Not Even His Brothers Believed | John 7:1-13

Please turn in your Bibles to John chapter seven.

We’re continuing in our series through the Gospel of John, and it’s our intention this morning to get through John chapter seven, verses one through 13. And those are the verses I’m going to read to you now. John seven verses one through 13. Then I will pray.

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 you are 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 is 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 am not going up to this 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 is a good man,” others said, “No, he’s leading the people astray.” Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

Let’s pray.

Father, we confess that did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. We’re not the right man on our side, the man of your choosing. We know this to be your beloved Son in Christ Jesus our Lord. We need his help. We need his words. We need confidence in him. We need greater love for him.

Would you be pleased in light of this text we just read to unshackle us from the fear of man? Unshackle us from the love of the world? And Father, would you be pleased to deliver us to an understanding of the time? The days here are evil, but we look as those who look forward to the new heavens and the new earth. That is what we live for. Lord, so many things we need. Please help us. We ask by the power of your Spirit through Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

The French poet Charles Baudelaire once said that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because you probably heard it quoted in a certain 90s movie that I won’t recommend. But it’s a sobering idea, isn’t it? The greatest trick that the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Because if you don’t believe the devil exists, you probably won’t believe evil exists and Satan’s lies can get a foothold in the world.

I’m not sure it’s the greatest trick he’s ever pulled. For example, I know of one trick that should be in the running. And the trick is this: the devil has convinced the world that Jesus is merely nice. And that the call to follow him is nothing more than a call to civility.

I don’t mean here a proper reverence for Christ’s gentleness or humility. Brothers and sisters, we can’t think highly enough of the Lord’s lowliness. We need to be big about the Lord’s gentleness and his humility. I don’t refer to a reverence for his readiness to save or his mercy or his great love for sinners.

What I mean is this: the prevailing notion that Jesus fundamentally shares the moral instincts of a 21st-century NYU student, that his message can be reduced to the simple exhortation to be nice. From this perspective, Christianity becomes a religion of affirmation. Christians are expected to be inclusive of all people, all so-called sexualities, so-called genders, so-called lifestyles. When you have this view of Jesus, if you’re this type of person, you think Jesus is great because Jesus is like me. He’s just like me, and therefore he likes me. And that’s great because I love me some me. I love this type of Jesus. I can get behind this type of Jesus.

All the while the real Jesus says, “The world hates me.” The world hates me. Jesus said that the world cannot hate you—he says to his brothers—but it hates me because I testify about it, that its works are evil.

Brethren, what’s striking about the world’s caricature of Jesus—indeed astonishing—is it superlatively fails to present him with an ounce of accuracy. Jesus does not speak in sharp contrast to a supposedly harsh and antiquated Old Testament. No, the sharpest, the most strange, the most searching words in all the Bible often come from the very words of the Lord.

It should not surprise us, then, that even his own brothers did not believe in him. That’s where our text finds us today. The purpose of this sermon is to understand the nature of the unbelief of the Lord’s brothers—to understand the natures and then the roots of the unbelief. Because our text is going to do something: it’s going to reveal something about the nature of these brothers, something about the species of their unbelief. And it’s going to say it’s the same as the Jewish crowds, same type of worldliness, same type of misunderstanding of the times, same type of rejection of Christ. It’s going to be the same type of thing: fear of man. And it’s indeed the same type of thing so many of us struggle with today.

I have two points. First, the unbelieving brothers. Second, the roots of unbelief. Very simple outline.

Point one: the unbelieving brothers.

Let’s appreciate the context. We see from the top that Jesus is in Galilee. Geography helps. You don’t need it to understand the Gospel of John, but it helps. Galilee is the region north of Judea, north of Jerusalem, and the narrative of John toggles between the Lord’s ministry in Galilee up in the north, in the countryside most of the time, and then also in Jerusalem, in Judea. Here at the beginning of our text, he’s in Galilee. That’s where John six ended. That’s where John seven begins. And he’s not going to go south to Judea. Why? Well, because the Jews are seeking to kill him.

