The Rejected Messiah

Introduction

Who has ever been rejected before?

Almost my entire love life before April could be considered a series of rejections, false starts or too scared of rejection so rejected myself experiences.

But, probably the hardest one for me was when I went in view of a call to pastor a church about 18 years ago or so...

What I learned in that experience was that God had a greater plan that I could have imagined, and we need to trust Him, even when we don’t understand, or even like what He is doing.

This morning we will continue our series in John, looking at a summary statement that John makes as he tells about Jesus moving from His public ministry to preparing the disciples for what was to come.

In the face of rejection, John keeps the main thing the main thing. What is John’s main thing? Remember John’s purpose statement:

John 20:30–31 ESV

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John wants his readers to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and to have life in His name.

He will once again put that on display in this passage.

Body: John 12:36b-50

Verses 36b-41

One of the major issues that John is addressing in this passage is the question: If Jesus was indeed the Messiah, why did the majority of the Jewish world living at the time reject Him?

John seems troubled by this fact...

It was likely one of many charges against the young Christian church when John wrote his Gospel...

The Jewish people, particularly the Jewish religious leaders were not stupid people...

They why did most of them reject Him?

John’s answer is what we find in this section.

The rejection of the Messiah was prophesied.

Because the rejection of the Messiah was prophesied, it really isn’t surprising that the majority of the Jewish people rejected Jesus as Messiah.

John draws the reader to the OT prophet Isaiah, who prophesied over seven hundred years before the time of Christ, who foretold of the Suffering Servant. Look at the context of Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:1–6 ESV

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The entire chapter continues with this picture of the Messiah. And yet, in spite of this, they missed recognizing that Jesus was and is the Messiah, foretold by the prophets.

The rejection of the Messiah is part of God’s sovereign plan.

This is by far the most challenging part of this passage (and one of the bigger challenges in Scripture).

The issue: Is this suggesting that God hinders people from believing in Him? And, if that’s the case, how are people morally responsible to Him? Finally, are we truly a free people then , or is life deterministic?

At the outset, we must acknowledge our limited understanding...

The Bible makes it clear that God is sovereign in all things, even man’s faith, but that man is also accountable for his choices. Keeping both in balance is crucial, as an over-emphasis to one side or the other leads to a misinterpretation of God’s ways (extreme determinism vs. extreme libertarian-ism).

God doesn’t explain Himself in this area, because He is not morally obligated to...

We probably wouldn’t understand it anyway!

Philosophically, we need to understand a few things:

God isn’t obligated to save any of us, and we aren’t entitled to salvation on our merits...

God is able to maintain trillions and trillions and trillions of “moving parts” all at once, leading all things to exactly what He would ultimately will, and yet allowing His children some limited freedom...

Freedom always has it’s necessary limits...

One of our greatest limitations on earth is we are tied to a linear chronology...

God is not tied to a limited chronology. Thus, for God, yesterday is today is tomorrow is yesterday, etc.

This means that we can only see the present, hear about the past, and dream about the future, but God sees and knows it all.

Thus, He already sees how one action will lead to another, then another. And, how those affect another’s actions, and in reality a multitude of people’s actions.

It’s truly amazing to consider!

Finally for this point, there is a certain place where I’ve come to see the vital importance of child-like faith…(I know that He is good and He is right)

When did Isaiah see the glory of Jesus and speak to Him?

Isaiah 6

This event in Isaiah’s life set a course for the rest of His life, as he was given a vision of the heavenly throne room (one of the few in Scripture) and a calling to speak God’s words to the people.

But, Isaiah wasn’t promised success.

Isaiah 6:8–10 ESV

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.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 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.”

Isaiah’s calling from God was straight-forward: Go and preach my words to these people, but they won’t listen to you. In fact, you will make them more dull, not less.

Yea! Sounds fun.

Why was he willing to do it? After seeing what he saw and hearing what he heard, he was ready to do whatever God commanded.

Unlike the people John is alluding to in this passage.

Verses 42-43

Some quietly believed, but hid their faith because they were afraid of the social consequences.

John’s next point is simple: there were some people, even some within the religious leaders, who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. But they were afraid to let anyone else know because they were afraid of what they would lose socially if they did.

And, make no mistake about it, they would have lost a lot.

Being put out of the synagogue made someone a pariah in their community, on par with prostitutes and convicted criminals...

Family would dissociated with them…they might lose work, or customers…their rights could be severely limited...

John leans heavily into the idea that they were more worried about the praise of people than the praise of God.

John’s challenge to the readers here is: don’t be like them.

Yes, it might cost you. It might cost you a lot. But, who would you rather be praised by, people or by God?

By-the-way, that’s easier to say than to do; that’s why we need each other for support, community, and accountability.

Verses 44-50

Despite all this rejection, whoever does believe will be saved.

John sums up the public teaching of Jesus with these final public words of Jesus. And they are to the point.

In fact, in this section the word “believe” is found eight times.

When something is repeated...

What does Jesus call them to believe here?

Believe that Jesus is sent from the Father;

Believe that Jesus is the Light of the world who alone can bring people from spiritual darkness into spiritual light;

Believe that Jesus words are the words God the Father has told Him to say, and therefore should be believed and obeyed.

The question of John’s Gospel in total, and this section specifically, is as relevant for us today as it was when he wrote it: Do you believe?