Israel had 7 main celebrations, three of which were annual pilgrimage feasts that took place in Jerusalem. These celebrations were mandated in Leviticus 23.
The big three feasts were:
- Passover, celebrated in March/April on our calendars.
There were actually two feasts—Passover, followed by the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread—its purpose was to remember, for all time, God’s redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
- Feast of Weeks (also called Pentecost or Harvest Feast): This was to be a celebration 50 days (“penta” = 50) after Passover. It celebrated the first fruits of the wheat harvest.
- Feast of Tabernacles (also called Feast of Booths, or shelters): This feast, in the fall, commemorated two events—the pilgrimage from Egypt to the Promised Land in Canaan and the fruitfulness of the Promised Land.
For this celebration, people lived in temporary shelters made of branches and leaves for a week to remember the sparse living conditions in the 40-year journey through the wilderness.
Spaced from early spring through the fall, the three feasts were a continual reminder of God’s redemption from slavery into a life of abundance.
Christians are no longer under obligation to observe the OT feasts, Christ has completed what they pointed to.
John has shown us that he is our Passover lamb, and that Jesus “tabernacled” or pitched his tent among us, and he will send his Spirit on Pentecost after his resurrection, which was the first fruits of those who would be resurrected.
All these pointed to Christ, he is the reality, they were shadows.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Col. 2:16,17
But it’s important that we remember what they were designed to do…to continually shape hearts and reframe minds by building gratitude, dependence, and thanksgiving into the cycles of their lives…to remember what God had done, was doing, and will do.
We don’t have to keep these feasts, but we must keep this perspective in our lives.
It is also good to remember that the historical events commemorated in these festivals all pointed forward to their fulfillment in Christ.
John makes a lot of those connections.
In John 6 he gave a theological marker, not merely a chronological one when he said that the Lord’s feeding of the 5,000 as well as his bread of life sermon came during the celebration of Passover.
In chapter seven, it is now about six months later and John writes the Festival of Shelters, or booths was about to occur.
This is, again, more than merely a time stamp, it has bearing on the overall narrative.
Let’s read, starting in verse 1.
After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since he did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him. 2 The Jewish Festival of Shelters, was near. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 (For not even his brothers believed in him.)
By this time in history the festival of shelters had become the most popular of the feasts that brought the faithful to Jerusalem.
It was crowded and festive…people from rural areas lived in makeshift structures of branches and leaves in public places.
Town folks put up similar structures on their flat roofs on in their courtyards…it was a mass camping out.
Like all celebrations, then and now, the thing being remembered had for many people become submerged under the logistics of celebration.
Many were probably “glamping”…spending more time making cool tent structures and cooking great food than remembering God’s redemption.
Like our fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas…the thing commemorated by the celebrations can been largely lost.
Jesus is still up north in Galilee and it was almost time for him to travel south to Judah, where he would be in greater danger of arrest.
He would go there at the right time and for the right reason…neither of which was on the mind of his brothers.
Because this point his brothers did not have a saving faith in him.
We will find in Acts 1, after his resurrection, Jesus’ brothers did become his followers.
Here, they were like most of the people in the Lord’s life…they had seen him do miracles but did not understand what the signs signified.
His brothers wanted to act as his agents to promote his “career” and no doubt, their own.
Keith McCants was a college All American, and a first round NFL pick.
An amazingly gifted athlete, in 1990 he signed a 5 year 7.5 million dollar contract, plus a 2.5 million dollar cash bonus.
He died, financially and physically broken, of a drug overdose in 2021.
I saw an interview where he looked into the camera and said, “Money and fame ruined my life.”
He had become skeptical of virtually everyone around him because so many saw him as their golden ticket.
He, like many others of the rich and famous, had an entourage of people who made their living being his friends…using that term loosely.
I know several people who have essentially made their living being brothers to a famous athlete.
People were not different during the time of Jesus.
There were plenty of people, looking to hitch their wagons to a shooting star and plenty of people willing to let then do that.
But Jesus was different…his purposes were different and of course, he was unmoved by misguided human attention…he knew what was in the hearts of people.
Remember in chapter two…
During another trip to Jerusalem, this time at the Passover Feast
Many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man
He wasn’t interested in groopies or fans.
His own brothers, like most people we have encountered in John so far, were confused.
