They Didnt Believe, Because They Couldnt 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 Fathers 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 Gods judgment forever,
Kept Him moving forward.

That this sacrifice would change the world

Also kept Him focused on the cross.
By His death,
Satans dominion would be broken
And the door of salvation would be opened to all.

B. Preview.

Now we also saw

That the Jews didnt understand this
That Messiah had to die.
They thought He had come
To overthrow the Romans
And to reign forever over Davids 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 didnt believe in Him,
And the reason was that they couldnt believe in Him.
II. Sermon.
A. First, we see these Jews didnt 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.
Its important to note
That their unbelief wasnt because of a lack of evidence:

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 its 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 werent required.
And, of course, each time He attended

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 didnt do at Jerusalem
But at Bethany,
Which was only 2 miles away.
If youll 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 didnt believe
They still didnt receive Him as their Messiah.

Its a common saying that seeing is believing:

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But is that always true?
Not necessarily.
These Jews saw, but they didnt believe.
Miracles are powerful
They stop traffic
But they dont necessarily convince;
And they certainly dont convert.
The Lord may use them to this end,
But by themselves, they arent 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 wasnt with the evidence
There was plenty of that,
And it all pointed to the fact
That Jesus is the Messiah.

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He did the works God said Messiah would do.

Maybe the problem was the message

They didnt believe because
Jesus wasnt 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 didnt 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 didnt believe.

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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:

Theres no proof the Bible is true;
Theres 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 theyve 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 its true.

Is there no evidence that God exists?

Paul tells us in Romans 1
That theres far more than enough in nature

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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.

Theres no problem today with the evidence:

Theres 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

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 isnt advancing more quickly than it does.
But lets 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.
Lets just make sure
That were doing the very best we can by His grace.

And what about the message?

Can they reject Christianity on this ground?
Its 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,

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Thats no guarantee they would believe:
These Jews had powerful evidence,
Brought by a perfect orator,
Who delivered the message perfectly,
And they still didnt believe.

If they had all of this and still didnt 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 were better by any means,
But because of the situation into which He ministered.

B. Lets go on to consider now

Why they didnt believe:
It was because they couldnt.

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).

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In verse 38, we read regarding the fact they didnt 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 didnt believe.

But why didnt they believe?

Its because this was Gods 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 Lords doing.

But how did He bring this about?

How did He ensure

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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 couldnt believe
Because the Lord blinded their eyes,
And hardened their hearts,
So they wouldnt see,
So they wouldnt understand,
So they wouldnt be converted,
So that He wouldnt 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 didnt physically blind them

They saw the miracles Jesus did;
John just told us as much.

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He didnt 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 dont understand this in a way
That sees God as creating evil in their hearts
As making them do something
They didnt already want to do.
If that was true
God would be the Author of sin
And responsible for it.
But we know that cant be the case:

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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 mans 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.

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Left unchecked,
Man would destroy himself and everyone around him.
So the Lord checks that evil by His Holy Spirit.

But since God doesnt 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 wouldnt 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:

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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 didnt arrive loving Jesus.
We werent 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 werent 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).

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We owe God all the credit for our salvation.

We would have perished forever without Him.
He did it all:
And so lets 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, dont confuse His restraint

For His saving grace.
If you dont love Him,
If youre not trusting Him,
If youre 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,

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And see what He will do for you. Amen.

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