¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. ⁶There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.

In chapter 3 John tells also us:

¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

The question about our personal beliefs is often ‘What do you believe?’  However the gospel of John never questions what we believe but rather it asks the question ‘Who do we believe in?’  This is important because our faith is never about doctrines or philosophies, but rather is about who you choose to belief in, and how that belief shapes the person you are.  We are given the promise in John that if we choose to believe in the Son of God shall not perish but have eternal life.  Our belief in Jesus gives us much more than a promise of something after we leave this life, it gives us a promise of a life that is not govern by condemnation, guilt, hatred, greed, bitterness, and all of the others things that cause us to perish, but it promise of a life govern by love, faith, hope, generosity, peace and joy – a life that lives on and creates life in the darkness that surrounds us – eternal life – a life of ages.

The call and the challenge to believe is stamped throughout John.

We see in John’s account of Jesus’ life that Jesus calls to a group of 12 men, who decide to believe in him, and give up the life they had and follow this rabbi, carrying the good news of the kingdom, throughout Judea.  Our believes are powerful, they govern our lives and dictate how we live and how we interact with the world around us, however there is something about belief in him which is so compelling that our lives become completely transformed.   The power of a belief can make someone chose to listen to superstition or allow their lives to directed by something mystical, but belief in Jesus will cause a person to lay aside hatred, greed, superstition and be transformed into someone so consumed by love that life flows from them.

In chapter 4 Jesus stops to talk to a Samaritan woman, who is from an ethnicity that were normal the subject of Jews hatred, this woman believes in something but that something has never quite quenched her thirst.  After one conversation with this man Jesus, this woman believes in him, she believes so much that she runs back to town saying comes and see someone that told me everything I ever did.  John tells us many Samaritan’s believe in Jesus because of this encounter.  Maybe here Jesus was challenging people’s belief in hatred and challenging them to believe in love and rise above their prejudices.

We see Jesus challenging the superstitions of people, and their belief in pagan deities, he challenges the myth of Dionysus, Son of Zues, at a wedding by turning water into wine; he challenges Asclepius, the Greek snake god of healing, by healing a lame man at the pool of Bethesda; he challenges Demeter, Goddess of Grain, by feeding five thousand common people.  When Jesus feeds the five thousand his challenge to them is not for them just to believe the sign and believe for their bellies to be filled with food, but rather for them to believe that he is the bread that comes down from heaven.  When we believe that he is the bread of life, and when we eat of him, our lives are filled with his love and hope.  Maybe Jesus was showing people that their superstitious belief would never bring them the love or hope that they desired, but if they choose to believe in him and reorder their lives around the kingdom, that they would find the life they could only dream of.

In John 8 we see Jesus embracing the woman caught in the act of adultery, and maybe here he was challenging people’s belief in their own moral superiority and judgment, and challenging them to step off their own moral pedestal and share in the life giving dance of the kingdom.

In John 11 we see Jesus raise Lazarus, a man who had been dead for three days, declaring that ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.’ He prays that he does this not for his sake, but for the sake of those there – that they may believe in him.

There is something about believing in Jesus.  There is something about believing in the life that he offers us.  So often our faith is communicated as about what happens after we die, but our faith is meant to be about the he here and now.  When we start to believe in him, we catch a glimpse of a life, so beautiful and wonderful, that it grabs a hold of you and compels you to start to follow the Rabbi.

In John 14, Jesus tells his disciples:

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ²In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Jesus tells his disciple that if they are willing to believe in him that there is a place for them in God’s Kingdom, there is a place for them in God’s plan, there is a place for them in God’s love.  Later on he tells them that if they are willing to believe in him, then the father will give them another comforter, the Holy Spirit.

Believe!  This life that Jesus offers is easily accessible, all a person has to do is believe in him!

Finally in John 20, after the resurrection of Jesus, we see Jesus go to the disciple Thomas, the one who says he will not believe that Jesus has risen until he sees the scars and touches them, when Thomas does exactly that he declares ‘My Lord! My God!’  He believes!

The last verses of John 20 are:

³⁰Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John concludes that the purpose of his writing is that you may believe, and by believing you will have life in his name.

As I said before, belief is a powerful thing, and people believe is all sorts, some things stupid and seemingly harmless, and other things that dictate and determine the choices that they make in life, the relationships that they have with others, and their response and reaction to life itself.  Beliefs cause people to hate, put up with abuse, have low self esteem, be greedy and consume, to engage in self destructive habits and lifestyles, and a whole lot of other negative junk.  Jesus claims that by believing in him we will not perish but have a life of ages – life after life – eternal life.

Believing in Jesus is about you call Lord and Master of your life.  Jesus calls us to believe in him, to pull down the idols of our lives, and believe that he is.

Discussion Questions:

What is the difference between believing in something and believing in Jesus?

Why is it so important to believe in Jesus?  Why is it important to believe that he is the Son of God?  Why is it important to believe he died for our sins and rose again from the dead?

What does it mean to say ‘I believe in Jesus’?

What does belief in Jesus look like on an everyday, practical ‘in my neighbourhood’ kind of way?

What does it mean when we are told by believing we shall not perish but have eternal life?