Divine Perspective

that God’s people would take
their Bibles and turn back once again to the Gospel of John into
chapter 7. John chapter 7, we have indeed
completed that lengthy and enriching study of John chapter 6 into
the deep things of God. And I guess I would forewarn
you that The way that John’s gospel is written, sometimes
we think that everything was just happening in rapid-fire
succession, and it just isn’t the case. And so probably an appropriate
thing would be to mark in the left margin almost like a caret,
character, an insertion device that puts a lengthy interval
and I mean lengthy interval there between chapter six and chapter
seven. In chapter seven, the scene shifts
very quickly from Galilee to Jerusalem. But in reality, it
didn’t take place that quickly. In fact, it was almost six months.
If you’re thinking of you know, maybe the silent months. It was
anything but. It’s not like Jesus was idle
during this season. In fact, Matthew’s Gospel, who
provides the most complete treatment of that season, Matthew’s Gospel
really covers four entire chapters in this little insertion point
that we would make between chapter 6 and chapter 7 of John’s gospel. Here are some of the things that
Jesus is engaged in with primarily his apostles during that time.
He gives that rich deep lesson on the parable of
the leaven and the nature of leaven and what it does. Then
there is another feeding of a large crowd, this time of 4,000. He
heals a blind man at Bethsaida. All there in the first two chapters
in reference, 15 and 16. Peter provides another one of
his many confessions of Christ. There is the transfiguration,
no small event there in chapter 17 of Matthew’s gospel. There
is a number of different teachings, some unique only to Matthew’s
gospel. There is the argument that develops
in Matthew chapter 18 of who is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. That leads into Christ’s warning about stumbling blocks
and putting stumbling blocks before others. Of course, that
leads to the discussion of the sinning brother and how many
times we are to forgive a sinning brother. And it caps off at the
end of chapter 18 with what I’ve entitled in times past, the $10
million sin. The $10 million sin is the sin
of unforgiveness. And it’s that parable of the
unmerciful slave who, though he’s been forgiven, the equivalent
of $10 million goes out and chokes his fellow slave for a measly
16 pennies. All of those things and more
are taking place in this interim period between chapter six and
chapter seven of John’s gospel. But the scene shifts very quickly. And as it does in John’s gospel,
you have more division, you have an increasing hostility towards
Christ. You have these jealousies and
this harsh consideration of Christ. All the while, in this backdrop,
is the hierarchy of the Jewish religion, the Jews themselves,
and they have their heels dug in, they are waiting for Christ,
as it were, even sharpening their swords as they wait for him. The opposition is growing, the
hatred is growing. Ultimately, that same hatred
will issue forth in arresting and judging and ultimately in
the crucifixion of our Savior. And all of that is coming. We
come into chapter seven with that as the backdrop. Read along with me, beginning
in verse one. After these things, Jesus was
walking in Galilee for he was unwilling to walk in Judea because
the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the feast of the Jews,
the Feast of Booths was near. Therefore his brothers said to
him, leave here and go into Judea so that your disciples may see
your works which you are doing. For no one does anything in secret
when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things,
show yourself to the world for not even his brothers. were believing
in him. So Jesus said to them, my time
is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. The world
cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that
its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves.
I do not go up to this feast because my time is not yet fully
come. Having said these things to them,
he stayed in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone
up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not publicly, but
as if in secret. So the Jews were seeking him
at the feast and were saying, where is he? There was much grumbling
among the crowds concerning him. Some were saying, he is a good
man. Others were saying, no, on the contrary, he leads the
people astray. Yet no one was speaking openly
of him for fear of the Jews. But when it was now in the midst
of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach.
The Jews were astonished, saying, how has this man become learned
having never been educated? So Jesus answered them and said,
my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone is
willing to do his will, he will know of the teaching, whether
it is of God or whether I speak of myself. He who speaks from
himself seeks his own glory, but He who is seeking the glory
of the one who sent him, he is true and there is no unrighteousness
in him. Did not Moses give you the law
and yet none of you carries out the law? Why do you seek to kill
me? The crowd answered, you have
a demon. Who seeks to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one
deed and you all marvel. For this reason, Moses has given
you circumcision not because it is from Moses, but from the
fathers. And on the Sabbath, you circumcise a man. If a man
receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses
will not be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire
man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance,
but judge with righteous judgment. So some of the people were saying,
Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? Look, he
is speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. The rulers
do not really know that this is the Christ, do they? However,
we know where this man is from, but whenever the Christ may come,
no one knows where he is from. Then Jesus cried out in the temple,
teaching and saying, you both know me and know where I am from. And I have not come of myself,
but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know. I know him because
I am from him and he sent me. So they were seeking to seize
him. And no man laid his hand on him because his hour had not
yet come. But many of the crowd believed
in him. And they were saying, when the
Christ comes, he will not perform more signs than those which this
man has, will he? The Pharisees heard the crowd
muttering these things about him. And the chief priests and
the Pharisees sent the officers to seize him. Therefore Jesus
said, for a little while longer I am with you. Then I go back
to him who sent me. You will seek me and will not
find me. And where I am, you cannot come.
Then the Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to
go that we will not find him? He’s not intending to go into
the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he?
What is this statement that he said, you will seek me and will
not find me and where I am, you cannot come. Now on the last
day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying,
if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who
believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being
will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the spirit,
whom those who believed in him were to receive. For the spirit
was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Some of
the people, therefore, when they heard these words were saying,
this certainly is the prophet. Others were saying, this is the
Christ. Still others were saying, surely the Christ is not going
to come from Galilee, is he? Has not the scripture said that
the Christ comes from the descendants of David from Bethlehem, where
the village of David was? So division occurred in the crowd
because of him. Some of them wanted to seize
him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to
the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they said to him, why did
you not bring him? The officers answered, never
has a man spoken the way this man speaks. The Pharisees then
answered them, you have not been led astray, have you? No one
of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in him, has he? But
this crowd, which does not know the law is accursed. Nicodemus. He who came to him before, being
one of them, said to them, our law does not judge a man unless
it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it? They
answered him, you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search
and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee. Everyone went
to his home. We come into this seventh chapter
and you can tell that it moves along very quickly, doesn’t it?
In the development and the hatred of Christ, all he really had
to do is show up. They were already in the process
of plotting his death. They already were fomenting their
hatred towards him. What Jesus Christ provides for
us in these opening nine verses is really a divine perspective
into this whole unfolding drama. What Jesus does here is provide
a glimpse into the secret plans of Almighty God. First of all,
Look at the setting of this revelation. Jesus Christ is going to give
us a peek. He’s going to give even His own
unbelieving family members a peek into the deep things of God. Look first at the setting of
this revelation. Look at verse 1, after these
things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling
to walk in Judea. It’s not just dwelling on the
fact that He was walking, ambulated, ambulating on his feet. It’s
the natural word to speak about one who is conducting a ministry
in a particular area. We use this all the time in walking
together in fellowship. Jesus had in those previous months,
been intentionally avoiding. Remember, he withdrew himself
from Judea intentionally. Not because he was fearful of
them. Jesus Christ knew when he came and took on flesh exactly
what his mission was. And he knew ultimately he would
pay with his life. He even knew that he would die
on the cross. But his timetable is God’s timetable. And God, Jesus rather, is not
going to let men subvert that plan. And part of that approach
was to withhold himself. We saw it in John chapter five.
For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he
was doing these things on the Sabbath, the very thing that
he alludes to here in John seven. But he answered them and said,
my father is working until now, and I myself am working. For
this reason, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Jesus
knew that. And so he withdraws from Judea,
and he has that ministry in Samaria, and he has this ministry in Galilee,
but he is withholding himself intentionally. It had become dangerous. for him to be in Judea. He knew
that just being there, it was an eventuality that they were
going to take his life. But until then, he had a mission.
He was on God’s timetable. And even the form of this verb,
when it says that he was walking, it just is open-ended. The time was not yet fulfilled. for him to be captured, arrested,
judged, crucified, that time is coming. But Jesus, as always,
was operating according to the divine plan. Look at verse two,
there’s more context. John records here, now the feast
of the Jews, the feast of booths was near. This is a fascinating
insertion here. It’s the feast of tabernacles.
The feast of what was called the seventh month, the in-gathering.
We might even call it, like in our day and age, the harvest
festival. And it was one of the most happy, most joyful festivals
of all. And one of the unique features
of it is the people lived in tents. I’ll tell you more about
that in a minute. And so one of them, one commentator
called it the tent pitching festival. So whether you like to camp or
not, and I certainly empathize with those who do not, this would
not be your festival. This was an obligatory festival,
one that any Jew within 20 mile radius of the city were expected
to come and to participate in. And what it refers to is these
tabernacles were what we might call lean-to’s or tents, where
they would take branches and make themselves a temporary lean
to. If you can imagine a city full
of people building these tents, you have, you can sense the excitement
and certainly the camaraderie, the neighborliness, the noise. If you already lived in Jerusalem,
you just build a tent on the patio of your house because you
were expected to dwell in one of these structures. If you were
from outside of Jerusalem, you would set up wherever you could,
streets, open areas, alleyways, town squares, wherever you could,
you would set up one of these tents. I love the way one translator
translated this as the camping festival. The great historian
Josephus called this the holiest and greatest feast of the Jews. It was a festival that lasted
seven days, and it had a special gathering and celebration on
the eighth day. It was observed as a Sabbath. If I could, I want to take you,
and first, we’re going to start in Leviticus, so start finding
your way back there. But the roots of this celebration
were actually in Exodus, and I’ll just give you one brief
verse, so don’t turn to Exodus. When you get to Leviticus, and
I have your eyes, I’ll read the passage in Exodus for you. Leviticus
chapter 23, we’ll start there. Now in Leviticus 23, we have
the more developed prescription by God of this practice, but
the roots, as I said, are in Exodus. In essence, you might
even call this their thanksgiving. It was a festival, it was a celebration
of what God had done, and you have the seed of that in Exodus
23. You shall observe the feast of
the harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you’ve
sown in the field, the feast of the ingathering at the end
of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from
the field. Just like in our day and age, we call them harvest
parties, ultimately in November, we call it Thanksgiving. You
have this recognition of all that God had done. That’s the
backdrop of this. But in Leviticus 23, it is formalized
and much detail is provided. Start there in verse 33, chapter
23, verse 33. Again, the Lord spoke to Moses
saying, speak to the sons of Israel on the 15th of the seventh
month is the feast of booths for seven days to the Lord. And
so they were supposed to build these booths, these tents and
live in them for seven days. And see the excitement’s building,
isn’t it? For those of you campers, on the first day is a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work
of any kind. For seven days, you shall present
an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day, you shall
have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord. It is an assembly. You shall
do no laborious work. This was a week-long church service. It was a holy gathering. Jump down if you would, we’ll
pass over some of the particulars and details all the way down
to verse 39. On exactly the 15th day of the
seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the
land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days,
with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now, on the first day you shall
take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches,
and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you
shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You
shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in
the year. It shall be a perpetual statute
throughout your generations. You shall celebrate it in the
seventh month. You shall live in booths for
seven days. All the native born in Israel shall live in booths
so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel
live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God. And you will note that this is
talking about the Israelites living in booths, not God himself
dwelling in a tabernacle. That’s not the point of this
feast. If you would, turn and we’ll
just be brief in the book of Numbers, but in the book of Numbers
it’s reiterated, Numbers chapter 29. And there are a couple of interesting
details that we’ll pick up, not the least of which is all of
the exacting detail on the sacrifices that were made. Remember, this
is first and foremost, this isn’t a party. This isn’t a camping
trip like you and I would have. This is a purposed gathering
by God of his people, intentionally dwelling in tents as a reminder
of all that he had done, and then a sacrifice of what God
had provided. Look at verse one of chapter
twenty nine. Now in the seventh month on the
first day of the month you shall have a holy convocation. You
shall do no laborious work. It will be to you a day for blowing
of trumpets. Now if the camping trip isn’t
already exciting for you, now you have anybody regardless of
their capability in the blowing of the trumpets. Jump down to verse seven. All
the details of the offering is provided there in the next few
verses down in chapter seven. On the 10th day of the seventh
month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall humble
yourselves. You shall not do any work. What you have here,
and you don’t know whether maybe the children of Israel had not
been so faithful, and so these are kind of like call to order
days. These are reminders of what’s
coming. Jump down to verse 12. Then on
the 15th day of the seventh month, you shall have a holy convocation.
