Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? (John 6:28-30)
Every day, as I
spend time with my Father in his word and talk to him in prayer, there is a
weaving together of his world and mine. He is not outside my world speaking in,
but “God with us” in everything.
Today, this
ministered to me in another journey with God from one thought to another. Each
discovery is an experience of knowing, and each truth known prepares for the
next truth to be told.
One of the most
notable experiences of my present journey through John’s gospel is noticing
themes that have not stood out before. And one of the most glaring is hearing Jesus
teaching the same things to different groups in different words. It is like I
am hearing a rhyming of thoughts emphasizing the realities of God for all people.
For example, when Jesus
talked with Nicodemus (John 3), he went straight to, “You must be born again”.
No new birth, no kingdom of God experience.
Then, in talking
with the Samaritan woman (John 4), Jesus told her that if she had known who he
was, she would have been asking him for living water, and that this living
water would well-up within a person to eternal life.
When Jesus got in
trouble for healing an invalid on the Sabbath (John 5), he told the Religious
Elite, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who
sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from
death to life.” Being born again, drinking the living water, hearing and
believing Jesus’ words, are rhyming thoughts emphasizing the need to trust in Jesus
for eternal life.
And today, I’m in
the midst of Jesus’ dialogue with the multitude that had experienced him
feeding them with a miraculous distribution of bread and fish. First he
confronted them with the fact that he knew they were looking for him only
because he had filled their stomachs and they wanted more of the same.
But what stood out was that it was the same kind of response as Nicodemus and the Samaritan
woman. Nicodemus wondered how in the world he was to re-enter his mother’s womb
so he could be born again. The Samaritan woman wondered how Jesus could give
her this living water so she could stop coming to the well.
And when Jesus began
telling the multitude how “This is the work of God, that you believe in him
whom he has sent”, and the people wanted to know what works they were to do “to
be doing the works of God”, Jesus reiterated, “This is the work of God, that
you believe in him whom he has sent.”
And when they
continued presenting their queries, he told them “Truly, truly, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you
the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from
heaven and gives life to the world.” As with the new birth, and the living
water, the bread from heaven was all about Jesus.
However, when the
people replied, “Sir, give us this bread always,” it was the same as the Samaritan
woman asking for the earthly version of the living water.
In other words, Jesus
kept speaking to the people the truth of God and watching the crowd to see who
heard him. He would so often say something like, “He who has ears to hear, let
him hear.” All seven letters to the churches in Revelation end with the same
appeal of, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.”
We cannot escape
the fact that faith comes from “hearing”, not from “seeing”. The people all
wanted to see signs. Even the religious elite who were bothered that Jesus gave
the sign of healing an invalid couldn’t accept it because (to them) it was a
violation of the law to heal on the Sabbath and so they asked for more signs.
The multitude who went out to see Jesus because of his signs, concluded he was
the Messiah because of his signs, and wanted a relationship with him based on
his signs. However, he was only using the signs to reveal his glory so people
would hear his voice and follow his words!
And that’s when God
took me back to seven years of age. I was in the front yard in Sandspit BC.
Something made me suddenly look up at the sky and know God was watching me, and
that it was good. Except that I didn’t “see” anything. No signs. But what God
clarified this morning was that my experience was not of me thinking about him.
It wasn’t me asking for or responding to a sign. Rather it was me hearing him call
my name. In that childhood moment, I was responding to his thoughts about me as
he chose to make them known right then and there.
My next memory was
of “hearing” my mom teaching our Sunday School class in Sandspit about Jesus.
At twelve years of age, it was “hearing” the gospel and believing. At fourteen
years it was “hearing” a certain facet of the finished work of Christ that
settled that Jesus’ “once for all” death gave me my “once for all” salvation. And from there, the hearing and believing has continued to grow.
I love what I have
been able to share with you this morning as a golden thread in the divine
tapestry, connecting the new birth, the living water, and the bread from heaven
as God’s provision of salvation in Jesus Christ.
But the greater
thing is a testimony that if we will have a daily time with God in his word and
prayer, and listen to sermons, Bible studies, biblical podcasts, Bible-centered videos, and even the Scriptures while driving places, we who belong
to Jesus will constantly hear his voice, know what he is saying, and discern
how to join him in his work.
And, in doing so,
we will keep getting to know the Triune God better every day than we have ever known him before.
© 2025
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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