Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed: 06/16/19

Intro:

• A blog from a website called BreakPoint offers a tremendously convicting insight from several studies about children growing up to attend church.
  • From one Swiss study, it is reported that in households where only mothers went to church with their children only 2-3% of their children grow up to do the same.
    • While in households where both mother and father went to church with their children, 33% of those children became faithful in church attendance. Another 44% of those children would sporadically attend church.
    • Surprisingly, in households where only the father attended church with his children, 44% of those children became faithful in church attendance, with another large portion who would sporadically attend.
    • Fathers play an important role in leading their children to faith.
  • A University of Southern California professor cited in the blog agrees with this finding in his research.
    • He reports that when fathers have a close relationship with their children 56% of those children share his level of religious commitment.
    • Fathers who do not have close relationships with their children see only 36% of them following his lead.
    • Again Fathers matter in the lives of their children.
  • Finally the blog points out that these indicators in the religious field agree with the broader research on the importance of fathers that points to the influence of fathers upon “preventing poverty, teen pregnancy, delinquency, drug use, and school dropout.” Father’s matter! ( http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/03/breakpoint-dads-take-your-kids-to-church/ )

Hook:

• With that backdrop of the importance of fathers upon faith, one would expect that Father’s Day would be a time when the church would be full.
• But at Lifeway Research ( https://lifewayresearch.com/2012/05/11/mothers-day-church-attendance-third-among-holidays-fathers-day-last/ ) they report that among the special days on the church Calendar Father’s Day is the least attended Sunday, behind Friend Day, and the 4th of July Weekend.
• Lifeway’s conclusion was that “Either churches are less effective in affirming fathers, or families believe Christian fathers don’t value their participation in worship services.”
• Even with the importance of fathers it seems that one of the major reasons Father’s Day is less celebrated by families is that they have recognized a subtle “unfollowing” of Christ among many dads.
• In the age of social media, to “unfollow” or “defriend” someone  means that we no longer want to connect with a person so we stop following their profile or remove ourselves from their friend list. This can be done with something as simple as a click.
• For many fathers, and for some of us, have we subtly unfollowed Christ – disconnecting ourselves from Him?
• Today we will see how John warns us against unfollowing Christ with three specific actions.

Message Points:

• As we pick up John’s gospel in chapter 12 it is already Holy Week, and Jesus has already been teaching in the temple up to the Tuesday of that week.
  • This passage begins on the heels of his last message which again implored the Jews and their leaders in verse 36a to “Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.”
  • From this point forward Jesus does not focus on His public ministry, but for the next few days devotes all of his time to his disciples.
    • In the book of John the next five chapters detail this private ministry to his disciples.
    • This private discipleship amounts to around 24% of John’s gospel.
  • But before those events begin John takes some time to give us these editorial comments.
• The NIV begins the second half of verse 36 with the phrase “when he had finished speaking” that He hid himself from the crowds.
  • For Jesus to finish speaking my only refer to the immediate context of verses 12:20-36a and likely his parting words in 12:42-50.
  • But since John at this point goes on to give his editorial comments, and the gospel clearly turns to focus upon the disciples, it seems that Jesus truly at this point finished his public ministry.
  • Thus his entire teaching ministry would be in view.
  • Further, Jesus is said to have hidden himself.
    • In John’s gospel we read of a similar hiding in 8:59. After teaching the Jews, they became so enraged they were picking up stones to throw at him, but miraculously He hid himself and left the scene.
    • In some way, Jesus again performs a miraculous hiding here, so that he can prepare his disciples.
    • But this departure and hiding himself also points towards the coming judgement of the unbelieving nation and people.  Romans 1 indicates to us that God’s judgement comes as God give unbelievers over to their lusts, passions, and debased thoughts.
  • But for John and the disciples it must have seemed like Jesus’ public ministry had failed.
    • Instead of Jesus marching into Jerusalem and rallying the crowds to overthrow Rome; Jesus had just taught again that he had come to die according to verse 12:32-33.
    • Even if the disciples had begun to understand that Jesus would not establish a renewed Jewish kingdom, but a new faith; at this point who among the crowds believed in this new faith in Jesus as Messiah?
    • Verse 37 tells us that even Jesus’ signs – the seven specific ones in this gospel and the many more referred to in John 20:30-31 – were ineffective to bring about belief.
    • According to those verses at the end of John, the signs like Jesus’ gospel teachings, were intended to help people to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
    • Why did so many not believe? Had Jesus failed?
• John answers those questions by warning us 1st that: People unfollow Jesus by ignoring the purpose of His gospel ministry. (12:36-38)
  • The crowds connected with Jesus for His interesting gospel sayings, just as people do today.
    • In our world today a very popular way for a person to respond to Jesus is to say that he or she appreciates his moral teachings. The favorite of these teaching is that we would love our neighbor as ourselves.
    • Those same people would ignore Jesus’ radical call to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength which is the basis for loving others.
    • They missed the purpose of Jesus’ gospel which always related how a person could be right with God and then with others.
  • The crowds also connected with Jesus for his miraculous good works referred to as signs, just as people do today.
    • There is a reason that the Pentecostal movement in this last century has become one of the fastest growing faith communities. People crave miraculous works.
    • We also can see people follow Jesus so long as they are receiving some kind of support and help from the church or another para-church organization.
    • These folks also miss the point of Jesus’ good works which were to help people to have faith in God to help them solve their problems, most especially their  sin problem.
  • This is the reason that John quotes from Isaiah 53:1 in verse 38.
    • Isaiah gave that verse in the middle of the most famous of the Servant Songs which foretold of  the Messiah.
      • In the context Isaiah relates the unassuming circumstances from which the Messiah would rise.
      • The question asks who has believed the prophet’s message or had the Lord’s arm revealed.
      • John recognizes how Jesus’ gospel was like the prophet’s message and his good works revealed the Lord’s power.
      • Who truly hears the gospel message and who really understands Jesus’ good works?
    • Paul also quotes this verse from Isaiah in Romans 10:16. He uses its positive implication, noticing that it is an offer for people to believe and see what God has revealed. He gives it as the reason that we should proclaim the gospel because “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17)
    • But John by quoting this passage takes the reverse implication than Paul. John in essence says that so many people do not believe because God foretold in this verse that people would ignore the purpose of the gospel and Jesus’ good works.
  • People unfollow Jesus because God promised in His Word that some would ignore his real purpose.
    • This in no way negates our privilege of choice, or makes us some sort of robots, or refuses to allow people to believe.
      • God did not name names in His Word as to who would believe and not believe.
      • Rather, He offered salvation to all but at the same time warned us that some would ignore the reality of his offer.
    • Thus, John understands that no matter how powerful the gospel is proclaimed or how clear the good works might be, some will not respond to them because God promised that some would not respond.
    • After all in the next five chapters, even with Jesus’ intense focus upon discipling the twelve, one of them sells him to the highest bidder, and departs from the group forever unfollowing Jesus.
  • But hear this well friends, even though the Bible foretells that some will ignore Jesus, WE DO NOT have to be a part of those who ignore Jesus Christ.
    • Once we hear this gospel and see Jesus’ good work, do must not pass it by. We receive Jesus’s gospel ministry when we allow time and effort to respond to Jesus.
      • As the gospel indicates areas where we are still in our selfish former ways, we repent. That word means that we turn away from those former ways and turn to Christ in our thinking and actions.
      • Further, we believe that he can give us a new way to live for all eternity. This means that we all have another chance once we have turned to Christ.
