The truth will set you free, John 7:17-24

I am going to put to the test your spiritual acumen this morning.  I know it’s early, and maybe you can’t think all that well first thing in the morning.  Todays message is not a story, maybe not so easy to understand, but nevertheless it is essential doctrine that must be understood and followed if we are going to be true disciples of Christ.  So consequently, I am not going to approach this text today in my typical fashion of exegeting each verse line by line, but I’m going to expound on a few verses from the text, not focusing so much on the historical content but hoping to bring us to a deeper understanding of the underlying spiritual principles found here.

I hope that most of you here today would already be familiar with the fundamental doctrine that salvation is by faith.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” So salvation is by faith.  But what is faith?  That is the $10000 question.  Well, we have the Biblical definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  So you can combine those truths by saying that salvation is by faith in what is not seen, but believed to be true and evidenced by my life.

Now that is the essence of what Jesus said in John 7:17.  He said, “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”  So what Jesus is saying is believe in Me, and believe that My words are the Word of God, and then be willing to do what I say, and when you do that the truth will be evidenced.  Now that is counter intuitive, isn’t it?  Be willing to obey what God tells you, and when you do His will, the truth will be evident. That’s contrary to the way we normally do things.  We want to see the evidence, the proof before we commit to anything.  But Jesus says My words are truth, and when you are willing to believe that and do it, then you will know the truth.

Now that segues into another important statement of Jesus, which is found in the next chapter,  8:31, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”   See, freedom doesn’t just come from accepting that Jesus lived on earth, or that God exists, or even from knowing that the Bible contains truth.  True freedom comes from knowing and then following the truth. That means that you submit to it, and obey it, and act on it, even though all the evidence may not be apparent when you start to do it.  That means that our faith which saves us is not just an intellectual assent, but trusting in what God has said, even when we can’t see the proof of it.

Jesus says you must continue in My word, if you are truly disciples of mine.  Continue means to keep on being obedient, to keep following His commands, to keep walking by faith in the light of God’s truth.  That continuance proves that His word is truth.  As we continue in it, we prove it, and as such we know it. So faith is action. Acting on what you believe to be true. It’s so important to recognize the difference between accepting something is truth with a detached sort of intellectualism, and appropriating that truth to the point of trusting in it for yourself and committing yourself to it.  When you trust in God’s truth, and act upon it, you know it is true, THEN the truth will set you free.  A lot of people believe in a kind of intellectual way that God’s word is true, or that it contains the truth, but they have never acted upon it, and as such they have never been set free.

But being set free, what does that mean?  What does it mean for the truth to set you free? Free from what?  Well, Jesus makes it clear that you are set free from the bondage of sin and death. Jesus said in 8:34, that “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”  But the Son will make you free indeed.  And so freedom comes from doing the will of God, even when that means not relying upon the natural senses for evidence, or upon your common sense, or even academic evidence, but believing what God says is truth, and acting upon it.  Being set free also means being set free from the restraints of the ceremonial law.  That’s why I believe Jesus picked the law of the Sabbath as well as the law of circumcision as a point of contention with the Jews. But that freedom will not become evident until they surrender to Christ as Lord.

Now let’s look at the next statement of Jesus which will help us to see how this is acted out and applied in our walk. Jesus claimed righteousness, while He accused the Jews of breaking the law of Moses which they claimed to be upholding, because they were trying to kill Him.  And of course, they deny it.  So in vs. 22 Jesus said, ”For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 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 an entire man well on the Sabbath?”  

Now first we need to understand circumcision in order to understand the text. He said circumcision came from the fathers - that is, through Abraham. Now I’m sure everyone here thankfully has a general idea of what circumcision is without me having to go into detail. But do you know what circumcision symbolizes?  It represents the cutting away of sinful flesh, so that you might live in the Spirit.  It was a  picture of  man’s sinful nature which is passed on from generation to generation, and which needs to be cut away in order for the promise of new life to come from God.  

