Jesus gives Hope for Families (John pt. 22)
Text: John 7:1-13
About a week and a half ago, one of Leslie’s friends from college called her… that’s not unusual… Leslie and Gabby have a lot of friends, and they’re always talking to them. What was unusual was that she wanted to talk to Leslie AND me. You see; it’s obvious that God has been working on her heart, and in her life… and she was wanting to know how she can witness to her unbelieving father. Her dad is not a Christian, and she wanted to know how she could witness to him, and share the Gospel with him.
It’s a great burden to us as Christians knowing that there are people we know and love, and care about who are not themselves Christians. There are Christian husbands with unbelieving wives, and Christian wives with unbelieving husbands. There are Christian parents whose children are not saved, and Christian children whose parents are lost. We all know someone who is far from God and who… if they were to die right now, would spend eternity in hell. And that is a troubling thought for all of us who are Christians.
Well the text that we’ll be looking at in John this morning speaks to this. Jesus Himself, had siblings, who were not believers, and He had to deal with their sarcasm and unbelief, just like you or I might have to, with our unbelieving relatives. And so what our text this morning can do, is give us hope that our lost family members… our lost friends… our lost co-workers… our lost neighbors, can be saved, and that their lives can be changed by the power of Christ. There’s always hope as long as the people we love are still breathing.
So let’s open up our Bible’s to John chapter 7, and follow along as I read verses 1 – 13 (READ).
So verse one starts out with the words “After this…” In other words, “After the mass desertion of all the multitudes of false disciples.” Jesus went about in Galilee. So… take this in. Jesus is now limiting Himself to the region of Galilee, because the Jews… literally the Judeans… now want Him dead. So it’s not just the Pharisees and Sadducees that want Him out of the picture… the people of Judah want Him gone too. After He told them that He was the Bread of Life… and After He explained to them what the cost of follow Him was going to be, people left Him by the thousands. Now imagine if you can, how that must’ve felt. To have literally thousands walk away from you… to just reject you and what you’re teaching. It’s hard enough when just one or two folks say they don’t want to be in fellowship with you any longer… but Jesus experienced the rejection of thousands. And so all of that would’ve been weighing on Him.
Now for Jesus… He knew that He didn’t do anything wrong. He knew He had spoken the truth. Those multitudes that left Him, left HIM. It wasn’t someone else in the Church that ticked them off… it wasn’t because they didn’t like the style of music. It wasn’t because Jesus didn’t offer programs for the youth… They rejected Him. They flat out rejected the truth. So keep that in mind… that’s what I mean when I say it had to be weighing on Him.
So the leaders were after Him because He had healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, and the Judean people rejected Him because they weren’t willing to face the possibility that they might be called to give up EVERYTHING in order to follow Jesus.
The point of it is that Jesus had to stay up in Galilee… and we know from Matthew 15, and Mark 8 that Jesus had spent about six months in Galilee after the multitudes had left Him. But now it’s that time of year, when the people celebrated the Feast of Booths. Now… for those of you who aren’t Ancient Hebrew Scholars… The Feast of Booths was a seven-day festival designed so that could celebrate and remember God’s provision while they were in the wilderness… so they commemorated that, and it coincided with the vine harvest. It basically was a holiday (slash) festival where they were to remember how God had provided for them, with food, water, and shelter while the people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness during the Exodus. So it’s kind of a big deal if you wanted to be a faithful Jew.
Ok… Let’s compile all of this, just to get our bearings… Jesus is in Galilee because the Jewish leaders want to kill Him. Five or six months prior, over 5000 of His followers turned their backs on Him, and walked away, the Feast of Booths is about to kick off, and now His own brothers come up to Him and basically chide Him. It’s verses 3 & 4 (READ).
Now first thing… you guys know that Jesus had brothers and sisters right? Mary and Joseph had other children. We know that from Matthew 12:46 (READ) and also from Mark 6:3 (READ). So they’re half brothers and sisters… because Joseph wasn’t Jesus biological dad. But these are Mary and Joseph’s children. Mary DID NOT stay a perpetual virgin. That passage in Mark even told the names of the brothers. James, Joses, Jude, and Simon. So it’s these guys who come up to Jesus and they’re basically saying to Him, “Listen Jesus, if you want to be recognized as the Messiah, sooner or later You’re going to have to go to Jerusalem, and prove Your claim.” And the thing is – they were saying that, but it wasn’t to encourage Him, or because they wanted Him to be the Messiah… because the very next verse – verse 5 tells us, that they did not believe. So them saying this is actually really messed up.
And this is kind of a smart way to shut up someone who’s a braggart or liar. You know the kind of guy I’m talking about right? You know… the kind of guy that says he can run a 4 minute milee even though he gets winded getting out of his recliner… or the guy who says he can bench press 400 pounds, but he struggles picking up a bag of groceries… Or the guy who says he can shoot a dove out of the sky, mid-flight, with a .22 rifle at 150 yards. But he doesn’t even know how to load his rifle… So when you encounter that kind of person, what you do is; you call them out. You go, “Oh yeah? Why don’t you show everyone that?” And you get them to either embarrass themselves or shut up. That’s kind of like what Jesus brothers are trying to do here, but they’re speaking from an unbelieving heart. They’re being sarcastic and condescending. They think that Jesus is full of Himself and they want to shut Him up… even if it means that He will either be thrown in jail, punished, or maybe even killed. Now I’ve had my siblings be angry with me for my stance on certain issues. I’ve even been estranged from them because I’m a Christian. But as far as I know, they’ve never plotted my demise. And I know there are some of you who have no support in your home, or from your family when it comes to your faith, and when it comes to doing what’s right. But put yourself in Jesus’ shoes here for a second. First the multitudes walked away from Him, now His own brothers are doing this. That had to feel horrible. It had to break His heart.
So it’s interesting how Jesus answers them… verse 6 – “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.” That is SO POWERFUL! Basically Jesus just said, “It’s not time for Me to die… but your time to die is always.” Jesus hadn’t taken on our sin, so He couldn’t die… but His brothers, they were born in sin – they were sinners from birth. The only thing that was keeping them alive was the grace of God that is common to all men. They could die at any time. There was no guarantee that they’d make it to old age. They had no right to claim life. They don’t deserve it. It’s kind of like what Jesus says to His disciples in Luke 13:4-5… let’s go there are read that (READ). The point is, that ALL OF US, at some point will die. We’ve all sinned, and the wages of sin is death. And it can happen today, tomorrow, next week, next year.
That’s what Jesus is saying here. Now His brothers, they might have taken that as a threat. They might have taken this as Jesus saying, “I’m not going up to Jerusalem to die… but I could kill you right now.” And in one sense that would be true. Jesus could’ve said a word and all of them would’ve dropped dead. But this isn’t a threat. It’s a warning to them. It’s a warning to turn from their unbelief. He’s saying “Your time to die is always… so you can die in your unbelief, or you can die in faith.” And then He says to them, “The world” (that’s the world system… humanity in its opposition to God – the Anti-Christian society, culture, philosophies, world views… that are contrary and hostile towards God, and Christ, and the Bible, and the truth). The world… it can’t hate you, but it hates Jesus because He testifies that it’s works are evil. Again Church – please hear me; when you take a stand for truth… when you take a stand for what’s right, and good, and moral… when you take a stand against evil. The world is going to hate you. And sometimes, if your family, or your friends, or your acquaintances are of the world; they’re going to hate you too.
The reason the world doesn’t hate Jesus’ brothers at this time is because they’re part of the world. And they, along with the world, hate Jesus, because He exposes their sin.
Now Jesus does go up to the feast eventually. And there are some opponents of the Bible that say Jesus told a lie to His brothers because He did go… but that’s a statement of ignorance. Let me read it to you in the literal Greek – Jesus said, “You go up to the feast; I do not YET go up to the feast…” In other words, Jesus tells His brothers, “You go on up without Me… I’ll come when it’s time.” He doesn’t want to go up in a spectacle with His brothers… He’s going to go up quietly, and wait until about mid-week before He even makes His presence known.
And we know that’s what happens… Jesus does go… He goes incognito… undercover, but He doesn’t stay that way. He eventually teaches publicly in the temple.
And that’s going to have ramifications later on.
It’s going to cause the worldly to hate Him even more. In-fact; from this point on, Jesus ministry focus changes some, and He continually is going to be rebuking the Jewish leaders. And they are going to continually be looking for ways to trap Him, or kill Him.
But there’s another change that’s going to take place as well…
We don’t know exactly when it takes place, but it happens. Maybe it’s after the resurrection, maybe a little before. But what happens is that at least two of Jesus’ brothers come to faith. James and Jude both get saved. James becomes the pastor of the Jerusalem Church, and writes the Book of James… He and Peter are the ones who met with the Apostle Paul after his conversion and they confirm that he has genuinely come to faith. And He presides over the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. Jude, went on to be a missionary, and he wrote the Book of Jude… that short little book that comes right before the Book of Revelation that warns the Church of false teachers and urges them to always be on the lookout for them.
So at least two of Jesus’ brothers end up getting saved! And that gives me great joy! It gives me hope!
It reminds me that there is no one who is too far from God to be saved. He can change hearts, and minds, and bring new life to dead souls. He can take people who hate Him, and turn their hearts toward Him. He can take people who are imprisoned and enslaved by sin, and set them free. I know that because I see it in the text. I know that because that’s exactly what He did for me.
So understand; the world hates Jesus… and the world is going to hate you as you follow Him. But also understand that those outside of Christ could… at any time… be called to stand before Him. Their time is always. So we can’t get it in our heads that it’s us against them… instead we have to see them as in desperate need of rescue.
And maybe, that’s you this morning. Maybe you’re far from God. Let me tell you, your time… my time… is always. We can’t presume that we’ll have tomorrow or the next day, or next year to get right with God, or start living for Him as we should. If you don’t know Christ, today is the day of salvation. And if you are a believer, but you haven’t lived as you should… you haven’t followed as you should, then today is the day, you truly take up your cross and follow Him. That’s the call of Christ for those who would follow Him… and our world desperately needs the Good News.
CLOSING
