John 7:1-9
"After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.
Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing.
"For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world."
For even His brothers did not believe in Him.
Then Jesus said to them, 'My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
"The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.
"You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come."
When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee."

Message:
John 7 begins a new section of this fourth Gospel. Our Lord's ministry in Galilee was now over, though He still remained there, because the Judeans sought to kill Him.
Our Lord had just given the Bread of Life discourse. As a result, many of His disciples withdrew and did not walk with Him anymore. The crowd was not interested in a Savior who was primarily spiritual. The drama of that rejection continues in this chapter which we are about to study.
The annual Feast of Tabernacles was at hand, and His brethren were anxious for Christ to go up to Jerusalem, and there give a public display of His miraculous powers.
Our text opens with these words, "After this" indicating a time span unknown between the previous event and the one now being considered. But the previous chapter has been taken up with what happened at Passover time, and the event now being considered in the Feast of Tabernacles, which we know took place six months later. John is not trying to give a full account of Jesus' ministry. He selects the incidents

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that will further his purpose and is quite capable of passing over considerable intervals of time without saying anything about them. He tells us those things that will help us see that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the things that will help us believe (as he tells us in John 20;31).
From now to the end of the public ministry John depicts a steadily deepening hostility toward Jesus. It had now become dangerous for Jesus to appear in Judea, so that His appearance at Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles must be carefully arranged. Jesus was forced to withdraw and minister in Galilee because the religionists throughout Judea and Jerusalem had reacted so violently against Him that they sought to kill Him. The word "sought" is continuous action...that is, they kept on seeking to kill Him. Their pursuit was relentless!
The repeated use of "walking" gives us a little glimpse of the way Jesus lived. His ministry was not confined to any one place and He kept moving among the people. But He traveled in the humblest way; He walked. Christ's avoidance of Judea was not due to lack of courage, but He was awaiting the exact moment in God's time plan to make His entrance.
"The Jews" in John always represent Jesus' enemies. In other words, the religious leaders wanted to end His ministry by killing Him, and what better time than when Jerusalem was full of people at one of the most popular feasts of the Jews.
"Now the Jew's Feast of Tabernacles was at hand." I think it is important that we spend some time and study the scriptures which tell us about this very important event in the life of every Jew. The Old Testament passage which describes this feast is found in Leviticus 23, verses 34 through 36, and 39 through 44.
"Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.
On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the

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Lord. It is a sacred assembly and you shall do no customary work on it.
Verse 39-44
"Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.
For you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."
So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord."
The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles was a harvest feast. It took place when all of the harvest had been gathered. It was a joyous time of celebration, a very well attended festival, for two reasons. It was an exciting festival to attend, and it was one of the three festivals that required attendance of every Jewish male who lived within twenty miles of Jerusalem.
During the feast great throngs came to town. It was a colorful event. If it were to occur today, we would probably call it the Jerusalem Camping and Recreational Vehicle Convention! Shelters sprang up in the most unlikely places—on flat rooftops, down dark alleys, even in the courts of the temple—and all of the shelters followed the rabbinical building code. [The walls were extra-thin so that light came through, and the roof had to show enough sky so the stars could be seen, thus reminding the Jews of how they had wandered in the wilderness] and of how God had provided for them.
The feast was a wonderful and festive time! People

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dressed in their Sabbath-best for the week. They called it "the season of our gladness." [it was so festive that to Zachariah, it was a symbol of the glorious future of the people of God. In the fourteenth chapter of his book, he wrote of that golden age to come and of a future; universal Feast of Tabernacles.]
At the heart of the celebration was a daily rite, a rite we must understand in order to catch the sense of John 7. Rabbinical literature tells us that each morning great multitudes would gather at the Temple of Herod. [They would come with a citrus fruit in their left hands (an ethrog). The ethrog was a reminder of the land to which God had brought them and of their bountiful blessings. In their right hands the people would carry a lulab, which was a combination of three trees—a palm tree, a willow, and a myrtle, emblematic of the stages of their ancestors' journey through the wilderness. Each morning the people gathered together, and after the priest was sure everything was in order, he would hold out a golden pitcher. The crowds would then follow the priest to the Pool of Siloam, chanting some of the great Psalms and waving their lulabs in rhythm. As they approached the Pool of Siloam, the priest would dip his pitcher into the water,] and the people would recite some beautiful words from Isaiah 12:3: "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Then the crowd would march back to the temple, entering through the Water Gate to the blast of the priest's trumpets.
[The priest would then circle the altar once, ascend with accompanying priests to the platform, and pour the water out. This was a daily event.]
All of this was going on up at Jerusalem while Jesus remained in Galilee, where a conversation ensued between the Saviour and His physical brothers, His own flesh and blood!

But before we consider the conversation of Jesus with His brothers, let me make a few observations further concerning the Feast of Tabernacles. Though Leviticus 23 is the first time this event is mentioned by name, there is one earlier reference to it, namely, in Exodus 23:16, where it is termed the Feast of Ingathering, "which is the end of the year (i.e. of the sacred calendar of Feasts), when thou hast gathered

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in thy labors out of the field." The Feast of Tabernacles then was the grand Harvest Festival, when the Lord of the harvest was praised for all His temporal mercies. This one was the most joyous Feast of the year. It was not observed by Israel till after they had entered and settled in Canaan; their dwelling in booths at this Feast memorialized their wanderings in the wilderness.
Another interesting note concerning this festival...The Old Testament records but two occasions when this Feast was ever observed by Israel in the past, and they are most significant. The first of these is found in 1 Kings 8, (verses 2,11,13,62-66). This was in the days of Solomon at the completion and dedication of the Temple. In like manner, the antitypical Feast of tabernacles, will not be ushered in till the completion of the spiritual "temple," which God is now building (Ephesians 2:22, 1 Peter 2:5). The second account of Israel's past celebration of this Feast is recorded in Nehemiah 8:13-18. The occasion was the settlement of the Jewish remnant in Palestine, after they had come up out of captivity.
Now let's continue on in our text in John 7. (v.3-4) "His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world."
We must remember that after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary lived a very normal married life in that they had other children born to their union. Matthew 13:53—56 says: "Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
"Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

"And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things."
It was these brothers that are referred to in our text...and John added a very startling statement: "FOR EVEN HIS BROTHERS DID NOT BELIEVE IN HIM."

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The brothers and sisters of Christ did not believe in Him! This must have been very embarrassing and hurtful, but His claim to be the Son of God caused them to consider Christ beside Himself, that is, mad or insane! On one occasion the rumor of madness caused so much pressure from neighbors and friends that they actually traveled a great distance to find Him and bring Him home. (Mark 3:31-32) In time Jesus' brothers came to believe in Him, and we find them gathered with the apostles and some believing women soon after the ascension (Acts 1:13-14), but during the time of His ministry they appear to have been very skeptical of His claims.
As the Feast of Tabernacles approached they urged Him to go on up to Judea. It does not appear that they were sincerely interested in setting forward what He was doing, and their statement to Christ seems very sarcastic. They said He should go to Judea so that His disciples might see His "works," (a word often used for Jesus' miracles and is its probable meaning here). "For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world." "If thou do these things...note the "IF" here. We take it that these brethren were really challenging Christ, and that the substance of their challenge was this: "If these works of yours are genuine miracles, why confine yourself to villages and small country-towns in Galilee, where the illiterate and unsophisticated habituate. Go up to the Capital, where people are better qualified to judge. Go up to the Feast, and there display your powers, and if they will stand the test of the public scrutiny of the leaders, why, your disciples will gather around you, and your claims will be settled once for all."
No doubt, these brethren really hoped that He would establish His claims, and in that event, as His near kinsmen, they would share the honors which would be heaped upon Him. But how insulting to our blessed Lord all this was! What indignities He suffered from those who were blind to His glory!
Their action is like that of Mary in chapter 2, and even more like that of the multitude who tried to make a king of Him (6:15). It implies a belief that He could work miracles, coupled with a thoroughgoing misunderstanding of His mission, a complete lack of

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faith in the only sense that matters. They had no idea that Jesus' mission, in its very nature, must be unpopular. We should not overlook the importance of this for an understanding of the difficulties under which Jesus labored. Many a man faced with cruel opposition in public life has been sustained by the faith and the faithfulness of his kith and kin. Jesus was denied this solace.
The urging of His brethren is declined. The brothers do not understand what He is doing; they do not believe in Him; their advice does not spring from a sincere desire to forward His mission. So Jesus makes this reply: "My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for My time is not yet full come."
Jesus frequently spoke about His TIME or His HOUR. But here He uses a different word, and uses it for the only time! In the other passages (John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 12:27) the word that Jesus or John uses is HORA, which means THE DESTINED HOUR OF GOD. It had to be accepted without argument and without alteration because it was the hour at which the plan of God had decided that something must happen.
But in this passage the word is KAIROS, which characteristically means AN OPPORTUNITY, that is, the best time to do something, the moment when circumstances are most suitable, THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT. Jesus is not saying here that the destined hour of God has not come but something much simpler. He is saying that that was not the moment which would give Him the chance for which He was waiting.
That explains why Jesus later actually did go to Jerusalem. Many people have been troubled about the fact that He first told His brothers He would not go and then went. Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, actually said: "Jesus Christ did of set purpose utter a falsehood." Other people have argued that it means that Jesus said that He was not going up to the festival publicly but that did not preclude Him from going privately.
But Jesus is saying simply: "If I go up with you just now I will not get the opportunity I am looking for. The time is not opportune."

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For Jesus, this was not the right time, but it was different for the brothers. Their "time" was always present. They were not sent by God on a mission like Jesus. So they did things when and as it seemed good to them. They neither submitted everything to the plan of God nor accomplished any worthwhile and lasting result. They had no divine commission to discharge. Their only duty was to be faithful Jews. For this there was little point in a careful choice of time. One time was as good as another...but now, as good Jews, they must hurry up to Jerusalem to join the throng for the feast. It was required of them as good Jews!
But, awaiting Jesus in Jerusalem is not festively attired Israel prepared to meet the One sent by God, in the manner of the feast, to receive living water from the wells of salvation, but "the world," those who despite all their religiosity, are estranged from God, who do not recognize Him for who He is because they do not recognize God, and therefore do not believe in Jesus, but indeed hate Him.
"The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil" (7:7). How this helps us to fix the meaning of the last clause of the previous verse. "Your time is always ready" meant, as we have observed, 'Your time to display yourself before the world, in order to court its approval, is ever at hand. But how solemn is the reason Christ here gives for this! It was because they had not cast in their lot with this One who was "despised and rejected of men." Because of this, the world would not hate them. And why? Because they were of the world. Contrariwise, the world did hate Christ. It hated Christ because He testified of it (not against it!), that its works were evil. The holiness of His life condemned the worldliness of theirs. What a solemn and searching test for those who profess to be His followers today. The world has not changed. It still hates those whose lives condemn theirs. Listen to the words of Christ to His apostles, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19).