You shall do no laborious work. You shall observe the feast to
the Lord for seven days. And so there’s this kind of calling
together of God’s people. And then there is the celebration
of this feast, the Feast of Tabernacles. You have the second day, verse
17, the third day prescriptions, verse 20, the fourth day, verse
23, the fifth day, verse 26, the sixth day, verse 29, the
seventh day, verse 32, and then verse 35, the eighth day. On the eighth day you shall have
a solemn assembly, you shall do no laborious work. And all
over again starts this prescription on what is to be done and how
it is to be celebrated. Very particular, very clear. If you would, take your Bible
and turn to Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law, where
this whole thing is reiterated. And we’ll take just a peek at
a couple of verses there. In Deuteronomy chapter 16. God meant business when he prescribed
this feast. This wasn’t just a party. It
wasn’t just like our modern day Thanksgiving. I can promise you
they didn’t have the NFL tuned in. They were focused on the
Lord and God saw to it that they were focused on the Lord. Look
at verse 13. Deuteronomy 16, verse 13, you
shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have
gathered from your threshing floor and your wine vat and you
shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter
and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger
and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns. Seven
days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place
where the Lord chooses because the Lord your God will bless
you in all your produce, and in all your work of your hands,
so that you will be altogether joyful.” There were two elements
to this feast. There was the reminder of the
dwelling of the tents in the wilderness, what God had done
in bringing them through that. And it was observed with that
in mind, that during the wilderness wanderings, God had them dwell
in these tents. And then there was this almost
harvest party celebration that took place the entire week. As one recorded of it, it wasn’t
a feast, it was the feast. It was essentially akin to our
Thanksgiving and Christmas and birthday parties and any other
big celebration you can roll into it, this was the big deal.
And so it was a thanksgiving. It was the thanksgiving for the
permanent place of abode. It was thanksgiving for a permanent
place of worship. It was a thanksgiving for all
that God had done in the previous year. The crops that God had
provided, the blessings that God had given to them. All during
this time. With those, with the exception
of those who God exempted because of either illness or sickness,
they were required to live in these tents. And that really
leveled the playing field, didn’t it? Because rich and poor, if
you lived there, didn’t matter how fancy your house was, you
lived in a tent too that week. And then on the eighth day, probably
a lot of celebration, right, in breaking down these tents.
The booths were broken up, the people began to file out, but
there was one final celebration One final offering to the Lord,
one final rejoicing for all that God has done. That’s the setting. For Jesus Christ to give divine
perspective. There were probably many who
looked at Christ and were just baffled with who he was. They
saw him do some amazing things, stupendous things. In many ways
they’d be ready to attribute to him the miraculous. Can you
imagine what it might have been like to live with Jesus, someone
who never sinned, someone who was in all of God’s attributes
perfect, perfectly kind, perfectly gracious. This would be some
big brother, wouldn’t it? It’d be somebody really that
you would, really begin in your own human heart to resent, wouldn’t
you? Oh, he’s so perfect. Well, that’s
what Jesus’ brothers had to do. So in addition to all the others
who looked at Christ, were baffled by him, didn’t know what to make
of him, there were these family members that had the best perspective
of all, you would think. And if anybody was going to come
to Christ, having seen Christ in all of his richness, these
would have been them. But in addition to the setting
of Christ’s revelation, this glimpse into the secret plans
of Almighty God, we have a prompter to this revelation. Something
brings it about. It’s not like Jesus calls a meeting
and says, let me let you in on this. The revelation comes because
of a prompter, something caused it, something brought it about,
and we see it in verse three. Therefore his brothers said to
him, leave here and go into Judea so that your disciples may see
your works which you are doing. Now this is so astounding, isn’t
it? Of course, we have the benefit
of, you know, 2,000 years of church history looking back on
it. We have the privilege of having already come to Christ,
most of us. We have the privilege of knowing
him, knowing what he’s like, even knowing the gospels from
cover to cover. But we capture the brothers in
this kind of snapshot. And you almost get the sense
that they’re wanting to function as Jesus’ campaign managers. His agents. Okay, now Jesus,
here’s what we’re gonna do today. Get up, get yourself dressed,
you gotta go. We want you to go to Jerusalem,
we want you to go mix it up with the authorities. That’s essentially
what they’re saying. These brothers were no doubt
the half-brothers of Jesus by Joseph and Mary, born, you know,
in total contradistinction to what the Roman Catholics believe
in the perpetual virginity of Mary. These were Jesus’ brothers
by Joseph and Mary. We know of their names, James,
Joseph, Simon, and Judas. Now what John points out here,
plainly, that they did not believe in Jesus Christ. They did not
believe in him as a Savior. They hadn’t received him as such.
