Discipleship Will Cost You, Part 2 Series

John, Part 28

Series: Discipleship Will Cost You, Part 2 Passage: John 7:1-9

FOCUS: Series continues today on Discipleship and its personal cost

Discipleship is the process of becoming like Jesus; changing our wants to His

Discipleship means giving up what you desire to follow the One discipling you

As we continue this journey, I pray that you will seek God & His desire for YOU!

Read John 7:1-9 & Pray

Pt 1 - Jesus Had a Plan

To stay out of Judea – why? There is a plot to kill Him (RE: truth convicts of sin)

Scripture always reveals our heart; shows us who we truly are – where our focus is

But “ritual” calls! Festival of Shelters/Tabernacle v2 (late September)

aka “Sukkot”: a 7-day Jewish celebration & it remembers 40 years in wilderness

He is challenged by His brothers to go and be seen - to exalt himself v3

James (aka Jacob), Joseph (aka Joses), Simon, and Judas (shortened to Jude)

ASK: Why would they do such a thing? v4

• Do they really want Him to teach? To heal? Or maybe, to flex?

• CH: Do we act like this? Do we go because we want to show off?

• The Church sees this behavior all the time: church hopping for “self”

• EXAMINE: Do we seek applause in order to feel “good enough”?

Our call is the same as Jesus’s: to exalt God! Whose approval are we seeking?

Prov 18:16, “Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people!”

NGL: “A man’s gifts make room for him, but his submission makes him fit!”

Jesus shows us that to wait no God’s timing is what (even) He is called to do!

Pt 2 - The Motive of Jesus’s Brothers

KNOW: They didn’t really believe! So why would they want Him to go? v5

Are they setting Him up? Are they jealous? Do they want Him to fail? (YES)

SEE: They are operating from a place of sarcasm; mockery; they don’t believe!

APP: His family / neighbors thought He was insane! Or even demon possessed!

Mark 3:20-22, “One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. “He’s out of his mind,” they said. But the teachers of religious law who had arrived from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by Satan, the prince of demons. That’s where he gets the power to cast out demons.”

CH: How do you respond when you’re challenged because you follow Jesus?

ENCOURAGEMENT: “Some will misunderstand your obedience because they never heard the instructions God gave you. Obey Him, anyway!”

Pt 3 – Jesus’s Response (see 3 items here)

A) It was not God’s time for Him to go v6

• Not time for Him to be worshiped; but now is the time to follow, to learn

• Not time for Him to show His glory; to be lifted up; to be raised or exalted

• SEE: (BIG) Jesus turns their sarcasm into a teaching moment!

IMP: Now is the time for mankind to respond; to do what we must do

His brothers should/could go anytime -- they can always go and remember

But the implication is would they go and worship God? (Words don’t match this!)

Jesus’s response (by implication) is that His time is coming but it won’t be rushed!

Greek: kairos; meaning opportunity or “opportune time” – not now, not yet

B) Now is the world’s time (remember, it is the time of evil to reign) v7

• Jesus counters them with authentic coaching; encourages to follow God

• It is why He is so reviled; why He is cast out by those clinging to “religion”

• Think: Tradition has become their god – not the worship of who God is!

WARN: Our desire to do what we want can eventually become ALL we focus on!

THIS IS NOT NEW! Genesis 6:5-7, “The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. And the LORD said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.”

CONSIDER: The One who created this world, regreted ever doing so!

C) It was not time for Him to be revealed v8

• Greek: peplerotai meaning fulfilled or to made full