Seeing Is Not Believing
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Do You See What I See?
Do You See What I See?
My daughter, Arielle and her Kellen, were delighted last weekend when they took our grandson, and their nephew, Easton, for the weekend. They fished and played and camped out. It was a great weekend for all.
But the highlight for my daughter was when they were cooking out and Easton was playing catch with their dog, Annie. Easton would throw the ball, and Annie would bring the ball back, of course.
And, of course, like all little boys, he began to throw the ball farther and farther. Eventually, Annie would run so far and then not go any further to pick up the ball. Easton was upset as to why this was so, and Arielle explained to him that he was throwing it beyond the “Invisible Fence”.
Of course, you know that an invisible fence is a radio signal that is transmitted a set distance from a central location and that will elicit a shock to a dog if they go too close to that signal. But Easton didn’t know that.
When Arielle told him that he had gone beyond the invisible fence, Easton ran to the exact position where Annie had run to and began to feel the air in front of him searching for an invisible fence…! He said, “You should have told me you have an invisible fence!”
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
2 For by it the people of old received their commendation.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Faith- the substance of things hoped for , the evidence of things not seen. Listen to the Message:
1 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.
Faith is the handle on what we can’t see!
But in the middle of this passage, we find this: Hebrews 11.6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
What Is Impossible?
What Is Impossible?
Matthew 17.14-21 .
In Matthew 17 a man brought his son to the disciples of Jesus because he was having seizures and suffering terribly. They could do nothing to help h im. So, the man brought his son to Jesus. And Jesus healed his son… but He gave this message to His disciples question of why they couldn’t do it: Matthew 17.20-21
20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
In all 4 gospels the rich young ruler comes to Jesus and asks about how to be saved, when told to sell all he has and follow Jesus, he doesn’t do it. And Jesus uses that moment to instruct his disciples on impossibilities.
Matthew 19.23-29 .
He say, it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to go to heaven. And the disciples declare the impossibility: Who then can be saved? Jesus replies Matthew 19.26
26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
And so, in this great passage on the faithful , Hebrews 11, the writer of Hebrews gives us this message:
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
The sense of this word, in this place, is something that is not capable of occurring.
It is telling that the great chapter on faith, which holds this verse, occurs directly after the writer of Hebrews has written this:
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing repeatedly and expect different results… but the priest kept trying every day! And before he got back out of his priestly robe he had sinned again!!!
Much like the Old Testament priest who served in the temple, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices that cannot take away our sin- we try and try a variety of ways to win God’s favor. We work for a food pantry. we do good things. We are nice. We go to church. We don’t this or we do this..... alll in that vain effort to push the scales in our own direction. But to no avail.
It is impossible to be good enough. Impossible.
That’s why God sent Jesus to earth: To deal with the MOST impossible aspect of our existence: How to find the Kingdom of God, to find heaven.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
What’s Impossible? To See What Clearly Isn’t There
What’s Impossible? To See What Clearly Isn’t There
God’s answer to all things impossible is Jesus, His Son..
And Jesus , when we place our faith in Him, opens our eyes to see what we can’t see: The impossible!
Think about all of the characters who are mentioned in this great chapter on faith:
Noah- without a raindrop builds an ark because God opened his eyes to that vision.
Abraham, sets out to a place called the Promised Land, Canaan, where he had never been but God gave him the vision for.
Abraham and Sarah, laughing at the possibility of a child. Impossible.
Enoch…didn’t die. Impossible.
Moses…. Lead the people across the Red Sea. Impossible.
Gideon, Barack, Sampson, jephthat, David, Samuel. The prophets. All impossible.
But they all had faith. And Hebrews says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.”
In a sense, there’s not much that seems impossible if one has faith. Because the Red sea did part, the Promised Land was reached, The ark did float, and Isaac was born. All because of faith.
But there is one matter, that for most of us, can seem to be the impossible- death.
Perhaps that is why the Bible says that the last great enemy to be destroyed is death. Even Lazarus, when Jesus raised Him from the grace- died again. He came back to life to all the same old problems- and then died again. A bit difficult to explain.
Except for Easter. And Easter is what the basis of the Christian faith is really all about, isn’t it? Jesus conquered death.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for… the proof of things not seen. We all want to believe in a heaven, a life after death. And for Jesus, that was pretty simple. He’d been there before.
Look at John 16.16
16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”
John 16.16-23...
John 16.16 has been often said that Jesus was referring to the time between his death and resurrection. I want to challenge that. Think on another level, for a moment. If he was referring to just that period of time, it would be incredible. But I think it goes further.
I think Jesus was talking about the time he ascended to heaven to the time when he would return to earth. All of John 14 carries the theme that Jesus’ time on earth was ending and the coming of the Holy Spirit was here. Not the time of the interim between death and resurrection.
So, Jesus is saying that all of the disciples from the giving of the Holy Spirit to the time of His return will not see him but will one day see him again. Do you see this?
And in the meanwhile, they will live knowing that what they’ve never seen will be a reality in their lives.
Bush’s Bottom Line.
Only Those Who Can See The Invisible Can Do The Impossible
Only Those Who Can See The Invisible Can Do The Impossible
This morning , a friend of mine posted pictures of his retirement. I can’t see it.
God’s been preparing me my entire ministry for Westbrook Park.
But Jesus had never died. And when He did, God raised Him up. And because he lives, we can live also. We believe, essentailly in something we have never seen. But because of Jesus , we believe it is so.