Jesus Confronts His Brothers (John 7:1-14)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:05.400 So let's give our attention to John Seven. I'm returning back to the Gospel 2 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:11.750 of John John, Chapter Seven, verses one through thirteen. After this, 3 00:00:11.830 --> 00:00:17.309 Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the 4 00:00:17.350 --> 00:00:22.300 Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews feast of booths was at 5 00:00:22.339 --> 00:00:25.980 hand. So, as brothers said to him, leave here and go to 6 00:00:26.059 --> 00:00:30.620 Judea that your disciples also may see the works you are doing, for no 7 00:00:30.739 --> 00:00:34.899 one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do 8 00:00:35.140 --> 00:00:40.890 these things, show yourself to the world, for not even his brothers believed 9 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:47.049 him. Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come, but 10 00:00:47.170 --> 00:00:52.520 your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates 11 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:58.920 me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up 12 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:02.119 to the feast, I'm not going up to this feast, for my time 13 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:06.750 has not yet fully come. After saying this, he remained in Galilee, 14 00:01:07.469 --> 00:01:11.989 but after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went 15 00:01:11.030 --> 00:01:15.909 up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for him at 16 00:01:15.909 --> 00:01:19.780 the feast and saying where is he, and there was much muttering about him 17 00:01:19.780 --> 00:01:23.299 among the people, while some said he is a good man, others said 18 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:27.819 no, he is leading the people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, 19 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:34.810 no one spoke openly about him. The God bless his word to us. 20 00:01:36.049 --> 00:01:53.560 You may be seated. Thank you. Well, this passage we begin 21 00:01:53.680 --> 00:02:00.920 to sense that the tensions around Jesus and his ministry, in the time and 22 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:06.390 places in which he is ministering, are growing. The tensions are growing, 23 00:02:06.790 --> 00:02:10.349 the conflicts are growing and, as you will see as we move through chapter 24 00:02:10.550 --> 00:02:15.150 seven and aid as well, and really through the rest of the book, 25 00:02:15.669 --> 00:02:21.139 that's going to just increase. The clearer it becomes who Jesus is, the 26 00:02:21.259 --> 00:02:29.139 more conflict there is, and eventually that conflict will result in a cross where 27 00:02:29.139 --> 00:02:39.169 Jesus will be murdered, nailed to a cross, executed unjustly, unrighteously. 28 00:02:40.289 --> 00:02:49.439 This desire that the Jews have to kill him will one day produce the fruit 29 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:55.000 and they will accomplish their end, least for a few days and hopefully you 30 00:02:55.080 --> 00:03:00.870 know the rest of the story. But now we want to think about this 31 00:03:00.110 --> 00:03:06.870 conflict that John taught tells us about here and in John Chapter Seven. It's 32 00:03:06.909 --> 00:03:10.110 a conflict between the Jews and Judea, the John Sells us that Jesus doesn't 33 00:03:10.150 --> 00:03:14.659 want to go there because they want to kill him. This time is not 34 00:03:14.780 --> 00:03:19.620 yet come, but it's also between his brothers. Reminds me a little bit 35 00:03:19.659 --> 00:03:24.979 of Joseph, Joseph who had been given this task and calling these Viviasians and 36 00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:30.050 dreams of God, and it was not going well with him and his family. 37 00:03:30.210 --> 00:03:35.849 Of course, the difference between Joseph and Jesus is that Jesus is perfect 38 00:03:36.449 --> 00:03:38.770 in the ways that he dealt with his brothers and the ways that he acted, 39 00:03:40.129 --> 00:03:46.719 and this is who we see here. Another interesting thing, as we 40 00:03:46.039 --> 00:03:50.599 come to this passage that we consider the setting for this conflict, is there's 41 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:54.830 this irony, an irony that we've seen before and we keep seeing, and 42 00:03:54.949 --> 00:04:01.030 it has to do with this feast of booths. This feast was one of 43 00:04:01.110 --> 00:04:06.229 the major feast, one of the major festivals of in Israel. It's celebrated 44 00:04:06.349 --> 00:04:13.740 this time of harvest and it celebrated the time in which God harvested his people, 45 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:17.339 when which he brought them out of Egypt and was taking them into the 46 00:04:17.379 --> 00:04:21.459 promised land. It's called the feast of booths and has other names to but 47 