Chapter 12

In the first eleven verses of this chapter we have the secret to the dying of Lazarus, the secret to the dying of Jesus Christ. How do we know that Lazarus is going to be great the second time he dies, even greater than the first time? Because in this passage we have a party that is so great, and the participants are so fantastic that actually we know that the second time that Lazarus died it must have been really great. Why? Because he had capacity for living. If you have capacity for living through doctrine you have capacity for dying. What is our capacity for life really? Do we have a marvellous time in life whether in adversity or tragedy, or in a time of prosperity. Do we utilise doctrine? Are we occupied with the person of Christ? If we have capacity for living we have capacity for dying.

Verse 1 – “Then Jesus six days before the Passover.” There is no contradiction between this verse and what Matthew 26:2 says, and what Mark 14:1-3 says. In the Synoptic accounts the events are not arranged chronologically, whereas in John’s account the events follow an historical sequence. In the Synoptic accounts the conspiracy of the Jewish leaders is followed by retrospective exposition to indicate how and by what means Judas became the betrayer of Jesus. Judas was miffed because of a public rebuke. He was not a believer, and this is why we have a little difference in the order in the Synoptics than John.

The Passover is on Tuesday night after sundown to Wednesday night after sundown. Remember that Jesus Christ did not die on Friday. He went on the cross

on Wednesday morning at 9 am, and He was taken off the cross at 3 pm that afternoon. But the Passover starts at sundown Tuesday night, as soon as it gets dark. So Christ died on Wednesday. He was three days and three nights in the grave—Thursday, Friday, Saturday—and He rose early Sunday morning. So if we count back six days we have we have the time of verse 1 on the previous Friday before the Passover. In other words, we are now getting close to the death of Christ and we are now in the midst of a great celebration, a party in which there is going to be a recognition of our Lord’s death. The party was really to celebrate the resuscitation of Lazarus but the whole tenor of the party changes to celebrate the Lord’s death.

“Jesus came to Bethany” – the aorist active indicative of e)rxomai indicates an historical fact. The aorist tense is the point of time when He arrives. The active voice: Jesus came. Indicative mood: the reality of the fact that He came.

“were Lazarus was” – where Lazarus kept on being, imperfect active indicative of e)imi. Lazarus wasn’t was, Lazarus kept on being there. In other words, Lazarus is now very much alive.

“which had been dead” is not found in the original.

“whom he [Jesus] raised from the dead” – aorist active indicative of e)geirw, which can be used for resurrection. The ordinary word for resurrection is a)nisthmi but e)geirw can mean either resurrection or resuscitation. In this case it is resuscitation. The resurrection of Lazarus will not occur until the Second Advent; Lazarus is an Old Testament saint.

Verse 2 – the dinner party. “There [in Bethany] they made him a supper” – 3^rd person plural, aorist active indicative of poiew. The subject is 3^rd person plural: they did Him a supper. The plural suffix indicates the party was a joint venture. “They” refers to Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and Simon the leper who also lives in the same suburb. The supper is actually held in the house of Simon the leper because he has a larger home. This is indicated by Matthew 26:6 and Mark 14:3. This is a large and happy party. The word “him” is dative of dignity, a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the guest of honour at this party. They didn’t make Him a supper, however. The Greek word is deipnon and it means a dinner party, a banquet, or just simply a party where they dine.

“and Martha served” – diakonew is used here in the imperfect, which means during the entire party she kept it up. All during the party she was providing food. She waited upon them, she attended to them, she provided for them. The verb indicates that Martha was in charge of cooking and preparing the food and she took charge of serving it. She is true to character. This is what she did before; this is what she is doing now. She is doing what she knows how to do—functioning in the area of cooking and serving. We are going to find, just as before, that Martha and Mary—the two sisters—both follow the pattern which is established in the prior chapters. Lazarus is mentioned as one of the guests.

“but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him” – to sit at the table here more or less gives us how the party functions. It is the present active participle of a)nakeimai. This means to recline at a table Roman style. This is interesting. These are Jewish people but they are following the Roman custom which is always to recline on a couch.

One word would describe the beginning of this party—rapport. This is a party where true love and pseudo love are co-existing but it isn’t apparent at the beginning of the party. Remember that this party was really built around death. The understanding of death gives capacity for life. Capacity for life is preparation for death, and the one who lives well then dies well. Jesus Christ knows He will die the most horrible death in all of human history in six days—three hours of bearing our sins. No one ever went through what Jesus did in the field of suffering. It is maximum; it is unique, and yet here, six days before, He is relaxed.

Verse 3 – the dramatic application of doctrine. “Then” is an inferential use of the conjunction o)un, and it introduces a dramatic event in its chronological order. In other words, this dramatic event occurred during the course of the party: “May” – she did not serve like Martha, but she is a sense had a better portion in that she had learned doctrine from the Lord Jesus Christ to the extent that she has in her capacity for living “the instinct of love.” This is maximum capacity for love in the soul—to instinctively do the thing that indicates that you do love someone. Mary, because of the content of doctrine in her soul has the instinct of love. This instinct of love is so strong that along with Jesus Christ she is apparently the only one who has understood what He has been teaching. Mary also knows that Jesus is going to die, and she knows that it is coming in six days. Like everyone else at the party she is relaxed. But she has a special surprise, a wonderful, magnificent surprise indicating her great capacity, her great instinct for love.

“took” – aorist active participle of lambanw. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is to anoint. Prior to the dinner party Mary took her savings— all of it apparently—and purchased a very expensive gift for Jesus Christ. She purchased one of the most valuable things in the ancient world in the time of the Roman empire—“oil of spikenard,” a burial perfume. This is the most expensive of all of the things that can be used in burial. It was very expensive because it was very scarce. It was the result of the trade between the Roman empire and India and China. This spikenard was so expensive and a person could only use it once, and that was at death when the body would be anointed with it.

Notice the difference between Mary and Martha. Martha cooked food for the living Lord; Mary provided oil for the dying Lord. Neither of them did anything that was wrong; both of them did something that was good. However, Mary did the best thing. She expresses something that is recorded in the Word of God forever and ever. Nothing about Martha’s cooking is recorded in the word of God. There was nothing wrong with what she was doing because part of the party was the good food, but it isn’t something that you remember. Why? Because eating is connected with living. What Mary did was better because Martha has just passed the crisis of seeing her beloved brother Lazarus die and come back to life. She is glad to have that behind her and is so happy that she is doing her best cooking. But God the Holy Spirit does not see fit to record all of the dishes—because it has to do with living. But what Mary does has to do with dying, and capacity for dying comes from capacity for living. Martha is zealous; Mary is doctrinal. Martha is sincere; Mary is oriented to grace. The party food was wonderful but the application of doctrine was absolutely fantastic. Recorded in the Word of God forever is the act of Mary because it was an application of Bible doctrine; it is a manifestation of here edification complex of the soul. Therefore, she could enjoy the party as the rest of them did but she could appreciate it more than they because this is a dying party, not a living party. Lazarus is now alive and they are celebrating, but little did they realise that this was Jesus Christ’s ‘going away’ party.

“a pound of ointment of spikenard” – ‘pound’ is in the accusative singular from litra [from which we get litre]. We have troy weight here where 12oz = 1 pound. So a pound [12oz] of muron, and aromatic juice which is distilled from trees. It is a pungent, and aromatic ointment used for embalming. It is called spikenard in the English; the Greek word is nardoj. It is a plant native to India. The juice was very, very fragrant and it was taken from the plant and sealed in an alabaster box and imported from India. At this time in the Roman empire there was great trade between India and the Empire.

“costly” – polutimoj [timoj = expensive or honourable; polu = very]. The probable cost of this ointment is given in verse 5 as 300 denarii. A denarius is a day’s wages at the time of writing—Matthew 20:2. So that means 300 days’ wages, almost a year’s wages. So it was very costly.

“and anointed” – a)leifw; “his feet” – three times we find Mary at the feet of Jesus: Luke 10:39, she learns at His feet; John 11:32, she failed at His feet; John 12:3, she succeeds at His feet. Mary understands better than anyone else that Jesus Christ is going to die in six days, on the one day that is the shadow of the cross—the Passover. She applies the doctrine from her soul.

John only describes part of the anointing. Mark tells us she broke the jar. She understood that Christ must be judged for us and therefore the work of Christ on the cross. Matthew tells us she anointed the head of Jesus. Why? Because Matthew is the Gospel of the King, and the King wears a crown. In Matthew Jesus is recognised as the son of David, therefore the anointing of the head. The King must die for His kingdom to exist forever. John tells us she anointed His feet. This is the teaching ministry of our Lord oriented to the plan of God and the grace of God which is the central part of John. So Matthew emphasises the King, therefore the head is anointed – Matthew 26:3; Mark emphasises the servant, therefore Mary breaks the alabaster box which contains the oil to indicate the servant is broken on the cross – Mark 14:3; John emphasises the teaching of the Lord, therefore mentions Mary anointing the feet. “How beautiful are the feet that communicate doctrine”—Isaiah 52:7.

“and wiped his feet with her hair” – e)kmassw, which means to wipe dry. The hair is the glory of the woman. It is a sign of her response. A woman has long hair as a responder. She has responded to our Lord’s teaching. She learned at His feet, she wipes His feet dry with her hair which is her glory. She is a responder to the teaching of the doctrine. The expresses her capacity for love—maximum capacity through Bible doctrine. Martha expressed her love through cooking; Mary expressed her love in this manner.

“and the house” – the house of Simon the leper – “was filled” – aorist passive indicative of plhrow, filled with something of the highest quality.

“with the odour” – a very sweet odour, a very rare odour because it is a very expensive fragrance. As the house is filled with the fragrance it is a picture of the fact that God the Father is satisfied with the death of Christ on the cross. So it anticipates propitiation. Undoubtedly part of the house at least had been filled with the odour of cooking and now it was filled with the odour of the fragrance of our Lord’s death. This is also the fragrance of memories. Out of this Martha will have a beautiful fragrance of memory. So the odour of physical food has vanished; it is replaced by the odour of the oil of nard, a fragrance of grace.

Principle: Food helped to make the party a success but without doctrine there would be no party. Beware that the normal details of life, such as cooking, do not hinder the intake of Bible doctrine. Martha’s cooking made a pleasant dinner party but Mary’s ointment reminded of the capacity for life through doctrine leading to the capacity for death through doctrine. Only Bible doctrine can actually give capacity for life so that one can have capacity for dying. As a person lives, so he dies. If he lives with great capacity for life and occupation with Christ he dies with great capacity for life and occupation with Christ. No matter how he dies the capacity is there.

Verse 4 – the party pooper. Remember that he is a phoney, a reversionist; He does not love Jesus Christ. Judas Iscariot loves first of all himself, and secondly, that which he feels can help him the most: money.

“Then said Judas Iscariot … which should betray him” – should be about to betray him, present active participle of mellw.

Verse 5 – “Why was not this ointment sold” – aorist passive indicative of pipraskw which means to put into a business deal. And he didn’t say “Why,” he said, “Because why” – dia plus the accusative of the interrogative pronoun. Because why was this not put into a business venture, and sold.

“and [then] given” – aorist passive indicative – “to the ptoxoj [poor].” We have a bleeding heart at the party! Notice what attacks the spiritual life: Getting involved—liberalism, socialism, panaceas. Judas is under the social gospel: “Help the poor.”

Mary was a believer; Judas was an unbeliever.

Mary was a mature believer with an ECS; Judas Iscariot was an unbeliever with reversionism and emotional revolt.

Mary was conservative; Judas was a liberal.

Mary gave to Christ her love first; Judas betrayed Christ because of his lust for money.

Mary emphasised the Lord through doctrine; Judas emphasises the poor through his hypocrisy.

Mary carried a box; Judas carried the bag.

Mary broke the box as a point of doctrine; Judas emptied the bag as a part of his lust.

The effect of this criticism is not recorded in John, but in Matthew 26:8 and Mark 14:4 we see that the disciples became critical of Mary, following the lead of

Judas. Beware of the herd-bound instinct! The disciples did not have any facts; they were influenced by the emotional revolt of Judas. As Judas spoke their own jealousy could vent itself. Actually, Judas didn’t care for the poor at all. Judas was out for Judas! The disciples were the victims of the herd instinct. Basically, they didn’t have enough doctrine to resist this thing. Be careful who does your thinking for you!

