Is it just a matter of timing

So we're looking at John chapter 7 this morning, first 36 verses.

John 7 · chapter mention

If you're a visitor here, you can see the outline of what I'm saying on the back of the sheet you get handed when you come in the door this morning.

Now, according to critics, timing is everything in politics and public life.

And we see that, don't we, all the time.

So we've had a charm offensive by Mr. Morrison, our new Prime Minister, immediately following his political assassination of our previous Prime Minister, Mr. Turnbull.

And we all know what that's about.

It's designed to quieten or avoid the hard questions that everybody wants to ask.

But of course it never works, does it?

Or rarely works.

And that's where it takes us into chapter 7 of John this morning, because it's the hard questions around Jesus that John wants us to wrestle with as he takes us into Jesus' public ministry, which is what he's doing.

And they are hard questions.

There were lots of things happening, lots of people watching and debating with Jesus,

and lots of conclusions about Jesus being formed by different individuals and groups within the crowd.

And John wants us to be, as it were, part of that.

The hard questions about Jesus won't go away.

The hard questions of Jesus today, we find, are actually the same hard questions that we need to face today about Jesus.

So, who is he?

Who is this Jesus that presents and makes these outlandish claims?

What's he about?

When you drill down into his message, what really is he about?

Is what he says to be trusted?

If we follow him, he says we'll have life, salvation, forgiveness.

Is he to be trusted?

And then on the other hand, all the negative things creep in.

Well, if as he said he was, he was God, then how come so many people reject him?

How come there's so much unbelief?

How come he allowed himself to be treated like he was treated?

How come he was rejected?

How come he was killed?

And then the ultimate question that John wants us to wrestle with is a personal question.

So, what conclusion will I form about Jesus?

2,000 years after this biography was written.

And they're hard questions, aren't they?

Hard because they're hard to understand.

But hard because of the implications of the conclusions we form.

And even if you're already a Christian this morning, you still need to drill down into that idea of you being a Christian.

You need to drill down into your own conclusions about Jesus.

You say, well, I'm a Christian, therefore I've already concluded that what Jesus says is true.

And I've committed myself to him.

But then the question arises, well, have you?

Have you really?

In other words, is your faith real?

Is your faith in line with what Jesus says it should be if you're going to be a believer in him?

Or is it possible even as you claim to be a believer, you're actually living under a form of self-deception?

So, for example, do you actually believe and trust on Jesus on his terms?

As he says, as he talks about himself and talks about salvation.

Or is it possible that you just believe in a form of Jesus?

That is, you've taken various bits and pieces of Jesus that you sit comfortably with.

And have actually rejected various bits and pieces of Jesus that are altogether too challenging.

Or that require you to give up too much or change too much.

See, as Christians we do that all the time, don't we?

And the problem with that is that Jesus said that too amounts to unbelief.

We'll see that coming out of these verses this morning.

As we move into chapter 7.

Context, as always, is critical to understanding.

So, the context is this.

People loved the miracles that Jesus was doing.

No doubt about that.

They flocked to him to see the miracles.

This was really special stuff.

Loved every moment of it.

But, increasingly rejected the conclusions Jesus pushed on them as a result of the miracles.

They were taking the miracles and saying,

Oh, this is what we'll believe about Jesus and the like of the miracles.

Jesus said, No.

If you look at the miracles, this is what you need to believe and respond to about me.

And that gap was opening up.

Into opposition.

Into opposition.

And hatred.

And outright rejection.

Chapter 4 and 5.

We've seen it a few weeks ago.

Jesus had actually left Jerusalem and Judea.

Now, Judea was the southern part of Israel.

Why he had left there?

Because the Jewish religious authorities, none less than them,

the Jewish religious authorities had decided that Jesus was a blasphemous imposter.

And that they would kill him.

That was their conclusion.

Then chapter 6.

In time, it was a few months later.

Jesus had moved north to the northern part of Israel called Galilee.

And we find that only a few months later, history had repeated itself.

The crowds that flocked him in Galilee now, in chapter 6, have almost all abandoned him.

Why?

Why?

Well, they too, once they started to hear Jesus' teaching after the feeding of 5,000,

they too said, well, actually, this Jesus is talking about a spiritual salvation.

He wants to be a spiritual Messiah.

And quite frankly, when our biggest enemy is the Romans, we don't really have any need for a spiritual Messiah.

We don't even have any interest in a spiritual Messiah.

We don't like this nonsense of bread from heaven and internal changes and stuff like that.

And so they walked away from Jesus.

That was their conclusion.

He was irrelevant to their needs.

And chapter 7, we step into chapter 7, and there's another gap of a few months.

So from the start of chapter 7, it's about six months since the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.

And we're told in verse 1, Jesus had been going about in Galilee.

I think that word just means Jesus has been on the move.

He was flying under the radar, trying to keep a low profile,

because of the hostility that was rising against him.

In verse 2, we come up against a significant moment.

Decisions are going to have to be made.

It was the Feast of the Booth, or Feast of the Tabernacles.

And that was the most important and the most popular,

sorry, the most popular, not the most important,

the most popular of all the Jewish religious festivals.

And it was a time of happiness and excitement,

because it incorporated something that we would call a Thanksgiving, a harvest Thanksgiving.

It happened after the intake of the annual harvest.

The food was all stored for winter, so it was a time to celebrate.

But predominantly, it remembered God's provision for his people in the wilderness

after the exodus from Egypt and on their journey to the Promised Land.

And so, as I said, it was an exciting, happy time.

It was a week-long celebration.

And huge crowds went to Jerusalem for ten days or so of celebrating God's provision.

Ten days of enjoying the sense of being God's people together.

Ten days of looking to the future that the exodus had promised them,

which they'd never quite materialized for them.

And Jesus' disciples see an opportunity and think that they should go too,

because this is Jesus' moment.

This is his moment to showcase himself to the crowds.

And suddenly, in chapter 7, verse 2 again, the question, the hard question, surfaces, resurfaces.

Is it only a matter of time?

It's now six months or more since Jesus was last in Jerusalem,

and left because the crowds were going to kill him.

So, is it a case now, well, having had six months to think about Jesus

and get used to what he was saying and stuff like that,

will the crowds and will the Jewish religious authorities now warn to Jesus?

Will things be different?

Will they understand him better when he goes back to Jerusalem?

On the other side of that coin, will Jesus do things differently,

getting a second bite at the cherry, as it were?

Well, the answer as we move into chapter 7,

the answer John gives is a very loud no.

Nothing is going to be different.

Because the problem, as John has emphasized repeatedly,

is not a lack of time to consider what Jesus has been saying.

It's not a lack of time to ponder and troll over the evidence.

It's not in how Jesus has presented himself.

The real problem, John wants to see over and over and over again,

the real problem is in hearts that refuse to accept Jesus on his terms.

That's what it comes down to.

Hearts that refuse to accept Jesus on his terms as God's Messiah,

God's King and Savior.

And we'll see that playing out again in these verses

as we move into, first of all, the family response,

which is pragmatic enthusiasm covering general unbelief.

Now, we've got a sort of feel for Jesus at this point.

John has zoomed through chapter 6.

Massive crowds, incredible interest in Jesus.

Then at the end of chapter 6, we're left with not much more than just the 12 disciples.

Crowds are gone.

And now, we zoom in even further,

and the word here in chapter 3 is his brothers.

Now, it's a little bit ambiguous,

but I'm taking it to mean his actual literal biological brothers.

They have a turn now to express their conclusions about Jesus.

And they're no different from the crowd.

Not really.

They had no doubt.

It was just a matter of timing and packaging.

And so, they're saying the festival in Jerusalem,

that's the opportunity.

All right, Jesus, you need to go there.

You need to go there as soon as possible.

This is your moment.

If you farm this right, Jesus, you can turn things around.

You win the crowd back.

You can be popular.

You can be successful.

You need to get out there and sell your message.

Just like enthusiastic political campaign managers,

they think that success for Jesus lies in more exposure to the public.

Show yourself to be a patriot.

This is the time to go there and do a charm offensive,

being a patriot in Jerusalem.

Display your miracles.

Mount a popular grassroots campaign.

Give people things that will help them and benefit them,

and people will fall in line with you.

Make sure it's your face and your message

that appears every evening on the 6 o'clock Jerusalem news

for that 10 days of the festival.

But buried in that enthusiasm, verse 5,

was unbelief.

