John 12:27-33. The Triumph of Jesus
In the last few days before his crucifixion Jesus gives some profound teaching. Some Greeks had come to Jesus saying,
“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” John 12:21
This appears to have been a trigger for Jesus who then explains that he has come to save the whole world. Jesus knows that he is about to be killed yet he obviously considers that to be a triumph! He says,
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” John 12:23
Jesus then explained that for a seed to die is the means to producing much fruit and that is what he will achieve by his death. He then asks that his followers to have the same attitude, as eternal glory is much more important than earthly success. The only basis for the decisions he makes is what will honour the reputation of his heavenly Father.
“Now is my heart troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father glorify your name!” John 12:27-28
His Father then intervenes just as he had at both Jesus’ baptism and at his transfiguration.
“Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.’” John 12:28
How often this third time that God speaks directly to Jesus is forgotten. The crowd heard a loud noise but thought it to be thunder. At first it seemed as if Jesus’ Father speaking was to him, reassuring him that going to his death really was God’s foreordained plan. But, even though he would doubtless have been reassured, Jesus says that his message was for others benefit.
“Jesus said, ‘This voice was for your benefit, not mine.”
Nothing matters more than that all people should recognise who Jesus is and turn to follow him. This is always God’s intention - that the creator of the universe should receive from men the glory and recognition that is his due. This is what the Lord wants to see brought about by all members of his kingdom.
This sounds like a very strange teaching to human ears, that the Lord God will be exalted through the execution of his Son. Furthermore, it is not only the Lord God who will be exalted by this execution, the event will also exalt his Son. After the Greeks came, Jesus had said,
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” John 12:23
Somehow Jesus himself is going to be glorified or exalted through his death. This must have been hard for his disciples to understand at the time.
The Son of Man
In the New Testament Jesus uses this phrase when talking about himself over eighty times. There is little doubt that he used this phrase because the prophet Daniel had used it to describe a human being that God treated as an equal! Daniel had a vision in which he sees four beasts, representing world dynasties, who successively lost their authority. Then he sees a person steps onto the stage.
“And in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom will never be destroyed.” Daniel 7:13-14
This is an extraordinary prophecy to be written by a Jewish prophet. A man will be admitted into God’s presence coming with clouds. The Lord God gives him the authority that is his own and people from every nation and language worship this man. No wonder why Jesus called himself ‘the Son of Man’ as he saw himself in precisely this role. No wonder when he ascended into heaven,
“ . . . a cloud hid him from their sight.” Acts 1:9
Jesus understands that he has come to establish a new kind of world dynasty, the kingdom of God, which is totally different to worldly kingdoms. Jesus sees that he is about to be exalted to become world conqueror, but this will be achieved by his death. It must be a very different kingdom to worldly kingdoms but that is exactly what the Bible teaches. When Jesus started his public ministry he preached,
“The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” Mark 1:15
God’s kingdom requires a king! Jesus said to Pilate shortly before his death,
“‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.’
‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate.
Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’” John 18:36-37
Jesus thinks that he will be a world conqueror through dying – an extraordinary idea that seems to come from out of this world!
The effect of Jesus’ death
Jesus now said something that needs very careful thought.
“Now is the time for judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” John 12:31-32
We have already seen that Jesus sees his coming death to be a great triumph. He said,
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” John 12:23
When facing disaster he looks forwards to a triumph! He sees his death as a worldwide attraction that will draw people to himself!
This is astonishing. The Jewish and Roman authorities intended that Jesus’ crucifixion should put an end to his claims and his popularity. Jesus sees that it will be the means of establishing his kingdom!
He refers to his death as his ‘lifting up’.
“‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth . . .’ He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.” John 12:32
John intends us to see double meanings in many of the phrases he uses. He was literally ‘lifted up’ on that cross and held there by nails for all to see and gloat. However he was also ‘lifted up’ in exaltation. The authorities intended that his death should be the final ‘put down’, the ultimate humiliation, but for him it will bring glory both to himself and his Father. Extraordinary! Was Jesus deluded or was he right, was he speaking God’s truth?
Let us look further into the three ideas in this extraordinary statement in verses 31 and 32.
1. Jesus is the focus
Jesus sees that everything centres on himself.
“‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth . . .’ John 12:32
In the original Greek, the ‘I’ is very emphatic.
There is no way that an unbeliever will turn to Christ unless Jesus draws them out of their darkness. A preacher may stir up people’s emotions that remain excited for a short while, but a work of God is permanent. The proof of a person’s conversion to Christ is that they keep on living for Christ and ‘bearing fruit’ for him.
A ten year old Kenyan boy wrote a poem about the Christian life and recited it to his class. It was very simple,
“If you would be a Christian, Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on . . .”
The Good Shepherd went out of his way to find the lost sheep. He even left his flock on their own to save the lost. Nothing is more important to the shepherd than to save the lost. He uses humans but any permanent work is his.
The supreme worker in the church is Jesus Christ working through his Holy Spirit, who always points people back to Jesus. It is a false spirit at work if the focus is not completely on Jesus.
2. The World
Jesus understands the significance of his death and that it will have far reaching implications. His death is not just relevant for the Jewish nation,
“‘Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” John 12:30
It would be natural for Jesus to rant about the unfair, immoral and illegal way he had been and was about to to be treated by the Jewish authorities. But his focus is on the rulers of this world who will be ‘driven out’ because of his death!
Jesus knew that at the last hour even his closest disciples would depart from him; they later hid in a locked upper room. Yet after his death he foresaw that all men, people from all nations and even people who have denied him would be drawn to himself through his death.
Jesus sees that his death will turn everything upside down.
Today there are some who teach ‘universalism’. This doctrine says that all people, whoever they are and however they have lived, will be accepted by God because he is a ‘God of love’. This is nowhere taught in the Bible. Jesus taught that there is a real hell for those who reject his rule. He also taught that only a minority of people will find themselves in heaven. The last chapter of the Sermon on the Mount denounces this heresy of universalism.
“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:14
What the Bible does teach is that Jesus is a universal Saviour. He claimed to be the only Saviour and if any reject him they reject the only hope of salvation. This is what Jesus means here when he says,
“Now is the time for judgment on this world.” John 12:30
Jesus is saying that our attitude to his death for us determines our own eternal judgment. Today there are preachers who talk about Jesus as if he is a good option. They say,
“I would like to urge you to consider the claims of Jesus.”
They usually respond with something like,
“Thank you so much for suggesting this may help me, but I am very busy at present.”
That is not how the apostles approached people. They start with who Jesus is, and they warned people,
“A day is coming shortly when Jesus Christ will judging you. Your life and your attitude to your maker will be under the microscope. No-one can con God. Jesus will be your judge and will determine your eternal destiny, whether you like the idea or not. There is only one answer . . .”
There are many individuals and religions that think that our eternal destiny is simply up to God – they are ‘determinists’. Thy think that nothing we do can change our fate. This is a form of fatalism. Some Londoners thought in the last war with all those bombs falling on London,
“If its got your name on it, you’ve had it.”
But there were precautions people could have taken.
In Jesus’ day there were those who were fatalists. The Essenes were a group of fanatical Jews who hid the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scholar, Dr Leon Morris wrote,
“In the scrolls there is a rigid and hopeless determinism. The ‘men of darkness’ belong to the spirit of error. Their fate deprives them of any power of choice.”
Jesus says that the eternal fate of all people in the world lies in his hands. Notice how, in this famous summary of the gospel, it is the world that is God’s focus, a world that was naturally inclined against him.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the worldthrough him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16-18
The Bible is clear, our destiny is not only in his hands, it is also in ours. The verdict of the coming judgment depends on how we have reacted to Jesus! This passage continues,
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19
This is surely what Jesus is repeating at the end of his ministry,
“Now is the time for judgment of this world.” John 12:31
Our destiny is in our hands. When we hear of Christ who was crucified to pay for our sin and we turn our backs on him, however politely we do this, then we condemn ourselves. We have rejected God’s answer and will have to bear the consequences of our sin on our own. We have rejected the only person who can save us. We have determined the judgment on us, our destiny has already been made known. Only if we are willing to come into the light, to have our dark side revealed, as then we can be given salvation.
