Synoptics - John 12

John’s Gospel as the Final Synoptic Parallel

We finished up the Matthew 25 material last week, and so, though it's not strictly a part of the synoptic study, the synopsis goes into John Chapter 12 from that point, so I think it would be good to sort of follow that and take a little break from the parallel and go to John Chapter 12, probably picking up about verse 17 or so.

I don't think we covered that earlier. I don't remember exactly where it was we broke off when we sort of stepped out and did a little of John there for a while, but in John 12, 17, so the people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify about him.

For this reason, also, the people went and met him because they heard he had performed this sign, going back again to John Chapter 11, so the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are not doing any good.

Look, the world has gone after him. Now, I think, again, reminding you of some of the things we said about John, obviously most scholars, anyways, believe that John is the last of the Gospels to be written.

The author clearly is not intending to, I guess the term compete doesn't sound quite right, but he's not trying to become the fourth Gospel telling the same story. It seems to me, anyways, that John is familiar with the Synoptic Gospels and is going his own direction.

He's supplementing with inside information and experiences that were not a part of the Synoptic tradition primarily. I mean, obviously, there are places where they intersect and you have the feeding of the 5 ,000, things like that, but there's a lot more of the personal discussions that are not found in the Synoptic Gospels.

And it's interesting that after the raising of Lazarus, you have this immediate response on the part of the Jewish leadership to seek to kill someone who just raised the dead. I've always found that to be a real irony when you think about it, and you have this concern on the part of the Jews of how the Romans are going to respond.

What this tells us is that the Pharisees had clearly come to believe that the Romans were the greatest power in the world. They really couldn't believe that God could even deliver them from the Romans.

They were just this overwhelming power and presence. And, of course, it would be the Romans who would destroy Jerusalem in AD 70. But there's this tremendous concern about how the Romans are going to respond to something that's being taught by a Jewish rabbi.

And in verse 19, so the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are not doing any good. Look, the world has gone after him. Now, there's a lot of discussion, obviously, about the meaning of the word world in Scripture.

And I have noted many, many times that just in John's writings, scholars have identified at least 10 to 14 different uses of the word world. And that just, just as a reminder, if I can find one of these that actually works, when you look at words and their uses, a word can have a large or very small what's called semantic domain.

That's the range of meaning in the word. So, for example, there's a term in Hebrews 7, 724, as I recall, Aparaviton is the term. It has a very, very, very technical meaning. And so it has a very, very limited range.

You could not use this word in a number of different ways. It has a very, very, very technical, let's use a term like diode in our modern language. A diode has, how many different uses can you come up with that?

I mean, it refers to a specific electronic part that has a specific function. But then you have words like logos, word, matter, meaning, thing that has these wide, wide, wide things. And so world, cosmos, has a wide semantic domain.

And you have to see where in this domain a particular usage is coming from. And one of the things I've warned you about before is the Strong's exhaustive concordance method of doing exegesis, where you look up a word and you just chase it through scripture.

And what frequently happens is you come up with a meaning for it and you try to cram that into every usage, rather than looking at every usage and deriving its semantic domain from its usage. And a lot of the, some of the silliest teachings I've ever heard come from that kind of mentality where you say, this is the meaning and now I'm going to shoehorn that into every single use that is found.

I understand why we do some of that. But when you first learn the language, you're just trying to get a basic vocabulary down. And so if, you know, cosmos is one of the first words you're going to find and you're going to be given a certain range of meanings for it.

And you don't want 27 different meanings for it when you're just trying to, when you've got 15 words you've got to memorize for the next test, you want a nice, simple meaning for it. But obviously as you get past that level, then you start looking at things like this.

So here's, here's an example in verse 19. Behold, the world has gone after him, ha-cosmos, the world. Well, what are they referring to? No one's, no one's thinking that what the Pharisees are saying is that all the Egyptians are following after Jesus.

No, that's, that's not what they're referring to at all. They're not, they're not taking the word world as every single human being in the inhabited world. And they're certainly not taking it as everyone who's ever lived, everyone who ever will live.

What they're, they're talking about is they see this, this tremendous popularity and everything that they have tried to do to dissuade people from listening to this prophet from Galilee has failed. But it's interesting that when John writes this, when John records the, the complaint of the Pharisees amongst themselves, the world has gone after him.

