Pastor Chris Matthis
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado
Lent 3, Series B
Saturday, March 7th, 2015
Sunday, March 8th, 2015
Sermon:
Text:
What’s In a Man?
John 2:23-25
Focus Statement: Jesus knows the darkness of the human heart.
Function Statement: That they would trust in Jesus for God’s mercy and grace.
Sermon Structure: Story-Applied
Doctrinal Locus: “Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we are not aware of,
as we do in the Lord’s Prayer…” (SC, Confession).
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen. “Trust no one.” That was the advice of the secretive informant known as Deep
Throat in the old TV series, The X-Files, which followed the work of Fox Mulder, a paranoid
FBI agent investigating paranormal phenomena.
“Trust no one.” That also could have been the attitude of Jesus in our Gospel lesson
today:
“Now when [Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name
when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself
to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for
he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25, ESV).1
John tells us that Jesus did not entrust himself to the crowds because he knew what’s in a man.
Jesus didn’t “entrust” himself to them. The crowds only believed in Jesus because of his
miraculous signs (sēmeia), but a faith based on signs—and not Christ’s Word—really is no faith
at all. And so Jesus would not “entrust” himself to them. The Greek verb typically means
“believe” (Greek: pisteuō). Jesus didn’t believe in the people of the crowds because he knows
what’s in people’s hearts—and the implication is that he doesn’t like what he sees.
1
All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
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In our world today, most people wrongly assume that people are basically good, that
because humanity was originally created in God’s image and likeness, we must have some
“divine spark” hidden deep within us, some sort of “inner light.” No wonder, then, that the New
Age movement, inspired by Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, urges its adherents
to seek the divine within. No wonder that Medieval Scholastic theologians told people to “Do
what is in you!” Almost every world religion and Christian heresy is a variation on the theme of
salvation by works, the idea that your own moral effort and spiritual wisdom will guide you to
God, heaven, or enlightenment.
But we have got it all wrong! The Bible says, “None 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” (Rom. 3:10-12). There is no divine spark and no inner light.
Human beings are not basically good. After Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, the image of God was
diminished, if not lost, in human beings (Gen. 5:3). So apart from faith in Christ, we are
basically bad, evil, wicked, and corrupt. Every intention of man’s heart is only evil continually
(Gen. 6:5). As the apostle Paul writes in Romans 7, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that
is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Rom.
7:18). And, as you recall from last week’s sermon, all human thought and activity is ultimately
satanic unless it comes from Christ and his Word (cf. Matt. 16:23).
Sorry to burst your bubble and rain on your parade, but I have to tell you the truth!
Human beings are not good. Jesus doesn’t trust us. He doesn’t believe in us because he knows
what’s in our hearts (John 2:24-25). “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the
outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). And what does Jesus see
when he looks at our hearts? Our sin!
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“And [Jesus] said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out
of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil
things come from within, and they defile a person’” (Mark 7:20-23).
The things that come out of a person—the things that Jesus sees in our hearts—are disgusting
and disgraceful. We are incapable of keeping God’s Ten Commandments, and it is impossible
for us to please him if we do not believe and obey him. That’s why Martin Luther was miffed
when his spiritual leaders deceived him by saying, “Do what is in you!” For if we and Luther do
what is in us, all we can accomplish is foolishness, wickedness, and sin.
And that is why Jesus didn’t trust people. It’s why we need to be careful about trusting
people too. You cannot trust everyone in this world—not even those who claim to be Christians.
The people who run the government, your school, and the company you work for do not
necessarily have your best interests in mind. Sadly, even in the church there are pastors and lay
leaders who are more interested in power than service and who love politics more than people.
There are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and just because the wolf grins, that doesn’t mean the
sheep are safe. In fact, the more that someone says to you, “Trust me!” the more inclined you
should be to do exactly the opposite!
“Forgiveness is given, but trust is earned.” That’s something I often tell people in
pastoral care settings, especially husbands and wives whose spouses have cheated on them,
abused them, or become addicted to alcohol and drugs. Jesus knew what is in a man (John 2:25),
and we would too if we only looked in the mirror of God’s Law—the Ten Commandments and
the Sermon on the Mount!
When Jesus sent out the twelve apostles on their first mission trip, he warned them:
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and
innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). Be wise as serpents, but innocent as doves. But that’s not
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easy. How do you be wise as a serpent without becoming just as slimy as the snakes around
you? And how do you remain innocent as a dove without getting yourself killed?
It’s not easy, that’s for sure. One thing we can do is remember that past behavior is the
best predictor of future behavior. Unless a person repents—that is, turns away from their sin,
freely confesses it, and receives God’s forgiveness in faith—your best guess of what he or she
will do is the same evil they have always done.
No doubt, that is why the apostle Paul gave so many warnings to his friends and
colleagues about nasty, divisive people in the church. “Alexander the coppersmith did me great
harm,” Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:14; cp. 1 Tim. 1:20). In other words, “Watch out for
that guy! He’ll give you trouble!” (cf. 2 Tim. 4:15). And Paul writes to Titus, “As for a person
who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,
knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Tit. 3:10-11).
Trust no one—above all yourself. Our own flesh and twisted minds betray us. They set
us up to fall into temptation and sin against God and other people. “For I do not do the good I
want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Rom. 7:19). How can we trust our
own gut instincts if our consciences are corrupted and our motives are fundamentally flawed?
Quite bluntly, we can’t!
I know this is all very hard to hear. But it’s God’s Word, and so it’s true (John 17:17).
Jesus knows what’s in a man, and he doesn’t like what he sees, and he doesn’t want that sin to
ruin the fellowship of his Church. That is why the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John
1:14). That is why Jesus came as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John
1:29). Jesus saw what was in a man—saw what was in your heart and mine—and decided to do
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something about it. He chose to love the unlovable, forgive the unforgiveable, and die for those
who deserved to die for their sins.
Paul writes:
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will
scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare
even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died
for us” (Rom. 5:6-8).
That is the amazing message of the cross—foolishness to Gentiles and a stumbling block for the
Jews (1 Cor. 1:23). Christ saw us for who we really are… and died for us anyway—not to prove
a point, but to prove his love at the breaking point of death on a cross (Phil. 2:8).
Martin Luther was right when he said, “God’s love does not find its object in man, but
must create it” (Heidelberg Theses, 1518). Let me state that again so you catch it: God’s love
does not find its object in man, but must create it. In other words, there is absolutely nothing
loveable about us sinners until Christ comes and cleans house in our hearts. Just as Jesus
cleansed the Temple of the moneychangers, so also he sweep out the “muckety muck” in our
hearts and forgive our sins before we are acceptable and presentable to God—ready to receive
his divine blessing, favor, and love. And the only way he can do that is by dying on the cross
and shedding his blood for you and me.
And so we offer our hearts to the Lord—not because they are so lovely to look at (like
some Christian songs would have you believe), but because we need God to take away our
wicked, sinful, rotten hearts and give us new ones. “Create in me a clean heart,” we pray in
Psalm 51. We need God to do heart surgery on us, removing our cold heart of stone and giving
us a new heart of flesh, pumping and beating with the bloody love of Jesus Christ (Ezek. 11:19).
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
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sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1
John 1:8-9).
God is faithful and just. We are not. But “if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he
cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). His Word is truth (John 17:17), and Christ himself is
“faithful and true” (Rev. 3:14). He knows what is in us—and then he changes us to become like
him (Rom. 8:29). “What we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we
shall be like him…. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John
3:2-3).
And so we pray. With the Psalmist we cry out to Jesus and pray in name of him who
knows what is in a man (John 2:25)—and yet died for us anyway: “Search me, O God, and know
my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead
me in the way everlasting!” (Ps. 139:23-24). In the name of Jesus. Amen.