Faith to Believe (2)
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What is your favorite faith verse?
Gideon Speaker - Jim Brewer
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
22 Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter.
23 Jesus was walking in the temple complex in Solomon’s Colonnade.
24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and asked, “How long are You going to keep us in suspense? If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 “I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in My Father’s name testify about Me.
26 But you don’t believe because you are not My sheep.
27 My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish —ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
30 The Father and I are one.”
31 Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone Him.
32 Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. Which of these works are you stoning Me for?”
33 “We aren’t stoning You for a good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because You—being a man—make Yourself God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your scripture, I said, you are gods?
35 If He called those whom the word of God came to ‘gods’—and the Scripture cannot be broken—
36 do you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ to the One the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said: I am the Son of God?
37 If I am not doing My Father’s works, don’t believe Me.
38 But if I am doing them and you don’t believe Me, believe the works. This way you will know and understand that the Father is in Me and I in the Father.”
39 Then they were trying again to seize Him, yet He eluded their grasp.
40 So He departed again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and He remained there.
41 Many came to Him and said, “John never did a sign, but everything John said about this man was true.”
42 And many believed in Him there.
John 10:22-42
Festivals and Feasts - unknown feast in ch 5, passover in 6 and tabernacles in 7. Apparently it was important to God for His people to gather and celebrate what God had done on their behalf.
But this feast seems to be out of place. There was not an annual feast appointed in commemoration of the building of the temple. Neither when Solomon built it nor when Zorubabel rebuilt it. And historically the Jews have taken some flak about it because it was strictly adhered to even in times of great oppression.
They were forbidden to fast and forbidden to mourn. This was expected to be a raucous celebration, even though it was not commanded by God. And it didnt point to a remembrance of God’s work in their lives, it mistakenly pointed to a future hope of the Messiah establishing national independence. This festival was Hanukkah.
So they were doing this thing, with high pomp and circumstance, claiming God had commanded it. He HADNT!
But the one thing God had shone His light on they refused to do: BELIEVE in Jesus! He asked the man healed of blindness “do you believe in the son of God?”.
So we drop into this story with the Jews missing the point of Emmanuel, God with us.
The evidence is there! “If you dont believe my words, look at the body of work”.
Hearing! The right words were used, but they had their fingers in their ears
Has God ever told you something and you refused to believe it? People do it all the time:
It was the great Augustine who said, “If you believe what you like in the gospel and reject what you don’t like; it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”
For God so loved the world...
John 3:16
Love your neighbor as yourself
Or more personally He may have told you ‘spend more time with your kids’, ‘be more generous with your money’, ‘pick up the phone and call them’
Or even more personally, and just as simply, ‘tell’. Share your story. Tell them about what I’ve done in your life. Dustin Wilson
Those who refuse to believe, in this text, are not counted as the sheep. What they are needing to believe is the root of salvation: Whether or not Jesus was the Christ.
So there was a reason they did not have the faith to believe. They were not of His sheep.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. They had refused to believe (v.25) so faith was not received.
And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.”
Believe the prophets, or better said, believe in the words brought by the prophets. Believe the word and you will succeed.
The Jews stumbled over Jesus statement in v. 30 I and the Father are one. Jesus’ response is to quote . That a good one for light reading… <sarcasm>
We all have the choice to become sons and daughters of God. The Jews who listened to Jesus refused. They wanted to stay like they were.
He pointed them to His works. If you cant believe the words, look at the body of work. Let faith come to you because of what you see!
I guess the questions for all who have heard the message are the same: Do I find in Jesus one worthy of my surrender and trust? Am I willing to receive the gift of faith?
Faith to believe gives me the faith to obey, go and tell.
Faith is the gift of God. So is the air, but you have to breathe it. So is bread, but you have to eat it. So is water, but you have to drink it.
So how do we accept this gift? Not by a feeling, for “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). It is not for me to sit down and wait for faith to come upon me with a strong feeling of some kind. Rather, faith comes when we take God at his word.
Faith to believe gives me the faith to obey, go and tell. It gives me the ability to live in front of my kids, co-workers and even my accusers in a way that proclaims the TRUTH of who Jesus is.
He pointed them to His works. If you cant believe the words, look at the body of work. Let faith come to you because of what you see!
I guess the question for all who have heard the message is the same: Do I find in Jesus one worthy of my surrender and trust?
Faith to believe gives me the faith to obey, go and tell.
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