John 7:1-36 - Part A

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. An acknowledgement of truth that we sing and another layer of praise and adoration.

And I just love the idea of telling God for about 30 minutes how cool He is and how much we love and how much we appreciate Him. And I love that because what we're going to read is the exact opposite. Chapter 7 takes a change from the previous part of John where the hatred and animosity toward Jesus escalates.

It's layer upon layer upon layer. And it increases until, and we'll read it when we get to chapter 11 where we read from that day forward, they plotted on how they might put Jesus to death. Jesus has been in Galilee.

That's where we left off in chapter 6. Now He is going to Jerusalem. And the Jewish leaders, those in Judea, they have been eyeing Him since His first visit. They have heard reports about Him, even though He has done miracles in their midst, in their city.

They will plot on how they might put Him to death. Now between chapter 6 and chapter 7, there is a gap. There's a gap of about a half a year, about six months, leaving off in chapter 6 and going into chapter 7. And it's not that Jesus didn't do anything for six months, like He took a vacation and hung out and, you know, was laying out on the beach at the Mediterranean Sea hanging out with His disciples.

He was very active and the activities are recorded in the first three Gospels, the synoptics. But because John has his own story to tell, these are just events he doesn't include. So we have a gap chronologically between chapter 6 and 7 of about six months, but then John wants to chronologically orient us.

And so he opens up chapter 7. After these things, after the things that happened in chapter 6 of John, as well as the other accounts that are given, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for He did not want to walk in Judea down south because the Jews sought to kill Him. Now the Jews' Feast of the Tabernacles was at hand. Tabernacles takes place in the fall time of the year, late September, early October. It is a festival of incredible joy.

And I'll tell you more about that as we go through the chapter. It is probably of all the festivals. I love Passover, and I've been to Jerusalem during this feast. But the joy and the celebration and the anticipation for this feast, according to Josephus, the Jewish historian, it was the most important, the most significant, and the most joyful of all the feasts. Now, Tabernacles was one of three what we call pilgrim feasts. What that means is no matter where you live within a certain vicinity of the city of Jerusalem, you will make it your ambition to go up three times a year and celebrate these three feasts. Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles. Or Pesach in Hebrew, Shavuot for Pentecost, and Sukkot. Sukkot means booths. So the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths, was celebrated by building these little booths, these little shacks, these little lean-to's commemorating the wilderness wanderings of their forefathers thousands of years before when Moses led the children of Israel through the desert. And they were camping out under the stars, and God provided for them. Once a year, they were to come together and celebrate a joyful feast for a whole week, a total of eight days celebrating that wilderness march, that wilderness wandering that happened thousands of years before. Now, Chapter 7 is a long chapter.

Can you see? It's got 53 verses. So maybe I'm too ambitious thinking I can cover it in one night.

I'd like to, but don't hold your breath. However, as a long chapter, it's easily divided. There are normal divisions to it. And I thought I should tell you what those divisions are so you can orient yourself.

You ready? It's pretty easy. Chapter 7 can be divided into the first section before the feast, the second section during the feast, and the third section after the feast. That's exactly right. So verse 1 through 10 highlights on before the Feast of Tabernacles, verse 11 through verse 39 during the Festival of Tabernacles, and verse 40 through 53 after.

But I think we can do better than that. You could look at it in terms of the people's response to Jesus, and I would give three words that would sum up Chapter 7 of the Gospel of John. The first word is disbelief. There are a group of people who just do not believe in him, and interestingly, his own brothers are part of that group.

The ones he was raised with in Nazareth are part of that group, disbelief. Second, debate. People aren't sure who Jesus is. They're debating back and forth.

Who is he? What do the leaders think about him? And then finally, the third word is division. There's a division over him, and it's very pronounced. So disbelief, debate, and division are three words that would sum up the Gospel of John, Chapter 7. After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. That is the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin in particular. Now, the Jews' Feast of the Tabernacles was at hand.

I told you that this lasted a week, eight days. The first day and the last day, the eighth day, were days of rest, days of Shabbat, Sabbath. There was still a celebration, and the celebrations took place in the temple, but they were days of rest with the festival days in between. I mentioned that booths were built, or these little lean-tos. So the way the law required it be celebrated is that you build, using branches, these little shanties, these little shacks, and you have to construct it so that the thatches, the branches, are wide enough for you to see the stars at night.

So get this. For a whole week, you go camping with your family outside of your house. Now, for some people, that wouldn't be too fun.

