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The Faith which is through Jesus

Acts 3: 1-16

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 14 Aug, 2005

THE APOSTLES shared what they had from Jesus. They knew his power and authority, they trusted his power and authority, and they acted on his power and authority. They acted in faith.

When I worked in Local Government, no one liked getting evidence when someone had breached his planning consent. But some just couldn’t care less. They saw fines as a running cost of business.

We never went for fines: we went for a prison term. We applied for a writ of mandamus, which gave them the option of complying or going to prison until they agreed to comply.

Of course, people who understood this were unimpressed when a Council car arrived and someone began taking photographs. One fellow tried to grab my camera and took a swipe at me. I dodged and told him that, if he touched me, he’d be on an assault charge before he could phone his solicitor. So he backed away and I got through that one.

I suppose I could talk about that as an example of using authority, but it is also an example of using faith.

I trusted that I could safely face an irate factory owner. I trusted that the legal system would protect me if he was aggressive towards me. I trusted that the Council would back me up if there were any problems.

Trust is a form of faith. And life is full of faith situations.

Peter told the crowd that gathered to witness the miracle of healing,

It is by the faith which is through Jesus that this man has been made whole.

Let’s look at faith this morning, especially at the faith which is through Jesus.

It is important that we understand what faith is about from a Christian perspective, because Christianity is the only true faith.

Am I too harsh on other belief systems? I have said it before, and I say it again, that other religions may involve faith, but they do not rely on faith in the same way that Christianity does. In fact, they deny the validity of faith, because they are all really about deeds. Only Christianity is truly about faith.

Repeatedly, Jesus told people he healed, “Your faith has made you whole.” He told his disciples, “Trust God; trust me, too.” Never forget that to trust is to have faith.

He told Thomas,

Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.

Paul told us, “By grace are you saved through faith.” He also said,

ROM 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

I like that, “...by faith from first to last.” It captures the spirit of the Greek. It says that we are saved on the basis of faith so that we will have more faith.

Do you think the Catholics in the Middle Ages stood for works, while the Reformers stood for faith alone?

Think again. The Council of Trent declared that they did not oppose the idea of salvation by faith, but they opposed the idea of salvation through mere assent to doctrines. They said that any faith which did not make a person more faithful was worthless. Who could disagree about that?

We must understand what faith is like. And this account clearly shows real faith in action.

What is faith?

So many people today have no idea what Christians mean by faith. They think it is assent to creeds, or they think it is commitment to fairy stories. They don’t realise that it is very much what we exercise every time one of us decides to trust another person.

I’ve mentioned before that the apostles were totally convinced about Jesus. They had spent time with him; they had seen him in action; they had learnt from him; they had seen him alive; they had experienced his Spirit; they knew he could do it.

That’s what faith is like.

You know I often read the Letters to the Editor in The Sydney Morning Herald. From time to time, they publish a letter which says something along these lines:

Dear Sir,

Once again the bishops are interfering in politics. They should be quiet and attend to their flocks. Anyway, faith is by definition irrational, so why should people who are irrational even have a right to speak on public affairs?

By whose definition is faith irrational?

People who write this kind of thing are so smug and self–satisfied. They assume that people who have a faith have no reason to believe what they believe. They assume that Christians know that their beliefs are myths and fables, and choose to believe them anyway. They assume that being a Christian is in the same league as the person who believes he is a boiled egg.

Existential philosophy might talk about irrational leaps of faith, but Christians don’t.

The Christian faith is based on historical events. Yes — as Paul points out, if you can disprove the resurrection, you disprove Christianity. But if the resurrection is true, the beliefs of Christians are very reasonable; and, if these beliefs are reasonable, then faith itself makes a lot of sense.

The disciples reveal what faith is like. Based on their knowledge of what Jesus has done, they trust that he will still be the same today.

Our manager at work is a nice chap. When he first started, he was a contractor, picking up loose ends because we were so short–staffed.

I sat metres from him, and got to know him. I found him quite approachable.

When he became our manager, I had some issues to approach him about. I didn’t need to wait for him to put up a sign in his window saying, “You can approach me,” On the basis of what I had found him to be like in the past, I had faith to approach him in the present.

That’s what faith is like. Is that irrational?

But the crippled man also shows us faith. Peter said to him,

I have no loose change or notes, but I’ll give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up! Walk! (my paraphrase)

And this man, born crippled, never able to walk, never having learned to balance or to co–ordinate his movements, got up and walked!

Yes, Peter took him by the hand, but he chose to stand. Yes, Peter encouraged his faith, but he had to trust what Peter said enough to act on it.

That is what faith is like. The actions that faith calls for are very scary, but the decision is to trust anyway.

When we see what Jesus went through on the cross, we can see that obedient faith is possible, no matter what the price might be.

Paul says,

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith is the decision to trust Jesus for the present situation based on what you know of his deeds in the past.

Whose faith?

One of the first questions is, “Whose faith is active, when Jesus works a miracle?” Nothing clear is said about the crippled man’s faith.

Peter says,

16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.

But what does that mean? Was it the man’s faith in Jesus which healed him? Or was it Peter’s and John’s faith which allowed healing power to flow through them to this man?

The Bible doesn’t really say.

We could think about that man lowered through the roof in front of Jesus, a man whose personal faith is never discussed. But it is clear that his friends had definite faith in Jesus.

There are times when it has been impossible for the person being healed to have faith, like Jairus’ daughter, who was close to, if not completely dead when Jesus arrived. But Jesus had faith, and his disciples had faith, and Jairus had faith, and that was enough.

When that woman was healed of advanced bladder cancer when we prayed for her, we never saw any clear sign that she came to a personal faith. But we had faith. Never blame anyone for not seeming to be healed. It might be our lack of faith, not his.

We can say three things about faith in this context.

First, it ultimately derives from Jesus himself. It is

...the faith that comes through him...

Second, it only becomes active when someone acts on it — if Peter hadn’t spoken, or if the man had refused to get up, nothing would have changed.

Third, it can be transferred from person to person. The faith that Peter had was enough to inspire faith in the crippled man, too.

I remember occasions when I was small, and I wanted to do something scary, like climbing a tall tree or something difficult, like trying to win a race. Someone else’s faith in me helped me to have faith in myself, too. A parent’s call from the sidelines, “You can do it, Pete!” made the difference.

In the same way, when someone says to you, “Jesus can do it, if you trust him to!” is a powerful incentive to trust.

That crippled man had to exercise considerable faith. He was going to attempt something he had never done before. He was going to try something he had failed to achieve many times before, every time he said to himself, “I don’t feel too bad, maybe today I will be able to stand up.” He was going to do something it takes a baby months to learn, and a child years to do properly. That takes faith.

What kind of faith?

But our last question has to be, “What kind of faith are we talking about?”

As I have thought about this passage, I have become aware of a lack among us, because we have rarely thought much about the kind of faith we have.

Peter had faith for Jesus to heal that crippled man, and that man had faith to be healed.

It is great to see that kind of faith in action. It achieves wonderful things. And it often leads to faith for other things.

A friend at work and I have a similar sense of humour, and often share a joke that might go right over the heads of some of the other people who don’t think the same way.

We talk over the things we are struggling with, and try to encourage each other.

Once I needed help with a work issue. We’d never discussed that kind of thing before. Maybe she wouldn’t want to get involved.

But, because she had been on my side in other matters, I decided I could trust her on that matter as well.

I popped into her office. I asked her. She gave me the help I wanted.

Faith in one area had grown into faith that operated in other areas as well.

I think it was Starr Daily, the converted alcoholic reporter, who commented that people meet Jesus in all kinds of ways, like healing, deliverance, friendship and so on, and that all of these are valid.

But he went on that people need to move on from these initial encounters. They need to find Jesus as Lord and Saviour as well, because that is the real goal.

We don’t know how much farther this crippled man went after he was healed. He clearly spent some time with the apostles, but that’s all we ever really hear of him. Did he come to saving faith? Did he discover his own spiritual gifts and put them into practice? Did he develop his own ministry under the Lord Jesus?

We don’t really know.

But we know that such things are the goal. We know that we are “saved to serve.” We know that true salvation must lead to some kind of ministry.

What kind of faith did that man have? Saving faith? Ministering faith? Or only “being healed” faith?

I wonder...

The challenge to us.

I want to ask everyone. I want to ask myself, and I want to ask each of you here this morning, “What kind of faith do we exercise?”

I know that there are all kinds of faith at work among us, because I have heard of healings and of ministries and of all kinds of things done which can only be done by faith.

But, predominantly, the kind of faith we exercise is saving faith. In fact, we Baptists emphasise the faith to be saved almost to the exclusion of other areas where faith is used.

And that ultimately robs us of a lot of blessing. Most people exercise their faith in one or two areas, and that is all.

I have saving faith, and I have enduring faith. Many people have been amazed that, in light of everything we have gone through together, I am still at Marrickville.

Pastors often pull out when there have been difficult years. But I know,

Blessed is he that endures to the end.

I just hang out for my blessing! And I have outlasted difficult people and trying situations.

But I don’t have a lot of faith for revival, or for people being saved, and so I don’t see revival and I don’t see people being saved. After all, we have largely been a congregation of saved people for many years, haven't we. Muscles not used become flabby. But I do see people enduring, because we keep building up each other’s faith in that area. I do see people valuing their own salvation, because that is part of my faith, too.

Well, Jesus constantly tells us to ask in faith. Paul tells us to seek spiritual gifts. And I am going to start praying very seriously for more faith for conversions and more faith for us to be revived. I will do that, because there are gifts of faith, and I can ask for such a gift.

I urge us all to look at the kind of faith we exercise, and to seek faith for the things you lack faith for.

Maybe you will ask for faith for healings or for miracles, or for administration. We will see wonders in our midst!

Let’s use our faith, and thank God for what he will do among us through faith — from beginning to end!

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2005. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)