Has Jesus Committed to You?

Tom:

We are going through the Gospel of John and our purpose is to learn more about the salvation we have in Christ. As I said last week, an important aspect of our salvation in Jesus is knowing him personally, knowing what he has done for us, and knowing what he wants us to do.

Dave:

Now how can you know him personally Tom?Because he’s alive, right?

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

Amen.Wonderful.Sorry to interrupt you.

Tom:

No, that’s what we want people to understand.We are not promoting or teaching a system of religion here.It’s knowing the living God and these are not our thoughts, although we throw some things in every once in awhile, but we’re trying to go by what God’s Word says; what he has revealed to us.Not us personally, but to all of us through his Word.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

And a good place to start if you’ve not started reading the Bible, is the Gospel of John.Right now we are in chapter 2 and we are picking up with verse 18.John:2:18Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
See All..., “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou does these things?”Now of course the Jews were talking about, or the religious establishment, those who had pushed Judaism beyond the Scriptures.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

And introduced many of their own ideas.“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Now Dave, sometimes fundamentalists are accused of taking everything in the Bible literally.I like to consider myself a fundamentalist—

Dave:

Amen.Why not be?

Tom:

And my understanding is that when I read the scriptures I take those which are meant to be taken literally, I take literally.Those words which are meant to be taken figuratively, it’s a matter of discernment.

Dave:

And it’s not very hard to tell the difference.

Tom:

Let’s tell the difference in this one.“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”What was Jesus talking about?

Dave:

Well Tom wait a minute, you are rushing too fast now.Let’s go back to verse 18.The Jews say, “What sign shewest thou?” They wanted a sign.Paul said, “the Jews seek a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom. We preach Christ crucified.To the Greeks foolishness and a stumbling block to the Jews.”Why would they be looking for a sign?Jesus is presenting truth to them.When we get to John 7 if we ever get there, they challenge him.How do we know that what you’re saying is true?

Tom:

Or what he did.He came—just previous to this he came into the temple, fashioned a whip and chased out the money changers.A man of authority here who was not a priest, was not one of the—

Dave:

Not part of the establishment, the religious establishment.

Tom:

Right, not one of the Pharisees, not one of the Sadducees, a scribe or any other one.

Dave:

And Jesus said to them when we get to John:7:17If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
See All..., “If any man will to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”Now he’s presenting truth; he is backing up what he says with what Moses and the prophets said.Why isn’t that enough?They want some sign and we have people today that are seeking a sign, signs and wonders is a big thing today and if you can show some sign or do some wonder, it seems to be a miracle then supposedly that must be from God and you know that the Old Testament, I think there are seven marks of a false prophet in the Bible.And one of those marks is that he can do a miracle but he leads you astray after other gods.So Jesus said, “A wicked and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.And there shall no sign be given them except of the prophet Jonas.For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so the Son of man will be three days and three nights in heart of the earth.”That is in the grave and that’s what he’s talking about here.He says destroy this temple (that is the temple of his body, which they were going to do.They were going to try to and they were going to kill him.Of course, no one could take his life, but nevertheless they would be held accountable for his death and the third day he was going to rise again.Now it seems that later on the Pharisees understood this.Although they ridicule him now, “Forty six years was this temple in building.Now you’ll rear it up in three days?”That’s not what he’s talking about and obviously they must have understood because when he was taken down from the cross, you remember the Pharisees went to Pilate and said this deceiver said he would rise from the dead in three days, so let’s make his grave secure and so forth.So that was the only sign they would get: the resurrection after three days in the grave.

Tom:

And of course when people read through the scriptures as we’re doing, they ought to keep on going if they don’t understand something, because it can slow you down or trip you up.Well what does this mean?Well in many cases, well in all cases, I believe, the Bible interprets itself.If you want to understand what it says, sometimes it’s just in the next few verses.

Dave:

Amen.

Tom:

“But he spake of the temple of his body.”

Dave:

Verse 21.

