 Hello and welcome back to the series so in this study we'll be looking at John chapter 12 and this is the last chapter in John where Jesus is speaking to the public and appealing to unsaved Jews to believe on him. After this the Gospel account will start to switch to Jesus as more personal conversations with his disciples before he goes to his death but in the story we're very close to the point before Jesus is going to his death as we'll see in this chapter. So what's very interesting about this chapter is that interestingly Jesus will actually speak to a partially mixed audience of Jews and Greeks although the Greeks are among them that worship at the feast so although they are Greek that they still have a Jewish minded audience they still have a Jewish mindset. When we will explore as well the meaning of loving this life or hating this life and you know he who loves his life shall lose it etc and following the light while you yet to have the light will look a little bit at what that means as well. Okay so I've not included the first eight verses there's no doctrine particularly that we need to pull out from those so that's where Jesus dining with Mary, Martha and Lazarus obviously this is after Lazarus is resurrected of course raised from the dead and Mary anoints Jesus feet so then we have verses 9 to 11 that much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there and they came not for Jesus sake only but that they might see Lazarus also whom he has raised from the dead but the chief priest consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus so this is the aftermath of Lazarus' resurrection and just like the ending in John chapter 11 we have very polarized views on the Jews there were those who believed on Jesus and then there were those who they couldn't just reject Jesus and go about the merry way they actually worked actively against him even when they were unable to refute the miracle that that actually occurred before them so then the verses continue so 12 to 19 on the next day much people that were come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna blessed is the king of Israel that comes in the name of the Lord and Jesus when he had found a young ass sat there on as it is written these things understood not his disciples at first but when Jesus was glorified then remembered they that these things were written of him and that they had done these things on to him the people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised from the dead bear record for this cause the people also met him for that they heard that he had done this miracle the Pharisees therefore said among themselves perceive you how you prevail nothing behold the word world has gone after him so what we see here in verse 16 the disciples didn't fully understand what was happening here until after Jesus' resurrection now this is not majorly important for our study of John 12 but perhaps we can revisit that issue in our studies of John 13 to 16 where Jesus will comfort his disciples and expound further on what he must go and do because the disciples would not fully grasp the whole picture of Jesus' mission and some of the heavenly things that he taught them will see in those later chapters that they didn't quite fully understand but but through his resurrection he would solidify their their wavering faith that will be something that that will be you know revisited later in the series as we explore those chapters and as we saw from John 11 the Pharisees that they're going absolutely mental as I meant to say crowds I've put crowed there but they're going absolutely mental with the crowds that are following Jesus and they feel the need to put stop to this somehow it's not enough to them for them to just be passive or just stand by you know they feel the need to interfere and stop it from happening there in intensely opposing him now in uh John 11 and earlier in this chapter as well people were privileged to actually witness Lazarus' resurrection then and there um now you might wonder perhaps you know what what about us today um you know why doesn't god display miracles over and again today for the purpose of getting people to believe you know why why was it just then that people got to see all this stuff and this is a misunderstanding that perhaps atheists and agnostics have is that they think that you know if god is real god must show himself and do these miracles because then if he did people would believe on him so let's let's explore some of the the flaws with that so what you have to understand is that Jesus's miracles were not in themselves demonstrations to try and prove god to the masses that wasn't the purpose of them but rather it was so that that god's people and uh by extension of that the jewish people that should of course in in theory at least being his people would recognize that that he is the christ the the anointed one okay and we've already seen this this pattern in our study through john in this biblical salvation series so we we saw it in john chapter nine that it was so that the works of god should be made manifest that's why jesus came to do these works because he is the light of the world and we'll see more about that light later in this chapter as well we we saw in john chapter ten that he did these works so as to bear witness of them and you know he was telling the crowd but if you don't believe me at least believe the works i do you know they bear witness of me and then you will know who i am and then in john 11 we saw that it's so that the glory of god might be displayed so that his miracles glorify him as being the legitimate son of god that that's what their purpose is it's not just to try and prove that that god exists okay but but concerning the gospel itself it it's not really demonstrated in the scene of miracles but rather the testimony of the written gospel accounts and the the law and the prophets proceeding them so these are just a few verses to back that point up so you've got like luke 16 that's the story of the rich man who descended into hell and the the poor man made it into heaven and abraham said to the rich man well your brethren that are still alive that they have moses and the prophets you know let them hear them and he appeals to him no but if they saw one rise from the dead they would repent and abraham refutes that and that's exactly what we see here in john 12 someone who just has the same has the same name as the poor man in this story also called lazarus but people many people won't believe him even though it's pretty indisputable that this guy was raised from the dead and then of course you have from Matthew 16 where Jesus says a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and really he said that to many people who had already seen signs and still rejected him and so the the sign of the prophet Jonas which refers to Jesus dying and resurrecting that is the sign the only sign that a wicked and adulterous generation is entitled and should be seeking after okay and then in john chapter 10 we saw that there were people who wanted to stone jesus but they couldn't even dispute the good work that he was actually doing so you know they just didn't like what what he said and who he was so just because people saw miracles doesn't automatically mean that they would you know believe the gospel so essentially that's what it is the issue with people not accepting the gospel it's not because of the lack of miracles being proven because even if people did believe that that god could do miracles really so what okay because you know does that mean that they have accepted the gospel onto salvation well not necessarily do they believe specifically in the god of the the bible or rather a generic or pagan belief in a god of some sort well again not necessarily okay you don't have to be a christian to believe that god can do miracles okay um buddhists and you know muslims share those beliefs as well does that mean that they love god or want eternal life in his presence again not necessarily because even some atheists hardcore atheists say like well even if you know even if there were miracles and god proved himself i'd still reject him anyway you know just because they read the bible and they don't like the character of god so um john 16 eight when we get to that chapter later in the series we'll explain that the holy spirit reproves the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment so based on that you see i would say that just as a man doesn't need evidence that that he has emotions of love and hate for instance uh you know if you say you love your wife nobody asks you to prove that they just assume you do because they understand those same things well he doesn't need evidence that the holy spirit reproves him because he knows it's fundamentally true within himself and as a similar thing romans 215 says his own their own conscience bearing witness so um the issue is then with the gospel is that it's not about the miracles people need to believe the the record or the testimony of jesus but not everybody will accept the record that god gave his son um so uh you know you've got verses like one john five ten god has the witness in himself he that believes not not god has made him a liar because he believes not the record okay and we we uh see in this chapter as well verse 17 the people that saw lazarus raised from the dead bear record and then you've got verses like revelation one um you've got the uh who bear record the testimony concerning jesus christ so there are other verses in the bible that we could talk to besides these about believing that the record so these are just a few examples but the the gospel of salvation doesn't need to be proven with miracles and showmanship it needs to be testified on the record okay now jesus miracles complimented his his cryship to the people at the time you know proving that he's the anointed one but the records of witnesses verify that jesus miracles and preaching were publicly known and uh you know irrefutably displayed now perhaps you were wondering well you know why is this so important well remember that jesus is not the only person to claim to have received divine knowledge or spiritual enlightenment and not not the only person recorded to have done miracles so uh people like you know you've got buddha muhammad joseph smith lg white and plenty of other heretics and weirdos have claimed to you know hear the voice of god and attain supernatural knowledge and perform mighty works etc so jesus works in miracles they they proved his anointing to the people who saw them but they bear they the people that saw them they bear record for us so that then we can know that jesus really existed and really did those things so you know for instance for nobody can verify the private revelations of joseph smith or muhammad that they did know miracles so all of their claims all the things that they said and what you would read in the book of mormon or the quran really relies on those individuals as single witnesses whereas in the bible we have a multitude of witnesses now buddha is an interesting case because according to some sutras he did do miracles and supernatural actions supposedly he was able to do those things because of his enlightenment but buddhist tradition as far as i understand it states that the accounts of buddha the the sutras that i refer to they were passed on by a single disciple ananda so unlike jesus many of buddha's doings other than his teachings were not verifiable by a a multitude of witnesses we don't have you know multitudes of witnesses all seeing buddha doing these things and then all providing their own accounts of buddha doing these things l and g why didn't really do any miracles or say anything interestingly profound she did did and teach weird things um and although they well it's the seventh day adventists that follow her teachings but a lot of today's penny costals charismatic health and wealth type you can put them in the same camp i mean they make a big song and dance about doing miracles but a lot of what what they would claim is miraculous is really bizarre and not seen in the bible i'm not really going to get into what those things are in this study so moving on into the chapter then versus 20 to 26 so there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast the same came therefore to philippe which was of bethsaida of galilee and desired him saying sir we would see jesus philippe comes and tells andrew and again andrew and philippe tell jesus and jesus answered them saying the hour is come that the son of man must be glorified very very very i say unto you except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abides alone but if it die it brings forth much fruit he that loves his life shall lose it and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it onto life eternal if any man serve me let him follow me and where i am there shall also my servant be if any man serve me him will my father honor so this is where i mean i mentioned this earlier that john 12 is a very interesting chapter because previously in john's gospel it seemed that jesus dealt primarily with jewish audiences yet here we actually see a greek audience but but they're not pagan greeks though that the greeks who as far as we can tell from this verse are presumably following the the jewish faith now now despite the fact that the narrator bothers to tell us that they are greeks it doesn't really seem to have a noticeable impact in the dialogue jesus speaks to this audience very much like a lot of the other jews that you dealt with and they were pretty much as hard to reach and hard to convince as other jews that jesus dealt with like in john chapter eight you know when we saw that in our study the disciples are obviously also present during this dialogue as well so some of what jesus says here you can also if you want it you could apply it to the disciples as well so this conversation as we can see here it must have happened very near to jesus's death because he explains that his important this important time is apparent jesus essentially uses a one verse parable here that he will bring forth much fruit so we need to you know briefly spend a bit of time on on this here so uh jesus what does he mean bringing forth fruit well uh jesus has almost finished the work that he came to do and he will declare this in his prayer later in chapter 17 as well i have finished the work that thou gave us me to do uh and when he resurrects and ascends the keys are essentially handed over to um the apostles and the churches so with this in mind then it it doesn't really say it makes much sense to say that the fruit that will be brought by jesus's death is his works because his works are coming to an end and his death itself is part of the work um strictly speaking there's there's no discernible relationship between jesus's death itself and the uh works that the apostles and the new testament churches will will go on to do these are more closely related to the giving of the holy spirit after jesus is resurrected and is glorified ascending up into heaven now here are some cross reference verses to show what cry what christ death did and achieve so you've got like romance five it talks about how christ died for the ungodly while we were yet sinners christ died for us were justified by his blood were reconciled to god by that that death of his son you've got verses like hebrews nine fifteen that by means of death for the redemption of transgressions and you've got they which are called can receive the promise of eternal in her eternal sorry i can't pronounce that inheritance you've got one timothy five nine to ten god has appointed us uh not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our lord jesus christ who died for us that we should live together with him uh colossians one uh we we were alienated as an enemies um but he has reconciled and it's again through his death to present us holy and unblameable and unreprovable uh in his sight uh and it's i can crinthians five he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live onto themselves but onto him which died for them so all these verses are explaining that christ death essentially takes sinners and brings onto himself a holy people um you know a righteous people that have eternal inheritance and we're now holy and unblameable and it's through his death that that'll happen so that just shows you some of the the fruit that's been brought forth here so uh we see from these verses then christ death reconciled enemies and sinners onto a holy unblameable redeemed people who are reconciled to him and should live onto or with him so so this is the fruit of his death the people that he redeems through his death okay so you might wonder then why is it so important that we define this fruit because it was really only you know one verse um you know or ought we to split hairs of the interpretation well the thing is fruit is a theme that jesus and the apostles frequently use in their dialogues and writings and people with a workspace salvation people that believe in conditional security they often refer to these fruits passages as referring to our works of obedience all the things that we're doing that's our fruit but um they probably won't interpret john 12 24 in this way but that's how they interpret the the majority of other fruits passages such as these verses shown here on the screen uh we will refrain from looking at these examples in this study because it's not really relevant to john 12 and it's not necessary for this chapter but we will be approaching john 15 soon so we can re re look at the this meaning of fruit but the point here is that fruit itself isn't the works okay fruit is the the product of work okay or the desired outcome so defining fruits in these passages like matthew seven and john 15 and galatians five is to say that we have all of these we must have these works of obedience as our fruits that that's kind of contrary as to how fruit growing actually works and actually what we see here in john 12 is the fruit is not the work okay the work is done the work comes to an end and then the fruit is brought forth you know once the work has finished okay and it's Jesus doing that work by the way okay so that's that's you know all that can really be said about bringing forth fruit so um further on then these two verses here we we need to spend a little bit of time on this who loves his life shall lose and who hates his life shall keep it it's very similar to the passages where Jesus says deny yourself because that those are passages that people with a workspace salvation they love quoting those verses so we need to understand what exactly Jesus means by this how do we hate this life quote unquote how do we keep it onto life eternal how do we follow him and serve him in this context so we're going to spend a little bit of time on this issue to understand this widely misused phrase okay so although though these verses where he says he that loves his life shall lose it etc it's not directly connected with the later verses in the chapter necessarily because the context does move on somewhat but these verses will give us a glimpse at what the point that Jesus is getting at here because it's it's very similar to how Jesus uses the uses the term deny self in other gospels so later in the chapter in verses 42 and 43 it's revealed that there were chief rulers who did believe on him but would not publicly confess him for fear of men now and we'll look at that later in the study so um let's look carefully at what Jesus actually said so that we don't get any misunderstandings now Jesus did not say this is what he did not say he who is to attach to this life or loves the things of this world shall lose his eternal life that that's not what Jesus said now that's how conditional security will interpret it but that's not what Jesus said Jesus did say he that loves his life now what well what life is his earthly life because you even see that contrasted with the other guy hate who hates his life in this world so he who loves his life in this world shall lose it so Jesus explains here that he who loves his life will lose this very same life okay the life of this world it will it will end when he draws his last breath and from then on eternal corruption so it is this person is not and never was saved okay this is not a christian who lost his salvation this person was never saved he loved this life and he loses it this life that's what he that's what it says he loses okay whereas he who hates his life in this world shall keep it well again it's that same it's his life in this world he shall keep it accept that for him he shall keep it on to life eternal so his life in this world will go on forever so we've got two people he loves his life shall lose the life in this world that he