They didn’t believe on him as the Messiah. They would eventually
come to faith. We know of one who is called
by many, James the Just. He is the author of the Epistle
of James in the New Testament. The New Testament has much detail
about him. We first see that these young
men come to faith in Acts 1.14. Just listen, one verse. These
all with one mind continually devoting themselves to prayer
along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with
his brothers. It doesn’t divide any out, so
we would believe that all four of them came to faith in those
early pages of the book of Acts. James ultimately becomes one
of the leaders, if not the leader of the Jerusalem church. In Acts
12, it says, Peter motioning to them with his hand to be silent,
described to them how the Lord had led him out of prison. And
he said, report these things to James and the brethren. In Acts 15, After they had stopped
speaking, James answered. So James is running this meeting. Even the Apostle Paul makes note
of James as one of the leaders, that he didn’t seek out any of
the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. Galatians
1.19. And then later on in that same
epistle, he says this of James. He says, James and Cephas and
John who were reputed to be pillars. So we have that of James. They
ultimately came to faith. They wanted though in this moment,
even as unbelievers to function as Jesus’ campaign managers. They wanted to be his agent.
They wanted to take control of this ministry that seemed to
be floundering and you’ve been away from Jerusalem for six months.
We really think that you need to get up and get busy and get
this thing going. As one described it, they shared
only the ordinary beliefs of the Jews about the Messiah. And
therefore they did not believe in this, their brother. And they tell him, Jesus, what we’d
really like you to do is go up and do these things in front
of your disciples. And what he means there is by
disciples, disciples with a small d. He’s not talking about the
apostles here. What they wanted Jesus to do
is go up and find those who believed in him and do some of these things
in front of a much bigger crowd, these works that Jesus had been
doing. Maybe they wanted to test the idea of whether Jesus was
the kind of Messiah that they, along with all the Jews, were
expecting, kind of this political leader type. Surely, if he went
up to Jerusalem and started doing things, these things like he’d
been doing in obscurity, it would effectively call the question,
wouldn’t it? If they saw Him and saw what He was doing, the
decision would be made, this truly is the Messiah, let’s go
with it. Let’s move forward with this
campaign. And it soon would be very clear, wouldn’t it? For
better or for worse, whether or not He was the Messiah. In
other words, it certainly was possible that Jesus gets up there
and He does these things and irritates a bunch of people,
religious leaders, and it forces their hand and he’s captured
and dealt with. That’s what his brothers were
suggesting. Of course, it’s also possible that they were already
inclined to believe in Christ. Maybe they were just curious.
There’s nothing like a groundswell of popularity right to get fence
sitters. to make a decision. Maybe they
just wanted to see and examine and scrutinize and verify Jesus’
deeds and his claims. Jesus, go up to Jerusalem so
we can find out, so we can figure out like so many. Maybe they wanted to just stick
a proverbial wet finger in the air and see which way the wind
was blowing. Let’s let the crowd decide, because we’re unable. Look at verse four, look at their
argument, their reasoning. Leave here, go to Judea so that
your disciples may see the works which you are doing, for no one
does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known
publicly. If you do these things, show
yourself to the world. Now the argument is really simple. And the argument that they advance,
it rings almost like a proverb, doesn’t it? It’s a truism. It’s kind of like stating the
obvious. Look, Jesus. to let us function as your campaign
manager. If you want to be known, if a
man wants to be known, if a guy wants to have a successful campaign,
he’s got to do what he does visibly. People have to see more people.
We’ve got to get you in front of more people. And all that’s
true. The whole situation becomes much
more acute even. You can even begin to empathize
with the brothers when you realize that it’s been six long months
of this relative obscurity that Jesus has been in. Six long months
since he was up in Judea. But it’s not like he’s been idle.
He hasn’t been so highly visible as if he would be if he were
in Jerusalem. And so they prompt him. And his
brothers, they don’t express open doubt here, but there’s
a clear indication of a general lack of faith. The clamorous
crowd, remember them? The clamorous crowd had sought
to make Jesus king following the feeding of the 5,000. And
these brothers, they’d be in on the ground floor opportunity
if only they could get the crowd to kind of affirm what he was
doing. Do you notice the lack of faith?
Remember we talked about this several weeks ago. Even deferred
faith is unbelief. Deferred faith is not faith.
