The God of Historical Events – Exodus and Resurrection

Christians worry too much about how our faith, and all that it entails, impacts our lives.
• So much so that we gravitate towards Christian ministries, teaching, or books that attempt to show us how to have “our best life now”.
    o As of today, the best-selling Christian books have to do with “how to let go”, “the story of your life”, “enjoying peace”, “guide to deliverance”, “life together”, “increased wealth and better relationships”, etc.
• In the course of any given week, we make our faith all about us and meeting our needs.
    o Even though we might be more sophisticated about it than reading questionable books.
• The result is that we have “applicationed” and “devotionified” it to death with selfish needs and cultural baggage.

We lose sight of the fact that Christian faith and its Gospel are not rooted in us, but are rooted in the action of God in history.
• Christianity is unique among world religions in a number of ways.
• One in particular is its relationship to history.
• “The God of the Bible acts in time and space” – John Monson.
• We make the claim that “God’s existence, character, and direct (sometimes miraculous) involvement and guidance in history, and biblical revelation [are] historical realities” – Richard Averbeck.
• Christianity stands or falls on the truth of historical events.
• Historical events are “the central theme of the Bible, [forming] the main link between Old and New Testaments, and [whose] presence and importance marks biblical faith off clearly from other religions” – James Barr.

I want us to see that understanding God’s work in history and its implications deserve more of our time than “devotion” or “application”.
• Any religion or philosophy has “devotion” and “application”.
    o There is even a movement afoot to build an atheist “temple” in London.
• Only we have a God of history!

As we celebrate Easter today, I want to briefly explore two acts of God in history, their connection and why the can be believed.
• The Exodus and the Resurrection


1) THE EXODUS

Old Testament scholar James Hoffmeier argues that the establishment of the Israelites as an ethnic group and a nation was based on “a particular event” in history.
• The particular event is the Exodus including, specifically, the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai.

What is at stake?
• Jean Louis Ska says the Exodus “contains the experience on which Israel based its existence as a people.”
• This “experience as a people” includes not only the Exodus itself but the entirety of Israel’s history ultimately culminating in Jesus.
• “From the earliest prophets, to those from the end of the Old Testament period, the exodus and wilderness history, and especially the Sinaitic covenant, are constant themes. And it was the violation of that ancient treaty with God that accounted for the calamities they were encountering from the Assyrian through Persian periods” – James Hoffmeier.

The Old Testament makes this connection clear.
• Exodus 6:7–8 (ESV) — 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’ ”

In fact, not only did God use the Exodus to “take you to be my people” but God also used it to obligate the Israelites into the Mosaic covenant.
• Exodus 20:1–3 (ESV) — 1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”
• Deuteronomy 24:18 (ESV) — 18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.
• And so “…because God delivered Israel from its servitude in Egypt, Israel would now become Yahweh’s people by the Sinaitic covenant (treaty), which carried with it laws or stipulations” – James K. Hoffmeier.

More Examples of Israel’s Connection to the Exodus:
• Exodus 13:9 (ESV) — 9 And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.
• Deuteronomy 4:20 (ESV) — 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
• 1 Kings 8:16 (ESV) — 16 ‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.’
• Psalm 66:5–6 (ESV) — 5 Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. 6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him,
• Psalm 80:8 (ESV) — 8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
• Jeremiah 2:6 (ESV) — 6 They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’

It should be clear; if there was no Exodus then there were no chosen people of God through which the promised offspring would come.
• And there would be no reason to expect restoration from exile for such a people.
• If the truth of Scripture depends on the historicity of the Exodus, an obvious question follows.
• What are the reasons to believe the Exodus occurred?

Reasons to Believe:
(1) Uniqueness of the event – Origin of People, Its Law and Curses and the Exodus
• Within in ANE religious history, “identifying an ethnic group with their deity in terms of a particular event…is unique” to Israel and Yahweh” – James Hoffmeier.
• In the context of Mesopotamian ANE religions, only in the Hebrew law do “statutes include the specific historical event that created the precedent…” – James Hoffmeier.
• Covenant curses given for breaking covenant are “part of all ancient treaty texts”, but “only in the Hebrew Bible are curses connected to specific [historic] events” – James Hoffmeier.

(2) Origin of Passover Festival (pesah), Festival of Unleavened Bread (massot) and Feast of Booths (sukkot).
• The “pesah and massot have no other explanation for their origin than the exodus from Egypt” – James Hoffmeier.
    o Deuteronomy 16:1 (ESV) — 1 “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
    o Exodus 34:18 (ESV) — 18 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.
• The use of booths in the Feast of Booths, is also directly connected to the Exodus.
    o Leviticus 23:42–43 (ESV) — 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

(3) Archaeological Evidence
• Though there is much debate about the archaeological evidence for the Exodus, or lack thereof, there is evidence for Joshua’s military undertakings.
• “The book of Joshua’s account of the Israelite entry into Canaan does overlap with archaeology, albeit in broad strokes” – John Monson.
• The implication, of course, is that there was a tribe of invading Hebrews whose origin must be accounted for.

Summary of reasons:
• “The biblical evidence for the exodus and wilderness periods reviewed above so overwhelmingly supports the historicity of these events that the priests, prophets, psalmists, people of Israel, and foreigners believed these events occurred, and consequently they celebrated festivals, sang songs, dated events, and observed laws that assumed that Yahweh’s salvation from Egypt was authentic” – James Hoffmeier.

Exodus and Easter:
So what does all this have to do with Easter?
• Isaiah 11:16 (ESV) — 16 And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
• Hosea 11:1 (ESV) — 1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

Remember, the Jews still considered themselves in exile in 30 A.D.
• Restoration would come through Jesus.
• Jesus was called “out” by the Father as the second Moses to be the “highway” of restoration from exile “for the remnant” of his people – the drawn, called and chosen.
• The New Testament claimed this restoration would find its completion on earth in the resurrection; Jesus’ exaltation.
• Therefore, God’s action in history inextricably links the Exodus to the Resurrection.
• It can be argued that they are two parts of the same action – the Gospel.


2) RESURRECTION

So the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is ground zero for the claim that God works in history.
• Everything in Scripture, for the Christian, rests on the Resurrection.
• If Jesus was not resurrected, there was no Exodus, no Gospel, no restoration and no salvation.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul first tells us that the Gospel is not just Jesus, but the entire story of the “Scriptures” (a history of God working in the life of the Israelites), Jesus, and His resurrection.
• 1 Corinthians 15:1–8 (ESV) — 1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Paul then lays it all on the line – it being both the “the Scriptures” and Jesus – when he says:
• 1 Corinthians 15:13–14 (ESV) — 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
• Paul’s preaching was that Jesus was the fulfillment of the OT expectations of Messiah, restoration and resurrection.

What is at stake?
• Everything from Genesis to Revelation and the propositions they contain.

More Examples of the NT’s Connection to the Resurrection:
As the OT is to the Exodus, the NT is drenched at every turn with the resurrection.
• Acts 5:30 (ESV) — 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
• Acts 13:34 (ESV) — 34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “ ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’
• Romans 1:3–4 (ESV) — 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
• Romans 6:4 (ESV) — 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
• 1 Peter 1:3 (ESV) — 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

If, for the Christian, everything is riding on the resurrection are there reasons to believe the resurrection happened?
• John, you may remember, ends his Gospel by saying he wrote of the works of Christ so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ” (John 20:31).
• We must not forget that, "Faith is a response to evidence, not a rejoicing in the absence of evidence" – John Lennox.

Reasons to Believe:
• The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is what is referred to as cumulative.
• In other words, it builds and builds and builds on itself, and in historian speak, is left standing as the “inference to the best explanation”.
• It is the best explanation because the resurrection of Jesus is the only explanation that can account for all the events that need explaining.

There are far too many good books written on the subject of the resurrection to entertain all of the evidence here.
• So, I will not deal with the objections and answers to the objections (read the books for that).
• I will simply cite the most common arguments for the truth of the Resurrection.
• Our information comes from N.T. Wright’s, The Resurrection of the Son of God, and Gary Habermas’, The Case of the Resurrection of Jesus.

Minimal Fact Approach:
We will start with Habermas.
• He states that his approach “considers only those data that are so strongly attested historically that they are granted by nearly every scholar who studies the subject, even the rather skeptical ones.”
• He calls it the “Minimal Facts Approach”.
• What is the Minimal Facts Approach?

Fact 1:
“Jesus died by Crucifixion”
• This is recorded in all four Gospels and in non-Christian works of the period.
• John Dominic Crossan (Jesus Seminar) concedes that nothing about Jesus is more certain.

Fact 2:
“Jesus’ disciples believed that He rose and appeared to them”
• (a) They testified to both in Scripture – He rose and we saw him.
• (b) They had a radical transformation from coward to martyr which corresponded with their belief in the Resurrection.
    o “Modern martyrs act solely out of their trust in beliefs that others have taught them. The apostles died for holding to their own testimony that they had personally seen the risen Jesus. Contemporary martyrs die for what they believe to be true. The disciples of Jesus died for what they knew to be either true or false” – Gary Habermas.

Fact 3:
“The church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed”
• Paul, the chief of sinners, changed from being a “skeptic who believed that it was God's will to persecute the church to becoming one of its most influential messengers” – Gary Habermas.

Fact 4:
“The skeptic James, brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed”
• (a) Mark and John tell us he was an unbeliever during Jesus’ ministry.
    o Mark 3:21 (ESV) — 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
• (b) And then in Acts, after the Resurrection, he was a church leader who would eventually die for his beliefs.

Fact 5:
“The tomb was empty”
• (a) Jerusalem Factor – “It would have been impossible for Christianity to get off the ground in Jerusalem if the body had still been in the tomb. His enemies in the Jewish leadership and Roman government would only have had to exhume the corpse and publicly display it for the hoax to be shattered. Not only are Jewish, Roman, and all other writings absent of such an account, but there is a total silence from Christianity's critics who would have jumped at evidence of this sort” – Gary Habermas.
• (b) Enemy Attestation – The Jews conceded the tomb was empty; they accused Jesus’ disciples of stealing the corpse.
• (c) Testimony of Women – not what you would use if you were making something up.

N.T. Wright’s Approach:
• Wright outlines at least 6 differences between Jewish Resurrection and Jesus’ Kingdom Resurrection.
• The differences are unique to Christianity and their origin requires an explanation.

Summary of Reasons to Believe:
• The simplest and best explanation for Habermas’ Minimal Facts Approach and N.T. Wright’s approach is simply that Jesus was raised from the dead.
• There is no other single reason that can account for all of these facts.
• If one believes that God exists and that He acts in history, then there is no reason to reject the crucifixion.
• God acted in history to raise Jesus on our behalf.
• And if God raised Jesus, then we can have further confidence that God established the Israelites through the Exodus.
• For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, believe.

Lesson for Us:
• If God has worked in history through the Exodus and the Resurrection, then we can confidently believe in what the Bible has to say.
• And importantly, the Bible’s truth exists completely independent of our experience.
• It is in God’s action in history as revealed in the Bible that assurance is to be found.
• It is God’s actions that we are to explore, know and understand.
    o The Gospel, after all, is made up of God’s work in history.
    o It is not us, or our testimony.
• For as we said at the beginning, we have a God that lays claim on history.

And like Paul, we can stake our life on the activity of God in history.
• Whether we have our “best life now” is irrelevant.
• We still sin; we still struggle; we still fail, but Jesus has been raised from the dead!
• God’s action is our comfort.

Finally, the God that delivers through the Exodus and that raises Jesus from the dead is the God that meets you in real time and gives you a new heart.
• Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV) — 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
• Ezekiel is not speaking philosophically or metaphorically.
• This is not new age, post-modern, self-actualization mumbo jumbo.
• This is a claim that God works in history.
• Your salvation is itself a historical event!

John 13:12-17 and 34-35 – Belief and Obedience

Last week we saw how Jesus serves us, dispenses grace to us, with both his words (spoken service) and action (enacted word).
• And in these we experience the love of Christ just as the disciples did.

We also discussed the implications of this as it pertains to a proper view of church.
• As Jesus served the disciples via the foot washing, Jesus seeks to serve us (dispense grace to us) through His word (spoken service) and sacraments (enacted word) in church.
• Therefore, church is to be more a place of receiving than doing.
• This concept is fundamental to the Gospel – Christ acting in history, dispensing grace, on our behalf.
• Today’s text, however, does concern something we are to be doing.
    o The horizontal aspect of our faith.
• We will figure out exactly what He is asking of the disciples and explore its theological implications.


1) DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

John 13:12 (ESV) — 12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?

Apparently, as we saw last week, they didn’t.
• If you remember, Jesus told them, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
• And as we discussed last week Jesus words, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me”, clearly are best understood from the resurrection side of the cross.
• It is from that side of the cross that one can finally get that Jesus’ death/burial/resurrection was creating the “fellowship of the cleansed” – D.A. Carson.

Yet, interestingly, we learn that there is another meaning behind Jesus foot washing.
• And he wants the disciples to understand this meaning before the cross.
• So he proceeds to explain it to them.
• The “fellowship of the cleansed” Jesus is creating is to be “characterized by the same love” as Jesus and “therefore by the same self-abnegation for the sake of serving others” – D.A. Carson.

Let’s take a look at how Jesus spells this out for them.

Jesus’ Object Lesson on Humility and Service:
John 13:13-17 (ESV) 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed [some say happy] are you if you do them.

Jesus makes it pretty clear.
• He tells them that the reason He humbled Himself and washed their feet was to give them “an example” to follow.
• The example to follow was “to wash one another’s feet”.
• And for added emphasis, Jesus says, “you also should do just as I have done to you”.

Before we go any farther, we have to answer an obvious question.
• Why isn’t foot washing a sacrament like baptism and the Lord’s Supper?

Between D.A. Carson and John MacArthur I found at least three reasons why.
• (1) MacArthur simply says Jesus’ words are clear in the Greek that He means we are to do “as” He did not “what” He did.
• (2) D.A. Carson points out that “nowhere else in the New Testament, or in the earliest extra-biblical documents of the church, is footwashing treated as an ecclesiastical rite, an ordinance, a sacrament” – D.A. Carson.
    o In other words, the NT writers and early church didn’t see it as such.
• (3) “The heart of Jesus’ command is humility” – D.A. Carson.
    o In other words, “The Lord gave an example of humility, not of foot washing” – MacArthur.

Why the Love and Service?
• Not only does Jesus call the disciples to follow His example, but He also gives them the reason why.
• (1) “a servant is not greater than his master”
• (2) “nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him”
• Jesus, sent by the Father, submitted to the will and example of the Father.
    o Philippians 2:6–7 (ESV) — 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

So, likewise, the disciples are to submit in the style of Jesus.
• Jesus’ example removed any “conceivable reason for refusing to do so” – D.A. Carson.
• “What is proper for him is proper also for us” – James Boice.
• And Jesus’ style is servitude and humiliation.

And we have already seen, from Peter’s response to Jesus’ foot washing, this is not something that comes naturally.
• We just can’t get away from the fact that Jesus and the imperatives He gives to us are offensive to the self-serving pride we all struggle with.
• It was obviously no different for the disciples.
• In fact, in the Hellenized Greek culture in which Judaism was operating, there was:
    o (1) “no use for humility” – Wiersbe.
    o (2) and manual labor was despised – Wiersbe.
• Jesus example to the disciples and us contained both of these things!

Disheartening Imperative:
• Quite honestly, Jesus’ example of self-denial, humility and self-abnegation can be seen as disheartening if viewed incorrectly.
• I think there are at least two reasons for this.

(1) One reason is that the imperative to live like this is plain enough; it can’t be ignored.
• John 12:25 (ESV) — 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
• 2 Corinthians 5:15 (ESV) — 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
• 1 Peter 4:2 (ESV) — 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

And we need to also include Jesus’ words just a few verses down from our text today.
• John 13:34–35 (ESV) — 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

(2) The second reason is that, as equally plain as the call, is our limited success in living up to Jesus’ example.
• This is problematic because of the verses that teach us, that “obedience to the will of God demonstrates the reality of a person’s faith in Jesus Christ” – M.H. Manser.
• Romans 1:5 (ESV) — 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,
• Hebrews 11:8 (ESV) — 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
• John 8:31 (ESV) — 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
• Mark 3:35 (ESV) — 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
• 1 John 3:24 (ESV) — 24a Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

I will come back to this relationship of faith and obedience shortly.
• For now, I think most of us agree we fall short.
• Right now let’s move on to verse 17.

Benefit of Obedience:
• Jesus then pronounces a blessing for obedience to His call to humiliation and service.
• He says, “blessed are you if you do them” (vs. 17).
• The NIV makes it plain, “you will be blessed if you do them”.
• To be blessed in our context is to be a “privileged recipient of divine favor” in a transcendent sense – BDAG.
• What is Jesus talking about here?
• This almost sounds like Jesus is saying, “I’ll usher you in to heaven, the ultimate divine favor, if you do what I tell you to do.”

To understand what Jesus is saying here, we have to begin with what He is not saying.
• It must be emphasized, that this is not a call to pietism – righteousness and justification earned through good works.
• This is not the Gospel of moral improvement.
    o This would be the white-washed tombs of the Pharisees.
• Jesus is not saying that He will give them more righteousness through obedience and works.
• As we know, our works are of no help at all.
• We even talked last week about Jesus’ pronouncement that the “flesh is not help at all”.

Scripture makes clear that we are only justified and made righteous by faith in Jesus.
• Galatians 2:16 (ESV) — 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
• Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV) — 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We also have to understand something else extremely important here.
• Jesus had already blessed the disciples even prior to these demands.
• For starters he already recognized them as being called by the Father – they followed Him.
• He entrusted Himself to them.
    o In other words, He saved them.
• He taught them the truth of God’s word and how He fulfilled OT prophecy.
    o Something only “heard” and “seen” by those the Father has given Him.
• He brought them into the light.
• And in our immediate context, He humiliated Himself for them and washed their feet!

I think all of this is all plain enough.
• But we haven’t answered our question and we have raised another.

(1) If we are saved by faith, what is the relationship of obedience to faith?
• Another way to put this is what is the relationship between law and Gospel?
• I said we would come back to this relationship.
• After all, Jesus isn’t supposed to be so religious.
    o As in making demands on our behavior.

(2) And what is the blessing in verse 17 if we are already blessed with salvation?
• What exactly was he talking about?

To get at the answers, we have to take a theological rabbit trail.


2) BLESSING BECAUSE OF OBEDIENCE OR OBEDIENCE BECAUSE OF BLESSING?

Answering the first question:
We need to know –
• “God’s Word has two parts: the law and the gospel. The law commands and the gospel gives. The law says, “Do,” and the gospel says, “Done;” the law issues imperatives (commands), while the gospel announces indicatives (a state of affairs)” – Michael Horton.

Jesus changed things:
We have to understand that Jesus completely changed the relationship between the “Do” and the “Done” – the Law and Gospel.
• In the OT, God delivered His chosen people, the Hebrews, out of Egypt.
• This action of God obligated the Hebrews to a specific relationship with Him.
    o Exodus 20:2–3 (ESV) — 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
• To formalize this relationship, God gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai and covenanted with them.
• He then constantly reminded them that if they follow the Law He would bless them.
• The covenant was conditional on obedience.
    o Deuteronomy 15:4–5 (ESV) — 4 But there will be no poor among you; for the LORD will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— 5 if only you will strictly obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today.
    o One of many examples.

And then enter Jesus Christ and the new covenant alluded to in Jeremiah 31.
• God delivered His Son to the cross and delivered Him from death.
• God’s elect (the born again, the called and drawn, the sheep) are blessed through the “Done” of Jesus; through the obedience of Jesus.
    o Matthew 5:2–3 (ESV) — 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• And then Jesus calls the blessed to obedience (the “Do”).
    o Matthew 5:44 (ESV) — 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Do you see the difference?
• The OT covenant was “DO” to get the “DONE”.
    o Obey and be blessed.
• Jesus reversed this.
    o As seen at the Sermon on the Mount, for example, Jesus pronounced blessing first.
    o And as seen in our text, Jesus blessed with foot washing first.
    o He pronounced “Done” and then the “Do”.
    o He served and then asked for service.
    o Being blessed leads to obedience.

OK, so how does this help us answer the first question about faith and obedience?
• Why did Jesus get so “religious” by placing demands on us?
• If Jesus’ commands are not about a Gospel of moral improvement, what are they?
• Obedience to Jesus’ commands, the Law, is the “instrument for enabling them [believers] daily to learn with greater truth and certainty what that will of the Lord is which they aspire to follow, and to confirm them in this knowledge…” – Calvin.
    o The 3rd use of the law.
• In other words, the law (the “Do”) that comes after blessing serves to guide us.
• It is one answer to the question, “what is God’s will for my life?”

But there is more.
• The final piece of the puzzle that helps answer question one is what Michael Horton calls the relationship between Guilt, Grace and Gratitude.

