I Believe

John 9:16,32-38 – Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided… Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

Mark 8:31 – He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

John 1:7 – He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.

John 20:31 – But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Application:

• ·         The Pharisees started from their entrenched position and ruled out the possibility of Jesus being from God.
• ·         “Son of Man” was Jesus’ most common title for Himself, used 81 times in the Gospels and never used by anyone but Jesus there. The Son of Man is pictured as a heavenly figure who in the end times is entrusted by God with authority, glory and sovereign power. That Jesus considered “Son of Man” to be a Messianic title is evident by His use of it here in contrast to Peter’s use of “Messiah”. The Son of Man must suffer, as predicted.
• ·         The man was giving Jesus the reverence due to God.
• ·         People were not to believe “in” John the Baptist but “through” him. Similarly, John’s purpose was to draw them to believe in Christ; he uses the Greek verb for “believe” about 100 times.
• ·         “That you may believe” expresses John’s evangelistic purpose. The whole Gospel of Joh is written to show the truth of Jesus’ Messiahship and to present Him as the Son of God, so that the readers may believe in Him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV