John, pt. 37 | John 7:1-13

John 7 and the Theme of Divine Timing

If you will, at this time, take your Bibles. We're going to be in the seventh chapter of John. John chapter 7, we will consider verses 1 through 13. John chapter 7, verses 1 through 13. This is our 37th message in this gospel.

Open us in prayer. O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Yahweh, Lord, please, in Jesus' name, allow me to speak clearly and articulate well this message. I believe in the Holy Spirit and I rely on His indwelling to perform this task that you have given to me.

Let not my sin be before me, but the glories of your truth come from me, I pray in the holy name of Jesus. Amen. Let's begin with reading the text, John chapter 7, verses 1 through 13. After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he was unwilling to walk in Judah, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of Booth, was near. Therefore his brothers 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 openly.

If you do these things, show yourselves publicly 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 here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I bear witness about it that its deeds are evil.

Go up to the feast yourself. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time has not yet been fulfilled. Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. When his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not publicly, but in secret.

So the Jews were seeking him at the feast and saying, Where is he? And 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 crowd astray.

Yet no one was speaking openly about him for fear of the Jews. Our theme for this Lord's Day is divine timing. Divine timing. My proposition, that which I aim to prove, is this. Jesus is operating under the divine will and timing of the Father.

Jesus is operating under the divine will and timing of the Father. Jesus, although he is truly God and also truly man as the God-man, he knew that timing was everything, right? Everything has to be done in a specific order.

Jesus was sent with a purpose and he was going to carry out that divine mission. He was not going to let anything intercept what he is doing and put him on a different course. He was going to do what he was sent to do and only do what he was sent to do at the time it's supposed to be done.

You and I, those of us who are in Christ, are on a divine mission. Don't let that escape you. You and I, those of us who are in Christ, are on a divine mission and are being conformed to the image of Christ.

Adam was created in the image of God. We are broken images of God because we bear the image of Adam also. We have to be conformed to the image of Christ. That is our divine mission. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, question one, says this.

Yes, I'm quoting from the Westminster. I love that little shorter catechism. What is the chief end of man? Answer, man's chief end is to glorify God and this last bit I feel us Christians sometimes feel that and enjoy Him forever.

We are to, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Chief end here is speaking about our end. The ending of this life and the beginning of the next are being conformed to His image, right?

Us having this image of Christ. Ultimately, one day we will, in His presence, enjoy Him forever. But also, right now, we are to glorify God as we're moving towards this mission of being conformed to the image.

In one sense, all of mankind is awaiting God's timing, their chief end. Sadly, not everyone will enjoy Him forever. In our outline today, we're going to look at the title, Timing is Everything. We're going to have four headings, excuse me, five headings.

Five headings. The first one is the Jews seeking to kill Jesus. The second, the Feast of Booths. The third, Unbelieving Brothers. The fourth heading, Public Ministry. And the fifth heading, Anticipation.

And as we transition, because timing is everything, when we began chapter 6, chapter 6 we saw the Feast of Passover was near. So right when we began chapter 6, it was the Feast of Passover, which on our calendars would fall between March and April.

The Feast of Booths on our calendar would be between September and October. So we're looking at a time of 6 to 7 months that has passed between the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Booths. Remember the Feast of Passover, this is where Jesus fed them bread.

Jesus fed over 20 ,000 people with a sack lunch after this Passover. Chapter 6, beginning in verse 26, to the ending of that chapter, we saw the reality of false disciples. Those who wanted the bread, give us the bread, but keep your theology.

Right? Feed us, but at the same time, zip your lip. They didn't want to hear what Jesus had to say. They sure wanted the food, right? Right? He was their cash cow. They wanted to be fed. They did not want to work by the sweat of their brow to earn bread.

They wanted to be fed. But the moment when Jesus starts teaching theology, I am the bread that's come down from heaven, they say this is a harsh statement. Who can understand it? They did not want theology.

False disciples don't want theology. Give me Jesus, keep your theology. That's what we hear today. We saw that the same thing that made false disciples walk away, this is good, don't miss this, the same thing that made false disciples walk away is the same thing that makes true disciples stay.

Say that again. The same thing that makes a false disciple walk away is the same thing that makes true disciples stay. There's that old saying, the same sun that hardens dirt melts ice. The same gospel that'll open up your heart to receive Christ is the same gospel that'll harden someone's heart to hate him all the more.

The same message that is the fragrance of life is also the fragrance of death. The same thing that we're speaking about here is the sovereignty of God and theology. We see sovereignty was done in two ways in chapter 6.

God used the information that this group of Jews knew about Jesus. Right? They grew up in the same hometown. They knew his earthly father. They knew his mother. They played with Jesus. He used that information because they grew up with him.

They played together as children probably. This group of Jews seeing Jesus grow up knowing that his father was a carpenter, Jesus also partook probably in that trade. They know Mary, his mother, and they said there's no way that he came down from heaven.

We saw him grow up. He was among us. So in the sovereignty of God he uses their information and also in the sovereignty of God he chooses those who would be saved. Everyone's running away from God. Everyone's shaking their fists.

Everyone born in Adam headed for their death. God chooses some. In a way in which we can understand he uses the information that we have brought up with to turn people, to keep people from coming to Christ.

That's a hard pill to swallow, but it's a pill you must swallow. The theology in which he was preaching is that he came down from heaven. He is the coming one that the Old Testament prophesied. By those two things, his sovereignty, one in information, the other one in his choosing, and in theology, speaking of the incarnation, the Messiah has come.

Two groups of people, the chosen and the unchosen, heard the same thing. The one group takes off. The false disciples, true disciples, stay. They said, where else can we go? To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

The Gospel of John does not tell us what has happened in this six to seven month period. But other Gospels do, but for the sake of time we cannot give an exhaustive list. I'll just name some. Jesus healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman who was possessed with a demon.

Remember the land of Judah, Jerusalem, this was the land of the Canaanites. They were to chase these Canaanites out. These Canaanites worshipped false gods. It just goes back to even when you get to Leviticus, do not tattoo or pierce yourselves for the dead.

These are things that the Canaanites were doing. They were to do anything that resembled Canaanite religion. And this Canaanite woman has a possessed, has a daughter who is possessed, and Jesus heals her, says that she has great faith.

Jesus feeds 4 ,000 men. So this is outside of what He did here, whenever He fed the 5 ,000 men plus women and children. Again, after this He goes and He feeds 4 ,000 men plus women and children. He's tested by the Jewish leaders.

Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus foretells His death and resurrection. He gives the famous message of, take up your cross. Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John.

Jesus pays the temple tax. And He may have even spoke to the rich young ruler in this period of six to seven months. And at the end of this gospel, John basically tells us that it is impossible to write down everything that Jesus done.

It's impossible. The gospel writers gave to us the details we needed to know. The gospel writers gave to us, you and I, the details we needed to know. Everything we need to know about Jesus is in the Bible.

You don't need to know anything about Him that's not in the Bible. The Bible is our source of information. First Peter, no, excuse me, second Peter, chapter one, beginning in verse one, I want to read to verse three.

Second Peter, chapter one, verses one through three, says, Simon Peter, a slave, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received the same kind of faith as ours by the righteousness of God and Savior, of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He's speaking to people who receive the same kind of righteousness. He's speaking to people who didn't walk with Christ, and yet they received the same kind of righteousness. Verse two, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the full knowledge of God and of the Lord and of Jesus our Lord.

Verse three, seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Everything has been, past tense, giving to us to have full knowledge of Him.

We don't need anything else. Last week I mentioned that, that I quoted, I gave a quote from Paul Washer, that heaven has given to us its champion. And I said, if heaven was to give to us something else, it would be less.

We don't need it. We don't have apostles and prophets today. We don't need them. We have the Word of God. It's given to us. You want to grow in life and godliness? It's in here. It tells you how to do so.

The Jews Seeking to Kill Jesus

We don't need it. Point number one, Jews, or heading number one, Jews seeking to kill Jesus. We see this in verse one of chapter seven. After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judah because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.

During this six or seven month period of time, Jesus is ministering in Galilee. And the reason why He is walking, He is ministering in Galilee, is given to us because the Jews were trying to kill Him.

Right? Divine timing. It was not time for Him to die. He is doing His ministerial work in Galilee, not in Judea, where they were trying to kill Him. The last time He was in Judea, He healed a man on the Sabbath.

Remember, we looked at that in chapter six. And He made Himself equal with God. I believe that is the reason why they were seeking to kill Him. That, what He done then, remember I gave the little analogy whenever it was the Passover, it was the Sabbath, He saw a man by the pool needed to be given heal.

And I said, I said something like, Jesus said to His disciples, here hold my wine, I'm about to go start some trouble. Right? Jesus, you troublemaker, right? Purposely goes and does this on the Sabbath, because at the end of all this, the Jews have to put Him to death.

They have to put Him to death. We talked about it in Sunday school. If that had not happened, we should celebrate that that happened. If that had not happened, there would be no forgiveness of sins. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

They have to want to kill Jesus. And I believe that Him healing that man on the Sabbath is the beginning of this. Later on in chapter seven, this is indicated, and it's spoken about, if you just look at verse 23, Jesus speaking, He says, if a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man, excuse me, that I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?

The Feast of Booths and Old Testament Remembrance

Well, when did He do that? Chapter six. Right? We saw that. He did so on the Sabbath. So because He has done this, the Jews are seeking to kill Him. Point number two, the Feast of Boots. We see this in verse two.

Now the Feast of the Jews, the Feast of Boots was near. There were seven different feast events. The Feast of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Harvest, of the Harvest, excuse me, the Feast of the Harvest, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Tabernacles and boots are one and the same. All Jewish men, listen, all Jewish men were required to be in Judea on two of the major feast days. The Feast of Passover, which is why we see Jesus there in the beginning of chapter six, and also the Feast of Boots.

All men were to appear on the first and last feast celebration. Outside of two days of rest that was included in this, all and all the sacrifices that took place in the Feast of Boots, the men were to live in tents for seven days.

They would have tents on the roofs. There would be tents just anywhere and everywhere. You could put a tent, there'd be a tent, and the man would have to live in that tent for seven days as a way to remember the sons of Israel who lived in boots when God brought them out of the land of Egypt.

They were doing this in remembrance of what God done for them, kind of like us today when we partake in the Lord's Supper. We do so in remembrance of what Christ has done for us. Our text is telling us that the feast was near, which is why his brothers were telling him to go to Judea.

A lot of people have read a lot of things into this chapter that on my study appears to be assumptions made up, something that can, oh, that'll preach, that'll preach, right? But in reality, if someone is just skipping through preaching, I've mentioned this before, this is not something they're going to preach on.

Like, there's not a lot here, right? And so just being faithful to the text, like a lot of people don't want to do that because they don't think it will preach. We're going to be faithful with the text.

Unbelieving Brothers and the Call to Public Signs

Point number three, unbelieving brothers. We see this in verses three through five. Three through five. Therefore his brothers 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 openly. For if you do these things, show yourself publicly to the world. For not even his brothers were believing in him. Again, the way in which his brothers were speaking to him is very similar to the way the devil spoke to him in the temptation of Jesus.

The devil said to Jesus, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread. If you are the son of God, throw yourself down. Again, notice what his brothers say. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.

Show yourself to the world. The word world is the Greek word cosmos. There's actually 10 different ways to translate cosmos, depending on the context, in the Gospel of John alone. In the Gospel of John alone, there's 10 different ways to translate this one Greek word, and it all depends on the context.

I believe the context gives us the translation, and we'll get there. The word world here is just speaking about the men who are going to be at the feast. All the men were called to go to Judea for the feast.

Go and show yourself to the world is not speaking about all of earth. It's not even speaking about the women. It's speaking about the men at the feast. His brothers wanted Jesus to go to the feast to perform signs.

Stop doing these things in secret. Make yourself known publicly, they said to him. They said, so that your disciples may also see your works in which you are doing. Although his brothers were unbelieving at this point, after Jesus is put to death, buried, and raised from the dead, they become believers.

His brothers become believers. His brother James becomes one of the leaders of the Jerusalem church. We see him in the Jerusalem council. He's mentioned as being one of the leaders. He is also the author of the book of James, and when you read the book of James, you need to know that this is speaking about the Lord's brother.

One of the ones here saying, if, speaking to him in the way that the devil spoke to him. If you are. Another one of his brothers, Jude, is the author of the book of Jude. Of course, he had many other brothers and sisters, and as you read the book of Acts, you'll see that they are with them in the upper room.

Imagine growing up with a brother who never did anything wrong. He could probably got on to his mom and dad, right? And he kind of did, right? Whenever he went traveling around, the group of the family were traveling, and they didn't even, like the group was so big, they didn't even know Jesus wasn't even with them, and they found him in the temple speaking to the leaders, and he said, woman, do you know that I must be about my father's business?

In the same way that the false disciples had the information of Jesus, and God uses that information to harden their hearts, his brothers had information. He was the oldest brother. I don't think that his parents were telling him, Joseph is not his real dad, right?

Like they wasn't saying, they didn't grow up knowing that their father was not Jesus's father. They're going by the information that they had. It wasn't time for them yet to be a follower of Jesus, but when Jesus shows his public ministry, when he's revealing himself, and little bits here and there, not fully, but just little bits here and there to certain people, right?

He revealed himself fully, I would say, at the transfiguration for Peter, James, and John. He didn't do that for his brothers. I believe if he did, his brothers would have right then believed, but after he was put to death, buried, they saw his tomb, and he rose again, and they saw him.

They believed. They had the information that kept them from believing for a time, and then on further information that was given to them, they become believers. Now as we transition, the disciples that they are speaking about here, when it says show yourself to your disciples, his true disciples are with them.

This is speaking about false disciples who have been following him and were no longer following him, and you can see it where some of them said that he is a good man. This could be speaking about some of the people that followed him for a while.

Public Ministry Under the Father's Timing

He fed me. He was a good man. He gave me some food, right? Give me the gimmicks. Keep your theology. Our fourth point, public ministry, verses six through nine. So Jesus said to them, speaking of his brothers, my time is not yet here, but your time is always here.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I bear witness about it, that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves. I am not yet going up to the feast because my time has not yet been fulfilled.

Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. So when it says that his time is not yet here, he seems to be speaking about two different things. The obvious one is going up to Judea for the feast.

The other is his revealing of himself, the way in which his brothers are telling him to do so. Now Jesus will soon reveal himself in that way at the next Passover feast, right? The triumphant entrance.

Jesus will soon reveal himself at the next Passover feast, months down the road, because he is working on divine timing, the divine will of God. He is not to be crucified at the Feast of Booths. He is to be crucified at Passover.

So in that way, him revealing himself, his time has not yet come, but also concerning him going up to the Feast of Booths. Another way you can think about it is him traveling publicly, right? A lot of times when you travel publicly, especially if you're Jesus, you're going to be drawing a lot of attention, right?

Jesus tells his brother that their time is always here. Your time is always here. You can travel publicly. I can't. You can travel publicly, meaning they are free to. Look at verse one. And after these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee for he was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him.

Another reason why he tells his brothers, your time is always here because the Jews are not trying to kill them. They could travel publicly. Nothing would be done to them. Why? Because the world cannot hate them.

At this time, they were a part of the world, right? They're going to be going to this meeting where they tell Jesus to reveal himself to the world, which would have been to the guys at this festival. They were a part of it.

So by inference, Jesus is saying that he is not a part of the world. More specifically, they hate him. They hate him because they, right now I'm just speaking of this group, they hate him because he bears witness about the world.

That it's deeds are evil. Again, speaking about the word world, this group of Jews. At this time, again, at this time, I would take this to mean just this group of Jews who were gathered at the feast.

Only by implication, or excuse me, only by application would I apply this to the unbelieving world of our day. When Jesus said he is not going up to the feast, he is not saying he is not going up to the feast, right?

When Jesus said that he is not going to the feast, he's not saying he's not going to the feast. Now let me make that make sense, if I can. Jesus is not going to travel with a large group of people to the feast.

If you remember at our conference, I mean, for this small building that we have, we had quite a few people attending, right? And then all of a sudden, Dr. White walks into the room. Dr. White walked into the room, was not trying to get the attention of no one.

But immediately, people saw Dr. White, and he had a group of people around him. It was easy to find where Dr. White was in the room, because there was a large group of people gathered around Dr. White.

