. No, no, no. This is the God of the universe and human flesh, and his message therefore comes with divine authority. Now, what is that message? Verse 47 says, I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. That's good news. That's good news. And he can say that. Jesus can say that because he is the one who will go on to die on our behalf, bearing the curse of sin on a cross, and then three days later rising from the dead to vanquish the powers of death and darkness. And so when he says, I have come so that you might be freed from the darkness, if you believe in me, he can make good on that claim. Because he is the one who has defeated death and darkness, and that is good news for us. Friends, how easy it is for us, even today, to live a kind of Instagram life. Where things on the surface, it seems like it's all good. We're all good. But underneath the surface, perhaps there's some darkness. Perhaps there are areas in our lives that aren't quite what they seem. Is that you? Are there areas in your life where you're harboring darkness? Maybe you feel like the darkness sometimes traps you or binds you. Maybe sometimes you feel helplessly stuck, enslaved to sin. Or maybe, maybe you're somewhat of the opposite. Maybe, maybe you revel in the darkness, maybe you enjoy the works of darkness, delighting in sins of the flesh. But friends, either way, this word is a good word. For the one who feels trapped in darkness, afraid of coming to the light, this is good news. Jesus is saying, You're not hopeless. You're not hopeless. The light of Christ is knocking at the door, ready to flood in. And cause the darkness to flee. There is hope. If you will but turn to him, open your heart and let the light of Christ flood in. There's hope. That's the message. There's hope. And for the one who delights in sin, who takes pleasure in the works of darkness, maybe that's you today. Maybe you've been just been living a rough life. And now you're just you're just you're coming in here today and you're just ready. You're just ready for something different. Maybe you're unsatisfied with everything that's been going on in your life. The good news is that. Your problem is not that you lack a desire. Instead, you lack an inability to see that what Jesus is holding out to us as a gift is far more desirable than anything that this world offers to us. This is good news. The Lord Jesus can rescue us from darkness. Yet, if we reject this word, things will not go well for us. And that's the second thing we see here: a rejection of Jesus' message. Verse 47, Jesus declares: if anyone hears my words and doesn't 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. So, very clearly, what is the outcome of rejecting this word? It is judgment. You see, Jesus came to save, yes. But Jesus came with a message. And with that message, Jesus has in effect has drawn a line in the sand, so to speak. And he invites us to cross over into the light. But if we reject that word, that offer, we effectively cut ourselves off from the very source of life and invite judgment on ourselves. So What do you do with the word? What do you do with this word? Our ultimate fortunes rise or fall based on what we do with this word of God. And we see that this message again comes on good authority. Verse forty nine, Jesus further elaborates, 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. I came across a story of a couple that got into a major argument in the produce section of a grocery store. All right. One of them, as they were trying to figure out what they're going to buy and prepare, one of them says, Hey, look, let's get this vegetable. And the other one rather emphatically and loudly declares, no, no, no, no. We're not getting that vegetable. No, we're getting this vegetable. And look, this one's better, and I should know. And just as the first person was about to respond to the other, this other person doubles down on their credentials and says, No, no, no, look, you know I was a chef. I worked at KFC. Evidently, working at KFC is all of the authority you need to make definitive culinary decisions. The point is this a definitive word should rest on definitive authority. And Jesus here is making that clear. His message, his word comes with divine authority. And we should treat it as such. It is a weighty message, an important message. It is a Decisive word. Finally, we see here the reception of Jesus' message in verse 50. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me. This is the outcome of receiving the word, eternal life. Now, what does this mean? This idea of of eternal life. What is it? You know, eternal life is is a is an easy phrase for us to toss around, but its meaning is not quite as simple, right? It's not it's not just it's not just about a quantity of time, it's also about a quality of time, right? In other words, Jesus is not saying, Hey, if you believe in me, then you just get to live forever in some kind of heavenly clouds and some kind of abstract place. Let's let's get real. Who wants that? Like, nobody wants that. No, no. What Jesus is offering us with this eternal life is something far greater, far more wonderful. We might define eternal life as referring to knowing the God of the universe in a personal way and getting to enjoy the kind of relationship with Him and His good creation that He envisioned from the outset of the beginning of the world. Right? We might call it abundant life. It is the all-satisfying life in this future kingdom of God. And here's the good news it's not just a future thing. No, no. The good news is that this life is available to us right now. The goodness of God's future kingdom can invade the present right now, and we can enjoy that kind of life if we receive his word. With an open heart. For those of you familiar with the Old Testament, some of this might sound familiar. The great prophet Moses, the leader of God's people, at one point shared the entire words of God with his people. He relayed God's instruction, his law, laid it all out before them, this word of God. And at the very end, Moses looks at them and says, Take to heart. All the words which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law, for it is no empty word for you, but your very life. And by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. What we do with God's word reveals our hearts