Jesus is referencing circumcision because it was routinely performed on the Sabbath when the eight day after a child’s birth fell on a Saturday, and even though it was considered work it was acceptable because it was mandated through the law.  Jesus, on the other hand, was being condemned for HIs work of healing the lame man on the Sabbath.  So what Jesus points out is the hypocrisy of saying that it was ok to cut away the flesh through circumcision on the Sabbath and yet condemn Him for freeing a man from the enslavement of the flesh on a Sabbath.

See, when Jesus healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda back in chapter 5, He not only removed the impediment of the flesh, but He gave him life in the Spirit.  The lame man, you will remember, later encountered Jesus in the temple, and Jesus revealed Himself to Him, resulting in salvation; new life in the Spirit.  So that this man was able not just to walk physically, but to walk in the Spirit, to walk as a new creation in a new life.  This is a picture of salvation for us. The Sabbath then, argues Jesus, should be a day for freeing men from enslavement to the flesh so that they can walk in the Spirit. Furthermore, the Sabbath was a picture of resting from our works, and reliance upon the work of God.  Again, the Sabbath is a picture of our salvation, and our salvation fulfills the law of the Sabbath.

Now let’s make sure we understand all that is implied by  this new life in the Spirit.  First of all, when you are given new life through salvation, you are given a new nature.  That’s the good news.  But the bad news is that you still have the old nature. So now there are two natures in you warring against one another. Rom. 7:22-23 “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,  but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.”

So there is within us a war between the old man and the new man, or the physical versus the spiritual.  Which one wins is up to you.  Which one becomes dominant depends upon which one you listen to, the one you are obedient to, the One you follow. The way of faith is to cut away the old nature. Or to look at it another way, to starve the old nature. To ignore it’s cries for the lusts and passions that it craves. In effect we put to death the old man, or as Paul said,  we "crucify the flesh" and walk in accordance to the Spirit. That is the way of sanctification, and the way of a true disciple.  That’s the way to have fellowship with God, to love God, and to know the truth of God experientially in your life. This is the path to freedom, to put away the old nature, and put on the new nature.

I was trying to explain this to a Christian the other day who had backslidden and fallen back into sin.  And so I likened it to waking a sleeping dragon.  There should be a sign posted in your soul somewhere which says, “don’t feed the dragon.”  Because when you wake him up, and then feed him, he is going to want more, to take over your life again.  The only way to deal with him at that point is to starve him to death until he becomes too weak to roar any more and eventually becomes dormant.  So Paul says we wait eagerly for the final redemption of our body when this natural man is exchanged for a glorified, sinless body.

Unfortunately, so many Christians miss out on true freedom because they are looking for some sort of experience or feeling or emotion as a shortcut to sanctification.  But there are no shortcuts.  God works through our sufferings to sanctify us.  Even Jesus, the Bible says in Hebrews 5:8 “leaned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

Sometimes you may not feel close to the Lord.  But the way that fellowship happens is the result of hearing the truth, then obeying the truth, and then the feelings will come as you are being obedient.  But don’t rely on feelings.  But as you draw near to God, He will draw near to you and as you trust the Lord, and rely on the Lord, and have fellowship with the Lord, then you will experience the joy of the Lord.

So this new life in Christ requires that we put to death the old nature, and live according to the new nature.  Or to say it another way, to turn away from the old paths, renounce the old lies of the world, and walk after the Spirit, according to the truth of God’s word. Ephesians 4:21 tells us to do that very thing.  “if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,  that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,  and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,  and put on the new self, which in [the likeness of] God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Listen to what Paul says about this new nature in Romans 8:4, I’m going to read from the New Living Translation;  now that we are in Christ we  “...no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.  Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.  So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.  For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will.  That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.  But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)  And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.  The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.  Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.  For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.  So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father."  For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.  And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.  Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.”

Now that is the practical application of what is pictured by cutting away the flesh through circumcision.  What Paul calls having been circumcised in our hearts. This is the practical application of what it means to walk by faith and not by sight, to walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh. It is living according to the new nature, and putting to death the old nature. Letting go of the things of the flesh which are our security, in which we put our hope, and trusting in that which is unseen, yet true, things of the Spirit.

