Faith, the word faith, is
actually these days a word that is liable to cause confusion.
If you asked people what faith
is, you would probably get a lot of different,
and
conflicting answers:
let’s
just take two or three examples
Some might say that faith is something that’s blind…….
its
accepting something because that’s what the Church teaches,
it’s
venturing out on a limb…. on a whim…….
Some say that faith is
blind…….
Some might say that
faith is taking a gamble
Occasionally I get a card
through the door from the Sorting Office in
Some say that faith is like
that - taking a gamble
Some, who have reflected a bit
more,
might
say that faith is a great system of
interconnected beliefs
There are in the Church
documents called
‘Confessions of Faith’
which
offer the main points of Christian belief.
Some say that faith is like that, a great system of interconnected beliefs.
Simply that…..
What is faith then ? Christian faith ?
In Hebrews chapter 11, we have
a list:
what
seems to be, at first glance, a long list of heroes of the faith.
Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, for instance.
What we might think at first, is that we are being invited to consider the courage
of their convictions – Noah, who builds a boat miles from water;
Abraham who in old age leaves
his home with his family to begin a new life elsewhere; Jacob who sets off from
his homeland to a distant country;
Moses,
summoned to call his people out of
What we might think at first,
is that we are being invited to
look
at these men of faith, and consider the way in which they broke free, started a
new life, got out of the rut they were in.
And we might think that the
writer to the Hebrews is showing us what faith is through the examples he gives
us in Chapter 11, of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and so on……
but
if we think that, then we have missed everything………….
For in truth, in chapter 11
the writer to the Hebrews is moving us on, forcing us on to what he has to say
about faith in chapter 12…
The whole movement, purpose
and dynamic of chapter 11
is
towards the glorious opening verses of chapter 12.
At the end of chapter 11, after describing the faith of the men of old, the writer tells us – ‘but God had planned something better for us……..’
In the opening verses of
chapter 12 the writer to the Hebrews declares what that something better is, what Christian faith is:
Let us, he says, let us:
Fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith………
And with this we have arrived
at what Christian faith is,
it is
this:
to Fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith………
Let us consider these words ‘keep your eyes fixed on Jesus – the author and finisher of our faith’. We read in chapter 11 of the faith of the men of old, but now our eyes are fixed on Jesus, the author, the creator, of all the blessings we have. Through His self-sacrificing love for us at the Cross, He is the One who offered Himself so that we might come to the Father, forgiven. And He is the One who continues through His Spirit to shape and create faith in us. And through His Spirit, He is the finisher, that is, the One who will bring our faith to completion, as His Spirit works in us.
This is the great, high, wonderful reality of what Christian faith is…..
Faith is: our life in Jesus, trust in Him, fellowship with Him.
Let’s think for a moment about
this.
Luke 5 is a wonderful picture
of faith in Jesus:
After teaching the people gathered at the lakeside, Jesus stayed in Simon Peter’s boat, and asked Simon Peter to move the boat out into the deeper water. Here, the Lord tells this fisherman, Simon Peter, to put his nets out once again for a catch. Simon tells the Lord how fruitless the last hours have been. In fact they have been fishing all night and caught nothing – typical, we might imagine of many fishing trips he and his friends had been on - ordinary life for Simon Peter and his friends.
Nevertheless, Simon Peter,
according to the word of Jesus lowers the nets, and the catch is so great, the
boat nearly keels over………….
Now, here we have enshrined in
the gospels an incomparable picture of what
we
are considering: faith in Jesus, life in Jesus.
In fellowship with Jesus, in
the presence of Jesus
at
the command of Jesus
Simon Peter sets aside that
fruitless, empty side of the boat – the empty nets he’s used to.
And in fellowship with Jesus,
in the presence of Jesus
at
the command of Jesus
places
those empty nets
where
there is fruitfulness, fullness and blessing
Here in fellowship with the
Lord, how rich Peter’s life has become, how quickly has Simon Peter found blessing, fruitfulness
harvest.
Simon sees to the heart of the
matter – Depart from me, Lord, he says, for I am a sinful man. In the light of
Jesus Christ’s life and presence and fellowship, Peter sees his own emptiness,
unfruitfulness, sinfulness.
This is the great, high,
wonderful reality of what Christian faith is….. faith
is: our life in Jesus, trust in Him, fellowship with Him.
Luke 5 is a wonderful picture
of this life we have in Jesus:
So what is faith ? First it is life in Jesus Christ. And as Hebrews 12 demonstrates, faith is not blind: for we have our eyes open, and fixed on Jesus. Faith is not a whole set of things to believe, but life with and in Jesus Christ, fellowship with Him.
The life I live, says Paul in Galatians, I live in the faith of the Son of God. The life I live… in Jesus, the
Son of God.
To trust in Jesus is to have
life, everlasting life.
This is not from yourselves, says Paul, it is the gift of God.
So now, faith, perhaps you will be thinking, is just for the few !
Not so – it is a gift, given to us by our loving Father in heaven.
Jesus once said to an ordinary woman, who was herself no saint, at a well on a hot day: If you knew the gift of God, you would have asked and He would have given you living water.
Well, listening to Luke 5 and
Hebrews 12 surely you know the gift of
God offered to you !
In fellowship with Jesus, in
the presence of Jesus
there is fruitfulness, fullness and blessing.
In fellowship with the Lord,
how rich Peter’s life became, how Simon Peter found blessing, fruitfulness
harvest.
That is the gift of God
and
if we ask, and He will be faithful to His promise, and give us the very living
waters of life in Jesus Christ………
And does it end there ? When we come into fellowship with Jesus Christ, is that where it ends – that we then have to continue with some help to stretch, extend, build up our faith ? No
As 1 Timothy says – we are God’s workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus, and He who began a good
work in us will bring it to completion. This is why Hebrews calls Jesus
Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.
So where could I point you
this morning but to Jesus Christ ? and
to all that He has for you.
Why must we fix our eyes on Jesus ? Because He is in Himself the
reality of faith and life. And when we look to Him, we see a full
salvation that we do not have to imitate, build, shape ourselves, but only
receive from Him through the gift of the Spirit.
So we must not think that
faith is for others; it is the Father’s gift to you !
Like Peter, let us fix, our eyes on Jesus. Let us ask the Father to deepen our fellowship with
His Son; to deepen that gift of trust and faith and life in Jesus Christ, that
we may hear ever more clearly the Word of Jesus to our everlasting
fruitfulness.
AMEN.