I: Du fils de Zébédée (pas du tout Jacques!)

When John son of Zebedee is mentioned in the gospels, in fact, James is mentioned first - "James son of Zebedee, and his brother John".

Interesting.

Perhaps those of you reading this may want to speculate why that is
- however, it's not my focus.


MES QUESTIONS
1. How can God's people know Him (better)?
{that is, How to know God?}
2. How can God's people know what He wants for them?
{or rather, How to know what God wants us to do and be?}

DISCLAIMER
These are my personal perceptions and reflections on the Word of God. Please read with care & discernment; feel free to disagree (incl. by commenting); above all, DO NOT Blindly Swallow everything (or anything) I might say.
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The first thing I noticed in John chapters 1 to 4 is that we can only know God because *He's* initiated the relationship..

Par exemple
~ God sends His witnesses (e.g. "There came a man who was sent from God") 1,6
~ God comes into the world to be received - 1,11-12
~ He comes to dwell among us & bless us with His grace - 1,14-16
~ He makes Himself known to us (e.g. "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.") - 1,17-18; see also ch.2, v.11, where Jesus reveals His glory to the disciples at the Cana wedding; AND ch.4, v.7, where Jesus initiates the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.

I could go on and on, and I think I will..!

God, who sent John the Baptist, tells him who Jesus is - thus the Father makes Him(self) known to John. The Baptist doesn't work it out for himself; he gets told by God ("the one who sent me to baptize with water told me..I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God." - 1,33-34.)
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The second thing observed so far is the number of times the concept of *believing* rocks up..

1,7-10: .. 2x
1,50-2,11: .. 1x "believe", .. 1x "putting faith in"
2,22-25: .. 2x
3,11-36: .. 8x (aïe!)
4,28-42: .. 3x**
4,45-54: .. 2x
TOTAL: .. 19x

I think it would be safe to say that believing (or putting faith) in Jesus - the One God sent - is a somewhat important concept here.

Now I want to flesh this out a little more.
I thought that Jesus' stopover at the well in the Samaritan town of Sychar was worth returning to. (Hence ** above.)

In ch.4, v.4-42, Jesus' encounter with a non-Jewish woman at the Sychar well results in, well, this:

"Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him
because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I ever did.'
So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them,
and he stayed two days.
And because of his words many more became believers.
They said to the woman,
'We no longer believe just because of what you said;
now we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.'"
~ What I think is SO very interesting here, is that they believe because of what the woman tells them - the only bit of her words to the town recorded for us is "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (4,29.)

This is in stark contrast to those whom Jesus encounters both before AND after the Samaritan episode:

(i) "Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name." (2,23.)
~ Here we have a presumably Jewish majority.
Who believe, not because of words/testimony from another (like the Samaritans), but because of miraculous signs.

(ii) "When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him.
They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.
Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.
And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.
When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
'Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,' Jesus told him,
'you will never believe.'" (4,45-48)
~ Even Jesus seems to be implying that the faith the Galileans have in Him is dependent on miraculous signs.


So we have Galileans - presumably Jews because they were at Jerusalem for Passover - who believe in Jesus because of the miracles He has been doing.

And then we have Samaritans (with whom, we are told, Jews do not associate - 4,9), who believe in Jesus because of His words (conversation) to a witness (the woman).


But wait, there's more. The passage about the royal official has an intriguing conclusion..

"When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
'Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,' Jesus told him,
'you will never believe.'
The royal official said, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.'
Jesus replied, 'You may go. Your son will live.'
The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.
When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him,
'The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.'
Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, 'Your son will live.'
So he and all his household believed." (4,47-53)
~ The royal official takes Jesus at His word.
He doesn't insist that Jesus comes with him (though me being me, I would have!!).
He does, in fact, see a miraculous sign - the healing of his dying son.
But - unlike the other Jewish people inferred so far - the official, plus his household, believe - though they had not visibly seen Jesus go to his son & heal him.

This official, therefore, seems one step closer to the Samaritans than the Jews here
- because it was about believing in the Word, rather than just believing after seeing Jesus perform a miraculous sign.
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So, backtracking.

We know God because He's made Himself known to us.
He's initiated the relationship.
Are we called also to believe in His Word
- whether we see Him perform miraculous signs (e.g. physical healings or water-into-wine) in our lives -
..Or Not?

..Well, the Samaritans seemed able to.
The Samaritans believed because of what the woman told them about Jesus; & because they heard Him for themselves.

The closest thing they saw to a miraculous sign, as far as the Bible tells us in John's gospel, is that Jesus knew the woman & told her everything she ever did. No physical healing or water-to-wine was necessary for these Samaritans of Sychar to believe.

We can know God, it would seem, because He wants us to know Him; & we can believe in His Word alone. (We don't need tangible miracles to believe.)

Or so I would conclude..

..I hope to keep going in my reports on John the apostle's writings soon.

L/T.