Please turn your Bibles to John chapter 7, the gospel of John chapter 7. We will be reading verses 14 through 36 this morning. John 7 verses 14 through 36. Hear now the word of the Lord. But now, when it was now in the midst of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach. The Jews then were astonished, saying, how has this man become learned, having never been educated? So Jesus answered them and said, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak for myself. He who speaks for himself seeks his own glory, but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you carries out the law? Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered, you have a demon. Who seeks to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one deed, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision, not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? Look, he is speaking publicly and they are saying nothing to him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they? However, we know where this man is from, but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where he is from. Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, You both know Me and know where I am from. And I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent Me. So they were seeking to seize Him, and no man laid his hand on Him because His hour had not yet come. But many of the crowd believed in him, and they were saying, when the Christ comes, he will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will he? The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize him. Therefore, Jesus said, for a little while longer I am with you. Then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come." The Jews then said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? He is not intending to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? What is this statement that he said? You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come. Thus concludes the reading of God's Word. Let us go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to bless the preaching of His Word. Heavenly Father, we do ask you, Lord God, we pray that you would be with us this morning, teaching us, instructing us. Please bless the preaching of your word, that we may know you rightly, that we may worship you rightly. All this for your glory, Lord God, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So last week we saw, we began to see the narrative of Jesus at the Feast of Booths. And there we saw the opposition of Jesus by his own brothers at home. And we began to see the opposition that Jesus faced by the religious leaders and the crowds as he secretly went to the Feast of Booths. Our text this morning continues that event, and we see now that it was well into the feast, or in the middle of the feast, as the text says. And Jesus is no longer there as a private spectator, but he begins to teach and to preach publicly. Throughout the narrative, we find four verbal exchanges between Jesus, the religious leaders, the crowd, and the people of Jerusalem. And the irony in all of this is that the reason why the opposition comes is that they have entirely missed the point of Jesus' teaching. Jesus tells them, you've missed it. And the reason for this is because of their own supposed knowledge. What they thought they knew about God, about Christ, clashed with the true knowledge of God and His Christ. The true knowledge that Jesus Himself taught And so, what we will begin to look at this morning, the main focal point here, is the opposition of the people towards Christ, His work, and His teaching. Why? Because they are unwilling to do God's will as Christ reveals it. They do not know God because They do not desire to know His will. That is the reason, that is the evidence that we have. That the reason why they do not desire to do God's will is because they don't know Him. The one whom they profess to know, and the one whom they profess to serve, this one God, they do not know. And therefore, they do not desire to do His will. because of our sinful state, because we are in darkness. We too, all of us, all of mankind is not willing to do His will as God has revealed it. Rather, we want to do our own will. Even if it's in the context of religion, we want to worship as we want to worship. Yet this only proves that we do not know God or His teaching through Jesus Christ whom He has sent. And so this is what we're going to be looking at this morning. And how do we see this opposition and what is this teaching that the religious leaders, the crowd, and the people of Jerusalem did not know and had rejected? Well, first, we see that the authority and origin of Jesus' teaching is from God. The authority and origin of Jesus' teaching is from God. Second, the nature of Jesus' work is consistent with God's law. Thirdly, the origin of Jesus and his mission is heavenly. And then fourthly, the trajectory of Jesus' mission is heavenward. So let us look at our first point. The authority and origin of Jesus' teaching is from God. So we see initially that the Jews, the religious leaders, as John calls them, were astonished. They were astonished at Jesus' teaching. They were amazed and marveled at His teaching. And usually, this is a good thing. When someone comments to you on something that you've done, and they said, wow, I was amazed, astonished at what you did. It's typically a good thing. In Matthew 8, Jesus is astonished, marveled at the centurion's faith. In Luke 9, the people were astonished or amazed at the work of Jesus. There is bewilderment, surprise, but an excitement at seeing such a great thing. However, this is not the case. This is not what we see here in our text. They were astonished for a very different reason. Their astonishment was negative, not positive. And what was the cause of their astonishment? Well, we see two things here in our text. In verse 15, they couldn't deny that Jesus was a learned individual. He had great knowledge and he spoke, as Matthew tells us, as