The Nature of Belief - John 4:39-54

John 4:39-54

©Copyright November 8, 2020 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

We all know the Bible tells us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be saved. Have you ever stopped to ask: "What does it mean to believe?" Think about it, if believing is the prerequisite to salvation, then knowing what it means to "believe" is vitally important.

This morning we are in John 4:39-54. In this passage we will see different kinds of belief and hopefully learn some things about what the Bible means when it tells us to believe. We pick up the story after Jesus visited the woman at the well and then taught in Samaria for a couple of days.

The Belief of the Samaritans - They Heard and Tested

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

They believed the testimony of the woman. This is really a remarkable statement. The woman Jesus met at the well was not considered to be a reliable witness. She was scorned by the townspeople as an immoral woman. Remember, she came to the well at noon because the other women shunned her. Jesus pointed out that she had had five different husbands and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. We can all agree this woman did not have a sterling track record when it came to her relationship with men!

The question is: what was it about the woman's testimony that was so compelling? What made them listen to her? People were used to ignoring and scorning this woman as an immoral woman. No one wanted to be associated with her in any way. What changed? Why did they listen to her now? What she was saying must have sounded crazy . . . the Messiah coming to the Samaritans? There must have been some kind of a change in her demeanor to get people to listen to her. That is what happens if a person racked with guilt finally finds forgiveness. It is what happens when an outcast is finally seen and loved. They truly are a new person! The change in the woman must have been dramatic and compelling. It drove people to go and meet Jesus.

This is important to remember when we are dealing with others: people will respond more fully to a change they can see rather than an argument that is made. This doesn't mean we don't present the evidence for the faith. We must do that! However, talking about the transformation Jesus brings without people SEEING that transformation and you will be easily ignored.

They invited Him to stay. When the people came out to see Jesus, they asked Him to stay for a while. This is an important step in growing in faith: it is examining the evidence for yourself. There are many people who are regular church goers who have never encountered Jesus personally, they are living through the experience and testimony of someone else. If you asked them why they follow Christ they might say, "because this is always what our church has taught!"

People who don't check facts will often be the people who are led astray by religious or anti-religious con men. Many students who head off to high school or college "lose their faith." Why? Because they embrace what the Professor teaches just like they embraced what the preacher taught . . . they accept it without examining the facts. If we don't know what we believe, it is easy to lose our Christian belief.

These Samaritans were different, they wanted to know more. The wanted to check their facts (good for them). I appreciate the openness of these folks. As I said, what this woman was telling them seemed in incredible. The idea the Messiah had come to a Samaritan was mind bending. The fact that the Messiah chose to come to this immoral woman was almost beyond belief. However, the people of the town did not turn cynical, they decided they needed to check this out.

It is necessary to have a firsthand faith rather than a hand me down faith. It is great to have a godly heritage that passed on the faith to us. However, somewhere along the line this faith must become personal to us. That happens when we examine the truth for ourselves.

They believed because they heard for themselves. After Jesus taught for a couple of days they believed because of what they had heard and seen. The journey of faith was now complete.

· They listened to the witness of the Woman

· They checked out the facts for themselves

· They came to a point of personal belief.

This is the way it happens for most believers: someone shares the gospel with us; we examine the evidence and wrestle with it, and then we come to a point of decision. Where are you in this process?

The Galileans - They Came to Jesus for "the Show"

43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

There is a question about verse 44 because it seems contradictory on first reading. In the Synoptic Gospels when Jesus was in Nazareth, his hometown, He was teaching in the synagogue and the people rejected him because they knew him from childhood. Then we read,

Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” 58 And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.

Now we read he was going to Galilee and we are reminded Jesus said, a prophet is without honor in his own hometown (Nazareth is part of Galilee). But John tells us the Galileans "welcomed him." Skeptics point to this and say: "See, the Bible is contradicting itself, therefore the Bible cannot be trusted." As a result, scholars work hard to try to reconcile these verses to eliminate the "contradiction." R.C. Sproul writes,

““Scholars go through gymnastics to reconcile those two lines. But before I join the gym, let me say that it would surprise me if John actually contradicted himself, and to do it in consecutive sentences would indicate incredible stupidity. So before I leap to the conclusion that the apostle fell into a contradiction here, let’s see if there are any alternatives.”

I agree with RC Sproul. The seeming problem can be explained, I believe, pretty simply. Not all of Galilee rejected Jesus! Galilee was a region that included Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum and other towns. Many of the disciples came from Galilee! It was only in Nazareth that Jesus found no real faith. They could not get past that they knew Him as a little boy.

Let's say I was born in La Harpe and the La Harpe community never embraced me as a true servant of God. I could go to Carthage or one of the other towns in the county and perhaps find great acceptance.

Perhaps Jesus went to Cana rather than Nazareth in Galilee because the people's unwillingness to honor Him? In Cana Jesus was welcomed warmly (surely they heard about the water turned to wine). Unfortunately, they saw Him as a miracle-worker and may have come to Him for the wrong reasons. We see this in the case at hand.

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

An official came to Jesus because his son was ill. Being a nobleman, the man was likely well off. I suspect he had exhausted all normal routes of healing. No one could help his son. He had no other options. He had heard the stories about Jesus' miracles and decided to appeal to the Lord.

When he made his request Jesus rebuked the people as only being concerned about what they could get from Him rather than be concerned with who He was, why He came, and how they could follow Him.

There are lots of people who will travel to a faith healer not because they want to have a relationship with God, but because they want their trouble to go away! That is not faith . . . it is opportunism. It is the idea that I will say whatever I need to say, or believe what I need to believe, in order to get what I want. This is not what we call saving faith.

