Belief and Unbelief.

I am overwhelmed at the thought that the awesome, Almighty Creator of the whole universe, as large and as powerful, as magnificent in Majesty, should be concerned about me, about us – not only concerned but loving to the point of visiting us in human form to experience our lives and then to die on our behalf. What an awesome God we serve.

”If your eyes could only see, really see and perceive the vastness of My creation you would be even more taken aback, but I have revealed and am revealing enough that you can bury yourself in worship, that you can drown in the reality of all this. it is indeed a gift to have some insight into this universe – focusing on this world and the people in it. Each one known intimately by Me, loved to the utmost. The enjoyment I experience when they/you respond in worship and adoration. But also in being obedient and demonstrating your love for Me by loving one another. So – yes here I am in the midst of you all enjoying every minute of it”.

We continue in John ch 7 from vs 37. The key in this section comes in the second part of verse 37 and 38 as Jesus repeats the statement that he made to the woman at the well John 4:13. This closes the bracket around this whole section of teaching that Jesus is reported to have done. The main focus has been on his metaphor of being the Bread of life. Bread and water are the basic requirements for life. Jesus uses these metaphors to bring home to the listeners and us His very nature and purpose. Do you see that? He is the only provider of these essentials which are necessary for us to receive eternal life. Notice that it is not good enough to only know this, but one must actually partake of what he is offering. So we see in 6:53 that it is necessary to eat the flesh of the son of man and to drink his blood to have life and in today’s verse, it is necessary to drink of the living water to benefit from it. Notice also in vs 38 how Jesus equates drinking the water of life with believing in him. We have seen from the beginning of John how he has emphasised the role of faith in our developing and maintaining a relationship with Jesus.

To believe in him it is necessary to understand who he was/is. John is using the bystanders in their discussion about who Jesus is for us to draw our own conclusion. We can see here that there are basically two groups of people. One group who is for him and one group who is against him. The group that is for him discuss various possibilities as to his identity. John takes us right in to the community to hear what they have to say so that we can draw our own conclusions.

He makes a point of reminding the reader that the Spirit has not yet been given. This is important information since way back in chapter 3 and in other places Jesus has pointed out that no one will really understand who He is without the Spirit’s help and he had not been given yet. However we have the benefit of the Spirit’s help as we study this passage so that we can come to the correct conclusion. Ultimately he wants the reader to see that everything points to him being expected Messiah. The information about his birth is wrong as we know that he actually was born in Bethelehem not in Galilee as it was thought by those people.

What do we do with all this information? Surely it should bolster our faith, reminding us that faith is not just about believing but actually trusting and living by that trust and our hope for eternity is ultimately based on placing our trust on the Messiah who gave his life on the cross for us. Hopefully as we read through this Gospel our understanding of who Jesus is will grow stronger and more clearer over time thus strengthening our ability place our trust in him alone.

May he continue to bless you all with His living Presence during this coming week.