Chapter 23 of The Story March 8, 2015

Jesus’ Ministry Begins

As Jesus makes His opening moves, He sets out His initial purpose and plan plainly.

Jesus came on the scene in an unusual way. As we saw in the previous chapter of The Story, God chose very humble means to introduce the Savior to the world. By coming as a man, Jesus is fully able to understand who we are because He lived among us. But it was more than His birth that was different and significant. The very beginning of His ministry set Jesus apart in a very clear way.

Key Question

How can expectations affect our reception of God?

Chapter 23

The Test: Pages 321–323

Back in Genesis, the devil tested Eve’s obedience to God by telling her the forbidden fruit wasn’t fatal, but would make her like God. Thinking God denied her something beneficial—something good to eat, exalting to have, and pleasing to behold—she stretched out her hand, wrapped fingers around the focus of her desire, tugged, and ate.

In the desert, the Israelites too faced tests. Like Eve, they doubted God’s intentions for them were good. They despised the manna God fed them; disregarded His promise of grapes, figs, milk, and honey to come; and wailed for Egypt’s leeks and garlic—thus giving in to the temptation to satisfy their physical hunger rather than obey God’s word. When thirsty, they did not turn to the God who had met their needs supernaturally time and again, but rebelled and tested God, asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?” They gave in to bowing to a golden calf and to the Baal of Peor with its seductive women offering sexual pleasures, thus forgetting their promise to worship God alone.

Tests confronted Jesus too. After being baptized, Jesus followed the Spirit into the wilderness. There He fasted forty days and nights. When He was hungry and physically weak, the devil came to test Him.

Jesus is Tested

The first test called on Jesus to use His supernatural powers to turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger.


1. (a) Jesus waited for the angels to attend Him rather than create bread for Himself. How did His response differ from Eve’s and the Israelites’ responses when they wanted food God had not given them? (b) What can we learn from Jesus about responding to physical cravings (Matthew 4:3–4)?


For the second test, the devil stood Jesus on the highest point of the temple and told Him to throw Himself down, for Scripture said angels would protect Him.


2. (a) What had the Israelites asked when they tested God? (b) What similar doubt did Eve entertain? (c) What part does doubt in God’s intentions towards us play in most temptations? (d) What can we learn from Jesus’ response (Matthew 4:5–7)?


In the third test, the devil offered Jesus the glorious kingdoms of the world if He would bow to and worship him—a seemingly easier path than the Father offered, which was the cross.


3. (a) What are ways the tempter today claims his method is easier than God’s? (b) How is ignoring God’s commands a way of bowing to the tempter? (c) Covetousness is idolatry. What can we learn from Jesus about responding to desires for possessions, positions, and power which God isn’t giving us (Matthew 4:8–10)?


4. (a) When Jesus ordered Satan to leave Him, what did the devil do (Matthew 4:11a)? (b) What else happened (4:11b)? (c) Why do you think they didn’t come until after Jesus resisted the devil’s temptations? (d) The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” How can you follow Jesus’ example in resisting the devil in whatever temptations you face today?


Where Adam, Eve, the Israelites, and all humankind failed, Jesus prevailed.

John The Baptist

Introductions: Pages 323–326

Last week we saw the Messiah come into the world: the Word of God made flesh. This week we’ll see people’s reactions as they suspect the long-awaited Messiah might finally have arrived.


John the Baptist called people to repent from wrongdoing and to be baptized as a sign of committing their lives to God. Crowds responded. When Jesus came to be baptized, John hesitated, but Jesus told him it was the proper thing to do.


5. Let’s look back at a passage from our previous reading. (a) What happened when Jesus was baptized (Matthew 3:16–17)? (b) What three supernatural beings are present during the baptism?


Because John the Baptist had a large following, the Jewish leaders asked him if he was the Messiah. He denied it, and told them he was the person Isaiah prophesied about who called others to “Make straight the way for the Lord” in anticipation of the Messiah.


6. (a) What did John tell people Jesus was (John 1:29)? (b) John was older than Jesus. What did he mean when he said Jesus was before him (1:30)? (c) John had many followers, yet he told them Jesus surpassed him. What can we learn about humility from John?


John’s testimony counted because he was highly esteemed as a prophet. But the Father had special plans, plans that Jesus’ followers had to be sure came from Him.


7. At a wedding in Cana, Jesus turned water into wine. Why (John 2:11)?

One on One: Pages 326–329

One night a religious leader named Nicodemus came to visit Jesus, convinced the miracles Jesus did showed he was from God.


