Have Faith

In the three years of Jesus’ ministry on earth, He revealed the power of God in Him more than 40 times. That’s a lot of activity, and we can see when we read how His notoriety spread so quickly during that time. He performed these miracles out of compassion, and for the purpose of revealing the power of God to others, and to show who He is, and because of His mercy. Yet, so many still would not believe. Many of those who would not believe were of the established religious community. Many of the crowds wanted to know “what they could do to perform the works of God!” (John 6:28) but when Jesus replied, “This is the work of God – that you believe in the One He has sent.” They went on to ask Him: “What sign then are You going to do so we may see and believe You?” 6:29-30 They had already been witness to some extraordinary things that Jesus did, which were far beyond the capabilities of man, yet they wouldn’t believe, even if He showed them one more. He actually did many more miracles after that, and I’m sure some put their faith in Him, but many more still would not believe. John would end his gospel this way: “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if they were written one by one, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.” John 21:24-25 So here we are today. Many years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, seen by John and others, which is also a great miracle of God, but we still do not believe. How many of you have innocently prayed for the Lord to show you something like a miracle so that you would believe? In the 20th Chapter of John, Jesus would say to Thomas, who was not present when He appeared to the disciple one time, “Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer. Thomas responded to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said, ‘Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed.” John 20:27-29 How can we ever move past the “seeing is believing” part and realize that, “faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 Faith tells us the truth, spoken to our souls by the Holy Spirit Himself, and if we will listen, He will tell us all truth concerning our Lord and our life. Pastor Andy