Sermon Tone Analysis

God's Help for Hard-hearted People

The Gospel of John

John 2:12-25

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - May 11, 2016

(Revised June 28, 2019)

*Have you ever been hard hearted toward God?

That spiritual madness has been spreading like wildfire over the last few decades.

And I know something about this, because from the time I was about 16 until the age of 22, I was very hard-hearted toward God.

I was a very skeptical, extremely liberal atheist.

*I was a card-carrying member of the ACLU, and I was cynical.

Mostly I was cynical about God.

I thought that Jesus was just an ordinary man or a myth like Zeus or Apollo.

I was convinced that Christianity was just a man-made crutch for weak people to lean on in life.

*Then in 1973, God led me out to Louisiana in a miraculous way, and in 1975, by the grace of God, my co-worker Georgia Savoie invited me to church, and I got saved!

God had been patiently at work on my heart for several years, and I gladly trusted in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

But I had been very hard hearted toward the Lord.

I sadly remember inviting Christian witnesses into our home, just so I could ask them questions I knew they couldn't answer.

*Here in John chapter 2, the Apostle spoke about some other hard-hearted people, some of the most hard-hearted people who ever lived.

They were "the Jews" who questioned John the Baptist back in John 1:19-28.

*In today's Scripture, they began to question Jesus.

In vs. 18, John again called them "the Jews," but He obviously did not mean all of the Jews.

After all, the Apostle John was a Jew, Jesus Himself was a Jew, and so were all of His followers in the beginning.

When John speaks of "the Jews" in this context, he is talking about the hard-hearted religious rulers of the Jews, the scribes, chief priests and Pharisees who hatefully rejected Jesus Christ.

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*By the time we get to John 5, these Jews will be plotting to kill Jesus.

And the tragic truth is that most of them were so hard-hearted toward the Lord that they refused to believe in Jesus, and they are lost in hell forever.

*But there is hope for the hard-hearted people still alive today.

There is help for them from our God.

We know this because 1 Timothy 2:3-6 tells us that "God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."

*Our God can change the hardest hearts.

In Ezekiel 11:19-20, the LORD said:

19.

"Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,

20. that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

*Then in Ezekiel 36:26-27, the Lord made another promise:

26.

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

27.

I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

*Our God can change the hardest hearts, and tonight's Scripture helps us understand how.

1. FIRST GOD SHOWS US THE HARM THAT COMES FROM HARD-HEARTED PEOPLE.

*We can see it in the way Passover came to be abused by these corrupt leaders.

Many of us know the background of the Passover from the Book of Exodus.

When the Lord first called Moses, God foretold that Pharaoh would resist letting the people go, so God promised to send terrible judgments on Egypt.

*In Exodus 3:18-20, the LORD said to Moses:

18. . . .

"You shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, 'The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.'

19.

I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.

20.

So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go."

*Those wonders came in the form of ten terrible plagues that God sent on Egypt: Water turned to blood, then plagues of frogs, lice, flies, severe pestilence on their animals, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness.

*The LORD had already sent nine plagues to curse the land of Egypt, and now that last and worst plague was about to come: All of the first-born in Egypt were about to die, except those protected by the blood of the Passover lambs.

*In Exodus 12, the LORD gave instructions to Moses and Aaron.

And here is part of what God said:

3. "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

5.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

6.

Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.

Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

7.

And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

12.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

13.

Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

*Passover was a night of terror, screams and death for those on the outside.

But it was a night of worship, thanksgiving and salvation for every home covered by the blood.

As one preacher said: "The family inside could not see the blood.

But they had faith that God would save them because of the blood."

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*That was how Passover started, and God commanded the Jews to sacredly observe the Passover every year.

But by Jesus' day, it had been corrupted by Jewish rulers.

Yes, Passover was still an awesome physical sight.

One source estimated that 3 million people were in Jerusalem for Passover.

Maybe 250,000 lambs were slain every year.

And it was still a spiritual experience for most people, but Passover had been corrupted by the religious leaders.

*John Phillips gave this important background: "The entire Temple area of that day included 19 acres, and this area was divided into 4 courts.

Coming in from the east and moving toward the sanctuary, a visitor would pass through the court of the gentiles, then the court of the women, the court of Israel, and the court of the priests.

*Oxen, sheep and doves were the creatures generally used in offering sacrifices.

The temple authorities had decided that it would be convenient to have a cattle market close to the altar.

And with their extreme contempt for gentiles, the rulers decided that the court of the gentiles was a good place to do business.

Doubtless the authorities got a percentage of the profits.

*Many Jews also chose Passover as the time to pay the annual half-shekel offering required for maintenance of the temple.

Obviously, no coins bearing the image of the Roman emperor or any other pagan symbol could be paid into the temple treasury, so there was a large, very profitable business to change foreign money into Jewish coins.

Naturally, this money changing was an open door to greed and profiteering.

And again, the corrupt leaders chose the court of the gentiles for this business.

Passover in this Scripture is a strong example of how far things can slide from the way God wants them to be.

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2. HERE GOD SHOWS US THE HARM THAT COMES FROM HARD-HEARTED PEOPLE.

HE ALSO SHOWS US SOME OF THE HABITS OF HARD-HEARTED PEOPLE.

[1] ONE BAD HABIT IS A SELFISH DESIRE FOR CONVENIENCE.

*As John Phillip's said, "It would be convenient to have a cattle market adjacent to the altar."

"Hey, let's keep that dirty mess out in the court of the gentiles!"

*An obsession for convenience: Getting all wrapped up in what makes things comfortable and cozy for me.

It's the attitude that could say, "You know, I'm one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, as long as I get exactly what I want, when I want it."

Or it might say, "I'd like to go to church, but Sunday's my only day off.

Church is too long.

The people aren't friendly.

It's too hot, or it's too cold."

*Now don't get me wrong.

I like my heat and AC as much as anybody.

Convenience is good, and we are amazingly blessed compared to most people in the world today.

Convenience is good.

But when convenience gets more important than Christ, we've got a problem.

[2] HARD-HEARTED PEOPLE TEND TO BE OVERLY CONCERNED WITH CONVENIENCE.

THEY ALSO TEND TO BE COLD TO THE SPIRITUAL NEEDS OF OTHERS.

*Put the cattle in the court of the gentiles.

Who cares if their court smells like a barn yard?