What Kind of Faith

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

WHAT KIND OF FAITH

John 11:17-27

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."  24 Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"  27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

NIV

Did you hear what Martha just said? She actually believes Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the one how has come into the world. She also believes that God will give him anything he asks for, but she has not asked him to raise her brother from the dead, even though Jesus had just told her that Lazarus would rise again. What is it about Martha which makes her believe but not believe? Certainly she has spent many hours in the presence of Jesus. He clearly has a personal relationship with her, as well as her sister and brother and must have told them many things about himself and his relationship with the Father. Yet Martha was having a difficult time with the fact that Jesus had not come to heal her brother, but let him die, and now she thought there was nothing he could do about.  Although we could see this in light of her acknowledging the sovereignty of Jesus, that whatever he wants is fine with her, that she is alright with God deciding that her brother should die at this time, that does not seem to be the tenner of her response. It is more likely about her faith. Could her faith in Jesus only have been based on her human understanding of life? Is it possible she could not see with spiritual eyes, but only with her physical ones? This could be a lesson for us as well. We believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the one sent into the world as we believe God will give him anything he asks for, but still we may be in the same position as Martha, not really believing for things that we cannot see with our human eyes or understanding. When we face a difficult situation in our life, do we look for a human way to solve it, or even for God to solve it in some human way, or do we look to Jesus for a supernatural response? Yes we could spend many thoughts about the words of Jesus here. We could recount all his other words about if we believe we will never die. We could spend countless words exploring the facts around eternal life if we believe in Jesus, that he is the resurrection. Martha believed all that as we do, but the point here is not about Jesus and the resurrection, although it is that too, but it is about her faith. She could only believe as much as she could understand. She could not believe for what she could not understand. We must not be trapped into that kind of faith, that is crippling, that is a wounded faith, a weak faith, but we must have complete unwavering faith in Jesus, beyond any human comprehension. When things in life seem there darkest, we have Jesus. We may not be able to see a way out, but Jesus does, and he said if we ask the Father anything in his name he will give it to us. If Martha had that kind of faith, she would have asked Jesus to bring her brother back from the dead. Perhaps that sort of raising from the dead will not happen today, but maybe it could if we asked with the required faith, that is unwavering, without a shred of doubt kind of faith. Yet there are many other difficult situations in life we content with that perhaps we should not, if we actually believed, if we had the faith that can move mountains. Is there a difference between faith and complete faith? 

Walking In the Light

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

WALKING IN THE LIGHT

John 11:7-16

7 Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."  8 "But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?" 9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. 10 It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."  11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."  12 His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."16 Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

NIV

It sure seems obvious the disciples still really did not believe, at least based on this conversation in which Jesus told them Lazarus was dead and that he was glad he wasn’t there so they could believe. The point Jesus was making that if he had been there when Lazarus was still alive and sick, he would have healed him as he had been doing with all the others who had infirmities or illnesses, but because he did not go, Lazarus died of his illness so that Jesus could raise him from the grave and thus show his disciples the power of God, his power, that he was God in the flesh, the Son of God, not just a prophet, or a gifted man. Who but God can raise a man from the dead? But before we get too deep into the raising of Lazarus, which we have not yet come to in this story, we should spend some time on the words Jesus spoke about those twelve hours of daylight. What did he mean by that? Certainly in those days they had no clocks so the day was divided from sunrise to sunset, and of course the actually length of that time was different depending of the seasons. So because Jesus used that term before and it referred to his life, and seeing how his disciples were concerned about him being killed, he was telling them his life was not over yet, his last hour had not come, it is still daylight, and he must do the will of the Father while it is still day, while he still lives. But then he goes on to tell them about walking in the day and night. That is not the same as walking while living and walking while dead. Here he wanted them to know that while he is the light of the world, if men walk in his light they will not stumble and they will find life, but if they walk in the darkness of their own hearts they will indeed stumble into sin and death. Wake up guys; can you not see the truth? That is what Jesus was saying, “Can’t you see the light?” So here we learn the lesson in which we have to make sure we are actually walking in the light, as well as doing what God would have us to while we still can. Our life has so many hours and we need to be fulfilling the will of God while we still have hours. That means we cannot afford to retire from doing his will, even in our old age. Moses did not actually start to accomplish the will of God until he was eighty, Noah was nearly five hundred years old when God told him to build that Ark and it took him one hundred years to do it. Why do we think because we get to a certain age that we should sit back and let the younger ones do it? They do not have nearly the wisdom and experience we older folks have, yet so many of us old folks just become furniture in the church, until we think we are even too old to come be furniture. Maybe that is why some are that old. Maybe if we kept going, doing the will of God, being the person God called us to be, exercising the gift or gifts God has bestowed and empowered us with, we would not get so old and decrepit and seen as only a fixture in church to be pandered to. It is daylight and we must walk the walk, we must walk in the Spirit, doing what we have to do. There will be a day when we will no longer be able to walk; we will rest this body in the grave, and go on to be with Christ in heaven and our hours here will be over. We must continue walking in the light. 

Bringing Glory

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

BRINGING GLORY

John 11:1-6

11:1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."  5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

NIV

This account of raising Lazarus from the dead nearly takes the whole of this chapter yet we cannot take it all in at once. We should see a few truths along the way such as we can see in this first portion. To begin with we are informed of the sweet relationship Jesus had with Martha, Mary and Lazarus. In other accounts we are let in on more of this relationship, but here we are simply told Jesus loved them. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. The truth here is that Jesus loves them; he loves period, even the Pharisees. Sure he speaks the truth to them wanting them to actually see it, although we know they do not, he still loves them as he died for all mankind, so that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. This is what he was saying about Lazarus here. Even though Lazarus was very sick, his sickness would not end in death. As we know the rest of the story, we know exactly what Jesus meant by not ending in death, but his disciples surely did not at that time. Yet several truths are revealed to us here. First we see the reason for Lazarus to experience what he did was so that God would be glorified and that Jesus would be glorified through the life, death and life of Lazarus. We can only imagine the story Lazarus had to tell after his experience in death. It seems today we have a host of people making all sorts of claims and money writing books about their time being dead, but here is a man who actually was dead and was brought back to life, and we have no record of what he said about it. There is a reason, faith.  Second we see the whole of his death experience was to bring glory to God. Should not our lives bring glory to God as well? What good does bringing Glory to God among a bunch of other people who should be bringing glory to God with their lives? The point of the experience of Lazarus was so people would believe. Should we not be living in manner that brings glory to God out in the open, out loud, in front of the world? Should we not be involved with people who do not believe, so they can see the glory of God in our lives? It really does not do much good to show them religion, that is showing them how religious we are, but we should be showing them the glory of God. What does that look like? What does faith in God look like? How does the influence of God on our hearts reflect in our daily lives? Maybe we should be living like we trust God with every aspect of our lives, out loud. That is actually telling people we do, and living as we do. When we are sick, we praise God, when we have what some would call a hardship, we praise God, and not just in church, but in our lives in front of unbelievers. Although it is true that we too shall be raised from the dead, who certainly will bring glory to God, especially when we all rise from the grave on that day we call the rapture, but for now, we need to live so we bring glory to God and glory to Jesus. 

What Did We Say?

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

WHAT DID WE SAY

John 10:40-42

40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed 41 and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.

