Gospel of John - What's Behind Hatred?

                                                 What’s behind Hatred?

John 7:1-13

  Jesus was facing a leadership whose hatred of him because of the work of God and the exposing of their works of evil was growing daily. They were trying to kill him at worst or silence him at the least by keeping him from Jerusalem and the populace of Israel. Let’s begin to look at the text, “After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” For even his own brothers did not believe in him.  

Jesus was spending his time in the towns of Galilee in fulfilling the prophecy of being a light to the gentiles, “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” (Isa. 9:1-2), but he knew that he was to go to the people and leaders in Judea as well. It was now the fall of the year and the feast of Tabernacles, the last of the feast for the year, was nearing. Everyone was preparing to go to Jerusalem in fulfilling the command of God through Moses, “The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies…The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work. (“‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing food offerings to the Lord—the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day. These offerings are in addition to those for the Lord’s Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the Lord.) “‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” (Lev. 23:1-2, 33-43)

Jesus’ family was preparing to go, and his half-brothers, the sons of Joseph and Mary, were urging him to go to the festival and demonstrate his works of power and miracles in order to show himself as an important person, a public figure to his disciples and the public of Judea and the world. Let’s look at the text again,“But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

Jesus’ family, with the exclusion of Mary, never really believed in Jesus, as the Son of God. Their minds were set on Jesus being seen as important, a leader or person of religious significance, not the Son of God. They had called him crazy earlier in the year because of the works of God he was doing. “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Mk.3:21

Application - There are times in your walk with Jesus, when people will not understand and think you have lost it, especially if they don’t know Jesus or God the Father.

In my life, I have been excluded from entering into my grandparent’s home because of my relationship with Jesus. Friends and family believed that I’m strange for leaving behind a good job, new home and all that the world thinks is important to follow the will and purpose of God for me in Christ Jesus. I have even had a person who hated me enough to threaten me with a gun if I took their family to church.

Here is where faith in Jesus, knowing that he too had faced opposition from family and friends, will cost you everything. This is a type of hatred the world doesn’t condemn. Paul told Timothy, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” (2 Tim. 3:12) 

Paul wrote this in speaking of the last days on Earth, or which Jesus had spoken of as well. “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well. But they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.” Jn. 15:18-22

Understand hatred will come, but we are to love men but hate evil and sin. We are to speak to people about Jesus, and answer the reason for the hope we have in Christ Jesus. Are people asking you about your faith in Jesus Christ? Are you facing persecution because of Jesus’ name?

Next, Jesus had only one agenda, the will and purpose of the Father. Jesus worked on God’s timetable not man’s.

It was now that Jesus addressed the true issue at the heart of the leadership in Judea. Let’s look at the text,

“Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you anytime will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 

Jesus knew of the hatred of the evil one since the creation of the world, and the evil he has worked into the hearts of mankind who didn’t believe in the One sent from God the Father. Man was now living to honor his selfish sinful nature, and to appease their appetites for pleasure and notoriety in the midst of this festival, this is the motivation of many religious leaders and those who came to the feast. The feast was intended to be a time of a sacred assembly, an act of intentional, organized gathering of God's people, assembled for a specific purpose – the bringing of sacrifices and worship according to the scripture, and it was to be a joyous feast to celebrate the harvest from God, and the worship and honoring of God’s guidance, provision, protection in life, as when He did it for the patriarchs for forty years in the desert. 

For Jesus, his timing was set by God the Father, and he would live by this timing. He told his brother’s to go on ahead to the feast, it wasn’t his time yet, referring to his crucifixion. He knew one day God the Father would lead him into Jerusalem for this purpose, but it was not at this feast.

 However Jesus had it in mine to go in honoring the command of God in Deut. 16:16, “Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed:” So he waited to go in secret to Jerusalem. He knew the hatred that the leaders in Jerusalem had for him because he confronted them with the truth and exposed the sinfulness and evil of the enemy of God in their works and minds.

Application - Would Jesus expose the true hatred behind and motivations behind our events today? It is interesting how hatred is usually propagated by leadership or those who assume leadership. Look at war, it is the leadership who wants to attack. The people in these countries aren’t wanting to go to war or start an insurrection, it is the ideology of the leadership and the evil powers behind them. Even in the protests over today’s mandates, the majority of the people don’t want to hate, but the continuing of mandates driven by lies from the leadership and the powers behind them that are driving the hatred of those who will not hold to their mindset, and are labeled dissonant, terrorists, or rebels.

Today, looking at festivals in our world, we celebrate various festivals or events. And it is in these festivals and events where we see the evil one’s hand at work in stirring up hatred and hypocrisy. Sporting events where mandates are ignored by those in leadership and as well as their followers, yet those who disavow the mandates are not allowed to participate. These events propagate sin and rebellion, yet even the leadership in their hypocrisy do not hold  to the very same mandates they impose on the populace by threats and persecution. 

I wonder if we are honoring God in these events?

Like Jesus’ family, they wanted to go to the festival to be seen, and they wanted Jesus to be seen as a public leader, to display his works before men, to receive honor from men. What is the real motivation behind the events today? Rebellion? Hatred? Social proclamations? Self-aggrandizing? I wonder are these seen in religious ceremonies and events today as well?

Last, the Jewish leaders had scouts and spies watching for Jesus, knowing that he wouldn’t ignore a feast to God. Let’s look at the text, “Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?” Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.”

 Even among the crowds of those who had pilgrimage to Jerusalem, they had heard about the works of God done by Jesus, and some had experienced it personally. The whispers and murmurs about Jesus were like the elephant in the room, everyone wanted to see or hear from Jesus, yet they were divided on who they thought he was and knew the hatred and controversy among the religious leaders who wouldn’t allow him to speak or show his works. Few thought of Jesus as the Son of God, the One sent from the Father. The feast attendees were afraid of what people, especially the religious leaders, would say about them, and who they believed Jesus to be, so they kept silent at the feast.

Application - The motivations, desires, and fears that people have drives them spiritually as well as physically. Many in leadership are motivated by power to control even by hatred. Their fears of impotency, especially before the people, drives them to tyranny. 

People respond to hatred in three ways: compliance, fear, or rebellion to this type of leadership. They know the hatred by the leadership can be enforced by man-directed mandates. The control by tyrannical leadership requires stealth and surveillance. As it was in Jesus’ day at the feast of Tabernacles, the leaders were given to a mission of scrutiny and monitoring for any dissonance to their agenda, and the people responded in compliance directed by fear. In this fear, hatred to the unknown or undecided is birthed. 

Second, those who live in fear will submit to lockdowns, or listen to the theories of fear spread by the voice of those in leadership, as well as the fringe leaders, zealots with a rebellious cause.

Third, are those who don’t hold to the lies and tyranny of evil. If one of them speaks out in rebellion against the hatred, they will be marked as a dissonant, a rebel, or a hater. 

Today, the uncertainty and lack of the truth drives people to hatred. They will believe what is mandated because they don’t know the truth. Evil is at the core of hatred, yet mankind is blinded to the truth because of evil. The god of this age has told so many lies, that the people believe the lie because it is the only thing that they hear or know. Jesus faced this in Israel because all they heard from the majority of the  leaders was that Jesus was a deceiver and told lies. Jesus is the truth, and truth and love should be the motivation for every believer. We are to be agents of truth. Yes, the enemy of God has surveillance and scrutiny, and his leaders are monitoring all who are dissonants to the lies and the mandates of hatred. But understand, Jesus said we would be the object of hatred because the devil hated him first. We are to be agents of God, disciples. We are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, love mankind but hate sin and evil, and we are given the gospel, the message of hope and salvation to speak to all. God knows those who will hear, and seek salvation through Jesus by confessing their sins and repenting, turning from their evil ways, and being made new by the working of the Holy Spirit, through regeneration and sanctification. This is the truth and the calling of every disciple of Jesus to share the gospel. As Jesus said, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.” We must tell others the truth and hope we have in Jesus.

I’m again including the ABC’s of salvation (JD Farag). Please, Jesus, God the Son, came to this world to save all who would believe and trust in him. He desires to reveal himself to you, He is the Light that overcomes the darkness of this lawless world. He hears your prayers, and all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him. He will answer you if you will truly believe. If you haven’t asked him to be your Lord and Savior, today could be that day.

 First, A - Admit that you are a sinner. This is where that godly sorrow leads to genuine repentance for sinning against a righteous God and there is a change of heart, we change our mind and God changes our hearts and regenerates us from the inside out. Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (We are all born sinners which is why we must be born spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bad news is that the wages of sin is death, in other words our sin means that we have been given a death sentence, we have the death penalty hanging over our heads, that's the bad news. But here's the good news: The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Second,

 B - Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is trusting with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. Romans 10:9-10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Third, 

C - Call upon the name of the Lord. Every single person who ever lived since Adam will bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Romans 14:11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." Don't wait until later — do this now. Romans 10:13 - For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "O God, I am a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe that He died on the cross for my sin and that He was buried and You raised Him to life. I have decided to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting only in His shed blood as sufficient to save my soul and to take me to heaven. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

Please share this with someone this week, the Lord knows that we and they need it.

If you would like other lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis

I am developing a new webpage on Spiritual warfare. Please give it a look. I’m adding answers each week to questions that pertain to our time today.  Thank you

http://uss-warfare3.webnode.com