If you would please turn with me in your Bibles to John 12 beginning at verse 34.
And so the crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this son of man?’ And so Jesus said to them, ‘The light is among you for a little while. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of the light.’ When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.
And though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 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?’ Therefore, they could not believe. For again, Isaiah said, ‘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.’ Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
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. For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
From there, we turn to Isaiah chapter 52, beginning at verse 13. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them, they see, and that which they have not heard, they understand.
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.
When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
Lord, you have given us your word to speak truth to us. You have given it for our correction, to reprove us and to encourage us. Help us to hear the hope that you offer and help us to grasp and hold fast to your promises that are contained here in scripture—the promises that are revealed in yourself in your son Jesus, who is our one and true hope in this life and the life of the world to come. Amen.
So Jesus said, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself,’ to which the crowd responded by questioning, ‘How can you say that the son of man must be lifted up?’
Now, the Greek term that gets translated here as lifted up is the word ‘hypsóo.’ It was used to mean, in a literal sense, to lift up something physically or it was used in a figurative sense to mean to exalt. This same expression was notably used to translate the prophet Isaiah’s description of the Lord’s suffering servant when it was translated into Greek, the Septuagint, when he said, ‘Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.’
But again, their response demonstrates the crowd’s lack of understanding in the midst of all their knowledge about who the Christ really is. I mean, they expected him to be a great warrior, a revolutionary, and a leader of men. They expected him to be a Davidic king who would drive out the Romans. But they forgot that the most important role for a leader, for any leader, is to be a servant.
The role of every godly king is to serve his people. To serve them by working for their best interest. To serve them by protecting and defending them. To serve them by making sacrifices for them, even at the cost of their own life if necessary, to serve them as God’s representative, serving the Lord who is the king’s greater sovereign. They forgot that the most important role and duty of any Christ, whether it is a prophet, a priest, or a king, is as God’s servant for the people.
They forgot—or they failed to understand—that the defining role of the expected Christ would be as God’s servant, one like Moses, but greater. So while they were correct to understand the Christ as an eternal Davidic king, they failed to understand that he also would be the Lord’s eternal servant. And so they could not understand that he would be the servant whom the Lord had decreed must suffer on behalf of his people.
John tells us that although he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Saying therefore, they could not believe. For again, Isaiah said, ‘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.’
Isaiah said these things because he saw God’s glory and spoke of him. John was explaining that none of this was unexpected; that it was actually planned and had been from the beginning. And so despite Jesus having performed so many signs, the Jews still did not believe in him.
I mean, they had all of the knowledge necessary. They had the words of the prophets. They had the law of Moses, which was the only inspired and authoritative self-revelation of the Lord. They had all the tools necessary to read and to understand these clues to help them solve the mystery of Christ. At least they had all the tools except for the Holy Spirit because God chose to not reveal the truth to them so that they could not believe.
The Lord blinded them spiritually. He hardened their hearts so that they would not believe and be healed. As harsh and difficult as we might think that sounds, we need to understand that it is sourced in the Lord’s sovereignty and in his providential will. Before we object or we claim that it is or was unfair or unjust of God to do this to them, we need to remind ourselves that salvation is a gift solely of God’s grace and mercy.
It is not a matter of justice. It is nonjustice, not injustice. Our salvation is unearned and undeserved. I mean, we have no right to it or any claim upon it except whatever right our God-given faith in Jesus Christ grants us. The knowledge of God, his self-revelation, is also a pure act of his grace. Because the Lord is unknowable personally except through him condescending to be in relation with his creation and revealing himself in scripture.
Because remember, God is required to save no one. The Lord was not obligated to make himself known to us or to anyone. He’s under no compulsion or obligation to anything but his own decreed will, his ineffable purpose and plan, his gracious covenants.
But if someone ever wanted to try and make an argument in favor of human choice or for our ability and our freedom to choose God, to choose to believe in Jesus Christ through our own decision-making and willpower alone, then the example of the first-century Jews should be able to make and defend that case if it’s possible. I mean, they grew up trusting in the fulfillment of all God’s promises. They possessed the fullest revelation to date about God and his plan of salvation. They knew the text of scripture by memory, frontwards and backwards, far better than most anyone even today, especially today.
They had all the information necessary to know who God is and to recognize his handiwork. They saw all these miraculous evidences performed by Jesus. They witnessed and they experienced things that were impossible for any mere man. But despite all of this, they were unable and unwilling to believe it, though they should have.
They were as set up for success to believe as any human person could have been, but they could not believe. Believing in Jesus, based on the available evidence, should have been the most rational and reasonable choice for any thinking Jewish person.
I mean, so the only logical explanation for why they did not is that they were inhibited and prevented from believing. They were blinded by God, by the moral deficit caused by Adam’s and their own sin. Their only hope of coming to the light lay in the bright shining of that light. It lay entirely in the exercise of God’s revealing power to drive away the darkness.
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, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
Now, even though some of the authorities—men like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea—because some of them were becoming convinced about Jesus, they were still not yet believing in him confidently enough. They were still lacking the convictional courage to take that final step and publicly profess their faith. They did not have the necessary consequential faith to prove their regeneration.
They had the right head knowledge, but they were lacking in heart knowledge. The apostle Paul tells us, ‘For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,’ saying, ‘the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the word of faith we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.’
See, they were still enslaved to the law by their fear of men. Meanwhile, the word was very, very near to them indeed. They were standing in the presence of the Logos, who is Theos. But though they were knowing the word, they could not confess the word because they were still bound under the law as their teacher and guardian. They had not yet been set free by the grace about to be given—a grace of righteousness that would only be given after justice was satisfied.
So although the evangelist commends some of these authorities for believing in Jesus, he also condemned them for their half-heartedness. Doing this, he identifies four categories that together describe their problem—a problem which we still suffer from: ‘for fear of the Pharisees.’
He describes the first two categories: one as fearing the reproach of men and the other as fearing the reproach of God. And stating ‘for they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God,’ he describes the second two categories as describing the glory that comes from men and the other, the glory that comes from God.
Now, these categories may be charted along two axes. The fear of men stretching from the left for the fear of God on the right along an X-axis, and the desire for the glory of men from the bottom up to the desire for the glory of God along the Y-axis. Every person’s spiritual attitude or condition may be plotted somewhere within one of the four quadrants that are created by these axes’ division.
Your left-right position is determined by the degree you fear the reproach of God or people, while your up-down position is determined by your degree of preference for the glory that comes either from God or from people. So take a moment and consider for yourself where you think you might be on this chart. There’s one in your bulletin on the sermon notes page if that helps. Just think about it for yourselves.
After this initial assessment, we’ll next consider what each of these four categorical extremes mean or look like.
So, the fear of men. What do we actually fear from other people? We fear their rejection or their exclusion of us. We fear others taking advantage of us. We fear whether or not they like us. We fear their hatred of us and the consequences that stem from that. We fear what they may do to us, how they may harm us and abuse us physically, mentally, or emotionally. We fear them killing us.
The fear of God. What do we fear from God? We may fear his judgment and condemnation for our sins. We may fear the pain that’s caused by the application of his discipline as to his beloved children. We may fear him by honoring and revering him simply because of who and what he is, and because of his positional status in relation to all reality as the unique, universally sovereign creator God, as the ultimate focus of the fifth commandment. And regardless, we should be fearing God out of our love for him.
Yet, before we consider and continue the axis of desire for glory, we need to understand really what biblical glory is. And I’d encourage us to keep this in mind as we consider which glory we actually desire most. The Hebrew term for glory is ‘kavod,’ and it carries the sense of heavy, of weightiness. To have glory meant to be expansive and to have great significance. A consequence of having glory was being given deference or preference. To be glorified meant to be invested with credibility, and great value would be attributed to a person’s opinion.
I mean, when the glorified one spoke, they were listened to, trusted, and presumed to be the most correct. The Greek term for glory is ‘doxa,’ and it describes a sense of radiant brightness and splendor. Glory is beautiful greatness. Glory draws and attracts honor and praise to itself. Glory was irresistible in its radiance and attractiveness. It inspires a desire to approach while also forcibly repelling everything less than it.
Desiring the glory of men—what kind of glory might we receive from other people? We receive fame and fortune, or power and influence. We become popular despite being generally negative. Another form of glory that we might receive is to be feared, notorious, or infamous. We become the beneficiaries of unasked-for favors. People quickly move to get out of our way to make our way easier or faster. I mean, people bow and scrape as we walk by.
The desire for the glory of God—what is the glory that we receive from God? We receive God’s own glory because the glory of the Son is the glory of the Father. And it’s a glory that never diminishes, and it’s a glory that’s shared among all three persons of the Trinity. It is a glory that is shared from Jesus Christ to his adopted brothers and sisters as an equal glory.
So if we plot a line running from the bottom left corner to the upper right, we will identify an ideal spectrum of faith demonstrating how the more a person fears the reproach of God, the more they will desire God’s glory. While the more a person desires the glory of men will demonstrate how little they actually fear the reproach of God and how much more they fear the reproach of men instead. But few, if any, persons are found perfectly on this line. Everyone is either somewhere above it or below it. So again, where do you think you are?
Turning back to our text, we’ll try to plot some of the certain biblical figures where they were. The evangelist tells us about these Jewish authorities who were beginning to believe in Jesus as the Christ, that for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it. So their silence suggests that their fear of men was greater than or equal to their fear of God. And so they would be just to the left of center on the X-axis at best.
And since he tells us that they loved the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God, they would certainly be somewhere there within quadrant two. Similarly, the disciples, based on the reaction that’s recorded of the events surrounding Jesus’s arrest, his trial, and execution, would also be left of center on the X-axis.
I mean, Peter, he would proclaim the strength of his confidence in the Lord, his willingness to die for Jesus. But then the power, the overwhelming power of his fear would be proven in his denial three times. The disciples would be found on the day of Jesus’s resurrection, found by Jesus, gathered together in a room, locking themselves away for fear of the Jews, locked up to keep the world that they were fearing outside.
And the sons of thunder, James and John, whom the evangelist was talking about, had recently demonstrated the strength of their desire for the glory of men when they begged their mother to go ask Jesus to set them at his right and his left when he came into his kingdom.
So which spiritual quadrant are you living in? Do you fear men more than, or do you fear the reproach of other people more than you fear God, more than you love God? Is your desire for the glory of men, for the things of this world greater than your desire for the glory of God? Greater than your desire to glorify God? These are serious questions, and they should cause each of us a serious gut check because our answer defines how we respond to the world around us.
But even the disciples at this recorded moment in time were no better off spiritually than the other believing Jews, despite their close proximity to Jesus. So if you are considering yourself to be somewhere within quadrants 1, 2, or 4, then please understand you are not alone, and trust that there is good news and hope coming for you.
Because alternatively, Abraham, the greatest of the patriarchs and the foremost Jewish saint, was likely in quadrant three, despite claiming his wife as his sister to save his own skin. He still obediently left his kith and kin back in Haran to become a nomadic wanderer in Canaan. And he also demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, the child of promise, at the Lord’s command. All because he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
So his fear of God and his desire for God’s glory seems to be a net positive. Moses, the original servant of the Lord, was surely even farther deeper into quadrant three. I mean, Moses, he begged the Lord, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And after he was shown a glimpse, being shown God’s backside, he did not retreat or run away, showing the strength of his desire for God’s glory. And similarly, his fear of God was surely greater than his fear of men because he obeyed the Lord by presenting himself before Pharaoh, despite being an exiled murderer of an Egyptian.
But neither Abraham nor Moses were able to make it there on their own. They could not do it alone. They could not have the faith necessary nor be obedient enough because of sin’s restraint. I mean, both men did enough things wrong in their lives that they could never do enough good to balance out the scales, much less tip them in their favor.
Even if such a system of works-based meritorious righteousness worked, I mean, we cannot remove sin’s corruption from our soul. We cannot successfully cover it over. We cannot undo our spiritual damage—the damage we do and the damage that’s done to us. We cannot take it back. And there are no do-overs. We actually do get what we deserve.
I mean, we sin; therefore, we’re all sinners. And the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that gift is the only thing that can get someone out of quadrants 1, 2, or 4 into quadrant three. It’s a gift given only because of what the eternal suffering Christ has done for us.
Our spiritual condition, the conviction and courageous strength of our faith, can only be improved to the point of becoming saving faith through the Holy Spirit’s gift of such faith and his application of the atoning work of Christ as our substitute. We cannot convince ourselves nor anybody else about the truth of God that’s revealed in scripture and revealed in the person of God’s son. It is illogical, irrational, and utterly unreasonable from a worldly point of view.
Paul writes, ‘For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.’ But to those who are given a Christ-centered point of view, a biblical point of view, then salvation by grace through faith alone is not only reasonable, rational, and logical; it is quickly recognized as being the only possible solution to the problem of our sin.
When we receive that grace, we are transformed, and in our regeneration, we are moved up into quadrant three, where our faith, our fear of God, and our desire for God’s glory rules our whole life. And while history records all of the apostles’ deaths by martyrdom, scripture records the best and most encouraging example for us in the murder of Stephen.
