INTRODUCTION;
It is now only a few days before the crucifixion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 36 tells us that Jesus hid from the multitudes in order to spend some concentrated time with His disciples before His death. In this passage of Scripture, John 12:37-50, the apostle John gives a summary of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus to the nation of Israel, and then he gives Jesus’ response to the nation.
I. JOHN’S EVALUATION OF THEIR UNBELIEF (verses 37-41)
John has three things to say about the Jew’s rejection of Jesus. First, it was illogical, considering all the miracles Jesus had performed to prove He was the Son of God. There are two aspects of Jesus’ miracles that John emphasizes. In verse 37, John uses the words “so many miracles”. Not only were there many miracles but there were also many kinds of miracles, some of which were repeated. For example, there was the feeding of the 3000 and the feeding of the 5000. There was also the raising of Jairus’s daughter as well as the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The large number and the great variety of miracles demonstrated Christ’s power and gave the people many opportunities to observe and examine them.
Jesus performed His miracles “before them”. Most of His miracles were not done from a distance or in secret, but right in front of their very eyes. To reject these miracles was to deny the obvious. The apostle John expresses amazement that, though the Lord Jesus performed so many mighty works, the Jewish people as a nation did not believe in Him. As John mentioned before, their unbelief was not caused by any lack of evidence. The people did not want to believe. They refused to believe.
Secondly, their unbelief was predicted. In verse 38, John quotes Isaiah 53:1 when he says, “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” There is a question over who is speaking in this quote: “who has believed our message?”. To say that it refers to Isaiah and the other prophets doesn’t fit with verse 2, nor with Isaiah 52:15 or chapter 54 of Isaiah. I would like to suggest that the speaker in verse 1 is the nation of Israel — the future nation of Israel which will have come to believe in Jesus Christ. This new Israel that is to come is looking back to the time of Christ and asking, “Who believed the message we received then? How many recognized the “arm” or the power of God in the miracles of Christ?” The obvious answer is “not many”, not many at all. The form of this question is an emphatic way of saying that the message was rejected.
Thirdly, in verses 39-41, John declares that their unbelief was decreed by God. In verse 39, he says, “For this cause, they could not believe.” Then John quotes the words of the prophet Isaiah, saying, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart; lest they see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.” Let’s not misunderstand the words of John and the prophet Isaiah. The people are not being condemned against their will, or before they have an opportunity to choose for themselves. John is writing here about a cause-and-effect relationship and God is not the cause of their spiritual condition. They are the cause. What they persist in doing, they will become. It doesn’t say that they can’t repent or that God won’t forgive them if they do so. God has not put an obstacle in their path. They have stubbornly put an obstacle in God’s path and God is allowing them to have their way and experience the consequences of their disobedience.
The word “hardened”, in verse 40, comes from the Greek word for “callus”. I’m sure many of us have calluses on our hands. Wherever there is a callus, the skin is not as sensitive to touch or pain because that hard callus covers the nerves underneath it. That same process can happen spiritually. The more a person rejects the Gospel message, the harder it becomes for him or her to receive it.
One of the early church fathers, Augustine of Hippo, commented on this passage of Scripture. He said, “If I be asked why they could not believe, I answer without hesitation, ‘because they would not; because God foresaw their evil will, and he announced it beforehand by the prophet.’ ”
Pastor Ray Stedman used an illustration that brings this principle across clearly by applying it to our human bodies. Here is his illustration:
“Tie your arm to your body and leave it tied, unmovable, for a week. When you untie it, you will find that you can hardly move it; it will have lost its ability to function, not because God wants people to lose their arm function. No, but God determined the law that says, ‘use it or lose it.’ . . . It is also true of moral life. If you don’t exercise faith when you have the opportunity, you will gradually lose the ability to do so, until there will come a day when you cannot exercise faith. By the law of nature, then, God has hardened your heart and blinded your eyes. Having chosen that, that is what you become. If you refuse to act on truth, you will finally lose the ability to recognize it. It has been said,
“There is a line by us unseen, that crosses every path,
The hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath.”
II. BELIEF IN MIND, NOT IN ACTION (verses 42-43)
As the apostle John continues to evaluate their unbelief, he makes a statement in verses 42 and 43 that could be misinterpreted if it isn’t tied to his previous statements. John is not saying that many of the authorities became followers of Jesus Christ. What he appears to be saying is that many of the authorities were entertaining thoughts that Jesus was the Messiah, but there was no evidence of a commitment to follow Christ at that point in time. True faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is life-changing. The indwelling Christ overcomes the fear of man and gives the true believer the desire and the power to stand firm in the face of opposition. There is no such thing as a secret disciple of Christ.
In 373 A.D., a man by the name of John Chrysostom spent some time alone in the mountains of Antioch, seeking to know God better. He learned from that experience that, with God on His side, he could stand alone against anyone or anything. That lesson was put to the test later on in his life. In 389 A.D., he was appointed patriarch of Constantinople, where his zeal for reform antagonized Empress Eudoxia, who had him exiled. Allowed to return after a short time, Chrysostom again infuriated Eudoxia, who sent him away again. How did Chrysostom respond to such persecution? With these words: “What can I fear? Will it be death? But you know that Christ is my life and that I shall gain by death. Will it be exile? But the earth and all its fullness are the Lord’s. Poverty I do not fear; riches I do not sigh for, and from death, I do not shrink.”
The rulers of the Jews, on the other hand, refused to confess Jesus Christ before men because of their fear of the consequences. The approval of men was more important than the approval of God. That attitude ruled out the possibility of any real commitment to Jesus Christ as their Lord. There were two exceptions. After the crucifixion and death of Jesus, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea risked their reputations and their lives when they asked Pilate for the body of Jesus Christ so that they could give Him a King’s burial.
III. THE SERIOUSNESS OF REJECTING CHRIST (verses 44-50)
After finishing his evaluation of that situation, the apostle John now quotes the words Jesus spoke to them at that point in time. Verse 44 says that Jesus “cried out” He raised His voice so that everyone could hear what He was about to say. Here is His first statement: “He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me.” Jesus is saying that He and the Father are one in essence. They are both God. To see Him is to see God because Jesus is God in the flesh.
(MORE TO FOLLOW SOON).
CONSTRUCTION SITE: A Work In Progress
Thank you for visiting this construction site: John 12:37-50 Even though it is just getting off the ground, we are beginning to learn some things from the apostle John about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of men. He has much more to share about the unbelief of the nation of Israel.