Revealed, Rejected, Redeemed

This morning, as we dive into the text, last week we talked about uh the glory of God, right?

That that all of Scripture reveals that God is about his glory and that he is going to get that glory uh in salvation through judgment.

And we saw how that Jesus and the substitutionary sacrifice that he made for us on our behalf is kind of the climax of that pursuit, right?

This is how we see it most vividly and radiantly.

And so this morning we have to kind of carry along that theme about the glory of God.

If that is his pursuit, right?

We said last week that God lives for the glory of God.

We are God-centered because God is God-centered.

We live for the glory of God because God lives for the glory of God.

This morning, what we're going to be uh uh uh situated around is the thought or the question is how does unbelief build into the glory of God?

How does a person's unbelief work toward that end?

If all things work toward and for the glory of God, if he is sovereign, man, that's a big word, right?

If God is sovereign, if he is able through his infinite knowledge and wisdom to orchestrate all of history toward the singular end of his glory, then how does unbelief in the heart of man work toward that end?

I think that that's is what John is laying out for us here this morning.

Now, we've talked about this as we've been working through the book of John.

We are entering into or have entered into the last week of Jesus' life.

The first 10 chapters of John were about the three-year public ministry of Jesus, right?

John comes right out the gate.

He doesn't start with the birth of Jesus, he starts with the public ministry of Jesus.

And so the last ten chapters, sorry, first eleven are about the public ministry, last ten are about the just final days of Jesus' life.

And this morning, we're going to wrap up the final conclusion of Jesus' public ministry, uh, that he displayed his power and glory before the watching world.

So let's dive into the text together.

Here's what John starts with, right?

When Jesus had said these things, verse 36b, right?

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.

So Jesus is still at that moment in front of the crowd of people who had ushered him into the city of Jerusalem, crying Hosanna, because he was coming out of Bethany into the capital to be able to celebrate the Passover meal.

He's preparing himself for death and burial, right?

He knows that his hour has come.

And so he's still in front of the crowd.

And John says that he actually departed and hid himself from them.

So who's the them?

It's the crowd who ushered him into the city.

John really doesn't provide any details for us here.

He simply informs us that Jesus removed himself from the presence of the crowd, and probably he did so to withdraw from the public eye that he might be in the midst of the intimacy of his disciples during the Last Supper.

Right?

And that's where a l the bulk majority of John's gospel is going to focus on from here on out.

Now, verse 37.

John says this though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be b might be fulfilled.

Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Now, John, without skipping a beat, sets up a major theological matter before us, right?

As he works to address a phenomenon.

And the phenomenon that John's addressing is that even though Jesus had done all of these signs, performed all of these miracles, had preached with authority and power the very word of God, there is this phenomenon of unbelief.

All of these people who still do not believe that Jesus is the sent one from God, the Messiah who was to save his people from their sin.

Now, he had performed many signs before these very people.

He had turned water into wine at a wedding, he had caused a man born lame to walk, he multiplied a child's packed lunch to feed over 5,000 people.

He'd given sight to a man blind from birth.

He even raised Lazarus from the dead.

And that wasn't all.

That was just the signs and miracles that John wanted to use to help us see and understand as he lays out at the end of his gospel that Jesus really is the Christ.

I've written these things so that you would believe.

In fact, in John 21, 25, as he closes out his gospel writing, he says this.

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.

Were every one of them to be written?

I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

So John's gospel lays out seven signs to help us see that Jesus is the Messiah.

But John says, if I was to write every single thing that he ever did down, I don't know that the world would be able to contain the volume.

So imagine that.

If this is true, if Jesus truly, publicly and powerfully performed all these miraculous signs, then how could it be that anyone would remain in unbelief?

I mean, you can imagine if you were there, surely you would believe.

Right?

If you were there present in this, you knew Lazarus, you saw him raise from the dead, you were there as Jesus took these fishes and loaves and fed over 5,000 people, you were there witnessing him walk across the water.

I mean, surely you would not be there in the same place as these people remaining in unbelief.

Or would you?

This is the phenomenon John's speaking to.

John says that the unbelief of the people actually serves a divine purpose.

Now, let's try to wrap our minds around that for just a moment.

That the unbelief of man serves a gloriously divine purpose in God's pursuit for his own glory.

We have to wrestle with that.

This is how he actually helps us understand it, how he frames it.

The so that at the top of verse 38, so that communicates purpose in the unbelief of the people.

Multitudes of eyewitnesses to the miracles of Jesus remained in unbelief so that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

God had a divine purpose in the unbelief of the people.

And my hope is to show us this morning that it was for his glory.

Let's work through it together.

What word is John referring to?

