The Struggle for Faith

The Struggle for Faith in God,
In Our Dance with Life and Death

By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© November 6, 2011
www.pastorkennedy.com
(On the website above, click the link to “recent message notes” to view this message online.)

Scripture passage: John 4:46–5:17

Life Cycles of Faith

• Perceptions of Faith – there is something out there that “looks like God”
o Training as a child
o Relationships with family, church, friends and neighbors
o Personal Reading and Study

Distress – real life hurt, conflict, or uncertainty (work, marriage, disease, etc.)

Journey – time, energy, distraction, effort, pain

Evaluation – what works and what does not work; what is real and what is not real

Decision – belief in Christ for salvation and eternal life, belief in a system of religion, or belief in myself

• Outcome – Eternal Life: heaven or hell

The Tale of Two who Struggled with their Faith

1. The Need for Supernatural Proof

“Before I Believe, God Has to Do Something to Prove Himself”

John 4:46-49
46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, (about 40 miles away) where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum (about 40 miles away). 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
Jesus Responds to one whose faith is only confirmed by Miraculous Signs and Wonders
48 “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

This man was used to people scrambling to fulfill his demands. He had most likely arrived in a royal entourage or on an expensive, impressive “ride” in this personal “journey”. But Jesus knew the thoughts of his heart.
(Compare with the Centurion who trusted Christ’s word in Luke 7:1-10.)

The Faith Journey of others in Scripture

1 Peter 1:1–2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been
1. Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
[God knew where they were – He knows where you are]
2. Through the sanctifying work of the Spirit,
[to be “sanctified” means to be “set apart”, it also implies being purified from sin in our lives – “progressive sanctification”
3. For obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
[a believer seeks to obey Jesus – those who have been cleansed by the sprinkling of Jesus’ blood.]
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Back to John 4 – Believing faith won…
John 4:50-54
50 Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed.
54 This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.

For the suffering believers who were being written to by the Apostle Peter, there was more to be gained than the life of their son, as precious as that might be.

1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

2. Faith’s Powerful Counterfeit: Religion itself

The Powerful Deception of Ceremonial Religions and Religious Leaders who Impose their Legalism and Press us to Unbelief in True Faith in Jesus Christ

Something Powerful and Miraculous Has Happened – But Traditions and Personal Acceptance had become More Important and Destroyed Believing Faith!

John 5:1-18
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

What could have been the “sin” that would be worse than 38 years of crippling disease? Eternal loss. Faith’s Powerful Counterfeit: Religion

This newly healed man preferred acceptance of the Religious and their system over the condemnation in their eyes, of following Christ.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Meeting Serious Needs Does not Automatically Mean an Outcome of Saving Faith

Conclusion
We’ve seen today, from John 4:46–5:17, two possible outcomes which confuse Faith:

1. The Struggle of Faith will win when our faith is centered on Jesus Christ and His finished work, and not on the Need for Supernatural Proof.

2. The Struggle of Faith will lose if one yields to the acceptance of religious ceremonies and traditions with legalistic expectations, over belief in God’s grace through faith in Christ’s finished work. Faith’s Powerful Counterfeit: a system of Religion itself

The Struggle of Faith - lost

• Outcome – Eternal Life

Matthew 7:21–23
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Life Cycles of Faith

• Perceptions of Faith
o Training
o Relationships
o Personal Reading and Study
• Distress
• Journey
• Evaluation
• Decision
• Outcome

Communion
As we remember Christ’s death for our Redemption from the punishment of sin, we can thank God for His great Gift of Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:3–4
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

1 Corinthians 11:23–32
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.