The Timing of God | Sermon 04/23/2023

John chapter 7. We're going to be in verses 1 through 13 today,

Church. And the title of the sermon is, The Timing of God.

The Timing of God. So starting in verse 1 of the

Gospel according to John, chapter 7. Here now, the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

God. 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 the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.

Therefore his brother said to him, leave here and go into Judea so that your disciples also may 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.

For not even his brothers were believing in him. So Jesus said to them, My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil.

Go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come.

Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not publicly, but as if in secret.

So the Jews were seeking him at the feast and were 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. That's ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

Let's pray real quick, church. Lord, please teach us today. Illuminate the

Scriptures by your Spirit, the same Spirit, Lord, that brought us these blessed truths.

God, would you please use me today. Bring the message to your people,

Lord. Let that which needs to stick, stick. And let that which needs to fall away, fall away.

Lord, please help me to speak clearly. Help me to be faithful. Let it always be true. I pray this in Jesus' name,

Amen. So, church, today we will be looking at two main themes in our text.

They'll combine them in this text. That is, the mockery of the unbelieving brothers that Jesus has, and the impeccable timing of God in all things.

And with those two things combined, I can't help but think that the Apostle John was possibly wanting us to recall the story of Joseph and his brothers.

You see, Jacob, the patriarch in the Old Testament, bore the sons that make up the twelve tribes of Israel.

And in Jacob's old age, he had his son Joseph with the wife of his love,

Rachel. It says in detail in Genesis that Jacob loved

Joseph more than all his other sons. And it seems, according to the text, that he would make that very apparent as if they all knew that he loved

Joseph more. Jacob even made Joseph a coat of many colors, a garment that would have been costly and highly labored over.

And they hated Joseph for it. His brothers hated him for it.

It says specifically that they were unable to speak with him on friendly terms.

Whenever they spoke with Joseph, it was never peaceable. And so you have

God giving this young man at this time these divinely inspired dreams.

He, like anyone being given dreams by God, wanted to make sense of them.

And he even spoke what his dreams were to his family and his father. And this is the key.

We will see later in our text in John that the brothers believed the motives behind Joseph's actions were all for his own glory and self -grandiose.

And in our text, we'll see something similar. And we all know that they had a plot to kill him.

And if you haven't read this story yet, you've got to start in Genesis 37 and read with your family to recall the story of Joseph.

But let me recall a few things to you. The oldest brother, Reuben, convinces his brothers not to murder

Joseph. And so they throw him into a pit, if you remember. They take his tunic.

But then, in God's providence, a caravan of Ishmaelite traders go by.

And those traders are on their way to Egypt. God's timing. So instead of leaving their brother in the pit, letting him starve to death or get eaten by a beast, they take him out of the pit and they sell him into slavery, which is a death sentence in many ways, especially back then.

But everything that happened to Joseph in Egypt turned out eventually to be a blessing.

They wanted to avoid blood on their hands, but God had something else in mind. The Lord was with Joseph in everything he did.

God's sovereignty was all over the brother's actions in his coming to Egypt.

We know that Joseph served Potiphar, and Potiphar's wife burned after this young Joseph.

And she approached him, and he fled from her. She falsely accused him at that moment, and that's when

Joseph went to prison. And he waited there, and he waited in prison in Egypt.

Why, God, why? Why would you have my brothers do this? And why would this situation with Potiphar, which was going well, why would it go like this?

Why am I now in this dungeon? What's going on? God's timing. He interpreted dreams by the

Spirit of God for the king's cup -bearer and royal baker, if you remember that. These two men came down into the dungeon with Joseph, and they recollected their dreams to Joseph, and Joseph's like, you're going to die.

You're going to be reinstalled to serve the king, if you remember that. But Joseph said, please, one of you, if you would, just remember me when you get back up before the

Pharaoh. Remember me. To release me. And then God allowed,

I think, this forgetfulness. Two full years later, two full years later,

Joseph is still in prison, and the Pharaoh has a dream that needs interpreting. The cup -bearer remembered at that exact moment of hearing

Pharaoh's dream of the young man in the dungeon below the city who can interpret such things from God.

And so God's favor was on Joseph as he correctly interpreted Pharaoh's dream, and he became a ruler in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself.

He became what? Prime minister. God's timing. And before we get too far ahead,

I think we'll stop right there on the Joseph story, and we'll touch back on him and his brothers in the conclusion of the sermon.

