Roadblocks to Believing

Have you ever wondered:  Why is it so hard for people to believe in Jesus?  Why do so many people want to change the subject when you bring up His name?  Or want to argue with you or tell you that they already have their own belief system? And even if you do get a chance to clearly tell them about Jesus and what He has done, why don’t people automatically see how amazing He is and put their faith in him?  Why do they have such a hard time trusting in Jesus?

If you’ve ever had a loved one whom you’ve told about Jesus, but seems resistant to anything you might say about him – or if you’ve ever experienced indifference or opposition when you’ve tried to talk about Jesus, you’ve probably wondered why aren’t your efforts making much of a difference?  You’ve probably wondered if maybe you were doing something wrong, or weren’t praying enough, or not asking the right questions? Or maybe, you’ve felt like you were doing everything right: you built a good friendship, you’ve loved on your friend, served your friend – even got them to read one of the Gospels – but they still don’t see what you see in Jesus.  And they still don’t want to trust the Jesus you trust.  And that makes you wonder, what gives?  Why, when you seem to be doing everything right – why won’t he or she believe in Jesus?

Well, if you’ve ever wondered why it’s so hard for some people to believe in Jesus, then what we’re going to look at today from God’s Word should give you some understanding, and even some hope.  For today, we’re going to look at what kept people believing in Jesus in Jesus’ day. In fact, in our passage today, we are going to look at three roadblocks that kept people from trusting in Jesus.  Three obstacles to faith that people still grapple with today.  And as we look at these roadblocks, we’re also going to hear Jesus give one final plea for people to believe in him as he wraps up His public ministry. So, if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to open it to John 12:37-50, and let’s begin by looking at those roadblocks to faith.

The first two of them are found in verses 37-41.  Let’s read these verses and see if you can pick them out: Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 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?” John 12:37-38

For this reason, they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “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.”  Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. John 12:39-41

For three and a half years, Jesus had been performing miraculous signs before God’s people.  The people had seen his signs of turning the water into wine, cleansing the temple, feeding the five thousand, healing the lame, giving sight to the blind, and even raising Lazarus from the dead.  But even though they witnessed these miracles, even though they understood that these miracles could only be attributed to God, some did believe in him, but many would not. Why?  Why did they refuse to believe in Him?  Isaiah tells us why.  They had two roadblocks to believing:  They suffered from spiritual blindness and hard hearts.  Let’s look now at that first roadblock:

Spiritual Blindness  In quoting Isaiah 6:9-10, John wants us to know that in spite of the clear evidence these miraculous signs provided, they could not see the Jesus Isaiah had seen.  Isaiah had seen the glory of Christ. But they could not. Jesus’ true identity was hidden from them.  When they looked at Jesus, all they saw was a man.  All they saw was rabbi – a rabbi from Nazareth – a town of no significant reputation.  So to them, Jesus was just another rabbi.  And exceptional rabbi. But His true identity as God’s Son, God’s arm revealed to them – was not recognizable to them.

Now, here’s a startling fact. Although these Jews did not recognize Jesus as God’s Son, God Himself played a part in keeping them from recognizing Jesus’ true identity. That’s what this text tells us.  It says, “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.” Does this mean God intentionally prevented these Jews from seeing the glory of Jesus? Yes and no. What it does tell us is that God simply let them see what they wanted to see. They wanted to see a Mighty Deliverer – so God confirmed their own choice.  They had an image in mind of who their Messiah would He would be physically mighty. He would be a conquering hero. But God didn’t reveal Jesus to them in that way. Instead, He revealed Jesus to them as a suffering servant, as a friend of sinners, as a meek Messiah, not as a mighty one.

What John is revealing to us here is that what he wrote at the beginning of this gospel was coming to pass:  The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him John 1:9-10.  So, when the Jews looked at Jesus, they didn’t see the light of the world – they didn’t see the glory of God, so they didn’t recognize His divine nature, so they didn’t believe in Him.

But they weren’t just spiritually blind – Isaiah also tells us that their hearts were also hardened to Him. That’s the second roadblock –  Hard Heartedness!  This roadblock is a little easier for us to get our heads around.  For at the core of a hard heart is resistance to the truth.  At the core of a hard heart is choosing your will over God’s will.  And in the case of these Jews who had spent a lifetime resisting God’s Word, they’d become so set in their own ways, that they not only resisted his message, but they chose not to believe His message.

