“And Jesus cried out and said, ‘Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.’”

How can you know that which you’ve never seen? There was a time when there was no separation between God and man. Humanity was made and placed in a position, certainly not of equality, but in harmony with God. We had purpose in the work and direction that our creator had given us, and in fulfilling this purpose and obeying the Lord, there was an element of worship to our every action. But we were made as servants, not slaves, and there was a choice given, a standard provided – and we chose rebellion. While the act specifically was committed by Adam and Eve, it’s important to always remember that Adam was both a literal man, and a stand in and representative of all mankind. We can’t look back on what unfolded in the garden, and believe that any one of us would have done any better – to do so is to fall into a trap of arrogance and self-righteousness, and it denies the responsibility we all hold for our own sin, as well as diminishing the vastness of the rift created between us and Holy God. Genesis 3:22–24 says,

“Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—’ therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

In our sin, we went from a spiritual state where we were harmonious with God, to being cast out, unable to remain in His presence. The gap between the righteousness of God and the fallen state of man was infinitely wide, an unbridgeable expanse. There was nothing for us to do to mend the rift, the damage of our rebellion was beyond repair, and promised to stretch into eternity. But what we destroyed, God held the power to fix. From before our creation, the was a plan, to restore and redeem, and bring us back into the presence of our Father. This would not be achieved by God simply ignoring the created debt, as there’s no justice in that, and God, by His righteous nature is the embodiment of justice. Instead, God Himself would bear the iniquity, the judgement that we had brought on ourselves, and by His blood, restore our lives. Through His sacrifice, and by His Spirit we may be delivered from rebellion, barred and separated from His presence, to earnestly seeking His face, and knowing Him in a way that leads to eternity in His kingdom.

Knowing God the Father though Christ the Son

1.      To Look on the Son is to Look on the Father

“And Jesus cried out and said, ‘Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”

When we last saw Jesus in John 12:36, He spoke of light, similarly to how He does in today’s passage, before withdrawing and hiding Himself from the people. John goes on to elaborate from verse 37 to where we left off in verse 44 how the people’s lack of belief was yet again the fulfillment of prophecy. We don’t see Jesus return to the crowd, nor are we introduced to a new group that He’s addressing, but today’s passage begins “and Jesus cried out and said…” This mirrors the verbiage of John 7:37,

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’”

But in John 7 Jesus is crying out to the people present at the feast, and if we read on, we see their response. Today’s passage, which ends John 12, doesn’t identify who Jesus is addressing, and there’s no response given. It seems unlikely that, given how Jesus just extended an invitation to the light of His Truth, then withdrew, and that John subsequently addresses the unbelief of the people, that Jesus has circled back and is speaking to the crowds again. He could be speaking to His disciples, but again, we aren’t told. But in the absence of specific direction, it’s not hard to determine who Jesus is addressing – He’s speaking to you, to me, to any and all who might receive the Truth – to the world. He is crying out with love and urgency, with the same message He has repeated throughout His ministry – He is the Son of Man, the only Son, one with God the Father. He is the singular, perfect path by which man may come to God, and He is freedom from the darkness of sin. Jesus says in John 6:45–46,

“It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.”

What does this mean though? We see examples in the Old Testament of people witnessing God manifested as the pillar of cloud or fire – more specifically, God says of Moses in Numbers 12:6–8,

“… Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

And Isaiah 6:1 says,

“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.”

Answering this may be helped by asking another question – what does it mean to truly see something? My dad has always made a point of distinguishing between hearing something, and listening to something. When I was a kid, and he was trying to really teach me, it was important that I listen to him, not just hear. Hearing, he reasoned, was simply a matter of acknowledging sound, but to listen meant there was some degree of comprehension or consideration behind the action. Moses and Isaiah both saw God, but as men. This may have been over and above what any other person would or could experience, but they did not see God as Jesus did. For a man to look up upon God is to gaze into a might and majesty that is beyond us, not fully comprehensible. Jesus looks to God from a station of equality, displaying the obedience of the Son, yet lifted up, and one with the Father. He looks upon God and truly sees, truly comprehends the perfection and power, because He’s one with it. Jesus, being God made flesh, gives us a way to view, understand, and relate to God that is unique from what we’ve seen in the Old Testament. Jesus on one hand holds the qualities of the Father, with thoughts and ways that are above ours as heaven is set above the earth – and yet He is also our Great High Priest who sympathizes with and understands our pain and temptation, having experienced it without succumbing to sin. The gift of Christ is a testament to God’s power and the depth of His love for us. Jesus says in Matthew 21:33–37,

“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’”

Humanity is afforded opportunity after opportunity to see and acknowledge the Light that is the Truth of God. His love for us is so unimaginably great that He sent His Son, His very flesh, to do the work that we could not. 2 Peter 3:9 speaks to God’s mercy for us in His patience,

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Knowing the darkness of sin blinded the eyes of the world, God entered the world as the one true Light, allowing us to look upon and know Him as humanity never had before, in bearing witness to the work and teaching of Christ.

