2025-02-02 - Why Won't They Believe?

[00:00:00] Encourage you to open your Bibles to the book of anybody. [00:00:06] John. Got it. John, chapter 12 starting in verse 36, the latter half of that, and then we'll finish the chapter today. So we started in January of last year a series in John, and then this year we're picking that back up. We started that a few weeks ago again. And continuing on from chapters 12 through the rest of the book, we'll go through this year. So John, chapter 12, verse 36, the series, as you can see, that you may believe. And this week looking at a sermon I've entitled why Won't They Believe? And I think this will be impactful to all of you this morning. I know it is for me. So let's read it together and then we'll, after we read it, we'll share some context and we'll talk about really what the meat of this is talking about and how it's relevant for us this morning and can speak into your life if you look in your Bibles with you because hopefully you have a Bible in your lap this morning. [00:01:02] Chapter 12 starts off with Mary anointing Jesus. We look later on that people are looking to kill not just Jesus, but also Lazarus because Jesus just raised him from the dead. That's the religious leaders desiring to do that. Jesus then enters into Jerusalem in what we call the triumphal entry. We looked at that a few weeks ago. And Jesus also looking at this crowd of people around him we saw last week, he's calling them to believe in him, but also recognize the cross is coming. It's within a week of Jesus going to the cross. And he's very aware of that. And so really the last few chapters of the last chapters, last half of John is all this last week of Jesus life with a few days after his resurrection. We'll see at the tail end. So let's pick up today in chapter 12, verse 36. And this is the last portion of chapter 12. And Jesus has concluded his public ministry, his preaching. And so now this is the author, John's kind of commentary on both what has just happened and Jesus ministry. And we'll unpack this in our time this morning. Look what it says. Starting in verse 36b, when Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them, though they had done so. Though he had done, Jesus had done so many signs before them. That is the crowd, they still did not. What believe in him. That's a key word throughout the Gospel of John. He wants people to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing they may have life in his name, as he says at the tail end of this book. Verse 38 so that the word may be spoken by the that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Here's what the prophet said. Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him being God. Nevertheless. Verse 42. Many even of the authorities believed in him. But for fear of the who, the Pharisees, we hear lots about them. They did not confess it, that is, their belief in Jesus, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue or as we might have today, a church gathering. For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. Verse 44 continues and Jesus cried out and said, whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have not come into the world as a light. I'm sorry. I have come into the world as a light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to the come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken of my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what I speak and I know include in verse 50. And I know what his commandment is, and it's eternal life. What I say. Therefore I say as the Father has told me. [00:04:35] Let's pray together. [00:04:38] Lord, as we look at this passage here this morning, we're reminded in the songs that we sung that we're able to approach you with confidence. [00:04:46] We do that because we trust and believe that you are a sufficient sacrifice for our sins. Because of that, we're able to approach you with confidence, with boldness. This morning we're able to lay ourselves down before the cross, before the altar and say thank you for your forgiveness of our sins. Thank you for the grace and the mercy that you have shown us. And we're able to experience that because you Jesus came to this world that we might believe in you and have life in your name. And through believing and having life in your name, we are able to experience your spirit living inside of us. [00:05:28] So because of that truth, Lord, this morning we ask your spirit to open our eyes and our hearts to the beauty of your word, to what you want to teach us this morning in Jesus name, Amen. [00:05:41] I grew up in a family of nine other kids. And as you might assume with that many different personalities, you get all sorts of various things going on in their life and stories to tell, so many stories to tell. But one of the things that I have thought very interesting over that time, as we were raised by two parents who loved Jesus and took us to church and all the Bible studies and all the VBSs and all the things that you could think of that they might have heard, somebody was opening the Bible, let's get our kids there. [00:06:16] And as I look now at some of my siblings, I see some of them walking with Jesus and some of them not. And as you might know as parents here today or as brothers and sisters of others, it can be heartbreaking, can't it, to see people that you love and that you care about not walking with Jesus. And that as I think about my brothers and sisters who many of them growing up in the same kind of context that I was, I ask myself the question that we have on the screen here. Why won't they believe they see the same things that I have seen, they've heard the same things that I have, and yet for some reason they've chosen to do something else. Now, yes, there may be a realization or a recognition, at least to this point now where they say, yes, I believe that there is a God, or I believe in God. I believe that he made all the things. And I believe many of the things, or even all the things perhaps in the Bible, but it's not for me. Maybe their stance is, I don't believe that anymore, though I used to. Or I have these questions, these lingering questions. And the question that I sit with every once in a while as I think about some of them is, why won't they? And I ask that question. It's a real question. It's a valuable question. [00:07:27] And today, as we look at this text, we see that same question sitting with Jesus. [00:07:34] We see Jesus in this text answering that question for us. And I think the disciples probably as well asking this same question. They have seen so many things. Jesus for three and a half years doing incredible, miraculous things that no one else has ever done. Why won't they believe there's thousands of people that have just paraded into Jerusalem with Jesus saying he's going to be the Savior. But we're going to see not just here, but in the coming chapters that many of them don't actually believe, though they've seen the same things that others have seen that do believe. And so this question lingers, it sits with us this morning. Why won't they believe? And so there's a snapshot that I just want to share with you. It's on the screen that kind of gives us a bigger picture of what's going on in this text that we're going to unpack in your outline here. And it's this. The rejection by the Jewish nation, that is the people that we're looking at here today, of the promised Messiah. They've rejected him, is coming to a head. They have. Particularly the religious leaders from the beginning of Jesus's ministry has had opposition. And the opposition against Jesus has been growing and growing and growing. And it's coming to a head now. And despite, yes, various people who do come to faith in Jesus, the vast majority of the Jews seem unable to embrace him for who he actually is with saving faith. So here we see the religious leaders especially are intensifying this opposition against Jesus. And so in our passage today attempts to explain this shocking level of, of unbelief. So the first thing here, it's not on the screen, but the setting. Let me just give you some setting here which is, I think is important. We see this verse 36B. Actually it might be. Yeah, there's there the setting. And you could just maybe write some of these thoughts. In last week we found before Jesus, before Jesus there was thousands of people and they were listening to what he had to say. And then Jesus, we saw this last week. He invites them. He says, come believe in me. This is powerful. This is who you have been waiting for. You've been declaring that I'm the coming Messiah and you have seen that I have fulfilled scripture over and over and over again. And he says, I am the light. I am the one you've been waiting for, the Messiah that you have been anticipating. [00:09:55] And then what happens is this. They, many of them push back. [00:10:00] And so here's what he does. We see this here after he has said these things, this great invitation to both Jews and to Gentiles, mind you saying both Jews and Gentiles can come to having a saving faith in Jesus. He says, I'm going to step back now. Matthew says that he regularly this week he goes off to Bethany to spend the night. So probably it's where he walks off to, he moves off to with his disciples. So the following, as we read, is John's summary of what took place after this great invitation. And he says, now let's look together about why these people have rejected Jesus. Because I'm sure John, like many of you and myself, as I look at my own family, I'm sure John was saying, and even friends and friends that I've had that grew up in church together with, in Sunday school, that I taught Sunday school with, I can look at even today and say, why don't you believe? And I feel like I'm sitting here like with John and many of you who look at others and say, why don't you believe? Jesus has healed the lame. He's opened blind eyes, he's raised the dead. He's fed thousands of people with five loaves. And how many fish? [00:11:08] And how many fish? Two fish. And they're saying, this person, you've been waiting for him, why won't you believe? So we see here today, firstly, these unbelievers, let's just talk about them for a minute. Verse 37 recognizes this. You could write this in the unbelievers. And we see two points here that you could write in that help us understand why some of them do not believe. [00:11:34] Look in your Bibles with me. Verse 37. We see that they rejected the signs. I just noted earlier, Jesus has done many signs. We see this here in this text. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe him. So firstly, they rejected that these signs were pointing to, to Jesus. Now, over the last three and a half years, his signs were quite literally that. Now, as you know, let's say you're driving in your car somewhere, going down the road and you see a stop sign. What do you do at a stop sign? Stop. [00:12:09] Good. [00:12:11] That is good. I mean, for many California drivers, I wonder if they understand stop signs as not just slow signs or roll through signs, but, but anyway, so we all know everybody here stops at stop signs. I'm going to hold you to that. You're probably going to hold me to that now as well. You stop at a stop sign. If you're driving down a road, maybe up in the mountains or something, and you see signs that say the road's going to curve to the left or to the right, you expect that you're going to turn to the left or to the right. If you see a yield sign, you probably you yield. You look around you, you see signs and it tells you, it informs you of something that you're supposed to do. That's the intent of signs. So Jesus, what I love about John is over and over again, he doesn't use the word. At times he does, but many times he doesn't use the word miracle that Jesus does. But he uses the word signs. Because the purpose of the things that Jesus has done, particularly in John, John notes seven major signs that Jesus did. He says he did these signs to point people to something important. [00:13:18] Don't just look at the event and say, that's nice. Just like you don't show up to a stop sign and say, wow, that's a nice stop sign. Look at, they got the edges just right. The shape is right. That's a nice reflective red. You don't do that at stop signs. Well, I hope you don't. Maybe some of you stay at stop signs for a long time because you're doing that at a stop sign and we're all waving you on, keep going, and you're staring at the stop sign. You don't do that at a time because the purpose of the sign is to instruct you to do something else. The purpose of the signs of Jesus was to instruct people to do something else. What was there something else they were supposed to do to believe that he is the Messiah. [00:14:00] So many of them, they look at the signs, the last seven that John notes and many others that he's done, and they might say, wow, look at that. Wow, look at that. Wow, look at that. And John saying, you're missing the point. You don't just study the sign. That's not the point. The sign is to instruct you to do something else. Does that make sense? So here we see that Jesus is very clear that they've simp. Or John is very clear. They have rejected the purpose of the sign. They're looking at. They know what he did. Any of them could say that Jesus raised the dead. They follow him for that. He fed thousands of people, he healed blind, and the lame, he did all those things. But they're missing the purpose of why he did those things. And we also see this. Their rejection was persistent and intentional. They continued to push back. And Jesus obviously wanted them to hold to him as the Savior. And over and over again he sees this truth. They're missing the point. They're missing the point. [00:15:04] In Matthew chapter 11, there's a passage that just grabs my attention, and I hope it does to you as well. Jesus is speaking and he's Talking. And he's criticizing those in the Jewish cities who are not believing. When Jesus, he says this, he began to criticize openly the cities in which he had done many of his signs or his miracles. This is Matthew, chapter 11, verse 20, because they did not repent. And he says this, if you remember this. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. If the miracles done among you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, those are gentile cities who reject God. They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and in ashes. Here's what he's saying is they would have understood. Don't just study the sign, but understand the purpose of the sign. Those listening here in the text that we're looking at have rejected the sign. We also see something else, that this unbelief was prophesied. You could write that in this fulfilled prophecy. And this also just grabs your attention a little bit more because you wonder this particular question wouldn't want Jesus, God want everyone to believe? So why would this even be prophesied? Look what it says in your Bibles, verse 38. So that that is the rejection of Jesus was fulfilled so that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? This is Isaiah recognizing the glory and the power of God. And he says, Jesus, I've seen the glory of God. And there's people. The nation of Israel is still pushing God away. Is still pushing God away. He says, look, they've seen the power of God and yet they're rejecting him. That's why he goes on. In verse 40 of Isaiah. I'm sorry, in verse 39 he says, Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes. And what did he do to their heart? [00:17:01] Hearten their heart. [00:17:05] Lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn. And I would heal them. Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 10. Isaiah said these things because he saw his, that is God's glory and spoke of him. Now there's a reason that John is bringing this up because something very similar has just occurred for Isaiah. And I want you to walk with me through this for just a minute. So Isaiah in chapter six. Many of you know the story of Isaiah seeing the throne room of heaven open. And he says that he saw the glory and the power of God and the train of his robe fills the temple. And then he sees this angel come by with hot coals. And he touches his lips. You remember that passage right after that he says, God says, who shall I send to the people? And Isaiah says, here I am, send me. And so what God says is after Isaiah has just seen the glory of God, the power of God, he says, I'm ready to go as a messenger of God. And God says, here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna send you to Israel. Who has seen my faithfulness, who has seen my glory, who has seen my power, just as you did. And they are going to reject me, me, just like what happened here in John. They saw the physical representation of God in the person of Jesus and they're rejecting him. They saw the power of God in his miracles, Jesus miracles, and they are rejecting him. And now we see, so is God hardening their hearts? We see that God hardens somebody's hearts. That often throws us for a loop, doesn't it? Why would God do that? Wouldn't God want people to have soft hearts that seek him to do good and to honor him? Yes, God does want that. And also there are times, like with Pharaoh, get this, when God will harden the hearts of someone or a group of people for a time to bring about something good or necessary in light of Pharaoh and the Israelites. God did first give him a chance to obey. He had an opportunity, but he chose to reject that opportunity. Then because of his hardened heart. The Egyptians went through a lot, remember all the ten plagues. But when the Israelites were able to leave, they did so with much goods and wealth and cattle of which God would use to sustain them through the wilderness. So what God did was he's like, here's an option for you Pharaoh. Pharaoh rejects it. God says, I'm going to harden your hearts. And because of that it's going to provide an angst inside of the Egyptians hearts. And they're going to say now we really want the Israelites to leave. And so finally, when Pharaoh gives the green light, the Egyptians give tons of stuff to the Israelites of which sustained them through the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. So God used the hardening of Pharaoh's heart for his glory later on. Now let's fast forward some thousands of years to where we are in this passage. God will use the hardening or the hardness of people's hearts to bring about Jesus being unjustly killed. [00:20:07] Though this is an evil work that people did, they one, had already made their choice to reject God, God's Messiah, and two, the hardening of their hearts resulted in a God ordained event, namely the death of Jesus. [00:20:24] So because of God hardening their hearts here, that was going to push the occasion to putting Jesus on the cross, which needed to happen, right? Which was good. This is not speaking about God saying, I'm damning them to hell. That's not what we see here. They later on in Acts chapter two, Peter's going to give an incredible powerful message. And many of them, when he points to them and says, you hung the Messiah on the cross, it says this in verse 37 of Acts 2, they were cut to the heart. They were cut to the heart. And so we see there is a time that God hardens people's hearts. He blinds their eyes so that something more beautiful, more wonderful can happen. This is one of the reasons we see that they are rejecting this Jesus. So why did they not believe? [00:21:13] They ignored the obvious signs of Jesus because it didn't fit their expectations of the Messiah that was coming. And secondly, because of God's sovereign plan to bring Jesus death about through their hands, he was going to harden their hearts so that the redemption of mankind could come. [00:21:34] These two reasons, one, ignoring the sign, ignoring the work of Jesus, and because God at times will harden people's hearts. Those two things can still happen today. [00:21:45] Can still happen today. And this is a reminder to us as we look around and even to myself as I think about people in my life and friends or family members that are still not trusting in Jesus, it's a reminder for me to say I need to pray and ask God continue to soften their hearts. Because a heart issue, it's not something that I can convince them of. I mean, if Jesus can raise the dead and people are still like, I don't believe in him, there's nothing that I can do. It's a matter of their heart changing. [00:22:11] Secondly, we see this and you can write this in on your outline. [00:22:14] Why? Let's look at the believers. And I put in quotes this on the screen there. The believers, you could write that in if you like. [00:22:23] So this is verses 42 and 43. Before we get into that. Have you ever been excited to hear something that someone's about to tell you? Like someone's like, I have really, really good news, and they start telling you something really good and your big old smile comes across your face. Have you ever been in that situation, people of you, and then as they keep talking, your smile starts to be less of a smile and then they keep talking and you realize this is actually isn't as good of news as you thought it was. Have any of you been in that situation before? Isn't that kind of disappointing? You start off with, I have some really good news. And here it is. And they keep talking. You're like, that's not good news. Why did you start like that? That's what we get here as we read this text. Look at what it says. Verse 42. Nevertheless. So we just talked about the. The unbelievers, and now we're going to look at these people. Verse 42, How John starts off. Nevertheless, many, many even of the authorities believed in him. That's a great way to start. [00:23:24] And then we read on a little bit further. [00:23:29] But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not, what, confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. And then you're like, wait a minute. This started out so well. All these authorities, many of them are believing, but now they're afraid. Now they're not talking about their belief. And then we read verse 43, and you're like, wait a minute. This still isn't better news. For they love the glory that came from God. No, from man. You're like, wait a minute, you're missing the point. [00:23:57] More than the glory that came from God, like, this is backwards. [00:24:01] This is not. I thought this was supposed to be really good news. So firstly, let's talk about these believers. We see that they were fearful. You could write that in. These believers were fearful. [00:24:14] We must not forget. Yes, there were many who believed in Jesus throughout his ministry, and we get glimpses of that. And that is totally worth celebrating. And I'm not saying none of these people had any kind of belief that was worth throwing away. The substance of their belief, though, wasn't grounded in, I want to honor and worship him, Jesus alone. We see that here. [00:24:35] Sometimes those who believe might have a shallow belief, and sometimes they're still willing to follow others before Jesus. Either way, they're realizing Jesus is significant, and I think that's important in this text. They're realizing Jesus is significant. Where this is gonna go, we don't know for each one, but we see this is important. This is valuable for them. In this verse, we find more people believing in Jesus, though what actually they believe, we don't know. We can assume that they are believing Jesus is from God. God in the flesh. He's God in the flesh and one who can bring eternal life to their souls. But there's a problem. What's the problem? What's the word there? [00:25:15] Fear. [00:25:17] Fear. [00:25:19] They're afraid of what the prideful, ruling religious leaders are going to think of them if they're found out as believers, trusting that Jesus is the one who he says he is, they're going to be kicked out of their church. They're not going to be able to go and worship in the way that they've been able to worship before. [00:25:35] Maybe write this down somewhere. They had a personal faith, and they probably hoped that they could also keep it private faith. [00:25:46] But we see from Jesus that when you have a personal faith, it should also be a public faith, not a private faith. [00:25:55] Revelation 21:8 says something very potently to this point. Here it says this. [00:26:03] But as for the cowards, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Like, wow, where did that come from? [00:26:20] But as for the cowardly, the faithless, here's my fear, friends, that we can believe concepts about Jesus, but for fear of giving him our life, we take a step back and say, I believe that he's God. I believe that he made the world. And I even believe the things that he's saying about those people over there. But I'm too scared to give him my own life, because if I do, other people are gonna treat me differently. If I do, I might not be able to take part in all the things I used to take part in. If I do, my allegiance to that person or that person is gonna be questioned. If I truly follow Jesus the way he says that I should follow him, what was one of their fears? They'll be kicked out of the synagogue. My friend group might change. [00:27:13] I want to be able to. Maybe this was them. I want to be able to follow Jesus and keep what I have. [00:27:19] I'm afraid of giving those things up. There's security for me. They're a warm blanket, if you will, for me. I know that he doesn't like it, but can I have Jesus and. [00:27:29] And not according to what Jesus says. We can't. They had misplaced loyalties. Misplaced loyalties. I want to be loyal to Jesus, and I want to be loyal to everything else that I had. And I'm afraid of giving up these loyalties that I have. We also see they had misplaced affections, right? We say misplaced affections. You could write that in point B there. Misplaced affections. And so John elaborates on these two points here. They were afraid, but they also loved what other people had to say of them. Maybe write this in somewhere. They preferred the approval of Other sinners above the approval of God. [00:28:07] They preferred the approval of other sinners above the approval of God. And before we go shame on them, do we not do the same thing? [00:28:21] Prefer the approval of others around us? [00:28:26] Before we seek the approval of God, let us remember that we cannot have both the goodwill of sinners and the goodwill of God at all times. [00:28:40] James 4:4 says this. Know you or don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity towards God? Whoever wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. Here's what he's saying very clearly. You can't be in both camps in both places at the same time. We must not only be willing to believe in Jesus, but we must also believe that his opinion of us, even in a crowd of people, is the only opinion that matters. [00:29:14] So as some have used the phrase we live for an audience of one, this is true. We must also be willing to live for an audience of one. In front of an audience of many, it's choosing to say, I know that there's many looking at me, but I'm not living and working and speaking and serving for you. I'm doing it for him and you happen to be watching. [00:29:37] We see fear grip them. Their affections were misplaced. The same can be true of us. Fear and keeping our image are powerful factors in the way we make decisions. I mean, everything, right? I mean, even the way we interact with our families at home, to the way we engage with people in public and share the gospel. I mean, I don't want to say something like that to somebody in public or say something like this to my family or to friends because they might think blank of me rather than, I gotta first check in with God and see what he thinks thinks of me. [00:30:11] Before we go on to point three here in your outline, we want to see this because this is key. When you think about believers, there is a subjective level of belief that is important. It is important to objectively, yes, believe that Jesus is God, that he's the Messiah, that he came to die on the cross for our sins, and that he rose again, and that he has all power. Amen. All those are important to believe. [00:30:35] Is that what it takes to believe? You have to only believe those things for saving faith. And here's the answer to that. There's more, because even the demons believe that and shudder. They know that Jesus is God. You watch the demon interaction that happens with Jesus and they aren't like, who are you, dude? That's not what they said. They knew who he was. They saw the power that he did in the miracles. They saw it. They knew that he went and died. They know that he rose again and that he is victorious over death. Knowing those things does not mean that you are a follower of Jesus or that you are a Christian. [00:31:12] What they don't have and what is the pivotal point for us here today and for anyone who says, I am a believer in Jesus, is this. I am willing to submit to his authority and call him Lord of my life and live in his will and not seek my own. [00:31:33] That must be my pursuit. It's not just head knowledge, but it's I have chosen today. Yes, there is a tension in our flesh and our spirit that says, I want the flesh and I want the spirit and I want the flesh. When you have that tension inside of you, that's a good sign you're a Christian, because the Holy Spirit inside of you is gonna be pulling you back towards God. If you're in a place you're like, I don't feel attention other than my own guilt. It's not God speaking to me, pulling me back to what's right, it's guilt. Check yourself. Say, am I doing this thing called Christianity because I want to submit to the lordship of God or because I want to look good to other people? [00:32:12] Because it's only through submitting to the lordship of God you're going to find any kind of perseverance in the world that we live in. [00:32:20] So now the author, John, shifts his focus from talking about those who have responded differently to Jesus, talking about the mission of Jesus. We'll go through these pretty quickly here. In the few closing statements Here in verses 44 through 50, Jesus says he's crying out. And most likely this is John kind of summarizing what has already happened with Jesus in the crying out that he has done. These three points you could write in here in just a minute. As we walk through this, these three points are pivotal for what's different between a believer and an unbeliever. The first we see this in verses 45, 44, and 45, and the tail end 49 through 50, it's this. You can write this in the mission of Jesus is what we're unpacking here for just a few minutes is this. Jesus has a mission that is reliable. Jesus says he cries out, where he says loudly for everyone to hear. Whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. [00:33:16] That is, pay attention not just to the messenger, but to the one who sent the message. And whoever Sees me, sees him who sent me. Verse 49. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak. In other words, he's saying, the things that I'm saying are because of what God the Father has told me to say. And here's where that's leading. And know that this is the commandment or the instruction that God has told me to preach eternal life. [00:33:49] John 3:16. Pastor Les read this earlier. Jesus came to the world because he wants eternal life for us. [00:33:58] As we look kind of at this point here, here's what's being said by Jesus. You may not like me and what I have to say, but you say that you worship and you listen to God the Father. [00:34:12] He's the One who sent me. [00:34:14] So if you don't like what I have to say, take it up with the guy that you already say you respect. [00:34:21] That's what he's telling them here. All the things that I'm doing and saying, it's all because I'm doing it from what he's told me to do. And you all say you worship Him. So this doesn't make sense, does it? [00:34:34] The way that you can show that you truly respect him is by listening to me. This is still true today. One cannot say, I believe in God and reject Jesus, because as soon as we say I believe in God, that means I accept Jesus for who he is. [00:34:53] Here's what John Ryle says about this. To this point. [00:34:59] He that cast his sins on Jesus by faith is building on a rock, believing on Christ. He believes not merely on him, but on him who sent Him. [00:35:13] It is something sure that we can base our life on. When we come to Jesus and say, here's all of my problems, here's all of my weight, here's all of my sin. Because it's not just a man that we're laying our burdens before, but the God of the universe. Here's Jesus, second mission. You could write this in. Not just we know that he's reliable in his mission, but he also is sent to be a light in the world. I have come into the world as a light so that whoever believes in me, not some, but whoever believes in me, may not remain in darkness. There's two things we want to draw out from this. You go to the next slide. There in verse 46, Jesus proclamation of anyone who wants to accept him is to anyone, whoever. It's not just to the Jewish nation we saw last week. It's also to the Gentiles. That's you and I here today. [00:36:02] There's a second piece in this that we want to see, and it's this. There's a word, remain. Can you say remain? [00:36:08] Remain. We aren't all born with a blank slate on our hearts. We are born sinners. We are born as people in darkness. So it's not I raise my kids. They're just perfect little wonderful angels all the time, and then something happened to them for them to start messing up. They are born in darkness, pursuing themselves, pursuing their own way. Mine. Give it to me. It's mine. It's mine. No, no. Right. That's what the kids say. Because that's how their hearts are slated. Already in darkness, running to their own pleasures, not to the service and the pleasure and the glory of God. Jesus says, I came because people already were in darkness. John chapter three speaks about this as well. We already, apart from him, stand condem. You don't have to go and do a bunch of bad things to be condemned. But rather, we're already sitting in this darkness. And Jesus says this. The light that I bring is strong enough to pierce whatever darkness you are in for us today. [00:37:15] This truth must resonate with us even as followers of Jesus. Whatever guilt or shame or darkness or history that you're sitting in, Jesus is saying this. My light is strong enough to pierce into that dark place. And he promises this healing when that happens. So he says, you can trust me. [00:37:35] Point C on your outline. You could write this in. As we think about the mission of Jesus, he's very clear here. John 3, 17, 18, speak about this. As we heard earlier, if anyone hears my words, there's again an open invitation. It does not keep them. I am not here to judge you, for I did not come to the world. At least in this trip, the second trip, he's gonna come as a judge. We saw that last week. I didn't come to judge the world. But to what? [00:38:00] Save the world? [00:38:02] The one who rejects me and does not receive my world, he already has a judge. I've already proclaimed judgment upon you in my words. You can choose to reject me now. And when I come again. Here's what he says. When I come again, no one will be without excuse. No one's gonna say, I had no idea, I never knew. [00:38:23] It's like I've already spoken the truth. You now have the choice to believe. And if you choose to believe, great. You can experience life with me, eternal life. And if you choose to reject me, that's up to you. That's on you. My mission as Jesus came initially was to bring salvation to the world. [00:38:46] But he's coming again. Amen. And that's really good news to us who have truly said, I'm here to submit to the work of Jesus. But to those of us who have said, I'm still pushing him away, Jesus coming again is not good news. [00:39:01] Maybe write this in somewhere. I wrote it down before I really thought about it, and then I read it after I wrote it. [00:39:10] Jesus will do with us after death what we chose to do with him while we took breath. [00:39:17] He'll do with us after death what we chose to do with him while we took breath. If we choose to reject him now, I respect that. If we choose to accept him now, he's going to look at us and say, my son or my daughter, welcome home. [00:39:35] What do we do with this? [00:39:37] Firstly, if you've continued to resist, today's the day to say, I'm done resisting. [00:39:44] If you don't know if you can trust him, try him out. He's faithful. [00:39:49] If you don't think it's a big deal, it is. [00:39:53] Eternal life is a big deal. [00:39:57] Maybe you're here today, you're like, I've already trusted and believed in Jesus about salvation, but there are other things here that I'm struggling to believe. And here's what I want to encourage you to do. Practical things that you could do this week is this. Write down somewhere, maybe in your own quiet time with the Lord, write down the promises of God that you're struggling to believe. [00:40:16] That you're struggling to believe. Or we asked the question earlier on the screen. The main point of the message, the main question is this is, why won't they believe? Ask yourself that question. Why won't I believe certain things that he clearly lays out for me, whether it's about salvation or other things. Why am I struggling to believe that he loves me? Why am I struggling to believe that he has grace for me? Why am I struggling to believe that he is faithful or that he is kind or that he is good? Why am I struggling to believe that? Go before the Lord. Go before the Lord's people ask. Others say, hey, here's the things I'm struggling to believe about God. Can you help me with this? [00:40:52] And we, as the family of God, can encourage one another to help one another believe the right things about Jesus. I'm going to close this time in prayer, and then we're going to transition to a time of communion. As I'm praying some of the ushers will get ready, and those on the worship team, they'll come up and then we're going to shift to this time of communion and I'll introduce that in just a minute. [00:41:13] As we do that, I want you to just be thinking about this concept of believing truly in Jesus. If your heart is heavy and you're like, I know we're shifting to a time of communion, but I don't feel ready or I'm not a believer, it's okay to let that pass. Let me pray for us here while the team gets ready. Dear Jesus, we come before you as the God of the universe, as the Savior, as the King, as the Sovereign God. And we rejoice knowing that through you we're able to come with confidence before you and lay our burdens and our concerns, our worries before you. Help us this morning to submit wholly to you. There's parts of our life that we've not yet submitted to you, Lord. Reveal that to us and give us the courage to do that. [00:42:02] As we look at this passage and we wrestle with this question of belief, if there's any here today who have yet to trust you have to submit to your will in their life, Lord, I pray that today you would continue to prod their hearts to do just that. And today would be a day of change for them, for those of us here who have maybe made that decision. But there's other parts of our life that we're struggling to believe you in, Lord, today, that you would reveal that to us and that we would entrust ourselves to you in that way. In Jesus name, amen.