Spiritual X-Rays - Jesus knows what’s in us


John 2:12-25

The Point: 
Spiritual X-Ray - Jesus knows what is in a persons heart – where we are at –
Do you?  What will you do about it?

Does anyone really know what is in your heart?  What you deal with, what makes you happy, what stress you.  Does anyone really know what you fear or what motivates you?

In this passage, we are going to consider the reality that Jesus knows you like no one else knows you

John 2:12-25
Two pieces of theological trivia…
1.        Jesus earthly family
V 12 – is a reference to the siblings of Jesus, in the mention of his brothers =   Catholic religion would have us believe that Jesus’ mother, Mary, was “perpetual virgin” and had no other children.  Here it clearly identifies brothers of Jesus

2.        Jesus earthly ministry…Another feature of this passage that has been important to the understanding of Jesus and his ministry is in v 13
13 “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”
John is unique to the other gospels in it identifies 3 Passover events = it is from this that it is recognized that Jesus earthly ministry spanned 3 years.

Two stories / one message
The connection between Cana and Jerusalem

In the story of Jesus cleansing the temple John purposefully sets it in a theological context with the miracle of turning water into wine – that we looked at last week.   
Connection to the story in Cana
John juxtaposes these stories quite purposefully – he is making a point from the very beginning of Jesus ministry – that knowing Jesus for who he is, as both man and God, and being in a relationship with him as the one who brings you to God.

In Cana, John shows us that the purification jars of water at the wedding feast become the vessel of the new wine that Jesus provides. Previously, Jews would rely on their Jewish religion and culture to bring them to God, but Jesus dramatically alters that picture when he turns the water into wine. 
He himself becomes the purification for us to be clean and before God himself
Jesus is the sign of God present and at work in our world
Those who see the glorious signs of Jesus, place their faith in him

The disciples put their faith in him, not because he performed a miracle but because of the sign of who he was.  Their faith was more than ‘believing in him’ but they “put their faith in him” and that was life altering.  They recognized him as God and were willing to live their lives trusting in that reality of Him.

Now John shifts the scene from Cana to Jerusalem and this story has 3 distinct scenes …
The trip from Capernaum to Jerusalem – about 90 mi

In the story in Jerusalem – there are three important scenes that occur
1.        The temple (V 13-17)

Scholars debate over whether there were 1 or 2 temple scenes.  All four gospel accounts speak of only one scene of Jesus cleansing the temple.  In the synoptic gospels, they each refer to a scene that occurs only days before Jesus crucifixion, but John talks of a scene at the beginning of Jesus ministry.  None of the accounts recall 2 accounts. 

The Temple = the place people would come to make sacrifices in the effort to be pure before God. 

The temple was the most important feature of the Jewish religion and culture.  It was at the heart of all Jews.  It connected their history to their lives.  It gave them identity as a people and their faith was the centerpiece of their culture – what it meant to be a Jew.  The temple brought them strength and unity, it gave them hope for their future.  It was what they taught their children.

Jesus comes and upsets all that.  Imagine if someone were to come along and challenge the role of hockey in Canada.
Jesus comes to upset the way we think about our lives. 
Jesus is not a feature we neatly fit into our lives, but he is to become the centerpiece of our lives

The disciples remembered Psalms 69:9  “for zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.”

In that Psalm, David is acknowledging his desparate need for God in his life and the high price he personally is willing to pay for that kind of relationship. 

What consumes you?  What is important to you, your spiritual life & expression
1c = temple
Today = independence, Image of what others might think of you? Your privacy, freedom

Men want signs but Jesus will provide a sacrifice.  The only sacrifice acceptable to God, and it becomes the foundation of our faith

2.        Question of Authority (v18-22)
The Jewish leaders were demanding some proof that he had a right to cleanse the temple and make this kind of proclamation.   They saw it as a prophetic action – not the action of a crazy or angry man, but the actions of a prophet, so show us the signs of a prophet, act like a prophet…

Ciaphas, the high priest is thought to have brought the marketplace into the temple area, some suggest he may have even had his hand in the business.  So you see, Jesus was not only challenging the culture of the day, but the leadership of the day.

Authority Assumes a common starting point – culture / law – when prophets speak they speak from the Lord and connect the dots

For Jesus this was not an issue of authority – but a different starting point all together; a heart issue regarding our relationship with God through Jesus himself – and he points directly to himself.
 V19 "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."

He touches the authority of what we believe in, why and how…

20 The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?"
The temple was built by Herod the Great who was an amazing builder of massive construction projects and the temple and Masada  were some of his signature projects.  The temple project began in 20BC and was to rival or better yet surpass Solomon’s temple. 

The temple represented  a lifetime achievement; building the temple consumed a generation.  It was their effort, their taxes that accomplished it.  The temple brought their faith and their own accomplishments together and Jesus says “give it up”, you are going to have to trust me and not your abilities.

It is much easier to put my faith in my own accomplishments or the things I have participated in, I can believe in those things. 

21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.


3.        Belief (v23-25)
23 …many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name.
The people in Jersualem Believed in him (Jesus ) as a person ; his authority & character; they believed because he did miraculous things
Between the two stories in John 2, in Cana at the wedding feast and then in Jerusalem with the temple story, John shows us 2 different sides of this important issue of BELIEF

Entrust is the same word in v 11, 23 & 24 – epísteuen
pisteu/w  pisteuo (pist-yoo'-o); from NT:4102; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit; by implication, to entrust (especially one's spiritual well-being to Christ):
KJV - believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.

Three kinds of belief –
Intellectual – I know something – facts / figures / dates / events and I believe it
I know the world is 93 million miles from the sun – I have no reason to measure it nor dispute it.  This is where we come to reasoned conclusions and base our future choices on those outcomes.  Science here provides security because it reduces the unknowns and we have less risk in our beliefs

Emotional – I feel something – I have an emotional response to this – this is how many people feel about the environment and feel that something should be done to care for it.  This is how we believe the Canucks can win the Stanley Cup.   We want it to be true, we hope it is true, we feel strongly about it so we believe it.

Spiritual – Where we know certain things about God, we have encountered him in ways and our soul responds to him like two magnets.  It is where we know we are known, the good and the bad. 
The challenge for us today is many of us have lost touch with our souls – we justify our sin, explain it away, medicate the problems and we loose touch with our souls – But God deals with our souls, Jesus comes to save and redeem them and we don’t even know what it is. 

The Point: 
Spiritual X-Ray - Jesus knows what is in a persons heart – where we are at –
Do you?  What will you do about it?

.  24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

He knows what consumes us, what motivates us and He wants to be that place in our lives

Jesus knew what was going on in the hearts of people in Jersualem and That was not what Jesus was looking for = he we not going to be their celebrity but he would become their savior – and so…

In Cana, the disciples put their faith in Jesus, they believed Jesus, because they saw him for who he truly was, the one who offered himself for them to know God and bring them life and invited them into a completely new way of living life.  so the disciples followed him, from Cana, to Capernum to Jerusalem, they rearraged their life to follow Jesus

In Jerusalem… they wanted their theology to be more sophisticated, they wanted proof, evidence of His authority, they wanted to connect the intellectual dots that neatly fit their reasoned understanding
24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

Jesus knew the people were looking to him for who they wanted him to be.  They were willing to believe in him for what he could perform for them, what he could do for them and Jesus would have none of it. 

Jesus knows you, everything about you and he wants to offer you the opportunity to know him and His father.  He knows our lives are consumed, and mostly by things other than him.  He wants to be the driving force in our lives, but we let other things become our temples

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