Scripture: John 2:23-25
Date: July 31, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Kids often ask each other, if you could have just one superpower, what would it be? There are all sorts of possibilities for all sorts of reasons, some of which are completely impractical. As I’ve thought about that question for more practical purposes, especially now as a parent and as a pastor, I think that if I could have any superpower, I’d want the ability to know what is in another person’s heart. I’ve often thought being able to see past the externals, to get under the covers that many people throw up, would be a fantastically useful thing. Of corse, if I actually did have that power, I’d probably be eager to get rid of it because, more often than not, the human heart is not a pretty picture.
There’s no way that seeing death, or even the residue of death, in someone else’s heart could be pretty (no one digs up a long buried casket to find a picture of beauty). It’s one of the reasons for drugs and drunkenness, as well as for excessive Facebook refreshing and addiction to movies and incessant text messaging. We don’t want to look at our own internal ugliness, let alone another’s, so any diversion saves the day. We’re addicted to looking anywhere away from the heart because the picture is not pretty.
That’s part of what makes John 2:23-25 so interesting. It is a superpower, a supernatural power, to see someone else’s heart. John states that Jesus has such power and, therefore, provides more proof of Jesus’ deity. Only God can see hearts, Jesus sees hearts, so Jesus is God. But John makes more of a point than that Jesus can see hearts because He’s God. John does more than reassert the deity of Christ. John makes the point that Jesus sees hearts and engages the ugliness as God!
That’s a really big point. What if God said, “Look at all those unrighteous, ungodly, sinful, rebellious, dead hearts. What a mess! I want nothing to do with them!” We’d be dead, in more ways than we already are.
Instead, the Son of God took on flesh and lived among us and we beheld His glory—full of grace and truth. Truth uncovers that nothing in our hearts is a pretty picture. Grace engages and saves. It is His glory to enter the fray.
Could that be part of the reason why we don’t have much glory, because we’re too busy trying to stay out or get out of the mess? We’re too busy avoiding enemies to love them? We’re too involved determining who really understands the gospel to model it? We’re too concerned about being inconvenienced to stop and care? We’re too afraid we might see something ugly in someone else that we keep our distance? Then what good is the truth? Then why do we need grace?
Consider Jesus and consider the placement of this paragraph in John’s gospel.
Jesus just finished clearing the temple (2:13-22). Why? Because it was a mess. Commerce crowded up the place of worship and crowded out fellowship with God. The hearts of the animal vendors, the money-changers, and the organizers was not a pretty picture. When Jesus confronted them, was He zealous about the glory of His Father or the souls of the people? It’s not an either-or answer. He engaged them for sake of their souls for sake of His Father.
Jesus is about to engage two more messy heats at opposite ends of the social spectrum. In chapter three, John relates Jesus’ interchange with Nicodemus, a well known Jewish religious leader from Jerusalem. In chapter four we read about Jesus’ interchange with a lowly, immoral Samaritan woman who was living with a man after four husbands. Both “the teacher of Israel” and the woman at the well had messed up hearts and Jesus knows it. Both need the truth and grace. That’s why it’s good that Jesus knows (and exposes) the ugliness inside, because He can do something about it at the necessary level.
So John 2:23-25 transitions from Jesus dealing with the public mess at the temple and introduces us to two individuals with messy hearts. Jesus deals with their messes because His supernatural discernment goes deeper than the surface.
Some receive Jesus. Some reject Jesus. Some look like they receive Him for a while.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. (verse 23)
Jesus “went up to Jerusalem” because “The Passover of the Jews was at hand” (2:13). He doesn’t leave Jerusalem and head to the Judean countryside until in 3:22. Since the Passover was a seven day Feast (v.23) according to Exodus 12, Jesus apparently stayed in town after clearing the temple.
His confrontation with the religious elite no doubt got him much attention and some curious followers. John doesn’t detail each day but he says that many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. We might as well get used to not knowing everything, even every miraculous sign Jesus performed, since John says the whole world couldn’t contain all the books that would be written (John 21:25). We might surmise that His time in Jerusalem involved healing all kinds of sicknesses and diseases (cf. Matthew 4:23; 9:35). The signs, whatever they were, offered proof of who He was: the Son of God.
And many believed in his name. That sounds great. That fits with the purpose of the gospel. Signs point to Jesus as the Son of God so that people would believe and have life in His name (John 20:30-31). In chapter one, “all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (1:12). Here are signs and believing in His name. So what’s the problem?
