John 12:34-41
Who is the Son of Man?
Introduction: Bug in My Ear
Did you ever try and tell someone something and they just wouldn’t believe you? A couple weeks ago Annie and I were in Chicago for a Christian Leadership Conference. The church that puts it on has families that host the attendees. We decided that we’d save some cash and instead of a hotel we stayed with one of the families.
We left the conference after our first day and they left a key for us so we arrived and got in and started to unload our stuff. We had only been there a couple minutes when our host family arrived home. They were a wonderful couple and just fantastic hosts.
So, I went back out to the van to get the rest of our stuff and while I’m leaning in the van a bug flew into my ear – I mean way into my ear. You can imagine my embarrassment when I walked back into the house of the people we just met and said I have a bug in my ear is there an ER nearby?
Annie didn’t believe me. This bug kept buzzing its wings every 2 seconds, it felt like a pterodactyl was in there! She looked in my ear with a flashlight and couldn’t see anything so she kept telling me it was a phantom feeling and there wasn’t a bug in my ear. I told her there was and she just wouldn’t believe me. Did you ever tell someone something and they just wouldn’t believe you? It wasn’t until I brought the evidence back from the ER with me that she believed I really had a bug in my ear.
Jesus has come as Israel’s Messiah and they would not believe in Him. They asked Him in verse 34, “Who is this ‘Son of Man’?” Son of Man is another title, another name for the Messiah that Israel was waiting for. They are different titles referring to the same person. Son of Man was Jesus’ favorite way to refer to Himself.
We see where the name comes from in OT passages like Daniel 7:13-14 when it says, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
The Jews are familiar with passages like this one and then they hear Jesus say in the previous verses that He must be lifted up – crucified – and so they get confused. How can the Son of Man come and have a dominion will not pass away and a kingdom will not be destroyed but end up being crucified? Who is this Son of Man that you are talking about Jesus?
Now the key here is the word “this” in verse 34. Who is ‘this’ Son of Man you are talking about Jesus? You seem to be talking about a different Son of Man than the One we have been waiting for. The Law, which is a reference to the OT in general - says that the Son of Man is coming to remain forever. If He is coming and will remain forever, how can you say the Son of Man must die?
They had some knowledge of what their Scriptures said, but, not complete knowledge. Their incomplete knowledge led to complete confusion. They didn’t pay attention to passages like Isaiah 53 when it says, “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by His wounds we are healed…the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” They ignored Psalm 22 when it says, “…they have pierced my hands and my feet” and they didn’t listen to Zechariah 12, where God says this, “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child…”
Their incomplete knowledge led to their complete confusion over who the Messiah was and what He would be. Yes He was coming to reign forever, but, that was to be after He came to die for sins. Their problem was that they wanted the political Savior who would reign forever, but, they didn’t want the spiritual Savior who was coming to die for their sins. The Messiah that the OT spoke of was both. They didn’t like the things that Scriptures said about the Messiah having to die so they ignored those parts.
Then Jesus comes and begins to fulfill those passages that speak of the Messiah’s sufferings. All the while He was performing miracles and preaching but they would not listen to the true knowledge from Jesus’ lips and so they completely rejected Him. He was the other half of what they wanted in their Messiah.
Listen, you can’t have ½ of who Jesus is. The Jews wanted the parts about the Messiah that they liked. We can’t say, “Jesus I want you to be this, but, I don’t want you to be that” when the Bible clearly says things about Him. That’s me trying to reverse the relationship; that’s me trying to be god over Him. That’s called idolatry. It’s when I try to make Him what I want Him to be for me. I’m making up my own Jesus. The Bible never says we are to continue the good work in Jesus that we began in Him. The Bible never says He is being transformed more and more into the likeness of our imaginations.
He is not in submission to us, but, we are in submission to Him. He is who He is and He does not change; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not conform to our image – we conform to His image. The only way to do that as Christians is to accept all of who He is.
But the Jews ask the question “Who is the Son of Man?” Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Then He asked them, “But what about you? Who do you say that I am?” That is a question each one of us will have to answer. And, it is an answer we’ll have to give an account to God for. I want us to see some things about the Son of Man today in the rest of our verses.
He is the Light (35-36)
First of all, the Son of Man is the light of the world. Look at verses 35-36, “Then Jesus told them, ‘You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it so that you may become sons of the light…’”
That Jesus is the Light is a strong theme in John’s Gospel. Notice 3 things about the Light in these verses.