When he says that these people remained in unbelief, so that, here's the divine purpose, the prophecy of the words of Isaiah might be fulfilled.

What word is he speaking about?

Well, he references Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 is the poem or the writing of the suffering servant, of the Messiah being revealed as the one who would be crucified and bearing the marks of our sin in his own flesh for us, that we would be reconciled to God through his suffering, faithful work.

Let's read the first three verses in full together.

Isaiah says this, Isaiah 53, one through three.

Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.

He was despised and we esteemed him not.

This prophecy of Isaiah is about the revealing of the Christ, the suffering servant of God, and the rejection of him by the people he would come to save through his suffering.

John is saying that the unbelief of the people served the purpose of fulfilling this prophecy.

Who has heard what has been preached?

These people heard the words of God.

They heard the powerful, authoritative preaching of Jesus.

It confounded them, right?

They couldn't understand how could this man have such authority in his preaching?

It made them wonder who is this guy?

What's he about?

But it didn't cause belief, right?

And they saw his hand perform these miracles and signs and wonders, but yet it didn't cause belief.

They remained in their unbelief because they saw this glory revealed.

What glory?

The glory of the suffering servant.

And they found it something to despise and reject.

John has worked throughout the whole gospel to say there's glory in this cross, there's glory in this sacrifice, there's glory in this uh uh uh bloody carcass that is for us.

There's glory here, right?

But we see that and we say, no, we don't want that.

We don't want to have that glory.

That's something that we're going to reject.

But he then takes this thought one step further.

John does.

He doesn't just leave their unbelief to unwillingness, right?

So so John or Isaiah 53, 1 through 3 kind of talks about the people's unwillingness.

Their desire was not for that glory.

The suffering servant of Jesus, their desire was not for that.

So Isaiah 53, 1 through 3, you could say was the unwillingness of the heart of man to see and behold and receive the glory of Jesus revealed as the suffering servant.

But then he takes this one step further, and he doesn't just allow the people to remain in unwillingness, he draws them into inability.

He says this, verse 39.

Therefore they could not believe.

Now, could not believe.

That should strike us, right?

That language should cause us to kind of perk up and try to understand what is John trying to communicate about the unbelief of the people in relationship to the sovereignty of God.

It's we're all okay with the statement of unwilling.

They were unwilling to believe.

Many of us here this morning are not okay with the language they could not believe.

But that's exactly what John says.

He's trying to help us see and understand the phenomenon of the unbelief of the people in the midst of the powerful preaching of Jesus and the public display of his power in signs and wonders.

How in the world was this still the case?

He says they couldn't believe.

Let's go, let's look at this.

Let's try to work through it together here by drawing our attention to the therefore of verse 39.

So, so the therefore of verse 39 is connecting the phenomenon of the people's unbelief in the face of Jesus' miracles to the reason of their unbelief.

Right?

So here's the phenomenon, here's what we witness and observe.

Why is this the case?

Therefore, is helping us understand.

Here's the reason.

39.

Therefore, they could not believe, for again, Isaiah said, He, God, 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.

Man, this is this is tough to work through.

This is going to really cause us to wrestle with these preconceived notions about God and love and grace and all of that.

How could God purposely cause a people to not be able to believe?

I want to submit to you, it is for his glory.

Here John quotes from Isaiah 6 to express the reason they could not believe.

It was because God had blinded them from being able to see the glory of Jesus and made them hard-hearted and unable to receive that same glory.

And the way that Isaiah 53 reveals the glory of Christ as the suffering servant, Isaiah 6 reveals the glory of Christ as the holy sovereign over all creation.

This is a beautiful, good thing about the God that we serve.

He doesn't remain concealed, he doesn't leave us in darkness and in speculation.

What God does for the good of his people is that he reveals himself and he reveals himself in his glory, right?

We are held accountable to our relationship, how we actually relate to God, our Maker, because He has revealed Himself in His glory that we might know Him rightly.

And He revealed Himself.

Here's what John helps us understand in two distinct ways.

The suffering servant, the lowly, meek, suffering servant who was crushed for our sin.

And he revealed himself also as the glorious sovereign ruler over all creation.

This is how the three disciples saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration.

As he's there on the mountain, the cloud engulfs him, and they see what?

They see him not as this meek and lowly person, they see him as the sovereign ruler of creation.

God revealed himself.

Christ revealed himself.

Let's look at Isaiah 6 together.

First ten verses here.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him stood the seraphim.

Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

His glory.

And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?

Who will go for us?

Then I said, Here I am, send me.

Right?

And if you're at a if you're at a conference, like a missions conference, that's where they stop.

Here I am, Lord, send me.

That's not the whole text, right?

Here's that God says, Okay, great, I'll send you.

Here's what's gonna happen.

Go and say to this people, keep on hearing but do not understand, keep on seeing but do not perceive the fruitlessness of mission.

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.

So to work to explain the unbelief of the people in the face of Jesus' powerful and public preaching and signs.

John quotes from two different passages of Isaiah that each deal with a unique revealing of the person and glory of Christ.

One revealing the glory of Jesus as the suffering servant, the other revealing his glory as the holy sovereign.

But yet, in both of these revealings, the people's response is the rejection of the glory that's been revealed.

Here's what verse 41 says.

Isaiah said these things.

Why?

Why did he say these things?

Because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

In that moment, when he was seeing the Lord, the king, the seraphim, worshiping him, he saw Christ.

He saw the sovereign ruler of all creation.

He saw the glory of Christ that filled the earth.

In Isaiah 53, he saw Christ.

He saw the meek and lowly.

He saw the glory of Jesus.

Isaiah saw these two glories.

And in it he saw the fullness of the glory of Jesus.

And he spoke of him.

But it is this glory revealed.

It is this glory of Jesus revealed that John puts forward as the reason for their unbelief.

Isaiah 53 reveals the glory of the suffering servant and the people's rejection of him because they were unwilling.

Isaiah says that the servant grew up before their eyes, but he had no majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

So we despised him and we rejected him.

We saw his glory displayed in the suffering servant and we said, No thanks.

That's not the glory that I want.

That's not the glory I want to be associated with.

That's not the glory of the one who's supposed to come and redeem us and rescue us.

We don't want that.

We rejected it because we despised his form.

Isaiah 6 reveals the glory of the Holy Sovereign and the people's rejection of him because they were unable.

Here Jesus was revealed in ultimate splendor and majesty in such a way that strikes fear into the very heart of Isaiah.

And the Lord commissions Isaiah to go and proclaim all that he has witnessed, but his words will fail to have any effect on the people because the Lord has made them unable to turn from their wickedness.

This rejection of Christ in his revealed glory is how John opened up his gospel narrative.

In John 1 11, he says this He being Jesus, he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

This was his calling, this was his mission, this was his purpose.

He was coming to his people, his people would not receive him, they would reject him and despise him.

And so the ministry of Jesus begins with this announcement.

And now John is ending the public ministry of Jesus with the very reason that that statement is true.

Because God is sovereign even over our unbelief.

And he will use it to obtain the glory his name deserves.

This is God's sovereign judgment.

What does this teach us about the will of man and the sovereignty of God?

Right?

We that I think that's a fair question.

We have a will.

God is sovereign.

What does this teach us about the relationship of these two things?

Many of us think that we have a free will.

I would argue the scriptures never mention that.

They don't they say nothing about this free will.

Martin Luther said that if we ever had a free will, we had it in the garden, and look what that got us.

If you want to see the fullness of free will let loose, we choose sin and self.

That's what free will does.

So how do we reconcile this, right?

Romans 6 and 7 says that no, actually, our will is bound.

Our will is bound if we are apart from Christ, if we are in this world, if if Satan is our Father, then our will is bound by sin and death.

That's why we operate in that.

We choose, right?

Out of our will, sin and destruction and wickedness and death.

This is what we do because we're bound by it.

We're not free.

It is in Christ that the will is liberated.

Liberated to what?

To be bound to him.

For we are slaves to righteousness in Christ, that we might finally be made alive and choose to love him and glorify him and live righteously before him in obedience to his perfect law.

Our wills are not free.

And for those of us who are in Christ, that is gloriously good news.

That your will has been bound, chained, enslaved to him who loves you and gave his life for you.

That you might become the righteousness of his own name.

That is good news.

So, what does this teach us about the will of man and the sovereignty of God?

A people who are unwilling become a people unable.

A people who are unwilling become a people who are unable.

This is God's sovereign judgment.

This is God's condemnation upon mankind.

This is his rule over unwilling hearts.

There's three things I want us to work through in light of the sovereignty of God in man's unbelief.

The first one is this all unbelief is a guilty unbelief.

All unbelief is a guilty unbelief.

What do I mean by that?

We are able to be held accountable for our unbelief.

We are rightly able to sit under God's holy and righteous judgment because of our unbelief.

We are not removed from guilt.

In light of God's sovereignty, we are not removed from guilt.

We are not removed from judgment.

We are not removed from consequence because God is sovereign.

No, we are guilty even in our unbelief.

Man has a moral responsibility to believe in the finished work of Jesus.

Mankind has a moral responsibility to believe in the finished work of Jesus that they might obtain salvation through him.

All people have received the call to repent of their sin and believe.

All people have received sufficient grace and revelation to be able to be held accountable for their unbelief.

And apart from the sovereign grace of God, every single one of us rejected that call.

That's who we were.

We saw the revealed Christ and we despised it.

The only reason you behold the suffering servant in beauty, in splendor, in majesty, and in glory is because God has sovereignly caused you to see it that way.

John 3 18.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

This is what Jesus is saying.

All unbelief is a guilty unbelief.

Man's responsibility and God's sovereignty are suspended in mysterious harmony.

They are not in contradiction to one another, but are compatible even if we fail to understand it.

You see, our wills have a moral agency, and we are able to be held accountable because of it.

So the first thing I want us to see is in light of our will and God's sovereignty, all unbelief is guilty unbelief.

The second thing I want us to see: God's hardening is never in contradiction to man's desire.

God's hardening is never in contradiction to man's desire.

The sovereign hand of God that hardens the heart of men is ultimately giving them what they most desire.

We say this a lot at Sacred Mission.

I know we've said it multiple times from this very platform.

The worst judgment of God that we could receive is that He gives us what we want.

The worst judgment we could receive from God is that He would actually give us what we desire.

Without a change of heart, without our affections and desires being radically changed, being pulled out of the darkness of this world in our sin and brought into the marvelous light of his righteousness and holiness.

If God gave us what we desired, it would be his judgment upon us.

It's a holy and just condemnation of a guilty people who are condemned to do and be what they themselves have chosen.

Here's what we have to grasp: God is not hardening the hearts of a people who desire to trust in Jesus and receive the revelation of his glory.

Right?

As God is communicating his sovereignty over their unbelief, that he's blinding their eyes and deafening their ears, that he's hardening their heart, we don't see this in light of, right?

We don't see this as a contradiction to a people who are desiring to embrace Jesus, who are desiring to see the beauty of the suffering servant, who are desiring to be changed and to love and serve and obey him.

That's not what's happening here.

God is not hardening the hearts of a people who desire Him.

He is hardening the hearts of a people who have seen the revealed glory of Jesus and they despised and rejected it.

C.S.

Lewis helps us understand this in his book, The Great Divorce, as he wrote about the afterlife, right?

And the realities of this world of heaven and this place of hell, he he says this in his book, The Great Divorce.

There are only two kinds of people in the end.

Those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says in the end, Thy will be done.

That's it.

Those who have confessed and believed and trusted in Jesus, and they look to the radiance of his glory revealed, and they say, Thy will be done.

Or it's God who looks on us, a people who've seen that glory and chosen to reject it and to despise it because we did not find its form beautiful.

And he looks at us and he says, Thy will be done.

The third thing I want us to see is that God is sovereign over all belief and unbelief.

God is sovereign over all belief and unbelief.

God's sovereign plan to redeem a people for the glory of his name is not jeopardized or thwarted by our unbelief.

Our unbelief does not get in the way or jeopardize God's ultimate pursuit of his glory.

Not one bit.

Lest we think we're bigger than we really are.

Our wills do not get in the way of God's pursuit of his glory.

Our sin and unbelief do not prevent God from saving a people for his own glory.

In his infinite knowledge and wisdom, God is able to be sovereign over both our belief and our unbelief for the glory of his name and the good of his people.

Right?

When we talk about his infinite knowledge and wisdom, God in his infinite knowledge knows all things, right?

He is omniscient, he knows all things from the beginning and the end.

And when we speak of his infinite wisdom, it is his ability to apply that knowledge in every particular way necessary to accomplish the end that he so desires, the ultimate glory of his name.

So in his infinite wisdom, he can take both our belief and our unbelief and work it for the glory of his name and the good of his people.

Jesus spoke about this sovereignty over even our belief.

John 10, 16.

Jesus said, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.

So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Jesus is saying, I'm gonna go after the sheep.

I'm gonna go after those who are of the Gentile nations.

My gospel is for all people, and when I go after them, they will hear my voice.

They will respond in faith.

You see, in the end of time, God will receive the glory that he deserves because he has sovereignly worked all things together for that end, even man's unbelief.

John lets his readers know that there were some people who saw and believed, at least believed in part, but their faith was choked out because they loved the glory of man more than the glory of God.

Verse 43.

For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

He's talking about these small group of leaders with inside the Israelite people who believed, but that belief was choked out because they loved the glory of man.

Notice how John is contrasting the glory of Jesus, whom the people despised and rejected, with the glory of man, which they would abandon their very faith to obtain.

The glory of Jesus that was revealed to them was meek and lowly.

It was unattractive and absent of any beauty or majesty.