So let's keep those things in mind. Let's go to the Gospel of John 7.

We finished in the 6th chapter of John, and it was a blessing.

I hope that John 6 was a blessing to you, that the bread of life discourse stays in your mind, that God may even use it in your life later.

Bring it to your memory and bless you in your continued walk in Christ. But things are going to begin to heat up in chapter 7 and chapter 8 of the

Gospel of John. Especially as Judea and Jerusalem come back into the picture.

Verse 1 and 2 read, 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 the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles or booths was near.

So some considerable time has passed since the end of chapter 6 when all

His disciples left Him. Remember, that was in the north

Galilean region in Capernaum. That's where the bread of life discourse took place. All His disciples left

Him. And now, remember, that was during the time of the Passover and feast of unleavened bread, which is a springtime feast

Passover. And so now, it's the feast of booths, which is about six months later.

That's a falltime feast. So we've gone from springtime, and John brings us now, fast forward, to autumntime, harvest time.

And the feast of booths or tabernacles was typically split a few days in September and a few days in October.

And Jesus has, for the most part of the Gospel, according to John, focused His ministry in the north, in Galilee, for the most part.

And the last time we know that He was in Jerusalem, in the south, was in John 5.

If you remember, He healed the lame man by the pools of Bethesda. Do you remember that?

It was right outside the temple. And He did the healing on the Sabbath, and then told the

Jewish authorities what? He said, My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.

And that was an audacious claim for Jesus to make. It said right after that, for this reason, the

Jewish authorities were seeking all the more to kill Him for making Himself out to be like God.

So John 5 had all these moments in Jerusalem where He's showing that Jesus, He's demonstrating

He has attributes the same of the Father, that He is sent from the

Father, endorsed by the Father. And He finishes that moment in John 5 telling of a future resurrection where everyone will rise, and we had that wonderful time considering the resurrection of the living and the dead.

And then, it kind of ended on the witnesses of Christ.

The Word, the Father, John the Baptist, all those things. And so, that's the last time

He was in Jerusalem. There has been a divine prerogative that has kept

Him from Jerusalem at this time in His ministry. Kept Him from going to Jerusalem.

Everything must go according to plan. Everything. He's been in Galilee for about a year now without any trips to the city of Jerusalem.

But as I said, the conflict is rising. Jesus is now becoming like a wanted criminal.

Now, as I said, the Feast of Booths was a time in the fall. They did the wheat harvest at the end of the spring, but they would do the grape and olive harvest in the fall.

September -October time. This was a feast where people would make these little huts or booths out of palm branches.

They would sleep in these little huts. And they would be there for a whole week. It had become a feast associated with eschatological and Messianic hope.

It was, in essence, a massive party and a huge celebration for the

Jews. It was even recorded to be larger of a celebration than the

Passover. The Feast of Booths. So go to v. 3. We're supposing Jesus was staying with His family for a time, or they had stopped on their way to Jerusalem while He was in Capernaum where His ministry residence was.

Jesus is the oldest son in the family. And His half -brothers, the sons of Joseph and Mary, give

Him a slight command that acts as a challenge to their brother. So v.

3, Therefore His brother said to Him, Leave here and go into Judea so that Your disciples also may see the works which

You are doing. Now the synoptic Gospels, that is,

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, those three sing together synoptic. Those demonstrate

Jesus indeed had younger brothers. Mark 6, v. 3 says, Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and are not

His sisters here with us? So Jesus had brothers with the names

James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. Of course, I have to say, a different Simon and a different Judas obviously than the twelve apostles.

Those were very common names in the first century. So they come to Jesus and they say,

Leave here and go into Judea and show

Yourself to Your disciples. Show Your works. Show Your works.

Now why are His brothers saying this to Him? Why? I think there are three possibilities.

Could be more. Three things that I saw. Number one, it could be that His brothers are aware that He lost most of His disciples at the end of chapter 6, and that by going to Jerusalem to do more signs and miracles,

He might gain back the defectors who left Him in chapter 6.

Go now, Jesus, lest you lose your whole cause. You have no one left except those weird twelve guys over there.

Go get your followers back. Number two, His brothers could be suggesting that since He lost many of His disciples and the

Feast of Tabernacles is the most popular of all the feasts, bringing many, many travelers to the city that are very religious, that He ought to go to Jerusalem to gain more people.

Hey, this is a great opportunity, Jesus. There's going to be many people in Jerusalem during this feast.