loves and he who hates his life in this world shall keep his life in this world but shall keep it on to life eternal okay and as we saw in the previous chapter in this study uh whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die okay but obviously the flesh is still technically going to die all right so even looking carefully at the language that Jesus uses here it's easy to see this passage does not teach that you can lose your salvation by becoming too attached to the things of this world after you are saved that's not even what Jesus is getting at here it's far less complicated than that we just have these two types of people the one who loses his earthly life and does not keep it on to life eternal not saved and the one who hates this earthly life in this world but shall keep it on to eternal life and that's the saved person okay two types of people there isn't a third type who's sort of like on here but then going back here again that that's not here okay so it is interesting that Jesus uh phrases it this way because conditional security advocates would read this verse and say well see if you love this life you will lose your salvation eternal life but since he who loses his life in this verse loses it the it that he loses only refers to his earthly life okay he does not lose eternal life because there's there's no evidence to suggest that he already has eternal life to begin with and in contrast he who hates his life in this world take these words keeps it on to life eternal okay so you know conditional security versus eternal security well we've got a good keeping word there now they may try to argue from the point of view that a person could be in the latter category and then switch to the former you know loses salvation essentially but this passage does not offer that type of hypothetical person we we have those that love life and those that hate life and consistently throughout john's gospel we've only had two types of people those that do or are and those that don't or are not you know he that believes he who believes not etc etc so let's look at then so this saying he who loves his life shall lose it let's look at jesus's similar sayings i meant to put sayings i don't know why i've put things but he's put similar sayings in the synoptic gospel so this this is the same conversation but shown in each of the synoptic gospels Matthew 16 Mark 8 Luke 9 and you can see i've put in bold there in each case a similar statement so uh jesus says for whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it and then he words it is worded slightly differently in the other gospels but that's the essence of what he said and it's very very similar to what he says in john 12 he just says it in a different conversation and it's it's slightly reworded the way that he says it here okay so although they were two different conversations we have some key similarities between john 12 and jesus's statement in the synoptic gospels so i'll just go back a page actually so you can see so if we just take Matthew for instance jesus is showing his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things peter rebukes him uh lord you know this will not happen to you but he turns and rebukes peter so then that's when jesus says any man come after me let him deny himself take up his cross that's where that statement comes from and then what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses his soul and the son of man shall come in his glory and shall reward every man according to his works but some standing among you shall not taste death okay so that that's the essence of what he says in those gospels there so in both cases jesus was discussing the matter of going to his death okay now in john 12 he's much closer to actually going to his death in the synoptic accounts he was talking to his disciples that that's what he must go and do so that's somewhat earlier in his ministry so in the synoptic accounts he was discussing it with disciples that he must go to his death and rise again but peter tried to stop him okay now in john's account he is very near going to his death but the time has almost come and we'll see in john chapter 13 peter will have a very different attitude than he did in the synoptic gospels okay in both cases he said two similar quotes so obviously he that loves his life shall lose it he that hates his life or loses life shall save it or find it but also if any man serve me or come after me let him follow me now in the synoptic accounts this is where he also says deny yourself so in both in both the john 12 and the synoptic accounts he's saying you know follow me come after me essentially and some other similarities in both dialogues he speaks of the father's glory in john 12 there are those who will reject christ and be judged and in the synoptic accounts they will those will be ashamed of christ and this will reciprocate christ will be ashamed of them okay so slightly different in the way that it frames it but very similar in context so to go into a detailed study of what it means to deny yourself and take up your cross would digress from john chapter 12 and it really needs its own dedicated study so hopefully very soon when i've got most of john out of the way i can do a more detailed study about that but i've already got a video on my channel about that it's just a little bit rushed but we'll skip through we'll skip through some similar themes between the synoptic account and the john 12 account so in both the synoptic account and john 12 jesus points the listeners to his future death first before he says about loving not this life follow me deny myself so let's we forget okay it's and i emphasize this i've emphasized this before in the series it's christ who laid his life down for our salvation we don't we don't do it ourselves okay i have to make a point of saying that a few times in this series and it here's just a few examples of verses for you i lay my life down for the sheep he laid his life down for us while we were yet seen as christ died for us again because there's this false gospel out there about how he must surrender our life to be saved or something ridiculous no christ laid his life down for us okay and it's his death that he points to first before mentioning follow me etc so we see in a sense there is a literal application to following jesus so if any man come after him and he's going to his death on the cross let him deny himself take up the cross and follow him now the problem with taking this application and making it about acts of self-sacrifice and you know you've got to be doing this every day and you've got to be going through this to be say well the problem with interpreting it that way is that just in case you forget nobody did follow christ to his death okay he was forsaken by even his closest disciples now later in john 13 peter will commit to laying down his life for christ so he expresses a different attitude in john 13 than he did in the synoptic gospels but jesus will foresee that he will deny him three times so since nobody followed christ onto his death none of the disciples carried this out it doesn't really make a lot of sense to build a doctrine around these statements about us being willing to go to death for christ as a necessary step for salvation and i've seen people out there use these statements like if you're not willing to even put your life on the line for christ you know you're not even saved and i've debunked that on my channel elsewhere when i when i looked in the issue of taking up your cross but i think nobody did follow christ to his death okay nobody carried this through in the literal sense of following him but as well as the literal application of following christ there is a salvation kind of an application as well because of the very fact that in again in both gospel accounts he elevates the discussion about your eternal soul so this is not just following him to his death back then it is about salvation now as well so after he says take up your cross and follow me when he's just mentioned his own death he goes on to say save his life shall lose it in fact the loses life shall find it and what will it profit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul so jesus takes the literal application of following him and he turns it into a salvation application and in john 12 again you know that that's what he's saying you keep it on to life eternal as well so he elevates the subject of following him to to one about man's soul in eternal life not just literally to his death so we can't completely then you know just dismiss this okay so just before this bearing in mind in the synoptic account jesus tried to stop jesus from going to his death okay and jesus rebuked him now why did jesus rebuked him well it was for being concerned with the things of men you save not the things that be of god but only those of men so being concerned with earthly things and not heavenly things and so this gives us a clue as to what is going on here and what jesus is getting at with his statement loves his life shall lose it now peter loved jesus okay and understandably not knowing not understanding all things yet peter probably didn't want jesus to go through with his death because he didn't understand at that time that that's what jesus was going to do so it was not grasping the importance of why jesus must go and do this he might say he was more concerned about his earthly friendship with jesus in the flesh more than jesus's eternal purpose for the salvation of of men okay so in in a nutshell he was concerned with the things of this world not being concerned enough with matters more important you know to heavenly things to the eternal realm so there is also something similar that happens in matthew 10 as well now we won't review it here because it does need its own study but again i have covered matthew 10 in my video about taking up the cross um jesus sends out his disciples to preach the kingdom in matthew 10 okay and he advises them about the following some will receive the word and confess jesus before them others would not receive it and would deny him uh the disciples was a risk of being persecuted hated and killed for this preaching and it would also divide family members against each other now this fear of being persecuted and ostracized would be a stumbling block for many of the recipients and that would essentially be why they reject the gospel and so