37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.
The people who were not believing in Jesu is a crowd that heard the voice of God from heaven and though it was thunder. They were the people who hours before had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem as their conquering king. Many had seen him feed thousands and had even eaten the food that he miraculously gave them. They had seen Lazarus walking among them and knew he had died and was now risen by Jesus. Yet they didn’t believe in him.
There are times when we all doubt and wonder if we’ve been mistaken. It is at these times we need to look back at the miracles and reinforce our belief. We need to listen to what Jesus told John when he started to doubt.
2 When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" 4 Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 6 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." Matt 11:2-6 NIV
We also need to look at the change in our own life. Once we were without Christ and without hope of salvation. We were all sinners and have a unique story to tell about what we were before turning to Jesus for salvation. Some stories are pretty ugly and other not. But there must be a time when we once didn’t believe and then we did whether we can remember it or not. We should remember that time because it is evidence of being born again. We didn’t believe because of our intellectual acumen. This leads into what John then explains.
38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?"
John quotes Isaiah 53:1 to show that there is widespread unbelief among the people of Israel. What is fascinating about this quote is that it in the prophecy of the Messiah coming to suffer instead of coming as a conquering king. Right away, Isaiah is telling us that people will not believe what he is about to say about the Messiah coming to take away our sin. The description of the Messiah doesn’t fit their expectations, so they reject what Isaiah is saying. It is true to this day that Jews do not accept these verses as a clear prophecy of Jesus and his atonement for our sins. They didn’t believe it then, they didn’t believe when Jesus stood before them, and most people don’t believe it now.
39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM."
John also quotes Isaiah 6:10 to explain why people don’t believe. This is where many people stumble when it comes to the truth of God’s Word. They question why God would purposely keep people from understanding the truth, repenting, and being saved. We need to look at the context of Isaiah 6 where God appeared to Isaiah and manifested his holiness. Isaiah understands how great a chasm there is between his sinfulness and God’s holiness. He understands that he is sinful and his people are downright evil.
His people are engaged in idolatry and all sorts of sinful behavior. Their attendance to the Law of Moses is only superficial. They keep hearing what they should do but they don’t do it. They see the Law and God’s provision for sin in the daily sacrifices, but they don’t have a clue as to what it really means. And I think they don’t really care as long as they can check off the boxes each day and feel they have done what God wanted so that they can go back the next day and commit the same kinds of evil.
So why wouldn’t God change their hearts? Why wouldn’t he convert them and heal them? Paul explained that in Romans 1:18-23. They were suppressing the truth (vs 18). They knew the truth because God had made it plain (vs 19). They knew God, that is, they knew about him and what he decreed as right and just (vs 20-21). They chose idolatry over serving God (vs 23). “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (Rom 1:24 ESV). In other words, God gave them what they wanted, but to do that he had to blind their eyes and understanding.
41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. 42 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
Even though the crowd was not believing in Jesus, here is the kicker. Many of the rulers believed in him. But they wouldn’t say it aloud to anyone lest the Pharisees would hear it and kick them out of the synagogue. The question comes, if they really believed in Jesus but were unwilling to confess him, were they saved? Based on what Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (ESV), it would appear that they were not saved. If they died in this state without confessing their belief, they wouldn’t go to heaven. But, what if they never actually denied Jesus. No one actually asked what they believed about Jesus, so they never had the opportunity to deny belief? Would they also be like the ones in John’s quote from Isaiah?
This could have implications for people today. If a Muslim in a Muslim community hears about Jesus and believes in him, will he be saved if he doesn’t make a confession of faith in Jesus before other Muslims? If he belongs to the “secret” church and confesses his faith to other Christians, is that a saving faith? Is it a saving faith if he denies being a Christian when confronted by Muslims after confessing Jesus only to Christians? This is essentially the same problem the rulers faced except the Muslim convert could face execution not just expulsion from his community.
43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.
This just shows how convoluted our societies can be. What other people think of us is much more important than we think. Many of us keep our faith in Jesus quiet because we don’t want people to think we are kooks. Society has told us that believing in Jesus is intellectual suicide and other demeaning descriptions. However, this last verse really gets to the heart of the matter. Where does our love reside? Do we love God more than what people think of us? If we really put people’s approval above our declaration of faith, are we really saved?
You will note that I’m not answering these questions because I don’t know the state of a person’s heart. However, if asked and a person disavows Jesus to save his own skin, Scripture points to this as a serious sin or revealing the state of the persons soul. The good news is that even these can find repentance and salvation.
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