Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: Review of John 1-6

Chapter 1:

The identity of Jesus as the Word of God

The testimony of John the Baptist

The first disciples of Jesus

Chapter 2:

The miracle of water to wine at Cana

The cleansing of the Temple—Jesus claims to *be* the Temple

Chapter 3:

Nicodemus and the teaching on the new birth and eternal life by faith

John the Baptist submits himself to Jesus’s success

Chapter 4:

Jesus and the Samaritan woman—Jesus claims to have living water and to be the Messiah

Jesus heals the nobleman’s son

Chapter 5:

Jesus heals a lame man on the Sabbath in Jerusalem

Jesus responds to the angry religious leaders with teaching about his identity and his mission

Chapter 6:

Jesus feeds 5000 men from a little lunch

Jesus walks on water

Jesus teaches the crowds on his identity as the Bread of Life whom they must partake of to have eternal life.

Many disciples leave Jesus because of his hard teachings

PRAY

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After this Jesus went about in Galilee.

He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand.

“After this”

Probably several months after the events of chapter 6 (from April to October)

“Jesus went about”

Galilee (the north of Israel) was governed by Herod, while Judea (the area in the south surrounding Jerusalem) was governed by the Jewish religious leaders (Sanhedrin—Pharisees and Sadducees, priests and scribes) who reported to Pilate.

He traveled and ministered in the northern region of Galilee rather than in Judea.

Because…

“The Jews were seeking to kill him.”

The Jews refers to the Jewish religious leaders in authority who were seeking to kill Jesus.

They will come up again later in this chapter and we’ll see more of why they wanted to kill him.

“Feast of Booths”

Also called the feast of tabernacles or shelters, this is the Hebrew feast Sukkot.

It was a harvest festival, a celebration of God’s provision of a bountiful harvest, and a commemoration of His provision and protection during their wilderness wanderings.

This is celebrated in late September or early October.

From D.A. Carson

“According to Josephus, this Feast was the most popular of the three principal Jewish feasts that brought the faithful flocking to Jerusalem (‘especially sacred and important’, Jos., Ant.

viii.

100).

People living in rural areas built makeshift structures of light branches and leaves to live in for the week (hence ‘booths’ or ‘tabernacles’; cf.

Lv. 23:42); town dwellers put up similar structures on their flat roofs or in their courtyards.

The Feast was known for a water-drawing rite and a lamp-lighting rite to which Jesus quite clearly refers (cf.

7:37ff.; 8:12).”

3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.

4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly.

If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”

“His brothers”

Jesus’s half siblings, children of Joseph and Mary: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (potentially includes his sisters too—at least 2).

We don’t know their ages except that they are younger than he is.

Probably most or all of them adults at this point.

These are the people that grew up with him, that spent the most time with him.

They probably heard him speak more than almost anyone else.

They watched his life.

“The works you are doing… Show yourself to the world”

From v. 3-4 we can learn at least a couple of things:

Jesus’s brothers were aware of his miracles and likely had seen some of them.

Like so many others, they misunderstood who Jesus was and why he came.

They expected him to be the kind of Messiah who would destroy the Romans and set up an earthly kingdom and provide great prosperity for Israel and the world.

But Jesus’s “kingdom is not of this world”—not yet.

They wanted Jesus to go to Jerusalem during this Feast—because from their perspective it was the best time for him to gain a following and do the things they wanted him to do.

But John’s words in v. 5 are sobering:

5 For not even his brothers believed in him.

“Not even his brothers believed in Him.”

How could John say that, when it seems from the previous verses that their view of him is so high and exalted?

We’ll come back to this in a minute, but for now let the shock of this hit you—not even Jesus’s brothers, the ones who had the most opportunity and exposure to him, were trusting in him in a saving way.

John intends for this to shock us.

Their words in v. 3-4 are demonstrating their unbelief in Jesus.

What was Jesus’s response to his brothers’ demand?

6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.

7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

“My time”

Jesus often refers to his “hour” as the general time of his suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to glory.

Here he uses a different word, kairos, which refers to an opportunity, a season, the right time.

Probably like what we read in Ecclesiastes 3.

Jesus was on a different time schedule from his brothers, because he was sent on a heavenly mission.

From D.A. Carson:

Rather he [Jesus] is saying that the ‘time’ for his going up to Jerusalem for this Feast of Tabernacles is not yet at hand… Jesus’ brothers are free to go up to Jerusalem for the Feast any time they like, while Jesus is under special constraint.

“The world cannot hate you.”

The world did not hate Jesus’s brothers the way it hated Jesus, because they belonged to the world.

The world does not hate those who belong to it.

(15:19)

“I testify about it that its works are evil.”

John 3:19 told us that people loved darkness rather than light because their deed are evil.

People do not like to have their sin exposed, and Jesus as the light of the world cannot help but expose sin by his words and works.

That is why the world hated him, and this is part of why the Jewish leaders were seeking to kill him—because he exposed their evil hearts and actions.

8 You go up to the feast.

I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”

9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee. 10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.

“My time has not yet fully come.”

I don’t think Jesus meant for them to understand that he would never go to Jerusalem again or that he wouldn’t go at all to the feast, but that he would not go up with them and he would not go when they wanted him to.

Jesus was on a divine mission and timetable, and he would not be controlled by his brothers.

Just like with his mother in chapter 2 at the wedding—he rebuked her for trying to control him and act outside of God’s time and plan.

Jesus did in fact go to Jerusalem for the feast, but only when his time had fully come—when the Father wanted him to, not when anyone else told him to.

In going to this Feast, once again Jesus demonstrated obedience to the Mosaic law.

In the rest of the chapter and through chapter 8 as well we will see the opposition and unbelief of many others to the words and works of Jesus—the crowds, the Jewish leaders, the people of Jerusalem.

But for now let’s consider just these 10 verses and note again the unbelief of his brothers.

v. 5: For not even his brothers believed in him.

Who were they and why should they have believed?