2.      To Reject the Son is to Reject the Father

“If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”

Jesus told Nicodemus plainly in John 3:17,

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Jesus affirms this again in today’s passage – He has not been sent into the world to act as judge, but as savior. But just because He is not here to pass judgement doesn’t mean there is no repercussion for denying Him, as to deny Him is to deny God, and to sin against God is to choose judgement and separation. Imagine that there’s a flood coming. Angry, rushing waters will cover the land, sweeping everything away. There’s a boat right in front of you, it’s big and sturdy and it promises safety – the only safety from the coming flood. You reject the boat. Maybe you don’t like the boat, or the accommodations won’t permit the things you want to do, and so you have no desire to get on. Maybe you don’t trust that it will keep you safe, despite the fact that if you truly looked and saw what it offers, you would see the clear evidence of its reliability. Maybe you don’t even believe there’s a flood coming, that it’s all made up, and those who believe it’s going to happen are fools. Regardless, you don’t get on the boat. The flood comes. You die. Did the boat kill you? Was it the boat that passed judgment? Or was it you, you who decided to spurn the offer of safety and stability, who elected to stand toe to toe with the flood who brought judgement on yourself in your denial? We all stand condemned, guilty in our sin before the one, Living, Holy God. Jesus is the Light, the Door, the Life that promises redemption and salvation from our coming judgement. If we continue on in the same parable I referenced earlier, we can see this quality in Jesus, with Matthew 21:38–46 saying,

“‘But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.” And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.’ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.”

“And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces,” tells us that to throw yourself against the cornerstone that is Christ is to utterly destroy yourself, while “and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him,” points us to the coming judgement. Jesus’s earthly ministry was not one of condemnation and judgement, but as He says, “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” We have been delivered the Truth, and we are free to reject that Truth, but to deny the Son is to deny the Father, and in our denial we throw ourselves toward destruction. Jesus’s second coming looks vastly different from His first, with Revelation 19:11–16 saying,

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

After the thousand year reign of Christ, we see the judgement of the dead before the throne of God in Revelation 20:11–15,

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

We are given such wisdom, peace, and purpose by the Word of God – yet if we chose to set ourselves against Him, we only dash ourselves to pieces, and if we die in our rebellion, we only bring on ourselves the justice that is eternal separation.

3.      To Listen to the Son is to Listen to the Father

“For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.’”

Jesus worked many miracles over the course of His earthly ministry. Many of these we see were acts of compassion for people who were suffering, and in most instances, displayed true and desperate faith in Him as the Christ. What was sometimes overshadowed during His ministry was how profound, and miraculous His teachings were. This is something that even now we can be guilty of failing to acknowledge and revere as we should. We read of water into wine, of the blind given their sight and we’re amazed (as we should be), but we read “… everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” “… if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell,” or “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” and we just let the words wash over us, not bothering to dig to in, or to revel in the depth of the teaching. Likewise, we’ve seen in John’s gospel that many of the people were far more interested in Jesus’s ability to multiply food without limit than they were in receiving His teachings. But His teachings were (and are) profound and revolutionary, as Jesus taught from the Law itself, and gave correction where the people had deviated from God’s instruction. This, oddly enough, was not the teaching manner of the day. Rather than instruct directly from the Law, it was common practice for the religious rulers to teach the teachings of other rabbis, giving their interpretation of the Law, or else presenting the information parsed apart so as to support their own positions and authority. We see examples of this in many cases where members of the Sadducees and Pharisees pose questions to Jesus, like in Matthew 19, where they question Him on divorce, or Matthew 22 where He’s first asked about the resurrection, and then when that doesn’t trip Him up, asked which commandment is the greatest. None of these were attempts to learn or gain greater understanding, but were staged as they tried to get Jesus to place Himself on one side or another of their squabbling, thereby aligning Himself with whatever party held that view. Jesus however, upends their games, refusing to pick a side and teaching directly from the Law in a way that none of them, blind, wicked guides that they were, possibly could. Jesus did not teach the Law as a man who had read the instructions handed down from God, but as the Son of Man, the one in whom the Law itself was fulfilled and satisfied. The words of God are His words, the will of the Father is the will of the Son. We must always keep the deity of Christ at the forefront of our minds as we study the Word, share the Truth of the gospel, and worship the Lord our God. Jesus lived, fully and completely, as a man, and the world wants desperately to stop there, to consider Him as no more than flesh and blood, and therefore fallible. But that is not who He is – it is not who He says He is, it is not who God says He is, it’s not what His teachings and works and death upon the cross, and victory over the grave all say He is. Colossians 1:15 says that,

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

When we gaze upon and study Christ, we look at God. When we muddle His teachings, deny His deity, and reject the salvation He offers us through His blood, we are spitting in the face of God. And when we listen to His voice, to the Truth that calls us out of the darkness of sin and into eternal life, we are hearing the voice of our Father, who loves us, who has provided for us out of the abundance of His mercy and grace, calling us home.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pdEB0paAzg