Nicodemus belonged to a popular Jewish sect called Pharisees, a mostly middle-class group who believed the Messiah would return when the Jews were righteous enough to deserve Him. Not wanting to ever experience an exile again, they created a set of oral rules meant to be a protective hedge around the Law of Moses. They believed in an afterlife for righteous Jews who obeyed both the written Scripture and their own oral traditions.


So what did Jesus tell this Jewish teacher?

8. (a) Who can have eternal life (John 3:15–16)? (b) Was eternal life limited to just righteous Jews? (c) Why did God send his Son to the world (3:17)? (d) What happens to those who believe in Him and those who don’t (3:18)? (e) How did this teaching differ from Nicodemus’ beliefs about how to receive eternal life?

Woman at the Well

Jesus didn’t talk to just the respected spiritual elite. Next we look at a conversation with someone on the opposite end of the Jewish popularity scale: an immoral Samaritan woman. In that culture, men looked down at women as inferior, and most Jews looked down on those with immoral lifestyles. But her religious beliefs caused major problems.


Whereas most Jews respected the Pharisees, they almost universally despised the Samaritans. While the Pharisees added to Scripture, the Samaritans subtracted, using only the first five books of the Bible.


The Samaritans lived in the Roman province of Samaria. They were the descendants of the Israelites who escaped Assyrian deportation and the people that the Assyrians brought in to repopulate what had been the northern kingdom of Israel. They had intermingled in both marriage and religious beliefs.


Jesus caught the woman’s attention when He knew her secrets. Realizing He was a prophet, she went right to a difference in their beliefs: where to worship.


9. (a) What strikes you about Jesus’ response to the Samaritan woman (John 4:21–24)? (b) In what ways did Jesus’ response present teaching that was different from the woman’s beliefs? (c) What can we learn about sharing the gospel from Jesus?


When Jesus told her He was the Messiah she expected, she headed back to town to tell others. They asked Him to stay in their city, and many became believers.


10. (a) Who did the Samaritans say Jesus was (John 4:42)? (b) What is significant about their calling Him this (as opposed to “Savior of the Jews” or “Savior of the Samaritans”)?


These Samaritans did not hold their prior beliefs and expectations so tightly that they ignored the evidence of who Jesus was.

Let’s compare and contrast these two people:

 

Nicodemus and the woman at the well both had conversations with Jesus. Why do they represent such a contrast?





Before the Crowds: Pages 329–331

As word of Jesus’ authoritative teaching and miraculous abilities spread, crowds sought Him, hoping He was the Messiah.

Jesus heals the Paralyzed Man

One day while Jesus taught in a crowded home, an opening appeared in the ceiling and down came a paralyzed man on a mat. Jesus told the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”


11. (a) How did the teachers of the law respond to Jesus’ statement (Mark 2:7)? (b) They had expected the Messiah to be but a man. How did Jesus show he had the power to do that which they had just said only God could do (2:10–11)? (c) What possible conclusions may the teachers have considered?

Jesus called a tax collector

Another surprise awaited the Jewish leaders: Jesus called a tax collector to follow Him. The Jews despised tax collectors and even expelled them from synagogues. The Pharisees considered them “unclean” and kept away from them. This tax collector—Levi —invited Jesus to dine with other people of less than sterling reputations.


12. (a) Calling an outcast like Levi to be His disciple might have hurt Jesus’ credibility with some people. Why do you think Jesus did it? (b) The Pharisee teachers asked Jesus’ disciples why Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners; what did Jesus respond (Mark 2:17)? (c) What did He mean? (d) What does this tell us about how Jesus feels towards outcasts? (e) What can we learn from this?



Unmet Expectations: Pages 331–334

Most Jews yearned for the coming of the Messiah. They wanted the Messiah to set them free from Roman rule and restore the kingdom they’d had before exile.


Although many signs pointed towards Jesus being the Messiah, there were things about Him no one expected. Some people looked at the evidence and changed their expectations. Others clung to their expectations and rejected Jesus.


The Herodians, a Jewish sect which supported the current Palestinian dynasty, didn’t want a Messianic king disrupting their political goals. The Zealots, who believed the righteousness that would bring the Messiah required not submitting to Rome or even paying taxes, wanted a warrior to deliver them from Roman rule. The Sadducees, the priestly aristocracy who didn’t anticipate a Messiah, didn’t want anyone disrupting their political power and religious position.


