Episode 564: The Cure for Unbelief | Dave Sloop

We're continuing our march through the gospel of John. If you were here last week, Landon looked at the first part of John chapter seven, and today we're going to look at the second half of that chapter. But before we jump into it, I wanted to remind you of something that John told us in his prologue—the first 18 verses of chapter one. In verses 9 through 11, this is what John said we could anticipate in the rest of his book:

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own and His own people did not receive Him. — John 1:9-11

So far, the first seven chapters have been an unfolding drama of that very truth. Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. They had all of the promises, they knew the history, they were longing for Him, they were looking for Him to come. And when He got there, they did not recognize Him. In fact, I think it would be more appropriate to say they refused to believe Him. I'll talk more about why I use that word intentionally. They refused to believe something, namely the claims that Jesus made about Himself.

Unbelief Takes Many Forms

Last week, we saw three different occasions of unbelief. And what we learned is that unbelief does not always wear the same costume. Sometimes it shows up looking like misguided enthusiasm. As we saw in John chapter two, verses 23 and 25:

Jesus performed many signs among them and many believed in his name. But Jesus did not entrust himself to anyone because for Himself, He knew what was in a man. — John 2:23-25

What we said about that was that Jesus did not believe in their belief. He knew that it wasn't genuine and that it wasn't going to last. They were fascinated by His works, but then Jesus inevitably opened his mouth and they did not like his words and they refused to believe him.

Sometimes that's how unbelief shows up. Other times unbelief shows up as it did in John three, in the story with Nicodemus. It shows up as genuine ignorance. Jesus was telling him, "Nicodemus, your problem is that you need to be born again." And he didn't understand. He thought that the instruction was to climb back into his mother's womb. He was so confused. It was spiritual blindness.

And then still other times unbelief shows up unmasked as a desire to kill Jesus. As we saw at the end of John chapter five, when Jesus heals the man at the Pool of Bethesda, and after he performs that miracle, the religious leaders want to kill him because he's making himself equal with God and because he performed this particular miracle on the Sabbath.

Sometimes unbelief shows up looking different. And even though it shows up in many and varied forms, it always comes from the same root cause. It always leads to the same dire consequences, and it has but one common cure.

The Inconsistency in Jerusalem

We're going to look today at another occasion of unbelief. And this is a continuation of the passage that Landon was walking us through last week. It's that same day, it's that same group of people, and we're going to see what happens. Let's look beginning in verse 25:

Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, "Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?" — John 7:25-26

What's going on here? Let me tell you. These men, they have an encounter with Jesus. They're in this crowd and they are listening to Jesus teach and they're watching an inconsistency play out in real time. There are these religious leaders there and they have already communicated that they want Jesus dead. And yet Jesus is here speaking openly in front of everybody and the religious leaders aren't doing anything about it.

And so this crowd on that day, they say, could it be that the reason they're not doing anything about that is because deep down these religious leaders know that Jesus actually is the Christ. It almost sounds like the seeds of genuine belief are planted and they're starting to ask the deeper questions—maybe even for themselves—maybe He is the Christ.

And so listen to what happens next. Listen to the self-sabotage that happens in the next verse. Verse 27:

But we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. — John 7:27

This particular verse is referring to something called the hidden origin theory of the Messiah, which was based on a couple of references in the Old Testament—actually prophecies that they misinterpreted. But they had believed that because Jesus, or the Messiah, in some places in the Old Testament, specifically in Daniel seven and Malachi three—in Daniel seven, he's characterized as someone coming on the clouds.

So they think, "We're not gonna know where this guy comes from." In Malachi three, he shows up suddenly to the temple and they think, "Well, he's just gonna come out of nowhere." And so they develop this doctrine, this theology around these misinterpreted verses. And they talk themselves out of what looks like the buds springing up of belief because of this one hidden origin theory, which may sound like an honest mistake until you consider the evidence that was stacking up against that theory.

Here are some things that Jesus had already fulfilled from the Old Testament. He was to be born of a virgin from Genesis chapter three. And he was. He was to be born in Bethlehem, which he was. He was to come from the line of David, which he was. In Isaiah 61, it says that he would come proclaiming good news to the poor, which he did. That he would bind up the brokenhearted. In Isaiah 35, it says that he would heal the blind, that he would unstopped the ears of the deaf, and that he would cause the lame to walk. Jesus was fulfilling all of these things. Not to mention, he was constantly doing things that no ordinary man could do. They knew there was something different about this guy.

In fact, in this same passage, in verse 14 of this chapter, even religious leaders say, "Who is this man? Where did he get his learning from? He had no formal training," and they knew that he taught as one who had authority. And yet it almost looked like they were just grasping for a reason to not believe. And that is precisely what was going on here. What was underneath their unbelief?

The Root of Unbelief

And here is what Jesus says in response to what he knew they were thinking. In verse 28, it says this:

Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, "You know me and you know where I come from." — John 7:28

Actually, I think Jesus said it like this: "You know me and you know where I come from? Really?" He says, "But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true and him you do not know."

I wanna pause there. Just imagine how that might've landed with this crowd. This Jewish crowd that had the law and the prophets and they knew the history. It was the badge of honor. "We are his chosen people." And you're telling us, "We don't know the Father? Who do you think you are?" But he says the reason that you don't recognize me is because you don't know him. But what was it that was preventing them from being able to know who he was? What was underneath their unbelief?

Paul would put it this way in Ephesians:

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. — Ephesians 4:18

I don't know where you are as you show up here today, what you believe about God, what you believe about the world that we live in, but here is something that I do know. At least this is something that the Bible teaches. None of us shows up neutral. We don't show up with a blank slate looking for evidence and coming to honest conclusions based on what we discover. The Bible is very clear. You are not neutral. God is your enemy.

David would put it this way. He says:

I was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity. — Psalm 51:5

And because of that sin, your heart is curved in on itself and you want what you want. And why might believing in Messiah, believing in the claims of Jesus Christ, why might that be a threat to you? Because the moment that you adopt or accept that what Jesus says is true, he's no longer just a life coach offering advice. He is the Lord and you bend the knee and you come under his authority. That is the only way you do with a God. And that is precisely who Jesus claimed to be. We are not neutral actors. We're just not.

There's a man named Ashley Null. He's a bishop in the Anglican church. Tim actually introduced me to him. And I want you to hear, he's also an expert on Thomas Cranmer, who was responsible for the Book of Common Prayer, many of the prayers he wrote. But listen to what Ashley Null says about Thomas Cranmer's anthropology:

What the heart loves, the will chooses and the mind justifies. The mind doesn't direct the will, the mind is actually captive to what the will wants and the will itself in turn is captive to what the heart wants. The trouble with the human nature is that we are born with a heart that loves ourselves over and above everything else in this world, including God. In short, we are born slaves to the lust for self gratification. That's why if left to ourselves, we will always love those things that make us feel good about ourselves, even as we depart more and more from God and his ways. Therefore, God must intervene in our lives in order to bring salvation.

We aren't neutral. We are enemies of God. Jesus in chapter eight is going to tell the Jews, "The reason that you don't believe me is because you believe your father, the devil."

And before we point the finger at a different group of people, understand this is true of all humanity. Paul, I believe it's in Colossians chapter one, is going to explain or describe salvation in this way of being transferred from the domain of darkness, which means you're blind, into the light, into the kingdom of his dear son. We all of us are in darkness. We are blind, hard hearted, and we actively look for reasons to not believe something that would cause us submit to a God that we do not want to worship. And until you know that, you won't understand the game or the field that we're playing on. Those are the stakes, and that is what's going on inside your heart and mind.

Now the question is, what is the consequence of that reality? I want to share with you two. One of them is pretty explicit and it comes from Jesus' mouth, but the other one is implied. And it's this: if you are in darkness, you make bad decisions. You make missteps. It happened to me this morning. I got here to this church pretty early to go over this message, and I'm carrying my coffee and my notebook and my Bible, and I'm walking around and there's not one light on in this entire building. And I lose my footing and my Bible starts to slip out of my hands and I spilled coffee all over my shirt. I actually had to take it off, clean it off in the bathroom, throw it in the dryer, and it actually cleaned up pretty good. But we constantly make mistakes in the dark.

You know what's worse than just being in the darkness? Is to be in the darkness and not know you're in the darkness. To be blind, but to walk as if you think you can see. And that has happened to me before too. As I've gotten older, often I have to get up in the middle of the night to run an errand to the bathroom. Some of you younger people will understand as you get older, that's just part of the deal. But one time we were on vacation, we were in Williamsburg and we were staying at this timeshare and I woke up in the middle of the night and I walked confidently to the bathroom and the door was open and I just ran straight into it, full speed ahead, cut my forehead, blood was gushing everywhere. I have a little indentation on my forehead forever to remember the stupidity of that moment.

But the reality is that's how we walk. When we're confidently walking in the dark, bad things happen. And that happens to all of us, especially when we don't know that there is an inner hostility, a resistance to God that we're unaware of. That's the first thing.

The Closing Window

But then Jesus is going to tell us something even more dire. If we read on, here's what He says. In verse 32, the Pharisees sense that people are starting to catch who Jesus is. And it says:

They heard the crowd muttering these things about Him. The chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest Him. And Jesus then said, "I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come." — John 7:32-34

What Jesus is saying to these men is that there is a window open right now, but it's closing. I'm going away and you will seek me. And here's what I think Jesus means by this: I think he is suggesting you're going to keep looking for Messiah, but you're not going to find him because he already came and went. You will seek me, you will not find me. And then he says this chilling thing: where I am going, you cannot come.

And this is true for everyone here who has not reached for Christ. He would say this even more explicitly in John 14, which we'll get to in a couple of years.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. — John 14:6

It is an exclusive claim. See, the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. Paul would also say that it is the aroma of death for those who are perishing. We hate that message because we are not born neutral. We don't just hate the message, we hate the one that the message is about. We are enemies of God. And that is the consequence.

We live—if we die in this state, Jesus actually is going to say it more clearly in the next chapter, in verse 21 of chapter eight. Listen to what He says here:

"I'm going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot come." — John 8:21

What he's suggesting is the reason you cannot come where I'm going is because you are in sin, and you have to be transferred out of the domain of sin into the domain of light, into the kingdom of his dear son. Those are the stakes.

The Question of the Cure

Now, the question is: what is the cure for this unbelief that every single one of us is born into? What is the cure? Jesus is going to tell us in verse 37. Listen to what He says:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out. — John 7:37

I need to stop here. On the last day of the feast, who remembers what feast was happening in chapter seven? The Feast of Tabernacles.

And it was a time every year in the Jewish calendar where the Israelites would leave the comfort of their home and they would build little makeshift tents out of branches and palm leaves, and they would live in tents. And they would do this for a few reasons. One, they would seek to remember, not just in their minds or by reading something, but with their very lives. And this is one of the reasons I love some of the liturgical things that we do. When we kneel, we are reminding with our bodies, we're reminding our hearts of the posture that we want to be in.

And this is what the Israelites would do. They would go live in tents and they would reenact the time in the wilderness when God was faithful to His people. He was faithful to them in a number of ways, pillar of fire by night, pillar of cloud by day, providing shade from the sun. He provided manna, which they grumbled about. And He also in Exodus 17, when they were thirsty, He provided water from a rock. They grumbled about that too, by the way. They're always complaining. They're never quite satisfied with what He provided. I heard somebody say once, what they wanted, God didn't provide, but what God provided, they didn't want. It was a problem on both ends of that equation.

And that was the people of Israel. And they went out to live in tents to remind themselves of how God showed up for them in their time of need. There was a ceremony that they would do every single day. The priest would go down to the Pool Of Siloam. It was a word that meant sent. We're gonna find that out in John chapter nine, when Jesus tells a man to go wash in the Pool Of Siloam. It was a word that meant sent. And actually this body of water only explicitly shows up once in the Old Testament. It's in Isaiah chapter eight, verse six. And it actually, God compares Himself to this gentle, lowly stream that provided water, much needed water. But what God says is:

You have refused the pool or the waters of Shaloha, which in the Greek is Shalom, Shalom. This water source is a picture of my provision, which is gentle and low, and you have refused it.

Priest would go down to that pool. He would scoop out water in a gold pitcher, and he would walk back to the altar and he would lead a procession. And as he walked back, people would follow him and they would be reciting a number of verses. We don't know for sure what they were saying, but we do know that during this, they would recite Psalm 113 to 118. And in 118, there's a pretty familiar verse in there that says:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, save us.

This is the exact same thing that they're gonna say. Next week, we're gonna celebrate Palm Sunday. And that's what they say when Jesus makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Because blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord was a messianic hope. They knew Messiah was coming to deliver, and they recited this to remind themselves.

The Layers of the Feast of Tabernacles

You see, Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles, it was a reminder of God providing in the past as He did in the wilderness. It was also a cry for God to provide now. They would pray that God would provide this rain, this water that He must send if our crops are gonna grow. And it also looked to the future. And the water that they needed in the future pointed to a Messianic promise, a Messianic kingdom that they believed one day God was going to usher in.

Here are some of the things they were undoubtedly thinking of. A couple of verses I'll pop up there. The next one says this:

For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground.

And this is a parallelism. And here's what he meant by that:

I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.

They knew that in the future, God wouldn't just provide water, He would provide living water, which is what this next passage says:

Think on that day, living water shall flow out from Jerusalem and the Lord will be King over all the earth. On that day, the Lord will be one and His name one.

This day is coming. And they would, if they weren't saying all of these things out loud, they clearly had them in mind. That was the whole purpose of this feast. And as the priest comes back with this procession, every single day for six days, he would go around the altar once and then he poured out the water and he was reminding his people, the people of Israel, about God's provision in the past, our need for his provision in the present and the coming living water of the Messianic Kingdom, every single day for six days.

But on the great day. The final day of the feast, which was called Hashanah Rabba. We actually have someone here, Afsana. Where is Afsana? Where is Afsana? Is she not here? Okay. Well, her name means Hosanna. Oh, hey there. It means Hosanna, which means save us. And on this seventh day of the feast, it meant the great salvation, the great Hosanna.

And it was just like every other day with one twist. The priest would go down to the water, they would lead a procession back, but instead of one time around the altar, he would go around seven times on the seventh day. What does that remind you of? Jericho in Joshua chapter six, when Joshua had seven priests with seven horns walk around the city for six days, one time, every single day. And on that seventh day, he walked around. They would walk around seven times. And what happened at the end? The walls came tumbling down. Joshua, following the instructions of the Lord, brought victory. It was a beautiful picture. But I want you to notice something. With all of that imagery as the backdrop, listen to what Jesus says next.

He stood up. And remember, this is on the seventh day. And I like to believe, I don't know for sure, but I think this right after the seventh time around when the walls come tumbling down, Jesus stood up and cried out. He cried out in a loud voice.

If anyone thirsts, come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. — John 7:37-38

I want you just to notice a few things. Joshua, if you take that name and transliterate it into the Greek, do you know what it is? Jesus. Jesus is the better Joshua, and He brings a better deliverance, a better freedom, better than the walls of Jericho coming down. Do you know the only thing better than that? The walls of your heart come tumbling down. He says, come to me and drink. And when he says that, it is a synonym for believe in me. Jesus, when He says, come to me here, it is the last time you'll hear that phrase in John's gospel.

