The twelfth chapter of John is a springboard. After it follow the chapters recording the endless chain of events that rapidly led to the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Lord. In the twelfth chapter is recorded the triumphal entry, the famous event commemorated in Palm Sunday, when Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people cried, “Hosanna!” Following that came the Lord’s last discourse in the temple. The thirteenth chapter tells how Jesus kept the feast of Passover and washed the disciples’ feet. Chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen contain the last discourse of Christ to His disciples. The seventeenth chapter unfolds the great prayer of the Lord. Then Jesus made His way to Gethsemane.
In the twelfth chapter is the story of Jesus’ last opportunity to greet the people in the temple and minister a word to them. The triumphal entry had been beautiful, but the chapter tells how the people did not receive His word. It had seemed as if everyone would follow Him; but when He began to lay down the truth the way it really is, the multitude turned away from Him. They had seen His miracles; they had wanted to make Him king; but when the crisis came, they backed off; they turned away. There is something sad about this, but we will minimize that aspect of it and talk about the finality with which Christ presented deep, mystical truths about His life and ours. We will study John 12:20–36.
Now there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. This is speaking of the feast of Passover. Every Jew went up to the temple three times a year, at Passover, at Pentecost, and at Tabernacles. This was a requirement of the Law (Exodus 23:17); and we, in these days of the restoration, also keep these feasts. Apparently these Greeks, who came for the feast, were proselytes. They believed in the law of Moses, although they were Greeks.
These therefore came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” That sounds like a very simple request. They were out-of-towners, and they wanted to be introduced to the celebrity, the man about whom everyone in Jerusalem was talking.
Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came, and they told Jesus. I do not know what their motivation was. Perhaps they reasoned that it would not hurt to have some good publicity, that maybe the Greeks would love Him, too, and there would be more people to back Him up. Whatever their motivation, they came to Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
The Lord has a strange way of answering questions. When He is asked one thing, it seems as if He starts talking about something else. He answers the question, but the answer is not always as obvious as it would appear. The Greeks asked to see Jesus, and Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If any one serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if any one serves Me, the Father will honor him.” That does not sound like a good answer to give to some Greek tourists.
The Greeks said, “We would see Jesus.” Jesus said, “The time has now come for the Son of Man to be glorified, and this is the way it happens.” Then He gave a little parable. A grain of wheat has to fall on the ground and die, or it remains by itself alone, just one grain of wheat. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
What was Jesus saying? He said in effect, “These Greeks want to see Me. This is not the time that the Greeks should be trying to see Me. The grain of wheat has to die, or it will abide alone. If they come to see Me, they will see God in the flesh of one man. But if I die, I will bring forth a great company of people in whom I can be seen. Then My presence will not be manifested in the flesh of one man, the lonely Nazarene, who is to hang upon a cross; but My life will be manifested in many hundreds of people throughout the centuries. If these Greeks truly want to see Me, this is not the way to see Me. If they really want to see Me, let them wait until I have died and have risen again; then I will begin to manifest Myself and live in all My disciples.” He was giving an answer; though it appears as if He hedged, He did not. He gave the exact answer.
Even today some people still think about Jesus Christ as though He were an individual. Christ is not an individual. To some that statement may seem to be heresy; but the Scriptures say, “As the Body is not one member but many, so also is Christ” (I Corinthians 12:12). That means that now Christ is not one person, but Christ is manifested in a many-membered Body. The individual Christian may not be much of a member, but he is still a member. He may be just a little finger, but he is still a member of the Body. We are all members of Christ’s Body. Christ had to die in order that now His life could be universalized in all of us.
Christ’s manifestation in His Body was very real to the early Church. After the Holy Spirit had come upon the disciples and they were preaching the Word, the Scriptures record that everyone took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). Their words sounded like Jesus. The people thought it was Jesus speaking. It was Jesus speaking. He was speaking through His disciples, ministering through them.
Twice in the book of Revelation John recorded a mistake he made. John the Beloved was well-versed in spiritual things. Of all the gospels, John’s is the most spiritual. Yet John mistook one of his brethren for the Lord. When the messenger who was sent to John said, These are the true sayings of God, John fell on his face and began to worship him. He recognized the voice of his Lord. He had listened to Him and knew, not by the sound, but by the Spirit, that Jesus Christ was speaking. Twice he made the mistake of bowing down to worship one of his brethren (Revelation 19:9, 10; 22:8). The man said, “I am of your brethren the prophets. I am one of those who have the testimony of Jesus, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Or the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus; it is interchangeable. Jesus was speaking through that man.
Christ now lives in a many-membered Body. There will come a time when if you know the voice of the Lord, you will recognize His word in a brother. The man may be just a babe in Christ or an old, white-haired saint, but you will realize, as John did, that your Lord is speaking, for He is dwelling in that man.
Unless the grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it abides alone. Unless Christ had died and rose again, He would not be able to be living in us. He would still be only one person. Now He is God, manifested in many thousands of people. John knew when Christ was speaking; he did recognize the Lord, but He did not recognize how completely and totally Christ was dwelling in all the brethren who came to be the messengers of the Lord.
If you cannot understand this word, do not worry about it. Put it aside. The Lord may help you with it another day.
Jesus said, “If you love your life, you will lose it. If you hate your life in this world, you shall keep it unto eternal life.” He was pointing out that not only is the principle of the grain true of the Lord, but it is also true of us. Unless Jesus had laid down His life, He would have abode alone. This is also true of us. We cannot love our lives. Most of us have a zeal to live for God, and that is a joyful thing. But very few things of the world interest us anymore. We have come to the place where we no longer love this world nor the things of this world. Our only desire is to serve Him. Jesus said, “If any one serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if any one serves Me, the Father will honor him.” It is very simple. We must be willing to lose our lives, to almost hate our human existence, in favor of the spiritual life that God has for us.
All that the disciples said was, “Some Greeks are here to see You,” and Jesus began to expound the whole truth of the gospel. It did not matter whether the Greeks saw Him or not. He said, “It will not be long before I will be hanging on a cross. They can look at Me then if all they are looking for is a spectacle. But if they want to see Jesus, let them wait until that spiritual Redeemer and Lord and Savior is manifesting Himself through a great many-membered Body.” This many-membered Body will be the greatest revelation of the Lord ever to come.
“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ ” (A cross with its agonizing death was facing Him in a matter of hours.) “But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.” There came therefore a voice out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” There was definitely a voice, and there must have been spiritual people who heard it and wondered who spoke those words. The multitude therefore, who stood by and heard it, were saying that it had thundered… They did not have the ears to hear. Many times the Bible says, “Blessed are the ears that hear. Blessed is he who has an ear to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” Jesus told the disciples, “Many prophets have desired to hear the things that you hear” (Matthew 13:17).
The Lord is speaking today, yet many church leaders are scratching around to find some subject on which to preach, something that will stop the great exodus out of the church, as more and more people stay away. If you tell these men that God is speaking, they laugh; they hear only thunder. They have no ears to hear what God is saying. Since they cannot hear the Lord, they read a book and make a book report or try to develop a social consciousness in their people. They organize a peace march while their very denomination owns large blocks of stocks in armament companies.
Jesus said that the church in the last days would say, … I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. God said, “You know not that you are wretched, poor, miserable, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17). That is a good description of many Christians’ spiritual lives. When God is speaking, many professing Christians think it is just thundering. They are not close enough to even hear God when He speaks; they are not able to discern when He has something to say to their hearts. That is not new. People did not recognize God’s words in Jesus’ day, and people still do not recognize them, but blessed are the ears that hear. Blessed are the ones who know God’s speaking today and can recognize it. They know it is real, and they open their hearts to it.
Some said, “It thundered.” Others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. Now, judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” Christ’s death on the cross was literally the defeat of Satan. The judgment of the world had come, and the ruler of the world, Satan, was cast out. Christ’s being lifted up—He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die—He would draw all men unto Himself.
