Destroying the Idol of The Fear of Man

Passage: John 7:1-36

Introduction:

When I was younger I used to be extremely self-conscious. I would be afraid to talk to people. I was always terrified of what people might think of me and how they might view me. So, I would camouflaged myself like a chameleon. I would act and think in whatever way I perceived the other person would want me to. When I became a Christian I carried that with me which made me not want to share the Gospel or call sin what it is. I was a people pleaser. I cared too much about what people thought and not what God thought of me. People pleasers like I used to be see people as skyscrapers because their view of God is small. I pray our text this morning will bring you that much needed deliverance. That you will learn the lesson that Jesus teaches us… Let’s dig in to the text.

Context:

In Chapter 6 you saw, Christ feed the 5 thousand, walk on water in the midst of a storm and proclaim a couple of important things about himself.

1) “The bread of Life” “The Living Bread” and the ultimate satisfaction for his people (John 6:35, 6:51)

2) The Keeper of his people (John 6:37)

3) The salvation of his people (John 6:40)

4) His “Words are Spirit and Life” (John 6:63)

After those miracles and proclamations many did not believe and stopped following him. Do you know why? I would argue the same reason I spoke of when I started they were people pleasers. Look at the the text in John 6:60-61

John 6:60–61 ESV

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?

They were offended by his words and I can tell you this if they were offended they knew others would be as well. They were not going to follow someone like that. They wanted a revolutionary that would feed them and speak tenderly to them without speaking truth. Friends, that was not Jesus. He actually let’s them go and looks at his disciples and says” Do you want to go too?” Jesus was not worried about the glory he received from men like the pharisees did he was worried about what his father thought of him.

I want you to notice 3 things in our passage.

Jesus Spoke Truth Unapologetically to his Family (V. 2-8)

2. Jesus Spoke Truth Unapologetically to the scholars of his age (V. 15-19)

BUT Why? Here is why.

Jesus was not concerned about receiving Glory and honor from men, but was concerned about doing the will of his Father!

Jesus Spoke Truth Unapologetically to his Family (V. 2-8)

The Feast of Booths- One of Israel’s three great annual festivals, celebrated at the time of the agricultural harvest, in gratitude for Yahweh’s present and historical provision.

They gathered and stayed in booths to remind them of the wilderness gatherings and how God provided in the wilderness. So what? It was a huge festival and everyone was going to be there!

So we see his brothers telling Jesus to reveal himself to make his miracles known. To be famous, because they did not believe that is how they viewed his ministry. But look how he responds.

John 7:6–8 (ESV)

Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”\

Jesus says a lot here to his brothers.

a. Your time to be famous and known is now

b. The World loves you because you love what is evil and do not speak against it.

John 15:19 ESV

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Jesus was not concerned about receiving Glory and honor from men, but was concerned about doing the will of his Father!

2. Jesus Spoke Truth Unapologetically to the scholars of his age (V. 15-19)

John 7:18–19 (ESV)

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”

Jesus says to them

a. You seek your own glory and not God’s glory

b. You have the Law of God and teach it, but you do not keep it. (Hypocrite)

Luke 11:37–54 ESV

While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

Friends, we live in a culture that tells us

You can identify as whatever you'd like science doesn't dictate our gender

Homosexuality is not sinful and gay marriage is beautiful because love is love

You must keep your religion to yourself because you’ll offend people.

Our culture believes in the 11th commandment and many Christians are buying in on it!

Jesus was not concerned about receiving Glory and honor from men, but was concerned about doing the will of his Father!

Closing Thoughts

Are you too afraid to proclaim the Gospel?

“A foolish physician he is, and a most unfaithful friend, that will let a sick man die for fear of troubling him; and cruel wretches are we to our friends, that will rather suffer them to go quietly to hell, then we will anger them, or hazard our reputation with them.” Richard Baxter

Are you too afraid of speaking truth? and afraid of defending the word of God when other ridicule?

“A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent” John Calvin

Friends,

Is Christ worth it to you? Is his word and his will Is he worth you being mad fun of, slandered and losing friends? or is you reputation of more importance?

Friends, Remember the Gospel, remember the work of the Spirit in you. Here are some tangible ways to kill the fear of men.

Study the Holiness and Majesty of God in the scriptures

Pray that God would give you a fear for his name not men

Pray and memorize Psalm 86:11

Psalm 86:11 ESV

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

3. Go out of you way to encourage and uplift others. The more you do that, the less you’ll look at yourself.

Want a book/audiobook? When People are big and God is Small by Ed Welch