2. BELIEVE IN ME
OBEYING EVERYTHING JESUS DEMANDED
Objective: To the disciples this message is aimed at making them understand the importance of living in faith, i.e. a day-to-day trusting and receiving life from Jesus. For the non-disciples, let this be a “come-on” enter, follow, believe invitation.
Welcome to our series of looking seriously at the demands of Jesus. The Lord Jesus demands and expects His disciples to obey these commands. These are not suggestions, or recommendations, but demands. My role as pastor is to teach you to obey these things. In our first message, we looked at repentance – that heartfelt sorrow for sin – be it an attitude, thought, or action, acknowledging that we have been wrong, and renouncing of it, and sincerely committing to completely turn away from it, and walk in obedience to Christ. This is Jesus first preaching which he repeated throughout his ministry. He told his disciples to preach the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins once they were empowered by the Holy Spirit.
There were three applications:
1. Remember the First Law of the Christian Life: GOD IS GOD AND I AM NOT
2. Active surrendering of every area of our lives to Jesus “interior castle” to be given to the Lord.
3. Practice praying the Lord’s Prayer
(PRAYER)
Let’s move to the second command or demand of Jesus. He tells people “Believe in Me.”
The first thing we observed about this command is its connection to preaching. Faith is a response to the proclaimed and heard Word of God. We do not manufacture faith. We are not born with faith. We are born with doubts, unbelief, and rebellious nature.
RO 10:16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. 18 But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:
The apostle is telling us that Israel has no excuse for not having faith, because the Word has been proclaimed to them. God has come so close to them – “the word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart
Mark 1:14,15 (only Mark does this), records a summary of the call made by Jesus:
MK 1:14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
John the Baptizer and forerunner of Jesus and then our Lord Jesus Himself started proclaiming the new availability of God’s much longed-for, missed out kingdom – promised by the prophets as a rule of righteousness, or love, of joy, peace (Shalom), or intimacy, of forgiveness, of freedom, of healing, or God in the midst – so closed you can speak to him. John calls it “eternal life” – God is making available a “God-like-kind of life.
John made the call, as a servant of God, but now Jesus, God, in the flesh, was making this direct call. The call is dual: REPENT AND BELIEVE. To repent means first of all to see how lost we are – in sin, in relationship, in life, in practice, in thoughts, in values, in priorities, in whom we follow, in what we live for. A great part of it is the realization that we have been ruling our own lives – and that it is sinful, wrong, and out of God’s will. He calls us to give up our self-claimed rights, which are utterly wrong; He demands that we give up our “idols” – anything or anyone that keeps God ruling us, or anything that makes Jesus our second choice, or that makes Him a good alternative – give the throne up.
But repentance must be accompanied by faith – we learned of our pitiful condition, and are convinced that there is a better way; a new and better king is around and we have to make a choice: do we submit to this new king? Do we send a message of “détente” (we are not against you?); please leave us alone? Or do we request more information about this king (who is He, what kind of person is He; Is He good? Just; Fair; Does He care for His subjects; What does He want? His platform; Plans; What are His requirements? How long will He be here? How long has he been around? Do we have proof of this king’s character? Can we trust Him? Are we safe with Him? Are His laws just? Are they livable? Are they fair or one-sided?”
What kind of God; what kind of King is Jesus – Can we trust Him? This is the main question that the beloved Apostle John answers with His gospel. He writes to show why trusting Jesus as God and King is the best – there are no close seconds to trusting in this person. He presents a series of “signs” – semeia, to show what kind of king is Jesus:
First sign: turning of water into wine
Second Sign: Jesus heals the royal official’s son – by merely speaking the word.
Third Sign: Jesus heals a man at the Bethesda Pool – 38 years as a disabled person.
Fourth Sign: Jesus Feeds 5000 people with a few resources
Fifth Sign: Jesus walks on water
Sixth Sign: Jesus gives sight to the blind – John 9
Seventh Sign: Jesus raises Lazarus back to life.
Ultimate Sign: Jesus himself rises from the grave on the third day showing He is really God in the flesh, the Lord of Lords, and king of all kings!
Faith knows. Faith is not a leap in the dark. Faith is knowing who Jesus is.
2. The second amazing truth about Jesus is a conviction that He is true; that everything He said about Himself; about God; about life; about death; about relationships; about service; about day-to-day stuff is true?
(Share that the Synoptics seldom used the verb form of faith. They prefer using the noun form; but John uses the verb form)
Jesus made statements – in fact he combined two elements in his claim: He is Truth; and He is the only truth. EXCLUSIVISM.
John 14:6 - Only
John 15: - True Vine
Someone said, “Jesus is either the weirdest lunatic, so out of Himself, the most aweful liar, or He is who He claimed He is. Jesus told us the truth about God; about eternity; about life; about relationships; about forgiveness; about freedom, healing, - everything else.
1JN 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
1JN 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Do you believe that everything Jesus said is true? You have to believe that He represents the whole truth or not believe Him at all.
Until we are convinced that Jesus speaks the truth about everything: from science, to math, to music, to arts, to cooking, to eating, to living, to dying, - we will always struggle abou following Him.
