What Is Your Heart Saying? John 2:13-25

About this Episode

What Is Your Heart Saying? John 2:13-25 is the topic that will be discussed today on RIOT Podcast, a Christian Discipleship Podcast.

Last we talked about Jesus turning water into wine and how He is still performing miracles every day. We talked about how to see those miracles and what they look like. If you haven’t heard the show, go back and listen, to a great show on miracles, episode 67.

Today, we begin our reading with Jesus, His family, His mom, and brothers, leaving Capernaum to go to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast.

Each Jewish man was required by law to attend three annual feasts at the Holy City, the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. We will discuss those along with Jesus overthrowing tables in the Temple and towards the end of our reading, we will see that Jesus has the knowledge of what’s in every man’s heart.

But before we get into our text let’s talk about these Feasts:
* PASSOVER - The Passover Feast commemorates Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

* PENTECOST - Pentecost is the Greek name for the Festival of Weeks, a prominent feast in the Jewish calendar that celebrated God giving them the 10 Commandments 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt.

* TABERNACLE - The Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot (booths) (or Feast of Booths) is a week-long fall festival commemorating the 40-year journey of the Israelites in the wilderness.

* DAY OF ATONEMENT - The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur is the highest holy day of the Jewish calendar.

READ JOHN 2:13-17
We see Jesus revealing His zeal for God by cleansing the temple. The priest had established a lucrative business of exchanging foreign money for Jewish currency and also selling the animals needed for the sacrifices.

Don’t let money get in the way of sharing God's truth with others.

A fascinating quote from John here, He said that when the disciples saw Jesus’ courageous zeal it made them think of:
Psalms 69:9
Psalm 69:4
Psalm 69:8
Psalm 69:21
Psalm 69:22

When Jesus cleansed the temple, He was declaring war on the hypocritical religious leaders and it ultimately led to His death. His zeal for God's house did eat him up.

READ JOHN 2:18-22
It was logical for the religious leaders to ask Jesus to show them a sign of His authority? After all, they were the guardians of the Jewish Faith and they had a right to test any new prophet who appeared. Paul said in 1 Cor 1:22 "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:"

Jesus used the image of the temple to convey this truth. Destroy this temple my body and in three days I will raise it up. Being spiritually blind they did not see the spiritual truth and interpreted this in a physical way.

READ JOHN 2:23-25
It is safe to assume by this verse that while in Jerusalem for Passover, Jesus was performing many miracles that are not given in detail here. It must have been these signs that attracted Nicodemus in John 3:2 Because of the miracles, many people professed to believe in Him, but Jesus did not accept their profession of faith. Why?

The words believed in John 2:23 and commit in John 2:24 are the same Greek word. These people believed in Jesus, but He did not believe in them! They were unsaved believers. It was one thing to respond to a miracle but quite something else to commit oneself to Jesus and continue in His word.

It is important to see that Jesus tied His miracles to the truth of His message. He knew the human heart is attracted to the sensational. The 5 thousand who he fed wanted to make Him king until he preached the bread of life sermon and they left him in droves. In grace, Jesus fed the hungry, in truth He taught the word. People want physical food but not spiritual truths.

John 4:8 says Except you see signs and wonders and yet you still do not believe.

There are many who want His works but few who want His word. Seeing is believing is not the Christian approach. The bible says we first must BELIEVE then we will see. Miracles and signs of wonder we experience in our lives can only lead us to the Word but we have to lay down our lives to receive it. God knows our hearts, he knows the truth about us.