Then notice the next statement of Christ which I want to capitalize on, verse 24; "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”  Now I don’t want to go sailing off on a different tack with this verse, but I can’t help but point out this verse to those people who like to quote “judge not, lest you be judged.” Here it says we are to judge, but to judge with righteous judgment.  Now I will let you figure out what that means in that context.  

But to stay within the context of my message this morning, I would just say that this statement is really the culmination of all  I have been trying to say to you.  And that is, that we cannot depend on our natural sight, but we must use spiritual discernment if we are going to know the truth so that the truth will set us free.  But unfortunately as Christians, I think far too often we hold onto a token amount of what we think is the truth of God, presumably to secure our salvation, but we still hold onto, and trust the great variety of lies from the world and the devil.  

In other words, we claim Christianity for the hope of heaven, but we live as if it’s all about the here and now.  We say we trust God, but in reality we trust what we can taste, touch, or feel.  And that is not exactly the life of faith, is it?  Not according to the definition of Hebrews 11:1 - “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  

Now Jesus rebukes these Jewish leaders because they were judging, or looking at things as they appeared outwardly.  They did not have spiritual discernment because they were not spiritual - they were still fleshly. They had not been born again by the Spirit of God. They did not have the Spirit of God in them, so their spirit was dead.  As 1Cor. 2:14 says the “natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

Listen, these Jewish leaders show that it is possible to be very religious, to be knowledgeable about the Bible, to claim Jehovah God as your God, and still be spiritually dead, and as a result, spiritually blind.  I worry about some people that attend our church from time to time.  If you asked them, I’m sure they would claim to be a Christian, and yet they do not understand the kind of things that I am talking about today.  And even more to the point, they live very obviously in the here and now, as a citizen of the world, entranced by the things of the world, and perhaps unbeknownst  to them, enslaved by the world.  

This statement of Christ could be said differently and still, I think, retain the principle that Jesus is teaching.  We could say, “don’t look at things as they appear externally, and be attracted to them or believe in them.  But look at things spiritually, and be attracted to the things unseen.  That is spiritual discernment so that you might know the truth.

That is what Jesus means when He said, “judge with righteous judgment.” He’s not necessarily talking about judging people, He is talking about spiritual discernment. Having eyes that have been opened spiritually, so that you might know spiritual truth. Spiritual discernment is being able to know truth from error, to recognize the lie of this world, and believe the truth of God’s word.  

Now these Jewish leaders missed the truth that would have set them free because they were looking at external things, and depending upon external appearances.  They loved the externals.  They loved banging a gong or blowing a horn to announce their good deeds.  They loved the chief seats in the synagogues, the seats of prestige and power.  They loved parading their good works and claiming their righteousness based on the law.  They loved their long robes and funny hats and all the bells and whistles which showed their religious pedigree.  

Jesus did none of that.  I don’t think you could have picked Jesus out of a crowd and said anything special about Him.  Isaiah 53:2 says, “He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should ]be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”  

So the Jews scorned Him because He came from Galilee where they believed the second class citizens lived.  They scorned Him because they didn’t think that He had the right credentials to be a teacher. They derided Him because He hadn’t graduated from the right rabbinical schools.  They scorned Him because they were jealous of the authority with which He taught, and the power that He had.  They looked at Him in derision because they didn’t think that He had the right kind of evidence for being the Messiah that they considered important. Ultimately, they thought that IF they needed a Savior, it would have to be someone more important looking than He was in order to be of any use to them.  So they rejected Him on the grounds that He didn’t meet their expectations, and also I think because they were afraid that the kind of kingdom He was espousing would result in them losing their power and position as the religious authorities.  

And as a consequence they did not believe His teaching.  And because they didn’t believe His words then of course they would not do His will, and because they would not do His will, they would not know the truth, and because they did not know the truth, they were not set free from their sins.  

I’m afraid a lot of people are like the Jewish leaders.  They are happy with a form of religion, which is a religion made up of half truths.  And they are happy there, perched upon their thrones, in which they judge truth based on their criteria. From the throne of their self rule they live as they want to live, and do as they want to do.  And as such they reject the will of God, living in the natural world, while claiming to belong to the spiritual. 

