Amen. Please remain standing with us as we read the Word of God this morning.
We're continuing our series in the Gospel of John, and so I invite you to take your Bibles, open them up.
If you're using the Pew Bibles there in front of you, this is on page 839.
We want to quite literally be on the same page this morning as we're looking to God's Word.
And so I invite you to follow along and listen to me as I read John 7, verses 1 through 36 this morning.
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 may also 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 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.
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 is 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.
The Jews therefore marveled, saying,
How is it that this man has learning when he has 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 am 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 whole man's body well?
Well, do not judge by appearances,
but judge with right judgment.
Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said,
Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?
And here he is speaking openly,
and they say nothing to him.
Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
But we know where this man comes from,
and when the Christ appears,
no one will know where he comes from.
So Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple,
You know me, and you know where I come from,
but I have not come of my own accord.
He who sent me is true,
and him you do not know.
I know him,
for I come from him,
and he sent me.
So they were seeking to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand on him,
because his hour had not yet come.
Yet many of the people believed in him.
They said,
When the Christ appears,
will he do more signs than this man has done?
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him,
and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
Jesus then said,
I will be with you a little longer,
and then I am going to him who sent me.
You will seek me,
and you will not find me.
Where I am,
you cannot come.
The Jews said to one another,
Where does this man intend to go,
that we will not find him?
Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks,
and teach the Greeks?
What does he mean by saying,
You will seek me,
and you will not find me?
And,
Where I am,
you cannot come.
This is the word of God.
You would please be seated.
Let's pray once more.
Father,
we ask once more
for your power
through the preaching of the word,
through your spirit,
that you would
grant us the desire
to will the will of God,
to hear it,
to receive it,
to love it,
that we would trust more deeply in Christ this morning.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
How thankful are you
for the obedience
of Christ?
I wonder if you had one last opportunity
to give thanks to God.
Of all the many things
that you could say,
what would you choose
to thank him for?
Most of us,
I assume,
we might thank him
for the gifts
that he's given us.
Good gifts of family,
of friends,
of a church family,
of a home,
of his provision for us.
Maybe we would thank him
for leading us,
for guiding us,
for being with us.
Maybe we would thank him
for the death of Christ
on our behalf,
for his resurrection
from the grave.
All good answers.
There's more than one
good, right answer
to that question.
But I wonder
how many of you
would think
specifically
to thank him
for the obedience
of Jesus.
In December of 1936,
the great Presbyterian leader,
J. Gresham Machen,
ignored his doctor's orders
and continued to minister
to the Orthodox Presbyterians
there in South Dakota
despite the pains
in his chest
from pneumonia.
And within a day,
he was hospitalized.
And by New Year's Day,
January 1st, 1937,
he was gone.
But as he lay there
before he drew
his final breath,
he dictated his final words,
his last words,
in a telegram sent
to his friend,
John Murray.
And here's what he said.
I am so thankful
for the active obedience
of Christ.
No hope without it.
I am so thankful
for the active obedience
of Christ.
No hope without it.
The active obedience
of Christ.
This crucial aspect
of our salvation
that is unfortunately
so often either overlooked
or overshadowed
by all of the other
glorious benefits
and aspects of the gospel,
but without it,
without the perfect obedience
of Christ
to the will of God,
there can be no salvation
for sinners like us.
What I want to do
this morning
from John chapter 7
is hopefully,
by the grace of God,
broaden our understanding
of the gospel
to include not only
Jesus' death on the cross,
not only his resurrection,
but the 33 years
of perfect obedience
to the will of God
that preceded the death
and resurrection of Christ.
Our passage this morning
in John chapter 7,
it shows us
the deep commitment
of Jesus Christ
to the will of God the Father.
It is a demonstration
of Jesus' perfect obedience,
all of it from beginning to end,
necessary for our salvation.
So this morning,
I want us to see three ways
Jesus submitted
to the will of God.
This will be our outline
this morning.
