Introduction
Good morning. If you don’t know me, my name is John Lambert; and my wife Kathie and I have been part of King’s since June.
We felt the Lord was leading us to Darlington and to this particular church as far back as February 2019, so almost a couple of years ago now.
It’s good to have finally arrived and settled in – as best we can, given the obvious complications.
Kathie is a hospice nurse, and we have four children and seven grandchildren who are spread out in three cities; Belfast, Norwich and Paris, where we lived for 18 years before returning to the U.K.
Immediately before this summer, we were in Stockton for twelve years in a church we really love; it was a bit of a wrench to leave, but we are so excited about whatever the Lord has in store for us here.
Thank you for making us both so welcome. We’ve got to know a few of you now and we feel at home.
I’ve been working slowly through John’s Gospel recently, slowly and thoughtfully, reading about ten verses a day.
I was in chapter 12 this week and there was one passage in particular that arrested me and I felt that I should share with you from that this morning.
It’s John 12.37-46 if you want to look it up.
Background
And while you’re doing that, just to get our bearings; John 12 is located in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover festival.
Jesus’ enemies are closing in, the tension is growing every hour.
It’s actually the last week of Jesus’ life. And this is, as far as we know, the very last time Jesus speaks publicly before his death. Here’s what it says.
Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfil the word of Isaiah the prophet:
‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm
of the Lord been revealed?’
For this reason, they could not believe, because, as Isaiah
says elsewhere:
‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so
they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor
turn – and I would heal them.’
Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke
about him.
Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed
in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their
faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human
praise more than praise from God.
Then Jesus cried out, ‘Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
1) The Darkness of Unbelief
As Jesus begins to speak last public words, an ultimatum about accepting him as light or rejecting him and staying in spiritual darkness forever, John tells us about the state of mind of the people listening.
Verse 37: “Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, [in other words they were eyewitnesses of miracles and wonders] they still would not [note that word, “would not”] believe in him.
Before their eyes, Jesus has turned 180 gallons of water into wine. He has fed 5,000 people with a child’s packed lunch. He has healed a man who has been crippled 30 years. Just a few weeks earlier, (chapter 11) Jesus has raised from death a man called Lazarus.
He had been dead four days. The corpse was past rigor mortis and starting to decompose. The scene is a cave-like tomb with a circular slab of stone in front of it, probably weighing a couple of tons.
Jesus says, ”Take the seal off the tomb and roll that stone away.” They beg him to reconsider, “Please, no! Don’t make us do that. It’s hot and humid. The smell will overwhelm. This is the Middle-East, Lord.” But Jesus is not changing his mind.
So, expecting the gagging reflex to kick in at any time, they reluctantly push the stone to one side.
Jesus raises his voice; just imagine the authority, the conviction. “Lazarus, come out!”
And at his command, the dead man’s heart splutters into life again. His hands and feet begin to tingle. He blinks awake. His fingers and toes start to wiggle. He gets up from his stone slab, and out he walks, into the light, breathing again, healed and healthy.
And Jesus says, “Right, take all that burial linen off, he won’t be needing that now, then let him go.”
I have a friend called Mark who is one of the most prophetic people I have met. He is gifted by God to reveal things by word of knowledge about people in incredible detail, things that nobody else knows.
He told me once that he was invited to speak in a church in the middle of nowhere, in Siberia. He had heard of a revival going on there so he readily accepted the invitation.
When he finally gets off the plane the man meeting him, an apostolic leader there, shakes his hand and asks him a question. It’s a surprising question. It’s not, “How are you Mark?” or “Did you have a good flight?”
His first words are, “Pastor Mark, how many people have you raised from dead?”
For most of us, it doesn’t take a very long time to work out the answer to that question, does it? Most people don’t need a calculator to arrive at an accurate answer!
Mark starts to wonder if maybe getting a couple of his teenagers up of bed for school might count as two? But he thinks better of it so he says, “None. I haven’t raised anyone from the dead.”
The guy looks at down and says, “I have raised from the dead only six.”
Only half a dozen, eh? And, what's worse, all 6 were resurrected
within 24 hours of being certified dead. How underwhelming! What a let-down!
The people with Jesus in John 12 have, still fresh in the memory, the raising of Lazarus, four days, about 100 hours, after the funeral.
But still, even after witnessing that, it’s scarcely credible, but the Bible says here that some didn’t - in fact, wouldn’t believe.
The atheist scientist, former Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University, Peter Atkins admitted a couple of years ago that there is no evidence that could ever persuade him that God exists. This from a man who has been trained to rigorously, however counter-intuitive, to follow the evidence where it leads
He said that even if the stars lined up to form a personal
message for him he would think he had gone mad rather than that God was
speaking.
Everybody listening to this, I would guess, knows someone who, the more you talk to them about Jesus, the more they dig in and the less they are open to believe, because they have - as a matter of principle - closed their minds.
That’s how hard the people’s hearts are here. So John explains, quoting the Old Testament prophet Isaiah in v39:
[God] has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.
If you have already decided that the good news about Jesus is not true, your heart just grows harder and harder.
This is troubling to read isn’t it? Did God deliberately harden people’s hearts during Jesus’ ministry? Isn’t that arbitrary and unfair?
But the truth is that Jesus turned people’s hearts to stone by cleansing outcast lepers, by healing chronic paralytics, by driving out demons from tormented souls, and by performing amazing resurrections.
It’s like when you say to someone, “I love you” and they say, “Get lost.” You say, “I’m sorry” and they say, “No, you’re not.” You say, “Let me help you” and they shout back at you, “Get away from me you creep, I don’t need your charity.” The more you reach out, the more they close the door in your face.
