36 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.
INTRODUCTION
At the end of the previous section in John’s Gospel, John wrote of a warning issued by Jesus to the crowds of Jews that had gathered around Him in Jerusalem. He said to them, “the light is among you for a little while longer” (12:35). His main point was that while He was on earth, He was a blessing to mankind by revealing the power, nature, and will of God. The warning was that the blessing (Him) was about to be taken from them, so they should believe in Him now. Given the confusion, unbelief, and murderous intent of those present, it should not be surprising to find that immediately afterward (as our passage opens), “He departed and hid himself from them.”
At that point John anticipated that his readers would be left scratching their heads once again. The burning (and familiar) question (as v.37 makes crystal clear) is how unbelief could remain. How is it that Jesus could teach with the authority with which He taught, perform the kind of marvelous works He performed, and be who He was and have so many continue in their unbelief? How could the eternal Son of God, King of glory, and second person of the godhead, stand in the midst of men and women created through and held together by Him and have them respond in confusion, doubt, unbelief, and anger, rather than worship?
The main point of our passage for this morning, the big idea of John 12:36-43, is that God is sovereign even over the unbelief of the lost. And the three main takeaways for us are to learn the fear of the LORD, learn the rightness of God’s judgment, and place our hope entirely in the mercy of God. Let’s pray.
WHY DON’T PEOPLE BELIEVE IN JESUS ACCORDING TO 1-12:35?
Why don’t some people—even the eyewitnesses and objects of His miracles—believe in Jesus? John has addressed this question before. John will address it again. He began his Gospel by declaring, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him” (1:10-11). Similarly, in 3:32, John recorded John the Baptist’s words, “[Jesus] bears witness to what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony.” In 6:36 Jesus said, “You have seen me and yet do not believe.” And in 12:37, our passage, John wrote, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.”
No one can read John’s Gospel thoughtfully and not repeatedly wonder how this could be. If Jesus was/is who He (and His followers) said He was and did what the Bible says He did, how could anyone not believe in Him?! To this point, John has answered that question in a number of ways. While we’ve considered them all individually already, hearing them all together helps drive home the importance of this idea for John.
- Only those born of the will of God can see Jesus for who He is (1:13).
- More than once John pointed out that it was only after Jesus rose from the dead that certain aspects of His works and words were understood even by those who did believe in Him (2:22).
- Some did not believe, John wrote in 2:24, because Jesus “did not entrust Himself to them.”
- John recorded Jesus’ proclamation that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (3:3).
- In 3:20 John helps us to see that some do not see Jesus because they prefer to remain in darkness.
- John recorded John the Baptist’s answer in 3:27, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.”
- In 3:36 we’re told that those who do not obey, do so because they cannot see life, because the wrath of God remains on them.
- In 4:48, Jesus said, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
- In 5:21 John records Jesus saying, “The Son gives life to whom He will.”
- Jesus said to the unbelieving crowds of 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me.”
- In the clearest statement yet, Jesus declared, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws Him” (6:44).
- In another shockingly clear answer to this question, Jesus said to His disciples, ” …no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65).
- People do not believe, Jesus said, because they are not of God, according to John 8:47.
- And in 10:26, Jesus told the Jews in Jerusalem that they did not believe because they were not among His sheep.
I hope at least two things are clear from this list. First, I hope it’s clear that for John the cause of unbelief is important and consistent. It is a big deal to John to explain why people do not believe in Jesus in light of the things John wrote about Jesus. And his explanation remains mostly the same throughout his Gospel.
And second, I hope this list makes clear that God is sovereign over the unbelief of the world. I’ll say more about that in connection to our passage for this morning, but you do not understand the passages on this list if you do not see the singular thread of the sovereignty of God woven through all of them. We talk a good deal about God’s sovereignty over our belief at Grace Church, but these passages (especially collectively) help us to see that God is also sovereign over our unbelief.
With that, in our passage this morning, John gives us another (entirely consistent) piece to the answer of why people do not see Jesus for who He is or respond as they ought.
WHY DON’T PEOPLE BELIEVE IN JESUS ACCORDING TO 12:36-43?
Before we get there, however, let’s pause for a moment and recognize that we’re talking about real people, with real unbelief (maybe some here today). We can’t possibly read this as God intends if we don’t have ourselves in mind before we believed in Jesus, or our kids or neighbors who do not yet believe. This is not merely a doctrinal issue. It is an exceedingly personal issue. May God tune our minds into His Word, and also soften our hearts toward His image bearers as we consider Jesus’ answer to why people don’t believe in Jesus.