How much more so Christ? Traveling publicly, where is he at? Let's just go where all the people are, and we'll find him. That was not what Christ was trying to do. His plan is to go to the feast in secret, not with a large group of people where he can be recognized.

And where it says, my time has not been yet, excuse me, my time has not yet been fulfilled, I believe it's speaking about the revealing. Again, this is something that we'll see him do eventually at the Feast of Passover, when he makes the triumphant entrance, when Jesus reveals himself as the transcendent King, the one who came down from heaven.

Anticipation, Grumbling, and Fear of the Jews

Point number five, anticipation. Anticipation. You see this in verses 10 through 13. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he then, he, I mean, then he, excuse me, then he himself also went up, not publicly, not with a crowd of people, but as in secret.

So the Jews were seeking him at the feast, saying, where is he? And 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 crowd astray.

Yet no one was speaking openly about him for fear of the Jews. Notice verse 11. So the Jews were seeking him at the feast and saying, where is he? They were saying this because all men were supposed to be at this feast.

They knew he was coming. He had to be there. You could not be a male and miss this feast. He has not been in Judea since the last feast. If Jesus would have not gone, it would have been another reason for this religious group of Jews to come against him.

Imagine a large crowd of Jews grumbling concerning Jesus. They were thinking, this is a fine day to put this Jesus in his place, right? In front of everyone. We can put him in his place. While others were saying that Jesus is a good man.

Some were looking for him, where is he at? Others were saying, oh, he's a good man. And others were saying, no, he's trying to lead the crowd astray. Ladies and gentlemen, out of all the things that you can say about Jesus, the one thing that we cannot say is that he is just a good man.

Right? He is just a good man. Just good men don't claim to be God. And he was most definitely trying to lead the crowd away from a covenant that was ending to a covenant that was being given to the world.

The new covenant, the covenant of grace. So yes, he was leading the crowd away. Rightly so. And although they were grumbling, he is a good man. No, he's leading others astray. No one was speaking about him publicly.

And it says for fear of the Jews, this fear here could be speaking about being kicked out of the synagogue. Right? If the religious leaders of the synagogue heard men saying, oh, he's a good man, they'd get kicked out of the synagogue.

We see this taking place in chapter 12 of John. Now concerning our proposition, Jesus is operating under the divine, under the divine, under, excuse me, Jesus is operating under the divine will and timing of the Father.

And I mentioned this after I said that. In other words, you and I also are under the divine will and timing of God. And unlike the unbelieving world, so now I'm using world right now as an application.

Everyone who is in the world who is unbelieving, the world hates us as well as that small world did Christ because this large world, now that we're looking at it, hates Christ. They hate him and they hate us.

Why? Because we bear witness about it, that its deeds are evil. You and I are to do what Christ did then to that small portion of the world. You and I are to bear witness like that today to a larger portion saying what Christ said, that their deeds are evil.

And because that is true, you and I have to trust in God's timing. Everything that happens in history is his story. Right? Again, going back to the Sunday school class and that catechism question, speaking of his sovereignty, the same thing that pushes others away causes us to believe.

It causes us to trust, right? Whenever some Christians don't like the sovereignty of God, they don't want to say that calamity has come because of the sovereignty of God. And for those who love the sovereignty of God, rejoice because we know that even in that calamity, God is in charge.

Our trust is in him. You know what? If he does decide to break me, I deserve it. You deserve it. Job deserved it. Don't think he didn't. We are living in his story, his divine will, his divine timing.

History is his story. Now, in closing, let's answer the questions. Why can we not call Jesus just a good man? I mentioned it earlier because Jesus claimed to be God. He claimed to be God. He claimed that he came down from heaven.

He claimed that he was going to be put to death, buried, and rise again on the third day. He claimed that by faith, believing in him is eternal life. If he's lying, he's nothing more than a madman, not a good man.

He's nothing more than a madman. Not mad as in angry, but mad as in crazy. He's a lunatic. If he's lying, what else could he be? Again, think about having their information. We saw that the information that they had growing up with Jesus, and now all of a sudden he said that he came down from heaven, that he is God, that he is God.