Why are the Jews seeking to kill him? You don’t need to turn there, but John 5:18 tells us exactly why: “This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him: because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” Not only did he break the Sabbath, but he talked about God as his own Father, and he talked about being one with him such that they said, “This is a blasphemer. We need to end this man’s whole career. We need to end this man’s ministry.”

So Jesus remains in Galilee. But we’ll soon make his way back down to the south in Jerusalem for another conflict with the Jews.

It’s helpful to understand I’m now the age we think the Lord was when he died, and the reason why we think the Lord had a ministry that was two and a half to three and a half years was because of the Gospel of John. And that is because the narrative toggles between three trips to Jerusalem for the Passover. Jesus goes to Jerusalem more than that. But at this point in his ministry, he’s been to Jerusalem twice for Passover, and he’ll have one more Passover he attends in John 12. Here, though, he’s going to be attending for another reason. The point is this, friends, John’s gospel is a story of boiling conflict with the Jewish authorities that will ultimately climax in a crucified Christ.

Nevertheless, at the side of our text, Jesus does not go to Jerusalem. To be precise, he did not want to publicly display himself there. He does not fear the Jews, but doesn’t want to publicly display himself because it’s not yet his time. I’m going to say more about that in a moment. John says the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand.

That’s a feast you can read about in Exodus 23, Leviticus 23, and Deuteronomy 16. This was a festival in autumn. It fell in between September and October. It was a week long. It was held to celebrate the harvest of olives and different harvests like that. It was an important festival, one of the big three to the Jewish people.

And many believe this was actually one of the most widely celebrated of the Jewish feasts. People would come from all over the countryside. They would bring sort of makeshift tents, and they would stay in those outside of Jerusalem. Those tents or booths—and that was the occasion going on at the beginning of John seven.

We should see why John places it here in his narrative, though. This detail about the feast is not only significant because of the festival’s content, which we’ll be seeing more and more throughout John seven, but for where he places it in the narrative. So John seven functions as something of a timestamp in the Gospel of John.

John six, when we get to the end of John six, it’s kind of the end of volume one or part one of John’s gospel. This will be the first and only time I ever referred to SpongeBob in a sermon. But some of you kids, or I guess adults if you watch SpongeBob, you may know, you know, when that frame comes up and it says “two hours later,” John is doing something like that when he says it’s the Feast of Booths.

This is six months after Passover. This is John’s way of saying six months later. And then we begin the narrative of John seven.

It’s more important to know who John refers to. He speaks of the Lord’s brothers. This is the first time we meet these men in the Gospel of John. They are referred to in other places in the Gospels. It’s important that we realize these are his actual brothers. That word adelphoi can be translated as cousin. It can also be more broadly translated as kinsman or countryman. It’s definitely talking about his brothers. The only reason why certain people like to maintain another interpretation is if they have a vested interest in preserving the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary.

So Roman Catholics, for example, will say this is his cousins, which is kind of weird because you have texts in the Bible that talk about Mary with his cousin. It’s like, why is Mary always with his cousins? That’s just kind of strange. My mom doesn’t hang out with my cousins that much. She’s usually with my brothers. But the most definitive text is Matthew 1:25, which says, Joseph knew Mary not until she had given birth to a son.

That’s not “knowing her name.” Kids, you can ask your parents what that means. The point is, these are the Lord’s actual brothers.

What do they say? Verse three tells us, the brothers said to him, “Leave here. Go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”

Now, friends, ask this question: what is the attitude in which these brothers are speaking to Jesus? What’s their posture towards him? What’s the spirit in which they are challenging him? The words seem innocuous enough. They seem that are not the “Leave here. Go to Judea. Show your works can be seen. No one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” What’s the spirit in which they’re talking to the Lord?

I played music in high school and college. I’m kind of like a journeyman guitar player and bass player. I played in bands and things like that. I never had a mind to be a professional and to go pro or try to make money with music, but I know I have a supportive enough wife that if I really wanted to make it as a musician, she would say, “Zach, I love you, baby.”

Sidebar: I begged my wife to call me something besides my name, and she just—it’s been Zach for 15 years, but she would be supportive of me. She would say, “Yeah, Zach, I believe in your dream. I love your music. And if your music is so good, you should get that record deal. Quit your lucrative job. I’ll follow you anywhere. You should pursue your dream, pursue your music.”

Or to give you another example, you can think of Elrond in Return of the King. When he says that to Aragorn: put away the Ranger, become the king you were born to be. Stop with all this Ranger Dunedain stuff and be the guy from the line of Numenor.

If you don’t know the Rings as much as I’m crazy to you—no. But be it. Follow your dream. Put away this charade. Is that the spirit in which the brothers are talking to Jesus? Friends, that’s not how they addressed him. They were cynical, not sympathetic. And we know this because of verse five, for not even his brothers believed in him.

They say what they say in verses three and four because they did not believe in him. I almost missed this in my study of the text, but this should shock us. The Lord’s very own brothers did not believe in him. I almost forgot to realize this. Know Jesus had brothers the way most of you have brothers. Like, probably most of the people in this room have a brother.

I have a lot of brothers. I have three brothers. Three sisters. Jesus had brothers and he had sisters. A lot of the dynamics in my family that I lived through, he lived through. I have two older brothers. I have one younger brother. There’s Anthony, who you know, he’s the successful one. There’s Alex, he’s the smart one. He’s the preacher.

I’m the humble one.

I have a little brother named Lorenzo. We don’t talk much about him. He’s not done really anything with his life. He’s 17, I think. But there’s no way of knowing. He’s very, very young. But the point is, is I love my brothers. I can’t know this for sure, but I think I would die for my brothers.

They’re my best friends. I think they would die for me. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for me. There’s nothing my brothers wouldn’t do that I can’t trust them with. I love my brothers. It’s difficult to imagine a deeper, more fundamental, more formative bond than brothers. So we must let it sink in when the text says not even his brothers believed—not even his brothers, not even his brothers believed in him.

These brothers don’t desire his success. Their words to Jesus are infected with skeptical, derisive, backbiting unbelief. Friends, this is a scathing dismissal of their own flesh and blood. They’re taunting Jesus. If you really are who you say you are, Jesus, show the people your miracles. Go to the festival. Perform your signs. Play your little tricks. If you really do the things that people say you do, if you really are who you say you are, you’re going to show yourself to the world.

That’s what messiahs do. But you’re no Christ. It’s not who you are. Friends, we’ve seen this before. Deadly familiarity, toxic proximity. We saw it in John four when Jesus found himself a prophet without honor in his own hometown. We saw it in the crowds in the last chapter. They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” This Jesus has been to our ballgames and barbecues. We’ve seen his recitals. We know his parents. He’s just not that special.

We’ve considered in Judas the Lord’s very own disciple turned devil. Now we see it in his brothers who did not believe in him. We’ve seen this tune again and again and again in the narrative of John.

And when we’ve come to this theme in John’s Gospel, I’ve used this again and again as a warning, because I fear for so many of you who I think are in close proximity to the things of God, who have a deadly familiarity with the gospel and with Jesus. And it’s a type of familiarity that blinds.

It gives you a false sense of security. You think you’re all right with God because you’re around Christianity and swimming around Christian venues, and it should warn us. But, friends, I want this text here today to encourage us, and this is how I want to encourage us. Brethren, Jesus is a model in enduring wounds from family. He is a model in enduring wounds from family.

Probably one of the most consistent topics that I provide counsel to the members of this church is how to engage unconverted family. And sort of one of my golden rules for family evangelism is your family. If they’re outside of Christ, whether they profess to be Christians or not, and you think they’re not Christians. They should know what you believe about them and they should know the implications of that belief, namely, if you think that they’re outside of Christ and going to hell and experience the eternal wrath of God forever and ever, they need to know that that’s what you think.

