It’s been more than 20 years ago now since I initiated a lawsuit in the name of the church against the Washoe County School District. As a few of you know, and even fewer of you probably remember, it was about the matter of Equal Access—equal access to public school facilities for churches and religious groups. At the time, the Washoe County School District would not permit churches or any religious groups, for that matter, to rent district facilities that were not in use by the school district for any purpose whatsoever, though those facilities could be rented by any other organization for any other purpose whatsoever. Even church basketball leagues were banned from renting gyms.
I saw it as a violation of our freedom of speech and freedom of religion rights under the Constitution. And eventually, after a long battle that lasted four years and involved an appeal, we won the right for churches, and church plants, to use public school for their events and meetings.
But I’ll never forget that day in the spring of about 1989 when the first public hearing on the case took place. We were meeting in one of the courtrooms at the old multi-storied Federal Building near Reno High School. Litigants and lawyers for both sides were present and greeted each other pleasantly before the case began to be argued before Judge Francis McKibben. And as I began talking with our attorneys from the Rutherford Institute, they were quick to whisper to me this advice: “Be careful what you say, because whatever you say can and will be used against you.”
Of course, in this very divisive election of 2010, both Senate candidates, Harry Reid and Sharron Angle, can well attest to that truth.
But as I look back on that experience, that that advice not only has application in the courtroom and when you’re running for office, but it also is relevant to the spiritual battle all true believers find themselves in. There is a great spiritual struggle going on, the stakes are very high—eternal life or eternal destruction—and the world can be and often is a very dangerous place for believers who are merely trying to make disciples of all nations, as our Lord Jesus Christ directed us to.
And so this morning, we’re going to consider John chapter 7, a passage which tells us just how great the contention was even in Jesus’ time, especially during Jesus few years of ministry on this earth. And just how seriously dangerous the matter was for Jesus and how he dealt with both the unbelief of his very own family, and those who made themselves his enemies among his own countrymen.
And what we’re going to learn is that when dealing with unbelievers and opposition, we’re to be as shrewd as serpents, but as innocent as doves. In other words, we are to remain in God’s will, but pick our times & places with caution and divine wisdom.
Now last we saw Jesus in John 6, He was beginning the final year of His ministry. He had just lost most of His followers in Galilee because they would not accept His so-called “hard sayings”—that He alone was the Bread of Life who could give them eternal life. And Jesus’ ministry for the next six months is covered in a single verse at the outset of John 7—John 7:1: “After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.”
Now remember that Galilee was the northern province of Israel at the time of Jesus. It was the province into which Jesus was born and in which He had established His residence, in Capernaum, around the Sea of Galilee, and that all of His disciples were from Galilee. Judea, on the other hand, was the southernmost province of Israel. Jerusalem, the spiritual and political capital of Israel, was located in Judea. And the temple was located in Jerusalem. And all of the spiritual and political leaders of the nation ruled from Jerusalem. These are the people who are being called “the Jews” here. They were the Pharisees and Sadducees who made up the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin and the chief priests. And if you’ll remember back in John 5, when Jesus healed a man who had been disabled for 38 years there on the Sabbath, that these same Jews determined once and for all that they wanted to murder Jesus. And so the Apostle John tells us that for at least six months following the departure of the majority of His followers, Jesus spent time in Galilee specifically to avoid the murderous plots of these Jewish leaders in Judea.
And what this tells me is that Jesus took this danger very seriously. And if we count Him as an example for ourselves, then we also, at times, need to beware of men, for some will oppose us vehemently when we follow Jesus. And that’s our first point this morning, “Beware of men, for some will oppose you vehemently, even violently, when you follow Jesus.”
Now even as I emphasize this, I need to balance out this point by noting that, generally speaking, Jesus has told us two things with regard to unbelievers and enemies. First, He has told us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute you in Matthew 5:44. And He has told us to “Go and make disciples of all nations” in Matthew 28:18. And if the example of the apostles in the Book of Acts is any indication, we are to be very bold in our witness and in our demonstration of love to both unbelievers and those who might count themselves to be our enemies. And so these are the general principles we are to follow with respect to being light in a dark world. But if Jesus’ example here is any indication, then there are moments for caution; there are moments to back off; there are moments when we are wise to pick our spots, our times and our places carefully, because the danger is very real.
You see, in addition to the statements we find in Matthew 5:44 and 28:18, there is the balancing warning found in Matthew 10:16-18. As Jesus sends the twelve out to minister in the villages of Israel, among other things, He says to them, “Behold, I sent you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake”
And we also find the intriguing statement within the Sermon on the Mount, in the same sermon we are told to love our enemies, in Matthew 7:6, Jesus says, “Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”
So while we are to love our enemies and boldly make disciples of all nations, we do find these intriguing warnings from Jesus himself encouraging us to watch out, beware, there will be times when some men for some reason will vehemently and violently reject our teachings and us. So we do well at those times to consider the shrewd ways of serpents, who are able to quietly make their way into and out of places without being detected at all.
And apparently, Jesus found Himself in just such a situation as this. The Jews had already heard and seen what Jesus had to say, had already decided not merely to reject Him, but also had vowed to murder Him. When we find ourselves in such a situation when the opposition has so hardened itself against us, it is time to use caution, to beware of men, to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, even as Jesus will prove Himself to be among these wicked men, as we shall see. He didn’t completely avoid them, but he carefully chose His times and His places according to His Father’s will.
And now we come to one of those most interesting moments when Jesus had to deal with the unbelief in his own family, in John 7:2: “Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.” Now the Feast of Booths is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Shelters or Tents. It was one of the three major feasts of the year in which every Jewish adult male was required to journey to Jerusalem to participate in a spiritual commemoration and celebration. The Feast of Booths occurred in the fall, sometime after September 15th, and was an eight-day celebration in which the Jews commemorated how their forefathers had been provided for by God in the wilderness. And so for the days of the feast the Jews would gather various tree branches and construct for themselves booths, or temporary shelters, in which the adult males would live in and sleep and eat while they were in Jerusalem, remembering, of course, that their forefathers had been provided for in such temporary shelters for 40 years in the wilderness. It also occurred at the time of the harvest, and there was great celebration for how God had provided through the harvest. It was a spiritual version of what we might call an Oktoberfest today—a wonderful time of celebration, thanksgiving and joy at the temple in Jerusalem.
Verse 3: “Therefore, Jesus’ brothers said to Him, ‘Leave here and go into Judea, so that your disciples may also see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, show Yourself to the world.”
And so Jesus’ half-brothers, the sons of Mary and Joseph, had noticed that Jesus was sticking around Galilee while claiming to be somebody special. And so according to common sense and likely with an air of sibling rivalry and pride, they told him, “If you’re really so special, and you do all these amazing miracles, you need to confirm that for those who are already followers of yours in Judea, and show yourself to the world, on a much bigger stage, so that everyone can see who you are.”
And verse 5 tells us the motivation for such an exhortation. “For not even his brothers were believing in Him.” Now notice, his brothers had no question about the fact that he was doing amazing works; they apparently accepted that he was a miracle-worker, but still, despite that, despite growing up with an older brother who was, in fact, God, they did not believe. Now that shouldn’t be so surprising, considering how sibling rivalries go. Imagine growing up with an older sibling who, in fact, absolutely could not do anything wrong, and never did any wrong, and was in fact, God. That really must have been difficult to deal with.
And of course, this begs the question, how many brothers and how many siblings did Jesus actually have? And were there any other passages which speak of how they responded to this unique brother of theirs? And, yes in fact, we do have more information about them from the Scriptures. There’s Mark 6:3, in which we are told that Jesus was the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon. And it also tells us that there were “sisters”--plural. So Jesus had four brothers, and we know their names. And he had at least two sisters, and possibly more. All these folks had to deal with a brother, who as a matter of fact, was, indeed, God!
And yes, indeed, this did create some confusion and contention. Again, from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 3, verse 21. What was their initial reaction to Jesus’ ministry? Not merely unbelief, but they were absolutely, out and out, appalled at the claims He was making, so much so, that were told that when His own people, or family heard these sorts of things that they went out to take custody of Him, for they were saying, “He has lost his sense.” In other words, at one point early in Christ’s ministry, despite and perhaps because of Christ’s claims about Himself, they thought He was crazy!
Now this should be of some comfort to those of us who have unbelieving families, or unbelieving family members. Jesus had some of the same problems. So how did He deal with unbelief and the recommendations of unbelieving family members? Well, He didn’t lose his focus for one moment. He was unfazed by it. He continued on God’s plan and on God’s timetable, as is evident from John 7:6-8: So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.”
Now if you were to do a study on Jesus use of the phrase “My time”, especially through the book of John, you would find that “My time” always refers to the time of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. He continues to tell people who were involved with Him that his time had not yet come until the Last Supper, when he speaks of His time or his hour as having come. And so, what we can see from this is that Jesus was on a timetable previously established by His Father. Everything had already been planned out from beginning to end with regard to His ministry. He could not foment opposition further at this time, resulting in his arrest and crucifixion at the Feast of Booths because he was the predicted Lamb of God. And the Lamb of God could not be sacrificed before the time of the Passover, where the Passover Lamb would be sacrificed in fulfillment of the foreshadowing of the Old Testament with regard to the function of the Messiah—taking away the world’s sins and saving us from death. Thus, Jesus replies to His brothers that His time—God’s timing—had not come.
And then he explains further beginning in verse 7: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourself; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.”
In other words, the issue for Jesus once again is the opposition—the avowed and determined enemies of Jesus. He tells his brothers, who are unbelievers at this point, that the world, used in the most pejorative sense, cannot hate you, because you are of the world. It, the world, hates me, because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”
Now when Jesus uses the word world here, He is speaking of the world system of men that is motivated and run according to worldly, ungodly and sinful desires and lusts. It’s the kind of world that the Apostle John speaks about in I John 2:15-16. There, John says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” And so it is exactly this kind of world, characterized and run by these sinful desires of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, that Jesus is talking about here. The reason these Jewish leaders hated Jesus and wanted to kill Him was that his lifestyle and His words condemned them and testified to the fact that their deeds were evil. And by His popularity with the crowds, He threatened their positions of power and influence and wealth.
And so we might wonder why some will come to oppose us? Why in the world do they have a problem with us when all we wanted to do was to love them and provide them with the way to eternal life. The answer is found right here. If they hated Jesus for testifying to them that their deeds wee evil, so they will hate you. And sometimes this might even happen in your own family, or even in your own church!
And so, in verse 9, we’re told Jesus stayed in Galilee while his brothers and family all went up to Jerusalem, presumably in the same caravan, publicly, as they always had.
And so how are we to react when even members of our own family question our priorities, have a worldly sort of wisdom and exhort us to do things that are, perhaps, completely out of character for a Christian, or as in Jesus’ case, were even dangerous.
Stay the course. Remain in God’s will. Don’t fazed by your family’s questioning of your priorities. They won’t and can’t understand until they become believers, as at least a couple of Jesus’ brothers eventually would. Remain in God’s will even when your family questions your priorities.
But then John tells us that later Jesus did go “up” to the feast. Not meaning He went north, but when you went to the temple, anywhere you came from, north or south or east or west, was considered down in relationship to the temple in this Jewish culture. You always went up to the temple, no matter what direction you were coming from.
Verse 10: But when His brothers had gone up to the fast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret.”
Now what this means is that Jesus was taking his own advice to us. He was being wary of men, men who had determined to kill him, and if they could, before God’s appointed time. He was being as shrewd as a serpent, quietly, even secretly making His way to he feast, but not with His family, as might be expected and not with the crowds who were all making their way to the feast at roughly the same time, but later, when His presence would not create a stir, when He might not easily be found in the crowd by the authorities, who would immediately seek to arrest Him. Because the Jews, the authorities, were expecting Him, and the crowds who were at the feast were all talking about him, trying to decide whether he was the Messiah, or even a good man, or perhaps a false prophet, as we will see in verse 11-14. There’s an undercurrent of murmuring about this man Jesus and who He was—a great sense of anticipation that He would show up at the feast as had been His custom previously. “So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and saying, “Where is He?” There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him, some were saying, “He is a good man”’ others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray, yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.” By this time the hostility of the authorities toward Jesus was public knowledge—everyone knew they were out to get Him. And everyone was afraid of somehow being associated with him or being identified with Him, because the judgment of the authorities might also fall upon Him. From the Jew’s perspective, Jesus was a kind of spiritual terrorist who was wanted.
So Jesus was careful to pick His spots, His places and His times. And rather than showing up in early in the feast with His people and His family, He gets there mid-feast, when the crowds are at their height, when His arrest might cause a riot and when His words will be heard by as many people as possible. Verse 14: “But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.” And as we see in verse 15, His teaching astonished, even blew away the Jews who were seeking to arrest Him, because he spoke with such wisdom.
How did Jesus handle unbelief and opposition? Very carefully. But he did not stop doing God’s will. He did not stop speaking the truth. He did not step preaching, but He did pick his times and His places wisely.
In other words, He was as shrewd as a serpent with regard to men who opposed him, but innocent as a dove before His Heavenly Father.
You know what, I know a certain teacher whose identity I will not reveal. But she is just like this in her testimony for Jesus Christ in the public school in which he or she teaches. She has been told that there’s to be no proselyting of students in her public school by one of the persons in authority in her school.
Strangely, often she finds that her students have never heard the name of Jesus Christ except as a cussword. And when someone does bring up the subject of God, or there’s a case of discipline in which a word about the fear of the Lord might help, she might bring up the subject of the higher power there. She knows that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, so when asked, she will tell the truth about what she believes—that there is a Creator who knows everything we do, and we need to be careful not to offend Him by doing what is wrong.
But a special time will come each year, and it is almost always the last day of class. The students are excited about summer and summer vacation and buzzing about all they will do when finally classes are over. And there many fun and exciting events going on at the end of the school year which occupy their attention, and they will not be back the next day to report anything of what they might have heard in their classroom that day; they will likely be distracted by many other things that they will tell their parents about.
But on that last day there will be a quiet hour in which this teacher will share with her students something called the Wordless Book. It’s an explanation about the Creator of the Universe, and sin and death, and the Good News of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again, who, if only we will trust in Him, will give us eternal life.
Most of the students are wide-eyed, their hearts are open; indeed, in this post-Christian culture and very non-Christian educational system, they have never heard anything like this. And so, this unreached people group gets reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And the Day goes on, and the excitement of summer vacation takes over, and another year is completed, but the most significant event that has occurred is that some children heard the Good News of Jesus Christ.
And the teacher continues to teach another year. All because she has learned to Remain in God’s will, be careful to pick her times and places wisely. She has been as shrewd as a serpent, but as innocent as a dove.
How do you deal with unbelief and opposition? Just like Jesus did. Just like this teacher does. Seeking first the Kingdom of God but doing so with the wisdom of a serpent.