Whatever he sees the Father doing, that which he does, meaning there's in some way that as he's on earth in body, he is able to see the Father in heaven, and the worst that the Father is doing in heaven, he also is doing, and that he came from heaven, and that he was going to be put to death, and they were going to bury him, and then he's going to come to life, and that if they would believe, if they put their faith in him, they would have eternal life after they die, then and then after they die.

There's no way you can call someone good if that's not true, and if that is true, then you would be following him, and that in the theology that he told you wouldn't have caused you to run away, but of course they're at this group.

This would have been the group, the disciples who probably partook in this. He's a good man. He gave us food, like it's not adding up. If he is God, of course he's good. Of course he's good, but he is also more than just good.

He is more than just good. The rich young ruler said to Jesus, good teacher. Jesus responds by saying, why do you call me good? Only God is good. By calling Jesus God good, by calling Jesus good, you are calling Jesus God.

By calling Jesus good, I don't believe this group of Jews were calling Jesus God. There's the mistake made. They were calling him good, but they weren't calling him God, and that doesn't work. Only God is good.

Only God is good. So the question is this, is Jesus good? Meaning is he God? Because that's not what they were meaning by it. When you say God is good, or Jesus is good, God is good all the time, all the time.

God is good, right? Am I the only one that's been in churches like that? We're a little too Baptist for that, right? If I'd say it, it'd be crickets. Does Jesus have moral excellence? You look at the word good in the dictionary, and it means moral excellence.

Does Jesus have moral excellence? Did Jesus keep the law of God? That's the definition for good. Did Jesus keep the law of God? Are we unable to keep the law of God? Why are we unable to keep the law of God?

Because we're just men. Only God is good, and if you say that Jesus is good, he has moral excellence, you're saying that Jesus is God, and that's not what they were saying. That's not what they were saying.

They were looking for him. They were looking to kill him. Some, the ones that were saying that he was good, were fear, was fearing that they would get kicked out of the synagogues if they said it openly, and even those who were saying that he's leading people astray, they were afraid to speak out in public.

So because that's the meaning of good, excuse me, because that's what it means to be good, what did it mean to them? When they said that Jesus is good, what did it mean? And I have no clue. Outside of moral excellence, I don't know what good is.

But I know, and we spoke about this probably two months ago, the whole C .S. Lewis liar, lunatic, and lord, that for someone who claimed to be these things, who claimed to be good, that they are God, who claimed to have come down from heaven, who claimed that they were going to be put to death, buried, and raised again on the third day, who claimed that faith, believing in him, is eternal life, that if he knew it wasn't true, then he's a liar.

If he didn't know it wasn't true, but he's lying and just didn't know it, again, he's a madman. He's a lunatic. Or he is who he says he is. He is the Lord. Right? Did Jesus come down from heaven? Right?

That's a, did he come down from heaven? Is he God, excuse me, is he God? Did he come down from heaven? Was he put to death? Was he buried, and was he raised from the dead, and is believing in him eternal life?

If he kept the law, he did so in our place. And if he was put to death, and he was, he did so in our place. Double imputation. So the question that we today, you and I, in the unbelieving world, have to ask is, who is Jesus?

And do you find yourself grumbling about it? Do you find yourself fearing to speak in public, afraid that you won't be accepted somewhere? I pray that this day you can say with me that Jesus Christ is Lord, and I'm available, your leadership is available to anyone who wants to talk.

Let's pray. Oh God, Lord, we love you. We're so grateful for your word. We're so grateful that we don't have to have some kind of a song and dance, that we don't have to have a magic trick, or you don't have to have puppet shows, Lord.

We don't have to fake something that's not real, but we can just trust in your sovereignty and in your, excuse me, in the theology that you have given to us. That I can stand up here confidently, speak on the sovereignty, your sovereignty, and confidently say that you have sent Christ as a propitiation, as the payment for our sin, and not have to worry about anything else.

Not have to worry about, did I perform right? Lord, we're so grateful to you, and Lord, we pray, oh, we pray that you use this word, this simple truth of Christ to transform us. And right now, God, as we prepare ourselves to partake in the supper, we pray that you use even that in our being conformed, in our chief end, in our being on our divine mission of being conformed to the image of Christ.

Use everything that's done here, Lord. In Christ's name we pray, amen.