By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 8am service, 2002-06-23

Text: John 12:37-43

The events described in our text took place only a few days before Jesus went to the Cross of Calvary. By this time most of the miracles of Jesus had already been done, including Turning Water Into Wine (2:1-11); Healing the Nobleman's son (4:46-54); Healing the Paralytic (5:1-18); Feeding the Multitudes (6:6-13); Walking on Water (6:16-21); Healing the Man Born Blind (9:1-7); Raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1-45). And there were sufficient witnesses and evidence from all these miracles to bring people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were of such great magnitude and power, that it would be utterly unreasonable for anyone to avoid their message - the message that Jesus was truly the Christ, the Son of God who came to save man from sin. And there were many people who responded in the appropriate manner - they believed in Jesus Christ, and they openly confessed their faith in Him by following Him.

But at the same time, there were those who did not do that. They included the Pharisees and scribes, the religious elite in Israel at that time, who utterly rejected Christ, opposed Him continually, and they were later responsible for having Him arrested, tried and crucified. Despite the powerful and compelling witness of the words and works of Jesus, they just refused to believe in Him. Why? Well, there is a saying - There are none so blind as those who will not see. The heart of the problem was the problem of the heart. This is brought out by the quotation of Isaiah in v.40 'He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted' And because of their unreasonable, stubborn unbelief, these people will one day come under God's awful judgment.

But at the same time there were certain people at that time who believed in Jesus Christ, but who did not confess Him. Although they were personally convinced through the multitude of miracles of Christ that He was truly the Son of God, they could not bring themselves to let others know that they believe in Jesus. So no one knew that they believed in Christ. We can call them silent believers, or 'secret believers' because they wanted no one to know that they were followers of Christ.

There are some people today who are just like that. They hear the Gospel, and recognise that it is the truth and the salvation they need. They then commit themselves to believing in Christ, but they do not want to confess Him before the world. They do not want to be baptised, because baptism consitutes a public confession of faith in Christ, and they do not want their faith to be 'caught in the public eye.' They say that their faith is after all, a personal and private matter between them and God alonse, and so no one needs to know that they are Christians. They just want to remain 'secret believers'. To preserve the secrecy of their belief, some may even refrain from coming to church, and from Christian fellowship meetings and Bible study. And when they have meals together with others in a public place, you won't see them bowing their heads to say grace, as this would 'blow their cover' so to speak. Perhaps you may have friends who are like this. Perhaps you may even be doing this yourself.

Some time ago, I read a story about a young Christian man whose church was praying for him, because he took a job during his summer vacation working in the forests as a lumberjack, cutting down trees. They were concerned that this young man would not be able to take the ridicule and verbal abuse that the rough and tough unbelieving lumberjacks were known to dispense against Christians. When the young man completed his stint and came back to church they asked him how his job went, and his reply was 'I had a good time with the lumberjacks' and he added with a smile: 'They did not even suspect that I am a Christian!'

Dearly beloved, can a true believer in Christ remain a 'secret believer' or an 'undercover Christian'? If a person says that he believes in Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour, can he keep that fact all to himself and not let the world know about it for long? To find the answers to these questions, we now need to look at:

I. The Reasons Why Some Are Secret Believers 

A. Their Love for the Praises of Men 

The first reason is found in v.43 'For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.' The ones who believed in Christ here wanted to maintain a public image of themselves to the world that would keep them accepted and loved by everyone. According to v.42 these men were the chief rulers among the people. In such a high position, they enjoyed the respect, the influence and the acclaim of being chief rulers.

To the world, keeping up one's image or appearance is very important. During one of the messages that we had at our church camp last week, I mentioned that one of the things that is much valued by the world is appearance. Many will go to great lengths just to build up a good public image and maintain it. And that is why many spend a lot of time and expense on their outward appearance. They think, 'if I can only reduce my waistline and improve my figure and posture, people will love me and accept me.' Or 'If only I restore my hair, dye it a different colour, and get tatooed eyebrows, then people will love me and accept me.'

But this desire to be loved and accepted by everyone is wrong and sinful, particularly when it is done at the expense of confessing Christ before men. A person who loves the praises of men more than the praise of God is person who loves the world. And God's Word in 1 John 2:15 makes it clear that 'If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.'