But that is not the way of the new life.  We must cut away the old nature if we are going to be set free from sin and live in the new life. And that happens through true repentance.  That is really what Jesus is saying in vs.17.  If you are willing to submit to do God’s will - that is repentance, you give up your will in exchange for God’s will.   If you repent, then God will give you His Spirit, and having spiritual discernment,  you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.  

I hope that you will examine yourself today in light of God’s word and see if you are really of the faith, or if you have never actually renounced the world, put away the old nature and lived by faith in the new nature.  True discipleship is simply recognizing truth from God,  then submitting your will to obey the truth, and asking God to help you be obedient to the truth. I pray that you will believe the truth, and that the truth will make you free.  

True disciples versus false disciples, John 7:1-18

Though millions of people today claim to believe in Jesus, who are attracted to Jesus, yet Jesus Himself said that many are called but few are chosen, that many will seek to enter His kingdom but will not be able. Though many claim to be Christians, there is a tremendous difference between true and false disciples.  Two thousand years ago, even Jesus’ own family did not believe in Him and his own nation rejected Him and put Him to  death.  Even after feeding 15000 people and healing many of the sick in attendance, when He began to preach His gospel many of His disciples stopped following Him. John 6:66 says,“As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”

Those fair weather disciples who came for the miracles but left after the message were obviously superficial. They were disciples or followers in name only.  There were still the 12 however.  Christ’s inner circle.  And when the others left Him, Jesus turned to them and said, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”  Peter, acting as spokesman answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”  But even within the 12, Jesus said that one of them had a devil and would betray Him. 

So Jesus ministry was characterized by true and false disciples.  I believe much of Jesus’ teaching was to show a distinction between His followers, to separate those that followed Him for superficial reasons, and to develop true discipleship. Jesus seems to almost go out of HIs way to talk people out of following Him.  Let me give you just a few examples.  

To the 15000 people that had eaten the loaves and fishes that He had miraculously provided, Jesus said that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood. At another time Jesus told those who wished to follow Him to let the dead bury the dead, and not even go to their father’s funeral.  He told a rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor and then to follow Him. At another time He told a crowd that unless they hated their father and mother and family, and even one’s own life, they could not be His disciple.  Then He told them to pick up their cross and follow Him. He said in Luke 14:33  "So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” Jesus told others to leave their nets, their professions as fishermen, and He would make them fishers of men. 

I could go on and on. Jesus called disciples to abandon all that they held dear in the world for the sake of knowing Him.   I’m sure most of us would have responded to this call for drastic abandonment  with the response; “you lost me at hello.”  Unfortunately, this call to forsake all for Christ is not the gospel message of the modern church today.  We have changed the message to be as accommodating and appealing as possible.  We don’t ask for anyone to leave anything, but to come as you are.  We don’t ask for any sort of personal sacrifice; but say all God wants is a relationship with you because He loves you so much.  

If we are not careful, we find that we have redefined discipleship, if not even salvation.  We are guilty of twisting the Jesus of the Bible into a 21st century hipster Christ that people are more comfortable with.  Jesus becomes a non-condemning, non-controversial genie who is able to grant wishes upon our command and more importantly, places no demands upon us.  

But that is not the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus never presented discipleship as being easy.  The Jesus of the Bible talked about offering Himself as a human sacrifice for sin, and man’s need to repent for the forgiveness of their sins, and the people rejected Him.  When He condemned religious leaders of His day as hypocrites, in response they hated Him and plotted to kill Him.  So it says in 7:1 that Jesus avoided going to Judea, which was the seat of religious authority in Israel, because He knew that they wanted Him dead.  

His home by the way was in a small city called Capernaum, in Galilee, which had a population of about 1500 people.  We can assume that  it was the family home.  And so about six months after the feeding of the multitudes on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, His brothers come to Him and said, “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.”

