Out of the Darkness by Faith

[Read John 12:37-50]
It's been a common cliche over the years to remind everyone that it's the same light and heat from the sun that melts ice/snow and softens plastic but that also hardens clay. The sun doesn't change. It keeps emitting the same light waves and same heat, but as that light and heat lands on differing subject matters, it produces a very different effect.
We know this to be true in our own lives as well. I'm sure we've all been caught off guard when talking with someone and they all of a sudden snap. You're caught off guard because you're saying the same things you always say, things you've said a million times before and they've never been an issue. Yet, for some reason this time it causes the person to snap. What's the deal? What changed? The person changed. The words landed on a different person in a different situation, which resulted in a very different response. Just like the light and heat from the sun, landing on a different subject matter, causing it to harden, rather than soften, your words landed on something different causing a different response.
Now, sometimes it's your fault. Sometimes, you should have known better than to say those same words in that particular situation. However, it's not always your fault. Sometimes the things you said were exactly what needed to be said in that moment, but the person refused to hear them or listen because of their particular situation. The fact that they snapped or got angry or were hardened by your words, doesn't mean the words were wrong. That's what happens sometimes.
I think this is a really important reminder for us, especially in the Midwest, but even throughout most of Christianity. We've all heard about Midwest nice, but it's broader than that. Many have also talked about the new commandment that's been added to the Christian church: Thou shall always be nice. So, when we find ourselves in certain situations, and people are accusing us of "not being nice," our gut reaction is to assume we said something wrong, or even the gut reaction of other people is to assume you did something wrong: "You should have said it differently so that they received it better and felt like you were being nice to them." But that's not always the case, is it?

We also see this when talking about evangelistic techniques and conversations. If you are sharing the gospel out in the community, and people are not believing in the gospel, and are possibly getting angry with you, the assumption many people make is that you are doing it wrong. You have to change things up. You have to be nicer. You have to be more winsome. You have to be gentle. That way people will like you and their hearts will be softened to hear the message of the gospel and believe. Yet, that's not always the case, is it?
If we can be absolutely confident of one thing, it's that Jesus was perfect in the way that he treated people and spoke to them. Nobody is nicer than Jesus. Nobody is gentler than Jesus. Nobody is more winsome than Jesus. Yet, we see that the words and actions of Jesus actually hardened people's hearts. They had the exact opposite effect than what we would have expected.
This is shown in a couple different ways. First, it's shown a little bit in Jesus words when he says, “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.” (John 12:48, ESV). There are those who are going to hear Jesus' words, and they are not going to receive his words, but will reject Jesus and his words, and those words that he spoke to them will come back in judgment on them on the last day. The words of Jesus had no effect on these people besides to bring judgment on them. In a way, that's talking about how Jesus' words actually hardened hearts.
But we see this more clearly earlier on in the passage when John quotes from the book of Isaiah. He quotes from Isaiah 6, which is a very well-known passage. It's the passage where Isaiah sees the glory of God fill the temple and the seraphim crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3, ESV). In response to this glorious vision, Isaiah falls on his face and cries out "Woe is me!" and then God says, "Whom shall I send?" and Isaiah says, "Here I am! Send me." Right, this is a beautiful passage with beautiful imagery and a beautiful response of worship and dedication from Isaiah. People have talked about this for a long time. Yet, listen to what comes immediately after this beautiful image: “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 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.'” (Isaiah 6:9–10, ESV). This is Isaiah's calling. Not quite as beautiful in our eyes, is it? He is told that he will be sent to a people who will "hear" his message but not understand, "see" but actually be blind, and whose hearts will be dull. He will see no fruit from his ministry. We do not see that as a very beautiful calling.
Yet, to make this worse, notice how this is worded because it's easy to miss. God tells Isaiah to preach a message to the people, which is the first portion of the passage, but the next portion of the passage actually shows the effect of Isaiah's message. Isaiah will preach, "Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing but do not perceive" and through that message their hearts will be hardened, their ears heavy, and their eyes blinded. Not only will Isaiah NOT see any fruit from his message and ministry, but the exact opposite will happen. His message and ministry will actually harden the hearts of the people he is trying to minister to.
