Seeking Glory

Our passage this morning is from
the Gospel of Jesus according to John. John chapter 12, verse
37. John 12, 37. And the title of this message
is Seeking Glory. Seeking Glory. John 12, 37. But though he had performed so
many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him, that
the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he
spoke, Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the
arm of the Lord been revealed? For this cause they could not
believe. For Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and
he hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and
perceive with their heart and be converted and I heal them. These things Isaiah said because
he saw his glory and he spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even
of the rulers believed in him But because of the Pharisees,
they were not confessing him, lest they should be put out of
the synagogue. For they loved the approval of
men rather than the approval of God. Let’s pray. Father, we
come to you today in reverence. We recognize and agree with your
word that we have no good in ourselves. We are estranged from
You, our Creator, and we have no way back into Your presence
on our own. And we agree that even our best
intentions are utterly corrupted. But Father, even when we were
still far off, You saw us and You ran to us. When we were dead
in our sins, You brought us to life. And when we were hostile
towards you, you loved us with an everlasting love. And you
have made us new in Christ. You have sealed us with your
spirit. And I ask that we would understand
this more and more and seek the glory that comes from above.
Amen. Well, if you’ve ever read a book
or watched a movie, and I’m sure we all have, the hope is that
by the end of it, you know what the point was. What was this
about? Nothing’s worse than spending
a couple of hours watching a movie or days reading a book, and when
you get to the end of it, you’re not really sure why they made
the movie, why someone spent the time writing the book. Sometimes
my wife Jessica and I will watch a movie or a show and we sit
there and the screen goes blank, the credits start to roll and
you know you do that kind of slow look with a blank stare
and think well that was a waste of time. I have no clue what
that was about. The Gospel of John is not like
that. The apostle who wrote this book wants us to know exactly
why he wrote it. In fact, towards the end of the
book, at the end of chapter 20, he tells us that Jesus performed
many signs, but these signs are written so that you may believe
that He is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing,
you will have life in His name. So the reason this is written
is so that we would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed
one of God, the Messiah, the Son of God, and believe and have
life in his name. And John gives us proof of this
in his gospel. One thing he does is he gives
us the testimony of witnesses. John testifies that Jesus is
the Word, the Word that was with God. It was God. It was in the
beginning with God. and that this Word came and lived
among us and manifested His glory. We have seen the glory. John
the Baptist testified, says he testified and he did not deny,
I’m not the Christ. But when he baptized Jesus, he
said, I saw the Spirit descending like a dove and a voice from
heaven that said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased, listen to Him. Jesus testifies about himself.
He calls himself the Son. He says, anyone that looks at
me will have eternal life. And he says those famous words,
before Abraham was, I am. He applies the divine name to
himself. John also provides evidence by
telling us about the signs or the miracles that Jesus did.
Leading up to our passage in John 12, there are seven miracles
that John recounts for us. The first miracle is in John
2 in Cana of Galilee. It’s this sort of backwater town
in the north part of Israel with very little to no influence,
whether it’s social or political. And there, at a wedding, Jesus
is invited with his family and with his disciples. And when
the wine runs out at the ceremony, Jesus turns water, which is contained
in six stone jars, into wine. This is the first miracle that
He performed. And John says, when He did this miracle, He
manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. The
last of the seven miracles happens in Bethany. It’s a town that’s
right outside of Jerusalem. It’s right before our passage
actually. It’s the last of the seven signs and there a very
close dear friend of Jesus dies unexpectedly. His name is Lazarus
and he’s buried for four days. And when Jesus comes to Bethany
in front of multiple family members, close friends, mourners, residents
of Jerusalem, the main city in Israel, the capital, Jesus cries
out, Lazarus, come forth. And the dead man who’s been in
the tomb for four days walks out. And I think naturally the
shock of seeing this causes many of those who are witnessing this
happen to believe in Jesus. And so we see this sort of crescendo
in the narrative, right? Leading up to our passage, we’ve
begun far out in the north of Israel with a sign. Lazarus has
just been raised from the dead. And Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem
on the Passover feast. And people are excited. Some
people think that the Messiah is here, right? The King is here.
