John 7:1-10: The Glory of Christ on the Road to the Cross

Philippians 2:6–11 Though He was in the form of God, [He] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Intro

The focus of this sermon is going to be a little bit different than what we usually see.

Usually when we talk about the sufferings of Christ we limit our scope to His death and resurrection.

But what I want to look at today is Christ’s road to the cross and what it tells us about His glory and His great love for us.

Because Jesus’ suffering did not start at the cross.

His whole life was a life of suffering where He was despised and rejected by men, but He humbled Himself and kept humbling Himself to save us from all our sins.

My goal in looking at John 7:1-10 is two fold.

First to see Christ’s great love for us in what He endured all the way to the cross so that we might love Him in return.

And two, to follow Him and walk in His example.

To do that we are start this sermon with just going through the story, and then come back and get into the meat of what this passage tells us about the glory of Christ.

Story

John 7:1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

The After this is after the feeding of the multitude and the Bread of Life discourse in John chapter 6.

And between John chapter 6 and where we are now is about 6 months.

Throughout that time Jesus has been ministering in Galilee mostly focused on discipling and pouring in to the 12 Disciples.

In fact, John tells us He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

Now its not that Jesus was a coward. We are going to see that here in a little bit.

And its not that Jesus was unwilling to die. After all that’s why He came.

The point is that Jesus did not want to instigate a confrontation with the Jews before the appointed time.

We see that in this passage. My time has not yet fully come (John 7:8).

And the Jews in the gospel of John are the religious and leadership brass of the people.

Its not all the Jews individually.

A little bit later you have the people or the crowds, Jewish people who are afraid of speaking openly about Christ for fear of the Jews (John 7:13).

The Jews for John refer to the political and religious leaders of Jesus’ day who were opposed to Jesus and were seeking to kill Him because all the way back in John chapter 5, Jesus called God His Father and made Himself equal with God.

This confrontation will ultimately come to a head at Jesus’ crucifixion where the Jews will lead the people to reject Christ and hand Him over to the Romans to be crucified.

Verse 2...

Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand.

The Feast of Booths was one of the three great feasts of the Jewish people.

You had Passover which celebrated the deliverance of God’s people out of Egypt.

Pentecost which celebrated God giving the Law at Mt. Sinai.

And the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles where the people of God would live in temporary shelters or booths to celebrate God’s provision in the wilderness and His Tabernacling or dwelling among them all the way to the Promise Land.

Feasts and Christ

And here’s an interesting side note, even in these three great festivals, God was pointing His people to Christ and His finished work.

Passover obviously pointed to Christ as the true Passover lamb who delivers us from our slavery to sin, Satan, and death.

Pentecost is when Christ sent the Holy Spirit to write the Law of God, not on tablets of stone, but on our hearts.

And the Feast of Booths finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ as God’s ultimate provision for our wilderness of sin and how Christ is the true Tabernacle where God dwells with us and us with in covenant love and communion.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt or tabernacled, among us.

You see…all those obscure parts of the Old Testament aren’t so weird after all.

Back to it.

Its the Feast of Booths and then verse 3…

John 7:3–5 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him.

There is probably a sense of mocking and condescension in their tone because we are told that not even Jesus’ brothers believed in Him.

They probably believed in Jesus works…That Jesus could do amazing miracles

Their challenge almost assumes it.

But as we’ve seen in John, belief in Jesus’ signs doesn’t always lead to personal saving faith (John 2:23-25).

So the spirit of their challenge is probably this.

Ok Jesus. You say you’re the Messiah. Why don’t you go prove it.

No one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly.

Why don’t you go to Jerusalem during the most popular feast we have…the end of the harvest…works done, party time!

Why don’t you go and show the world who you are?

The idea is that Jesus’ brothers probably had in mind a political Messiah that was so popular among the people in the Gospel of John.

We saw it in John 6.

After Jesus fed the multitude, they tried to take Jesus and make Him King by force.

Someone who would oust the Romans and restore the throne of David and the blessing of God’s people not realizing Jesus came to establish not a worldly kingdom but a Heavenly One.

A Kingdom of Salvation and Eternal Life.

And because Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish world, their challenge was probably, why don’t you go show yourself openly and plainly you’re the Messiah-King if that’s who you really are.

Stop going around the backwoods of Galilee, and go take your throne in Jerusalem if that’s who you really are.

And so, Jesus said to them verse 6...

John 7:6–10 “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.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.

Now one thing that we need to clear up is that Jesus did not lie.

He’s the perfect Son of God.

He never sinned…not even once or else none of us are saved.

But He said He wasn’t going to go and then He went? How is that not lying?

The context shows us.

Remember the challenge of His brothers.

Go up and reveal yourself publically.

Make yourself known.

But Jesus knew the road to the Throne was through the Cross.

Through humbling Himself. Submitting Himself to God.

Not self-exalting glory.

And His time, for that Cross, had not yet come.

It would come about 6 months later when Jesus would go up to Jerusalem for the Passover and enter into the city on the foal of a donkey with the people praising Him, just as His brothers said, “Hosanna! Praise to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord” (Matthew 21:9).

So Jesus did not lie because He did not go up publically in the manner or for the purpose which they hoped.

He went up privately…not in a huge caravan to do miracles all along the way to make His grand entrance known…

But probably with just His small group of disciples so as to not instigate a premature confrontation with the Jews and so test the Lord with His death as when Satan tempted Him to throw Himself off the Temple…

But instead continue entrusting Himself to the Father’s perfect will and timing not only for His Cross but His exaltation and glory as King.

Summary

Well what are we to make of all this?

What are we supposed to get out of this sermon?

I had that same question.

But I think that in this passage, there are several things which if we look at them and think about them deeply actually give us a rich theology of the glory of Christ.

Things we don’t often look at or see. And so that’s what I want to do with the rest of this sermon.

Everything so far was just setting the table. This is where we get to the meat.

What do we see about the glory of Christ in the first part of John 7?

We are going to look at 3 things:

Number 1: The Glory of Christ’s Humiliation.

Number 2: The Glory of Christ’s Courage.

Number 3: The Glory of Christ’s Faith.

And my hope is that through this sermon you will grow in your love for Christ more and out of that love follow Christ by walking according to His example.

Let’s start with point number 1…

I. The Glory of Christ’s Humiliation

Now usually we talk about the humility of Christ and when I talk about Christ’s humiliation we are still talking about Christ’s humility but with an emphasis on what He suffered and endured on our behalf.

Of not only making Himself low but being made low in His sufferings.

Of how low Christ made Himself for us.

Now there are two things in this passage that I think highlight this and invite us to consider it more deeply.

First Not even His brothers believed in Him.

And Second, the world hating Christ.

When you put both of those together you get Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

The eternal Son of God humbled Himself, became a man, to save sinners and those very sinners rejected Him.

The Gospel of John even touched on this earlier in the prologue of chapter 1 verses 9 and 11.

John 1:9–11 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

I think we don’t often think enough of Christ’s humiliation in His incarnation.

We almost take the incarnation like a matter of fact.

Well of course Jesus became a man. How else could He die for us.

But the eternal Son of God took of robes of glory and put on human flesh.

The One who was worshiped by the angels was made so low that He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire Him (Isaiah 53:2).

There has never been a greater humiliation that anyone’s endured than Christ’s incarnation.

No one ever descended from so low because no one ever came from so High.

And for what? To become obedient to the point of death even death on a cross.

To suffer shame and ridicule that He might bring us to God.

Consider it...

When the eternal Son of God became a man, He was not born in a house of royalty. He was laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:7).

He wasn’t born to a king and a queen.

He was born a carpenter’s son.

A family so poor they could not offer a lamb for a sacrifice because they could only afford two turtle doves (Luke 2:24, Lev. 12:8).

He subjected Himself as a child, the Creator of the Universe, to His mother and father.

He grew up in a small town and lived most of His life in utter obscurity.

He suffered hunger, tiredness, and thirst even though He was the One who gave life to the world and everyone in it (Col 1:17).

He suffered temptation and the greatest temptation anyone could ever know because He resisted to the point of death. He suffered its full force and came out victorious (Hebrews 12:4).

And on top of all that, He was despised and rejected by men.

He was called a demon, false teacher, and false prophet.

He saw most of His disciples walk away.

And of the 12 that stayed one betrayed Him.

Even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

Could you imagine the pain of even your own family rejecting you.

Some of you can.

But even in the harshest trials of our life the thing we can always lean back on is friends and family being there.

But Jesus didn’t even have that.

His brothers rejected Him. At one point they thought He was crazy! They said He was out of his mind.

And His own disciples, when He was arrested, abandoned Him.

Utterly alone.

And ultimately His own people rejected Him and handed Him over to the Romans endure the most shameful and humiliating death known to man.

He was whipped. Scourged. Stripped Naked. and Nailed to the cross to suffer and die between two sinners.

The Lord of glory stripped naked, bleeding, suffocating, dying… between two common criminals.

No one was ever made lower than Christ.

In His trial and crucifixion, Christ was even humiliated in all of His offices (Mark Jones, Knowing God, 124).

He was Humiliated as a Prophet.

At His trial they blindfolded Him, beat Him and spit upon Him saying Prophecy who was it that hit you? (Luke 22:63-64, Matthew 26:67-68).

He was Humiliated as a Priest.

At the very moment Christ was dying on the cross and offering His life as a sacrifice for the sins of His people…the chief priests and the religious leaders mocked Him saying: He saved others; he cannot save himself (Matthew 27:42).

And He was Humiliated as a King.

The Romans crowned Him with a crown of thorns and nailed a sign that said “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” over the cross (John 19:19).

And in response the chief priests said “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ”” (John 19:21).

The Jews did not want Christ King over them.

They had already made that clear when they rejected Christ and handed Him over to Pilate saying: We have no King but Caesar (John 19:15).

In all of His offices, Christ was utterly humiliated.

And why? To save us from our sins.

He endured the wrath of God on our behalf.

As He hung on the cross, He wasn’t just despised and rejected by men.

Galatians 3:13, He became a curse for us.

He said My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46).

He was praying Psalm 22 where if you read more of it, it gives you a greater picture of Christ’s humiliation and suffering.

Psalm 22:1–2 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

Psalm 22:6–8 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!

Psalm 22:14–15 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

Christ was cursed so that we would be blessed.

He groaned so that we would rejoice.

He was stripped naked so that we would be clothed in His righteousness.

He became poor to make us rich.

He said I thirst to make sure we would never be thirsty again and give us the living water of eternal life.

He died that we might live.

And He was humiliated and made low, despised and rejected so that we would be accepted, beloved, and forgiven.

That’s the glory of Christ’s humiliation.

And the good news of the gospel if you repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ is…He did it all for you.

Out of His own humble love for you.

He suffered all of that rejection that He might wed you to Himself forever.

Only a heart of stone could see Christ’s great love in emptying Himself, laying down His life and making Himself the lowest of the low and not love Christ in return.

Number 2…

II. The Glory of Christ’s Courage

We almost never think of Christ’s courage, but He was the bravest man that ever lived.

In John 7 Jesus says two times: My time has not yet come.

And that time was specifically His death on the cross.

Jesus lived with a constant awareness of what the Father had sent Him to do.

He knew He came to die.

We see this multiple times throughout the Gospels.

Matthew 20:28 the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

John 10:15 I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

And Jesus didn’t have just a vague idea that He would one day die.

He knew the exact kind of death He was going to die…

And He knew exactly what his death would cost as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of His people.

When Jesus read the Bible He knew it was all about Him.

Even as a young boy, Jesus diligently read and studied the Scriptures (Luke 2:46).

And He knew the Scriptures all talked about Him and what the Father had sent Him to do.

We already looked at Psalm 22: My God My God why have you forsaken me?

That Psalm says they have pierced my hand and my feet obviously pointing forward to the cross (Psalm 22:16).

Or Isaiah 53:4–6 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

In that passage, not only do you have the cross but you have the wrath of God poured out on the Suffering Servant as a substitute for sin.

Jesus, who had no sin, knew He would become sin on our behalf and suffer God’s curse and wrath for us (2 Cor 5:21).

He even witnessed it throughout His life.

When He would see animal sacrifices offered in the Temple the throat slit and the blood poured out…

The Passover Lamb slain year after year…

Every sacrifice said, “That’s going to be me.”

Our Weakness

Now just imagine that.

Imagine reading a book about your life and one day reading about your death.

And to have your death described in excruciating detail as the worst possible death anyone could ever die.

And to know that you would not just die, but that you would suffer the wrath of God poured out in full strength on sin.

For all the sins for everyone that would believe in you.

That to make atonement you would not be spared, but you would pay for sin in full.

Who could possibly bear it?

Your whole life would be torment and anxiety…constant worry.

That’s what anxiety usually is…its your worst fear coming true.

But if you’ve ever struggled with anxiety you know that those fears are mostly irrational.

Their not real.

But not this. This is the Word of God. You know this death is coming.

The knowledge of that would consume you.

How could you ever think of anything else?

How could you ever get away from it.

It would be this dark, overwhelming cloud over all of your life.

Everyday, every breath, every step bringing you one step closer to that horrible death.

If that were any of us, we could never bear it.

We would spend our whole life trying to run away, hide, or cower in dread.

Christ’s Strength

But not Christ.

He knew His fate and He faced it head on.

Luke 9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

The idea there is He set His face like flint. This hard determination.

He knew what it would cost and He set His face to go anyway.

Jesus is the bravest man that ever lived because He lived His whole life in the shadow of the cross.

Its hard to even imagine the strength of Christ where far from being overwhelmed He served.

He preached. He ministered. He healed the sick.

He spent His whole life doing good to others inviting them to faith in Him.

He poured Himself out for miserable sinners day after day until He poured Himself out once and for all hanging naked on a cross.

I think we usually think of Christ’s sufferings on the cross starting in the Garden of Gethsemane where we are told His soul was sorrowful even to death and that He was in agony as He prayed (Luke 22:44, Matthew 22:38).

But Christ’s whole life was a Garden of Gethsemane.

He carried that cross everywhere He went.

And He kept going. He kept serving. He kept ministering. He kept saving…He kept loving…for us…

When all of us would have given up or ran away…He carried that cross from the manger all the way up that hill.

The strength of Christ…and the love of Christ to live under the shadow of the cross knowing everyday His time would come…with that cloud and that death looming over Him all the days of His life...

To still set His face and pray what He did in the Garden…not my will but your will be done.

Transition

On the Road to the Cross Christ showed His great love for us in the humiliation He endured...

And the courage and strength He had to live His life in the shadow of the cross and keep going to save us from our sins.

And that takes us to point number 3…

III. The Glory of Christ’s Faith

I want to look at Christ’s faith from two different angles both of which have application for us today.

His Faith in God’s Sovereign Plan and Timing.

And His Faith to follow God despite the hatred of the world.

First, His faith in God’s Sovereign Plan and Timing.

1. Christ Walked by Faith in God’s Sovereign Plan and Timing

Here again I want to focus on Christ saying: My time has not yet come.

Jesus lived with a constant awareness of God’s sovereign plan and will.

And Jesus’ whole life was to follow that will.

Back in John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Christ trusted in God’s will and God’s timing even when it would take Him through trials and tribulations in His life.

He always knew 1. God was Good and 2. God was In Control.

And that anchor gave Christ the faith to trust in God’s plan and strive to follow it no matter the cost.

He was the most faith-filled man that ever was trusting God and following Him through every high and every valley of the shadow of death.

He never wavered.

And as the founder and perfecter of our faith…He shows us what true faith looks like.

He pioneered the way to give us the greatest example of believing that ever was.

Remember, Christ emptied Himself not counting equality with God a thing to be grasped so as a man He lived His whole life walking by faith and not by sight.

Jesus did not live by faith above the plane.

As we already saw, He lived in the shadow of the cross.

He lived by faith in the nitty gritty of every day life living and breathing Psalm 31:5 Into your hand I commit my spirit.

And Psalm 27:1 The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

And as such, Christ gives us an example to follow as God leads us through our own trials, tribulations and sufferings.

That living by faith doesn’t just mean we trust in God for our salvation, but that we trust Him with every detail of our life.

That two sparrows are sold for a penny and not one of them falls without the knowledge of our heavenly Father (Matthew 10:29).

That even the hairs of our head are numbered (Matthew 10:29).

God is Sovereign and in control over even the smallest, most inconsequential details of life.

So surely we can trust Him, His plan and His timing no matter what this world might bring.

Why? Because He is not only sovereign He is good.

When we face trials and tribulations we know God is using them all for our good.

To conform us to the image of Christ to the praise of His glorious Name.

That’s why James says we can count it all joy when we face trials of various kinds (James 1:2).

So when you struggle with fear, worry or doubt?

When you are asking God, “God what are you doing?”

What we need to preach to ourselves 1. God is Good and 2. God is In Control.

That He is our Heavenly Father who loves us and works all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

You want a verse to memorize for when the storms of life come?

One I go to again and again and again.

Memorize this. Make it a part of your life.

Psalm 25:10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness.

We might not see God’s plan...

But we walk by faith and not by sight trusting, like Christ, in the Father’s perfect plan and timing (2 Cor. 5:7).

And number 2: the Road to the Cross showed the Glory of Christ’s Faith to follow God Despite the Hatred of the world.

2. Christ Walked by Faith Despite the Hatred of the World

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

The world hated Christ because He was salt and light.

And here’s what I want you to notice.

Christ draws a distinct line between the world and those who follow Him.

The world could not hate His brothers because they belonged to the world.

In contrast, everyone who follows Christ will be hated just like Him because we are in the world, but not of the world.

John 15:19 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.

This is why the Apostle John who wrote this Gospel also said Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you (1 John 3:13).

This is a word we need today as the world’s animosity towards Christ and biblical Christianity begins to grow.

We all see it and we all feel it.

Do not be surprised.

It means you are being faithful to Christ.

He never caved. He never bent to the pressure of the world.

And by faith in the holy Word of God, neither should we.

Paul says Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2).

Do not be pressed into its image and its mold.

How Satan and the world tries to work is to pressure you and push you to fit into its mold.

To get you to shrink back.

Soften your convictions.

Change your beliefs to be loved by the world.

This is where we tie Christ’s suffering…Christ’s courage…and Christ’s faith all together.

We don’t bend to the world. We bend to Christ.

You see professing Christians soften their convictions of every major cultural issue of our day.

Well Jesus doesn’t have to be the only way to heaven.

We don’t need to call homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortions sins…we need to love these people.

Oh those Christians that hold to the Word of God…they are just religious fuddy-duddies. They don’t follow the Jesus I know.

The Jesus I know loves and forgives.

You see it all over just to get a little bit of love from the world.

And for those that don’t…for those that refuse to bend to the world to say, “I only bend to the Word of God”… How the world tries to pressure us is for us to hide our lamb under a basket.

Keep it quiet. Be ashamed. Or be hated by the world.

Brothers and sisters I am here to tell you we would be a lot better off if we just believed what Jesus said and were willing to be hated by the world.

To stand with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

To stand with Daniel.

To stand with the Apostles.

To stand with the saints and all the martyrs who have gone before us.

And most of all to stand with Christ on the foundation of His Word.

If salt has lost its saltiness, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet (Matthew 5:13).

Christ never shrank back. He never flinched.

And by faith neither should we.

Conclusion

The Road to the Cross reveals the glory and depth of Christ’s love for all the saints.

Christ’s sufferings did not start in Gethsemane.

They began with His humiliation.

Christ humbled Himself and took on Human flesh.

He left the glories of heaven to take the form of a servant.

He suffered rejection, humiliation, and scorn by His own people, even His own brothers.

He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief so much so He endured the most shameful death a man could ever endure…death on a cross.

And He lived His whole life on the road to that cross. He never shrank back. He never ran.

He set His face determined to save His people knowing full well what it would cost.

And He trusted the Father and for our salvation followed His perfect will despite all the hatred and opposition of the world.

Christ’s Humiliation, His Courage, and His Faith all show on the road to the Cross all show the glory of His love to those who believe.

I want to close by looking at…

Hebrews 12:1–2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Christ took the road of the cross for the joy set before Him.

Now what was that joy?

A number of things.

His glory.

The glory of His Father who through His sacrifice would be the just and the justifier of the one who trusts in Jesus.

The conquering of Satan and redemption from the curse.

But you know what one of those things was?

Its from Isaiah 53 that passage about Christ’s suffering and death.

Isaiah 53:11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

One of the parts of the joy set before Him, one of the things that kept Him going on the road to the cross was you.

Saving you. Forgiving you. Justifying you and making you righteous.

He endured…He pressed on…He took the road to the cross and suffered and poured out His life because He knew if at any point He shrank back, your soul would perish.

How could we not grow in our love for Christ seeing how He suffered for us throughout all His life and follow Him more faithfully in gratitude for the glory due to His name.