This describes the state of most unbelievers today. They deliberately resist anyone or anything that conflicts with their own truth. Why? Mostly because they’ve created their own truth – based on their own wisdom and understanding; a truth formulated from what they’ve learned from their parents, their teachers, their friends and the world.  As a result, they’ve formulated a world view based on the beliefs they’ve accumulated over time, and have convinced themselves that their truth is the only truth that matters – they now live under the authority of their own truth.  So now, if you or anyone comes along claiming to have the truth for them to listen to, they don’t want to hear it.  They will resist it and almost immediately reject it because they’ve hardened their hearts to all truth but their own.  That’s why it’s so hard for many people to trust in Jesus today – because they’ve hardened their hearts to God truth.

Now, this is hard to hear. Because hearing that God blinded the eyes and hardened the hearts of the Jews so they would not believe, doesn’t seem like something God would do. This just seems counter-intuitive to all that we’ve learned about God as being gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  This doesn’t jive with what David teaches us about the God who continually pursues us with His goodness.  And it doesn’t match up with what Peter describes God’s disposition to unbelievers in 2 Peter 3:9 when he writes: The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance 2 Peter 3:9.  What God did to these Jews seems contrary to His compassionate and merciful character.  So, what’s going on here?  Why the contradiction?

What’s going on here is that John is giving us insight into the mystery of God’s plan of salvation.  Simply put, in order for Jesus to be rejected and handed over to be crucified there had to be those who refused to believe.  Jesus needed to die. He came to die. He did not come to earth to be cheered, accepted and embraced by everyone. If that had happened, he never would have fulfilled the ultimate purpose of His coming: to offer Himself as the Lamb of God and die for the sins of the world.  So, in the mystery of God’s plan, in order for God to merciful to all, God in His wisdom allowed the nation of Israel to harden their hearts to Jesus, so they would crucify Him.

Now, you might be thinking: How could God do that?  How could he purposely harden the hearts of those Jews so they would not believe?  Well, I’ll give you some help here.  Once again, it’s really not so much God’s doing as the Jews doing.  For at the heart of unbelief is sin.  Unbelief is a response of a heart that’s in rebellion to God.

Perhaps this explanation can shed some light on this: At the 2007 Shepherd’s Conference Mark Dever said this: “Unbelief never involves the mind alone; it is a spiritual state.” Unbelief is the rebellious response of a man’s heart. Therefore, no amount of external pressure or coercion can ever make a person believe.  That’s why Christianity is not a religion that spreads by the sword.  It’s not a faith that’s spread by force. We could make people utter some form of confession, but forced profession would be worthless, powerless and empty. Unbelief is a heart issue.  Therefore, the responsibility for rejecting Jesus as Savior falls squarely on the shoulders of unbelievers.

God doesn’t force His Son on anyone.  God is kind and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance.  That is why God sent His Son into the world to die for the world.  But the truth is, because of the rebellious nature of sin, there will always be those who resist the truth about Jesus that will lead them to make a conscious choice to reject Him.

Now, that’s a difficult truth to swallow.  But remember this.  At the heart of all unbelief is sin.  And Jesus dies to take away our sin.  So, there’s hope.  But before I get to that hope, there’s one more roadblock in this passage we need to unpack and that is this:

Fear of man:  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; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.  John 12:42-43  Here John wants us to know that there are those who did believe in Jesus.  But they kept their faith secret.  They didn’t act on their faith Why?  Because of their fear of man. They kept their faith secret because they feared being put out of the synagogue. To be thrown out of the synagogue meant you’d be completely cut off from society.  If you were expelled from Synagogue, you would lose your friends, your support system and maybe even your lively hood.  So rather than openly confess their faith, they hid their faith. That’s what the fear of man did to these leaders: They feared the consequences of following Jesus, so they hid their faith.

This same fear is why some people may be reluctant to believe in Jesus today.  For if they act on their faith, they fear what they might lose.  For some its the fear of losing your friends or your family; for some it’s the fear of losing your reputation; for some it might mean losing your status in society, or even the fear of being canceled because believing in Jesus is now associated with discrimination in many circles of our culture. I remember how this fear impacted me when I first believed. I remember feeling that my friends would ridicule me for believing in Jesus. I feared they’d no longer want to be my friends. I feared they would think I was intellectually naïve. So, I kept my faith to myself for a while. But when I finally opened up about my new faith in Jesus, they did none of those things.  Instead, they respected me and my new faith, and they stayed my friends.

Fear may be why your son, your daughter, your friend or your neighbor may be hesitant to believe in Jesus.  They may not want to believe in Jesus because they fear the consequences that come with acting on their faith.  So let me be frank with you about what Scripture says about those who profess belief but never act on it. The New Testament never mentions this category.  James talks about this kind of faith, saying it’s no faith at all. He writes: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14-17 There is no category in Scripture that describes a secret faith.  God calls those who believe in Jesus to be baptized, to join a church, and to participate in the Lord’s supper – all public expressions of a faith. In fact, if you think you can be a secret follower of Jesus, you may be deceived. There’s really no place in Scripture that describes hidden faith.

So, this final group of people, these leaders who had some kind of faith, seem to fall somewhere between belief and unbelief.  They’re on the fence about Jesus. They are afraid to make their faith public.   Why? Verse 43 tells us their motivation. They love the praise that comes from men rather than the praise that comes from God.  Or to say it another way: They value the approval men over the approval of God So, their silence betrays them.  For they live like they’ve never trusted in Jesus.  There fear of man keeps them from ever truly believing in Jesus.

Again, this isn’t one of this gospels feel good passages.  John has been very clear that spiritual blindness; hardness of heart; and fear of man are all roadblocks to believing in Jesus. And even though God allowed these obstacles to keep the Jews from believing in Jesus then, these forces of unbelief are still powerfully at work today.  But as we come to the conclusion of Jesus public ministry, we see that these forces of unbelief facing Jesus didn’t deter Jesus from calling people to believe in Him. This unbelief didn’t keep Jesus from preaching the Gospel. So, for one last time in His public ministry, Jesus reveals for us them one last time, who He is calling them to believe in.

Look with me now at verses 44-50, it begins with the phrase: Then Jesus cried out Jesus wants to be heard. He cries out. Most of the time Jesus was gentle and subdued.  But now, as he’s about to go to the cross, there’s an urgency in his voice.   By the force of his presence and the authority of His teaching, he’s driving home who He is calling them to believe in!  “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.”  Who is Jesus asking them to believe in?  Who is Jesus asking us to believe in?  What’s he saying?  Simply this: To believe in Jesus is to believe in God!

For one final time, Jesus claims to be the divine messenger of God. He is telling anyone who will listen that  The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.  In other words, when you look at Jesus, you see God.  This is why we are a Church that’s all about Jesus. That’s why our mission is to be people helping people become friends, family and followers of Jesus.  Jesus has made it possible for God to be known.  For so many people, God is a mystery.  He’s invisible.  He’s intangible.  But when Jesus became one of us, He made not only made God known to us; He made it easier to believe in God.  To believe in Jesus is to believe in God.  That’s why one of the best ways you can to help an unbeliever become a believer is to get them to read the Gospel of John.  This is the gospel of belief.  John tells us that he wrote this gospel: Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.  John 20:30-31 Jesus is the Son of God. Therefore, to believe in Jesus is to believe in God.  That’s why Jesus came.  So that you might come to believe in Him.

Next he says, I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.  Again, Jesus is appealing to Himself as the light of the world.  The Jews understood what light meant.  It meant that Jesus was revealing God.  So, what He is declaring one last time is this: To see Jesus is to see God.  He has come to open the eyes of the blind, to set the captive free, to rescue you from the dominion of darkness.  He is crying out, look upon me. I’ve come to set you free.  Jesus wants you to see that he’s more than a mere man, he’s more than a carpenter, that he’s more than a teacher.  Jesus wants you to see that He is God in the flesh, who has come to rescue you from darkness.  For when you see Jesus, you see God!

Then He says in verse 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. world.  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.” John 12:47-48  Here Jesus warns those who are quick to reject truth: be careful not to reject my words. “I am not the judge, I have come to save you from judgment.  But if you reject my words, you reject me.”  What’s he getting at?  There is something special about the words He speaks.  He says, “For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.  I know that his command leads to eternal life. So, whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

What Jesus is saying here is this: To listen to Jesus is to listen to God!  This has been Jesus’ message all along.  God sent Jesus has His messenger of good news.  Jesus is the Word of God!  Therefore, to believe in Jesus means you are believing in God’s Word.  And unbelief is the rejection of God’s Word.  In other words, what Jesus is proclaiming is this: You can’t have a relationship with God apart from Jesus, and you can’t have a relationship with God unless you believe His Word.  And His Word is Jesus.  And His Word all comes down to one command. And what is that command?  To believe in Jesus.  And when you believe in Jesus you will have eternal life.

So, what’s your roadblock to believing in Jesus?  Is it spiritual blindness?  Is it your hard heart?  Is it your fear of man?  Whatever it is, Jesus has come to open your eyes, heal your heart, and drive away your fears.  Believe in Him and He will set you free.