But there’s a problem. in that if the gospel of John
is written so that we would believe that Jesus is the Messiah, then
we have to come to terms with the fact that even though Jesus
did all these signs before them, it says in verse 37 of our passage,
He was rejected. They did not believe in Him.
They didn’t believe in him even though he had healed many people,
though he had cast out demons, though he had proclaimed the
gospel, the message of the kingdom of God. In fact, when Jesus said
to them, before Abraham was, I am, they picked up stones to
kill him on the spot. So what has gone so terribly
wrong? We should ask. How could they
not have understood who Jesus was? Was Jesus simply misunderstood? Was he a good man who demonstrated
a better way of life? And we’re supposed to live a
more positive existence? And they just didn’t get it.
Was this all just a tragic mistake? And this passage will answer
that. John doesn’t want us to go around it. He doesn’t want
to skirt the uncomfortable truth. He’s going to answer it and he’s
going to give us four reasons for the rejection of Christ in
our passage. And the first reason he gives
for why Jesus is rejected is he is rejected because of divine
decree. Because God said so. See, John
explains that far from being a mistake, a misunderstanding,
or a monumental disaster, this is part of the eternal plan of
God. The rejection of Jesus by His
own people had to happen. And John will prove this by going
to the Old Testament, of course, and quoting two passages from
the prophet Isaiah. The first quotation comes from
what’s known as the Song of the Suffering Servant, a portion
of what you heard this morning from John Magnuson. Thank you.
But we’ll turn to it also. And so we go to Isaiah 52, and
the entirety of the Song of the Suffering Servant goes from Isaiah
52, 13 until the end of Isaiah 53. And so we will begin at the beginning
and read a short portion of it. Isaiah 52, 13. Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up
and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished
at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle
many nations. Kings will shut their mouths
on account of him. For what had not been told them,
they will see. And what they had not heard,
they will understand. Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like
a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. He has
no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor
appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised
and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,
and like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised
and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself
bore and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteemed Him
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced
through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquity.
The chastening for our well-being fell upon him. And by his scourging,
we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone
astray. Each of us has turned to his
own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity
of all of us to fall on him. At the very beginning of chapter
53, Isaiah quotes this. Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore,
it says in our passage, they could not believe. Because Isaiah
goes on and says again from Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6, a passage that you’re
all probably familiar with. This is that famous scene in
the throne room of God. where Isaiah is carried up and
he sees the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, it says again. And the seraphim are calling
out, holy, holy, holy. And in verse 8, chapter 6 verse
8, it says, then I, Isaiah speaking, I heard the voice of the Lord
saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said,
here am I, send me. And he said, go and tell this
people, keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keep on looking,
but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people
insensitive, their ears dull and their eyes dim, lest they
see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their
hearts and return and be healed. You see, John in our passage
tells us that the people who did not believe, The people who
rejected Jesus were unable to believe. They were unable to
believe because Isaiah said these things. So their unbelief is
a result of a prophecy given almost 700 years before the physical
arrival of Jesus. Their unbelief is because of
divine decree. Now, this is not the main point
of our passage. John uses these quotations to sort of push us
forward towards the main point of the passage later on. And
we could spend a lot of time, and hundreds of books have been
written on how do you balance the divine sovereign decree of
God and my responsibility or free choice. And while we’re
not as concerned with this, it’s not the focal point of this message,
we should note that this is not an excuse for their unbelief.