They weren't convinced by what they saw and heard from Jesus.

So part of urging Jesus to go back to Jerusalem

was to kind of convince themselves.

They had really no idea what Jesus was on about.

Even worse, from our vantage point as readers,

we can see that these brothers,

these biological brothers,

were pushing Jesus to his death,

and they just didn't even realize they were doing it.

How sad that must have been for Jesus

to hear his brothers speaking,

saying, go to Jerusalem.

We'll get you up there as quickly as we can.

And Jesus knew what the outcome of being in Jerusalem was going to be.

So we get Jesus' response then to his brothers.

And again, we see this stark contrast,

which John wants us to see,

as we engage with Jesus.

Because primarily, that's what we need to do through these verses,

is engage with Jesus.

And Jesus' response shows him to be purposeful,

faithful in his commitment to saving God's people.

Jesus pushes back at his brothers,

and he said, well, actually, guys,

you're telling me it's a question of timing,

and you're right and you're wrong.

It is a question of timing,

but it's a question of God's timing,

not your timing.

See, the brothers had no idea about God's agenda,

and how the next few months would play out for Jesus.

And it's only six or seven or eight months from this point

to Jesus actually killed on the cross.

But ironically,

given the nature of the feast and the festival

and what it was celebrating,

ironically, if they had actually understood what Jesus was teaching,

they would have realized that the festival they were keen to be part of

actually described Jesus' mission.

He was the greater than Moses,

the prophet who was to come.

He had come to mount another exodus,

to lead another exodus event,

to rescue his people from the world.

Everything that is opposed to God

and holds his people in bondage.

So in a sense,

what Jesus is in here,

in this festival,

is a real live drama

of working in parallel

with what he's going to endure,

what he's there for.

But of course,

nobody sees that except Jesus.

Jesus had come into the world

to expose evil and sin and death

and deliver his people into light and life.

Jesus is saying here in these verses,

all this will become clear in due course.

But in the meanwhile,

no amount of charm offensive

or populist politicking

will change anything.

Jesus will inevitably offend.

Look at verse 6.

My time has not yet come,

but your time is always here.

The world cannot hate you,

but it hates me.

Why?

Because I testify about it

that its works are evil.

There's an inevitable clash

of agendas,

a clash of worldviews,

a clash of wills,

a clash of thinking,

a clash of desires.

Jesus will inevitably offend people,

causing them to hate him

because he will expose

and deliver them

from the very things

that people want to keep hidden.

Rebellion

and unbelieving hearts and attitudes.

But Jesus is God's man,

driven by God's concern

for God's glory.

And that's what we need to see.

In spite of what he knows

he's ahead of,

Jesus doesn't turn

to the left or right.

He plows ahead

because he's God's man,

driven by concern

for God's glory.

Look at verse 10.

We're just going to skim over

some verses very quickly now.

Jesus does go to Jerusalem

in the end.

But the point here,

I think,

is that he goes to Jerusalem

on his terms.

And again,

immediately starts teaching,

pushing the crowd

to believe his claim

to be God's king and savior.

verses 16, 17, and 18.

They recognize his authority

as he teaches.

They admire his teaching

and his authority.

And Jesus tells them

his purpose,

his mission,

is not in any way

to showcase himself,

but his life

and his mission

and his very being

is driven

by the Father's purpose

in salvation.

He's here to implement

his Father's purpose

in salvation.

He speaks truth

from his Father.

And the fact

that they do not respond

to Jesus in belief

shows they have

lost touch with God.

And lost touch

with God's purpose

in salvation

as written

in their Jewish scriptures.

The divide opens again.

Verses 27, 28, and 29.

Same sort of thought.

Jesus says,

well look,

your response

tells me one thing.

You've only got

a very superficial understanding

of who I am.

You think you know

everything about me,

but you don't.

And so, says Jesus,

no surprise.

You do not see me

as God's Savior

because you're so focused

on running your own agenda.

Same problem.

We've seen chapter

after chapter

after chapter.

Verses 32 through 36.

Jesus will accomplish

his mission.

verse 33.

Jesus then said,

I will be with you

a little longer

and then I'm going

to him who sent me.

I'm here for a job.

I'll do the job.

And then I'm going

back home to my father.

That's the plan.

