<p>12:23- see on Rev. 7:9.</p><p><i>Jesus told them: The hour comes that the Son of Man should be glorified</i>- It can be inferred from :23 that the Lord perceived that His hour had come to lay down His life when He was told that there were Gentiles who wanted to &ldquo;see&rdquo; Johannine language for &lsquo;believe&rsquo; Him. It was as if this were the cue for Him to voluntarily lay down His life. The conversion of the whole world was a major reason for the Lord&rsquo;s death; and thus there is the inevitable connection between His death, and the need to take the knowledge and power of that death to the whole planet.</p><p>Through John&rsquo;s Gospel, the Lord inspired an awareness that the <i>essence</i> of His coming, the day of judgment and the future Kingdom was in fact to be realized within Christian experience right now. John&rsquo;s Gospel brings this out clearly. The Synoptics all include the Lord&rsquo;s Mount Olivet prophecy as a lead-in to the record of the breaking of bread and crucifixion. In John, the record of this prophecy is omitted and replaced by the account of the Lord&rsquo;s discourse in the upper room. &ldquo;The day of the son of man&rdquo; in John becomes &ldquo;the hour of the cross&hellip; that the son of man should be glorified&rdquo; (Jn. 12:23). &ldquo;Coming&rdquo;, &ldquo;that day&rdquo;, &ldquo;convict / judge the world&rdquo; are all phrases picked up by John and applied to our experience of the Lord right now. In our context of judgment now, we have to appreciate that the reality of the future judgment of course holds true; but the essence of it is going on now. As John Robinson put it, &ldquo;the Last Assize is being accomplished in every moment of choice and decision&hellip; Judgment Day is a dramatized, idealised picture of every day&rdquo;.</p><p>The Synoptics record several references to &quot;the day of the Son of Man&quot; as the day of His second coming. But in John, this becomes the time when the Son of Man is glorified- which refers both to His death, and to the subsequent glorification through the giving of the Spirit into the hearts of the believers. For this was the effective 'coming' of the Lord to the believers, as they await His literal return. This is only one of many examples of where the language and events of Matthew, Mark and Luke are alluded to and expressed by John in more spiritual and abstract terms. Here are some examples:</p><p>:</p><div align=center><table border=0 cellspacing=10 cellpadding=0 width=80%>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=396 valign=top>            <p>The Synoptic Gospels</p>            </td>            <td width=401 valign=top>            <p>John&rsquo;s Gospel</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=396 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 16:19 the keys of the Gospel of the Kingdom</p>            </td>            <td width=401 valign=top>            <p>Jn. 20:21,23</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=396 valign=top>            <p>the more literal accounts of the birth of Jesus</p>            </td>            <td width=401 valign=top>            <p>Jn. 1: 1-14</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=396 valign=top>            <p>The great preaching commission</p>            </td>            <td width=401 valign=top>            <p>Jn. 14:12; 17:18; 20:21; Jn. 15:8,16; Jn. 17:23   RV</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>Lk. 16:31</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>&quot;If you believe not (Moses') writings, how   shall you believe my words?&quot; (Jn. 5:47). This is John's equivalent of   the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, which concluded with the same basic   point (Lk. 16:31).</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>The transfiguration</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>Whilst there is no account of the transfiguration   in John, he repeatedly stresses how the Lord manifested forth His glory and   was glorified. For John, the Lord's whole life was in a spiritual sense a   form of the transfiguration experience which the synoptics described.</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=396 valign=top>            <p>The Synoptics all include the Lord&rsquo;s Mount Olivet   prophecy as a lead-in to the record of the breaking of bread and crucifixion</p>            </td>            <td width=401 valign=top>            <p>In John, the record of this prophecy is omitted   and replaced by the account of the Lord&rsquo;s discourse in the upper room. &ldquo;The   day of the son of man&rdquo; in the synoptics becomes &ldquo;the hour of the cross&hellip;   that the son of man should be glorified&rdquo; (Jn. 12:23). &ldquo;Coming&rdquo;, &ldquo;that day&rdquo;,   &ldquo;convict / judge the world&rdquo; are all phrases picked up by John and applied to   our experience of the Lord right now. In our context of judgment now, we have   to appreciate that the reality of the future judgment of course holds true;   but the essence of it is going on now.</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>The three synoptic gospels all include Peter&rsquo;s   &lsquo;confession&rsquo;, shortly before Jesus&rsquo; transfiguration on the mountain.</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>In John&rsquo;s gospel the account of the   transfiguration is lacking. Are we to assume that Thomas&rsquo; confession in   chapter 20 is supposed to take its place?</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=396 valign=top>            <p>The need for water baptism<br />            The account of the breaking of bread</p>                                    <p>The many quotations from the Old Testament, shown   to be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus.<br />            The synoptics each give some account of the literal origin of Jesus through   giving genealogies or some reference to them.</p>            </td>            <td width=401 valign=top>            <p>Jn. 3:3-5<br />            John&rsquo;s version is in John 6:48-58. He stresses that one must absorb Christ   into themselves in order to really have the eternal life which the bread and   blood symbolize. It seems John puts it this way in order to counter the   tendency to think that merely by partaking in the ritual of breaking bread,   believers are thereby guaranteed eternal life.<br />            John expresses this in more abstract language: &ldquo;The word was made flesh&rdquo; (Jn.   1:14).<br />            John&rsquo;s Gospel speaks of Jesus as if He somehow existed in the plan of God   from the beginning, but &ldquo;became flesh&rdquo; when He was born of Mary.</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table></div><p>The transfiguration is recorded in the synoptics, and their records include the idea that it happened &ldquo;after six days&rdquo; (Mk. 9:2). John speaks of the same theme of Christ manifesting God&rsquo;s glory, but he sees it as happening not just once at the transfiguration, but throughout the Lord&rsquo;s ministry and above all in His death. Interestingly, John&rsquo;s record also has the idea of the Lord manifesting the Father&rsquo;s glory after six days. The Gospel opens by describing events on four successive days (Jn. 1:19,29,35,43), and then we read that &ldquo;the third day&rdquo; i.e. six or seven days after the story has begun, Jesus &ldquo;manifested his glory&rdquo; (Jn. 2:1,11). Again in Jn. 7:37, it was on the last great day of the feast of Tabernacles, i.e. on the 7th day, that the Lord Jesus manifests Himself. Perhaps too we are to pay attention to the six days mentioned in Jn. 12:1, after which the Lord was crucified and manifested the Father&rsquo;s glory.</p>