one having authority and not as the scribes. He spoke not as the scribes. He spoke with one having great authority and confidence. He had knowledge. Secondly, they could not explain how he had become such a learned individual if he had not received formal training, if he had not been educated as they had. Often the enemies of Christ, the enemies of the Christian faith, of the church, will bring accusations against us, claiming we have no formal education in matters of science or philosophy or of new pseudosciences or pseudoscience studies such as gender studies and the like, in order to try to discredit what we say, what the Bible teaches. Not only Christians, but anyone who speaks truth, whether from a Christian standpoint, from a special revelation standpoint, or even from general revelation. But as has been pointed out by so many, that formal training, a degree from some university, does not make one right. It does not make one an expert in what they are saying. It all depends on the university or on the seminary. There are many good seminaries, good, not many, but there are some good universities, I'm sure still left. But by and large, so many universities, so many higher forms of education, even seminaries have gone astray and are promoting things, supposed knowledge that is not true knowledge. that is contrary to what God has revealed in his scriptures and even in the world. And oftentimes they will criticize us and say, well, you have no formal education in this, what do you know? And in one sense, this is what the religious leaders were doing. How is this man so smart? He has no formal education, but yet this angered them. It was an excuse to not listen to him, to not submit or obey to what he was saying. The kind of astonishment that they had was fueled by their hatred for him. And we see this also in verse 15 as they say, how has this man become learned? This man, it was a derogatory word. This nobody of a man. How is this poor nobody who has no formal education. How has he become learned? So it was a derogatory term. They hated Jesus Christ, and therefore they hated his teaching. And in this way, the religious leaders then initiate this first verbal confrontation with Jesus, and they challenge his teaching. Who are you to teach us, you unlearned individual? But then in verses 16 through 19, we see Jesus' respond. This is what makes Jesus' response so brilliant and important, what we see here, what he says. In his response, he admits to no formal education as a religious leader. Even so, his education is far superior to theirs. Why is that? Because we learn that his knowledge, his teaching, is from the Father, is directly from God the Father. He did not learn it from a man, who could err, His teaching is that which is from the Father. And He knows it because He is from the Father. And we've seen this already in chapter one, verse 18. He is the Word becoming incarnate, the only begotten Son who is in the Father's bosom. He alone can explain God. He alone can tell us what God the Father wants His will. His teaching, again, is directly from the Father. It is unlike that of the religious leaders, or even, as we saw in chapter 3, John the Baptist. His teaching was true. But again, what does John the Apostle tell us about John the Baptist? That he was earthly. As good as his teaching was, and God used him, he was a great prophet, that he was earthly. But Christ is heavenly. He comes from above. He is the one who descended from above. He is the bread from heaven, the true bread from heaven. He comes from the Father and therefore He knows the Father's will and He is able and He alone is able to explain Him and His will to His people. So His education, though not formal like the Pharisees, like the scribes, yet His education, His learning, His knowledge was far superior than the religious leaders. And then we also see in this statement that Jesus is rebuking the religious leaders. Why don't they just know who He is, where He is from, and that His teaching is from God? Why don't they know these things? Because they are not willing to do His will. We see this in verses 18 and 19. First, they sought their own glory. The one who truly speaks the truth of God speaks for God. that is for God's glory. We see this in everyone who has ever been a true spokesman of God. We see that in the prophets. They never sought their own glory. In famine, in persecution, when the nation would not listen to them, they continued to preach. They continued to tell the people what God had revealed to them. Because ultimately, they were doing what they were doing for God's glory, not their own. We see the same thing in John the Baptist. We see the same thing in the apostles, and evangelists, and missionaries. We'll read the biographies of people who gave up so much to go to places where they would eventually be killed, persecuted. Their families, their wives, their children be killed, dying. They gave it all up for the Lord. Because they weren't seeking their own glory, they were seeking the glory of God. And here we see Christ, the one true prophet, the Son of God, the Word of God. He comes from God, and He was not seeking His own glory, but that of His Father's. Now, He would receive glory, eventually. But it is in glorifying the Father that the Son would then be glorified. And He would glorify the Father through His suffering. Through His perfect obedience. Even the death on the cross. But He says this here to rebuke the leaders. To hint that, no, you guys are seeking your own glory. And that's why you are not willing to do the will of God. Because you want your own glory. You want your own fame. And so whatever clashes with what they think they know, with their glory, they reject. They were supposed to be the keepers of the law. Those who studied it and taught the law of God, they had received the law. And then Jesus says, but you do not carry it out. And what is his proof? They were trying to kill him. Where was the proof or the evidence that he had done something unlawful? Now, they're going to accuse him of Sabbath-breaking, but even then, Jesus defends himself by showing their hypocrisy. But where was the proof? They wanted to kill him. They hated him, which was a violation of the Mosaic law. So they had been given the law, and they had not kept it. and the teaching of Christ they rejected because they were not willing to do God's will. But rather than having the religious leaders defend themselves at this point, we are introduced to another group that does this for them. And we see this in verse 20, as John designates here, the crowd. And in this second verbal exchange, we see the second truth of what Jesus has been teaching. Namely, that Jesus' work is the will of God the Father, and therefore consistent with God's law. The nature of Jesus' work is consistent with God's law. In verse 20, the crowd challenges Jesus' statement that the religious leaders, or anyone for that matter, was trying to kill Him. In this new dialogue, we see more clearly than last week how the crowd was opposing Jesus. They say, you have a demon. Who's trying to kill you? They were calling him, in essence, they were calling him a madman. You're crazy. Who's trying to kill you? Nobody's trying to kill you. And what we see here between the religious leaders and the crowds is the lines, the lines between these two groups. are being erased. Because sometimes, or up to this point, we would see the crowds following Christ, sympathetic for Christ, and then we started to see a shift last week where the crowd was divided. Some were saying, no, he's leading people astray. Others, no, he's a good man. But here the crowd is actually defending the religious leaders. And so what John is doing is he's slowly showing us that these two groups are slowly becoming one group until eventually we see this one unified group that kills our Savior, that has Him crucified. And Jesus responds by pointing to the religious leaders and He explains to them why they are being hypocritical. He says, for one deed, you are trying to kill me. So that was his response. For one deed, you are trying to kill me. Now, what is this one deed? This one deed is referring back to the paralytic man that Jesus healed in John chapter 5. If you recall, after he heals the man, he goes and presents himself to the religious leaders. They're saying, you know, who did this? Who told you to take up your pallet and walk on the Sabbath? He didn't know who it was. Later on, he's in the temple and he finds Jesus again. And so he finds out, okay, it's Jesus. So he goes back to the religious leaders and says, it was Jesus the one who told me to pick up my pallet and walk. And in verse 18, it says, for this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking to kill, or all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but was also calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. So these were the charges against him. But what Jesus here is alluding to, the one deed was that he had healed a man on the Sabbath. And he's saying, for this one deed, you are trying to kill me. And so in this then, Jesus takes the opportunity then to show their hypocrisy. He brings up, he does this by bringing up the law and current practice of two Old Testament laws, the Sabbath and circumcision. The laws on the Sabbath prohibited any work on that day. However, the law of Moses instructs the people to circumcise the male children on the eighth day. But there's a problem because sometimes a child was born and the eighth day landed on the Sabbath. So what do you do? And Jesus brings up here that it was permitted. It was permitted for somebody to do the work of circumcising a child on the Sabbath. So they were doing work. And so Jesus brings this up and says, look, you are allowed to do this one thing that affects a part of a body. on the Sabbath, you're allowed to do this. Yet I made a man whole, I healed him completely, and for that you wanna kill me? So he's showing here their hypocrisy. And at the core of their misunderstanding was their misunderstanding of both the Sabbath and circumcision. God had instituted the Sabbath to point to Christ's work of bringing in true rest for His people, spiritual rest. The Sabbath is a day to rest in Christ. How? By worshiping Him, by engaging in activities as much as is possible, engaging in activities that promote worship, whether the public worship or private worship at your home with your family. And it is a day also to do good toward your fellow neighbor. Because after all, this is a day of rest. And this is the day where Christ offered himself up for the good of his people. He did a good deed for his people. And so on this day, we are to rest in Christ. Spiritually, we do this every day, but we get one day in seven to focus our energies on worshiping Christ and really experiencing that rest. But also, just as Christ did good for us when possible, to do good to others, when our fellow brethren are in need, to help them as Christ helped us. It is His day given for us for spiritual rest and enjoyment. So there was a huge misunderstanding about the Sabbath and its nature and its purpose. But that wasn't the only law they misunderstood. They also did not see the meaning behind circumcision. Circumcision dealt with only part of the body, the male body, and yet this was allowed to do on the Sabbath. And what Jesus had done, what He underscores, is that He had healed not just part of the man, but the whole. man on the Sabbath. So while circumcision affected one part of the body and yet was permissible, how much more would it also be permissible if the whole man is made well? But there is yet something more going on here that the religious leaders and the crowd did not understand about circumcision. There is a close relationship between circumcision on the one hand and the Sabbath on the other. Circumcision was a type, a picture of what? Of regeneration, of spiritual birth, being born from above. Physical circumcision of the flesh pointed to spiritual circumcision of the