John 7:1-13

So, John 7, and we're moving forward in John,

making progress, the sixth chapter of John,

just

almost incomparable to any other chapter in

all Scripture as we just went through it. I

hope you

learned as much as I did from going through it

again. I could preach it again right now. I

could

start over in 6-1, but in this seventh chapter

, let me kind of give you the view of where we

are. As always, you can look on the screen or

you can follow along in your Bible. If you

have a

Bible with a map in it, I would encourage you

to turn open to that just to kind of reference

it,

because I'm going to give you a little bit of

geography here. Galilee is the area that is

north

of Judea. Judea is the area where Jerusalem is

located. Galilee is north of Judea, due north.

That's where Nazareth and Capernaum and

everything is. Jesus has been ministering in

Galilee at this point in the Gospel of John

for about a year. Now, as we enter into

chapter 7,

he's going to be making that transition back

down to Judea where his ministry originally

started. As we return to Judea with Jesus, we

find that the picture there is not good.

What we will encounter here in chapter 7 and

then into chapter 8 is an escalating,

pure kind of hatred for Jesus. The thing that

literally it just

in escalates as time moves on to this really

intense hatred for Jesus. We know that for

over

a year now, as we saw especially in 6, Jesus

has been going all around Galilee and he's

been preaching

and teaching and healing and doing all these

amazing miracles on a very, very regular basis

.

By this point, there's just been thousands and

thousands of people. Remember, he's been a

total

of over 25,000 in that miracle when he

produced food out of thin air and he's been

away from Judea

and Jerusalem in the South all this time, but

the hatred for him down in Judea, especially

Jerusalem where the Pharisees and religious

leaders are, that hatred has been smoldering

for him

ever since he left. It hasn't diminished at

all. In fact, it's probably worse, but God's

reports

have been coming back from spies that were

sent by the leaders into Galilee

and they come back to Judea and to Jerusalem

with the reports about the impact of the

ministry.

Imagine when the spies come back to the

religious leaders, you won't believe this,

there was probably

25,000 people out here just being produced

food for all these people. So as we come to

chapter 7,

the desire on part of the religious leaders to

have Jesus literally murdered is probably

stronger now than ever and we know that they

already wanted to kill him. If you remember,

we saw that earlier when he was in Judea

because back in chapter 5, verse 18, before he

went to

Galilee, still in Judea, they said this for

this reason, "Therefore the Jews were seeking

all the

more to kill him." So it was already getting

ramped up before he even went to Galilee,

but the more miracles and the more followers

and the more crowds, the angrier they are

getting.

That's the reason why he went to Galilee in

the first place. And while he's been in Gal

ilee as this

rage builds from these reports, we're fixing

to see this transition take place as he goes

back. So

chapter 7, we see Jesus returning to Judea,

but he does so secretly, as we're going to see

in

just a moment. And as he goes into Judea,

remember that's the area as a whole, he stays

out of Jerusalem

proper, the city, for a number of months until

finally with this intense hatred still escal

ating,

there comes that point where in the prophetic

word of God that was prophesied in the Old

Testament,

he makes that triumphal entry into Jerusalem

with shouts of Hosanna. But as you know,

by the end of that week, he's murdered,

crucified with an unjust trial, and three days

later,

he rises from the dead for our justification

for all believers. So that's kind of where we

are,

okay? And that's where we're headed in the big

picture, just to kind of get our bearing

straight,

but so let's start off today by reading our

text, which is going to be verses 1 through 13

. Usually,

you're used to maybe one or two verses and Eph

esians in the epistles, but in narratives,

we generally cover more verses, and that's why

we're doing 13 of them today. So let's start

in chapter 7 verse 1. "After these things,

Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he was

unwilling to

walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking

to kill him. Now the feast of the Jews, the

feast of

booths was near. Therefore his brother said to

him, 'Leave here and go into Judea so that

your

disciples also may see your works which you

are doing, for no one does anything in secret

when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If

you do these things, show yourself to the

world,

for not even his brothers were believing in

him. So Jesus said to them, 'My time is not

yet here.

Your time is always opportune. The world

cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I

testify of

it that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast

yourselves. I do not go up to this feast,

because

my time has not yet fully come.' Having said

these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast

, then he himself also went up, not publicly,

but as if in secret. So the Jews were seeking

him at the feast and were saying, 'Where is he

?'

There was much grumbling among the crowds

concerning him. Some were saying, 'He is a

good man.'

Others were saying, 'No, on the contrary, he

leads the people astray. Yet no one was

speaking

openly of him or fear of the Jews.' So there

we get the word on the street, if you will.

Some said, 'He is a good man.' Some said, 'He

is leading people astray. He is a deceiver.'

And we know where the idea of deceiver came

from. The Jewish leaders called him the dece

iver

in Matthew 27 and later here in chapter 7, we

're going to see, they're going to ask the

question

to the people, 'Has he deceived you also?' So

they're pressing hard with that narrative

about him being a deceiver. There was also

some pushback here from the people. Why? Well,

they had been affected positively by Jesus.

Some of them had obviously been healed and

they said,

'No, wait a minute. He's a good man.' But to

say that Jesus is a good man, of course,

is infinitely short of the truth. To say that

he is a deceiver is straight out of hell

itself.

Neither of those is a right assessment of

Jesus. And as we've learned here in the Gospel

of John,

more than maybe anything that we've learned in

the Gospel of John is that every soul is

required

to make an assessment of Jesus Christ, the man

who impacted human history more than any other

man in human history, not debatable. Everybody

has to decide who Jesus is. Both of the

options here

in our text are wrong. I found another C.S.

Lewis quote, and it's similar to the one you

've heard

me and preachers quote many, many times.

Listen, if you can hear the similarity, you'll

remember

the quote when I say it. He said this, 'Good

men don't say they're God. Liars and crazy

people do.

That's who say they're God.' And we can say, '

Deceivers don't have the capacity

to raise human beings from the dead very

publicly, which Jesus did with a very dead

Lazarus,

who had the flies buzzing around him and

everybody knew he was dead. And the religious

leaders,

some of them that went out saw him do that and

deceivers don't speak the way that Jesus spoke

.'

Could you imagine, put yourself back there

over 2,000 years ago, sitting on a grassy hill

side,

just listening to Jesus speak, God and human

flesh. I don't think that I can overemphasize

enough that the right assessment of Jesus is

the most important assessment that any human

being will ever make. And we are seeing right

here decisions that are being made by the

Jewish

people who are under the influence of Jewish

religious leaders, and those guys have already

made their decision longer ago. He's a dece

iver who is leading people astray. And it's

interesting.

By the time we get to the end of the Passion

Week, the majority of the people buy into that

lie,

and what do they cry out when Jesus is

presented before them, beaten and bloodied,

crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be

upon us and our children. So right now, we are

starting

on that final part of the process to that

moment here in chapter 7. And as we go, we're

really

going to get into this antagonism that exists

between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. And we

're

going to see, we're going to see how much

power and influence they had over the people.

And remember,

we've learned from chapter 6 that it was never

ever the works of Jesus that caused problems,

was it? No, we've learned this in chapter 6.

It was the words. They loved his works. It was

the,

it was the words as we watched those false

disciples last time in John 6 walk away and

not be with him anymore because of the words

that he said. Those words continued to boil

the blood

of the Jewish leaders. We're fixing to see,

look at verse 7, where Jesus says, "The world

hates me

because I testify of it, that its deeds are

evil." It's his words that are so unacceptable

.

As I said last week, people just love the

benevolent, all tolerant, merciful,

compassionate Jesus who never says anything

negative, only all things positive. They love

that Jesus until you hit them with the things

that he said in this Bible. Oh, then the love

changes.

I don't know if he said that, right? And what

I want you to see here first as we get into

this

7 chapter is how Jesus was operating on a

divine timetable. Jesus is, of course, God

incarnate,

the eternal Son of God. And as part of what

you have to believe about him, there's no

room for what many believe that he was just a

man working out all of this in his time on

earth,

the best he could when he was here. There's no

room for Ben Shapiro's view that Jesus was

just

a religious revolutionary who got himself

killed on a Roman cross. No, he's the God-man.

