“They Didn’t Believe, Because They Couldn’t Believe”

(John 12:37-41)

I. Introduction.

A. Orientation.

Last week,

We saw Jesus struggling

Because the hour had come

When He would lay down His life –

When He would go to the cross

To face the full wrath of His Father’s justice.

But the fact He knew

That this is why the Father sent Him,

That this is why He came,

And that this would save us

From God’s judgment forever,

Kept Him moving forward.

That this sacrifice would change the world

Also kept Him focused on the cross.

By His death,

Satan’s dominion would be broken

And the door of salvation would be opened to all.

B. Preview.

2

Now we also saw

That the Jews didn’t understand this –

That Messiah had to die.

They thought He had come

To overthrow the Romans

And to reign forever over David’s kingdom.

Rather than explain

What was really about to happen –

That in His death and resurrection,

He would ascend the throne of God

To rule over all the nations –

He told them instead

That they should use the time

They had remaining with Him to believe.

This morning, we see their response:

John tells us that they didn’t believe in Him,

And the reason was that they couldn’t believe in Him.

II. Sermon.

A. First, we see these Jews didn’t believe in Jesus.

1. John writes in verse 37, “But though He had performed so many signs before

them, yet they were not believing in Him.”

It’s important to note

That their unbelief wasn’t because of a lack of evidence:

3

Jesus had performed many signs.

John records only a few of His miracles in his Gospel

To make the case that that Jesus is the Messiah;

But he also clearly says

That Jesus performed many more than these.

He writes towards the end of his Gospel,

“Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the

disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that

you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you

may have life in His name” (20:30-31).

The other Gospels are full of the records of these miracles.

Jesus not only did them,

But these Jews saw them:

“He had performed so many signs before them” (v. 37).

There were many Jews at the feast

Who were from different parts of the Roman Empire

Who might not have seen what He had done,

But it’s likely most of them had.

Jesus’ ministry had been going on now

For three and a half years.

During this time,

He attended all the mandatory feasts,

And likely many that weren’t required.

And, of course, each time He attended

4

He used the opportunities they presented

To minister the Gospel

And to confirm its truth through miracles.

John could also be referring

To the particular miracles

Jesus did at Jerusalem, such as:

Healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5),

Giving sight to the man born blind (chapter 9),

And raising Lazarus from the dead (chapter 11),

Which this last He didn’t do at Jerusalem

But at Bethany,

Which was only 2 miles away.

If you’ll recall,

This was the main reason

So many Jews came out to meet Him

When He rode into Jerusalem.

But even though He had done so many miracles,

And they had seen them,

They still didn’t believe –

They still didn’t receive Him as their Messiah.

It’s a common saying that seeing is believing:

5

But is that always true?

Not necessarily.

These Jews saw, but they didn’t believe.

Miracles are powerful –

They stop traffic –

But they don’t necessarily convince;

And they certainly don’t convert.

The Lord may use them to this end,

But by themselves, they aren’t enough.

Sometimes they have the opposite effect.

When the Pharisees saw Jesus cast a demon

Out of a man that was blind and mute,

They accused Him of working with the devil (Matt. 12).

Those who had seen His miracle

Of healing the lame man on the Sabbath

Accused Him of breaking the Sabbath

And wanted to kill Him (John 5:18).

The point is:

The problem wasn’t with the evidence –

There was plenty of that,

And it all pointed to the fact

That Jesus is the Messiah.

6

He did the works God said Messiah would do.

Maybe the problem was the message –

They didn’t believe because

Jesus wasn’t saying the right things.

No, He was preaching the message

Messiah was supposed to preach:

Bringing the good news of salvation to the afflicted,

And proclaimed liberty

To those who were captive to sin,

As God said He would through Isaiah (Isa. 61:1).

Maybe they didn’t believe

Because of the Messenger.

We know there was no problem

In that department either:

Jesus was the perfect orator –

Better than Spurgeon,

Better than Whitefield.

They had far more than enough evidence,

They were hearing the message Messiah was supposed to bring,

And they heard perfect Messenger deliver it,

But they still didn’t believe.

7

2. This can be helpful to see,

Because people today,

More often than not,

Use the same three excuses not to believe.

Most of the time, they blame the evidence:

“There’s no proof the Bible is true;

There’s no evidence that God exists;

“Science has proven

Not only that evolution can explain everything we see,

But that it in fact does explain it.”

This is what they’ve chosen to believe.

But will the Lord accept this defense on the Day of Judgment?

Is there no evidence that the Bible is true?

If they would only take the time

To pick up the Bible and read it,

They would quickly see –

At least at some level –

That it’s true.

Is there no evidence that God exists?

Paul tells us in Romans 1

That there’s far more than enough in nature

8

To leave everyone without excuse –

Including those who can neither see nor hear –

He tells us that everyone sees it

And knows that He is.

In verse 20, we read, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes,

His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood

through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

Is there really any evidence at all

That evolution is true?

That everything we see

Could have happened by accident?

Does time, matter and chance

Really explain anything?

Does it explain the order and design we see in the universe?

Does it explain life?

Does it explain diversity of life?

The more we examine the Creation

The more impossible we see this to be.

There’s no problem today with the evidence:

There’s more than enough to prove Christianity is true.

What about the messengers of the Gospel –

Are they justified in rejecting Christianity on this ground?

They see so much hypocrisy in the church –

9

They see so few Christians –

If any –

Taking what they believe seriously enough

To prove that they even believe what they claim.

They might have an argument here:

Hypocrisy and unbelief in the church

Is the main reason the kingdom isn’t advancing more quickly than it does.

But let’s not forget

They are already without excuse without the message.

And even if we could be perfect messengers

They might still reject it,

Even as these Jews rejected Jesus.

