in a hymn. Someday I should probably expound on that. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to John chapter 7. That would be page 984 in the Pew Bibles. John chapter 7 verses 1 to 18. You know, it may not appear to many of you, but I'm gonna ask you to think about something. I think most Christians today, in one sense, are as fanatically religious as the religious leadership in Jerusalem of Jesus' day. Let that settle in for a minute. You see, Most of the people around you who have no interest in Christianity, who have no knowledge of salvation, see the raw, indisputable evidence all around them that one day they will die. Is that evidence refutable? I ask you. It is irrefutable evidence. We know that following the reality of death is the reality of judgment. But they resist contemplating this. They resist today contemplating the question, what happens after death? You bring that up and see where the conversation goes. Probably not too far. They should be asking, why is there death? Is it not true that in every sense death is unnatural? It's unnatural to the human heart. It creates grief and pain and it breaks down relationships, families, heritages. And yet there it is, irrefutably real. But I find today, people don't want to talk about it. And yet, it is a palpable reality, but people don't want to talk about it. Where do they get the zeal, my friends, to resist talking about it? I submit to you, it is religious zeal. Where else can it come from? They say, oh, well, I'm a good person. Surely, My destiny is in the paradise, subtext, paradise of my imagination, of my religion, which fundamentally, beloved, is superstition. Why? Because they don't know what they're talking about. There is no truth behind the imagination. It is religion. It's not philosophy. Well, it could be. But you see, philosophy sometimes can penetrate to the heart, but that's where religion lies. With its lies. In the heart. I pray, I believe in God, the God of Jesus. Well, no. And as I said to a woman on a trip during Israel, well, if it's not the God of Jesus, then it's not the true God. This is true religion, but without a connection with the true God. and their false confidences are strong enough to allow them to mock you when you try to bring just a little bit of education to their unknowing. Am I right? But their zeal for their gods, little g, Their zeal to be independent of the true God, the big G, Son Jesus, causes them to want to resist with all the fiber of their being a discussion about the gospel. The good news! And that's what Jesus' own brothers were like before the resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ's own brothers, that's what they were like before the resurrection. They didn't believe. And that was the settled position of the national elites in Jerusalem, who Jesus moves to evangelize in our passage. And today we're going to probe the beginning of that encounter, Jesus in Jerusalem evangelizing the religious elites of the nation of Israel. that day. So let's take a look. I think I need to begin with a little bit of historical background. Before Jesus moved to go to Jerusalem, there was, as verse 1 tells us, after this, Jesus traveled in Galilee since he did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him. After this, If you were just reading the Gospel of John, you would assume that after this means after chapter 6 comes chapter 7. After what? Well, what took place in John chapter 6? There was the feeding of the 5,000, a stupendous miracle, followed by the miracle of Jesus walking on the water, the gathering of the massive crowds in Capernaum where they found Jesus, and them saying to Him, you know, give us another sign, and Him telling them, you've got to eat the son of man and drink his blood, as he filtered away the false followers with this hard word. Obnoxious in the ears of a Jew who could not perceive that what he's talking about was spiritual truth, bringing him in so closely that it would be almost as though they were eating him. And so, Jesus at the end of that time in Capernaum with that mass crowd going down to from thousands to nothing except the 12, will you also go away, he said to them, offering them the door. Jesus never grabbed people around the ankles and begged them to come and be with him. He spoke truth that magnetized people to follow him whose hearts were open to God. So he took his disciples and he took them on a journey. And you can see in your outline that journey. Just summarize it for you briefly. They are there. on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. Little Lion takes them tracking off to Tyre and Sidon, the region of Phoenicia, where they go into Gentile territory. Jesus takes his disciples on retreat away from the pressure of Jewish misunderstanding of who the Messiah is. Takes them into Gentile territory. They go from Tyre to Sidon. They go across to Caesarea Philippi, which is in the region of Mount Hermon. traversing from west to east in the area north of geographic Israel at that time, Caesarea Philippi being a Roman colony. And there, they turn south, going around the hills and plateau to the east of the Sea of Galilee to stay out of Jewish territory, they come to the bottom of the Sea of Galilee, where the feeding of the 4,000 takes place. And then Jesus takes them across the Sea of Galilee again to near Capernaum, but south of it by about five miles. And on the shoreline there, they encounter a deputation of Pharisees and Sadducees. Sadducees certainly coming from Jerusalem, this deputation in the hunt for Jesus to confront him and to try to show him that he should stop his ministry. He is not to do that. And so with that encounter, he then goes on retreat again with his disciples, crossing the Sea of Galilee, going to the northern shore town of Bethsaida, where from there they go along the northern riverbed of the Jordan River between the Sea of Galilee and Lake Hula, and they proceed back up into the region of Caesarea Philippi, actually into the region of Mount Hermon. And that's where Jesus asked his disciples, Who do men say that I am? And you remember Peter's answer? You are the Christ, the son of the living God. Oh, he's getting it. Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my father. It's a revelation from God. Not a human concoction, not a human philosophy. It's revelation from God. And then he asked the disciples, well then, thank you, Peter. And leaving Caesarea Philippi, Jesus took the disciples south again into the upper Galilee. And there is a place called Mount Merom, and he took the three, Peter, James, and John, up on the hill, and you remember, he was transfigured before them. They got a sliver, a vision of his glory, and he's transfigured. Two prophets are there, Moses and Elijah, and the voice comes from heaven, another revelation to the disciples. This is my son, my beloved son. Listen to him. If that's not an endorsement, there is no such thing. And on the way home from Capernaum, amazing as it may be, the three disciples, Jesus, come together with the rest, the other nine. And what happens on the way back home to Capernaum? There's a dispute. Who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Oh, oh, disciples. And he had to rebuke them about this self-promotion. and lack of grasping the virtue of his humility that he was trying to inculcate into them. Oh, brothers and sisters, how patient he was with them after these amazing experiences, and then, oh, who's going to be... And God is still that patient with us. Amen. I know he is with me every day. I probably don't realize how it is every moment. He is so patient with me. Well, it had been three years since Jesus' baptism. And now it's going to be six months before his crucifixion. And Jesus intends to go to Jerusalem. But he had avoided Jerusalem for almost a year, according to John chapter 5, and Jerusalem the year before. He had healed a man who had been crippled for 38 years. And he had the gall to tell that man, take up your mat, take it home, go! And when the Pharisees saw that, They were appalled. Man, what are you doing? You're carrying your mat. It's the Sabbath. Beloved. What's happening? They're looking at a man. Surely they knew who this man was. 38 years crippled. What's he doing? He's walking home carrying his mat. Is this not astonishing? What are they upset about? He's carrying his mat. Where's the celebration? I'm telling you folks, these people are fanatics. They cannot even wonder and celebrate at the wonderful thing that has happened to the man. This is how fanatical and defensive they were of control over what happened in the religion of their country. They were still harboring murderous antagonism towards Jesus because he was threatening that control. That's why Jesus had avoided Jerusalem for almost a year. And then John goes on to report his brother's challenge to go up to the Feast of Tabernacles. Verse 2, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near. The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the three great feasts of Jewish annual calendar. Besides that, there was Passover and Pentecost. Those were both more in the spring. Pentecost moving a little bit more into the summer months. Passover being our Easter season, and then Pentecost being approximately five weeks after that, moving into the warmth of the summer. But the pilgrims from a lot of the surrounding countries who would come for Jewish holiday loved the fall celebration of Tabernacles because it was a cooler season when they would come. And so that was the biggest holiday in Jerusalem. And Tabernacles was primarily like our Thanksgiving. It came at the time of harvest. the blessings of God would be celebrated. They also had, of course, recollections of their ancestors' wanderings in the wilderness. And in those wandering days, they had the portable tent called the tabernacle. So tabernacles was a reflection on, or a symbolic reflection on their days of wanderings in the wilderness of their ancestors, and the tent, the worship center they had being a portable tent. So they'd all go outside of their houses, or perhaps in the courtyards of their houses if they were wealthy, and they would put up these temporary booths made with branches and probably wooden frames, and they would live out there during the festival. like their ancestors did. Here's his brother's challenge, though, concerning tabernacles in verse three. So his brother said to him, leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he's seeking public recognition. If you do these things, actually it'd be better rendered, since you do these things, show yourself to the world. Why did Jesus' brothers want him to go up to Jerusalem? I think they were enthusiastic. Some think they were cynical. Maybe there's a little bit of that married into this. I think they assumed that Jesus did his miracles in order to gain public approval. That's the natural understanding. He had a movement following him. Now obviously he did his miracles in order to excite the crowds. Why else do people do, you know, fantastic signs to excite the crowds? Build up the movement. I think they wanted to, they believed he was trying to instigate a grassroots power base for the kingdom that he was bringing. Said he was bringing. Show yourself to the world. Yeah. What's that about? They didn't understand Jesus' mission. They didn't understand his methods. They had their ideas. They were selling to Jesus. They wanted Jesus to demonstrate his power in the capital city. You know, where it really counts. Come on, brother. Do it in Jerusalem. Take it to Washington. Show yourself in New York City. And of course, to most Jews, Jerusalem was the capital of the world. And with pilgrims coming in from all around, as far as Greece, some as far as Spain, others from the east, maybe as far as Babylonian regions, it was the center of the world to them. Galilee, well, that's Hick country. to the elites in Jerusalem. So the brothers wanted Jesus to give the big shots a taste of your power. Yeah. And when Jerusalem's approval is granted to you, we're with you. But not till then. But they were afraid to trust their own sightings of their own brother's divine power. They had seen, there's no doubt here, show your power in Jerusalem. They believed in the miracles and the signs that he was doing. Isn't it strange that people today are smarter than those guys? People today say, no, he didn't work miracles. Is that right? His own brothers did not religiously believe in him, but they had no problem with the reality of his miracles. I'm confused. How come you moderns know so much better than those guys who weren't yet in this camp? Do you get the irony of that, folks? It's amazing. But they were afraid to trust their own sightings. Why? political correctness, religious correctness, and underlying all that the fact that this is really a pseudo endorsement of him because they really didn't believe. John says that in the last part in verse 5, for even his brothers didn't believe in him. In the next, John described Jesus' response to his brothers, verses six to nine. Jesus told them, my time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. My time, what time? That's the season of his final appeal to the nation. That's the season that would come up in six months. That's the season. during which he would make his final appeal, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, oh, oh, Jerusalem, repent, turn to the true God. It'd be the season of his triumphal entry, his arrest, crucifixion, execution, burial, and resurrection, and then glorious ascension. And within that hour, within that season, that time would be the hour. John talks about the hour. That would be the hour of his passion, arrest, trials, crucifixion, burial, and then the hour's over with the resurrection. Wow. His brothers wanted Tabernacles to be the time for manifesting his divine glory in the capital city. They were eager to be part of any glory their brother might be about to produce. But until Jesus could prove himself to Jerusalem, they weren't going to be part of it. Can you imagine how painful that would be? Your own siblings pushing you to do something that's not part of God's mission for you or the method that God has prescribed, because they want to glom onto your glory once you get to that. And yet, until that, their hearts aren't with you. Wow. What aloneness that must have been for Jesus. That was the brother's time. It was the world's time. time of the glory of human crafted religion and human built cities. And this being the case, their duty was only to be faithful Jews and go up to the festival. It didn't matter when they did that. Just go when you want to. Jesus told them, the world cannot hate you. Why not? Because you're a part of it. If you're not part of me, You're a part of them. In Christianity, beloved, in true religion, true relationship with God, you're either in or you're out. There is no middle ground. Jesus said, you're either with me or you're against me. Like it or not, that's what Jesus said. There's no middle ground. You're either lost or you're saved. The world of religious people opposed to Jesus hated him because he testified against them that their practices, their religiousness, their morality was off, not in line with God. And so they were not connected with God. And not connected with God, they fell short and were existentially, what Jesus says, evil. Come on, Jesus, back off a little bit. I mean, really, they're good. No! If you're not with God, everything you do is in rebellion against God, and is therefore, in the eyes of God, evil. That's what he's saying. And then he said to them in verse eight, go up to the festival yourselves. I'm not going up to the festival yet, because my time has not yet fully come. After he said these things, he stayed in Galilee. And then