The more God shows grace the more some people dig in and resist it. That’s how God hardening a human heart and a man or woman hardening their own heart turns out to be one and the same thing.
The religious elite hate Jesus; they are insanely jealous and the more good he does, they more they plot to kill him.
John says here that Isaiah, 700 years before it happened, saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
It was Isaiah who saw there was going to be a child, born of a virgin, and there was.
It was Isaiah who said he would be Immanuel, God with us,
the Prince of Peace - and he was.
It was Isaiah who saw a man of sorrows who would suffer appallingly
and bear the sins of others - and he did.
It was Isaiah who saw one who, through being crushed and
broken, would bring healing and forgiveness - and he did.
It was Isaiah who saw one who after his sufferings and
death would be laid in a rich man’s tomb - and all four Gospels attest that
this is what came to pass.
It was Isaiah who said this suffering servant would then be
raised again to see the light of life and be satisfied - and gloriously he was.
But if you have already shut your mind to the gospel, your heart grows harder and harder against it.
Some people could watch, as attested before many witnesses in Cwmbran, Wales, a few years ago, they could watch a paraplegic get dramatically healed and walk around holding the wheelchair above their head - right in front of them - and still they’d fold their arms and say it must have been faked.
The only way to soften that heart is prayer. Prayer moves mountains. There is a wondrous mystery in God’s sovereignty.
About a hundred years ago, an American missionary called William Young took the gospel to East Burma.
He learned the local language and one day he was preaching in a marketplace holding aloft his Bible as he spoke with its pages gleaming in the morning sunlight.
As he preached, some strangely-dressed men at the edge of the crowd pushed their way to the front. They were all agitated and excited.
And, overflowing with emotion, they said, “We’re from the Lahu tribe. We’ve been waiting for you for centuries. We have prophecies that tell us that a pale man will come with a book from God, and will set us free. We have even built meeting places ready for you. You must come with us now.”
Then they showed him these rope bracelets on their wrists. They
said, “We have worn these since time immemorial. They are placed on us at birth.
They symbolise our bondage to evil spirits. And we know that you alone, as the
messenger of the one God, can cut these from our wrists, when you have brought
us the message from the one creator God.”
That year, Young led 2,200 Lahu tribespeople to Christ. In the few years after that he baptized another 60,000.
Listen, however bound up in worry, and despondency, and death, and darkness, you are today, the same Jesus who raised Lazarus to life and who sent William Young to Myanmar says to you with all authority, “Unbind him. Unbind her. Cut the bracelets. You are free.”
2) The Darkness of Fear
So that’s the first thing here; unbelief. I guess not many churches have unbelief as their main problem. If unbelief starts to take hold of a church it’s like getting water into a boat – you’ve got to pump it out or you’ll soon be in trouble. That’s how churches die.
Not everyone in John 12 had an unbelieving heart of stone. The second thing here is fear and that’s much more common in churches. In v42 it says this.
“Yet at the same time many, even among the leaders, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.”
They believed but they were afraid of people’s opinions.
They were nervous about getting downvoted or unfriended on social media. They were frightened of giving offense. They were scared of being avoided at the golf club. They were reluctant to get saddled with the label of ‘Christian’ because above all else they craved popularity
If your problem is unbelief - you close your mind, you
close your heart. But if your problem is fear - you close your mouth.
Which do you think you are more inclined to?
Unbelief is not letting Jesus in. But fear is not letting Jesus out.
I have here a TV remote; it is a very coveted object. If I’ve got it, we’re watching action films or international rugby. If the grandchildren are staying, they’ll colonise it and we’re all watching Paw Patrol and the Twirlywoos. If Kathie has it, we have to watch a romantic comedy or Bake Off
If you come to my house, and you grab the remote… (well,
you probably won’t be invited again!) but you might choose a panel game or the
news and weather, or some reality TV show, or maybe some weird foreign film with
subtitles, who knows?
The point is everyone wants to be in charge of life’s remote. Are there things you find unpleasant or hard? Zap! Fast forward. Anything you don’t like the sound of? Zap! Put it on mute. Bored? Zap! Zap! Zap! Just change channels whenever you want. Are there things you love? When you’re in charge, it’s great, you can just replay it over and over.
Two people cannot have the remote at the same time… And when God says, “Give me the remote” there’s no “I’ll give you control Lord if…”
No one likes relinquishing control, we naturally fear it, but being a Christian means Jesus gets to have life’s TV remote.
So following Jesus is an adventure. It’s tales of the unexpected. Christianity
is a bit of a mystery tour, but it’s a magical and wondrous one.
When Jesus chooses the channel, chances are we’ll feel a bit out of control sometimes. We might get asked insane things like, “How many people have YOU have raised from the dead?”
What if you hand over the remote, give up control, what if you lay down all your plans and dreams before God today?
It is definitely a bit scary, but what would you rather be, scared or bored?
Ending
Well, I want to come in to land on v46, where Jesus says, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
Notice that Jesus talks about not staying in darkness. He’s not talking about getting over a rainy weekend, or a bad mood today; he’s talking about not staying in darkness any more. This is a prolonged period of being stuck in a dark place, when hope begins to run out.
People talk about the dark night of the soul, meaning a season – maybe months or even years, of spiritual gloom and darkness. Maybe that’s where you are today. I spent two years in that place once.
People are talking about recent successes in vaccine trials as “light at the end of the tunnel.” Thank God for that. It certainly does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. But with Jesus you can say, “There’s enough light in the tunnel, however long this season lasts.”
“I have come as a light,” says Jesus, “so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” Is today the day you step out of a long season of hopelessness?
Faith is not a leap in the dark. It’s actually a step into the light of God's power and purposes for your life.
Let’s pray...
Sermon preached at King's Church, Darlington 29 November 2020.
