Believe (Faith) - Part 2

John 4:39-42

From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all the things that I have done." So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world." 

This is about the Samaritan woman who meets with Jesus at the well and He reveals things to her that no man would know except for God because He can see into a persons heart. Because of this, she perceives Jesus to be a prophet if not the Christ Himself. She goes into Samaria and shares with the Samaritans there that this man just told her things that no others person would know. Could this be the Christ that we have been waiting for? Because of this, the Samaritans come to Jesus and talk with Him. They stayed two days with Him and believed in His word (logos = Jesus' image).

Their response to the woman after they had spent some personal time with Jesus is, We now believe, not because of what you said but because of Jesus' word.

To believe in Jesus means to spend time with Him. Reading in His word and getting familiar with what He looks like. That is what Joe and I are talking over is the beginning image of Jesus. Spend time praying in the Name of Jesus and putting His word to practice.

Can we believe in Jesus if we don't get to know Him? Or do we just say we believe in Him because a woman at the well told us about Him? No, we have to BELIEVE in Him because we spent time with Him.

It will be better to say " I Believe in You Jesus because of Your word that I read and live by doing it and by talking with You and listening to Your Voice", then to say, "I believe in You Jesus because someone told me about you once."

Faith Study Part 1

I'm going to start by saying Faith is such a huge topic I am not going to put everything in one post as it would be too long and most people might not want to read a novel length posting. So this will be part one in the study of Faith.

Faith is a huge topic in the Christian community today and it very well should be. The word Faith comes from the Greek word peitho, it is used upwards of and if not more than 300 times in the New Testament alone; needless to say faith is very important.

Now that we have established its importance, what does it mean?

I used to believe that faith was just knowing in your heart that whatever you had faith in was true and certain. Websters gives a similar definition: "a firm belief in something in which there is no proof". This I believe is what a lot of people may view as faith, a firm belief. While that is not wrong the Bible shows that there is so much more involved in faith than just knowing in your heart of hearts that something is true.

Throughout the Bible faith (peitho) is translated into various English words: persuaded, believed, obey, agree, trusted, having made a friend, assured, have confidence, committed, and faith. The Anglo Saxon word for faith is actually translated "by life" So faith is more than just knowing, it is living what you know. There is a funny fictional story that gives a great example of what true faith is:

There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats.  All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow.

An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, "Tightrope, I don't believe you can do it, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls."

Now, Tightrope wrote back, "Sir, I'd love to come."

Tightrope was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. He comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls -- blindfolded!! And he makes it across easily.

The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, "Well, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?"

"Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it."

"No," said Tightrope, "do you really believe I can do it?"

"Well of course I do, you just did it."

"No, no, no," said Tightrope, "do you believe I can do it?"

"Yes," said Mr. Promoter, "I believe you can do it."

"Good," said Tightrope, "then you get in the wheel barrow."

Now I know this is just fictional but it shows true faith is doing more than just saying "I believe", it's about you being living proof of the faith you have within yourself.

Hebrews 11 is what some might call the "Faith Chapter" and rightly so, it has at least 26 uses of faith within that single chapter. I want to encourage you to read the entire chapter yourself because there are a lot of neat things listed in here and if you have time go back and read some of the stories about these faithful servants that are throughout the Old Testament.

Hebrews 11 starts of by explaining what faith is: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen." in verse 6 it says that "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him"

Faith: the assurance (confidence, steadfastness of mind) of things hoped for, and the conviction (proof) of things not yet seen.

• The hope is actually speaking about salvation; the return of Christ, that is what our hope should be in. [We can cover that at another time].
•  And we need to have a conviction of things we can not yet see.
• We were not here on the earth to witness Jesus Christ personally but in Acts 17:31 it says that God has furnished proof to all men by raising Jesus from the dead.
• Where does this proof come from?
• In short it is from the Holy Spirit. If Jesus didn't go to the Father (wasn't resurrected) then the Holy Spirit would not be here for mankind to be able to obtain (John 14 talks about this). So although Jesus isn't here in His flesh walking on the earth we are still able to have that conviction or proof in Him through the Holy Spirit.

Faith is a must have; without it we are not even able to please God. We have to believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Next time we will go into some examples of faith to see what true faith looks like and go into some of the stories that are listed in Hebrews 11. If you want to look into some of those ahead of time and share what the Lord shows you we would love to hear it.