God Grows Faith
Through two encounters in Mark 8, a blind man's gradual healing and Peter's incomplete confession, the teaching illustrates how God deliberately grows faith through progressive steps rather than all at once. The blind man moves from indifference to sight as Jesus leads him with care, while Peter must have his limited political view of the Messiah corrected by Jesus' plain teaching about suffering, death, and resurrection. Listeners are challenged to release their grip on self-directed lives and trust that God is at work in their circumstances, bringing them from unbelief to full belief in Christ.
“God doesn't always do things the same way — my experience or your experience isn't normative.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Life Management
Recorded: 2001 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 37 min
Themes: faith, trust, doubt, spiritual growth, obedience, suffering, surrender, hope, struggling with doubt, new believer, feeling stuck spiritually, young adult, student, questioning faith, surrendering control, seeking deeper belief
Scripture: Mark 8:22-38, Mark 5, Mark 10, Matthew 4, James 1:1-4
Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, progressive revelation, christology, discipleship, spiritual maturity, messianic identity, saving faith
Full Transcript
Introduction
My name is Tim Maughan. I am the pastor of student ministries here, responsible for high school, junior high, and college. I have been here for four years — I cannot believe it — come January. My wife is Suzanne, and I have four boys: Benjamin, Judiah, Jesse, and Eli. We love it here. God is doing some wonderful things. If there are students here who have never been a part of student ministries, I want to encourage you to come and be a part of it. Get to know some people. Let us spend time with you, encourage you, and let your life grow through the one-anothers and discipleship we have to offer.
Two Encounters, One Purpose
Open your Bibles to Mark chapter 8. Today I want to remind you of a passage of scripture that describes two encounters with Jesus — two encounters by two different audiences, about two completely different situations — and for what I believe is one common reason: Jesus is about growing the faith of faithless people. His intent in these two situations we are going to look at this morning is about a growing faith. What I am going to ask you to do is view your own life and consider how the process of God is working in you to grow your faith, to believe more deeply, and to obey more fully.
The Physical Illustrates the Spiritual
Some of the things I find in scripture are how the spiritual life is illustrated by the physical life. Paul talks about it — he likens the spiritual journey to running a race, and he says run in such a way as to win the prize. Do not fool around in this pursuit of godliness; run and pursue. Peter talks about how some people are like spiritual babies who cannot handle the meat of the Word and still need spiritual milk. So spiritual realities are helped by physical illustrations.
I think the process of physical growth is a perfect example of spiritual growth because it happens in stages. None of us come to the place where Jesus dawns on us and everything is immediately complete. We are growing. We are taking steps of obedience. I am glad that physical growth works the same way. I met a man eighteen years ago who told me that when he was a teenager, he grew one foot in a single year. He was growing so fast that doctors were concerned and prescribed — and this is the ultimate prescription — sleep and food. This kid slept fifteen hours a day and ate like a horse. In fact, when his mother sent him off to school, she would take out a loaf of bread, turn it all into sandwiches, put it back in the wrapper, and send him off with eight to ten sandwiches. He is only 6'2" now, but he had a spurt that just took everything out of him.
Growth does not normally happen that way. We grow in simpler stages — a little at a time — although there are some awkward moments. You know what I am talking about: that age somewhere between ten and fourteen when you suddenly sprout ears that are just mammoth. I look at my children and think, if he grows into those ears, his head is going to be enormous. Or they grow teeth that do not even look human — they look like billboards, just huge, with room to write advertisements on them. With boys especially, they grow feet. These are not just feet — they are enormous, and you think he will need to be twelve feet tall for them to look right. Girls go through a different stage. In student ministry, we see them come in as junior highers and go through the big-hair-and-makeup stage. They are trying to discover themselves, and suddenly all these things start happening at once. There is something almost supernatural about that hair thing.
