Jesus has resurrected from the dead and I want to talk about His life before He rose from the dead and a little bit after. There is a teaching of Jesus I feel we have missed because He spoke a little about but His whole life was about it. That is to have faith. Jesus lived a life of faith that manifested through His performing miracles. From the first Miracle of turning water to wine to the last miracle of rising from the dead and eventually ascending to heaven. Jesus showed us a life that is possible if we have faith. He knew one Important aspect of our life: that we are born into flesh, and we grow to believe in things we can see and touch. It’s like we are born upside down. We are born because we are made by the unseen. Parents can come together to consummate a child, but they can never ever decide on the character and personality of that child. Today I understood the scripture in Matthew 17 verse 20 “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Today I understood the message of Jesus. Jesus is telling us here that the unseen controls the seen. You can touch faith with your hand, you can’t smell faith with your noise, you can’t hear it with your ears. However, you can see its work manifests in the physical world. Faith is what makes things take place.
Today I finally saw that Jesus calls us to be rich in faith. To be rich in the unseen so we can control the seen. To have a positive balance in the Bank of Faith
The Resurrection of Jesus is one of the most debated aspects of Christianity. People ask, “How is it possible?” It the biggest known miracle in History. It is not easy for people to believe because they have little faith. Their faith is limited by their belief in the physical world of seen and touchable. The unseen world is unlimited. Because it is made of God; the unseen has no beginning and no end. And so is its power. Jesus is saying a tiny particle of the unseen can move a mountain. The resurrection was possible because of faith. The resurrection is a manifestation of a belief that Jesus had. His resurrection is not the only miracle of resurrection that happened in the bible. Lazarus was also raised from the dead. And it seems that it’s easier for people to believe that Jesus raised Lazarus than it is to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. It was like this even for Thomas, ‘The Twin’, as the Bible describes him. He was a disciple of Jesus and likely to have been there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and yet Thomas did not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. The Bible explains that Lazarus was dead for 4 days, his body had started to decay and was smelling when Jesus resurrected him. I believe the miracle of Lazarus was important for true believers. It was there to show us that the dead can rise so we know the level we can reach with our faith.
Another thing that stood out for me and I missed for years is that Jesus raised himself from the dead. The miracle is bigger than I thought. I always believed that God raised Jesus from the dead. Matthew 26 verse 61 “This man said, ‘I can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days’”. John 2 verse 19 “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.”
If there is a person here who doesn’t believe that Jesus was raised from the dead – I am here to tell you that it’s not because you are a bad person or a bad Christian for that matter: You just have little faith. Then you say Mfundisi (Priest), how do I get my faith up? Then I Can tell you that the Bible says, “Faith without works is dead”. James 2: 26 To get your faith up, you need to use it and see its results. That scripture tells us that faith is like a muscle you can train, and it will be strong. The message for the resurrection is “Go train your faith”. The sermon can end there.
It could be that Thomas believed in Jesus the man/ Jesus the person and His power. He believed in Jesus the person that Jesus the person has the power to heal and raise people from the dead and did not believe in the source of that power. Maybe he believed that Jesus was born with the power to heal, but I don’t know. Or it could be that Thomas believed because he Jesus with his own eyes performing miracles. When he was not there to see, he didn’t trust him. His faith was little, or it did not exist at all. When I realized that there are Christians that don’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead, my heart was sore. But the Holy Spirit taught me that it’s because they have little faith. Jesus says in John 20 verse 29 “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Not seeing and yet believing is the essence of all faith. Those who believe that Jesus was raised from the dead are blessed because they have faith. If you have faith, you can perform miracles. If you believe that Jesus did make a blind man see, then it is easy for you to believe that Jesus will take care of your needs because most of them are smaller than being blind. Church is a school that teaches about the unseen.
Jesus performed all miracles through faith. There would be no miracles if Jesus did not believe. He believed and told us that if we believe, we will do greater things than He did. Jesus’s faith was amazing. I have never seen faith like that, ever. Jesus’ faith was so great that He now commanded things into existence. When He came to a man who couldn’t walk and said “Get up and walk”. Some people came to Jesus to tell Him their servant sick at home. Jesus healed that servant without ever seeing him or touching him. There are powerful words that Jesus said when He healed someone “Your faith has saved you”. He makes it clear that your wealth, your treasures your investment in the unseen are paying off. What will save you when the world reaches its limits?
Last month another church member asked that we pray for their relative who is in hospital. He said the doctors say they have done all they can, all is left to God now. They cant help anymore. What will you do when you are faced with a situation like that because your account in the unseen is empty it is a minus. You are owing the bank of faith in the unseen.
