Introduction:
Jesus Knows Your Heart... (John 2:13-25):
- And He won't Ignore your Irreverence . (John 2:13-17)
Psalm 69:9 - For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
- And He won't Appease your into Animosity . (John 2:18-22)
Mark 14:56-58 - For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.'"
Matthew 27:39-40 - And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
- And He won't be Fooled by your "Faith" . (John 2:23-25)
3 Danger Signs that your Faith is a Show:
- You don't exercise personal / private disciplines
- You harbor secret sin
- You don't see the Fruit of the Spirit in your life (see Gal 5:22)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:10-01:15
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to John 2.
01:15-01:21
At my former church, we dealt with a man quite often who was a bit of a con man, but not a very good one.
01:22-01:24
His name was Billy Parker.
01:24-01:26
Mark Ward, do you remember Billy Parker?
01:26-01:28
We had him at Friday night church sometimes.
01:28-01:31
But he was a con man, but not a very good one.
01:32-01:34
And he tried many times to con us.
01:34-01:44
But my favorite was one time he had walked up to the church and he had shaved his head, and he took magic marker and drew all over his head.
01:45-01:47
In his mind it was to be some sort of a disguise, I suppose.
01:48-02:06
But he went to Pastor Bob Huber, who I was serving under, and he said, "Hey, I'm kind of new in town here, and I'm getting these cancer treatments, and I need some money to help me out for these cancer treatments." We've had so many run-ins with this guy.
02:07-02:13
Bob just looked at him, he goes, "What are you doing?" He goes, "Billy. Billy, I know it's you." And I'm not making this up.
02:13-02:15
Billy's response was, "Whoa, whoa, no, no, no.
02:16-02:19
My name's not Billy Parker." That's a true story.
02:20-02:25
Well, later in life, Billy, he came to Christ and died a few days after.
02:26-02:29
But in his early years, he was a fake.
02:30-02:32
He tried to rip off the church.
02:32-02:35
And I could tell you countless stories about that.
02:35-02:43
people that we've encountered that were putting on a show because they wanted to take advantage of the people of God.
02:43-02:47
And it was infuriating, to say the least.
02:47-02:51
But that's exactly what Jesus dealt with in the very beginning of His ministry.
02:51-02:57
He dealt with people who were being fake, trying to take advantage of other people.
02:58-02:59
And Jesus didn't take it lightly.
03:00-03:03
The passage we're going to look at today is a sharp contrast from last week.
03:03-03:06
Last week we saw Jesus move out of compassion.
03:07-03:09
Remember the wine ran out at the wedding?
03:09-03:13
Then Jesus compassionately turned the water into wine.
03:14-03:23
Well, here in this passage, Jesus is moved out of anger, and His anger comes from His zeal for authentic worship.
03:24-03:30
In the thesis of this passage, you're going to see today there's encounters with three different groups of people.
03:30-03:33
The thesis is at the very end of verse 25.
03:33-03:34
Look at your Bibles.
03:34-03:46
The very last phrase says, "For He (Jesus) Himself knew what was in man." He Himself knew what was in man.
03:46-03:51
The Gospel of John is written to take us from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus.
03:52-03:55
And this year, we're going after knowing Jesus.
03:56-04:04
But as we saw a couple of weeks ago when the first disciples were introduced to Jesus, Jesus knows us completely. He knows who loves Him.
04:04-04:08
He knows who truly believes in Him, and He knows who doesn't.
04:08-04:12
And these three encounters we're looking at today are all about the latter.
04:13-04:21
So if you're a fake, I would encourage you to look and listen very closely to what's happening in this passage.
04:22-04:33
On your outline, again based on verse 25, here's what we're going to see in the passage, "Jesus Knows Your Heart." Jesus knows your heart, number one, and He won't ignore your irreverence.
04:34-04:35
He won't ignore your irreverence.
04:36-04:37
Look at the text with me.