Christ consistently pronounces woes or curses upon His listeners
because of their unbelief. But I think that this is highly
ironic. It’s ironic that these people
do not believe in Jesus, they hate Jesus, they falsely accuse
Him, and they ultimately succeed in killing Him. And they will
do all of this not knowing that it was foreordained and they’re
playing into the eternal cosmic plan of God for the salvation
of the world. Isaiah will even say elsewhere
that they will look on Him who they pierced and cry out for
their own salvation. And in a way, I think this should
be comforting for us, for those of us who are in Christ, because
we can affirm that even when life seems to be crumbling around
us, when we don’t understand why the things that are happening
are happening, we can say along with Joseph in Genesis 50, something
along the lines of, even though you meant this for my evil, God
meant it for good. To bring it about that many people
should be kept alive. This is the case for the prophecy
of Isaiah, that although the Jews meant this for evil, God
meant it for good. So we see that the rejection
of Jesus is not a tragic mistake or a misunderstanding. This was
foreordained to bring about the salvation of the world. So we see that they didn’t believe
in Jesus because of divine decree. And the second reason they did
not believe in Jesus is because they saw His glory. They saw
His glory and recoiled. They recoiled. Back to our passage,
John 12, verse 41. John 12, 41, these things Isaiah
said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of them. Does it
surprise us that John would say that Isaiah saw Christ’s glory
in the throne room of God? How is it that Isaiah saw the
glory of Christ, the Son of God, in the song of the suffering
servant? Is Jesus the fulfillment of both of these prophecies?
And John’s response is yes. The suffering servant, Jesus,
and the Lord on the throne are all three high and lifted up.
They’re all three high and lifted up. In fact, Jesus will tell
Nicodemus in John 3 that the Son of Man must be lifted up. And in that case, he’s talking
about his crucifixion, right? So it’s almost a play on words.
He’s high and lifted up in glory, but he will also be high and
lifted up on the cross. The suffering servant and Jesus
are both despised and rejected by men. Jesus and the servant
are both pierced and crushed for the sins of others. And it
is the will of God that it would happen this way. So Isaiah and the Apostle John,
they both agree that when we see the humble and humiliated
Jesus, that we’re seeing the very glory of God. They see that the same one who
was high and lifted up in the throne room of God, with the
angels crying out, Holy, Holy, Holy, that is revealed to us
in the form of the suffering servant. Because the Son of God
humbled Himself and came to earth in the form of a despised and
rejected servant. And through the eyes of faith,
Isaiah and the Apostle John look at this unassuming, humiliated
character on the cross and they say, there He is. That is the
very glory of God. There can be no throne room glory
in this life for us without the glory of the cross. This is what
Isaiah saw. But what did they see? Well,
the Pharisees and the religious leaders, the scribes, were not
looking for cross glory. They wanted no part in cruciform
glory. They were seeking the triumphal
entry of a king. They wanted Him to ride in on
a white war horse. They wanted the Messiah to crush
their enemies and elevate their nation, to increase their social
positions and their standing. In short, they saw the humiliation,
the weakness, and the poverty of Jesus, and they rejected Him.
How could that be the plan of God? And so far we’ve learned that
there is absolutely no way to get to God because of the hardness
of our hearts and because of the blindness of our eyes. We
see cross glory and we recoil. There’s no amount of good works
that you can do. Nothing that you can do to lead
you into spiritual fulfillment. There’s no ladder that you can
climb or heights that you can achieve. There are no depths
that you can plumb to even catch a glimpse of the throne room
glory of God. Instead, we must recognize what
Isaiah and the Apostle John recognized, that God’s plan from the beginning
was to give us Christ. God has given us a humble and
lowly king who took on the shame and rejection of men and ultimately
submitted himself to an agonizing and humiliating death on the
cross in order to pay for our sins. God loved us so much that
he sent his only uniquely eternally begotten son to die for the sins
of the world. And this same Jesus bids us all
to come to Him in faith. Forgiveness of sin and the glory
of God are found in the once rejected suffering servant. So why was Jesus rejected by
the majority of the Jewish nation? Well, first, it was because of
a divine decree. Second, it’s because they saw
His cruciform glory and they were coiled. They wanted and
were expecting the glory of the throne room. And they wanted
no part in cross glory. Third, they did not believe in
Jesus. They rejected Him because they
feared cancellation. They feared cancellation. Look
at verse 42. Nevertheless, many, even of the
rulers, believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees,
they were not confessing Him, lest they should be put out of
the synagogue. We see that at the root of their
rejection of Christ is fear. It’s the fear of being thrown
out of the synagogue. Now the synagogue in those days
was more than just a place of worship. It was also that. But
it was almost like a community center. It’s a place where you
would send your kids to get educated. You’d come together for social
functions. And in the physical building
of the synagogue, there were important seats. And the leading
members of the community would sit in these honored seats. And
it was obvious to all who they were. And these same important
leaders among the Jewish people believed in Jesus, but were too
afraid to admit it. And the Pharisees and the religious
leaders of those times knew that this could be a powerful tool
to suppress belief in Christ, at least open belief in Christ.