Dearly beloved, if you had to choose between receiving the praise of men and receiving the praise of God, which would you choose? If you want to truly call yourself a Christian, you must choose the praise of God. If the praises of men are more important to you, how can you say that you believe in Him? Are you afraid of being deprived of the praise of men? And are you afraid of the ridicule and scorn that might arise from men, when you choose to receive the praise of God? This brings us to the other reason why these people in our text would rather remain as secret believers and not openly confess Christ:

B. Their Fear of the Persecution of Men 

According to v.42 'because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue' The Pharisees were the dominant custodians of the Jewish religion at that time, and they were totally opposed to Jesus.

They absolutely refused to recognise Christ as their Messiah, because he had exposed their hypocrisy and not complied with their regulations. For example, they took issue with Jesus over the miracles of healing that he had performed on the Sabbath day. To them, Christ could never be identified as the Son of God because he was a Sabbath breaker.

Since the Pharisees stood opposed to Jesus Christ, they also despised all His followers. And any Jew who believed in Christ would have to risk being excommunicated from the synagogue. In those days, when a Jew was excommunicated, he could not simply go and join another synagogue. He was an outcast, ostracized by society and no one was to have any contact with him! No one would employ him or do business with him anymore.

The fear of excommunication still exists today for any Jew who contemplates on becoming a Christian Jew. He would be considered a nonentity by all, and the community may even conduct a funeral service for him, to signify that he was already dead! This was so unthinkable to the chief rulers who believed in Jesus that they chose to be secret believers.

Earlier on in the Book of John, there were others who had the same fear 'These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.' (John 9:22) The ones who feared excommunication here were the parents of a man who was born blind and whose eyes Jesus had miraculously opened.

Likewise, there are some people today who choose to take the easy way out because of this fear. They do not want to face any kind of persecution or be marginalized for being Christians. And so they remain secret believers. They do this hoping that they can enjoy all the blessings of God, while at the same time enjoying the praises of men. But this compromise puts them in a very unstable and precarious position. They are neither here nor there, but sitting on the fence. If you are in such a position, ask yourself whom should you fear more? - Should you fear men or fear God? Please understand that if you truly believe in Christ, there is a price you have to pay, a cross that you must bear. Please understand also that as a secret believer, you are taking great risks. Let us spend some time finding out what these risks are.

II. The Risks of Being a Secret Believer 

A. He Will Have To Compromise His Faith After Some Time 

If a person really wants no body to find out that He is a Christian, he will soon have to compromise his faith. If he does not compromise his faith, he will be found out! And so, to keep himself from being found out he is forced to live under false pretences, living in the same manner as all the unbelievers around him. We may liken him to a sheep in wolf's clothing!

If he lives in a home where his family members are steeped in ancestral worship, he would have to hold joss sticks and bow down to idols on the altar during each Chinese festival. He would have to eat the food offered to idols. He would have to visit the temple and visit the graves at least once a year and appear and put on a false appearance of worship. If a secret believer works in an office he will find it difficult to excuse himself from the rowdy and profane conversation they have there. To be fully accepted by them, he would not able to keep himself out of their sinful pursuits. If he were to display any unwillingness to participate these activities he might arouse suspicions in the rest that he is a Christian!

All these compromises will only make life for him more and more miserable. He is constantly filled with guilt that he has sinned against God, and with the fear that he might be found out. But that is not the only misery that a secret believer has. Another risk that makes his life quite miserable is that:

B. He Cannot Have The Full Assurance that He Is Saved. 

If a person does not want to confess His faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, his sincerity in believing in Christ is in question. If he truly believes in Jesus Christ, and loves Christ, and calls Him his saviour and Lord, why does he want to keep quiet about Him?

Let me say this: No true Christian can ever be comfortable to keep his faith a secret for very long. True faith in Christ, cannot be stifled or suppressed, but it will seek to be expressed. Romans 10:9,10 'That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'

For this reason whenever you lead someone to salvation in Christ, tell that person to let others know that he is now a Christian. This is one good way to tell if he is truly saved or not. If his faith is genuine, he will overcome his fear and will let others know of his new found faith in Christ, beginning with those who are closest to him. But if he refuses to tell a single soul about it, and says 'I want to keep my faith a secret' it is quite doubtful that he truly believes. Now besides the risk of compromise and the risk of not having assurance of salvation, there is one more more risk that the secret believer has to take.

C. He Cannot Fulfill His Role As a Christian.

A Christian is meant to be a witness to Jesus Christ. He is not ashamed to be called a 'Christian' because by this the world will associate him with Christ, and he will fulfill his God-given role of being a witness to Him. How can we fulfill our role and witnesses unto Him if we are afraid to bear His name? In Matthew 5:14,15 Jesus said, 'Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.' By this analogy, a secret believer would be a lighted candle that is placed under a bushel. What use does this have? No one can see the light and benefit from it. It might as well just be extinguished! In a like manner, a Christian who cannot fulfill this role of being a witness for Jesus Christ no matter how small that witness may be, may as well not be a Christian at all. He will have to remain barren all his life, and cannot win a single soul to Christ!

Dearly beloved, I am putting all this in the strongest possible terms so that you will see how dangerous it is to be a secret believer. Please do not take these risks. It is far better to come out into the open and let others know you are a Christian. Even though you may face ridicule, persecution and much inconvenience for doing this, you will be much happier and at peace with God. You will find it really liberating and refreshing, because you won't have to live a lie anymore. You can now have full assurance of salvation, and you can now fulfill your role to shine forth as a light for Christ.

Coming back to our text of Scripture in John 12, about the chief rulers who believed but did not confess Christ, we know that at least two of them eventually did confess Christ openly. They might have endured the misery of being secret believers long enough to know that they should not continue in it.

One of them was Nicodemus, the Teacher of the Jews who came to visit Jesus by night in 3:2. The other was Joseph of Arimathea. Both of these made their faith public just after Jesus died on the cross. Let us look at John 19:38,39 'And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.'

Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man and a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin council, who had objected to the council's decision to condemn Jesus. He had been afraid all this time to openly confess his faith in Christ until this moment, when he no longer wanted to remain a secret disciple of Christ. He had been moved in his heart very deeply when he saw how Jesus died, and this may have given him the boldness to openly confess his faith in Christ. How? By going to the Roman governor for permission to give Jesus a proper burial. Joseph was even willing to use his own new tomb, which he had probably constructed from himself and his family in a nearby garden. 

What about Nicodemus? V.39 tells us that he too was moved to come out in public and risk being criticized and even ostracised by his fellow Jews, in order to prepare the body of Jesus for burial. The Scriptures do not record what happened to Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea after that, and we can only imagine the angry response of the unbelieving Jews against them. But the satisfaction they had of being able now to serve the cause of Christ openly more than compensated for all that they had to suffer.

III. The Readiness You Need to Make Your Faith Known 

And so, dearly beloved, let us learn from the example of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Don't hide your profession of Faith, but be ready to make it known. The Word of God in 1 Peter 3:15 tells us, 'But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear'

I remember the time when I was a soldier in the army, going through national service. Army life is quite different from civilian life. We had to live together in barracks, and we all lived very closely together. There is no privacy and one's life becomes like an open book for everyone to read. When we ate together, everyone would be digging right into their food, and I would be the only one saying grace silently. When we retired for the evening, everyone would be talking or sleeping, and I would find myself the only one reading the Bible with a flashlight in the dark. Everyone of course knew then that I was a Christian, and of course I wondered what they thought about that.

You know, if there ever was a time in my life when I really felt different from all the rest - that was it. And it was not a pleasant feeling. And I think that if I had not been committed to my Lord Christ, I would probably have been tempted to hide the fact that I am a Christian, and hope that no one would ever find out. And since people around me know that I am a Christian, I was really conscious of the fact that people would are watching me life closely and I have to live a life worthy of His name. I knew that I cannot do anything questionable, or else people would be quick to generalize and say: 'So that is what a Christian does.' Well life in the army is full tense situations where one's moral fiber is stretched to the limit. And I thank the Lord that by His grace I was able to bear His name without bringing shame upon it. And by His grace, some of those who were closest to me eventually came to know Him.

My purpose for sharing all this with you is that you will be encouraged not to conceal your Christian identity whether it be in your place of work, or school, or neighborhood. Don't be afraid that someone may give you the nick-name 'Holy Joe' something worse than that. The name of Jesus Christ that you bear upon you, is worth going through all of that.

And may you be even more encouraged go through all that, by the words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 10:32,33 'Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.'

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