John 7:1-13 Sermon

Introduction

Last week, we finished going through John chapter 6.

From the miracle of feeding over 5000 people and many following Him to many who then grumbled and left Him, (because of what He said about Himself) we saw that Jesus spoke in a way that did not cater to the carnal.

The carnal meaning those who did not believe.

Chapter 6 took place at the time of the passover and He spoke in ways that they could not understand.

He spoke of His flesh being true bread that if eaten would give eternal life.

And because many did not believe, their lack of faith in Christ caused them to leave Him. Proving that they were never believers in the first place.

But for those who remained, Peter said in ,

John 6:68–69 ESV

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

John 6:68 ESV

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,

John chapter 6 was mainly a display of two things.

First, the heart of man was exposed.

The heart of man apart from the work of God in it to believe, could not understand the things of God.

The heart of man apart from faith could only seek after things that have no eternal worth and significance.

The heart of man apart from hearing and learning from God could not hear Jesus nor learn from Him.

It was clear in chapter 6 that the unbelieving heart could not see Jesus as who He said He was.

Second, Jesus was revealed as the object of belief.

Believing in who Jesus is, saves.

Works in themselves were not the object of faith

Works in themselves were not the object of faith.

Jesus is the object of faith and those who believe in Him would be kept and none would be lost.

When one believes in Jesus Christ they will remain

Chapter 6 solidified the truth of Jesus being the object of faith needed to save those who are in need of forgiveness. And those who have faith are preserved and raised on the last day.

And those who have faith are preserved and raised on the last day.

John 6:37–39 ESV

37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

We are secure and sealed in Christ Jesus. And no one can snatch us out of His hands. And we can never come to the Son unless it is granted to us by the Father.

And we can never come to the Son unless it is granted to us by the Father.

Jesus in revealing Himself as the bread showed the desperate condition of man that needs saving and it showed that a genuine believer does not need the bread of this world.

We live in a taste testing world.

There is a sense that we can try anything with all the options in front of us.

But once one has come to saving faith in Christ, there no longer is a need for anything else.

Going into chapter 7 now, we see Jesus remaining in Galilee and again showing us another facet of belief in Him that we need to be reminded of.

Outline

1. The Setting (v.1-2)

2. The Ill Advice (v.3-5)

3. Jesus’ Response (v.6-9)

1. The Setting (v.1-2)

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

For reasons as to why there were those who wanted to kill Jesus, you can go to John chapter 5, which happened in Judea.

In ,

John 5:18 ESV

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Galilee was north from where Judea was and Jesus remained there instead of traveling south to where his brothers wanted Him to go and where people wanted to kill Him.

In chapter 6, He was in a synagogue in Capernaum. Which was where the Jews worshipped, fellowshipped and heard the Scriptures being taught.

And from there He was then traveling and walking in Galilee. This taking place at the time of the Feast of Booths.

And this took place at the time of the Feast of Booths.

Verse 2 Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand.

The Westminster Bible Dictionary Tabernacles, The Feast of

Tabernacles, The Feast of, called also “the feast of ingathering” (Ex. 23:16), was the third of the three great festivals of the Hebrews, which lasted from the fifteenth till the twenty-second of Tisri. The time of the festival fell in the autumn, when the whole of the chief fruits of the ground, the corn, the wine and the oil, had been gathered in (Lev. 23:39; Deut. 16:13–15). Its duration was seven days strictly (Deut. 16:13; Ezek. 45:25). During these days the Israelites were commanded to dwell in booths or huts formed of the boughs of trees (Lev. 23:40–43). The feast of tabernacles was to be at once a thanksgiving for the harvest and a commemoration of the time when the Israelites dwelt in tents during their passage through the wilderness.

The Feast of Booths, or what is also called, “The Feast of Tabernacles, was the third of the three great festivals of God’s people.

It lasted for seven days and it was celebrated in autumn.

Tabernacles, The Feast of, called also “the feast of ingathering” (), was the third of the three great festivals of the Hebrews, which lasted from the fifteenth till the twenty-second of Tisri. The time of the festival fell in the autumn, when the whole of the chief fruits of the ground, the corn, the wine and the oil, had been gathered in (; ). Its duration was seven days strictly (; ). During these days the Israelites were commanded to dwell in booths or huts formed of the boughs of trees (). The feast of tabernacles was to be at once a thanksgiving for the harvest and a commemoration of the time when the Israelites dwelt in tents during their passage through the wilderness.

