John 12:37-50
In our last study…we finished by listening to Jesus’ final public invitation… before He was crucified.
John 12:36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
Q.
In our verses this morning… we’re reading about Israel’s widespread NOT belief but unbelief. (John 1:11-12)
Lets pick up in John 12:37
John 12:37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, (NIV- “would not”)
John 12:38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke (53:1) Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
We learn here from John… that Isaiah 53:1 is a prophecy speaking about how the Jewish people would not receive the report about Jesus. They would not respond to the Lords strong arm …stretching out to them!
Thus we want to understand…Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of the Jewish people repenting & receiving Jesus NOT at His 1st coming but at His 2nd coming.
In Romans 9-11 Paul also quotes Isaiah 53.1. Teaching us that when the Jewish people…rejected Jesus. The gospel came to the gentiles.
Romans 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
John 12:39 Therefore they could not believe….
This is a strong **WARNING**. In John 12:37 we read “they would not believe” & NOW we read in John 12:39 “they could not believe…” So so sobering!!
We read of a similar **WARNING** in Exodus. When we read of how Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his heart.
In Genesis 6- **WARNING** In the days of Noah. “My Spirit will NOT strive with man forever” (woo, plead, sway)
But perhaps the strongest **WARNING** in all of Scripture is when Jesus spoke of The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
Matthew 12:31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
Poem: The Hidden Line of NO Return!
There is a time, we know not when, A point we know not where,That marks the destiny of men, To glory or despair.
There is a line by us unseen,
That crosses every path;
The hidden boundary between
God’s patience and His wrath.
Hebrews 3:15 Today if you hear his voice don’t harden your heart as in the rebellion
John 12:39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.”
John 12:41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.
John explains… in Isaiah 6… Isaiah saw Jesus sitting on the throne & what was spoken was about JESUS.
The blindness & hard heartedness.. Isaiah was told about (Isaiah 6:9-10) was… a prophecy of the coming widespread unbelief in Jesus in Israel .
John 12:42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
These were SECRET BELIEVERS…. who didn’t confess Jesus publicly.. lest they be put out of the synagogue!
Why didn’t they confess Him?
Q. Is it possible to be a SECRET BELIEVER in Jesus?
A. According to Jesus ..If your faith is a GENUINE faith… it can’t remain a secret!
Matthew 10:32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:14-16
John 12:44 Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.
John 12:45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.
John 12:46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.
John 12:47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.
John 12:49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
The opposite of a SECRET believer is Baptism.