From a logical perspective, what they said seemed to make sense.  It seemed to be good advice for how to raise up a ministry, or in Jesus’ case, how to get everyone to believe that you are the Messiah. But their motive was not really in the best interests of the kingdom of God.  The underlying motivation for their comments is found in vs.5, “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” So at this point,  even His own brothers were not true disciples.  They were perhaps willing to benefit from their relationship with Him if in fact He could pull off some sort of coup in the geopolitical realm.  But in fact they did not really believe that their own brother was the Messiah, much less the Son of God.

In chapter 6, you will remember, the crowds were taken back by Jesus claiming to have come down out of heaven, and they said in vs. 42, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”  And now in chapter 7, you have His brother’s agreeing with the crowd.  After all, they had grown up in the same house with Him.  They shared the same parents, or so they thought.  How could He have come down from heaven? 

Matthew’s gospel identifies His brothers. Matt. 13:54-58 “He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"  And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household. And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”

So from that text we know that the people in Jesus’ hometown didn’t believe He was the Messiah. And in John 7 we learn that even His brothers didn’t believe in Him.  That explains why they say, “IF you do these things show them to the world.”  They didn’t even believe that He had done any real miracles. 

There is a parallel here in the life of Joseph from the Old Testament.  Joseph was hated by his brothers, because they were jealous of him.  And so they scorned him and eventually plotted for his death.  Jesus’ brothers did not actually kill him, but they did reject Him and really wanted Him to get out of their lives.  He was an irratation to them.  And in like manner, Jesus’ greater brethren, meaning the family of the Jewish nation plotted His death.

But the Bible does indicate that Jesus' actual brothers did eventually come to believe in Him, even as Joseph’s brothers eventually came to bow down before him.  But it was not until after Christ’s resurrection according to Acts 1:14.  Tradition tells us that Simon became a servant of the church for many years.  And James became the author of the book of James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and a martyr for the faith.  He describes himself in his epistle as "James a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ,” establishing Jesus as Lord, Messiah and equal with God.  Jude, the author of the book of Jude, describes himself also as a servant of Jesus Christ. And he writes about looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.  So His brothers eventually come to recognize Him as the Son of God, but at this stage they are filled with contempt and scorn for Him. Though they could claim to have a relationship with Him, yet they could not claim true discipleship.

Their suggestions are indicative of false disciples as well.  They basically are espousing the dogma of modern Christian evangelism; that if you are successful, if you have a big crowd, then you must be doing something right.  That’s why they wanted Him to go to Judea.  Why hide out in the backwoods of Galilee when the big crowds and the success was in Judea. If you’re really the Messiah you are going to have to become popular with the multitudes and accepted by everyone. But notice that’s not Jesus’ plan for taking over the world.  In chapter 6 Jesus spent about 2 days teaching the 15000 people.  But many of them deserted Him afterwards when they found out the cost of discipleship.  So for the next 6 months Jesus spent all His time primarily with just 12 guys - discipling them.  That was His plan for establishing the kingdom of God in the world.

Jesus’ commission is the same for us today; Matt. 28:19-20 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The command is not go into football stadiums and attract a huge crowd.  Nor to organize giant crusades and get a lot of people to walk the aisle and repeat a prayer.  But to make disciples, and teach them, notice that, teach them, to observe all that I commanded you.  Attracting a crowd is easy if you have enough money.  But making disciples is hard work.  It takes time.  It’s not done in a single outreach.  It’s not done in a short term mission trip.  It’s a long term affair. It’s teaching disciples to be doers of the word and not just hearers, not just superficial disciples.

Now the reason for His brother’s suggestion to go to Judea is because it was the time of the Feast of  booths, or feast of tabernacles.  There were three feasts which Jewish men were required to go to Jerusalem to celebrate.  The feast of tabernacles was one of those feasts, which lasted 7 days.  From a human perspective, it would have been a great opportunity for Jesus to appear before every able bodied man in Israel and start doing some miracles and show everyone that He was indeed the Messiah.  

That’s another indication of false disciples, by the way.  They are attracted by signs and wonders.  Great crusades happen in our country all the time which claim to be visited by signs and wonders.  One happened a few years ago in Los Angeles, the city of the angels.  And one of the organizers of that event claimed to see a giant golden angel up in the sky above the stadium as he was driving in on the freeway.  Their whole program was about signs and wonders.  One speaker proclaimed that everyone there was going to be able to walk behind someone afterwards and know everything about that person.  I guess that is what they consider a word of knowledge.  There were people who were acting “drunk in spirit” all over the auditorium, falling down and laughing uncontrollably.  