jesus tells his disciples not to be afraid of men so in the context of confessing christ and denying christ matthew 10 actually uses similar terminology to matthew 16 taking up the cross and following me okay the rich young ruler is another example marx gospel tells us that he trusted in his riches and jesus told him to take up the cross but but he was sad he trusted his trust in riches and also his trust in his obedience to the laws at the stumbling block that prevented him from following christ uh so again once again he was concerned too much with earthly things to be able to enter into heavenly things which is ironic given the fact that he introduced himself to jesus asking what he must do for everlasting life it's quite strange really in a way so and i know i've really skimmed through that very quickly and i really do intend to do detailed studies on those to prove you know what i've just said about those i don't want you to just blindly blindly believe me i want to prove it and i have briefly proved it in my video about taking up the cross but i will do a more in-depth study one day but once we understand that though we we then understand the context of what jesus means in john chapter 12 that he who loves this life and is concerned about the things of this world will lose it because this life is not eternal okay and since he neglected to seek eternal life or accept the conditions to obtain eternal life when this life ends he's not going to enjoy eternal life okay he loves this life and he loses it whereas he who hates this life and is not concerned with his life in this world will keep it onto life eternal because he is more concerned with heavenly things than earthly things okay now somebody might say to me i don't agree with the way that you are interpreting this saying here well um as i said matthew 10 and the story of the rich room denying itself they really do need their own dedicated studies which i absolutely do intend to do it's just that it would stray too much for john 12 which is why i've only really skimmed it here so after i've gone through john's gospel in the series i'll start to tackle those bits god willing but that's essentially what's going on here okay so we have a bit of context then as to what he means by follow me and serve me you know it's not about moral commandments about not committing adultery or not doing this or doing this that and the other strictly speaking it's about following christ in the context of life eternal which he will clarify later in this chapter is to believe on him irrespective of the earthly consequences of doing so and even if that means persecution and of risk and death because we'll see later in this chapter some believe on him but wouldn't confess him well you get the impression from some of the gospel stories that some people might have been convinced by christ but were too scared um because of a fear of being persecuted by the other jews so once again there is an immediate application which we could apply to following him to the death but as we already know nobody followed through with this okay now uh we have briefly seen before in this series back in the study of of john nine that there were examples in the gospels of people either not accepting christ or at least not willing to publicly confess him specifically because of fear of the jews in fact we'll see an example of this later in the same chapter now perhaps in europe or the anglosphere following christ is not really a danger so it's hard for us to relate to this issue but in israel during christ's time religious persecution was a real danger and it still is today such as in parts of the islamic world or in in north korea for example so you could genuinely be killed for the cause of christ in these places so the point that jesus is getting out when he says love not this life or if any man serve me let him follow me it's to not fear those things which would cause many people to reject jesus even if they otherwise might be persuaded okay that's the point that jesus is getting out here so moving on then uh verses 27 to 34 now is my soul troubled and what shall i say father save me from this hour but for this cause i came onto this hour father glorify your name then came their voice from heaven saying i have both glorified it and will glorify it again the people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered others said an angel spoke of him jesus anton said this voice came not because of me but for your sakes now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out and if i be lifted up from the earth will draw all men on to me this he said signifying what death he should die the people answered him we have heard out of the law that christ abides forever how do you say the son of man must be lifted up who is the son of man so there's a few things going on here so the conversation has has moved on and this has the potential to be somewhat confusing at first glance because there appears to be what looks like a kind of a mixture of first coming and second coming issues which makes this part of the chapter a little bit puzzling at first so we see that jesus expressed his distress in these first couple of verses that he must go you know what he must go and do at the cross you might say this is perhaps in verse 27 a foreshadowing of gethsemane perhaps a very public voice appears from the father in heaven and the people heard it for themselves yet as the chapter progresses we see that a lot a lot of them still rejected christ anyway despite hearing this voice from from the heavens so this saying here this voice came not because of me for your sakes but for your sakes this seems hard to understand at first because it's strange that in jesus jesus says in verse 30 this voice was for your sakes but the people who he's speaking to they didn't believe on him so then how is it really for their sake if it didn't profit their faith in any way it's possible that there's a variety of possibilities here you know he may have targeted that specific statement more towards his disciples rather than the crowd at large or perhaps you could argue that this crowd is without excuse they have seen the light as jesus will allude to in some of the upcoming verses or he is saying it to both the disciples and the crowd but you know ultimately it means you're in absolutely everybody including us today reading this account you know based on what he's about to say next to regarding the the judgment so this is the verse 31 to 32 this is where some of the when you first look at it anyway it looks as if there's a little bit of first and second coming mixed themes and language kicking in here jesus is saying that the judgment is now yet predominantly in the bible we see the judgment as a future or an end times event especially because later in this same chapter jesus speaks of judging him in the last day so to speak likewise jesus references the prince of this world which most people would interpret as satan being cast out but later in the new testament there's various verses that tell us that satan is still roaming the earth as he did in the old testament with revelation speaking of satan being cast out of the earth as if it is a future event and then finally jesus says i will draw all men on to me if he is lifted up from the earth but then as with previous points this is somewhat cryptic does he mean that he will ascend into heaven after he's risen from the dead he will draw men on to him for salvation to hear the truth or does it mean when he comes again in the clouds and the elect will be gathered onto him some of you may have already figured out what he actually means by that but we will we will get on to that anyway and i do need to do a separate study on the issue of when satan actually falls from heaven so hopefully i can do another study on that soon verse 33 would suggest that jesus is focusing more on immediate events because it's pointing to his death rather than his second coming so this is the frame of reference that the crowd listening are going to take in the next verse because that's how they interpret it they think that christ abides forever so how there must be he be lifted up so because that lifting up stops his abiding you know it must be referring to his death there so we need to spend a little bit of time exploring these verses here just because it is a bit of a complex section of the dialogue at first now we do need to understand why jesus says now is the judgment of the world yet later in john 12 he will describe it as as being at the last day and it won't take very long to address that but what will do is we'll hold that issue for now i'll deal with it when we get more towards the end of the chapter for now let's look at what jesus means by saying if i be lifted up from the earth i will draw all men onto me because views differ on the meaning of this so back in john six jesus told us that no man can come to me except the father draws him so then calvinus will take this statement to mean that god chooses who will be saved so then they interpret john 12 32 when he says i will draw all men onto me that that only refers to believers rather than all men and so in this context being drawn onto him quote unquote means to believe onto salvation as far as i understand i don't speak greek but from what i've read the underlying greek there is supposedly there's no specific word for men but the word meaning all typically refers to people of some kind like all the children or all jr but it's not immediately evident that jesus is referring to believers specifically in that verse on the contrary non calvinus or armenianists if you will as well point to john 12 32 and apply it to john six to say that all men are drawn onto jesus in this context so being drawn onto him doesn't mean that a person gets saved but it means they're invited to be saved or they're invited to the gospel irrespective of whether they accept that invitation or not this interpretation doesn't really fit very well with john six though because when we studied john six we saw that being drawn by the father was strongly coupled with coming to jesus for eternal life specifically i dealt with that when we looked at that chapter in the study series so it's not merely just an invitation or an appeal to free will many of the people in that chapter were already disciples with jesus but then they walked no more with him and that's when jesus clarified