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“And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all that I ever did.' So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, 'Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.'” (John 4.39-42; emphasis mine, jb). The final installment of this Biblical 4x4 is entitled...

Many More Believed

Its a bit technical, but stay with me please. First, notice that after the woman went into the city, “...many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman.” She had personally witnessed His Divine power when He, in her own words, “...told me all that I ever did.” Yet, the townspeople to whom she told the story had never laid eyes on Him as far as we know, and they certainly had not seen His miraculous power which the woman had witnessed. Yet, they believed on Him because of the word of the woman.

Then Jesus, at the urgings of the citizens of Samaria, stayed two days in their midst. We do not know anything about the particulars of His visit, just that He stayed there. However, we can correctly conclude that He spoke words while He was there that resulted in many more believing. These new believers told the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

Many believed because of the word of the woman. Many more believed because of the word of Jesus Himself. The woman was but a eyewitness whose convincing testimony was instrumental in bringing many to faith. However, note that the result was the same; believers resulted from the testimony of the woman, and believers resulted from the testimony of Jesus Himself. Granted that Jesus had powers that the woman did not possess, but the power to make believers depended entirely upon the openness of each person to examine the evidence and draw right conclusions from that evidence. The way of faith has from the beginning been a way that demanded that people hear the word of God and trust in it to be right for their souls. It was no different here; hearers, both hearers of the woman and hearers of Jesus, were made able to believe by the truth which they heard and in no other way!

Now overlay these events with some that happened shortly after the resurrection of Jesus. Some of the apostles had personally seen the resurrected Christ. However, on that particular occasion, Thomas had not been present. When presented with the word of the other apostles, he said, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” (John 20.25). A week later Thomas was afforded the opportunity to do exactly as he had wished. After this encounter, he cried out, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20.28).

“Jesus said to him, 'Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.' And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20.29-31). Faith is obtainable! One does not have to personally see or hear Jesus; nor does one have to see signs in order to believe. God made it this way; the word of God is all that is required to faith. Would that many more would believe!

Questions:

1. What was the result of the woman telling others about the work of Jesus?

2. What was the result of Jesus personally telling the Samaritans who He was?

3. Was Thomas condemned for demanding convincing evidence of Jesus' resurrection?(John resurrection?(John 20)

4. According to John 20, is it possible to have faith even though we might never have seen Jesus? If so, how must that faith come (see also Romans 10:17)

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

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