Tag Archives: The Resurrection

Day 25: None to Trust

John 2:23-25 : Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he did. But Jesus didn’t trust himself to them, because he knew everyone, and because he didn’t need for anyone to testify concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man.

It must have been very difficult for Jesus to live on earth with men. Jesus couldn’t trust people because He already knew that they weren’t trustworthy. Jesus could see into the minds of people and knew them already, and we know from other parts of the Bible (and we know from ourselves) that it wasn’t very pretty.

Many were believing in Him because of the miracles that He was performing. Even though the Jewish leaders accused Him of not having “signs”, He clearly had signs because if He hadn’t people wouldn’t have been following Him around.

As human beings, we are reluctant to accept the obvious fact that we are corrupt. We don’t even do the things that we claim are good to do. We can’t be trusted because we have a problem with sin:

Romans 3:10-18 :
as it is written:
There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
together they have become useless;
there is no one who does good,
there is not even one.
Their throat is an open grave;
they deceive with their tongues.
Vipers’ venom is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,
and the path of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.

It’s easy to look at the problems of others and start comparing ourselves with others, but that is really a distraction. The problem is inside of all of us individually. That is why we needed to be “Saved.” We were saved when we realized that the problem was in us and that it was killing us and that it would ultimately put us in Hell unless something was done. Jesus is the One we turned to.

As believers, the problem has already been taken care of and we can now be trusted because the power of God is in us now and we have the ability to “live in” that power. This passage is talking about a time before that power was given. The disciples had many more things to realize after the Holy Spirit was given as we have already read in other places. As believers we become a new creation:

2 Corinthians 5:15-17 : He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again. Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Day 24
Day 26

Day 24: A Sign of Authority

John 2:18-22 : The Jews therefore answered him, “What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews therefore said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! Will you raise it up in three days?” But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

These Jewish leaders didn’t really want a sign from Jesus because when they asked Him to provide a sign and He responded, they mocked His answer. They thought that He was bragging about His ability to rebuild the temple building.

The fearful thing is that they were mocking one who was talking about bringing the dead back to life. It’s easy for me to understand that a person who can bring the dead back to life has authority. It would be a frightening thing to be fighting against a person who cannot die and that is exactly what they were doing. Their minds must have been cloudy because we will see that they continued this behavior to an even greater degree when an impressive sign was done later on.

Bible History: The temple at that time took 46 years to build. This was, evidently, Herod’s temple project we know from other sources. Talking about it this way may have made him angry and King Herod wasn’t someone that you would like to fight against you, on top of that he was to become paranoid about Jesus (Mark 6:16). The Herod family had very bad history and Jesus was already protected from being destroyed by an earlier king in that family (Matthew 2:16). This was also the one who would kill John the Baptist (Mark 6:17-29). This argument was later to be used as an accusation before Jesus’ execution (Matthew 26:51, Mark 14:58). Jesus not only had authority, He had courage too.

Important Bible Fact: The Bible says that Jesus’ body died and came back to life. The reference here is to a physical resurrection and disproves the argument that Jesus came back only as a spirit as some say. To disbelieve the physical resurrection is to disbelieve the Bible. John’s other Bible book: 1 John, has even more to say on this topic.

Day 23
Day 25