Obedience is an act of Gratitude for the blessing God has bestowed on us through the Grace of the Gospel.
• It is not a “doing” in the legalistic sense.
• Again, Jesus is not teaching a Gospel of moral improvement.
    o It is no secret to God and us that we can’t keep God’s law.
    o This is why it is the means God uses to drive us to Christ in the first place.
        * 1st use of the law.
    o Once saved, He doesn’t continuously condemn us over and over.
• We simply have such Gratitude that God’s Grace has provided salvation from our Guilt that we desire to know what Jesus wants and desire to do it (even if with limited success).
• There simply can’t be true belief without obedience!
• There is no relief of Guilt through Grace without Gratitude.
• Just as the living breath, the justified obey.

BTW – this is why it is important for the believer to routinely hear the Gospel.
• We too often downplay the extent of our Guilt and depravity.
• We too often take for granted that Jesus “died for our sins”.
• So, we too often quench our Gratitude.
• We acknowledged earlier that both Jesus’ demands and our failures are plain enough.
• This itself is a blessing because it is a loving reminder of our Guilt and our need for the Grace we have been given.
• This should fill us with Gratitude not self-loathing!

Answering the second question:
What is the blessing that comes from obedience?
• (1) A desire to know and obey Jesus and God’s word is a confirmation of our belief.
    o It is assurance of our salvation.
• (2) Obedience itself is a blessing because it is what is best for us.
    o It answers the question about God’s will.
• (3) The call to obey reminds us of our need for Grace.
    o Guilt-Grace-Gratitude
• (4) And there is another angle to Jesus’ words, “blessed are you if you do them” (vs. 17).
    o The angle is simply this – the blessed ARE the ones that “do them”.
    o As we have just seen, we are blessed first and then we are fit to obey.
    o If Jesus is guiding you with the law, you are His!

Back to our text:
• I think we can now have a clear understanding why Jesus makes demands on us.
• The law has not been overturned.
• In fact, just as Jesus did with so many other things in the Kingdom, He redefined it.
    o He took it up a notch for our benefit and His glory.
• Mark 12:30–31 (ESV) — 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

John 13:1-11 – Loved Like the Disciples Are Loved

With the advent of John 13, we have entered into the final section of John’s Gospel.
• Scholars view John 12:44-50 and John 13:1-3 as a summary of Jesus’ ministry in the first and a “summation of themes of John’s gospel” in the latter.
• The last 8 chapters of John focus on just 3 days of Jesus’ life.
• It seems fitting that the Passion events begin with such a summary.

With respect to our text today, the “summation of themes” of vs. 1-3 is (Beasley-Murray):
• “Jesus’ knowledge of ‘the hour’” – His Purpose
• “His love for his own” – Not come to Judge (this time)
• “The Father’s placing all things into his hands” – Father’s Jesus
• “The fact that he had come from God and was going to God” – Identity as Ruler/Creator/Co-Regent
• “The devil’s opposition to God’s work in Christ, particularly through Judas Iscariot” – The Battle

As is usually the case, we can go many directions with our text.
• I want to explore how Jesus “loved his own”.
• And in particular, if we are the object of this same love of Jesus even though we aren’t physically with Jesus.
• We are headed to a discussion of Jesus’ love as “Spoken Service” and the “Enacted Word”.

1) JESUS LOVED HIS OWN

John 13:1–4a (ESV) — 1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper.

One is struck by the affection displayed in verse 1.
• John is reflecting on His own experience of Jesus’ love having been His disciple.
• He could say with certainty that Jesus “loved his own” and that “he loved them to the end”.
• He had a tangible, physical and personal experience with Jesus’ love.
• D.A. Carson says that the love John is referencing here is a love that John experienced as a believer.
    o The object of Jesus love here is to “the newly forming people of God, the disciples of the Messiah, the nascent church, the community of the elect” – D.A. Carson.
• In other words, this love is only for the believer not the lost world.

How did Jesus love them?
• John and the disciples walked and talked with Jesus – fellowship.
• Jesus called them out of the world and darkness into the Kingdom and light – salvation.
• Jesus revealed for them the words and knowledge of God the Father that they might understand – teaching.
• And as we will soon discuss, Jesus also loved them by – serving.
• These are just to name a few.

One can’t help but notice that many of the ways Jesus loved them were linked to Jesus’ physical presence.
• To state the obvious, Jesus is not walking beside us; He has ascended to the throne.
• And contrary to a popular hymn, Jesus is not even living “within my heart” – the Holy Spirit is, of course.
• Yet, are there any ways we experience the same love Jesus showed the disciples?
• The answer to the question, which is found in our text in two instances, is a resounding YES!

(1) The first way He loves us just like the disciples is by using His Words to point us to spiritual truths.
• I want to call this “Diving Deeper” love – “DD”.
• We see this in our text today in verses 8-10.
• Jesus is talking about salvation and Peter is thinking literal.

(2) The second way He loves us just like the disciples is by using His Words (spoken service) and Actions (enacted words) to serve us.
• I want to call this “Dispensing Grace” love – “DG”.
• We see this in our text today in verse 4b and following.
• Jesus humiliates Himself to dispense grace.
    o Kenneth Bailey often refers to this as “costly grace”.


2) “DIVING DEEPER” AND “DISPENSING GRACE” KINDS OF LOVE

John 13:4b–11 (ESV) — 4b He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

“Diving Deeper” Love:
We will deal with the “DD” love first.
• We have noticed often that what the disciples thought was a literal/physical point was meant by Jesus to be a spiritual point.
• In other words, Jesus was pointing them to something deeper – something beyond their subjective personal experience.

Our text today is a case in point.
• Jesus speaks of “wash you” and “share with me” and “the one who has bathed” and Peter thinks literal.
• Jesus is referring to salvation, grace and the Gospel and Peter thinks he must need a bath.
• Jesus, using His words, is trying to point the disciples to the grand truth behind his coming death and resurrection.
• The disciples, apparently, are thinking why Jesus is humiliating Himself like this – “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
• Jesus wants them to understand the cleanliness that really matters not personal hygiene.
• This love of Jesus that seeks to point them in this direction using His words is exactly what we experience when we are confronted with Jesus’ Words.

Other Examples of “Diving Deeper” Love:
John 4:31–34 (ESV) — 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
• Here, Jesus loved the disciples and us by telling us (His Word) that there was a food more important than the food one could physically consume with Him.
• This food was the will of the Father for Jesus’ life which He ate by being obedient to it.
• Neither the disciples nor we can physically see “the will” of the Father.
• But for Jesus it was more important that eating real food.
• We can know this just as the disciples – and to know this is to be loved.

John 6:60–63 (ESV) — 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying [feed on my flesh and drink my blood]; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
• Again Jesus loved the disciples and us by using a shocking word picture (His Word) to point to a deep spiritual truth.
• Jesus’ Word is “spirit and life”.
    o How much does His Word weigh?
    o What color is it?
    o Does it have a texture?
• Exactly, the thing that has such power as to give “spirit and life” can’t be literally seen by us or the disciples.
• The disciples, like us, could not actually see the Father (source of Jesus’ words) or Holy Spirit (keeper of His words) standing behind the ministry of Jesus Christ.
• Yet it was this fact, this life giving fact, which was of such utmost importance.
    o This is why, for both us and the disciples, “the flesh is no help at all”.
    o It is the born again heart that “feeds” on Jesus’ flesh and “drinks” his blood.
    o Not a bunch of guys sitting around a camp fire passing around a sampler platter.