and determines our future. Our ultimate fortunes rise or fall based on what we do with this word of God. The great missionary John Patton shares a story that he calls the miracle of the speaking wood. Patton was a renowned missionary in the eighteen hundreds, and he lived and labored many hard, hard years on the New Hebrides Islands, which is currently the modern day country of Vanuatu. It is a an island nation that is about a little over a thousand miles off the northeast coast of Australia. And he served there for a long time. And he shares this story. At one point, he was trying to build a new house for his family. And he had a local tribal chief with him to help. And as they're on this job site, they run out of a few materials and he's in need of some more. And so what he does is he takes a small piece of spare wood and takes a pencil and he inscribes a message on the wood. Describing the things that he needs from his wife, who is several hundred yards away at a different place where all of their materials are. And so he writes this message down, and then he requests this local chief who's next to him. His name is Namaki. So he requests Namaki to take this piece of wood down to his wife, several hundred yards away, and he explains that this wood will speak to my wife. And this local chief. looks at him incredulously like, come on, man. Seriously. Like we know wood doesn't speak. Are you kidding me? Like, be real. Just tell me what you need, and I'll get it for you. And Patton doubles down. He says, no, no, no, look, just take the wood, give it to my wife, it'll speak to her. And again, the the the tribal chief, you know, they he the ch the chiefs there, all of the people on this island, they call John Patton missy. It's a kind of a strange term for us, but it was for it was for them a term of endearment and respect. So the the the tribal chief says, Look, Missy, just tell me what you need, I'll get it. He goes, No, just take the wood, it'll speak to my wife. And he's just like, All right. Takes the wood, walks down to where his wife is in another another location, hands this piece of wood to Patton's wife. She grabs it, looks at it for a split second, and instantly begins gathering materials to give to this tribal chief. And the tribal chief is flabbergasted. He's like, What is up with this piece of wood? Like this is weird, man. And so he takes all of the materials, takes this miracle wood, walks back to Patton, lays down all the materials, and basically gestures to Patton like, look, dude, you owe me an explanation. Like this is strange. Like how in the world did she know what you needed just by this piece of wood? And Patton explains, look, I took a a pen and I a pencil and I wrote a message. On the wood. And when my wife saw the message, in effect, the wood spoke to her. And this is like what God has done for us. God Himself has inscribed His message in His Word, and it can speak to us if we are willing to hear. And this local tribal chief became quite excited about that possibility. And he went on to become one of Patton's most avid helpers, as Patton spent many years translating the scriptures into the tribal language. Week after week, month after month, this tribal chief is helping with that endeavor because he's excited about it. He's excited to hear the word speak. Years later, years later, John Patton wrote this. He said, The old chief. Had eagerly helped me in translating and preparing this first book in the local language. He had a great desire to hear it speak as he graphically expressed it. It was made up chiefly of short passages from the scriptures that might help me to introduce them to the treasures of divine truth and love. Namaki came to me morning after morning saying, Missy, is it done? Can it speak? At last I was able to answer yes. The old chief eagerly responded, Does it speak my words? I said it does. And with rising interest, Namaki exclaimed, Make it speak to me, Missy. let me hear it speak. I read to him part of the book, and the old man fairly shouted in an ecstasy of joy, It does speak. It speaks my own language too. give it to me. And he grasped it, turned it all around in every way, and pressed it to his bosom. And then, closing it with a look of great disappointment, handed it back to me, saying, Missy, it cannot speak. It will never speak to me. No, I said. You don't know how to read yet, how to make it speak to you, but I will teach you to read, and then it will speak to you as it does to me. And that old tribal chief went on to become one of the most faithful and fruitful heralds of the Word of God on the whole isle. Friends, what will you do with the Word of God? The message of Christ. Will you treasure it? Will you hide it in your hearts? Will you devote yourself to it? Will you listen to it? Will you be nourished by it? Will you receive it? Will you believe it? Or will you dismiss it? AW Tozer, again, he says, he says, the Bible is the voice of God. The Bible is the voice of God calling men home from the wilds of sin. It is a road map for the returning prodigals. It is instruction in righteousness, light and darkness, information about God and man and life and death and heaven and hell. In it, God warns, he commands, rebukes, promises, encourages. In it, he offers salvation and life through his eternal son. And the destiny of each one depends on the response he or she makes to the voice of the Word. There is before us a momentous choice. Today, just as he did then, Jesus is holding out his word to us. He is offering us his word, and this word will either bring us life or it will invite judgment. What will you do with the Word of God? Lord, you are good. And I pray that you would shower us with your grace, your goodness, and help us to see the great worth and value of your word. Lord, as Moses said, we cling to. This word is no empty word for us, Lord, but it is our very life. God, I pray that you would help those here. Help us all, Lord, to look upon your word as our life. May we treasure it. May we hide it in our hearts. May we be like the old tribal chief who was a friend of Patton's. May we be excited about it. Would we long to hear it speak to us? And Lord, make it speak. Lord, speak to us, God. Help us, Lord, we pray. In Jesus' name.

John 12:36–50 John 12 · chapter mention John 1 · chapter mention John 1 · chapter mention