John 7:1-24 (3)

Intro

After the interaction we’ve looked at the last few weeks, Jesus travels to Galilee. And notice the reason He travels to Galilee - the Jews, that is the Jewish leaders, were already trying to kill Him. His teaching and His miracles had already, here in chapter 7 of the book, brought the Jewish leadership to a place of wanting to have Jesus arrested and put to death.

The passage goes on to tell us that this was during the time of the Jewish Festival of Shelters. This could also be known as the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles.

The NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible Chapter 7–8

It was one of three Jewish pilgrimage festivals. The other two were the Festival of Unleavened Bread, which included the Passover, and the Festival of Harvest, also called Weeks or Pentecost (Ex 23:14–17; Dt 16:16). The Festival of Tabernacles took place in the fall (September–October), about six months after Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread and about two months before the Festival of Dedication (Jn 10:22). The people lived in leafy shelters (tabernacles) throughout the festival to commemorate God’s faithfulness during the wilderness wanderings (Lev 23:42–43). It was also a time of celebration and gratitude for the harvest (Lev 23:39–41). There were elements that anticipated the blessings of the Messianic age.

One of the big reasons John points is that is because “The Feast of Tabernacles was a popular feast and anyone wanting to contact as many people as possible could not do better than show himself in Jerusalem at this time.”

This is what leads to the conversation with his brothers that we read about here.

Jesus’ brothers misunderstand

His brothers want him to go up to the feast. Their argument is that, if Jesus is truly who He says He is, and if He wants people to know who He is, then this feast would be the perfect chance to put that on full display. This would be a great chance for Him to reach massive amounts of people at once.

And, while at first, that may seem like a genuine and good hearted desire from the brothers, John goes on to include this parenthesis where he tells us that Jesus brothers actually didn’t believe in Him.

So, this was not an encouragement, it was not a good hearted suggestion. This was their way of mocking him. It’s their sarcastic way of asking Jesus to prove Himself.

So let’s zoom out for a minute and take stock of how Jesus’ ministry is going - He has just turned away thousands of people with his teaching about His flesh and blood. He’s having to avoid Jerusalem because the Jewish leaders want to kill him. And now, we see, even His own brothers don’t believe him.

All He has is a very small band of disciples. From any outside perspective, it would seem that His messianic ministry was failing. And this is before we even get to the cross. But it’s not failing. Jesus keeps reminding the disciples that He is in control. That all of these things are happening under the sovereign hand of God, that His life and ministry are moving toward their designated providential end.

Our lives are similar. The circumstances may appear to indicate some level of failure. This or that aspect of your life doesn’t seem to have gone the way you would have hoped. But I want to remind you that you are never outside the sovereign care of God, never beyond His providential plan to be glorified in you and through and to make you more like Christ.

Jesus responds to His brothers’ requests by telling them that they’re missing it. He says My time, that is God’s timing, has not arrived. But you, mere humans, don’t understand God’s timetable.

This is reminiscent of another time when Jesus seemed to push back against his family’s understanding of when He should take a certain action.

John 2:4 ““What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?” Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.””

“My time has not yet come”

So, with His mother, He says His time has not yet come. And with His brothers, He pushes back against their request by saying the same thing, that His time has not yet come.

Our timing is not God’s timing. Getting that fact deep into our hearts would change the way we interpret many events and circumstances in our life. To follow Jesus is to release the control of our timelines. To follow Jesus is to submit our schedules to Him. He knows best. We aren’t unlike these brothers oftentimes, assuming that we know exactly when Jesus should do something. So, if you feel like God hasn’t moved in a situation the way you think he should have to this point, take heart. He’s in control, and His timing is best. He has a plan, He is in control, and He is providentially working all things for good.

Jesus does end up going to the feast. So, what’s the deal? Is he lying to His brothers? I thought Jesus was sinless? This seems deceptive or tricky.

Well, for one thing, the earliest manuscripts appear to be split here, and you may even see a footnote in your bible in verse 8, pointing to the fact that many of the manuscripts actually recrod Jesus as saying “I am not going up to the festival yet.” The greek phrase can mean that, it can mean I am not going up to the festival right now.

In any case, Jesus is not lying in saying He’s not going up to the feast. He is saying that He isn’t going up to the feast in the way they want Him to go.

They want Him to put on a show. They really want to expose Him as a fraud it seems. They want Him to impress the crowds. They are saying, if you’re so amazing, then this is the perfect opportunity to go and get the recognition and admiration you say you deserve.

But Jesus isn’t going in that way, He isn’t going to the festival to impress people or to just draw crowds.

Jesus is hated by the world for His ministry ——— His words are God's words

The brothers are assuming that Jesus’ miracle working would cause Him to be loved and universally admired. But Jesus knows about the plot to put Him to death. He knows that many people hate him. He knows the condition of man’s sinful heart better than His brothers realize. He knows that His message doesn’t lead to universal acceptance.

He tells them that the world hates Him, because He testifies that its works are evil. We’ve seen this already, a couple chapters earlier.

John 5:16 “Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.”

I wonder if you think about that when you think about Jesus. When you think about being Christlike, do you picture being hated by the world because you expose its evil deeds?

Why the hate? This man is healing people and feeding people. The hatred comes because of the preaching and the teaching.

Jesus came as the light of the world, we saw that in the very first chapter of John. But we also saw, even in those early chapters, that many people reject the light, because they love darkness.

Light exposes. And that’s what Jesus is saying is part of His ministry. To expose darkness.

Have you ever had that experience, usually early morning, when the sun comes in just right through your window, and you see all those little dust moats floating in the air? Or that ray of sunlight falls on the floor in such a way that you realize it’s not as clean as you thought it was?

That’s what light does. Through the way He lived, sacrificially loving and serving, Jesus exposed our moral bankruptcy. But what really got Him in trouble was His preaching against sin. Jesus didn’t give Ted Talks about being polite. He didn’t just go around and tell people to be nice to each other.

He preached about sin. He put God’s moral standards on full display. He preached about God’s judgment. He taught the scriptures and corrected the pharisees self righteous misapplications in such a way that they got angry. Angry enough to kill him.

He did not sit around with the disciples and workshop different ways they could attract bigger crowds. He loves sinful people too much to not expose their sin. He loves you too much to not expose your sin.

Without His righteous light, shining through His words and His teaching, we would all be left to our own dark devices. We would be hopelessly left to stumble our way into an eternal darkness.

But He graciously shines into our world with the truth.

We are to be loving, we are to be kind, we are to pray for our enemies, and turn the other cheek. I’m not preaching against that. I’m preaching against this desire that many Christians have to be loved and accepted by the world. Being polite in the name of being respected by unbelievers will not change the culture or make disciples. We are not primarily in the being liked business, because Jesus wasn’t. We are in the light shining business.

Ephesians 5:6–14 CSB

Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things. Therefore, do not become their partners. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth—testing what is pleasing to the Lord. Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret. Everything exposed by the light is made visible, for what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

John 15:18–24 ““If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. The one who hates me also hates my Father. If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.”

Jesus was hated. He was hated for exposing sin. And we should be about His business, and we should expect the same level of hatred from the world. That’s normal Christianity.

And I know that we are all wired differently. And some of you are very excited for me to talk like this. You are naturally bent towards that aspect of Jesus ministry. The sin exposing work of Jesus is something you feel the church lacks in our day. And I agree.

Others of you are uncomfortable with that. You don’t like thinking about the fact that Jesus called out sin so much, and what goes through your mind when I speak like this are the times you were hurt by the church, or that you saw a Christian treating an unbeliever in a horrible way.

So here’s what we all need to recognize. Jesus, as the light of the world exposed sin. And, if we are to be lights in the world, we too have to expose sin. We have to expose sin through our lifestyles, and we have to expose sin through certain stands we take, and we have to expose sin by boldly answering questions that unbelievers send our way.

But we must do all this with a certain flavor. Jesus was equally tough and tender.

Here’s what I mean. The sin Jesus spent His life exposing, He went to the cross and died for.

Jesus isn’t just the beam of light that shines through your kitchen window and exposes the dirt. He is the one who personally cleans up your mess.

Get this, because I want us to be marked by this as a church. Jesus would expose sin, but He would also expose His back to the whips of the Roman soldiers on our behalf. He would expose His brow to the crown of thorns that was pressed into His head, He would expose His mutilated, broken body to the full wrath of God in our place so that we would not have to be punished for our sin.

Understand that this sin exposing Jesus wept over Jerusalem, this same Jersualem full of the very people who would angrily demand His crucifixion. This sin exposing Jesus used His final painful gasps of breath to plead for the forgiveness of those who had just tortured Him.

Understand that this sin exposing Jesus didn’t just expose your sin, but invited you to taste the grace of God, and step out of the darkness into His marvelous light.

And when you get that Jesus died for your sin after exposing it, that should affect the way you go about your sin exposing ministry in your own life.

Let’s make it real. Say you have a coworker who is in a relationship that you do not approve of. It’s outside the bounds of what God outlines in His word. And let’s say they ask you about it, and you are the one person in the office or at the job who tells them that you don’t agree, that you think it’s a sin. That would be sin exposing.

But now let’s imagine that you aren’t just the one person who tells them that you view their relationship as sinful, let’s also say that through the way you treat this person, they have come to know that you are also the one person in the office they can depend on when their car breaks down or their kid gets sick or they lose one of their parents unexpectedly.

They may hate you, but they won’t be able to deny your love for them. And that’s the flavor of a Christlike, sin exposing church and life.

As we move forward in the passage, we see, as I said, that Jesus does indeed go up to the feast. And at this popular festival, we see this range of opinions about Jesus. It says there was a lot of murmuring about Him. He was the talk of the town, and everybody had an opinion. There was no social media then, so people had to like actually speak to each other in person and share their opinions face to face. And this is what they’re doing. Some are saying He’s a good man. Some are saying He is a deceiver. But over all of the discourse there was this air of fear. People feared the Jewish leaders, they knew that to go all in with Jesus was to put yourself at odds with the religious leaders.

The Jewish leaders are opposed to Jesus, but look what they say about Him. “How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained?”

That’s similar to the point I was just making about how the world should feel about us. They may hate us, but let’s pray and live so that there is something about us that intrigues them, something holy, something divine that they cannot deny. That’s how it was with Jesus here.

Remember that in the book of John, the phrase “the Jews” refers specifically to the jewish leaders of the day. These are the people who want to kill Jesus, and they’re saying that His teaching is so insightful, so authoritative, that they can’t explain how He is speaking like this.

Jesus’ Authoritative Words

In the last section of our passage, we get a contrast between Jesus and the rabbis.

Jesus had no formal training from a Rabbi. The people were aware of this, and that made it perplexing as to how this ordinary man could speak such deep truths and have such special insight into God’s word.

Jesus didn’t need the approval of a rabbi, He didn’t need their training, because His words came straight from God Himself. Jesus was communicating God’s intended meaning for the scripture, whereas the rabbis had gotten lost in man centered, man made tradition and interpretation. That’s what He’s meaning in verse 16 by saying that the teaching isn’t His, but God’s. He’s saying: your teaching is just that, yours. My teaching is actually God’s.

His isn’t pointing out the separation between Himself and God the Father, the point is that there is a separation between Him and the Rabbis. He’s pointing out that their teaching is based on human tradition and man made ritual, whereas His teaching originates from the author Himself. He’s also pointing out that their problem isn’t just a mental problem. They aren’t just misinterpreting scripture in good faith. Their problem is a heart problem. Their sin is leading them to misinterpret and misapply scripture, and ultimately, to misrepresent God.

Notice some of the differences: Jesus seeks the glory of the Father, whereas we know the pharisees were hungry for glory for themselves. And because Jesus is seeking God’s glory, and not human approval, He has this freedom and power in what He teaches. When you prioritize God’s approval over man’s, you are free to speak God’s truth, no matter the cost.

Another difference is that the pharisees have a counterfeit, superficial spirituality that focuses on outward appearances rather than the heart. I think we see that in verse 22 and 23 where Jesus talks about how the leaders will practice circumcision even on the sabbath, but get angry when Jesus heals a man on the sabbath. Jesus is pointing out their inconsistency. And it’s an inconsistency rooted in self righteousness and superficial spirituality. They want to keep up religious appearances, they don’t actually care about people’s hearts and souls.

But Jesus isn’t like these false teachers, these wolves in sheep’s clothes.

Isaiah 11:3 “His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears,”

Let’s get the difference here. Jesus is our prophet, our priest, our rabbi and teacher. And He is not content for us to merely conform to outward religious rituals. He is not content for us to create man centered traditions that aren’t built solely on the authority of God’s word.

Jesus didn’t need to be trained by one of the rabbi’s because He was and is the ultimate rabbi. The term Rabbi was a title used for a respected teacher. Jesus says this about the Jewish leaders, the Rabbis, of His day:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 23

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do everything to be seen by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels., 6 They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people.

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ because you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 You are not to be called instructors either, because you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11

Get the contrast. Jesus is not like these teachers.

Whereas these teachers loaded people down with impossible commands and then judged them for their failures, Jesus actually comes to earth Himself, obeys the law perfectly, without one millisecond of disobedience in action or attitude. He always loved God with all of His heart, mind, and soul. He consistently and perfectly loved His neighbor as Himself. He never once gave in to lust or bitterness or greed. And, after living that perfect life, He doesn’t sit back and lecture us about how we need to be more like Him, He offers up that life in sacrifice on our behalf.

And by His grace, this teacher, this rabbi, Jesus, far from loading us down with a heavy burden, offers us to take our sin burden and give us in place of it His perfect record of righteousness.

And when we take Him up on that burden lifting great exchange, He comes to live within us by the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to obey God’s law from the heart.

This is our rabbi, this is the one we follow and give our lives to.

And if our master and teacher and Lord treats us like this, what sort of people ought we to be? We should be people who do that same thing for others. We should be the least self righteous people on earth. We should not be quick to judge based on outward appearances, like these teachers were. We should not build man made religious traditions in place of God’s clear words, like these teachers did. We should not be unwilling to help our brothers and sisters bear their burdens, like these teachers were. We should not be hungry four own glory, eager to impress others with our moral abilities. We should not seek titles or honor for ourselves, but should instead seek to serve others through our speaking the truth in love.

Can you imagine a church like that? A church with Jesus as the ultimate teacher and rabbi? A place where truth is valued, and sinners are loved, and burdens are lifted, and people are set free from sin?

It’s possible. And it’s possible because Jesus dwells in us as individual believers and makes Himself known on earth by His Spirit working through His church. Let’s go after that. Let’s make it one of our ambitions to build a church like that, by His grace, through His Spirit, so that more and more people would come to know our rabbi and savior.