I don’t know how you can love people and never bring that up. I just don’t understand that. I think you have a duty to speak to people that way. Nevertheless, I know so many of you are so faithful in this area. You put me to shame. And this is the greatest struggle in your life. The wounds that your family have caused you.

You may feel isolated. You may feel alone. Christian, I assure you, no one knows this burden like the Lord Jesus. It is not your fault if your family doesn’t come to faith. Even the Lord’s brothers didn’t believe. Jesus knows what it’s like to watch his own flesh and blood reject the words of life. Jesus felt the stinging pain of his family’s unbelief.

Jesus endured gossip and had his name maligned by his brothers and sisters. Christian, this should be a point of profound solidarity between you and the Lord. If you’re rejected, laid aside, isolated, belittled, or taunted by unbelievers in your family, the Lord has full knowledge of every excruciating detail, and he draws near to you so much as you remain faithful, a faithful witness among them.

He sees you and is pleased. We confess it not too long ago. Blessed are you when they persecute you for righteousness’ sake. You should expect that type of persecution. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

For so they treated the prophets who came before you, for so they treated me. I who came before you, they hated Jesus. They will hate you. They malign Jesus. They will malign you. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Jesus is the model in enduring wounds from family.

But secondly, Jesus in his ministry shows us that the family of God transcends physical family. I don’t think these brothers are mentioned again in the Gospel of John. Maybe one or two more times. The disciples are in basically every single chapter in the ministry of Jesus. We see that the family of God transcends physical family. We say in the Creed, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.

Brethren, I think this might be the most forgotten teaching of the Lord, especially in the sunny South where you know, faith, family, freedom. We put all of these things on the same plane. And so often we elevate and perhaps even idolize the nuclear family. I don’t want anybody to diminish their commitment to the family. But we just must realize that in the plain teaching of Jesus Christ, he and his people transcend family bonds.

This is clear again and again, and in some of his sharpest teaching. Matthew 12 he says, who is my mother and who are my brothers? This is after people say, hey, your mother and brothers are here. They want to speak to you. And Jesus says, who is my mother and my brothers? And stretching out his hand towards his disciples, towards his followers, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. He says in Matthew ten, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy. As major brothers and sisters, I say, as I’ve said before, the church is not like a family.

It’s your true family. The church is not like a family. Like that’s just an illustration. The Bible, you know, it’s the real family you’re ever going to have. The Christian name for God is Father and the Christian name for Christian is brother. For some of you who have good and godly, God-fearing families, the call is not to diminish your commitment to your family, but something about your life should manifest the transcendent nature of the people of God.

If you’re a member of this church, this means your life ought to revolve around the worshiping community of this people. The family of God ultimately comes first. Your commitment to blood family must be harmonized with the centrality of the Bride of Christ. This will affect your holidays. It will affect your home life. It will affect your career and calendar.

It will affect your time and talents. It ought to be challenging for some of us. But I know there are others here who have unbelieving families, disappointing families, dysfunctional families. This should be one of the sweetest reminders. These are my people. This is my family. This is my tribe.

These are my kinsfolk. These are my people. I belong here, and the family of God transcends my earthly bonds. I’m not saying they’re in conflict. I’m saying it transcends. Jesus says in Mark ten, truly, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers or children, lands, some of you know what that’s like.

You’ve forsaken father and mother in a godly way. You forsaken brother and sister and lands in a godly way. Listen to Jesus’ words. He says, who does this for my sake, and for the gospel? Who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time? Houses and brothers and sisters, and mothers, children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. You receive hundredfold, not only in the new heavens and new earth.

You receive that now. And I say, one of the main ways you receive it now is in the people of God and what we call the church. The church, brethren of the living Lord, is a tribe that transcends all other bonds, for it is alongside the saints that you and I will reign with the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, our Jesus our Christ, forever and ever, world without end, and the church.

Now in the age to come, we receive a hundredfold.

Okay, we see the unbelieving brothers.

Now let’s consider secondly the roots of unbelief.

Look at verse six.