God Grows Faith a Step at a Time
Spiritually speaking, God does the same thing. He grows our faith a little at a time. And honestly, some of those experiences and movements toward godliness are awkward moments. We look into the mirror of God's Word and we see things we do not like — things out of place, things that are not good-looking — and we say, that is not comfortable. God is in the process of pruning and cutting and clipping, making us into the image of Christ, and He is not going to be done.
I was sitting at McDonald's studying for this message — McDonald's is where I do most of my studying — when an older man, probably seventy years old, came up and said, "You must be a pastor." I said, "I guess that is what I am." We talked about growth, and he reflected on the change in his life over the last several years and how we continue to change from where we are now all the way to his age. I told him, "The point of growth in Christ is that we are never done. There is not a place where you and I coast. There is no place to stop pursuing godliness, and there is not a place where God cannot find an area of sin that He needs to rearrange." So we are in the process of growing, and God does that work in us.
A Faith That Grows in Stages
A woman who inquired about student ministries described how she and her family had not grown up in the church. They had an interesting past, but ten or fifteen years ago they came to Christ and were attending another church. For whatever reason, they eventually came to East Valley, and within the first couple of weeks they encountered the idea that God would somehow choose them — that God would elect them — and the word predestination came into play. It made her angry. She described going from hating it, being angry, and not understanding, to becoming inquisitive, studying, reading, and praying. After a year or two, she now embraces the whole thing, believes it is in Scripture, cannot deny it, and is convinced it is there.
God is about growing people in stages. Today, I want to look at two examples of Jesus growing faith — one of a struggling blind man, and one of what I believe are the struggling disciples.
The Blind Man at Bethsaida
Would you read with me in Mark, chapter 8, verse 22?
> "They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, 'Do you see anything?' He looked up and said, 'I see people; they look like trees walking around.' Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes, and his eyes were opened, and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And Jesus sent him home, saying, 'Don't go into the village.'"
There are a couple of things I want you to notice in this short section about this blind man.
His Friends Had Serious Expectations
The first thing to notice is that his friends had serious expectations. It was his friends who brought this blind man, his friends who were doing the talking, and his friends who were doing the begging. Quite honestly, they wanted Jesus to do what He had always done before. Perhaps they had witnessed His healing touch, or perhaps they had experienced it themselves — maybe they had seen Jesus reach out and touch someone and have an illness healed. Whatever the case, they were sure of two things: one, that Jesus would heal, and two, how He would do it. Just touch him, Jesus. All we ask is that you put your hand on him and he is healed.
This was a Gentile mindset, quite honestly. They believed in the touch of the healer more than in the one doing the touching. It was a somewhat superstitious way of thinking. A clear example of this is in Mark chapter 5, where we have the story of a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years. She was without hope, had exhausted all her options, seen doctors, tried remedies, and the Bible says she was not getting better — she was getting worse. She had nowhere else to turn. She heard of this Jesus who could touch and heal, and she ran to see Him.
He had come across the Sea of Galilee and was now in Capernaum. The crowd was enormous because He was extremely popular. Somehow she pressed through the crowd and managed to touch just the edge of His robe. Jesus felt the power leave Him. She was healed immediately, and He turned and asked who had touched Him — not because He did not know, but because He wanted her to identify herself. When she did, Jesus made a point of telling her, "Your faith has healed you." That word healed means saved. Your faith has saved you. He wanted to make it very clear that whatever superstitious mindset she had come with — thinking that somehow the touch itself equaled healing or salvation — it was not the touch. It was Him. It was faith. The Gentile mindset was confused on this point, thinking that doing A, B, and C simply equaled healing.
The Blind Man Had No Expectations
The second observation is that the blind man himself had no expectations at all. While his friends were hopeful and taking charge, this man did not even seem to care. I do not think he believed anything would happen. I think he had settled into the idea that he would be blind forever and that nothing was going to change — not for him. You can see this in two ways: first, in his demeanor, because there is nothing in the text about any response from him, no words whatsoever; and second, in the way Jesus deals with him.
Let me show you a contrast. In Mark chapter 10, we read about another blind man named Bartimaeus. He is in Jericho when Jesus passes through. Bartimaeus sits by the road as he always does, hoping someone will throw him a crumb or give him money — he is without hope. He hears that Jesus is coming and hears the crowd begin to stir, and he starts yelling at the top of his lungs, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" The crowd tries to quiet him — after all, he is a blind man, and they felt he should not be speaking out — but he only yells louder: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Of course, we know the story: Jesus calls this blind man to Him and heals him.
I think that is the natural and right reaction of a blind man without hope. Do anything. I believe. I have heard. Do something. I want to trust. But the blind man in Mark 8 shows no interest and makes no effort on his own part. He does not even speak for himself. You would think that if you were blind and someone told you they had witnessed a healer, you would get excited and press in — but this man simply does not believe.
Jesus Grows a Blind Man's Faith Through Intentional Steps
Jesus grows this man's faith through what I believe is a series of intentional touches. There is no mistake here. Jesus is not struggling to heal this man; He is taking deliberate steps to bring him from unbelief to belief.
The first step is this: Jesus takes the man by the hand. If you are one of his friends, you think that is it — that is the whole deal right there. Just touch him, Jesus. I can imagine the anticipation on the friends' faces when they see the hands clasped, eyes searching: is he seeing anything? Nothing. No response. What is Jesus doing? He certainly could have healed in that way. He could have simply spoken it. But Jesus, I believe, is communicating something to this man. He is communicating concern and love. Starting at the very beginning, as if to say: you do not believe, you do not trust, you are without hope — let me tell you the bare minimum: I love you.
The next thing you see God doing in leading this man toward faith is that He begins to lead him. We have the advantage of looking at this passage with full sight. This is God — but picture God taking a blind man by the hand and leading him. Leading him through town, around people, around buildings, maybe across difficult pathways. Maybe the man struggled to take a step and Jesus steadied him. Here is God leading a blind man, taking him from no belief to what I believe is genuine belief. And I think Jesus is communicating again: you can trust Me. Not only do I care, not only do I love, but you can trust Me.
I do not know what was in this man's heart, but I can imagine that somewhere, even if he came indifferent and apathetic toward Jesus, his heart began to glimmer — at least enough to think: this man is kind. He is taking care of me. I do not know where we are going, but he is interested in me. You have to understand the mindset of people in that day toward the sick. If you were sick, they would ask: what did you do? They believed sickness was a direct result of sin, and therefore they did not care much about your suffering — you deserved it, after all. So this man was not even accustomed to care and concern. He was not used to someone being interested enough to say, follow Me. You can trust Me. I care about you.
The Spit, the Touch, and the Blurry Vision
The next thing to notice is that Jesus spits on the man's eyes and puts His hands on him. That is a very interesting — and frankly disgusting — thing to do. But it meant something in that culture. It was a deeply personal act. It communicated this: I know your pain. I know the issues. I care about them, and I am about to do something. This man is standing there lost and without hope, probably confused about who this person is who would show such concern. And now Jesus communicates something very bold: I am going to heal you. I know what your problem is and I am about to do something about it.
The next step is particularly interesting. Jesus removes His hands and asks the man, "Do you see anything?" And the man responds: yes, I see — I see people, but they look like trees to me. Blurry. He could not see clearly. Now consider this: if this man came to Jesus not by his own will but by the will of his friends, if he came unbelieving, then his world is rocking at this point. He has gone from I do not trust, I do not understand, I do not care, nothing is going to change — to I can see colors, I can see images, I can see people. Yes, it is blurry, but his heart has grown to belief.
I want to make this point clearly as a side note: Jesus is not struggling to heal this man. He is not mustering up every ounce of power He has, only to have it fall short and need another attempt. He is doing this intentionally, to bring this man from unbelief to belief. He is growing his faith.
Complete Healing — Eyes and Heart
Here is the last thing to see. Jesus puts His hands on the man's eyes again, and the text tells us the man is healed completely. That phrase literally carries the idea of conceiving from afar — the idea of 20/20 vision. No more blurry. He can see clearly. Brand new eyes. Total vision. Jesus has healed him.
Jesus has taken a broken man and healed him — and I want you to understand this — not just his eyes. He could have done that by simply speaking the word. He healed his heart. A man who would not believe, could not believe, had no hope, has been healed not just in his eyes but in his heart. Now he believes.
Turning to the Disciples: Who Do You Say That I Am?
That is the first event I want you to see, describing what I believe is Jesus growing the faith of faithless people. The second event turns His attention to the growing faith of His disciples. Read with me beginning in verse 27.
*"Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, 'Who do people say I am?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.' 'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Peter answered, 'You are the Christ.' Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him."*
Now here is something I want you to notice. I believe the disciples do not yet grasp the big picture. Honestly, if we limit our reading to just that section of Scripture, we come away thinking they did pretty well. That is a home run for Peter — he nailed it. You are the Christ. Bingo. In fact, we can turn to Matthew's Gospel and read Jesus' response.
The Ultimate Question
Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do the people say that I am?" Their rambling response was: some say you are John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and some say you are a prophet. In other words, here is what they were saying: you are a great guy, Jesus. You are popular, well-liked, and a good man. That is what the people say.
Jesus then turns to His disciples, and I believe He had a little pause there before asking what I consider the ultimate question of a lifetime: "Who do you say that I am?" In our student ministry on Wednesday nights during the school year, we have been studying through the Gospel of Mark, and we end with this question every week — what are you going to do about Jesus? Because quite honestly, after you hear what He teaches, see what He does, and witness the salvation work He accomplishes, you either come to the conclusion that He is who He says He is — that He is God and worthy of worship — or He is crazy. There is not much else to do there.
Who do you say that He is? What are you going to do about Jesus? It is the ultimate question. I circled it in my Bible a long time ago and wrote those words next to it. It is the question that all of mankind must answer.
Peter's Answer
Jesus looks at His disciples and asks who they say He is, and Peter's response looks like a home run to me. He says, "You are the Christ." Matthew's version records it as, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Bingo. Nailed it. Right on the money. The word "Christ" is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word "Messiah," meaning "anointed one."
Matthew records Jesus' response to Peter: "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven." I do not think Jesus' affirmation of Peter's answer was Jesus saying, "Good for you, Peter — you understand it all, you have the big picture, you have got it all right, and there is nothing else to learn." I think what Jesus was saying was this: Peter, for you to understand that I am the Christ, that I am the Messiah, that I am the anointed one, is a very big deal, and it is true. Only God the Father could reveal that to you. Only He could open your eyes to see it.
After all, 99.99% of that generation would not receive Him as Messiah, so for Peter to grasp it was a very big deal, and blessed was he for it. But Peter had a very minuscule, limited perspective on what Messiah meant. It was his own definition. Yes, you are the Messiah — but you are the Messiah as I define it.
Peter's Limited Vision of the Messiah
Here is what Peter thought Jesus was saying: you are the Messiah, the one Israel has been waiting for since David. You are the superhuman political leader who will overthrow the enemies of Israel and sit on a throne, establishing a great kingdom. You are the Messiah who will reign over a kingdom for the Jewish people forever and ever, starting right now. That was Peter's perspective.
Jesus goes on to tell him the whole story, because Peter still does not get it. His faith needs to grow. Look at verse 31: "He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him." You can see the confusion right there. "But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.'"
That phrase "spoke plainly" means He concealed nothing. In other words, at the very moment after Peter makes what we would consider a home run comment about Jesus' identity, Jesus begins to describe the full picture. He conceals nothing. This is the moment in time where it is all laid out. Until this point in chapter 8, we do not see the full picture — hints of it, yes, but not a clear explanation.
A Suffering Messiah
Jesus takes His disciples aside and begins to tell them not of a Messiah who is going to sit on a throne right now, not of a political ruler who will remove the enemies of Israel, but of a rejected Messiah. A Messiah who will be hated. And here is the mind-blower for the disciples: He told them about a Messiah who would be murdered. He also told them about a Messiah who would be resurrected.
I believe Peter did not hear anything about the resurrection at that point. He was overwhelmed by the rejection, the hatred, and the murder. And so Peter comes alongside Jesus and takes Him away from the other disciples. Picture the scene: Jesus is instructing them on the greatest event in mankind's history — that He is coming not as a powerful political Messiah, but as a suffering Messiah, a Messiah who must die for the sins of man. And it is Peter who says, whoa, this is not good.
I can just picture him walking off to the side, arm around Jesus, telling Him to stop with the death talk. It is not good. It is not popular. "No, no — you are the man. I have watched what you do. People are healed just by grabbing your coat. We are popular. Stop talking about death." In fact, Matthew records Peter's actual response: "Never, Lord. It will never happen."
Do you understand that Peter has a serious long way to go? His faith has not yet grown to include Jesus as the Messiah who will come and suffer for the sins of mankind. It does not fit in his understanding. He has no place to put it. Peter does not get it. He needs his faith to grow.
Stop for a second and think about this: if Peter had gotten his way —
The Cost of Getting Your Way
There is not one single person in this room or in this world who would ever know the hope of salvation if Peter got his way. If Peter had his way, Jesus would simply be the king — the political leader ruling now. No one would know hope. If Peter got his way, you and I would be doomed to hell forever.
Peter had just finished telling Jesus who He was — the Son of God, the Messiah. But he didn't truly know. He had a limited perspective of what the Messiah was, confined to his own inadequate understanding, and there was no room in that understanding for a suffering Messiah. God had to grow his faith.
Get Behind Me, Satan
What Peter said was such heresy that Jesus rebukes him with what must be some of the most painful words a man has ever heard. He looks at Peter and says, "Get behind me, Satan." Could you imagine the Lord of all creation looking at you and equating what you said with the words of Satan? Peter had just finished identifying Jesus as the Messiah, and now Jesus is telling him that what he said were the words of Satan.
To understand why, we need to go back to Matthew 4, where Jesus spent forty days fasting and preparing for His earthly ministry. At His lowest point, Satan came and began to tempt Him. The temptations were these: meet your own needs, test God by jumping from a high place, and finally — Satan took Him to a high mountain, showed Him the kingdoms of the world, and said, "If you bow down to me right now, I'll give it all to you." In other words, Satan was saying: you don't have to suffer. You don't have to go through what you came to do.
Jesus clearly knew what He came to do. He knew the Father's will. He was coming to give His life and to teach about a hope that would change men's hearts — not to deliver a political ruler. Satan's first shot at Jesus was to say you don't have to go through that. If it's rulership you want, if you want to be a king, I'll give it to you. You don't have to suffer. And Jesus' response to Satan at that moment was, "Get behind me."
Those words sound familiar. Here is Peter saying the same thing Satan said when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness: take the easy way. You don't have to die. You can avoid the cross and the shame. All you have to do is not die. Peter meant well, but he was clueless. He didn't understand.
Filling In the Blanks
From that point on, Jesus lays out the cost of following Him and the reward. The disciples had thought at one point that they had it made — that they would be the king's men and rule alongside Him. But Jesus' intention was to grow their faith, to move them from a small and limited understanding to an understanding that would save their souls.
At this point, the disciples must have been spinning. They were discouraged. Just a moment ago they were going to rule with Christ, and now Jesus is saying it is not going to go the way they planned — and that He is going to die. What is going to happen to us? If you die, where is the power? If you die, we are lost. If they hate you enough to kill you, they might come after us. Jesus then enlightens them even more by filling in all the blanks.
Look at verse 34. He says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Three costs are mentioned here.
Three Costs of Following Jesus
Cost number one is to deny yourself. This is the denial of self-centeredness — removing yourself from the throne of your life and putting Jesus there. It is saying: You control it. I don't want to do it. You lead me. You sit on the throne of my life. Cost number one is denying my selfishness.
Cost number two is to take up your cross. In Mark's day, people understood exactly what this meant. Every criminal sentenced to die in execution would carry his cross through town on the way to his execution. It was a visible symbol to all who saw him that he was under the authority of the Roman government. Jesus uses that same image to describe what a disciple must do — carrying his cross means demonstrating to the world that Jesus has authority over your life.
Cost number three is to follow Him, which really means to come along behind, to be a disciple, to live your life like His. The disciples had thought that all they needed to do was hang with Jesus, because He was the one who would do everything. Jesus begins to enlighten them: as soon as He starts talking about sin and the kingdom, as soon as He starts talking about cost, people will walk away — and the disciples will have to count that cost through the denial of self and the carrying of the cross.
What Carrying the Cross Actually Means
It is worth clarifying what carrying the cross actually means, because you often hear people say, when they have a struggle or a difficult problem, "Well, that's just the cross I have to bear." Struggles are a part of life, but a struggle is not necessarily a cross. Here is what a cross is: by your identification with Jesus Christ, by your witness and testimony, the world comes after you and makes your life miserable. That is carrying the cross.
Struggles in and of themselves are not the cross. It is your radical commitment to Christ that causes the world to come and attack you — that is when you can say you are suffering like Jesus. Sometimes we give ourselves a break and think that suffering in and of itself means we are somehow pleasing God. That is wrong. Suffering is simply the nature of life.
God Doesn't Always Work the Same Way
Jesus goes on to encourage them with the reward. He says this in verse 35: "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it." In other words, give your life up to the Lordship of Christ and gain an eternity, gain salvation, gain the ultimate reward of forgiveness. After all, Jesus said, what good is it for you to get what you want now? What good is it for you to have control only to get what you deserve later, which is God's judgment?
Jesus has just taken two different groups of people through a process to grow their faith. The blind man had no hope. The disciples thought they had hope, and He had to re-educate them. Let me walk through a couple of "so whats" from this passage.
So what number one: God doesn't always do things the same way. In other words, my experience or your experience isn't normative. Sometimes we think, "Well, God does this and He does that" — a little like the blind man's friends, who assumed all God had to do was touch him.
Some people have a radical conversion testimony. You hear it at a baptism — someone who went from drugs to devotion overnight — and you think, "Wow, that's pretty cool." Those of us who grew up in the church sometimes feel, to our own fault, that it would be nice to have something radical like that to hang our faith on. Not that anyone wants a horrible past, but it can be hard to see that radical change as clearly in our own lives.
The rest of us might have a testimony that looks like this: grew up in a pretty conventional home with parents who loved us, went to church, never got into much trouble, learned about Christ, and then He moved here, confession of sin there — a series of steps through which God has brought us from unbelief to belief. That's my testimony. I have nothing radical to talk about other than the radical salvation of a dead heart. We can't expect God to do things the same way every time. It doesn't happen that way.
I have a friend in Chicago whose testimony illustrates this perfectly. Back in the early 1970s, he was watching the play *Jesus Christ Superstar*, and that's when he says the lights came on. Growing up in my church circles, you did not talk about *Jesus Christ Superstar*. But I know the man now — he is totally converted, he is a pastor — and I look at that and think, "God, You shouldn't have used *Jesus Christ Superstar*." But God doesn't always do the same things in everybody's life. What happened in your life isn't normative. Sometimes He surprises us. He is about growing our faith, and He will do whatever He has to.
You Can't Tell God How to Work
The second thing: we can't tell God how to work in our lives. It's like Peter, who says, "I'm with You, Jesus — just don't die. Just don't go to the cross." We can't say to God, "I'll follow You and I'll obey You — just do this, or don't do that. I'll follow You, just make me happy, do it my way." That's not the way it works.
Sometimes people come into my office and we talk about the cost of being involved in ministry. After we've discussed what student ministry involves — what we do, what we don't do, and why — the conversation eventually comes down to the question of commitment. It's a big commitment, and they try to fit that into their lives.
Here's what I tell them. Sometimes we come to God with our hands tightly clenched around our life — what we do and how we want it done — and we say, "Okay, God, everything else is Yours, but I've got this. You can have it all, but not this." All Jesus wants is for you to loosen your grip. Just open your hands and give Him your life. He may very well look at your life and leave it all exactly the same. He may take nothing from you, create no difficulties whatsoever, and leave untouched everything you had your hands clenched around.
But maybe He won't. Maybe He'll rearrange everything — and maybe that's a better place to be. Peter had no room for Jesus to be the suffering Messiah because he wanted to rule. Jesus says, "You've got to let go. I am who I am. I am God the Creator."
God Could Be Growing Your Faith Right Now
Here is the third so what: God could be growing your faith right now. Quite honestly, I don't know most of you. You're not my regular audience — I normally speak to students. You could have walked in here for the first time today, or you could have been invited several weeks or months ago and have been coming for a while. I've had conversations with people who sit in these pews and say, "Man, it seems like Tom is talking to me. It seems like he has my story. Who told him? He's talking right to me." Have you ever felt that way?
God could be moving in your life right now and growing your faith through a series of steps. Some of you are lost without hope. Some of you are like the blind man — you don't believe that God could do anything. You doubt the claims of Christ, the work of Christ, what you see in believers' lives. You just doubt, and you have no hope. And yet you've come here, and you hear the truth.
God could be taking you through a series of circumstances to grow your faith. Maybe you have a marriage that isn't working out. Maybe there is sickness in your family, or you've lost your job, or whatever the case might be. James makes a pretty good point in James chapter 1 that God sometimes takes us through difficult things to grow us to maturity and completeness, so that we are not lacking.
Confessing the Right Belief
As I close, I think this has to happen around the right belief. You must confess the right belief. Let me say this as quickly as I can: Jesus came not to make your life better — He came to give you life. Because the Bible says you're dead. He didn't come to make you happy. He came to make you holy.
If you're sitting here thinking, "Maybe I'll add Jesus to my collection. Maybe I'll just have all my stuff and Jesus, and therefore I've got fire insurance, I get out of hell free, and I've got all the things that I need" — listen, Jesus came to give you life because you're dead. You must confess that — which is agreeing with God about what He says about you, that you're dead in your sins without hope. You must repent of that sin, which is an about-face, a 180-degree turnaround where you leave your sin behind. And you must believe the promises of God's Word, that He will forgive your sin if you confess. It's the only way.
A Wise Investment
Let me say one more thing. I would suggest that you make a wise investment. Here's what Jesus said: "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Do you understand? Why would you hold on to your life in a way that would cost you an eternity separated from God, in a place of hell and judgment, when you can simply give your life — which He knows how to run better than you do — only to gain happiness and joy and peace, forgiveness and salvation for eternity? That just seems like an easy one. It seems like an easy investment.
God Growing Your Faith
Two events — the blind man and the disciples. One issue: God growing your faith. Maybe He is growing yours right now. Have you gotten to the place where, through all the skepticism, you realize some things, and maybe God is moving you to the place of faith?
My challenge to you is this: quite possibly you are here and you are in the process of working out who this Jesus is. Is He who He says He is? I want to challenge you that you need to look up somebody — maybe in this very room, someone who invited you, someone you're sitting next to — and ask that question: Who is Jesus, and what do I do about it? Because only in Him is hope.
Closing Prayer
Lord God in heaven, I thank You so very much that You are about growing our faith. Lord, on our own we wouldn't believe. On our own we would be lost forever. God, I pray right now for these people here, that they would see Your moving in their lives, that they would notice Your loving touch, Your understanding heart, and God, that You are pulling us along to be conformed to the image of Christ. Lord, I pray that next year at this time we would look back and see that growth. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.