04:38-04:46
Verse 13 says, "The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem." The event you're about to see, Jesus actually did twice.
04:47-04:49
Once at the beginning of His ministry, and once at the end.
04:49-04:51
And it says that He went to celebrate the Passover.
04:52-04:54
That comes from Exodus 12.
04:54-05:00
It was an annual feast for Israel, remembering God's deliverance from Egypt.
05:00-05:08
So during this time, Jews from everywhere all came to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices.
05:09-05:13
And conservative estimate was there was at least a million people there.
05:13-05:20
Some historians say there could have been upwards of three million people, all converging to celebrate the Passover.
05:20-05:27
The point is, there were a ton of people cramming into the temple for this event.
05:27-05:43
Verse 14 says, "In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting there." So in the temple, specifically in the courtyard, notice the Bible says that there were two kinds of businessmen.
05:44-05:47
The first kind were the animal sellers.
05:48-05:49
What were they there for?
05:50-06:01
People were coming from a very long way away to offer sacrifice, and it would have been inconvenient to bring your sacrifice if you had to travel a great distance.
06:01-06:07
So, these people, conveniently, right in the temple, had sacrifices for sale.
06:07-06:18
"You don't have to bring one, just show up, and we will give you a sacrifice, we will sell you a sacrifice right here." But there was another thing that they did.
06:18-06:22
You know, the sacrifice that was offered had to be without blemish.
06:22-06:24
It had to be absolutely perfect.
06:25-06:33
So when people would show up with their sacrifices, these sellers would look at them and say, "You know what? You've got some blemishes here, you've got some problems here.
06:33-06:44
This one's not acceptable to the Lord, so you're not going to be able to use this one, but you're in luck." I just so happen to have some animal sacrifices for sale right here.
06:45-06:52
"You just give me yours, and I'll sell you one of mine." And what do you think the markup was on these animals?
06:53-06:53
Right.
06:54-06:57
So there were the animal sellers, there were also the money changers.
06:57-06:58
Like, what was their deal?
06:59-07:02
Well, when you arrived, you had to pay the temple tax.
07:02-07:03
That was required.
07:03-07:06
That wasn't a voluntary thing, that was a required thing.
07:07-07:12
Well, people, again, were coming from all over, so you had to exchange currency.
07:12-07:16
And these people all so conveniently were seated right there!
07:16-07:23
And they would be glad to exchange your currency for the right currency so that you could pay your temple tax.
07:24-07:27
I ask you again, what do you think the markup was on that?
07:27-07:28
So do you have the picture?
07:29-07:35
That Jesus walks into the temple, and when he gets into the courtyards, this is what he sees.
07:36-07:40
We're going to pause here and say, "Well, wait a minute." Again, what was the purpose of the temple?
07:41-07:46
This was a placement for prayer and worship and reverence for God.
07:47-07:49
And at this point, they turned it into Walmart.
07:50-07:54
It was this complete irreverence that drove Jesus to anger.
07:54-08:01
Look at verse 15. It says, "And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen.
08:02-08:09
And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables." Like cords. Where did Jesus get the cords from?
08:09-08:10
Well, they would have been laying everywhere.
08:11-08:13
To tie the animals up, tie their cages shut.
08:13-08:16
There would have just been cords laying around because of the animals.
08:16-08:20
So Jesus grabbed a bunch of these cords and he braided a whip and he drove them out.
08:21-08:24
There's some things that I read in the Bible that I think are kind of funny.
08:24-08:35
It says in verse 15 that he drove them out of the temple, it says, "with the sheep and the oxen." I just have this picture in my head of Jesus with the whip and the people running from Jesus and the sheep and oxen going with the people.
08:35-08:39
Like, "Hey, what did we do?" You know, but he drove them all out.
08:39-08:42
Like, you and your animals out.
08:43-08:44
He drove them out.
08:44-08:49
It says he dumped the coins and he flipped the tables of the money changers.