That is the last verse right before the section that begins. Now, there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These then came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and began to ask him, saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Now, what's the significance of this? Well, these would be either, they'd be proselytes. If they're going into worship, they're, they're proselytes. They're not just the God-fearers. We run into the God-fearers in the book of Acts when you see Paul and Silas or Paul and Barnabas go into a synagogue and we have those that are called God-fearers.

These are people that had not gone through all of the ceremonies to actually become a Jew, but they were a part of the synagogue community in the sense that they would gather together. They were attracted to the teachings of monotheism and the law of Moses.

They saw these as superior to the pagan religions around them. But these would be converts because they're going up actually to worship in the temple. And yes, sir, semantic. S-E-M-A-N-T-I-C. Semantic just simply means the range of meanings that the, that the word can bear.

And it's a really important part of, of linguistics that is often lost even in seminaries and stuff. There's a book called Biblical Words and Their Meanings. It has a new title now, but it used to be called Biblical Words and Their Meanings by Moises Silva.

If you happen to be taking the Greek class right now or something, you might want to add that to your reading list once you get done. Maybe, probably not right now. Anyway, these Greeks discover that one of Jesus' disciples has a Greek surname.

Philip is a Greek surname. And that's probably why they come to Philip thinking, well, you know, I mean, if, if there was someone you wanted to get to meet and you found out that one of the people close to him was from your hometown, you know, you'd probably be more likely to go to him than someone who doesn't even speak your language or something like that.

And so it's interesting that the fulfillment or what comes right after the whole world is going after him is Greeks. Some Greeks work up the feast and, and these men wish to see Jesus. They wish to have evidently a private dialogue or discussion with him.

They're seeking after Jesus. Well, what does this tell us? This is one of those many places you could go to when you have an opportunity of speaking with someone and you're speaking to them about God's sovereignty and salvation and what the Bible teaches.

And one of the immediate objections is, well, but for God so loved the world. And that means every single person who's ever lived never will live. Well, I'm not saying that the word world in John 3, 16 is the same thing as in John 6, 19.

But it's an illustration of the fact that you can't just take one meaning, assume what it is and cram it into every single place. Because here to illustrate all the world coming after Jesus, you just simply have Greeks, not Babylonians, not Egyptians.

You have some non-Jews. For the Jews, the world is the Jews and everybody else. The people of Israel and the Goyim, that's the world. And so if you have Jews and any group together, that's pretty much covering the world.

I mean, that's just, those are the only two categories that there are in their thinking. And so we have here, very interestingly enough, a brief narration of some non-Jews who seek to have a conversation with Jesus.

Now, if you were to stop there, and you were to ask the vast majority of evangelicals in our world today, if you read a story about some Greeks who wanted to talk to Jesus, do you think that he'd take the time to talk to them?

I think a vast majority of evangelicals would go, I mean, oh, nothing. Wild horses couldn't have kept Jesus from talking to those Greeks. We know the rest of the story. He doesn't. He doesn't. You read the discussion and he talks about the cross and judgment coming upon the world and lifting up the Son of Man.

And then in verse 36, while you have the light and believe in the light so that you may become sons of light, these things Jesus spoke, and he went away and hid himself from them. He doesn't meet with them.

And there are a lot of folks just go, well, why? Because they don't read the whole context. They don't see what's being said here. But you have. They come. They ask. It's not time yet. It's not time yet.

The gospel will go out to all the world under the direction of an empowerment of the Holy Spirit of God after Pentecost, yes. But not time yet. And Jesus does not meet with these men. And that is surprising to many who have not followed through.

There is going to be a very difficult concept enunciated here in John chapter 12 that a lot of people don't like. And a lot of people aren't aware of. It's right smack dab in the middle of the gospel of John.

But we've already run into it before. All we've had to do is think about the ramifications of what Jesus said in John chapter 6. You are not believing in me. You are unbelievers. And the whole rest of the discussion of all the Father gives him will come to me and no one can come to me unless the Father sent me draws him.

That's all basic. You are not believing in me. Even though these are people who had rowed boats across the lake to come hear Jesus speak, Jesus says you do not believe in me because Jesus knows what true faith is.

And he knows it's not what so many people today think faith is. And that is, you know, I'll show a little bit of toleration and maybe even a little support for some of the things Jesus says. That makes me a Christian.

No, it doesn't make you a Christian. It makes you a critic because you think you can judge between Jesus' teachings as to which ones you should or should not accept as if you have the authority to do that.

But it doesn't make you a Christian. But boy, for a lot of people in our society, that's exactly what a Christian is. You know, I put some weight in what Jesus says. No, it doesn't work that way. There is a theme that then continues in John 8.

Why do you not hear the words that I'm speaking to you? It's because you do not belong to God. John chapter 10, if you are of my sheep, my sheep hear my voice. You are not my sheep. It's going to continue on in John chapter 17.

I pray for the world, for those who have given me out of the world. Try to take this, shrink it down to something like this, and cram it into John 3, and then into John 12, and then into John 17. Can't be done.

The result is a mishmash. And unfortunately, that's what a lot of people do. We have to be aware of that when speaking with folks. But this theme is all through John, and it's going to come to a particularly pointed and difficult application here in John 12.

Because you've got Greeks coming, they want to talk to Jesus, and Jesus hides himself from them. And then immediately after that, you have a discussion of the judicial act of God in hiding his truth from certain people as a part of punishment of their sins.

Going back to Isaiah chapter 6. And Isaiah's temple vision is commissioning as a prophet. And the fact that when he's commissioned as a prophet, the message that's given to him is one of judgment. Not one of, I'm going to cause all of Israel to turn at your preaching.

Instead, what Isaiah is told is, I'm going to harden the people through your preaching. And that then is what prompts Isaiah's, how long, O Lord? Which is interesting. So, this theme is here. And by the way, John chapter 12 then wraps up the public ministry of Jesus.

In fact, when he hides himself from the Greeks, that's it. For that's to John, there is no public ministry of Jesus at all. Now, of course, John had primarily focused upon the private ministry of Jesus to begin with.

I mean, John chapter 3, a private conversation primarily with Nicodemus. John chapter 4, a private conversation primarily with the woman of the well. John chapter 9, conversation with a man born blind.

Sure, there's some public encounters, very specific encounters. But in comparison to what you have in the synoptics, John is really focused much more upon personal, direct encounters, or maybe even encounters with smaller groups of leading Jews, things like that, than the synoptics are.

And so, it is this context of the world then that leads to the section that we're going to be picking up with in John 12 20. We've already seen these Greeks are going out to worship at the feast, whichever, you know, this obviously would be the same feast that, if you read the preceding context, Jesus entered into Jerusalem.

So, they're there for Passover. And they come to Philip and began to ask him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. Do we see some possible hierarchical relationship between the disciples at this point, as far as we know that, for example, Andrew and Philip, you know, are they mentioned more because they have a little bit of a closer relationship?

Not really certain, but it's possible. Jesus' answer is not what most people today would expect. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Now, up to this point, my hour is not yet. My hour is not yet.

My hour is not yet. Now my hour has come. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Now, immediately, this indicates to us that the term Son of Man is not, as some people would like us to think, just another way of saying just a human being.

There are people who will identify in that way. And yet, here you have the Son of Man, and he is to be glorified. And one of the connections, one of the themes that's interwoven through all the Gospels and between, you know, in much of scholarship today, Mark is viewed as having the lowest view of Jesus and John the highest.

Well, I disagree with that in the sense that, you know, they both reveal the deity of Christ, but in different ways. But one of the themes you find in both is that in Mark, when Jesus is before the tribunal and the high priest demands him, demands of him to know, who are you?

Are you the Son of the Blessed One? Jesus' response is to say, yes, I am. And he points them to the Son of Man text in Daniel chapter 7. To which they respond directly with the assertion that, well, clearly, what further evidence do we need?

There is your blasphemy. And they tear their clothes and the dust and so on and so forth. So they know exactly what Daniel 7 is about, and for someone to claim to be that Son of Man. And here you have the very same terminology, the Son of Man, and it's time for him to be glorified.

And the same doxazo, from which we get the doxology, the same Greek term that is used in Jesus' high priestly prayer in John chapter 7, glorify yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with you before the world was, which I literally had at your side.

That's yet future at this point, but not very far future, chronologically speaking. Four chapters, four and a half chapters. Uh, text-wise, but chronologically coming right up. So, this is, this is not the kind of language, once again, that could be utilized by a mere human being that would be utilized by a mere prophet in the Israelite context.

