Going to the Feast on Time

John 7:1-13

 

INTRO: The Great Galilean Ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is now ended, and the Feast of Tabernacles is at hand.  Yet, Jesus does not make His way into Judea; others are already there; not Jesus.  In verse 3, we see that His brothers want Him to go to Judea and prove Himself.  Yet, He does not go.

Why does Jesus remain in Galilee?  Why does He not go on to the Feast?  Is it because He knows that the Jewish religious leaders want to kill Him?  Is it because He is afraid to die?  NO!  Jesus is not afraid of the Jewish leaders, and He is not afraid to die.

Jesus did not go to the Feast of Tabernacles at the time men expected because He was not on man’s timetable.  He was on God the Father’s timetable (vs 6).

Jesus would get to the Feast of Tabernacles on time: God’s time.

 

I.        VS 1, JESUS WALKING IN GALILEE

A.       “After these things,” points back to the entire Galilean ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.  “After these things” means that the Galilean ministry of Christ is over.

B.       “Jesus walked in Galilee.”

1. He was despised– He kept walking.

2. He had been rejected by His neighbors– He kept walking.

3. Many disciples left Him and walked no more with Him– but He kept walking.

4. We too need to keep on walking.  Don’t quit; keep walking.

C.      Jesus walked in Galilee because the Jews sought to kill Him at Jerusalem.

1. Nine times in this chapter, we see the hatred that the religious world had for Jesus.  They were seeking to kill Him (7:1,7,11,13,19,23,25,30,44).

2. Jesus was not afraid to die, and He was not afraid of the Jews.  He did not go to Jerusalem because His hour had not come (7:8).

a. Jesus was on God’s timetable.  A timetable established before the world began.

b. Yes, He had come from heaven to die for sinners.  But in God’s plan, He would not die during the Feast of Tabernacles.  He would die during the Passover as the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.

II.       VSS 2-5, THE DEMANDS MADE UPON JESUS BY HIS BROTHERS

A.       Vs 2, Caravans of people were streaming into Jerusalem because of the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

1. The Feast of Tabernacles is a feast of thanksgiving or a harvest festival that fell at the end of September and beginning of October.  It lasted for eight days.

2. The Feast of Tabernacles is also a feast of joy, a feast of joyful commemoration of God’s guidance of the children of Israel on their wilderness journey.

a. The temple trumpets were blown daily.

b. Seventy bullocks were slain daily.  There was an outpouring of water drawn from the pool of Siloam in a golden vessel commemorating the refreshing stream that quenched the thirsts of their forefathers at Meribah (Ex 17:1-7).

c. The inner court of the temple was illuminated by the grand candelabra, and there was a torch light parade reminding folks of the pillar of fire by night.

d. Most evident of all in and around Jerusalem and even on the roof tops, the people built booths in which the pilgrims dwelt during the feast.  These also commemorated the wilderness journey.   They spoke of a time when God was their all in all for He was their daily provision.  Is God your all in all as you travel here in the wilderness?

B.       Vs 3, When Jesus is slow about leaving to attend the feast, his brothers (James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas [Jude] Mt 13:55) begin to pressure Him to try to force His hand.

1. Remember these are His brothers according to the flesh and do not understand spiritual things.

2. Because they are unbelievers, they are not led by the Spirit (I Cor 2:14).

3. His brothers want Him to go to Jerusalem and peddle His goods: to turn water to wine, to heal sick folk, and feed multitudes.

a. They possibly hope to share in the limelight.

b. His miracles will, they hope, gain back the disciples that left Him (6:66) and even garner new support.

c. Many folks today see the ministry as a business that must produce as a Madison Avenue firm.  Church buildings today are called church plants and the property is called a campus.

C.      Vs 4, Being men of the world, they want Jesus to show Himself to the world.

1. They want Jesus to be famous; and to do so, He must do great demonstrations.  The folks in Galilee were considered to be backward.  In Jerusalem, Jesus could show out for the religious leaders and sophisticated folks.

2. These brothers were full of the same “pride of life” that effects so many today (I Jn 2:16).

D.      Vs 5, His brothers, at this point, did not see Jesus as the suffering Savior.  This is not the kind of Messiah that they had their minds set upon.

1. The brothers had the same idea of a Messiah as the folks at the feeding of the five thousand did (6:15).  They looked for a Messiah who would deliver them from Rome and bring health and wealth.  They were materialistic and worldly.  They held secular ideas about the Messiah.

2. This verse also teaches us that someone can be close to Christ, live in a Christian home, go to a good church, and still not be saved.

3. Wonderfully after the resurrection, these brothers came to faith in Christ as the suffering Savior (Ac 1:14).

 

III.      VSS 6-9, THE REQUEST OF HIS BROTHERS DECLINED.

A.       Vs 6, The brothers could go to the feast at any time, but Jesus was on God the Father’s timetable.

1. Every deed and action of our Lord had a definite time schedule determined by God in eternity past.  This is why He said in chapter four: “I must needs go through Samaria.”

2. Jesus knew that if He went with the early caravans of folks going to the feast, the Sanhedrin would have time to make plans to arrest Him and crucify Him.

a. Jesus knew that His death as the Lamb of God would take place during the next Passover not during the Feast of Tabernacles.

b. What the natural man sees as a delay is on time in God’s plan.

c. The death of Jesus was:

1- Anticipated– Ac 2:23-24; I Pt 1:20.

2- A redemptive death– I Pt 1:18-19.

B.       Vs 7, These brothers are yet of the world.  The Greek word for world is kosmos and means “mankind alienated from the life of God, the realm of evil hostile to God.”

1. The brothers are at this point unsaved.  They think as the world, so the world does not hate them.

2. Jesus is not of the world, so the world hates Him and hates those who love Him.

a. The holiness of His life brought condemnation on the wicked lives of others.

b. The world hates those who truly belong to God (Jn 15:19).

C.      Vs 8, The purpose of the brothers going to the feast was worldly.  The purpose of Jesus going was heavenly.

1. The phrase “my time is not yet full come” means that “the lower compartment of the hourglass of God’s providence is not yet filled” (Hendriksen 6).

2. Jesus will go to the Feast, but not immediately for the proper time has not arrived.

D.      Vs 9, Jesus was going to go, but as verse 8 says, “not. ... yet.”  He would go in God’s time.

 

IV.      VSS 10-13, JESUS GOES TO THE FEAST ON TIME AND IN SECRET

A.       Vs 10, After his brothers left for the Feast, Jesus secretly makes His way to Jerusalem.

1. “As it were in secret”– not in a caravan or accompanied by a large crowd.

2. Probably, Jesus and His disciples traveled at night and on roads that were not often traveled.

3. To go openly would be to invite trouble and even death– His time had not yet come.  He would be in Jerusalem at the Passover as the Lamb of God when the time came.  He was born on time (Gal 4:4), and He would die on time.