Go get a following again. Show Yourself to the world. Number three, lastly, they may be suggesting

Jesus go to Jerusalem because of the prominence of the holy city and its temple.

You see, to perform sacrifices and actually worship God, it had to be in Jerusalem.

Whether you were a local Jew or part of the diaspora, you needed to travel there.

And if Jesus is actually the Prophet or the Messiah, then the temple is central.

They're thinking. He must become the Master of Jerusalem.

And not simply be a Galilean rural traveling preacher.

You're just a traveling preacher, Jesus. If you're really the Prophet or the Messiah, why don't you go take over Jerusalem?

Now, their encounter could very well be even a combination of these things

I just said. It's possible. One thing is for sure though, this was no suggestion to an older brother, but a challenge.

It really was. And so we shouldn't look at this statement in verse 3 from his brothers and think that they are actually concerned for him and his followers.

That's not the way we ought to read this. In John 4, we already saw that a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.

You see, they remember when Jesus was a teenager and they were little, and you just don't like your older brother when he's bigger.

Right? That's part of it. Maybe they don't like the attention that supposedly he's received.

No, he can't bully them. He's perfect. So, I don't think he did that. They had something against him.

Jesus' brothers are proving that point that a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.

They're proving his point by mocking his mission and divine position.

Verse 4, Jesus' brothers continue, 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. They've done it now.

They've done it now. They don't simply mock him. They also rebuke him in their explanation.

They think they understand why he's doing what he's doing. They are saying that Jesus seeks.

In fact, the Greek word here is just longing, longing to be known. Jesus longs to be known by the world.

They're saying. They think they know his intentions.

They say, so stop tarrying in Galilee and go to the place where all the prophets and miracle workers go.

Go regain the disciples that you've lost. Rally the ones in Jerusalem.

Because we know you want the spotlight. They have reduced the person and work of Jesus Christ down to attention seeking.

It's hard to see that fully. We don't see them in this moment, but in Jewish language, in challenges and public challenges, and in the way they're saying things, this is most definitely a rebuke to their older brother.

We know you want the spotlight. Show yourself to the world. In fact, show yourself to the world is supposed to sound like grand mockery.

Yeah, show yourself to the world. They can't possibly imagine him being more popular than what occurred in the

Galilean region. And so the imperative to show himself is demonstrating even their own skepticism.

Sure, show yourself to the world. It's like when a child has their first play and they do really well.

They're like a six -year -old and they have a play at school or something like that. And you go, wow, you really should go to Broadway.

Right? It's just kind of patronizing. That's what they're doing to Jesus. Go ahead. Go ahead.

You had great followers up here, Jesus. Show yourself to the world. Go to Jerusalem. That's kind of what's happening here.

If He is the Messiah, He should show Himself plainly, they say. Surely the city that is central to their very own faith should be impacted by Jesus if He's the real deal.

Now such a display from Jesus won't do what He wants right now. It's not time for the triumphal entry.

He doesn't want any more shallow followers or signs and wonders disciples.

What's incredible is for Jesus to show Himself to the world, for them in the world to actually believe they must be no longer part of the world.

They have no idea right now how Jesus will impact billions. That's the irony. Show yourself to the world.

Look where we're at today. Unbelievable. And there will be a time that comes when the

Lord will make such a mighty appearance in Jerusalem. It won't be like what they expect. He will be high and lifted up on a piece of wood, on a wood cross, and there will be a sign above His head that says,

King. And from that point, He will indeed draw all men to Himself. Just as the

Samaritans rightly said in John 4, He is the Savior of the world. And so we step out of the dialogue for a moment.

Do you see that? Verse 5. The Apostle John narrates and proves the point that I'm trying to make.

He says, for not even His brothers were believing in Him. His own brothers didn't believe in Him as the

Christ, the long prophesied One. It's kind of like in Genesis 37 -19.

When Joseph is coming, Joseph's brothers go, as he's walking towards them, he goes, here comes the dreamer.

That's what they say in Genesis 37. Here comes the dreamer. And so Jesus probably did something similar maybe.

Maybe behind His back. Here comes the prophet. The prophet's walking into the room. We don't know. It's possible.

It's not that His brothers couldn't perceive the signs Jesus was performing as miracles.

It's that they couldn't perceive the messianic and divine implications of them.

They saw the signs. They saw the wonders. They didn't see who He was behind all of them.

They didn't believe He was who He said He was. It was a superficial faith, if that.

