Jesus’ Final Appeal
John 12:44-50
Randy K. Kilby at the age of 42 was president of Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute in North Carolina. On February 6, 1997, he was preaching at Southeastern Baptist Seminary, and said as he began, “Pray that I will come into this pulpit as if it were my first time, pray for the me that I’ll preach as if it were my best time, and pray for me as it could be my last time.” It wasn’t his last time, but five days later, as he preached very passionately at a Bible conference at West Lenoir Baptist Church, he finished his sermon, walked out of the sanctuary, and died of an apparent sudden cardiac arrest. (“Fruitland President Kilby dies at 42 of heart attack.” Baptist Press, February 17, 1997. Online: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=3094).
The great Puritan pastor Richard Baxter once famously said, “I preached, as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men!” In an age where being a Puritan was subject to persecution, Baxter never knew when he might be preaching his final sermon. But of course, it is true for us all: we never really know when we might preach, or hear, our last sermon; even when we might draw our last breath. (Richard Baxter, The Poetical Fragments of Richard Baxter (London: Pickering, 1821), 35. Online: http://www.archive.org/stream/poeticalfragment00baxt#page/34/mode/2up/search/%22dying+man%22).
I hope this is not the last sermon I will preach, and I pray it is not the last that you will hear. But here in John 12, we find the last public sermon of Jesus Christ–one that He knew would be His last. These are not the last words of Christ. The next five chapters contain many words spoken privately to His disciples on the night He was betrayed. Jesus spoke very few words during His trial, and He spoke seven brief utterances on the cross. But here in John 12 we have Jesus’ final public appeal to the Jews who had not believed in Him.
John tells us “Then Jesus cried out and said.” It means to shout in a loud voice. Jesus is doing more than just teaching. He’s strong urging His hearers to pay attention to these truths. He wants these words to resonate in the ears of those who heard Him.
Listen as I read our text, John 12:44-50:
44 Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.
45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.
46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.
47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him–the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.
49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.
50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
With the very loud declaration of those final words, the Son of God put a ‘period’ on three-and-a-half years of public ministry. If you have been following along in our teaching of the Gospel of John you may notice that Jesus does not say anything really very different from what He had said on other occasions. So His words here serve as a review of some of the key truths of John’s Gospel so far. These truths focus on His identity, His purpose in coming, warnings of judgment and encouragement to believe in Him for eternal life.
So in Jesus’ final public sermon He clearly reminds us of who He is, why He came, and what the consequences are for those who believe and for those who do not believe.
First, we see that Jesus came …
1. To show us the Father (John 12:44-45)
Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.
Did you notice that twice in those verses that Jesus declares that He was “sent”? Later, in John 12:49, He lets us know specifically that the one who sent Him was God the Father. In fact Jesus says 35 times in John’s Gospel that the Father “sent Me.” This truth is at the core of who Jesus is. Jesus came into this world in a way that was true of no one else who has ever walked upon it. He was sent by the Father.
And Jesus declares to us that He was sent into this world as One who is so united to the Father who sent Him, that to believe in Him is also to believe in the Father, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.” Lest we miss what that means Jesus strengthens the impact of it by saying, “And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.” The word that is here translated “see” means to gaze upon in a contemplative and thoughtful way. And so, to gaze upon Jesus and to contemplate Him is to gaze upon and accurately contemplate the Father.
Jesus is affirming here what John states in his introduction to his Gospel. John introduces Jesus as the Word in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then tells us how the eternal Son of God was sent in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Then John 1:18 tells us what it means for us that He was sent, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
Jesus came to show us the Father. He shows us the Father because He is one with the Father. In John 10:30 Jesus said, “I and My Father are one.” And again in John 10:38 He said they should, “know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” In John 8:19 Jesus says to those who do not believe in Him, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”
Jesus will repeat this truth in answer to Philip’s request for Jesus to show them the Father (John 14:9-10), “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” So to know God, you must know Jesus. As 1 John 2:23 affirms, “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
The Jews to whom Jesus spoke that day said they believed in God, but many of them refused to believe in Jesus. And many people today claim the same thing. Some will even say, “I believe in God; but I don’t believe in Jesus Christ.” Jesus says this is impossible. The only way to have a relationship with God the Father is through His Son. To believe on Jesus is to believe on God the Father; and to see Jesus is to see God the Father.
No wonder Jesus shouted this. There is no other way to have a relationship with the Father but through Him. That’s why Jesus came into this world—to show us the Father. Next Jesus says He came:
2. To shine as a light in the darkness (John 12:46)
46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.
Again here, Jesus restates a truth that has been repeated throughout John’s Gospel. John 1:4-5 affirms, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:9 calls Jesus “the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” John 3:19-21 refers to Jesus as the Light:
19 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
In John 8:12, Jesus proclaimed, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” In John 9:5, just before He opened the eyes of the man born blind, Jesus repeated, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” And in John 12:35-36, Jesus taught again:
“A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
This means that the world without Christ is in spiritual and moral darkness. This fallen world is a very dark place; and apart from Jesus, we don’t know God the Father, and we don’t know how to live in a way that pleases Him. Without Christ we do not understand the things that the Spirit of God has revealed in God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:14). Without Christ we are darkened in our understanding and excluded from the life of God (Eph. 4:18).
Jesus is the light and there is no other. He came to shine the light of God into the darkness of our world of sin.
Thirdly, Jesus came …
3. To save the world (John 12:47)
47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
Jesus says He did not come to judge the world, He came to save the world. Again, Jesus is stating truths that He has repeatedly taught in this Gospel:
John 3:17-18 – “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
You see, Jesus did not have to come to bring judgment. Judgment was already upon this world. Jesus did not need to condemn sinners, they stood condemned already. But in His coming, Jesus was on a mission to save from that judgment those who would believe upon Him.
The purpose for which Jesus came in His first advent was to save the world. He came to be the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29). He came so that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16). Jesus said (John 10:9), “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.”
As the Son of God, He would not have had to be born into humanity in order to be the judge of the world. But He did have to be born into the human family in order to be our Savior. And that’s why He came. He left the glory of heaven, was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, and was born in Bethlehem as one of us. He grew up in the midst of this dark and fallen world without committing any sin. He walked upon the earth in perfect obedience to the Father’s commandments; and finally took all the guilt of human sin upon Himself as the sinless Lamb of God when He died on the cross in our place.
Jesus did not come to judge the world but to save the world. But what we see next is that everyone will be judged by what they do with Him. Jesus next tells us that He came into this world . . .
4. To speak judgment and eternal life (John 12:48-50)
First, in John 12:48 Jesus speaks of judgment: “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him–the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”
Jesus says there will be a last day, and that it will be a day of judgment. The Bible warns us that judgment will come and the wrath of a holy God will be poured out. But ultimately, it will be the words of Jesus that judge people on that day. Jesus came to this earth and spoke the words that God the Father gave Him to speak. John 12:49, “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” We will be judged by what we do with Jesus and His words. The one who rejects Jesus and His words will remain condemned on that day.
But the opposite will be true of those who receive Jesus and His word. In John 5:24 Jesus offered a sure way to escape the judgment of condemnation, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
When Jesus came into this world He put every man and women in it at the crossroads of a decision. They must either receive His words and believe on Him, or not receive His words and reject Him. And what they do with what He has said will determine their eternal destiny. He told His disciples (John 15:22), “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.”
At the end of Jesus’ last public sermon He cried out (John 12:50), “And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” The mission that the Father commanded the Son to fulfill—which He fulfilled perfectly; and the words that the Father commanded Him to speak—which He declared boldly and publicly; all lead to eternal life.
That’s why Jesus came. Jesus Himself shouted it out. He came to show us the Father. He came to shine as a light in this dark world. He came not to judge sinners, but to save them. He came to speak of judgment and eternal life so that we might believe on Him and be saved.
This is why the Lord Jesus speaks with such urgency, crying out these words of His final public sermon. And that was the end of His public ministry. It was the last time they would hear Him preach. We don’t know but that this could well be the last sermon I ever preach. It might well be the last one you hear. This may be your hour of decision. It is not my words which are important, but His words, so clearly spoken in this great Gospel.
Have you taken the words of Jesus to heart? Have you believed His words about who He is and why He came? Have you received Him as the One who died for your sins, who bore your punishment on the cross? Have you received His free gift of eternal life?