But the Bible warns about such signs and wonders as a means of leading people into a false discipleship.  Matt. 24:24 says, "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”  Jesus rebuked others who followed Him for seeking signs and wonders in John 4:48  Jesus said, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.”  And Paul warned in 2 Thess. 2:9 about “the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”

Jesus is not interested in accommodating man’s agenda, even if it’s His own family members who are pushing it.  So He responds, “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.”

There are a couple of points that need to be made concerning this important statement.  First of all, God has His own timetable and agenda, and we need to be aligned with it, rather than trying to get God to accommodate ours.  Jesus had an appointed time that He was going to go into Jerusalem and present Himself as the Messiah.  It would be 6 months later at the Passover Feast.  At that time, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey and the crowds celebrate His coming as the Messiah, the son of David.  A week later, He is crucified as the lamb slain for the salvation of the world.  That is the timing of God, and Jesus is in full agreement with that plan.  This was the plan of God before the foundation of the world.  And though it doesn’t look like it to His brothers or His disciples, all is going according to God’s plan.

Listen, I’ve said before that there is no safer place to be than in the will of God, and there is no safe place outside of the will of God.  It should be a great comfort to us to know that we are in the will of God, so that even when it seems like everything is going wrong, we can trust that God is in control, and He has a plan and things are going according to His plan.  If you are going to be a disciple of Christ, then you have to get in tune with the timing of God, and then trust in His sovereignty to accomplish His will in HIs time.  All our anxiety is usually because we have a different timetable and different expectations than God has.

Trusting God is hard work. Faith is hard work. The idea that faith is easy is contrary to scripture. It’s hard to walk by faith and not by sight.  I heard a story that illustrates trust.  It’s setting is back in the day when televisions still required antennas on rooftops.  Something that has gone by the wayside in the digital age.  But this man was up on his roof fixing his television antenna when he slipped and began to slide down toward the gutters. He tried to catch himself, but he went over the edge. He managed to grab hold of the rain gutter as he dropped, and he hung there, suspended two stories in the air. He didn’t want to look down, and in his desperation he cried out. "Oh, God help me!" And a voice replied, "I am ready to help you." And he said, "Tell me what to do." The voice asked. "Do you trust me?" He said, "Yes, I trust you." The voice said. "All right then. Let go." And the man asked, "Is there anybody else up there who can help me?”  Trusting God isn’t always easy.  Letting go of things we depend upon though is fundamental to really trusting in God.

Secondly, if you are on God’s timetable, doing God’s will, then you are in opposition to the world, and the world is going to hate you.  True disciples are hated by the world.  But contrarily, false disciples love the world, and so the world does not hate them.  Now why is this true?  Well, because if you are a true disciple, then you are in agreement with what Jesus said, “it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”  That’s it.  We call sin, evil.  And we testify that their deeds are evil.  

Let me tell you something that you need to really understand.  This is the defining point of true disciples versus false disciples.  The defining point between true and false disciples is their deeds.  Don’t get me wrong.  You are not saved by works, you are saved by grace.  But don’t get Jesus wrong either.  He said, you shall know them by their fruits.  The most damning statement of Jesus was toward false disciples, found in Matthew 7:20-23  "So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”  

So their fruits are the deeds that they did.  But notice that they did signs and wonders.  They even cast out demons and performed many miracles.  They named the name of Jesus.  And yet they were not true disciples because they practiced sin.

Now that is exactly what Jesus accused the Jews of in vs.19.  He said to them,  "Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” They claimed the righteousness of the law, but they did not carry out the law.  They sought to kill Him, in opposition to the law.

Their hatred of Jesus was equal to murder, and so it beget a plot to murder Him, which was eventually fulfilled.  So if you are a true disciple of Christ, then the world will hate you.  That really is the irony of the seeker friendly church model, isn’t it?  That we would try  to ingratiate ourselves to those who really hate what we stand for.  Because what we stand for is the truth of God’s Word which declares sin as evil, and defines it by God’s law.