Jesus' glory was not the glory that they wanted.

But it was the glory that they needed.

They wanted the glory of man, they wanted the praise of man, the power of man.

And this caused them to be unable to see the glory of Jesus that they so desperately needed.

Jesus spoke about this in John chapter 5, verse 44.

John 5:44

He said to the crowd listening to him, How can you believe when you see when you receive glory from one another?

Do not seek the glory that comes from the only God.

This was the whole story of Jesus' ministry.

People kept seeing this man and they thought, there's no way that this guy could be the one.

There's no way that he could be the Messiah, the one who was sent to save and redeem.

There's no way.

No matter what he did, no matter how powerful he preached, no matter what sign he performed in front of them, they consistently had this heart posture that that's not the glory that we're looking for.

And it continued to cause them to search for the glory they really wanted.

The glory that man was able to offer.

You see, this is ultimately the root of unbelief.

To see the glory of the suffering servant, to look at the cross of Jesus and say, I don't want that glory.

To despise and reject the revealed glory of Christ in his cross is to desire the glory of man.

If nothing else.

And reject the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus in your place that you might become his righteousness.

You see, when we look at the cross and we reject that, ultimately, at the end of everything, what we're saying is I can do this on my own.

I can live a good enough life.

I can live righteously enough.

I can do enough in my own power and strength to make myself right with God.

Ultimately, you want the glory of man.

This is the root of unbelief.

Now, at the end of our passage, we come to the end of Jesus' public ministry, and John gives us no real context, right?

Just out of nowhere, he's like Jesus lifted up his voice and cried out.

And then John kind of summarizes, so to speak, all of Jesus' public ministry in this last paragraph, right?

If we look at the final public outcry of Christ that John records for us here before Jesus enters into the upper room with his disciples to celebrate the Passover meal, we kind of see this condensed summary of all that Jesus had spoken of and preached.

So let's look at some key points in this conclusion as we close.

44.

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 love what John does here.

So to reveal, right, is to be seen.

We have seen Christ.

We have seen him because he has revealed himself to us.

And so this is God's mercy to us that we might know him, not remain in speculation, but to actually see him in his revelation of who he is.

But it's also his justice toward us.

It is his mercy in that he does not conceal himself from us, but reveals himself that we might know him and have life in him.

But it is his justice in that in seeing we are without excuse.

We have seen the revelation of him, and yet our heart posture is to despise and reject what we have seen.

We don't want that glory.

In seeing Jesus, we see the very glory of the Father, and to behold and believe in what we have seen, there we have eternal life in him.

Verse 46 I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

This is a key theme throughout John's gospel.

Jesus being the light of the world who came into our darkness, that we might not remain in darkness, but be delivered out of it and brought into the kingdom of his light.

This was a primary focus of the preaching ministry of Jesus.

He came into the world to bring us out of the darkness we so deeply loved, but was death to our souls.

John 3 19.

And this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and what?

We loved the darkness.

That's what we loved.

We didn't love the glory of the suffering servant.

We didn't love the glory of the revealed Christ.

We loved the darkness.

Because our works were evil.

Jesus came as the light of the world to deliver us from that darkness.

Verse 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him.

For I did not 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.

So the sufficient and finished work of Jesus was to save sinners from the wrath of God's holy justice.

Christ was sufficient to that end.

He finished the work that was set before him to save sinners from the wrath of God's holy justice.

There is a judgment and a condemnation that remains, though.

And it remains on those who do not believe, who reject the revealed glory of Christ.

The word of Christ judges them.

The revealing of his glory condemns them.

His grace and mercy passes over them, and they remain in death.

Verse 49.

And I know that his commandment is eternal life.

What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.

Jesus was sent on mission by the Father to fulfill his perfect and holy will of redeeming a people for the glory of his name.

I want to say clearly, Jesus did not fail in that mission.

Jesus did not fail, not even in one aspect of that mission.

He perfectly accomplished all that the Father commissioned him to.

You see, the text of this message and the entire story of the public ministry of Jesus points us to the cross.

The cross where he will die, where the suffering servant will be exalted and lifted up, where he will be glorified.

That's what John's pointing us to.

To see the glory of Jesus there on the cross.

He was the glory of the holy sovereign in Isaiah 6, but he was also the unattractive, suffering servant of Isaiah 53.

And therefore, because of both of these, he was rejected by men and destined for the cross for the salvation of the world.

This was the sovereign plan of God and the sovereign unbelief of these people.

This is why it was all planned.

Every single bit of it was planned.

That through a glorious and despised Messiah, we, you and I, who sovereignly believe in him, will have eternal life.

Amen.