The first time He says it is in John chapter five, at the end of that chapter. He says:

You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. — John 5

This is the first time in John's gospel. You refuse to come to me. Do you know what this means? This is for us. It is possible to come to the scriptures and not come to Jesus. It is possible to come into the sanctuary and to sing songs about him, but to not sing to Him. Coming to church is not coming to Him. He says, You refused to come to me. They had all the promises. In years of ministry, can I tell you some of the hardest people to get through to? It is the churched who know everything and experience nothing. Jesus said, You search the Scriptures, but you did not come to me.

But here, the last time that He says that phrase, it is an invitation to everyone. And here's the only condition: are you thirsty? Come to me and drink. And this is a synonym for belief. And the reason that we know that is because in John chapter six, Jesus says this: He who comes to Me will never thirst. He who believes in Me will never be hungry. Coming to Jesus and drinking, that is a parallelism. They mean the same thing. Believing in Him is coming to Him and drinking. It is not just bringing your mind to the Bible or to church, it is bringing your whole self to Him.

What Does Coming to Jesus Look Like?

What does that look like? I want to give you an illustration to maybe help you to grab hold of what it might look like to come to Jesus and drink. There's a story in Mark chapter five where a woman has what the gospel writer calls an issue of blood. She's been bleeding internally for twelve years. It's been miserable. She's unclean according to the society. It says she went from one doctor to the next, but instead of getting better, she grew worse. She spent all that she had. She's desperate. And in that moment, Jesus comes through her town.

And as he's walking through the town, she thinks, what have I got to lose? I'll reach up behind him, and maybe if I just touch his cloak, I'll be well. So she does just that, at great risk to herself. Because if she had bumped into anyone else who knew about this condition, they would have become unclean too. But she does it anyway, and there's a huge crowd on that day. And she reaches out and she touches his cloak. And instantly Jesus felt power go out of him and he turned around and he says, who touched me? And his disciples look at him and they think maybe what you or I would have thought in that moment, they thought Jesus, everybody touched you. Do you see this crowd? Everybody bumped into you. And he said, No, no, no. Somebody touched me.

I heard somebody talk about this passage one time. And he said this: You're going to bump into Jesus. You just can't help it. You're going to come to this church, you will bump into Jesus. You are going to bump into people that know Him and are filled by His spirit. You're going to sing songs about him. You're gonna open the Bible and hear people talk about him. You're going to bump into Jesus.

But then he said this, and I never forgot it. He said, Jesus knows the difference between a bump and a touch. He knows the difference. And He always turns around for the one who reaches out in an intentional way to lay hold of Him. That's what it means to come to Him and drink.

Are you skeptical? Are you doubting? This whole thing is framed around unbelief and Jesus says, come to me to deal with your unbelief. Come to me to deal with your thirsty soul that can't seem to get quenched anywhere else in this world. Come to me and watch your skepticism, your cynicism, and your doubt melt away, not because you found new data, but because you came to the only source, the creator of life. Let him satisfy. Let him satisfy and melt away all of your doubt and unbelief.

He is the water, the gentle, lowly water that in your natural self you want to reject just like the people of Israel did. In Psalm 118, which they recited every year during this feast, there's another verse:

The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. — Psalm 118:22

It was all pointing to him. It was always pointing to him.

You are not neutral. In our fallen state, we are at war with a god who loves us and longs for us to see, but we cannot do it on our own. We need His help, which is precisely why Jesus here is talking about someone else that would be sent. He was sent from the Father. Three times in John's gospel, He's going to tell us He's sending someone else when He leaves, and it is the Spirit. The Spirit will lead all of us into truth.

My encouragement to you today is to reach out to Him. He knows the difference between a bump and a touch. Maybe today would be the first time that you reach for Him.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for this passage and we thank you for your spirit. Thank you that you did not wait for us to figure it out because we never would have. You came to us. You took the first step. It was a big step out of heaven into this broken, fallen world that we ruined with our sin. And, Lord, you are our only hope for redemption. I pray that some today would reach for you. In Christ's name, amen.