Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 7, we’ll read verses 1-13 together:
1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. 2 But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him. 6 Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. 8 You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come." 9 Having said this, he stayed in Galilee. 10 However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, "Where is that man?" 12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.
Last time we met together I introduced John 7 by showing the backdrop of the chapter. We saw the condition in Israel as one of hostility to Jesus Christ. Vs. 1 says they wanted to kill Him. This was because they thought He broke their law by healing a man on the Sabbath. And then we saw the celebration in Israel. This chapter is set in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles, you can see that from verse 2.
So those of you who were here know that we went back to the Old Testament to examine this Feast of Tabernacles so we could get the context of John chapter 7. We looked at the 5 requirements for this
Feast of Tabernacles and let’s review them:
1-They were to live in booths during the 8 days of the feast as a reminder that they lived in booths when they came out of slavery to the Egyptians. 2- They were required to rest, that is, to not do any work. 3-They were required to offer up sacrifices every day of the feast. 4-They were to remember their deliverance from slavery, and 5-they were to celebrate with great joy. Israel called this celebration “The Season of our Joy.”
Then we looked at New Testament passages that showed that the Feast of Tabernacles pointed forward to the coming of Jesus Christ. Colossians 2 tells us that religious festivals are a shadow, pointing forward to Jesus Christ, so that when we become believers in Jesus we are celebrating the festival. See the Feast of Tabernacles was designed to teach us some things about Jesus Christ.
1.Just as they lived in tabernacles, so we find our lives in Jesus. (“For me to live is Christ” He’s our Shelter), 2.Just as they enjoyed Sabbath rest, we don’t work for our salvation, we rest in what Jesus did on the cross (He’s our Sabbath), 3.Just as they were to sacrifice in order to be accepted by the God, in order to have fellowship with God, so Jesus sacrificed Himself to bring us to God (He’s our sacrifice). 4.Just as they remembered their deliverance from slavery, even so Jesus is our Savior. 5.And just as they had a season of joy, Jesus is our eternity of joy. (He’s our satisfaction, and our elation).
Now 2 days ago my wife and I were driving around Wooster and we saw a church sign that said, “We are a Lifeboat, not a Party Boat” and I felt like telling them to change boats. For while its true that we are to rescue the perishing, it’s also true that those who have been rescued are to be partying (or if you prefer “celebrating the festival”). In other words Christians are those who rejoice that Jesus purchased our pardon on the cross, celebrate that He rose from the dead triumphant, partying over eternal life. Even in the midst of very severe trials, Christians find that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Jesus is our Shelter, He is our Sabbath, He is Sacrifice, He is our Savior, and He is our Satisfaction and elation. In other words, Jesus is our Feast of Tabernacles. That Feast was the shadow, Jesus is the reality.
So the context of John chapter 7 is the foreshadowing of the cross (verse 1), and the celebration of the feast (verse 2). Today, I want us to notice these 3 points together: 1-The Challenge to Jesus (verses 3-5), 2-the Cross of Jesus (verses 6-8), 3- The Conflict over Jesus (verses 10-13).
So in verses 3-5 we have the challenge to Jesus. In verse 3, His brothers challenge Him to go prove Himself to His disciples, and in verse 4 they challenge Him to go show Himself to the world, draw a crowd, get a following. In other words they said, “go to the feast and work your miracles, give your disciples something to really believe in, show yourself to the world, become a public figure, gain a following after yourself.”
And verse 5 tells us that his brothers did not believe in Him. You know why they didn’t believe in Him? One of the reasons is they were too familiar with Him. Look at chapter 6 verse 42. Verse 41 Jesus says He’s the Bread that came down from heaven, and in verse 42 they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ’I came down from heaven’?" “Hey we know Him, we’re familiar with Him, we know His mom and dad and where He is from.” Listen I have a warning for us here today. Guard your heart that you do not become so familiar with Jesus and His cross that it doesn’t affect you when you read it or hear it. Guard your hearts against familiarity and complacency.
Jesus didn’t want to become a public figure, He had in mind becoming what looked like a public failure. In Jesus’ answer to His brothers, we see the cross. Look at verses 6-8: 6 Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. 8 You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come." John 7:6-8 (NIV)
When Jesus says “my time has not yet come” He is using a phrase that is used 7 times in His life, each time it is pointing forward to His death. You can see one of these times in verse 30: “At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.” Look at chapter 8 verse 20: “He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.” Seven times the statement is made: “my time has not yet come” but look with me at chapter 13. This is where Jesus is with His disciples just before the Passover when He is going to die. Verse 1 says, “Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” His time had now come, He was going to go to the cross and die, then rise from the dead and go to His Father.
So watch how this works out in our passage today. The challenge is given to Jesus to go prove Himself to His disciples, and to show Himself to the world. Jesus answers, “my time has not yet come.” But it would come. When Jesus died and rose again He proved Himself to His disciples, giving them every reason to believe, and He showed Himself to the world, He revealed His glory. At the cross God showed that anybody, no matter what they’ve done can kneel at this cross in repentance and find a rich welcome into God’s family. And that is the glory of Jesus Christ, and the cross is where He works His greatest miracles (heart transplants) and reveals Himself to the world.