Let’s just make sure

That we’re doing the very best we can by His grace.

And what about the message?

Can they reject Christianity on this ground?

It’s true we might not do the best job

Of communicating it to others;

But the Lord can still use what we say

To bring others to Himself.

But again, even if we did share it perfectly,

10

That’s no guarantee they would believe:

These Jews had powerful evidence,

Brought by a perfect orator,

Who delivered the message perfectly,

And they still didn’t believe.

If they had all of this and still didn’t receive Jesus,

How will we ever convince anyone?

Actually, the possibility that we will

Is as great or greater

Than it was with Jesus Himself –

Not because we’re better by any means,

But because of the situation into which He ministered.

B. Let’s go on to consider now

Why they didn’t believe:

It was because they couldn’t.

1. John goes on to tell us

That this is what the Spirit said

Would happen to Jesus.

He tells us in verse 41, that verses 38-40

Were written specifically about Him,

“These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him” (v.

41).

11

In verse 38, we read regarding the fact they didn’t believe,

“This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: ‘LORD,

WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM

OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?’”

These are the opening words from Isaiah 53 –

The chapter about the suffering Servant.

Jesus would be rejected, suffer and die

At the hands of those He came to save

Because they didn’t believe.

But why didn’t they believe?

It’s because this was God’s plan

To bring about the crucifixion of His Son –

That He might bear our sins,

That we might be forgiven.

The disciples said as much

When they prayed in Acts 4:27-28,

“For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant

Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose

predestined to occur.”

This was the Lord’s doing.

But how did He bring this about?

How did He ensure

12

That the Jews would hand Jesus over to be crucified?

John tells us in verses 39 and 40, “For this reason they could not believe, for

Isaiah said again, ‘HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED

THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES

AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I

HEAL THEM.’”

They couldn’t believe

Because the Lord blinded their eyes,

And hardened their hearts,

So they wouldn’t see,

So they wouldn’t understand,

So they wouldn’t be converted,

So that He wouldn’t be healed,

At least at that time –

We know several of these Jews

Repented and trusted in Jesus

After He had been crucified,

Buried, raised and glorified.

This is how He ensured they would betray Him

And that He would be crucified,

But how did He do this?

He didn’t physically blind them –

They saw the miracles Jesus did;

John just told us as much.

13

He didn’t take away their understanding,

As He did with King Nebuchadnezzar,

When He forced him to wander for seven seasons

Without his reasoning faculties –

They knew Jesus had done these miracles.

But He did do something

That prevented them from repenting –

That kept them from turning from their rebellion

And trusting in Jesus from their hearts.

But how could God do this and still be just –

How could He hold them accountable

For something He caused them to do?

We need to make sure

That we don’t understand this in a way

That sees God as creating evil in their hearts –

As making them do something

They didn’t already want to do.

If that was true

God would be the Author of sin

And responsible for it.

But we know that can’t be the case:

14

Habakkuk writes in 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You

cannot look on wickedness with favor.”

And James writes in 1:13-14, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being

tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not

tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by

his own lust.”

But how can both of these things be true?

How can God make it impossible for these Jews to believe

By blinding their eyes and hardening their hearts,

And yet at the same time

Not be responsible for their sin of rejecting His Son.

The answer is that God used the evil

That was already in their hearts

To blind and harden them.

He simply chose to withdraw the restraint

He had already put on their sin by His Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us that man’s heart is evil –

That there is nothing good in it.

We read in Romans 3:10-18, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN

ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO

SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE

BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT

EVEN ONE. THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR

TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING, THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER

THEIR LIPS; WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS;

THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND

MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY

HAVE NOT KNOWN. THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR

EYES.”

15

Left unchecked,

Man would destroy himself and everyone around him.

So the Lord checks that evil by His Holy Spirit.

But since God doesn’t owe this restrain to anyone,

He is free to strengthen or weaken it as He chooses.

Here, He chose to withdraw it,

So that these Jews wouldn’t believe in Jesus,

So they would turn Him over to the Romans,

So that He would die for our sins.

And since He is the One who gives this restraint

And takes it away,

He can be said to blind; He can be said to harden;

And yet still not responsible for their sin –

This is something they did,

Because this is what they –

In wickedness of their own hearts –

Wanted to do.

God has every reason

Not to give this gracious restraint to anyone.

But He had an even greater reason

To remove it from these Jews:

16

They already wanted to kill His Son.

It was an act of judgment against them.

But at the same time,

It was an act of mercy towards us.

2. What was true of these Jews

Was also true of us when we came into this world.

We didn’t arrive loving Jesus.

We weren’t born with a remnant of goodness –

Just enough to receive Jesus

If He was offered to us.

We came into the world dead to everything good,

And alive to everything evil –

As Paul told us in Romans 3.

We came as enemies of God.

We hated Him.

The only reason we weren’t worse than we were

Was because of His restraining grace.

And the only reason we ever believed

Was because He directly intervened in our lives;

As we read this morning in our meditation:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved

us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with

Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5).

17

We owe God all the credit for our salvation.

We would have perished forever without Him.

He did it all:

And so let’s love and serve Him as He deserves:

With all our heart, mind, soul, strength and time.

For those of you here this morning

Who have never trusted Jesus –

Let me leave you with two things to consider:

First, you would be a lot worse than you are

If the Lord was not mercifully restraining your sin.

You need to thank Him for that restraint.

But second, don’t confuse His restraint

For His saving grace.

If you don’t love Him,

If you’re not trusting Him,

If you’re not following Him,

You still need His mercy and grace.

He is the only One who can change your heart

And bring you savingly to Himself.

And so look to Him for His mercy,

Ask Him for His grace,

18

And see what He will do for you. Amen.

http://www.gcmodesto.org