He's on a divine mission. And we're going to

see that play out here in this chapter as we

see

the sovereignty of God, the Father operating

literally in every single minutiae of aspect

of

his life, including from the standpoint of

time itself. We saw in chapter 6 in the face

of the

rejection of the people. What did Jesus do?

Boy, he leaned hard on the sovereignty of God

and

salvation. You remember what he told them

after the rejection? "That's all right. You

can't come to

me unless the Father draws you." Part of the

words were why they walked away. And in the

same way,

he also completely leaned on the sovereignty

of God in terms of the timing literally of

absolutely

everything that he did, everything in the life

of Jesus. As you go through all of the

Gospels, you see he was on a precise schedule,

everything. Galatians chapter 4, verse 4, it

says,

"But when the fullness of what the time came,

God sent forth his son, born of a woman,

born under the law." Even his birth. 1 Timothy

chapter 6, verses 14 and 15, "That you keep

the

commandment without stain or reproach, until

the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which

he will

bring about at the proper time." So both the

incarnation and the second coming of Jesus

have fixed set times. There is a date set

right now that God knows for the second coming

of Jesus

Christ. And right now today, we're one day

closer to that day than we were yesterday.

Even while he was living on this earth,

anything was on a precise schedule. Many times

in the

Gospels, what do we hear Jesus say over and

over, "My time has not yet come." My time has

not yet come. And now as we come into this

seventh chapter, look what we find. We find

Jesus walking

in Galilee, it says. Now, I want you to know

where this is on the time table. This is about

seven

months after the events of chapter 6 that we

just went through. Now, how do I know that?

Well,

I know that because in chapter 6, verse 4,

there was a Passover, remember? And that

Passover

was the event that triggered everything that

happened. And remember, chapter 6, the whole

of

chapter 6 was only a couple of days of time,

the whole chapter. But now in chapter 7, verse

2,

look, we have another feast, the Feast of Bo

oths. So we know that the Feast of Booths

is seven months after that Passover that we

had in chapter 6. So that's how we know where

we are

time-wise here. Passover is a spring event.

The Feast of Booths also knows the Feast of

Tabernacles. It's an October event. It's in

the fall, our October. So think about it.

Seven

months have gone by since all the events we

just went through in chapter 6. Jesus is still

ministering

in Galilee during that time he doesn't leave.

John doesn't tell us about those seven months,

but guess what? The other Gospel writers do.

That's why we have four Gospels to put the

whole

story together. And as I said, during this

whole time in Galilee, the attitude of

especially the

leaders down to the south in Judea is they

want to kill him. Their anger as they get the

reports

back continue to boil and to escalate. Look at

verse 1 of our text. "After these things,

Jesus

was walking in Galilee, still there, for he

was unwilling to walk in Judea." Why? Because

Jews

were seeking to kill him. Even though he had

been gone for over a year from Judea up in Gal

ilee,

they still wanted to kill him more than ever.

And he's not ready to go back. You know why

most of all?

Because he had to wait until it was the right

time on God's timetable. Now as we look at the

first

nine verses, we're going to see something

about the wrong time. And then when we get to

verse 10,

we're going to see something about the right

time. And as I said, the opening of chapter 7,

we're about seven months after chapter 6. So

what was Jesus doing in those seven months?

Well,

that's interesting. His public ministry, we

know from the other Gospels, had started to

kind of fade

away. During those seven months, we get this

information from those other Gospel writers.

And

we learned that from the most part in this

seven-month time period, he kind of pretty

much disappeared

from outward public ministry. Instead of

staying in Capernaum, he went to Tyre and Sid

on. If you're

looking at a map that's north and west over

toward the Mediterranean. And then he goes to

the east

side of the Sea of Galilee. And that was an

area that was called Decapolis. And that had

10 Gentile

cities in it. But Jesus, during all this time,

is pretty much backed up and away from the

larger

populated areas. Now, he continued to perform

miracles. But primarily what he's doing is

teaching

and instructing. Now, there's another great

event on the calendar in these seven months,

the Transfiguration. And also during this time

period, Jesus told his disciples for the very

first time, "Hey, I'm going to die. And I'm

going to rise from the dead." They had never

heard that

before. And while his public ministry

diminished in those seven months, it's very

important to note

that during this time period, his primary

focus, he started to focus in on the 12.