“Look, clearly you have talent, take your talent to Jerusalem…it’s the feast of booths…everybody who is anybody will be there…do your miracle stuff there and you will more than make up for these folks here in Galilee who are deserting you.”
“If you want to build a movement, you need to market yourself right.”
“Show yourself to the world.” They told him.
But remember what John wrote in 1:10?
Jesus was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him or received him…
The “world” would never “know” him or receive him as long as they were “the world.”
The world is the collective associations of humans in rebellion to God.
We would probably use the world “culture” now…cultural norms, influential people and ideas that shape our culture and shape us.
People would need to stop loving the “world” in fact they would need to stop “being” OF the world, if they were to be positioned to see Jesus for who he is…to receive him.
So, no fellas, Jesus isn’t interested in “showing himself to the world”, at least not in the way they were thinking.
Jesus is going to reveal himself in Jerusalem to the world in a few months, but it will be by his death on the cross…not as a celebrity building a fickle following.
6 Jesus told them, “My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it—that its works are evil. 8 Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”
Their time was their own…their lives were their own.
Time is the stuff of our lives…what we give our time to, we are giving our very lives to.
Our calendars show our values.
Embedded in this declaration of the Lord was the fact that his brothers were operating as their own bosses, Lord of their own lives.
They did what they wanted, when they wanted to do it.
Jesus on the other hand, lived for the timing and purposes of his Father.
Because they were doing their own things, the implication is, their life choices were going to be of little actual consequence.
Their choices, made as their own bosses are in the eternal scheme of things…insignificant.
And the world was going to be largely unconcerned with them.
Why would people living as bosses of their lives be concerned with these guys who were walking in step with that very same culture?
They wouldn’t stand out; they wouldn’t be targeted by the world…because they were addicted to the world…they were of the world.
You can’t change what you are addicted to.
The world was, however, going to be very concerned about and act in direct opposition to Jesus.
Precisely because his life was a rebuke to them.
Jesus was a friend to sinners but he did not condone sin or concede to it.
He consistently called people out of their sin to repentance and into new life with him.
This is not an excuse for us to be a jerk or a perpetual contrarian…if the world dislikes you because you are just so unlikeable, God is not glorified in that.
There is a balance in this that is only possible to keep, as we walk in the power of the Spirit and in the fellowship of the church.
This balance will show up, like it did in the Lord’s life…where certain people were drawn to him and certain people angrily opposed him.
That will be true for you as well if you walk in the power of God’s Word, Spirit, and People.
In it all…Jesus neither lived for the applause of people, nor feared the displeasure of people.
He lived, like we are to live…for the purposes of God…and for the applause of God.
This will mean we live for the good of others, but not for their approval or to avoid their disapproval.
There are always going to be the people who make the news, they are on everyone’s mind and tongue…for a very brief time…but their lives, in eternity, will have been of little to no consequence.
If they have lived as their own bosses…on their own schedule.
There are others…some in this room…who are largely unknown other than to their circle of friends and family, whose lives are of eternal consequence.
The difference is in who is their boss, who is Lord of their lives.
The difference is that they are spending, rather than wasting, their lives.
They are living for the glory and the purposes of God.
Their time is his time, their lives are his to use for his purpose.
9 After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee. 10 After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly.
John isn’t indicating that Jesus deceived his brothers, or as one 3rd century opponent of Christianity wrote about this event, that it showed Jesus to be a “flake”…because he couldn’t make up his mind.
This guy completely misunderstood the point John is making here…Jesus was always decisive and purposeful in his actions.
John is in fact, demonstrating what he has been communicating about Jesus.
He operates on God’s time.
Jesus didn’t go along with his brothers “when” or their “why”.
He did go to Jerusalem but at a different time and for a different reason, than they had advised.
He went later and he went discretely.
11 The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?”
Jewish authorities were on the lookout for Jesus…they assumed he would come to the festival, because all able bodied Jewish men were expected to.
They hoped that he would leave the Jurisdiction of Herod in Galilee and come to Jerusalem where he would fall under Pilate’s authority and be more vulnerable to their plans to stop him.
12 And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceiving the people.” 13 Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.
John’s gospel predates CS Lewis’, Liar, lunatic, Lord argument…but we find its key ingredients there.
In this passage, some said he was a liar, later, (in verse 20) some will say he is demon possessed(crazy), and here some said that he is a good man.
John is making his case throughout his gospel that Jesus doesn’t leave people with the option of being simply a good man.
He is either a liar, lunatic, or the Lord…he cannot simply be a good man and make the claims he that made.
Of course, he was the farthest thing from a liar as there ever has been…he was the truth.
And he was the sanest human to ever live.
What is left then is to either accept or reject him as Lord.
This, John tells us later in his gospel is exactly why he wrote it…so people would believe that Jesus is the Christ and by believing would have eternal life in him.
14 When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. 15 Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained?”
Jesus didn’t go when his brothers wanted him to go but by the halfway point of the festival he was now in Jerusalem and he went to the temple.
Preaching publicly at the temple seems at odds with what John wrote in verse 10 about Jesus going to Jerusalem secretly.
But secrecy was never his goal, faithfulness was.
If he had gone into town when and how his brothers had wanted him to…it is likely to have turned into a premature triumphal entry…it was not time for that, not yet.
Now, halfway through the festival…it’s time for him to show himself publicly.
As he taught in the Temple, people were amazed that he lacked formal training…because there was such clarity, power and authority in his teaching.
He had not studied in one of the prestigious schools of the time, under some well-known rabbi.
And unlike other teachers , he wasn’t continually quoting religious experts to back up his points.
There is a type of thinking fallacy sometimes called, “Appeal to authority.”
It is where instead of making a sound argument for a position, we quote some supposed expert or to add weight to our statements.
“Well, you know experts say…” “Research shows…”
Nothing wrong with this per se, except when it is used to back up what is inherently faulty reasoning or just things that are untrue.
Last year 10,000 research papers were withdrawn from publication because of false data…in many cases just outright lies in a rush to be published.
You can get some expert somewhere to back up virtually everything you want to believe.
Jesus, contrary to conventional wisdom didn’t appeal to human authority but to God himself.
This again is arrogant, crazy…or not.
Only the Lord can make this claim.
16 Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me. 17 If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.
The problem is that everyone claiming to have a word from God would say this same thing.
“My teaching is from God”
Joseph Smith of the Mormon cult, Mohammed of Islam, or some false prophet on TV trying to get money from people…they all claim to speak for God.
One of many differences between them and Jesus is that Jesus has already demonstrated by his life, his power, that he has actual authority from God.
He will by his death and resurrection validate that he is who he says he is…that he and the Father are one.
Here, he lays out the primary way to discern whether his teaching is actually from God or not.
The one who wants to know God will recognize that Jesus is from God, his teaching is the truth.
A true seeker must be fundamentally committed to the will of God…a seeker must want to become a finder someday.
I knew a man, a kind man, who was a perpetual seeker of the truth…but I asked him after several years and many conversations…if he was simply committed to being a seeker, or if he was seeker because he was committed to being a finder.
Essentially, he said…he was going to remain a seeker.
CS Lewis wrote that the point of an open mind is like the point of an open mouth…to close on something solid.
True seekers actually hope to find…not just to take pride in the hunt.
This helps explain why some New Testament experts over the years have been so far from actual faith in Christ.
They know the original language, they have studied the culture of the ancient world, they have read each other’s books…and they come to conclusions that are way off from the truth of the gospel.
Their problem is they have not come to the gospel with a heart pre-surrendered to God.
They come to the gospel to judge it, not to be judged by it.
Jesus is speaking here of a heart posture that makes the truth self-authenticating.
The person who chooses to do God’s will, is the one who is positioned to see that Jesus words are the will and ways of God.
Here again he brings in that balance of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.
In 6:44, Jesus said, Becoming a Christian is not merely a human activity…it is a work of God in a person’s life.
Then here, Jesus says, If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own
It is God’s work and it is human responsibility to choose.
Last week a friend asked me, whether he had to wait for God to allow it before he could become a Christian.
This question was in response to John 6:44.
We discussed how that verse eliminates human pride and mere human effort in our salvation but it does not eliminate human decision.
We don’t wait for God to “give us faith” we are to move towards God in humility and we are to choose to place our faith in him.
If we have heart that truly wants to know God…we will recognize Jesus for who he is and his words for what they are.
Look at the compare and contrast of the next verse.
18 The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
The one who prides himself in being his own person…speaking his own mind, living life his own way has made life about self…will miss the truth.
Jesus is totally unlike that, unlike those who are proclaiming to know truth…but doing so in order to make much of themselves.
He is devoted to living only for the glory of his Father.
Therefore, he can be totally trusted.
His words are as trustworthy as his motives are pure…there is no unrighteousness in him.
So, when his misguided brothers wanted him to show himself to the world…to make his life about himself…he declined.
He was living for something much larger than the temporary applause of his time.
19 Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”20 “You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?” 21 “I performed one work, and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered
They had the law; Moses gave it to them and they delighted in it.
But having the law is not enough, you have to obey it and yet they don’t.
His evidence was that they were trying to kill him, which violated the commandment, a pretty big one…”you shall not murder”.
They them resorted to another thinking fallacy, ad hominine attack…when you can’t defeat someone’s logic you attack the person.
“you are demon possessed, no one is trying to kill you.”
That is a lie, they were in fact plotting to kill him and had been doing so ever since he had healed the crippled man.
They had been amazed but had not believed…quite the opposite.
The next passage is a bit difficult at first…I’ll read it then try to unpack it.
22 “This is why Moses has given you circumcision—not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath?
Jesus always goes the heart, not merely the head of the matter.
Not that either is unimportant but information without application does not lead to transformation.
With the woman at the well, she asked a question about which mountain was the right one to worship on and he addressed the thirst in her soul that she had been trying to quench through relationships with men.
It is not that theological points are unimportant…Jesus was the greatest of theologians but good theology, results in worship and faithfulness to God.
Orthodoxy means literally…straight praise…right doctrine becomes right worship.
Here he is not getting sidetracked by theological minutia, he is exposing heart motives and revealing that he is the fulfilment of the Old Testament law.
Here’s how the Lord does this.
- The law required that a child be circumcised on the 8th day, and this law actually predates Moses…it goes back to Abraham.
- You guys regularly circumcise a child, even on the Sabbath. Because, circumcision took priority over Sabbath.
- Why are you angry that I healed a man on the Sabbath? Healing a man takes priority over Sabbath.
They could have argued, “They guy was crippled for 38 years, you couldn’t wait one more day?”
They were missing the larger point of his healing.
Just as the law, and the festivals pointed to Jesus, so to, does the Sabbath.
He is no Sabbath breaker, he is Lord of the Sabbath…his what the Sabbath is about.
So, Jesus says to them…
24 Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”
“Matthew 7:1 (Do not judge) has displaced John 3:16 as the only verse that the man in the street is likely to know.” (DA Carson)
The one Biblical idea people are likely to throw out in our culture is “hey, don’t judge.”
But Matthew 7 forbids judgmentalism…proud, unreflective condemnation of others.
It doesn’t forbid moral discernment.
A lack of moral and theological discernment will prove to be a disaster.
This isn’t a license for arrogant heresy hunting, or self-righteousness legalism…but it does mean we must exercise sound thinking in regard to both morality and theology.
But we do this as faithful, humble practitioners of the gospel.
CONCLUSION
Henry Blackaby produced an influential study called Experiencing God.
The basic premise was God is always at work, we are to look for where he is at work around us and join him.
Earnest spent a summer with Henry at the World’s Fair in Canada back in 1986 and they saw many profound acts of God.
Henry died this year at the age of 88.
Thankfully he died a faithful man, with no legacy of moral failure…but a long legacy of living on God’s time schedule.
His premise of seeing where God was at work and joining him “worked” for him because his heart was surrendered to God.
This proved to be true for many others as well.
Those who tried to apply the principles without paying attention to the foundation were disappointed.
If we are not committed to obedience, even costly obedience, then we will not be positioned to see where God is at work.
If we hold our lives tightly in our hands, unwilling to sacrifice then we are going to miss what God is doing and wants to do in and through us.
We are not to dread or fear or even seek sacrifice…we are to simply pursue faithfullness.
Scripture says, “To obey is better than sacrifice.”
When a have a heart to be found faithful…we will sacrifice, whenever it is asked of us.
But to fear some future sacrifice is getting into God’s territory…the future belongs to him.
Faithfulness is my stewardship…God has given me today, only today, to be found faithful.
His time is to be our timing…our time(or lives) are his to do with as he chooses.
Then we get to see where God is moving and join him there…there is no better life for a human to live than this.