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John 2:23-25  THE MINISTRY OF JESUS DURING THE PASSOVER WEEK

 

Introduction:

 

    The Passover week is technically more than a week.  It begins

on the day of the Passover and lasts for eight days.

    In our previous text Jesus cleansed the temple at Jerusalem

during the very early part of His public ministry.  When He

entered into the Court of the Gentiles, He made a whip out of

ropes and drove out the sheep and oxen which were there for sale.

He drove out the people who sold them.  He made those who sold

doves take the doves out of the temple.  He poured the money from

the money tables out on the floor, overturned the tables and

drove the money changers out of the temple.

    The Jewish leaders demanded that He show them a sign to prove

that He had authority from heaven take charge in the temple.

Jesus did not show them a sign at that time, but He did promise

to show them a sign later.

    Our text today takes up where our previous text left off and

gives a brief description of the ministry of Jesus at Jerusalem

during the eight days of celebration of the Passover.

 

I.  Jesus while inside the temple

 

    Keep in mind that this was not the first Passover that Jesus

had attended.  He had attended Passover celebrations at Jerusalem

since He was twelve years old.  He is now thirty years old.  So

He had been attending Passover celebrations at Jerusalem for 18

years.  Yet this is the first Passover celebration since He

started His public ministry.  His ministry is still in the very

earliest stages.

    To say the least, He made an impression on everybody at this

occasion.  He most certainly made an impression on the temple

officials who were in charge of the sale of animals and selling

Hebrew coins to those from foreign lands.  He had disrupted their

whole business.  I am assuming that they continued to sell the

animals and coins after He drove them out, but they had to do it

outside the temple grounds.  I seriously doubt that they had the

nerve to bring animals back inside during the whole Passover

week.

    In sharp contrast to His cleansing of the temple at the close

of His ministry, there is nothing said about Him doing anything

further inside the temple grounds that would attract much

attention.  I am sure that His very presence there attracted

attention, but His activity within the temple during the

remaining week was very low key.

 

II.  Jesus outside the temple in the city of Jerusalem

 

    After driving out the animals and those who sold, the main

focus of the activity of Jesus was outside the temple grounds.

V. 23, "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the

feast day..."  The term "feast day" takes in all of the eight day

period of feasting connected with the Passover.  That is, it

takes in the Passover Day itself and the week of feasting that

followed.  But there is no further mention of Him doing anything

special in the temple itself.  Rather the focus is upon His

activity out in the city of Jerusalem.

    Everywhere Jesus went in the city He attracted crowds of

people.  What He had done on that first day that He entered the

temple was still fresh on the minds of the people and they

followed Him largely to see what else He might do.

    Furthermore, the announcement of John the Baptist concerning

Jesus was still fresh on everybody's minds.  John had announced

that Jesus is the promised Christ.  John said also that Jesus is

the Son of God.  That and that alone was enough to attract a lot

of attention to Him.

    Furthermore, there must have been some talk about the miracle

which He had done back at Cana of Galilee where He turned water

into wine.  With as much attention as Jesus had already drawn to

Himself by cleansing the temple it would not take long for the

news of such thing to spread throughout the city.

 

III.  The response of the people to Jesus

 

    (V. 23), "...many believed in his name, when they saw the

miracles which he did."  There are two things here that we need

to note.  First, note that many people believed in His name.  We

would normally understand such a statement to mean that they

believed that He is the Christ and that they trusted in Him to be

their Savior.   Surely that is the case with at least some of

them, perhaps a goodly number.  But we will see evidence in the

next verse that many of them may not have believed to that

extent.  This suggests that most of them at this point of time

merely believed that His power to work miracles came from God and

that He must was a prophet sent from God.  It is good that they

believed to that extent, but that is not enough.  They needed to

believe in Him fully.  They needed to believe in Him as the

Christ and they needed to trust in Him as their Savior.  That is

what every man, woman, boy and girl needs to do.

    The second thing in this part of the verse which we need to

take special notice of is that He worked miracles.  He worked

miracles there in Jerusalem.  John does not tell us what kind of

miracles He performed, but it would be reasonable to assume that

He healed the sick.  He must have healed a great many sick folk.

Jerusalem was filled to capacity and overflowing with people.

Most of the critically sick folk were not here.  The were unable

to travel.  But there were, no doubt, some critically sick locals

present and a goodly number of mildly sick people from a

distance.  At any rate, once Jesus healed one sick person, it

would not be long before there would be a flood of people

gathered around Him waiting to be healed.  And He did; He healed

them all.

 

IV.  The reaction of Jesus to the people

 

    V. 24, "But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because

he knew all men."  This is a rather strange statement.  At least,

at first it is.  It is strange in view of the previous statement

that they believed in Him.  If they had fully understood that

Jesus is the Christ and fully believed that Jesus is the Christ,

it would seem strange that He would not commit Himself to them.

    So this brings up a question:  What does John mean when he

said that Jesus did not commit Himself to them?  It means at

least two things.  First of all, it means that Jesus did not come

right out and tell these people that He is the Christ.  John had

announced that He is the Christ.  He states firmly that Jesus is

the Christ.  Jesus had told those whom He drove out of the temple

that this was His Father's house.  That rather indirectly made

reference to Himself as the Christ, but Jesus never came right

out and told these people that He is the Christ.  This is a

policy that He would follow right up to the end of His public

ministry when He would make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem

and thereby for the first time proclaim Himself to the general

public that He is the Christ.  On several occasions He would

acknowledge it privately to His disciples that He is the Christ,

but not to the general public.

