Study in John’s Gospel

Study inJohn’s Gospel

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The Right TimeChap 7v1-10

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IntroductionThere are few things in life as important as time. However, time is something that we can spend on things that later on prove to have little meaning. When our life is empty then time drags! Shakespeare’s Mac Beth realises this and exclaims, “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day”. None of us are able to see over the horizon of time. This makes it difficult to see if we are making the best of the time allotted to us. We only have one life! We cannot recapture spent days. How can we make our time count? In order to answer that question we will look at Jesus’ words to his brothers before he went up to Jerusalem.

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IntroductionUp until this point, the bulk of Jesus’ ministry had been spent in Galilee. He had met with initial success. However, as the true nature of his teaching became known and his claims were understood, the crowds began to drift away. He was alone with his disciples for about six months - note the time lapse between the Passover feast in Ch. 6 and the feast of the Tabernacles in Ch.7.Jesus was apparently unwilling to leave Galilee. He knew what lay ahead in Jerusalem!

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IntroductionAt this point, Jesus’ brothers recommend a trip to the feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem. They clearly think that this might revive his flagging popularity. Not that his brothers, as yet, believed in him. Jesus resisted their proposal. He made it very clear that it was not for them to tell him, where and when to go. His significant response was, “My time is not yet come”.

If we are to understand what Jesus meant by that, then we need to begin by recognising that God’s time is different from our time.

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God’s Time And OursIndeed, it is questionable whether or not we can use the word ‘time’ in relation to God for he stands outside of time as we know it. Let me illustrate. Imagine a river that winds across the countryside. It begins in the mountains, passes through forests, down into the coastal plain before discharging into the sea. If a man is making his way down the river in a boat and the first day all he sees is mountains, on the next he passes through the forest and the next the coastal plain before arriving at the sea on the following day.

Each day all he has been able to see is one geographical feature at a time.

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Now contrast that man’s experience with that of a pilot in a modern aircraft flying 5 miles high. He is able to see all of the geographical features mentioned at exactly the same time. He has a completely different perspective.

Now apply that thinking to our understanding of ‘time’. We are able to see things happening one day at a time. However, God stands outside of time and as he looks at what we call history, he is able to see Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus during his life on earth and you too, simultaneously.

God’s Time And Ours

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This is of tremendous practical importance to us, not least in what we describe as the decision making process. We regularly make decisions as we try to cope with past mistakes and changing circumstances. God’s decisions are not like ours because of the special nature of his relationship to time. He is not taken by surprise by events that lie just over the horizon or by changing circumstances. It is for this reason that the Westminster Confession of faith does not speak of the decisions of God but of the unchanging and unchangeable decrees of God.

God’s Time And Ours

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God does not make decisions because he is suddenly confronted with a problem that he had not foreseen. He determines both the problems and solutions in advance. He is never surprised or caught off balance in the way that we regularly are by some unforeseen circumstance.

Now it is because this is so that we can trust in him for the ordering of our days.

The importance of this becomes particularly clear in the life of our Lord Jesus.

God’s Time And Ours

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Focusing Upon JesusWhat happened when the Lord of Eternity stepped into time clothed in our humanity? Well his life was fixed by the eternal decrees of GOD and this gave direction to his life. Parents are sometimes frustrated with teenagers when in response to the question, ‘What do you intend to do with your life’, reply, ‘I don’t know’. Clearly, life without purpose and direction is aimless.

Jesus knew exactly what his life was for. From childhood he knew. From his first visit to the temple he knew. So thatwhen Mary scolded him for remaining behind in the temple, he replied, “I must be about my Father’s business” Lk.2.49.

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Focusing Upon JesusMany verses in the N.T. indicate that Jesus was born, lived and died according to the fixed plan of God. “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons”. Gal 4v4-5.

“The lamb slain before the foundation of the world” Rev 13v 8.

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake”. 1Pet 1v18-20.

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Focusing Upon Jesus

1. The details of Jesus’ birth, life and death were planned in eternity and decreed by God.

2. The death of Jesus was the most important event of his life.

3. Jesus was conscious that the events of his life were marked out for him by God.

4. Therefore, it follows that everything planned by God for Jesus’ life on earth and revealed in scripture has been accomplished.

Many more verses could be cited all of which would bring us to the following conclusions.

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A Fixed TimescaleNot only were the events of Jesus’ life predetermined by God but their timing was also predetermined. This fills out our understanding of Jesus’ words, “my time has not yet come”. On one day, Jesus refused to go up to Jerusalem but he went 3 or 4 days later! He went up secretly; his public, triumphal and final entry into Jerusalem was another six months away. At this juncture it was not part of the plan of God to draw unusual attention to himself. Jesus lived with an incredible awareness of God’s plan for his life and would do nothing to frustrate it.

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A Fixed TimescaleSome ask, if everything was planned by the Father does this not take away any element of choice from Jesus? Do we live in a deterministic universe, where choice, accountability and indeed responsibility for one’s actions are a fiction? The approach of many is summed up in the words, “If it’s meant then it will happen”. They describe a world where kismet or fate operates. But this is not the world God created or the one in which Jesus lived. Choice for Jesus was not a mere fiction. It is impossible to read of his struggle in Gethsemane and come to that conclusion. It cost Jesus to say, ‘not my will but thine be done’.

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A Fixed TimescaleThere are two quite different approaches to life that one can take. The first rejects any idea of a controlling destiny, its philosophy is, ‘life is what you make it’. All of life’s knocks are viewed as ‘bad luck’ there is no rhyme or reason to our setbacks and suffering. There is no purpose or direction to our life, save that which we ourselves manage to give it.

This produces the kind of opportunist ‘hit and hope’ approach to life such as that demonstrated by Jesus’ brothers. “A trip to Jerusalem and a few miracles could kick-start your career again!”

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A Fixed TimescaleThe second approach is the one demonstrated by Jesus. It recognises God’s hand and God’s plan. It is found on the lips of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will”. This view recognises that life is not arbitrary. God has a plan and purpose for our lives.

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. Jer. 29.11

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ConclusionWhich of these two approaches describes your life? Have you experienced the meaning and direction to life that only God can give? If you are not yet a Christian come to Christ for salvation and discover God’s plans to give you hope.And if you are a Christian but as yet are not aware of God’s purpose for your life, don’t be discouraged. God knows what he intends to do in and through your life.

In nature, some things move so fast we fail to see them like the flight of an insect, others so slowly that we miss their beauty, like the unfolding petals of a flower.

Time lapse photography helps with both!

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ConclusionIn the same way, we can miss out on the beauty of what God is doing in our lives because, what he is doing is either too slow or too fast for us to grasp. We need to trust God and look forward to the day, when God shares with us his own screening of his time lapse photography and we see more completely what he has done in and through our lives.