Faith – John 2:23-25

I was really helped in my understanding about leading someone to Christ when I read the book, I Once Was Lost.  It described the five thresholds someone must cross before becoming a child of God.  They must trust a believer, they must cross from disinterest in Jesus to curiosity, they must be willing to change, they must become genuine seekers of Christ, then they must believe.  Curiosity is not genuine faith, nor is genuine seeking.  Jesus understood this.

As he was in Jerusalem for the Passover festival many believed in his name when they saw the signs he performed.  But Jesus did not put his faith in them because he knew all people and because he did not need anyone to testify to him about humans, since he knew what was in the humans.  (John 2:23-25)

Whereas the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, mostly show Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, John here lets us know that Jesus was also doing ministry in Jerusalem and many were responding to the signs he performed.  But as elsewhere, their response was not necessarily genuine belief that led to changed lives.  They wanted what came with the miracles more than they wanted Jesus. 

And so Jesus does not naively think the crowds are all about him.  He knows what is in the heart of people.  Some have taken this as an evidence of Jesus’ deity and in that deity His omniscience, but it seems a more appropriate understanding is that Jesus does not exercise his deity except at the discretion of the Father and instead trusts in the Spirit, who often gives him knowledge he wouldn’t otherwise have (as we’ll see with the woman at the well) and his own learned wisdom helps him understand situations like this one. 

He is about to meet Nicodemus and he will know not to trust Nicodemus’ apparent interest in him as saving faith.  He knows our hearts and that our “interest” in him may not be genuine faith.  True faith in Jesus means trust in him and commitment to him that results in obedience and love.

Discussion Questions

1. Was there a time when someone might have mistaken you for a believer in/follower of Christ when in fact you weren’t?  Or do you know someone who experienced that?
2. Why do you think John says “many believed in his name” when in fact their faith was not trustworthy?
3. How do you think Jesus came to his understanding of human nature?
4. How does this passage in John affect the way you share the gospel?
5. How have you reacted to people you thought were Christians who then gave up the faith or quit following Christ?

 

For further study on witnessing:  Questions About Personal Evangelism