Belief or Unbelief (John 12 37-50)

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Study Notes on John 12:37-50: "Belief and Unbelief"

Key Events:

• Rejection of Jesus' Miracles (John 12:37-41):
  • Despite witnessing many miracles, many people did not believe in Jesus.  This rejection fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy, highlighting the spiritual blindness and hardened hearts of the people.
• Fear of the Pharisees (John 12:42-43):
  • Some leaders believed in Jesus but did not confess their faith openly due to fear of being ostracized by the Pharisees. They valued human praise more than praise from God.
• Jesus’ Final Public Teaching (John 12:44-50):
  • Jesus emphasized that belief in Him is also belief in God the Father. He reiterated His purpose as bringing light into the world to save, not to judge.
  • Jesus indicated that His words will judge those who reject Him on the last day.

Key Themes:

• Contrast Between Belief and Unbelief:
  • The passage presents a stark contrast between those who believe in Jesus and those who reject Him despite clear evidence of His divine power.
• Fulfilment of Prophecy:
  • John references Isaiah to show that the unbelief of the people was foreseen by the prophets, indicating that this rejection was part of a larger divine plan.
• Spiritual Blindness and Hardening of Hearts:
  • The inability to believe is linked to a spiritual condition where people are blind and their hearts are hardened, preventing them from understanding and accepting the truth.
• Fear and the Praise of Men:
  • Some believers feared the consequences of openly following Jesus, showing the struggle between genuine faith and the desire for societal acceptance.
• Jesus as Light and Judge:
  • Jesus' role is to bring light and salvation to the world. However, rejection of His message results in self-condemnation, as His words will judge unbelievers.

Reflections for Personal Study:

• Self-Examination:
  • Reflect on whether you are walking in the light of belief or remaining in the darkness of unbelief. Consider the transformative power of faith and its demands for change and sacrifice.
• Courage in Faith:
  • Evaluate how fear of rejection or desire for human praise might influence your openness about your faith. Reflect on the importance of prioritizing God's approval over societal acceptance.
• The Role of Jesus’ Teachings:
  • Reflect on Jesus' teachings and their implications for salvation and judgment. Consider the res

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Transcript

Belief and Unbelief.  (John 12: 37-50)

Full Transcript

Good morning/afternoon/evening, friends welcome to today episode of TBPDP.

Imagine witnessing miracles firsthand—blind eyes opened, the dead raised, and thousands fed with a mere handful of loaves and fishes. 

Yet, despite those undeniable signs, many still chose to reject Jesus. 

How is it possible to stand in the very presence of divine power and remain unbelieving? 

John’s account confronts us with this perplexing reality: the human heart's capacity for both belief and unbelief.

In these verses, we encounter a striking contrast. On one side, we see how the miraculous works of Christ, which were meant to illuminate the truth of His divine nature. 

But in response, we see hardened hearts and spiritual blindness, 

Today’s passage forces the people response to Jesus’ presence both to his miracles and his declaration of his coming death by crucifixion.

Jesus speaks with urgency, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness" (John 12:46). 

Yet, despite His clear declarations, many preferred the darkness over the light. Why? 

Because the light demands change, sacrifice, and a departure from comfort and complacency. 

The light He bringst exposes our deepest selves and challenges us to live authentically and righteously.

As we explore this passage, consider where you stand. Are you walking in the light, embracing the transformative power of belief? Or are you, like those who witnessed His miracles yet remained unmoved, trapped in the shadows of unbelief? 

Today’s sermon will guide us through these questions, urging us to confront our faith, our doubts, and ultimately, our choice to follow the light of the world.

So, welcome to TBPDP….

So, in yesterday’s episode we saw Greeks come to Him, indicating for us that this is the moment that the Gospel, the good news of Jesus is opened up to the entire world.

John is implying this is as a direct result of the rejection by the Jews, He will turn now and open up his disclosure to the Gentile nations. And what does He do? He announces His death. That was the main point from verses 23 to 36: He announces His death and calls upon those listening to believe them to believe. Now, will they? That's the question.

At this point, John gives us an editorial comment, the reaction of John, in verses 37 to 43.

John then comments,

37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: 

“Lord, who has believed our message

    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,

so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.

41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. 42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

(John 12: 37-43)

This is a passage which is bound to trouble many who read it. John quotes two passages from Isaiah. 

Now in these verses, John is giving us a reaction and he says two things happened. 

Number one, some of them did not believe. And he quotes Isaiah to say that this is amazing. He says in verse 37, "That though He had done many miracles before them, yet they still didn’t believe in Him." 

So although he says their very unbelief is unbelievable. But yet it was entirely predictable andhe quotes Isaiah 53:1, "Who hath believed our report?" They didn't believe, and John is saying, "Isaiah had predicted they wouldn't believe either."

This passage presents a tough teaching. John says in verse 39, "Therefore they could not believe." This isn't just John saying they wouldn't believe; he says they couldn't believe—they were totally incapable of believing. 

If you struggle with this, consider the fact that Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth said. "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him; he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor 2: 14)

In other words, without divine intervention, people cannot understand or accept the things of God. They are spiritually blind and thus cannot believe. 