But it was the Pharisees who perhaps most struggled. Herod had given them political clout, which they didn’t want threatened. Before Jesus came along, they were the most popular Jewish sect; now Jesus threatened that. They had been highly respected for their righteousness and their strict rules which went beyond the requirements of Moses’ Law, but Jesus didn’t care much for their rules, dismissing them as “traditions of men,” not commands of God.


A clash was inevitable.

Jesus heals a Shriveled Hand on the Sabbath

One Sabbath Jesus went to synagogue and found a man with a shriveled hand. The Pharisees had told Him it was wrong to heal people on the Sabbath. Jesus told the handicapped man to stand.


13. (a) What did Jesus ask (Mark 3:4)? (b) What distressed Jesus (3:5)? (c) When Jesus healed the man, what did the Pharisees and Herodians decide to do (3:6)? (d) Why do you think the Pharisees were so angry?


Unmet expectations affected even Jesus’ staunchest followers. When John the Baptist was imprisoned for months, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah or not.


14. (a) Jesus didn’t answer a simple yes or no. What did He tell John’s disciples to do in Matthew 11:4–5? (b) Why was that better than a simple yes? (c) Jesus listed things He was doing that Isaiah had predicted the Messiah would do; how would that help John? (d) What final word did Jesus give in 11:6? (e) What did John need to do to keep from stumbling?


Jesus praised John the Baptist highly and said he was “the Elijah who was to come.” No, he wasn’t the man Elijah who had never died and whom John denied being, but he was the one of whom Malachi spoke.


15. (a) Without using names, briefly describe someone who left God because God didn’t meet his or her expectations. (b) Have you ever had expectations about God that turned out to be mistaken? What did you do to keep from stumbling?



We’ve met Jesus, watched Him prevail against temptation, and seen the miraculous signs that drew many to Him. There were things about Him, though, which no one expected.


Our Lesson Today:

Jesus’ Ministry Begins

As Jesus makes His opening moves, He sets out His initial purpose.

To Be a Savior for All People

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Think of a Sandwich

The greatest thing about a sandwich is rarely the bread. The point of the sandwich is what’s in the middle. The bread is not there to conceal the middle. The bread serves to showcase what is in the middle. John used two characters in this week’s chapter of The Story to “sandwich” the message of John 3:16 - the best-known verse in the whole Bible. Today we’ll take a fresh look at this familiar message by looking at Nicodemus and the woman at the well. The gospel writer used these two characters to make his 3:16 point: Jesus really is a Savior for all people.

I.    The top slice: Nicodemus

      Nicodemus represents the best of the religious Jews. He was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. He was an educated man who was also a great teacher. As a Pharisee, he would have had great respect for the Scriptures and paid careful attention to observe and obey the Law. Obedience to the Law was the way of salvation for the Pharisees. He came to Jesus by night, probably to avoid conflict with the Pharisees who were already beginning to oppose Jesus. Whenever John refers to nighttime in his gospel, it has spiritual and moral allusions to darkness. Bible study note: The biblical authors rarely include details that are insignificant. The stories they choose and the details they include are there to make more than a historical record. They are part of their theological point. Nicodemus, as moral and religious as he was, remained in spiritual darkness.

II. The bottom slice: The woman at the well

    This woman is not even named. She represents the opposite extreme from Nicodemus.

1.     She was a Samaritan, which means she was of mixed race between the Northern Israelites and the foreigners imported by the Assyrian captors.

2.    She would have had a mixed religion – part Jewish and part pagan.

3.    She was a woman. In those days, it was culturally unacceptable for men to speak to women in public, especially strangers.

4.    She was the worst kind of woman (by religious standards)—a sexually immoral woman. Though we do not know the circumstances of her first five husbands, we know that the man with whom she lived was not her husband.

         Jesus approached her in the middle of the day, out in the open for anyone to see.

Contrast these two people: What do they represent? 

These two characters represent the whole spectrum of people in the world, from super-saint to super-sinner. And the one thing they had in common was their need for Jesus – the middle of the sandwich.

III.    Between the slices: Jesus

A.   It’s not about the people, it’s about the Savior. “Sandwiched” between these two characters is John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

B.    John’s point between the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus is that they represent “the world.” They both need the salvation, which could be found only in Jesus.

C.    While Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about needing to be “born again” and to the Samaritan woman about “living water,” neither one of them understood initially. But they both came to realize that Jesus’ words were about eternal life. They both needed salvation by faith in Him.

What difference do you notice between these two people besides their background?

·         One big difference between these two characters is their response to Him.

We do not have a response from Nicodemus. If he did believe after his conversation with Jesus, he did not rush out to tell anyone. At some point in time, it seems that he probably came to faith in Jesus. He defended Jesus against the Sanhedrin’s irrational hatred (John 7:50). More importantly, the next encounter we see between Jesus and Nicodemus is at the cross. Nicodemus helped Joseph of Arimathea prepare Jesus’ body for burial. Nicodemus supplied a large amount of spices and a linen cloth for the body, showing his deep respect and regard for Jesus (John 19:39-40). This he did in the light of day.

The Samaritan woman immediately believed and ran back to her village to evangelize all her neighbors. Her testimony brought many others to faith in this Jesus, further proving John’s point—Jesus is the Savior for all people.

Question: Does Jesus Believe in You?

Why do I ask this question?

There are some that claim that there is an epidemic of superficial or false faith in America. Polls have indicated that between 30 to 40 percent of Americans claim that they have been born again. If a third of our nation was truly born again, don’t you think the moral condition in our land would be vastly different?

The Bible says that a genuine faith must be tested, so is it wise to try to give assurance of salvation to someone who has just believed? What do you think?

How do you determine genuine faith?

While only God knows the true condition of people’s hearts, Jesus said that we can know a tree by its fruit (Luke 6:43-44).

We should be able to spot a Christian by his godly behavior and lifestyle. Genuine faith results in good works (James 2:14-26). As 1 John 2:3 states, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” He does not mean that Christians never sin (see 1 John 1:9; 2:1). But his point is that the overall pattern of a true Christian’s life will be one of obedience to Jesus Christ, not a life of sin (1 John 3:4-10).

In John 2:23-25 we read about a situation where many believed in Jesus, but Jesus didn’t believe in them.

John 2:23-25

23 Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs He was performing and believed in His name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each person.

The word translated “entrust” is the same Greek verb as “believed” (2:23). We could rightly translate it, “Many believed in Jesus, but Jesus didn’t believe in them.”

John’s purpose for writing was (20:31), “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” In the prologue (1:1-18), John immediately sets forth the glory of Jesus Christ as the eternal Word, the Creator of all that is. He is the source of light and life. We saw in 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”

But now we read (2:23), “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.” But then we read (2:24-25), “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

Why would Jesus refuse to entrust Himself to those who believed in Him?

I believe that John intends for us to understand that these people had a superficial faith.

John Piper: What it says, in essence, is that Jesus knows what is in every heart, and so He can see when someone believes in a way that is not really believing. In other words, Jesus’ ability to know every heart perfectly leads to the unsettling truth that some belief is not the kind of belief that obtains fellowship with Jesus and eternal life. Some belief is not saving belief.

So while most of us would say, “I believe in Jesus,” we all need to ask, Does Jesus believe in me? Has He entrusted Himself to me? These verses teach us that…

We need to believe in Jesus in such a way that He believes in us.

These verses introduce us to the encounter with Nicodemus. John 2:25 emphasizes “man” (used twice) and then in 3:1, we read, “Now there was a man….” Also, 2:23 mentions the signs that Jesus was doing in Jerusalem during the feast, and in 3:2 Nicodemus acknowledges the signs that Jesus was doing. It’s obvious as the interview progresses that Jesus knew what was in Nicodemus’ heart and what he needed, namely, the new birth.

The story of Nicodemus helps us to understand these verses.

1. There is such a thing as superficial faith that does not result in salvation.

The disciples were probably enthused over the response of the people and then puzzled by Jesus’ response: “If He’s the Messiah, why doesn’t He welcome all of these people who are believing in His name?” How would you answer that? The reason was that He could see their hearts. He knew that their faith was based on seeing the miracles that He performed, but they weren’t repenting of their sins and trusting in Him as their Savior from sin.

 After Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, we read (6:14), “Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’” “The Prophet” was a Messianic term (Deut. 18:15). The disciples no doubt thought, “Great! These people get it! They’re acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah!” But the next verse says that Jesus perceived that the people were going to take Him by force to make Him king, so He withdrew to the mountain by Himself alone. Jesus knew that the people superficially believed in Him, but He didn’t entrust Himself to them.

Let’s look further at superficial faith:

A. Superficial faith in Christ is based on the spectacular or on what He can do to relieve your problems, not on Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Think about how you originally came to Christ; was it because of “a sign” (something spectacular that He could do for you)? What has helped your faith to mature and grow?

These “believers” (in 2:23) were impressed with Jesus. They had seen Him clear out the merchants and money-changers from the temple. During the visit to Jerusalem, He had performed some other signs that John doesn’t specify (2:23). Maybe some of them had been healed or knew those who had been healed. They were ready to sign on with Jesus.

But they really didn’t understand the truth about who Jesus is and what He came to do. Like Nicodemus, they probably thought, “We’re good Jews. We’re God’s chosen people. We keep the Law of Moses. We just observed Passover.” They didn’t understand that they were sinners who needed a Savior. They didn’t know that Jesus is the Lord and that He commands His followers to take up their cross and follow Him. They were amazed at His signs, but they weren’t committing themselves to Him as Savior and Lord, so He didn’t commit Himself to them.

B. Superficial faith may have a high view of Jesus, but it is not high enough.

These people were impressed with Jesus. They had seen Him cleanse the temple and thought, “He must be a great prophet!” They had seen Him do miracles and thought, “He must be a great man of God!” Nicodemus is an example of this. He calls Jesus “Rabbi,” acknowledges that He has come from God as a teacher, and that God is with Him (3:2). But he didn’t understand that Jesus came to impart the new birth or that he even needed the new birth. He didn’t understand that Jesus would die as God’s provision for sinners to receive eternal life (3:14-16). While I believe that he later came to faith, at this point his view of Jesus was high, but not high enough.

John 10:31-33, where Jesus’ critics acknowledged that He did good works, but they were ready to stone Him for blasphemy, because He made Himself out to be God. They had a high view of Jesus as a good man, but not high enough. They didn’t see Him as God.

Muslims have a high view of Jesus as a great prophet, but their view is not high enough, in that they think that Mohammad was a greater prophet and they deny Jesus’ deity. The Jehovah’s Witnesses affirm that Jesus is the greatest of all created beings, but their faith is not saving faith because they deny His deity, which also denies His ability to atone for our sins. The same is true of the Mormons. Their “Jesus” is not the Jesus presented to us in the Bible, who is fully God and fully man. Superficial faith thinks highly of Jesus, but not highly enough.

C. Superficial faith may be the starting point of genuine faith, but the test is whether it perseveres and bears fruit.

Believing on the basis of signs (miracles) is better than not believing at all. In John 10:37-38, Jesus tells His Jewish critics, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” But believing because of miracles will not result in salvation unless it is accompanied by repentance.

·         In the parable of the sower, it is only the seed that endures and bears fruit that is genuinely saved. (See, also, Matt. 24:13; Rom. 11:22; 1 Cor. 15:2; Col. 1:23; Heb. 3:12-14; 1 John 2:18-19.) Faith that perseveres sees with growing clarity the glory of Christ and what He did for us on the cross so that it perseveres when trials or persecution hit.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (The Path to True Happiness) points out that there are:

1.     Some who “believe” in Jesus intellectually, but their hearts and their wills have never been touched. They may be scholars, but their knowledge has never changed their lives.

2.    Others have their hearts touched, but their minds have not been in operation. In fact, they have been told that they should not try to understand. Often, they have not submitted their wills to Christ. Experience is everything.

3.    There is a third group where their Christianity is almost entirely a matter of the will. They don’t bother to understand and they aren’t interested in their feelings. They just want to be doing things to serve God.

Lloyd-Jones argues that all three types have superficial faith because they have only picked out what appeals to them and believed in that. They haven’t seen themselves as lost sinners and Christ as the only one who can save them. Their faith is partial, based on what they like about Jesus. But when things don’t go the way that they envisioned, they fall away.

Many of us believed in Jesus with a shallow or superficial faith. We trusted Him because we wanted healing or success or something other than salvation from sin. But to go on and develop into genuine saving faith, you have to see yourself as the Bible portrays you and see Christ for who He is.

2. Saving faith begins with God by accepting His evaluation of our fallen hearts.

The reason that Jesus didn’t entrust Himself to these “believers” was that He knew what was in their hearts. But the implication is that they didn’t know their own hearts. Since this section introduces the interview with Nicodemus, he is an example. He thought that he was a good Jew, but Jesus stunned him by telling him that he needed to be born again. His goodness was not good enough to get him into the kingdom of God. Note two things:

Does Jesus’ knowledge of what is in your heart make you uncomfortable? How can you change your feelings on this?

A. Only God truly knows the human heart.

In 1 Samuel 16:7, the Lord tells Samuel, “For God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Solomon prays (1 Kings 8:39b), “For You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men.” (Also, see 1 Chron. 28:9; Ps. 139:1-18, 23-24; Jer. 17:10; Heb. 4:13.) So when John tells us that Jesus knew all men and knew what was in man, it is a witness to His deity. Jesus could peer beneath the surface and evaluate the thoughts and motives of hearts (1:47-48; 4:17-19, 29; 6:15, 64 16:30; 21:17; Luke 16:15).

Now, here’s the scary part:

B. We need to ask the Lord to reveal His evaluation of our hearts to us.

Proverbs 21:2 states, “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.” Jeremiah 17:9 says, ““The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” When the Lord saves us, He gives us a new heart (2 Cor. 5:17), but the old man or flesh is not eradicated. There still lurks within us the bent to do evil. The problem is, we don’t realize just how powerful and deceptive this monster within really is.

That’s why Peter denied the Lord. He thought that he was stronger than he was. In fact, he denied the Lord’s prediction of his denial because he thought he knew more than the Lord did! Later, when the Lord restored Peter with His threefold question, “Do you love Me?” the third time, Peter replied (21:17), “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” The Lord knows our hearts better than we know our hearts. We have to allow Him to reveal our hearts to us. He does this gradually (thankfully—we couldn’t bear it all at once!) as we read and study God’s Word. The more you see how weak and prone to sin you really are, the more you’ll trust in the Lord to deliver you from temptation and sin.

If you’ve never done so, you must ask God to change your heart through the new birth. Christianity is primarily a matter of your heart before God, not of rituals or keeping rules. As you walk openly before the Lord, letting His light shine into the dark places of your heart, you will grow in grace. If you’re hiding some secret sin from others, remember, you aren’t hiding it from the Lord. But you won’t gain the victory over it until you expose it to Him. Until then, you’re just playing games with yourself, because God knows the true condition of your heart.

So, we need to be careful because there is such a thing as superficial faith that does not result in salvation. Saving faith begins with accepting God’s evaluation of us on the heart level.

3. Saving faith means having a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him as the One who saves you from your sins.

Have you ever thought about Jesus trusting in you? Why is trust at the heart of all relationships?

Many people make a decision to follow Christ, but that decision is not an indicator of the new birth unless it springs from the right motive, namely, a desire to have our sins forgiven through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

So, what does it mean for Jesus to believe in you, or to entrust Himself to you?

It has to do with a personal relationship. Trust is at the heart of all relationships. If you don’t trust someone, you will not be close to him. You will keep him at arm’s length, or just cut off all contact. To entrust yourself to someone, you must trust him. For Jesus to entrust Himself to you, He must trust you.

But how can He do that in light of our propensity to sin? 

First, there has to be the new birth where He imparts new life to us through the Holy Spirit. Only then is there anything in us worth trusting. Jesus did not entrust Himself to these superficial believers because He did not see their faith as the work of God stemming from the new birth.

Then, we need to walk in obedience to Him. In John 14:21, Jesus states, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” He adds (14:23), “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” The Lord entrusts Himself to those who obey Him and it is only those who have been born again who are able to obey Him from the heart (Rom. 6:17).

I think that some of the scariest verses in the New Testament are Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

These people professed a faith in Jesus. They called Him “Lord.” They were even involved in impressive ministries. But Jesus didn’t know them personally. Their disobedience showed that although they “believed” in Jesus, He didn’t believe in them. At the final judgment, Christ’s evaluation of us will be the determinative factor.

Conclusion

My aim in this message is, I hope, the same as John’s aim for including these verses in his Gospel: to get us all to believe in Jesus in such a way that He believes in us. Or, in Paul’s words (2 Cor. 13:5), “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

Story: There were some people touring a mint factory where coins are made. In the smelting area, there were caldrons of molten metal. The tour guide said that if a person dips his hand into water, someone could then pour the molten metal over his hand and he would not be injured or feel any pain. He asked a couple if they would like to prove they believed what he just said.

The husband quickly replied, “No, thanks, I’ll take your word for it.” But the wife said eagerly, “Sure, I’ll give it a try.” Putting her words into action, she thrust her hand into a bucket of water and then held it out as the molten metal was poured over it. The hot liquid rolled off harmlessly, just as the guide had said it would. He then turned to the husband and said, “Sir, you claimed to believe what I said. But your wife truly trusted.” (“Our Daily Bread,” 12/84.)

 

Prayer: Thank You God for Your indescribable gift and for Your grace, given freely, that we might know Jesus. Help us to know Him better. Help us to reveal Him more. Give us opportunities to serve and share, the wisdom to recognize them when they come, and the boldness to do as You ask. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

See you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan