John Chapter 7:1-7

What's wrong with the advice of the brothers here? They're advising him out of their unbelief. Be extremely careful and skeptical when taking advice for an unbeliever.

Don't walk in the council or the ungodly, we're told in Psalm 1. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is a senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today on the program we have D.A. Brown, one of David's associate pastors here at the bridge.

Welcome, brother. Bob, everyone is always trying to tell us what we should and should not do. It's important that we don't receive advice from just anyone. The Bible clearly speaks to who we should be listening to. Check out this teaching today as God gives us good advice on where to receive it.

Now here's David Magee as he continues his teaching, Rejected. John chapter 7, verse 1. After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. Now you may have Jewry if you're in the King James, this is the new King James, walk in Judea. Now this is about six months before the cross, so we see that John, more so than the other gospels, takes a lot of time with these final six months.

As a matter of fact, the six months is covered in a few chapters. Actually, John chapter 12 through 21 is the final week of the life of Jesus. So we get more and more in-depth in the Gospel of John than the other gospels in regards to the life of Jesus. Verse 2, Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. Now if you remember, we've discussed this before, there were three Jewish feasts that all the Jewish males needed to come to Jerusalem for. There was the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There was the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths. And there was the Feast of Pentecost, or Weeks. And so the first feast was Hag Hamatat, that comes from Matzah.

You know, the Matzah like we use during our communion, which is unleavened bread. And Sukkot means tabernacles or Booths. That was in celebration of their deliverance from Egypt. And you know, if you've been here, and then Hag HaShefot is the, means weeks, or Feast of Weeks, is the Feast of Pentecost. Now, these are mentioned right here in the Bible. And if you've been here for very long, we do something every spring, we have Passover.

And what we do is we get together, and it's about a three-hour thing, we get together, we eat a lot, and it's a real blessing. And then we talk about the elements of Passover because they reveal and show Jesus Christ. And what's amazing is how many Christians have never celebrated Passover. There is a picture in these feasts that if you don't understand it, you've been ripped off.

And I understand that many of you have been ripped off. I spent years of my Christian life not understanding the Jewish feast, not understanding that they were important, being involved in ministries that said, ah, that's Old Testament. Well, we have a whole book. It's comprised of the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament. And let me assure you that you will have a clearer picture of the New Testament if you understand these feasts. You will have a clearer picture of prophecy if you understand these feasts. And I don't think that as Christians, we should be ignorant about these things.

Now, I understand you may have not been taught these things, but let me assure you that if you're here, I will be talking about them. You can go to Romans chapter 11. This is the roots of our Christianity.

The Hebrew scriptures are the roots of our Christianity. You can't understand the gospel till you really understand the book of Leviticus. Why did Jesus have to die?

Why did he have to shed his blood for us? Well, it's there that the life is in the blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Now, also, you're gonna understand why the feasts are more important in this chapter. I don't know if that's gonna be next week or the week following, but if you understand more about the Feast of Tabernacles, let me assure you, this chapter, if you've never made the connection, is gonna open up to you like never before because there's certain things that Jesus does that he says that are keyed back to the Feast of Tabernacles.

And it's just exciting stuff. And if you don't understand the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, now, then you're left hanging because the Feast of Pentecost or Feast of Weeks, one of the things it was about was that you were bringing your first fruits to the Lord. And what they would do is in their field, they would gather up their harvest, and before they would eat it, before they would sell it, before they would do anything, they would take it, the 10%, and they would take it to the Lord. And that's why it's called first fruits, not last fruits. That's why when somebody says, well, I would give to the Lord, but at the end of every month, there's nothing left over.

That's not the way it's supposed to work. You don't give God what's left. You give God what's right. But that concept of first fruits also has another application in the Book of Acts. You see, it's the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost.

Well, check this out. In the Book of Acts, what happens? The birth of the church, the first fruits of the ministry of Jesus Christ. It wasn't just happenstance that it happened on that day of that feast. It was planned.

It was an appointed time, if you will. So I mean, just in that two-minute thing, now you make a connection with the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost and with the Book of Acts. And those are connections that we need to make as believers.

And again, we're gonna be looking closer at the Feast of Tabernacles because it really adds weight to what Jesus says here later in this chapter. Verse three, his brothers therefore said to him, depart from here and go into Judea, 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 his brothers did not believe in him. Now, Jesus had brothers. It's right here in the Bible that's sitting on your lap. Mary being a perpetual virgin and never having any other children obviously doesn't come from the Bible. What it comes from is church tradition.

And we need to base our beliefs on the Bible. You see later that Peter has a mother-in-law. Now, if Peter had a mother-in-law, what can you surmise or guess that Peter also had? He had a wife.

So he was the first pope. I mean, does God know he had a wife? So these concepts are scripturally inaccurate. Now, you gotta love brothers. I mean, Proverbs 17, 17 says, brothers are born for adversity. And most of us who have brothers know that is a true scripture, amen. Look at verse four. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly if you do these things. See, they were hearing. They're hearing that Jesus was doing miracles, that he was doing these things with water and to wine. He was doing these things with lame men. And as brothers, what did they think?

Oh, I don't know about that. That's amazing to me that they could not see before now that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. I mean, growing up with him. Can you imagine growing up with Jesus as your brother?

I mean, you would always be hearing, why can't you be more like Jesus? He never murmurs. He never complains. He's always thankful.

He's never rebellious. I mean, man, that would be tough, wouldn't it? I mean, I heard that as a younger brother. And let me assure you, my two older brothers were not Jesus. But they were hearing about these things that Jesus was doing. And notice, guys, they're not supportive. They seek to undermine him with their words. And that's our first life lesson. Our words are important. Be careful what you say. Our words are important.

Be careful what you say. It's amazing the power that our words have. Our words are the vehicle somehow by which we receive our forgiveness.

They're so powerful. You say a prayer. Now, it can't be just words.

It has to be felt with your heart. But these words are used to gain your entrance into heaven that Jesus has provided. And certainly using our words with other people to encourage them.

Guys, it's so easy to tear somebody down in it. It's a little more difficult to take the time to encourage somebody. And let me, you guys, you ought to make it a goal that every time you come here, you encourage somebody. Look around. Find somebody that perhaps looks like they need encouragement and encourage them. Or perhaps find them when they're coming in. And you can tell when somebody is a visitor or not quite comfortable and they're kind of looking around like going, what is this? You know, then you can go and say, hey, you know, do you need to find your way around?

Can I help you? Or, you know, we're glad you're here or something like that. But to encourage someone in their faith as well, it might make all the difference. And it's, what's it going to cost you?

10 seconds, 30 seconds? Sending emails is a great way to encourage people. Phone calls is a great way to encourage people because words can tear down or they can build up. James chapter one, verse 26 says, anyone who says he is a Christian, but doesn't control his sharp tongue is just fooling himself and his religion isn't worth much. Strong words, huh? Doesn't control his sharp tongue is just fooling himself and his religion isn't worth much. I've met this guy.

I've met several of them. Actually, we have to control our tongues. Now James goes on to speak about our tongues and the rudder that stirs, that steers a ship.

And we have to be careful again with our tongue. I would say there's probably no one in here who hasn't been hurt or damaged by words that were spoken to you. I've had things spoken over me that were just horrible, horrible. I, you know, in high school, I had a football coach that said, you know, the best thing that could happen now, I was a troubled youth. Let me, let me paint the picture. I was troubled capital T youth, but this teacher said, you know, the best thing that could happen to you is somebody to find you dead in the ditch.

At least it would be over. Went to a psychiatrist to, I was, I was 16. And he, he looked at me and he said, you know, there's something wrong with you. You're, you're going to do drugs until the day you die. And those things impacted me. Now I'm praise God, I'm drug free. I don't take any drugs, but how damaging words can be and how often we use words against the ones that we love the most. You notice that? And, oh man, if we could catch them, because, you know, so often right after you say it, you're like, oh man, I shouldn't have said that, but you can't catch them.

Can you? Once they're out, they're out. And there's a picture that we are supposed to encourage one another. Do you understand that in a marriage, you're supposed to, that spouse is your ally. They're your friend. That's not something that someone to be in battle over, to be in war with.

That's your strongest fan, your, your biggest fan, your strongest proponent. And yet the world has painted that as a battleground. And guys, I understand he was talking about brothers and we all understand that, man, that's one of the hardest places to live out your faith with your brothers and sisters, isn't it? Because they know, see Jesus, he didn't have any sins, but unfortunately none of us are like that, are we? And so as we deal with our brothers and our sisters, they're remembering how we messed up in the past. And it makes ministering to them difficult. Understand that, and guys don't go in like, you know, some commando into family gatherings, you know, I'm blambo, and kick the door down and, and, and you guys all, you know, fall on your faces and repent. Don't do that because here's what can happen. You can ruin the opportunity to witness to him at a later date.

You will slam that door shut. Whereas if you say, you know what, God's really done some neat changes. You guys ever want to talk to me about them?

I would love to talk to you about them. And then just wait and God will somehow that person will go through a situation where all of a sudden they become open to the gospel. Maybe there's a death or a change or a move or something. And then there's an opportunity.

And if you've kicked the door shut, you won't get that opportunity. So when we're, when we're dealing with family, be sure, and I like these words, patient persistence, patient persistence, be persistent, but also be patient. You're listening to pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment, but I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as savior. You need people to pray for them.

You need someone to present God's word to them. Every day we're presenting God's word to them here on Cross the Bridge with pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well, just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the pray for the lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as savior, click on submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from associate pastor DA Brown. Hey Bob, we want to pray for our listeners in these cities in Colorado, Sterling, and Yuma, and some cities in Florida, Eastport, Gulf Breeze, Jacksonville, Key West, and Largo.

God, thank you for everyone listening today. We pray that they would look forward to hearing from you directly through your word. We pray that they would share this word that you give them with others in their life. And Lord, that they wouldn't fear that they're going to make too many mistakes to follow you, but trust that you're going to do the work in them.

And help them get plugged into a Bible teaching church. Lord, not one that's going to be full of hate or anger, but of love and compassion. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. What's wrong with the advice of the brothers here?

Well, I'll tell you what's wrong with it. They're advising him out of their unbelief. They are advising him out of their unbelief. Brings us to the next life lesson. Be extremely careful and skeptical when taking advice from an unbeliever. Be extremely careful and skeptical when taking advice for an unbeliever.

Now I know that's a strong statement. The Bible puts it a little bit stronger in different places. Don't walk in the council or the ungodly, we're told in Psalm 1.

Be separate, we're told in another place. Now understand something, and I want to clarify my position and the church's position. I believe in biblical counseling. I believe in biblical discipleship. I believe, whether you want to call it Christian counseling or biblical counseling, I do not believe that a Christian should ever, under any circumstances, be counseled by an unbeliever.

Ever. There's no reason for it. You see, because there's two different worldviews. If somebody says, I don't believe the Bible, I don't believe in sin, I don't believe in Jesus, what can they speak to you in your situation about? It's unhealthy to go to them and say, hey, speak into my life, because one of the things they may say is, you know, you got this whole guilt complex about this whole sin issue. That's why Jesus died for you. And incidentally, don't, you know, if somebody says, well, I'm a Christian counselor, you know what?

Be skeptical still. Say, what does that mean to you? Have you been born again? Oh, I'm not that kind of Christian. What do you think about the Bible? I believe the Bible contains the Word of God. See, words, again, the Bible doesn't contain the Word of God. There's denominations that are using that now. The Bible is the Word of God.

See, there's a big difference in those. They sound alike. No, the Bible contains the Word. It sounds good. It sounds warm.

It sounds fuzzy. It's wrong. The Bible is the Word of God. And again, be very careful in getting advice from an unbeliever. And guys, that's not just in discipleship or counseling areas. That, you know, that goes with attorneys.

That goes with accountants. Because if you listen to the wrong attorney or the wrong accountant who's ungodly and unbeliever, you could wind up in prison. So be careful. Be careful about taking counsel from an unbeliever. Verse 6 is a good verse. My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. Now, Jesus is speaking, and we're going to get into this in depth when we get to the trial for entry in John chapter 12, which ties back into a prophecy in Daniel that if you've never made the connection there, it's a mind-blower. But Jesus had a time that he was moving towards that was his time, but he wouldn't be swayed by man. And here it says your time is always ready.

I like that. Your time is always ready. Perhaps you're sitting in here this morning and you've thought in the past, you know, at some point I'm going to make a commitment to the Lord. At some point I'm going to quit playing games.

I'm going to come off the fence and really give my life to the Lord. This is that morning. Your time's now. Or maybe you've never asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins. Your time is this morning.

And how often we think, well, no, no, no, no, no. I got to get ready to make this step. How do you get ready to make a step towards God?

How do you get ready to make a step towards God? Well, you clean up your life. It's kind of backwards, isn't it? Let me ask you a question.

I use this analogy a lot. Do you get cleaned up to take a shower? Hopefully not. If you do, we offer biblical counseling. No. See, the shower cleans you up.