And they knew that the threat of being expelled from the synagogue
would be enough to keep anyone from aligning themselves with
Jesus without seriously considering the consequences. This is not
something you do on a whim. And I was speaking to a friend
of mine this week about this passage. And he said to me that
he thought that the closest thing that you see in our society today
to being thrown out of the synagogue is what’s called canceled culture,
right? Most of us know that there can
be pretty immense social stigma. There is hesitation. You gotta
watch what you say, whether it be on social media or in the
workplace or wherever you might be, because you may get canceled,
right? Now we should say this is maybe
not necessarily a bad thing all the time. It’s probably best
that we consider before we just put out whatever crosses our
mind on the internet. That’s typically not wise just
as a general rule of thumb. But in this case, these leaders
are being cowed and threatened with social cancellation because
of their witness of Jesus. And we should ask ourselves,
are we being influenced or frightened or otherwise cowed into not aligning
ourselves with Christ? Do we find ourselves keeping
silent at work when an obvious opportunity presents itself to
affirm our faith? Do we sidestep the whole truth
just because we don’t want to make it awkward? And friends,
I’m guilty of this myself. This is an area that I struggle
with. And while this is not a call
to become a full-time evangelist, to be obnoxious at work, or to
awkwardly ram the gospel down the bank teller’s throat while
there’s a massive line behind you, it is a call and exhortation
to boldly align ourselves with Christ when the opportunity clearly
presents itself. So Jesus has been rejected because
of divine decree. They do not believe because they
see His glory and recoil. He’s been rejected because there
is a fear of cancellation. And the last reason we see is
because they were seeking glory. The final reason they rejected
Jesus is because they were seeking glory. And this is the apex. This is the absolute crescendo
of the passage. What John wants us to realize
and to fully grasp comes in the final verse. And I will roughly
quote the ESV. For they love the glory that
comes from man rather than the glory that comes from God. You
see, it’s almost a play on words. The same word for glory. Isaiah
sees his glory and speaks out. But they love the glory that
comes from man, not the glory that comes from God. Now, the
NASB, I think, is right here to say the approval of men. We’re not talking about some
sort of shining metaphysical brightness coming out of people
and, oh, that’s great, right? He’s talking about the praise
that comes from men, the adoration, the affirmation that comes from
man. They wanted that, not the glory that comes from God. You
see, they did not understand this. They didn’t know that this
is what they were doing. But John understands it and he
wants us to know that those who did not believe, that those who
did not align themselves with Jesus out of fear, who looked
at the cross glory of Christ and rejected it, they were actually
seeking and loving glory all along. You see, they didn’t recognize
Jesus the way that John and Isaiah did. And when they decided to
hide their belief in Jesus, they were actively choosing to love
glory, the glory that comes from man, rather than the glory that
comes from God. They were reaching, they were
grasping for temporary, fleeting praise, adoration and the approval
of their peers. They were actively loving the
counterfeit glory of this world. rather than the eternal glory
and praise that comes from their Creator. And this is the most
important that John wants us to see, that everyone in this
world, yourself and me included, are seeking glory in one way,
shape, or form, or another. This should make us stop and
reflect on our own lives, right? This should be a warning. Whose
glory are you seeking? You see, there’s always a choice
to be made. One reason I love the Bible is it’s true to the
human existence. It tells the truth, all right?