First, the Light is Running Out. “You are going to have the light just a little while longer” Jesus says. In other words, time is running out. The Light that came into the world (1:4-5) is in a very short time going to leave the world.
I wonder if there are any who realize that their time to respond to Jesus and come into the Light is running out. Second Peter 3 says that God is patient with you, not wanting you to perish, but wanting you to come to repentance. But understand that although He is patient a long time, He is not patient forever. You do not know when His patience will end. You do not know when your time will be cut short. Each Sunday that passes is another Sunday closer to the end of God’s patience with an unbelieving world.
Second, the Light reveals reality. “The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.” Apart from the light, Jesus says a man is in darkness. He is groping around in this world. He doesn’t know truth. He does not know what is real. But, the Light of Jesus makes things visible. Jesus reveals reality.
-“He hid Himself from them”. Jesus has hid Himself several times before (……). But this time it is different. He is not coming back into the public after this. This is terrible. Jesus came into the world, and came to them. “He made His dwelling among them” (1:14), but, now, He was leaving them. They rejected the Light, they rejected the truth, and finally they were rejected. He hid Himself from them. He took the light away. He separated Himself from them so they no longer had the blessing of His presence.
The Rejected One (v37-38)
Secondly, the Son of Man is the Rejected One. John has been showing how Jesus has been rejected for 12 chapters, and now, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he is going to do some explaining here for us. In doing so, he quotes from the OT in the book of Isaiah, chapters 53 and chapter 6.
He is explaining why God who came in the flesh has been rejected by the ones who were supposed to receive Him. There are two reasons for that rejection. First, the stubborn will of man. Notice verses 37-38, “…..”
They were eyewitnesses to the spectacular miracles that Jesus performed. They could not deny what they had seen. For example, in chapter 9 the Pharisees could not deny the miracle that Jesus had given sight to a man born blind. They just ignored it because they were stubborn and did not want to believe in Christ.
But they went on refusing the proof that God Himself was giving them that Jesus was His Son. The miracles that Jesus did were proof. Nicodemus in chapter 3 knew God was with Jesus because of the miracles. Jesus said in chapter 14:11, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” Acts 2:22 says, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.”
In spite of all the clear evidence the Jews would not believe in Jesus. The “arm of the Lord” had been revealed to them in great power and the report had been given to them but they shut their eyes and closed their ears and would not believe.
Secondly, the reason the Jews would not believe in Jesus is not only because of their stubborn will, but, because of the sovereign will of God. Look at verses 39-40, “……………”
They could not believe because God had hardened their hearts to keep them from believing.
Warren Wiersbe gives some insight on when someone continues to stubbornly reject the light that is shown to them, “When a person starts to resist the light, something begins to change within him, and he comes to a place where he cannot believe. There is ‘judicial blindness’ that God permits to come over the eyes of people who do not take the truth seriously. It is a serious thing to treat God’s truth lightly, for a person could well miss his opportunity to be saved.”
The more you harden your heart to God’s truth, the more He hardens your heart to His truth. And if you reject Him continually, there is a point at which He may make it impossible for you to ever respond to Him. He may take away your ability to choose and give you over to a totally depraved mind. This is illustrated in Romans 1:21-31. Turn there with me please.
Verses 21-23 show how man has rejected God continually. Then, in verses 24-31 Paul shows what God does with them. Notice the phrase “God gave them over…” appears 3 times. The longer you harden your heart to God the closer you come to being totally given over to your depraved mind and wicked lusts with no hope of being retrieved.
This is what happened with the Jews. For centuries they had been stubbornly rejecting God and His Word. As a result they had become totally blind to the truth within their own Scriptures. Finally, when the Messiah who fulfilled their Scriptures came, they couldn’t even recognize Him. God had so hardened their hearts and blinded their eyes that they could not see Him or receive Him when He stood right in front of them.
The Glorious One (v41)
The Son of Man is the Light. The Son of Man is the Rejected One. And thirdly, the Son of Man is the Glorious One. Notice verse 41, “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.”
Isaiah saw Christ’s glory. He knew who Jesus was. He saw Him in Isaiah 6.
Compare Isaiah, who saw Christ’s glory, to the nation of Israel, who did not see Christ’s glory.