Tom:

Right, (John:2:22When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
See All...) “When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.”And as you just said Dave, the Pharisees also remembered what he had said.(John:6:23(Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)
See All...) “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.”Now Dave, what kind of belief is this?

Dave:

Well let’s see, you said we have to read on so why don’t we read the rest of verse 24.“But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”We could do a whole series on that sort of thing because in John 8, many believed on him and then he says to those Jews who believed on him, “You continue in my word, you are my disciples indeed and they begin to argue with him and finally they take up stones to stone him.In John 6, you have Judas who believed on him and they are going to take him by force to make him their king because they believe in the miracles that he does.The healing and the raising of the dead, and the feeding of the multitudes, you know, with a few loaves and fishes.So it says “when they saw the miracles that he did they believed.”Well what did they believe?I think they believed he was the Messiah, but they didn’t understand who the Messiah was supposed to be, what the Messiah was supposed to accomplish; they didn’t know the Messiah was going to die for their sins.They thought the Messiah would deliver them from the Romans and set up a kingdom and rule on David’s throne from Jerusalem right then.Even the inner circle of Christ’s didn’t understand that.His disciples when he said to them, I’m going to go away (John 14), they were shaken.Why would he go away?“I’m going to go away, and I’m going to come again.”That’s great news for us today, but for them, they didn’t understand it.They thought he was going to take the throne of his father David right then.So they believed in his name, I think that he was the Messiah, but Jesus didn’t commit himself to them because he knew what was really in their hearts.He knew what they were after.They were after the miracles.They wanted someone to feed them when they were hungry.There are many people today Tom, we don’t need to wax eloquent about this Tom, but there are many people today and that’s all they are interested in.In Christ, what they can get from him, the healing and the blessing and so much of what passes for Christianity that you hear on radio and television, it’s all taken up with prosperity and healing and blessing and you don’t hear much about taking up the cross to follow Christ.So these were the kind of people that they were and Jesus knew it.He knew their heart.When we get to chapter 3 I guess next week, God willing in contrast to all of these, it begins, “There was a man of the Pharisees….”And he believes in the miracles too.But Jesus knows his heart.Jesus knows it is worthwhile explaining to Nicodemus why he came and about being born-again, because Nicodemus is one who will believe.Jesus did not explain that to these other people because they would not believe and he knew it.

Tom:

Dave, in our earlier segment we talked about the tragedy that took place over in Uganda and you have to lay much of this off on the people and their hearts and their desire for special information, or being preserved where others aren’t being preserved and isolating themselves.You look at any cult and the marks are so common from one group to the next in their desires and in their leadership of preserving things for themselves.We’re coming to you from Central Oregon and not too far from here we had Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the Indian guru with his 90, I think it was at the end 93 Rolls Royces.It was all about money, it was all about men’s desire and the things that they wanted.

Dave:

It was hero worship of them and they looked to him.Not to truth, not to Christ, not to God, but to Bhagwan.

Tom:

But they also looked to what he was going to do for them.That’s what you started saying.

Dave:
Yes, right.Unfortunately that was the heart of these people and that’s the way chapter 2 ends.“Christ did not commit himself to them.”He didn’t need anyone to explain it.He knew what was in their hearts and he knows what’s in your heart, and my heart, each one who’s out there listening.We can’t deceive Christ.He knows everything about us, so there’s no point in trying to pretend.And why would we try to pretend?We want him to be our Lord, our Master, our life, our all and this is what he wants to be for us.It’s only through his death in our stead; paying the penalty that we deserve.

Tom:

Dave, we certainly encourage people to continue to read God’s Word, but the thrust of our main articles has been An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith, and you know, it’s been a thrill for me in the last number of weeks talking about things such as the cross, the crucified life and so on.And I think you lay these things out beautifully in that book and I would encourage all who want to have their faith encouraged and be pointed in the direction with great content as you’ve laid it out in the book.I would encourage them to get a hold of An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith.