"What Does It Mean to Believe?"

Sermon Transcript for September 10, 2000

By Rev. Mike Beck

Scripture Reading: John 20:24-31

 

One of the newest ministries within the United Methodist Church we begin at Grace this fall. A much needed ministry. A ministry called the "Christian Believer". If you would like to know God more with both heart and mind, know what the church has taught down through the centuries on our basic doctrines, come and join us in this study. I’m praying for persons of all ages to come and be a part of this. It will last for thirty weeks. Yes, there is a time commitment. But we always gain in direct proportion to what we give. If you would like to know more about this ministry, come out tonight at 6:00 p.m. for a brief information meeting in the Wesley Room. One of the things that the Holy Spirit laid upon my heart this week as I prepared has only been greater affirmation that it was of God. I will be preaching these thirty themes as the Christian Believer groups are meeting. So all of you will be exposed to some degree and those for those who are part of the groups, they will hopefully receive extra help and blessing as these topics are shared in our worship services.

Today, the simple question, "What does it mean to believe?" When I went to my concordance and looked up the word "believe", there are pages of scriptures in relation to this word. Let me just list a few. In Genesis 15:6 where it is recorded that "...Abraham ‘believed’ God, and it was credited to Him for righteousness." The psalmist in the 199^th Psalm said, "Lord, teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I ‘believe’ in Your commands. Paul said in Romans 1:16, "...I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of all who ‘believe’." Most of us in Sunday School learned these words, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever ‘believeth’ in His name should not perish, but have everlasting life." And in the passage we read this morning from John, Chapter 20 were these words, "These things", speaking of scripture, "were written that you may ‘believe’ that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by ‘believing’ you may have life in His name."

So it seems to me to be vitally important that we understand what it means to "believe". Let me briefly touch on eight principles from God’s Word that I think will help us in answering that question:

1. Believing is fundamental to the human condition. We all believe something. Even the person, for example, who says, "I don’t believe in God", has said what they believe. If you don’t believe in God then you believe that all that happens in the creation of the world came about by accident. And I’ve always thought it took more faith not to believe there was a God than to believe there was. Believing is fundamental to the human condition.

2. Listen carefully. Our beliefs determine our values. Our values determine our actions. And our actions determine our destiny. Trace that. Our beliefs determine our values. What we value determines our actions. And our actions determine our destiny. In other words, our belief has consequences far more significant than we might at first realize.

3. Truth is not relative. Thus not all beliefs are valid. Now that’s not a popular position in our day of "relativism". But I don’t know how you hold seriously to this Book and believe that all religions represent an equal pathway to God. Many take the attitude, "Well, it doesn’t make any difference what you believe as long as you are sincere." You’ve heard people say that. But, friends, the last I checked we can be sincerely wrong with some tragic outcomes. Jesus said, "I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." Now, having said that, let us realize that we hold to truth with full awareness of our limited knowledge, our human frailty, and, hopefully, with deep humility. One of the things that saddens me most is to see Christian people clobbering other Christian people over the head with the bat of their perspective of truth. That does nothing to advance the kingdom of God. But on this third point, if indeed some beliefs are true, then it must logically follow that some other beliefs are false. Now, point four is the counterbalance to that. You need to hear it carefully.

4. In relating to God, the condition of our heart is always more critical than the correctness of our beliefs. Let me repeat that because that truth is also taught from beginning to end in this Book. In relating to God, the condition of our heart is always more critical than the correctness of our beliefs. I am confident that some of my beliefs in God are not fully correct. And I hope that doesn’t shock you. When I get to heaven I’m sure the angels are going to have to give me some modifications to some of those deeply held beliefs that I cherish. But friends, the last I checked, I and you, we are the preacher, not the creator. None of us in this life are going to have full knowledge of the truth. You’ve heard me say before that I believe the litmus test of doctrine in terms of our entrance exam for admission to Heaven is going to be very, very short! In fact if I had to summarize what that is, I’d summarize it this way. I’d draw the sign of the fish. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior...and in repentance and faith believing that Jesus died for my sins and rose again from the grave.

That’s all the further I think any kind of litmus test goes. Issues like the virgin birth and the end times, judgment, personal ethics, those kinds of things are always going to lead to differing views among very genuine Christian believers. That’s okay. You need to hear this carefully. The Bible teaches that we can hold to perfectly accurate intellectual beliefs about theology, but if we don’t have love for our brother and sister who we have seen, we flunk!

When Jesus was asked, "What’s the true test of those who are in relation to me?" He always had the same answer. "It’s how they loved one another. It’s whether they exercised the fruit of the Spirit in their lives." And last I checked, fruit of the Spirit didn’t have anything to say about doctrine. He talked about love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. That’s how you’ll know them. The condition of the heart is always more important than the correctness of our beliefs.

5. Christian belief is defined in our creeds and doctrines and centered in the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is not our best ideas about God that we think up as we go along. In the little book of Jude, verse 3, are these words: "Contend for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to the saints". Our creeds and doctrines have been forged out of Scripture and rigorous debate. The Nicene Creed, I’m confident, those words came down after a lot of argument among believers in Christ as to what words would best describe how Christ and the Holy Spirit were related to God. And we often forget how many thousands of Christians, literally thousands of Christians down through the ages, have died to preserve our beliefs. When it comes to doctrine, we are not to be constantly re-inventing the wheel. For we are inheritors and beneficiaries of a body of teaching that has come down through the centuries. That’s what the "Christian Believer" is about. To help us understand what the church has taught on these issues over time. Participants in the "Christian Believer" are going to have the benefit of this powerful book containing collections of short writings through the centuries on these various topics.

6. Christian belief has a rational foundation. However, knowledge alone is never the basis of saving faith. Christian faith, my friends, is not a blind leap in the dark. One does not have to throw away their mind in order to be a Christian. Understanding and intellectual study are an aid to devotion. Faith has nothing to fear from honest intellectual inquiry. But having said that, we’re on a dead-end street if we think that through knowledge alone we can discover or "prove" God.

For that idea that knowledge alone can lead us to God leaves out a dimension taught from beginning to end in God’s Word of the indispensable element of one thing to be in relation to God. And that one thing is faith. That’s what God always required of His people. Every believer ought to have Hebrews 11, Verse 6 memorized. "Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For anyone who comes to God must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him."

Saint Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 11^th Century, summarized this thought well when he wrote, listen carefully: "I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but rather I believe that I may understand." Let me repeat that because I want you to catch what he is saying. He says, "I don’t seek to understand in order that I might believe, but rather I believe in order that I may understand."

7. Genuine belief and honest doubt are not contradictory terms. Don’t you dare ever let anyone tell you that if you’re a good Christian you don’t have any doubts. That’s hogwash. Genuine belief and honest doubt are not contradictory terms. From beginning to end, the Bible is full of stories of persons of great faith who went through times of great doubt. Let me list a few of them for you. Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, John the Baptist. Do you remember, John the Baptist heard the words from heaven. "This is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased." But if you read the little account after John’s been thrown into prison, he sends some of his disciples to Jesus’ disciples to say, "Is He really who He said He was?" I’ve got a sermon on that someday called, "The Power of Positive Doubting". Peter doubted, Thomas doubted in our scripture today.

But the key word in the phrase I gave you is "honest" doubt. Honest doubt that will hold to faith in the midst of the confusion of the struggle. People who gather for the "Christian Believer" this week are going to read this account in Mark 9. And it’s an account that I would say, "Been there, done that many times." It’s about the man who brought his son to Jesus to be healed and Jesus asked him about his faith. And the man’s reply was this, "Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief." If we’re honest, most of us are there a lot of the time. Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief. Genuine belief and honest doubt are not contradictory terms.

8. The witness of our belief is always going to be found in two related words, obedience and trust. Let me use the illustration of Moses. Do you remember when he encountered God at the burning bush, you have a running dialogue of his argument with God. "God, you’ve got the wrong guy. Can’t talk well. No way am I the person that’s suppose to deliver the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt." But the proof, friends, of Moses’ belief, was the fact that he obeyed God despite his doubts, inadequacies, and fears. He may have argued with God. He may have told God that God didn’t know what He was doing. But do you want to know how you can be sure that he believed God? He went anyway. He didn’t have all the answers, but he was willing to trust God.

Many of you have heard me use this illustration before, but it’s the best one I know. It’s a true story years ago of a man who daily walked a tight rope across Niagra Falls pushing a wheelbarrow. He would do that every day to large crowds. A newspaper reporter came up to interview him before his afternoon walk across the falls. The man said to the reporter, "Do you believe I can push this wheel barrow across the falls?" To which the reporter replied, "Sure, I do. I’ve watched you do it every day." He said, "Are you sure I can do it?" "Absolutely". To which the man simply said, "Okay, get in the wheel barrow."

You see, belief is not the articulation of the right words, but the exhibition of the right actions. Belief is not the articulation of the right words. That’s easy. The last I checked, words were cheap. It’s not the articulation of the right words, but the exhibition of the right actions. There is no more profound illustration of this final point than of the young girl at Columbine High School who, with a loaded gun pointing in her face, was asked the question, "Do you believe in God?" Her answer was "Yes". And then with the squeeze of a trigger, the blinding light of her last glimpse of life on earth was replaced with the glorious light of eternity because in Christ she "believed".

Let’s pray. Lord, this is pretty important stuff. That we think deeply and seriously about what it means to believe. For your Word tells us that in believing there is life abundant now and life for eternity. Help us with our doubts. Give us humility as we seek truth. And help us most of all to bear witness to our belief through our actions and trust in you. It’s in Jesus’ blessed name that we pray these things. Amen.