Rebellious Hearts
Rebellious Hearts
John wrote his gospel to declare and defend the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only Savior of the world, and to invite his readers to put their faith in Him (John 20:30–31). As you read the gospel of John, you witness the increasing unbelief and hostility of the Jewish leaders and the growing faith and love of the disciples. Three crises appear in the book, and they are reflected in John 14:6.
The first crisis is recorded in John 6:60–66, after the feeding of the five thousand: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (v. 66 NKJV). Jesus is the way but they would not walk with Him! They said they walked with Abraham and even boasted that Abraham was their father (John 8:39). They claimed to be followers of Moses but rejected the one Moses wrote about (5:45–46; 9:28–29). Their unbelieving hearts were filled with rebellion against the Lord.
At the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, Jesus healed a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years, and He did it on the Sabbath Day (John 5). The Jewish leaders began to persecute Jesus and argue with Him because He had broken their Sabbath traditions. They were so chained to human tradition that they were blind to God’s truth. They were like some people we witness to today who can speak only of their church, denomination, or religious ancestors but who know nothing about God’s Word.
One day the scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus and His disciples for not practicing the ceremonial washings before they ate, and Jesus answered them by quoting Isaiah 29:13: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules” (Mark 7:6–7). Tradition should have a place in our lives, but human tradition must never take the place of God’s truth. These skirmishes between Jesus and the religious leaders grew more and more severe until they began to plot to do away with Him (John 7:1).
The second crisis is recorded in John 12:37–38: “Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: ‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’” In His messages and miracles (“the arm of the Lord”), Jesus demonstrated who He was and what He had to offer them, yet they would not believe. Note the frightening sequence: “They … would not believe” (vv. 37–38), “they could not believe” (v. 39), which resulted in “they should not believe” (see v. 46). Persistent hardening of the heart results in blinding the eyes and paralyzing the will. Jesus warned them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you” (v. 35), but they refused to listen. Jesus is the truth and preached the truth, but they would not believe Him!
The third and final crisis is recorded in John 18–19. Though Jesus is the life, they crucified Him! “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jewish mob. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him! … We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:14–16).
There are three “rejections” in the history of Israel that we must consider: (1) When Israel asked Samuel to give them a king, they rejected God the Father (1 Sam. 8); (2) when they crucified Jesus, they rejected God the Son; and (3) when they stoned Stephen, they rejected God the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51–60). These three rejections exhausted the longsuffering of the entire godhead. On the cross, Jesus prayed for Israel’s forgiveness (Luke 23:34), and God gave the nation nearly forty years of respite; but then judgment came and Jerusalem was destroyed.
Hosea tells us the consequences: “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods” (Hos. 3:4). In other words, because there is no king in Israel, the nations are in tumult; and no such king will live until Jesus returns to reign. We are living today in the book of Judges! “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6 NASB; see also 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). During the days of the judges, God raised up effective leaders here and there and gave them victories, but Israel was not united in serving the Lord and obeying His will.
When Israel’s Messiah returns and they see Him and trust Him, they will mourn and repent, and a fountain will be opened to cleanse them of their sins (Zech. 13:1). “The LORD will be king over all the earth” (14:9 NASB). The more the leaders of the nations oppose one another and reject Christ, the less peace there will be in this world. When the Prince of Peace sits on the throne, there will be peace on earth.
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Ps. 122:6).