NIV

Although it seems there are some people, believers, who travel the country putting on large meetings in which they appear to perform healing miracles, in the name of Jesus of course, we see that John the Baptist never did a single miracle. All John ever did was to speak the truth about Jesus. It seems lots of people will travel to watch these healing miracles, but few are willing to listen to the truth about Jesus. Yet here we see that many did believe in him. Was it because they saw him perform miraculous signs or just because of what John had said? It would seem that because many people came to him, it implies he healed them, although it does not say it directly, and it is because of what Jesus did or said which prompted them to remember what John had said about him, claiming him to be the Lamb of God, in fact John said that Jesus was the Son of God. We should make sure what we say about Jesus is the truth, and that what we say is about Jesus. Some Christians invite people to church to hear their pastor preach, but most pastors preach to believers, telling us how we are supposed to live, what our next step is, that we need to support the programs of the church, but few pastors preach the Good News about Jesus, so of what good is inviting people to church. We need to be more like John the Baptist, being a voice in the wilderness, a voice in the world of the unsaved, telling them the truth about Jesus. Many who conduct those Healing services pass the plate more than they tell the people about the Good News. Maybe some people actually get healed, and it appears those who are in charge make it appear it is about Jesus, but when you hear people tell about those services, you do not hear them telling about Jesus, but about so in so, you really need to go see him, he is so good, people are getting healed. What John said about Jesus is true, all that John said about Jesus is true, everything John said was about Jesus, and it is true. What if all we said was about Jesus, about him being the Son of God, about him healing the blind, the lamb, the lepers, about raising sick people, even those who had died. What if we told people nothing about church, nothing about our pastor, nothing about religion, but just about Jesus, and what he does in our life? What if we kept telling how we were healed by Jesus? What if we kept telling the truth about Jesus? What if all we said about him was true? Would many come to him? What does it look like to come to Jesus? Is it about being religious? Is it about being justified, or sanctified, or holy? Is it about living according to a set of rules? Maybe it is about believing in him. Those people, who believed in him, did not belong to some denomination, nor did they have some statement of faith to agree with, or some set of doctrines to adhere to. They only came to Jesus and believed in him and remembered that all John said about him were true. What will people remember about what we said? Will they remember what we said about Jesus is true? What did we say? 

The Miracle Worker

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE MIRACLE WORKER

John 10:34-39

34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? 35 If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came — and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? 37 Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38 But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."  39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

NIV

Jesus was quoting from one of the Psalms in which the Psalmist, who is believed to be David, wrote that God has said you are all gods, sons of the Most High God. But David went on to write you will all die like mere men. Of course he was referring to those who oppose the weak, the fatherless. But Jesus was making a point to those Pharisees about the Law they so diligently adhered to. If they were so insistent on the Law then they would have seen Jesus for who he was, the Son of God. But they were blinded by their own adherence to what they believed rather than the actually truth of the Law. They certainly believed in God and knew the history of what God did for their ancestors. How he performed many miracles after bringing them out of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea, he gave them manna from heaven, turned bitter water into sweet, led them with a pillar of fire at night and one of smoke by day. The list of miracles could fill a book, well it does actually, several, and Jesus was telling them they may know that he and the Father are one, because he has done a whole host of miracles in their presence. Who else but God, but Jesus could do so many miracles? Who else but God, but Jesus could do just one miracle? Can any man do even one miracle? Perhaps a little magic, a little sleight of hand, maybe a little false miracle empowered by the devil to trick people away from God, but actually out and out miracles only come from the hand of God. They knew what God had done and they know what Jesus has done, but their rage was about being challenged regarding their beliefs in the Law and not understanding the truth of it. We do not have that challenge for we know the truth of the Gospel, we know Jesus and the Father are one, we know that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus. We know it all. We know the truth. But do we get distracted by the Law? Do we get so involved in the list of do’s and don’ts that we forget about the freedom in Christ? Do we get so narrow minded in our denominationalism we become blinded to the truth? We cannot afford to be like those Pharisees in any way shape or form. We have to stay focused on Jesus. He is our salvation, our savior, our Lord, our Good Shepherd, who laid his life down for us, so that we might have life and have it more abundant. What else do we need? How much Law can save us? How much rule following can save us? How much of the right next step can save us? Sure we should live out our faith, sure we should live a life of love, but it is not about an adherence to rules, it is about Jesus. The true life of love is telling people about Jesus. If we love our neighbor as ourselves we would tell them about Jesus. It is not about cleaning their yard; it is about telling them they need Jesus. It is not about anything but telling them about Jesus. Humans, those without Jesus can clean yards, humans do all sorts of humanitarian deeds, but only those of us who know Jesus can tell them about him. Jesus does the miracle, he saves people from perishing, and he gives life. Jesus is the miracle worker. 