In fact it was celebrated in the month we are in which is October.

During the feast, the Israelites were commanded to dwell in booths or huts formed of large branches from trees. You can find this in .

This celebration was done to celebrate the harvest and it commemorated the time when the Israelites dwelt in tents during their passage through the wilderness. Which happened of course after the Passover.

when the whole of the chief fruits of the ground, the corn, the wine and the oil, had been gathered in (; ). Its duration was seven days strictly (; ). During these days the Israelites were commanded to dwell in booths or huts formed of the boughs of trees (). The feast of tabernacles was to be at once a thanksgiving for the harvest and a commemoration of the time when the Israelites dwelt in tents during their passage through the wilderness.

Which happened of course after the Passover.

Jesus was walking about in Galilee and He decided not to go to Judea because of the people there that wanted to kill Him.

He decided not to go to Judea because of the people there that wanted to kill Him and this took place at the time of the feast of booths.

Next, we see the brothers of Jesus telling Him to go to where He didn’t want to go.

They tried to advise Jesus something that was not good to do.

2. The Ill Advice (v.3-5)

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

First, we should address the fact that Jesus had brothers.

Roman Catholicism teaches that He did not have siblings.

But according to Scripture, Jesus had four brothers which we see in .

We see this in .

Matthew 13:55 ESV

55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

It’s important to note that His brother Judas was not Judas the betrayer.

He had four brothers and they were the ones asking Him to go to Judea.

The reason for them telling Him this is found in verse 3.

John 7:3 ESV

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

The reason for them asking Jesus this is telling.

They asked Jesus to go to where people wanted to kill Him which was not a good idea!

We see why they told Him to go there. It was so that He could show His disciples the works He was doing.

Question: Why was this foolish?

Answer: It was foolish because Jesus had already done signs.

Jesus, in the gospel of John, would do 6 miracles in Jerusalem.

Jesus had already performed miracles in front of not only the 12 disciples but He did them in front of crowds and the many disciples that left Him in the previous chapter.

They thought that with performing miracles, people could know who Jesus was.

We know that this was not the case. Especially with unbelief still found in many even after Jesus had done what He did in the previous chapters.

We have to remember and learn that there is a distinction between miracles and the Christ.

You might be thinking that this is a given. Like, who would confuse the two?

Well, the unbeliever does. We see this in the gospel of John.

They are constantly asking for signs while the greatest of the signs stood right in front of them.

A miracle according to The Lexham Bible Dictionary,

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Miracle

MIRACLE (δύναμις, dynamis). An event that defies common expectations of behavior and subsequently is attributed to a superhuman agent; an occurrence that demonstrates God’s involvement in the course of human affairs.

Is “an event that defies common expectations of behavior and subsequently is attributed to a superhuman agent; an occurrence that demonstrates God’s involvement in the course of human affairs.”

A miracle is an event that shows the power of God over nature and common occurences.

Miracles demonstrate the power of God but it is not meant to be the agent in changing the heart that needs saving.

Jesus Christ is a person who was Himself, God. And He came in the flesh to live a sinless life, to die and to resurrect. So that those who would believe in Him would have eternal life. By grace through faith in Him.

Miracles and Jesus Christ are not the same. But many have made them the same when it comes to the desire to see people changed.

This is what His brothers thought which proved where their hearts were.

Not only did they want Jesus to do the works so that people can see, they thought that Jesus could be known by the works that He did.

They said in verse 4,

Read Verse 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world."

But what they couldn’t see was that Jesus had already done signs.

He did do works openly and He spoke of Himself as the object of faith.

But in response to Him doing this in chapter 6, people argued, complained and grumbled.

Jesus in calling Himself the answer for the world was rejected and left by many who called themselves disciples.

He did works openly and people only saw the bread that fed their physical hunger.

He spoke of Himself as the bread that came down from heaven but they argued and grumbled.

Question: So why didn’t even His own brothers see this?

Answer: Read verse 5.

Read Verse 5 For not even his brothers believed in him.

This highlights a very crucial point about belief.

After Jesus had performed all the miracles He did, and after Jesus said all that He said about Himself, His own brothers did not believe.

After Jesus said all that He said about Himself

Being that close to Him. Being born from the same mother and raised in the same house, they were still without saving faith.

I wanted to not how encouraging this is!

After Jesus

Question: Why is this encouraging?

Answer: Saving faith happens only by the work of God, not miracles, signs or heritage.

It doesn’t come from being born into a Christian family

It doesn’t come from being born in a privileged home

It doesn’t come from traditions or knowledge of facts and information in the Scriptures

It doesn’t come from miracles, signs and wonders

It doesn’t come from the world

Saving faith only comes from the work of God by grace through faith.

This is good news!

God does not consider your birthright, place of birth, origins, family, privileges, challenges, location, works, nationality, color, culture or knowledge.

God chooses only by grace and His from His sovereign will.

He doesn’t look at your background. He only acts upon His sovereign will to save!

So, even if you were the brother of Jesus Christ, apart from grace, you could’t be saved!

No matter your past or what you have done, God can save you no matter the crime or how evil you were.

This gives anyone hope to be saved when genuine faith is found in Christ.

That is why we cannot look at someone's past or their current challenges.

He can save anyone as He has done with us here today.

The brothers of Jesus believed that He should be known openly through His works.

But Jesus said in ,

John 6:65 ESV

65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

“no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

He said in ,

John 6:29 ESV

29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

“the work of God is that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

You can’t believe unless it is granted.

And as we have already seen, belief is granted, with no consideration to anything in your life.

Thankfully, for many of us this is good news.

It upon God’s timing and grace that He saves. And we have only prayer and trust in the work that He does today in the hearts of people.

In His response, Jesus goes on to explain exactly why He chose not to do what they had advised.

3. Jesus’ Response (v.6-9)

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

Two things in verse 6.

First, Jesus said “my time has not yet come.”

This is speaking of Him being glorified on the cross and in His resurrection. An example of this can be found later in .

John 12:23 ESV

23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

This is speaking of His death and resurrection according to the following verses after .

The hour for Jesus to be lifted up had not come. So He refrained from being killed because it was not time yet.

God had a time fixed for that and it would be on a cross.

We have to remember that Jesus was on divine time.

God was in sovereign control over the hour that was set for His Son die and resurrect.

In fact, later in this chapter in verse 30,

John 7:30 ESV

30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

God was sovereign over His mission.

We see this also in chapter 8 verse 20,

John 8:20 ESV

20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

Acts 4:27–28 ESV

27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

God was orchestrating the timely death of His Son according to His time not ours. And Jesus submitted to this in His humanity.

And Jesus submitted to this in His humanity.

So to ask Him to do anything that would conflict with the mission and timing given to Him by the Father would be of course rejected.

The second thing to see in verse 6 He said, “but your time is always here.

It can be literally read“your time is always ready.”

A Handbook on the Gospel of John John 7:6

Any time is right for you is literally “your time is always ready.” Time is the same word translated right time in the first part of this verse; NAB renders this part of the verse “the time is always right for you”; NEB “any time is right for you.” The impact of this verse is to indicate that Jesus’ mission is determined by divine decree, but that his brothers can go to Jerusalem at any time, since it makes no difference when they go or do not go.

Another translation says “the time is always right for you” or “any time is right for you.”

In contrast to divine timing from the Father, this was in reference to His brothers being able at anytime to go to as they will which included going to Jerusalem.

But Jesus, because of the divine decree from the Father, remained there. He couldn’t go to where they wanted because God the Father had already fixed a time for Christ to die.

It was not His time to be glorified on the cross and in His resurrection.

This again highlights the perfect submission of Christ!

John 5:30 ESV

30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Jesus would go on to explain the difference between having faith and not having it.

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

When Jesus said, “The world cannot hate you,” it proved that they did not have faith.

The world cannot hate those without faith because those without faith are in and of the world. Meaning that the world’s hatred of Christ cannot be something that those without faith in Him can experience.

They are in darkness because of unbelief. Making them of the world.

The world cannot hate those who believe that signs can cause belief

This is evil because it holds to believe apart from Jesus Christ

The world cannot hate those who seek signs

This is evil because they seek something apart from seeking Christ

The world cannot hate those who do not speak of their works as evil

This is what we call deception because the world cannot see that their works which includes “good things to do” are done with no glory ascribed to God

Those of the world wouldn’t say that about the works they do apart from faith in Christ

The world hates Jesus because He testifies that their works are evil. Which includes the works that the world deems as good. Which would be offensive.