And the plan

will be perfected.

And hidden in there

is Jesus saying

to the Jewish

religious authorities

who remember

at that very moment

were planning to kill him.

He's really saying to them,

now look,

you guys,

you think you know

all about me.

You think you control

my destiny,

but I'm telling you

that you evil people

will never control

my life

and my destiny.

Regardless of what

it appears like,

regardless of what

they think,

Jesus,

he's on God's mission,

on God's timing

and will complete it.

And so,

the irony again is,

and there's lots of irony

in this passage,

the irony is

that the brothers

unknowingly said

to Jesus,

go up to Jerusalem

and show yourself

to the world.

Jesus is saying here,

yes,

he says,

I will be showing

myself to the world.

But when that moment

comes,

I'll be showing

myself in shame

of death

by execution

as a criminal.

It will be a

sacrificial death.

It will be a death

of apparent defeat.

It will be a special

death in the sense

that nobody else

can follow me

into this particular

death because it is

a sacrificial death

for the forgiveness

of sins.

But then,

says Jesus,

I'll return to heaven

with my Father.

And again,

something that sinful

people will be

excluded from.

I will show myself

to the world,

says Jesus.

But even then,

you're not going to

be able to understand

what it's about.

And then we have

the popular response,

commitment to

faithless unbelief

towards Jesus.

Now once again,

John gives us

a very wide range

of unbelieving

responses to Jesus.

And that's been

his pattern right

through.

And so,

in a sense,

there's a lot

of repetition,

but it's nuanced.

Verse 11.

There's nothing

very nuanced

about this.

The religious leaders

were planning

to kill Jesus.

Worse than that,

they were actually

openly promising

to kill Jesus.

And worse than that,

even,

verse 13,

they had

implemented a

fear campaign,

I think,

because it was not

just going to kill

Jesus,

but it was anybody

associated with Jesus.

Look at verse 13.

Yet for fear of the

Jews,

and when John uses

that term,

he's usually talking

about the Jewish

religious leader,

yet for fear of the

Jews,

no one spoke openly

of him.

Everybody had an

opinion about Jesus.

Everybody was talking,

but they were scared.

Scared of what?

Scared to associate

with Jesus,

because they knew

that Jewish religious

leaders were going

to kill Jesus,

and most likely,

if you're closely

associated with Jesus,

you might actually

get dragged into the

mess.

That's a pretty strong

response of unbelief.

Not just a decision

for themselves,

but a decision

they were imposing

on people around them,

the nation around them.

The people who were

supposed to instruct

and lead into truth.

Verse 12.

Everybody had an

opinion about Jesus,

and it seems very

modern, doesn't it?

So some people,

on the one hand,

were saying,

well actually,

he's a good man.

It's hard to find fault

with a guy.

After all,

look at all the good

things he's doing.

He's bringing benefit

into the community,

and he's not harming

anybody,

so let's just leave

well enough alone.

Yep.

He's a good bloke.

The other extreme,

again,

very familiar,

he's a deceiver.

He's leading people

astray.

He's not a good man.

He's a bad man.

He's leading people

to believe something

that's not true.

He's giving people

a hope of life

and salvation

that's not right

according to how

we understand the law.

Very familiar responses,

aren't they?

Verses 19 to 24,

Jesus takes up

the big issue

that the Jews

had with him.

The issue of

claiming that

Jesus was a lawbreaker

and a blasphemer.

Well,

Jesus really takes

the case to them

and rubbishes their claim.

He's really saying

to them here,

I think,

in these verses.

Look,

you're challenging

about me being a lawbreaker

because that's just

really petty.

Worse than that,

it's illogical.

Worse than that,

you're just using it

as an excuse,

another reason not to believe.

Here's how it worked.

So,

they say that Jesus

should be condemned

and put to death

because he breaks the law.

Remember,

he healed a guy,

the last time he was

in Jerusalem,

some six or seven

or eight months earlier,

he healed a guy

on the Sunday,

on the Sabbath.

Right?

And for that,

they say,

they were furious.

He needs to die.

He's got total disregard

for the law of Moses.

He breaks the law.

But Jesus,

I think,

is picking up here.

Well,

actually,

you guys forgot

that you're deliberately

plotting my murder

right at this very moment.

