Mission Minded

The purpose of this study is to provide encouragement for the body as we serve the Father.  Our ultimate goal is to bring attention to Jesus, but did you know it's possible to seek fame for Christ in a wrong way? Learn how Jesus' earthly brothers tried to do that as we dive into chapter 7 of John.

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 John 7:1- After this, Jesus walked (from place to place) in Galilee, for He would not walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. John 7:2- Now the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (Booths) was approaching. John 7:3- So His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples (there) may also see the works that You do. John 7:4- No one does anything in secret when he wants to be known publicly. If You (must) do these things, show Yourself openly to the world and make Yourself known!” John 7:5- For not even His brothers believed in Him.

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As John’s seventh chapter opens up, Jesus is ministering in Galilee. Galilee is the region of Northern Israel surrounding the Sea of Galilee. It was the area within Israel where Jesus conducted most of his earthly ministry.  This region includes Nazareth, Cana, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Jesus was considered a Galilean, the backwater part of Israel. Nathaniel asked if anything good could come from Nazareth. The synoptic gospels cover Jesus’ ministry in Galilee in greater detail than does John. In fact, John 6 occurs around Passover in the year prior to Jesus’ death. In John 7, we hear about the Feast of Tabernacles, which occurs after the fall harvest; between John 6 & 7 is an interval of 6 months, where the synoptics present much material, but then in John 7,  Jesus leaves Galilee and heads toward Jerusalem for the last time. Even before this point, Jesus would take trips up to Jerusalem at least three times each year:

1. Passover- Luke 2:41 tells us that Jesus and his parents traveled to Jerusalem every year for the Passover, as would have been expected of any Jewish family who was able to travel.

2. Feast of Pentecost/Feast of First Fruits- Every Jewish male was required to celebrate this feast at the temple after the Spring harvest.

3. The Feat of Tabernacles- Final feast of the year and the most popular. Memorialized several things at once, including the years spent wandering in the desert (booths) and first fruits of Fall harvest. (The feasts of the Lord are prominently mentioned in Leviticus 23, Numbers 28-29 and Deuteronomy 16. Whereas Deuteronomy 16 stresses the pilgrimages to the feasts, Numbers 28-29 emphasizes the offerings, and Leviticus 23 focuses on the feasts themselves).

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Note: In the six months between John 6 and 7, Jesus’ notoriety within Galilee has grown significantly. Jesus had fed the 5,000- a very dramatic and public miracle. This event elevated Jesus to “rock star” status among those in Galilee (Ch.6). At the beginning of chapter 7, these events produced enemies for Jesus in Jerusalem. This explains why Jesus wants to remain in Galilee for now, He’s not interested in a confrontation until the time is right.

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In verse 3, Jesus’ brothers try to persuade Him that He should go to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast. The brothers give the reason for their suggestion; they try to persuade Jesus that He should want to go where His ministry can gain the most attention. They say that no one who is trying to be known will intentionally remain working in secret. The brothers of Jesus are making a couple of important assumptions. First, they are assuming that Jesus’ ministry in Galilee has been a failure because it’s not drawn enough attention. Their mindset is that the ministry can’t produce the results that Jesus wanted. The result being public acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah, therefore, they suggest Jesus seek the larger crowds in Jerusalem. With more people to see His miracles, Jesus could “close the deal” and win approval as Messiah.

Personal thought: Have you carried the weight of public acceptance while trying to seek fame for Christ?

The second assumption is that Jesus’ ministry was about building a public case for Himself to be the Messiah. The brothers assume that Jesus must win acceptance of the people in order to become the Messiah; that Jesus ministry was just a matter of a popularity contest or a public relations campaign and if He won enough support, He could make Himself Messiah, a political position in their minds. It’s easy enough to see from the text why Jesus’ brothers offered such cynical advice, John tells us they were not believers.

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If they had believed in Him, then they would have never offered this kind of advice: They would never have suggested that Jesus’ claims to being Messiah were dependent on the public’s perception of Him. Furthermore, as unbelievers, they could not understand the meaning of Jesus’ words, much less appreciate His ministry, and as unbelievers, they were hardly capable of offering Godly advice, they merely gave the worldly advice that made sense to them.

Yet, the advice they gave-wrong as it was, was based on principles that are still common today….

-This worldly view sees truth as a popularity contest, whatever position is accepted by the majority is truth. The more people who agree with a given position, the more it becomes worthy of belief- a kind of relativistic thinking.

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Encouragement: As we seek fame for Christ, we don’t have to make a public case for ourselves, we don’t have to achieve public acceptance, and we don’t have to settle for the opinions of those who are not led by the Holy Spirit which can ultimately have the potential of leading us astray. We can be confident in the Lord that His plan will succeed.

 

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​The unbelief and rejection of others can take on a louder voice than the acceptance of God and of the call He has placed on our lives.

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