The Bushel Of Familiarity | John 7:1-10

Opening Remarks:

Turn to Matthew 5 and John 7.

We’re going to read a few verses from Matthew 5, and then go to John 7.

READ Matthew 5:14–16

These are the theme verses for the Youth Conference this year. Jesus said, “You ARE the light of the world.” If we know the Lord, we shine like lights in darkness. God is Light, the world is darkness, and Jesus says it is believers that provide light.

But notice what verse 15 says, “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel.”

A light isn’t supposed to be hidden. It’s supposed to be visible, or else what good is it?

So Jesus says, “Let your light shine that they may see your good works and glorify your Father.”

How many of you are believers?

Your life is supposed to reflect the holiness of God. Your works and your speech and your attitudes are supposed to be such that people look at you and say, “There’s something different about them.”

Your social media posts should reflect your Father.

Your conversations with your friends should reflect God’s holiness.

Your attitude toward your parents should reflect Jesus Christ.

Here’s the problem: As believers, we all have bushels that hide our light.

You’re supposed to shine, but it’s easy to allow things in our lives that keep it from happening.

Lord willing, at least for tonight, we’ll be dealing with a Bushel that prevents the light of Christian teenagers from shining.

John 7 is about people who were very familiar with Jesus. But being familiar with Jesus didn’t mean they were right with Jesus.

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Vs. 5 - Being familiar with Jesus isn’t the same as believing in Jesus.

Most of the young people in this room are familiar with Jesus. You know the Bible stories. You know how to act in church. But the reason your light isn’t shining isn’t because familiarity doesn’t equal faith.

PRAY

Introduction: It is said that familiarity breeds contempt, meaning, the more familiar you are with something the less you appreciate it.

Illustration: How many of you noticed the mountains today? I live in South Dakota, we don’t have mountains around where I live. Guess what I have been looking at ever since I landed? The mountains. The reason you don’t really notice them is because of the idea that familiarity breeds contempt.

This can happen with people too.

How many of you have siblings? You’ll understand what I’m about to say…

I have a sister, but we had a love/hate relationship growing up. When I say “Love,” I mean I “Loved” it when she wasn’t around. My sister was mean…borderline abusive. She’s 5’ and weighs about 100 pounds, but I’m still scared of her. The little ones are the scariest.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my sister…now. We get along well…now. But when I was young, familiarity breeds contempt.

We tend to take those we’re most familiar with for granted.

Believe it or not, this happened to Jesus. Not that He ever did anything to deserve it, but His siblings took Him for granted. Mark 6:3 tells us he had at least four brothers and it says “sisters” (plural), so He had at least six siblings, which means their family was homeschooled and missionaries.

Can you imagine having Jesus as brother?

Some of you have that perfect sibling that does everything well. How many of you have a sibling that is clearly your parents’ favorite? Isn’t that annoying? Maybe you have a younger sibling and everyone thinks they’re so cute and lovable. When you were young, you’d get in trouble for every little thing, but your younger sibling could burn down the house and your parents would say, “Weren’t those the prettiest flames!?!”

So now imagine having a brother that IS perfect. That was the challenge for Jesus’ siblings.

He’d never sinned. He never talked back. He always obeyed. He succeeded at everything He tried. Then He grew up and performed miracles. He was literally the perfect Son.

And if anyone should have known, “This is the Son of God!” it was His siblings. But here they are in John 7 and they don’t believe He’s the Savior. Familiarity, yes. Faith, no.

Look at the signs of Familiarity:

I. They Were Too Comfortable With Jesus – vs. 3

Jesus’ brothers had no problem telling Him what to do.

They say, “Hey, listen to us. We know about life. If you are God, you need to go to Jerusalem and show people what you can do.” These are Jesus’ brothers saying to the Creator of the Universe, “Let us tell you about life.”

Illustration: Can you imagine a 7th grader telling Pastor Herring, “Listen, Deano, when you want some advice on how to better prepare sermons, give me a call.”

How foolish. But that’s the impact of familiarity. It breeds contempt.

I hate the way some teens talk to their parents. The disrespect. The arguing. They are way too comfortable with their parents, who they ought to respect as their authorities.

Your authorities represent God in your life. Perfect or not, you are obligated to respect and honor them. Your treatment of your authorities is an indication of your view of God.

Christ is your Creator. He’s your Redeemer, which means He bought you. And if He paid for your life, He owns you.

You may be 17 or 18 and you know a lot but your best life is not when you wave God off and say, “I got this.” Your only hope for a decent life is to live in submission to God as your Creator and Savior.

Familiarity can cause us to forget that Christ is our Master. He’s our King. He is Creator. His timing is better than ours. His plans are superior to ours. He sees the future and knows what we need. Stop telling God what to do!

Young person, Jesus isn’t your buddy. He’s your King. Your Master. He’s God and you’re not.

You would never tell your doctor how to treat you.

You would never tell a firefighter where to point the hose.

You would never tell a pilot how to land a plane.

But some of you are so comfortable with God that you have waved Him off and are living how you want to live.

That never ends well:

Young man rebelling, met with him and dad, sat in my office and said, “I don’t want your life. I want to do my own thing.” Today? Divorced. Not in church. Miserable. Thought he knew better than God. God doesn’t take it lightly when we wave off authority.

He knew all about the Christian life, but it wasn’t real for him.

There’s another sign of Familiarity:

II. They Were Too Curious About The World – Vs. 3-4

At this point in His ministry, Jesus has been losing followers because He’d been preaching some difficult truths.

So his brothers tell Him, “Hey, everyone’s going to be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. You need to go and clean up your image. You can regain some followers if you’ll go to Jerusalem and prove you’re the Messiah.”

Vs. 4b – Jesus’ brothers wanted the world’s approval. They wanted Him to be accepted by the world.

This can happen to us. Some of you are really consumed with the world.

What’s trending, what’s popular, the latest songs, but newest styles.

Maybe you have friends at school or you have cousins that get to do a lot more than you do. Your parents are super-strict and you just want to see if the world is as fun as it looks. So you scroll social media accounts you shouldn’t and listen to the latest songs when your parents aren’t around.

I’ve seen this before. Chandler telling a friend, “When I turn 18 I’m just going to try the world for a little bit to see what it’s like.”

Maybe you wouldn’t say that out loud, but it’s in your heart. You’ve tried Jesus. You’re familiar with Him. The luster is gone. You’re used to all this. But you’re curious about what is out there.

You wonder what it would be like to live that way, go to those concerts, dress like them, go to those parties. And your curiosity has created a sort of resentment over the life you’ve been forced to live, like you’re missing out.

Let me just remind that the Bible says in Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death.”

I can tell you, “They’re not having as much fun as you think.” It’s looks fun and sounds fun, but man’s ways never end well.

Alcohol leads to fatal accidents and liver disease.

Pornography ruins your mind’s ability to make rational decisions.

Parties get busted.

Pre-marital sex leads to disease and unplanned pregnancies.

Any time God is left out of our plans it always ends badly.

And here in John 7, to further makes the case, the crowd that Jesus’ brothers were so consumed with impressing are the same one that would crucify Him 6 months later.

Why would you want to live to please the crowd that hates your God?

Jesus brother’s were so familiar with Jesus that they were:

Too Comfortable With Him, Too Curious About The World, and…

III. They Were Too Complacent To Make A Difference

Jesus tells them something interesting in vs. 7. “The world cannot hate you.”

What He was saying is, “You’re no different than the world, so you’re at no risk to make a difference.”

You have to be different to make a difference. Jesus says, “The world hates me because I tell it the truth.”

Jesus called out the world’s sins. He was making a difference.

But His brothers were at no risk of being hated because they were trying to fit in.

You know what Jesus was saying? “You have a bushel that is hiding your light.”

Some of you have been doing the Christian thing your whole life. And it no longer excites you. I know you can get excited.

You get excited about winning a game.

You get excited about candy.

You get excited when the new version of your favorite video game drops.

But when’s the last time you were moved about God?

Jesus say to us like He said to His brothers, “You’re so complacent that you’re in no danger of making a difference.”

Illustration: Carrying Olivia on my shoulders and being worried about hitting her head on the door frame. I was ducking and my wife was like “You have nothing to worry about.”

Too many teens have “nothing to worry about” when it comes to making a difference for Christ.

You’re so accustomed to the Christian life that you’ve lost all urgency and all excitement.

Young people used to flood the altars at camp. Now, I’m wondering where are the young people excited about God?

Where are the young people taking their Bibles to school and praying over lunch?

Where are the teenagers talking to people about Jesus Christ on Saturdays?

Where are the young people surrendering to give their lives to God?

Where are the young men saying, “I’ll preach the Gospel if God could use me!”

Where are the young ladies saying, “I’ll do whatever you want me to, God!”

Where are the teenagers making the commitment to walk with God and read their Bibles?

We’ve become so comfortable with Jesus Christ that we’ve stopped taking risks.

Our familiarity has become a bushel. We’re complacent.

Teenager, Familiarity Doesn’t Equal Faith.

Illustration: Ask a Lebron James fan to stand up

You may know a lot about Lebron James, but that doesn’t mean you know Lebron James.

How tall is he?

Where did he go to college?

Who drafted him when he first came into the league?

How many times does he flop every game?

Just because you know about Lebron doesn’t mean you know Lebron.

But the same is true with Jesus. Just because you can win sword drills and quote verses doesn’t mean you know the Lord.

Here’s how Christ put it:

Matthew 7:21, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? in thy name cast out devils? in thy name done many wonderful works?”

Matthew 7:23 “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Jesus says, “There are many that claim to know me, but the truth is I don’t know them.”

They’re familiar. But they don’t have faith.

Applications

1. It could be that you’ve never met Jesus Christ.

If you were to die tonight, would you spend eternity in Heaven or Hell?

I believe we’ll be surprised at the number of people who wear the Christian label here but will hear Christ say, “I never knew you.”

If you’ve never acknowledged your sin and placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you might be familiar, but you don’t have faith.

Jesus isn’t just someone you can know about. He’s Someone you can know.

You stand guilty before God with no hope outside of Jesus Christ. Would you place your faith in Him tonight?

Familiarity isn’t good enough. Trivia won’t get you into Heaven. Sword Drills won’t either. It takes faith.

This is for everybody, church kids and not church kids. We all have the same need. We’re sinners before God and He died to save us from those sins.

I like what Jesus said in John 7:6 “My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.”

They wanted to Jesus to work on their timetable, but He said, “I have my plans. All you need to worry about is submitting to me.”

It’s always the right time to submit to God. Now’s the Time.

2. To the Christian young person, if you want to have a light that shines, you need to turn your familiarity with Jesus into faith in Jesus.

I’ve been a church kid my whole life. I’ve been around church kids my whole life. I’ve raised them.

You can have all the knowledge of God that you want and not have a relationship with Him.

You know the facts, but there’s no fellowship.

You go days on end without walking with God.

You turn your brain off when the preaching begins.

Can you answer Bible trivia? Sure.

Do you go to church? Absolutely.

Are you involved in youth group? Of course.

Those things point to familiarity, but they don’t automatically point to faith. So Now’s the Time:

Now’s the time to walk with God.

Read your Bible.

Get that secret sin right and have victory.

Now’s the time to make things right with your parents.

Get serious about serving the Lord.

Be all in with the youth group.

Get rid of the bushel of familiarity so your light can shine

How to turn familiarity into faith:

Get rid of the darkness (confess sins)

Walk in the light (the Word)

Engage Jesus as a person

Illustration: Married, every day read a list about wife instead of hanging out with her. The real thing is better.

The reason your light isn’t shining is if theres no Son, there’s no light.