heart. We see this in Deuteronomy 10.6. Moses is exhorting the people to fear and serve the Lord, to walk in His ways and to love Him. And he reminds them how the Lord set His love on their fathers. And then he says to them, so, because of this, because God has set His love upon you, Circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. Circumcise your hearts and stiffen your neck no longer." They were stubborn. They were hard-hearted. Over and over and over, God had proved Himself, one sign after another. And yet they continue to harden themselves, to rebel against the Lord. And so He says, look, the Lord has set His love upon you. Circumcise your heart. Jeremiah 4.4, the Lord is warning the people through the prophet Jeremiah because of their disobedience. And this is centuries later. And he says, "...circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like a fire and burn with none to quench it because of your evil deeds." So again, He's calling them to circumcise themselves, to circumcise their heart. In Acts chapter 7 verse 51, we see there Stephen, before the council, before the religious leaders, and after giving this wonderful exposition of God's mercy, of God's work among the people, He rebukes them and he says, you men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You who have received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it. This is the exact same charge that Jesus is giving to the religious leaders. The religious leaders were acting like their forefathers, not Moses, not Abraham, their forefathers, those that killed the prophets. Those that murdered the prophets because they did not like what they said. They were resisting them because they were not circumcised in heart. They were not regenerate. They were not born from above. And that is why they resisted the Holy Spirit. And here again, Jesus did more than just heal the paralytic man. He gave him spiritual birth. He heals him, and as a result of that physical healing, the man believes in Christ, and is made not just well in his physical body, but in his spiritual as well. He is made whole, physically and spiritually. And this circumcision of the heart, this spiritual regeneration, is something that was foretold in the Old Testament. We see it in Ezekiel 36, 27-27, that it wouldn't be the people doing it, but it was foretold that God would do it. Ezekiel says, moreover, or the Lord says through Ezekiel, moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And you'll be careful to observe my ordinances. And that is the huge difference between the old covenant, the Old Testament, and the new covenant in Christ. is that in the old covenant, yes, God called them to regeneration. He called them to faith, but that was not part of the covenant. It was not part of the deal, we can say, or the commitment between God and the people that He would do that. No, He told them, you do this and I will do this. But of the things that God would do, it was not regeneration. And so he called them to circumcise your hearts, circumcise your hearts. And they didn't because no one ever can. We cannot circumcise our own hearts. We cannot cause our own spiritual rebirth. And that is the beauty and glory of the new covenant. That in this covenant, God says, I will do it. I will give you a new heart. And so He does. All those that are in the New Covenant, that have believed in Christ, have received the spiritual circumcision by God. He has done the work for us. So true Sabbath rest can only be enjoyed through spiritual circumcision. Spiritual Sabbath rest can only be enjoyed through spiritual circumcision. And that is how these two are related. And this is exactly what the Pharisees, the scribes, the religious leaders missed. They saw the law as just the law. They were following the law by the book. They didn't see what the law pointed to. They didn't see what the law signified, God's intention in the law. And so he says to them, don't judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Don't judge based on what you think my actions look like, as if I was breaking the law, but judge righteously. Know the law's purpose, its goal, its fulfillment, that it is in Christ. Not only was his teaching and his authority greater than the religious leaders, but his work was greater and in line with the true meaning and fulfillment of God's law. But they did not know this because they did not truly desire to do God's will. They knew the law and sought to do the law for the sake of the law, but did not give a thought to God's will in the law. And sadly, as I mentioned, many who call themselves Christians in the church fall into this kind of legalism, rather than rejoicing in the freedom we have in Christ, because he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament laws concerning worship, the dietary laws, religious feasts, They get so enamored with the law and all the traditions that they would rather follow the law for the sake of the law, thinking that this pleases God, rather than follow where the law leads us to, where the law points us to, where the law has its goal, and that is Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus' teaching therefore is from God and thus he has greater teaching authority. His works are from God and in fulfillment and in line with the true meaning of the law of God. And this is what we see. But thirdly, what Jesus' teaching tells us and that we must know about his teaching is that the origin of Jesus and his mission is heavenly. The origin of Jesus and his mission is heavenly. As we have seen, when we judge an appearance without true knowledge, we don't judge rightly. And in verse 25, we are introduced to yet another group. So far, the religious leaders wanted to kill him. The crowd called him crazy for thinking that someone was trying to kill him. And then now this crowd, This crowd, the people of Jerusalem, they know, according to themselves, they know where he is from, but they didn't really know. Their misunderstanding of where he was from led them to misunderstand who he really was. And this new group, the people of Jerusalem, make three observations about him. Three things that they supposedly know about him. First, they say this is the man that the religious leaders are wanting to kill. It was obvious to them, but somehow the other group, the crowd, called him crazy for thinking that anyone was trying to kill him. Who's trying to kill you? You have a demon, they said. So this is the man, then, that the religious leaders wanted to kill. But then secondly, they notice, they know that he was speaking publicly. This word publicly can also mean confidently. This makes sense if we recall that it had already been observed that Jesus spoke as one with authority. Because of this, they wondered if the religious authorities had come to believe he was the Christ. If they believe, then maybe He is, was their thinking. They were curious, and they considered the thought that He might be. But the problem is that they were relying on the authorities, and this is a great danger. We do need to heed the teaching of those God has placed over our lives. But to do it to such an extent that you simply believe what they believe without confirming it in the Word of God is dangerous. We see this with the Bereans who heard Paul. They heard his words, they rejoiced, but yet they went back and checked it, compared it with Scripture. We are called to do this. And God has placed teachers over us to teach us, to instruct us, but never to not think about what they're saying, to just accept anything that they believe and say, well, they believe it, it must be right. No, God has given us a Holy Spirit and he's given us his word and he will teach us as well. So he does use teachers, but we need to compare things with scripture. And these people were just curious, well, do they really think he's the Christ? They were considering it on the basis of what the religious leaders believed. But then thirdly, the real deal breaker here for them was that they knew that the Christ, or they knew something about the Christ. They knew about the origin of the Christ. And it was this knowledge that was actually false knowledge that led them astray. So what did they believe about the Christ or what they thought they knew about the Christ? We see this in verse 27. They say, however, we know where this man is from, Jesus, we know where he is from, but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where he is from. So that was their knowledge. That was their great argumentation. We know where he is from, but the Christ, when he comes, nobody's gonna know where he's from. But was this true? No, it wasn't. We see this in Micah 5, too, in the Old Testament. But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathorah, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you, one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. So not only do we know that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, but that His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. We see that He's not just Christ the man, but He's also the Son of God. He's the Word. He's the eternal God Himself. And so they have this wrong. They start off with the wrong premise and then argue from there. And because of that, they did not believe in Christ. How important it is then for us to have right doctrine and theology? So many people have been led astray by one false doctrine. By that one false doctrine, other doctrines get built upon that, and pretty soon you have this whole system, but it's all false. Now, this is not to say that if we hold one thing falsely that we're gonna necessarily go astray. I mean, I don't think anyone here can claim that we have perfect, perfect doctrine. I'm sure there are things that I believe, that hold dear, that I think are true that might be wrong. I studied at a Presbyterian seminary. They taught infant baptism. I disagreed with that. Who's right, who's wrong? I could be wrong. I don't think so. I'm pretty confident that I'm correct. They're wrong. So there are some things that Christians will get wrong, but we need to be careful. We need to really make sure that what we are believing, the teaching that we are receiving, is biblical, is theologically right, that our doctrine is right. Because if we are not careful, we will be susceptible to be led astray. the more that we know, the more that we are able to discern right doctrine from bad doctrine when we hear it. So if we are not studying, if we're not learning God's word, God's truth, it will become more easy for people to deceive us, and it will become easier for us to be led astray. Now as believers, God will eventually, I believe, bring us back. There has been true believers that have been led astray for a season, but they will be brought back, especially if it is damnable doctrine. But again, it is a warning, an exhortation for us to study God's word, to know who God is, to know what he has said about himself, about us, about salvation, about Christ, so that we are not led astray. And so how does Jesus respond then to this, what these people were saying about the Christ and why Jesus was not the Christ? in character, in the character of the true prophet. The text tells us, John the Apostle tells us, that Jesus cried out in the temple. He was crying out. And this is very emphatic and it may indicate that Jesus spoke with just with great emotion. He was crying out in the temple at seeing just all the darkness, all the misunderstanding, these people who think they know what they're talking about, yet they're so blind And he cries out in the temple. And what he says is also a rebuke to these people who argued against him being the Christ, because they supposedly knew where he was from. All along, Jesus has been teaching that he is from heaven. Again, that He is the Word who is with God. He is the Son who is in the bosom of the Father. He is the One who descends from heaven, the Bread who comes down from heaven. And here are these people who claim to know where He is from. And His response then is more of a rebuke. You can almost hear this statement as a question that ridicules their supposed knowledge of His origin. So, you both know me and where I am from, do you? You really think you know where I'm from? That's his response. But his teaching has always been the same. He had not come of his own separate will from the Father, but he came in accordance with his Father's will. He had been sent from heaven. He is true, unlike the people who speak falsely. And they did so because they did not know God. We see this in verse 28. But Jesus did know him because he says in verse 29, I am from him and he sent me. That is my true origin. That is the true origin of the Christ, as we saw in Malachi. His goings forth are from long ago, from eternity. That is my origin. I am from the Father. From Him, when He says, from Him, this is not only speaking of location, from where God is, but of nature. Jesus knows God because He is of the Father. He is from the Father. He is of the very essence of the Father, the very essence and nature. He is eternally begotten from the Father. As a son, He is from His Father and shares the same essence of His Father. So this is who Jesus is. His origin is heavenly. His origin is divine. He is from Him who had sent Him, the Father. Again, this is His origin. And He was sent to carry out the Father's work, to accomplish the work of salvation for His people by going to the cross and dying on their behalf, by taking upon Himself their punishment. The mission then came from heaven, from the Father. And this mission would conclude in heaven with the Father. And this brings us to our fourth and final thing that we see Jesus teaching. The trajectory of Jesus' mission is heavenward. The trajectory of Jesus' mission is heavenward. Jesus' fourth verbal dialogue really stumps the religious leaders and everyone else, I'm sure. But in his statement in verses 33 through 36, Jesus now emphasizes that the heavenly mission he had been sent to accomplish has a heavenly trajectory. Look at verses 33 and 34. He says, Therefore Jesus said, For a little while longer I am with you. Then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come." Jesus had come from the Father to do His will and was going back to the Father. The trajectory of His mission was heavenward. This pointed to the glory that awaited Him. The glory that his brothers sarcastically asked him to show to the world. If you recall last week, when his brothers were opposing him, they were exhorting him to go to the feast and make himself publicly known. Because that's what you want, right? You want to show yourself to the world? Go do that at the feast. Everyone's there. Everyone's watching. But what was his response? He says, my time is not yet. The time for his glory, to reveal his glory to the world was not yet. First, there was something else he had to do. And so in this statement, Jesus is not only referring to the glory that awaited Him, going back to the Father, but the means by which He gets there. And how does He get there? How does He receive His glory? By glorifying the Father in His obedience, even to His obedience on the death of a cross. So that was the way that He obtained all the glory, was to go to the cross, to suffer, to suffer the shame and die as a criminal, though innocent. And because he needed to do that, he needed to be the Passover lamb, No one could take Him. No one could seize Him. No one could kill Him. Until it was the Father's time. As I said last week, Jesus was on a schedule. The Feast of the Old Testament gave us a picture of His schedule of redemption. And before the glory, the joy, and the celebration of the Feast of Booths, first had to come the Passover. And that was the first thing He had to do. He had to go and lay his life down as a sacrifice for his people. And until then, no one could seize him. And this is why he says, for a little while longer I am with you. Just a little while I am with you. But then I will go. Then my hour will come. I will be taken away and I will go back to my father. And this, beloved, is something that we, as believers, can read and rejoice in. That here in Jesus, we see His faithfulness. We see His dedication. We see His love for the Father and His love for us, for you and me. That He is determined to fulfill the Father's will, to do the Father's will. But this statement, as it is pronounced to his audience, is actually a warning. I am with you a little while longer, and then I go to him. You will seek me, and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come. Because you have rejected me, because you have rejected my words, where I'm going to the Father, you cannot come. You cannot come into the presence of the Father, into the eternal kingdom that he has for us, because you have rejected me. And one day you will seek me, but it will be too late. The day of grace will be long past. And so he's warning them. And this is a warning to all those who have not yet trusted in Christ. Our time is now, here, while you're alive on this earth, to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe in Him, to hear His word, receive it as the words of eternal life, as the words of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and to believe. Because if you don't, one day you will want to seek Him, and it may be too late. The day of grace may be long past. And rather than grace, there will be only judgment. So trust in Him. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Today is the day of salvation. No one is promised another day, another hour. So believe in Him. And for those of us who have, rejoice that our Savior is faithful. That He has withstood the opposition. He obediently, lovingly went to the cross for you and for me. Because He loves you. He died for you. And so let us rejoice in that and have the hope that one day He will return and we will celebrate the end of the harvest, the completion and consummation of God's salvation for his people. Let us rejoice in that.