From Sampler to Sower

Weekend Teaching Series: Mythbusters: Water’s Edge

Message Title: Myth #4: All You Gotta Do is Believe

Sermon in a Sentence: Biblical faith moves from mental assent, to trust, to obedience, and ultimately to an experience of God’s grace.

Text(s): Genesis 15:6; John 3:36, 6:29; Acts 8;Romans 5:1; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 2:8-9

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 6 of 10 Yeah, we did another custom video (see below) but that’s nothing new.  The only “new” thing was having to convert a Quicktime video clip from wingclips.com so it would play in EasyWorship.  (We use Super for video conversions. I thoroughly recommend it.  I do not, however, necessarily recommend EasyWorship.  It has some real plusses, but also some significant drawbacks.)

Message Summary:

The message this week focused on what exactly the Bible means by “Faith.”

We started off talking about the “power of positive thinking.”  Showed a quick video clip from the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop from wingclips.com.  If you haven’t checked them out yet, I’d strongly recommend it.  They have a detailed and current index of movie clips.  What is more, you can get the clips directly from them, including clips from movies that are in theaters right now, like Mall Cop.  Seeing a clip from an “In Theaters” movie instantly got students attention.  Next time it might not, but for the first time we’ve used Wingclips, it was an instant attention getter.

The clip we showed featured Paul Blart (Kevin James) explaining that “the mind is the only weapon that doesn’t need a holster.”

With that introduction, we went into the power of positive thinking – noting there is some truth (like when athletes practice through visualization) and a lot of hooey (like the ideas promoted by the book and movie The Secret).  We specifically raised the issue of The Secret because there have been questions about it floating around our youth group.

Next we noted, when the Bible talks about the power of the mind, it calls it faith.  The Hebrew word for faith is ‘aman and the Koine word: pisteuo.  These words run throughout the Bible from Abraham in the Old Testament (Genesis 15:6) to Jesus in the New (John 6:29).  One of the core doctrines of Scripture is that it is faith which determines our relationship with God (e.g., Romans 5:1 and Ephesians 2:8-9).

However, it’s easy to go from the Biblical truth that we are justified by faith, to Myth #4: All you gotta do is believe.

To guide our discussion of this myth, we turned to the story of Simon the Sorcerer, a guy  so bad they named a sin after him.  His story is found in Acts 8.  It begins with the persecution of the church in Jerusalem and the stoning of Stephen.  Following those events, Christians began to flee, hoping to avoid the same fate.  The good news: while Christians fled, they also carried with them the message of the Gospel.

One of the refugees was Philip.  He went to Samaria, which seemed like a logical choice – what self-respecting Jew would follow him there?  When he arrived he began to preach.  People began to believe.  Miracles began to happen.  And the people of Samaria paid close attention to him.

While that was good news for Philip, that wasn’t such good news for Simon.  Simon fancied himself a Sorcerer – someone who had control of supernatural powers.  We don’t know what powers he claimed, but he could at least do some cool magic tricks, because the people of Samaria called him “the Great Divine Power.”  We’ve not heard of him, but he had such a great following that the Church had to deal with his teachings for the next 300 some years.  What’s more the people of Samaria were in the habit of paying close attention to Simon.

Imagine how you would react if you were in Simon’s shoes.  One day, you are the “Great Divine Power.” Everyone listens to you.  The next day a new guy shows up telling the story of Jesus, and everyone is paying close attention to him.  (Luke uses the same word to describe the people’s reaction to Simon and to Philip.)  What do you think Simon did?

The Bible tells us: Simon believed (pisteuo) and was baptized.  Didn’t see that coming did you?  But that’s what Acts 8 tells us.  Simon was so moved by the message of Philip that he believed and was baptized.

As the story continues, the church in Jerusalem sends Peter and John to follow up on Philip’s ministry.  They come and see the Samaritans believing in Jesus, and they begin praying for them.  As they lay hands on the people, God sends His Holy Spirit, probably much like He did on Pentecost.

Meanwhile, Simon is on the sidelines watching.  He notices: as Peter and John pray for people, God acts.  And he wonders, “What would it be like if I could have that kind of power?”

