It has been a few weeks since our last time together.  I trust each of you had a most blessed Easter Season.  What great news we have to proclaim to our world...He is risen, indeed!  I think spring is finally coming to Minnesota, although we had five inches of snow this past Monday.  But it is all gone now...the only blessings of spring snows, it melts quickly.  I heard a robin for the first time this morning when I stepped out to pick up our newspaper.  Some of the other early spring birds have returned, but the flowers are still sleeping.  I can hardly blame them.  But a few warm days and they will begin to stir.  What a wonderful time of the year!

Our study this week takes us into the 7th chapter of the Gospel of John.  Beginning with this chapter we see Jesus entering into that last phase of His public ministry - that phase which would be completed some six months later at Calvary.  Here is the amazing thing about Jesus.  He knew that His time was short.  He knew that He was entering the final phase of His life and yet we see Jesus being very sensitive to the fact that He not run ahead of God's timetable.  Also, in this chapter we see all the conditions around Jesus where characterized by unrest.  Everything was turmoil around Him.  His friends were perplexed.   Some of His friends had deserted Him.  His enemies were becoming more and more bitter and controversies were surging around Him.  Yet, in this chapter we will see Jesus "cool, calm, and collected."

John informs us that it is the time for the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the three pilgrimage feasts to which Jewish males were to make a trek to Jerusalem.  This particular feast was held in the fall of the year and celebrated the presence and provision of God during the years of wandering in the wilderness.  If you close your eyes you can probably picture great caravans of people traveling the roadways making their way up to Jerusalem.  In verse 3, Jesus' brothers - these were His earthly brothers, including James and Judas who later became believers - challenge Jesus to go up to Jerusalem to that His followers there might see the miracles that Jesus was doing.  Now, according to Mark's record, these brothers really believed that Jesus was insane: When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him for they said, "He is out of his mind." (Mark 3:21).  We could relate their challenge here in John with these words: "If you are the Messiah, then why don't you perform your signs in the holy city?  Why do you just do them here in the country?  Don't you know that to be in the limelight means you cannot work in secret?"

Friends, this was the not the first time Jesus had been challenged to perform some miracle.  You might remember that His mother, Mary, challenged Him to do something about the wine at the marriage in Cana.  Then the multitude challenged Jesus to continue feeding them as He had done with the five loaves and two small fish.  They all knew that Jesus could do miracles.  They just misunderstood His mission. 

How did Jesus respond to this challenge?  First, He stated that the time for the cross was not yet.  Jesus was conscious of that "hour" for which He had been born.  (Read John 2:4; John 7:30; John 8:20; John 14:19; John 16:32; John 17:1).  Jesus was very conscious of God's will and plan for His life.  Second, He stated that the world hated Him, but not them.  Now at first glance, this seems very strange.  But, remember Jesus is speaking to His earthly brothers.  They do not believe in Him.  Friends, the world never hates its own - the sinner.  The devil never hates his own possessions.  The world delights in the sinner and his sin.  (Read Romans 1:24-32).  But, the world hates Christ Jesus and His followers.  Why?  Because they oppose what the world stands for - namely sin.  (Read John 3:19-21).  The true Christian must always be prepared for persecution.  When you step out of your doorway in the morning, you are stepping into enemy territory.  You are light entering into a world of darkness. 

Now, it is interesting that Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Feast, but only after everyone else has gone.  And He enters without any fanfare.  This section closes (verses 12-13) with a mixed review of Jesus.  Some of the Jews exclaim that He is a good man, while others proclaim that He is a deceiver.  But the crowd, at least on the surface, had accepted Jesus...if nothing else, for the miracles that He performed. 

Let me ask you this question: Who is Jesus to you?  Is He your miracle-worker?  Is He a good man?  Is He your redeemer and savior?  If you had been interviewed that particular Feast of Tabernacles being celebrated in Jerusalem, what would you have said about Him?

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: When you are dying of thirst it's too late to think about digging a well.  (Japanese Proverb)