That would have been the most intense period

of training for the 12. Remember, the false

disciples were gone from chapter 6. They left.

These are the men I'm talking about that

stayed.

These may have been a collection of others,

along with the 12 true believers who were

being taught

these tremendous truths of the kingdom. They

were really being prepared for what was fixing

to come.

And even after what was going to come, which

was the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

And as I said, he starts to talk to them about

his death, about his resurrection. And he gets

very

detailed. He tells them, "Hey, I'm going to be

arrested. Hey, they're going to spit on me.

Hey, I'm going to be scourged." Can you

imagine what they were thinking as he said

that?

And then one day, he takes Peter, James, and

John up on a mountain.

Watch this. Pulls back the glory. Now, you

know what was the first thing them three guys

did

when they got down to that mountain with the

other guys. Guess what? Huh? I mean, because

it had to be

hard for them to wrap their minds about spit

on, scourged, arrested.

So that could have certainly created some

doubt in their minds about the fact whether or

not

he was Messiah. So to balance that, "Hey,

Peter, James, and John, come up here for a

minute.

We'll show y'all something up here on this

mountain." And you remember Peter, "Oh, Lord,

let's make some tents. It's good for us to be

here. I don't even want to go back down. Let's

just

stay here." Right? But it left no doubt in

those guys' minds. It was burning in their

brains in their eye sockets for the rest of

their lives, for sure. But these are special

times for

the despites right now. He's given much

attention to them. But now those seven months

of that kind

of special training is up. It's the Feast of

Booths. Look at verse two. Now, the Feast of

the

Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. It's time

to go to the next feast. These men are Jews.

So guess what? For them, every one of them, it

's automatic. There were three main

feasts that all Jewish men had to attend. Mand

atory. Jesus had done this all of his life, too

.

And so as we come to verse three, we find that

Jesus is also still connected to his family,

who is from Galilee. Listen. Away with the

nonsense that Mary did not have other children

.

Mary had other children after Jesus. Okay? If

you don't believe that, you don't believe the

Bible.

Period. It's extremely clear. We're going to

see here that the brothers, and that's half

brothers,

of course, as we understand that Jesus's

brothers are starting to put pressure on him.

Hey, Jesus,

we want you to go with us up to the feast. And

just as a reminder, that seven months that

Jesus

focused on the twelve, it was all about

discipleship for them. That's what God does.

We saw in chapter

six. What did God do? He gathered a crowd for

the proclamation of God's truth from Jesus.

Then what did God do? He started to sort out

the false disciples from the true disciples,

based on the words coming from Jesus. And then

when the weeding out ended, the real work

started

of training the genuine disciples. And that's

what went on for the seven months. That's why

the Great Commission says it doesn't just say

go preach the gospel. It says go into all the

world

and make disciples teaching them to observe

all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

That's the Great Commission. That's still

going on right here in this building right now

at this

moment. Christians are being discipled here

today. Now, there's a lot of ways to get a

crowd.

It's really not too hard. There's plenty of

methods, but let me tell you something.

It's difficult work to make a disciple. The

success of any spiritual enterprise is not

to get a crowd. The numbers are not the

measure of success. And some might hear me say

that and

say, well, that's what all pastors say. You

only have a church of 30 people. It's not

about the

numbers, right? I get that if you think that.

Okay, that's fine. But let me tell you

something. It's

really true. It's not about the numbers. It's

not about how many people show up. It's all

about

what kind of people do you have and where are

they in the process of their spiritual

development and growth? The Bible doesn't say

get a crowd and see if you can keep them

whether they believe or not. The Bible is

teaching this. Get a crowd and hit them with

the words of

Jesus and don't skip anything in God's book

and then find out who stays. And whoever stays

,

make disciples out of them. That's what

ministry really is. Easy to get a crowd. You

want to tell

you what we could do? We're in a helicopter on

Easter Sunday. Have it drop 10,000 Easter eggs

filled with some great candy down on the

grounds. Get a bouncy house and shoot water

over the top

of it and get your kid to get a picture with

the pagan Easter bunny. Okay? That will get a

crowd.