To Fulfill Prophecy (37-38)
Pulling yet again on the same thread as we just traced through the first twelve chapters of his Gospel, John explained the disbelief of the crowds in two related, but distinct ways in our passage. The first way he described it (in vs.37-38) was by quoting and claiming Isaiah 53:1.
Just before that, in Isaiah 52:13, we find a remarkable promise of God, “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.”
Nevertheless, according to 53:1, most would respond in unbelief. Even though God would send a wise and mighty servant to rescue His people, Hs people would not believe. The servant of the Lord would be “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Therefore, God laments, “Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?”.
John knew that Jesus was the servant and the present rejection of Him was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. That is at the heart of what he wrote in vs.37-38.
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?”
There were many witnesses to Jesus’ wisdom, lifting up, and exaltation (His person, teaching, miracles, crucifixion and resurrection) who did not believe in Jesus, who remained hardened in their heart toward Jesus, who despised and rejected him.
What’s more, however, John tells us that this was more than an observation he was making. Instead, John explicitly claimed that the Jews didn’t believe in Jesus so that Isaiah’s prophesy might be fulfilled in them. They didn’t believe in order that God’s promise would hold true. God was sovereign over their unbelief such that it was a means by which God would keep His word.
That’s pretty tricky, isn’t it? That can be a tough pill to swallow. I mean to provide some help with that, but before I do, we need to see that John makes it trickier still. That leads to the second way that John explains the disbelief of the Jews in this passage.
Because of God’s Activity (39-40)
Not only was the unbelief of the Jews the intentional fulfillment of a promise of God, it was also part of the active work of God. Vs.39-40, quoting again from Isaiah (this time 6:10), drives out any remaining notion that vs.37-38 describe some kind of passive acquiescence on God’s part in the unbelief of the crowds.
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.”
The question, of course, is whether or not this means what it seems to mean. It seems to teach that those who encountered Jesus and did not believe, did not believe because they could not believe. More still, it seems to say that they could not believe because God blinded and hardened them to keep them from seeing, understanding, and turning. Again, that’s a tricky pill to swallow, isn’t it? Of this, one commentator writes,
“The Christian answer [to the question of the cause of the unbelief of the crowds], as clearly articulated in Paul (esp. Rom. 9 -11) as here, is that this unbelief was not only foreseen by Scripture but on that very account necessitated by Scripture. Although the Greek conjunction hina [translated “so that” at the beginning of v.38] sometimes has resultative force (the meaning here would then be that the unbelief of the people resulted in the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, not that it occurred in order that Old Testament prophecy might be fulfilled), no such weakening can be legitimate here: v. 39 insists that it was for this reason that the people could not believe” (Carson, PNTC, 447).
The commentator goes so far as to refer to John’s teaching as “unambiguous predestinarianism”.
As the fourteen verses we saw earlier indicate (along with the several more we’ll still see in John), God is sovereign over the belief and unbelief of those who encounter the person and promises of Jesus.
This is heavy, of course. It is counterintuitive to many modern sensibilities. It even seems to be out of character for God to many. For that reason, in just a minute I’ll attempt to answer the question: What are we to do with these things? For now, though, we must make sure that we are starting with the text and not our own philosophy.
Either the Bible teaches what I just suggested it teaches or it doesn’t. And insofar as it does, we must receive it as the Word of God; and in that as good, beautiful, and true. As always, only from that starting point can we rightly work out the practical, ethical, and emotional implications.
WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH THESE THINGS?
Grace, as you can tell, this is a doctrinal issue. For that reason, we need to be careful to make sure we’re interpreting the text rightly. At the same time, however, it is also a very practical issue. And for that reason, we need to have in mind both what John means (in principal) and what it means (in practice). Four things…
Learn that God is Not to Be Trifled With
It is not a coincidence that the second passage cited by John (to explain the unbelief of the crowd) comes at the end of Isaiah 6. As you may know, the beginning of John 6 is one of the most significant descriptions of the holiness of God found anywhere in the Bible. It is the famous passage in which Isaiah encountered the God who is not to be trifled with.
Isaiah 6:1-5 I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”1 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Grace, this is not a God to be trifled with. He is holy beyond measure. He is a God of righteousness, justice, and wrath. He is a consuming fire. And that is not good news for a sinful people. It is right for us to join Isaiah in crying out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”
That’s the heart of John 12:41, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.” Isaiah knew that the holiness of God meant that he deserved nothing but condemnation and ruin. That leads to the second answer to the question of what are we to do with these things.
Learn that God is Right to Judge the World
First, as we contemplate what God’s Word says about God’s sovereignty over our unbelief, we ought to respond by recognizing that God is not to be trifled with. Second, we ought to respond by recognizing that hardening our hearts is a just judgment and right punishment for our sin.
After encountering God in the way he did, Isaiah volunteered to be God’s mouthpiece to the Israelites. The message God gave Isaiah to deliver was the words John quoted.
Isaiah 6:9-11 “Go, and say to this people: ‘ 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.'” 11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste.”
As is the case in our passage, unbelief was the judgment of God. God’s people had rebelled stubbornly and persistently in spite of God’s countless blessings and numerous warnings. In this way, it is very similar to the various times God’s judgment led to the conquering and exile of the Jews. It is a harsh punishment, to be sure, but it pales in comparison to the everlasting condemnation we deserve.
The modern notion is that it is not fair for God to judge the world in such a way. But the reality is that it is not fair for God to pardon anyone; it is only gracious. As if to make that exact point, John continued,
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.
Even the ones who were allowed some measure of sight, some measure of apprehension of the true nature of Jesus, were more afraid of men than the Isaiah 6 God. God is right to judge the world with a conquered nation, hardness of heart, or eternal torment for we are all men and women of unclean lips, lost in our sin and rebellion.
What’s more, and this is key Grace, hardening hearts as judgment for sin is simply another way of describing what is always true. Don’t miss the fact that in Romans 8:7 the Apostle Paul teaches that left to our own desires we don’t need the active hardening of God to keep us from believing in Jesus, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” It may sound harsh that God actively hardened the hearts of some, but the simple fact remains that whether He does so or not, we would never believe in God apart from the regenerating grace of God.
Is this how you view unbelief—as the universal result of our sin and the just punishment for it? Do you understand judgment as just and forgiveness as grace? Do you recognize that our sinful natures are such that apart from God’s intervening grace, no one will believe in Jesus? Can you see that our natural state is such that all of us love the glory of man more than the glory of God? Have you fallen into the lie of believing you deserve anything other than the consuming fire of God?
God is right to judge the world and a right response to this passage lives every minute of every day in light of that.
Learn that the Gospel Call Is for Everyone
We ought to respond by acknowledging that God is not to be trifled with, that judgment is just, and that those things need not be the end of the story. Although unbelief is an indication of God’s judgment on us for our sin, as long as we have breath, we also have the call of the Lord to believe on Him and be saved.
To be crystal clear, Grace Church, nothing we’ve covered is to say that present unbelief necessitates future unbelief. None of it is to say that we should not preach the gospel to everyone. For we do not know when God’s sovereign grace might overtake His righteous justice and judgment in our lives.
God’s hardening or refusal to draw as the reason for unbelief is a significant theme in John’s Gospel. Equally as significant, though, is the universal call to believe.
“All,” “Everyone,” “Anyone,” and “Whoever” are among the most common and critical words for John. I gave you a list of verses concerning God’s sovereignty over unbelief above. Consider now another list.
John 1:6 [John the Baptist] came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
John 1:12 to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
John 3:14-15 so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
John 6:37 whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
John 7:37-38 Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'”
John 8:12 Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
John 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Grace Church, we must not pit the clear teachings of God’s word against each other, as many are prone to do. The third right response to this passage, then, is to believe both that God is sovereign over unbelief and that that is entirely compatible with the universal gospel call for the world. We are not lying when we call the world to believe in Jesus name and promise that if they believe, they will be saved.
Be Filled with Hope
Finally, and in light of the last point, it is right to respond to this passage, above all, in hope. Again, consider Paul on this.
Romans 9:14-16 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part [in regard to His sovereignty over unbelief]? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Other parts of those verses often get more attention, but the key for us to see is that God has mercy on some! He has compassion! Even if we do not yet believe or love someone who does not yet believe, and even if that is rightly understood as the inevitable curse of sin and active judgment of God, God has mercy and compassion. Although we deserve nothing but His wrath, He is often pleased to give us His grace.
John wrote to tell us of the judgment of God which takes the form of unbelief. But he also wrote to tell us of the fact that God loved the world in such a way that He sent His Son to bring eternal life to the world. There is hope for all!
There is hope for us to believe and there is hope for us to proclaim. Far from a message of despair, then, this is a message of urgency to proclaim to the world the only message that can rescue us from God’s judgment. Consider again, the words of our Lord, ” And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”