And He said, if you remember in John 2, men like them didn't entrust themselves to Jesus, and He didn't trust their so -called faith.

And so as we consider this, we recognize that Jesus knew what it was like to now not only be rejected by His disciples, but even by His own family.

You have a God who can sympathize with you if you've been rejected by your family.

You have a Savior who was mocked just as you have been mocked for your faith to God. If they talk behind your back and laugh, well, they probably talked behind Jesus' back and laughed.

Mark 3 20 -21 says this, And Jesus came home, and a crowd gathered to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.

And when His own family heard of this, His family went to take custody of Him, for His family was saying,

He has lost His senses. Mark 3 20 -21

Jesus has lost His senses. His own family and kin said,

Jesus is crazy. Jesus is crazy. You may have heard that before about yourself.

Have you ever been called crazy for being a Christian? And if you have, you stand in the company of the

Son of God. Take refuge in Him. Know that He cares for you while you bear these things.

You have an advocate. You have an intercessor for you. And that's why

He says in the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, He says, Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

We get too mad too easily. But He's like, that's a blessing for you. Blessed are you when people insult you because of Me.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward in Heaven is great. Your reward will be great.

So your family mocks you. Your family rejects you. Your friends from high school think you're an idiot.

So what? Your reward will be great. Blessed are you. You've been counted among those worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.

After the rich young ruler walked away from Jesus in Matthew 19, Peter asks a selfish but honest question.

Typically the questions that we're thinking in our minds too. Peter says this, Behold Jesus, we have left everything to follow

You. What then will there be for us? What's in it for us?

And Jesus is so gracious, He doesn't respond in a way that probably Peter deserves.

He says this, Truly I say to you, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or even children or farms, for My namesake will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Psalm 27 says, For My Father and My Mother have forsaken Me, but the

Lord will take Me up. Do your mother and your father forsake you for your love for God the

Father? Then the Lord will take you in. You'll be

His. Your mother and father reject you? That's alright.

The Lord will take you up. You are His, my beloved brothers and sisters. You have a family now because of Jesus.

You have been made children of God. And in the moment in the Gospels, Jesus points to His faithful followers because they came to Him and they said,

Jesus, your mother and your sisters and your brothers are here. And Jesus then points to His faithful disciples and He says, do you know who

My mother and My brothers are? He says, these are My mother and My brothers, those who do the will of My Father in heaven.

And that's you and Me. In Isaiah 49 -15, God says, can a woman even forget her nursing baby and have no compassion on the child of her womb?

Even these mothers may forget, but I will never forget you. You may have been nursed by your own mother and she may reject you one day even though she did that wonderful nurturing act.

And He says, she may forget you one day, but it's okay. God says, I will never forget you.

I will not forget you. You will never be forgotten by God. Never.

And don't ever let the enemy tell you a lie saying otherwise. You will never be forgotten by God.

Let's move on to the text. Our Lord finally responds to His brothers. Verse 6,

So Jesus said to them, My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.

So we had hit the first theme of the section. The unbelief of His brothers.

And now we come to the second theme of this section of Scripture. God's timing.

He shows His brothers their faulty thinking. They had impressed on Jesus what they would do in His situation, but not what

He would do in His own situation. Nor do they know the divine plan of God despite presuming upon God in the flesh.

He says, My time is not yet here. And that phrase may seem like other occurrences in the

Gospel of John when He says, My hour is not yet, which points to the cross.

But the context here, and using the word in the Greek time instead of hour, is possibly not pointing to the humiliation and glorification of the cross in an ultimate sense.

Here, the word time is divine sanctioned work that Jesus performs as a whole.

That's what this means. My time is not yet here, but your time is always.

His time is divine sanctioned work. His brothers have their own timing in mind, but they don't have

God's timing in mind. And Jesus is not saying that He's not going to go to the feast as He does later more secretly.

He's saying there is a godly and sovereign reason why He is delaying for a time to depart.

And so there is significance in His delay. However, for His brothers, any time is right.

Go ahead. They can go now. His remarks are saying to them, there is no spiritual significance in you delaying.

You can go. You can leave for Jerusalem whenever. And that's not to say that God's providence was suspended for them or anything like that.

But there is a real purpose in Jesus' delay that God is a part of.

That's what this means. Although Jesus going to Jerusalem will result in shame and embarrassment, which is possibly something

His brothers had hoped for, He has distanced Himself from their desires for Him.