In ,

John 3:19–21 ESV

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 3:19 ESV

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Everyone who does wicked things hates the light (the light which is Christ) and they do not come to the light, lest their works should be exposed.

The world hates Jesus because He exposes their sinful condition before a holy God. And it reveals their condemnation.

Those without belief are in darkness. So the world cannot hate them because they themselves are the world that hates God and who’s works are evil because they do works apart from belief in Christ.

Question: Why is Jesus saying this in our text?

He is exposing their unbelief.

Their unbelieving heart proves that God had not worked in them to believe.

Apart from the work of Christ, we are left with our own works which only leaves us with unbelief and works that cannot be considered good.

He is saying this to His own brothers because they did not understand the mission that He was on. That is why they couldn’t see that telling Him to go to Judea was a bad idea.

He was to be glorified on the cross and in His resurrection. Which is the sign of Jonah and the only sign He would give to those in need of salvation.

We se

Jesus was on divine timing. And He would not do what the Father had not led Him to do.

He was in perfect submission to the Father’s will.

He didn’t go to Judea and in verse 8 He told His brothers,

Read Verse 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come."

Read Verse 9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

According to , it was when the fullness of time had come that God would send His Son.

His brothers did have the knowledge of this timing. And one of the evidences of this was a lack of genuine belief.

Instead of advising Jesus to do signs so that He would be known, they would have simply trusted that He knew what the Father’s will was.

We are not called to seek God for signs but to trust Him for the things we request whether He gives us what we have requested or not.

Jesus, being our perfect example, shows us that we should trust and obey God. To be about His timing and not ours or others.

People will always have opinions and advice to give.

But we must not govern ourselves according to what others think we should do.

We should govern our lives by God’s revealed will in Holy Scripture.

. We are called to be governed by God and by His divine time.

Even after Jesus doing all that He did, we see people still conflicted about Him in verses 10-13.

4. The People (v.10-13)

Read Verse 10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.

Jesus did end up going to the feast. But He did so privately.

It was good that He did this privately because of verse 11.

Read Verse 11 The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, "Where is he?"

In verse 12, we see the people muttering. Meaning that they were again, grumbling and complaining.

Read Verse 12 And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, "He is a good man," others said, "No, he is leading the people astray."

Read Verse 13 Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

There was much muttering about Him.

Meaning there was much complaining and grumbling.

33.382 γογγύζω; γογγυσμός, οῦ m: to express one’s discontent—‘to complain, to grumble, complaint.’

γογγύζω: ἐγόγγυζον οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι περὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτι εἶπεν ‘the Jews started complaining about him because he said …’ .

There were two things that they said which showed the division among the people there.

γογγυσμός: ἐγένετο γογγυσμὸς τῶν Ελληνιστῶν πρὸς τοὺς Εβραίους ‘a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews against the native Jews’ . In a number of languages it may be necessary to restructure ‘complaint’ as a verb rather than as a noun, and therefore this expression in may be rendered as ‘Greek-speaking Jews complained against what the local Jews were doing.’

First, He was a good man.

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 431.

Second, He is leading people astray.

Notice that both do not include what was most important about Jesus.

John 20:31 ESV

31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

They do not include Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.

Which is what they needed to believe in order to have eternal life.

Both responses were not accurate about Him.

To only call Him a good man was to miss entirely who He was.

In fact Jesus made a correction in Luke 18.

Luke 18:18–19 ESV

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

This didn’t mean that Jesus was bad or sinful. But He was showing His humility and total submission to the glory of the Father. Which is exactly what they didn’t see in our text!

To call Him only a good man is to deny Him as sent by the Father and as the Christ. Which proves that you have yet to believe.

To call Him a deceiver is to also prove your own condemnation.

Calling Him a deceiver is to deny Him as sent by the Father and as the Christ. Which proves that you have yet to believe and that you are set to destruction.

But to believe Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, by believing this we have life in his name.

There are only two options.

C.S. Lewis said,

One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.

Question: Do you believe?

Either one believes that Jesus is the Son of God sent by the Father or one believes Him to be only a good man or a deceiver.

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

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