From Routine To Reverence

What if the most faithful move is the quiet one no one sees? We walk through John 7 at the Feast of Tabernacles and watch Jesus refuse the spotlight, ignore easy metrics, and align with the Father’s timing. That choice exposes our own drift into ritual: showing up out of habit, serving from autopilot, praying on schedule while the heart stays far away. The message invites a reset from routine to reverence, where we ask, “Lord, what is your heart for me in this hour?” and mean it.

We unpack the feast’s roots in Leviticus 23—families in temporary shelters, joy with palm branches, God leading by cloud and fire—and link it to John’s claim that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Dwelt echoes tabernacle. Jesus is God’s presence pitched among pilgrims, guiding through deserts then and now. Along the way, we trace the fallout from John 6: crowds who loved miracles more than the Messiah, brothers who offered PR tips because they did not yet believe, and leaders who hunted Jesus while people whispered in fear. The contrast is stark: hype demands a stage; holiness follows a voice.

We also consider prophecy with sobriety. Must there be a stone temple, or could sacrifices resume in a tent as before? Rather than predict headlines, we draw the main line: the King’s return is near, judgment is real, and this moment calls for clear, courageous witness rooted in love. John’s life offers a pattern—a fisherman remade by Christ, steady under pressure, still speaking hope. If your faith feels numb, let this be a fresh start: surrender your timing, recover a listening posture, and choose sincere worship over mere motions.

If this stirred you, share it with a friend, subscribe for future studies, and leave a review so others can find the message. Then tell us: where is God inviting you to trade routine for trust this week?

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

Welcome And Call To Seek God

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

They're going down to the festival, they're going down to the feast that they're supposed to go down to, and that's a good thing, but they don't really consider much about what the Lord would have for us. And in the life of a Christian, how often does that happen as well? We may have come to faith in the Lord, but we just go through the movements. You know, do I go to church because it's just the thing to do, and if I skip it one week, it's okay, and this and that, or is it I want to seek the Lord?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Routine is easy to fall into. I know that sometimes for me it can feel like the week is just a loop cycle. Wake up, grab breakfast, work, work, work, eat dinner, do chores, go back to bed, lather, rinse, and repeat. So where does God fall into that cycle? In Pastor Carl's message today, he warns you against making worship just a good part of your life. When you worship God, of course, you should be consistent, but don't be robotic. Don't make your worship a routine religious ritual, but let it be sincere. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

Galilee Ministry And True Motives

Feast Of Tabernacles Explained

Prophecy, Temple Or Tent

Urgency Of Christ’s Return

The Word Who Tabernacled

Brothers’ Unbelief And Mockery

God’s Timing Over Public Hype

Quiet Arrival And Public Debate

Closing Exhortation And Local Invite

SPEAKER_02 1:34

All right, let's get into a study of God's Word. We are in the book of John, and we will begin a study in John chapter 7. And it starts out like this. After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. Chapter 6 was previous to chapter 7. That's just the practical joy of teaching through the Bible verse by verse and chapter by chapter. It's easy to know where you are, the next place. Last time we were in chapter 6, which saw the height of Jesus' popularity. The crowds were coming, people were being healed, it was great. And yet he said some things that were disturbing about his body and his blood and how we were to partake of it. And that just caused the crowds to leave. And so it was the peak. And then things started going down. And and people started, the Jewish leaders started looking at him to find ways to eliminate him because he was just a problem. And so he spent a lot of time in Galilee. And he did most of his ministry in Galilee, and he did most of his ministry in uh one-on-one uh instances. He didn't do these miracles for the crowds to see. He did these miracles because that's what the Messiah would do. And he had compassion on people, and he went to heal people. But even when he did great miracles like feeding the 5,000, they came back because they were hungry. They came back because they wanted more from Jesus as opposed to finding more about Jesus, growing in who he is, learning about him and what he has to share with us from the Father. And that is his purpose to come and to share who he is and his father, and that he has a purpose, and that main purpose is to come and to die for the sins of the world, so that we could be reconciled to him. But now they're trying to kill him, and yes, he's come to be killed, to be sacrificed as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, but it wasn't his time yet. And we'll see that in the next few verses. Jesus knew there was a timeline, and he was all about the Father's business, and it wasn't time for him to be killed now, so he spent most of his time up in Galilee and did not decide to go back down to Judea until the Lord, until the Father told him to do so. So it wasn't because he was afraid to be killed. It was a matter of it's not my time yet. And I lay down my life. People, situations, governing authorities might be involved in putting me to death, but I am putting myself to death. I am the sacrifice, I am the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I lay my life down and I will lift it back up. So Jesus was focused on what he was doing. So after these things, after he is beginning to be rejected by the crowds, he walked in Galilee and he did ministry in Galilee. Verse 2, now the Jews' feast of the tabernacle was at hand. So he's up in Galilee, he's spending time with family, he's spending time ministering to people with his disciples, and the feast of tabernacles was about to start. And so they were most of the people getting ready to go down to the Feast of Tabernacles because that's one of the feasts that they were required to go to. Now, the Feast of Tabernacles, if you remember, was a time that the Jews every year would celebrate their freedom from Egypt and not only taken out of Egypt, which was the feast of Passover, but out in the wilderness. God was with them out in the wilderness as they kind of camped out. Tabernacles are like tents or temporary buildings made for a nomadic people that are going from here to there. And they would be led by the Lord in the wilderness. The Lord would be in their midst in the wilderness. By day they would be led by a pillar of smoke, and at night a pillar of fire. They would see the presence of the Lord, and they would follow. As the Lord moved, they moved and followed after him. And during this time of the feast of tabernacles, they would remember that. And here is how it was prescribed in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23, beginning of verse 40. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches, palm trees, the bows of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. They waved palms. It was in a celebratory, a worshipful experience where they just, you know, praised the Lord for his fruits that he had given them, and they just praise him. You shall keep it as a feast of the Lord for seven days in the year, and it shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month, seven days. In the seventh month, you shall uh dwell in booths for seven days. Uh booths, just like the forefathers did. All who were 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 it's a time to remember, to celebrate the goodness of the Lord. Even in the midst of the wilderness, which was a step in their freedom from slavery in Egypt, the Lord was with them every step of the way. But they didn't have permanent houses. They were moving from here to there. And this was a time for them to celebrate. Why do we do this, Dad? Well, let me tell you why we do this. Because our forefathers were in the wilderness, and the Lord was with them there. And they built these kind of huts that were temporary that they could find and put together, and they walked with the Lord, they talked with the Lord, and they went their way. And that's what they celebrated. So that's tabernacle. And in the midst of their tabernacling in the wilderness, in the middle of everything where God's presence was, was a tent called the tabernacle, right? And as we we see things going on in the world and we read prophecies in the in the Bible, that's a good place to read prophecies, right? We understand that at the end, many teachers have thought that the temple has to be rebuilt. Because in the end, there are there are prophecies that say that there would be sacrifices reinstated. They would be making sacrifices in Jerusalem. And so that implies that a temple would have to be rebuilt. And lately I've heard another theory. Does it really say that a temple has to be built? Or just that sacrifices have been made? And if sacrifices have been made, that's what they did in the tabernacle as well. How hard would it be to build a tent on the temple mound and start up making sacrifices again? They have four red heifers that are perfect and ready to go, and they have all the instruments. They have figured out people who are of the bloodline of Levi that could act as priests, they have all the utensils and and everything they need to do sacrifices as prescribed in the Old Testament on the Temple Mount if they only had a place to do it. Wouldn't that be interesting? Could that be the answer? And that could happen very quickly. How long would it take to put up a tent like this? A few hours, maybe, right? We could be seeing this this week, the way things are going. So all that to say is the time is near. What interesting times that we live in. The times of the Lord coming back, taking his church home, are right around the corner. The time of the Lord coming with his people and unleashing his wrath on an unbelieving world is near. And the time of him setting up his kingdom for a thousand years, ruling and reigning from Jerusalem, where you and I, as believers, will be given places to rule and reign as well, is coming soon. Are you ready? Are your friends ready? Are your family ready? Are your neighbors ready? And we're still here. So there's still time to declare the goodness of God. Now I want to share something else, talking about tabernacling with you during this feast of tabernacles. You remember at the beginning of 1 John and the beginning of the Gospel of John, I just kind of put these things together, how Jesus is described as dwelling among us. That which was from the beginning, the Lord, was from the beginning. He had no beginning, he made the beginning, because he always existed. Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, our hands have handled concerning the word of life. We did life with this man. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And look back at that verse right in the middle. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That word dwelt is the same word as tabernacle. So the Lord came and tabernacled with us. Just like he was with the Israelites in the desert, he walked with us and he talked with us, and he showed us life because he is life, he is the truth. So that's kind of the background to this. Here he is, the tabernacle. He is the Lord dwelling with us in person. And this feast that is about to come that that celebrates that is happening. And how does his family respond? Go back to verse 3 in our study. His brothers therefore said to him, Hey, depart from here, go to Judea, that your disciples may see the works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. For if you do these things, show yourself to the world. For even his brothers did not believe in him. They weren't encouraging him, they were kind of mocking him. They were kind of saying, Hey, you know, if you are popularity, you know, you you were getting somewhere, but you'd said something and you did something, and it just went downhill. You you gotta regroup this, you've got to restructure what you're doing here. You gotta get a tour bus and you gotta get, you know, a big stage, and you you gotta, you know, yeah, you, yeah, yeah, let's get some planes to put Jesus, Jesus is coming. Put him that, put that up in the air, and then you show up, and it'll be so great, and then you'll have people that really believe you and follow you. But they said that because they didn't believe. We're talking about his brothers, and yes, Jesus had brothers and sisters. You remember this verse from Matthew chapter 13, beginning at verse 55? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and his sisters? Are they not all with us? So this came after a time where he was doing some teaching up in the Galilee in areas where people knew who he was and knew who his family was and knew all the stories and all the scandal there. But they're like, who is this guy? How can this guy be who he says he is? And so he had brothers that didn't even believe him. Now we know that Mary and his adopted father Joseph, they believed. They were believers, they were they they were told by the angels what was going on, and and they they submitted and they they just wondered, they were in wonder of what what this one that God gave them to raise was going to do for for the world. And yet they had children of their own, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas, brothers that grew up with Jesus, and we don't know much at all about his growing up years, but you could just imagine what it was like. I don't think Jesus did a bunch of miracles, but I don't think he went and did a bunch of sinning like his brothers did. And if we compare him to the story of Joseph in the Old Testament, he was hated by his brothers, wasn't he? And in fact, was uh almost killed and sold into slavery, which became their salvation later on. And so you have that same sort of thing going on with Jesus and his brothers. They, you know, it's his brother, but he's just a little bit different. He's just not right, and yet, you know, he's doing these things we just can't connect, and they couldn't connect, until after the resurrection, where we know at least James and Judas became believers in Jesus Christ. James became very strong in the church of Jerusalem. In fact, he wrote the book of James. And Judas, he wrote the book of Jude. This is not Judas Iscariot, this is Jesus' brother Judas, who wrote the book of Jude. And so there's something about the resurrection that changed everything in their in their outlook, in their faith, and they were changed. So Jesus had brothers, but at this point, those brothers did not believe. They kind of mocked him and suggested that uh he should. This is how you are to do a successful ministry, brother. You need to do this, this, this, and that. And uh Jesus just kind of shakes his head, you don't understand. You don't understand. I wish you would understand. I don't understand why you don't understand, but you don't understand. You talk about me going down there to the to the feast with a big caravan and and to bring attention to myself, but my time has not yet come. This is not the way that it's supposed to be. Now, your time is always ready. Um, and there's this implication here that you know my time is based on what the Father directs me to do. You guys are just doing whatever you want to do. There's nothing that causes you to stop and say, hey, Lord, what should we do? You just say, hey, we're gonna go do it. And they're doing good things. They're going down to the festival, they're going down to the feast that they're supposed to go down to, and that's a good thing, but they don't really consider much about what the Lord would have for us. And in the life of a Christian, how often does that happen as well? We may have come to faith in the Lord, but we just go through the movements, you know. Do I go to church because that's just a thing to do? And if I skip it one week, it's okay, and this and that, or is it I want to seek the Lord? Lord, what what do you want me to do today? What is your heart for me in this hour? And that's a difference between our Lord and his brothers. And that could be the difference between just a nominal Christian and one that is filled with the Lord, filled with his Spirit, and seeking His will to accomplish it in our lives. May we be of the latter sort. May we be, Lord, everything of mine is yours. I have surrendered my life to yours, and and you guide and direct me. Be glorified through me, use me, empower me to do your will, because it's not about me, it's about you. May we have that heart. Then he goes on the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. In chapter 15, later on, I believe it's in 15, the Lord will expand on that. When he encourages his disciples, he says, Now, because you're followers of me, the world is going to hate you because it hated me. But if it doesn't hate you, then you're not following after me because you're really part of the world. And this is, he's subtly saying this to how do you say this to family members? Have you had struggles with family members who don't seem to know the Lord? They might proclaim that they know the Lord, but the fruits don't show it. And how do you share something or point out something without sounding like uh, you know, holier than thou? And then they're just not accepting it from you. It's the you know, family members are really hard to work with and to convince. But we should be as the Lord, declare the truth, and not push it and let the Lord work in their hearts to to show them. Here, Jesus is saying something about them. He's saying, Look, and he's not being mean about it, he's just saying, Look, you're more like the world than like our Heavenly Father. You think like the world thinks, but you don't think like our Father thinks. I point out that their works are evil in the world, but you don't really see anything wrong with it. So you go on down, you won't have a problem. But if and then the other implication is if I go down right now with a whole entourage of people and bring attention to myself, I'm gonna have problems. The authorities are gonna get me, and I'm gonna be killed before it's my time. So I am seeking the Father's will on this. You go on up to the feast, I'm not yet going up to the feast, for my time is not yet fully come. And he's saying, it could be interpreted that he's saying, I'm not going at all, or I'm not going yet, I'll go down when it's time. But he's also implying that there is a time where he's going, and he is going to allow the officials to to grab a hold of him, and he will be crucified, his life will be laid down for the sins of the world, but that time is not yet now. So he's talking about this feast, and he's also talking about a future feast in about a year when he would come during Passover, and uh things would be changed completely. Now, when he had said these things to them, he remained in Galilee. So he sent them off. He said, Go ahead, brothers, be blessed and go and partake of all the festivities at the feast. But then, when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. The key here was he wasn't about bringing attention to himself. It's his heart to bring attention to the Father. He's here to bring glory to God. Now he is God, but he is God that became a man. And as a man, he represents us. And as representing us, he's an example to us of how we should live our lives, which is not bringing attention to ourselves, but bringing attention to God. And he lived his life out that way. And he realized if I if he went down with the groups at this moment, the father had given him a discernment that they would capture him at this time. And the father said, Now is not the time. So basically, he's being led by by the Spirit to go down to Jerusalem on his own after the other crowds have gone. And then the Jews sought him at the feast and said, Where is he? The leaders, whenever John Says the the Jews, he's talking about the leaders of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They were looking for him. And so they were looking in all the crowds. And he wasn't in the crowds because he was coming later. And there was much complaining among the people concerning him. Some said he is good. Others said no. On the contrary, he deceives the people. And so the people themselves weren't sure of who Jesus was. Some were like totally sold out. He is good. He is from God. What do you mean? And others would say, no, no, no, he's demonic, he's from Satan. This is not good. He breaks the rules. And of course, the leaders had these same discussions as well. Well, they for the majority of the leaders, they were like, this guy is a deceiver, and he we need to get rid of him. However, no one spoke of him for fear. No one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews. When they spoke to each other in the crowds, they were like, Do you know about this guy? I don't know about this guy. Well, I think this guy is great. But they didn't want the leaders to hear it. Because uh they didn't know what the leaders would do to them. If I say that I am for Jesus, to these leaders who are against Jesus, what will that do to me? And how will that uh cause me to speak out loud or not? But people were talking about him, people were wondering about him, people were, you know, coming up with ideals of who this Jesus was. And as we looked at last chapter, but they still didn't understand fully the breadth of who Jesus was. They were missing who Jesus was declaring to them who he was. They were missing the fact that there's much more to who he was than they were perceiving or they were hoping to get out of him. Going back to that, I'm coming back because I want more fish. I'm coming back because I want more healing, and then once I get it, I'll go off and do my own thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

You've been listening to Pastor Carl on Come On Up. We're in the book of John. John had been a simple fisherman before meeting Jesus. He was actually a disciple of John the Baptist before realizing that John the Baptist was just paving the way for Jesus to enter the scene. There were so many examples for John to observe, where Jesus made something out of nothing. He fed the 5,000, he brought about a boatload of fish when there had been no bites all night. These miraculous happenings were all around them, and John couldn't help but be enamored by Jesus Christ. What about you? Has the newness of knowing or following Jesus worn off? Are you apathetic about what God's doing in your life or how he's working and how he's trying to speak to you? Keep that spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. John lived a full life devoted to the Lord, and even though he was persecuted and tortured, he never swayed from telling people about the hope and faith he had in Jesus. After all, he had lived with Jesus for three and a half years and had learned much about the heart of God. A way for you to keep learning about the heart of God is by joining us on Sunday mornings at Smokey Mountain Cinema in Waynesville for Bible study. We also have a faith film night the first Monday of every month. We offer quality Christian entertainment that challenges your faith and spurs good conversation. Learn more at themountaincross.com or search for Faith Film Night on Facebook. That's all for today. Come on up is sponsored by The Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.