Jesus is going to identify the roots, what undergirds the unbelief of his brothers and by extension, the Jewish crowds? He says in verse six, “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 am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

Before we look at the roots of unbelief, we need to understand what Jesus means by his time, by his hour. This is something which is already referred to in John two. It says, he says to his mother, you remember this is in Cana in Galilee.

He says, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” I will say later in this chapter, in verse 30, in the context of mounting persecution, it says, so they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. And then in the final days, on the first day of Passion Week, he says in John 12, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

What’s the hour? What’s this time of which Jesus refers? Well, friends, the time and the hour is ultimately the death of Jesus Christ. From his very first sign to the last, the Lord Jesus kept his gaze upon the cross. The signal event set the course of every part of his life. The great tree upon which his blood would be shed was the lifeblood of all that he did.

Oh, how he showed compassion to the world. We’ve seen it again and again. Oh, how he loves his kinsmen, the people of Israel. Oh, how he dignified the dying and the diseased. He serves the poor. He heals the sick, the broken, the needy. Oh, how in terrific compassion he feeds thousands upon thousands. Yet all these efforts, wondrous as they were, they bend in submission to the greater work.

And that great work is the redemption of mankind through a bloody Roman cross. He is the Lamb of God. He takes away the sins of the world. He came to seek and save the lost. And this blazing priority—this hour, this hour that informs where he walks each day. It governs everything he did under the sun.

Jesus says to his brothers, you don’t understand the type of glory I’m after.

I’m seeking the food that endures to eternal life. I’m not looking for a day in the sun. I’m looking to save a people. I’m looking to redeem children of God. I’m looking to be a lamb who is slaughtered. I’m looking to rise for people’s justification. I’m looking to be seated at the right hand of God and then with glory to judge with power forever and ever.

I’m looking to do a lot more. You don’t understand the glory that I’m after. My time is not yet come, but it will surely come. As sure as the sun will rise. Jesus then contrasts himself with his brothers. And as I say, by extension, the people at the festival, he’s going to say, we’re not the same. You and I.

We’re not the same. You do this, I do this. How are they not the same? There’s a sort of a three-pronged indictment, three things that Jesus highlights about his brothers and the Jews. He says their time first, their time is short-sighted. He says, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.” Jesus is saying, you’re living for the here and now, when you ought to be living for the world to come.

And the words of Psalm 90 says, the years of our life, they are 70, or even by reason of strength, 80. Yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone, and we fly away. Jesus says to his brothers, your time is always here, but you don’t know what time it is. Brethren. Everything changes when you understand time.

Everything changes when you understand that the days are evil. Everything changes when you know what you’re living for, when you know your time, you watch how you walk. When you know your time, you make your life count for something. You pursue things of eternal good. When you know your time, you gain wisdom. When you know your time, you recognize the world for what it is.

When you know your time, you wage war against sin. You put on Christ and you seek God’s kingdom. But his brothers, their time is short-sighted. That’s why they say, go up to Jerusalem, put on a show. People will love you.

Second thing Jesus says against his brothers. He says, the world loves you. The second part of his indictment is that the world loves them.

Look at what he says in verse seven. “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it, that its works are evil.” You can tell a lot about a man by his enemies. There’s a reason we say that thing. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You shouldn’t live by that. But there’s some truth to that.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You can tell a lot by a man’s enemies. You can also tell a lot by a man’s friends and the company he chooses to keep. Jesus says in John 15, “If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.” You see, friends, people hate Jesus. The world hates Jesus. People hate Jesus because he tells them what they are. He holds a mirror to their face and they don’t like what they see, and they know they’re wrong. And Jesus, he sharpens the blade of their knowing conscience and they hate it.

They hate it because they know their deeds are dark and they just don’t want to face the light because they love the darkness and their deeds are evil. You see, brethren, people reject Christ because they have a sin problem. And this sin problem is ultimately a love problem. Jesus just doesn’t say they have a philosophical problem with. They know they hate me.

They hate me because they love their sin. You see, the problem with mankind is a heart problem. Disordered desire. They will either love God or they’ll love something else. They’ll either love the Lord and His Christ or they’ll defy him. You’re either for Jesus or you’re against him. The heart is the problem. That’s why Jesus he always frames the conversation in the realm of desire.

The Lord Jesus presents himself, reveals himself as a treasure. He’s a Savior of infinite worth. He is to be desired. He’s peerless in perfection. He’s matchless in his majesty. None can rival him in honor and dignity and glory and strength. And the sinner says, oh, well, I hate him. I loathe him entirely. I want nothing to do with him.

I want what I want, and it’s not Jesus. Give me anything but Jesus, because I love the darkness. My works are evil and I hate the light. I don’t want any part of this Christianity farce. Because I know what I am. Friends, that is why many in this room and so many in the world reject Christ is because they know that their deeds are wicked.

And the reason why true Christianity makes them so uncomfortable is because it tells them who they are, but it’s the only way they can actually receive Jesus. You see, we feel that friction and rejection and that sort of uncomfortability that people have to this message. And we say, I got to pump the brakes. No, that’s when you put the accelerator on, because there’s no other name under heaven by which men and women can be saved in the name of Jesus Christ.

And you got to be saved from something that means you got to know what that something is. It’s sin. It’s nature’s night that has a face bound in chains. And only the light of the Savior’s voice can deliver us from that darkness. I may have characterized what some of you feel this morning. Some of you who are outside of Christ.

Please listen to me.

I don’t want anything to do with Jesus because I want my sin. I can warn you and tell you there’s going to come a time that you will stand before God, and you will face the exacting standard of his withering judgment. That’s going to happen.

But I just need to ask you, how is that working for you? Your sins. Rejecting Christ, rebuffing him, not following him. I assure you, the world will always let you down. Sin will never satisfy you. Only the bread of life. Only the water that Jesus freely gives will actually make you right with God and actually make you happy.

And give you eternal life. But brothers and sisters, I want to ask all of us something. Christian, does the world love you? You should be really scared that the world loves you.

And when I say world, I’m referring to the created order in active rebellion against God, the spirit of the age that includes the world. I’m also including those professing Christians who aren’t believers that are in your life. I’m also including people that might actually know the Lord, but are so deeply worldly. But you want their approval.

Are you seeking the favor of the world? There are some of you here who would jump through every hoop to secure the world’s approval. Some of you would army crawl through a mile of broken glass to secure the favor of the world. Do you know what the worst thing the world can possibly say about you? We think you’re swell.

Oh. You’re fine. You’re just peachy. You’re great. We don’t have an issue with you. That is the most tragic thing the world can say about you. And yet, I fear that’s what many of us would hear. Beware of being like the Lord’s brothers in your relationship to the world. So Jesus says their time is short-sighted, he says, the world loves them.

Thirdly, lastly, he says they fear man. And really he says this—or John reveals this about the crowds. Look at verse ten: after his brothers had gone up to the feast, and 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 is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. Now, brethren, I think it’s possible some of these people who said he is a good man might have been people like Nicodemus, might have been people like Joseph of Arimathea, might have been people who actually had real, true saving.

But infant faith in Jesus Christ, they say he’s a good man. And then there are those who reject. And that’s I know he’s leading the people astray. Yet regardless both of those parties, for fear of the Jews, no one speaks openly of him. That fear of the Jews is a reference to the Jewish authorities, who had the power to throw people out of the synagogue.

There wasn’t a censure or consequence that a Jew feared more than being thrown out of the synagogue, and that’s what Jewish authorities would do. And we see from this text that fear of man blinds unbelievers from genuine faith, and it cripples the progress of those in Christ. Throughout John’s gospel, this fear of the Jews was a bulwark against belief in Christ.

In John nine, the parents of the man born blind deny their own son because they feared the Jews. In John 12, believing authorities would not confess Christ for fear of the Pharisees, the text says in John 19, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus they kept their faith secret for fear of the Jews. And then after the resurrection, we see the disciples.

They’re cooped up in a locked upper room for fear of the Jews. Rather, fear of man is a scourge to the unbeliever, and it is simply pathetic, but all too present among the people of God. It is one of the many tragedies of the church in our age. It’s crippling bondage to the praise of man. Meanwhile, brethren, when a church or Christian fears God, they are unstoppable.

They cannot be thwarted. It’s so, brother and sister, I assure you. When you fear God, seek his glory, and you will be armed with invincible strength.

I have two applications in closing, friends. First, mortify the short-sighted, world-loving, man-fearing spirit within you. Mortify, kill, slay, destroy the short-sighted, world-loving, man-fearing spirit within you. Tame the tempers of your man-pleasing hearts.

Far too many of us are enslaved to the glory that comes from man. Far too many of us are addicted to the bread that perishes. Far too many of us are drunk on the world’s favor. Yet our calling in Christ is to seek the bread that endures to eternal life. We must not fear man. We must not love the world.

We must know the time. So maybe you’re here this morning and you’re wondering, do I have a man-fearing problem? Do I love the world? You may. I want to give you seven questions to help discern if you fear man. Seven questions to help. If you discern. If you have a man-fearing problem, you can write these down.

If you email me, I will send you these questions. If you ask me after the service, you will not get them. Have to email me but seven questions. These are to help. These aren’t exhaustive, but to help diagnose if we have a man-fearing problem.

Question number one: in moments of pressure, do you instinctively protect your reputation or honor Christ?

Are you more concerned—most concerned about your own reputation saving face than about what pleases Christ? Two: would the unbelieving people in your life who know you—would it be clear to them that your life belongs to Christ?

If not, you probably have a man-fearing problem. They might know the books you read, the TV shows you watch, they might know you’re doggedly committed to your family and the Bulldogs, but they don’t know that most important thing about you, your child of God. Christ is my brother. I’m endowed with the Holy Spirit. I’m a member of a local church.

All those things so outweigh and shine and transcend those other identity markers. Yeah, many of the people who see us every single day have not a clue. Three: are you just kids? I want you to listen to me on this, young people. Are you just plumb desperate to be normal? Like, I just want to fit in. I don’t want to stand out.

I don’t want people to think I’m weird or strange. I just want to be normal.

Christian, I assure you, life in Christ is not normal. Jesus is not normal. Now he shows us what true normal should be. But in the against the black backdrop of the world, he’s the strangest person in the world. And so much as you align with Christ, there should be something that looks strange to the world about how you live for.

Do you ever experience any relational friction with unbelievers on account of your faith in Christ? And I say unbelievers. It could be professing believers or it could be just very worldly Christians. Do you ever experience relational friction because of your commitment to Christ and His Word? So allow me to give just a wildly narrow, specific application. Sisters, I’m talking to you.

Do not miss church to attend a brunch, baby shower, or bridal shower on the Lord’s Day. Becky will understand. And if she doesn’t, you should reflect a greater commitment to the truth of Christ rather than preserving the veneer of a friendship with that person. Small compromises like that add up over time. Do not make small compromises for fear of your friends disliking you.

Or here’s a big one thinking are judgmental. If you believe in the law of God, people are going to think you’re judgmental. And why are you so judgy all the time? You think you’re better than me? Christian, we are called to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re called to resemble him. We’re called to walk in the light. For God is light.

And in him there’s no darkness at all. A healthy Christian will inevitably meet friction with the world. And though I don’t want anyone here to seek out persecution, it’s curious if we never experience opposition for our faith. And I believe the reason, the main reason many of us never experience any opposition from the world is because you never offer the world anything to oppose.

So that’s question number four. Question number five. When the world rejects or criticizes Christ, do you distance yourself or do you stand with him and the world criticizes Christ? Or what Christian people do is your immediate instinct to distance yourself from those people? I’m not like those types of Christians. I’m like you. What’s the instinct there? You’re wanting to show a solidarity with the world or with the people of God.