The problem is that the heart of man is not a pretty picture. In verses 24 and 25 we’ll see that Jesus’ supernatural insight reveals that this was superficial belief.
Remember, John the author of this gospel, was there with Jesus in Jerusalem. He saw the signs and he saw new followers. John didn’t see their hearts as Jesus did but, by the time he wrote the gospel, he had seen many so-called disciples walk away because they didn’t really believe. In chapter six, after Jesus miraculously fed 5000 men with five loaves and two fish, and then walked on the water to meet up with the twelve, He told the crowd they must feed on the bread from heaven in order to have life. John writes that “when many of his disciples heard it, they said ‘This is a hard saying’” (6:60). Then “many of [Jesus’] disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (6:66). The same John wrote in his first epistle:
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19)
Apparently there is more than one type of believing, but only one type is fruitful. It’s possible to know great things about Jesus, to see His miraculous signs, to believe that He is who He says He is, to follow Him (at least for a while), and still not really believe.
Nicodemus represents this type of person. He saw the signs (3:2), but seeing signs doesn’t change the heart. Superficial, temporal, partial believing won’t do. Jesus knows better and dubious belief is not a pretty picture.
Jesus knows best.
But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. (verses 24-25)
John makes a play on words in Greek using the same word two different ways. Both are forms of the word πιστεύω, “I believe,” a key vocabulary word in the gospel. Many ἐπίστευσαν (episteusan), Jesus did not ἐπίστευεν (episteuen). Many trusted in Him; He did not entrust Him to them. It’s translated “entrust” because the object is Himself. He didn’t believe Himself to them…? That doesn’t make sense.
Instead, Jesus didn’t entrust Himself, He didn’t act like everything was fine because it wasn’t. Their belief was superficial. They saw the signs, not Him.
He knew this because he knew all people. Not only that, he…knew what was in man, He knew their hearts. And this knowledge was not from background checks or talking with sources. He needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew, on the basis of His omniscient authority. He needed no one’s counsel, no one’s testimony. He didn’t need any external source. It wasn’t a pretty picture.
His supernatural insight was:
Jesus knew Nathanael’s location and Nathanael’s character sight unseen (John 1:47-48). He knew the marital history of the woman at the well (John 4-17-18). He many of the religious leaders “I know that you do not have the love of God within you” (John 5:42). He knew that Judas had a betrayer’s heart. He said ‘there are some of you who do not believe.’ (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)” (John 6:64).
So what?
First, Jesus knows things only God knows because Jesus is God. Jesus knows the hearts of all men. (We can fill in our Christology.)
Second, Jesus knows the hearts of men and still engages them. He knows the thorough depravity in every heart. He knows the heart’s propensity to superficiality, especially religious superficiality. And yet that didn’t keep Him away. That wasn’t a hindrance to His coming, that’s why He came. The One who matters most knows us most and cuts to the heart of the problem. (We see a pattern for our ministry.)
That applies to us and our mindset. We don’t have the superpower of seeing another person’s heart at the root with innerrancy like God. But we do have inspired revelation from God that works as a mirror to evaluate the fruit the comes from the heart. We also have somewhat of an idea from our own hearts. What do we do?
We don’t run away. We don’t freak out that it’s a mess. Yes it is, it’s probably a bigger mess than we even know. But that’s why we need Jesus! That’s what the gospel is for! Those who are well don’t need a physician. Doctors have a job because people aren’t healthy? So do disciplers. Why would Jesus commission us to make disciples if everyone is already mature? We call sinners to repent. We help the immature to mature. Some will believe superficially. Some will walk away. Jesus knew that and Jesus still engaged, which is good for us, because otherwise we wouldn’t be here.
Finally, Jesus knows the hearts of men. Don’t be deceived, you can’t deceive Jesus. He knows why you’re here; He knows if and why you profess to follow Him. He knows you, all of you, and gave His life so that whoever truly believes could know Him. Don’t cover your dead soul with religious talk. (We are invited to eternal life.)
He laid down His life for His own, for those He knows as His sheep, so that the sheep could know Him and be known as the Father and Son know each other.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:14-15)
Believe in His name, all the way, if the Father is drawing you past the superficial into spiritual life. The good news is that He uses His omniscience not only to identify ugly hearts, but to save those who fully trust Him.