This weekend our culture dictates we change our clocks. The sun will still rise at the same chronos, or linear time, although our clocks will read differently Sunday morning. We’ll have the same number of daylight hours, but will experience light earlier in the morning. This is good for those who enjoy a morning walk—we’ll truly be able to “walk in the light” (for another couple of weeks before shorter days will darken the mornings again).
God calls us to dwell in his light each day and behold his glory as revealed in Jesus, the Incarnate Word. 
Read John 12:37-41.
- John faithfully recorded seven miracles specifically “wrought by Jesus … in proof and deliverance of [his] divine mission.”1
- Many scholars point to the number “seven” in Scripture as symbolizing completeness.2
- In spite of all this, the Jews did not believe.
- John quoted Isaiah the prophet.
“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1).
- They would not and could not believe. Perhaps they considered Jesus’ revelation of God’s supernatural power only a rumor.
“Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed” (Isaiah 6:10).
- The eyes of their minds and hearts were blinded, hindering their ability to perceive and understand the truth.3
- If we rephrase John’s quote from Isaiah, it might read,
- When people choose to soften their hearts, they become willing to return to God,4 seeking healing and salvation from sin’s consequences.4
- Why did God harden their hearts?
“So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, “Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways”’” (Hebrews 3:7-10).
- Isaiah saw God’s glory and heard the voice of the Lord.
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).
- According to Zodhiates, Isaiah beheld the “celestial splendor in which God sits enthroned and His divine [brilliance], dazzling majesty, [and] radiant glory as visible to mortals.”5 Wow!
- Perhaps these leaders were unworthy to see Jesus’ glory because they had the prophets and their history telling all the great (and glorious) things God had done and still they did not believe.
- Ezekiel also saw God’s glory.
“Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around [the figure like a man]. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking” (Ezekiel 1:28).
*How are we unworthy to see God’s glory?
*How does Jesus show us glimpses of his glory?
Read John 12:42-45.
- Many others, even Jewish leaders who were members of the Sanhedrin, believed.
- Perhaps John remembered Nicodemus’s story.
- The Jewish leaders had a shallow, fearful, man-focused faith:
- They would not admit they believed in Jesus because they were afraid the Pharisees would cast them out of the synagogue.
- They delighted in man’s praise more than God’s. This type of praise—glory—only comes from God.6
- Jesus reminded them all that to believe in him was to believe in the Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- To see Jesus is to see the one who sent him.
- To see Jesus is to intentionally look at him, carefully observing all the details of his person and ministry.7
*What might be the significance of Nicodemus’s story in this scene?
*What is the difference between shallow faith and true belief in Jesus and the Father?
*How would you explain what it means to see Jesus? How can we practice this in our lives?
Read John 12:44-50.
- We can add verse 46 to verses earlier in John’s gospel and Isaiah’s prophecy for a full description of how Jesus’ light overcomes the darkness.
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2).
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).
“Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light” (John 12:36).
- Jesus claimed he is the “Savior who brought life and immortality to light in His gospel.”8
- A flipped rewording of verse 46 might read,
- Those who steadily believe and dwell with Jesus will escape darkness.
- Jesus said even those who hear and do not keep his words he will not judge (in this present age).
- Jesus did not condemn, judge, or punish in the moment those who heard his teaching and chose not to follow. He continued to offer spiritual salvation throughout his earthly ministry and still offers it today. He repeated publicly what he previously shared privately with Nicodemus.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).
- Now is the time when God freely offers salvation through faith in Jesus.
“For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
- God’s Spirit directed John to describe the judgment and condemnation to come:
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:18-19).
- The Words Jesus–the one who is before all time and seated on the throne–spoke will condemn those who are not his.
- Again, Jesus proclaimed his relationship with the Father.
- He spoke only what the Father commanded.
“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me” (John 8:28).
- The Father’s word and command to Jesus regarding the master plan leads to eternal life for those who will believe.
- Everything Jesus said is from the Father.
- No mere man could so closely hear, follow, and live out God’s Word.
- Surely this man is the Son of God!
“When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:54).
*How does walking in Jesus’ light help us escape darkness?
*How would you describe Jesus as a light in your life, overcoming darkness?
*How did the Father’s command lead to eternal life?
- Spiros Zodhiates Th.D., The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament (AMG Publishers, 1992), 1286.
- Bible Project, “The Significance of Seven,” October 21, 2019. https://bibleproject.com/podcasts/significance-7/,
Joanna Sanders, “Today’s Christian Living,” Christianbook, October 3, 2018. https://todayschristianliving.org/the-significance-of-seven/
- Zodhiates, 1081, 1400.
- Zodhiates, 640,753.
- Zodhiates, 479.
- Zodhiates, 478.
- Zodhiates, 733.
- Zodhiates, 1463.