John Part 25
Notes
Transcript
Last week, we connected John 7.38 to Jn 12.23
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
So, whoever believes in Jesus
Should receive the Spirit
But only after Jesus is glorified
and Chapter 12 says…
23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
So, they are getting ready to receive the Spirit soon.
And it is for whoever believes in Jesus
But, we saw last week that the “whoever” from chapter 7
has a small catch.
And that is,
You’ve got to deny yourself
take up your cross
and follow Jesus.
Jesus said this in Matt 16.24
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
But John recorded a similar conversation
That Jesus had here in chatper 12
right after he said the time has come
for the Son of man to be glorified in verse 23
Jesus said this…
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
This is not just talking about what Jesus was going to do when he died.
He says, if ANYONE serves… they gotta die too
Not a death on a bloody cross
but we must deny ourselves and follow Jesus
If you love your life, Jesus says… you’ll lose your life
but if you hate your life… you will keep it for eternal life
And this is the exclamation point on the theme of chapters 11 and 12.
The Jews loved their place and their nation
and wanted to kill Jesus to keep their power
Judas loved money and wanted to keep it
Mary, though, loved Jesus
and she didn’t care how much that oil cost
in that alabaster box
She poured it out because Jesus is so much better
So, John is asking the reader the question.
Do you love your life more than Jesus
Or will you love Jesus more than your life.
Because if you will love Jesus more than your life
Then Jesus is going to give you an even better life in eternity
better than the power or money they were trying hold onto
and better than the value of that oil that Mary let go of.
But to get that life,
Jesus tells us that we must let go of this one
And to set the example
Jesus is going to do it first
and he will give up way more than some oil in a box
and way more than any position of power in this earth
He is going to lay down his life in the most agonizing way possible
and that’s why he asks this rhetorical question next…
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
He just asked us to give up this life and follow him
and then he says,
I’m about to do the same thing
but way worse than you will ever have to endure
and do you think I would back away now?
Do you think I would give up now?
Right before the hour of glorification?
Jesus says, No, why would I do that?
This is the entire reason I came
God came in the flesh to die for us
Why would he choose to keep his life
at the very hour his purpose is about to be fulfilled?
Then Jesus says…
28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
Now, we are going to dive a lot deeper into this type of Father/Son Language in chapter 17.
When Jesus has a much longer prayer with God.
Many people struggle with this type of language in the Bible
Because it seems to be a paradox
John has just spent 12 chapters proving that Jesus is the Great I AM
and that Jesus is the Word made flesh
and That Jesus is both the Shepherd and the Door
And then we see Jesus talking to God
and the God Responding
And it seems as though Jesus is not God
because human logic says,
How can Jesus be God
and Talk to God at the same time.
And this is the paradox.
There are many solutions presented by human logic
to explain this paradox.
But there are 3 primary ways.
Arianism, also known today as Unitarianism
They would claim that Jesus is NOT God
He is a man who is God’s Son
He is the promised Messiah
He is not fully divine.
And they would argue from a verse like the one we just read
that Jesus cannot be God and talk to God at the same time.
2. Trinitarianism.
They believe that God is one God, but 3 equal persons
who all 3 share the same nature.
Jesus is fully God and Fully Man
But Jesus is NOT God the Father
and God the Father is Not Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is a 3rd equal person in the Godhead
Who in most cases is believed to come from the Father and the Son
And in some denominations, the Spirit is believed to only come from the Father.
They would read a verse like this one that we just read
and they would argue almost the same as the Unitarian
that Jesus cannot be God the Father and talk to God the Father at the same time
But, the difference is, they would also say that Jesus is still God
He is just God the Son.
3. Finally, there is the Oneness Position.
In this position, we agree with the Trinitarians in that
Jesus is fully God and Fully man
However, we disagree that Jesus is another person
Instead, we believe that Jesus is the one and only God
Manifested or revealed in human form.
God revealed himself in human form many times in the OT
He also revealed himself in the form of a cloud,
a pillar of fire,
A burning bush,
or sometimes, just a voice.
However, we would never argue that the burning bush was another divine person.
It just God the Father speaking to Moses through a bush that is burning.
So, when Jesus is speaking.
It is God the Father speaking through the human being named Jesus.
Not another person speaking on his own behalf.
How do we know this?
Jesus told us so.
34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”
27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
Now, later in this very chapter, Jesus says:
49 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.
50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
And there are more examples,
but the message is pretty consistent throughout this book.
The source of the words of Jesus is God the Father.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
These are just a few examples of Jesus telling us that his words are God the Father’s words.
However, we’ve also pointed out in this series
Many examples of Jesus also saying the miracles he does
is actually the Father doing them
He said, I can’t do anything on my own without the Father doing it
and on multiple occasions, Jesus says if you want to see the Father
Look at me.
One of them is in the chapter, and the most famous on is in chapter 14.
but this was all alluded to way back in John chapter 1.18
where John tells us that Jesus is making the Father known.
