You need to think through the fact that if you go public with your faith in the Lord Jesus, you will receive flak for it. You will not become cooler; you will not become more popular. Perhaps you were feeling that that was the right reason to come to Jesus—but it is not, and it will not be.
It is a painful thing to go against the flow of the world, to go against the feelings of the flesh, to go against the devil and his workers, in following the Lord Jesus. This is deep, strong opposition. But I am here to urge you to trust in him.
He came as the one who is Lord and God. And this is where we keep returning to—this is no mere man whom you need to have an opinion on, like you need to have an opinion on Donald Trump or Timothée Chalamet. No—this is our God. We need to believe in him.
The story of humanity is one of rebellion against God, one of betraying God, becoming his enemies—deserving curses that come upon those who sin against him, and deserving those eternally in hell. But we have this marvellous Saviour, Jesus Christ, who comes to rescue us from ourselves, to rescue us and forgive us for our betrayal.
And he does that through this cross that he refers to here in John 7—something that he is not ready to go to yet, but he does go to it in the end. Having ministered to his people and preached the good news of the kingdom, he laid his life down at the hands of these people who were already trying to kill him. He was crucified.
But it was not just martyrdom; it was not just a case of persecution, persecution was the means used, but what was happening when Jesus died on the cross was that the Father was willingly piercing his Son—the Father was punishing his Son instead of his Son’s people, instead of us. This was a substitution. The penalty that we should have paid was placed on Jesus instead of us.
And therefore we must respond by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, repenting of our sins, doing what we are invited to do in this passage. Verse 5: even his own brothers did not believe in him—but do you believe in him? Do you trust in him? Or do you see him as someone to be promoted or demoted?
Do you see him as someone whom we should merely have an opinion on, as we might have an opinion on Winston Churchill—‘he is a good man’, ‘he deceives the people’—‘here is what I think; let us leave it at that’? No. Embrace the Lord Jesus as your Lord, and as your King, as your God. Worship him. Follow him. Shape your whole life around him.
And gather yourself around other people who trust in him—they are called the church. Make your life about Jesus.