We even have examples in the way Jesus spoke to others in John, such as the following:
• John 4:13–15 (ESV) — 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
• John 7:35–36 (ESV) — 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

In every case, as significant as the physical world was to Jesus and the disciples’ relationship (and even that of His enemies), Jesus never settled for that.
• He sought to plunge them deeper into the truth of His word.
• And it is here that we have a connection with the disciples.
• We can experience the depth of Jesus’ word every bit as powerfully as the disciples.
• The “unseen” and spiritual are as real, important, and an expression of Jesus’ love as anything physical.
• And this is “Diving Deeper Love”.

“Dispensing Grace” Love:
This type of love which is found in Jesus’ words (spoken service) and actions (enacted word) is rooted in Jesus’ profound humility.
• So before we look at how we are on the receiving end of this “DG” just like the disciples, we need to see its roots.

“DG” love’s humble roots:
In our text today, we are told Jesus “laid aside his outer garments”, tied a towel around his waist, “began to wash the disciples’ feet”, and wiped their feet with the towel.
• It is important to know that foot washing was reserved for “Gentile slaves and for wives and children” – Beasley-Murray.
• Jesus is supposed to be the King not a Gentile slave.
• Moreover, Jesus’ act of removing clothing and tying a towel around his waist is an action in this context that would clearly identify Him with the actions of a slave.
    o In fact, the Midrash commentary on O.T. occurrences of this behavior says it was done so that people would know the person was a slave – Beasely-Murray.
• As well, we must take note that Jesus also washed the feet of the one of whom He spoke when He said, “Not all of you are clean” – Judas.
    o In other words, Jesus took the place of a slave and washed the feet of His enemy – Satan/Judas.

The entire picture presented to us is one showing that “Jesus’ humility had no boundaries” – Kostenberger.
• From the disciples’ perspective, seeing the Messiah stoop to this behavior would have been as disappointing for them as seeing Jesus come into Jerusalem on a donkey.
• Peter’s response towards Jesus action reveals an “inner revulsion” that the teacher “would stoop to wash his feet” – Kostenberger.

It is from this foundation of humility that Jesus, in His Words (spoken service) and Service (enacted word), loves us and the disciples by dispensing grace.
• That this grace flows from Jesus’ willingness to lower and humiliate Himself is why Kenneth Bailey calls it “costly grace”.
• We may not personally witness the humiliation and later exaltation in person.
• But, as we will see, we do have full access to this grace, just like the disciples.

“Dispensing Grace” Love Experienced:
First, we need to understand that Jesus’ humbling act of foot washing didn’t cleanse the disciples.
• Firstly, we know this because it didn’t cleanse Judas.
    o He was still unclean.
    o Jesus said, “you are clean, but not everyone of you”.
• Secondly, we know this because in John 15:3, Jesus says, “you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you”.
    o What was the word He spoke?
    o It was the word in our text today, “you are clean”.

So what was the point of Jesus foot washing if it didn’t cleanse?
• This is crucial because it will show us how we experience Jesus’ “Dispensing Grace” love just like the disciples.

I need to quote Beasley-Murray at length:
• “The two applications of the statement [our text and John 15:3] are complementary; they illustrate a fundamental assumption of the Gospel that the “word” and the “service” of Jesus are inseparable; the revelation that he brings from God is through word and deed—through incarnation, sign, death, and resurrection as exegeted by the Lord and by the Spirit he sends. Self-evidently, the word spoken and enacted must be received and believed if its effect is to be for life in the kingdom of God and not for loss of the kingdom (cf. 3:16–21). So it comes about that while all the disciples are “washed” by Jesus, not all are “clean,” for among them stands the betrayer, who has rejected the word both spoken and enacted by Jesus” – Beasley-Murray.
• In other words, Jesus’ service (foot washing, incarnation, death, resurrection, etc.) is the “enacted Word” of God.
• Jesus’ Word “you are clean” is the “spoken service” of God.
• This is great news for us!

So, again, how we do encounter the “DG” love of God just like the disciples?
• Because, Jesus’ Word to us is His “spoken service” to us.
• As believers, we are the direct object of the love of God via His Word as “spoken service” to us.
• Therefore, we (believers) partake in the fruits of His “word” and “service” just like the disciples.
• Its consequence and power are the same for us as for the disciples.
• We benefit from this dispensing of grace just as the disciples in that we are justified by faith; we are cleansed by Jesus’ word and service.
• And we didn’t need to personally experience Jesus’ “enacted Word” (foot washing, e.g.) to be so declared.
    o Yet, mysteriously, there is a way we do experience Jesus’ “enacted Word”.

The obvious questions are:
• Where do we encounter Jesus’ “spoken service” – His Word?
• Where do we encounter Jesus’ “enacted Word” – His Service?
• Michael Horton puts the answer plainly, “God's mission is to serve us through the marks of preaching and sacrament…”
• In other words, the preaching/teaching of Scripture is where we, like the disciples, encounter Jesus’ “spoken service” and the sacraments are where we encounter Jesus’ “enacted Word”.
    o The sacraments are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
    o These are a “means of grace” – Dispensing Grace.
• “God serves us through his means of grace, creating faith and repentance that yield the fruit of the Spirit so that God can then serve our neighbors through our various callings in the world” – Michael Horton.

Awesome implication of this:
• This is the complete opposite of how most of us currently treat Church.
• We too often think of it as an obligation we have to serve.
• We think participating in the sacraments (enacted Word) is something we are doing to show God something.
• We think coming to Church and Sunday School (spoken service) is something we are doing for God.
    o We have a very low view of the sacraments and Church!
    o This is why we are hindering the receiving of Jesus’ love as “DG”.
• But this misses the mark entirely.
• Theologically, we can’t “do” for God.
• "God does not need your good works; your neighbor does" – Michael Horton.
• “Gifts do not go up to God but come down from the God who does not need anything and cannot be given anything that would obligate a return (Acts 17:24-25; Rom. 11:35-36)” – Michael Horton.

Church, where the “marks of preaching and sacrament” (dispensing grace) are administered, is where we are to go to primarily be served by Jesus and thus loved by Jesus!
• Church is not primarily doing; it is primarily receiving.
• It is something we go to so that we might receive the grace Jesus is dispensing though preaching/teaching (spoken Service) and the sacraments (enacted Word).

It is at Church that we are to be “re-salinized” and “re-lit” to be salt and light to our neighbor – Michael Horton.
• And in this context, worship is, along with an expression of our gratitude, a receiving of grace from Jesus through the words we sing.
• In other words, even worship is where Jesus dispenses and we receive grace – how Jesus loves us.

Using our text today, Michael Horton puts it this way:
• “Even before we come to worship God, we are first of all served by God as he distributes his gifts that provoke our praise and joy. Here [our text] Christ wraps the towel around his waist and washes our feet. Like Peter, we may bristle at this strange role reversal, but Jesus said that he "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). Of course Christ's service to us evokes our praise and makes us fruitful in good works, but the means of grace come before the means of service” – Michael Horton.

Jesus’ servicing and grace dispensing is not just for us, by the way.
• We are told to love our neighbor.
• This loving our neighbor is an expression of our gratitude for Jesus, the Gospel and His service to us.
• “God is served by Christ's perfect satisfaction, we are served by his gospel, and our neighbor is served by our witness, love, and diligence in our vocations” – Michael Horton.

And bringing it back to how we experience Jesus’ “DG” love like the disciples:
• “Not only once upon a time, on a hill far away, but each week the Son of God comes to serve us. We may protest. We may think that it is we who need to serve God rather than vice versa. Nevertheless, Jesus tells us as he told Peter that this is actually an insult, a form of pride. We are the ones who need to be bathed, clothed, and fed, not God” – Michael Horton.

John 12:37-43 – Unbelief as Glory to God

Today’s text deals with a subject that is offensive – God’s desire to harden hearts.
• And though it is a topic that has been known to cause division in Christian circles, it is something that cannot be ignored and must be taught.

John sees fit to end Jesus’ public ministry with it and so we must give it the attention it deserves.
• We must allow God to perform surgery on our hearts with the scalpel of His word, as Hebrews teaches so clearly, no matter how painful or uncomfortable it might be.

1) JESUS, UNBELIEF AND ITS EXPLANATION

John 12:37 (ESV) — 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,

They Still Didn’t Believe:
Throughout His ministry, Jesus had confronted scholars, the rich, the poor, prostitutes, tax collectors, fishermen, fathers and mothers.
• He had articulated with great skill and care the nature of His identity and His relationship to the Father.
• And as our text makes clear, He had also performed “so many signs before them”.
• Yet, in spite of all this, His ministry was still confronted with unbelief.
• This fact becomes all the more perplexing on the eve of His atoning work on the cross.
• “Some explanation must be given for such large-scale, catastrophic unbelief” – Carson.

Explanation of Unbelief:
In the course of our study of John’s Gospel, we have encountered a number of detailed explanations for this unbelief.
• In John 3, Jesus spoke of the need to be born again (a reference to Ezekiel 36).
    o John 3:3 (ESV) — 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
• In John 6, Jesus said those that come to Him are those that are called and drawn to Him by the Father.
    o John 6:37 (ESV) — 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
    o John 6:44 (ESV) — 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
• In John 10, Jesus said His sheep come to Him because they know His voice.
    o John 10:4 (ESV) — 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
• And in our text today we encounter yet another such explanation.

Why didn’t they believe?
• John 12:38a (ESV) — 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled
• What this means is that the unbelief that attended Jesus’ ministry was not arbitrary.
• There was purpose in it.
    o Unbelief was part of God’s purpose!

The “so” in our text is designed in the Greek to unambiguously draw our attention to the reason for this unbelief.
• The Greek word literally means “a marker to explain something” – DBL.
• John regards this marker, Isaiah’s words, as so crucial to explaining the Jews unbelief that he highlights it again in verse 39.
    o “Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said…”

In our text today, the markers John points us to are Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:10.
• John 12:38–40 (ESV) — 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

The Isaiah 53 text is the Suffering Servant prophecy.
• The Isaiah 6 text is Isaiah’s confession, salvation and call to serve God as prophet.
• A call that would be full of rejection and unbelief.
• So much so that Isaiah makes the following plea:
    o Isaiah 63:17 (ESV) — 17 O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.

How do these verses explain the “catastrophic” unbelief that followed Jesus’ ministry?
• Why would John point us to them as markers?
• The answers are to be found in Prophecy and Precedent.
• The Prophecy and Precedent of Isaiah are the markers.

Prophecy:
• In Isaiah 53:1, John wants us to see that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy as ordained by God.
• Jesus’ rejection is not a surprise.
• His crucifixion is not plan B.
• Jesus was to be rejected by man and exalted by God on the cross because God desired it to be so.
• Importantly, this means the unbelief in John is not an argument against the validity of Jesus’ claims.
• Quite the contrary, Jesus’ rejection is further evidence of His relationship to the Father as fulfillment of prophecy.

D.A. Carson puts it like this:
• “Surely (it was argued) we may call into question the messianic claims of one so thoroughly rejected by the Jewish people by whom and for whom the prophetic Scriptures were written! The Christian answer, as clearly articulated in Paul (esp. Rom. 9–11) as here, is that this unbelief was not only foreseen by Scripture but on that very account necessitated by Scripture” – D.A. Carson.
• What did Paul say?
    o Paul said God has “broken off” some of the Jewish branches so that Gentiles might be “grafted in”.
    o Paul said in Romans 9:18 that God “hardens whomever he wills”.

So how does this answer the question of why such catastrophic unbelief?
• Because Jesus is the “despised and rejected” suffering servant prophesied by Isaiah and the hard hearted cannot believe in such a Messiah.

Precedent:
• In Isaiah 6, John wants us to see that God works in history in a scandalous and shocking way.
• He not only saves and restores, but God desires to bring about unbelief by the hardening hearts.
• Isaiah 6 reveals that, “Not only did the people not believe, they could not believe…” – Beasley-Murray.
• This, again, is why Isaiah pleaded with God to not harden hearts.
• And, as we just saw, why Paul would teach us that God “hardens whomever he wills”.

So how does this answer the question of such catastrophic unbelief?
• The unbelief exists because God desires to harden hearts.
• John points to Isaiah to tell us that God has done it and is still doing it, even during Jesus ministry.
• This is why these men and women could witness the signs, wonders and testimony of Jesus and yet reject Him.

Why would God do this?
• Doesn’t he desire to save everyone?


2) PURPOSE OF UNBELIEF

This idea that God would purposely harden hearts which resulted in unbelief is incredibly hard to understand and digest.
• As we stated earlier, this explanation for unbelief seems scandalous and offensive.
• But why would God do this?
• What possible purpose could He have?
    o And there is purpose.
    o Proverbs 16:4, “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble”.
• I think we will find the purpose just as scandalous.

First, we need to establish that God’s Word further confirms elsewhere what have seen taught by John, Isaiah and Paul.
• Isaiah 29:9–10 (ESV) — 9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! 10 For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).
• Isaiah 44:18 (ESV) — 18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
• Jeremiah 15:1 (ESV) — 1 Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!
• Deuteronomy 29:3–4 (ESV) — 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

We see in these verses confirmation of John’s claim.
• Unbelief is not outside of God’s sovereignty.
• God desires to harden hearts which leads to unbelief.
• But what about purpose?

Leave it to Isaiah to shed light on this question.
• Isaiah 42:18–25 (ESV) — 18 Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! 19 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD? 20 He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. 21 The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. 22 But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, “Restore!” 23 Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come? 24 Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? 25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.

The purpose is clearly illustrated by Isaiah in this text.
• God hardens hearts “for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious”.
• And these three things happen when He passes judgment on their hard hearts and unbelief.
    o “So he poured on him the heat of his anger”
    o “Send them out of my sight, and let them go!”
• All persons bring glory to God whether in magnifying His law via unbelief and judgment or magnifying His grace via belief and salvation.

Jonathan Edwards expands on this purpose as follows:
• (1) “Unfruitful persons are of use in their destruction for the glory of God's justice.”
• (2) “Unfruitful persons in their destruction are of use for God to glorify his majesty upon them.”
• (3) “The destruction of the unfruitful is of use, to give the saints a greater sense of their happiness, and of God's grace to them.”
• “God made all men that they might be useful; and if they will not be useful in their conduct and actions, how just is it that God should make them useful in their sufferings! God made all men for his own glory; and if they, contrary to the revealed will of God, refuse to glorify him actively and willingly, how just is it that God should glorify himself upon them in what he doth with them! It hath been shown, that there is no other way wherein this can be done, but by their destruction. Surely, therefore, it must be just and righteous that God should destroy them” – Jonathan Edwards.

What this means is that God is just as glorified in the destruction of the unbeliever as He is in the salvation of the believer.
• Frankly, this is scary to me.
• This squashes my pride.
• Why am I born again?
    o It was certainly nothing in me.
• God saw it in his purposes to save me.
• He owed me nothing and I deserved judgment for my unbelief.
• God had every right to harden my heart and do so to His glory.

An important point:
• Whatever the nature of God’s activity in hardening the hearts of unbelievers, we must never lose sight of the fact that we are personally accountable for our guilt.
• John 9:39–41 (ESV) — 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
• John 2:24–25 (ESV) — 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.


3) THE GOSPEL IN ISAIAH

John 12:41–43 (ESV) — 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

There are two things that are unclear in these verses:
• Did John mean that Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory in Isaiah 6?
• And were the Pharisees that “did not confess it” actually saved or was their faith spurious?
• D.A. Carson suggests the answers to these questions are “yes”.

Whatever the answers, John’s reference to Isaiah 6 is important to explore.
• What we have in Isaiah is the Gospel.
• And if Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory and saw Jesus as King, we have Isaiah seeing and acknowledging the very things that Jesus testified to throughout John’s Gospel – what we called the Father’s Jesus.
• Let’s see how the Gospel is so clearly presented in Isaiah 6.

Isaiah had eyes to see the glory of the Lord (possibly Jesus) and behold His kingship (His exaltation).
• Isaiah 6:1–4 (ESV) — 1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And having eyes to see and ears to hear the glory of the Lord, Isaiah responded as one always does, not as one who “loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God”.
• Isaiah 6:5 (ESV) — 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

And with the confession and repentance of Isaiah’s understanding heart, God forgave Isaiah.
• Isaiah 6:6–7 (ESV) — 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

And Isaiah, having a firm grasp on his own wickedness and being awesomely grateful for his salvation, responded with the self-denial that seeks after the “glory that comes from God”.
• Isaiah 6:8 (ESV) — 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Clearly, we have the Gospel in the Old Testament as we should expect.
• For all of Scripture is a playing out of God’s intention to make provision for the restoration of Israel and the believer through Jesus Christ.

Conclusion:
And why would John highlight this just before Jesus was about to die on the cross?
• Because Jesus embodies both the magnification and glorification of both God’s law and God’s grace.
• In Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection the victory over death and sin in vindication of the law is completed.
    o God’s holiness and judgment are perfectly wrought.
• In Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection the procurement of salvation by God’s grace is completed.
    o God’s forgiveness and justification by faith are perfectly applied.
• “It is finished.”

Believers, those who have hearts of understanding; those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear; those who have been born again; those who have been called, drawn and given by the Father to Jesus; have much to be grateful for!
• A life lived in gratitude is a life lived in self-denial; a life that says “Here am I, send me”.
• How grateful are we for what God has done for us?
• The answer is found in how we live our lives – “woe is me” or “no, not me”.

John 12:27-33 – Proclamation and Battle

Last week, we saw how Jesus turned the focus from His Kingship of the Kingdom of God to it citizens.
• He “Kingdom Called” us to live in “Kingdom Submission” to His reign.
• This submission was to take the form of a life lived in self-denial.
• A pursuit of “zoe” life instead of “psyche” life.
• In living this life, we would be honored by the Father.

This week Jesus brings us back to His role in the fulfillment of the Father’s call on His life.
• Among other things, John gives us some insight into the Proclamation and the Battle we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
• We are going to spend our time on these two themes.

1) DIVINE PROCLAMATION

John 12:27–30 (ESV) — 27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.

Jesus’ Prayer:
Jesus expresses the anguish he feels over his coming death.
• It is an awesome confluence of His humanity and divinity.
• The book of Hebrews describes it as follows:
    o Hebrews 5:7 (ESV) — 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
• He asks the Father if He should seek salvation from the cross.
• D.A. Carson suggests this is a prayer which “is entirely analogous to Gethsemane’s ‘Take this cup from me’ – D.A. Carson.
• Yet Jesus acknowledges his commitment to a life (zoe) of self-denial and obedience, “But for this purpose I have come to this hour”.
    o A purpose that would glorify the Father – “Father, glorify your name”.
• Many believe this text from Ezekiel speaks of this moment.
    o Ezekiel 36:22 (ESV) — 22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name [to glorify His name], which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
• A simple admission of a profound truth – all of Israel’s call and history were designed to lead to this moment.

The Father’s Answer:
If Jesus’ words were a prayer, then the voice that “came from heaven” was His answer.
• The voice from heaven was in full agreement with the purpose of the hour and the glory it would bring.
• But, as Jesus said, there was more to the voice than this.
• Jesus said in verse 30, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine”.
    o BTW – Some heard only thunder – perhaps they did not have ears to hear.

How was the voice for their sake?
• One reason has to do with the proclamation by the Father about Jesus.

The Father’s Proclamation:
We spoke a couple weeks ago about the expectations Jews had about their Messiah.
• We saw that there would be two moments in His life, one of which was a moment of proclamation.
• Typically, a proclamation (kerysso) is an “official announcement” or “public declaration” – BDAG.

Interestingly, in the Roman Empire at Jesus’ time, such proclamations were made when a new Caesar assumed power.
• In fact, during Jesus’ life, Caesar Augustus died and was replaced by Caesar Tiberius.
• This event would have been “proclaimed” throughout Palestine.
• Such a proclamation would have declared that Tiberius, like Augustus, was the divine “son of god” (i.e., son of Julius Caesar).
• And a “proclamation” in a “trouble spot” like Palestine would have been made with heralds accompanied by soldiers as a show of force and continuity – N.T. Wright.
• This event is something Jesus probably witnessed Himself.

But why was there a Jewish expectation of proclamation for their Messiah?
• The expectation was fueled by Israel’s history and prophecy.
• Throughout Israel’s existence, its prophets, priests and kings were “proclaimed” as chosen by God.
• These proclamations often took the form of a public anointing and sometimes included God’s specific instruction.

Prophet Anointed:
• 1 Kings 19:16 (ESV) — 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you [Elijah] shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.
• Here, Elijah is told by God to anoint the next King and Prophet.

Priests Anointed:
• Exodus 29:7 (ESV) — 7 [God Speaking] You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him [Aaron].
• Exodus 28:41 (ESV) — 41 [God Speaking] And you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.

Later, we are told that though Moses anointed them, it was really God that anointed them.
• Leviticus 7:36 (ESV) — 36 The LORD commanded this to be given them by the people of Israel, from the day that he anointed them. It is a perpetual due throughout their generations.”

Kings Anointed:
• 2 Chronicles 23:11 (ESV) — 11 Then they brought out the king’s son [in public] and put the crown on him and gave him the testimony. And they proclaimed him king, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, “Long live the king.”
• 1 Samuel 16:13 (ESV) — 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him [David] in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

There was also the expectation of proclamation taught in the prophecies pertaining to Israel’s Messiah and King.