If you want to know the Father
You’ve got to know Jesus
Because, God the Father is a Spirit
and we can’t see him or hear him
unless he manifests himself into our natural world
to our 5 natural senses.
And it might get confusing when God does this twice at the same time.
but He can do that because he is God
So, in this chapter
Jesus is a manifestation of God
And the voice from heaven is a second manifestation
of the same God at the same time
Now, this isn’t so hard to imagine
If you think about God answering your prayer
at the same time as he answers a prayer in Africa
If God gives you a dream
can he not give someone else a dream at the same time?
Now, can he not give 8 billion people a different dream at the same time?
Is our God so limited
that he must speak to us one at a time?
No. of course not
So, if God can talk to two people at once
or even 2 billion people at once
Then we can begin to wrap our head around God speaking through Jesus and through a heavenly voice at the same time in the same place.
And that is what happens here.
First, Jesus speaks to the Father.
And then a manifestation of God’s voice speaks to the crowd.
You say, but if Jesus is God
Why would God be talking to God
The unitarians claim Jesus is not God
The Trinitarians claim that Jesus is not God the Father
The unitarians contradict many verses which explicitly prove that Jesus is God.
Here is only one example:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
The Trinitarians contradict all the verses I just read to you
about Jesus claiming that his words are really God the Father’s words
And also…
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
So, how about the Oneness position.
Is it true that our position means that God the Father is talking to God the Father?
No, and here’s why.
Remember, Jesus is fully God AND fully human.
He is God in flesh… but God does not have flesh.
So, Col 2.9 says that ALL the Fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ’s Body.
That word “body” is talking about the flesh.
And the flesh, is the human part.
Trinitarians agree that Jesus is fully human and fully God.
The part where they disagree is about the fullness of deity.
They would argue that it is only the divine person of the Son
that is manifested in human form
Rather than God the Father manifested in human form.
And this is where they contradiction Col 2.9
It does not say that only 1/3 of deity dwells in the body of Christ
It says, ALL of it.
The fullness of it.
Matthew did not say that God the Son is with us.
He said, God is with us.
And he was translating the word Emmanuel
And the “EL” at the end refers to God
And it is the same root word as Elohim
Which is in verse 1 of your Bible
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
“ELohim” in Gen 1.1 is the same “EL” at the end of the name in Is 7.14
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
And Matthew said,
The reason Jesus was named Jesus
Was to fulfil this prophecy
But wait,
Jesus is not the same as Immanuel is it?
Well, in Hebrew it is.
Immanuel means God with us.
Jesus is Hebrew for YHWH is our Salvation.
YHWH is God the Father’s name
And So, by calling Jesus the name Jesus
We are calling him God the Father is our Salvation
Meaning… God is with us.
Not another God
Not a demigod
Not a junior God
But the same ELohim in Gen 1.1
YHWH, God the Father
Is with us.
And just in case you need Bible to prove that the name YHWH
is the name of God the Father.
16 For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.
So, if Jesus is God the Father in the flesh
Then why is he talking to the Father?
First of… can you talk to yourself?
You might not admit it
or do it out loud in public
but you can talk to yourself
So, is it impossible for God to talk to himself if you can do it?
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,
So, God does seem to coucil with himself
and he swears by himself
and in Romans 8
Paul tells us that the Spirit of God
Can pray THROUGH us
TO God
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
So, God is praying to God on our behalf
Why can’t God pray through Jesus to himself?
Espcially since Jesus is not only fully God
But he is also fully man
Jesus slept, he wept, he ate, he drank, he died as a man.
God can’t sleep, he can’t eat, he can’t drink, and he can’t die
Jesus did human things because he WAS human
But Jesus also did things that no human could do
He raised the dead, he walked on water, he opened blind eyes
he forgave sins, he rose himself from the dead.
So, as a man. Jesus Prayed
As God, He answered prayers.
And God manifested in the flesh can do both of those things at the same time
He doesn’t need another divine person to do one of them.
and if it was another divine person who was doing the praying
then we have a heresy that even the Trinitarians would not be able to explain
We’d have one person of God praying to another person of God
and would mean that they are not coequal
But if we have one human person praying to the only God there is
Then we don’t have an issue at all.
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Notice how it says… In the days of his flesh.
It was his humanity praying to God the Father
Not God the Son praying to God the Father.
Jesus was a man
and men pray
He also fasted and went to the temple
He was also baptized
Does God need to fast?
Does God need to be baptized?
No, but Jesus was fully God and fully man
And as a man, we’d expect him to pray
and we’d be concerned if he did not pray
So, I’ll try not to go in this deep each time Jesus prays in the book of John
But I think it needed to be done this first time.
When the voice answers from Heaven
Notice what Jesus says…
He says… it wasn’t for me. It was for you all.
28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.
So, when God speaks from Heaven while Jesus is there.
It is for the sake of the crowd
so that they would know that Jesus was who he said he was.
Remember, that’s the point of this book
To prove that Jesus was who he said he was.
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.
36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.