But for others, especially kids, that's fun. Hey, boys, daughters, let's move outside. We're going to sleep outside tonight. And they're under the stars, and they're going to ask, Daddy, what on earth are we doing here? And Daddy would say, well, our forefathers marched for years through the wilderness, and while they were out there looking up at these same stars, God took care of them.

God provided for them. Now, there were certain things that occurred in Jerusalem to commemorate the wilderness wanderings. One of them was that the temple precincts at night were illuminated. They were lit up. You say, how were they lit up? There was no electricity. So they had these huge pots, and they filled them with oil, and they had four of these potted lamps to each pole that was erected in the temple precincts.

Now, keep in mind, the temple is 35 acres. So they would have these young priests in training crawl up there and pour oil in so that every night it was illuminated. And according to the writings, it was so bright in Jerusalem that every courtyard of every house in the city of Jerusalem at night felt the glow. You could see the glow from the lights. You know, we were just in New York. I was speaking in New Jersey. And if you walk through New York City like Times Square one in the morning, it's as bright as daylight.

If you've got a camera and you're taking pictures, you know, you don't even have to have, like, fast film. I mean, there's just so much light. So the glow of Times Square, those huge screens, they illuminate the whole city. So in Jesus' day with the temple, it was illuminated. Now, what did that—think of something that happened in the wilderness wanderings that would be emblematic of. Do you remember what led them through the wilderness? A pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day.

So the illumination of the temple precincts were to remind people God gave us a GPS system for 40 years. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, Nate Heitzig has written a children's book just in time for Christmas. And this month, we're offering it to you as thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig. Christmas Under the Tree follows the timeless story of Jesus Christ from the cradle to the cross through the eyes of an unlikely character, a humble tree. This beautifully illustrated book, which includes a companion audio experience, is a wonderful way to tell the Christmas story and the story of Christ to the children in your life. This resource is our thanks for your gift of just $25 or more today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $25 or more today to reach people all around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. And then something else occurred. The priest would walk down from the temple down the steep slope to the Gihon Spring, the water source of Jerusalem, down into the city of David, and he would take a gold pitcher and at the pool of Siloam, fill it with water, go back up to the temple, go up to the altar of sacrifice and pour water at the base of the altar. So you have water on the rocks of the altar.

What would that be an emblem of? Water coming out of the rock in the wilderness. They didn't have water. God said, go up and smack that rock, just touch it with your rod and water flowed out of the rock.

So to give people, especially kids, the visual of God's provision and protection in the desert, those things were done. And I just love that. I love it. What a fun way to go to church. Let's go camping. So the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, it was a holy feast, but it was a fun feast. It was a joyous feast.

And the kids, there were games and there were stories and I love the idea that it made it fun for the kids and they were told to have joy in their celebration. Verse three. His brothers, Jesus brothers, therefore, said to him, Depart from here, here being Galilee, and go into Judea where Jerusalem is, that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing.

For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world, for even, and notice this, for even his brothers did not believe in him. And Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come. Your time is always ready.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it, that it works, its works are evil. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to the feast, for my time has not yet come. Now, when it says his brothers. It means his half brothers. We know that Jesus was born by the Holy Spirit conceiving in the womb of Mary. An immaculate conception. Jesus was born of a virgin.

She never had any relations, physical relations with the man. Jesus came from her womb. But after that, the Bible indicates in a few different texts that they had normal marital relationships and that they had boys and girls. Jesus had brothers and sisters. And Matthew chapter 13 verse 55 actually gives us the names of his brothers.

James was one of them. Joseph, j-o-s-e-s, an early form of the word Joseph was another brother of Jesus, half brother of Jesus. So he was the junior because it was Mary and Joseph. So this was Joe Jr. So you had Simon, James, Joe Jr., Simon, not Peter, but a different guy named Simon, Shimon, and Judas, not Iscariot, Judas, the brother of Jesus. So here's what's interesting. At this point in the story, they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

They will believe eventually, of course. Because James, the half brother of Jesus, will become the leader of the church in Jerusalem eventually in the book of Acts. He will also write the epistle, the letter from James to the church, the general epistle of the book of James. Also Judas, the long form of Jude, Jude will write the book of Jude. That is the half brother of Jesus.

But here it says they did not believe in him. Which I find interesting. And I find encouraging.

I do. I bet if I were to ask some of you, you would say that your family is the hardest of all the people you know to reach with the gospel. For some of you, you have been talking to and working on and praying for and giving tracts to, shouting Bible verses at, slipping a tract into sandwiches.