God is worthy of all praise. He is Almighty. He is the source of all Wisdom and Strength. I say this because I think about the Wisdom He applied when creating the world. He made important things free and accessible to all. He gave us all the power to work miracles through faith. He made faith, prayer, worship, and knowledge of God accessible to all – regardless of race, financial status or social status. Imagine if faith cost money. Only the rich could have it. People will lie, cheat, and steal to have faith. There would be bribes, people would want to pay money for a “cool drink” so they can have faith for a day. Now God said it is free. Another thing that makes God so ever-loving and merciful is that He is everywhere for eternity. Can you imagine if God was in one place? How many people would go there? There would be a long line. And again people would lie, cheat and steal to get in front of that line. Now, anywhere you are He is there. You can pray anytime you, please. But the price of each prayer is faith. You into the Bank of Faith you withdraw. God loved us all that he based everything on faith.
Jesus tells us in Mark 11 verse 24 “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Jesus says when you ask to make a withdrawal from the Bank of Faith. You say to me Mfundisi (priest) “How will I believe that I have when I don’t have?”. Then I tell you, “You need to deposit into the Bank of Faith”. What you are asking me is “How will I believe I have it when I don’t believe ill have it?”. When you build muscle, you don’t lift the heaviest weight. You don’t run the comrades marathon on the first day. You graduate to Comrades Marathon. You start with one step, you start with one kilometre and you come home. When you start remembering that patience is a fruit of faith. Patience is a refusal to learn. We would not be able to walk and talk if we refused to learn as babies.
People of the world believe in things they can see and touch. Faith is believing in things that you cant see and touch. Meaning that when you believe that your life is a mess or things will never work out for you, you have faith. But your faith is based on the negative. You might believe that your house is protected by Jesus and no robbers will ever come in. Or you might believe that everything in your life falls into place perfectly because your life is designed by God. This is also faith. But this faith is based on positives. Either road you take with your faith will become true for you. I believe that it’s not that we don’t have faith, we do. The real issue is that our faith is based more on negative things and little on positive things. So when you feel that things are not working out for you check your faith. I tell my children that God loves us so much that He says yes to anything and everything we say. So when you say ‘I am healthy’, He says “Yes”, I am lazy, He says “Yes”, I am Pretty, He says “Yes”, I am ugly, He Says “yes”, I can’t stand my neighbour, he says “yes”. The answer is already yes. SO watch your faith as Jesus rises from the dead, rise with a new faith. Become a new version of yourself.
Jesus taught us that faith that is a size of a mustard seed is enough to move a mountain. Faith is believing with no doubt in the unseen. The unseen controls everything that is seen. When you base your faith on things that are seen you get disappointed because all that is seen has got a lifespan. If you can see it and touch it, know it has an expiration date. It might take a thousand years, but it will end. The most powerful empires ended like the Roman Empire it took many hundreds of years but it ended. All will end. But God will live on.
The Bible teaches us that God is love. It also teaches us that where there is fear there is no love. Fear just like love controls your belief in the unseen but fear makes you believe in the negative. And as a result, you attract negative results. Meaning you have a bank account at the Bank of Faith but your bank account is an overdraft of fear that takes all the love you deposit. Just like the Bank of the World, when you have a big balance in the Bank of Faith. You can buy big items same time. You can buy a business, a house, and a car same time. The same goes for the Bank of Faith. When your balance is large, you can do big things immediately “You can heal the blind, heal leprosy, and raise the dead”. In this bank, Jesus tells us that a small balance accomplishes a lot.
I want to read scripture for you that gives an example of what we are talking about – It is Matthew chapter 17 from 14 to 21:
When Jesus and his followers came back to the crowd, a man came to Jesus and bowed before him. The man said, “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has epilepsy[b] and is suffering very much because he often falls into the fire or the water. I brought him to your followers, but they could not cure him.”
Jesus answered, “You people have no faith, and your lives are all wrong. How long must I put up with you? How long must I continue to be patient with you? Bring the boy here.” Jesus commanded the demon inside the boy. Then the demon came out, and the boy was healed from that time on.
The followers came to Jesus when he was alone and asked, “Why couldn’t we force the demon out?” Jesus answered, “Because your faith is too small. I tell you the truth, if your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. All things will be possible for you. That kind of spirit comes out only if you use prayer and fasting.
What are you willing to do to raise your balance in the Bank of Faith? Are you willing to fast? Are you willing to pray?
