Life-spark: Believe into Jesus. – John 2:11
When Jesus turned the water into wine, He met a felt need and indexed His entire mission. It would be a mistake to think the miracles of Jesus were meant to alleviate human distress and nothing more. Each of the seven signs John highlights are invitations from Christ to you and me to personally connect with His unending aliveness.
Water to wine. Is that believable? I love the story of the self-centered, abusive alcoholic who surrendered his life to Christ. Everything changed. He started reading his Bible at work during lunch. One day a scoffer asked Him what He was reading about. “I’m reading where Jesus turned water into wine.” The critic laughed and said, “You don’t believe that fairytale do you! Water to wine.” He looked up from the Bible and said, “Sure I do. After all, He turned alcohol into kid’s clothes at my house.”
Here Jesus’ disciples began to believe in and connect with His glorious aliveness. This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. John 2:11, NIV
So many people think that ‘putting faith in Jesus’ or ‘believing in Jesus’ simply means giving intellectual assent to that fact that He is God’s Son. The Bible says that demons do that. They believe in God, and it does them no good. (James 2:9) Let me try to explain the difference between ‘believing in Jesus’ and ‘believing into Jesus.
Evil Knievel was a daredevil entertainer who attempted 75 ramp to ramp jumps between 1965 and 1980. His longest jump cleared fourteen large buses in Ohio in 1975. If I had been there in 1975 before he jumped, I might have said, “I believe Evil can jump those fourteen buses.” That would be an example of believing in Evil Knievel. Believing into Evil Knievel would have been responding positively to his invitation to get on the back of the motorcycle and actually make the jump with him. Big difference!
Believing ‘into’ Christ is betting your life on Him. That is the kind of believing that enables you to literally connect with His life. John chronicled seven miracles so that you and I “might believe and have life…” (John 20:31) The kind of believing that causes you to “have life” is the kind where get on the back of His motorcycle.
One minute life-action: ‘Believing into’ is not a once and for all thing so much as a repeated, day after day, choice we make. Picture one thing you can do today to “get on His motorcycle.” Leave a comment so others may be encouraged.