Stephen, a deacon of the church, died testifying to the gospel and confessing his trust in Jesus Christ. He demonstrated through the circumstances of his death that he had no fear of men and that he desired only the glory of God. That kind of courageous and convicted faith is what a living spirit-transformed heart looks like.
So the evangelist, he identifies Jesus in this passage as the suffering servant when he directed us back to the prophet Isaiah, saying that 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?’
He explained that God had blinded the Jews and was keeping them blind so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart in turn. Because if they did, then God would surely heal them. But this divinely imposed blindness was not done out of hate or cruelty but in loving discipline.
Theirs and our spiritual blindness is a consequence of sin. It is a punishment for sin, and it is part of the Lord’s plan for our salvation. So it is to better understand the godly work which justifies the elect through the righteousness of faith. The evangelist wants us to recognize the Christ as the Lord’s suffering servant described by Isaiah.
I mean, this prophesied suffering Christ is described as despised and rejected by men. I mean, the Jewish leaders, all the priests and their fellow conspirators, they hated Jesus plainly. They rejected his teaching while his own disciple Judas betrayed him to his death. He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, Jesus suffered and experienced all of the ordinary sorrows of life, even grieving the untimely death of his close friend Lazarus.
As one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Although many people called him rabbi, when it mattered most, the people who had welcomed Jesus in with acclamation turned away from him. And the man who was born to be king was executed as the worst of criminals—beaten, scourged, mocked, and crucified naked in the hot Judean sun.
They made his grave with the wicked and a rich man in his death. The Romans unjustly executed him alongside and between murderers and thieves, and he was buried in a new, unused tomb belonging to a member of the Jewish council. So you see prophecy fulfilled, and that is what their spiritual blindness did to Jesus. They caused Jesus to suffer the worst reproach of men.
But he did not fear them because he feared the Lord God, his Father, infinitely more. Yes, we see he was nervous about it; he was apprehensive about having to go through it all. But he did not fear those men or their reproach. And that is why he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Yet while we considered him to be stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed.
Jesus did not suffer all of this for naught. That is the good news. Jesus suffered all of this in our place. He suffered all of this in my place. Jesus suffered all of this in your place. If you believe him and have put your full faith and trust in him alone, if you have been moved into quadrant three, this is the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, and it is one of the most important fundamental doctrines that a Christian must believe.
This doctrine is considered to be one of the five most essential doctrines of our faith, along with the inerrancy and authority of scripture, Jesus’s birth by the Virgin Mary, Jesus’s physical bodily resurrection, and the full eternal deity of Jesus. Penal. Penal means punishment. Jesus willingly chose to suffer punishment for sin.
Substitutionary means in the place of. Jesus willingly chose to suffer punishment for sins that he did not commit, that he was not guilty of. We committed them, and we are the guilty ones. The guilt for our sin was imputed to him. Atonement means restoration. Jesus suffered the fullness of divine wrath that we deserve. There is no further wrath reserved for us. It would be unjust for God to now punish us for sins that he has already punished Jesus for in our place.
Now his righteousness, his guiltlessness, is imputed to us so that now we may be restored to fellowship and friendship with God our heavenly Father. If we believe in Christ and if we put our full faith and trust in Jesus alone, this doctrine is what the Jews and the crowd failed to understand.
And while the crowd rightly understood that the Christ would be Israel’s king and that he would belong to the line of David, they failed to understand the necessity of his divinity. And while the crowd rightly understood that the Christ would be eternal and that as king, his reign would be unending, they failed to understand the fullness or truth of his eternality.
And while the crowd understood that the Christ would be their mediator and federal representative before the Lord, they failed to understand that as king, as the Lord’s servant, he would personally suffer the fullness of God’s wrath on their behalf.
Jesus suffered the full reproach of men so that we need never fear it ever again. Jesus forsook the glory of men so that we may desire and receive the glory of God. Jesus helps us to fear God more than anything else, to honor and revere God above all creation, to love God as our Father in heaven because he has always loved us first.
So what quadrant are you living in? Believing regenerate Christians spiritually dwell safely in quadrant three. Because although we are still tempted to fear men, we will never succumb so far as to be dragged back into quadrant one. And although we are still tempted by the glory of men, we will never fall so far that it overpowers our desire for God’s glory.
Instead, through the Holy Spirit’s help and our cooperation in his work of sanctification, we will always be moving forward and upward, fearing God and desiring his glory more and more forever until Christ returns and beyond the world’s ending. Amen.