what he means by by that statement essentially and there are other interpretations as to what this means for example some say that it refers to jesus drawing all is in every nation tongue because the gospel will go out to the Gentiles as well as the Jews after his death burial and resurrection which is some credibility to this interpretation of course it's you might say it's no accident perhaps that there's actually Greeks approaching jesus in this very chapter so there's some credibility but i would argue that it's somewhat undermined when we understand very specifically what jesus means by if i be lifted up what what he actually means by that and what what that point is to so back in john six it was the father drawing or giving them to jesus with the language suggesting that it was only a few whereas in this chapter it is jesus drawing all then onto himself so they don't necessarily mean the exact same thing even though they're very similar statements back in the study of john six we saw that the father drawing meant on to jesus was in the context of giving them eternal life and it couldn't happen with this transaction you know no man can come to me except the father draw him many of the disciples not the twelve walk no more with him it was said of them that jesus knew from the beginning who believed not so whatever belief they had was in vain it didn't work to the saving of the soul and then the very next verse states that this is the reason why jesus said the father must give them onto jesus he said that as the very next verse about these people who he knew from the beginning who believe not so it seems like they believed for a while but the father didn't really give them so it didn't manifest into eternal life so the context of the father giving them onto jesus is for such people to inherit eternal life at which point jesus states i should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day that's what he said in that chapter any disciples that watch no more with him could be likened onto those that believe for a while if you like in the parable of the soul they were enlightened they tasted the heavenly gift but their belief was in vain the father never gave them to jesus for eternal life so you can go back and see my study on john six if you want to see that more clarity so in john 12 just remind ourselves again that the narrator points readers to jesus's death and that's how his audience understood it so the narrator clearly explains here what it's what death he should die so he's pointing to his death and the people answered very much from this same point of view except that they thought that the christ or the messiah or the anointed one should abide forever presumably to mean they thought that dying wasn't his role so they were confused by jesus saying then you know how must he be lifted up how can he go to his death if he's meant to abide forever so this probably isn't referring to jesus coming in the clouds and gathering the elect because this this conversation centers around his death so this then leads us to solve another cryptic issue why is his death associated with being lifted up from the earth rather than say his resurrection wasn't the whole point of his death you might say that he descended into the earth rather than was lifted up well some of you've probably already figured it out anyway it might seem fairly obvious but you know and even so how did that draw all men on to him we might wonder well we we need to understand then what what jesus means by if i be lifted up and why are you used as that statement about his death because it sounds more like resurrection language really even though in this dialogue the saying is associated with his death the expression lifted up is frequently used throughout the bible in the old new testament it may refer to different things such as lifting up a person from the ground you know lifting up a lame person after they're healed lifting up one's eyes lifting up one's voice lifting up one's pride or lifting up one's soul heart etc etc so the most helpful verse in figuring this out from earlier in john's gospel in chapter 8 so jesus uses this same expression in very much the same context so in john 8 22 he says where i go you cannot come and the jews then say will he kill himself so jesus says something a little bit cryptic to us but it was interpreted by his listeners as referring to his death again okay except that they were incorrect in thinking that he would kill himself later in the chapter this very crowd that jesus is talking to they seek to kill him okay they're after him and again so jesus pointed to his death and the crowd seek to kill him because of what what was spoken about in that chapter so in the middle of those verses then sandwich somewhere in the middle is verse 28 and jesus said on to them when you have lifted up the son of man and then he also goes on to say then shall you know that i am he and that i do nothing of myself so in verse 28 jesus uses the same turn of phrase lifted up okay being but in uh being done on to himself except that instead of if i be lifted up it starts with when you have lifted up and that's the crowd that that seek to kill him okay so that the crowd here presumably they're the ones that are going to lift him up when you have lifted him up the people that he's talking to there so the phrase lifted up from the earth then is most plausibly a reference to his crucifixion okay jesus being raised lifted up onto the cross for crucifixion that appears to be uh what it means and notice what the outcome is okay the outcome is that you shall know that i am he and that i can do nothing of myself but rather do it of the father okay so that that then gives us an implication as to what he means so according to jesus then what he said in 828 when they have lifted him up on the cross they should know that jesus is of the father okay that's what they should know when they've done that and then in 1232 he's saying if i be lifted up i will draw all men on to me so the most plausible explanation based on what we've looked at is that through his death he will point the whole world to himself as being the christ okay and this is not an unreasonable view because if you think about it really the the name of jesus has become an internationally recognized name that has spread over most of the world and after his resurrection the appoint apostles refer to his death frequently in the book of acts to win people over to the faith including the jews that were responsible for killing him in the earlier chapters of acts meanwhile many rejecting jews instead of just being apathetic about the preaching of christ and just going about their way and ignoring what was going on they were adamantly against it and actively opposed the apostles you know it wasn't just enough for them to just sit back reject the christ and be quiet they actually had to oppose this movement okay so it would seem that the context of jesus drawing all men on to himself isn't directly equivalent to the father drawing men on to him in uh john chapter six so you might disagree with this interpretation and that's okay this is not a serious doctrinal issue as the statement i will draw him in all on to me it's it's only really used here it's it's not a saying that is repeated throughout the bible and another verse to complement the meaning of being lifted up referring to his crucifixion by the way uh you might say is uh john 3 14 and and moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be uh lifted up okay and that that event there is probably not dramatic enough to uh refer to his resurrection so it seems more like his his crucifixion there okay so moving along then verses 34 to 37 the people answered him we have heard out of the law that christ bites forever how do you say that the son of man must be lifted up who is the son of man then jesus said on to them yet a little while is the light with you walk while you have the light unless darkness should come upon you for he that walks in the darkness knows not where he goes while you have the light believe in the light that you may be the children of the light these things spoke jesus and departed and did hide himself from them but though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believe not on him so notice that they ask this question and jesus doesn't answer the question directly and so why does he do this is it is he dodging the question some people might wonder or is he trying to sound mysterious and profound well remember what we have just read up to at this point jesus has already made it clear very clear that he is the son of man a voice came down from heaven even to confirm that that he is the son of man you know being glorified the people heard it yet as we will go on to see in verse 37 they didn't believe in any case so jesus is answering from this point in mind because the people here are literally without excuse but but the light is running out so to speak as jesus says yet a little while is the light with you so walk while you have the light okay this leads us to a very important point then is there a time limit running out to be saved well most christians generally agree that upon death it is no longer possible to convert and get saved there is absolutely zero evidence in the bible that there is any chance of the people already in hell to to be saved there are a few groups that would deny this truth that there are very sorry there are very few groups that would deny this but with a few exceptions such as the Mormons who practice baptism for the for the dead and there's outlying heretics that believe in universalism and i forgot to mention that you perhaps might put in the catholic doctrine of the purgatory in in that same category but we won't really delve into those kind of issues in this study but passages such as luke 16 and revelation 20 seem to enforce a fairly inescapable finality to eternal judgment as we also read from this verse in hebrews as it is appointed on to men wants to die but after this the judgment so that there seems to be a finality with the end result of being dead but a lot of christians do have a hard time coming to terms with the idea that people are hard hearted in this life and unfortunately won't receive the gospel onto salvation even onto their last dying breath the idea that it's already too late for certain people is a difficult concept for many christians to confront and they either reject this doctrine or they they bury their heads in the sand about it so a lot of christians thinks it works like this somebody rejects god they reject god time goes on they reject god again they reject god they reject god but they still have a chance to have this last minute repentance on their their deathbed if you will you know right before it's too late a lot of christians seem to think it works like that and if you try and challenge this world for a few these are a lot of the responses that i i tend to get back from them that people say things like well god will reach people in their own way and god saves even the worst of sinners and how do you know that god won't speak to people in their last moments and does god not give you know second chances and you shouldn't be so forceful and dogmatic with the gospel i mean this is the one i've often heard the most that you know god will speak to people in their own way and you don't know how god will reach people these are often some of the arguments that you get back from people who don't really like this idea that actually somebody could be twice dead long before they're actually dead um but this is a very naive view and it really ignores a lot of warnings in the bible really and it's really a misunderstanding about the the judgment of god so we saw in john chapter 12 yet a little while is the light with you walk while you have the light unless darkness should come upon you so um you'll see in a moment why i've put an ellipsis there but you've got other passages in the bible like hard and not your heart is in the day of provocation you know as your father's proved me etc and you've got like second Corinthians where it says today is the day of salvation you know it's not tomorrow or next week so there's these warning verses here about um you know not falling down this gradual process but then at a certain point when this light runs out well then continuing our quote from john 12 unless darkness should come upon you for he that walks in the darkness doesn't know where he goes and he bruise continues this thought from our earlier verse there about um not not falling into this evil heart of unbelief and departing from the the living god uh white you know while it is called today it says unless you're hot less any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and romans one talks about people being given over to a reprobate mind because they they did not like to retain god in their knowledge so uh perhaps you were wondering then well what what causes this gradual hard heartedness uh you know is it that some people have committed too many sins and the sins can't be covered anymore well uh we won't cover other passages in this study so that we don't digress from john 12 these passages do need their own study but we could sort of summarize with uh some points here so the hebrew's quote it warns us about uh not being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin but unbelief is the main context rather than a list of specific actions or sins so their actions such as tempting god in the wilderness they were a symptom of their unbelief so unbelief was the underlying cause one timothy four ones about in the lot of times people departing from the faith and it's not because of specific sins or actions but rather their false doctrines and giving heed to seducing spirits uh giving strange commandments teachings that are not part of the faith uh paul says that such people have their conscience seared so they're they're given over to these delusions and doctrines uh romans one warns people about being given over to a reprobate mind and although various symptoms are the simp sorry although various sins are the symptom of being given over it started with the fact that they did not like to retain god through their knowledge um though they knew god they glorified him not as god and then of course you've got the more uh well known and recognized uh blasphemy of the holy spirit the um unforgivable sin uh where this concept is mentioned in matthew this was not believers who went astray to go on to commit this sin rather it was Pharisees who never accepted jesus to begin with they they saw his miracles and they couldn't uh sufficiently dispute them but but accused him of doing those things by the power of the devil rather than the power of god so that that showed their intense rejection of him so so herein lies the problem whereby people harden their hearts and are beyond redemption even while they live it's not that they've done too many sins to be covered by the blood that that's not what's going on here it's that they've seen the light and they've witnessed it they've they've been given a fair enough chance to recognize it but they reject it anyway okay and the more they are exposed to this light the more they continue to reject it so just to help illustrate this that here's like one practical example the famous atheist christopher higgins he dedicated his life to debunking and disproving and apparently non-existent god in his last days he went under underwent throat cancer knowing that he was going to die and he remained very much defiant and committed to his unbelief he was not some sorry simpleton who was just never shown the truth or didn't get satisfactory answers to religious questions or didn't meet a convincing enough debater he knew what the bible said he knew what christians believe even across different denominations and points of view he debated and discussed with more than enough christians on various issues and he knew exactly why he rejected the bible it wasn't just that he couldn't grasp things properly now he may have often used some scientific evidence claims as one of the basis for his foundations for rejecting the bible but this is a red herring because people like himself and also others like him like Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry etc they've very famously expressed that even if they saw that god was real and we could prove god if it were the god of the bible in any case they still expressed that they would never worship or serve that god anyway because they think god is terrible for you know in certain reason here so this man was twice dead long before his flesh was ever dead and a lot of christians tried vehemently to to convince him but it was ultimately a waste of effort okay so the bible speaks of this more like a gradual process really such as how pharaoh hardened his heart or god hardened pharaoh's heart but this happened repeatedly and got more extreme each time so man rejects god god hardens his heart man rejects god god hardens his heart man rejects god god hardens his heart and it comes to a point where no amount of miracles or rebuking or being shown the truth is ever going to convince this person he's been given over and this is just this is a biblical truth unfortunately it's just one that a lot of christians have a hard time uh grasping with okay so we see then that the light is with us for a limited time okay so we're supposed to uh walk in that light while we yet have that light and so this is this is not about a saved person going on the wrong trajectory and you know anything like that this is not about a saved person walking on the right path that's not evident in this conversation um this is uh jews or well jewish greeks who don't believe on jesus they're not accepting him as the messiah that's who he's preaching to but they've only got a limited window of opportunity of which to follow this light while they yet have it and we see that they're going to miss this opportunity unfortunately so this is ultimately about accepting the gospel while one yet has time to receive it and loving not this life if that's you know if that's going to be an obstacle to you following the light while you yet have it because it might be a point of eventually maybe you don't love this life anymore but you don't have the light anymore to walk in it either okay so um it's not entirely clear how this crowd of jewish greeks loved this life quote unquote um verse 34 is arguably the um the clearest verse really that gives us any indication whatsoever from their perspective why they didn't believe christ that notice it says we have heard out of those so it's not it is written in the law we have heard out of the law so it's possible that they wouldn't let go of whatever it is that they were taught to believe possibly uh we don't really know for sure it you know it doesn't give us that background because strangely they even came to see jesus deliberately and they even saw miracles yet they didn't believe on him so we will explore shortly about the the heavenly perspective from isire about how their eyes were blinded but later in the chapter we actually do do see that some people did believe on him not necessarily out of this crowd that he's talking to but there were people who did believe on him but they would not confess him for fear of being cast out of the synagogue it's possible that perhaps john grouped that story so close with this one because maybe john saw that those two things were related perhaps this crowd were you know fearful about being cast out of the synagogue we don't we don't really know but but ultimately that that's what's happening in some way these jewish greeks had that some sort of same fear loving this life or whatever they've been told or you know whatever the status quo is that they they then wouldn't accept the the true true light even if it's shown right before them in a very indisputable way so um what this teaches us then is that although we gave an example of an atheist to somebody who is spiritually rejected remember that this can apply to religious people too but but for different reasons one of the most frightening things about false religion and false gospels is how much those things bind people's hearts to the point where no matter how much how many times you try to correct them or debunk them or embarrass them or disprove them they will not let go of these false premises and i've seen it sometimes in my comments where it's just it's so easy to demolish arguments and prove that people are misappropriating the bible and even when you prove to people that they're demonstratively misappropriating the bible they just well what about this passage and well we know from this passage you know and they just they just carry on doing it they just won't let go because they've just been