John 12:44-50

In the dark horrible things happen.

Those out of reach places.

The dinghy alleyways of King street, streets of Mount Druitt- the ones you avoid at night because you know nothing good can be found there.

The deep dark corner of my high school back pack where apples were left to fester.

Darkness should be terrifying right.

Who would want to spend their time in the dark. Yet, our world is overcome by darkness. Men and women love darkness today just as much as they always have.

Sin and unbelief thrive in the dark.

When we look at the world around us and the unbelief of our society, we see darkness.

We see a world that has walked away from light, that has snuffed out the light, because they preferred darkness.

Do you feel the urgency of Jesus' plea in these verses to believe?

Darkness and light are being lived in now.

Judgement and salvation are happening now.

And it all centers around Jesus' words.

We're going to see that on the one hand To believe in Jesus is to believe and live in God's light

And on the other To reject Jesus is to remain in the darkness of condemnation

These are both founded in the fact that Jesus is God's word of life

Context

Throughout John's gospel we've seen Jesus revealing himself and revealing the father who sent him.

All the way back in chapter 1 we heard that the Word had come and made his dwelling among humanity, that Jesus has made the father known .

As he's performed signs and taught the crowds about himself his connection to his heavenly father has become more and more prominent. And just as his glory has become more and more prominent so has the opposition to him become greater and greater.

Glory and opposition have been building and building.

In chapter 11 after raising Lazarus from the dead the Pharisees plot to take his life.

In chapter 12, one of his disciples is starting to plan to betray him.

Yet, Jesus makes his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. His glory seems to be climaxing, and yet it's at this high point that Jesus then starts talking of his hour of death arriving.

And as Jesus finishes his public ministry he pleads with them to "put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become children of light"

and then he hides himself from them.

Even after Jesus had performed all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.

And even though many, even among the Jewish leaders believed in him, they wouldn’t confess their faith, for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

It’s in this context that Jesus cries out.

at the end of his public ministry.

This is Jesus’ last plea to those living in darkness to believe in him, or else face judgement.

To have life now or remain in judgement now.

Point 1.

To believe in Jesus is to believe and live in God's light

Jesus makes massive claims about his identity.

To believe in Jesus IS to believe in the Father.

To look at Jesus IS to look at the Father.

Jesus and the Father are one.

look at verse 44 and 45.

John 12:44–45 NIV

Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.

This is not the first time he’s made this claim.

When talking with the Samaritan woman at the well Jesus claimed “I am”.

When he healed the in-valid at the pools the Jews tried to kill him because he was making himself equal with God.

And in chapter 10 he says it even more plainly, I and the Father are one.

To believe in Jesus is to believe in the one who sent him.

You cannot separate the two.

You can’t just believe in the Father and ignore the Son, because the Father sent the son. The Son is an extension of the Father.

And you can’t just believe in Jesus, as if he were divine and yet separate from the Father. That would be heresy, particularly for the Jews.

You can’t separate the two because this is the reason Jesus has come into the world. To reveal the Father.

John 12:46 NIV

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

Jesus comes to shine light. To light the way to the Father.

When you see him, when you believe in him, it illuminates your view so that you see the Father.

Once the light is there, the darkness is gone.

And once you believe in Jesus, once you see him and you see the Father, you don’t need to remain in darkness anymore.

Each time someone believes in Jesus they are rescued out of darkness. living in the light starts now with belief.

*

I’ve moved houses a fair few times in my life, and I hate that period when you move into a new place and you haven’t learned the layout yet, and it’s late at night and you wake up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and you have to make that choice.

Do I turn the light on and make a safe passage way, or do I risk it… Do I fumble through the darkness to the loo.

And it doesn’t matter how far the trip. I’ve lived in houses with en-suites and I lived in houses where the toilet is the complete other end of the house… and I have kicked my toe sooo many times.

I’m so foolish, even though I know there are lights in my house, I stumble in the darkness.

Jesus came into the world so that no one who believes in him should stay in darkness.

He brings light that shines in the darkness, that reveals the Father.

To believe in him and to be in his light is to live knowing the Father.

Jesus is crying out for people to believe in him and live in the light...

And yet we see on the other hand, Point 2

To reject Jesus is to remain in the darkness of condemnation

Jesus says to reject me is to remain in the darkness of condemnation.

verse 47 and 48.

John 12:47–48 NIV

“If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.

Jesus has revealed the Father, but people have rejected him, they’ve not accepted his words. they’ve not kept his words.

At every point Jesus has faced opposition.

Jesus has spoken plainly about being sent by the Father, but the Jews have denied him.

They’ve tried to arrest him, they’ve picked up rocks to stone him. They’ve plotted to kill him.

But these are the extreme examples.

For some, it’s been a failure to confess their faith in him, to acknowledge him, because they feared the Pharisees and loved human praise.

And for a moment, it looked like they were off the hook, didn’t it?

John 12:47 NIV

“If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

Sweet… right?

Well… can you reject the one who came to save and be saved?

No.

There is a judge for the one who rejects him.

The very words he has spoken.

And what has Jesus spoken?