    Secondly, this statement means that Jesus not only did not

proclaim Himself to them as the Christ, but neither did He set

Himself forth to them to be a leader of any kind to whom they

should become devoted.  He did not publicly ask them to be His

loyal followers.  In all probably some of them did, but most of

them did not.

 

V.  The supernatural knowledge of Jesus concerning men

 

    In verse 25 John tells us why Jesus did not commit Himself to

them.  V. 25, "And needed not that any should testify of man: for

he knew what was in man."  We are unable to read the inner

thoughts and motives of other people.  But Jesus knows the

innermost thoughts of everyone.  Jesus knew that most of these

people were not yet ready to be committed to Him.  He knew that

most of them would never be committed to Him.  It appears from

what the Scripture tells us here that most of them were not even

saved.  They had believed in Jesus as a great miracle worker, but

not as the Christ -- not as the Son of God -- not as their

Savior.

    By the way, Jesus knows the difference between a genuine

profession of faith and a superficial profession of faith.  Jesus

knows whether or not one has been genuinely saved or if he has

made a false profession of faith.  Jesus loves to have people

believe in Him and be saved, but He does want them to be

genuinely saved.  He wants their profession of faith to be

genuine.  Jesus knew that most of these people had not really

trusted in Him as their Savior so He did not publicly acknowledge

to them that He is the Christ.

 

VI.  The accomplishments of Jesus during this Passover

 

    This may also give us the impression that Jesus did not

really accomplish much during the first stay of His ministry at

Jerusalem.  However, if we take another look, we will find that

He accomplished a great deal.

    In the first place, there were surely some of those people

who genuinely believed in Jesus as the Christ and Savior.  That

was most certainly worthwhile.  Even if only one had been saved,

that would have been worthwhile.  Whoever was saved would avoid

the fires of hell and make it to heaven and would be a witness

for Him from this time forward.  Some of them would become

faithful followers.  This is no small accomplishment.

    Then also, Jesus established Himself as a man to be reckoned

with.  He most certainly made a lasting impression on the Jewish

leadership in Jerusalem.  From this moment forward, they would

know that Jesus was a man to be reckoned with.  He had made it

clear to them and clear to the public in general that He did not

approve of their leadership.  They would never take their eyes

off His ministry from this time forth.  They would watch every

move that He would make and use every opportunity to work against

Him.

    Even the general public would look upon Jesus as a man to be

reckoned with.  They would continue to look upon Him as a

prophet.  They would consider Him a great prophet.  The miracles

which He had performed and would continue to perform gave

powerful evidence that He is a man of God.  Only at the very last

would these people be swayed by the scribes and Pharisees to turn

against Jesus.  For the next three years they would be His ardent

admirers even though they were not His disciples.

    So Jesus had made a big showing fast.  In one eight day

period of time He has caught the attention of the whole nation of

Israel.  People from all over the nation and from all the

surrounding nations were there in Jerusalem for the observance of

the Passover and Jesus had made a big hit with the great

majority.  From this time forward, wherever He would go people

would flock to see and hear Him.  It was a great beginning for

His ministry.

 

VII.  Taking a look at our own lives

 

    But now let us take a look at our own lives in view of this

passage of Scripture.  Let us understand that Jesus knows what is

within every individual.  Jesus does not need to wait until the

books are open at the day of judgment to know what is in man.  He

already knows the innermost thoughts of every person.  If one has

hatred for another individual, Jesus knows about it.  The Bible

says that hating another individual makes one a murderer in his

heart.  He may not have actually taken the life of another

person, but in his heart he has committed murder.

    If a man looks upon a woman to lust after her, the Bible says

that he is guilty of adultery in his heart.  If one is guilty of

adulterer in his heart, Jesus knows about it.  Even if it is a

woman who has committed adultery in her heart Jesus knows about

it.  If one has actually committed the deed of adultery, Jesus

knows about it.

    If one covets the possessions of another, in effect, he is a

thief in the innermost chambers of his heart.  If one is a thief

in actual deeds or only in his heart Jesus knows about it.

    If one takes God's name in vain, Jesus knows about it.  Jesus

knows every sinful deed and every sinful thought of every

individual.

    In fact, Jesus knows that we have all sinned and come short

of the perfection that is required to get into heaven.  If we had

to qualify for heaven by our own conduct and our own thoughts,

not one person would qualify.  We would all burn in the fires of

hell forever because we have all sinned.

    But Jesus is the Christ as John the Baptist had said.  Jesus

is the Son of God as John the Baptist had said.  Jesus is the

Savior of men, women, boys and girls.  Jesus is the Savior that

God the Father has sent to the world to save all who repent of

their sin and trust in Jesus for salvation.

    Jesus did not come to the world just to heal the earthly

bodies of those who are sick.  He did heal many sick folk, but

the real purpose of His coming was to seek and to save those who

are lost and on the road to hell.

    Jesus did not come to the world just to get the limelight and

make a name for Himself as a miracle worker or even as a prophet

of God.  Jesus came to the world to suffer and die on the cross

and to give His own blood that lost sinners can be saved.

    One of these days He will return to this world and I believe

that it will not be very long.

    Jesus is One to be reckoned with.  One will either accept Him

as the Christ and trust in Him as Savior, or he will stand before

Him and be sentenced by Him to the everlasting fires of torment.

Jesus will either save you or sentence you.

    I am one of those people who really believes that Jesus is

the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.  I am

convinced that I am not alone in this belief.  I am convinced

that there are others right here in this service who believe the

same as I.

 

Conclusion:

 

    The question that I ask is this:  Is there someone here this

morning who has already believed in Jesus Christ to the salvation

of your soul who has not yet made a public profession of faith?

If so, would you come forward this morning and publicly

acknowledge that Jesus Christ is your Savior and that you wish to

follow Him in baptism.