so binded to work salvation or conditional security or whatever it might happen to be so just as an atheist such as Christopher Hitchens was given over to his contempt for god died in his repubation many religious people are given over to whatever thing it is so in high controlled groups such as Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses they are too afraid of being ostracized or disfellowshipped from their congregations people won't let go of their belief in Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy as the the original Church of Christ so called or the religion that they were raised in as a child so even when you show them the truth from the bible they're too afraid to let go of that because they're so convinced that those groups monopolize legitimacy and truth or they just whatever it is they won't let go of their self-righteousness for salvation of some form whether that's repent of your sins to be saved or surrender your life to Christ to be saved you can demolish those doctrines seven ways until Sunday they'll still cling on to it and that that's just unfortunately that's the way it is so moving on then so that there is something important here that needs to be addressed so let these are the next passages where we now get the quote from Isaiah so 37 to 41 but though he had done so many miracles before him yet before them yet they believed not on him that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke Lord who has believed our reports and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed therefore they could not believe because the eyes Isaiah said again he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted that I should heal them these things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spoke of him so at first glance these verses seem to make it look as if God is deliberately and intentionally holding this particular group of people back from being able to believe the Christ okay Calvinists use passages like this to underpin their doctrine of unconditional election that God chooses who will or won't be saved according to the mystery of his will or you know the choice towards seems rather arbitrary and when you follow the prophecy books such as Isaiah you'll notice that God doesn't just randomly decide to start judging Israel or Judah for no particular reason or for some mystery of will but rather there were a lot of sins and moral spiritual decay leading up to these pronouncements and they were often actually targeted at what what should have been God's people rather than the people outside okay so in the New Testament terms you might actually apply this more to Christians than the non-Christians in a manner of speaking so to say that God arbitrarily or mysteriously chose this group of people particularly not to be saved is really interpreting the quotes of Isaiah and interpreting what what John 12 is saying beyond what it actually tells us um this group approached Jesus so it's likely that they already knew about him to some extent before this dialogue okay um Jesus gave as a hint that this group loves their life in in this world so the problem with with their unbelief lies with them ultimately it doesn't you know lie with God with you know arbitrarily holding them back they love their life in some form or another and even when a voice did come from heaven they just dismissed it as thunder okay they they you know tried to over rationalize it perhaps and some people later in this chapter did believe on him just not necessarily the same group of people that that approached him earlier in the chapter okay now you could ask then assuming that Jesus already knows this group won't believe on him after doing miracles why bother speaking to them at all isn't it you know is it not a waste of his time well you could make the case that if they had have seen these miracles that they couldn't possibly use these Isaiah quotes as like a cop out you know at the judgment for not believing as if it were God's fault and if Jesus hadn't approached this group to confirm their unbelief then you you couldn't really say that the prophecies of Isaiah would be fulfilled so God for knowing this then still has to set up this situation to happen otherwise that the prophecy would be meaningless and redundant and then we we come full circle to Jesus telling them to follow the light while it is yet with them Jesus then hid himself from them you could argue that had Jesus continued with them in this dialogue it would have only really added to their condemnation at the judgment which he speaks about in this chapter and I'm not going to get into it in this study but there are verses about you know if people don't receive you then wash the you know wipe the dust off your feet and move on don't badger the same people to death with the gospel if they're not going to hear it okay tell that to the repent of your sins street preachers but there you go so moving on then verses 42 to 43 nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him unless they should be put out of the synagogue for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God and this leads me on to another important point to be addressed here is that is belief without confession if somebody supposedly believes but does not confess their beliefs are they saved and I've seen that argument going about in various circles now if you've watched this series up to now this might seem like a silly question because we've seen believe and have eternal life emphasized over and over again in john's gospel we haven't really seen confession emphasized in this account we might be then tempted to put it in the same box that we put baptism and communion and it's kind of something well I should do it but it's not a must I do for eternal life type of a commandment but treating this treating confession in this way is somewhat more difficult because some verses do tightly couple it with belief although that being said the bible does pair works and baptism with belief as well in a few select verses okay well let's explore then the coupling of confession with belief so earlier in john's gospel we had belief without confession and that was john 316 that whosoever believeth in him noticed that Jesus told Nicodemus to believe in him but didn't tell him to confess so then you might argue that confession was not specifically required otherwise Jesus didn't give Nicodemus complete instructions but then you have confession without belief and that's in Matthew 10 when when Jesus is sending out his disciples to preach the kingdom we see that there are those who will confess and there are those who deny so Jesus doesn't hypothesize one who will believe but not confess we just have those who will confess and those who will deny and then obviously in Romans 10 we've got confession with belief and so this is where confession and belief really go hand in hand as if they're part and parcel of the same thing and you know these are the ultimate verses really to tie those two things together but notice in verse 9 that confession comes first and then comes belief whereas in verse 10 confession comes second and belief comes first so there's not really a strict order of steps being presented here like first step one you must do this then step two you must do this you know it's just it's just tying both of those things together so um Matthew 10 I would argue the quote from Matthew 10 gives us the key to understanding what the role of confession is now this is not necessarily the same type of confession as say confessing your sins to God as a you know like a believer who prays for ongoing forgiveness this is confessing Christ on to salvation so in verses 5 to 7 of Matthew 10 this is where Jesus sends his disciples out to preach verses 13 to 14 they're ultimately going to encounter two types of people some will receive them some won't and of those who shall not receive they won't even hear their words much less receiving them in some cases verse 17 some people as well as not receiving them will also deliver them to persecution and tribulation and we briefly mentioned that earlier that there's some Jews who actually actively opposed the preaching of Jesus rather than just passively letting letting it go by them and then that's when later in the chapter Jesus confirms some will deny some will confess and so we would assume then based on the entirety of that chapter that the ones who confessed Christ were the ones who received the disciples preaching and vice versa okay you know if they denied they didn't receive so Matthew 10 it's not about whether somebody doesn't do the confession properly or say the right words or say the prayer or believed in Jesus but wouldn't admit it what what Jesus is offering to the disciples here is really a simple test when they preach the kingdom some will receive presumably they will confess Christ and some will reject they they will presumably not receive Christ so confession of the mouth on to salvation is like a test that we can use as believers to determine whether somebody did or didn't receive the gospel so presumably if they believed our report we show them the gospel then we would assume that they will confess that belief if they deny Christ on the other hand we would assume that they didn't receive the gospel so let's see an example in practice let's assume that in evangelist has given the gospel presentation has reached a finale and he asks this question when we first approach to your door you didn't believe this now we have shown you from the bible God's plan of salvation which do you believe and he might say yes I believe he confesses or he might say no I'm I'm still sticking with my beliefs he denies and so his confession or his denial would confirm to the evangelist whether he does or doesn't believe that that seems to be the the role of confession at least taking Matthew 10 into account so some people will object to this because it gives the impression of a hit it and quit it evangelism that somebody could just nod and say yes at the door but they'll never attend a church or fellowship with the evangelist afterwards so you know was his faith genuine did even really get saved but some of the disciples you know understandably though the disciples would have ultimately experienced this same phenomenon they were going about preaching in the city of the Samaritans but Jesus and his disciples traveled around a lot they wouldn't have necessarily seen their converts ever again or at least not until the time of acts and even in acts you know many of the apostles traveled far and wide and yes there were places where they stayed for a while and built churches there but you know they didn't necessarily see everybody again that they would convert because they were traveling a lot so it's possible that somebody denying Christ would have given a confessional lip service but but really this would have been a profession rather than a confession if they didn't really believe it likewise it's possible that some people did receive the disciples but wouldn't confess Christ in front of them because they were worried about the persecution that Jesus warned about in the same chapter that doesn't necessarily mean that they weren't saved or that they didn't confess in the heart or you know didn't ask them didn't ask God to save them privately or even confess later they may well have done that but perhaps they didn't confess Christ in front of the disciples but my answer to their objection though and people object to that is really so what because it wouldn't be the disciples fault or it wouldn't be the evangelist faults if somebody gave a false confession or a false denial because the thing is we can't see a man's faith so we can only really go by what he says ultimately so it's it's also important to remember that when showing somebody the gospel it's contrary to their former belief system so potential converts may be experiencing a spiritual form of what you might call cognitive dissonance struggling to process information that contradicts what they've always known or believed furthermore one cannot expect a new convert to have the same boldness as a skilled evangelist you know they may it may take them some time to overcome the fear of being persecuted for their confession and that you can't necessarily expect a new convert to have that that same level of boldness okay interestingly where Romans 10 in Romans 10 where confession is mentioned we do see similarities with John 12 and Matthew 10 notably the same verse from Isaiah is quoted from John 12 here so in verses 9 and 10 that's where we've got the confession being tied in with belief just as in Matthew 10 you've got the disciples preaching the kingdom and confession would confirm who received it and likewise Paul is saying here that a preacher is needed so that a man can call upon the name of the Lord so here again it's tying that confession not not with believing in of itself on its own but with the preaching of the gospel as well someone's got to preach the gospel for you to be able to then call upon the name of the Lord and confess him and have somebody to confess him in front of okay and then here it says but they have not earned verse 16 they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says Lord who has believed our report and that's the exact same quote from John 12 that quoting the same verse from Isaiah so you see that it's not just tying confession with belief on its own but the preaching of the gospel is linked to that as well okay so that that kind of goes hand in hand so going back to John 12 then did the chief rulers get saved see I would be inclined to say that if they did believe they did get saved in so far as John the narrator is saying that they believed and he doesn't say that they believed in vain or they had a false belief he could have tacked those words on there he could have said many believed but in vain but he didn't say that okay so but having said that though their lack of confession doesn't cast them in a very good light and you know that the chief rulers were portrayed negatively predominantly in the gospels and you know this verse while it confirms that some of them did believe it still portrays them negatively because it's still the very opposite of what Jesus said to do earlier in the chapter he who loves his life shall use it and they seem to be still wrapped up in something in this life you know whether they be put out of the synagogue or not so getting towards the end of the chapter then we've got verses 40 40 50 so Jesus cried and said he that believes on me believes not on me but on him that sent me and he that sees me has seen him that sent me I am come alight into the world that whosoever believes on me should not abide in darkness and if any man hear my words and believe not I judge him not for I came not to judge the world but to save the world he that rejects me receives not my words has one that judges him the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day for I have not spoken of myself but the father which sent me he gave me a commandment what should I say and what should I what I should speak and I know that his commandment his life everlasting whatsoever I speak therefore even as the father said on to me so I speak so earlier Jesus said to follow the light while you have the light now this is possibly a slight different conversation that we see in these verses here but it's likely that John group these verses very close together because they are related or at least they happened very much near each other now people out there sometimes falsely claim that you know walking in the light and following the light as doing works all this that and the other but we just see that simply by linking it to this verse right here the light here it's those who believe on him you know to the one who believes on him and in doing so if they believe on him he shall not abide in darkness that there's the key there and this definition will be helpful later in John 15 when we look at what it means to abide in him because people do a lot of the same thing with abide they make it about works when the Bible doesn't necessarily make it about about works and now we essentially revisit the issue that we explored earlier in this chapter about the judgment whether it is a future judgment or a present judgment we won't we won't spend a long time on this it's fairly easy to sort out but earlier in the chapter he said now is the judgment so like a present judgment whereas later in the chapter he's talking of a future judgment you know I will judge him in the last day this is fairly easy to explain and understand it's really not that complicated at all the the actual hearing of the judgment will take place at the last day but according to God's foreknowledge the the judgment you might say is already in effect so you've got the present condemnation so like John 3 18 to 19 we see that a man's condemnation is already effect effective and he is condemned already if he doesn't believe okay you know on account that he believes not the son whereas when we look at the future judgment day like Revelation 20 the great white throne judgment we see it as a future event where the actual event where God will be sitting on the throne passing his judgment so a good analogy to this is the the court hearing or trial versus a court sentencing so sometimes the sentence hearing may take place in a separate hearing than the trial itself now if after the trial it was determined that the defendant is found guilty the sentence the sentence hearing won't need to establish or prove this it just simply confirms the sentence but the accused is already condemned so it's important to remember that judgment centres around the Christ it's those who reject him that will be judged although the sentence hearing so to speak is at the last day but the rejection is already judged now so something else to grasp here is the reason for Jesus coming the the first time it's very specific that he didn't come to judge the world but to save it okay very specific there because I've pointed out previously on my channel I've dealt with and I've also been confronted with this thing that people say that both Christians and non-Christians or believers and non-believers will both be judged according to their work so they'll be judged in the same way you know this is where the idea of teaching a works based salvation well I did another video on my channel where I dealt with Revelation 20 and the judgment and we saw from Revelation 20 that it was very specifically the unsaved who were the ones judged according to their works because it was the people not found in the book of life but if Jesus is going to judge unsaved people and save people in the same way then you can't really say that being saved has any meaning really but Jesus purpose was very specifically to save from such judgment and so it's those who reject him that will be judged and that that's perfectly consistent with Revelation 20 now verses 46 and 48 as somewhat sorry the 47 and 48 is somewhat cryptic Jesus says he doesn't judge the one that rejects him the word he has spoken judges him but you know earlier in John's gospel didn't Jesus say didn't he say Jesus is the word or didn't Jesus say the words I speak on to you they are spirit and they are life so then doesn't this somewhat undermine that point because it's now separating Jesus and the word well this is a difficult saying and it's hard to understand in of itself but perhaps in in scope of the entire chapter John chapter 12 it's more clear Jesus came to save not to judge that that's the reason why he came he spoke the words that bring life he called people to believe on him he said to follow the light while you yet have the light but if you reject his words then these words judge them because the light came to them to save them but they did not receive it so that they they could have been saved they chose not to be hence why they are judged as such okay I don't know if you know that helps anybody but but that's all really to say about that so to close this study we just have a gentle reminder then that bringing life everlasting is Jesus's commandment okay not as it's faith not of works so I know I've skimmed through though some of those points but it's just because some of them are a bit cryptic and so you know you can't necessarily see absolutely that the way I'm interpreting them is perfect you know we can only really summarise and that's the essence of what he's saying in the chapter so that kind of concludes our study for John chapter 12 look out for John 13 coming soon in the series we're getting closer and closer to exploring John 15 and the issue of abiding in him which is a passage that frustrates a lot of Christians so I'm going to be excited to offer an in-depth study on that issue very soon