All men are drawn to Christ. Even in a negative sense they are drawn. A man of the world, who has no time for God, is still very careful to use the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in his profanity. He uses the name of God to damn people. He may claim to be an atheist, but he is inconsistent. He has been drawn; even in his rejection of Christ, he still uses the name of Jesus Christ in blasphemy. The Word says, “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord” (Philippians 2:10, 11). That does not mean all men will be saved, but ultimately, whether now or at the judgment throne, everyone will bow his knee to the Lord. Everyone is drawn to it. In this life men are drawn to accept, or they are drawn to reject; but ultimately, they have to bow; ultimately, they have to kneel before Him. When Christ died, this force was set in motion; He becomes the issue of every man’s life. When Jesus commissioned the disciples, He said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:15, 16).
When Jesus hung on the cross, a new age began. I read a report that said that the few hundred years surrounding the time Christ lived were the happiest period the earth had ever known. (This was speaking of the Roman Empire as a whole.) But one thing went wrong, the people began to persecute the Christians. The world was brought to the issue of Christ, and they rejected Him. Within a short period of time the world was thrown into the Dark Ages, and there was no apparent reason for it. The people of that time were educated; many were bilingual and trilingual. The sign at the top of Christ’s cross was written in three languages, declaring, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19, 20). Many spoke Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Most of us have difficulty mastering one language, let alone such complex languages with totally different alphabets. Many of the people of that time were literate, even though the printing press had not yet been invented and everything had to be copied painstakingly by hand.
The early Church fathers knew the Scriptures so well that in the writings of the ante-Nicene fathers the whole of the New Testament is quoted with the exception of twelve verses of salutation. They quoted it by the chapters in their writings and in their epistles. The early Christians were people who were focused on God, yet the persecutions kept coming. Suddenly, for what appeared to be no reason, the world was thrown into the Dark Ages and went through a thousand years of the darkest period in history. Why did this happen? Christ said, “Now judgment is upon this world.”
Christ is either our Savior, or He is our Judge. The United States will have to face that fact. When we were, in effect, a Christian nation, we became the greatest nation in the world, and we were the most Christian of any nation. Now we are in what is called the post-Christian Era. Supreme Court decisions and various things have opened up another chapter of our history. Since we entered that phase, the image of the United States has gone steadily down, no matter what we have done or given away.
Judgment begins at the cross. Salvation begins at the cross. We are all drawn to it. People who come to that revelation of the Lord and turn away seem to go into darkness. Those who embrace the revelation and start walking in it find their whole lives changed. Everything starts changing from that time on.
How little we realize the transition that took place in the heavens and in the earth and in hell below, when Christ died on the cross. It opened the door for the defeat of Satan, and we will see the greatest manifestation of that defeat in our generation. It opened the door for all the ends of the earth to have a revelation of the Lord and the gospel of the Kingdom. We will see the greatest manifestation of that gospel being preached in all the world for a witness in our generation. These words of the Scripture are true. They have been true in the past, but they are more true now than ever before. The greatest fulfillment of them will happen in our time.
The multitude began to speculate. The multitude therefore answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
That was a strange question to ask. It is a tragedy when people have religion but do not know the Lord. Even in fundamental churches people have a great problem figuring out what is of God and what is of the devil. Many sincere Christians, when you lay before them what God is saying, what He is doing today, and what the prophecies have been saying, will draw back and label all of it of the devil. (They do not even recognize what is of God. They have no perception, no discernment. When God moves, they call it the devil.) They are so far away from God that all they have are the doctrines that are taught to them and the kind of blind faith of a child who prays simple, little prayers by rote. They would not know the Lord if He moved upon them. They are not able to interpret the events of their lives, whether they are of God or of the devil. They are like the boy who prayed both to Jesus and the devil because the issues were not resolved in his life and he wanted to be on the good side of both parties. He did not want to offend the devil because he might be spending eternity with him, but he did not want to offend the Lord because he was hoping that He might save him in the end.
It is a tragedy that many Christians do not have the perception to know what is of God and what is of the devil. They do not understand the things that happen to them. They label as a tragedy the dealing of God to bring them into a walk with Him. They call something a blessing which could actually lead to the disintegration of their characters and the disruption of the whole course of their lives and could lead them to hell. They do not discern good from evil. They do not know God from the devil.
