Believe God's Word

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Refusing to believe God’s Word can stop your spiritual growth

Disciples vs. The Religious

I am contrasting disciples as those who believe and Pharisees as those who do not believe God’s Word

Disciples believe God’s Word. The Religious do not believe God’s Word.

The Religious trip over their own ideas and pass them off to others as God’s Word...
John 2:1–11 NLT
The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.” “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!” This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

1. God will act to activate our faith in Him

The disciples believed (trusted) Jesus when they saw evidence that what He said was true.
Faith is based on evidence (Hebrews 11:1)
John 2:11 NLT
This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
The religious leaders made demands in line with their own thinking.
John 2:13–21 NLT
It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.
Even when Jesus met the religious leader’s demand, they refused to believe because it did not line up with their preconceived idea.
John 2:22 NLT
After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.

2. Revelation is progressive when you choose to believe. And revelation stops when you refuse to believe.

Proverbs 4:18–19 NLT
The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they are stumbling over.
2 Thessalonians 2:8–11 NLT
Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming. This man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies.
Even when you believe God’s Word, you can become confused when you expect God to act in line with your thinking.
Mary Magdalene
John 20:1–2 NLT
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
The disciples were confused, too, because Jesus had not acted in line with their thinking.
John 2:3–10 NLT
The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.” “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!”
What the disciples believed was what Mary said - Jesus’ body was gone - not what Jesus said, that He would rise from the dead in three days. They were still confused...
John 20:11–15 NLT
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
Even while Mary was looking at Jesus in the flesh she could not believe He was standing there because Jesus had not acted in line with her expectations… (Preconceived ideas)
John 20:16 NLT
“Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
Jesus had to shake her out of the fog of self-generated knowledge.
John 20:17–18 NLT
“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
Even after the disciples received Jesus’ message, they remained confused because they had not yet accepted Jesus’ message.
John 20:19–23 NLT
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
One disciple, Thomas, was not there and refused to believe until his self-generated knowledge could be overcome with indisputable fact...
John 20:24–28 NLT
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

3. We all face a choice - to believe or not to believe

John 20:29 NLT
Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
Jesus helps us to choose to believe by providing us with indisputable proof of Who He really is.
John 20:30–31 NLT
The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

4. Choosing to believe God’s Word produces “life by the power of His Name!”

John 10:10 GW
A thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I came so that my sheep will have life and so that they will have everything they need.
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