John 12:31 Now is the time for the judgment of this world to begin. Now will the ruler of this world be thrown out.

By Jesus was killed on the cross, resurrected back to life and now sits on a Throne in Heaven at the right hand of the Fathers Throne.  All judgment was given to Jesus to make. When Jesus returns to the earth, Satan and the demons are replaced by Jesus and the Saints to take care of the earth and the Kingdom of God. 

John 5:22-23 The Father judges no one, but has given all authority to judge to the Son, (23) so that everyone may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

We know that Satan, ruler of this world will be thrown out as Jesus returns to the earth at start of the millennium.  

Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  (9)  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

John 12:32 As for me, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.“

When: There is no doubt in Jesus’ mind that He will be crucified.

First Lifted up, to the cross by violent death; second, lifted up from the grave; third, lifted up to heaven and to Jesus Throne in Heaven

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

The Father will draw all people to Jesus through the apostles and all the Saints that follows

John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 12:33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was about to die.

He just told the disciples again that being lifted up on the cross is how He is going to die.  It seems the men did not understand but the women did.

Beginning of the end of Satan’s dominion

The beginning of the triumph over the hearts of men

Will Jesus live forever? 

John 12:34 Then the crowd answered him, “We have learned from the Law that the Messiah remains forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

• The Jewish Leadership understood that lifted up meant removal from the earth by death.
• They argued that Scripture teaches that the Messiah would abide forever (Psa_110:4; Isa_9:7; Eze_37:25).
• To them, the Messiah would not have to die.
• They did not understand that He would be raised

Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Their idea of the Messiah was an eternal king. Now he spoke of death. 

John 12:35 Jesus replied to the crowd, “The light is among you only for a short time. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. The person who walks in the darkness is in the darkness and does not know where he is going.

Jesus just gave the Jewish people a strong warning, As the light of the world, Jesus exposes sin and now begins explaining to the people there.

John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Jesus just told them to seek Him now while they have the opportunity because it will pass away and the darkness come. 

The Unbelief of the People

John 12:36 As long as you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he went away and hid from them.

Jesus said you must believe on him.  He went away from the Jewish Leadership who wanted to kill Him.  Did He go to Bethany to spend the last few hours of His life?

1 John 1:5 This is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness; none at all!

John 12:37 Although he had performed numerous signs in their presence, they did not believe in him,

Their unbelief is startling, that they did not believe Jesus and rejected Him.

Paul tells us:

1 Corinthians 2:14 A person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the things of God’s Spirit, for they are nonsense to him. He can’t understand them because they are spiritually evaluated.

Interesting side, scholars believe there were more than one Isaiah.

The Apostle John quotes from two different parts of the Book of Isaiah.

John 12:38 so that what the prophet Isaiah spoke might be fulfilled when he said: “Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the Lord’s power been revealed?“

A quote from Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53:1 “Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

• John quotes Isaiah 53:1 to prove that their unbelief is predictable and would happen and be fulfilled.
• If someone believes, it is because the Father has revealed Himself and His truth to them through Jesus because He had revealed Himself to them through the many signs and through His teaching.

The arm of the Lord – The gospel, power, strength, and miracles of Christ and is not revealed to those whose hearts the Lord has not opened.

John 12:39 This is why they could not believe: Isaiah also said,

Isaiah taught that some could not believe because God hardened their hearts after they repeatedly rejected the truth, only then.

Isaiah 6:9 “Go!” he responded. “Tell this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they might not perceive with their eyes, and understand with their mind and turn, and I would heal them.”

Parts of this is taken from Isa 6:9, also Mark 4 quotes the verse

Mark 4:12 so that ‘they may see clearly but not perceive, and they may hear clearly but not understand, otherwise they might turn around and be forgiven.'”

Paul quotes this verse Paul to explain the rejection of his preaching by the Jews in Rome.

Acts 28:26 He said, ‘Go to this people and say, “You will listen and listen but never understand, and you will look and look but never see! 

John 12:41 Isaiah said this when he saw his glory and spoke about him.

In that verse, Isaiah was talking about God Himself. Therefore in this passage John is teaching that Jesus is God.

A quote from Isaiah 6

Isaiah 6:10 Dull the mind of this people, deafen their ears, and blind their eyes. By doing so, they won’t see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed.”

Lord Jesus quotes from Isaiah many times, 23 passages from “Isaiah I” and 28 passages from “Isaiah II

John 12:42 Yet many people, even some of the authorities, believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not admit it so they would not be thrown out of the synagogue.

Many:  Nicodemus, Joseph, Sanhedrim, and other members of the council and many others believed in Him, they feared their leaders that they would be put out of the synagogue. Fear men more than God.  Remember the Sadducees had the High Priest position.

John 9:22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

John 12:43 For they loved the praise of human beings more than the praise of God.

These men were genuine believers. Their problem was that they feared the opinions of their fellow leaders.

Such believers will be ashamed at Christ’s return.

Matthew 10:32-33 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.  (33)  But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Jesus Came to Save the World, Final, passionate appeal to the people

John 12:44 Then Jesus said loudly, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me only, but also in the one who sent me.

Jesus insisted that anyone who believed in Him was at the same time exercising belief in God the Father.

Luke 10:16 He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”

John 12:45 The one who sees me sees the one who sent me. 

John 14:8-9 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”  (9)  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 12:46 I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me will not remain in the darkness.

When we have Jesus living in us, we are no longer in darkness or continue in sin, ignorance or in unbelief, but walk in the light of truth, faith and holiness until the day of our change 

The Apostle Paul tells us 

Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

John 12:47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not condemn him, because I did not come to condemn the world but to save it.

Jesus at His first coming to the earth, His purpose did not come to judge but to save.  At Jesus 2^nd coming then He will judge the world.

All shall be “judged by the things written in the books”

Revelation 20:12 I saw the dead, both unimportant and important, standing in front of the throne, and books were open. Another book was opened—the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to their actions, as recorded in the books.

A person must hear the words of Christ in order to believe them; and they must believe, in order to keep them; and they must keep them in order to their salvation.

John 12:48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has something to judge him: The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day,

The person who rejects Jesus Words, then also rejects the Father’s Word.

Important:  The words a person leave in the world will decide the destiny of every person.

All shall be “judged by the things written in the books {Rev 12:12}

Luke 10:16 The person who listens to you listens to me, and the person who rejects you rejects me. The person who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

The word “reject” means to despise, or to refuse to receive him 

John 12:49 because I have not spoken on my own authority. Instead, the Father who sent me has himself commanded me what to say and how to speak.

John 8:28 So Jesus told them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own authority. Instead, I speak only what the Father has taught me.

Because the Words Jesus spoke was the Divine Words proceeds from the Father,

John 12:50 And I know that what he commands brings eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”

1 John 5:11-12 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is found in his Son.  (12)  The person who has the Son has this life. The person who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.

The results of obeying Jesus commands to show we Love Jesus and are life everlasting.

• This chapter of John 12; is the closure of the Jesus public preaching to the people.
• The rest of Jesus ministry and time was in very private and personal talk and private instruction to his apostles, and in preparing them for his approaching death.
• With this the first main division of Apostle John Gospel ends.
• Jesus’s revels Himself to the world in His ministry is concluded.
• The Apostle John has set before us the Testimony of Jesus, the Work of the Messiah, and the Judgment respecting the work, which has ended in a conflict, and the conflict has reached a climax.

We have reached the beginning of the end, heading to the cross and resurrection.