Guess what? That step towards God begins to change your life. And you see in Scripture, some people took some really weak baby steps and Jesus honored them. He honored them.

And he'll honor your steps towards you. And Jesus says in verse seven, the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. Now guys, keep in mind, he's speaking to his brothers that are unbelievers.

It's important. You know why? Because as believers, we are hated by the world.

That's not a conspiracy theory. That's the reality of it. If you're living for the Lord, people will exhibit hatred, they'll exhibit bitterness towards you because you're living for the Lord. Jesus tells that in chapter 15 verse 19 of John. He says, if you were of the world, the world would love its own.

Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Guys, don't be surprised by this. Don't be shocked by this. When you encounter hostility or animosity, and I'm still sometimes shocked by it, I shouldn't be at this point, but I still am when I get an email or a phone call. And let me say this, I get much more positive emails than negative emails, you know, and I don't mean, I hope I've never given the appearance of whining about getting emails, you know, because I've shared before that, you know, I was kind of whining, it was probably a year ago or something. I was whining about emails. Now, some of them are kind of, you know, there's one guy that actually set up an email account.

I hate davemcgeeatyahoo.com. That was a little weird, but you know, it's kind of whining, you know, and God gave me kind of this vision and of getting to heaven, you know, John the Baptist is there and, you know, Isaiah's there and Stephen's there and we're all sitting in a group and, you know, well, I got persecuted. I got persecuted too. I got persecuted. How'd you get persecuted? Well, they stoned me when I was telling everybody about Jesus.

Wow, that's pretty impressive. Isaiah, what did they do to you? Well, they actually saw me in half because of my witness for Jesus.

What about you young man? They sent me emails that were mean, but I just kept right on for Jesus. But I get a lot of encouraging emails and I thank you guys for those encouraging words, but, you know, we're going to get some animosity from people and that's because we're living for the Lord and if you're not, there may be a problem.

You may have been in a group where people knew that you were a believer and somebody said something, they used a profane word or something. You ever notice what happens? They look at you and go, oh, I'm sorry.

Isn't that amazing? See, they know. They're being convicted by your presence. I usually say, well, you're apologizing to the wrong person, especially if it's been a blasphemy or profane thing using the Lord's name, but see, we're convicting them and that's part of what we're called to do and that doesn't give us the entitlement to be hateful or judgmental or obtuse in the name of the Lord. Too many of us have done that for far too long and I've been guilty of that. The truth with love.

It's important. You've got to speak the truth, but you've got to speak the truth in love. Now, John chapter 3 verse 19, Jesus said, and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not care about the light.

They don't care about the light. They don't care about the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. Now, we're going to talk about the light again in chapter 8, but let's spend a couple minutes on this because again, in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says, you are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. Jesus says, don't put your light under a basket.

It's kind of a weird thing to do. I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but you get a high white bulb to give you more light and then you cover it. Now, I don't have like naked light bulbs sitting in my house or anything, and I'm not telling you to go home and take all the lampshades off of your lamps, and your family already thinks you're weird enough probably, but well, Pastor David said we got to burn all our lampshades, praise God.

No, Pastor David did not say that, okay? But lampshades are kind of interesting things. See, this is the thing. We're called the light of the world. Is your light burning? Is your light illuminating? Is your light burning bright? Or through blowing your witness and not living for the Lord and acting inappropriately and speaking inappropriately and laughing at inappropriate jokes or visiting inappropriate websites or whatever, are you putting a shade on your life and your lamp?

Because guys, if you do, everybody else gets left in the dark and they can't see. And the darkness is an uncomfortable thing, and the Lord tells us why, because it's filled with iniquity and sin. And we're supposed to be the light of the world without any shade or anything that covers our light so that we can all be able to see.

And you know what? We get comfortable with the darkness sometimes, don't we? Because we compare ourselves to everything else that's dark in the world and we go, well, you know, I'm doing okay when I compare myself to this guy or that guy.

But what about when you compare yourself to Jesus? See, there's times that we do cover our light and we shouldn't. Perhaps even in this, you've thought about times where you, in the past week maybe, have covered your light and the people are in the darkness around you, and they need you to be that light. They need to see that light because that may be the very thing that brings them to Jesus. The life lesson here is, let your light shine. Let your light shine. Burn bright for the Lord. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud, right now. Dear Jesus, I believe You died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe You were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for You, all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him.

And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12-515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. That sounds good, Pastor DA.

And again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.