Number six, this is a big one, is the approval of the guild rather than God. The guiding light in your life, the approval of the guild rather than God. By guild I mean that in-group for which you so long to be a member. So for you kids, this might be some sort of popular crowd in your school. I want to be like those kids.

I want to be accepted by those kids. For you adults, it may be your bosses inner circle. For students, it might be the academy. As a pastor, I can fall prey to make decisions to please my peers in ministry and colleagues in ministry, rather than what I think would please God. C.S. Lewis had a phrase for this. He referred to it as the inner ring, and he said that the people they’re motivated to do what they do to attain or retain membership to that inner ring.

Listen to what Lewis says. He says of all the passions, the passion for the inner ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things. So, brethren, the desire to be accepted, to be on the inside will inevitably and so often make you say those things which you shouldn’t say.

Laugh at those things at which you shouldn’t laugh and remain silent. When righteousness demands you speak. Do not seek the approval of guild of the guild before the approval of God. Number seven and lastly, are you ever embarrassed by the language of the Bible? Children, obey your parents. Whoever spares the rod hates his child. Wives, obey your husbands.

Submit to them in all things. Are you embarrassed by the language of the Bible? Do you need to bend over backwards? You contextualize those things that make our cultural sensibilities uncomfortable. Is that your instinct? Friends, the psalmist says, the law of the Lord is perfect. It revives the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure makes wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. More to be desired are they than gold? Yes, even fine gold, sweeter than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. I don’t just love the Bible that tells me about the marvelous grace of the Lord and his blood that atones for all of my sins.

I love that boast, but I love his ways. I love his words. I love his rules and his laws and the way he says them. We should not be embarrassed by the language of the Bible. Okay, two closing applications. In light of all of this. First, now this second application, last application. Christian. Cultivate a fear of God that rests in Christ.

That’s the only thing that’s going to deliver you from the fear of man. The problem is not fear itself. The problem is you don’t have the right fear. You need to fear God, trust in him. A fear of him that rests in Jesus Christ. So how do you do that? How do you cultivate that type of fear?

Well, you pray for it. You can hold God accountable to his word. This is actually the very heart of the New Covenant. He says in Jeremiah 32, I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever, and I will put my fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

Lord, you promised to give me fear to put it in my heart forever. Give me greater fear. Unite my heart to fear your name. I want to be like you. I don’t want to fear man like goods and kindred go this mortal life also. Give me that which you promise. God loves being held accountable to His Word. Ask the Lord for what he has already promised to give you.

Brethren, part of cultivating the right fear of God and killing fear of man comes from the simple recognition that Jesus is just better than the world. He provides us so much more than anything the world could ever possibly grant us, where the Lord’s brothers rejected him. Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. And so while he writes, the Lord Jesus never goes away from his friends, there is never a parting and goodbye between him and his people.

From the time that he makes his way in a sinner’s heart, he abides in it forever. The world is full of departures, death, and the lapse of time break the most united family sons go forth to make their ways, and wife daughters are married and leave their father’s house forever, scattering, scattering, scattering is the yearly history of the happiest home.

How many have we tearfully watched as they drove away from our doors, whose pleasant faces we have never seen again? How many we have sorrowfully followed to the grave, and then come back to a cold, silent, lonely and blank fireside. But thanks be to God, there is one who sticks closer than a brother. There is one who never leaves his friends.

The Lord Jesus is he who said, I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you. Just ask who that may be. Christ Jesus, it is he. When he is at our right hand, we cannot be shaken. What can man do to us? Let’s pray.

Of rather, this is our prayer that we would understand the time.

That we would not seek the glory which comes from man. But we would see the glory in the praise that comes from you alone. Oh Lord, this is our prayer that we would love, not the world. And that we would invite the right relationship and questions from those outside of Christ. Lord, this is what we ask that we would have greater or reverence fear of your blessed holy name.

Own us, Lord, make us new. Give us fresh commitment to you and all your ways. Fill us with confidence and faith in your promises. We ask these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen, Amen.