Believing God Is Who He Is - Without Requiring An ID (Part I)
John 8:21-24 "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."
- Jesus was leaving and everything He did or said bothered the Jews. They had one major problem: Jesus would come and go and they would refuse to believe. All they were interested in doing was criticizing and disproving Him.
- They would not allow themselves to believe in Jesus no matter what He did that seemed to be Divine. Because of their unbelief.
Luke 19:44 "And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."
They obviously did not truly expect Him from the beginning
- For their refusal, they were assured to die in their sins.
- We must come to the state that before we believe in miracles, we embrace Him and what He says about Himself. It is the basis for all appropriating all that He says and for us to be on the receiving end of all the “ridiculous’ things He does.
- If we cannot believe He came from above or was born of a virgin our ability to really believe anything about Him is hindered. I am convinced that we only accept or assent to that fact. Otherwise, if we truly believed in the virgin birth, believing for our personal issues would be a cinch.
- What is it that is not God enough or good enough for total commitment to Him? To holiness, overcoming and provision?
John 6:63-71 "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve."
- The basis for everything God has is based in your really believing Him and that He is who He says He is. We are not even talking about promises yet.
- When we believe He is, then we will hang onto His every word. “Man can live by every word that comes out of His mouth. Spirit and life comes out of His mouth and we would then avail ourselves for it.?
- To really believe in Jesus, we have to believe in everything that was spoken from the beginning by the prophets.
- The people that betrayed Him are the ones that doubted Him and His proclaimed identity. There is no way they would have wanted to betray Him had they truly believed He contained spirit and life.
- The ones who left Jesus did so because they did not appreciate the lofty things He spoke about Himself. The statements were too strong for a mere prophet. True, but He was God. They were ready to accept Him as one sent by God, but not from heaven nor as God. As long as the Word does not exceed the confines of people’s pre-conception or rationale of it, they believe it easily. But now that Jesus told them something that sounded above what they had decided, they believed Him to be insane and cultic. (He said His words were spirit and life and that He was the bread.) Had He left Himself in the category of Abraham, Moses and Elijah, He would have been accepted. AND THESE MEN WERE HIS DISCIPLES!
- This is a true fact: Any time we leave God, it is because we do not believe Him nor in Him. He must be real to us!
- Peter knew there was no other God for Him. Because he believed in the person of Jesus, He believed what Jesus said—even though what Jesus said was hard. Peter did not believe that Jesus was some fabricated, egotistical character.
- Peter believed that not only was Jesus the Christ (anointed one), the Son of God who liveth,. Therefore he believed in the name of Jesus for salvation and baptism. To Peter, He was more than a prophet. He was all that He said.
- And while Peter may have failed Him later, Peter simply had difficulty personalizing the power of Christ to deliver him in the event the soldiers came for him [Peter] after they killed Jesus. One must admit that Jesus looked rather powerless in handcuffs and on the cross.
- You see, once you believe in a person, you believe in everything until they prove themselves unbelievable OR you begin to question things on the basis of your own insecurities or ambitions (Judas).
Acts 7:47-50 "But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?"
- We must ascribe to the immenseness of God and know that He is uncontained. Still He is intimate enough to be in us and to fill us at the same time. It is that image of Him that sustains our faith. Once we grasp that He is larger than the life and our issues, we can believe what He says. We can obey Him without fear.
- The house was built for the artifacts, as a memorial to God and a place where He would meet those who ventured there. Still, men had to know that He did not resign to that space. In fact, He would not rest where He was not believed. God is too big and great for a building made with hands, and too great for something that is not eternal. He just allowed a house to be built in His honor and He relates to it..
- Our ability to access Him and have Him reign over our most prominent issues is contingent upon our seeing this immense God and personalizing Him in all that greatness to be ours—for us and in us.