08:50-08:51
I mean, can you imagine this scene?
08:51-08:54
Can you wrap your brain around this scene?
08:55-08:59
The temple was packed and this was the most important holiday for the Jews.
08:59-09:01
And at this point, here's something you have to remember.
09:02-09:04
Jesus was an unknown at this point.
09:04-09:10
You see, while this was happening, people weren't like, "Oh, look, there goes Jesus." This was the beginning of his ministry.
09:10-09:12
There weren't a lot of people that really knew who he was.
09:13-09:14
So here's what they see.
09:14-09:20
They see some 30-year-old Jewish guy just going through driving everybody out of the temple.
09:20-09:22
Like, what is going on with that guy?
09:23-09:27
But you have to see that there's something kind of miraculous that happens in this account.
09:28-09:30
First was he threw them all out.
09:30-09:32
There's something miraculous there.
09:32-09:33
I mean, let's be honest.
09:33-09:43
If some 30-year-old guy walked in here today and had a whip, like Indiana Jones, like, "You guys are leaving the church!" Somebody here would just run up and grab the guy, right?
09:43-09:50
Like, "Dude, settle down. Let's talk. What's your problem?" That didn't happen to Jesus. He was able to drive everybody out.
09:50-09:51
Everybody ran from Him.
09:52-09:53
Another amazing thing is nobody got hurt.
09:54-10:01
With all these people stampeding and again all the animals, nobody got hurt and apparently no authorities were alerted or called.
10:01-10:06
So what happens here, there's really no human explanation that can describe it.
10:06-10:19
Look at verse 16. "And he told those who sold the pigeons, 'Take these things away! Do not make my father's house a house of trade.'" So here Jesus verbalizes His anger.
10:19-10:22
And you have to see that Jesus took this very personally.
10:23-10:30
You notice He didn't say, "You shouldn't make the temple a house of trade." What did He say? How did He refer to it?
10:30-10:32
He said, "Hey, this is my father's house.
10:33-10:52
You don't do this to my father's house." Think of it this way. Imagine if you find out today the home in which you grew up, where you had all your memories, you had your childhood, you played wiffle ball in the backyard with your friends, the home you grew up, you go home and you find out today they're tearing it down and they're putting a dollar general in that site.
10:53-10:54
How would you feel?
10:54-10:57
Wouldn't you have a sense in your heart, "This is wrong.
10:57-11:00
This is wrong. We don't need another dollar general.
11:00-11:03
"We don't need another Dollar General." We don't need another Dollar General!
11:04-11:12
And you're gonna tear down this house that my dad built with his bare hands or whatever, and you're gonna put a stupid Dollar General there?
11:12-11:13
Like, you can't do that.
11:14-11:23
Well, if you can sort of imagine the sentiment you would have there, multiply that times infinity, and you see what's happening in the heart of Jesus Christ.
11:23-11:31
He's like, "This is to be like where people show up "and encounter God!" And you're making money here?
11:31-11:38
You're ripping people off, and you're feeding your greed, which is bad enough, but you're doing it at my father's house!
11:39-11:40
What is the matter with you?
11:41-11:47
And I know right now, somebody's like, "Oh no, Pastor Jeff, I am so convicted.
11:47-11:55
I am so convicted because the youth group was selling pepperoni rolls a couple months ago, and I bought one.
11:56-11:58
And I'm no different than these people, Pastor Jeff.
11:58-12:03
Well, we want you to know that sackcloth and ashes will be available for your repentance.
12:03-12:11
You can come on down and we'll have elders up here who will scold you and rebuke you and shame on you.
12:11-12:13
No, that is not the same thing.
12:14-12:15
That is not the same thing.
12:16-12:22
You see, buying a pepperoni roll, all the proceeds for that went to the youth mission trip.
12:22-12:23
This is not the same thing.
12:23-12:34
What's happening here, these are merchants taking advantage of innocent worshipers for personal financial gain, and they were doing it right in God's living room.
