JOHN 12:44-50 THEN JESUS CRIED OUT AND SAID, ”HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME, BELIEVES NOT IN ME BUT IN HIM WHO SENT ME

   John 12:44 Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.

45 "And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 47 "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. 48 "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. 49 "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. 50 "And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."

 

Jesus really wants people to be saved.  In Luke 19:10 it says "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. “The consequence of rejection is going to bring ultimate condemnation.  John 3:17-19 emphasizes the same thing.  Jesus the Word comes and people are condemned because they don’t believe it. 

 The purpose of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ is a positive offer, verse forty-seven.  “To save the world.”  You may not like the law of gravity. Gravity has no respect for persons and if you step off the top a building, the gravity will not even care or shed a tear as you hit the pavement.  It won’t care. Over and over again Jesus has told them who He is and they need to be saved, the truth has been revealed and they will not embrace it.

Whether or not people embrace it or reject it is their responsibility.  Do not blame the medical community if you have lung cancer.  Do not blame the medical community if you have diabetes.  Do not blame the physicist and the guy who figured out the laws of gravity.  You and I make a choice to go against what we know.  And that’s exactly what God saying to us here. 

 Put it another way, no one will be in hell who did not have ample opportunity to know how to be saved.  There is not a person who will go to hell who did not have ample opportunity to come to trust in Jesus Christ.  I believe Scripture teaches it throughout.  Jesus is speaking to His Father and He is speaking loud and the religious leaders are quiet because they’re afraid. How about you, what will you believe?

44 Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.

We cannot tell for certain when and where these final words of our Lord were spoken. In verse 36, John tells us that Jesus “went away and hid himself from them.” Verses 37-43 are John’s words, explaining Israel’s unbelief. Verses 44-50 are our Lord’s final words, which seem to be placed here out of chronological sequence. John is not so concerned about the timing of these words as their impact. In many ways, verses 44-50 sum up the message of the Gospel of John, and of our Lord. We find nothing new here, but a repetition of what has been said many times before. Since these are our Lord’s final words, spoken publicly to the Jews in Jerusalem, this makes good sense.

I would point out that our Lord’s words here are not only applicable to the Jews, who are already rejecting Him as their Messiah, but to the Greeks, who are seeking Him as their Messiah. Jesus intends for these words to be heard because He shouts them out (verse 44).^[1] I believe the backdrop for these final words of our Lord is found in John chapter 10, where our Lord says,

37 “If I do not perform the deeds of my Father, do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, so that you may come to know and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

Jesus’ words here are spoken to the Jews in Jerusalem during the feast of the Dedication. Jesus has been teaching about Himself as the Good Shepherd, and He has clearly claimed to be one with the Father. As a result, the Jewish religious authorities sought to stone Him (10:31). Jesus tells them how they can put His words to the test. They know that He has claimed to be God, so let them test this claim by His works. Do His works confirm His words? This is a very sensitive point because our Lord frequently employs the word “hypocrite” in reference to the Pharisees. Their works did not measure up to their words (see Matthew 23:1-3). Jesus is more than willing to have His words tested by His works. If they will not believe His words for their sake alone, then let them believe His words on account of His works. Let them conclude with Nicodemus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2).

When we go back to John 12:34, the Jewish people had to choose between the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of the Pharisees. There (12:35-36), Jesus urged them to “walk in the light,” to believe and behave in the light of what He taught. Once again, in Jesus’ final exhortation to the Jews, He urges those who hear Him to walk in the light. His message is clear and concise. He has come from God, and He speaks for God (verses 49-50). His words are God’s commandment, and this commandment is the means to eternal life (verses 49-50). To believe in the word of Jesus is to believe in the Father; to see Jesus is to see the Father (verses 44-45). If one believes in Jesus, he obeys His words. If one does not believe in the words of Jesus, he disobeys the commandment of God and fails to enter into eternal life. Instead, the words of Jesus become the basis of the unbeliever’s eternal judgment.

 

First of all He, Jesus Christ, in this rendering, it says, “He cried out.”

 Some of your versions say, “He shouted out loudly.”

 That’s a good rendering and many other times its used when it means to scream or to shout out.  So Jesus Christ is openly, loudly speaking about His Father when the Jewish leaders are silent for fear.  That’s what the writer wants you to see.  Jesus came to lead the people out of darkness into light. 

Verse 44, for example. Jesus cried out, it's as if John is saying when Jesus was here, Jesus cried out and said, "He that believeth on Me believeth not on Me but on Him that sent Me." You can't believe in Jesus Christ without believing in God the Father, you can't believe in God the Father without believing in Jesus Christ. We covered that in three passages...5:24; 8:19; and 10:38, all three of those places the same message. The only way you'll ever know God is through Christ. The only way you'll ever know Christ is also to experience and know fully in the fullest sense the God who created the universe.

So what is the first result? The first forever consequence of belief? A personal knowledge of God and Christ.!

 45 "And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.

Then verse 45, another consequence of belief, "He that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me." Just kind of reiterating the first statement. It's a vision and an insight concerning God. You know, Hebrews 1 tells us that Christ is the expressed image of God's person. So when you know Christ, you know the God of the universe. That's the first consequence of belief. The first forever consequence is a permanent, forever knowledge of God.

 46 "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

Verse 46, "I am come a light into the world," you remember how He said that. "That whosoever believeth in Me should not abide in darkness." There's another consequence of belief, you're not in darkness, you're in light forever, eternal light.

 47 "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.

here's another consequence, "If any man hear My words and believe not, I judge him not for I came not to judge the world but to save the world." That's a tremendous statement. Jesus said, "I am not come to condemn the world but that the world might be saved." Jesus didn't come as judge, He came as...what?...as Savior. He didn't come to judge the world, but if a man refuses Him, then that man assigns judgment to himself. John 3, "He is judged already because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God." Jesus said, "I came to save. If men refuse Me, that's judgment. I didn't come to judge." Next time He comes, what does He come to do? Comes to judge. First time He came to save, if men refuse His salvation they receive His judgment. I didn't come to judge, I came to save. Men refused.

 48 "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.

"He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words hath one that judges him, the Word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day."

 The purpose of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ is a positive offer, verse forty-seven.  “To save the world.”  We’ve spoken before about the very appearance of the message to save the world has in a sense a condemning side to it.  Come back to the foundation.  We’re all sinful already.  We’re all destined for hell already, prior to the offer of salvation coming.

 Well, the consequence of rejection is going to bring ultimate condemnation.  John 3:17-19 underscores same thing.  In this context, the Word comes and people are condemned because they don’t believe it. 

You may not like the law of gravity. gravity has no respect for persons and if you step off the top of this building, the gravity will not even care or shed a tear of propositional truth as you hit the pavement.  It won’t care.

 In all these scenarios, the law has been, if you will, revealed.  The rule’s been revealed.  Whether or not people embrace it or reject it is their responsibility.  Do not blame the medical community if you have lung cancer.  Do not blame the medical community if you have diabetes.  Do not blame the physicist and the guy who figured out the laws of gravity.  You and I make a choice to go against what we know.  And that’s exactly what God saying to us here. 

 Put it another way, no one will be in hell who did not have ample opportunity to know how to be saved.  There is not a person who will go to hell who did not have ample opportunity to come to trust in Jesus Christ.  Now, that may be hard for you to find a box to fit in, but I believe Scripture teaches it throughout.  Jesus is speaking to His Father and He is speaking loud and the religious leaders are quiet because they’re afraid.

You know what's going to judge a man without Christ? The Word that Jesus spoke, the actual words that He spoke. Let me give you an illustration of that. The Law says...Do this and you'll die. The Law says...If you kill somebody, you'll die. So you kill somebody, then what becomes your judge? The Law does because the Law said you had to die. The Law says if you violate this thing you'll have to pay a fine. So you violate it and the Law is read to you, the Law is your judge. Jesus came along and said, "Believe you have life, refuse you have death." You refuse, the statement of Jesus is your judge. In other words, the words of Christ become your judge if you refuse Christ. Christ's word is the judge of every man. It doesn't have to be Christ personally. If you...if you kill somebody and you're sentenced by the Law that said if you murder you pay, you can't blame the judge and say, "You're the one, Judge, who sent me to jail, it's all your fault?" No. It's not his fault, he merely is there to make sure that that law...that that law operates on you. And that's how it is at the Great White Throne when Jesus is going to judge men. He's not going to be there to pass all the verdicts just ipso-facto without any other relationship, He is only there to say...Now here was the law, you violated it, so by that law you are judged. So if you don't believe, the Law, the word of Jesus is going to be your judge.

 49 "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.

 

 50 "And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I

speak."  

Jesus says, “I’ve got my Father’s command.”  First time He calls the Gospel a command.  There’s a sense in which the Gospel message is a command.  A command to be obeyed by his son.  “To preach it.  Teach it.”  A command to be obeyed by people to believe Him.  Obeying the Father’s commandment will result in eternal life and condemnation comes not because God sent and relegated to hell, condemnation comes because they reject the Word that came.  And that judges them and therefore they are self-condemned. 

If a man refuses to hear the teaching of Jesus Christ, he sentences himself. He assigns himself to judgment. Jesus came to save. He came to give light. He came to show men the knowledge of God. He came to offer men everlasting life. If a man refuses it, a man then assigns himself to judgment.

Hebrews 12:25, "See that you refuse not Him that speaketh for if they escape not who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven?"

if the people who lived when the prophets lived and when Jesus lived refused and serious judgment came on them, how much more serious on us who refuse when God speaks right out of heaven? Whose voice then shook the earth. "But now He hath promise saying yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven and this word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken." He goes on to say that God is a consuming fire. Listen, if it was serious when men refused God through the voice of His prophets and His Son, how much more serious is it going to be when we refuse His direct voice to us in His Word? God is a consuming fire. To believe is everlasting life, to reject and harden your heart may mean that God will harden it for you. You will not believe and soon you cannot believe.

Israel had a day, and it ended. And so could yours.

 The root of unbelief points to the glory of Jesus Christ. He is the radiance of God’s glory, but he is meek and lowly. The root of unbelief is to love the glory of man (the centrality of man, the praise of man) and not the glory of God (the centrality and supremacy of God). And that is exactly backwards. When we love the glory of God above the glory of man, we will not reject Jesus, but believe on him.

The text of this message and the entire story of the public ministry of Jesus points us to the cross where he will die. He was the glory of Isaiah 6. He was the unattractive suffering servant of Isaiah 53. And therefore (because of both) he was rejected by men and destined for the cross — and for the salvation of the world. This is what God planned in the unbelief of Israel.

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3–5)

[1] The same word (shouted out) is found in John 7:37, where Jesus “shouted out” His words in the temple (see also 7:28). Jesus wants to be certain everyone hears these most crucial words.

Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

             John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.

              “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

 

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