So Jesus did eventually go up to the Feast of Tabernacles, but secretly.  That means that He did not enter into Jerusalem with a big fanfare.  His family would have been part of a large caravan, and His coming would have been with thousands of pilgrims, which would have probably instigated some sort of great political, religious rally to make Him King.  But He was not interested in their agenda, He was interested in fulfilling God’s agenda. So He shows up midweek, without fanfare, and when they find Him, He is teaching in the temple.

But notice that there was grumbling going on amongst the people concerning Him.  Vs.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.’ Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.”

Notice that neither of those comments are the marks of true disciples.  Jesus was not just a good man.  Either He was God incarnate, or He was a lunatic.  Most of the world’s false religions say that Jesus was a good man.  But they fail to believe that He is God.  That He is alive, having risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.  And as such their belief is of no avail.  Believing that Jesus is a good man will not save you.  Of course, the other half of the people were under the influence of the religious leaders who were saying that He was a deceiver.  But neither group were professing saving faith, and neither group spoke openly about Him for fear of the Jews.  That word Jews is used of the religious Jewish leaders.  They feared being ostracized, or kicked out of the temple because of any allegiance to Christ.  

I believe the day is already here when being a true disciple of Christ will bring persecution in the social arena, when saying that certain deeds are sinful will cost you your job, or mean you are sued for everything you have and then some, or even thrown in jail.  That day is here.

So Jesus starts teaching in the temple.  And the Jews hearing Him, ask in astonishment, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?”  This is the great thing about preaching the Word of God.  It’s the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit working in us, in conjunction with the Word of God, teaches us the things of God, so that we have the wisdom of God.  You want wisdom?  Read the Word of God.  1Cor. 1:25 says, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Notice Jesus says in John 7:16-17 "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”  Jesus spoke the words of God.  When He rebuked the devil in the wilderness, He quoted from the Word of God.  This is the habit of Jesus when He preached.  And in the same manner I believe it’s a good idea for preachers to preach the Word of God.  Jesus goes on to say, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”  We have a lot of glory seeking preachers out there today who speak in order to glorify themselves.  They speak to gain a crowd, to please people, to entertain people.  And they fail to preach the full counsel of God.  Jesus testified that people’s sin was evil.  He preached the Word of God in it’s fullness.  Only when man is convinced of His sin does he come to know his need for a Savior.  And only when man has come to know Jesus as His Savior will he come to serve Jesus as Lord.

But here is the key Jesus gives us in those passages regarding true discipleship.  He says, “If anyone is willing to do His will, that is the Father’s will, he will recognize the teaching is of God.”  (my paraphrase) Here is the key to true discipleship.  You first have to come to a point of being willing to submit and obey the will of God, and when you do that, when you obey, then God will reveal more truth to you.  This is the principle I have mentioned so many times, that of progressive revelation.  When you are obedient to the light God has shown you thus far, then He will reveal more to you.  God’s word is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.  That means it’s walking revelation.  As you walk out the truth in obedience, God will continue to lead you.  Too many people want to see the light at the end of the tunnel before they start to walk.  That’s not discipleship.  Believe and obey.  Trust and obey, for there’s no other way. 

Well, there is more to this message that Jesus gives during the Feast, but it will have to wait for next Sunday.  In the meantime, I believe that you have been given enough light to start to be obedient to the light you have.  I hope that you will prove to be a disciple this week by your deeds and not just your claims on Christianity.  I hope that you are indeed a true disciple.  If not, then today is the appointed day of salvation.  Salvation is simply believing all that Jesus claimed He was, that He was the bread of life which came down out of heaven, that men might eat of Him and receive eternal life.  To eat of Him is to receive Him, as Savior and Lord.  To be willing to forsake the world, even all that life offers, in exchange for eternal life.  To be willing to take up your cross and follow Him.  True discipleship is not without a cost.  But the reward is worth it all. As Jesus said later in this sermon, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”