12:35-12:45
In verse 17, "His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me.'" You see, His disciples seemed to get it. They knew the Old Testament.
12:46-12:49
And when they saw this event, it kind of rang a bell.
12:49-12:53
And the bell that it rang was actually Psalm 69 and verse 9.
12:54-13:05
It says, "For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me, consumed by righteous zeal." This is what fired Jesus up.
13:06-13:19
He was so passionate - is so passionate - about reverent worship for God, that when that's violated, Jesus was moved to enforce a mass eviction.
13:20-13:24
Now please understand, church, this isn't just about the greed.
13:24-13:27
This isn't just about the sellers being opportunistic.
13:28-13:30
Those things were the fruit, they weren't the root.
13:30-13:35
What fired Jesus up was His zeal for true worship.
13:36-13:39
And these people were displaying complete irreverence for God.
13:40-13:41
Complete irreverence for God.
13:41-13:48
I know we're supposed to worship here, but I'm going to make some cash here." That attitude that led to that action.
13:48-13:51
You see, Jesus wasn't merely aware of it.
13:52-13:53
He felt that personally.
13:54-13:57
And that's why at the end of verse... can we get Psalm 69 back up there?
13:57-14:01
See, the first part of the verse is quoted, but the second part also certainly applies.
14:02-14:06
It says, "The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me." Do you know what that means?
14:07-14:14
It means the psalmist and ultimately Jesus in this passage, What they're saying is, "God, when you are dishonored, I feel that.
14:15-14:18
God, when you are mocked, I feel mocked.
14:18-14:29
God, when you are degraded, I take that personally." I need to insert here that God's people, like Jesus, you should be offended at the things that offend God.
14:29-14:34
Things like abortion, you should be offended by that, because that certainly offends God.
14:34-14:39
Things like human trafficking, you should be offended by that, because that certainly offends God.
14:40-14:43
Things like ripping people off financially in the name of Jesus.
14:44-14:45
That's what was happening in this passage.
14:46-14:48
Does that happen today at all, do you think, maybe?
14:48-14:50
Have you ever seen some of these TV preachers?
14:51-14:59
"Send your thousand dollar seed and God will give you a miracle." They're just... these guys. It's just next generation.
15:00-15:06
They're taking advantage of people, using the gospel in order to make themselves wealthy.
15:06-15:08
Not all of them on TV, but a lot of them.
15:09-15:11
That offends God. And it should offend us.
15:12-15:14
Now, there's nothing wrong with making money.
15:14-15:15
There's nothing wrong with exchanging currency.
15:16-15:19
There's nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves.
15:20-15:22
We're dealing with a heart issue. We're dealing with a motive issue.
15:22-15:29
And we're dealing with an issue where this was apparently being done for God, but it was really benefiting the sellers.
15:30-15:37
And I have to ask you, and I have to ask myself, What motivates us when we come to the house of God, so to speak?
15:38-15:43
Do I come to church to worship because of the majesty and the mercy of God?
15:43-15:47
Or do I come to church because I have some selfish motivation behind it?
15:47-15:51
Some people look at church as an opportunity to network for new clients.
15:51-15:56
I'm in some business where I'm selling things, so I'm just going to different churches just to get clients.
15:57-16:03
Now, there's nothing wrong if you are part of a church, You meet people and that stuff happens naturally because of friendships or whatever.
16:04-16:09
I'm just saying, if that's your motive for coming to church, I don't see how you're any different than the people in this passage.
16:10-16:21
Your motivation is, "How can I get money from people?" You see, church, the Bible says in the New Testament, "We are God's temple." And Jesus is not going to ignore our irreverence.
16:21-16:23
Oh, He may not drive you out of the temple.
16:24-16:27
He might not show up at Harvest Bible Chapel today and drive you out.
16:28-16:34
But you know, when we studied the book of Revelation, we saw how Jesus Christ dealt with unbelievers at the great white throne judgment.
