John 16: 29-33 | King James Audio Bible
29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.
30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
The disciples enthusiastically acknowledge the divinity of Jesus, proved to them in these Bible verses by Jesus’ knowledge of their thoughts, which only God could know. Jesus has indeed spoken plainly to the disciples. Now it may be with some reproachfulness that he asks them: ‘Do ye now believe?’ They have spent such time with Jesus, have witnessed signs and miracles, and now they accept his teachings and express their faith in him.
Jesus in these verses additionally points to the fragility of the disciples’ faith in him. For the moment, they are enthusiastic in their declaration of faith, but very soon they will abandon Jesus, when he is given over into the hands of his enemies. Our faith must be firmer than this, as we confront life’s difficulties and may at times struggle to see God at work in the world and in society. Our faith must be strong as we communicate God’s love to other people, through simple acts of kindness as well as through sharing, explicitly, our Christianity. Our faith must be strong when we suffer, and when our offerings to others are rebuffed.
Christ’s words are an example to us of how we should be when the world seems to flee from us, leaving us feeling alone. Christ will, in truth, not be alone, even when he is at his most physically abject through the course of his Passion. He knows that the Father is with him. This is both perfect knowledge and perfect faith. In a similar way, when we find we are struggling, God is with us.
Christ’s words, then, are for our time. We do indeed face tribulations. The world, contemporary society, does not in so many ways tend toward faith, and there is much that is actively opposed to faith. There are times when we may look at our society and find our love and faith and hope draining from us, confronted, as we may feel ourselves to be, by a spiritual desert. But we must blink and look again. The world, though often hostile, is seeded with love and faith and hope, sometimes most obviously, at other times when we take just a little care to scratch the surface of our impressions of other people, and so to discover the good that shines within. Christ has overcome the world.
‘As light strikes the eyes of a man who comes out of darkness into the sunshine and enables him to see clearly things he could not discern before, so light floods the soul of the man counted worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit and enables him to see things beyond the range of human vision, things hitherto undreamed of.’ St Cyril of Jerusalem
King James Audio Bible Endnotes
‘Do Ye Now Believe?’ | A Call To Deeper Christian Faith
Theologian William Barclay suggests that Jesus’ question to the disciples, ‘Do ye now believe?’ is not a rebuke, but rather an invitation to deepen their faith. Barclay writes, ‘It was not that Jesus thought that their faith was insufficient; it was that he knew that their faith had not yet been really tested. He knew that before the night was over, they would see him taken prisoner, tried, condemned, and crucified, and that then their faith would be really tested.’ (Barclay, William. The Gospel of John. Volume 2. Westminster John Knox Press, 2001)
Similarly, in his book The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer reflects on the significance of the disciples’ scattering and the tribulations they faced. He writes, ‘The disciples had to learn the hard way that faith is only real when there is nothing left to hold onto but God alone. They had to lose their faith in order to find it again in its true form.’ (Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. Touchstone, 1995)
Theologian and author Timothy Keller also explores the idea of faith in the face of trials and tribulations in his book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. Keller writes, ‘Faith in God does not prevent hardships but rather enables us to face them with confidence and hope.’ (Keller, Timothy. Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. Penguin Books, 2015)
A Call To Deeper Faith
As we approach Pentecost, the question ‘Do ye now believe?’ remains a call to examine our own faith and to deepen our relationship with God. It also reminds us that belief in Jesus is not an intellectual acknowledgment of his divinity but a commitment to follow his teachings and to bear witness to his love and grace.
In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes about ‘believing in’ God. He writes, ‘Believing in God is not the same as believing things about God. It is possible to believe that God exists and to believe nothing else about Him.’ (Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. HarperCollins, 2001)
Therefore, the question of whether we truly believe in Jesus is not about acknowledging his existence or even recognizing his divine nature. It is about trusting in him as our Lord and Savior, and living our lives in accordance with his teachings.
In the words of the Apostle Paul, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’ (Galatians 2:20, KJV)
Faith Through Doubt And Fear
Jesus’ question ‘Do ye now believe?’ challenges Christians to confront our doubts and uncertainties. Even the disciples who had witnessed Jesus’ miracles and teachings faced moments of doubt and fear. In the Gospel of Mark, after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus appears to the disciples and rebukes them for their unbelief and hardness of heart (Mark 16:14).
The Christian faith is not one that denies or suppresses doubts and questions but rather one that embraces our uncertainty and seeks answers through prayer, scripture, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Theologian Frederick Buechner writes, ‘Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it alive and moving.’
In his book The Case for Christ, journalist Lee Strobel documents his journey from atheism to Christianity through investigating the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Strobel’s journey shows that faith is not just blind belief but a rational and informed decision based on the evidence.
Similarly, in his book The Reason for God, Tim Keller argues that faith and reason are not opposed but rather complement each other. He writes, ‘Faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic.’ (Keller, Tim. The Reason for God. Penguin Books, 2009)
The purification rituals of the Jews were originally laid down, in Exodus, for the priests to perform before they offered sacrifices to God. These rules were then later extended to all Jews, to be performed before every meal. This was as there developed a greater and greater call for all Jews to be a priestly people, particularly in the light of national set-backs, which were ascribed to infidelities to God [ … ]
Herod the tetrarch, Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, was a client ‘king’ of the Romans. He is highly alert to the in/stability of his region and to his own position within the Roman authority. We may imagine that the fear of a popular leader amassing a following and potentially threatening authority contributed to the arrest of John the Baptist, this in addition to the reason we are given in the Gospel, which is that John had told Herod how immoral he was being in marrying his brother’s wife Herodias [ … ]
During the reign of King David, King David ordered a census of the people of Israel, an act that displeased the Lord as it revealed a reliance on human strength rather than on God’s providence. In response, God sent a severe pestilence that resulted in the death of seventy thousand men across the land. As the angel of the LORD was about to strike Jerusalem with the plague, God, in His mercy, commanded the angel to cease the destruction. The angel halted at the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite, just outside Jerusalem’s borders [ … ]