The word Believe comes up 71 times before this passage in John’s gospel.

Jesus has said it 41 times.

it is unmistakable in John’s gospel that Jesus has called people to believe in him.

His signs have all been to bring people to belief.

Later on John states that he included all these things in his gospel account so that you might believe.

Jesus has said “BELIEVE IN ME AND HAVE ETERNAL LIFE”

His words have said it clearly. They will condemn anyone who has heard them and rejected them.

This condemning, it’s not like Jesus is taking someone from a neutral zone and punishing them for ignoring him.

No, verse 46 showed that when someone believes in Jesus and his words they no longer stay in darkness.

We are in darkness, from the moment we are born.

The world is not neutral.

It’s darkness and sin.

We are all born into iniquity, sinful in our nature.

Jesus comes to rescue people out of that darkness.

He came into the world to save the world.

But to reject his salvation is to choose to remain in darkness.

It’s darkness now, and one day it will be too late.

*

When my eldest brother, Cameron, was a teenager, he and some friends went to the beach for a day. And, listen, us kid’s from the country, we’ve got pools, we’ve got dams, alright. we can swim. we can swim.

but the coast has some things that the country doesn’t, like waves, and currents, and rips.

and he and some of his friends got caught in a rip, and they got dragged way out into the ocean.

and you can imagine it right, your swimming in dark and strong water. You’re tired and the waves keep coming one way and the current is taking you the other way.

And the Surf Life savers get out there and throw put their arm out. Of course my brother grabbed hold. he was thankful to be pulled out of the darkness of that swell.

but imagine for a minute he didn’t.

Imagine, he waved them away. “nah, I got it, I’m alright… I like it here. I like swimming, I’d rather not go back on land”.

And the life saver, throws in a float, at least hold onto this.

but he ignores it, doesn’t take hold.

and he drowns. and the flotation device just bobs there. Condemning.

he could have taken hold of the saviour. he could have taken hold of the flotation.

Jesus says my words which I have spoken will condemn them on the last day.

But they are already condemning them now.

As long as they don’t accept them, as long as they keep rejecting them, turning from them, ignoring them, closing their ears to his words,

They remain in darkness. They remain condemned.

On the one hand belief that leads to light, on the other rejection that leaves in darkness. and their both grounded in the authority of the Father.

point 3

Jesus is God's word of life

Belief in Jesus really does lead to life, and rejection of him really condemns to darkness because this is just what the Father has commanded.

John 12:49–50 NIV

For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

Just as you can’t separate them in belief, to believe the son is to believe the father, so you can’t separate them in their words.

Jesus doesn’t speak of his own accord.

He doesn’t say anything he hasn’t been given by the Father.

All that he speaks is from the Father.

We see the perfect unity of the Father and the Son here.

It’s not just a suggestion, to take or leave for Jesus, but a command from the Father that he perfectly obeys.

He cannot- not- speak the words the Father has given him.

and those words are eternal life. all Jesus has been saying, Believe in me and have life, they are life!

That’s why if you accept them and believe in him, you are freed from darkness and brought into the light of life.

And why if you reject them, then you remain in darkness. His very words, his very command is Believe. And it’s come from the Father.

*

Working in a high school meant I had to pass on words that were not my own but carried a consequence.

Now, often they were words students didn’t want to hear.

“If you have your phone out in class, it will be confiscated. You parent will have to come in and collect it from the office at the end of the day. “

I’d often back it up with...

“I’m just saying what I’ve been told to say” you can listen, and keep your phone or you can reject it...”

I was passing on a warning, but Jesus, he’s passing on good news.

The commandment of the Father is eternal life!

We’ve circled back to the top of Jesus cry.

To believe in him is to believe in the Father because The Father gave him the words to speak, he commands that to believe in Jesus is to Believe in him, and to believe in him is to have eternal life.

Jesus is the Word of the Father.

He’s the Word of eternal life.

Closing

The natural state of the world we live in is darkness. But Jesus has come into the world as light so that no one who believes in him will stay in darkness.

If you have heard his word, If you’ve heard his call to believe, take hold. Don’t stumble around in the darkness any longer than you need to.

Remain in the light, don’t go back into the darkness that he’s rescued you from.

When you look out and see darkness and unbelief in people, God has not lost control. He is active in offering salvation and he is active in judgement to those who reject him.

There is hope.

Condemnation will come at the last day.

There is time still now for people to hear his words and accept them, to believe in him and be saved from darkness.

That is why He came, as a light, to save the world, just as the father commanded him.

But, do you feel the urgency of his plea?

The decision we call people to make is an ultimate decision with eternal consequences but it effects now.

It’s not just believe so in the future you won’t be squished...

It’s believe and be freed from darkness now!

Be free from judgement now!

Have salvation now!

Know the Son, know the Father, know life and light now!

Believe.

Let me pray

Father God, You sent your son into the world so that we might know you through him. You gave him the very words to speak so that we would know your love for your people and your desire for them to turn to you and find life.

Father, you gave us light so we would not remain in darkness. Please protect us from unbelief, from rejecting Jesus. Help us instead to hear your words and keep them and know your salvation in Jesus.