The Battle of Belief | The Gospels | John 12:37–50
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Welcome to 10-Minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Hey there, Friday friends. This is Jeff. Just a quick heads up that I have not picked up smoking. I'm not getting into voice acting. I've just lost my voice this week. So thanks for bearing with me. Really excited to get into the issue of belief in the gospel according to John. The presence of belief is this necessary, beautiful, and powerful element in the Christian faith. It's one of the reasons why people regularly call followers of Jesus believers. The assumption is that belief in Jesus marks someone with a distinct identity and draws them into a totally different kind of life.
The issue of belief is fundamental to a life rooted in the gospel. Yet the experience of belief can differ from person to person. Maybe you don't consider yourself a Christian quite yet. So the question is, how can you believe in God at all? How can you believe that Jesus really is the Son of God, who lived, died, and rose again, and even now reigns over all things? Well, if that's you, then what you need is the beautiful belief that begins the journey of faith. Perhaps you're sensing the undercurrent of that kind of belief in your life right now. As you consider clinging to Jesus and the hope of his kingdom, surrendering every part of your life to his reign, you're encountering the power of belief.
But maybe for you, you've considered yourself a Christian for some time now. And when you think about your belief in Jesus, you recognize that it's not just a one-time moment of belief, but a lifelong movement of belief. And what you need is the necessary beauty and power of belief to keep going in the journey of faith.
Why is belief described as a foundational struggle in John 12?
Yes, you still need to believe in Jesus, but you also need to believe him, to trust him more and more, to trust him with your sin, your suffering, your shame, and trust him with the future of your story. No matter where you are in your curiosity about Jesus or your relationship with Jesus, the issue of belief is never a static decision but a dynamic surrender, believing in and believing our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. Belief is so foundational and yet we experience so many barriers to a deepening belief in Jesus. There are the barriers that pop up in the decision to follow him for the first time and barriers that rise to the surface as we try to follow him one day at a time. It can even feel like you're deep in the darkness of disbelief with no apparent way out.
What do we do with those barriers? How do we deal with the darkness of disbelief? Our text today helps us consider these questions as we see people struggling to believe in Jesus as their saving king. This text will plumb the depths of our belief problem, but at the same time, it will also magnify the majesty of our hope. As we approach God's word together, let's pause and ask for his grace to move through our time. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the gift of life and breath. We thank you for the gift of your word. We bring before you every part of our lives, our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and our excitement, our calendars and our contingencies. Meet us in this space. Jesus, help us abide in you as we engage with your truth.
And Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in John's gospel account. As we read your living word, may it read us and restore us to new life with you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, now our passage today begins with a summary of the belief problem that plagued many of the people who encountered Jesus in his ministry. Let's pick things up in John 12, verse 37. We read this, Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him. Now this summary might surprise many of us. It's not uncommon for people today to proclaim that if they could just see a sign or have a more visible representation of Jesus, then they would believe in him. But notice that even in Jesus' day, people not only saw him, they saw the signs performed by him.
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