16:34-16:35
He'll drive you out of heaven.
16:36-16:41
This event at the temple is really just an earthly preview of that.
16:41-16:44
Like, "Oh, you're going to be fake? You're going to be deceptive?
16:44-16:45
You're going to take advantage of people?
16:46-16:51
I will drive you out of My presence." Jesus knows your heart, okay? He knows why.
16:51-16:56
And if it's for some selfish gain, He will not ignore your irreverence.
16:56-17:05
Number two, drop this down, "Jesus knows your heart, and He won't appease your animosity." Okay, so we have this event that just took place.
17:05-17:07
Verse 18, direct reaction.
17:08-17:17
"So the Jews said to Him, said to Jesus, 'What sign do you show us for doing these things?'" See, they were getting in Jesus' face, saying, "What gives you the right to do this?
17:18-17:21
Who do you think you are, walking around here saying God is your Father?
17:22-17:34
You better back that claim up." "Okay, God's boy, give us some kind of a sign to back that claim up." It's ironic, they thought that Jesus desecrated the temple.
17:34-17:44
And Jesus is like, "Well, we have something in common. I think you did it." According to verse 23, we're going to get there in a second, Jesus did do signs.
17:44-17:51
But as we see a few times in the Gospels, that's the servant for another time, they wanted a sign from heaven.
17:51-17:53
You see, they wanted Jesus to perform for them.
17:54-17:57
They wanted Jesus to put on a show. They wanted Jesus to prove Himself.
17:58-18:00
And Jesus doesn't abide by your terms.
18:01-18:02
Look at Jesus' response.
18:02-18:08
So they're like, "Back that claim up, dude." And in verse 19, Jesus answered them.
18:09-18:11
Look at the words very closely, okay?
18:11-18:21
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." That's not a command. Jesus wasn't commanding them to destroy.
18:22-18:24
Nor was He challenging them.
18:25-18:30
Jesus wasn't like, "Bring it on, bro. Come at Me." It wasn't that either.
18:31-18:45
See, the syntax of what Jesus was saying, He says, "You will destroy this temple, and I'll raise it up in three days." Jesus was just merely stating future facts.
18:46-18:56
But the reason I said you need to take a close look at that statement is because this is one of the earliest examples we have in human history of a statement going viral.
18:57-18:59
Murph, do the kids still use that term about things going viral?
18:59-19:00
Is that still hip?
19:01-19:03
You're always, I have to ask somebody younger.
19:03-19:04
All right.
19:05-19:07
Do kids still say that, like something's gone viral?
19:08-19:11
This is the first example of a statement gone viral.
19:12-19:13
Like, why do you say that?
19:13-19:22
Well, in Mark chapter 14, at Jesus' trial, It says, "For many bore false witness against Him, but their testimony did not agree.
19:23-19:39
And some stood up and bore false witness against Him, saying, 'We heard Him say, "I will destroy the temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands."'" Is that what He said? Is that what He said?
19:39-19:43
Where did all this "hands" stuff come from? What?
19:43-19:45
I mean, there's so many things wrong with that statement.
19:46-19:48
That is not at all what Jesus said.
19:48-20:00
But this statement was circulating that Jesus said something about temple destruction, temple raising Him, I don't know, but they twisted what He said at His trial.
20:01-20:15
And also when He was on the cross, Matthew 27, Jesus is dying on the cross and those who pass by deride Him, wagging their heads and say, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.
20:15-20:24
"Save yourself, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." There again, they said, "Oh, you said you were going to destroy the temple." Is that what Jesus said?
20:24-20:26
No, that's not what He said.
20:26-20:28
He never said He was going to destroy the temple.
20:29-20:40
They give us a sign, Jesus was saying, "You're going to destroy the temple, and I'm going to rebuild it in three days." But they twisted His words to make it look like He was making some terroristic threat.
20:40-20:57
Verse 20, in response to Jesus' statement, the Jews then said, "It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" And John inserts here, he says, "But he was speaking about the temple of his body." They didn't get it, and they mocked him.
20:57-21:02
46 years was the amount of time to this point of Herod's temple reconstruction project.
21:03-21:10
So they mock him. "Oh, come on, it took 46 years, and what are you going to do?" And how did Jesus respond to that?
21:11-21:12
How did Jesus respond? Well, look at verse 22.
21:13-21:16
Because you're going to see the answer is, He didn't respond to it.
21:17-21:28
It says, "When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken." Jesus didn't explain it.
21:29-21:31
Like, why didn't Jesus explain it?
21:31-21:36
Like, John obviously knew he was talking about His body, and they completely missed it.
21:36-21:39
So why didn't Jesus just step in and correct them?
21:40-21:44
Like, "Oh, I'm sorry, sir, you seem to have misunderstood my statement.
21:44-21:49
Allow me to clarify that for you." Why didn't Jesus do that? I'll tell you why.
21:50-21:52
It's because they didn't want to believe.
21:52-21:55
His disciples got it, but they didn't want to believe.
21:56-21:58
And Jesus isn't going to come to you on your terms.
21:59-22:01
Does Jesus have to prove Himself to you?
22:03-22:09
Like, "Oh, I'll believe in Jesus once He does this." Does He have to prove Himself to you?
22:09-22:18
Because here's a key truth that Jesus emphasized throughout His ministry, and we see again reflected here, that if you don't want to believe, then you can't believe.
22:19-22:25
And all the signs we've seen of God at work here in this church, all of those signs aren't going to be enough for you.
22:25-22:31
Every sermon preached at this church is going to go in one ear and out the others.
22:31-22:36
You're like these Jews, and you insist you're going to be hostile and hard-hearted towards Jesus.
22:37-22:38
You're not going to get anything from Him.
22:39-22:46
You've got an attitude or a chip on your shoulder, like, "I'll believe when He proves Himself to me." You ain't getting nothing from Him.
22:47-22:48
Jesus is not your performer.
22:49-22:51
You come to Him on His terms. He doesn't come to you on yours.
22:52-22:53
You don't want to believe, you can't believe.
22:54-22:55
You want proof?
22:55-23:00
Like, "Yeah, I want Jesus to prove Himself." It's the same proof Jesus mentioned in other places in the ministry.
23:00-23:02
There's a reference to it right here.
23:02-23:04
Here's your proof. He raised from the dead.
23:04-23:07
That's the proof that Jesus is who He is.
23:07-23:10
That's the proof that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
23:10-23:13
That's the proof that your sins are forgiven in Him.
23:13-23:15
You have the promise of eternal life, and you have the promise of heaven.
23:16-23:18
Your proof is that He raised from the dead.
23:18-23:23
And if that's not enough for you, nothing will ever be enough for you.
23:23-23:27
Because Jesus Christ is not going to appease your animosity.
23:28-23:29
Like, "Oh, she seems to have an attitude.
23:30-23:33
How can I coddle her? No, no, that's not how he works.
23:33-23:35
He's not going to appease your animosity.
23:35-23:38
And finally, he won't be fooled by your faith.
23:39-23:41
He won't be fooled by your faith.
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Notice the word "faith" is in quotes.
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There's a reason for that.
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Look at verse 23.
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It says, "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing." And you're like, "Yes!
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It's great! Awesome! Right?
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Mission accomplished!
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They believed in His name.
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I mean, that's what we want, right?
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This is good, right? This is not at all.
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Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
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You're telling me, the verse says that many believed, and you're standing up here saying that this isn't good?
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It's not at all.
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Look at verse 24.
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It says, "But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people." You're like, "What am I missing?" Here's what we miss in the English.
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This is in the Greek.
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And this is why the word faith is in quotes.
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Because in verses 23 and 24, you have a play on words.
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Do you see in verse 23, the word believe, many believed in his name.
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Verse 24, Jesus did not entrust.
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You see the word believe and entrust.
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You see those two words?
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In the Greek, that's the exact same word.
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If you're reading this in the original language, the way John is presenting this, in other words, here's what John is saying.
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He's saying they believed in Jesus, but Jesus didn't believe in them.
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See that?
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Saying, "Well, they had faith in Jesus." Jesus didn't have any faith in them.
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It's a play on words.
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Like, they seem to really be responding to Jesus.
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It says right here, "He knew all people." He's like, "No, they don't really believe." They said they believed, but Jesus knows they didn't truly believe.
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And what we have here is a false faith.
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Not everyone who says they believe in Jesus Christ actually have faith as the Bible describes it.
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Look again at v. 24.
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It says, "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." See, they said they believed, but Jesus knew the real condition of their heart.
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The Bible tells us that Jesus didn't need anyone to tell Him anything about anybody.
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Jesus didn't need a witness, because He knew.
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What does that mean?
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He needed no one to bear witness.
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What does that mean?
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It just simply means this, if you came to me, and you're like, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, I'm not sure if my co-worker is a Christian." I would say, "Well, tell me about them.
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Let me ask you some questions." And I would ask you a series of questions about what evidence is used.
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I don't know where anybody's heart is with the Lord.
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That's between the person and God.
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I would just ask them some questions.
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What do they talk like? What are the things they're into? Do they attend worship at all?
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Have you had any spiritual conversations? I would have to get information from you if I was going to take a guess as to whether or not I think that person might be a Christian, right?
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And that's what verse 25 is saying. It says Jesus needed no one to bear witness.
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Jesus didn't need that. Jesus didn't need to say, "Oh, I don't know if you're a believer.
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Tell me a little bit about your life." He just knew, because He knows your heart.
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Jesus didn't need information.
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Jesus didn't need to try to put clues together to make a guess.
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He just knows.
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Listen to me very closely.
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If you're a fraud, He knows.
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If you're faking it, He knows.
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If you're putting on a show, He knows.
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And the truly tragic thing about this is you can fool everybody, and the Bible says you can even fool yourself.
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That's why as we head down the homestretch here, I just real quick, this is a whole other sermon series that we've done in the past.
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I can't close without sharing this though.
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Quickly, three danger signs that your faith is a show.
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You need to be objective here.
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I mean, nobody thinks they're a fake.
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That's why we have the objective Word of God that we can examine.
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I just want to give you three quick ones today.
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Three quick danger signs that your faith might just be for show.
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The first one is, letter A, you don't exercise personal, private disciplines.
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You don't exercise personal, private, spiritual disciplines.
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We did a sermon series on that earlier this year, Matthew 6.
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Praying, giving, fasting - all of these things are to be done as worship and secretly, just between you and God.
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And if your spirituality is only exercised in church, in front of other people, or at small group, in front of other people, if that's the only time you open your Bible, if that's the only time that you're praying, If that's the only time that you're giving so that other people know, or the idea of fasting is completely foreign to you.
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I don't know your heart, but I do know based on the Word of God that these are huge warning signs.
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If you don't have a personal, private thing with God, letter B is sort of the other side of the coin is you harbor secret sin.
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In other words, your spiritual life, you make public.
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but your sin you keep private.
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That's a sign that your faith is a show, it's a performance for other people.
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You see, your spiritual disciplines are to be private, and your sin should be public in that you should be looking for accountability.
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You should be part of a small group where you can confess to people, "Look, here's where I'm struggling.
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Here's where I need prayer." That's authenticity.
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People that are putting on a show, "A small group is too uncomfortable.
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I don't want accountability." Do you have something going on in your life right now that you keep hidden from your family?
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Like, "There's a whole section of my life that my wife doesn't know about." "I have this whole thing happening that my husband has no idea." Or, "My parents don't really know what I'm like when I go to school." And that's a huge red flag.
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Do you have a section of your life that you keep hidden from your church, from your small group?
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You don't exercise personal, private, spiritual disciplines.
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Instead, you're harboring secret sin.
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Letter C, another danger sign that your faith is a show is you don't see the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
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Galatians 5, "As the Holy Spirit indwells every believer..." These are characteristics that you should see in your life and are growing.
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Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
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The Bible says these are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
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You should see them present in your life, and you should see them growing in your life.
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If you say, "I don't really see those things in my life," well, then that means the Holy Spirit is not indwelling you.
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And if the Holy Spirit's not indwelling you, then you're not a true believer because the Holy Spirit indwells all true believers.
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None of us have these things nailed down perfectly.
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I'm not saying that.
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What I'm saying is, do you see these things growing in your life?
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Do you see the presence there?
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Do you see, "You know what?
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I know I'm not as patient as I need to be, but I'm a lot more patient today than I was this time last year because the Holy Spirit's working on me.
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Do you see growth?
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If you don't, that's a huge danger sign.
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Maybe your faith is a show.
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You know, you can fool me.
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I've been fooled many times.
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You can fool me.
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You can even...
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If you're married, you can even fool your spouse, the person that you spend the most time with.
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You can even fool that person.
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And if you're a really good fooler, you can even fool your grandma.
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But you will never fool Jesus Christ.
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And this year we are going after knowing Jesus.
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And again, just as we saw a couple of weeks ago, Jesus knows us completely.
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He knows who loves Him genuinely from the heart, and He knows who is pretending.
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He knows who refuses to believe, and He knows who's using people for personal gain.
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Maybe today's the day it's time to stop playing pretend.
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experience the true joy and blessing comes from an authentic faith of sincerely knowing Jesus.
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Will you bow your heads with me please?
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As our worship team makes their way back forward.
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I want you to bow your head.
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In this passage, we looked at three different groups of phonies.
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Some making money, some angry at Jesus, some just giving lip service, but their hearts were far from.
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Is that you this morning?
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And that's you this morning, that you would say, "You know what?
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People don't know who I really am.
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People think I'm fired up for the Lord, but I'm really not." Today's the day of confession.
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Today's the day that you need to say, "God, I don't want to play games.
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And I might have tricked some people, but I'm not going to trick Jesus Christ.
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He knows my heart.
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And if I'm going to know Him, I've got to stop making it a show." Father, as we come before You today, God, You know our hearts.
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God, You know my heart better than I do.
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Father, You know our desire has never been to be the biggest, trendiest, coolest church in town.
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God, You know our desire is to just be real.
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Father, I pray for our brothers and sisters here and those who are going to be listening to this message online.
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Father, I pray that we would take an objective, honest look in our lives and say, "Do I really have a walk with Christ, or do I just want people to think that I have a walk with Christ?" Father, only You can grant repentance.
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Only Your Holy Spirit can do the work that needs done.
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So we cry out to You, Father.
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We don't want to put on a show.
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We're not here to entertain.
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All we want, simply, Father, what we truly want.
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And Father, if this is not what we truly want, I'm crying out to You that You would change our motives.
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So this is what we truly want.
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We want to know Jesus Christ.
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Help us, Father, to truly, truly and sincerely authentically come to that place.
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That's the thing that we want more than any.
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Knowing Jesus.
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It's in His glorious name that we pray.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 2:13-25
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Jesus was obviously angry at the sellers in the Temple. When is it appropriate to be angry? When is it inappropriate?
What are some ways churches today can become a “house of trade” (John 2:16)?
Why do you think the Jews weren’t satisfied with the signs they saw? See John 2:23 and John 2:18 for reference.
Why is the testimony of Scripture more important than seeing a “flashy” sign by God? See also Luke 16:31 and 2 Peter 1:17-19
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another. And pray for HBC to be a sincere house of worship with godly motives.