And so, you've had this theme, my hour is not yet, all the way back when Jesus speaks to Mary, my hour is not yet. Now Jesus knows his hour has come. I don't know how you can even begin to interpret this or understand this in anything but an orthodox Christian context.

What I refer to are the many people today who embrace or promote a concept of open theism, the idea that the future is an open thing, that the results of the free will actions of men are unknown to God.

It's just, it makes a total mishmash of the text to not realize that God is in control and there is a specific purpose and decree that he is working out and that there is a specific function that Jesus has and it's going to be accomplished as it was determined it would be accomplished at the time it would be accomplished.

And Jesus's announcement certainly marks a watershed and immediately turns our attention from the Greeks. He sees the coming of the world in these Greeks as a sign of the world coming to him and as a sign of the coming of his hour.

And so, what does it mean for the son of man to be glorified? Amen, amen, truly, truly, amen, amen. So, when we sing the amen or try to sing the amen and frequently miss the proper keys to the amen, but what we're trying to do is to say it is true.

And so, there is, of course, a formula found in the Gospels, amen, amen, lego, who mean, truly, truly, I say to you, plural, or lego, soy, to you, singular, that introduces a very solemn statement that Jesus intends us to hear with clarity.

And he says, 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. He who loves his life loses it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. Now, my soul has become troubled and what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this purpose, I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name that a voice came out of heaven. I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. So, the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered. Others were saying an angel had spoken to him.

Jesus answered and said, this voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now, judgment is upon this world. Now, the ruler of this world will be cast out and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, would draw all men to myself.

But he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die. The crowd then answered him, we have heard out of the law that the Christ is to remain forever. That is the Messiah. And how can you say the son of man must be lifted up?

Who is this son of man? So, Jesus said to them, for a little while longer, the light is among you. Walk while you have the light so the darkness will not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become sons of light. These things Jesus spoke and he went away and hid himself from them. Let's go ahead and read the rest of it so you have the full context.

You can see where the theme is going to be going. But though he performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke.

Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? That is from Isaiah 53, 1, the beginning of the suffering servant poem. For this reason, they could not believe. For Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart so they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted.

And I healed them. Now that is from Isaiah chapter 6 and the commissioning of Isaiah as prophet. These things Isaiah said because he saw his glory and he spoke of him. We will spend a fair amount of time on that some day in the future, in the next couple of weeks, because it's very important.

Nevertheless, many, even the rulers, believed in him. But because the Pharisees, they were not confessing him for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue. They loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

The Grain of Wheat and the Meaning of Discipleship

Then there's one last saying from Jesus. And then we transition into the private ministry of Jesus to disciples in John chapter 13. So, what does it mean for the Son of Man to be glorified? Well, it means the Son of Man is going to be lifted up.

And the first explanation of what this means in verse 24 is truly true. 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. So, the hour involves death.

But a death that results in life. And recognize that there is a necessity. Jesus had said in the Synoptic Gospels, it is necessary that the Son of Man go to Jerusalem, to be betrayed in the hands of the leaders, and to be crucified and buried, and rise again the third day.

It's necessary. This has to happen. There has to be the falling of the seed into the ground, the covering over of the seed in the earth, if there is going to be new life. And so, he likens his own action in his self-giving, that of a grain of wheat which falls in the earth and dies.

Unless a grain of wheat falls in the earth and dies, it remains alone. So, if that process never happens, it just sits in the sack, if it's taken from the stock and then it's not put into the earth, then it remains alone.

It accomplishes nothing. It's just a seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit, brings forth many other seeds and useful products. So, the brief parable is explained, he who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

So, while our following of Christ in taking up the cross, which you have in the Synoptic Gospels clearly laid out, is not the same thing in the sense that it does not bring about redemption or something like that.

This idea of loving this present life, notice how he says his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. So, there is a difference between eternal life and life in this world. The life in this world is not eternal.

It is temporal. It is passing away. The things of this world which can so thoroughly enslave our hearts, can so thoroughly take up our minds and our thoughts, the things of this world that we work so hard to obtain, and then they can be lost in an instant, these things are not described as eternal.

He who loves his life loses it. There is a principle in the Christian life that it is by laying aside it is by not loving the things of this world, the life of this world, but by laying those things aside in service to others, that we actually experience what we think we can find in all those things, but which we can't.

