The Gospel of John: John 12.37-50

Read and meditate on John 12.37-50.
In this final passage of Jesus’ public ministry, John provides a kind of summation of where things stand. Jesus has been clear and consistent in His teaching, and abundant in His signs. Yet most people still do not believe. And among those who do, only the disciples seem willing to be publicly identified as followers of the Lord. His enemies are plotting, and the masses of people fear them. Yet in the midst of this, Jesus does not tone down His message. Quite the opposite, in fact.

³⁷But although He many signs
had done before them, yet they could not find
a reason to believe in Him, ³⁸that so
Isaiah’s word might be fulfilled, who spoke,
“Lord, who believes our word? To whom have You
revealed Your arm?” ³⁹Isaiah said this too,
to show that they could not believe: ⁴⁰“For He
has blinded them, lest anyone should see,
and He their hearts has hardened, lest they come
to understand, repent, and turning from
their sins, be healed.” ⁴¹Isaiah prophesied
these things when he God’s glory saw inside
the temple, and there spoke of Him.

                                               ⁴²And yet,
among the Jewish rulers, many set
their hearts to trust in Him, but they would not
confess Him, fearing they would be put out
of fellowship, ⁴³because they loved men’s praise
more than the praise of God.

                                        ⁴⁴And in those days
the Lord cried out and said, “He who believes
in Me, believes not in Me, but believes
in Him Who sent Me. ⁴⁵He who sees Me, sees
Him Who has sent me. ⁴⁶I have come to be
a light unto the world, that all who trust
in Me shall not abide in darkness. ⁴⁷Just
so, anyone hears My words, but does
not trust in Me, I do not judge, because
I did not come to judge the world, but to
deliver it.⁴⁸He who rejects Me, who
does not receive My words, yet has this as
his judge – the words I speak will on the last
day judge him. ⁴⁹On My own authority
I have not spoken; but the Father, He
Who sent Me, gave me a command, what I
should speak. ⁵⁰And I know this command is life
eternal. Therefore, everything I speak
is only what the Father says to speak.”

- John 12.37-50

Reflect
1. How would you “sum-up” the situation in your Personal Mission Field, with respect to where people stand with Jesus? Do you see the same kind of people in your Personal Mission Field that Jesus saw in His? Explain. Complete this prayer: Lord, You have commanded us to lift up our eyes and see the harvest. As I look around my Personal Mission Field…

2.  John did not want us to be alarmed about the paucity of public support for Jesus. He tied the situation in Jerusalem to two passages in Isaiah (53.1; 6.10), and used those to frame the events in Jerusalem in the larger context of Scripture. How should we as followers of Christ today take comfort and encouragement from these texts? Thank You, Lord, for Your Word, which is ever-present, ever-true, ever…

3.  Verse 41 puts the situation and the citations from Isaiah in the larger context of that toward which John’s gospel has been moving since John 1.14. Isaiah saw God’s glory. John saw God’s glory. And we’re about to see God’s glory in the chapters that follow. How should this orientation toward the glory of God encourage and sustain us in our witness for the Lord? Show me Your glory, Lord, and keep me focused on it, since...

4.  Light, darkness; believe, reject; see Jesus, see the Father; saved, judged: Verses 44-48 offer a concise summary and synopsis of the message and ministry of Jesus. Explain. How might you use these ideas as the content of a Gospel presentation? You have called me to be Your witness, Lord, and given me Your Spirit for this work. Help me each day as I…

5. Ultimately, Jesus is all about the Father (vv. 49, 50). The Father sent Him. The Father commanded Him. The Father told Him what to speak. He reveals the Father to all who see Him. He comes in the authority of the Father. He is the Father’s Son. All who believe in Him become children of the Father (Jn. 1.12). Jesus does not save us so that we will love and follow Him merely. He leads us to the Father (Heb. 1.3), intercedes for us with the Father (Heb. 9.25), and glorifies the Father in all He does. Would you say that your relationship with Jesus is giving you a better understanding of and love for the Father? Explain. Bring together into one prayer the prayers you composed for questions 1-4.

Summary
“If life everlasting is the Son himself and the commandment is life everlasting, what is this but saying, ‘I am the commandment of the Father’? And in the same way in the following, ‘Whatever I speak therefore, even as the Father said to me, so I speak,’ we must not understand ‘said to me’ as if words were spoken to the only Word or that the Word of God needed words from God. The Father spoke to the Son in the same way as he gave life to the Son. It was not that the Son was ignorant or did not [already] have life. Rather, it was simply because the Son was what he was. What, then, is meant by ‘as he said to me, so I speak’ but that I am the Word who speaks. The Father is true, the Son is truth: the True begat the Truth. What then could he say to the Truth if the Truth was perfect from the beginning and no new truth could be added to him? That he spoke to the Truth then means that he begat the Truth.” Augustine (354-430 AD)

This passage functions in two ways. It closes the door on Jesus’ public ministry, setting the stage for the events to follow; and it opens the door to the glory of Jesus and the Father. In chapters 13-17, Jesus will show and tell that glory, carefully preparing His disciples for what is to come; then He will fulfill the glory of the Father in chapters 18-21. Jesus is the key to the glory of God. See Him, and you see God’s glory. What does it mean for you to see Jesus?

Closing Prayer
I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16.8-11

Psalm 16.8-11 (All to Christ: Jesus Paid It All)
You are ever with me, Lord; in You I shall not fall.
But rejoicing in Your Word, I abide within Your call.
    Make me know life’s way! Pleasures fill Your hand;
    Fill my life with joy each day! Before Your face I stand.

Soon Your glory I shall see, for as Jesus rose again,
You will come to gather me to my home with You in heav’n.
    Make me know life’s way! Pleasures fill Your hand;
    Fill my life with joy each day! Before Your face I stand.

T. M. Moore
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series IV a and b: John, edited by Joel C. Elowsky, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006. Verse translation of John by T. M. Moore.