Antagonism to Doctrine from the Family  John 7:1-9

Obviously there is a major transition between the end of the last chapter, which also took place in Galilee, and the events in chapter seven. There is a point about halfway through the Gospel when finally the controversy between Jesus and the leaders and the people come to a head. There is a rejection of Him and there is a turning point. No longer does He present Himself publicly as the Messiah but His ministry becomes more and more private to the disciples in preparing them for the church age. So we see this transition take place and in chapter seven Jesus will do some interesting things and there will be a tremendous conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities.

There has been a flow, according to the way John has organised the Gospel. First we see Jesus in Jerusalem at the temple, and then he is out of Jerusalem in the country-side. Then He is back in Jerusalem, then out of Jerusalem. So where do we expect to find Him now in chapter seven? He is going to be back in Jerusalem. John is going to show us in this chapter how Jesus’ movements fizzled out: the dynamics of the negative volition in Judea and the hostility of the religious leadership. In the midst of this we are going to see that not only was there negative volition among the people, but we will see the negative volition among Jesus’ own family.

John 7:1 ^NASB “After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.” Verses 1 and 2 describe the setting for the next couple of chapters. “Jesus was walking” is imperfect active indicative of peripateo [peripatew]. All of the verbs in this verse are in the imperfect tense. The imperfect tense is a past tense and it refers to continuous action in past time. We could translate it: “After these things Jesus was continually walking in Galilee.” John never covers much of the Galilean ministry of the Lord. He focuses a lot on what takes place in Jerusalem and the conflict with the religious leaders in Jerusalem. It is up to the Synoptic Gospels to cover the details of what took place in Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. This is just bypassed here by John. In Judea the Jews were continually seeking to fulfil the purpose of killing Him. They had already decided and that happened in chapter five after the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath. They are constantly plotting against Him.

The principle that we should derive from this is that Jesus took various common sense precautions to protect His life. He does not go in harms way until it is time to go in harms way. He doesn’t flaunt His position in front of the Jewish leaders down in Judea. He doesn’t directly challenge them. He knows that it will eventually come to a head but in the meantime He has some things He has to accomplish and some doctrine He has to teach. So He takes evasive action.

John uses the term “the Jews” t refer to the Jewish leaders who are hostile to Jesus, who have rejected His claims to be the Messiah, it does not refer to every Jew in Judea. At this time Jesus is facing four specific problems. In the last chapter He experienced a tremendous cataclysmic plummet in popularity. Secondly, many of His own disciples (not the twelve) defected at this time. Third, one of the twelve in the inner circle is not even a believer; he is going to be a traitor. And then the fourth problem is that the religious leadership in Judea has determined to remove Him from the scene. So Jesus is experiencing rejection on a massive scale. But Jesus is going to solve the problem of rejection by the use of the stress-busters—eight of the ten were available to Jesus. He didn’t have to use the first one, confession, because He was impeccable and He didn’t have to use the last one, occupation with Christ, because that did not apply to Him. But He used all of the others in order to handle the problem of rejection.

The next verse gives us the time frame. John 7:2 ^NASB “Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.” This feast comes about in what we would call December, so this is approximately eight months after the events in John chapter six. It is interesting how John organises the Gospel around the Jewish feasts. The other Gospel writers don’t do that. Jesus is first presented to the Jews at Passover in 2:13. Then in chapter five we see that the Son of God discourse comes as a result of His healing the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath and it is an unnamed feast. Jesus then feeds the five thousand and precipitates the bread of life discourse at the time of the second Passover. Then eight months after that in our present passage Jesus is rejected by the national leaders at the feast of tabernacles. Then at the feast of dedication which comes a couple of weeks after this an attempt is made to stone Him (10:31, 39). We are in the last year of the life of Christ and it will culminate at the final Passover when Jesus is crucified, buried, and then resurrected.

The doctrine of the feasts

Israel has a religious calendar that is divided into two sections. There are the spring feasts and the fall feasts. All of these feasts are important and they are designed to communicate something different about God’s plan in human history. Each feast reveals a different aspect of God’s plan for Israel in its shadow form. The feasts do not relate to church age doctrine, they relate to God’s plan and program for the nation Israel. Each one represents certain things about rhe Messiah. The spring feasts and festivals foreshadowed events in the saving work of the Messiah at the first advent. The fall festivals all relate to the second advent. The thing to note is that these prophecies or types were fulfilled literally on the exact day of the feasts as far as the spring festivals are concerned. We can only assume from that that what the fall feasts represent will also be literally fulfilled on the exact day of that feast.

The spiring feasts include Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, firstfruits, and Pentecost. Pentecost is fifty days after Passover. All of these events take place in a two-month period from generally to mid-April down to early June. Then there is a gap which represents the church age until the fall festivals which includes the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles. The Passover was the first one on the calendar in the month of Nisan (about the middle of March). It is the first day in the first of three annual pilgrimage feasts. Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles are called pilgrimage feasts because every Jewish male is expected to take a pilgrimage in Jerusalem and offer sacrifices. That tells us that Jerusalem is going to be crowded at that time of the year. Scripture references: Exodus 23:17; Leviticus 23:4-8; Deuteronomy 16:16.

The Passover commemorated the historical deliverance from Egypt and was celebrated on the 14^th day of Nisan. Christ was crucified on Passover eve. As they were preparing for the Passover which began at sundown, during that afternoon they were slaughtering the Passover lamb. So Jesus Christ fulfils the type perfectly and is slaughtered at the same time that the Passover lamb is slaughtered in preparation for the meal. Passover foreshadowed redemption that would come about through Jesus Christ who was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The day after Passover the feast of unleavened bread began, a seven-day feast, and no work is done during that entire week. On the first day and the last day sacrifices were to be offered. The feats of unleavened bread portrayed the impeccability of the humanity of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, for Jesus Christ is called the bread of life. It portrays His impeccablity and also that He is the source of life. He is the source of life and also our nourishment in the spiritual life. The prohibition of work during this week represents the faith-rest drill in the believer’s life. The faith-rest drill is to characterise the believer’s life after salvation as he is nourished on the bread of life. Our relationship with God is not based on our works but on His work.

Whatever day Passover might fall on, whether it was a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, there would be a Saturday which was the Passover Sabbath and then the first day of the week following that, Sunday, was the feast of firstfruits. Firstfruits was dictated by the harvest. The first sheaf of barley was brought in from the field, cut and weighed before the Lord as a sign of divine blessing, and a guarantee that the harvest would be bountiful. Leviticus 23:9-14. The feast of firstfruits, we are told in 1 Corinthians 15:20, pictures the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as that first sheaf of barley represents the harvest that is to come, so Jesus resurrection represents the harvest of souls that is to come.

Fifty days following Passover we come to Pentecost. It is also called the feast of weeks in Exodus 34:22; Leviticus 23:15-22. This is the second annual pilgrimage feast celebrating the wheat harvest which is the arrival of God’s provision. Now the harvest is in, God has provided for the year. So thus Pentecost represents the fulfilment of God’s promise of the Holy Spirit to Israel. In the Old Testament in the new covenant passages God had promised the coming of the Holy Spirit who would indwell every believer. So Pentecost represents that provision of God for the nation Israel. That is why this is mentioned in Joel 2 and why Peter goes to Joel 2 in his Pentecost sermon. Yet if we look at the passage in Joel 2 we see that none of the things portrayed there take place on Pentecost in Acts 2. As a matter of fact the only thing that takes place on the day of Pentecost is that the disciples (and only the disciples) speak in tongues. That is not even mentioned in the Joel 2 passage. So what happened? Something went wrong. Why is it that the coming of the Holy Spirit is not as it was prophesied? Because the nation Israel rejected the Messiah. So the coming of the Holy Spirit as prophesied in Joel 2, which relates to the new covenant to Israel, is postponed. The Holy Spirit does come on the day of Pentecost in a unique way but that is not with the characteristics of Joel 2 but by speaking in tongues. Why? Because tongues is a sign of judgment to Israel in the Old Testament—1 Corinthians 14:21, 22; Isaiah 28:11, Israel would hear the gospel in Gentile languages and they would be evangelised by Gentiles. That would be a sign announcing the coming divine judgment of the fifth cycle of discipline on Israel unless they accepted the Messiah. So Israel in a sense still had the opportunity in the early days of the church to accept Jesus as Messiah. Their continued rejection solidified the program and instead of having the fulfilment of Old Testament promises there was the inauguration at Pentecost of the church age, and there we have the unique ministry of the Holy Spirit in terms of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, all three of which are unique to the church age. They will all be gone at the resurrection or rapture of the church at the end of this age. There is no indwelling of the Holy Spirit during the Tribulation period.

Pentecost, then, is the last of the spring festivals and it is fulfilled literally in its proper time frame; but the fall festivals are not fulfilled. The feast of trumpets foreshadows the regathering of the nation Israel to the land at the end of the Tribulation, it has nothing to do with anything else in prophecy. The feast of trumpets has nothing to do with the Rapture. It is described in Numbers 29:1; Leviticus 23:23-25. The day of atonement represents the recognition/acceptance by Israel of Jesus as the Messiah, and represents the regeneration of the nation. It is mentioned in Leviticus 23:26-32. The final feast in the calendar is tabernacles, Leviticus 23:33-44; Exodus 23:16; 34:22. This feast lasts seven days. So right away we know that when Jesus shows up in Jerusalem he is going to be there for seven days during this festival. The first and last days are marked by sacrifices, they are treated as high Sabbaths. This is represented by the winter harvest that is gathered in, and the people go out and build temporary shelters and branches out of tree limbs and branches in front of their house, and they live in these temporary booths camped out for a week. This is symbolic of the commencement of the Millennium. It symbolises how God is going to be the one who provides for them and the one who protects them in the Millennial kingdom. There are two themes in tabernacles. One of protection from the heat and protection from Israel’s enemies and pressure in history.

We are going to see here how the apostle John takes the feast of tabernacles and turns it around. He is going to show how just the opposite is happening. Instead of provision and protection we are going to see how everyone in Israel is safe except Yahweh incarnate who cannot find safety in the abode of the Jews. So the first two verses in John chapter seven give us the setting. In verse 3 we see the response of His family. At this point in time His family are not only unbelievers but they are ridiculing Him and are hostile to Him. John 7:3 ^NASB “Therefore His brothers said to Him, ‘Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing’.” He is in the midst of all this rejection. The people have left Him, the Pharisees are out to kill Him, His disciples are leaving Him, only the twelve are left and one of them is going to betray Him, and naturally in a setting of rejection that at least He would get a little aid and comfort from His family. Not the Lord! He is going to go home and they just ridicule Him and give Him a difficult time. So Jesus is facing the hostility of rejection and He is going to handle it with impersonal love towards His brothers. Notice that He doesn’t give exactly what some would called a “Christian response.” He doesn’t try to argue with them, He doesn’t try to show them the error of their ways, He doesn’t try to point out all the signs and evidence that He is right.

John 7:4 ^NASB “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. [5] For not even His brothers were believing in Him” – imperfect tense: they were continually disbelieving, rejecting Him.

John 7:6 ^NASB “So Jesus said to them, ‘My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune’.” We notice again and again how Jesus is conscious of the Father’s plan for His life and proper timing. Timing is everything. Jesus doesn’t try to argue with them or convince them but He is not going to let them use and abuse Him for their purposes either. “… your time is always opportune.” In other words, you always have the opportunity to shift from negative volition to positive volition. Then He gets a real jab in in verse 7 ^NASB “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” Why doesn’t the world hate them? Because the world system is based on autonomy and independence and arrogance. That is their position. They are in autonomy, independence and arrogance and rejection to Him, and so the world is not in opposition to them. The world is right along with them, they are going right along with the world in antagonism to the Lord and Saviour, the Lord of the universe who was incarnate before them. He says, “The world is antagonistic to me because my very presence reveals its shortcomings.” He testifies of it that its deeds are evil. Jesus by His very presence is causing a conflict, antagonism and hostility in the world.

John 7:8 ^NASB “Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” Jesus knew that God had a plan for His life and that plan included going to Jerusalem, but not on their agenda. Jesus does not let His antagonistic family control the conversation or His agenda. What we have today among Christians is almost a deification of marriage and family. We say we always have to respect marriage and the family and this becomes the overriding commandment. But whenever any of the divine institutions start assuming the role of God in terms of authority and giving orders that contradict the revealed will of God, that is the only time that we are justified in violating those authority structures. Jesus is just not going to let the family control God’s plan for His life. Too many parents have their eyes on temporal values and are so concerned about the security of their child that they violate God’s plan for their life.

Deuteronomy 13:6ff. Loyalty to God here is juxtaposed to all other categories of loyalty. ^NASB “If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him.” In other words, don’t put your family at a higher priority level than your relationship with God. “But [this is how serious it is] you shall surely kill him [capital punishment]; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” God recognises that it is very easy for us to be swayed by the peer pressure of the family, that they are going to try to wrongly influence us against positive volition. God says that this is so important that He is going to make it a capital crime under the theocracy of Israel.

The same idea is carried over into the New Testament. Loyalty to the Word of God is supposed to take priority over parents, family, government, everything else in life. Matthew 10:35, 36 ^NASB “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.” Jesus says that if you are positive it is going to cause a division in the household. Your enemy is going to be your brother or your sister or your parents because you want to follow the Lord, follow truth. You understand the significance of doctrine and they don’t, and because you have set your mind on spiritual and eternal things, spiritual truth, and they haven’t, you are going to have antagonism at the very core of your relationship. That means you are going to have to make the decision whether your family is more important to you or truth. [37] “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Jesus is not stating these as a condition of salvation but if you want to be a disciple and achieve spiritual maturity. Sooner or later you are going to face the test of priority just as Abraham did and you are going to have to leave father and mother and put all of that behind you so that you can go forward in the spiritual life. That is the test of priorities: whether the Word of God is more important to you than your family and your friends, and then you are going to have to deal with the test of rejection, and probably the test of being maligned and having the public lie spread about you. [38] “And he who does not take his cross [follow God’s plan for his life] and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” Only in making doctrine the priority of our lives can we experience life as God intended it. [39] “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

This tells us that we as believers have to deal with this priority issue, even in the home where it is very hard sometimes to deal with this. We have to separate or be caused to separate from parents, brothers, sisters, whatever it may be because they are a distraction to our spiritual life. That is one of the most important things we are going to learn as we advance spiritually: to deal with distractions. The more mature one gets as a believer the more he finds that there are many fine, enjoyable and wonderful things to do in life that he can’t do because they are distracting him from God’s plan and purpose in his life. At the beginning that may involve his family.

Jesus deals with the test of His family in John chapter seven and refuses to allow them to set the agenda for His life. He does it courteously but he doesn’t cave in to their plan or their agenda for Him. Sao the brothers go on up to the feast in verse 10 but Jesus stays behind and then goes into town somewhat secretly until the time to reveal Himself in Jerusalem.