One of the greatest affronts to the majesty of the Master occurs when we ask His help in prayer, and then rely on Something or Someone else in addition. We have this tenacious tendency of using this Jesus/And strategy; Jesus/And… my money, my medicine, my doctor, my parents, my spouse, my friends, my reasoning and intelligence.
It’s like me going across the street asking for my neighbor’s help, and while we are crossing the street, I ask someone else to help me in addition. Now why would I do such a thing? That strategy indicates that I don’t believe my neighbor is capable of giving me the help I need; or I am just down-right insensitive and uncaring of the other person’s feelings; or I remember our relationship is shaky because of a past wrong done, and therefore, I don’t trust that person to do the right thing; or I fear he will broadcast that he had to help me and expose what was wrong in my home. But in either or all cases, it comes down to the matter of Trust. I don’t fully trust that person’s ability or sincerity in helping me.
So likewise, to come to Jesus for Help means that we must abandon all other helps and props, and Rely On Him Only.
And that is the issue our text addresses. It insists that Faith in Him Excludes Every Other Option. For the fact of the matter is that, for the most part, we only turn to Jesus when we have ran out of options: He’s usually our last option. And that, in itself, exposes the greater issue of our Lack of Trust and Faith in His Ability to handle our needs. And that is an Indictment on our relationship to Him. It says very clearly that He is not our Lord and Savior; that we do not seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; that we do not acknowledge Him in all things. For the most part, Jesus is a fire escape for most of us; an exist when there is danger. And generally, we are the very ones who complain when the Lord doesn’t come to our rescue the moment we snap our finger! Can you not see the inconsistency here? What kind of creatures are we to expect the Lord to be faithful to us but we exempt ourselves from wholehearted trust and commitment to Him?
And that’s why we need to have this discussion today. Because if we haven’t abandoned all other helps and props to rely on Him Only, then there is an issue of Fear which we need to deal with. That’s why we are confronted With this Negative and Positive Command of Jesus of “Be Not Afraid, Only Believe” in Verse 36.
That seems to suggest to me that often-times Jesus has to deal with Our Negatives before He can do the Positive! Too often, we come to Jesus with our Negatives; we confront Him with Negative Attitudes, Negative Thoughts, Negative Spirits, with Negative Emotions. And so, the first thing He does is Prohibits the Negative - He commands us to cease an action already in progress, “Stop Being Afraid.” Its as if He says to us, ‘You do not have My permission to keep on being afraid. I will not allow you to be afraid in My presence. Stop it! I forbid it. Stop it right now!’ Jesus will not allow us to keep on being Negative in His Presence. He will command us to ‘Sit Our Buts Down!’ And so, I think it Is Important for us to recognize that Jesus will not allow us to Keep On Being Negative In His Presence! He always deals with our Negative Thoughts, Moods, Emotions, Attitudes and Spirits first.
And why is that? Its because He’s A Positive God. All things are Possible and Do-able to Him. There is nothing too hard for Him. No problem is too great; no sickness is too grave; no person is too rough; no demon is too powerful, and no situation is beyond the control of Jesus. He can Manage All Things and manage them well!! You see, we must recognize that Faith is
a Positive. Faith says Yes to God; for he that comes to God must believe that He is and a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Faith says Yes to the Impossible and Improbable. To have Faith is to be Positive. Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservations. Faith is not belief in spite of evidence, but life in scorn of consequences. It was Charles Allen, the Methodist preacher, who said “Faith is like a boomerang; begin using what you have and it comes back to you in greater measure.”
Now what that says about those of us who are always Negative is that we haven’t spent time in the Presence of Jesus! Regardless of what we say, or how loudly we sing or how beautifully we might pray or how long we may boast of being a Christian, the fact of the matter is, if we have a Negative Spirit and Attitude, WE HAVE NOT SPENT TIME IN THE PRESENCE OF JESUS! For the truth of the matter is that Jesus will change your mind, mood and make-up if you spend time in His presence! To those of us who are constantly complaining, arguing, bickering and doubting, I say, GET IN THE PRESENCE OF JESUS!
The question is: WHY ARE YOU SO NEGATIVE? Who or What is the Cause?
Well, we need to understand that “Be not afraid” is a present imperative in the Reflexive Middle Voice, which means that the fear results directly from the Self. It was not the words of the men who had come from his house, but Jairus Himself was the Agent producing the fear. Jesus was saying to Jairus, ‘You stop causing yourself to be afraid. Stop allowing yourself to continue being afraid!’
Now the question I had was: What was Jairus Afraid Of? His fear was Self-Doubt about His Capacity to Cope with the Loss of his only daughter. For the most part, it’s the Loss of Our One and Only that causes us to Doubt our Capacity to Cope. To lose your One and Only Parent, Love, Means of Support, Person who made life worth living will cause you to have doubts about your ability to go on. Its that Loss of that One and Only that makes life difficult to live. It’s the Loss of that One and Only that leaves a void which nothing or no one else can fill. And so, you question if you can really cope with that loss!
And then, also, I believe Jairus was Losing His Courage to Face the Situation that developed at Home, or He Lost His Courage to Face Life in the Present. When you loss your One and Only, you tend to lose your courage to face the present. You don’t have the heart to deal with the hurt, heartbreak, sorrow and pain that’s at home because of the loss. You don’t want to face the fears, and doubts of those left behind. You don’t want to put up with the crying and foolishness of folk. Because it is you who has lost your one and only and you don’t have the strength to comfort others. It is you who needs comfort. When you lose your One and Only, sometimes is hard to Face the present! It’s hard to face the situation at Home!
And so, to avoid coping with the loss of our one and only and facing the present, we allow ourselves to continue being afraid. But the Good News is that Jesus will not allow us to keep being Negative in His Presence. We have come to Him for help; and though other voices tell us it’s no use, nevertheless we abandoned all other helps and props and relied on Him Only when we started out. Therefore, Jesus will deal with our Negatives!
He then reminds us of the Positive. Says Jesus “ONLY BELIEVE.”
He reminds us to Believe what we have asked for - verse 23.
We need to be reminded that we have already Trusted Jesus to answer our Request in the Affirmative - verse 24.
We need to be reminded to Have Confidence that Christ is in a Position to Help us out of our Distress. “Only Believe” is a Present Imperative verb: “Continue Having Confidence.”
We need to be reminded that Faith is Restrictive in its Scope; it is restricted and Limited to the act of Believing Alone. It excludes every other act.Exclude from your Faith all but Trust and Confidence in Christ Jesus. Believe HIM ONLY. TRUST HIM ALONE.
Faith In Him Alone Is Required when Facing the Loss of the Your One and Only. Faith in Him Alone Is Required to Bring You Through.
HAVE EXCLUSIVE FAITH!!!