Then, John the Gospel writer, takes this passage about Isaiah and applies it to Jesus' ministry. He writes this, “Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, “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.”” (John 12:39–40, ESV). He adapts the passage slightly to apply this to Jesus. Jesus has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts with his message and his actions. Does that mean Jesus did the wrong things or did them in the wrong way? Does that mean Jesus said the wrong things or said them in the wrong way? We know that's not true. Since we know that Jesus is perfect, he said all of the right things in the right ways and did all of the right things in the right ways, and his Words and Actions STILL hardened people's hearts and blinded their eyes.
This is why John is flabbergasted at the beginning of this passage. He says, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 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?”” (John 12:37–38, ESV). This is John's ways of saying, "I don't get it. I don't understand. Jesus has done so many powerful signs and miracles in front of these people and they still did no believe in him. They have seen his power and his glory up close and have refused to believe. If they can't believe how in the world could anyone else believe?"
This is something in this that we struggle with today. We can't understand why people wouldn't believe in Jesus. I mean, it's an amazing thing, right? I mean we're forgiven and cleansed from our sin, we're shaped and molded into his image, we're adopted into the family of God, we have a Shepherd who will lead us, guide us, and protect us. We have the opportunity to worship the God who created the universe and how rules and reigns over it right now. I mean, it's amazing. Why would anyone not believe in Jesus? We're flabbergasted by it. As a result, when people go out and share the gospel in the community and get rejected by people the response can often be, "Well, if you did it right, then people would have believed. If you would have been nicer. If you would have been more relevant, like wore hipper clothes. If you wouldn't have talked about sin...then maybe that person would have believed. The problem is with you and maybe even the message. If you adapt the message a little bit, then maybe it will be received more effectively." Wrong. It could be you, but it's not the message. The message of the gospel is clear and cannot be tampered with. Once you tamper with the gospel, it's no longer the gospel. If you are going to call people to repentance and faith, you need to help them understand they are a sinner who needs to repent of their sin. Otherwise, it's not the gospel.
The message isn't the problem, most often it's the hearts of the people receiving the message. Hard hearts cannot believe the gospel. Remember, that's exact wording from this passage, “Therefore they could not believe.” (John 12:39, ESV). That leads us into a really important question: How do hearts become hard? This question is going to lead us into the portion of the sermon where some of you are going to get very uncomfortable, if you're not already.
Because the first answer to that question is that God hardens hearts. I know that makes some very uncomfortable. Our gut reaction is to day, "That's not fair!" and to that the Apostle Paul writes, “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy....So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” (Romans 9:14–16, 18; ESV). God tells Moses that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and he will harden whomever he wills. God hardens hearts. Now, obviously the Apostle Paul has been talking to many of the same people that I talk to about these things because he knows how they are going to respond and some of the questions that are going to come up. He goes on to say, “You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (Romans 9:19–21, ESV). Does God have the right to do this? Is it unjust or unfair for God to do this? And, to put this more pointedly, what right do we have as finite, sinful human beings to question the God of the universe? Who do we think we are? He is God, we are not. He is good, we are not. We are not in the position to place judgments on God. He is in the position to place judgments on us. So, we need to get our hearts and minds in a place where we can accept that reality, rather than questioning God all of the time.
With that clearly in our hearts and minds, I have more to say on this matter, because it's not that simple. Yet, we cannot helpfully dive into the more complicated things before first understanding God's right to do what He wants. In order to explain the more complicated aspects of this, I want to share a quote from Herman Ridderbos that helps us understand the tension a bit more. He says, "Unbelief is not thereby blamed on God in a predestinarian sense, but is rather described as a punishment from God: he abandons unbelieving people to themselves, thus confirming them in their evil, blinding their eyes and hardening their hearts, as a result of which whatever God gives them to see and hear can no longer lead to salvation, that is, to repentance and healing."(Ridderbos, 444-445). Notice the careful way this is worded. The people are already in sin and rejecting him. They do not want to follow him. They hate him. So, God gives them what they want by turning them over to a hard heart, which means they will not be saved. Catch the tension in this? We do not take away God's sovereignty in this, nor do we take away human responsibility. Or to put this another way, Calvin says, "It is their own fault, therefore, if God does not choose to convert them, because they were the cause of their own despair." (Calvin, 43).
This why we can also say that we harden our hearts. I want to give us one quick, clear example of that from God's Word. It's from Hebrews 3: “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV). Notice the clear teaching of this passage. It says that our hearts are hardened by sin. That's why we're told to exhort one another every day, so that we would be corrected for our sins and our hearts would not become hard. So, the less often we are exhorted by God's people and by God's Word, the harder our heart will get because we will continue in sin. To say that a different way, the longer it takes you to repent from a sin in your life, and the longer you live with and embrace a sin in your life, the harder it is going to be to repent of that sin and the harder you heart is going to get. That should terrify you. It terrifies me.
I think this is the primary way that hearts are hardened today. We do not correct each other for our sins because we're too worried about being nice. As a result, hearts become hard. We don't attend church regularly, which results in us not being exhorting by God's Word or God's people, and our hearts become hard. We don't read God's Word regularly, which means we're not being corrected and rebuked by God's Word regularly, and our hearts become hard. A hard heart continues to get harder and harder and harder until it can no longer be saved.
NEVERTHELESS. That's a beautiful gospel word. We read this, “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; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” (John 12:42–43, ESV). Nevertheless, despite all of the hardness of heart, and all of the hopelessness of ever believing in Jesus, some believed. Not only did some believed, but EVEN some of those who had decided to kill him. Now it was still a very immature faith, but it was still a level of faith.
Now, you may be asking "How in the world did they believe? Didn't you say that it was impossible for hard hearts to believe in the gospel? How could they believe, or anyone for that matter, when their hearts are hard? It seems impossible!!" Jesus answered that question for his disciples saying, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” (Matthew 19:24–26, ESV). You're right. It is impossible for anyone to believe in God in and of their own ability, but that doesn't mean things are hopeless. Because God can remove hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh. God can open ears and eyes and hearts to receive his message.
Does that sound familiar to you? It should because I intentionally pray that before every sermon I preach: "Open our ears to hear, our eyes to see, and our hearts to receive what you have to say to us this morning." Why do I pray that EVERY time? Isn't it redundant? Isn't it repetitive? NO. Because if God didn't do this powerful work in us through the Holy Spirit, my message would actually accomplish the opposite. Like Isaiah, my message could, “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.”” (Isaiah 6:10, ESV). BUT, if God does a powerful work of opening ears and eyes and hearts, THEN you can see, THEN you can hear, THEN you can understand and turn to him and be healed and saved! God must do the work. That's why Jesus goes on to say, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46, ESV). Whoever believes in him, believes in him because their ears and eyes and hearts have been opened and will continue to be opened. They heard Jesus' message and their eyes, ears, and hearts were be completely changed by the powerful work of God. That's why they no longer walk in the darkness.
Two quick points as I wrap up this sermon. First, this is a warning. You may be here this morning and thinking, "Well, I'll just check things out and wait a bit." Waiting, only results in a harder heart that makes it much harder to turn to Jesus. Dont' wait. You may be here this morning and God is convicting you of some particular sin that you've been coddling too long. You've been convincing yourself that it's not that bad or it's not that big of deal, you can wait to repent of it until later. Don't wait. The longer you wait to repent, the harder it comes and the harder you heart becomes. Don't wait. Repent right now and turn to Jesus Christ. If God is pricking your heart this morning, don't wait to take action, that only makes it worse. Do it now. Repent of your sin, embrace Jesus Christ, be forgiven and cleansed, and shaped and molded further into his image. You won't regret it.
Second, don't grow weary of preaching the gospel. It is not trendy to preach the gospel these days. Some people think they have to make it flashy and better looking. Some people think they need to re-brand the gospel to make it more palatable. Some think that it's pointless because nobody will believe anyways. All of those responses come from looking at this from a worldly, humanly point of view. From our point of view, all of those things are true. From God's point of view, it's all foolishness and faithlessness. He has given us the message to preach to the world around us. We aren't called to be jerks, and we should work hard at helping people understand the gospel, but we also shouldn't despair when people don't receive it or believe. That's not our job. We will NEVER make anyone believe. With man it's impossible, but with God all things are possible, EVEN the salvation of the hardest hearts. So, we keep faithfully going to into the world with the gospel, trusting God to do the work and change hard hearts.