You blame me

for breaking the law,

but you also

fail to keep the law.

But then,

more immediately,

he's saying,

well,

look,

this whole thing

about breaking the law

in regard to the Sabbath

because I healed this guy,

he uses an argument

against him.

He says,

well,

actually,

you guys allow

the circumcision

of a child

on the Sabbath

if that circumcision

falls on the eighth day

to fulfill the law.

The law said

you have to circumcise

the child on the eighth day.

So,

Jesus was saying,

well,

okay,

you guys allow circumcision

in that event

even though technically

circumcision

is a breach of the law

because it's working.

So,

he said,

how can you logically

then say to me

because I healed

a guy on a Sabbath

which again

is technically

a breach

but doing something

really good.

How can you hold

that against me?

What he's saying is

you guys

are just illogical.

You're just

finding reasons

to

not believe.

And then buried in there,

others thought

he had a mental health issue,

wasn't thinking straight.

But Jesus pushes back again

suggesting

they're the ones

who are not thinking straight.

Do not judge

by appearances

but judge

with right judgment.

He's pleading

for fairness

and generosity.

Again,

he's saying,

look,

if only you would

actually give me a go,

you would see

and understand

and be drawn

into truth

and ultimately

drawn into life.

But instead,

all they were given

Jesus was

prejudice

and pettiness.

But among all those

responses,

verse 31,

John's always keen

to remind us,

yet many of the people

believed in him.

They said,

when the Christ appears,

will he do more signs

than this man has done?

In the midst of

massive belief

and confusion,

some are actually

moving towards

belief.

This doesn't

necessarily suggest

that people are actually

Christians at that point,

but they're moving

towards belief

because they're actually

being generous

and logical

and fair

in the way they're

viewing their evidence.

They're saying,

well, look,

okay,

can we imagine

anybody else

doing greater

and more miraculous

and wonderful things

than what Jesus

has been doing?

No, we can't.

The scriptures

told us that

when Messiah comes,

he would do great

and miraculous

and wonderful things.

Therefore,

this has to be

the Messiah.

We don't understand

everything there is

to understand about him,

but this has to be

the Messiah.

So they're moving

towards Jesus

and they're moving

into deeper

and deeper belief.

So what do we need

to learn

from this part

of the story?

There's lots more

details,

I just don't have time

to get into there.

But what do we need

to learn

from this part

of the story?

Well, I just want

to touch down

a couple of things

and they're fairly

arbitrary in lots of ways.

So you're free

to interact with them

and even reject them

if you don't think

they're right.

But the first one

is this.

Unbelief does not

always mean

rejecting Jesus outright.

Unbelief does not

always mean

rejecting Jesus outright.

But it is always

resisting the terms

and agenda

for salvation

offered by Jesus.

And it is always

about implementing

our own values

and judgments

as to what will

please God

and make us

acceptable to him.

So, we sometimes

don't help ourselves

by thinking

well, unbelief

equals walking

away from Jesus

completely.

It's not always

like that.

It's much more

nuanced.

It's possible

to stay in the

Christ

and to believe

but reject

the terms

that Jesus offers.

believers.

And it's not only

possible

but it's actually

likely

almost inevitably

because we're hardwired

to do that very thing.

We're hardwired

to reject

truth.

That's what it is

to be sinful people.

We're hardwired

to reject

anything

that challenges

our view of life

and our understanding

of life

and our practice

of life.

And we're hardwired

to do this

even in the face

of logic

and truth

and compelling

evidence.

Sometimes we

I think

when we read

these texts

we just read

from a reader's

perspective

and think

if these people

only could see

the big perspective

over 2,000 years

that we're seeing

then they would have

believed.

Well not so

says Jesus.

And in fact

the degree

to which we

oppose

or modify

or reject

Jesus

will be determined

by how much

we feel

threatened

by Jesus.

How much

we feel

Jesus challenges

our existing

values

and understanding

of truth.

So

jumping from the text

into our

application here

where did the

most deep

seated

hatred

and rejection

of Jesus

come from?

It came from

those who were

most religious.

religious.

It came from

people who knew

the Old Testament

scriptures

inside out

back to front.

It could

quote slabs

of it

whose very

life work

was teaching

these things.

Why did that

hatred come from?

Because they had

nowhere to hide.

Jesus was

totally dismantling

everything

that they

defined

themselves

by.

Everything

that they

had lived

their lives

by.

They thought

well if

only I do

religious actions

A, B, C and D

then God

will be pleased

with me

and God

will actually

be indebted

with me.

God will

accept me

because he

has to

accept me

because I

have honoured

him.

And Jesus

comes at them

and says

no you're

all wrong.

Yes you

believe that

sincerely

but you've

been sincerely

wrong.

That's not

how it

works.

they assumed

that they

had the

ability and

the desire

to come to

God and

did so quite

openly and

again that God

ought to be

beholden to

them.

Jesus says

well no

you're hard

wired to

reject God

and you'll

only come

to God

if God

actually

does a

work in

your heart

and brings

you to

himself.

Jesus was

taking control

of their

salvation

away from

them and

making them

see that

salvation

could only

be by

grace and

not by

the works

of the

flesh or

by their

own

efforts.

And they

didn't like

that.

That was

undoing them.

That was

showing them

to be

wrong.

Their

choices?

Well

Jesus has

got to

go.

Jesus

teaches that

salvation is

inside out.

These guys

were saying

it's

outside in.

They had

no place

for God's

spirit because

they didn't

need God's

spirit to

renew their

hearts and

their

attitudes.

And then

other responses

were much

more moderate,

much more

subtle.

But they

reinterpret

Jesus to

the point

where those

who hold

those views

believe in

Jesus because

he's become

comfortable to

them.

And he

fits in

comfortably with

their own

terms.

So it

comes like

this in

a modern

take on

it.

It goes

something like

this and

you've heard

people say

this.

There's

people in

our church

I think

who say

this.

Well I

want to

believe in

Jesus.

I really

like it that

he points me

back to

serious

spirituality

and he

points me

to really

connect to

God and

pursue the

good life

that God

wants me

to have.

I really

like that

about Jesus.

But I

find it

really,

really difficult

to accept

that he

would judge

me as a

sinner.

Or indeed

that he

would threaten

me with

hell.

What right

has he to

do that?

Or that he

would say

to me there's

actually only a

very, very

narrow pathway

to life and

it involves

relationship with

Jesus and

involves a

complete change

of life, a

complete orientation.

I'm sure that

God has many

different pathways

to heaven and

life.

So I really

like this about

Jesus but I'm

not going to go

down that

pathway.

Or we

say that

Jesus died

for our

sin.

This is

very, very

real for us

here.

Sin's a big

thing, isn't

it?

It's a big

word for us

in our

church.

We say that

Jesus died

for our

sin.

Why did he

die for our

sin?

Because sin's

really serious.

Why is sin

really serious?

Because it

keeps us

from God.

It keeps

us from

enjoying

relationship

with God.

So here's

the question.

Which of

your sins

are you

protecting

and determined

to keep

because you

actually like

it?

Yes, you'll

give up a

sin over

here or

over here

but this

one here,

no, I

actually rather

like it and

I'm not going

to allow

Jesus to

expose it.

You say,

well, I

believe God's

end point in

salvation is

the creation

of the

church.

And the

church is

his saved

people in

a community

that reflects

heaven.

And that's

what Jesus

teaches.

But then we

go on and

say, well,

actually, I'm

not going to

engage seriously

or thoroughly

with any

church family,

let alone this

church family.

The theory's

okay, I like

the concept

of church,

but the

practice is

just too

hard to be

bold with.

It's too

hard to

engage with

other people

who let

me down

all the

time.

It's too

hard to

reorganize my

lifestyle to

prioritize

fellowship with

believers.

I don't need

them.

I can exist

very well by

myself.

In fact, I

prefer to be

on my own.

You see the

problem?

it's great to

realize that

Jesus has

always been

purposefully and

faithfully committed

to save you

and me.

In response,

we need to be

sure that the

Jesus we say we

believe in is

actually the

Jesus of

Scripture.

that we

believe in

Jesus on

his terms,

not ours,

and all his

terms, not

just some.

Friends, it's

just too easy

to deceive

ourselves into

a cheap

substitute that

looks like true

belief, but

is actually

unbelief.

too easy

to

just

know

about

the

mission

to

believe in

Jesus

God

we

knew

he

He

to

the