The nation was kept from seeing Christ’s glory
Who is the Son of Man?
Introduction: Bug in My Ear
Did you ever try and tell someone something and they just wouldn’t believe you? A couple weeks ago Annie and I were in Chicago for a Christian Leadership Conference. The church that puts it on has families that host the attendees. We decided that we’d save some cash and instead of a hotel we stayed with one of the families.
We left the conference after our first day and they left a key for us so we arrived and got in and started to unload our stuff. We had only been there a couple minutes when our host family arrived home. They were a wonderful couple and just fantastic hosts.
So, I went back out to the van to get the rest of our stuff and while I’m leaning in the van a bug flew into my ear – I mean way into my ear. You can imagine my embarrassment when I walked back into the house of the people we just met and said I have a bug in my ear is there an ER nearby?
Annie didn’t believe me. This bug kept buzzing its wings every 2 seconds, it felt like a pterodactyl was in there! She looked in my ear with a flashlight and couldn’t see anything so she kept telling me it was a phantom feeling and there wasn’t a bug in my ear. I told her there was and she just wouldn’t believe me. Did you ever tell someone something and they just wouldn’t believe you? It wasn’t until I brought the evidence back from the ER with me that she believed I really had a bug in my ear.
Jesus has come as Israel’s Messiah and they would not believe in Him. They asked Him in verse 34, “Who is this ‘Son of Man’?” Son of Man is another title, another name for the Messiah that Israel was waiting for. They are different titles referring to the same person. Son of Man was Jesus’ favorite way to refer to Himself.
We see where the name comes from in OT passages like Daniel 7:13-14 when it says, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
The Jews are familiar with passages like this one and then they hear Jesus say in the previous verses that He must be lifted up – crucified – and so they get confused. How can the Son of Man come and have a dominion will not pass away and a kingdom will not be destroyed but end up being crucified? Who is this Son of Man that you are talking about Jesus?
Now the key here is the word “this” in verse 34. Who is ‘this’ Son of Man you are talking about Jesus? You seem to be talking about a different Son of Man than the One we have been waiting for. The Law, which is a reference to the OT in general - says that the Son of Man is coming to remain forever. If He is coming and will remain forever, how can you say the Son of Man must die?
They had some knowledge of what their Scriptures said, but, not complete knowledge. Their incomplete knowledge led to complete confusion. They didn’t pay attention to passages like Isaiah 53 when it says, “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by His wounds we are healed…the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” They ignored Psalm 22 when it says, “…they have pierced my hands and my feet” and they didn’t listen to Zechariah 12, where God says this, “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child…”
Their incomplete knowledge led to their complete confusion over who the Messiah was and what He would be. Yes He was coming to reign forever, but, that was to be after He came to die for sins. Their problem was that they wanted the political Savior who would reign forever, but, they didn’t want the spiritual Savior who was coming to die for their sins. The Messiah that the OT spoke of was both. They didn’t like the things that Scriptures said about the Messiah having to die so they ignored those parts.
Then Jesus comes and begins to fulfill those passages that speak of the Messiah’s sufferings. All the while He was performing miracles and preaching but they would not listen to the true knowledge from Jesus’ lips and so they completely rejected Him. He was the other half of what they wanted in their Messiah.
Listen, you can’t have ½ of who Jesus is. The Jews wanted the parts about the Messiah that they liked. We can’t say, “Jesus I want you to be this, but, I don’t want you to be that” when the Bible clearly says things about Him. That’s me trying to reverse the relationship; that’s me trying to be god over Him. That’s called idolatry. It’s when I try to make Him what I want Him to be for me. I’m making up my own Jesus. The Bible never says we are to continue the good work in Jesus that we began in Him. The Bible never says He is being transformed more and more into the likeness of our imaginations.
He is not in submission to us, but, we are in submission to Him. He is who He is and He does not change; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not conform to our image – we conform to His image. The only way to do that as Christians is to accept all of who He is.
But the Jews ask the question “Who is the Son of Man?” Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Then He asked them, “But what about you? Who do you say that I am?” That is a question each one of us will have to answer. And, it is an answer we’ll have to give an account to God for. I want us to see some things about the Son of Man today in the rest of our verses.
He is the Light (35-36)
First of all, the Son of Man is the light of the world. Look at verses 35-36, “Then Jesus told them, ‘You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it so that you may become sons of the light…’”
That Jesus is the Light is a strong theme in John’s Gospel. Notice 3 things about the Light in these verses.
First, the Light is Running Out. “You are going to have the light just a little while longer” Jesus says. In other words, time is running out. The Light that came into the world (1:4-5) is in a very short time going to leave the world.
I wonder if there are any who realize that their time to respond to Jesus and come into the Light is running out. Second Peter 3 says that God is patient with you, not wanting you to perish, but wanting you to come to repentance. But understand that although He is patient a long time, He is not patient forever. You do not know when His patience will end. You do not know when your time will be cut short. Each Sunday that passes is another Sunday closer to the end of God’s patience with an unbelieving world.
Second, the Light reveals reality. “The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.” Apart from the light, Jesus says a man is in darkness. He is groping around in this world. He doesn’t know truth. He does not know what is real. But, the Light of Jesus makes things visible. Jesus reveals reality.
-“He hid Himself from them”. Jesus has hid Himself several times before (……). But this time it is different. He is not coming back into the public after this. This is terrible. Jesus came into the world, and came to them. “He made His dwelling among them” (1:14), but, now, He was leaving them. They rejected the Light, they rejected the truth, and finally they were rejected. He hid Himself from them. He took the light away. He separated Himself from them so they no longer had the blessing of His presence.
The Rejected One (v37-38)
Secondly, the Son of Man is the Rejected One. John has been showing how Jesus has been rejected for 12 chapters, and now, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he is going to do some explaining here for us. In doing so, he quotes from the OT in the book of Isaiah, chapters 53 and chapter 6.
He is explaining why God who came in the flesh has been rejected by the ones who were supposed to receive Him. There are two reasons for that rejection. First, the stubborn will of man. Notice verses 37-38, “…..”
They were eyewitnesses to the spectacular miracles that Jesus performed. They could not deny what they had seen. For example, in chapter 9 the Pharisees could not deny the miracle that Jesus had given sight to a man born blind. They just ignored it because they were stubborn and did not want to believe in Christ.
But they went on refusing the proof that God Himself was giving them that Jesus was His Son. The miracles that Jesus did were proof. Nicodemus in chapter 3 knew God was with Jesus because of the miracles. Jesus said in chapter 14:11, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” Acts 2:22 says, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.”
In spite of all the clear evidence the Jews would not believe in Jesus. The “arm of the Lord” had been revealed to them in great power and the report had been given to them but they shut their eyes and closed their ears and would not believe.
Secondly, the reason the Jews would not believe in Jesus is not only because of their stubborn will, but, because of the sovereign will of God. Look at verses 39-40, “……………”
They could not believe because God had hardened their hearts to keep them from believing.
Warren Wiersbe gives some insight on when someone continues to stubbornly reject the light that is shown to them, “When a person starts to resist the light, something begins to change within him, and he comes to a place where he cannot believe. There is ‘judicial blindness’ that God permits to come over the eyes of people who do not take the truth seriously. It is a serious thing to treat God’s truth lightly, for a person could well miss his opportunity to be saved.”
The more you harden your heart to God’s truth, the more He hardens your heart to His truth. And if you reject Him continually, there is a point at which He may make it impossible for you to ever respond to Him. He may take away your ability to choose and give you over to a totally depraved mind. This is illustrated in Romans 1:21-31. Turn there with me please.
Verses 21-23 show how man has rejected God continually. Then, in verses 24-31 Paul shows what God does with them. Notice the phrase “God gave them over…” appears 3 times. The longer you harden your heart to God the closer you come to being totally given over to your depraved mind and wicked lusts with no hope of being retrieved.
This is what happened with the Jews. For centuries they had been stubbornly rejecting God and His Word. As a result they had become totally blind to the truth within their own Scriptures. Finally, when the Messiah who fulfilled their Scriptures came, they couldn’t even recognize Him. God had so hardened their hearts and blinded their eyes that they could not see Him or receive Him when He stood right in front of them.
The Glorious One (v41)
The Son of Man is the Light. The Son of Man is the Rejected One. And thirdly, the Son of Man is the Glorious One. Notice verse 41, “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.”
Isaiah saw Christ’s glory. He knew who Jesus was. He saw Him in Isaiah 6.
Compare Isaiah, who saw Christ’s glory, to the nation of Israel, who did not see Christ’s glory.
The nation was kept from seeing Christ’s glory
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