If you're taking notes,
I encourage you to.
It's a good way to help you
to follow along this morning
with a sermon.
Three ways Jesus submitted
to the will of God.
First, Jesus perfectly followed
God's will.
Jesus perfectly followed
God's will.
Last week, we heard Jesus deliver
one of his more unpopular sermons.
Unless you eat the flesh
and drink the blood
of the Son of Man,
you have no life in you.
This is one of his
least popular messages.
He lost many disciples.
Many of his disciples
left Jesus that day.
And as John is progressing
through this gospel,
I want you to notice
he's drawing our attention,
steadily pointing our focus
to growing hostility
towards Jesus and his teachings.
people are starting to realize,
starting to pick up on the fact
that Jesus does not quite fit in
with their expectations.
Jesus isn't quite lining up
with what they want him to do
or who they want him to be.
He's not bending towards their will.
And so for some,
they simply leave him,
they reject him,
they deny him,
as we saw last week.
But for others,
the Jewish leaders in particular,
they sought to kill him.
So he says here in verse 1,
he says,
after this,
after that message,
Jesus went about in Galilee
and he would not go about in Judea.
Why?
Because the Jews were seeking
to kill him.
Now John tells us that
the Feast of Booths was at hand.
This was one of the major Jewish feasts
that celebrated the gathering
of the harvest
as well as God's provision
for the people of Israel
in the wilderness.
This feast was one of the major gatherings
of the Jewish people.
All Jews were expected to come.
They would gather there.
They would put up temporary shelters
called booths,
hence the name,
Feast of Booths.
And it would seem
like this might be
a perfect opportunity
for a rising teacher
to gain some influence
amongst the Jews.
especially a teacher
who just lost
a whole bunch of disciples.
Maybe this might be
a perfect opportunity
to regain
some of that popularity,
some of that publicity.
At least,
that's what Jesus' brothers thought.
Look there to verse 3.
John tells us,
His brothers came
and 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.
At first glance,
that sounds like
a really good idea,
doesn't it?
At first glance,
the will of Jesus' brothers,
their desire for Jesus here,
they say,
Jesus,
go make yourself known.
We want the whole world
to see you
and to know who you are.
Go make yourself known
to the world.
That sounds like
a good request,
doesn't it?
It sounds a lot like
what we want,
doesn't it?
Our mission as a church
is to make Jesus
really big,
to magnify the glory of God,
to draw attention
that all the world
might see who Jesus is
and worship Him
as He deserves.
So what's going on?
What's the matter
with this request?
Look to verse 5
because this is
absolutely shocking.
John tells us,
They said this
for because
not even His brothers
believed in Him.
This request,
although on the surface
it seems good,
on the surface
it seems right,
it was rooted
in unbelief.
Can we just pause here
for a moment
and feel the weight of this?
Not even His own brothers
believed in Him.
I could not imagine
another opportunity
to be nearer to Jesus,
to be closer to Him
than to be His own brother.
If you have siblings,
if you're not an only child,
if you have siblings,
you know exactly
what I'm talking about.
To be so intimately close
with Jesus,
to see Him day in,
day out,
not just publicly,
but in the privacy
of your own home,
to see Him
and yet not see Him
at all.
If this isn't an illustration
of the blinding power
of sin,
I don't know what is.
Jesus' brothers,
let them be a lesson
to us
that familiarity
with Jesus
does not equal
faith in Jesus.
His brothers
are a living lesson
of what we just read,
what we just testified
earlier this morning.
The Spirit
must give life.
The flesh
is no help
at all.
Apart from His Spirit,
we simply,
we can be as close
as we need to be,
but we cannot see Jesus
for who He is.
Not even His own brothers
believed Him.
This request
that Jesus make Himself known,
it seems on the surface
like that's a good desire,
a good request,
like this would be pleasing
to God,
but John clues us in
to their unbelief
so that we would know
something else
is going on here.
And it's possible
that they thought,
well, maybe He would do
another sign.
Maybe we would benefit
in some way
from another miracle.
Maybe they thought
His popularity,
His growing popularity
might benefit the family
in some way.
Maybe they could benefit
from His influence.
Maybe they thought
that Jesus would garner
enough influence
and support
within the community
to come and overthrow
the Romans.
Regardless of what
the exact motivation was,
we need to see,
we need to understand,
if it's coming
from a place of unbelief,
then their will
is ultimately driven
by one thing.
You know what it is?
Self.
Self-gain.
Self-glory.
To follow God's will
is to seek God's glory
in all things.
But to follow our own
sinful, selfish, sinful will
is to seek our gain,
our glory in all things.
Even if it means
using Jesus Himself
as a means to get there.
Let Jesus' brothers
be an example for us, church.
Non-believers
can get themselves
very invested
in the name of Jesus.
Non-believers
can get themselves
very excited
about the name
of Jesus.
They can fill churches.
They can sing songs.
They can take notes
during the sermon.
But at the bottom
of their hearts,
what they ultimately want
is not His glory,
but their gain.
The unbelieving heart
will come to Jesus
when they have a possibility
for selfish gain
and they will leave Him
in an instant
if that possibility
is gone.
And we've all seen this,
haven't we?
I remember in college
seeing a few guys
get real serious
about the Lord
right about the time
they started having
their eyes on some girl
in college ministry.
businessmen
coming to church
to try and drum up
a few more clients.
It's a tale
as old as time.
The unbelieving will
wants to glorify self
and it will use
any means necessary,
even the name of Jesus,
to get there.
But how does Jesus respond?
Look here
to Jesus' response.
He says,
He wants no part
of this.
So He tells His brothers,
You go on up.
He says in verse 6,
My time has not yet come.
You and your agenda,
your motives,
your desires,
they belong to the world.
There's an essential difference
between you and me.
You know what?
The world hates me.
It can't hate you.
Why?
Because you belong to it
and I don't.
I testify against it,
but you belong to it.
I'm not going up to the feast.
You go on up.
I'm not going.
But this is interesting,
isn't it?
Verse 10,
it says,
He did go up.
So what's going on here?
Did Jesus just lie
to His brothers?
He said,
I'm not going up
to the feast.
Now, verse 10,
He is going up
to the feast.
So what's going on?
Here's what I think
is happening.
John is showing us
Jesus' complete determination
to follow the will
and the plan
and the agenda of God,
not the will
and the plan
and the agenda
of sinful man.
This is an act
of defiance
against the will
and the agenda,
even the temptation
of sinful man.
He says,
My time is not here,
meaning I have
a precise plan
to follow.
I take orders
from one person,
God the Father.
Your time's always here.
Go whenever you want.
I'm not going
when you want me to go.
I'm not going
in your time,
not in your way,
not for your reasons.
You go on without me.
Now, I believe
that this is
another example
of temptation
in the life
of Jesus.
And it's incredible to me
as we read the Gospels
how alike
Jesus and us,
how alike we are
to Jesus in this way.
You know,
Jesus was tempted
daily
to cave in
to the pressures
and the temptations
all around him.
He knows exactly
what it's like
to be tempted
to follow the desires
of sinful man.
But there's one key difference.
You know what it is?
He was tempted
and tried
in every way
as we are,
yet,
help me,
yet without sin.
Jesus Christ
resisted
the temptation
to submit
to the will
of sinful flesh
and instead
perfectly followed
the will of God.
Surely,
Jesus knew
he could go
into that crowd.
He could demand
to be praised.
He knew he was
owed all the praise
and the attention
of man.
Surely,
he could go
and make himself
known right then
and there
to all the world
just like his brothers
asked,
and yet,
what does he do?
He sticks to the plan.
You remember
when the devil
took him up
on the mountain
and showed him
all the kingdoms
of the world
and said,
all the kingdoms
of the world
can be yours
if you'll simply
bow down
and worship me.
He knew
that all the kingdoms
of the world
rightly belonged
to him
and yet,
he knew
there was a plan
to be followed.
There was a God-appointed
time
to be met
for salvation
to be accomplished.
He must follow
God's will
perfectly.
So he humbled himself
and followed
the will of God.
He went up
to the feast
later in his time,
not publicly,
but John says,
in private.
He perfectly
submitted
to the will of God.
Not only this,
but second,
second,
Jesus perfectly
willed
the will
of God.
Jesus perfectly
willed
the will
of God.
Meaning,
God's will
was what Jesus
desired
more than anything.
He was perfect
not only in his
external actions,
but in his
internal desire.
One way we see this
is in the teaching
of Jesus.
It seems like
as he went up
to the feast,
there was a rumbling
there in Judea.
The Jews,
meaning the Jewish leaders,
were seeking him
at the feast,
asking where is he,
not to say hello
or to get his autograph,
but so that they
might capture him,
arrest him,
and ultimately
put him to death.
But the crowds,
thousands of Jews
there gathering
for the feast,
were all,
they were muttering
about him.
You can imagine
the kind of
thunder,
the roar of voices
as you enter Judea.
And John says,
many of them
were talking
secretly
about Jesus.
Some said,
he's a good man.
Others said,
no,
he's leading
the people astray.
This division
was mounting.
So Jesus does
as he often does
and he went
into the temple
and began
to teach.
Look there
to verse 14.
About the middle
of the feast,
Jesus went up
into the temple
and began teaching.
And the Jews,
they marveled why.
They marveled at him.
What was the reason
they're marveling
at him?
It's not because
of the content
of his message.
It was about
the origin
of his teaching.
Where did you
learn all this stuff?
Where did all
this stuff come from?
The Greek literally
there says,
how does this man
know his letters
when he's never studied?
Meaning,
he's never studied
with us.
Where is Jesus'
seminary degree from?
What rabbinical school
did Jesus go to?
Where does his teaching,
where does his knowledge go?
How does this man
learn his letters
when he hasn't studied
with us?
And Jesus says,
I'll tell you
where my teaching
comes from.
My teaching is not mine,
but it is his
who sent me.
And here it is,
verse 17.
Listen to this.
If anyone's will
is to do God's will,
he will know
whether the teaching
is from God
or whether I am speaking
on my own authority.
Did you catch that?
Let me read that again.
If anyone's will
is to do God's will,
he will know
whether the teaching
is from God
or whether I am 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.
Here's the litmus test.
If you desire God's will,
then you will look to Christ,
listen to his words,
and by the grace of God
you will say,
yes, that is true.
Yes, those are the words of God.
Yes, he is the Christ.
Yes, that is good.
Yes, that is life.
Yes, that is from God.
But if you will your own will,
sinful, selfish,
self-exalting,
like Jesus' brothers,
like the Jewish officials,
then you will hear Jesus' words
and say,
he's speaking on his own authority.
Meaning not from God.
Human words.
Take what you like,
reject what you don't,
eat the fish,
spit out the bones.
If you desire your own will
above all else,
you might really love
what Jesus has to say
when it lines up
with what you already think
and ignore what Jesus has to say
when it disagrees
with what you already think.
If you will your own will,
at the end of the day,
what you want
reigns supreme
over the word of God.
But Jesus says,
those who will God's will,
those who truly in their heart
will thy will be done,
they receive the words of Christ
totally for what they are,
the very words of God.
Jesus says to the Jews here,
you don't desire God's will.
And I'll show it to you,
two very clear examples.
Number one,
charge number one,
you outright disobey God's word.
Lord,
you want to kill me.
Verse 19.
He says,
has not Moses given you the law
yet?
Yet none of you keeps the law.
Why do you seek to kill me?
If you love the will of God,
if you truly desire to do his will,
if you love the law,
which is God's revealed will for you,
for your obedience,
why are you right now
plotting to break the sixth commandment?
Thou shall not kill.
They denied it.
Who else?
You have a demon.
You're insane.
You're crazy.
And so he moves on.
He says,
charge number two,
you disobey God's word
and you apply God's word inconsistently.
You like it when it suits you
and you disregard it when it doesn't.
Look there to verse 21.
Jesus reminds them of his healing
of the invalid man on the Sabbath day.
Do you remember that account?
There was a man who was waiting by the pool
for someone to come
and to put him in the waters.
He'd been lying there for a number of years.
Jesus comes up and says,
sir, do you want to be made well?
He says,
I have nobody to help me.
Jesus says,
rise,
take up your mat,
walk,
get up,
you're well.
The only problem was
that was on the Sabbath day
and that did not sit well
with the rulers.
He said,
I did one work
and you all marvel at it.
Moses gave you circumcision,
not that it's from Moses,
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 whole man's body well?
Well,
don't judge by appearances,
but judge with right judgment.
Are you following Jesus' logic here?
It was commanded in the law of God
that every male child born
had to be circumcised on the eighth day
and so the question had to be answered,
well,
what happens if that eighth day
falls on the Sabbath?
Do we wait till the ninth day?
Do we do it a day early
or do we break that Sabbath law?
You see my parentheses here.
It's not breaking it.
Do we break that Sabbath law
and circumcise the child
on the eighth day?
And they determined
that they would, in fact,
uphold that eighth day ordinance
even if it fell on the Sabbath day.
And from that conclusion,
the Jews determined
that all acts of mercy
would be permitted on the Sabbath.
If a child needed to be circumcised
on the Sabbath day,
it would be done.
If a sheep would fall into a pit,
they would pull him out
on the Sabbath day.
But Jesus says,
if that's the case,
why are you trying to kill me
for making a whole man's body well
on the Sabbath day?
You are inconsistently applying
God's word.
Why?
Because at the bottom
of your unbelieving hearts
is your sinful will,
not God's will.
Thomas Jefferson,
you may know,
infamously made an abridged version
of the New Testament
called the Jefferson Bible.
Are you familiar with this?
where he took six copies
of the New Testament
in Greek, Latin, French, and English,
and he literally cut and pasted
what he determined together
to be the core essential teachings
of Jesus.
And it was that self-curated,
mutilated book
that became his nightly reading.
And what amounted to 86 pages
of self-approved doctrine,
the rest of it
hit the cutting room floor.
86 pages.
86 pages
that met his approval.
Now we may hear that
and scoff
and shake our heads at that,
but we have to realize
that all of us
are prone
to that same sort
of redactive reading
of the word of God.
Martin Luther,
give you another example.
He famously loved
the letters of Paul.
You know what he called
the letter that James wrote?
He said it was
an epistle of straw.
It didn't have one ounce
of pure gospel doctrine in it.
Now I've spoken with brothers
who have said something similar.
They said,
well, I actually,
I get along with Jesus
in the gospels.
I really like James.
I resonate with him,
but I have a hard time
getting along with Paul.
All of us
need to be on guard
and aware of this tendency
in our hearts.
Did our sinful hearts
stand at the ready
with scissors open,
prepared to cut out
whatever it is
we don't like
about Christ
and his words?
We need to be on guard,
church.
We know that our society,
our culture,
stands at the ready
with scissors open,
telling us every day
something new
that would probably be better
cut out and left
on the cutting room floor.
Keep the stuff about heaven,
but why don't we cut out
these hard teachings
about hell?
Keep the gentle,
loving Christ,
but cut out the exclusivity
of salvation
in Christ alone.
Cut out the sovereignty
of God.
Why don't we cut out
our complete inability
to earn or even will
our salvation
apart from his grace?
Cut marriage?
Cut gender?
Cut sexuality?
Cut justice?
Cut holiness?
Cut sin?
Cut repentance?
What are we left with?
exactly what we
wanted to hear?
We have to constantly
remember, church,
that our reception
of the word of God
shouldn't be shaped
by our will,
our desires,
our preferences.
Rather,
we want our will
to be shaped
by God's word,
God's will,
God's preferences.
Those who will
the will of God
want the Holy Spirit
to cut out of us
anything
that does not conform
to the will of God.
But the honest truth
is that none of us
do this perfectly,
do we?
The heart of a Christian,
the desire,
the heartfelt desire
of a Christian
is the will of God.
That's from him
in us.
But we wrestle
with the flesh.
We wage war
against the desires
of our sinful flesh,
which ought to make us
so, so thankful
that third,
Jesus perfectly
accomplished
God's will
for sinners
like us.
Jesus
perfectly
accomplished
God's will
for us.
It seems like
this discussion,
it led towards
more muttering
in the crowds,
and they began
to ask,
isn't this the man
they seek to kill?
And yet,
here he is
speaking openly,
and they're saying
nothing to him.
Can it be
that the authorities
really know
that this
is the Christ?
They're on to
something,
aren't they?
But as soon
as this question
was raised,
an objection
came with it.
Look there
to verse 27.
He says,
but we know
where this man
comes from,
and when the Christ
appears,
no one will know
where he comes from.
They knew,
or at least
they thought
they knew
where Jesus
was from,
and apparently
they believed
that when the Messiah
appeared,
it would be
instant
and unexpected.
He would appear
immediately
and quickly
get to work
ushering in
the kingdom of God,
liberating the Jews.
In other words,
Jesus was not
what they expected.
They saw Jesus.
They saw the signs.
They heard his words
and yet could not
see Jesus
for who he is.
Why?
Jesus says
it's because
they did not know God.
They judged
by appearances
and not
with right judgment.
Jesus says,
you know me
and you know
where I come from,
but I have not
come on my own accord.
He who sent me
is true
and him
you do not know.
I know him
for I come from him
and he sent me.
If you knew him,
you would know me.
If you loved his words,
you would love my words.
If you willed his will,
you would look at me
and know that I am he,
but you don't.
So how did they respond?
They sought to arrest him.
But no one laid a hand on him
because his hour,
that God appointed hour
in the plan
and the will of God
had not yet fully come.
Yet,
many of the people
did believe in him.
And they said,
when the Christ appears,
will he do more signs
than this man has done?
Do you see the mounting division
of the people to Christ
at this point?
The mounting division
of how people are responding
to the words
and the person of Christ.
We cannot be neutral
when we hear the words of Christ.
We can reject him,
we can write him off,
we can seek to kill him,
or we can come to him totally,
but we cannot be neutral.
This is the moment of decision
for these people.
God sent Christ
for this purpose,
that any who look to him
and believe that he is the Christ
might have life in his name.
These Jews are teetering
on the edge of eternity here,
between eternal life
and eternal death.
As they weigh in their minds,
who is Jesus?
Who is this man?
Is he who he claims to be?
If it's not him,
then who?
Who else could do
the things he does
and speak the way he does?
As you consider
the words of Christ
this morning,
if you're not a believer,
I would ask you
the same question.
If you won't trust this man,
whom will you trust?
Apparently,
the Pharisees
overheard this conversation
and said,
enough waiting,
the time has come.
The chief priests
and Pharisees
sent officials
to arrest him,
but as they do,
Jesus says one last thing
that just perplexes
everyone in the crowd.
Look there with me.
He says,
I will be with you
a little longer,
and then where I am going,
I'm going to him
who sent me.
You will seek me
and you will not find me.
Where I am,
you cannot come.
The Jews said to one another,
where is he going?
Where does he think
he's going?
Where we can't find him?
Does he intend to go out
to the Greeks
and the dispersion
and teach the Greeks?
What does he mean
by you will seek me
and you will not find me
and where I am,
you cannot come?
And John leaves us hanging,
doesn't he?
He doesn't give us the answer.
But we know the end of the story.
We know that very soon
Jesus would enter again
into Jerusalem
to shouts of Hosanna,
to words of praise,
to the great expectations
of the crowds,
and within a week
we know that Christ
will hang on a cross.
and he would be put to death
and that the Son of God
would die a sinner's death.
Why?
Why would this happen?
Why would he do this?
To perfectly fulfill
the plan of God
for sinners like us,
for our salvation.
You know,
the death of Christ
was not a tragic accident.
This was the eternal plan
of God
from before the ages began,
that the Son of God
would come
and live perfectly
in our place
where you have failed,
where I have failed,
where Adam has failed,
and he would die
in the place of sinners.
But because of his
perfect obedience,
death would not
have a claim on him.
So he would rise
from the grave
and then ascend up
into heaven
and sit down
at the right hand
of God the Father
because the plan
of redemption
was complete
and Jesus fulfilled it
perfectly.
He says to the Jews,
because of your sin,
you cannot come
where I am going.
But do you know
what he says
to his followers
later in John 14?
Listen to this.
He says,
I go to prepare
a place for you.
And if I go
and prepare a place
for you,
I will come again
and will take you
to myself,
that where I am,
you may be also.
And you know the way
to where I am going.
Thomas said to him,
Lord,
we do not know
where you are going.
How can we know
the way?
Jesus said,
I am the way
and the truth
and the life.
No one comes
to the Father
except through me,
through my life,
through my obedience,
through my death,
through my resurrection,
given freely to you
through faith.
God's life.
Why does this matter
for us,
church?
Why does it matter
that Jesus lives
a life of perfect obedience?
For one,
let Jesus' obedience
serve as conviction
for us.
None of us
have lived
a perfect life.
all of us
have fallen short
of the glory of God
in many ways,
many more ways
than we realize.
Even this morning,
even this hour,
we have fallen short
of the glory of God.
Let Jesus' holiness
convict you
of where you fall short.
Not only that,
may Jesus'
perfect obedience
serve as an example
for us.
If we want to know
what godliness looks like,
if we want to grow
in obedience,
where else can we look
but to Christ
who perfectly obeyed?
But not only that,
church,
be thankful
that His obedience
serves as a substitute
for us.
For as by the one man's
obedience,
the many were made sinners,
so by the one man's
obedience,
the many will be made
righteous.
The gospel is the good news
that Jesus Christ
lived in the place
of sinners
where we failed,
He succeeded,
that He might give
His perfect righteousness
and all of the reward
that comes with it
to unworthy sinners
like us
simply through faith.
If Christ Jesus
erred in one degree
from the will
and plan of God,
there would be
no salvation
for us.
But because He
perfectly submitted
to the will
of the Father,
He gives us
everything
that He has earned
in our place.
If all we see
when we look at Jesus
are the ways
we fall short,
we will feel
nothing but shame.
If all we see
when we see Jesus
is a moral example
of right and wrong,
we'll feel pride
when we succeed
and we'll feel guilt
when we fail,
but if we look
to our perfect Savior
as a substitute,
His perfect obedience
credited to our
bankrupt account
by faith,
then we will feel
the weight of sin
melt away.
And we will feel
thankful for the
obedience of Christ.
Christ,
because without
His obedience,
there is no hope.
Let's pray.
Lord, we do thank You
for the perfect
obedience of Christ.
We've failed.
We freely confess
and admit our sin
to You.
And we turn to You
with it knowing
that You sent Christ
for sinners like us.
That we can't earn
our way to You.
We've failed,
but Christ alone
has earned the right
to eternal life
and He's offered
that to us
simply through faith
in Him and His name.
God, help us
to will the will
of God.
Give us a spirit
that desires Your will
above all else,
we pray in Christ's name.
Amen.