Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1924
“Therefore they sought again to take Him, but He escaped out of their hands, and went away, again, beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there He abode. And many came to Him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spoke of this Man were true. And many believed on Him there.” John 10:39-42.
BECAUSE our Savior’s reasoning was unanswerable, “therefore the Jews sought again to take Him.” When men are convinced against their wills; when the heart struggles against the head; it usually happens that they turn persecutors. If they cannot answer holy arguments with fair reasoning, they can give hard answers with stones. If you cannot destroy the reasoning, you may, perhaps, destroy the reasoner—and this naturally suggests itself to the heart which is rendered cruel by obstinate unbelief—he who hates Truth of God soon hates its advocate. You must not consider yourself to have been unsuccessful in your proofs when your opponent waxes angry at them. Perhaps it is your success which has startled his conscience and rendered it necessary for him to become malicious to retain his obstinacy. Yet it is a very wretched business when a man knows that he is wrong and, therefore, attacks the person who has convinced him.
Do I address any person here who, in the secret of his heart, is well aware that the Christian faith is true and, therefore, derides it in order to be able to resist its influence? Do I speak to any man here who has felt the ground clean gone from under him and, therefore, has flown in the face of the teaching which has unsettled him? Will he not, as a sensible man, quit his unjustifiable position and candidly yield to the force of Truth? It is a degrading thing to be willfully shutting one’s eyes to the light and cursing the sun for shining! Oh, that such a person would have Grace! Let me even say— oh, that he would have sense enough to see that this cannot be a safe and right method of procedure! Oh that he would yield himself to those blessed influences which, I trust, will, this morning, operate upon his mind!
When our Savior found that there was nothing to be done with the bigoted Jews, but that all He said and did only provoked more furious opposition, He escaped out of their hands and went away. He knew when to speak and when to refrain. Divinely guided, He neither fled as a coward, nor rashly pushed on where nothing could be gained. Determined opposition in one quarter is sometimes an intimation to the preacher that he had better labor elsewhere. When the channel is blocked up by rocks, we had better steer in another direction. If we have found no son of peace to welcome us as the messengers of God, it may be time to shake off the dust of our feet against the violent rejecters of the Truth and open our commission in another quarter. If we fail in the first place, we may, in the second, find that the Lord has much people in the city. The Savior left the infuriated Jews of Jerusalem and went to a place of retirement, thus illustrating His own words, “When they persecute you in this city, flee you unto another.”
But though our Lord left the obstinate, He never ceased to do good. He did not say, “It is of no further use to preach and plead; I am, therefore, driven away to Bethabara, by the lonely Jordan, and I will warn the people no more.” No, rather, as many resorted to Him there, He went on with His teaching and, in that place many believed on Him! If, my dear Brother, speaking in Christ’s name, you find that you have no place in such-and-such a town, it may be the Spirit’s will that you should remove to a people who will receive you. Possibly in a place which promises less, you may gain more. Bethabara may yield converts when Jerusalem only yields persecutors. God has ways of changing the position of His servants for His own Glory and for the building up of His Church. As one has well said, “The flight of Christ from men in one place may cause the flight of souls to Him in another.” Though Jesus withdrew from the stones which filled the hands
of angry Jews, he went to that place where John had said, “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
I think that this somewhat obscure incident of our Lord’s abiding in Bethabara, though seldom preached upon, may be made exceedingly profitable to us. Much prayer has been offered that many may believe on the Lord Jesus this morning in this House of Prayer and it seems suitable, therefore, to discourse upon the words, “Many believed on Him there.”
I. The first remark I shall make is that when men believe in Jesus Christ, IT IS VERY PLEASANT TO KNOW THE PLACE where they believed—therefore is it recorded by Inspiration that, “many believed on Him there.” I do not say it is essential for a man to know the place where he believed in Jesus—it is not at all essential! It is not necessary for a person’s life for him to know where he was born, yet I am glad that I know my birthplace and I am happy to remember the humble spot. If anybody were to say to you, “Do you know where you were born?” and you were forced to answer, “No,” would you expect him to say, “Then you are not alive”? If he did say so, it would be a very bad argument, as you would be able to prove at once by letting him see that you were far from non-existence and so, if you cannot state where you were converted, nor when you were converted, do not fret about it.