We Wont Always Have Opportunity

(John 12:34-36)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
1. This morning, we saw
What Jesus was going through because His hour had come.
He was struggling with the agony
Of what He was about to face
In bearing our sins.
But we also saw the things Jesus was looking at
That helped Him push through:
This was His purpose its why He came.
The Father was with Him to help Him.
His Father loved Him.
And His Father
Who called Him to suffer such shame
Would reward Him by honoring Him publicly.

Whenever we struggle
With what the Lord calls us to do,
We should remember Jesus example.
That we too have a purpose
We are tasked with the greatest work
That has ever taken place in human history:

The redemption of immortal souls.

That were not left to do this on our own:
Jesus said He would be with us to help us.
That He will continue to love us
Even if the whole world turns against us.
And that even though He may call us
To experience a measure of public shame
After all, identifying ourselves as Christians
Doesnt exactly enhance our image in the eyes of others
He will publicly honor us
Both in this world and in the one that is coming.

2. We saw secondly,
What was going to happen to the world
Because Jesus hour had come:
Satans dominion would be broken
He would be cast out;
He would no longer be able
To keep the nations in darkness.
Jesus would begin to draw all men to Himself
The middle wall separating the Jews and Gentiles
Would be torn down
Not only figuratively in the Temple,

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But spiritually
All who come to Jesus now in faith and repentance
Are welcome to Him.

With the door now wide open to all men,

We may invite everyone to come;
And seeing from His Word
That He is going to save
A group so large that no one can number them,
We can know that there will be those
We share the Gospel with
That will come to Him.

All this would be the result

Of Jesus death on the cross.

B. Preview.
When the Jews heard
What Jesus had to say about His being lifted up
About His dying
They didnt understand
Which isnt surprising
Since there were a number of things
They didnt understand regarding the Messiah.
If were tempted to be hard on them

We need to remember
That we have the NT which explains the OT
And they didnt.

First, they thought Messiahs kingdom

Would be a political kingdom
That would overthrow the Romans
Which is true in one sense,
But not in the sense they were thinking.

But here was another misunderstanding:

That once Messiah came
He would rule over Israel forever
Again, this is true in one sense,
But not in another.

Tonight, lets consider:

1. Their confusion.
2. Jesus explanation.
3. And how we can apply these things.

II. Sermon.
A. First, their confusion: They thought Messiah was there to stay.
The crowd then answered Him, We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to
remain forever; and how can You say, The Son of Man must be lifted up?
Who is this Son of Man? (v. 34).

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They said they had heard that the Christ is to remain forever.
Where did they hear that?
Out of the Law
By which they didnt mean the five books of Moses,
But the Law in the broader sense
In the OT,
More specifically the writings and the prophets.

This is what the Lord said in the psalms.

We read in Psalm 110:4, The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind,
You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
They knew from this that Messiah
Would be a both king and a priest
Like Moses, like David
But also that He would be so forever
He would live forever.

We read in Psalm 45, You are fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured upon
Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever (v. 2).
And in Psalm 72:17, May his name endure forever; may his name increase as long
as the sun shines; and let men bless themselves by him; let all nations call him
blessed.

There were also indications in the prophets

That Messiah would reign forever.
We read in Ezekiel 37:25, They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My
servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons

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and their sons sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince
forever.
Why does Scripture say He would remain forever,
When Jesus just told them that He must die?
Its because thats not all the Law had to say.

They were guilty of doing the very thing

Many Christians do today:
Reading the Bible selectively
Focusing on certain verses,
While overlooking others.

We need to make sure we read the whole Bible,

And let the Lord tell us what to believe and not to believe,
How to live and how not to live.

God had also prophesied

That Messiah would die and rise again.
David writes in Psalm 16:8-10, I have set the LORD continually before me;
because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad
and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not
abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo
decay.
The psalmist also writes in Psalm 118:22-24, The stone which the builders
rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the LORDS doing; it is
marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice
and be glad in it.

We shouldnt be too hard on these Jews

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Because the disciples appeared to have the same misunderstanding:
We read in Matthew 16:21-23, From that time Jesus began to show His disciples
that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took
Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, God forbid it, Lord! This shall
never happen to You. But He turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's
interests, but mans.

The two on the road to Emmaus said to Jesus,

When He asked them what they were talking about,
The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers
delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping
that it was He who was going to redeem Israel (Luke 24:19-21).

He had redeemed Israel,

But they didnt understand
The idea of a suffering Savior.

Because they believed the Messiah couldnt die,

These Jews thought Jesus must be speaking about someone else,
When He said the Son of Man must be lifted up
That He must die.
We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can
You say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? (John
12:34).

Jesus didnt answer them directly,

But instead told them what they should do
While the Son of Man was still with them.

