Final Call!

There are some of us here today who have done a fair amount of traveling by commercial airlines.

It takes a decent amount of prep work.

You pack your bags, you check your flight itinerary. You check and double check your departure time.

You plan the time that you will need the house so that you can arrive at the aiport on time and get checked in, go through security. If you are flying internationally, you have to clear passport control and customs.

You plan carefully.

Because the last thing that you want to hear as you get out of your car at the airport is, “This is the final boarding call for Delta flight_______, and you hear your flight number called.

This happened to use once when we were headed back to Africa after Kayla was born.

Some of you have heard this story, so I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that things got real interesting real fast!

Turns out, it wasn’t our fault. Because of weather, they had canceled our later flight and had booked us on an earlier flight.

Through an act of God, We did make the flight, but it wasn’t pretty.

But trust me, you do not want to have this experience!

As undesirable as this was, even worse would be to mosey through life, thinking that you had plenty of time,

And then you hear, “Final boarding call to believe in Jesus!”

Oh no, I thought I had plenty of time!

John 12:35–50 (ESV)

35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

The Unbelief of the People

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 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. 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.

Jesus Came to Save the World

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.”

One of the things that people often bring up when they talk about their doubts about God is this:

“If God is really love, how could he have executed such terrible judgement on people?

How could have have ordered the destruction of certain nations of people. The Canaanites, the Amalekites, and so on?”

They read these stories and they form in their mind this picture of a God who is angry, and judgemental and will, without warning, if I mess up, execute devastating judgement on me!

I don’t want to serve a God like that.

And they justify their continued rejection of God on this picture that they have of Him.

And if that is really the God that the Scriptures talk about, then I understand. I might be there too, if God really is that kind of God.

But more and more as I read the OT Scriptures, I get a different picture!

I see over and over a God who is rich in mercy and slow to anger!

English Standard Version Psalm 145

8  The LORD is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9  The LORD is good to all,

and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Look at the stories:

Adam and Eve. Sinned, but God made them clothes and provided for them and promised a redeemer

Noah: The people had 120 years to repent as Noah built the ark

Pharaoh: 10 different plagues and he did not truly repent

God, declaring His name to Moses: The LORD, The LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

The children of Israel: Cycle after cycle of falling into sin and being delivered by God

God indeed is a gracious and merciful God

And God does not change. He will always be gracious and merciful, abounding in chesed, Covenant Love!

However, we are in a time where His eternal plan has a timetable. He had a time to choose Abraham

He had a time to establish the kings of Israel

He had a time when Jesus the Messiah would come

He had a time when Jesus would die

And He has a time when there will be a judgement and when it will be too late for all those who never believed in Him.

It seems very clear from Scripture that God will not “hold the plane” for people who are unwilling to believe.

Even though 2 Peter 3 says this: 2 Peter 3:9–10 (ESV)

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

He goes on to say:

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

So there will be a judgement. There will be an end of this physical life and we enter into eternity. There will be a time when it is simply too late.

This reality is something that we all have to deal with.

Today in our passage, Jesus had just talked about his own death: crucifixion. He said, “I’m going to be lifted up”

The Jews knew what that meant. Crucifixion was so common in that day. At times there were streets lined with crosses.

They knew what it meant to be lifted up.

And of course this offended the crowds. This is the same crowd made up of people who saw Lazarus being raised from the dead, as well as those who heard about it and were eager to see and hear more.

This is the same crowd that lined the roadway with palm branches in their hands and cried out “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! This is our King!”

This very same crowd, as soon as Jesus says that He, the Messiah, must be lifted up,

Suddenly steps back (holding up their hands) and says, “Whoa up there! What do you mean “Lifted up”?

We thought that the Christ (the Messiah) was supposed to live forever, or be the Eternal King! How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?

All it takes again, is for Jesus to challenge their thinking just a little bit, and the people who were just a few moments ago, enthusiastic supporters, become skeptical critics

And it’s at this point that it seems like we see the curtain coming down on Jesus public ministry

We believe from Matthew’s gospel that Jesus still did some teaching and discussion with people in the Temple after this, but John gives us quite a different picture of Jesus after the Triumphal Entry.

He doesn’t try to reason with them. He doesn’t argue with them.

He just looks quietly at them and says: John 12:35–36 (ESV)

35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

Jesus says, “You only have the light for a little bit yet. Walk in the Light! Believe while you still have the chance!

Believe in the Light so that you can be sons of light!

This, I believe is Jesus’ final warning. The final boarding call.

You don’t have much time left.

Why don’t they have much time left? Is it because Jesus is approaching the hour of his death? That’s part of it.

Is it because, in not too many days, He will be returning to live with His father and will no longer walk among them? No longer teaching them and showing them who He is?

Again, that’s part of it.

But there is something else going on.

And then John includes these verses that I think are some of the saddest verses in all of the Bible.

John 12:36–43 (ESV)

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

The Unbelief of the People

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 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. 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.

Blind spiritual eyes and hard spiritual hearts.

This is the main reason, I believe, that Jesus gives them this final warning to walk in the Light while they still have the light.

It’s because He knows the danger of hard hearts and spiritual blindness.

He quotes from the prophet Isaiah.

We are familiar with the story in Isaiah chapter 6 where he has a vision of the LORD, high and lifted up. He sees the glory of the LORD filling the temple.

And he sees the seraphim attending Him and worshiping Him.

And Isaiah is overcome with terror because He has seen the LORD.

But He is comforted and cleansed by one of the seraphim and then He hears the voice of the LORD asking for someone to be a messenger for Him.

Isaiah, having caught a vision of the glory of God and having been cleansed immediately volunteers. “Here I am! Send me!”

(would to God that all of us would have that kind of attitude. Lord, I don’t know what you are asking me to do, but send me anyway!)

And the Lord sends Him with a message. And it seems like a very strange message. But here it is.

“ ‘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.”

We read this, and we say, “What is God saying here? What kind of a message is this?”

Basically, here is what God is saying: “I am done warning you.

“You have hardened your stopped your ears to my words, you have closed your eyes to the things I have shown you, and you have hardened your hearts to my Spirit.

I have come to you time and time again and given you warning, yet you persist in your ways.

So now, if you want to be deaf, be deaf! If you want to be blind, then be blind. If you want to be hard-hearted, then be hard-hearted.”

And Isaiah asks, “How long, O Lord?” (how long must this message be preached?

And God says, “Until judgement comes. Until the land of Israel and her cities are destroyed and the people are carried away. That’s how long this message needs to be preached.

We know that judgement did come and the people were carried away into exile.

In our passage today, John makes the same commentary as he watches Jesus withdraw from public life and end His public ministry.

John says in 12:39, they could not believe. Why? Because their eyes had been blinded, their ears defeaned, and their hearts hardened.

Because of their persistent doubting and unbelief, they had been calloused to the truth.

I have callouses on the ends of my finger on my left hand. They come from pressing guitar strings over and over. It’s great for playing guitar, but not so good for feeling things

It’s that way for our physical bodies and it’s that way for our hearts.

When we persist in unbelief and blindness, we become calloused.

And there comes a point when, it seems, that God will say, “Ok, if that is the way you want to be, then so be it. I will not force my way through the callouses.”

As the LORD says in Genesis 6, “My spirit will not always strive with man”. God is persistent, but He does not force us to believe in Him.

He does not force unwilling ears to hear or unwilling hearts to believe.

Jesus withdrew from public ministry because, yes it was His hour to die. But also, and even more tragic, because people refused to believe.

Some believed, yes. But as we have seen so often, it’s not enough to believe deep down in my heart.

You must verbally confess. Romans 10:9-10 says that we must believe AND confess verbally.

To often that didn’t happen when it came to Jesus. John says that some believed. Even some of the authorities believed. But they were scared of the Pharisees and so they did not confess. They didn’t want to be put out of the synagogue.

because they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

I don’t know about you, but that makes me wince. Because it hits a little too close to home.

I want people to think well of me. I don’t want to be unpopular or uncool because I love the glory of God above anything else.

But that is what Jesus requires of us.

As we look at our country today, historians and scholars would say that we are a post-christian nation.

Which means that many of us are stopping up our ears, closing our eyes, and hardening our hearts to Jesus.

To what degree is that true of us here in the Kalona community?

To what degree is this true of here at Fairview?

Is Jesus looking at us and saying, “You only have the Light for a little while longer. While you hvae the light, walk in it so that you can be sons of the light!”

ARe we about to hear the final boarding call

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Is 6:9–10). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise...