What Does Genuine Faith Look Like? Part 2
In my last blog I shared the first two principles from Mark 5 on what genuine faith looks like. For many, faith can be a lot of things, such as positive thinking or the execution of a well laid out plan.
For some, faith is just having faith in faith. But as we discovered earlier from the story of Jairus, genuine faith doesn't stand on something in itself or rest on itself. Faith requires an object on which to focus. In the case of this Jewish scholar, he had abandoned his faith in his religious background and come exclusively to Jesus. Faith always must have an object in which it exercises belief and exhibits absolute confidence.
Secondly, we saw that genuine faith is recognized by its humility because God "resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." Jairus comes to Jesus with nothing to offer. He doesn't come to Jesus as a Bible scholar or with a sense of self-importance. He certainly could have, because he was socially prominant and influential, but he didn't. He came as a broken and needy man.
That leads us to the third principle and this involves one of the key elements of the story. You remember that once Jesus and the huge crowd is enroute to Jairus' house, they are interrupted. A woman with a severe medical issue sought Jesus' healing and brought the procession to a grinding halt. With an extraordinary display of faith in Christ, she simply thought that if she could just touch the hem of his robe, she could be healed! And she was, right in front of Jairus! The event ended with her brief testimony, Jesus' commendation of her great faith, and unfortunately some devastating news from the homefront of Jairus. A servant arrives in the midst of Jesus's healing and announces to Jairus that his daughter has actually died, and suggests that Jairus not bother the Messiah any further. The news comes with the potential to destroy Jairus's hope, but, in light of this woman's remarkable faith in Jesus, Jairus leads us to the third principle of genuine faith found in the text.
Genuine Faith is often Enabled by the Example of Others vs 34-35
You can imagine how Jairus must have felt when this woman had stopped Jesus while on his way to heal his daughter! But even worse was how he must have felt when he got the tragic news of her death! But here's the point. Because of this woman's bold and powerful faith in Jesus, he is able to respond to what Jesus says next. The text says, "but overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not fear only believe."
This word only is the word monos in the original text. Babyboomers remember the mono record players on which we would play our Beatle records years ago. They only had one speaker for both instrumentation and voice! It was before the days of stereo which separated the tracks. Jesus is simply saying, "Jairus, you have only one option here, believe in Me and not the messenger of death!" Without this woman's powerful example of faith which she had just demonstrated, Jairus' faith would have likely stopped right here.
Finally there is one other principle which is essential, and it also begins here with Jesus' command to Jairus to believe.
Genuine Faith is Exercised in Obedience to the Word of God Vs 36-43
Starting here with Jesus command to Jairus to just believe Him, the Savior spoke four times in the remaining portion of this story and in each instance His word elicits faith or doubt by hearers.
The second instance is in verse 39. Jesus declares to the weeping croweds, "The child is not dead but sleeping." Once again, the question arises out of this compelling event, "Will you believe your eyes or will you believe Jesus Christ?" And then, as if to prove that the daughter was only sleeping, He takes her hand and commands, "Little girl, I say to you arise." (vs 41) Make no mistake, the girl was actually dead, but remember Jesus later declared, "I am the resurrection and the life."
Then Jesus charges the mom, dad, James, Peter, and John that they should tell noone what they just saw. Why? Maybe because of the crowd's unbelief and perhaps because He understood better than any that simply seeing the signs He performed were not able to produce objective faith in Himself.
Finally, Jesus' last word was very parent-like. He told her mother and dad to give her something to eat! This does sound a little strange, even for Jesus, but after all being dead can really zap the energy out of you! In every case Jesus' word is presented authoritatively and with the expectation of obedience on the part of His listeners.
This story screams for us to examine our own faith, to look at the examples of others who are walking in genuine faith, and, even more importantly, to make sure our faith is placed in the only one worthy of that faith - the Savior, Jesus Christ.
For some, faith is just having faith in faith. But as we discovered earlier from the story of Jairus, genuine faith doesn't stand on something in itself or rest on itself. Faith requires an object on which to focus. In the case of this Jewish scholar, he had abandoned his faith in his religious background and come exclusively to Jesus. Faith always must have an object in which it exercises belief and exhibits absolute confidence.
Secondly, we saw that genuine faith is recognized by its humility because God "resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." Jairus comes to Jesus with nothing to offer. He doesn't come to Jesus as a Bible scholar or with a sense of self-importance. He certainly could have, because he was socially prominant and influential, but he didn't. He came as a broken and needy man.
That leads us to the third principle and this involves one of the key elements of the story. You remember that once Jesus and the huge crowd is enroute to Jairus' house, they are interrupted. A woman with a severe medical issue sought Jesus' healing and brought the procession to a grinding halt. With an extraordinary display of faith in Christ, she simply thought that if she could just touch the hem of his robe, she could be healed! And she was, right in front of Jairus! The event ended with her brief testimony, Jesus' commendation of her great faith, and unfortunately some devastating news from the homefront of Jairus. A servant arrives in the midst of Jesus's healing and announces to Jairus that his daughter has actually died, and suggests that Jairus not bother the Messiah any further. The news comes with the potential to destroy Jairus's hope, but, in light of this woman's remarkable faith in Jesus, Jairus leads us to the third principle of genuine faith found in the text.
Genuine Faith is often Enabled by the Example of Others vs 34-35
You can imagine how Jairus must have felt when this woman had stopped Jesus while on his way to heal his daughter! But even worse was how he must have felt when he got the tragic news of her death! But here's the point. Because of this woman's bold and powerful faith in Jesus, he is able to respond to what Jesus says next. The text says, "but overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not fear only believe."
This word only is the word monos in the original text. Babyboomers remember the mono record players on which we would play our Beatle records years ago. They only had one speaker for both instrumentation and voice! It was before the days of stereo which separated the tracks. Jesus is simply saying, "Jairus, you have only one option here, believe in Me and not the messenger of death!" Without this woman's powerful example of faith which she had just demonstrated, Jairus' faith would have likely stopped right here.
Finally there is one other principle which is essential, and it also begins here with Jesus' command to Jairus to believe.
Genuine Faith is Exercised in Obedience to the Word of God Vs 36-43
Starting here with Jesus command to Jairus to just believe Him, the Savior spoke four times in the remaining portion of this story and in each instance His word elicits faith or doubt by hearers.
The second instance is in verse 39. Jesus declares to the weeping croweds, "The child is not dead but sleeping." Once again, the question arises out of this compelling event, "Will you believe your eyes or will you believe Jesus Christ?" And then, as if to prove that the daughter was only sleeping, He takes her hand and commands, "Little girl, I say to you arise." (vs 41) Make no mistake, the girl was actually dead, but remember Jesus later declared, "I am the resurrection and the life."
Then Jesus charges the mom, dad, James, Peter, and John that they should tell noone what they just saw. Why? Maybe because of the crowd's unbelief and perhaps because He understood better than any that simply seeing the signs He performed were not able to produce objective faith in Himself.
Finally, Jesus' last word was very parent-like. He told her mother and dad to give her something to eat! This does sound a little strange, even for Jesus, but after all being dead can really zap the energy out of you! In every case Jesus' word is presented authoritatively and with the expectation of obedience on the part of His listeners.
This story screams for us to examine our own faith, to look at the examples of others who are walking in genuine faith, and, even more importantly, to make sure our faith is placed in the only one worthy of that faith - the Savior, Jesus Christ.
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