In fact, if you remember from John 2 at the wedding at Cana, do you remember? Jesus distanced

Himself from Mary, His mother, and her desires. And so Jesus is little by little going to the cross.

And so He puts a separation there. He won't do what they do.

His actions are divinely sanctioned from the Father. He is aligned only with His Father.

And one commentator says regarding this, quote, there is nothing that God is doing that directly involves

His brothers. Ironically, the only connection between them and God at this point, like Joseph's brothers, is in their unwillingly fulfilling

God's perfect purposes by their destructive naivete." They're just part of the providential, sovereign plan of God, just like Joseph's brothers were.

Because every step in Jesus' ministry is calculated and ordained with precision by the

Father. Going to the feast, healing the man born blind, raising

Lazarus, the high priestly prayer, the crucifixion, every single bit of it will occur only and exactly when

God wants it to no matter what men like His brothers do, no matter what men like the

Jewish authorities do, only in God's timing will these things happen.

Although Jesus doesn't stoop to their mocking level, He does as God cut to the heart of their words, verse 7, the world cannot hate you because it hates

Me, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil.

And so, if you can see it, what Jesus infers in what

He said there but He didn't say outright is that the world cannot hate His brothers because they're of the world.

The world cannot hate you because you are of the world. The context shows the word cosmos or world in a negative light.

If you remember, cosmos or world can be used in a positive way, a neutral way in Greek, or oftentimes, especially in Paul's letters, in a negative way.

And here it is in a negative way. The world has no problem with its own. They are on the agenda of the world, but He is on the mission of God Almighty.

They want their own time, not God's time, Jesus' time. God has eternal things in mind, but His brothers have temporal things in mind.

Maybe they want Him to show Himself to everybody, but everybody is of the world and hates

Him. He must go to His sheep and open their eyes that they may see

Him for who He really is. Even Jesus' own presence is a witness against His brothers and their deeds and motives.

But what is incredible is Jesus will later find a love for His brothers through the cross and predestination of God.

They aren't a family now in some ways, but they'll be a family later. But this talk of the world causes us to consider this.

If the world doesn't hate you, then it loves you. If the world doesn't hate you, then it loves you.

And if the world loves you, what does that say about you? You see, the world hates to have its sin exposed.

Do you? Do I? We do this even subconsciously sometimes.

We avoid the church. We can avoid certain messages that we need to hear.

We can avoid that godly friend that's checking in on us. And we can avoid confessing sin.

The Proverbs says, he who secludes himself seeks his own desire and quarrels against all sound wisdom.

Secluding. You see, the world hates to be shown its sin, but we as Christians shouldn't.

You say, Pastor Wade, it hurts. But it hurts. Well, in some ways conviction does hurt, but it should lead to godly sorrow and repentance, as Paul says, as opposed to worldly guilt and condemnation.

Because we remember, even in that sin that we've been trying to hide,

Christ has paid for it. Christ has paid for it. So avoiding conviction then willingly is acting like Jesus didn't pay for it and one day you will.

Right? No, I can't watch that sermon about biblical manhood because then

I'm going to be convicted and I know I'm going to start having to work on stuff. And look at you trying to work for your salvation.

Remember the Gospel, my friends. Jesus paid for any poor headship that you have right now.

So willingly, gladly open yourself to it and recognize that you're a work in process.

Work in progress. That He's the One who works out our sanctification.

So ignoring conviction is believing wrong things about what

Jesus has already accomplished for you. So open yourself up to correction.

Let the Bible scan you like an anti -virus program. Dad joke.

Let the Holy Spirit shine a light in the hard -to -see places that you have.

You see, if God didn't love you, you wouldn't be convicted. You wouldn't care.

But He does. He loves you, and so He convicts. Jesus continues.

Go to verse 8. He says, Go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.

His brothers came to Him with a command, and now He commands them.

It's in the imperative form. Their command came from evil. His comes from knowing the truth behind the scenes.

It's not His time, but they can go now. Go up to the feast by yourselves.

Go without Me for now. Remember, every single moment of Jesus' ministry is ordained with great significance by the

Father. You say, Pastor Wade, does this mean that every moment is like every day planned out by God for Jesus?

No, to the exact second, every single thing that Jesus does is foreordained and has purpose.

Jesus not going now denies His brothers' challenge, but His going up later shows

His acceptance of the Father's will. Remember, He said, all that the

Father tells Me to do, I do. There's something hidden in this a little bit though.