There is a third truth about faith that is equally mind-boggling: FAITH IS COMMITMENT TO JESUS. Especially in John, faith is an action word, to believe in Jesus is to follow Him. To believe in Jesus begins with knowledge, then with conviction, but it leads to an action: RECEIVING, ACTING, FOLLOWING, BEING LOYAL, FAITHFUL TO THE END; FOLLOWING JESUS NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES.
One of the best examples of faith as committing oneself to God is dear Mary, the beloved earthly mother of Jesus – chosen to bring Jesus into world. At the beginning of Luke’s Gospel we see two contrasting examples of response to the promise of a miraculous birth: Zechariah “did not believe” (1:20), but Mary “believed that what the Lord had spoken to her would be fulfilled” (1:45). As such she is congratulated (makaria) as a paradigm of faith, which for her involves not only intellectual acceptance of God’s surprising announcement, but the personal commitment to be herself the means of its fulfillment, with all the upheaval that must involve. It is faith, in something like the same sense, that the Son of man hopes to find on earth at his coming—the persistent faithfulness of the people of God (Luke 18:8). And it is such faith that Peter is in danger of losing under the pressure of the events of Jesus’ passion (22:32; see Passion Narrative). Faith involves the loyalty of God’s people to his will even when such loyalty is costly.
Let me add the emphasis of God’s Word about faith’s relation to miracles – RECEIVE. This is the emphasis of Matthew, Mark, and Luke is faith’s connection to Jesus’ miracles. Jesus typically performed miracles in response to the faith either of the suffering (Mark 5:34; 10:52), or more frequently those who request Jesus’ aid on behalf of another (Mak 2:5; 9:23-24; Mat 8:10,13; 15:28). The absence of faith hinders Jesus miraculous activity (Mark 6:5-6). The only place were the phrase “could not do” is ever mentioned along with Jesus is connected to unbelief. (Of course the lack of faith does not limit God. He does not need faith to do anything). But the gospels are quite emphatic about the need for faith.
Faith in such contexts focuses on a practical trust in the power of Jesus to meet physical need (or, in the case of exorcisms, to bring spiritual deliverance). It is exemplified in the centurion, who recognizes in Jesus a functional authority (see Authority and Power) akin to that of an army officer (Mt 8:8–10). Thus it is not Jesus himself who exercises faith, but those who come to him for help. The correlative to the faith of the suppliant is the authority of Jesus. (Your faith has healed you).
Another interesting observation is how Jesus expected his disciples to be able to achieve similarly miraculous results by the exercise of faith (Mk 11:22–24; Mt 17:19–21). Where Jesus’ disciples prove powerless, the cause is traced to “unbelief” (Mk 9:19), or “little faith” (Mt 17:20—see below). But while Jesus responds to faith rather than exercising it himself, it may be significant that Mark describes this miracle-working faith of the disciples as faith in God rather than faith in Jesus (Mk 11:22). The key to the exercise of such faith is not its quantity, but the God to whom it is directed; thus Jesus rejects the notion that faith needs to be “increased” to be effective—even the smallest faith (“like a mustard seed”) will see spectacular results (Lk 17:5–6; Mt 17:20). (Faith and its object – God. It is faith in God that matters)
Faith believes that Jesus CAN.
Faith believes that Jesus has the prerogative to heal or perform a miracle.
Faith believes that Jesus CAN DO EVERYTHING.
JN 14:1
JN 14:11
12:36
JOHN 20:27
Jesus was surprised with the faith of the Canaanite worman (Matthew 15:21-28)
Twice Jesus was amazed: once with the faith of a Syrophenecian woman; and the other with the unbelief of his own people. The only place in Scripture where we are told that Jesus “could not do” is in that chapter.
What do we RECEIVE? (John 1:12). We receive all that the kingdom brings. WE give everything to him, and we receive everything He gives.
Illustration: The wire-walker. That still fascinates us don’t we. How can a person walk on a rope like that?
To believe in Jesus means more than a mental exercise. In John 7:37 Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink”. Whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty forever.” John 4:14
John 6:35 – believing and coming to Jesus are inseparable parts of believe. To Believe is to take action.
Believing in Jesus means not merely believing that this “water” “bread” gives life. Water gives life when we drink it. Jesus gives life by being trusted. Trusting Jesus as water therefore means drinking the water. To believe Jesus is to “receive” him and all the life-giving grace of God that comes to us in him. Whoever receives me receives him who sent me (Mat 10:40; Jn 13:20). Believing in Jesus includes drinking Jesus as the soul-thirst-quenching water of life. This includes savoring and being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus.
Believing in Jesus means trusting in His RESCUE SKILLS. The fireman tells us “don’t do anything, just hold to me tight.” We will pass through some dangerous areas. We will jump through some flames; and the house is on fire. We need to be rescued from God’s wrath.
But we need more than a rescuer, we need a soul-satisfying relationship with God. We need the God-like life. John 3:16, This is what Jesus came to give. It comes to us in one way alone – by believing in him. Therefore, he gives his demand to the world: Believe in me
PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
1. Know God better – facts about God
2. Obey God’s promptings. If God says something to you – go do it.
3. Asked God to give you more faith.