There are people who walk an aisle, get baptized, join a church or even give a donation to the church hoping their actions will lead God to give them a problem free life. Then, when trouble comes into their lives they walk away and say Christianity doesn't "work." It is not much different than rubbing the lamp hoping for the Genie to come out and grant your wishes. There is no repentance for sin, no desire to submit to God or even have a relationship with Him. It is all about getting what I want - relief or blessing.

Sadly, many churches are filled with such people. Some pulpits are filled with people who promise these very things to people so they can build a big church. Again, they are not calling people to new life in Christ . . . they are calling people to "pay their money and get their blessing." They appeal to the superficial in people rather than calling people to a life-changing trust in Christ as our rescuer.

Unfortunately, they may believe they have faith, but Jesus would say, "Depart from me because I have never known you as part of my family. They did not turn to Christ for forgiveness and new life. Instead, they were only concerned about getting their needs met.

You can believe in Jesus superficially and not believe in Him in a way that results in salvation and new life. It is kind of like loving somebody. You can profess love to someone without being willing to be committed to them in marriage. That is not committed love. Belief is much the same way. You can believe Jesus was a good man, even a great man, or a miracle worker, without actually trusting Him to cleanse you from sin and make you a new person. The only remedy is to embrace and follow Jesus.

This discussion is carried on in the next verses and a contrast it drawn between superficial faith and genuine faith.

The Nobleman - The Man Who Took Jesus at His Word

49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

After the rebuke of Jesus, the nobleman is undeterred. The words may have been true, but this man was NOT going home. Jesus was the only hope this man had left. He took the verbal rebuke, but his request remained.

This is one of those times I would have liked to have heard the tone of voice of Jesus. I think something changed inside of this man and I can only conclude it was something in the way Jesus said this that led the man to see that Jesus was more than a miracle worker.

Dr. Boice observes,

The word used, plus the tense employed (imperfect), suggests that the nobleman believed Jesus so implicitly that he simply picked up his work where he had left it and went on about his business. At any rate, it is obvious that he did not rush home; for although the conversation took place about one o’clock in the afternoon and the journey was only four hours, the nobleman did not get back until the next day. When he did return it was to learn that his son had been healed instantly the day before at the very hour in which Jesus had spoken to him.[1]

The point is the man came to Jesus for healing for his son. He went away without any evidence other than the word of Jesus, that His request had been granted. We are told the "man believed the word of Jesus." Something happened. Can you imagine seeking healing for your son and walking away before you got the healer to come with you? Perhaps it was the look in His eyes, the tone of His voice, or some other intangible thing. But it seems that He talked with Jesus and his anxiety evaporated. It evaporated so much that he finished his business before going home. (Jesus wants to take away our anxiety too. But we must dare to believe Him.)

The key here is the man took Jesus at His Word. This is the same thing we are asked to do. We are asked to believe Jesus was God in human form. We are asked to believe His sacrifice was sufficient payment for our sin. We are asked to believe Him when He says whoever comes to Him, He will not cast away. We are to believe Him when He says He will give us His Holy Spirit and we must believe Him that someday He will take us to Heaven where we will be with Him.

Of course, Jesus does not ask us to believe Him blindly. That is the purpose of the miracles and signs. They are all meant to show us that Jesus is worth trusting. The Resurrection should make it easier to take Him at His Word. The point is, the Lord did not come merely to make our life more pleasant. He came to change the entire direction of our lives. He came to set us free from sin and the penalty for sin. Until we see Jesus as vastly more than a supernatural Santa Claus, we have not truly believed in Him.

The nobleman went home the next day. His servants met him to tell him his son was recovering. The nobleman asked when things changed direction. They told him it was around the seventh hour (1:00 p.m.). The nobleman realized this was at the very time Jesus told him his son would be healed. We are told the nobleman believed and so did all his household. Their belief was based on the evidence of a miracle and also the nobleman's personal encounter with Jesus.

It is possible to believe in Jesus and not really believe in Him the way the Lord tells us that we must believe. We must reach that point where we believe Jesus really was God's rescue plan. He came as God in human flesh to take the penalty we deserved, so we could be forgiven and made new. Saving faith is when we pin our entire hope of salvation on the promise of God through Christ.

Application

Saving faith is not wishful thinking or something you hand down from one generation to the next . . . like an inheritance. Saving faith is a reasoned response to a personal encounter with Jesus. The people who had faith, first examined the evidence and then concluded Jesus was worth following and then did so. As with the nobleman, a person with saving faith does take Jesus at His Word.

We must be wary of “faith” that results in just religious activity. This kind of faith is not committed to Christ. Such people generally are trying to do what they think good people do. They are “covering their bases” and still don’t see their only hope is in Christ. Religious activity will not save us. It is only when we put our trust in the offer of God’s grace through Christ that we will be forgiven and made new.

The world around us depicts Christians as those who do not think. They see us as shallow and empty-headed nitwits. Let us make sure that is not true. May we be people who have examined the evidence and made a reasoned response to the claims of Christ and the eyewitnesses.

A Personal Testimony without a change in life will change little. Someone has said there are five gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and You. Most people have not read the first four. People want to see Jesus in us before they will listen to us. Every day we are bombarded with claims about how great a product or person is. Though many just believe everything that is said in these ads is true, most of the people I know have become cynical. We are hesitant to believe anything based only on claims. We need to SEE the evidence of what is claimed. And others view the testimony of Jesus in our life the same way. They must see the evidence in your life before they will surrender to the One who alone can save.

Saving faith comes from a mind that is persuaded and results in a life that is transformed.

[1] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 345.