Promise you. It does it every year, right down

the road. It does. They have to stop traffic

with the sheriff's department for that day.

But I'm here to tell you it's difficult work

to make a disciple. That's the hard work of

ministry. Now let's go back to our text.

Here's Jesus. It's time for the Feast of Boots

. In verse 3, his brothers come to him. As I

said,

actual brothers, they all have the same mama.

Mary, okay? Get that straight. Verses 3 to 5.

Therefore, his brothers said to him, "Leave

here and go into Judea so that your disciples

also may see your works, which you are doing,

for no one does anything in secret when he

himself

seeks to be known publicly. If you do these

things, show yourself to the world. For not

even his

brothers were believing in him." And by the

way, if it says not even his brothers, that

means his

actual brothers. That doesn't mean his

brothers in the faith. That alone should tell

you that,

but let's press on. Time for the Feast of Bo

ots. Now you can read about all about the Feast

of Boots

in Leviticus 23 when you go home, but let me

give you the synopsis. God instituted a feast

in which they would remember their time in the

wilderness back in Exodus when they lived in

Boots. So we would say it in our modern day

language, tents or shelters. They were

temporary

tents or shelters that they lived in. This

would be celebrated again in our month of

October.

It was a week-long celebration. The Jewish

historian Josephus said this was the most

celebratory of all Jewish feasts. Everybody

got excited. It was always a whole week long,

very

joyous, very happy occasion. People would

erect these tents all over the place to stay

in them.

There'd be villages and streets. Some of the

people would put the boobs on top of their

houses,

on the roof, where a lot of them like to hang

out. It just sounds like a great time to me.

Everybody

bring your tent and bring them. Put it all

over the city. But it was all to remind the

folks of

when they lived their people in the temporary

shelters in the wilderness and how it was

that God protected them and brought them

through that hard time and into the promised

land.

That's what the tents were reminding them of.

So the brothers of Jesus come to him

because the years rolled around and it's that

time again. And by the way,

his brother's names were James, Joseph, Simon,

and Judas, which used to be a popular name,

but wasn't too long after that anymore for the

rest of time. So, as I said, going to this

festival

was a requirement. It's so cool to think about

Jesus's brothers. Hey, come on, let's go.

Jesus

to the festival. And there's all kind of

speculation about, okay, what exactly was the

brother's

motivation for wanting Jesus to go? Some have

said, well, they wanted him to get arrested

because they were tired of him getting all the

attention in the accolades. Verse five says,

they didn't believe in him. And so they wanted

to see him fall into the hands of the enemies.

But

there's no scriptural support for that at all.

It does say they didn't believe in him at this

point.

But it doesn't say they wanted him executed.

Others have made the suggestion that they

wanted

to take him down there to force his hand so

that he could become the Messiah like the

crowd back

in chapter six. They wanted to force him to do

this so they could no longer be under the

Romans

and make Jesus a king. No biblical

justification for that either. So why did they

want him to go?

Could it be simply that he irritated them? I

mean, you ever get irritated with a sibling?

I mean, think of these guys. Think of this.

Growing up their entire life with a person in

their

family, their brother, who was very literally

perfect every single minute of every single

day,

he would be a rebuke to you in that house

every waking moment.

He always gave every right answer to every

question that was asked. And he always had

every right attitude to anything that went

down in Joseph and Mary's house. Can you

imagine

living with that guy? So it says they didn't

believe in him.

But for sure, this, now, they were aware of

the miracles. I mean, they had been in Galilee

,

the whole time that he had ministered there.

And even if they weren't there every single

time, he didn't miracle. Don't you think that

in Nazareth, hey, James, guess what your

brother did

yesterday, right? You never stopped hearing it

. And so maybe it is they're thinking he might

just

be the Messiah who's going to overthrow Rome.

He might be the guy. And wonder of wonders,

he can make food too. We just have food

anytime we want it, which remember back in

those days,

it's kind of like how we are now. They didn't

even couldn't comprehend that.