And these men, even though they may admire what Jesus is doing. They may even believe in part
in some of the things that he’s done and said, but ultimately
it’s a lack of faith. If Jesus really did prove himself,
really did show himself to be someone important, if he really,
perchance, was indeed the Messiah, then by all means, Jesus, let’s
get this thing going. Look at the little device they
use as motivation to Jesus, to get Jesus to move. It’s the little
pronoun himself. No one does anything in secret
when he himself, that’s basically what they say here. Look, Jesus,
if a guy really wants to be successful, you know, they’re lecturing him.
If a guy really wants to be successful, if he really means what he says,
You have clearly indicated that you believe that you’re the Messiah,
that you’ve come from God, then you’ve got to be more aggressive
about your approach. I mean, it’s just silly. If you yourself want to be known,
right? Then let’s go show the people
who you are. This is all, this is brother
speak. This is, this is brothers talking
to brothers as perhaps only brothers could. Look, Jesus, I know you
got these 12 guys hanging around you. We got to get, we got to
get down to business with this messianic stuff. We got to get
really, we got to get busy to let you be known publicly. That word publicly speaks of
a boldness. It speaks of just being out there
known by all. You claim to be the Messiah.
If it’s true, prove it. Let’s go. The true Messiah would
certainly prove himself in the chief city of his people, Jerusalem. As one said, there is not implication
here that Jesus had hidden himself by set purpose, but Galilee was
far from the capital. And anything done there would
be secret, so far as those in Jerusalem. His renown must be
established in the capital city. To act in Galilee was to act
in secret. And so they prompt him. Well,
John captures this, and John doesn’t want us to miss at all,
verse five. John just points out, for not
even his brothers were, this was not an act of faith. This
was not an act of men who had sold out and given all for Christ. This was not men who believed
in him already. These were men who were doubting
even as they spoke, who did not believe in Christ. Not even his
brothers were believing in him. That’s not news. In Mark 3.21, Mark records that
when his own people heard of this, they went out to take custody
of him for they were saying he has lost his senses. Some of
his own family members thought that he was nuts. Some of the
things that he was doing and saying. No wonder that recurring statement
in the Gospels A prophet is not without honor except in his own
hometown, in his own household. His own household didn’t believe
in him. John has already told us that
he came to his own, right? John chapter one. He came to
his own Jewish people. But he also came to his own household. And even they didn’t receive
him. This takes it to the furthest extreme, doesn’t it? Even those
closest to him, even his family members, his brothers didn’t
believe in him. J.C. Ryle just nails it here. When he says, holy and blameless
as he was in life, some of his nearest relatives did not receive
him as the Messiah. It was bad enough that his own
people, the Jews, sought to kill him, but it was even worse that
his own brothers did not believe. Seeing Christ’s miracles, hearing
Christ’s teaching, living in Christ’s own company were not
enough to make men believers. Stunning. But Jesus is purposing
to provide a glimpse into the inner workings of Almighty God.
We see the setting, we see the prompter, and now we see the
details of that revelation. Look at verse six. Jesus said
to them, my time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but
it hates me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil.
Go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast
because my time is not yet fully come.” He sets up a contrast. A contrast between him and his
brothers. And he basically says to begin
with, my time is not yet here. The time that Jesus says, which
has been sovereignly established by His Heavenly Father. God’s
timetable. That it was all according to
God’s timetable, not even Christ’s. When He would be manifested.
Not political winds. Not the whim of a crowd. Not
humanity at all. Jesus had a timetable and it
was a timetable set by Almighty God. He would not be manipulated
into transgressing that plan. springing that trap. And in hindsight,
we all know that timetable now, Jesus’ full manifestation, which
ultimately leads to his arrest and his crucifixion, all of that
by God’s design was set to coincide with the Passover the following
spring, less than a year later. Jesus Christ would be the true
Passover sacrifice. Jesus Christ was operating according
to God’s timetable, not his own. But these men, these brothers
of his, they were on their own timetable. And Jesus says, my
time is not yet, it’s not time for me to go be manifest, but
you can go manifest yourself whenever you want. Your time
is always opportune. Their case was completely different
than his. Didn’t matter at all when they
went to the feast, They weren’t going to be in the crosshairs
of the Jewish authorities. They weren’t going to be in the
focus. Anytime, any day, they could go whenever they wanted
and they lived in obscurity. They didn’t have any kind of
a divine commission. Their only duty was to be Jewish
people, Jewish worshipers, numbers really, giving units, as they
would be called in some churches today. They didn’t have any kind
of messianic schedule. They weren’t on God’s timetable
at all. Then Jesus says this, in the
second element of this contrast, the world cannot hate you, but
it hates me because I testify of it. Jesus takes up their word,
world, which they had used, go tell the world, but Jesus uses
it in a very different sense. The world in reality can’t hate
them because they’re part of the world system. But Jesus identifies
the world not here as the object of God’s mercy and affection,
but he strips away all the veneer and he identifies the world as
this hostile place. And he points out the enmity
that accurately characterizes it. It’s a very important observation
that Jesus makes. Jesus says that the world cannot
hate them. And yet later in this same gospel,
John will record Jesus as saying almost the opposite. But he’s
talking to a different group of people there in John 15. In
John 15 he says, if the world hates you, and they will, you
know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, the world would love its own. And that’s essentially
what Jesus is saying to his brothers. Your time is always opportune.
The world doesn’t hate you. The world, in fact, loves you
because you are of the world. He says that to his own brothers. Here, Jesus is speaking to his
disciples in John 15. It’s a very different message.
Here he’s speaking to those in John 7 whom he knows do not
know him. They do not believe in him. They
do not even really love him. And to them, he says, the world, the world cannot hate you because
he knows they’re very much part of the world system. They might
as well eat, drink, and be merry. They fit right in. They can do
as they please since they were immersed and very much part of
the world, including the Jewish religious system in its current
state. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because
I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. That’s why the Jews
hated Christ. That’s why people hate Christ. That’s why people hate you if
you reiterate Jesus’ point. I think almost anymore, not a
week goes by, we just got one the other day, where the whole
issue of sin in this little tract, the whole issue of sin was completely
downplayed, almost removed. That’s not the gospel. Jesus’ first sermon, like John
the Baptist’s first sermon, repent for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. Deal with your sin first and foremost. The world that hates Jesus is
the world that John would later describe in John First John 519,
the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. How can the
dark, evil world welcome a rebuke of sin? Jesus lets his brothers in on
this incredible perspective. a divine perspective on the inner
workings of almighty God, that his timetable is the important
timetable and his plan is the important plan. Jesus is in a completely different
place. He’s on a completely different
timetable because him the world does hate. People do hate the
Lord Jesus Christ because he bears testimony against it, that
their sin is evil. Jonathan Edwards, I love this
quote. Jonathan Edwards described this
so accurately. This very illustration that Jesus
is using. The very point that Jesus is
letting his brothers in on, giving them a glimpse of the inner workings
of Almighty God, that Jesus Christ was hated because of what he
said about sin. Jonathan Edwards said it this
way, the strictness of God’s law is a principle cause of man’s
enmity against God. If God were one that did not
so much hate sin, if he would allow them in gratification of
their lusts in some degree, If his threatenings were not so
awful against all criminal indulgence, if his threatenings were not
so absolute, if his displeasure could be appeased by a few tears,
a little reformation or the like, then they would not be so great
enemies. Nor hate him so much as they do. But God shows himself
to be an implacable enemy to their idols. and has threatened
everlasting wrath, infinite calamity, for all that they do in the service
of their lusts. And this makes them irreconcilable
enemies to Him. It’s what you do with your sin.
And Jesus lets His brothers in on this most intimate detail,
that He could not at that moment go up to Jerusalem, because He
was on God’s timetable. He knew that he stood toe to
toe with the religious elite that were ready to take his life
simply for telling them the truth about their sinful condition.
We can’t play games. We can’t pretend. We can’t give
people half of a gospel. Half a gospel is no gospel at
all. Examine your hearts, saints, in light of God. If you’re here
in this room, You need to deal with your sin and until your
sin is dealt with and dealt with by Almighty God through the blood
of his son. Your sin remains your sin. Your sin remains the barrier
between you and a holy God. Examine your heart. As we pray. Our merciful King. We thank you
for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his gentleness.
We thank you for his firmness, even in the face of people that
he loved so deeply, his own brothers in an earthly sense. Lord God,
he preached the gospel even to them, pleading with them that
their eyes might be opened to the sovereign timetable of God. and to the holy calling to which
Jesus had already submitted, that he came to preach the gospel
to sinners and to no one else. Lord God, if there is any in
this room who do not know that they are sinners and know desperately
that they need a savior, Lord God, do your work so mightily
that no sleep comes to their eyes until this issue is dealt
with, until they fall on knees of repentance and cry out to
God for grace. Their sin is great. It sent Jesus
to the cross. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen. Take your bulletin as we stand
together and sing as we close.