Jesus therefore said to them, “For a little while longer the light is among you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, in order that you may become sons of light.”
When you accept the truth, when you accept what God is speaking to you and you know it is right, you are not simply agreeing to a principle or an idea; if you will walk in it, your action leads to becoming. As you walk in the truth you have, you will become the son of light. This principle is presented plainly in this Scripture. It is not what you do, but what you become. The whole key of walking with God is that you change. When you accept a truth and put it in action, you release the potential of change in your life. To as many as received Christ, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God (John 1:12). To have the power to become is the greatest privilege in the world. The whole mechanism of your spirit and your mind, which has been locked, can then be set free.
Many people cannot change. They are frozen like a piece of machinery that is jammed. They are not going any place. They may be frozen in their heredity. They may be frozen in their environment. Even if they are moved from their environment, another hostile environment gravitates to them. It seems as though change is really impossible for them. If they are loosed from one habit, they gravitate back to it or to something worse. Even drastic mental exercises and disciplines do not seem to help.
Some doctors have tried to free smokers through hypnosis. Reports on this technique show that a number of smokers do stop smoking, but over a period of time other habits often develop: some begin to chase other men’s wives, others begin to drink more heavily than before, a few develop neurotic tendencies. Something which has given them balance has been disrupted. They were locked in a situation. By potent suggestions they have been loosed from that, but they do not really change. The real problem comes out in another way. For this reason I do not think that hypnosis does much good. If the old nature is repressed in one area, it will invariably come out in other areas.
There is only one way to really change: believe in the light in order that you may become a son of light. The change comes through faith in the Lord. A word from the Lord begins loosening the nuts and bolts and removes the lock washers that have hindered any change. Then the adjustments begin to come in your life. This is a wonderful truth! When you believe in the light that God gives you, it opens the door for you to change. A door is opened for you to become something that you are not now. Then you can leave the habits. Then you can leave the old environment. Then you can throw off the things that you have inherited: the tendencies, the appetites, the propensities. Then you can throw off the responses and conditionings of your mind and your life that have built up over the years. You cannot do it until you believe in Jesus Christ; then you can become a new creature; then the power to become is given to you (John 1:12). Do you want to change. The course is not willpower. The course is faith. Believe. Believe in the light.
These things Jesus spoke, and He departed and hid Himself from them. The story begins with the Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. It ends with His hiding from the multitudes. Jesus did not wish to appear as the great superman, the great personality. He wanted people to know Him as the Son of God. How many times did He heal a man and say, “Go tell no man.” How many times did He hide Himself from the multitudes who just wanted loaves and the fishes, the miracles. The crowds thought it was wonderful to be given free fish and bread; they wanted to make Him king. But Jesus slipped out of their midst and disappeared (John 6:15).
People do not come to know Christ through a glamorous, Hollywood-type campaign. What a disgusting approach some evangelists take! They get some great celebrities or political leaders to endorse the Lord, and then they invite everyone to come to Jesus because the best people are doing so. That is just the thing Jesus did not want. That is the thing from which He hid. “If the princes of this world had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (I Corinthians 2:8). But Christ came to his own, and His own received Him not, but to as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God (John 1:11, 12).
You do not walk with God unless He is a revelation to your heart. You are not talked into it, you are not sold on it. You do not choose to walk with Him because all the best people are. Actually, if you look carefully at many lives, you will find the Word is true: not many wise, not many mighty of this world are called” (I Corinthians 1:26). Propaganda and advertisement just serve to build up religious systems. The fact still remains that if you are to walk with the Lord, He must be a revelation to your heart. He must reveal Himself to you. Your walk has to be a revelation.
When you want to see someone else walk with you, you can talk with him; but unless you pray for him and loose him from the darkness and the blindness that Satan causes, he will never see the truth. Only when the Holy Spirit opens his heart does he see the revelation of God; then he can change. When a man sees the light and starts walking in the light, then he can become a son of light.