Verse 10 tells us that Jesus went to the Feast in secret. Isn’t it interesting that his brothers said in verse 4 “nobody who wants to become a public figure acts in secret” and verse 10 shows Jesus going to the feast in secret. He wasn’t ready to reveal Himself to the world yet.
So we have the challenge to Jesus, we have the cross of Jesus, but then notice the conflict over Jesus. And verses 12 and 13 show the conflict over Christ: 12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." So the people were divided over Him.
I want to remind you that mankind throughout history has divided itself and separated from itself for numerous things. Humanity has separated over things such as race, color of a person’s skin. We’ve separated over finances. We’ve separated over age and race and education and North vs. South, and many other divisions. None of these matter.
And the Christian church down through the centuries has divided and split over a thousand and one things. The church has Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and Unitarians and Vegetarians. And then there’s the General Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Reformed Baptists and Southern Baptists.
Some of these things have been important splits, most of them are foolish divisions, small-minded splits based on preferences, or based upon what book you are reading about the Bible.
Well, today we see the only legitimate division that there will ever be. They were divided over Jesus. Look at verse 43: “Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.” Some believing, some not believing. And here we see the only legitimate division that will split people forever. It is those who believe in and love the Lord Jesus, and those who don’t. The only division is over Jesus: “Thus the people were divided because of Jesus” (vs. 43).
Look at chapter 9:16: Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided. John 9:16 (NIV).
And you know why this world divides over Jesus? It’s in chapter 7 verse 7: “the world hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” Some people can’t ever admit that their wrong, that they’re bad, that they’re “evil”. So they defend themselves and declare their innocence, as if God were a liar. If we’re not prepared to accept that we are evil and sinful we’ll never acknowledge that we need Jesus. But if we simply accept that we’re born with Adam’s blood in us, that we’re born in his likeness, that we are evil and sinful to the core of our being, well we will run to the remedy, and kneel at the cross and be pardoned and forgiven. And He will put new blood in us, and He will make us in His likeness. And we will go from hating or ignoring Jesus to loving Jesus. So this world divides over Jesus because some believe Jesus that they are evil, and some don’t.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 10. These are some of the most sobering and somber and challenging words in all of the Bible:
34 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn "’a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-- 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Matthew 10:34-36 (NIV)
Jesus is saying here that He came to put a sword of division between people who are close, because one would become a believer in Jesus and the other would not.
Just like at the cross, there were two robbers, one who mocked and scoffed and died in his sin, and one who submitted to the Lordship of King Jesus and was richly welcomed into paradise. You see the cross of Jesus Christ is the upside down sword that brings eternal division. Either we bow there at the cross, in humble submission to the Savior Who died, or stand tall and strong and look the bleeding Savior in the eye and say “I will not have You to rule over me.”
And Jesus will one day separate people into two groups and He will say to those on His right, “Come you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” But He will say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
And so the world is divided over Jesus. Time for application just now:
1.Which side of Jesus are you on? The right or the left? Are you on the right? Meaning you acknowledge that you are depraved, wicked and evil and you are looking to Jesus finished work on the cross to save you? Or are you on the left, never acknowledging that you are evil and depending on your own efforts to get you to heaven. If you need to change sides, God makes that possible through confessing your sins to Him and receiving full and complete forgiveness and pardon.
2.Do not divide and separate and make splits in the body of Christ over anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. This is so very important. Starting with verse 24 where it says “But God.”: “But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.”
Jesus did not come to separate Christians, to divide His own body, to separate the flesh. And we are a laughingstock to the world when we divide and make splits. Now, we have freedom to fellowship with likeminded Christians, no problem, become members of whatever church we want. But don’t break fellowship, don’t make splits, don’t burn bridges.
I want to close with this story which illustrates our passage today: There was a wealthy man and his son who loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son. About a month later, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, "Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and mentioned your love for art." The young man held out a package. The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. The father thanked him and he hung the portrait over his mantle, and when he died a few years later there was to be a great auction of all his paintings. On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?" Silence. Then a voice in the back of the room said, "We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one." But the auctioneer persisted. "Will someone bid for this painting?” Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. "I’ll give $10 for the painting." Being a poor man, it was all he could afford. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!" A man sitting on the second row shouted, "Now let’s get on with the collection!" The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I’m sorry, the auction over; only the painting of the son was to be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. And then he said these words, “The man who took the son gets everything!"
This story is an illustration of some who want the finer things in life, who want the pleasures and riches and all that this world has to offer. And there are others who just want the Son, knowing that 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:11-12 (NIV)
Let’s pray: “Our Father, we thank you and praise you for the gift of Your Son, our Savior. And we thank You for giving us grace to believe in Him. We know that if left to ourselves each of us here today would be calling your Son a deceiver, but instead many of us can call Him not a Deceiver but our Deliverer. God I pray that you would help us to never make splits in Your body, but rather to have the only split be that between us and the world who hates you. In Jesus’ Name.