The One

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE ONE

John 10:22-33

22 Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." 25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."  31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"  33 "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

NIV

So much here, it could take a complete book to cover everything to the fullest, yet because it is one statement of Jesus we must keep it all together. First we should note that we are his sheep, all people who acknowledge him as their Shepherd listen to his voice and are his sheep; therefore we will not perish but have eternal life. We follow Jesus, we do not follow a religious pattern, or in fact any one religion, or denominational doctrine, but we follow Jesus. We are not in the hand of a church, but in the hand of God, and although churches could, if they wanted to, excommunicate us, like the blind man’s parents were in fear of, but God will never cast us out or throw us away. There is nothing, no power which can overcome that of God. The second thing we should note, as if we already don’t know, is that Jesus has just stated that he and the Father are one. It is interesting that Jesus did not use the term, “My Father” but rather used “The Father”. If Jesus would have said my father then it might have been understood he was speaking about Joseph, his earthly father, but by using “The Father” the Jews did understand he was speaking about the Most High God, the one ever spoken about in scripture, the creator of all things, the judge of all men, the Father of all spirits of all men, are one, one in nature. It is clear they understood him to say that he and the God Most High are the same, they are the One. Jesus told them he was God and they just could not buy it, in fact, it infuriated them to the point of wanting to stone him immediately. How belligerent some people can get when faced with the truth that does not agree with what they believe. Some people are so ingrained in their doctrine, whether it is true of not they cannot see the truth, and in fact, react in a violent manner defending their belief. Are we like that? Do we defend what we believe, or do we actually believe the truth? Do we find scripture to defend or prove what we believe, or do we believe based on the scripture? Do we believe because we agree with a churches statement of faith, or do we believe because the scripture has spoken to our hearts? The Jews were so steeped in their beliefs they could not stand to be faced with the truth. We must live according to the truth, not according to traditional thought as the Pharisees did. We must not refuse the truth about Jesus. He and the Father are One.

Opinions

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

OPINIONS

John 10:19-21

19 At these words the Jews were again divided. 20 Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?" 21 But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

NIV

There is always going to be a division among mankind when it comes to Jesus. This division among the Jews was not because some of them didn’t believe in the same God, for they all believed in God, and all were aware of the history of their people and their relationship with God. It is not a division between Jews and heathens, or like today, Christians and Muslims or Hindus, or Atheists, but it was a division among Jews. Today we have a division among Christians when it comes to Jesus. Sure there isn’t any Christian denomination which considers Jesus demon possessed, but there are groups who call themselves some sort of Christian faith that do not believe Jesus was God, but rather he was created by God, while others do not believe he was divine, and there are still others who believe that we need Jesus plus something else in order to be saved. The divisions regarding Jesus are so diverse it requires a complete book to compile all the different opinions or denominations, whichever way we want to say that. Why do we insist on having our own opinion when the scripture is so clear about Jesus? We are going to see next that they finally asked him right out, to tell them plainly, while he already has, yet just like today some simply cannot understand the truth if it were right in front of them. We have to make sure we are not entrapped with all the trimmings and divisions of mankind. We have to make sure we are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes along the way, even if presented by one who believes he is the most intellect one of all and has the answers to all mystery or by one who appears more spiritual. We have to be careful not to be sucked in by those who appear more spiritual, or who define their belief by what they do not do. There are a lot of religious people, but there are few followers of Christ, true disciples, real believers in Jesus. We have to make sure we are among that small group, that flock who belong to the Good Shepherd. It does not matter what church we attend, but it does matter what flock we belong to. We will never find a perfect church because all of them are comprised of mankind who will always have differing beliefs about scripture, which optimally means about Jesus, but we can find a perfect shepherd to belong to and that is not an opinion.