Challenging Religion
Vital to read the entire book at one sitting from time to time. Chapters 5-7 at minimum
Jesus' teaching are set in the backdrop of the Feast of Tabernacles - Season of our Gladness!
Called Succoth - Booths. Booths = we want rain. Fall harvest festival - reminder of tent living for 40 years, celebrating the harvest and celebrating Exodus stories of Moses getting water from rock and pillar of fire. Held during our Sept. - Oct. almost exactly 6 months after Passover
Water ceremonies each day of the festival - praying for winter rains - living in tents or bowers constructed with enough roof open to see the stars but covered enough to show that they believe their request for rain is spoken in faith
Party week! Thanksgiving for 8 DAYS!
But while this is party week - with tons of great memories, Jesus is uneasy
Jesus had just poured His heart out, bared His soul and spoken the most intimate truths about himself, and He got booed. Lambasted - rejected - even some of His disciples abandoned Him.
This comes right on the heels of "Let's make Him King!"
Ever have a bad day? Share a bad day with your neighbor.
Shelley crying in bed. Blizzard kept us from being with our kids, Kenny at Rainbow, Come home without the baby - our 1 yr. old got hit by a car and we had to decide whether to put Ben to sleep or pay hundreds of dollars to put a pin in his leg. We opted for a pin. Ben's a dog by the way.
Think of the bad day for Jesus. Read John 7:1-9
JN 7:1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. 2 But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus' brothers said to him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. 8 You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come." 9 Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.
The religious leaders rejected Jesus and now his family. Jesus is hiding out - keeping clear of Jerusalem What's the stink about?
Remember John 5 Jesus healed a man at the pool Bethesda - ON THE SABBATH! No less. So they naturally want to Kill Jesus
John 5:18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Jesus hits the road and crosses Jerusalem off His list of friendly cities to hang out and teach in
Jesus fed thousands and mysteriously crossed the Sea of Galilee and was back at home in Capernaum, He preaches a whopper of a sermon, loses lots of disciples and gets the left foot of fellowship - cross Capernaum off the list of friendly cities to hang out and teach in.
Jesus' brothers taunt him, temptations of Satan - if you're God's Son... Put up or shut up Jesus Everybody's going to Jerusalem - every male within 20 mile radius required to go. For possibly the first time in his entire life - Jesus not going to Succoth with his family. How does that fly?
Not my Time
Karios = appointed time, Bow hunting analogy - release of the arrow
Why not release the arrow - Why wait - Jesus had no desire for triumphal entry on their terms
Jesus doesn't make a dramatic entrance, his time is not yet
Yet for those not concerned with God's time, any time will do.
For you, any day is as good as another.
Read John 7:10-15 10 However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, "Where is that man?"
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man."
Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.
14 Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?"
Jesus not wishy washy, or trigger happy
Luke and dropping the bomb on the death star
Jesus sneaks into town incognito (glasses and mustache?)
Crowds vs. Jews Crowd had its rabble rousers as well as supporters John & Mary Doe VS Sanhedrin - officials
Overhears whispering, good man, deceiver No intention of being "our kind of Messiah" so he must be a deceiver
Jesus' very presence constitutes judgment
World hates the one who points out their evil deeds
But no one talking publicly - just like today
Christians gather in secret (called church) and discuss Jesus (testimony) , some afraid to even whisper his name aloud in prayer, but in the world - we fear the officials
No Dramatic entrance - Jesus simply shows up at the Temple courts and begins teaching with amazing wisdom
How did this man get learning without a teacher? - Jesus didn't sit under the feet of a famous Rabbi like Paul did. But he was certainly taught by a rabbi, and also His Father. Taught by God
Later the same remark is made about the disciples Acts 4:13
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
The rulers and elders were wrong. Peter and John had been schooled. By Jesus. How about YOU?
16 Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17 If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.
Do people take note that you had been with Jesus?
When Jesus leaves Galilee here, he is never to return home (he knows it)
6 months later he will make a dramatic and public entry -
He will be riding on a colt - hailed as a King - and looking death square in the face - death on a cross
Read John 7:16-18 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"
20 "You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?"
21 Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."
All great men and prophets deliver a message not their own, but they are the messengers
Prophets deliver a message with "Thus saith the Lord"
Jesus simply said "I say to you" or Verily - truly
How do you ultimately know that what Jesus says is true?
You have to be obedient
That means you have to be willing to do God's will before He invests a lot in unfolding His will to you. Prayer time seem silent, no light? Look at your heart
If you're ready to obey you'll get the message, otherwise FORGET it!
God's truth need not appeal to man to be authenticated Good or bad sermon - bless God.
Read John 7:19-24
But since you want a petty proof
Consider Moses - Let's not forget "thou shalt not kill"
Think about it - think about it - with WHAT?
Stop judging by appearances - make right judgments
- not "how we always did it"
looking for precedent blinds us from Innovation
- not "I personally don't like the idea" -
our comfort blinds us from God's glorious High Way
Faith of any disciple would be imperfect if based on miraculous results - that's why Jesus said "don't tell anyone"
I'm not David Copperfield (or David Blaine)
Faith built on seeing miracles is eroded by not seeing miracles
We walk by faith, not by sight
Is your heart truly open to do what He asks, or are you like the married couple who have a silent existence together, neither one asking a thing of the other because there is no confidence that it would make the slightest difference in the world.