B. Second, we see Jesus explanation.

Rather than telling them again that He must die and rise,
He says instead that they should make the best use
Of the time and opportunity they had
To learn from Him,
That they might believe and follow Him:
Time was running out,
And so they should use it wisely.
So Jesus said to them, For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk
while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks
in the darkness does not know where he goes (v. 35).

What did He mean?

The Light of course is Jesus.
He said earlier in Johns Gospel, I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me
will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life (John 8:12).
And in 9:5, While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.

He was only going to be with them for a little while longer:

There were now only a few days before He would be crucified.

And so they should walk while they have that Light

Listen to His teaching
And walk in His ways.

If they did this,

The darkness would not overtake them.

Darkness is a metaphor
That represents ignorance and sin.
If they rejected Jesus,
They would fall back into the darkness
They were in when He first came to them.
Their situation would then be worse
Than if they had never seen or heard Him.
This is what Jesus meant
When he said in Matthew 12:43-45, Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a
man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then
it says, I will return to my house from which I came; and when it comes, it
finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it
seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the
last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also
be with this evil generation.
His light His ministry
Drove the darkness out of Israel for a time.
But those who didnt receive Him,
Would fall into a greater darkness.

Jesus said those who sin against greater knowledge

Those who are blessed to know more
But who dont believe or receive that knowledge
Will also have to face a severer judgment.
Jesus said to His disciples

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Before He sent them out to teach and preach:
Matthew 10:14-15, Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you
go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you,
it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of
judgment than for that city.

If this was true, how could they escape?

They needed to believe in Him;
They needed to trust Him.
Jesus says as much in verse 36.
But notice He says more:
He urges them to believe:
He didnt want them to die in their sins,
But to be saved through Him.
While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of
Light (v. 36).

After this, Jesus left.

These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them (v. 36).
Why?
Because well see in the next section
They still didnt believe.

C. Finally, lets consider how we can apply this.

Jesus said these things to the Jews
While He was with them in His day;
But theres still a sense in which

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The same principles apply to us.

1. First, we need to make sure were not confused about Jesus.

We saw that the Jews were mistaken
About what Jesus came to do
He didnt come to overthrow the Romans,
But to overthrow that which was far more dangerous: sin
And they were confused about how He would do it
He didnt come to sit on Davids earthly throne forever,
But to die,
Be raised,
And then ascend to the throne of heaven,
From which He would rule and reign forever.
That confusion was one of the reasons
They didnt believe or follow Him.

There are a number of things

We can also become confused about
With regard to Jesus and His work
So many, we couldnt possibly name them all this evening
But we should consider at least the basics:
Who He is,
What He has done,
And what He wants us to do.

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In todays world,
With so many false Christs,
We need to make sure we believe in the real One
The One who is the eternal Son of the Triune God
Who became a man for us and for our salvation.

We need to make sure we understand what He has done

He lived and died
To fulfill the Covenant of Redemption for us,
So that if we will only believe in Him,
And receive Him as our Lord and Savior,
We will not perish in hell,
But have eternal life.

And we need to make sure we understand

What He wants us to do
He wants us to be His ambassadors.
He has given us His personal commission
To go into all the world
And make disciples of all the nations.
To do this, we must first be disciples
Learn to live like Jesus
And then we must go and share

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The Gospel with others
That they might become disciples as well.

2. And second, we need to make the most of our opportunities.

Jesus told these Jews
That they should take advantage
Of the few remaining days they had with Him:
That they should listen to Him,
Follow Him,
And believe in Him,
That they might become the sons of light.
If they were blessed to have all this light
But fell back into the darkness,
It would be much worse for them
Than if they had never heard it.

We need to take advantage

Of the opportunities Jesus has given us as well,
Remembering they dont last forever.

a. There are people we have the opportunity

To reach right now,
That one day we will no longer be able to
Either our relationships will end,
They will die,

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Or we will die.
That will be the end.
While we have the opportunity,
Lets reach out to them,
Tell them about Christ,
Encourage them to believe in Him.
Lets not let anyone leave this world
Without hearing the Gospel,
And so sink down into hell forever.
We want to believe
That there will always be another opportunity.
But opportunities come to an end,
And suddenly, its too late.

b. If you havent received Jesus,

You need to understand that your opportunities
Will also one day be gone:
Perhaps youll die unexpectedly.
Or maybe youll reject it one time too many
Your heart will become too hard
And the Lord will no longer offer it to you.
If that happens to you,
It would have been better

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If you had never heard it.

If youve never trusted Jesus,

Then listen to Him this evening.
He says, While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may
become sons of Light (v. 36).
While you have the Gospel
While youre in a church where its being preached,
Or in a family where its believed and lived
Reach out in faith and receive Jesus Christ,
So that you may become a child of Light,
And an heir of heaven. Amen.

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