“They Did Not Believe”
[John
12:36b-43]
September 4, 2016 Second Reformed
Church
We may remember a few weeks ago as
we looked at the passage prior to the one that was read this morning, we saw
Jesus explain to the crowd that the Son of Man – Jesus’ favorite title for
Himself – the Savior – both had to be lifted up – crucified – and to reign
forever.
Jesus had to be crucified to pay the
debt for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, and then He would rise
from the dead – as a seed planted in the ground sprouts and grows and comes to
life – and He would bear fruit through the good works of all those who believed
in Him.
This is the last time that Jesus
speaks to the crowd. He warns them that
He will only be with them a short time longer.
He is going to be put to death.
The Plan of God and the sin of man kissed and Jesus bowed to the Will of
the Father and accepted His coming brutal death to the Glory of the Father and
for the salvation of we who believe.
From here on until Jesus’ arrest, He
goes into hiding and only speaks with the Twelve. This was His last call to the crowd to repent
and believe, and we see the result in our text:
“When Jesus had said these things, he
departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before
them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet
Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and
to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’
And we see, they did not believe.
For three years, Jesus told the
crowd, “I am God. I am the Savior. I am the Son of Man. I am the Only Way to be right with God. Believe in Me. Repent of your sin.”
He healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind. He raised the dead.
He preached the Word of God. He submitted to the Word of God and the Will
of the Father. He taught the crowd.
He rode into Jerusalem to proclaim
Himself King and Savior. And He
prophesied His crucifixion and resurrection.
The Word of God was clear. The Power of God was evident. And they did not believe. And there is no excuse for this sin.
Paul puts it this way:
“For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to
them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely,
his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since
the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are
without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20, ESV).
God created humans so that we can
look at all the things that have been created and know there is an Almighty God
and we are not right with Him. If you do
not believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s Wrath is against you because you
have no excuse. You know there is an
Almighty God, and you know you are not right with Him, and you have not sought
out the Way to be right with Him.
In this part of the country, you
can’t hardly trip without being in front of a church – and some of them are
even Christian churches! You have no
excuse.
If you don’t have a Bible, we will
give you a Bible, so you can read it and know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s a modern translation with readable
print. Just ask.
They didn’t believe. There is no excuse for that sin. But there is a reason.
John tells us that their unbelief –
and the unbelief of all those who do not believe – is to fulfill the prophesy
of Isaiah, “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the
arm of the Lord been revealed?”
This is the first verse of Isaiah 53
– that chapter in which Isaiah prophesies that the Savior would grow up among
the people and be despised and rejected – “But he was pierced for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah
53:5, ESV).
Why didn’t they believe? Who do people not believe today? Because that unbelief was needed to
accomplish God’s Plan of having His Son horrifically killed, that all we who
believe would be healed – that we would be made eternally right with God.
If that sounds strange to you,
consider what Paul wrote, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make
known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of
mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called,
not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24, ESV).
One of the reasons God allows evil
and unbelief and all the horrors of the world to go on is so that those who
believe will be all the more struck by the Mercy of God to us, and the riches
He has given us, and the glory we have received and are being brought into in
great joy!
Brothers and sisters, the evil and
unbelief of the world should make us long for Jesus all the more and value the
blessings we have received – most of all the salvation He has given us – that
we would put the world behind us and look forward with open arms – still living
in the world, but not being part of the world – looking always forward in the
pains of childbirth, crying out, “Come, Lord Jesus!” not simply because we want to escape, but
because He is so beautiful, so wonderful, so worthy.
God is preparing us and letting us
become all the more excited and full of longing and passionately, joyfully,
looking forward to His return and the restoration of all things in the fullness
of His Kingdom.
Second, we see another reason why
some don’t believe: they can’t believe.
“Therefore they could not believe.
For again Isaiah said, ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand
with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.’
They can’t believe. They do not have the ability to believe. All those who never believe were never able
to believe.
Why?
Because God made them unable to believe.
Why?
So they would not be saved.
Your first thought may be, “Why in
the world would God blind and harden people so they would not have the ability
to believe in Him and the Gospel?”
And you may also think, “That’s not
fair! How can God punish someone who
cannot believe?”
Paul faced the same question and
gave this answer:
“What shall we say then? Is there
injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy
on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So
then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For
the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up,
that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all
the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever
he wills” (Romans 9:14-18, ESV).
You need to remember that Adam and
Eve were our representatives in the Garden, and since they sinned, every mere
human being is born a sinner – at odds with God – hating God – only seeking
sin. So every one of us was born shaking
our first at God.
What does God have to do to blind us
and harden our hearts?
Nothing! If God does not intercede in a person’s life,
that person will continue in sin and against God.
And if God does not show mercy and
give that person the grace to believe, he will die in sin.
When your birthday comes around, do
you have the right to walk up to people and say, “You owe me a birthday
present; you have to give me a birthday present.”
Of course not.
In the same way, God is not under
any obligation to give the gift of salvation to anyone. That fact that He does give salvation to all
we who believe, is a tremendous and wondrous gift, because God doesn’t owe us
anything – and through the gift of salvation He makes us right with Himself
through His Son and makes us holy, as well.
Here, these people – and some today
– were blinded and hardened because God did nothing to save them, because He
was under no obligation to save them, and it was not His Will to save them.
Do you believe savingly in
Jesus? Are you amazed that God has given
you such a great gift that you don’t deserve – with all the blessings for all
of eternity that come with it?
Those of us who have been truly
converted – those of us who have truly believed in our hearts and minds that
Jesus is God the Son and Savior – as we are told in the Gospel – we have seen
the Glory of God – and that changes us.
As we read:
“Isaiah said these things because he
saw his glory and spoke of him.”
Isaiah said that these people did
not believe and could not believe because Isaiah saw the Glory of God and spoke
of Him. In other words, Isaiah saw the
Glory of God – He personally knew Who God is, and that changed Isaiah and what he
believed and what he preached.
Likewise, if you know God through salvation
in His Son, you will be changed.
Isaiah records his call to the
ministry:
“In the year that King Uzziah died I
saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his
robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with
two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he
flew. And one called to another and said:
“‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of
hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’
“And the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with
smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the
King, the LORD of hosts!’
“Then one of the seraphim flew to
me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the
altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips;
your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’
“And I heard the voice of the Lord
saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am!
Send me’” (Isaiah 6:1-8, ESV).
Very quickly then, what happen?
Isaiah went to the Temple, and God
revealed Himself to Isaiah is such a way that Isaiah understood more clearly
than he ever had that God is the Holy God – He is the One Pure and Perfect
Being. And because Isaiah understood
that, he understood that – compared to God – he was the vilest creature in
Creation, and he shrunk from God in repulsion of hmself.
But God, in mercy and in great love,
saved Isaiah and cleansed him of his sin, and Isaiah responded by jumping to be
faithful and obedient to the call of God.
Do you understand?
If you really know God – if you
really understand Who God is and what He is like – your view of yourself will become
very tiny – you will shrink away, knowing that you are unworthy of this
magnificent God and in debt to Him. But
if God has had mercy on you through salvation, He has cleansed you – He has
done everything through His Son to make you right with Him.
And the right response to that is to
hear the Word of God and say, “Here I am!
Send me!” “Whatever it is that
You require of me and ask of me, O Lord, let it be so – Thy will be done –
enable me and be with me and cause me to accomplish and become everything You
have commanded and willed. To Your Glory
and for my joy.”
Do you wake up in the morning and
ask yourself, “What can I do today to please and glorify God?”
Oh, that I would desire that each
day – that you would desire it each day – that our bread and meat would be to
do the will of God Who so loved us He sent His Son. Can anyone ever do anything greater for us? Is there any greater Gift?
I want us to grow. I want us to grow. I want us to want God – to know Him – to be
like His Son. I want our joy to be God’s
Glory.
Well, as we conclude this text, we
see that some believe, but were hypocrites.
“Nevertheless, many even of the
authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess
it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the
glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.”
Some people did believe in Jesus
after His final talk with the crowd. But
we are told that they did not confess that they believed because they were
afraid. They knew if they confessed
Jesus openly, the Pharisees would put them out of the Temple.
The reason they did not want to be
put out of the Temple was that they preferred to have the people praise them
and know them and think well of them as they walked among them in the Temple, then
suffer persecution as a believer – instead of being open about their faith.
Which might have caused some people to think differently about them – not to
mention what the Pharisees would do. They
believed – at least intellectually – that Jesus did fit the prophesied Savior,
but they did not confess Him from their heart.
Jesus said, “So have no fear of
them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not
be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear
whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body
but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in
hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to
the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all
numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So
everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my
Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before
my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:26-33, ESV).
Jesus said not to be afraid of
people. Jesus said not to be afraid of
even people that would put you to death for His sake. Because, if you acknowledge Jesus as God and
Savior before men, He will acknowledge you before the Father. But, if you do not acknowledge Jesus as God
and Savior before men – if you believe with your mind that it makes good sense
that everything that Jesus says is true, but you don’t have the
heart-confidence to answer, “Yes, I believe that Jesus is God and Savior,” when
someone says he will kill you if you say that, He will deny you before the
Father.
You and I cannot know that heart of
anyone, and people come to saving faith even in the last moment of life. But Jesus is saying that there are people who
claim to be Christians, who say they believe the Bible is true, but when
standing for Jesus and His Gospel, when saying, “Yes, I am a believer,” will
cost their reputation, their job, their family, even their life, they deny
Jesus – even if it is only by not saying anything.
This is very serious: if you say you’re a Christian, that you
believe the Bible is true and Jesus is God and Savior, but you are unwilling to
say that – no matter what may happen to you – you are not a Christian.
If your friends desert you, and the
government imprisons you and tortures you, and says they will put you to death
if you do not renounce Jesus, and you think you can deny Him and still call
yourself a Christian, be very afraid.
Some of you may not believe. Some of you may never be able to
believe. Some of you may be hypocrites,
even fooling yourself that you do believe.
Check your hearts and see if you believe that Jesus is God and Savior
not matter what anyone may ever do to you.
If you don’t, remember that time is
short. You are under the Wrath of God
and you will have to stand before God to receive His judgment for your rebellion
against Him. Believe and repent before
it is too late.
But if you are like Isaiah and you
have seen the greatness and the beauty of our God and Savior – if you have repented
and been cleansed by God and you long for Him – then live for Him every
day. Be filled with the joy of our
Savior as you grow in faith and obedience.
Be thrilled to find new ways each day to please our God and Savior!
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we can only imagine
the heartache Your Son had as He called people to faith and they did not
believe. We thank You for the
understanding that You do not owe anyone anything, but out of Your love chose
to save all we who believe. Excite us to
know You better and in finding our joy in faith and obedience. Let our greatest joy be to see you pleased
and glorified. For it is in Jesus’ Name
we pray, Amen.
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