I don't know what you do. Anything you can do to get their attention. For years. But they know you. They watched you grow up.

And I remember it was so difficult to share with my family. Other people, I mean, strangers I could talk to and they would be receptive, but when it comes to your own family. So isn't it interesting that Jesus' own brothers at this point did not believe that he was the Messiah?

They will, as I mentioned, but right now they do not. There's unbelief in their hearts. So they make a suggestion. It's interesting that they're giving Jesus advice. Jesus, we would like to be your agent here. We think you're doing things a little wrong, you're kind of doing things backward, you're hanging out here in Galilee.

You know, the backwoods, the backwaters. You need to go where the action is. If you want to prove that you're the Messiah, don't stay up in Galilee. And so, verse 4, no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly.

If you do these things, show yourself to the world. Now, why are they telling Jesus that he ought to go to Jerusalem? I can think of a couple reasons.

The first one, just a thought that comes to mind, though it's not the real reason. But they are brothers, and there is such a thing as sibling rivalry. You know, you have to think that living with Jesus was awfully difficult.

Don't you think? As a brother, a half-brother? I mean, Jesus is perfect all the time.

He never does anything wrong. It'd be miserable to live with somebody like that, as a brother. I just remember when my parents thought my brothers were perfect, and they weren't. And I would get in trouble.

I was the youngest of four boys. I would get the wrap for something they did, and it's like they would, look at your brother, Jim or Rick or Bob, and it's like, yeah, whatever. But it's true with Jesus.

He was perfect. So, hey, you know, maybe they know they don't like him down in Jerusalem. Jesus, you ought to go down to Jerusalem. But here's another reason.

I think it's really the reason. They, his brothers, his half-brothers, along with all the other Jews at the time, believed that the Messiah was to be a political Messiah, a political Messiah, a deliverer, somebody who would come in and overthrow the powers that be and rescue Israel from the oppression of the Roman government and set them up as heirs of a kingdom which the Messiah would preside over. So here's the suggestion. Go to Jerusalem. Don't be hidden up here in Galilee. The acid test for your Messiahship is do the leaders down in Judea sign off on you being the Messiah? If they do, maybe there's something to your claims.

If you can do down there what you've been pulling off up here with all of these crowds, well, maybe there's something to it. So they give him advice. Now, it wasn't good spiritual advice, but it was good political advice.

If Jesus were a political Messiah, this makes perfect sense. Go where the action is. Go to Jerusalem.

Prove yourself. But it wasn't God's advice. It might have been good advice from a human perspective, but it was not God's advice because there's this little thing called perfect timing that Jesus was hung up on, right? He would often say, my time has not yet come. When his mother suggested the turning of water into wine and making that as an initial display, he said, my time has not yet come. And he often spoke about this timetable, and we see here, verse 6, Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come.

Your time is always ready. What does he mean by that? They don't hate you guys down in Jerusalem. You're one of them. The world doesn't hate you. The world hates me. You go along with them.

You're not telling them that they're doing anything wrong. Notice what he says in the next verse. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me. Now, listen carefully, you disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, you followers of him, the world hates Jesus Christ. So when you wonder, why are all those television specials coming out at Christmas and Easter trying to debunk Christianity?

Another one, another one. Why do people seemingly go out of their way, your professors at college, your colleagues at work, to target not Islam, not Buddhism, but you, Christianity? Jesus said so. The world hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. Ooh, that's why they hate Jesus. You know, Jesus spoke about sin. Today, Jesus, if he were to come today, he would be called a hater.

What a hater. He's always condemning, talking about sin. He's coming to forgive sin, like we're all sinners.

He would be called a hater. He said its deeds are evil. And he testified of it by his own life, by his own words. You go up to the feast, Jesus said.

I am not yet going up to this feast, for my time has not yet come. So they gave him advice. Jesus didn't take their advice. Is there a principle here for us?

Yes, there is. Psalm 1, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. The counsel of the ungodly, it might even come from your own relative's ungodly counsel. It might be well-meaning counsel, but it still might be ungodly counsel. So Jesus listened to their advice, and then he dismissed their advice.

He didn't take it. Thank you. Not going up. See you. You guys go.

It's not my time yet. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you and the children in your life see the timeless story of Christ with fresh eyes.

Nate Heitzig's book, Christmas Under the Tree, with Forward by Levi Lusko, is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $25 or more. Call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube, and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.