finally, for this message, we see the beginning of Jesus' ministry at Tabernacles in verses 10 to 18. It says in verse 10, after his brothers had gone up to the festival, he also went up, not openly, but secretly. Did Jesus deceive his brothers? This action, of course, disturbs some readers because they think that it shows that Jesus was not truthful with his brothers. I don't go up to the festival. Commentator Leon Morris echoes a number of excellent commentators when he writes, Jesus' reply to the disciples is in the Greek present tense. But this does not exclude the fact that he might go not at that moment, but at a time later than that moment, that present moment. It's a very careful response that he makes. I do not go up now. And some translations like the Holman have not yet. So he would go up at a different time and he would certainly go up at a different manner. He's carefully excluding his brothers from knowing what he's about to do because he knows they're going to have their caravan intercepted as soon as it comes up the Ascent of Adamim and comes into the precincts of Jerusalem. He's going to be intercepted by the police sent out by the Sadducees to try to catch Jesus. He wants them to have plausible deniability. They don't know where he is. He doesn't tell them. Jesus' interest was to teach the Jewish leadership. He wasn't going to go up as a pilgrim. He was going up as a prophet. He didn't need to participate in tabernacles in the sense that he was the fulfillment of tabernacles. Of course, he would participate to the extent that it would honor the law, but he was the fulfillment of it. And he would select the best time to go to the temple to avoid the crowds as far as possible. So the translation in the Holman, where he says, I'm not going up to the festival yet, really is an accurate rendering of what Jesus was communicating to his brothers. Even though it is not a precise rendering of the exact Hebrew word uk, which means not, it can also entail the idea of not yet. I like the way they put it. Verse 11 continues with what the Jewish leaders were expecting. They were expecting him to come. Look at that, verse 11. The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, where is he? And then we encounter two charges leveled against Jesus. And verse 12 introduces the first one as we see what's going on in the crowds that are there at the festival. Verse 12 introduces us to what the common people were talking about. Verse 12, and there was a lot of discussion about him among the crowds. Some were saying, he's a good man. Others were saying, no, to the contrary, he's deceiving the people. Wow. In that second position, there is a charge, a serious charge. According to the Jewish law, if someone could be indicted for speaking contrary to the law, he could be labeled a deceiver and he could be capitally executed for that. That's how protective they were of their law. It was the nature of Jesus' prophetic ministry that was at controversy. His character was well known. He was a good man. But that wasn't enough. Is Jesus the true prophet like Moses described would come in Deuteronomy 18? The prophet that would be like him? The prophet who's speaking would talk about things to come and they could be evaluated and he could be regarded as a true prophet? Or was he a false prophet? guilty of leading the people astray, which Deuteronomy 13 said demanded capital punishment. This is a tense conversation going on. Oh, he's a good man. I'm wondering if it was, he is a good man. No, he leads the people astray. I think that's the tone going on here in these conversations. But all this discussion is going on in a certain way. You see that? Verse 13, still nobody was talking publicly about him because of what? They feared the Jews. Remember, Jews here is technical term for the religious elites, politicians and the Pharisees, Sadducees and Pharisees, the controllers. The crowd in Jerusalem was intimidated by these people. Just like so many people today who don't feel free to express their opinions because of the scorning bullies of political correctness. It's the same thing. Fear of being scorned with labels, forces, undiscerning and unprincipled people today to conform to ideologies that are fundamentally atheistic. And that's why our country is spiritually cavitating. Atheistic movements like the gay rights advocates, the evolutionists, radical environmentalists, the people who are offended by the Ten Commandments. Brothers and sisters, we cannot, we cannot be ashamed of the gospel in the public square. Because if we are, the bullies of unbelief and ungodliness will continue to be enabled to see to it that Jesus is removed from the public square. They are on the march and they are fanatical. But we have a greater power. We have the power of love. That says, oh people, answer the phone. Now we move on to verses 14 to 18, refuting the charges of the Jewish leaders. You've got the charges of the people. He's a good man. No, he leads the people astray. And then we have the charges of the Jewish leaders. Verse 14, when the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple complex and began to teach. Then the Jews were amazed and said, how does he know the scripture since he hasn't been trained? This is the fourth day of the festival. It's in the middle. It's been three days. Where is he? Where is he? Either it was that day that he arrived and had been hanging out maybe in Bethany with his friends, Mary and Martha and Lazarus, or he just kept himself in the shadows watching what was going on until the right moment he could enter into the temple precincts and begin to teach. His teaching amazed the audience. It was his grasp of scripture. It was comprehensive, it was insightful, and it was authoritative. And he was not citing other rabbis. But the establishment rabbis could not listen to him because they discredited him. Without the right kind of education, he could not be endorsed. He had to have his degrees, you see. He had to have the right pedigree. It didn't matter what he said. He had to have the right pedigree. That's religious fanaticism. It doesn't matter what the message is, it's about the style. He was not attached to any known rabbi, but this was required for recognition as a public teacher in Israel. Who's your teacher? We'll find out soon. In addition, Jesus was not quoting the recognized rabbis of the day to validate his teaching points. You see, their age didn't value originality. I can appreciate that. So charge number two against Jesus was he is an unaccredited layman lacking the education and training essential for teaching the law. Therefore, he has no authority to teach. He must be removed. That's essentially the bottom line. Shut him up. And Jesus picked up on this objection and informed them that his teaching was certainly valid. It had full endorsement from his father, God. Quoting the scriptures, quoting God. What better endorsement could you ask for? And Jesus says in verse 16, my teaching isn't mine, but it's the one who sent me. I can imagine how galling that was to these guys. Noah's teaching was not original. It wasn't original with him. Oh, well, he is the word of God. He's incarnate word of God. But what he's trying to say is, I am a transmitter of the word of God. I'm not original. I'm the conduit of the truth of Almighty God who gave the word to Moses. And he gives the word to me. He's receiving it from the one who sent him. He's speaking of his sender, the one who commissioned him. In other words, he was on an ambassadorial mission to communicate the life-giving information that the Jews so desperately needed. Information from God. He had a commission from God. And then he went on to speak further of their objection and their criticism about his disqualification. Verse 17, if anyone wants to do his will, he will understand whether my teaching is from God or if I'm speaking on my own. People, he says, it's easy to know whether I'm speaking from God or not. Do you want to do the will of God? Do we want to do the will of God? We always do the will of God. We're Pharisees. The underlying text is, no you don't. You do the will of your rule book. And later on as we move into Jesus' season in Jerusalem, He will slice and dice them as to the failure on their part to obey the Word of God. In spite of their colossal religiosity. The person who wants to do the will of God will have the spiritual discernment required to know that Jesus is speaking the word of God. If you don't want to know God or find out his will, you will not understand Jesus. It's that simple. So while the Jewish leaders thought they could disqualify Jesus credibility as a teacher, what's happening? What's happening? Jesus is disqualifying them as credible listeners. Jesus, you can't talk. And Jesus is saying, you can't hear. We have a failure to communicate here. Now here's the reality behind the contemporary antagonism toward Christianity. People who say they can't accept Jesus are people who at heart do not want to know God and do not want to find out what God expects. They are not open to God. So you need to put that together in those encounters that you have where people say, please, let's not bring up Jesus. You know they do not want to know God. And just like in his own day, Jesus' teaching continues to assert that he speaks divine truth. His teachings are exclusive truth. He is the only way. He is the only truth. He is the only approach acceptable to God. And he can back it up because he's the only one who ever rose from the dead. If you don't know Jesus' teachings, if you disregard them, if you neglect them, if you reject them, you can't go to heaven. Why? Because apart from Jesus' words, you will never have the knowledge that leads to the door of salvation. If you refuse Jesus' teachings, you refuse the way of escape from the tyranny of sin that is controlling your mind and blocking you from the love of God. And if you refuse Jesus' teachings, you refuse the source of truth that will deliver you into the life-changing power of the grace of God. Not the duty-filled life of trying to please and earn God's approval, but the grace-filled life of joy in knowing the acceptance of God through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. And wash them all away so that you are free from condemnation. In Him. And just like Jesus' warning to the skeptics of Jerusalem, refusal to listen to Him proves your heart is not open to God's will. Skepticism of Christianity, even ridicule of Jesus simply comes down to the fact that people don't want to submit