Prophetic and Exilic Expectation of Proclamation:
• Isaiah 12:4 (ESV) — 4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.
• Isaiah 48:20 (ESV) — 20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
• Isaiah 61:1 (ESV) — 1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
• Jeremiah 23:5–6 (ESV) — 5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’
• And in these prophetic texts about Israel’s coming king, “YHWH’s anointing of the king denotes the exclusive, intimate relationship between the God of Israel and the king whom he has appointed and given the power to reign in his name” – AYBD.

Finally, we have in the Gospels, the proclamation of Jesus.
• And as in the prophetic texts, these too denote the “intimate relationship between the God of Israel and the king whom he has appointed”, King Jesus.

Jesus Proclaimed:
• In our text today, we see an example of the Father’s proclamation of Jesus.
• The Father proclaimed in a loud voice “that came from heaven” that Jesus’ “purpose” (death, burial and resurrection) will glorify the Father’s name.
• D.A. Carson calls this a “supernatural attestation”.

And this was not the first time that Jesus was proclaimed.
• John 1:29 (ESV) — 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
• Mark 1:9–11 (ESV) — 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
• Mark 9:7 (ESV) — 7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

But we aren’t done yet.
• Because just as Jesus did unusual things like forgive sins and redefine the law, He also proclaimed his own Kingship.
• “Jesus was going about declaring, after the manner of someone issuing a public proclamation, that Israel’s God was at last becoming king. ‘The time is fulfilled!’ he said. ‘God’s kingdom is arriving! Turn back, and believe the good news!’ (Mark 1:15). ‘If it’s by God’s finger that I cast out demons,’ he declared, ‘then God’s kingdom has come upon you’ (Luke 11:20) – N.T. Wright.

“Think for a minute about what that means. As soon as the initial announcement had been made…it would have been tantamount to treason…” – N.T. Wright.
• Herod Antipas (the one who beheaded John the Baptist), the Chief Priests and the Roman authorities all would have had something to say as the proclamations of Jesus’ Kingship spread.
• It was not a mistake that Jesus was crucified as the “King of the Jews”.

Everything about Jesus incarnation, life and mission was anointed, consecrated, testified to, and proclaimed by God the Father.
• And those who had eyes to see and ears to hear could rejoice in this.
• We can rejoice in this.
• Yet, as we will see in a couple of weeks, many still did not believe (which was a fulfillment of prophecy).

So we have seen how Jesus was Proclaimed.
• Now we will take a look at His Battle.


2) THE BATTLE

John 12:31–33 (ESV) — 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people [Jews and Gentiles] to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Jesus speaks here of being “lifted up” and casting out the “ruler of this world”.

We dealt with the “lifted up from the earth” language in John 8.
• We learned that this phrase referred both to the cross and to sitting on the throne at the right hand of God
• The OT references in view here are:
    o Psalm 110:1 (ESV) — 1 The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
    o Isaiah 52:13 (ESV) — 13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
• Both of these, the cross and throne, were seen as an exaltation of Jesus Christ
• In John’s Gospel, “the exaltation of the Servant of which this verse speaks [Isaiah 52:13] is the whole sequence of humiliation, suffering, death and vindication beyond death which [Isaiah] 53 describes” – Richard Bauckham.
• So to be “lifted up” is both:
  1) Exalted and on the Throne – King, Ruler and Creator
  2) Lifted up and on the Cross – Servant and Savior
• For more info on the Christ’s exaltation and “lifted up” refer back to the lesson from John 8:12-20 – Location, Location, Location.

The casting out of “the ruler of this world” speaks to the Battle we spoke of a couple of weeks ago.
• Just as we mentioned the expectation of proclamation, there was also an expectation of a Battle that God’s King would fight and win.

Jesus’ Battle – Clash of the Kingdoms:
The Battle Jesus waged was not directly against the Romans, or the corrupt priestly leadership.
• It was against the power that had dominion over this world and those walking in the dark.
• This certainly included the Roman Empire and much of the Jewish leadership, but was not limited to them.
• Jesus’ Battle was against satan.
• John put it like this in 1 John.
• 1 John 3:8 (ESV) — 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

N.T. Wright calls this battle the “Clash of the Kingdoms”.
• And throughout the Gospels, this Battle took numerous forms.
• One remarkable example is from Matthew.
• In Matthew 12, Jesus cast out a demon from a blind and mute man.
• The crowds were amazed and even wondered, “Can this be the Son of David?” (Matt 12:23).
• The Pharisees took this as a chance to discredit Jesus.
• They explained Jesus’ power over the demonic and his ability to cast out demons as being derived from satan.

Jesus response gives a clear indication that the Battle against satan is under way.
• He states that His power over demons means that the Kingdom of God is here, now!
    o Matthew 12:28 (ESV) — 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
• And then, oft overlooked, but profoundly, Jesus makes the following remarkable statement.
    o Matthew 12:29 (ESV) — 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.
• In other words, Jesus has this power because under God’s direction and authority he has come into satan’s kingdom and as bound him up.
• The Battle has begun and Jesus is in control.
• Jesus has bound up and restrained satan and is plundering satan's house - Jesus the Plunderer.

When did Jesus’ Battle begin?

The Battle, the Clash of the Kingdoms, seemed to begin at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
• And interestingly, it was precipitated by the will of God.
    o Mark 1:12–13 (ESV) — 12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
• Satan tried to establish Jesus as King on his terms.
    o Matthew 4:8 (ESV) — 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
• Jesus, however, chose the way of the Father which would take Him to the cross – the “zoe” life way.
• Satan’s ultimate fate was sealed as a result.
• In fact, in Luke, Jesus says the following – Luke 10:18 (ESV) — 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

In our text today, we have Jesus acknowledging that, as N.T. Wright puts it, the Clash of the Kingdoms, the Battle, reached its climax with Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.
• John 12:31–33 (ESV) — 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
• The Passion events are the incarnation’s final battle.
• The coming death of Jesus will be the death blow to satan’s kingdom.
• Satan will be defeated and his eternal judgment is a done deal.
    o Revelation 20:10 (ESV) — 10 …the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

N.T. Wright sums up the judgment and defeat of the “ruler of this world” this way:
• “Jesus…takes to be the true vocation of Israel’s king: to fight and win the key battle, the battle that will set his people free and establish God’s sovereign and saving rule, through his own suffering and death” – N.T. Wright.

Kostenberger puts it like this:
• “Paradoxically, at the cross the world and its ruler are judged, while Jesus is glorified and salvation is procured for all”.

Lesson for Us:
• So we have seen how Jesus fulfilled the Jews’ prophetic expectations of a divine proclamation and a battle.
• And as we suggested last week this story is part of the Gospel; it is the Good News!
• Soon enough, we will see how Jesus restored and cleansed the Temple and the exact nature of His ultimate victory in the battle against Satan.
• Noting these things should do at least two things for us.
    o 1) Make us thankful that we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a born again heart with which to recognize and embrace what Jesus did.
    o 2) And cause us to wonder why so many Jews didn’t.
• This question we will deal with in a couple of weeks.