There's One In Every Family

John 7:1–9 (NIV)

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him.

But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near,

Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do.

No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”

For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.

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

You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”

After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

Introduction

I want to ask you a question, but before I do that, I need to set it up.

There are certain things that you see or hear that give you WAYYYY more information than what is only being said or heard.

Like, if you ever heard your friend say this one thing to their parents, it would let you know what the climate is in this house. You hear this one time, and you just know what this friend of yours is able to get away with in the house.

Now we aren’t judging, but we are.

So are you ready for it? Here’s the question.

How many of you, when your Mom called your name, your only acceptable answer, the only way you could respond and not catch some hands was, “Yes, Mom?”

Raise your hand.

Now, how many of you, by the grace of God, were the type of kid, and you somehow are alive today to tell the story, who responded with a “What?”

Raise your hand. Loud and proud in the tent this morning.

In my house, I wasn’t allowed to say, “what” to my parents. If I wanted to get fed, if I wanted to play with my friends, if I wanted to make it out of elementary school, there was only one way to respond, and that was with a “yes.”

How many of you have ever heard a kid say, “what?”

You and I know that you already passed A LOT OF JUDGEMENT.

You are thinking,

This is the kind of kid who gets options at dinner

This is the kind of kid that is allowed to come home from school and not eat his lunch

This is the kind of kid that has a time out chair

You know it’s true! If a kid says, “what” to his Mom and lives, he’s for sure living in an alternate universe.

Why? Because we were taught that this is not the appropriate way to talk to your Mother.

Transition

And I want to look at some of this, because Jesus’ brothers talked to him in a very similar sort of way. So let’s dive in!

The Text

We are taking it back to John’s gospel today and I want to explore this relationship between Jesus, and his brothers, and specifically James.

Everyone say James.

The reason I am focusing on James is becuase we have been looking at the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection. Every time Jesus appeared, not only do we get the story, but there’s a principle we can apply.

The first one we talked about was God’s power to transform us, from the story of the two men walking on the road to Emmaus.

Last week we talked about living confidently in Christ through the story of Jesus meeting the disciples, and specifically Peter, at the Sea of Galilee when they returned to fishing.

Today I want to talk about the significance of Jesus’ appearance to his brother James, but we are going to take the scenic route to get there.

John 7

Now I don’t know how your bible reads when you look at the header of John 7, but my bible reads like this:

“THE DISBELIEF OF JESUS’ BROTHERS”

Wow. Talk about you having your brother’s back.

So, we read this after Jesus has already done the following, as recorded by John’s gospel:

Jesus has already turned water to wine

Jesus healed a nobleman’s son

He has healed the paralytic man at the Pool of Bethesda

He had fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread, and two fish

And finally, Jesus has walked on the Sea

Now these are just the recorded miracles that Jesus did. John’s writing implies in other places that there were MORE miracles that Jesus did, he just didn’t write them in.

So this has all happened before we get to this family feud in chapter 7. And I think it’s so appropriate that we are talking about family feuds on Mother’s Day. Because this is the ONE DAY all year long that families are not allowed to fight. You can fight on Father’s Day, but you certainly cannot be acting the fool on Mother’s Day.

So, in spite of all of those miracles, Jesus’ brothers got real salty with him. What happened?

Here’s what happened in John 6. Jesus drops a bombshell teaching on manna, communion, and eternity. It was such a hard teaching that John records that MANY DISCIPLES FALL AWAY. Many people walked away from following Jesus on that day. It would take me a long time to explain what all of this meant, but let me give you the Cliff Notes...

Jesus was now starting to say to them, I am the Son of God. I am the Christ. I am the Messiah.

We get this understanding based off of this verse right here,

John 6:67–69 NIV

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Someone say CONTEXT… we need all of that in order to make sense of John 7. Here’s what happens in John 7… Jesus’ brothers tell him you need to leave.

Wait, what? Hold on a minute… did they really just say that?

John 7:3 NIV

Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do.

Here’s what I believe was happening in the middle of this family fight.

James and the rest of the brothers could accept Jesus as a Rabbi. They could accept Jesus as a Prophet. They could accept Jesus as a Healer.

But the Messiah? The Savior of Israel? The one who would restore their Kingdom?

No sir. We don’t believe THAT.

Why?

Familiarity

Jesus’ brothers could not receive him as the Messiah becuase of Familiarity.

Here’s what familiarity will cause you to do:

It will cause you to take something that should be special, and treat it as common.

Now before you pass judgment, we all have the propensity to do that. We all have our moments when we get overly familiar with what God is doing in our life. God will show up and do incredible things for us, and to us, and we don’t always stop to see the miracles that God is doing for us.

Why? Familiarity.

Church, you are going to be fighting this battle of familiarity now all of your life. The closer you get to God, and the more you see him work in your life, you will get to a place where you just start seeing it as ordinary.

And to his brothers, Jesus was ordinary. Sure, he could see the works he did, but he wasn’t the Messiah!

Fighting the Ordinary

So what does it take to see the extraordinary?

Well, it’s going to take what it took for James, revelation.

Revelation is God’s way of showing himself to you beyond his written word.

He is the God who reveals himself.

Revelation may sound like a loaded word, but it really isn’t. It’s actually very simple. Revelation is us turning towards something that always existed, but was not within our sight.

It is not creation, becuase it was always there.

Because God has always been here, and you couldn’t see him, he will uses circumstances or events in your life to open your eyes to his presence.

So let’s bring this back to our text.

Paul writes in Corinthians that Jesus appeared to the men on the way to Emmaus, he appeared to the 10 in Jerusalem, and then returned to show himself to John, but somewhere in there Jesus made it a point to reveal himself to James.

Can you imagine what that must have been like for him?

I can imagine James saying to Jesus, “All this time, the Messiah was with me. He was sitting with me. We were learning the torah together. We played together. All this time I couldn’t see him.”

But here’s the truth, Jesus always saw James.

And, Jesus always sees you.

You, that came becuase your Mom brought you. You that ca,e because your wife brought you. You that came to fulfill an obligation. You that came and can’t wait for me to finish. Just becuase you can’t see God doesn’t mean that he can’t see you.

He sees you. He knows you. You’re not alone.

The God who Comes Back

Let’s bring into remembrance church that James had told Jesus to leave. He was done with him. He was done with his disciples. He about had enough of what he thought was a charade.

Just becuase you are done with God, doesn’t mean he is done with you.

Jesus had only forty days left on Earth after his resurrection and every minute was intentional. He wasted no time, and he wasted no appearance.

But there was one that he needed to get back to. There was one that he needed to talk to. There was one that he needed to reveal himself to.

Why?

Because he’s the God who comes back. Again, and again, and again. He doesn’t leave when you are done, he leaves when he is done.

And if you are here today, I want you to know that he’s not done with you yet.

James the Just

I want to circle back to James because after he got the revelation that Jesus was in fact the Messiah he goes all in. I mean, he goes all in and quickly ascends into the Leadership of the church.

James had a nick name. Do you want to know what it is?

Camel Knees.

The Apostles apparently had no chill.

They called him camel knees becuase of how calloused they were from praying.

Here’s what we read about James, who wasn’t one of the twelve Apostles.

He would go on to become an Elder in the Church of Jerusalem.

When Peter finally left the Church in Jerusalem, it was James that was given the leadership of the church. It was James that would sit in the Council of Jerusalem where they decided how the church should welcome the Gentiles in. This would give him a more appropriate nick name of James the Just.

Yes, he had two nick names. You know you are bad if you have two nick names.

But, perhaps James’ greater contribution to the church was his letter.

In your Bibles, near the end of it, there is a letter written by James. In it, he writes to a primarily Jewish audience with the major theme “faith without works is dead.”

Do you remember what James said to Jesus when they got into a fight?

“Go to Judaea, so they can see your works!”

The very thing that he said to condemn Jesus is now the thing he uses to encourage the church.

James had the same scriptural education as Jesus did. The only difference was the works that Jesus demonstrated. To James, this was just a show. This didn’t mean anything!

But later in life he realizes that it means everything!

It is impossible to say you love God, and not have anything to show for it.

We are not saved by our works, but our works are the evidence of our salvation.

Conclusion

So as I close, I want to lead you into a time of reflection and prayer.

Perhaps like James you were around the church, and you were around the brothers and the sisters, and maybe it got too familiar. Maybe it got on your last nerves. You are here today to appease your Mom, but something that I said today, and more importantly, something is touching your heart at this very moment. And I believe that is God trying to reveal himself to you today.

He doesn’t want to be your Mother’s Savior and your Father’s Savior, but he wants to be Your Savior.

If you’d like to make a fresh start today, I am going to lead you in a prayer. As a matter of fact we’re all going to pray together as we welcome you into the family of faith.