“What’s In Man”
[John 2:23-25]
May 3, 2015Second Reformed Church
Are people basically inclined to do
good? Or are people basically inclined
to do evil?
Are people basically loving, giving,
humble, self-sacrificing, generous, and seeking after what God would have
done? Or are people basically selfish,
prideful, self-seeking, greedy, looking out for “number one,” and not concerned
about what God has said?
Last week, we looked at how Jesus,
full of righteous anger and zeal, at the right time, went into the Temple and
threw out the money changers and animal sellers, because they had gone from
providing a service to help worshippers meet the requirements of worship, to
cheating the worshippers out of their money – making a profit for themselves –
profaning the worship of God.
Jesus had thrown them out and
commanded them to stop cheating those who came to worship – because He is the
Son of God and what they were doing was unacceptable – a stench in the nostrils
of His Father.
The leaders of the Jews demanded a
sign that He had the authority to cleanse the Temple and demand the worship of
God be done in holiness, and Jesus told them that if they killed Him, He would
raise Himself from the dead on the third day – and the disciples understood
after the Resurrection.
The common people in the Temple had
a different reaction – here was a man, a prophet, perhaps the Messiah, Who
stood up to the cheats in the Temple and demanded holy worship. He threw over tables; He whipped the money
changers and animal sellers; He yelled at them and rebuked the priests.
He put on quite a show! And the common people liked it! They knew they were being cheated, but they
had no way to take down the people in power who were abusing them – until Jesus
stood up for them.
And we read:
“Now
when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when
they saw the signs that he was doing.”
Word
spread – people told the story of the things Jesus did – standing up to “the
man” – and people believed in Him – they wanted Him to stand for them – they
wanted Him to be their prophet – their rabbi – perhaps He was even the Messiah
– the Savior of Israel. Perhaps He was
the One to free Israel from Roman oppression, as well.
We
respond to people who “stand up” like they did, don’t we?
Can
you think of any politician who you “knew” would solve all the problems of the
country or the state or the town – only to have them fall or be stopped from
bringing peace and prosperity by “our” enemies?
Saul,
the first King of Israel, was chosen based on his being wealthy and being
good-looking: “There was a man of
Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Beocrath,
son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth.
And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of
Israel more handsome than he. From his
shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people” (I Samuel 9:1-3, ESV).
“Saul
is wealthy and handsome and tall – it’s obvious that he would be a great king!”
Have
you ever heard or watched a preacher and thought that he would be the one to
change the world and prepare the way for Jesus – or at least make us healthy,
wealthy, and wise – only to have them fall and be exposed in their sin?
There
are still people who hold up Charles Finney as one of the greatest revival
preachers and argue that we should model our churches and ministries after
his. He had money and a huge
following. The only realproblem with him
is that he insisted that Jesus is not necessary for salvation – he argued that
Jesus is an example to all people that we have it in us to save ourselves. That’s a lie.
That’s heresy. That’s not Christianity.
“Sure,
he wasn’t a Christian, but he taught people to live morally, and his tent
meetings were overflowing with people, and the money rolled in.”
The
crowd saw Jesus throw out the cheats and call for holy worship in the Temple –
and the crowd loved the show. The
believed in Him – they supported what He was doing – they believed He was doing
good for the people – they wanted Him to do it again – to this person and this
institution. But they did not believe in
Him savingly.
The
crowd approved of what they saw Jesus do in the Temple, but they did not
understand and believe that He is God the Savior incarnate in the Person of
Jesus. And that is the whole point.
“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.”
It would probably be easy to go
along with the crowd: They were all
saying, “Great job, Jesus! I love the
way You took down those thieves and set them right – high five! We’ll be right there with You if You do the
same sort of this to this person and this group – we’ll work out an itinerary
for You!”
It would certainly be easier to
follow the promptings of the crowd than to stand up for something else – if not
against them. “Who do You think You
are? You’re alienating the people who
could make You or break You.”
But Jesus didn’t come to please
people – He came to please His Father.
So, He left them.
And John emphasized the reason why
Jesus did not give Himself over to following the crowd and acting on their
behalf.
We may remember in Hebrew writing,
they didn’t say that something was very, very, good – they would say that
something was good-good. They used two
or three repetitions to indicate emphasis and supreme emphasis.
Here, John uses supreme emphasis – repetition
three times – to state why Jesus did not give Himself over to the crowd and
their will:
“But
Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people ….”
“But
Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he… needed no one to
bear witness about man ….”
“But
Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he … himself knew
what was in man.”
Jesus
did not entrust Himself to the crowd, because He knew all people, because no
one needed to tell Him about people, because He knew what’s in people. The same thing three times – Jesus didn’t
trust Himself to the people, because He really, really, really knew what people
were like, what their motivation was, what they wanted.
When
I was in college, I took a philosophy course on ethics, and one day we met
outside, and the professor said that one side of the courtyard would be where
those should stand who believe that people are basically good, and the other
side would be for those who believe that people are basically evil. The courtyard was shaped like our chancel and
had steps in the middle of it like out cancel, as well. Most people stood on the side of people being
“basically good.” Then there were a few
who dribbled towards the center of the courtyard. But one of my classmates and I walked down
the stairs and over far to the side to emphasize our belief that people are
basically inclined towards evil – because that is what God tells us.
After
the serpent tempted Eve and Eve took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil and gave it to Adam and Adam ate it – knowing what it was – they
both plunged humanity into sin as our representatives. Since then, every mere human being has been
born with original sin – that is, inclined towards sin.
Jeremiah
tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who
can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV).
Paul
explains, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among
whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires
of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest
of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV).
And
again, “No one is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for
God. All have turned aside; together
they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their
tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is
under their lips. Their mouth is full of
curses and bitterness. Their feet are
swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace
they have not known. There is no fear of
God before their eyes” (Romans 3:10-18, ESV).
Jesus
knew that our natural inclination – because we are all born sinners – is to
seek what makes “me” happy. We are born
selfish, self-centered, God-hating, salvation-resisting, sinful people.
Jesus
knew it would have been devastation to His mission to give it over to people
with this mindset and heart. No, Jesus
came to save His people from that mindset and heart and make them right with
God – not to give in to them and their whims.
That
is why Paul continues, as he writes, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of
the great love with which he loved us, even while we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised
us with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so
that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For
by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of
works, so that no one may boast. For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:4-10, ESV).
Jesus
understood that the people who were following after Him were only looking for a
show or to have Him confront their pet problem.
But Jesus didn’t give Himself over to their plans, because He knew that humans
are born inclined towards sin and evil, and we can only pursue the love of God
with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and the love of neighbor
as ourselves after God the Holy Spirit has changed us and caused us to believe
savingly in Jesus Alone for salvation.
Then we can begin to learn to follow after the ways of God and find them
to be our true joy.
Before
we believe savingly in Jesus, all that we do is – in some way – ultimately –
for us – done out of self-interest – and against God. After we believe, we are able to choose to
sin or to follow after God and His Will – seeking His Will and His Glory first
– which is how we will receive true joy.
Almighty
God, we thank You that Your Son came bearing witness to the true state of
fallen humanity. Help us to understand
that we are not born innocent or good enough or having right intentions. Help us to understand that the fact that we
are born sinners is the reason we need the Savior. Help us to be wise as serpents and innocent
as doves in all our dealings. And may we
seek Your Glory in all things. For it is
in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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