their lives to God. Jesus has totally dissected the situation. You don't want to hear about me because you don't want God. You don't want God to tell you how to live your life, even though everything in the scriptures about how God tells us to live our lives is for our blessing, our joy, our protection, our health, our stability. And people say, I don't want any of that. You don't want peace. You don't want love. You don't want healthy relationships. You don't want the certainty of eternal life. You don't want that. No, I don't want that. You have no idea what you're talking about. Do you see, beloved, why I'm saying it is out of total ignorance that they reject your comments or your efforts to teach them about Jesus? They have no idea what they're saying. It isn't really intellectual argumentation. That's not the issue. It's an issue of morality. It's an issue of how I live. All the scholars in these big universities who mock at Christianity, it comes down to the fact that they have a moral twist in the heart that forbids them from submitting to any other God except themselves. They are God. And I will live independent of any other God out there. So don't talk to me about Jesus. And then verse 18, the one who speaks for himself seeks his own glory. Here Jesus is gonna explain again why it is that he is absolutely a bona fide, legitimate, should be totally credible spokesman or regarded that way by the Jews of God. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true and there is no unrighteousness in him. Jesus had no reason to give false teaching. He had none whatsoever. Unlike the Pharisees, he had no interest in glorifying himself. That wasn't his mission. That wasn't his purpose. He didn't need that. He was not trying to create a popular movement. He was there to declare the kingdom of God and call people to repent and turn to him in faith. So Jesus reminded them of the principle of life. A person who promotes himself is naturally anxious to win the approval of other people. A person who promotes himself or herself is naturally anxious for the approval of a lot of people. And in that desire for approval, a person will oftentimes say things that exaggerate themselves, make themselves look great, and not speak truth about themselves in order to portray themselves as good people, great people, nice people, whatever. But a person who speaks as a representative of his boss or representative of his client needs to take care to speak exactly what their backer has told them to say, lest they be chargeable with a misrepresentation. And why doesn't a representative of another person share exactly or speak exactly what their commissioner has told them to speak? They will, because their interest is in that person, not themselves. Jesus says, and does nothing unrighteous, therefore he is accredited by God as a teacher, regardless of what all those other know-it-alls think. So, let me just give you a little take-home thought. I wonder what would happen Sometime when you come into a situation and you have raised your flag, I'm a Jesus follower. And somebody goes, oh, that's, I have no interest in that. Please, let's turn to another discussion. What would happen if you said to them, oh, I see you're very religious. What do you think they would say? They would lose the argument right there. What would they say? Well, no, I'm not. Well, you seem very confident that you know the truth about how to live and what comes after death. What makes you say that? Because you say you don't need anything from the guy who rose from the dead and told us all about what happens after death. You know better than that, right? Now you might think that's a bit snarky. So it all comes down to tone, friends. But isn't that an interesting thing? Oh, you sound like you're very religious. Oh, I'm not. Well, wow, sounds like, you know, you don't think you need any of Jesus, so you must have some other religion. Otherwise, you know, how do you know what's gonna happen to you when you die? Oh, you don't care. Well, that's a religious thought, too. Because that must mean that you assume that you're going to be annihilated. Right? Well, well, what? You see, these intellectuals are so easy to corner when you think truth. And you can say to them, I perceive that you have your own God. I told you, I don't want anything to do with Jesus. I know, I know, I heard you say that. But I still think you've got a God. You. Well, that's insulting. I feel offended. All I'm saying is, you say you don't need the God that, you know, most people talk about. So you must have another God. Why would you say that? Because it sounds to me like you are confident that you have truth. And truth has to come from somewhere. Where did it come from? Where did you get it? If you didn't get it from someone else, you got it from yourself. What does that make you? God? Let's pray. Father Jesus, in these portraits that we get from the Gospels, just amazes me. The circumstances, the way he carries himself in such an awesome dignity, it thrills me. Oh, Father, may it be that we will drink in of him and we will delight in who you are and that you will teach us more and more. Oh, help us to be open to you so we can understand Jesus, so we can understand truth, and we can live well. In Jesus' name, amen.