Jesus, Lessons for Life 8
Jesus Know Our Hearts
Confrontations with religious leaders
Throughout Christ’s ministry, He had many encounters with religious leaders and teachers of the day. We will use these along our journey to see how Jesus confronted their past practices, his efforts to provoke them to think, his striving to teach them, even his love for them. It must have been so very sad for him to see the teaching and leadership errors within the leadership of God’s chosen people.
After clearing the temple of the vendors, the Jewish leaders demanded some “miraculous sign” or proof of his authority. It is here that we start to see a trend by Christ that he used frequently in his teaching ministry—to speak of things in metaphors and with symbolism in order to provoke thought.
Actually, during this Passover period, we see that Christ did provide miraculous signs, and as a consequence, more came to believe in him. Yet those religious leaders who had demanded of Jesus miraculous signs to prove his authority did not accept the miracles as proof.
We also see that Jesus could know the hearts of men, and that as people came to him, he was able to discern what was in them, just as he can discern our motives behind all of our actions.
John 2:23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name.
24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.
25 He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
Key Lesson — Jesus knows our hearts. We must understand that it is vital that we learn to follow Christ in the right spirit, not just going through the motions, sitting in church each Sunday, etc. Our Lord knows our internal thoughts and motivations.
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