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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Go to Jerusalem. I can think of a couple reasons. The first one, just a thought that comes to mind. 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 would 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, oh, well, look at your brother, Jim or Rick or Bob. And it's like, 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 political messiah. Go 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 six, 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 going 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 relatives' 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 ya.
You guys go. It's not my time yet. Not the right time. Now, this begs a question. Could the enemies of Jesus down in Judea, could they have killed him if he were to have gone up to the feast early?
What's the answer? Could they have killed him at this time, six months before the cross really was going to happen? No, not at all, because his time had not yet come.
So all of his life was under the perfect prescription and timetable of his father. However, the other principle is you don't want to court danger unnecessarily. You don't want to tempt the Lord your God.
You don't want to do something that is going to cause a revolt. That's why when they tried to make him a king in chapter 6, he withdrew from their midst. He wasn't going to allow it, and the way he didn't allow it is by escaping from their midst, hiding himself.
So he waits, tells them to go up. Verse 9. When he had said these things to them, he remained in Galilee, that is, for a few days. But when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were, in secret.
Then the Jews sought him at the feast, saying, Where is he? And there was much complaining among the people concerning him. Some said, He is good. Others said, No, on the contrary, he deceives the people. Now, which of those two opinions are wrong? Actually, both are wrong. They said, He's good. That's wrong. It's inaccurate.
That doesn't go far enough. He's not good. He's God. Now, Jesus said, No one is good but God. But listen, if he were just a man, he couldn't be a good man. Because good men don't run around saying, I'm God.
I know a lot of good men, if they say, I'm God, they're not good men. They're crazy. They're deceivers.
It's like, ah. So to say he's just a good man does not go far enough, doesn't give an accurate picture of him. So it's inaccurate. It's wrong. The other one, he deceives the people, is also flatly wrong.
These are rumors flying around. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, the life. He was all about the truth. Even before Pilate, he spoke the truth. And Pilate was amazed at how honest and truthful he was. However, verse 13, No one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.
Now, about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and he taught. It says that nobody said anything in verse 13 or spoke openly of him because of fear of the Jews. Proverbs 29, The fear of man brings a snare. The fear of man brings a snare. When you do something or don't do anything because you're afraid of people, afraid of their opinions about you, it's a prison.
It's a horrible way to live. And, you know, some of us get offended by what is said about us or not said about us on social media. Well, they didn't mention me on Facebook or in this Instagram. Well, how come they haven't, you know, where's my picture?
They took all the other people's picture. You know, I mean, just if we could rise above the fear of people, it brings a snare. The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord, same Proverbs, same verse, will be safe. I've always loved Paul's words in Galatians chapter one. He said, Do I seek to please men? For if I sought to please men, I could no longer be a bond slave of Jesus Christ.
Now, if you want to please God, you don't have to really worry about if you worry about what God thinks about you, you don't have to worry about what anybody else thinks about you. The fear of the Lord frees you from the snare of the fear of men. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, we want to help you and the children in your life see the timeless story of Christ from cradle to cross with Nate Heitzig's new book, Christmas Under the Tree. Told through the eyes of an unlikely character and graced with illuminating illustrations, this gripping tale is rooted in the limitlessness of Christ's love and helps young readers understand why Jesus left heaven to be born under and die upon a tree. This exciting resource, along with a companion audio experience, are available to you now as our way of saying thanks for your gift of $25 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Look at it this way. If you can get on your knees before God, you can get on your feet before any man. If you just bow before him and you're concerned about pleasing him and loving him and what he thinks about your life, it just sets you free from the fear of the Jews. Now, having said that, I don't want you to think I'm all perfect and I've never been afraid of people's opinions of myself. Listen, I've been in plenty of situations where I've been afraid to speak out for Jesus. We all have.
We get intimidated by an intellect or by somebody bold or a certain situation. And I remember the first time I wanted to share the gospel with a guy I worked with at a gas station. I worked at a gas station, but this guy was a popular kid in class and everybody knew him in the community and I was just so afraid that he's going to think I'm a dork if I tell him I love Jesus. He's just going to say something and it's going to shut me down.
So I remember the day I decided today's the day. Today I'm going to open my mouth and tell, listen to his name, Angus McIntosh. I know you're thinking, that guy was a cool kid in your school? What kind of a crazy school did you go to?
But Angus McIntosh was like one of the cool cats. And I walked up to him and I stumbled over a few words and then something just kicked in. I couldn't explain it. I know now what it is, but I couldn't explain it at the time. It's just like, it's like firing up the engine just started up and I found myself sharing with him and sharing boldly with him and then some even eloquent words came out. I thought, where did that come from? You've had that experience when the Lord just kicks it in gear and overcomes the fear. And then once that fear is overcome, they can't shut you up. Well, let me tell you about this and why that, wait a minute, come back here.
You know, you want to lay it on, but I'll tell you what, it's beautiful when you can be free from the fear of men. Now, Jesus, verse 14, about the middle of the feast, so it's an eight-day feast. Around day four, he shows up. Festivities have been underway. The booths are all around Jerusalem, these little shacks and lean-to's on top of houses out in the streets. You see him everywhere. Jesus went into the temple and he, what does it say?
He taught, he taught. In the temple area, the Temple Mount, and if you've gone with us to Jerusalem, you're picturing right now that 35-acre complex, the Temple Mount. Two thousand years ago on that flat surface that is still in existence today, the Temple Mount, there were two covered porches, covered porticos, colonnaded porticos. One was called the royal porch, the other was called Solomon's portico or Solomon's porch.
They did not serve espresso at the one in Jerusalem. But these were areas where people could congregate and they were covered because it was shaded. And if you ever go to Israel, you understand why you need shade.
It's sort of like here, it's intense sun. So rabbis would often go under the royal porch or Solomon's portico and just find people who were gathered there also to have a rabbi come by and listen to sermons and teachings and explanations, stories, wisdom. It was here while Jesus was in Jerusalem that he would find a ready audience. He and his disciples would go to Solomon's porch or the royal porch and engage like lots of rabbis and would draw a crowd, gather a crowd.
But it says he taught. Now I just want to bring that to your attention because we often find in the New Testament Jesus preaching and teaching. In fact, the three major things he did was teaching, preaching and healing. Now when he preached or he proclaimed, it was and I see preaching primarily as making a proclamation of truth to win the unsaved into the kingdom. Then I see teaching as once they have been preached to and they respond and come into the kingdom, now they are to be taught. Now preaching is exciting.
You see immediate results. I was back in New Jersey and Sunday night, we had a meeting. I asked people to come forward. It was at a Methodist camp and, you know, they said we don't see a lot of it but we want more of it. And so just to watch people come forward, you see an immediate response. You know what it's like. We see it a lot around here.
It's awesome. That's preaching. But now once they respond, you need to be teaching them. Whereas preaching is exciting and you see immediate results.
Ah, teaching is a bit slower. You don't see immediate results but you see long-term results. Think of the difference being between a house going up. You know, you can pour a cement slab and you can put up the framing in a couple days. It's awfully exciting to see it go up. It takes shape.
You go, wow, look at it. But then building from that point on to finishing date, closing date takes a long time. Got to put the drywall up, insulation in.
Got to be electrical has to come in. You know, you have to do all the detail work, et cetera. The process takes a long time but you are building on the foundation. And we love to preach the gospel but we also love to teach the Bible because we want to build solidity on the foundation that you have received and see you grow deep and grow strong.
And it's a slower process. It's verse by verse. It's chapter by chapter. It's book by book.
It's an hour at a time but eventually you find your faith growing and it's solid and it's unshakable. So Jesus went to the temple and he taught. And the Jews marveled saying, how does this man, this Jesus, how does this man know letters having never studied? Now you just need to understand that that is the equivalent of saying, how does this guy know so much stuff without a seminary degree, without a college education? They're not saying Jesus is not educated but he didn't go to one of our seminaries, one of our recognized schools. In Jerusalem at that time, there were about 30 what are called yeshivas and a yeshiva, if you know anything about Judaism, are schools of learning. And you go to a yeshiva to be taught the Torah and now the Talmud and the writings of the sages, the wisdom. And the yeshivas would teach young men how to be rabbis. Jesus didn't go to any of them but he had such a depth and such a wisdom but these leaders, they marvel. Where did he get this wisdom without us giving it to them? Who were Jesus' disciples? They were fishermen.
They were blue-collar workers. He didn't go to seminaries. He didn't go to yeshivas. He didn't go to the Sanhedrin. He didn't knock on Nicodemus' door saying, you know what, man, you're just like so amazing and so brilliant. You're a teacher of the law.
I need you on my team. You've got Peter and John and you know the story of these guys. Fishermen. And in Acts chapter 4 when the fishermen, the disciples, get arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, it says that they marveled at them like this. They marveled at them because they knew that they were, listen to what it says, uneducated and untrained men but they had perceived that they had been with Jesus. Now I would rather have people who are with Jesus than those who are formally trained and educated. I know a lot of people who are formally trained and educated. They don't spend much time with Jesus. But people who spend a lot of time with Jesus and don't have the education, give me those guys.
And so you have these fishermen who had been with Jesus for three years talk about a seminary education. You're with the master. You're hearing him. You're watching him. You're observing him. Oh, by the way, do you remember Matthew chapter 11, Jesus praying, Father, I thank you that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and you have revealed them to babes.
Isn't that beautiful? It seems that the Lord is looking for just open vessels, humble people who would say, I want to learn. I want to grow and God will reveal himself to you. And oftentimes he'll hide some of the most profound truths from some of the most erudite individuals. Jesus answered, verse 16, and said to them, My doctrine, my doctrine, my teaching, my doctrine is not mine but his who sent me. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority.
He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true and no unrighteousness is in him. Now, I want to ask you two questions. These really bring up two good questions for us. Do you want to do his will? That's the first question. Do you want to do his will? That's an important question because Saul of Tarsus, who was Jewish, rabbinical, knew the law, was knocked off his horse on the way to Damascus and once God got his attention, the first question he said is, Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?
It's a good question. Do you want to do what he wants you to do? Now, I ask the question because it seems that there's a lot of people who say, I want to know the will of God, but tell me what it is first.
Before I really say yes, I want to tell me what it is first. Barnhouse, Donald Gray Barnhouse once said, 95% of knowing the will of God is being willing to do it before you know what it is. Are you willing to do what he wants? Anyone wills to, and here it is, do his will, not just study it, not just underline it, not just hear it, but do it.
Do it. The key to learning is obeying, or if you prefer, the key to learning is living. I am going to live by God's grace what is revealed to me. So that's the first question.
Do you really want to do as well? The second thing in verse 18, the second question, is whose glory is it that you're after? Whose glory is it that you're after? God's glory or your glory? We're glad you've joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $25 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Nate Heitzig's new children's book, Christmas Under the Tree, which includes a companion audio experience.
Just in time for Christmas, this book will help young readers understand why Jesus left heaven to be born under and die upon a tree. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