It shows us real people going through real situations. And
you don’t have to turn to these passages, but think of Adam and
Eve, right? They’re given the opportunity
for the eternal bliss and glory in the presence of God, but they’re
deceived and they reach out their hands for that counterfeit glory
in the form of the fruit, which will give them knowledge and
wisdom. On the other hand, by faith, Abraham chose not to be
content with the wealth and the ease, the prestige he had in
the land of his birth. Instead, he lived his entire
life as a nomad, dwelling in tents. And Hebrews 11 tells us
that he did this because he was looking forward to that city
that has its foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Abraham looked forward to the glory that comes from God. But
his grandson Esau, right? He scorns the glorious promise
of God in his inheritance, and he cares about what can I get
right now? I’ll take that instead. And then Hebrews 11 tells us
that Moses, by faith, chose to be mistreated with the people
of God, rather to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. Moses rejected
counterfeit glory and instead reached for the glory that comes
from God. The last example, one we are
probably all familiar in, in Matthew 4, where Jesus is being
tempted in the wilderness by Satan. And Satan takes him up
on a high mountain and he shows him all the kingdoms of this
world and their glory. And says, you can have all of
this, If you just fall down and worship me. Satan says, you know, Jesus,
there’s no reason, there’s no need for you to undergo this
rejection and humiliation. Why be high and lifted up on
a cross? Just fall down and worship me.
I’ll give you glory beyond your wildest dreams. But we know the story, right?
How our champion despised the shame of the cross. He didn’t
care about the fleeting pleasures of this life. Instead, he went
to the cross and gained eternal glory. Jesus bravely chose the cross
and rejected the glory that comes from man and chose the glory
that comes from God. And do we see this in our own
day? Does the world want a crucified God? No. It’s ridiculous. What about the church? Do they
want the glory that comes from God or are they influenced by
the money, the power, the influence that they can gain in this world?
Does the church think that it can bypass the shame of the cross
in this life? Is it possible that they think
they have throne room glory when in reality they just love the
glory that comes from man? And what about us? Does the glory we seek and the
life that we lead look like the cross? Do we care more about
our own comfort, wealth, pleasure, Do we sometimes prefer the ease
of this world and what it offers you more than the body of Christ,
the church? We should ask ourselves, does
the glory we seek and the life we lead look like the cross? And so in closing, we’ve seen
these warnings, right? And they’re sobering. They are
sobering. So what gives us the ability
to overcome our fear of sharing the gospel in a world that is
increasingly hostile towards Christianity? And it is hostile. What should we be motivated by?
Should we be motivated by fear and shame and regret for our
failures? Are you afraid you will be judged
by God for not witnessing enough? Will you be put into Christian
purgatory if somehow you fell short? Do you ever feel like
a failure and wonder if God made a mistake when he chose you?
Did he just not realize how weak you could be? It’s a valid question. Well, be encouraged and take
heart. Be like those who’ve come before
us. Seek the glory that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus sought. And
let your confidence and motivation in life and death be that because
Jesus embraced the glory of the cross and rejected the glory
of the world, that God raised him to life on the third day.
God has exalted Christ above every name that is named. Jesus
sits at the right hand of God where the seraphim cry, holy,
holy, holy, high and lift it up. God has already called you to
his eternal glory in Christ. You’ve already been sealed with
the Holy Spirit when you believed in this message. And that’s your
guarantee. That’s your down payment. It’s
a promise from God who cannot lie that you will inherit the
crown of glory. See, this good news is the power
of God. This gospel message, the reality
of who Christ is and that you are in Him, is the motivation
for the good works that flow out of knowledge. of who Christ
is. Christ came as a suffering servant. He was high and lifted up on
a cross for you. He was pierced through for your
transgressions. And because of that, God has
exalted Him above every name that is named. Jesus is high
and lifted up. And of course, Ephesians 2 tells
us, you were raised up with Him and seated with Him now in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This gospel is your motivation
for aligning yourself with Christ. So we should ask the Lord for
his help. We should ask the spirit every
day to put to death in us the old man and to make alive in
us the new and to cling to that hope. Because we know we’re in
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray.