Untitled Sermon (3)

We begin our time together tonight at the end of a chapter in Jesus ministry. We’re only half-way through the book of John, but here in John chapter 12, the author is drawing to a close the first major section of the book: Jesus’s public ministry in the midst of the Jewish people.

From here on out, John is going to take us in Jesus’s footsteps to the path that leads to His death on the cross, giving us an intimate look at the conversations that Jesus had with His disciples. I’m really excited for the next few months, because we are going to get to be a fly on the wall, listening to the things that Jesus wanted His disciples to know before they were going to have to watch Him die on the cross.

But for now we’re in the final scene of the first act. Jesus has revealed Himself as the Messiah to God’s people, the Jews. aaaaaand it hasn’t really gone that well.

In and 37 we see Jesus hiding himself from the crowd one last time, and John’s assessment of how Jesus had been received:

Slide

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” 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

Kind of a disappointing conclusion to the preaching career of God Himself. And once again, as John has done constantly throughout His book, we’re humming along, listening to the story, and we’re surprised by how things go.

We’ve all heard some pretty good speakers preach or teach at various points in our lives, and been impacted by their message. Don’t you think that the GOD of THE UNIVERSE would be able to be more impactful than those guys?

Isn’t it weird that Israel was told to wait for a savior, to wait for a savior, and then when He shows up he’s not only mostly ignored, he’s then put to death?

I’m so glad you asked.

Remember, John’s gospel isn’t just a story book that bumps along from event to event. It’s a carefully crafted work of art, skillfully arranged to accomplish the author’s specific goal. He told us what it was in :

SubSlide

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 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.

The gospel of John is written to show conclusively that this Jesus guy from Nazareth, WAS in fact the promised Messiah, so that the readers might find eternal life by believing in Jesus.

So here we are at the end of Jesus’s ministry, and even though Jesus has done unbelievable miracles in front of thousands and thousands of people, some of these miracles being things that had never been done before (like giving sight to a blind man), for the most part, people don’t believe him. And In fact, less than a week later, many of them are going to be calling for His crucifixion--death on a cross.

And John doesn’t try to gloss over this part. To distract us from Jesus’s lack of success as a motivational speaker. He doesn’t hide it or minimize it. He highlights it.

He basically says “and Jesus did so many miracles, nobody could avoid believing, except they pretty much all did.”

John knows it’s only natural for us as His readers to be wondering this. So He tells us why, starting up again in verse 37.

Slide

37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 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?”

39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

40 “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.”

41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

Whoah, Whoah. Whoah.

If you’re not a little freaked out by this--You might not be paying attention. So John, what you’re telling me is the reason nobody saw who Jesus was was because God had blinded them to seeing who Jesus was?

What is going on here?

Why would God do such a thing?

See right here we need some cultural context. Because if John is saying that Jesus appeared to some people, saying “hey, believe in me, it’s the only way. But oh, by the way, I’m making you unable to believe in me.” That’s a really scary passage of scripture. Right? Are we awake yet?

See that’s not what John is saying. It’s almost the opposite. Because Jesus didn’t just appear among some people. He came to His people. The Israelites. God’s people.

John was already preparing us for this moment in chapter 1, verse 11 when He said

Subslide

“[Jesus] came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

See Jesus didn’t come to a people who had no context for who He was. He came in the midst of the nation that had been in special relationship with God for over two thousand years.

God had come to Abraham, their patriarch, and said I’ll make you a great nations. He had renewed that covenant with Abraham’s son Isaac, a miracle-baby born to a couple who were 100 and 90 years old respectively. He had saved them from famine by bringing them to Egypt. Four hundred years later, he brought them out through miraculous means and destroyed the world’s most powerful army in the process.

He took them to Mount Sinai to make a special covenant with them saying “Hey, Honor me, walk with me, and I will protect you and make you great. But as a part of this relationship, I’m also going to discipline you if you do wrong.

And Israel spent the next two thousand years blatantly violating their relationship with God. Oh they kept doing the sacrifices God told them to do, but they violated their relationship with Him in pretty much every possible way.

By the time of the Prophet Isaiah, you would hardly know that the Israelites ever had a special covenant with God.

Here’s how God describes the spiritual situation of Israel in Isaiah’s time.

Slide

But this is the one to whom I will look:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit

and trembles at my word.

3 “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man;

he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck;

he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood;

he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol.

These four things that God describes as detestable horrible things? All sacrifices commanded by the Mosaic Law. So why is doing the things God told them to do now detestable to God? Look at the end of verse 3:

These have chosen their own ways,

and their soul delights in their abominations;

4 I also will choose harsh treatment for them

and bring their fears upon them,

because when I called, no one answered,

when I spoke, they did not listen;

but they did what was evil in my eyes

and chose that in which I did not delight.”

Is it starting to make more sense? This isn’t God randomly deciding to turn off the ears of some well meaning people who sometimes mess up. This is God bringing just punishment on a hard-hearted people who have rejected him time and time again.

And that’s where these two lines that John quotes about being blinded and hardened come from.

God comes to the prophet Isaiah and says “I’m going to send you to preach to my people. But the time for their punishment has come, so even though you’ll be preaching healing and freedom to them, they won’t hear it.”

God says “I’m going to judge them by letting them continue in the path they’ve chosen.”

Jesus came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Instead of receiving Him they rejected Him. Instead of listening to His word and obeying Him, they refused. In fact what He said made them so mad, they didn’t just ignore him, they put Him on a cross.

God judged a hard-hearted people by making them even more hard hearted. He didn’t change their direction, to redirect them away from Him. He righteously sentenced them to continue moving in their rebellious trajectory, away from the light and into permanent darkness.

See when we read this part of the story, we’re not wrong to see it as a tragedy. It is tragic. It’s terribly sad. But this is not the tragedy of the angry God just lashing out at people because He’s ticked off. The tragedy is the same tragedy from the Garden of Eden: we as humans having the opportunity to have intimate relationship with the God and deciding we want to do it our own way.

But through all this God was at work.

Because in His wisdom and power and sovereignty, He’s able to work the things we choose, both good and bad, to work together to accomplish His plan.

Jesus came to a hard hearted people. They were supposed to be the people of God. They were supposed to be led by Priests and teachers of the Law who knew God’s word and knew God. But these very same leaders were the ones who rejected Jesus the most vehemently, and influenced the people to reject him, who plotted His death and put the plan in motion.

And that is how the Lamb of God, Jesus, became the Sacrificial Lamb.

It’s easy for us to lose track of this while we’re listening to Jesus preach and seeing him do miracles. We listen and think “Man, that’s some incredible teaching. Boy is Jesus wise. What are these people’s problems???”

But Jesus didn’t just come to be a moral teacher, He didn’t come to merely be remembered as the guy who gave us the golden rule. He came to take away the sins of the world.

So God used a hard-hearted generation of His people, and their sinful response to the sinless Son of God to accomplish His plan to restore humanity’s relationship with Him.

Whenever the Bible starts giving us insight into just how powerful and just how in-charge of the universe God is, it can start to freak us out. We hear about God hardening the hearts of these people and it sometimes makes us nervous. Doubt starts to creep in. We worry about whether our fate has already been decided for us, we worry that we’ll accidentally cross this point of no return, and miss out on heaven.

But here’s the deal. John’s point here isn’t: watch out! God hardened these people and you’re next!”

John isn’t talking about how God sometimes just gets really angry and starts damning people left and right. It’s the opposite. He’s not saying “it was too late for them and it’s too late for you!” The whole reason He’s writing the book is so that we would listen to Jesus and believe in Him.

Don’t believe me yet? Let’s keep reading.

Slide

42 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; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Interesting. So even though this generation of Israelites had an extra pair of earmuffs, or an extra layer of earwax, and despite their hardness of heart, some of them actually got what Jesus was saying. And they believed that what He said was true.

But they wouldn’t live it. They wouldn’t confess it out loud, because the price was too high. The Pharisees had declared that anybody who went with Jesus was officially kicked out of the Jewish faith and therefore kicked out of the Jewish society.

And then the spotlight comes back to Jesus, crying out. The scene is dark. We can’t see the surroundings. Just Jesus, Crying out. And here’s what he says, verse 44:

Slide

44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Ok, so we’ve spent a little bit sweating because John was talking about God hardening people’s hearts, and people who listened but didn’t follow through. And now we’re back to Jesus. The final cry as his public ministry ends. And what does he have to say?

“Whoever.”

If you believe in me, you’re believing in the Father. If you see me, you see Him.

And then He says this:

“I have come into the world as light so that _____

Whoever.

Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”

And he goes on to express this double-edged sword aspect of Jesus’s ministry: Jesus came to bring salvation, not judgment. He came as the light. But people’s reaction to the light is telling. He’s not there to condemn them. But when their time comes, and they stand before the righteous judge, the word’s of Jesus, the truth that shone directly into their lives, that they ignored. The words of hope that they rejected, will ultimately result in their condemnation.

What are we supposed to think about that?

A silly analogy to help us understand this.

Suppose scientists discover tomorrow that a huge meteor is hurtling towards earth, and that it’s going to destroy life as we know it.The only way to avoid this destruction is to claim a free ticket aboard the giant spaceship that will leave the following day.

There are three ways you could respond.

The first: refuse to respond. “Eh, that’s never gonna happen.”

The second: “Man, that looks serious.” But never leave your house to get the ticket and board the shuttle.

The third: I’m already out the door headed for the space station.

If the meteor comes the next day, what happens to the three people?

Two of the three of them get hit by the meteor. The fact that one of them thought space-travel was a good idea is irrelevant.

John has reminded us that is sovereign and in control, and that He’s the righteous judge. Is that good news or bad?

It depends where you stand.

If you haven’t given your life to Christ, you’ve had the light shine on you. Our sinful state has been revealed to us. We’re broken. We’re guilty. We need a savior.

To You, John is simply saying, You have a serious problem. But it’s nothing Jesus can’t fix. Put your trust in Him!

If you’re standing, covered by the blood of Jesus. If you’ve accepted the free gift of eternal life by trusting in Jesus, it’s all good news!

If you’re in Christ, this is a huge relief! Jesus’s apparent failure as a motivational speaker is actually good news--it wasn’t a problem with the speaker that resulted in so much rejection--it was a problem with the hearers. They were hard hearted and under judgment, and God is able to use people who have already decided to side against him to accomplish His perfect plan to save us. He’s the righteous judge, but He’s also the sacrificial lamb. It’s good news!

But it’s also a call to action. John says “look: some of the people we’re talking about here didn’t miss what Jesus said. But they chose to love the glory of man instead of the eternal glory offered by God. They chose to offer the temporary delights of sin over eternal joy with God.

That’s a serious thing! So what do we do Jesus? How do we move from being just a hearer to a doer?

I’m so glad you asked.

See like I said earlier, this part of John is the close of Jesus’s general ministry. His proclaiming the truth to whoever would listen. Now we move into the final week before his crucifixion, to the intimate conversations He has with His closest disciples, as he prepares them for ministry after his crucifixion, resurrection, and return to heaven. John has us primed and ready: What do we do to not just believe Jesus but live like it? Come back next week to find out!

In the meantime. We rest. We serve the God of the universe. Even the plotting of the bad guys, even the stubbornness of those who reject Him, none of it can thwart his plan to bring us back into relationship with Him.

Let’s pray