Very subtle. There could be a double meaning in what He's saying here. When He says, go up to the feast, and He says, go up to the feast, but I do not go up to this feast.

He doesn't say the, He says this, as My time is not yet fulfilled. Go to the feast,

I do not go up to this feast. What feast does He eventually go to? They are going to the feast of tabernacles, but He is alluding to this greater feast of the tabernacles.

You see, who is the ultimate tabernacle? John 1 says that He is the ultimate tabernacle.

What did He say in John 6? He says, eat My flesh and drink My blood. Consume Him.

In other words, feast. Feast. Pointing to the cross.

His flesh and blood will be given for us, and it will be more life -giving than any normal feast you've ever been a part of.

It will be an eternal feast that will give eternal life.

This will be where of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace. This will be when

Jesus gains brothers and sisters and many becoming the children of God, not born of blood, not born of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Divine prerogative. There is a feast, and there is a tabernacle, and it's not the ones that they're thinking of.

They've been celebrating this year after year after year, and now God's here.

How should they be celebrating it? Verse 9 -10 Having said these things to them,

He stayed in Galilee, but when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if in secret.

So Jesus stayed in Galilee until His Father ordained for Him to leave.

By the way, this will be the last time Jesus will leave Galilee in the Gospel of John.

The rest of this epic will be in Judea. We are seeing

Jesus doing only and always what He and His Father have ordained to do. It's on God's time and in God's way.

Delayed and in secret. That's God's design. It's very purposeful. If you remember, they wanted to make

Jesus a king. Come, let us make you a king. But it's not time for that.

If He became king for them on earth, then He wouldn't become the king of all kings.

It's not time for a triumphal entry or anything like that. His brothers went to a feast that was different from the one

He's going to. They wanted to celebrate the feast. However, they were celebrating something or someone else.

I was alluding to that just now. That's also why it seems Jesus is unmoved by missing possibly half of the whole feast of booths.

He's missed many of it and all the activities for the week. He was no normal participant.

He is in fact, as I said, the tabernacle. John 1 says,

He tabernacled among us. He is God in the flesh. He is the whole center of this feast of tabernacles.

He is the Lord of the tabernacles. And they don't see it. They reject the

One whom the feast is about. And so the complete irony in this is while the people were constructing tabernacles to stay in for a week to point to their future hopes in God, God Himself was tabernacling among them.

Let's go to our final verses for the evening. Verse 11,

So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, Where is He? The Jewish authorities had hoped

Jesus had left Galilee to come to the feast. They wanted to catch

Him. They wanted to take Him in. And it is likely the

Jewish authorities were hostile in their search for Him. This was not any sort of warm welcome.

They were looking for Jesus. The Lord speaks of such malice in Isaiah 59.

It says, Their feet run to evil. They hasten to shed blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.

Devastation and destruction are in their highways. They do not know the path of peace and there is no justice in their tracks.

They have made their paths crooked. Whoever treads on them does not know peace. He says this of His own people, by the way.

And rather than where is He, which is in our verse there, where is He? The Greek actually says,

Where is that one? Or where is that man? And that's supposed to convey some disdain for Him.

Where is that one? Verse 12,

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. And so we know what the

Jewish authorities wanted to do with Jesus. However, the crowd of people at the feast offer up two different opinions of Him as they murmur together.

He is a good man. He is a good man. Does that statement convey some sort of faith?

I don't know. We don't know. Others were saying, No, rather than being good,

He deceives people. That's what that means. The word for leading astray literally means deceiving people.

And that is the same exact word in the Greek in places where it says the devil,

Satan himself, deceives other people. Satan is the deceiver.

He deceived Eve. He tries to deceive others. The word says he is the real deceiver.

And so this is blasphemy. Remember, the charge was that He was making

Himself out to be gone. And this accusation of deceiving could be pointing to something in Deuteronomy 13.

In Deuteronomy 13, there is a section in the beginning that talks about someone among you, someone among the people who becomes an enticer or a divisive seducer who leads other

Israelites after other gods. There's a whole section in Deuteronomy 13 about this seducer or enticer.

And it says that if you find a man leading people after other gods, which again, they're accusing

Jesus of that. Deceiving people is the word. It says, then you shall surely kill him.

Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the other people.

What do they try to do in John all the time? Stone Jesus? Stone Jesus to death?

And so they are taking Deuteronomy 13 and applying it to the

Lord. The Lord God. He's not leading them after other gods.

He's leading them away from their gods to the one true God. Truly, there is no neutrality.

Some say He is good. Others say He deceives. And we will continue to see that dividing line throughout the rest of the

Gospel. Verse 13, "...yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the

Jews." This, once again, shows the growing hostility in Jesus' earthly ministry.

Things will soon reach a boiling point. We will see that. So let's wrap this up.

We have great lessons here, church. The rejection we can experience from family when we turn to Christ, and recognizing

God's timing for all things is impeccable. All things are on the trajectory and supreme sequence of God.

But how in this section of Scripture, how does God's timing and the rejection of family connect?

How do they connect? I'm reminded of how

Pastor Jeff's mother rejected and despised him most of his adult life.

And then if you watched his sermon from last Sunday, he said three days before his mother died, she turned to Christ.

In fact, he says that his mother spoke that in those three days, the last thing that he heard her say was,

Son, these final three days on my deathbed have never been more joyful in my whole life.

On her deathbed. And so it's

God's timing. God's timing. Thinking back to our introduction on Joseph and his brothers in Genesis, you remember the end of the story, right?

Joseph is a great ruler in Egypt and successfully leads people through a seven -year famine.

And his brothers leave their dwelling in Canaan to travel southwest to Egypt. For it was heard that grain was being sold there.

Joseph saw his brothers come into Egypt and he recognized them, but they didn't recognize him.

Now, we don't have to go into the plot of Joseph and him calling them spies.

Finding out that he has a younger brother named Benjamin. The brothers seeing that their money was still in their sacks.

Joseph trying to hide his emotion when he saw his little brother from his mother Rachel, Benjamin, come into Egypt.

Hearing that his father was still alive. Getting emotional. And then putting them in a position where they had to come back again to Egypt once more.

All those things are in that story. But it then says in Genesis 45 that Joseph could no longer contain himself.

And he cried in front of them. And he wept in front of his brothers. The brothers who betrayed and rejected him.

He said, it is I, Joseph. It is me, your brother. It's me.

And for Jesus, it says according to 1 Corinthians 15, that after his death and resurrection, he appeared to Peter and the apostles.

And then here's the thing. Here's the incredible thing. The brothers who rejected him that we just saw today, it says that he appeared before those brothers.

He appeared before James. We don't know if this was possibly in James' home.

He heard that his older brother had went to a cross.

He likely heard that his brother died on that cross. He heard that his brother was buried in a tomb.

And James doesn't know what to make of it. But his brother, after all these things, and after all these followers, and after all this conflict and controversy, his older brother is dead.

And it's in that moment when he believes all hope is lost, that Jesus appears to his brother

James. He appears to the brother that rejected him and mocked him.

And he showed himself to him. And he didn't have to. He didn't have to.

And Jesus says, my brother, it is I. It's Jesus. And that's grace.

That's love. Such love that it causes

Jesus the I Am to appear before family that rejects him.

And in that appearance, save them. In His timing.

God's timing. Not one moment too early. Not one moment too late.

Jesus appeared before James. It says in Acts 1 that after Jesus ascended into heaven, it says that all the apostles, the disciples, the women and who?

And the brothers of Jesus were rejoicing and praying together and worshiping the

Savior. That's in Acts 1. Joseph was rejected, sentenced to death, imprisoned.

And despite his treatment, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, lavished his brothers with love, forgiveness, blessings, and grace.

And Jesus did the same thing. He didn't have to come. He didn't have to show

Himself, but He did. He did. He didn't have to show

Himself to you and me. But He was glad to. He was very glad to.

So trust in Him, church. Trust His timing. And know that He cares for you when you're wrongfully treated.

Keep praying for your family. Keep praying for your family. Keep hoping.

He may just give you the sweetest vindication. He may save your family and bring them into His heavenly family.

Let's praise Him for adopting us into His family now. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, we love You. We live for You every moment.

What grace, oh Lord, that causes the

Lord of glory to show Himself to a people that rejected Him. And that's the thing.

It's not just your brothers, Lord Jesus. It's every single person of the world has rejected

You. We rejected You. But You came to us and You showed

Yourself to us and You saved us. And Lord, we recognize

Your timing in it all. Your timing is flawless. Your timing is perfect.

It's impeccable. And God, even if people in our family or people close to us come to faith in You three days before they die, it's all worth it.

It's all worth it. So we love You, Lord. Please bless the message that went out today.