Introduction to John 4:43-54

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/18/2016 11:25 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Introduction to John 4:43-54

Now in our last SD I mentioned that the word “believe” is used 49 times in the gospel of John and the word believed is used 23 times.  We have also talked about why it is that John wrote this gospel “30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  What we have to do is weigh each section of John’s gospel with this highlighted verse in mind as he picks out incidents in his writings that show that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name.”  So with this in mind we will begin to introduce this last story or incident in the fourth chapter of John, a chapter in John MacArthur’s commentary which he entitles “Christ Response to Unbelief.”

John MacArthur writes “The verb pisteuo (believe) appears nearly 100 times in this gospel, and the overwhelming majority of its occurrences refer to believing savingly in the Lord Jesus Christ (e. g. , 1:12; 6:29; 8:30; 12:44; 14:1; 17:20).  Through believing in Him people become children of God (1:12; 12:36), obtain eternal life (3:15-16, 36; 6:40, 47), avoid judgment (3:18; 5:24), partake in the resurrection of life (11:25; cf. 5:29), possess the indwelling Holly Spirit (7:38-39), are delivered from spiritual darkness (12:46), and find empowerment for spiritual service (14:12).”  Let us take another look at John 3:36 “"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”  Although we probably already looked at the meaning of this verse it comes into play four our section we are now looking at.  John the Baptist is saying that there are only two kinds of people in this world, those that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and are now believers in Him for their salvation, and those who do not believe this truth, and are not saved from their sins.  We can come to know the Savior in a gradual way, that is we are convicted of our sin and it may take a while before we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, but when we come to the point where we call upon the Lord to be saved we are saved immediately at that point.   Now it is true that some do not remember the exact time they became a believer, but there was a point in their life when this happened and there are many different things that happen to one when they become a believer and some are mentioned in the quote from John MacArthur earlier in this SD.

In his introduction to this chapter in his book MacArthur speaks of four different types of unbelief, something he went over in the different sermons he preached on from this passage. “First, there was unbelief due to lack of exposure.  This was the unbelief of the prepared and ready heart, just awaiting the revelation of the truth from God.”  An example of this would be what we learned in John 1:35-37 where John the Baptist spoke of who Jesus was and then Andrew and John began to follow Him even before He even spoke to them.

“Second, there was unbelief due to lack of information.”  An example of this was the woman at the well that we just have been studying about as she was exposed to Jesus, but was less prepared than Andrew and John who knew the OT prophecies about the Messiah and were ready to receive Him.  This woman knew some of the prophecies but needed to have Jesus speak to her and at first she thought that He was just another Jewish Rabi, until He told her the truth.

“Third, there was unbelief due to a perceived lack of evidence.  Those who fall into this category had heard the claims of Christ, but desired evidence that those claims were true.”  It took a miracle to have this happen for them to believe, a miracle from the Lord.  In his sermon John MacArthur speaks of a kind of miracle that caused him to believe in the Lord as he surely knew about the Lord but was running from Him and then was thrown out of a car at high speed, and slid on his “backside” for almost 400 feet without breaking a bone.  He surrendered to the Lord at that time, and as they say the rest is history.

“But there was a fourth level of unbelief found in the extremely religious and self-righteous—namely, unbelief due to deliberate hardheartedness.”  Jesus said of these who are in this category “Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).  These people were so far gone that they even accused the Lord of doing His miracles in the power of Satan (Beelzebul). 

MacArthur gives us the outline for this chapter:  “The passage itself may be divided into three sections:  unbelief contemplated, unbelief confronted, and unbelief conquered.”  After we are done with these three sections I want to give some very wonderful quotes from Dr. Warren Wiersbe in a separate SD, and after that we will move into the fifth chapter of John’s Gospel.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Sarah” (Genesis 18:10-12).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was another name for Matthew?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/18/2016 12:32 PM