When the cross of Christ is explained to us, we are making a judgment on ourselves. A dividing is going on. We seal our own fate. The way the Lord determines our fate on the last day is determined by the way we react to his love today. This is why there is no more important question for all to answer. This is why Jesus says,
“Now is the time for judgment of this world.” John 12:31
This is why it is wrong to procrastinate making a decision about the place of Jesus Christ in my life, Jesus says,
‘Now is the time . . .”
3. Mission
“Now is the time . . ; now the prince of this world will be cast out.” John 12:31
It looked to everybody as if the powers of darkness had defeated the Son of God. The crowds turned on Jesus and shouted, ‘Crucify him’. His disciples deserted him and the Jewish authorities had the Roman Governor in their hand. It looks as if Satan is ultimately victorious and the dark forces win. The cross of Christ shows man at his worst, he is selfish, immoral, and so unfair.
Is there a redeeming feature? Most certainly there is - God has allowed all this to happen to his Son so that he can step in and turn seeming defeat into triumphant glory. Satan and sin were overthrown when Jesus died on that cross. He took on himself my sin and the sin of all who will turn to him and on that cross Jesus was exalted and enthroned.
Some modern scholars scoff at the idea of Satan calling it ‘metaphysical dualism’. They laugh at the idea of two great powers slugging it out for supremacy. But the Bible also laughs at such a preposterous theory. The Bible is clear that God is always in control. Only when God permits it for a short while, can Satan and his dark forces seem to have any power. Jesus repeatedly confirms that there are powers of evil, to deny the presence of Satan is to contradict Christ, but his powers are definitely limited.
The Rabbis used the words ‘prince of this world’ as a term for Satan. Satan was considered to be the ruler of the great Gentile pagan nations outside Jerusalem. These nations were trapped in helpless darkness and idolatry and were kept from knowing God by Satan.
Jesus is saying that this great power has kept nations in darkness through their religions and their sin. However at his cross Jesus says he gains the victory over Satan and that he will come to rule Gentile nations instead of Satan.
Looking at the world it is clear that the gospel of the Kingdom of God has had much influence in many nations and still does. In ancient Britain people were held in fear by occult practices and idols until the gospel freed people from these. In many African countries the demonic witch doctors held power but the coming of the gospel is changing all that. From the time of Jesus’ cross, Satan will be cast out by the gradual conversion of sinners across the world to following Jesus Christ. This mission will continue until the last day when Christ will return in full glory. This mission began just fifty days after his crucifixion, at Pentecost, when the power of God was released, a power that is so different to worldly power. This power is still being released today through selfless service and even death for Jesus. The benefits for those taking this path are immense for those who are willing to fall into the ground and die for him. Look at how several verses end,
“ . . . it produces many seeds.” John 12:24
To win others for Christ is so rewarding, we are saving people for an eternity with God.
“ . . . will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:25
That is the prize for Jesus, a return to the glory of his Father’s presence and that too is our great reward – eternal life.
“ . . . him will the Father honour.” John 12:26
What better reward could there be, than to be honoured by the Lord God, the creator of the universe? This is the repeated theme, that the Lord Jesus has prepared a home for us, his people.
4. Decision Time
The Bible contains some 70 or more references to choosing the path we will follow. Throughout the pages of Scripture, the inescapable imperative of choosing for or against the Lord comes over and over again. Joshua commanded Israel before his death,
“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the River (Euphrates), or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
Jesus said,
“If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” John 7:17
He also declared,
“He who is not with me is against me.” Matthew 12:30
In addition to the fact that each of us must choose whether we are for or against Christ, the Bible makes clear that we have only a limited time to make this choice, and that the consequence of doing so endures for eternity. The people of Israel, when challenged by Joshua replied,
“No! We will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:21
The writer and scholar, C.S.Lewis wrote in his book, ‘God in the Dock,’
“‘What are we to make of Jesus Christ?’ This is a question, which has, in a sense, a frantically comic side. For the real question is not what are we to make of Christ, but what is He to make of us? The picture of a fly sitting deciding what it is going to make of an elephant has comic elements about it.”
When people hear the gospel, some are attracted to him and respond, others feel drawn to Christ but postpone deciding on whether they need to be saved. Our consciences will tell us whether we need to be forgiven by God and waiting won’t change this fact. A decision about Jesus and his cross must be made now,
“Now is the time . . .” John 12:31
BVP