      • And Christian, I am not talking only about the moment of salvation. When we decided to connect to Christ and follow Him, we decided upon a lifestyle of repentance and faith.
• But John did not finish answering his questions about why some did not believe and whether Jesus failed with that quote.
  • He continues in verse 39 answering why some could not believe, and again he reminds us that God promised that some would not believe.
  • But this time he quotes from Isaiah 6:10.
    • Remember Isaiah 6 is the passage where Isaiah is called to be a prophet and this verse comes as God’s command to Isaiah.
      • God commands Isaiah “to make the heart of this people dull…” with his preaching.
      • As Isaiah preached, his message was a witness against Judah’s disobedience and refusal to repent.
      • People in Isaiah’s day, just like in our day heard that they were sinners and did not like that message.
        • They did not like to hear that there were temporal consequences for sin now and eternal consequences to come.
        • Even the offer of a Savior to rescue people implies that people need rescuing, and some people just do not believe they have any need of rescuing.
    • John has paraphrased the original so that only the reference to blinding eyes and hardening hearts is retained.
    • But John clearly has identified Jesus as the one God sent to minister in the same way that he sent Isaiah. And through Jesus’ gospel ministry some have refused to listen because God promised that some would refuse to listen.
• Thus we have John’s 2nd warning: People unfollow Jesus by hardening their hearts to His gospel ministry (12:39-41).
  • Notice that in verse forty we see that God through his prophet, Isaiah in the Old Testament, Jesus here in the New, and his preachers even today causes some eyes to be blinded and hearts to be hardened.
  • This is the same thing that happened in Exodus with Pharaoh.
    • In verse 4:21 Moses is told that the Lord will harden Pharaoh’s heart to not release the people.
    • But verse 8:15 tells us that Pharaoh hardened his heart when he saw relief – then the Scripture uses this phrase, just as the Lord had said.
    • God caused Pharaoh’s hardening by promising to allow Pharaoh to harden his own heart.
  • And John even then says that Isaiah spoke this very verse because He saw the glory of Jesus and spoke about Him.
    • In this sense the same glory that Isaiah saw and surrendered to was the glory that the Pharaoh saw and rejected.
    • Isaiah’s heart was softened by the glory of the gospel about the Messiah while Pharaoh’s heart was hardened by the glory of the gospel about God being a Savior to His people.
    • That is the curious thing about gospel ministry.
      • The same gospel that woos and draws some is the very gospel that hardens and pushes away others.
      • And the most glorious thing is that God has promised us that both results will occur when the gospel is proclaimed.
  • So hear this again friends, God promises that some will harden their hearts to the gospel, but WE DO NOT have to be a part of that group.
    • John shares this a reason for the unbelief of some, but let us take this as a warning.
    • Once we begin to feel or sense the leading of the Lord in the smallest of ways, let us choose to follow Him.
    • This is especially important as we have gathered here on this Father’s Day.
      • Men do not harden your heart when the Lord leads you to show love to your wives and families.
      • Men, do not harden your hearts when you are moved in the services to express your love for God with tears, or a shout of amen, or some other way to fully engage in worship.
      • Men if we do not want hardened hearts, what better preventative can we have than a full altar in just a few moments of men seeking Christ and finding Him.
      • As spiritual fathers in this congregation we have the great responsibility and joy of setting an example for others to follow.  So when the Lord begins to coax and prompt us, Lord help us to respond.
• But before we have the invitation, let me mention the last verses. Here we read that many believed, even among the leaders.
  • Those like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are evidently in view.
  • But notice, that these who believed “would not openly acknowledge their faith”.
    • This translation in the NIV is exactly what we mean when we say that a person professes faith.
    • No matter what the consequences they acknowledge their relationship with Jesus.
  • These who believed were afraid that they would be put out of the synagogue. There is a real fear of people at work in this dynamic.
• This leads us to John’s 3rd warning: People unfollow Jesus by secretly following His gospel ministry. (12:42-43)
  • A secret follower friends is no follower at all. Remember what Jesus said last week – “acknowledge me before men and I will acknowledge you “.
  • There is a cost to following Jesus, no doubt, but what we gain is so much greater than the cost.
    • We may lose friends, but we have a new relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
    • We may lose face in the community, but we will be able to see Jesus face to face.
    • We may lose our fortune, but we will be given the riches of Heaven.
    • We may lose our fantasies, but we will be given a future with Jesus.
    • The question is not so much about what we will gain, but about what we love most.
  • That is what John is trying to say in verse 43.
    • He tells us that the people who are secret followers of Jesus do not really connect with Him so much as they connect with human praise.
      • The word for praise here is the word glory. Ordinarily this word is reserved for God, but here it means the type of honor, enhancement, and recognition of status that comes from another.
      • When people like us, and accept us; that honor feels good. And to some extent it is tangible in the way that they treat us.
      • So a secret follower may appreciate and enjoy what Jesus says, but they cannot put on the line the praise of people because they love it too much.
    • But notice what John says to finish this verse. He ends by saying that there is a praise from God.
      • That same honor, enhancement, and recognition of status we feel from people can be something we experience from God.
  • Friends, even though God’s word tells us that some will love men’s praise more than God’s praise WE DO NOT have to be a part of that group.

Conclusion:

• So today, I encourage you to resist unfollowing Jesus and turn instead to follow Him.