00:04:21.540 --> 00:04:26.610 here are called the feast of booths because it was the way these booths were, 48 00:04:26.649 --> 00:04:30.370 the way in which God protected them in the Wilderness. It marks the 49 00:04:30.889 --> 00:04:35.490 period of time in which God brought his people out of slavery, from Egypt 50 00:04:36.209 --> 00:04:40.839 into the Wilderness on the way to the promised land. And if you go 51 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:44.519 back and you read those sections in the Old Testament, you'll know what happens, 52 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:49.959 that during that wilderness period, God took care of them. He protected 53 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:55.430 them from their enemies, he fed them water out of rocks, he gave 54 00:04:55.550 --> 00:05:00.589 them bread from heaven, he provided them leadership, he provided them comfort, 55 00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:05.269 he provided them everything they could need. It was difficult at times, it 56 00:05:05.430 --> 00:05:12.300 was a struggle sometimes to believe, to trust him, but he always followed 57 00:05:12.420 --> 00:05:15.699 through, as of course God always does. This was their time in their 58 00:05:15.779 --> 00:05:20.259 wilderness, and that's what this festival celebrates, the period of time in which 59 00:05:20.339 --> 00:05:25.529 God was taking care of them. And so what would happen is the people 60 00:05:25.529 --> 00:05:30.290 would travel to Jerusalem, they would celebrate, they would construct booths, they 61 00:05:30.329 --> 00:05:35.240 would offer tons of sacrifices and it was supposed to be this time of great 62 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:41.680 joy and of celebration of this past work of the Lord and, of course, 63 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:46.519 a minder of the Lord's continuing work. It's reminds me a little bit 64 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:53.550 of perhaps you've had a situation where you've needed to go to some sort of 65 00:05:53.670 --> 00:05:59.589 family celebration, maybe a wedding or a birthday party or a Thanksgiving me or 66 00:05:59.629 --> 00:06:01.470 Christmas or something like that, and you know this is supposed to be a 67 00:06:01.589 --> 00:06:11.740 time of togetherness and rejoicing and unity and coming together, and yet there's bickering 68 00:06:11.980 --> 00:06:15.860 and squabbling and and these kinds of things. And that's what's going on here. 69 00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:25.089 The feast of Booth was at hand, and now we have this conflict 70 00:06:25.329 --> 00:06:30.769 between Jesus and his brothers. Jesus is supposed to go to Jerusalem and eventually 71 00:06:30.810 --> 00:06:32.959 he does, just not in the way they want. He's supposed to go 72 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:38.040 to Jerusalem with all of the others, to come there to celebrate, to 73 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.879 worship the Lord, but he can't, not the way they want. Why? 74 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:45.839 Because the Jews want to kill him. This is not a mark of 75 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:47.350 the feast, this is not a mark of unity, this is not a 76 00:06:47.509 --> 00:06:55.230 mark of a togetherness. And the same goes with his brothers. So here 77 00:06:55.350 --> 00:06:59.709 we have Jesus his brothers giving him a hard time and perhaps even worse. 78 00:07:00.990 --> 00:07:03.500 Like Joseph's brothers. They seem to be trying to push him into a situation 79 00:07:03.819 --> 00:07:10.220 that he did not want to go, not in the way that they wanted 80 00:07:10.339 --> 00:07:15.420 anyway. Where do we see that conflict? Where am I getting that from? 81 00:07:15.459 --> 00:07:20.129 A few places. One reason is that the way his brothers speak to 82 00:07:20.170 --> 00:07:27.250 him. In verse three, they say leave here and go to Judea, 83 00:07:27.329 --> 00:07:30.920 and even that word go I usually has this way of go away from this 84 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:36.439 place. It's no way. It's emphasized twice. Leave here and go away 85 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:42.079 right there. They're sending him well, kicking him out, you know, 86 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:46.029 rather than sending him off. They want him to to leave them, leave 87 00:07:46.189 --> 00:07:50.029 and go to Judea. That's the first sense in which we we sense the 88 00:07:50.110 --> 00:07:56.709 conflict. The second comes in the next words that your disciples may also see 89 00:07:56.790 --> 00:08:00.660 the works that you are doing if you go through. If that sounds like 90 00:08:00.779 --> 00:08:07.420 they're distancing themselves. Your disciples right, you'd be right to assume that. 91 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:11.819 Every time this phrase your disciples is used in the New Testament, it's used 92 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:18.410 to speak of one group that does not belong to that group. In other 93 00:08:18.449 --> 00:08:22.769 words, they don't count themselves as Jesus, as disciples they're saying, Hey, 94 00:08:22.889 --> 00:08:24.970 look, if you want to do this thing you're doing, which we 95 00:08:24.050 --> 00:08:28.759 don't really believe in, as John tells us, you should go that your 96 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:35.399 disciples, that those other people may react in in this way. For example, 97 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:39.720 in Matthew Fourteen, the Pharisees say, why don't your disciples fast? 98 00:08:41.549 --> 00:08:46.309 Right, they're talking about this group that they don't belong to. Why don't 99 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:52.149 your disciples wash their hands? These kind of things. So his own brothers, 100 00:08:52.870 --> 00:08:56.259 they don't see themselves connected to him, to his mission. They are 101 00:08:56.299 --> 00:09:03.740 not following him and we see that in their actions as well. They assume 102 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:09.500 that Jesus is doing it wrong. They look at Jesus and they look at 103 00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:11.850 the works. They're not denying the works that he has done, on the 104 00:09:11.970 --> 00:09:16.649 miracles and things that have happened. They've probably seen them firsthand, at least 105 00:09:16.690 --> 00:09:22.330 some of them, but they believe instead of following Jesus, they think he 106 00:09:22.529 --> 00:09:28.120 needs to follow them, their instructions. They assume he's he's doing it wrong. 107 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:33.759 One commentator notes that it's in some ways similar to Satan's temptations of Jesus 108 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:37.279 in the Wilderness. Jump off this temple and I'll give you your your kingdom, 109 00:09:39.110 --> 00:09:43.389 but Jesus wasn't going to bring about the Kingdom of God in any way 110 00:09:43.629 --> 00:09:48.590 other than the one that was according to his will, which was according to 111 00:09:48.629 --> 00:09:56.059 the father's will. What did they want? How did they think he was 112 00:09:56.179 --> 00:10:00.779 doing it wrong? Well, they thought he should go big, take the 113 00:10:00.860 --> 00:10:03.340 show on the road, do your tricks. Are you even who you are, 114 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:09.049 who you say you are? Notice what they say. Leave here, 115 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:13.490 go to Judea that your disciples may also see the works that you are doing, 116 00:10:15.690 --> 00:10:18.809 for no one works in the secret if he seeks to be openly known. 117 00:10:18.529 --> 00:10:22.960 What's the deal, Jesus? Do you care about this mission or not? 118 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:24.919 Do you really want what you're after or not? If you do, 119 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.080 then you should go be open about it. Why are you hiding? What 120 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:35.159 are you hiding, Jesus? If you do these things, show yourself to 121 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:41.590 the world now. This, of course, is a great idea. If 122 00:10:41.669 --> 00:10:46.070 Jesus is mission was to build a name for himself so that people might follow 123 00:10:46.070 --> 00:10:50.659 him for generations, to for the next generation or two, so that he 124 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:56.899 could die a nice old age, wealthy and powerful, with a few million 125 00:10:56.940 --> 00:11:03.330 followers. If Jesus wanted to achieve that, then this would probably be a 126 00:11:03.529 --> 00:11:09.169 great thing to do. He was capable of doing these good works. People 127 00:11:09.169 --> 00:11:13.690 were impressed, people were following. It was time to scale up, it's 128 00:11:13.809 --> 00:11:18.559 time to go to Judea. There's time to make it big time. But 129 00:11:18.600 --> 00:11:24.759 of course Jesus doesn't want any of that. Jesus is not looking to establish 130 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:35.389 himself in this world. Jesus is looking to conquer the world, and he's 131 00:11:35.389 --> 00:11:41.509 going to do that not by doing a bunch of miracles that people are amazed 132 00:11:41.549 --> 00:11:46.659 at. He's going to do it by doing miracles that demonstrate the nature of 133 00:11:46.779 --> 00:11:52.419 his kingdom in a way that will finally be accomplished on a cross, where 134 00:11:52.460 --> 00:12:01.850 he willingly goes to suffer this death in order to establish an everlasting kingdom, 135 00:12:03.009 --> 00:12:05.409 the kingdom that we sung about, and be still my soul, this kingdom 136 00:12:05.490 --> 00:12:13.649 where there is no sorrow, no sins, no strife. They think Jesus 137 00:12:13.649 --> 00:12:16.720 is thinking too small, assuming they're not just trying to set him up to 138 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:22.399 be killed. We're kind of going best possible scenario here, assuming the best. 139 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:28.240 They think Jesus is thinking too small, but of course it's just the 140 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:33.789 opposite. They are thinking way too small, because he is going to do 141 00:12:33.990 --> 00:12:39.909 something that turns over the entire world, and perhaps they sense that and perhaps 142 00:12:39.990 --> 00:12:43.539 they don't. That's why they don't trust him. As John says, they 143 00:12:43.620 --> 00:12:50.340 did not believe in him. They, like all sinners, were attached to 144 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:56.820 this world, attached to the things of this world. Sure, people who 145 00:12:56.820 --> 00:13:00.889 are attached to this world complain about things and they don't like suffering, but 146 00:13:00.970 --> 00:13:03.730 they're not going to give it up, after Jesus, not for the things 147 00:13:03.769 --> 00:13:11.210 he's doing, because there's power here, there's strength here. Well so we 148 00:13:11.370 --> 00:13:15.000 think. Of course that's all an illusion. Right. What does Jesus say? 149 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.159 Don't store up your treasures here on earth, because what happens? Moths 150 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:22.679 eat it, thieves, steal it, rust destroys it. That's what happens. 151 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.960 We always forget that and we pile up and we pile up and we 152 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:31.350 attach ourselves to fame and power and money and all these things, but they 153 00:13:31.389 --> 00:13:35.789 all go away. Over and over and over again, they go away, 154 00:13:35.750 --> 00:13:43.299 whether it's relationships or possessions or learning or whatever. It read ecclesiastes, vanity 155 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:46.899 of vanities. You attach yourself to the world and the things under the sun 156 00:13:46.220 --> 00:13:54.889 and it all goes away. Yet in our sinfulness we hang on to that 157 00:13:56.129 --> 00:14:00.330 because we don't want to give up control because we want to stay who we 158 00:14:00.490 --> 00:14:03.769 are. We don't want to submit our lives to God. We want to 159 00:14:03.809 --> 00:14:07.610 do things in our own way and the ways that we think our best. 160 00:14:07.090 --> 00:14:11.480 We want to cling to our treasures. And of course that's all foolishness, 161 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:18.200 and that's why Jesus says, as we continue you on in this passage, 162 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.509 my time is not yet come, but your time is always here. I 163 00:14:24.549 --> 00:14:28.870 can't go to Judea right now in the ways that you want and the ways 164 00:14:28.909 --> 00:14:33.750 that you're saying you can go, though it's a perfect fit for you. 165 00:14:35.309 --> 00:14:41.980 The world cannot hate you. Sounds like a good thing until you remember what 166 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:48.419 the world is and how the world doesn't last. But it hates me, 167 00:14:48.700 --> 00:14:54.610 he says verse seven, because I testify about it, that it's works are 168 00:14:54.730 --> 00:15:00.049 evil, that it's works will perish, that it's works will be consumed in 169 00:15:00.250 --> 00:15:07.559 God's wrath and judgment. Nobody likes to hear that message. Who is attached 170 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:11.639 to themselves, who is attached to the things of this world, who are 171 00:15:11.639 --> 00:15:18.159 attached to the powers that they have, and so they do not believe him, 172 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:20.830 which is to say they do not receive the work of God, the 173 00:15:22.029 --> 00:15:26.110 father and the son. They reject the son, which means they reject the 174 00:15:26.190 --> 00:15:31.350 father, which means they are rejecting God. They are opposed to God. 175 00:15:31.750 --> 00:15:39.779 This is the picture of unbelief. This is what idolatry of the heart looks 176 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:45.740 like and this is how it motivates our acts. What does unbelief look like? 177 00:15:46.259 --> 00:15:52.049 It looks like sending Jesus away. It looks like trying to lead Jesus 178 00:15:52.169 --> 00:15:58.210 instead of followed Jesus. It looks like holding on to the things of this 179 00:15:58.450 --> 00:16:04.759 world instead of the things that he is bringing the age to come. What 180 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:10.360 does the opposite look like? We've seen some examples of this already, and 181 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:12.799 John, the woman at the well, for example, who sees her sins 182 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:18.110 exposed, who sees the Messiah standing before her and she runs away and tells 183 00:16:18.190 --> 00:16:23.909 her her fellow townspeople, he revealed to me everything that I've done. Come 184 00:16:25.029 --> 00:16:30.990 and see. or The disciples who heard his true disciples, who heard the 185 00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:34.059 preaching of John The baptist. Here is the lamb of God who takes into 186 00:16:34.059 --> 00:16:40.019 the way of the sins of the world, and they followed him wherever he 187 00:16:40.139 --> 00:16:44.539 was going. They were going to follow him. Or the man by the 188 00:16:44.659 --> 00:16:48.210 pool and Bethesda. In a way, when Jesus says get up and take 189 00:16:48.250 --> 00:16:51.049 up your bed and walk, he doesn't say now, wait a second, 190 00:16:51.090 --> 00:16:53.090 I've been here a long time and I'm not really sure this is going to 191 00:16:53.210 --> 00:16:56.769 work and let's have a dialog about this now. He just gets up his 192 00:16:56.970 --> 00:17:04.960 bed and he walks there. We've had other examples it well as well, 193 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:08.799 and hopefully you've had examples of this in your own life, people that you 194 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:15.910 see, and hopefully yourself to that are following Jesus, drawing close to him, 195 00:17:15.269 --> 00:17:22.190 seeing things from his perspective, his way, his truth. All of 196 00:17:22.269 --> 00:17:26.309 these things have in common. These positive examples that I'm giving, positive examples 197 00:17:26.390 --> 00:17:30.980 of faith and that instead of pushing Jesus away, instead of sending him off 198 00:17:30.019 --> 00:17:33.779 to do his own things so that we might live our lives, they draw 199 00:17:34.019 --> 00:17:40.460 close to Jesus and then they act in a way that assumes the truth of 200 00:17:40.779 --> 00:17:45.170 what he is saying. We draw close to Jesus and we say what he's 201 00:17:45.210 --> 00:17:49.569 doing is true and then we act in a way that is according to that. 202 00:17:49.730 --> 00:17:53.130 We go tell people about it, we get up out of our sin 203 00:17:53.329 --> 00:17:59.440 and our misery and we start walking in freedom. We stopped trying to lead 204 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:03.799 Jesus or tell him what to do or judge him, but instead we let 205 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:10.079 him judge us. We follow his lead. What does that look like for 206 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:15.430 a church, for covenant? It means that we want to get really, 207 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:18.750 really close, as close as we possibly can, to Jesus and his words 208 00:18:18.829 --> 00:18:23.190 and his teaching. Means that we come to church and we hear his word 209 00:18:23.309 --> 00:18:27.779 and we we want to hear it proclaimed and we join ourselves together in groups 210 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:32.460 where we study the Bible and we hear about him and we learn about him. 211 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:36.900 We want to under stand more and more and more of who he is, 212 00:18:37.180 --> 00:18:42.210 what he did and what he's doing so that we can build up a 213 00:18:42.210 --> 00:18:48.730 great body of knowledge and impress people. Oh so we can follow him, 214 00:18:48.970 --> 00:18:52.930 so that we can follow him, because Jesus takes us to the Cross and 215 00:18:53.329 --> 00:18:59.640 through death and into eternal life. That's what he does for his disciples. 216 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:03.720 We trust him, we trust his ways, we trust his truth, and 217 00:19:03.880 --> 00:19:08.680 the world will say, why waste your time with these things when you could 218 00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:14.150 be making a real difference? And we have to learn. If we know 219 00:19:14.230 --> 00:19:18.390 who Jesus is, we have to learn to look at that and go whatever 220 00:19:18.430 --> 00:19:26.819 or know or walk away. Depends on the scenario in the context, but 221 00:19:26.900 --> 00:19:30.700 we have to learn to distance ourselves from that and say I'm not going to 222 00:19:30.900 --> 00:19:37.140 follow that way. My Life is not I'm called to live in this world, 223 00:19:37.809 --> 00:19:45.730 but as citizens of another world, another kingdom. And so we stay 224 00:19:45.849 --> 00:19:52.690 close to him, we see ourselves attached to him and his life and his 225 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:56.960 successes. We live our lives according to the citizenship that we have under him 226 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:03.640 as our king, and it also means beloved that the conflict Jesus has with 227 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:10.190 the world means that we too will be in conflict with the world. We 228 00:20:10.269 --> 00:20:14.349 don't want Jesus to say of us what he said of his, his brothers. 229 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:19.230 You'll be fine, the world's not going to hate you. We don't 230 00:20:19.269 --> 00:20:22.940 want that to be said of us. It's not like we're looking to enter 231 00:20:23.019 --> 00:20:26.539 into conflict. The Apostle Paul tells us to do our best. We live 232 00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:33.380 at peace with our neighbors, to live quiet lives, but when it comes 233 00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:37.650 to a conflict between this world and the next, between this kingdom and that 234 00:20:37.769 --> 00:20:42.130 kingdom, there's no middle ground. You're either on his side or not. 235 00:20:42.369 --> 00:20:48.369 You're either his disciple or is not. You follow him or not. Now 236 00:20:48.410 --> 00:20:52.160 I'm not saying we don't struggle and fall, I'm not saying we have to 237 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:57.640 work through things sometimes, but I am saying there's only two ways and that 238 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:02.839 we need to learn to see our lives in this way. And the conflict 239 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:06.869 that we have here in John Seven points us to these two sides, to 240 00:21:07.029 --> 00:21:11.349 two choices, to trusting and serving, and we have to pick. That's 241 00:21:11.390 --> 00:21:17.190 the big idea here. We have to pick sides and live on that side, 242 00:21:18.230 --> 00:21:22.380 and that message is I'll circle back to something I mentioned in the beginning. 243 00:21:22.380 --> 00:21:26.180 Is Not just something for people out there in the world, it's for 244 00:21:26.259 --> 00:21:33.170 us right here. Remember that the there were people who were going to this 245 00:21:33.450 --> 00:21:40.690 great festival with murder on their minds. Just because we're coming to church, 246 00:21:40.890 --> 00:21:45.809 just because we're here to enjoy and celebrate the things of the Lord, doesn't 247 00:21:45.890 --> 00:21:49.039 mean that there's not evil in our hearts, and we have to be honest 248 00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:55.079 with ourselves and with the Lord with that. Jesus and the Jews and his 249 00:21:55.200 --> 00:22:00.240 brothers were all going to the same religious feast, but not all we're going 250 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:04.710 for the same purpose and for the right reasons. Instead of celebrating the past 251 00:22:04.869 --> 00:22:10.230 and looking forward to the future, when one day all the Wilderness Times would 252 00:22:10.230 --> 00:22:15.539 end and God's provisions would be consummated. They were going about, they were 253 00:22:15.579 --> 00:22:21.220 going there to bring about the death of the one who fulfills all of these 254 00:22:21.299 --> 00:22:30.369 things. Jesus had come into this world not merely to enjoy the religious feasts 255 00:22:30.450 --> 00:22:36.450 and participate in the culture and take alongside of them or come alongside of them. 256 00:22:36.529 --> 00:22:42.450 Jesus came into the world to fulfill them. He came to take us 257 00:22:42.490 --> 00:22:47.440 through the Wilderness and even death itself, so that we might always and only 258 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:55.839 have life. And he establed wish. Is this not by fancy magic tricks, 259 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:02.269 though he certainly did powerful, miraculous things for which we ought to praise 260 00:23:02.309 --> 00:23:10.150 him for, but these things pointed forward to the work on the Cross and 261 00:23:10.269 --> 00:23:14.619 the benefits that would come as a result of that. Through the cross, 262 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:21.940 Jesus takes away struggle and suffering and death. He removes the barrier between us 263 00:23:22.019 --> 00:23:26.059 and God and US and heaven. He takes us through those baptism waters of 264 00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:30.970 Jordan so that he might establish us in Canaan, though the warld, though 265 00:23:32.170 --> 00:23:36.410 hated by the world, he came to save the world. He became a 266 00:23:36.609 --> 00:23:40.569 new Moses, a new Joshua, the new seat of Israel, the King 267 00:23:40.690 --> 00:23:45.599 of the Kingdom established forever. That's why we hope in him, that's why 268 00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:52.599 he is our savior from our sin, and so, instead of rejecting him, 269 00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:57.349 instead of pushing away from him, follow him, trust him. He 270 00:23:57.509 --> 00:24:02.509 is the consummation of all the things in the old and he brings about all 271 00:24:02.549 --> 00:24:07.430 the things that God has promised for the new and the time to come. 272 00:24:07.509 --> 00:24:14.619 Let's pray and ask that God would bless us in these words and help us 273 00:24:15.339 --> 00:24:15.420 to do as we ought