The Heart of Jesus

Easter Sunday

044-00647 John 20:24-31

I. The central organ of the body is the Heart.

ADVERTISEMENT

A. The heart is responsible for the circulation of blood throughout the body.

1. Our blood carries oxygen.

2. Our blood carries nutrients.

3. The Old Testament is right in many senses when it says that life is in blood for
without the flow of blood in our bodies there is no life.

B. Being the central organ of the body, the word Heart has naturally come to mean
more than a muscle pumping blood. It has come to represent the center of a person’s
being.

1. In the Bible, the term heart is never used of an animal apart from the physical organ.

2. But of persons, it stands for the center of a person’s moral, spiritual, and intellectual
life.

3. The Heart as the center of personal identity.

II. The Heart.

A. The process of self-awareness is a process of the heart.

1. I know that this sounds a bit philosophical but hang in with me for a minute.

2. Decartes was famous for saying "I think, therefore I am."

3. A criticism of Decartes though was that thinking did not really prove anything because
you have to go beyond thinking to be aware that you are a unique individual with unique
thoughts.

4. What is it that is behind a person’s thinking that makes her aware of herself and her
thoughts? Whatever process it is that reveals such self awareness, it is said to reside in
the heart.

B. Put it in terms of common language we use.

1. A man of courage is said to be a man with heart.

a) Friday night I went home and turned a Kick Boxing match on the TV.

b) Two men were fighting for the championship of something or other.

c) In the first round, one of the men injured his left foot. It turned out it was broken and
began swelling up. They eventually ended the fight because of the injury, but not until
the third round.

d) In the mean time, this man continued to fight, even kicking with his left foot which was
broken. You could see how black and blue and swollen the foot was becoming by the
minute. But he kept fighting.

e) All the announcers could do was repeat over and over how much heart this man had.

2. The idea was that this fighter had heart because his heart, or passion, or sense of
self identity was driving him beyond the physical injury to continue fighting.

a) Now I probably would have said much earlier on that no fight was worth the damage I
was causing to myself.

b) But this is where we say a decision is made within. This is when we say a person
must listen to and follow their heart.
3. The heart is considered the place where important decisions are made, especially
important moral decisions.

a) Jesus addressed this concept often.

b) It is from the heart that the mouth speaks.

c) We tell people to speak from the heart.

d) When a touch decision needs to be made, we tell others to search their hearts.

e) Is this not what Jesus meant when he said that looking on a woman with lust is
actually committing adultery in the heart?.

f) Getting angry with a person is actually committing murder in the heart?.

4. Our identity resides in our heart and it is in our heart and from our heart that our
truest identity is revealed to ourselves and to others.

C. The Bible goes even farther, though.

1. Evil and sin reside in our heart.

a) Jeremiah 9:26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in
distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house
of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

b) Ezekiel 44:7 In addition to all your other detestable practices, you brought foreigners
uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary, desecrating my temple while you
offered me food, fat and blood, and you broke my covenant.

c) Proverbs 26:23 Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips with an evil
heart.
d) Matthew 15:19-20 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual
immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but
eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’

2. If the heart is where evil resides, then the heart is where the work of God’s grace
must be accomplished.

a) Ezekiel 11:19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will
remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

b) Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove
from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

c) Acts 15:9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts
by faith.

3. And as this last verse suggests, the work of grace in the heart is a work of faith.

a) Romans 10:10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified…

4. The Heart is the place where the Spirit of God dwells.

a) Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his
love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

b) Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with
power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith.

c) Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

d) 2 Corinthians 1:22 [God] set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our
hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

III. Summary: The HEART.

A. Heart refers to the central core of a person’s being.

1. The word is used this way in almost every language.

2. The heart is the place where a person is truly a person.

B. Heart refers to the seat of emotional and intellectual experience.

C. Heart refers to the place from which all of a person’s identity affects and determines
their activity.

1. A sinful person commits sin. Their activity follows their identity.

2. A person of faith produces fruit.

3. A person of the Spirit lives according to the Spirit.

4. Romans 8:5, 9-14 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set
on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their
minds set on what the Spirit desires…You, however, are controlled not by the sinful
nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you…if Christ is in you, your body is
dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of
him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore,
brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to
death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of
God are sons of God.

IV. If all of this is true, then The HEART of JESUS is the center of his being that was the
source of all he was and is.

A. Jesus was God.

1. Jesus was everything that God was: perfect love, compassion, mercy, rightousness,
and grace.
2. All of his actions were driven by this nature.

3. He became a human because of his love.

4. He gave himself to be crucified because of his mercy.

5. He offered himself as a sacrifice for us because of his righteousness and grace.

B. Jesus is God.

1. The resurrection of Jesus was an action of the Father driven by his love and justice.

2. In raising Jesus, he proved who Jesus was and that what he did was holy and right.

3. But the resurrection of Jesus also makes available to us a new identity.

a) It is an identity whereby the central core of our being is changed from sin to
righteousness, from unbelief to belief, from death to life.

b) John 20:30-31 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his
disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life
in his name.

C. Thomas is an example of the reason Jesus came, an example of the result of Jesus’
heart resurrecting the heart of another.

1. John 20:27-29 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach
out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him,
“My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have
believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

2. Jesus heart has not changed – what about yours?.