So, they did not believe because they could not believe. This is a hard truth, but it's a reality John presents clearly.

To understand this we must try to think ourselves back into Isaiah's heart and mind. He had proclaimed the word of God and put everything he had into his message. And yet people refused to listen. In the end he was forced to say: "For all the good I have done I might as well never have spoken. Instead of making thing better my message seems to have made them worse. They might as well never have heard it, for they are simply confirmed in their lifelessness and their disobedience and their unbelief. You would think that God had meant them not to believe." 

Isaiah's words spring from a broken heart. They are the words of a man bewildered by the fact that his message seemed to make people reject God instead of receiving Him

(ii) But there is something else. It was a basic belief of the Jews that God is behind everything. They believed that nothing could happen outside the purpose of God. 

We must understand this passage to mean, not that God predestined certain people to unbelief, but that even man's unbelief can be used to further God's eternal purposes. These Jews did not believe in Jesus; that was not God's fault but theirs; but even that has somehow its place in God's scheme. God is so great that there is nothing in this world, not even sin, which is outside his power.

The second reaction John notes is that some believed but did not confess. In fact many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him out loud, lest they were thrown out of the synagogue." 

This suggests that for some their faith was genuine, but their fear of the Pharisees and the potential for being ostracized kept them silent. 

Ultimately by their actions they desired the praise of men more than the praise of God.

It's important to note that John uses the strongest possible term for genuine faith in verse 42. "Many believed on Him" indicates real faith. However, their fear of being excluded from the synagogue and their desire for human approval prevented them from openly confessing their belief. They preferred the glory of men rather than being identified with Christ. 

This illustrates the genuine struggle every believer in Christ has between genuine belief and the fear of societal rejection. 

In reality to accept Christ and bend yourself to God will often involves rejection and even suffering.

I understand. There’s a very bright butterfly with vibrant wings on one side. The underside of its wings looks like a leaf. In fact, the nickname of this particular butterfly is the "leaf butterfly." When it flies through the air, you see flashes of bright colour, but when it lands, it pulls its wings in such a way that it looks like a leaf on a tree. It hides the vibrant glory of its upper wings and just blends in with the landscape around it.

Similarly, some people prefer to conform to the world rather than openly and boldly displaying their faith.

Now, let’s move to the final part of the passage, verses 44 to 50, where Jesus gives another response:

44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.47 “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. 49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

(John 12: 44-50)

These, according to John, are Jesus' last words of public teaching. Hereafter he will teach his disciples and then after that he will stand before Pilate, but these are the last words he will address to people at large.

Jesus makes the claim which is the basis of his whole life, that in him men are confronted with God. To listen to him is to listen to God; to see him is to see God. In him God meets humanity, and humanity can man can meet  with God. 

That meeting spawns two results and both have in them the core of judgment.

So once again Jesus returns to a thought that is never far away in the Fourth Gospel. He did not come into the world to condemn; be came to save. 

It was not the wrath of God which sent Jesus to men; it was his love that sent Him in order to rescue them, to save the,.

Yet the coming of Jesus inevitably involves judgment. Why should that be? Because by his attitude to Jesus a person shows what he is and therefore judges himself.

If he finds in Jesus the infinite grace of God, then we are saved.  Even if he never succeeds in making his life what he knows it ought to be provided we have responded to Him we are safe.

If on the other hand we see Jesus nothing lovely and our hearts remain untouched in his presence, it means that we are is impervious to God; and we have therefore judged ourselves.

Always in the Fourth Gospel there is this essential enigma; Jesus came in love, yet his coming is a judgment. Jesus is God's plumbline, to measure are response to him by our own attitude we reveal were we stand on this matter.

That is one of the great truths of life. A person cannot be blamed for not knowing. But if he knows the right and chooses the wrong his situation is all the more serious. 

Therefore every opportunity we have had to know the truth, will in the end be a witness against us if we reject it.

All that we have known and did not do will be a witness against us at the last.

Jesus is saying that if you choose not to believe in Him, you choose to remain in darkness. He came into the world as light so that whoever believes in Him would not stay in darkness. 

Additionally, He says that those who reject Him and do not receive His words will be judged. Although Jesus did not come to judge the world but to save it, the very words He has spoken will judge those who reject Him on the last day. 

Essentially, if you refuse to believe in Christ, you will face judgment.

In the context of this passage, when the Jews rejected Jesus Christ, several significant things happened:

The rejection symbolized a turning point where Jesus would now turn to the Gentiles.

The ultimate consequence of rejecting Jesus is being rejected by God.

Our decision regarding Jesus Christ is crucial and could determine Our destiny. God will judge you based on your decision about Jesus. 

One decision can have devastating and disastrous consequences.

To illustrate, consider a story of two boys who decided to see if a gas can would explode if they put a lit torch inside. They found out that it did explode, and one of them was seriously injured. 

A simple, seemingly innocent decision had devastating consequences. Similarly, a decision to reject Jesus Christ can have devastating consequences in your life. Don't make that mistake.