Well, I invite you to turn, if you have your Bibles this morning, to the Gospel of John. We're continuing our study in the Gospel of John. We come to chapter 7 this morning. My favorite chapter ever. Did you know that? I say that all the time. But I want you to know that this really is the most underrated chapter in the Gospel of John. You knew about John 6. You knew about all the feeding of the 5,000. But how much time have you ever spent in John chapter 7? It's a fascinating section here that I want to read a little bit through and take a sort of bird's eye view so that we see the whole perspective and big picture of what is happening. So I'm going to pick up at verse 1 and read through verse 24, though the text will stop at verse 19. This is the word of the Lord. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, Leave here and go to Judea that your disciples also may see the works that you're doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast, I'm not going up to the feast, for my time has not yet fully come. After saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, he's a good man, others said, no, he's leading the people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. By the way, that's not private. I just want you to notice that's not a private moment. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, how is it that this man has learning when he's never studied? So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory. But the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered, You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. And there we'll stop the reading of God's word. You remember that back in John chapter 1, when Jesus was being presented, and you remember John introduced Jesus, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, and he introduced him by saying, We beheld his glory. We saw his glory. But what did they see? That's the question, which is the issue of this particular text, which is glory. What did they see? John is showing us the problem of Israel not receiving her Messiah. That's the issue of John's gospel that he's showing so that we would not do the same thing, that we would learn from Israel and learn from this history as the gospel goes out to the nations, that we would be believing and not unbelieving. That's the purpose of the gospel of John. That's what John is all about. These things are written that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing that you would have life in his name. So that's the heart of this particular gospel. But sometimes what John is doing is giving us an anatomy of unbelief. Unbelief in surprising ways. Unbelief in ways that make us a little bit uncomfortable and is actually much more common to us than we might be comfortable to admit. And that's what we have this morning. a particular kind of unbelief that we don't think about, but it's really common today. A particular kind of unbelief, a certain kind of unbelief, and all of it challenging us not to do that. That's the point here, to think about what Jesus is saying and how we know he is true. And what marks him as true? Signs and wonders or the teaching? Signs and wonders or the teaching? This is the most important issue for us. One of the most important issues of life in the midst of all the chaotic things that are happening right now. That we get to the real matters. We get to the most important matters. We get to the matters that really do matter the most. And that is the challenge that Jesus gives here. So you'll notice here, that's how I'm breaking down this passage this morning, by a challenge that Jesus receives, a correction that he gives, and then he confronts them with a certain conclusion that is important for all of us. And that's how we'll look at this first beginning with the challenge here. If you notice in verse 1, after this, Jesus went about Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now, anyone might read that and say this is a mark of him being afraid of being killed, and that's not at all what the point is here. The point is, and what we'll see here, is he's on a divine calendar, and nothing can happen before the time. Everything is appointed. And Jesus was careful in that way to honor the work that his father had given him and even the timing that the father had given him. We saw that when Jesus went to Samaria, when he had to stop through Samaria at a certain time and a certain moment to meet the Samaritan woman and save her. It's really beautiful that John shows us this. But they have been plotting now to kill him for 18 months back in chapter five with that healing event, which we're gonna come to next week. It comes up again. And back in chapter five with the healing on and the Sabbath issue. And for 18 months, he has lived under the threat of death. Can you imagine living this way in this life? Under the threat of everywhere you go, They want to actually grab you and put an end to your life. You think, we have it bad. Now we're told it's the Feast of Tabernacles. Isn't it interesting that John is continuing to raid Exodus like we've been seeing? Continuing to use the Exodus to show us certain things about Jesus and to say it's all about Jesus and all the fulfillment is about him, of all those events? So remember here, Jesus is claiming these things, And now what we have is we have passed through Egypt, if you will. We have celebrated the Passover. We have been delivered at the sea. We have been provided bread from heaven. We have dealt with complaining. We have seen the rock who is Christ. And now we're at the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a great season of festivity and happiness in Israel. I wish I could communicate this. It was the greatest festival of happiness in Israel. It took place for seven days on the 15th of the month, celebrating their deliverance from Egypt. This is interesting because according to Leviticus 23, they would dwell in booths for these days. They would build little booths and they would dwell in them to celebrate how God protected them in the wilderness and covered them and sheltered them. And they would put flowers around the booths. Sacrifices were made. Trumpets were blown. Daily in the temple, they even had a ceremony of outpouring of water that celebrated the water from the rock. They had a candle lighting service. Pillar of fire, celebrating the pillar of fire that guided them through the wilderness. Add to that, there was a torch parade. This was a great celebration in Israel. Who's going to be the downer to come in and tell them that the whole thing is being celebrated wrongly, right? Well, here we are. This is precisely the situation. You'll notice here that Jesus has his disciples and his brothers following him. His family is following him. His tight-knit family. The last people you ever want to offend, right? We find that it includes his very brothers and close family relationship. And so they come to Jesus in verse 3 and they're thinking, they're thinking, This is not right, what Jesus is doing. We don't like the calendar. We don't like the path he's walking. It doesn't even make sense. And so they come and they get in his face a little bit. You have to understand the original a little bit here to appreciate. This is not a nice statement. This is a chide. They are snarky here. Get out of here, Jesus. What are you doing? Go to Judea that your disciples may see the works that you're doing. They need to see you. For no one does anything in secret if he wants to be made known somewhere, right? Who does that? We all know that in life. If you want to be made known, you're not doing it in your bedroom. You're going to go out to the beach. You're going to go make a public display and have great crowds around you. If you do these things that you do with your signs and your wonders, we want you to show yourself to the world. It's time you do that, but you do it in the center of the world, which is Judea. Be like saying, let's go to Grand Rapids, right? Well, it depends on where your center is, doesn't it? You don't need to be out in Blythe. You need to get down to San Diego. You need to get out on the pier. You see, your teaching, Jesus, has driven away a lot of your disciples. Didn't that happen in the last section? Many of these disciples who were following Jesus didn't like his teaching. And his teaching was offending people. And this has made the brothers, and this has made the family, and this has made his own disciples a little bit uncomfortable. Because we've seen Jesus do the real stuff out in Galilee. He needs to show himself. Teaching of Jesus was causing problems everywhere for them. So here we are. The signs and the wonders had been performed. Judea hasn't seen it to the degree that Galilee has seen it. And it's time that you dazzle them with your power, Jesus. You need to dazzle them. You need to show them. You need fame. You need notoriety. You can't do this stuff in secret any longer. So this is the issue. You have a PR problem. and deserve recognition. And what's happening right now down in Judea is the booth parade, the torch lighting. Walk down there and show them what you can do. Can you imagine if you just showed yourself? Sounds familiar. It should. Jesus, throw yourself down off the pinnacle of the temple. You can have the glory now through his own disciples and his own family. Who said that? Satan. Satan said that. John immediately follows up, unless we thought this was a good idea, he immediately follows up by saying, and still his brothers did not believe in him. Telling you how to read this. This is bad. this is bad. So this is a form of unbelief that John is presenting to us through this challenge here, a form of unbelief that we don't think about much, as I said, is very common, more common than we realize in the Christian church today. Look at all that's happening in the world right now. Look at all of the problems in the world right now. Look what we believe about Jesus. Look what we believe he can do. He's risen from the dead. All power and honor and glory and majesty belongs to him forever and ever. And he seems to do nothing about this. Where is he? He shows his power all wrongly and he shows it in all the wrong places. And it's frustrating. The worship experience is dull. you should be over here, or you should be over there. Give us something better than this. Why, if your name is supposed to be known to the ends of the earth, does it seem to be known nowhere? If you want that name known, you're going to have to do something different. You're going to have to do something better. You're going to have to show yourself more. You see the issue? This is unbelief, by the way. Remember, this is what the text is telling us. This is a form of unbelief that shows itself in a kind of dissatisfaction with everything that Jesus has put in place with him. Why, oh Lord? And it's this kind of unbelief that really leads us to the question that I think is exposed here is, who's this really about? That's the thing I couldn't come back. I couldn't get away from through this. Who is this kingdom and this kingdom building and all that we're doing and all that we're involved with? Who is this really about? Me or him? And that's why this correction is so important because what we're finding here is the following, as we'll see later, is all about them. Now, the correction here comes as Jesus says to them, my time has not yet come, but your time is always ready, which is an interesting response, isn't it? My time is not here yet, but yours is always ready, and that gets to the divine timetable, the calendar that he has been given that he's following. In other words, what he's saying here is, I am on a divine schedule, and that glory that you want, that name that you want, which will be revealed to the ends of the earth, is not on your timetable, but you are always after the glory right now. You are always after the glory in the present. And before glory, as we will see, comes a cross, I must first, as Jesus was saying to all of his disciples, I must suffer and I must die. And then glory comes. And this is the challenge, I think, as we look at this, as he hung around to teach them, and I believe this point, we're going to see this fulfilled here, as he is really working hard in the temple, actually to teach them this very truth. But it's this frustration that's here exposed in John chapter 7, and I think we have to stop and realize how important of an application moment this is for us if we're going through all of these problems and all these challenges right now. It's the same sort of course that we walk in life. Jesus told us that through much tribulation we're entering the kingdom and that one day the glory that is to be revealed is going to be so awesome and amazing. We can't even begin, the scripture say, to describe it to you, but you always are wanting it now and that is the essence and heart of your problem. We want it now with the school. Lord, solve this. Give us the glory now. Let it be fixed now without walking through the tribulation that we're called to go through. cross, hardship, difficulty, then glory because of divine calendars at work. This is what Jesus is saying to them. And Jesus is saying to them that I have a certain death to undergo and you're not on board with that yet. You've not accepted that yet. You've not accepted the mission yet. You've not accepted what's laid out for you yet. That glory for you is always ready your way. We live under a struggle, don't we? and one of the most frustrating things about life is that God's timing is not our timing, and that's what makes this life very hard to live at times. Truth be told, that's the heart of right now what we're facing. God's timing is not ours, and how we respond to that, how we go forward in that, can show certain unbelief or belief. And so that's what we're being challenged with here as we see that this unbelief follows and are frustrated they are with Jesus' seeming inactivity, Jesus says something now that's interesting to correct them and to help them go forward. Notice what he says. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil, its works are evil. So you go up to the feast. I'm not going right now. Which must have been a confusing moment for them. I'm not going. And he's sort of illustrating the point, I think, for them. I'm not going. You want me to go up to the feast on your schedule and in your glory, but you're not listening to my message. If I go up there, my intention is not to go up there for publicity. My intention is not to go up there for glory. My whole aim is different. If I go up there and I stand in the middle of the temple and I get in the middle of the temple, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to start telling them that their works are evil. Now, remember, this is a torch parade. There's lights. Everyone's having a grand celebration. Jesus says, if I go there, that's what I'm going to do. So stay with me on this. There's booths everywhere in Israel in the streets. And there are trumpets being blown. And there are sacrifices being made. There are torches and candle lightings. And Jesus says, and what he's pointing out here, is that the whole religious system, if I go in the midst of that, I'm going to expose it. Because you know why I'm going to expose it? Because it's not about me. Isn't that what we've seen in John the whole way? The system that had been created, the religious observances, missed Jesus. Think of this marvelous moment that from the beginning, John's gospel said, he came and he tabernacled among us. He's the booth. He is it. And here they are all celebrating the Feast of Booths and not him. Do you think he would accept that? Maybe to bring this home a little more, wouldn't it be like Christmas time? Families together, ugly sweaters are on, eggnogs out. We're all joining to sing Handel. We're all having a merry time. We're having a grand celebration as we do. We're decorating trees. We're having carols. We're doing everything culturally that we should do. And truth be told, none of it is celebrating a bloody Savior who's going to die. It's not so far off, is it? It's not so far off. Would he walk in and say, good job, you guys. Pet the sheep. You would say, you've missed the whole issue. You've missed the whole reason I came. I didn't come here to give you happy little celebrations with your family. I came here to rescue you from your sins. Because if you don't have Jesus, you don't have me. The wrath of God abides on you. And apart from me, you can't be saved. How would that go over? How would that go over? I think he's doing this for his brothers. I think he's doing this to help his family. I think he's showing ultimate love to his family. One of the most important things that Jesus ever said, and if there's any point in the sermon to get today, is what he now says, which is the essence and heart of what he's trying to say to the people. He said to them, I'm not speaking from earth. In other words, I'm not speaking words that I made up. Did you notice that? He says that here in verse 16. Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but him who sent me. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it's from God or whether I speak on my own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory. Here's what happened. There's mass confusion going on in the feast with regard to who Jesus is. Jesus says, I'm not going. And the next breath, after they're up there, he heads in and he begins to teach, ends up right in the middle of the temple teaching these things and get the sense that now he's addressing the very issue that his brothers and his disciples raised with him. And the leaders of the Pharisees and the scribes are all coming around Jesus and there's one thing that has infuriated them. Again, imagine if he had started healing right then and there. But they're furious because Jesus doesn't have a seminary degree. Jesus didn't go to our rabbinical schools. Jesus wasn't trained properly by us. They had their own prescribed interpretations of the scripture that no one could ever depart from, right? They're angry at what they're hearing. The implication being they're in disagreement with his interpretation of things as they had prescribed their own mandates and how the scriptures were to be read and they told everyone never to depart from that. Who is this guy? He's evil. No, he's good. Big debate happens about Jesus. And this is where then he breaks in in verse 16 and he begins to say to them something very clearly. You need to think very carefully about who is true and who is not. if anyone is true in this life, if anyone you're going to listen to is true in this life, what do you expect to hear? If anyone's false in this life speaking to you, what do you expect to hear? That's an important question, isn't it? What do you think you're going to hear? If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, the teaching. Whether it's from God or whether I'm doing it on my own authority for my own glory. This is a big moment in the Gospel of John for establishing credibility of the witness and the testimony itself, right? What is the testimony that comes to you? You know, I have a friend who's an NFL player. And we still, he was, he retired a few years ago. I've used him before here. We're friends and we talk, but he publishes all over the internet these, he's a pastor's son, and he publishes all over the internet these speeches, and he goes around speaking to large, large groups of people. And everything is about how you can overcome and how you can make yourself great. It's really remarkable, the positive thinking speech that comes out, and this with Christian language it's all about how to how to improve you and become you and become a better you and he's he's masterful at it people come and they flock and and at the end of the day they like him but what they like about him is is that through him they can become great themselves that's the point it inspires them to greatness it inspires them to be something and I wrote him and I told him to stop that he didn't like that but he knows better he knows better if anyone if there's anything in the sermon today it's this isn't it do you know what you're hearing is true how do you know what you're hearing is true if somebody's desperately attempting to honor themselves he speaks from himself says Jesus for his own glory this is where we have to be really discerning in the christian faith today don't we the disciples had challenged him go show yourself show your glory make yourself great in front of them you want to know whether you're hearing what you're hearing is true it's a matter of life and death isn't it if i sought my own glory my message would come from me i would run around giving you positive speeches, I would tell those Pharisees they are great. I'd pat them on the back. I'd run around and give them all the encouragement that they're really doing well in life and that they're fine. Do you think they ever talk about sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come? If I speak for myself, says Jesus. Whatever I want to do to please people, it's what you'll get. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent me is true. There's no unrighteousness in him. What he's saying is to get honor, you have to give it. You flatter the spirit and conventional wisdom of the time, but I'm not doing that. I'm not. I refuse to do that. Here's how you know my doctrine's true. I testify about the world, that its works are evil. You have to have a deep sense in your life of your misery. You need to be have brought home to your heart how bad your predicament is before God. You need to have a sense of the severity of your sin. And you need to come to me for life. That's the most pressing issue of the day. And the news doesn't deal with any of that. And then Jesus gives the strongest indictment in the gospel. I think in all the gospels. If you stood in a Jewish context and heard this, I think John wanted this to be the pinnacle. We've gone all the way through Exodus and now we've landed in Exodus chapter 20. The law is given. We've gone through the feast of booze. We've gone through the bread. We've gone through the Passover. We get to Exodus 20. Now it's the law of God and he looks at them and he says, what? none of you keeps it. Whoa. None of you keeps the law. If we ever accept that, because that's his, God's assessment of the human race. God is righteous, God is holy. If we accept that assessment, we're in deep trouble. And this is where I thought this is a good point to pause engaging the text and say, see how good Jesus is? Why is he here? Why did he come? To fix that. To save people. To love people. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. But whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. What are we believing? That the Son of Man has to suffer and die and rise again and that we have to come in Him for life and then our lives begin to look like His. And in this life, it's suffering, then glory. This is the message from heaven and that's how you know it's true. No other religion could make this up. No other religion would accept this. This is what I've always thought. If you ever want to test the validity of the Christian faith and understand its validity and its message, you see it in its proper diagnosis of the human nature, which nobody else would ever give you. But God does. And that's an ultimate testimony of his love. Because the end game is not judgment, as he announces these things. The goal is salvation. But you've got to walk here with them. You've got to listen to the teaching. You've got to believe that teaching. You've got to ask why you're involved with Jesus. This is why Hebrews says, see that you don't refuse him who speaks. It's the doctrine. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, listen to this, how much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven? we have the greatest testimony through the mouth of Jesus, who in these last days, he's speaking to us through his word. And that just happened to you. And you see how powerful then the confession of Peter is. In the midst of all of this, when Jesus looks at him and says, do you guys want to leave my teaching? And Peter says, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to know and believe that you are the Christ. You are the Holy One from God. Christ doesn't confront our lives to leave us here. Christ confronts our lives to set us free. Don't you wait till chapter 8 when he says this, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Isn't that what everyone's searching for right now in this world? Freedom to be truly set free and yet they look for all the wrong answers. Jesus is the answer. On the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. See that you don't refuse that voice. The father says, that's my son's voice. Hear him. And that's the only voice in this sad world right now that we need to hear, and it's the answer. Let's thank him together. Heavenly Father, thank you for instructing us in your word and helping us to understand this and giving us confidence that what is spoken to us are the most important words. For as we sing out and ask you in Psalm 139 to try us and test us and show us what offensive way is within us, that you might lead us in the way, and the way is Jesus. So thank you for caring to do this. Let us be receptive to your word and not be a people of the show. For we have enough showtime today. May we respond to the teaching, believing, and in the great sign of the resurrection, may we go forward in that power, knowing that the glory is soon to come. In our patient tribulations and afflictions, let us remember the very path of our Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.