Gospel of John 09.vp

Session 5: Good Shepherd, Resurrect ion and Li fe, the One Who Came to Die 133

VIII. The Final Call: The Unbelief of the People in Jesus, 12.37-43

A. The people’s unbelief is a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies, 12.37-40

1. Jesus hides himself from the people, 12.36.

2. Though he did many signs in front of the people, they still did not believe in him , 12.37b.

3. Isaiah’s prophecies have now been fulfilled in the experience of Jesus.

a. Isa. 53.1 – Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

b. Isa. 6.9-10 – And he said, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ [10] Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

B. Allusion to Isaiah’s vision of the pre-incarnate Christ, John 12.41 – Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

1. Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory: “Now John insists that in the Shekinah, the radiant presence of Almighty God in the Old Testament self-disclosures, Jesus himself was present” (Yarbrough, John , p. 133).