And man knows this. I mean, how many stories has man told down through the ages of the emptiness that comes from the pursuit of physical things? The things of this world, and physical things doesn't have to just be houses and boats and cars and clothing and possessions, but things of this world can be fame and fortune and having other people follow after every word you say, and there's all sorts of different ways, but none of it is eternal, because it's focused upon me and my accomplishments and so on and so forth.

So, Jesus speaks to those of us who would hear, and says, he who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. Which sounds strange. Well, if I hate it, I don't want to have it for eternity.

But obviously, the point is, my life is not my own. And if I seek to hold on to it with every fiber of my being, I will lose it. If I'm willing to lose it in service to Christ, then I will actually have life eternal.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. And so, if anyone serves me, verse 26, that's the verb there, is the word from which we get the term deacon, the diaconate.

So, if anyone serves me, he must follow after me. He must be my disciple. So many who try to separate discipleship out from the Christian faith. There is a major movement that has, unfortunately, many adherents in evangelicalism that, well, I wouldn't say it's actually...

There are many people who would say, no, repentance is not necessary, following after Christ, this is to be a super disciple. But there just simply isn't any way to meaningfully read the New Testament and come up with this kind of teaching.

It is a gross perversion of the teaching of Jesus and of the Gospels. To be a servant of Christ, to be one who serves Christ, is to be a follower of Christ. And where I am, there my servant will be also.

There's some shades here of the discussion that will come about in chapter 14, when the specific question will be asked by the disciples, well, you're leaving, what about us? And Jesus talks about going and preparing a place for them, and that they will be with him where he is, and he's not leaving him as disciples, and the sending of the Spirit.

That'll all come out in just the next couple of chapters. But the promise is, the one who truly serves Christ, who follows him, where I am, there my servant will be also. Now, yeah, that has the future fulfillment promise, but there's also the walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and there's also the fact that their leader is about to be absolutely and utterly humiliated by the powers of this world, from the world's perspective.

The Lord of glory is about to be crucified, and I don't think it's really possible to overestimate the darkness that must have enshrouded the disciples in their minds and their spirits from the time of the arrest of Jesus until he first appears in their presence.

Or at least the word first comes to them that there has been a resurrection. We often talk about those dark hours and what was it like, and the only glimpse we're given into those dark hours is in Luke 24.

Well, I won't say the only. We can see somewhat in the women's response as well when they first encounter Jesus. But in a more dialogue sense, the most we see there is in Luke 24 when Jesus joins the disciples as they're walking to Emmaus, and we can hear their disappointment.

We had thought he was the one to come, but now they just couldn't put it all together. In fact, as you saw even here in John 12, some of the crowd are going to say, but when the Messiah comes, he's not going to die.

He's going to remain forever. Again, further indication that there were deep and abiding traditions that they had concerning the Messiah, but they did not see how the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22 fits with the conquering king of so many other texts in the Old Testament.

They couldn't see how these things fit together. And so, I think there is a sense in which, and there my servant will be also, also means that they will have to walk with him through that darkness as well.

And then it is said, if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. So, I think you have a parallel here to Jesus' words in, as I recall, Mark chapter 8, take up your cross, follow me. If anyone is embarrassed about me or the gospel, then my Father will disown this person.

My Father will not own this person as one of his own in the judgment. And positively, if anyone serves me, follows after Christ, then the Father will honor him. The opposite concept being that there were many people who thought that they had God's honor, but they were actually serving themselves.

And in their rejection of the Son, which is going to be part and parcel of the rest of this text, they were rejecting the only means by which they could truly have the honor of the Father. That consistent testimony of the Father to the Son is for John one of the key themes.

Remember back in John chapter 5, the one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father. You have to honor the Son just as you honor the Father. You can't have the one without the other. And as, again, unpopular as it is, that strikes directly at the concept of pluralism in our society today as well, to be sure.

Glory, the Cross, and the Father’s Honor

All right, so we will pick up with John 12, 27. The next time we are together, Lord willing, that'll be next week as long as my flights are not delayed. But I should be here without any problems. So let's let's close the word prayer.

Once again, Father, we do thank you for your word and for its testimony. As we enter into this precious section of scripture that concerns the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, may we once again be reminded each time we open these pages that the great price has been paid for our forgiveness and our redemption, which we rejoice in this day.

We pray in Christ's name.