But their conclusion was, hey, look, becoming

the Messiah, that's never going to happen out

here in Galilee. I mean, seven months out here

in the boondocks, not going to get it, Jesus.

So they get proverbial on him. They give him a

self-evidence statement, kind of like a

proverb.

Look at verse four. They say, for no one does

anything in secret when he himself seeks to

be known publicly. And that's obvious. And

then next they say, if you do these things,

show yourself to the world. So they say, come

on, Jesus. If you are who you say you are,

then go down to Jerusalem. That is the

theological capital of the world. That is

where the verdict

on you is going to be rendered. That's where

the decision is going to be made, not up here

in

pumpkin center. And nobody's never going to

render any verdict up here. Jerusalem is the

acid test.

You can't be up here on a fringe. You want to

be realized. You want to be really recognized.

You've got to go to Jerusalem. And there they

say, look at verse three. Your disciples also

may see your works, which you are doing. Now,

what disciples are he talking about there?

He's talking about the followers that he had

gained while he was in Judea that had stayed

in

Judea. And they were believing in him from

those early months at the beginning of his

ministry.

And maybe it was in the back of their minds

that they were open to the fact that, man,

maybe if he goes, we're going to get the final

verdict here. And they rationalized it by

saying,

it's only obvious. You want to be known

publicly. You cannot be in secret. Now, look

at this statement

again in verse four. If you do these things,

show yourself to the world. If you are who you

say you

are, if you're for real, if the works that you

do are really evidence of your divinity, if,

if,

if, who does that smell like? Who said that to

Jesus three times early in his ministry?

Lucifer. If you're the Son of God, turn these

stones into bread. If you're the Son of God,

do this, remember?

And when he was hanging on the cross, what did

they say? If you are the Son of God, come down

off of that cross. What they are doing is sho

ving his claims into his face and telling him

to prove it.

So now at this point, we know whose side they

're on, really. Now, that's going to change

later,

but I'm talking about at this point, Jesus

made it really easy to understand.

He who is not for me is against me. Period. It

's pretty easy. So they pressed the issue,

verse five.

This says for not even his brothers were

believing in him. The word even tells you that

's his blood

brothers, half brothers right there. No

question about that. They didn't believe what

a testimony

this is to the absolute obstinacy of unbelief.

They've been around Jesus since he was a child

in the same house. It's incredible. But don't

forget what Jesus said in John 6. You can't

believe.

You don't have the ability to believe unless

the Father draws you. Obviously, at this point

,

the Father had not drawn them. Now, that's

going to be good news later, but not right now

.

So they are saying, go down there and prove

yourself. Now, skip down to verse eight for

just

a minute. Verse eight and nine, Jesus says, go

up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to

this

feast because my time has not yet fully come.

And then verse nine, having said these things

to them,

he stayed in Galilee. You go. I'm not coming.

So he stayed in Galilee. Let me tell you

something

in the whole life of Jesus. Nobody ever forced

his hand to do anything. He did everything he

ever wanted to do. He even said, no man takes

my life from me, but I lay it down of myself.

So he's not going. Now, if he had gone with

them, let me tell you what would have happened

.

He would have been a part of a huge caravan of

people that would go down from Galilee and he

would have been with his family and his

friends. How do I know that? Well, in Luke,

when they had

come down for the Passover, remember when he

was 12 years old, there was that whole caravan

and they

had went a whole day of travel going back to

Galilee before they realized, hey, Jesus isn't

here.

It's because they had so many people and

family members and everything. So this is a

large caravan.

They had big extended families and everybody

knows who's coming. They know the groups and

where

they come from. Jesus doesn't want this

exposure. He doesn't want to go the normal way

that he used

to go in the caravan. And he's not going. He's

not going because it's not his time at this

moment.

It's not his time to die yet is what's most

significant. Verse 8 again, my time has not

yet

fully come. He definitely has his mind on the

purpose for which he came.

And then he explains it back up to verse 6.

Jesus said that in my time is not yet here

again. What was this big picture? Six months

later,

from this point, is the next Passover. And

that would where he would become the Passover

lamb.

So he'll go down eventually, but go back to

verse 6. My time is not yet here. Then he says

this amazing phrase to his brothers, but your

time is always opportune. Let me tell you,

there's some depth in that statement. They say

, hey, look, every day matters in my life.

Every

hour is sovereignly determined by God. But for

you, right now, it doesn't matter. If you're

unbelieving, you have one appointment with God

yet. And the rest of the time, you're on your

own.

And it's not that God doesn't sovereignly and

providentially have control of your life. It's

just that for you right now, as unbelievers,

you are irrelevant. It doesn't matter. Your

life right

now is purposeless because you're not

operating within the sphere of the kingdom of

God. So your

life counts for nothing but a soon appointment

with death. Because of unbelief at this point,

they actually knew absolutely nothing about

the purposes of God. They didn't recognize God

's schedule

and they could not perceive the incarnate Word

of God standing right in front of them. Jesus

is

saying you're not operating in the kingdom.

You're not on kingdom time. You have one

appointment to

keep with God and that is death, but that's

not the case with me. And then also verse

seven,

look how he starts out. The world cannot hate

you. Why does he say that? Well, you're part

of it.

You're safe. You fit in the world, but it

hates me. Why does it hate me? Not because of

my works,

not because I can feed you, not because I can

heal you. Look next in verse seven,

but it hates me because I testify of it that

its deeds are evil. It is always the

straightforward

in your face, words of Jesus that are the

issue. So Jesus clearly is on a divine timet

able. He can't

go. The time's not right. What they do doesn't

matter. The world absorbs them. They're part

of it, but not him. The world hates him

because he tells the people that are in it,

hey,

your deeds are evil. So he's not going. Verse

eight, go up to the feast yourselves. I do not

go up to

the feast because my time has not yet fully

come. Verse nine, having said these things to

them,

he stayed in Galilee. Now, we don't know how

long he stayed in Galilee, but he didn't stay

long

because it went from being the wrong time in

verse nine and all of a sudden in verse 10,

it becomes the right time. Look at verse 10.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast

,

they're already gone. Then he himself also

went up, not publicly, but as if in secret.

By the way, he did something unusual here. He

did what they didn't do. He went through

Samaria. According to Luke nine, if you look

at your map, you got Galilee, Samaria, Judea.

They would go around. He went through.

Remember the story? We went on over all of

that with the

woman at the well. They would make their

journey around Samaria. Jesus right through it

. What did

that do? Well, for one thing, it gave him more

secrecy because he wouldn't be going with the

crowds and the caravan and all the people that

were just flowing into Jerusalem for this

feast. Now,

as an aside, isn't it interesting to think

about the fact, number one, that there is no

human being

who has ever lived that could have possibly

got anywhere close to the realm of

understanding

the sovereignty of God like Jesus Christ. Are

you with me there? He understood completely

God's divine decree from before the foundation

of the world for his life because he is the

God

man. And yet at the same time, would you

notice right here in this text, look how

careful he was

to operate down here in responsibility. He

knew they wanted to kill him. He's not saying,

well,

God ordained me to go to the cross. I'm just

going to get in the caravan. Oh, no.

He went in secret. He went through Samaria.

This tells me that our willing choices down

here in responsibility land are real choices

and Jesus never operated under the idea. Well,

it's all ordained from the foundation of the

world anyway. I might as well just do this.

If Jesus didn't operate that way, then guess

what? Neither should we. We might not have the

ability in our human reasoning to reconcile

sovereignty and responsibility, but we are

smart enough to know this. God's the one that

's sovereign. We're the ones responsible.

So our actions have consequences and choices

that we make. It's critical. It's critical,

folks,

for us to understand biblically the

sovereignty of God to have a right balance

between God's

sovereignty and our responsibility with our

actions. So Jesus goes through Samaria. He's

in

stealth mode. And then next in verse 11, it

says, so these Jews were seeking him at the

feast and

were saying, where is he? Now, what made them

think that he would be there? Well, don't

forget,

these are Jews. All men had to be there. And

they followed the rules in them days.

They knew that he would be there. And guess

what? They knew Galileans. They could separate

somebody from Galilean, from somebody from the

capitalists, because they knew their accent.

They knew how they dressed, but they couldn't

find him. They're looking. Where is he?

Then verse 12, there was much grumbling among

the crowds concerning him. He was the topic of

conversation. He was the topic of the whispers

. Where is he? Where is Jesus? They all knew he

was a miracle worker. Many of them had seen

his miracles. The people in Judea knew it. The

people

in Galilee knew it. Then they had all now

converged into Jerusalem. And he is the topic

of everybody's

discussion. Look next in verses 12 and 13.

Some were saying he's a good man.

Others were saying no. On the contrary, he

leads the people astray. Yet no one was

speaking openly

of him. Why? For fear the Jews. Remember when

John, every time he uses that phrase, the Jews

,

he means the Jewish leaders. That's how much

power the Jewish leaders had in that legal

istic system

of Judaism. Power over the people. They were

afraid to even give an opinion openly,

publicly.

These are whispers. And the folks all knew

that they wanted Jesus dead. They're scared to

death

to say anything. They didn't want to get put

out of their local synagogue. They didn't want

to be

ostracized from their community. That's the

power of this terrible legalistic system.

Jesus comes down privately, secretly, sneaking

his way through Samaria. Those are parts of

Scripture

you don't get to see as he's walking through.

Who did he talk to? Hey, what's going on? You

know, you can get to see that. He's in Judea

now. These are booths. He's going to stay in

this area

of Judea until the last Passover. By the way,

the last Passover there ever was that counted

and then we go into the new covenant. And in

those intervening months, he's ministering in

Judea,

and it's all recorded. You can go read Luke

chapter 9 and chapter all the way through 19,

and it gives us what all was going on at this

time. He's in Judea, but at first he doesn't

go into

the city of Jerusalem. For now, he kind of

stayed out in the towns and the villages

surrounding

Jerusalem. He's operating on a divine timet

able. Nothing is random. Nothing is unplanned.

Nothing

ever goes wrong. Oh, I need to do plan B.

There's no plan B with Jesus ever. Everything

is according

exactly to God's eternal purpose, and it wasn

't going to be a cross and a passion week until

that

Passover. And at the same time, he knows how

he has to operate carefully down here in

responsibility

land, carefully to make sure he wasn't

captured by the Jewish religious leaders.

There's more great evidence that he is the God

man. These Jewish leaders hated his words.

They

couldn't believe that he said he was from

heaven. That freaked them out. And then he's

the only way

to heaven. What? And now only he could give

eternal life. Their heads are spinning by that

time,

and then they really couldn't deal with him

for saying he was going to give his flesh for

the

life of the world. And then when he got to

saying, "You got to be willing to eat my flesh

and drink

my blood," their heads exploded. Right? And

you know what they really didn't like more

than anything

he said? He testified to them that their deeds

were evil. He called them out. He called them

out

with specificity. And he was bolder than

anybody ever with the true claims of the

Christian faith

when he was here. Good man, not enough. Bad

man, terrible error. Deceiver devilish notions

straight

out of the pit of hell. Every person will be

responsible on that great day for the right

answer.

And Peter gave the right answer. Remember,

back in chapter 6, verse 69, "We have believed

and

come to know that you are the Holy One of God

." That's the only right answer. And if today

you

are in the company of those who truly believe

that, then I'm on here to tell you, you are

blessed far beyond what you can comprehend in

this life. The greatest thing that could ever

happen to a human being has happened to you.

You are a Christian who believes just like

Peter did.

But if you're not, I'm here to tell you, you

're breathing God's oxygen right now today. It

's

not too late. Not too late. Choose this day

what you will believe about who Jesus is,

what he has done. Let's pray. Father, we thank

you for the tremendous, tremendous account

of this transition from Galilee to Judea as we

are marching toward the cross,

the greatest event in human history along with

the resurrection.

Oh, we love going through the Gospel of John.

Oh, we love hearing the words of Jesus. We

love

to hear the interactions of Jesus in this

Gospel. He is our King. He is our prophet, our

priest,

our King. And we pray, Lord, that through our

worship service today and the preaching and

the

singing and all that we have done, that we

have made much of him today and he has

received all

the glory. In Jesus' name we pray.