Verse 6 – “This he said, not that he cared for the poor” – not because it was a care to him concerning the poor, is what it says literally.

“but he was a thief” – klepthj, a smart thief, a con artist, someone who stole with his brains rather than by violence.

“and kept on holding the bag” – he didn’t have it, he held it, present active participle of e)xw. The bag means he was the treasurer. The word for ‘bag’ is a compound noun, glwssokomon [glwsso = tongues; komew = to keep]. It was a box for keeping tongues originally. A tongue was a reed or a mouthpiece for a musical instrument, and from there they decided you could keep other things in them and a bag became a purse. The one who carried the bag was the treasurer.

“and bare what was put therein” – bastazw means he stole what was put therein.

Verse 7 – “Then said Jesus, Let her alone,” aorist active imperative of a)fihmi. The word generally means to forsake, to desert, but in this case it means ‘stop bullying.’ Aorist tense: now. Active voice: you let her alone. Imperative mood: this is an order. Jesus defends Mary from the bullying of legalism and at the same time the judgement of the long proboscis. Mary has done this as unto the Lord. She has done a right thing. When you do something right you have a right to your privacy. A part of serving the Lord is privacy and in any time in history when believers start to make public and brag and beat the drums for what they are doing for God, that is apostasy. The order of the day in living your life as unto the Lord is privacy. What Mary has done also shows that a person who has a capacity for loves tends to be extravagant in any expression of that love. Mary’s privacy was challenged and the Lord Jesus Christ picked it up. He defends her from the bullying of legalism and from judging. Judas was critical, he was bullying because he wanted to steal the money. The disciples were critical because they were stupid and followed the wrong person. In their ignorance they had the wrong emphasis. That the disciples were critical is documented from Matthew 26:8 and Mark 14:4. In their ignorance they emphasised the social gospel—social action. But Mary in her knowledge of doctrine emphasised the Bible gospel and the person of Christ.

Principle: Doctrine gives the correct emphasis on life.

The poor, by the way, need eternal life more than they need money. Under the plan of God in phase two God provides for the poor, which is better than man’s provision for the poor. But moire than that, this is a command to stop judging. Judging is a sin, a sin of bullying, a sin which is always prefaced by mental attitude sin.

Then Jesus explains why they should let her alone: “against the day of my burying hath she kept this.” There is no word against here, there is the Greek word i(na which introduces a purpose clause, and it should be translated for the purpose of. Believers with doctrine have a purpose in life. This should be “for the purpose of the day of my burying.” She commemorates His death in this way. The word burying is a noun is e)ntafikaismoj and it means preparation for burial rather than burial.

“kept” is the aorist active subjunctive of terew which means to guard, but it means to guard something that belongs to self. So she has guarded something that belongs to her.

Verse 8 – Judas the pseudo judge is now judged by the true judge. Judas has the wrong emphasis and Jesus Christ is about to square him away.

“The poor” – ptoxoj, which sometimes means a professional beggar and sometimes it means someone who is totally out of funds. It never means someone who is down on his luck for the moment; it refers to a person who is not only without funds and without food, shelter and clothing, but without any apparent hope of having any very soon.

“always you have with you” – you have is the present active indicative of e)xw; always is the adverb pantote which means at all times. Historically there never will be a nation on the face of the earth in any generation where that nation will not produce its poor as well as its wealthy. There never will be a time in history when the poor will cease to exist.[1]

Principle

1. The exegesis of the first part of verse 8 indicates that the poor will exist on earth until the second advent of Christ. Only the second advent of Christ and the Millennial reign will eliminate poverty.

2. Only God can solve the problem of the poor and the other inequalities of the human race.

3. Man cannot solve the basic problem of people being born unequal.

4. Not only is man born in inequality but he lives in inequality.

5. Only positional sanctification is salvation can equalise mankind. The only equality in the devil’s world exists among believers in the Church Age—all in union with Christ.

6. The purpose of divine institution #4, human government, is to give people equal opportunities within the framework of their own abilities. But human government cannot make people equal, and it often fails to give even equal opportunity.

7. Equality cannot be legislated; only human freedom. Whenever legislation tries to give equality it destroys the freedom of the people.

8. Therefore the poor will always exist. In some cases they will be exploited, in other case they will be helped.

9. Only God can solve the problems of poverty through operation grace. Matthew 26:11; mark 14:7.

“but” – conjunction of contrast; “me [Jesus Christ on earth] you do not have with you at all times [pantote plus the present active indicative of e)xw].” In

other words, Jesus is saying Mary has the right emphasis. ‘You want to give to the poor? Fine! You have the poor tomorrow, the next day, and the next, but Mary recognises that you don’t always have me.’

The only solution to poverty or to any other problem in life resides in Bible doctrine, not in socialism.

Verse 9 – the crowd gathers at Bethany. “Much people” is an idiom for a large crowd which is attracted to Bethany on this Jewish weekend—Friday and Saturday.

“knew” – the knew from the experience of seeing and hearing, aorist active indicative of ginwskw.

“they came not for Jesus sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also.” People are curious about something unusual. Some came to see Jesus Christ—a few will be occupied with Christ. But we have the word only. They came because they were curious about Lazarus. People lose out by not being occupied with Christ.

“for Jesus’ sake” is dia plus the accusative and should be translated “because of Jesus only.”

“but they might see” – aorist active subjunctive of o(raw, get a panoramic view. This a purpose clause, i(na plus the subjunctive, which means they didn’t just want to get a glimpse [blepw], they wanted to get a good look. This was human curiosity about someone who has come back from the dead. The crowd gathered because of human interest. The crowd indicated, once again, wrong emphasis. It is a sideshow to them.

Verse 10 – notice how quickly the veneer of “brotherly love” is removed from the religious crowd! “But the chief priests consulted” – the word consulted is bouleuw which means to hold a special council to deliberate, to determine something.

“that” – purpose clause; “they might put Lazarus to death,” a)pokteinw, which means to kill in any way; violently is usually the concept. So they are going to remove both the subject and the object of the miracle, and by doing this they assume that they can erase the seventh credit card.

Verse 11 – as a result of this there were those who did respond to the true meaning of the seventh credit card of Messiahship.

“Because that by reason of him” is literally, “because of him,” dia plus the accusative.

“many of the Jews” – John 11:45 crowd – “began to separate,” imperfect active indicative from u(pagw. The imperfect tense is inchoative, they began to withdraw from religion. Religion is no good. They didn’t go away, they began to separate, this is the inchoative imperfect. The active voice indicates that as the believed in Christ they began to withdraw from religion. The indicative mood is the reality of separation from religion based on religion and a little doctrine. Bible doctrine delivers the believer from religion.

“and believed on Jesus” – the imperfect tense this time indicates a succession of people believing in Jesus Christ. The active voice: the importance of human privacy in making the decision. The indicative mood is the reality of conversion based upon the credit card, and on is not on, it is the preposition e)ij which is directional, Jesus Christ was the object of their faith. He is the only working object for salvation.[2]

Psalm 118 portrays both the fist and the second advent of Christ in one passage. It was connected with the feasts and the feasts of Israel were designed to portray a time schedule for the two advents. For example, there were four first advent feasts—the Passover representing the cross where Christ took our place and died for our sins; Unleavened bread which is a picture of our fellowship with God in time; the feast of the Firstfruits which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and portrays our future resurrection; the feast of Pentecost which reminds Israel of their removal under the fifth cycle of disciple, the time of their dispersion. Then there was a big gap from this group of feasts. There were no feasts between June and October, a six-month interval, representing the time of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel, the time of Israel’s dispersion and cursing. And, of course, cursing is turned to blessing by means of regeneration whereby the individual Jew during this age becomes a member of the body of Christ. Then there were three feasts connected with the Second Advent, beginning in October—first there was the feast of the Trumpets which pictured the Second Advent terminating the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel and the regathering of Israel. The feast of the Atonement was the regeneration of Israel as they were restored to the land, the fulfilment of the covenants. Finally, there was the feast of the Tabernacles which was the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 118 was sung during some of these feasts because it portrayed both the first and the second advents. First, it was sung at the Passover and it was also sung at the feast of the Tabernacles. The Passover represents the first advent and the cross, the feast of the Tabernacles represents the Second Advent and the Millennium. And because it was sung at both of these feasts it reminds us that there is both first and Second Advent truth found in this psalm.

In verses 14-18 we have a recognition of Israel’s future, the fact that even though Israel is now in dispersion and has been since 70 AD they still have a future under God’s plan. This future is related to the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 14 – “The Lord is my strength and song [of praise], and is become my salvation.” There are three kinds of salvation involved here—the eternal salvation of the cross, the phase two deliverance through grace, and phase three, the believer in eternity.

Verse 15 – “The voice of rejoicing” is the inner happiness that belongs to the believer during the Millennium; “and salvation”—only the Jew who is a believer is Christ has a future and therefore the word salvation is added. Rejoicing here refers to the greatest type of happiness—“is in the tabernacles of the righteous.” The Tabernacles is a reference to the feast of Tabernacles which portrays the second advent of Christ. Obviously at the beginning if verse 15 we have some Second Advent truth. Then all of a sudden we have at the end of the verse, “the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly,” and the right hand is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a picture of Him providing salvation, and doing valiantly is actually Jesus Christ going to the cross and taking our place. It means to do nobly and the sins of the world are suddenly poured out upon Christ and judged at the cross. So the principle is, in the future Christ is going to return and there will be a thousand years of perfect environment on the earth. But before that there must be the cross, the cross must come before the crown. You can’t have the crown until first of all you have the cross. That is why religion is all mixed up and is the worst thing that ever happened to the human race. Nothing can be as bad as religion at any time because religion is going to bring in the Millennium, better environment, a better world; it is always going to improve everything, and going to do it apart from the cross, and therefore apart from the grace of God.

Verse 16 – “The right hand of the Lord is exalted.” That is Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father; “the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly” means the cross came before the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the way through, any Jew of the past could sing this song and know the difference between the first advent of Christ and the second. He could tell what belonged to the second advent of Christ and what belonged to the first advent of Christ. For example, “the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly” at the end of verse 15 is first advent; at the end of verse 16, again, it is the first advent of Christ.

Verse 17 -- this has a threefold meaning. This is David writing at a time when he was under the sin unto death and recognising that through grace he was going to live and that he was going to survive. He had rebounded and knew that even though he had done some thing worthy of the sin unto death he was going to recover. So he says, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” That is the human writer.

This also is a picture of the history of Israel. Israel, though dead because of the fifth cycle of discipline, will live again—the restoration at the Second Advent.

This also refers to the Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross indicates His resurrection, and “declaring the works of the Lord” is operation grace.

Verse 18 – “The Lord hath chastened me sore.” David, the human writer, had been disciplined by the Lord. Israel was disciplined by the Lord under the fifth cycle of discipline, Christ was disciplined by the Father in the sense that He bore our sins in His own body on the tree; “but he that not given me over unto death” – David continued in phase two; Israel is restored in the Millennium; and Christ is raised from the dead.

In verses 19-21 this section of the Psalm was sung at the dedication of the first and second temples. David apparently wrote this section anticipating the time after his day when the temple would be built. It was also sung at the time of the building of the second temple in the days of Zechariah. It was also sung at other ceremonies involving any parade that ended up at the temple. So this psalm anticipates the entrance also into the temple of the future, the Millennial temple of Isaiah 51:11.

Verse 19 – “Open to me the gates of righteousness”—gates by which believers will enter the temple in the Millennium; “I will go in”—this a believer in the Millennium; “and I will praise the Lord” is a reference to the second advent of Jesus Christ when the temple will be opened and people will use it as a place of worship.

Verse 20 – “This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter is a reference to the second advent and the Millennium.

Verse 21 – Literally, “I will give thanks to thee [rather than praise]; for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation [deliverance].”

Right up to this point we have the song of entrance into the temple, indicating the Second Advent. Beginning at verse 22, however, we go back to the first advent: verses 22 and 23.

Verse 22 – “The stone” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ; “which the builders refused.” The builders are the Jews at the time of the first advent. “Refused” means to reject and it is referring to a general rejection of Jesus Christ by the rulers of Israel in the day of our Lord: “has become the headstone of the corner” – this is where two walls have joined together. The headstone is the stone that fits into the place that joins the two walls. One wall is Israel and the other is the Church. Christ is the head of the Church and He is also the future ruler of Israel as the son of David.

This passage was so important in the whole context of doctrine that it is actually quoted three times in the New Testament—Acts 4:11,12 where it is related to eternal salvation; 1 Peter 2:4,7 and one in Mark 12:10.

Verse 23 – “This is the Lord’s doing”—reference to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead; “it is marvellous in our eyes” is the attitude toward resurrection by those of the future who will have a resurrection body.

Verse 24-26 – the Second Advent in portrayed. “This is the day which the Lord hath made.” The day of the Lord is the day that Jesus Christ returns to the world and establishes the perfect environment that could never be established before. This is the day when an angel by the name of Satan stops ruling the world and is superseded by the Lord Jesus Christ.

“we will be glad and rejoice in it”– the future happiness of the Millennium.

Verse 25 – The next two words in the KJV have been translated. However, we should have a transliteration of them. This is actually from the Hebrew hoshanah, and is transliterated Hosannah in the New Testament. It means “save now.” So we have in this verse, Hosannah, then a parenthesis, “I beseech thee O Lord [God the Father]! O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity!” This is the prayer at the beginning of the Millennium which is answered and fulfilled. The parenthesis ends right there.

Verse 26 – the answer to the prayer. “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Prosperity is the Lord Jesus Christ, and when He returns to the earth then the earth will have permanent prosperity.

“we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord” is a reference to the Millennial temple.

Any saved Jew could read this or sing it. He could distinguish between the first and the second advents. A Jew who was saved and in reversionism could not.

Neither could an unbelieving Jew, and that is the problem right there because this whole passage was applied to the Lord Jesus Christ in the passage we are studying in John 12.

Mark 11:1-9. When it says “they” in verse 1 it refers to Jesus and the crowd that followed Him from Bethany. Jesus had left Jericho and arrived in Bethany the Friday before this weekend began. Friday evening after sunset until Saturday evening after sunset was the Sabbath, and Jesus spent a quiet Sabbath in Bethany. That evening he had supper at the house of Simon the leper—John 12:1ff. On the Sabbath afternoon many Jews came from Jerusalem to Bethany to see the Lord and to see Lazarus whom He raised from the dead. This crowd from Jerusalem formed the nucleus of the crowd that followed Jesus on the end of the weekend when He was returning from Bethany to Jerusalem—Sunday being the end of the weekend, the first day of the week in the Jewish calendar and the day they all went back to work.

Verse 8 – the reaction of two crowds. “And many spread their garments in the way.” Jesus Christ is obviously riding a king’s animal and since He is they throw their garments in the way. The animal doesn’t even get his feet down on the ground! “ ... others cut down branches off the trees.” This is all taken from Jeremiah 23:5,6; Isaiah 11:1, Zechariah 3:8; 6:12,13; “and spread them in the way” isn’t found in the original.

Verse 9 – “And they that went before” is the crowd coming up from Jerusalem; “and they that followed” was the crowd that had been in Bethany over the weekend and now were following Jesus back to Jerusalem. Both crowds “cried saying, “Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”—quoted from Psalm 118:25,26. They quoted the first two words of verse 25 and then a part of verse 26. In Psalm 118 this was a reference to the Second Advent—and this was the first advent! So they are mixed up. In other words, as far as they are concerned they want the crown without the cross. This sets up a principle: Any time the cross is bypassed man is doing the work—that is legalism. God’s plan is a grace plan and grace is where God does the work for us. God the Son bears our sins and the cross the must come before the crown—that is God’s plan. In effect this was the devil’s plan. If he could set up the Millennium without the cross then, again, Satan would have won. This is one of Satan’s greatest attacks, on this Palm Sunday. He was trying the same trick as when he said to Jesus, “If you will fall down and worship me I will give you all the kingdoms of the world.” Now, in effect, he is saying, “Forget the cross, pick up the crown, and start ruling.” Jesus Christ could not have a permanent kingdom if He skipped the cross because there would be no salvation. A permanent kingdom has to have permanent people! There are no permanent people unless there is regeneration. The feast of Atonement must come before the Tabernacles, and the Passover must come before the Tabernacles. Remember that Psalm 118 was sung at both the feast of Atonement and the feast of Tabernacles. The Passover must come first.

They have confused the issue. What they should have been singing was Psalm 118:22, 23 [First advent: the cross] rather than Psalm 118:25,26 [second advent or the crown]. This is why verses 22 and 23 come before verses 25 and 26. This is a satanic plan. They want to make Jesus King right then and there without going to the cross. Later on that day Jesus taught them something with regard to their mistake—Mark 12:1ff. Note verse 10. Jesus quotes Psalm118, verses 22 and 23, rather than 25 and 26. So He hits them with what they should have been quoting. In other words, they did not distinguish between the first and the second advents. And Satan took advantage of that in order to do something to them—let’s forget about the cross and get the crown.

This brings us back to John 12:12 where the Palm Sunday incident is recorded. But remembering that John is the Gospel of the Son of God it will be handled in a little different way.

“On the next day”—Sunday the Jewish first day of the week and the Jews are not returning to Jerusalem. Jesus is going back, and the disciples, and the synoptic writers—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—follow the crowd from Bethany to Jerusalem. John starts from Jerusalem. The crowds meet at the crossroads and that is where John starts.

“much people” refers to the people still in Jerusalem. This is the crowd who spent the weekend in Jerusalem in contrast to the crowd that spent the weekend at Bethany. John follows the crowd out of Jerusalem and up the hill, while the synoptics follow the crowd from Bethany down the hill. Consequently this verse forgets about Bethany and looks back to Jerusalem. He gives all the details of the feast at Bethany and then hops back to Jerusalem.

“come to the feast” – aorist active participle of e)rxomai and it means having come to the feast. It indicates that they have gathered from all over the country, and a lot have come from foreign countries. This is a reference to the approaching Passover which, together with the feats of Unleavened bread, drew Jewish pilgrims from all over the Roman empire.

“when they heard” is literally having heard, aorist active participle. They have all heard during the weekend about the Lord Jesus Christ and the seventh credit card and are anxious to see Jesus Christ.

“that Jesus was coming” – present middle indicative of e)xomai. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. We have two aorist participles—“much people come to the feast; having heard.” The present tense is dramatic; the middle voice is reflexive—He Himself was coming, riding on the animal. The indicative mood is the reality of the coming of Jesus to Jerusalem.

Verse 13 – the reaction of the crowd. Remember, this is the crowd who had come to observe the Passover and they get carried away. What do the Jews want? They want Jewish nationalism, Jewish independence from the Roman empire. In the struggle for Jewish nationalism and in the struggle for independence from the empire they have the privilege under Rome’s guidance of going back to Jerusalem as pilgrims, visiting Jerusalem and enjoying the Passover and the Unleavened Bread. But these people, being unbelievers and very stupid as a people, are politically minded and not spiritually minded. They, in effect, had put politics above the spiritual realm. Therefore, their mistake as they leave Jerusalem is the same mistake as the crowd coming back with Jesus. They look to Jesus to deliver their country from its problems rather than the eternal kingdom—the cross before the crown.

“Took branches of palm trees”—John makes it very clear that these were in recognition of Messiahship, but they had the wrong dispensation. Lambanw doesn’t mean they took them, it really means to receive. A palm tree in the Greek is a Phoenix, foiniz. Palms trees—the branches—is in recognition of Christ as the Branch, a title of the Lord Jesus Christ found in Jeremiah 23:5,6; Zechariah 3:8; 6:12,13. Palm trees grew in abundance along the Mount of Olives between Bethany and Jerusalem. They were used for the feats of the Tabernacles, according to Leviticus 23:40 and Revelation 7:9. So, as far as they are concerned, cancel the Passover, let’s get to the feast of the Tabernacles. But you don’t change the plan of God by shouting, by waving branches, by all the actions of a crowd. This simply demonstrates once again what has always been true: a crowd cannot think; a mob cannot think. Anything that is done by a mob, by a crowd—forget it.

“and went forth”—aorist active indicative of e)cerxomai. It means to go outside the gates to meet the King.

“to meet” is translated like an infinitive but it is actually a noun—u(panthsij which means the act of meeting. They went forth to a meeting with Him.

“and cried”—imperfect active indicative of kraugazw which means to scream at the top of one’s voice; “Hossana”—Psalm 118:25. Then they moved on to verse 26—“Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Notice how they add to the scripture. It is “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” but they add “the King of Israel.” They want Him now! They want the Millennium now; they want to bypass the cross. God the Father has a plan; God the Father stuck to His plan, and the only thing that God the Father was doing at this time was the presenting seventh credit card. As a result of this we find a lot of people trying to use Jesus to further their own ends. Jesus Christ did not let people use Him in a power grab in the Roman empire. He refused to be used by the mob. The adoration of Jesus by the mob was political! It was political hot air. It was political expediency rather than spiritual recognition.

Verse 15 – John goes back now and indicates that Jesus was sitting on transportation for a king. The plan of God calls for this animal to be there—Zechariah 9:9. “Fear not” – present middle imperative of fobew. “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion”—the Jews. Why daughter of Zion? God’s right woman.

“thy King cometh” – the present tense is futuristic. The indicative mood is the reality of the incarnation and the cross; “sitting on an asses colt”—

transportation for a king.

Verse 16 – “These things understood not his disciples.” The King is going to the cross mounted on transportation for a king. Jesus Christ was born a King; Jesus Christ is going to ride like a King. He is going to Jerusalem but the Sunday from Palm Sunday He will be in a resurrection body. This is His last trip. He is mounted on transportation for a king because He is a King, but the King is going to the cross to purchase eternal life for His kingdom. That is why He is mounted on that animal. It was not to come in and deliver a bunch of idiots in a power grab!

“understood not” – aorist active indicative of ginwskw. This is an ingressive aorist, they began not to understand. They were oriented when Lazarus came forth; now they are disoriented. It happened to them; it could happen to you. Don’t get fat-headed because you have learned a thing or two.

“at first” – later on they are going to understand; “but when Jesus was glorified” – the aorist passive indicative of docazw indicates the resurrection, ascension and session. The aorist is constative. Passive voice: Jesus received glorification. The indicative mood is the reality of their future enlightenment. In reversion recovery you always have to remember something.

“then they remembered” – aorist passive indicative mimnhskw, and that is their reversion recovery. They went into reversionism. If is after His glorification that they begin to come out of it. This is an ingressive aorist, they began to remember. Passive voice: some doctrines floated through and they picked them up. The indicative mood is the reality of reversion recovery through memory.

“these things” – the points of doctrine they should have understood when Jesus gave that wonderful vineyard parable.

“were written of him” – this is the point regarding the glorification, the plan of God, the things that were written of Him which included God’s definite timetable as given in the feasts, the message of Zechariah, the different things that were involved in Psalm 118. They began finally to remember these things that were written of Him.

“they had done these things unto him” – they were stupid; they were reversionistic; they went along with the crowd. The only one who understood was Mary and that is why John puts down her story first. She wasn’t influenced by that mob.

Verse 17 – “There people therefore.” These are the ones who witnessed the seventh credit card and are the ones who brought the crowd out of Jerusalem. They are people who believed in John 11:35 and who are in heaven today because of who and what Christ is.

“that was” – present active participle of e)imi should be “they were, or better, “being with him,” meta means association.

“when he called” – to call here means to utter a sound or to summon. The verb is fwnew and is in the aorist active indicative and it refers to the culminative aorist where He uttered the sound, and it is used from the standpoint of its results. The result was that Lazarus came back from the dead. Actually, Jesus summoned Lazarus with His voice.

“and raised him from the dead” – the word for raise here is also an aorist active indicative of e)geirw and it means here resuscitation.

“and bare record” – imperfect active indicative of marturew which means to be a witness or to testify. These people who were there are saw Lazarus brought back from the tomb have been circulating through Jerusalem and they talked about it everywhere. So the crowd who met Jesus on the road to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowd which is found in verses 12 and following, came out as a result of the witness of these believers. The imperfect tense means that these people kept on witnessing ever since the rasing of Lazarus had occurred.

Verse 18 – “For this cause,” dia plus the accusative and should be translated “Because of this,” because of the witnessing of the new converts; “the people” is not correct, it is o( o)xloj which is not used in the sense of people, it is used in the sense of a crowd that does not think for itself. It is a crowd that acts upon impulse.

“the crowd also met him” – they heard the testimony. They wanted to see some miracle, a coup de tat, the overthrow of Rome. They were Greeks and the Greeks always despised the Romans. ^This is the aorist active indicative of u(pantaw which means they not only met Him but they met Him with anticipation. They anticipated something being done.

“for they heard that he had done this miracle” – perfect active infinitive of poiew. Poiew in the perfect tense means that the miracle was accomplished in the past but the results of the miracle continue and are permanent. Many people were saved because of this seventh credit card of Messiahship.

Verse 19 – the Pharisees are frustrated at this point. They are about to lose their power; their influence is on the wane because of these seven credit cards.

“The Pharisees therefore said among themselves” – they are constantly holding meetings. “Among themselves” is the preposition proj plus the accusative and it means ‘face to face with themselves.’ At this point they are simply frustrated. They have no plans, no ideas.

“Perceive ye” – present active imperative of qewrew which means to contemplate mentally; “that ye prevail nothing” – present active indicative of w)felew which means they have benefited not at all. They know that if they kill Jesus without having discredited they are going to have a martyr and around martyrdom sometimes people are overthrown. So they are trying to discredit Him and kill Him, not just kill Him. This has proved to be a great problem for them.

The crowd know where Jesus is but they are not taking any information to the Pharisees. They instead are rushing out of Jerusalem to seek Jesus on His trip back from Bethany.

“behold the world is gone after him” – the world is the kosmoj, and of course the kosmoj doesn’t go after Jesus Christ, that is Satan’s crowd. “Is gone after” is the aorist active indicative of a)perxomai which means a crowd approving someone. It means the fickleness of a crowd. They are for you now but if you do not maintain or even improve upon your performance, you’ve had it. A)perxomai means that at this moment the crowd recognised Jesus Christ as the greatest power on earth and they want Him to become the King of the Jews. Therefore they are going out with palm branches and singing from Psalm 118 simply because they are expecting Jesus Christ to take over and to throw the Romans back into the Mediterranean.

There is a time in the life of every person when he is well thought of by a maximum number of people. What is the approbation of a group worth? It is worth absolutely nothing!

The Pharisees are conscious of the approbation of the crowd. They are also conscious of the fact that they have lost the approbation of the crowd, temporarily at least, to Jesus Christ. Having lost it they are now wondering what to do next.

Beginning in verse 20 and going through verse 36 we take up a new aspect of the crowd. We leave the Pharisees looking at each other, wondering what happened, wondering why none of their plots had succeeded, and wondering if they will still be in power tomorrow. And while we leave them we go to the people who are the most interesting phenomenon in this whole picture. Everything that has been emphasised before was Jewish. The parables that Jesus spoke were Jewish parables. The things that the crowd sang or shouted were Jewish scriptures from the Psalms. Everything was Jewish. Jesus answered as a Jewish King, for He is the legitimate King of Israel. And yet He was under the plan of the Father and it was not the time for Him to assume the throne of David. The cross must come before the crown. But in that crowd were Greeks, people who had no frame of reference for Judaism, no frame of reference for the Davidic covenant, no understanding of the basic principles of Messiahship as related to the unconditional covenants. But they were Greeks who were smart enough to realise that something big had occurred, that someone had been brought back from the dead, and that is what intrigued them.

Verse 20 – “And there were certain Greeks,” present active indicative of e)imi. This identifies them definitely as Greeks. They didn’t become Greeks, that would be Hellenistic in their culture. We would have ginomai here, which we do not. These were Greek by race as well as Hellenistic in their culture. They were therefore Gentiles.

“among them that came up to worship at the feast” – when it says they came up—present active participle of a)nabainw—it means that they came from other countries. Why would they bother to do this? For the same reason that one might go to Arizona to observe snake dance! Not because you are an Indian, not because you believe in the concept behind the snake dance, but because you are curious.

“came up to worship” – the aorist active subjunctive of proskunew indicates they wouldn’t necessarily get into it but they wouldn’t avoid it either. Proj = face to face; kunew = to kiss. To kiss face to face is the concept of worship. To worship involves two things: love and freedom. You are free to worship God and you love God. Because you love God it gives you additional freedom to worship Him, and because you have this additional freedom you love Him. They build on each other until there is a fantastic thing developed. The cross makes us free to worship God. As we are free to do so and as we follow the correct principles—GAP, for example, is basic worship—we come to love Jesus Christ—category #1 love. And as we come to love Him more and more we want to GAP it more and more, and we have more and more freedom. By the time you take this freedom into the supergrace life you have a phenomenal thing. The principle is: “Ye shall know the truth [GAP] and the truth shall make you free.” The Greeks were unsaved but they had the idea that they could go to a different religion and still worship their own gods. They did not know anything about Jesus Christ but what really intrigued them was that during their stay in Jerusalem they heard about a person being brought back from the dead by a true King of Israel. That caused them to prick up their ears and they became very interested. This was unusual! When they saw that Palm Sunday demonstration while standing on the fringe of that crowd and heard Jesus chew out the Jews with that parable of the rejected son, and how Jesus had said to them the cross must come before the crown, they didn’t understand it but they were certainly interested.

“at the feast” – the Passover.

Verse 21 – they made contact with the disciples.

“The same” refers to these Greeks who, by the way, fulfil a prophecy found in Deuteronomy 32:21; in Isaiah 11:10 in different words; 42:6; 49:6.

“came to Philip” – aorist active indicative of proserxomai, they came face to face with Philip. Why Philip? We know already from other passage, like John 1:24-47, that Philip was a very effective witness for Jesus Christ. He was effective because in a very relaxed manner he would get into conversation with people. He was a conversationalist and if the conversation turned around to Jesus Christ he was right there. In the course of the conversation he discovered that these Greeks were interested in what was going on in Jerusalem and apparently he was using the Passover as the basis of witnessing. So they knew Philip. Philip was one person who could talk to the Greeks and they would listen. Why? Because he was relaxed. He could talk to these Greeks without pressuring them, without gimmicks.

“which was” is not found in the original.

“and desired him” – imperfect active indicative of e)rwtaw, it does not means to desire, it means to ask. It is in the imperfect tense, they kept on asking him.

“saying, Sir” – they has respect; “we desire” – present active indicative of qelw which means to desire, but the present active indicative means to keep on desiring.

“we would see Jesus” – they wanted an interview, in other words. This is the aorist active infinitive of o(raw. The aorist tense is quite in contrast to the present tense and we have an infinitive instead of the indicative. ‘We desire to get a panoramic view of Jesus.’ O(raw means “We’d really like to get acquainted with Jesus.” This puts Philip on the spot because he has been disobeying discipleship regulations. Cf. Matthew 10:5. The policy that was set up by the Lord was that the disciples were to go to the Jews. He told them not to go to the Gentiles. But Philip has been talking with Gentiles, and they are positive. Not only are they positive but they want an interview. Philip is not sure but that he is really out of line even talking to them. He won’t even go to the Lord with this because it is a problem to him now.

Verse 22 – instead he goes to Andrew. “Philip cometh [e)rxomai] and telleth [legw] Andrew” – this is the dramatic present. Andrew is the brother of Peter and a close friend of Philip. The consultation with Andrew is based upon that Matthew 10:5. “Oh, oh! Here are these Jews who want a consultation with Jesus and I have been told to go only to the house of Israel.”

“and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus” – they talk this over and decide to go together to Jesus about it. This is in contrast in this passage to the consultation of the Pharisees who are face to face trying to figure out a way to kill Jesus. Now the disciples are face to face trying to figure out a way to go to Jesus about Gentiles to whom they are not supposed to be witnessing and have been.

In the Christian way of life today it takes all kinds of people. All kinds of people are members of the body of Christ. E.g. Peter, very intense; Philip, relaxed; Thomas, the pessimist, etc. All of these disciples have different personalities, they are not all the same; no two are alike. Never try to stereotype personalities. Stay relaxed and realise that God uses all kinds of believers.

So Andrew and Philip did the right thing. They went to Jesus. As a result of this there is an interview.

Verse 23 – “Jesus had an answer,” literally.

“saying, the hour is come” – when He says this He has something for these Greeks, something that is entirely different from His approach to the Jews. His approach to the Jews has been the familiar parable with the familiar quotations from Psalm 118. But now Jesus comes up with something very wonderful and He talks to the Greeks within the framework of Greek culture. We are going to see some grains of wheat falling into the ground. The whole system of Greek religion, the whole operation of the Greek phallic cult, the whole system of Greek worship was based upon planting in the spring, the seed falling into the ground, the harvest. And the whole system of Greek worship is based upon planting and sowing. They worshipped at the planting period and they worshipped at the harvest time and they had a whole system of gods that revolve around this. Jesus knows this and therefore He is going to explain the whole thing to the Greeks within the framework of their culture, so that they, too, will come to an understanding. As a result of this we are actually going to see Greeks believing in Jesus Christ.

The Greeks had no frame of reference for the things that we have been studying concerning Palm Sunday. These things were totally meaningless to them; they were for Jews. They were positive at the point of God-consciousness, they wanted to know, but the Palm Sunday incident was outside of their frame of reference. There was no way for a Gentile with a culture antithetical to Judaism could ever begin to understand what it was all about. Therefore Jesus is now taking an entirely new tack. When Jesus takes up the seed of wheat He is not talking about something which is a part of Jewish culture. Jewish culture is based on grace: manna from heaven; Greek culture is based on the wheat season, the planting of it in Spring, the crop at the end of the summer, and therefore the survival of the Greek community for the rest of the year. So when these Greek people come to Jesus we will understand why He switched from everything he had been describing to the wheat season to emphasise, first salvation, and then when He goes to loving your soul or hating your soul He is emphasising the way of life that follows salvation, and the principle of reversionism versus supergrace.

Verse 23 – “And Jesus answered them.” “Them” is going to refer to the whole system of the Greeks. It actually says, “Jesus had an answer” because we have a)pokrinwmai.

“saying” – present active participle of legw, meaning to communicate; “the hour [the time of the death of Jesus Christ] is come” – literally, “has come,” perfect active indicative of e)rxomai. The perfect tense indicates this hour was designed in eternity past, but the perfect tense is something that happens in the past and has present and permanent results. The hour refers to the cross. But now we have Greeks present so we are going to have a little different approach to this. The hour has to be understood by the Greeks. Jesus has already said in other discourses in John, “Mine hour is not yet come,” it isn’t time for the cross yet. Now He says the hour has come. It has been designed in the past and is now approaching and is here. The cross was designed from eternity past, says the perfect tense. The active voice indicates that the cross is approaching in six days. The indicative mood is the reality of the cross as the way of eternal salvation. We must face the fact now that there are Greeks present who have no frame of reference for these things from the Old Testament scriptures. They do not understand the Levitical offerings; they do not understand the great hymns that are found amongst the Psalms; they do not understand the stone which the people rejected has become the corner stone. They will understand when Jesus explains that the hour is the time when the wheat seed must fall into the ground. The Greeks all understood that the wheat seed dies. They had many legends and many of the Greek myths are built around the death of the seed. And this is a true principle, for even 1 Corinthians 15 says, “Except a seed fall into the ground and dies there is no harvest.” That is exactly what Jesus is saying.

“the hour has come that [purpose clause] the Son of man [title for the hypostatic union]” – Jesus Christ as God cannot go to the cross; should be glorified.” As God He is glorified; it is the humanity of Christ that is to be glorified. But first of all, when you take a seed of wheat and drop it into the ground and cover it up the seed must die. Then, up come a stalk, then up comes the wheat, and the glory is in the wheat and being provision for food. Jesus Christ must die on the cross and then he must rise from the dead, and He must be seated at the right hand of the Father. And because He is we are feeding on the wheat of doctrine right now. Our staple of life is the Word. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” And how do we have this New Testament doctrine, this mystery doctrine? We not only have the whole background of Israel but we also have this doctrine of the mystery, all of these things pertaining to the Church Age. How did we get all of this? The seed died and came up and was glorified. That is why. The Greeks will understand this.

“should be glorified” – aorist passive subjunctive of docazw which actually means to be honoured in a very unusual way. The aorist tense refers to the resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ. The passive voice: Christ will receive glorification by being seated at the right hand of the Father. The subjunctive mood is not potential but it goes with i(na to introduce a purpose clause. The subjunctive mood has other uses besides potentiality. Sometimes the subjunctive is actually used in the place of an imperative, sometimes with some particle or some conjunction to indicate what type of a clause we have. Here is it to indicate a purpose clause. It is the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-Man to go to the cross and bear the sins of the world.

Verse 24 – here is where Jesus speaks to the Greeks. “Verily, verily” – Truth, truth. In other words, point of doctrine.

“I say [communicate] unto you” – dative of advantage. The word “except” is e)an which introduces a 3^rd class condition and we translated it “if” here: “if,” maybe it will and maybe it won’t. In this way Jesus introduces the equivalent of a parable. This is a dissertation to the Greeks to put them on the same footing with the Jews who have been rebuked through the parable of the rejection of the son.

“the corn fall into the ground” – kokkoj does not means a corn of wheat, it means a seed of wheat. This is planting seed. And it is “having fallen into the ground” – piptw, aorist active participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is “it must die,” but it has to fall into the ground before it can. Jesus Christ had to go to the cross before He could bear our sins. “So, “having fallen into the ground, die” – aorist active subjunctive of a)poqnhskw. This is the only way that Jesus Christ can communicate to Greeks resurrection. Resurrection is entirely foreign to the thinking of Greeks, it is entirely apart from Greek culture. They have been intrigued by the fact that someone—Lazarus—has been brought back from the dead. Now they are going to learn something about resurrection and they are going to understand it in the framework of their own culture. Before the wheat comes up so that the Greek city state is preserved for another year the seed must die before the roots emerge in the ground and the stalk comes up. So the word a)poqnhskw is also the technical word for the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, and the spiritual death of Christ is bearing our sins.

“it abideth alone” – present active indicative of menw describes the seed after it is planted. It keeps on being alone. When Jesus Christ was on the cross He was alone. In resurrection and ascension is where there is multiplication but on the cross Christ was not only unique as the God-Man but He was alone when bearing our sins. There can be no body of Christ, no dispensation of the Church, no believers in this Age until the cross occurs and Christ is alone. When He was on the cross God the Father poured out the sins of the world on Jesus Christ. This qualifies Jesus Christ to be the only celebrity in Christianity. Hebrews 2:9-14—by being alone He brings many sons into glory. So Jesus explains to the Greeks the necessity for the uniqueness of His death and His resurrection, and He explains it from a very common procedure, the standard operating procedure of the Greeks for a thousand years.

“but”—conjunction of contrast—“if it die” – aorist active subjunctive of a)poqnhskw, 3^rd class condition, setting up alternatives; “it bringeth forth” – present active indicative of ferw – “it bears much fruit.” There is the harvest.

Verse 25 – seed wheat becomes the basis of expressing the glorification of Christ. As a result there is wheat growing up and there is a harvest—resurrection and ascension which Christ called His glorification. Now we have arrived at the next stage of Greek culture. This verse emphasises another aspect of it. Jesus now hits them with something which is clear to the Greeks and probably obscure to the Jews.

“He” – these are the Greeks after salvation. This is the principle of phase two. How to explain to the Greeks what to expect in phase two and in phase three and bring them altogether very quickly in summary. It is done by taking one phrase which has a number of technical, philosophical Greek words and putting them into the form of an idiom which the Greeks would pick up immediately and set up an axiom for phase two. After salvation the believers remain on the earth. This point must be brought over to the Greeks. They do not go to heaven immediately and they are going to be in this life. Many of these Greeks are going to respond and be ambassadors for Christ. They are going to be a kingdom of priests as they are on the verge of the Church Age at this moment.

“that loveth” – present active participle of filew, the strongest Greek word for love. This is soul love plus physical love plus every kind of love brought together. It is a total love of the soul. The word a)gaph is a love with a mental attitude only; it is a limited type love. It is limited to what you think, it means freedom from mental attitude sins. The great word for love is filew. Here we have, “He who keeps on loving.”

“his life” – his yuxh, his soul. Yuxh is life. It refers to the believer’s self-consciousness, his mentality, his volition, his emotions, his norms and standards. The real person is the soul. The real you is your soul. “He that keeps on loving his own soul” is an idiom of Greek culture in which the person involved has a false attitude toward himself, toward his life. It means to have a false scale of values. To love your own soul is an idiom for the Greek philosophy of hedonism. Hedonism means live it up as much as you can—self-gratification in one word. This is actually the Greek idiom for self-gratification. It is comparable to putting your emphasis on the details of life. It actually indicates the condition of the soul. It means, for example, a believer who is negative toward doctrine and builds scar tissue on his soul. He has the frantic search for happiness. This is loving your soul—going in for self-gratification because you have a false scale of values. This is exactly what the Greeks would understand. All Jesus is portraying to the Greeks at this point is that if you as a believer get into reversionism you are going to lose everything that is important in phase two. Reversionism destroys the whole function of the grace plan in the Christian life. It is the great enemy of grace in phase two. So He says, “He that loves his own soul”—negative volition, scar tissue, emotional revolt, reversionism. All of these things put together.

“shall lose it” – present active indicative of a)poluw. It doesn’t mean to lose the soul, it means to lose the purpose of the function of life. Jesus is saying to the Greeks that life has purpose but you can lose out by neglecting doctrine, by getting into reversionism. But on the other hand, there is another side to it.

“he that hateth his life” – this does not mean that you have to hate yourself. The word hateth is the present active participle of misew, which means to hate, it is also the verb for the mental attitude sin of hate. But here it means to have an attitude, a regard in which you take certain things as inconsequential. Things that were valuable as far as self-gratification is concerned are not of any consequence. Other things are of greater consequence, say, to put the spiritual things of life above the material. It is really the attitude of the supergrace life. It is the attitude that comes from doctrine.

“in this world” – an expression for phase two.

“shall keep it to life eternal” – incorrect. It says, “he shall guard what belongs to another until he reaches eternal life.” The word keep is fulassw and it is a military word which means to guard, to guard something that belongs to someone else. Doctrine belongs to God and the person who has the attitude of orientation to grace de-emphasises those things that lead to self-gratification, de-emphasises hedonism—shall guard what belongs to another until he reaches eternal life. Eternal life is phase three. The believer takes doctrine with him into phase three. The soul leaves the body and goes to be with the Lord, and any Bible doctrine you have in your soul goes along. That is what “unto life eternal means.”

It must be realised that Jesus is speaking to a very specialised group of people—Greeks under Greek culture. To understand this it is necessary to orient thinking into their culture. It must be understood that every culture has idioms and that to translate an idiom literally is often to lose the meaning of the idiom. Therefore, the meaning of the idiom is lost by the literal translation. The literal translation here does not in any way communicate the meaning because the meaning is bound up in emphasis, scale of values. The Greeks, when they were bound up in something they loved, they loved their souls. That was an idiom they used—“I love my soul.” It doesn’t mean they were stuck on themselves, it simply means that they enjoyed doing certain things.

The whole issue of this verse is reversionism versus supergrace. It is no verse for asceticism, for legalism. This is no verse for throwing a faggot on a fire and saying, “God helping me I am going to give up [something].” This verse is dealing with two principles of phase two, and the emphasis in the last half of the axiom is an idiom which indicates the importance of guarding doctrine. You guard doctrine by taking it in. GAPing it is the basis for fulassw. “He that hateth his soul [the idiom for the one who places the emphasis on what God has provided] shall guard what God has provided”—doctrine. And when he departs into eternal life he will still have what he has guarded. He has guarded what has belonged to him. He has an ECS, doctrine in the right lobe, the doctrine of the supergrace life.

Verse 26 – once doctrine is put first, then it is pertinent to teach the Greeks another principle. This is from the standpoint of the Greeks and is not a discipleship passage.

“If anyone serve me” – 3^rd class condition. They are still free to make a choice. They are being given very briefly all of the alternatives which belong to them if they choose for Jesus Christ. Serve me is the present active subjunctive of diakonew which means to start at the bottom, rowing on the bottom bank of the ship, the toughest place to row. Therefore it means to serve in the humblest frame of mind and circumstances. The present tense means to keep on pulling as a zero. Active voice: he has to do it himself all alone. The subjunctive mood indicates the 3^rd class condition.

“serve me” – dative of dignity indicates the occupation with the person of Christ; “let him follow” – present active imperative of a)kolouqew which means to keep on following me. And how do you follow Jesus Christ? Take in doctrine. There is only one way to follow Christ and that is to take in Bible doctrine day in and day out. All service in the Christian life is based on knowledge of doctrine. Ignorance of doctrine cannot produce for God. Divine good comes from doctrine; human good comes from energy of the flesh. The greatest virtue in the Christian life is knowledge of doctrine. This is “keep in following me”–present linear aktionsart in the imperative mood.

“and where I am” – this anticipates Christ at the right hand of the throne; “there” – and right now it is true positionally; some day it will be true experientially.

“there shall [present tense of e)imi] also my servant” – it is “there you shall be also my servant.” We serve Jesus Christ today who is at the right hand of the Father. He is not on the earth, so we cannot walk around behind Him. We can only follow Him through what He has left for us to follow—Bible doctrine.

“if” is a 3^rd class condition indicating whether you learn doctrine or not determines whether you are going to serve or not; “any man serve” – diakonew.

“him [that individual believer] – this relates the believer to God the Father and His plan which gives his life meaning; “my Father will honour him” – the first person of the Trinity, eternal God, will—future active indicative of timaw—“hold him in honour.” This is the only way that the believer will ever be honourable in his phase two experience. The Father must honour His plan. His plan begins with that seed that goes into the ground [the cross]. The Father has a grace plan after the cross—more grace, supergrace. These Greeks now understand from a series of idioms of 3^rd class conditions that God has a plan for them that begins at the cross and continues forever in eternity, and has an interval of time in life when they can be related to the members of the Godhead in such a way that their life has purpose and meaning and definition.

Verse 27— The Lord Jesus Christ has been dealing with the Greeks, and now He switches over to the entire world. “Now is my soul troubled.” The soul of the Lord Jesus Christ was perfect, exactly like the first Adam when the first Adam was in the garden. The only exception is that the first Adam did not have a troubled soul at any time. The last Adam now has a troubled soul. Why? He had no sin, therefore He had never worried. The verb to be troubled is the perfect passive indicative of parassw. It means to be agitated, but it is in the passive voice here. It means to receive agitation, to receive trouble without any sin being involved. It means to be under pressure. The perfect tense means that this had begun some time before with the result that it was now building up. It was less than a week from the cross. The passive voice: He has received this because as God He is aware of what the cross means. As true humanity, having mastered the Old Testament scriptures and all other doctrines, He was aware of the significance of the spiritual death which He would have on the cross when He was bearing our sins. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that He was under great pressure to avoid the cross. The perfect tense indicates He was thinking seriously of avoiding the cross in the sense of the great agitation and pressure of soul.

“and what shall I say?” – aorist active subjunctive of legw. That is, how can Jesus communicate pressure, the horror of coming into contact with human sin? How can He express to us as a sinless person? Nothing could be worse than bearing the sins of the world. He will come into contact with every sin that has ever been sinned up until the time that He dies, and every sin that will ever be sinned in the future, including all Millennial sins until the end of the Millennium. He would bear the sins of all who would believe in Him; He would also bear the sins of all who would never believe. There never was a person who came into the world and sinned whose sins would not be judged on the cross. He contemplates this; He anticipates this. No one hated sin more than Jesus Christ and no one was better qualified to hate sin. He was qualified to hate sin because He did not have an old sin nature. He was qualified to hate sin because there was no personal sin in His life ever. He was qualified to hate sin because Adam’s sin was never imputed to Him and could not be imputed to Him because of the virgin birth. He also hated sin from observation. He hated sin as one who achieved the ECS at the earliest possible moment and who entered into supergrace at the earliest possible moment. He also hated sin because linked with His humanity is His deity and God can only despise sin. The righteousness of God hates sin. The justice of God not only hates sin but pronounces its doom. There is no part of the character of God that could ever like sin. So no matter which was this is approached from the standpoint of His hypostatic union He despised the very thought of coming into contact with what was not even His own sin—actually bearing the sins of others.

There is no way to really illustrate this principle. As close as we can ever come to understanding what Jesus faced, have we ever been completely and totally innocent and yet took the rap for some sin that someone else committed? It is one of those things that troubles the soul. Jesus Christ took the rap for all the sins of every member of the human race. There is a build-up of pressure, not sinful pressure but sinless pressure. No sin was ever involved in His soul being troubled. Our Lord could never really explain how He felt on those few days before the cross where He would bear the sins of the world. There is no way He could explain it. This is Palm Sunday. He will go to the cross on the next Wednesday, and it is the last three hours of the cross when He started screaming, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And then at the end He said, “Tetelestai” – finished. When He said that He had completed His mission; salvation was completed at that point.

How can Jesus explain this? He is going to try, and He picks a short prayer to express it. He picks a prayer which He does not expect to be answered in the affirmative. Here is a prayer that could not be answered, because of us.

“Father save me from this hour” – that is the prayer. He is going to try to explain to you and to me what it was like for Him to face the cross. When He said “Father” this is the humanity of Christ speaking. This is a prayer of His humanity. Now He didn’t say, “Save me.” This is the aorist active imperative of swzw which means also to deliver. The aorist tense is what is called a timeless aorist, and in effect He is saying deliver me in eternity past. It is a timeless aorist, an occurrence in eternity past. The active voice: the subject produces the action of the verb. He is asking the Father to do the delivering. The imperative mood: He is demanding it. Here is a prayer which is not a prayer. It is an enigma. It has no intent of being answered but is designed to explain how He feels. That is all. This is a prayer that could not be answered because it was totally incompatible with the plan of God. It was totally out of phase with grace.

At the same time that He prays this prayer He also establishes a principle for phase two. People get on the panic button. The Lord Jesus Christ was not on the panic button but people do get on it and they often ask for something incompatible with the plan of God. Jesus did not offer this prayer to be answered, He offered this prayer to illustrate how He felt. The perfect passive indicative of parassw indicates the permanent state of pressure that Jesus Christ will face until He is actually on the cross. This pressure of soul will be expressed again in Gethsemane when He said, “Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me,” then adding, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” He will be under great pressure for the next four days. His soul is under maximum pressure.

This prayer is an illustration to remind us of the tremendous pressure that He faced.

“from this hour” – e)k, out from this hour; away from, entirely away from. This hour refers to the cross. The humanity of Christ shrinks from the cross because the cross means bearing the sins of the world, and He is impeccable, perfect.

There are three doctrines that help to explain the principle here: the doctrine of divine essence which presents us the character of God; the doctrine of divine decrees which presents to us the plan of God; the doctrine of reconciliation which expresses to us the grace of God.

No we have a conjunction to indicate that this prayer just uttered is incompatible with the Father’s plan—“but,” adversative conjunction of contrast.

“for this cause” – dia plus the accusative, “because of this.” This refers to the cross; “I came” – aorist active indicative of e)rxomai, used here for the first advent. The whole purpose of the virgin birth, the whole purpose of living on earth for 33 years is to come to the cross.

Now in the next verse He prays a true prayer. That in verse 27 was an illustrative prayer.

Verse 28 – “Father.” This is a prayer that will be answered immediately. It is the will of the Father that Jesus Christ be glorified. Now He uses an aorist active imperative to show that He is again making a demand of God the Father—the aorist active imperative of docazw, the verb to glorify, to honour. This is actually an iterative aorist which means begin to glorify. The glorification starts with the cross and resurrection but it will continue to the ascension at the right hand of the Father.

“thy name” – refers to the essence of the Father. This can only be fulfilled by Jesus Christ going to the cross. God the Father cannot be inconsistent; He cannot compromise any part of His character. Because God so loved the world He cannot save the world just arbitrarily because that compromises His righteousness and His justice. It compromises His immutability and also His veracity. So the hour must come when Christ will be on the cross with +R satisfying the righteousness of the Father and protecting that righteousness from compromise by bearing our sins. By spiritual death He will satisfy the justice of the Father and keep the justice of the Father from being compromised. Because of propitiation love and eternal life can come from the Father’s will to the human race but only by way of the cross. This is the only way that the Father can glorify His essence, His name, His person. Any other way compromises some other part of His character. The only way that people can be saved is by believing in Jesus Christ, and when they do they are saved without compromising the character of God.

The name of the Father is the person of the Father, the essence of the Father. He is the source of grace. Grace has to be glorified before salvation can be a reality.

“Then [after the prayer] came there a voice from heaven” – e)rxomai. This time the voice from heaven is the Father’s answer which is twofold. We have a repetition of docazw. The first time we had the aorist active indicative, and it is translated like a past tense. This is that timeless aorist. Aorist means an occurrence and this was an occurrence in eternity past. When the Father designed every part of the plan by which grace provision is given to the believer in phase one, phase two and phase three, He glorified His name right then and there. The Father is perfect, therefore His plan is perfect. And since the plan excludes all human good, all human ability, all human personality, the Father will be glorified by the grace plan. Grace glorifies God because grace provides under grace. Nothing depends upon who and what we are; it all depends on who and what God is. The active voice: God the Father produces the action. The indicative mood is the reality of this in the Father’s plan in eternity past and/or the doctrine of divine decrees.

The future tense indicates the plan of the Father is moving on—“and I will glorify,” future active indicative of docazw. The future tense anticipates the cross, followed by the resurrection, ascension and session of the humanity of Christ. The deity of Christ is omnipresent; the humanity of Christ must move into the third heaven in a resurrection body. The active voice: the Father will judge the Son on the cross, then resurrect Him and make it possible for the ascension and session. When the Son comes into the presence of the Father the Father will say to the humanity of Christ, “Sit down.” He doesn’t say it to the deity of Christ because the deity of Christ does not sit down. Posture does not belong to deity; posture belongs to humanity.

Verse 29 – the people once more. “The people” are the seeking Greeks and the Jews; they are all standing around. Perhaps we can tell which group it is. Each group will tell us what they think it is they heard. The Greeks thought it thunder.

“they that stood by” – perfect active participle of i(sthmi. It means they stood by all this time and heard this voice, with the result that they took in certain things. Active voice: they were all listening. The participle means that this was their intention. They heard the Father’s answer. The Father’s answer was specific: “I have glorified; I will glorify.”

“heard” – aorist active participle, having heard; “said” – kept on saying. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The imperfect tense: they kept on saying. They chattered about it.

The Greeks said, broth – “thunder” in the accusative; ginomai, perfect active infinitive. What they really said was, “Thunder has come to pass,” or “It thundered.”

“others” – the Jews in the crowd. Apparently, somewhere along the line some traditions were passed down to the Jews. In the Old Testament the angels actually taught the Jews, and their voices were powerful voices like thunder. Therefore the Jews have learned to associate thunder with the voices of angels. So they said the only natural thing, “angels spake” – perfect active indicative of lalew. That is, communicated something. Jesus got it but they didn’t.

Both groups were wrong. This was God the Father and He was speaking to the Son in answer to the prayer, “I have and I will glorify.”

Verse 30 – an explanation. Jesus had to tell both groups they were wrong. “Jesus had an answer” – a)pokrinomai; “and said [communicated it].”

“This voice [of the Father] came not” – perfect tense of ginomai; then, dia plus the accusative twice: “not because of me, but because of you.” In other words, John would later record this as indicative of the principle that no matter who is praying if prayer is uttered apart from grace it will never be answered. If it is out of phase with the plan of the Father it cannot be answered. The Father only answers prayer that is compatible with His plan. Therefore the more you know about the plan of God the greater becomes your effectiveness in prayer. The secret to prayer is knowledge of doctrine. You don’t learn to pray by practicing; you learn to pray by getting doctrine. You learn to pray by getting the rules and the principles involved, and finding out what is in the plan of the Father and what is not.

Verses 31-33 – the announcement of the cross.

Verse 31 – “Now is,” present active indicative of e)imi. We go from ginomai to e)imi, absolute status quo.

“the judgment of this world” – krisij, the act of judgment; kosmoj [world] belongs to Satan, he is the ruler of it, and here is where the back of Satan is broken, here is the great victory in the angelic conflict.

“now shall the prince of this world” – i.e. Satan, John 14:30; 16:11. The cross will terminate one phase of the angelic conflict and a new phase will begin, leading to operation footstool.

“be cast out” – future passive indicative of e)kballw [ballw = to throw or to cast; e)k = outside]. He will be thrust outside, dethroned. But not yet. The removal of Satan from the throne of this world and the replacement of Jesus Christ as the son of David occurs at the Second Advent. The cross is where all of this begins but “the prince of this world be cast out” is future. Now, by the cross in four days time, the back of Satan would be broken, but Satan will remain as ruler on this earth—although he spends time in heaven until the middle of the Tribulation when he is cast out of heaven and can be only on the earth. Then he will be removed from the earth at the end of the Tribulation by the second advent of Christ. He will be incarcerated for 1000 years. Then he will be cast off the earth, completely outside. This is future tense, it has not occurred as yet. The cross only makes it possible. Christ will receive the crown at the Second Advent but the cross must come first. We also have a passive voice here. Satan will receive being cast out. The indicative mood is the reality of it. In addition to e)kballw we also have an adverb to go with it—e)cw, which means outside. Operation footstool.

Principle

1. The cross must come before the crown. This was challenged when Jesus first began His public ministry. He was tempted to take over the kingdoms of this world. He rejected it. Satan offered the kingdoms of the world without the cross.

2. Jesus Christ is judged on the cross before Satan is judged at the Second Advent. Christ must be judged for our sins before the judgement of Satan can occur. So the judgment of sin must precede the judgment of Satan because Satan is the author of sin in the human race. So the sequence and the chronology of God’s plan is important. There are no mistakes; Jesus Christ followed the correct chronology.

3. There are no mistakes or accidents in the plan of God.

4. God is perfect, His plan is perfect.

5. Jesus, therefore, will not succeed Satan but will overthrow him. The only way Satan can be overthrown is to have sin judged first.

Verse 32 – “And I.” Jesus is referring to Himself. We have a proleptic pronoun here in the emphatic position, and it means I and only I.

“if” – 3^rd class condition, indicating it hasn’t happened yet, it is potential; “I be lifted up” – aorist passive subjunctive of u(yow. The subjunctive mood goes with

the 3^rd class condition, e)an plus the subjunctive is how we know what a 3^rd class condition is. The aorist tense refers to the point of time when Jesus Christ will be lifted up on the cross. The passive voice indicates the subject receives the action of the verb; Jesus Christ received the cross. Christ of His own free will died physically when His work was finished, but He was placed on the cross, not of His free will. He was put there because of the will of the Jews in legalism, the will of the Romans in expediency, and the will of Satan of course to cut Him off. He was put up there also by the will of the Father because once on the cross He bears the sins of the world. But His own will became compatible, not just to the will of the Jews, nor the Romans, but the will of the Father. Jesus Christ was not concerned with the will of the Sanhedrin or the Romans. He was only concerned with the will of the Father. Therefore He has to submit. The passive voice indicates He received crucifixion.

“will draw” – future active indicative of e)lkuw which means to draw in the sense of magnetism. Here we have the magnetism of grace. It also means to draw in the sense of fishing, to pull in a net full of fish. It also refers here to the concept of the spiritual death of Jesus Christ. The spiritual death of Jesus Christ removes the barrier between man and God.

“all unto me” – why did He say this?

Verse 33 – the answer. “This He said” is an imperfect active indicative. He had to keep on saying this, imperfect tense of legw, explaining it a few times. He was teaching them.

“signifying” means to communicate, present active participle of shmainw, the word from which we get “signs.” It actually means to communicate, or to indicate or emphasise in a special way: “This he kept on saying, constantly emphasising.”

“he should” – imperfect active indicative of mellw which means to be about to be. This is an inchoative imperfect, which means He was about.

“die” – present active infinitive of a)poqnhskw, generally used for the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.

Verse 34 – “The people answered him.” The people in this verse are not seeking Greeks, their discourse ended in the previous paragraph. Instead we have Jews who were in the audience, and not Jews who were positive, as many of them were; these are negative. Therefore the aorist passive indicative of a)pokrinomai means that all of this time they have been looking for a chance to discredit Jesus Christ. They are in the audience but they are not there to learn. A)pokrinoma means to have an answer. To look for an answer; to look for an answer and find it. Really here it means they looked for an opportunity to somehow put Jesus down. There are always people in crowds who want to put down the one who is teaching. Jesus Christ has been teaching the truth, teaching Bible doctrine. He is the greatest teacher of all time—the God-Man, the unique person of the universe. Consequently, these people when they finally had an answer had a purpose which was to discredit the Lord Jesus Christ. They always begin by citing scripture. This is typical of religious people who try to use the scripture against the Lord Jesus Christ.

“We have heard” – there is more than meets the eye to this aorist active indicative of a)kouw. They are indicating that other people have taught them too, and that they had accepted the authority of these other people. The teaching was the Old Testament scripture—“out of the law.” This is why, for example, Jesus is going to quote Isaiah three times in this section. Isaiah is a part of the Old Testament too.

“that the Christ” – o( Xristoj – “abideth forever” – present active indicative of menw indicating the eternity of Messiah, or Christ. They had heard this from Isaiah 9:6, also from Psalm 110:2-4; Daniel 7:14; and this emphasises the deity of Messiah. Their problem is that they are really seeking to put down Jesus Christ. Jesus has announced in the previous paragraphs to the seeking Greeks that the seed must fall into the ground and die and it is the death of Messiah that they are going to use against Him. He has announced the cross, the fact that He is going to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. Immediately they think they have Him now, they have been waiting for this opportunity with their ears closed to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Deity is not subject to death and this apparently the Jews understood. So they knew enough theology with their negative volition to be antagonistic and to look for an opportunity to put down the Lord Jesus Christ. Really, the questions they are about to ask are not seeking information. They are really trying to put down the one who is teaching. The more that Jesus Christ taught with authority the more the Jews who were negative tried to put Him down.

There are four doctrines which resolve the questions coming up: the doctrine of divine essence, the doctrine of the eternal decrees, the doctrine of the hypostatic union, and the doctrine of soteriology. In other words, Christ has to become true humanity to fulfil Messiahship. This is clearly taught in the Old Testament but they have ignored these things.

The first of two questions designed to put down the Lord: “and how sayest thou” – present active indicative of legw plus the interrogative pwj which is really used to be insulting. They have finally heard something that they can finally use against Him. “How sayest thou” is not the ordinary interrogative pronoun tij, but instead it is the interrogative adverb, and it indicates the opposition. It is an idiom of opposition. The Jews in the audience understood that Christ was speaking of His death and their question implies that Christ was now speaking contrary to scripture.

“The Son of man must be lifted up?” Son of man is a title for the humanity of Christ. The word “must” is the impersonal form of the verb dew, and the form is dei. The purpose of that form is to bring in an obligation of necessity. “Why do you communicate the information that the Son of man must be lifted up?” To us, the words lifted up may not imply death, but they understood it that way because u(yow means not only a commonly-known death at the time but it was the system of Roman death, and that in itself lead to other problems with them. They understood it was the cross involved here. The aorist tense means, You have said this now—recently. The passive voice indicates that the Son of man must be lifted up on a cross, the infinitive denotes purpose, and they are actually parroting back to Him exactly what He taught. However to them it is subjective information, they aren’t even objective in their outlook, and they are simply accepting this information long enough to throw it back in His face. That is what they are doing.

The second question: “who is” – now they use the interrogative pronoun tij. This interrogative pronoun is a polite question, but when you start out with an interrogative adverb and follow it up with an interrogative pronoun it is an insult. They are being sarcastically polite; “this Son of man?” They understand Son of God but Son of man is the basis for their attack. In answer to their question, the doctrine of the hypostatic union.[3]

The Son of man is the humanity of Christ. Lifted up into heaven He goes as the God-Man; He goes in hypostatic union. He has a resurrection body after death, but before He goes to the cross He has only a human body. So the Son of man emphasises His human body in the hypostatic union. When He goes to the cross He goes as the God-Man but it is the humanity that dies.

Verse 35 – “Yes a little while” is an accusative of the extent of time of a word for time, xronoj, referring to time in the sense of one moment followed by another moment, one minute followed by another, etc. This is where we get the word chronology. The extent of this time can be broken down as follows: first of all, there are six days before the cross—John 12:1. Then there are three days in the grave—Matthew 12:40. Then forty days on the earth in a resurrection body—Acts 1:3. So the accusative of the extent of time is 6 days plus 3 days plus forty days. In other words, Jesus, when He has uttered these words in verse 35 had forty-nine more days on the earth.

“is”—present active indicative of e)imi, “keeps on being.”

“the light” – the light is Christ as a manifest person of the Godhead, John 1:17; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12. Jesus does not argue theology but gets to the issue of salvation; “is with you.” Light is used also in the sense of who and what He is—essence box. God is light. Jesus is referring to His deity as well as His humanity.

No He is saying they don’t have the light with them much longer, the God-Man is not going to be around. But that doesn’t mean deity will not be around. In omnipresence Jesus Christ will always be around. When Jesus Christ ascends His humanity goes to heaven and He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will return at the Second Advent. So He is only going to be there for a short time and this is a great opportunity for these Jews. Therefore He says …

“Walk” – present active imperative, and should be translated, Keep walking or Keep advancing toward the goal.

“while ye have the light” – the have is present active indicative of e)xw and it means to have and to hold the light. This is the opportunity to receive Christ as saviour. Advance toward the goal. While the credit cards of Messiahship are being presented this is a perfect opportunity to receive Christ as saviour. Walk or advance toward the goal when you have and hold the light.

“lest” introduces a negative purpose clause: “that darkness does not take you by surprise” – aorist active indicative of katalambanw.

“for he that walketh in darkness” – this refers to the Jews on negative volition. They keep on walking in darkness.

“knoweth not” – perfect used as a present for o)ida; “wither he goeth” – the present active indicative of u(pagw means you don’t know when you are going to depart. That means you don’t know when you are going to die, and when you die that is your last chance to be saved. It also means nationally you don’t know when the nation is going to be broken up under the fifth cycle of discipline. It has a dual connotation here but it emphasises primarily to these unbelieving Jews that they don’t know when they are going to die, so that had better take advantage of it now.

Verse 36 – “While ye have the light, believe in the light.” Jesus is right there is Palestine as the God-Man. Therefore the second present active imperative: “believe” – dramatic present of the verb pisteuw, non-meritorious thinking. The object always has the merit; the object is always efficacious. The active voice: you have to do the believing. Imperative mood: a personal command from the only saviour to believe in Him.

“in the light” – reference to the incarnate Christ, right there with them; “that ye may be” – aorist active subjunctive of ginomai, “you may become.”

“the children of light” should be “sons of light.”

“These things” – there have been several in this passage: one to the Jews, one to the Greeks, and one to the negative volition crowd.

“spake Jesus” – aorist active indicative of lalew which means to communicate.

“and departed” – aorist active participle of a)perxomai which does not mean to depart, it means to disappear; “ and did hide” – He didn’t hide, He “was hidden” – aorist passive indicative of kruptw. The purpose: to make sure that He got to the cross.

“from them” means from the ultimate source of them. This is a religious crowd. Obviously they would try to eliminate Jesus Christ before He got to the cross.

We now have the case of the rejecting nation. Here is a documentation of a national entity which is reaching the point of rejection and the resultant reversionism, As a result of this reversionism and a maximum practice of reverse process reversionism this nation is line for, and will receive in 70 AD, the 5^th cycle of discipline. The forty-year period is a grace period to give everyone an opportunity to avoid the judgment.

Verse 37 – “he had done” is a perfect active participle of poiew. The perfect tense indicates that the miracles were accomplished in the past but have permanent results in the evangelisation of the Jews during the incarnation of Jesus Christ. One time during the incarnation the entire nation of Israel was evangelised. Here is that evangelisation declared through the miracles—“so many miracles.” The miracles which are prevalent and in focus in the Gospel of John are seven. Each one of these became the basis of a great evangelistic push and in effect there were seven waves of evangelism accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ in these miracles.

“before them” – the adverb e)mprosqen used as a preposition. It means in the presence of. It a part of the principle by which the Lord evangelised. A spectacular miracle was followed by focussing attention on the message—the message of Jesus Christ as the Messiah-Saviour. If Jesus Christ was simply trying to alleviate suffering, as per the liberal view and the apostate view of Christianity, as per social action and operation bleeding heart, then He is remiss; because if His objective was simply to alleviate suffering then He should have performed millions of miracles; he should have healed everyone in the southern and the northern kingdom and, in the bridge between the two, Perea.

“yet they believed not on him” – they refers generally to the religious Jews who will be described in their reverse process reversionism of having hardened hearts; “believe not” is an imperfect active indicative of pisteuw plus the negative. The imperfect tense means that they continued in this attitude all of the way from negative volition, scar tissue on the soul, emotional revolt of the soul, blackout of the soul, reversionism, and the practice of reverse process reversionism. In other words, the imperfect tense means they carried their unbelief from the point of instant rejection to continuous reversionism. Their continuous reversionism resulted in national disintegration, the fifth cycle of discipline.

Verses 38-41, the explanation of rejection. He is an amplification and short discourse on reaction to the message of Jesus Christ.

Verse 38 – reaction involves human volition. This was documented by Isaiah. “That” introduces a result clause. The word for “saying” here is simply o( logoj, literally, “the word [doctrine].” The doctrine is quoted now from Isaiah 53:1.

“might be fulfilled” – aorist passive subjunctive of plhrow. The culminative aorist: the scripture has now been fulfilled. The passive voice: the scripture received fulfilment. The subjunctive mood goes as a part of the clause and is not potential. It is literal fulfilment. The subjunctive mood is used here to indicate that this is a result clause.

Now the Lord Jesus Christ is going to depart from the public and have a private ministry to His disciples. Up to this time Jesus Christ has spent three years evangelising the Jews in Palestine. From this point on He is going to spend His time in teaching the disciples with regard to the next dispensation. So having the rejection clearly stated we now have a quotation from Isaiah” “Lord who hath believed our report [doctrine]?” The word a)koh means doctrine which was presented under the right conditions—academic discipline, training. In other words, He gained a hearing, made a presentation, and it was rejected.

“and to whom is the arm of the Lord”—a title for the Lord Jesus Christ, as per Isaiah 53:5,6—“revealed” – a)pokaluptw means to be clearly disclosed, plainly signified. The Jews of our Lord’s day had received maximum exposure to the gospel, maximum revelation, a concentrated saturation of evangelism.

Principle: Maximum revelation followed by maximum rejection is followed by maximum national judgment, i.e. the 5^th cycle of discipline.

“Who hath believed our report?” indicates volitional involvement. These people, are without excuse, they have heard the report or they have heard the doctrine. The aorist tense of a)pokaluptw is a constative aorist, they have heard it over a period consistently for three years, seven instances of which are described in the Gospel of John. The passive voice: they have received this information. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that they have had clearly presented to them the gospel in the best possible form. So they are totally and completely without excuse.

Verses 39-41, divine essence is involved.

Verse 39 – “Therefore they could not believe.” Therefore is dia plus the accusative of touto which means because of this—because of maximum negative volition at the point of gospel hearing. This creates a vacuum in the soul based upon scar tissue. That opens up a vacuum in the soul, and through the vacuum comes satanic and false propaganda in the form of religion which attacks the right lobe—the frame of reference, the vocabulary-categories, the norms and standards and the launching pad. At the same time, this starts the Jews on a frantic search for happiness in the area of religion, legalism, and asceticism. Combining the three they were able to build a lot of self-righteousness in a hurry, as per the concept of the Pharisees.

Remember, we are not dealing in this passage with the thousands of Jews who responded and were born again. Right now we are studying only those Jews who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ: “Therefore because of this” – because they had rejected Christ.

“they could not” – imperfect middle indicative of dunamai. The imperfect means they kept on not being able. The middle voice is reflexive. They themselves had said no so many times that they are exactly like the Pharaoh of the Exodus whom they despise. The Pharaoh of the Exodus said no, no, no, no, and finally he couldn’t say yes.

“they were not able to believe” – present active infinitive of pisteuw. When a person says no often enough and long enough so that he builds up a maximum amount of scar tissue on the soul, so that the mataiothj [Eph. 4:17] opens up and makes a great attack, the information he receives in that attack does two things. It causes him to function to build scar tissue, it causes him to emotionally revolt, but this information that comes through mataiothj also makes him say no every time he is confronted with the gospel. He will always say no, that a person with the blackout of the soul will never say yes.

“Esaias said” – aorist active indicative of legw, quoting Isaiah 6:9,10.

Verse 40 – “He hath blinded their eyes,” the perfect active indicative of tuflow which means the blackout of the soul. The blackout of the soul occurs under two principles: scar tissue on the left bank of the soul (too many no’s); scar tissue on the right bank. No there is the blackout of the soul and the only light that comes through is pseudo light—the matiaothj opens up and doctrine of demons will come through that pipe. Tuflow means to be blind in the sense of perception, not literally blind. They have heard the gospel time after time, they have seen miracles which confirm the message as well as focus attention on the message, and they have said no, no, no, no. They have total scar tissue leading to total blindness—soul blindness, perceptive blindness. The perfect tense means blinded in the past with the result that they will never see the issue of the gospel again. The active voice: they have done this through a series of negatives toward the gospel. The indicative mood is the reality of strong delusion.

“hardened their heart” – we change from the perfect tense to the aorist tense and the word is porow. This is a constative aorist and it explains the fact that over a period of time they said no. They have a blackout of the soul so that they no longer perceive and no longer care about ever accepting the gospel. Notice that it is said that the heart is hardened. The heart is the right lobe. The blackout of the soul always results in the heart or the right lobe getting false information.

“that they should not see with their eyes” – the word for see here is o(raw which is used for soul perception. They have rejected Jesus Christ as the light and now scar tissue excludes the light and volition no longer operates. Once you have scar tissue on the left and right banks of the soul you are no longer free, you are the slave of the devil; matiothj will give you your instructions but your volition will no longer operate. In other words, as scar tissue accumulates you are no longer free. The build-up of scar tissue cuts down the freedom of the soul.

“nor understand with their heart” – the word for heart is aorist active subjunctive of noew which means to think. This is the thinking of the soul—“nor do they think with their right lobe.” They are incapable of thinking divine viewpoint. For if they were …. E)pignwsisj gospel when they hear it, they would ….

“be converted”—aorist active subjunctive of strefw which means to turn and go in another direction. Converted can be used for the unbeliever who goes in the direction of the cross—⁺V, and is saved. But it can also be used for the believer with regard to doctrine. It all depends on which side of the cross we are discussing. If we are discussing a person who is not saved the blackout of the soul is strong delusion. It keeps him from being saved. If we are talking about a believer in reversionism the rejection of Bible doctrine blacks out his soul to the point of the sin unto death. To be converted means to change. Here it is used for unbelieving Jews, so it means to change the attitude toward Christ, believing in Him, and therefore receiving salvation. It can also be used for a believer in reversionism who is converted or changes in the sense of changing his attitude toward Bible doctrine. The aorist tense is an iterative aorist, begins to change. The passive voice means to receive information on which to change. The subjunctive here is the true subjunctive in the sense that such a change is potential.

“and I should heal them” – future active indicative of i)aomai, used for the healing of the soul. There is no physical healing here at all. We are talking about thinking, the right lobe, the hardness of heart, and hardness of heart can only be healed by a positive attitude toward Bible doctrine—first a positive attitude toward the gospel which results in believing in Christ: instant healing; secondly, the same concept is also used when a believer recovers from reversionism through the daily intake of Bible doctrine and the removal of scar tissue. The future tense indicates that it is future from the time of the decision. The active voice indicates the individual must make a decision. In the case of the unbelieving Jew in this context he believes in Jesus Christ. In the case of the believer in reversionism, he makes a series of decisions of a positive attitude toward doctrine. The indicative mood is the reality of the healing of the soul at the point of salvation.

Verse 41 – an interpretation. “These things” is a warning regarding the 5^th cycle of discipline which would occur in Israel’s day. It wads pending in Isaiah’s day but did not come off due to the fact that the Jews in Isaiah’s days turned to the Lord. But now we have a new national disaster paralleled to that of Isaiah’s day.

“when he saw” – when is o(ti and means “because.” “Saw” is the perception of the soul; it is an aorist active indicative of o(raw—panoramic view or perception of the soul.

“his glory” – the glory of the essence of the Godhead; “and communicated,” not “of him” but the preposition peri which means “concerning him [the Lord Jesus Christ].”

“These things Isaiah said, because he saw his glory [of Jesus Christ], and communicated concerning him”—constative aorist, kept on communicating [at various points].

Verses 42-43, the neutralisation of key believers. Many believers never recovered after salvation because immediately after salvation they face a new issue. The issue before salvation is. “What think ye of Christ?” But after salvation the issue is, “What do you think of the thinking of Christ?”—doctrine. Your attitude toward doctrine determines were you are going from there. Many of these people never got off the ground.

Verse 42 – “Nevertheless” is the conjunction o(mwj, and it should be translated, “But for all that.” With it is mentoi, a Classical Greek word for “however.” So this should be translated, “But for all that, however.”

“[even] among the chief rulers” – this included prominent members of the Sanhedrin, e.g. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and other prominent men who became believers. But very quickly they were overcome by the lust pattern of their old sin nature. It takes a lot of doctrine immediately to straighten this out. The Jerusalem church never recovered from this, it was destroyed in 70 AD with everything else.

“many” – polloi; “believed” – aorist active indicative of pisteuw, non-meritorious thinking, the object of believing [Jesus Christ] has the merit.

“but because of the Pharisees” – the most legalistic of all the parties in the Sanhedrin, and legalism always persecutes grace. The Pharisees were vigorous in their persecution of grace.

“they did not confess him” – imperfect active indicative of o(mologew which means to cite or to acknowledge. Here, with the negative o)ux, “they kept on not acknowledging him.” In other words, they went into a state comparable to reversionism where they did not acknowledge Him. These VIPs were pressured so that they did not witness, acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ.

“lest” introduces a negative purpose clause, i(na plus the subjunctive, plus the negative—“that they should not become ostracised from the synagogue.”

“should not become” is an aorist active subjunctive of ginomai. The words “ostracised from the synagogue” is a noun, not a verb, the nominative plural of a)posunagwgoj [a)po = out from; sunagwgoj = synagogue]. Putting the two compounds together means to be excommunicated or ostracised from the synagogue.

Verse 43 – the reason. “For” introduces an illative gar which gives the reason.

“they loved” – aorist active indicative of a)gapaw, mental attitude. They are minus mental attitude love from doctrine, therefore they are in emotional revolt. In emotional revolt they have approbation lust, power lust, they want to be well thought of.

“the praise of men” – literally, “the glory from men.” The words of men is an ablative of source. They loved glory from the source of man more than they loved glory from the source of God. The reason: Lack of doctrine means lack of capacity for love. So these people are hamstrung by reversionism.

Verse 44-46, the plan of God discourse.

Verse 44 – “Jesus cried and said.” The word means to shout, not to cry – krazw. He was heard very well.

“He that believeth” – present active participle of pisteuw, dramatic present here. The participle indicates that not only at that time but at any time in human history God’s plan is the same. There is only one way to be saved.

“on me” – the word on is e)ij, a directional pronoun. It is like an arrow which points toward Christ. This is the principle of eternal salvation at this point.

“believeth not on me [only], but on him that sent me” – in other words, when a person believes in Jesus Christ he at the same time believes in God the Father. The word pempw means the Father sent the Son; it indicates that the plan was the Father’s plan. Since Christ is a part of the Father’s plan and we are commanded specifically to believe in Him we have an amplification here. The moment you believe in Christ you also believe in the Father. It means you have accepted the plan of the Father.

Verse 45 – “And he that seeth me,” the word qewrew means to view with interest and attention. All those who have believed in Christ observed Him with great interest. Present active participle: they kept on viewing Him with interest. Viewing Him with interest results in seeing “him who sent me.” “No man hath seen God at any time,” therefore how are they going to see the Father? By listening to the words of Jesus Christ. Christ is the revealer of God the Father; He is the revealer of the Godhead—John 1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12; Hebrews 1:3. So here is the indictment of the Jewish race at this point. The Lord Jesus Christ is not only the only saviour but He is the revealer of the Father. In rejecting Christ they have rejected God the Father.

Verse 46 – “I am come” is the perfect active indicative of e)rxomai. Jesus Christ has come into the world. The perfect tense means that the first advent will have permanent results. One of the results will be eternal salvation of everyone who believes in Christ. Another permanent result is going to be the discipline of the Jewish nation from 70 AD to the end of the Church Age and into the Tribulation. Literally this is, “I have come a light.” The word for light is fwj, which indicates that even though man is in darkness the light is available: qeorew means you can see it; o(raw means you can see it—both verbs are used in this context to indicate not one Jew in all of Israel ever has an excuse.

“that” – i(na plus the subjunctive; “whosoever believeth” – present active participle indicating this is the way people are always saved.

“shall not abide” – aorist active subjunctive of menw which means to abide or remain. The aorist tense is a constative aorist. In unbelief they are constantly in darkness. Active voice: by their own negative volition they are in darkness. The subjunctive mood indicates the purpose clause.

“should not” – aorist active subjunctive plus the negative with menw. Reversionism means the 5^th cycle of discipline. They are in darkness now and the darkness will be amplified by the 5^th cycle of discipline.

Verses 47-48, the alternative to the plan of God.

Verse 47 – “If any man hear my words and believe not.” This is a 3^rd class condition emphasising human volition. This is the aorist active subjunctive of a)kouw which means to concentrate and then to accept the authority of the one who is teaching.

“and believe not” should be and does not guard it [not believe]” – fulassw. A nation that does not guard the gospel will eventually lose out as a nation. So this means rejection by the part of the nation in general.

“I judge him not” – present active indicative of krinw, “I do not judge him,” literally. He is not the judge at this point. This is a warning that the 5^th cycle of discipline will be administered by God the Father and not by God the Son.

“I came not to judge” is literally, “I came not that I might judge” – i(na plus krinw.

“but to save the world” – so He now states His purpose, and He is sticking with His purpose. He will not deviate even by pretending that He Himself is going to judge. His job is to save – i(na plus the subjunctive mood of swzw in the aorist active subjunctive. The purpose of the first advent is to provide salvation for mankind and Christ in fulfilling that purpose must be judged rather than do any judging Himself.

Verse 48 –a record of the future judgment of those who reject Jesus Christ as saviour. “He that rejecteth me” – present active participle of a)qetew [a = negative; qetew = from tiqhmi which means to appoint, to place, to assign, allocate] – “not appointed.” Those who do not appoint Christ—those who refuse to assign Him His proper place—Messiah. He is talking to Israel, therefore instead of using a negative with pisteuw He uses a)qetew to indicate that the Jews reject Jesus Christ by failing to assign to Him His proper place of Messiahship.

“and recevieth not” -- present active participle of lambanw, which means here with the negative to reject a gift. So they reject the Father’s gift by failing to assign to Him His proper place of Messiahship, the son of David.

“hath one [God the father] that judgeth him” – God the Father will actually be responsible for the administration of the 5^th cycle of discipline.

“the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” – Jesus Christ will very definitely face these people who have rejected Him at the last judgment and at that time they will have a clear understanding as to why they are there; they have rejected the only saviour.

Verse 49-50, the executor of the divine plan.

Verse 49—“For I have not spoken of myself” is literally, I have not spoken out from myself, e)k plus the ablative.

“but the Father which sent me” – this is the Father’s plan. The aorist tense indicates the period of the incarnation.

“he gave me” – perfect tense, he has given me with permanent results; “what I should say [legw], and what I should communicate [lalew].” Both words are different but they have the same idea of communication.

Verse 50 – “I know” is the perfect o)ida used as a present tense for certain knowledge in the soul of Jesus Christ. Knowledge in the humanity of His soul as a part of the supergrace life.

“his commandments” – 1 John 3:23. We are commanded to believe in Jesus Christ; “is” – present active indicative of e)imi, keeps on being, absolute status quo.

“life everlasting” – 1 John 5:11,12.

“whatsoever I speak therefore” – present active indicative of lalew which means to communicate. Lalew emphasises the manner of presentation; legw emphasises the content of presentation, and both are used together in this passage.

“as the Father has said” is a total departure from any Koine Greek. This is a pure Classical word here, the Attic perfect active indicative from rew which means to flow. It is used in the perfect tense for legw which has no perfect tense as such. So we go to the Attic Greek word for a permanent declaration—“as the Father had said.” This takes us back to eternity past when God the Father designed the plan.

“so I speak” – present active indicative of lalew, so I keep on communicating.

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[1] See Doctrine of the poor.

[2] See Doctrine of separation.

[3] See Doctrine of the hypostatic union.