So he asks if he can buy this ability to impart God’s Spirit by laying on hands. And Peter condemns him in some of the strongest language of scripture:

“”May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”  (Acts 8:20-23, NIV)

Essentially, he says is “Simon, you and your money deserve to go to hell.”  Not in the flippant, disrespectful way people say that today.  Peter means it.  Simon’s on his way to damnation.

But wait.  I thought Romans 5:1 said we were justified by faith (pisteuo).  Ephesians 2:8-9 say it is through faith (pisteuo) we are saved.  And Acts 8:13 says that Simon believed (pisteuo) and was baptized.  How can he have faith and still be on his way to hell?  I thought all he had to do was believe?

What exactly is Biblical faith?  In many ways, faith is like a journey, not like a possession.

The journey begins with belief, or mental assent.  We hear the story of Jesus and say “Yes, I believe that to be true.”  Simon did this.  He took this first step.

However, the journey of faith moves from faith to trust. According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the core meaning of the Hebrew word for faith, ‘aman, is “certainty” or “confidence.”  Faith isn’t just believing.  It  begins there, but it must move to the place where we put our confidence in what we believe.

Simon didn’t do that.  He wasn’t willing to put his trust in Jesus.  Instead he was still prone to put his trust in what he could purchase for himself.

But the journey doesn’t end there.  Trust must move to obedience. This is confirmed by both the Old and New Testaments.  The Old Testament speaks not only of having faith (‘aman) but also of keeping faith (‘aman).  Check out Isa 26:2.  Faith isn’t just a possession, it is action.

Here I asked what the opposite of belief is.  Obviously their suggestion was “disbelief.”  We talked about prefixes that suggest “the opposite of.”  The opposite of agree is disagree.  The opposite of appear is disappear.  The opposite of belief, is disbelief.

Only in the New Testament it isn’t, at least not always.

In Greek the prefix meaning “the opposite of” is not dis- but a-.  The opposite of law (nomia) is lawlessness (anomia).  The opposite if visible (horatos) is invisible (aoratos).  And the opposite of belief (pisteuo) to be disbelief (apisteuo).

Only when Jesus is talking about belief and disbelief in John 3:36, he doesn’t use apisteuo.  He says if anyone believes in the Son, he or she has eternal life.  And the opposite?  If anyone disobeys (apatheo) the Son, the wrath of God abides in him or her.  The opposite of belief in this verse is not disbelief, but disobedience.  Biblical faith means not only mental assent, but trusting God enough to obey him.

Finally in this journey, faith moves from obedience to experience. The classic Biblical definition of faith is Hebrews 11:1: being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don’t see.  But that’s not just being deluded.  Faith isn’t convincing yourself that something is certain despite all evidence to the contrary.  It means being sure, really assured, of what you hope for.

I know that sounds like an oxymoron.  If you’re hoping for something, you’re not sure it will happen.  But as we obey, God proves that His promises are true.  In 2 Corinthians 1:22, Paul notes that God gives us his Holy Spirit “as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.”  In other words, as we move along this journey of faith – from belief, to trust, to obedience – we begin to experience the way God is working in our life.  And when that happens, we don’t have to “just believe” any more.  We know, because we’ve experienced it!

We closed by asking students where they were in this journey.  This isn’t about condemnation because you’ve not made it to the final destination.  The question is “Are you on the journey?”  God doesn’t wait until we get to experience to make us right, or even until we start to obey.  However, that doesn’t mean we can take the first step of the journey and consider it completed.  God wants to get us to the place where we experience (and recognize) his work in our life.  That only happens as we move from belief to trust, and from trust to obedience.  So we asked them where they were on this journey, and if they were ready to take the next step.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Played a quick game of Taboo at the start – always fun.  And once  again, we showed an episode of Mythbusters: Water’s Edge.

Without a doubt, the least funny of the Mythbusters videos, in my opinion.  But it got the most laughs of any we’ve done, probably because of all the inside jokes.  I apologize.

Worship Set: Marvelous Light, Father Spirit Jesus, Here is Our King, God of This City

Favorite Moment: Philip flying his broom in the video.  Second favorite, Brittany experiening a mental breakdown in the video.  Great acting!