God's Timing

John 7:1–12 (ESV)

Jesus at the Feast of Booths

7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11 The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 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.”

The chapter starts with the words “After this”

After what? Well, after the events in chapter 6.

Remember that in chapter 6 we talked about how the folks he was talking to had to make a decision as well: Am I a Fan or am I a Follower?

Am I in it for the experience and the thrill, and what I can get out of it?

or am I truly ready to lay down my life and be 100% all out for Him?

And we see that the majority of the people decided that they were fans and they went away.

Now it’s chapter 7. Commentators believe that the words “After this” span a time period of about 6-7 months.

We noted that the events in Chapter 6 took place around the time of the Passover which is in the Spring of the year

And now we are approaching the Feast of Tabernacles which is in our month of October.

John doesn’t record Jesus doing anything during this time, but we know that He did because the other Gospels record it.

Matthew, for example gives quite a few details about what Jesus did during this time in chapters 14-19

And it’s interesting because we see things changing for Jesus. His ministry takes on a different character, if that’s the right word.

His region of ministry changes

We see him staying almost entirely on the north side of the sea of Galilee.

At one point he goes up into the region of Tyre and Sidon. That’s where he meets the cyro-phonecian woman who wants Him to heal her daughter.

At another time He goes to the city of Ceaserea Philippi, where Peter makes that great declaration: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God

His focus of ministry changes

For the most part, gone are the huge crowds that were thronging after him in John 6

Instead, We see Him being a lot more intent on teaching His disciples

He tells parables to them and explains the meanings

He takes 3 up on a mountain and is transfigured before their very eyes.

There are still moments when he is public in His ministry, but His small group of disciples get a lot of His attention

Which is what He is about anyway right? He is about discipleship

Anybody can draw a crowd if you are good enough and flashy enough, you can draw a crowd

Donald Trump can draw a crowd. But is he a disciple maker?

But not everyone can make disciples. And that is the unique and powerful calling of Christ followers: to make disciples

I could go off to preaching school and learn how to deliver a flashy 3-point sermon and learn rhetoric that would draw crowds and possibly see this church bursting at the seams

That doesn’t make me a disciple maker

Jesus, during this period focused on what was truly important: not drawing the crowds, but making disciples out of his tiny band of followers

His vision changes

The reason that Jesus is changing his region of ministry and His focus of ministry is that His mission on earth is very nearly at an end

As we come to John chapter 7, He has roughly 6 months left on this earth

Jesus brings the message of the Good News of the Kingdom to the people outside of the regions of Judea and Galilee

And He focuses on honing his tiny group of followers.

And it is a tiny group. On the day of Pentecost, how many people took the time to gather together? About 120 people

Matthew says that it was during this time that Jesus began to talk to the disciples about his impending death

This was a huge shock to them

Peter reacts out of fear and sadness; “Far be it from you Lord! This will never happen to you!

And receives a sharp rebuke from the Lord

And Jesus takes this time to tell them of the great cost involved in following HIm.

And that brings us up to the beginning of chapter 7

It is time for the feast of tabernacles.

My understanding is that this was a joyful time for them and still is for the Jews.

It was a feast in which they remembered the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

They would make little dwellings with leafy ceilings and for a week, they would live in these little tabernacles or booths.

And at night, they could lie in there and see the sky and tell their children about how the Lord was with them for 40 years in the wilderness.

This was one feast that Jewish men were not to miss.

Of course the brothers of Jesus are going as all good Jewish men would.

And naturally they would assume that Jesus is going too

And they say to Him, (my words) “Jesus, if you are really the Messiah, what better time to let the world know it than at feast time. All the known Jewish world will be represented there. You can put yourself on display and do all kinds of great things. You can get the following there that you need for your revolution! One thing’s for sure, you can’t stay up here in Galilee! This is back-woods Palestine.”

All this said in scorn because, as the text says, and as we noted last Sunday, they didn’t yet believe in Him.

They expect that Jesus is going to join the caravan which is going

Remember how in Luke 2, when Jesus was 12 and his parents took him to the Passover Feast.

And when they were returning home, they couldn’t find him because He was in the temple teaching. And they didn’t discover it because they though He was somewhere in the group!

It was normal for these large groups to go to the feasts together.

And wouldn’t this be perfect! Jesus can arrive in Jerusalem with pomp and fanfare in a huge group, lot’s of attention.

How Jesus responds and what He says are so important.

He say’s “My time hasn’t come yet”

This echoes something that he told his mother in Cana when she wanted him to do something about the wine situation at the wedding. He said, “Woman, my time hasn’t come yet.”

It strikes me how much of what Jesus says in here has to do with timing.

My time has not yet come (vs. 6

My time has not yet fully come (vs. 8)

He started teaching about the middle of the feast

No one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come (vs. 30)

“I will be with you a little longer and then I’m going to Him who sent me”. (vs. 33)

Jesus is on a mission and He is conscious of the passing time...

There are some things that I see about Jesus sense of timing

God’s timing is specific, The world’s timing is general “whenever”

My time has not yet come.

My time has not yet fully come

Your time is always here.

Jesus said to them that it’s really not important when you do what you want to do. Why?

Because they were on their own timetable. They were not Believers. They weren’t followers.

Their priorities were not for the things of God

God’s timing is His alone. Sometimes it’s a mystery

God does His work in the perfect time, not always when it makes sense to everyone else

It would have made sense in my way of thinking for Jesus to go to the feast when it started. Not, 3 days late.

But that wasn’t His time.

What is God’s timing for our lives? For us here at Fairview?

There are ideas that I have about ministry and things that we can do here at Fairview. But what is God’s timing?

What makes sense to me really might not be part of what God wants for us. Or it just might not be the right time.

Jesus said, “My time has not fully come” vs. 8. We know that He went, but He delayed going for a few days

And then when He did go, it was in secret. I believe that His disciples were with Him but that was probably it.

He didn’t travel with the large group. He didn’t arrive with pomp and fanfare.

We tend to thiink that our God is great! He needs to be shouted from the rooftops. We need to be as vocal and visible as possible with the message of the Gospel

And that’s true sometimes

But sometimes God doesn’t work that way. Rather, His Kingdom is like the mustard seed or the bit of leaven which starts small, and secretly.

But the end result reflects God in all His glory and is exactly what He wants.

Again this is not a concept that is well understood by the world

God’s timing often results in hate from the world

Jesus did not have a “poor me” complex.

But He was realistic about His mission and the response of people

As we noted last Sunday, Jesus didn’t mince words and he called people out in their hypocrisy.

And He says in verse 7, “The world hates me because I testify that their ways are evil”.

Jesus never spoke out of turn or said things that weren’t meant to be said.

Yet, He was hated by the world

Jesus acted in accordance with The Father’s timing

Yet, he was misunderstood and hated by the world