The Counselor – Do You Believe I Can Do This? *
Sycamore Creek Church
April 19/20, 2015
Tom Arthur
Peace friends!
If you’ve read much of the Bible you’ve come across a curious fact about Jesus. He likes to ask lots of questions. Jesus asks hundreds of questions and in our current series, The Counselor, we’re exploring four of those questions:
- Why do you doubt?
- Why are you so afraid?
- Do you want to be well?
- Do you believe I can do this?
Today we’re looking at the last of those questions. Jesus asks two blind guys: Do you believe I can do this?
Before we dive into this question fully I’d like to take a moment and reflect on a mission we’ve been a part of that seems just about impossible to accomplish: Imagine No Malaria. Imagine No Malaria is a campaign to eradicate Malaria from Africa. Yes, eradicate it! Unlike many other diseases that are awaiting a cure, malaria was eliminated in the U.S. in the 1950s. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, malaria continues to kill a person every 60 seconds. In our generation we can beat malaria once and for all. 90% of Malaria victims are pregnant women and children under 5. Since 2007 United Methodists have helped cut Malaria deaths nearly in half! We participated in this mission in our Christmas Eve offering. We gave $3000 of our Christmas Eve offering to help Imagine No Malaria. That feels a bit like a drop in a bucket doesn’t it. Do you believe that Jesus can take our $3000 and eradicate malaria? Well, our $3000 has been added to all the offerings of the United Methodist Church in Michigan in the last two years to total $1,542,269! Friends, that’s pretty amazing. But wait, there’s more! In 2006 the United Methodist Church across the world set a goal to raise $75,000,000. Yes, 75 MILLION DOLLARS! Since 2006 together we’ve raised over $60,000,000. Yes, 60 MILLION DOLLARS! We have effectively cut malaria deaths in half. Our $3000 went to help accomplish a goal that seemed at one time almost impossible. And today, Jesus asks us again: Do you believe I can do this?
What are you having a hard time believing that Jesus can do right now? I’d like to explore this question today by diving into a story of Jesus healing a couple of blind guys. The context of this story comes right after Jesus has raised a dead girl back to life. Whoa! That’s pretty impressive! So right after this he gets lots of attention. Here’s where we pick up the story as Matthew, one of Jesus’ closest followers tells it:
After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”
~Matthew 9:27 NLT
When these guys shout “Son of David” they’re making a faith statement. They believe he is the messiah, the anointed one who has come to save them. This title makes the religious leaders of the day furious, but the blind guys shout it anyway. Speaking of “shouting”, the word here for “shout” means “to cry with an animalistic cry.” It shows up elsewhere in the Bible describing a woman screaming out in labor during childbirth (Revelation 22). I’ve heard this kind of shout twice, and I’ve taken measures to make sure I never hear it again short of immaculate conception! So these guys are crying, shouting, howling out because they figure that if Jesus raised a dead girl back to life, then it’s likely that he could do something much easier: give them sight.
I don’t really know what it’s like to be blind but I almost blundered into temporarily blinding myself once. When I first began backpacking I read up about protecting yourself from bears, and I bought a big can of bear spray. A can of bear spray is like an air-freshener size can of mace. Yes, it’s big. I bought it at the local backpacking store and before I went out on my first solo hike, I read the instructions about how to use it. The instructions suggested that you carry it on your belt (it’s no good to have it buried in your backpack when a bear is charging at you!). They also suggested that there’s plenty of spray in the can to give it a test spray so you were familiar with how far it would spray and what it would look like. Now, bear spray works a little different than the kind of personal mace you carry around for self-protection. Self-defense mace sprays in a direct stream. Bear spray sprays out in a big cloud so you don’t have to be a very good shot when you’re crapping in your pants as a grizzly charges at you. So I put the bear spray on my belt, and practiced popping the hood and pointing it forward. Remember, I was going on my first solo trip and was all by myself at the trail head. I tried this several times then figured I was ready to actually press the trigger. So I pulled it out of the holster and pointed it forward all in one fluid motion and pulled the trigger. The mace came out in a big cloud and in that moment I realized a strategic error I had just made. I was facing into the wind. The cloud quickly came right back at me! I began to cough and felt my eyes beginning to sting as I did my best to take evasive maneuvers with a forty-pound backpack on my back. Well, I didn’t lose my sight that day, but it’s not an experience I ever want to repeat. So back to the real blind guys…
They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?”
~Matthew 9:28a NLT
They follow Jesus right into the house, and Jesus turns on his inner counselor and asks them a question: Do you believe I can make you see? A good counselor always asks good questions, and Jesus’ question is spot on at this moment and for us today. Do you believe I can do this?
“Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.”
~Matthew 9:28b NLT
They respond with faith: Yes, Lord. We believe you have the power to make us well.
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen.” 30 Then their eyes were opened, and they could see!
~Matthew 9:29-30a NLT
Jesus responds to their request because of their faith. Not according to their income, their church attendance, or the brand of clothing they’re wearing, but their faith. God responds to faith. The anonymous author of the book of Hebrews in the Bible says that “it is impossible to please God without faith.” (Hebrews is usually attributed to Paul but nowhere in the book does it claim to have been written by Paul. The most interesting theory I’ve heard about the authorship is that it was written anonymously by a woman because no one in that day and age would have read a book written by a woman.) If we have faith we can move the heart of God.
Now before we go too far into this we need to clear up some baggage that churchy people have given to this kind of thinking. Churchy people have taken what should be encouraging and turned it into something discouraging. It can be discouraging because people say: You weren’t healed because you didn’t have enough faith. Or maybe because you didn’t pray right. You didn’t pray long enough or hard enough. You didn’t sign off with the right formula: “In the name of Jesus” or “in the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit” or “in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit.” Or you didn’t shout loud enough or bind up the devil or put your finger in your ear and pat your head and turn around three times. Whatever!?
All this confusion comes from a logical fallacy. Just because God responds to faith, doesn’t mean that if God doesn’t respond, that you did something wrong or don’t have faith. I respond when my kids say “please” but do I always respond when they say “please”? No. Of course not. I take into account all kind of things that they’re not even thinking about. No you can’t “please baptize your brother in the bathtub.” Yes, God does honor faith, but if you don’t get what you ask for, don’t fall into a false sense of guilt that you necessarily did something wrong. What I want to share with you are three types of faith that God honors.
1. God honors the faith that believes when it doesn’t see.
We read again in Hebrews:
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
~Hebrews 11:1 NLT
Let’s be honest about this. Faith has to do with things we can’t always see. Is the world that you can access with your senses all that exists? Or are there some things that can’t be accessed by your five senses? Faith is a confidence and assurance that while you can’t see God, God is at work in your life. Back to the two blind guys:
They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?”
“Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.”
~Matthew 9:28 NLT
Before they saw the results, they believed. Jesus hadn’t even healed them yet, but they believed. Whatever your challenge today—whether physical, financial, or spiritual—do you believe God is able? All things are possible with God. And of course, the churchy answer is, “Yeah, I believe God can do it.” But our actions and our words betray us. We don’t act as if we have faith and often we don’t talk as if we have faith. We say things like, “All we can do now is pray.” In other words, “I guess we’ve tried all the sensible things and the last thing is a hail Mary prayer to God.” No, the first thing you do is pray.
Over the last seven days what were you praying about? For most of us, it’s not much. If you don’t pray for much, that shows that you don’t believe much. The size of your request reveals the strength of your faith. If you’re praying for safe travel, well, you’re probably going to get there safe anyway. If you’re praying for the food to nourish your bodies…well…actually given what some of you eat, that may take real faith! Instead, are you praying for your marriage to be healed? Are you praying to be healed of an addiction? Are you praying to overcome cancer? Lately, I’ve been praying two things for our church:
- Lord, double our church in one day.
- Lord, double our church in one year.
Those are big prayers, aren’t they? We came really close at Easter. We average about 225 each weekend across our three services and two locations. I was praying that we would reach 450 people at Easter. This Easter we were one church, celebrating Easter on three days in three locations with five services. 1 – 3 – 5. We had a record attendance this Easter of 413 people! So close to doubling in one day. I think it’s going to take 1 – 3 – 6 next year! Then compared to last year at this time we’re up 25% year to date in attendance. But I’m praying for us to reach so many new people that in one year we’re up 100%. Double in one day and double in one year. That’s my big prayer lately. I can’t quite see how we’ll double in one year, but I’m praying and I believe that God can make it happen even though I can’t see it yet. God honors a faith that believes when it doesn’t see.
2. A faith that persists when nothing changes.
Let’s get back to the two blind guys:
After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him…
~Matthew 9:27 NLT
So these guys start following Jesus even though he hasn’t yet promised anything. They just follow. They persist even though nothing has changed. Have you ever persisted in following someone? I had an unusual experience one year following my congressman. I got the idea one year to try to meet everyone who held an office that I had to vote for. I figured it would be pretty easy to meet with my local mayor of Petoskey and ward representative, but didn’t imagine I’d get much further than my state representative. But then my congressman from the House of Representatives came to town for a town hall meeting. I figured that was the best I was going to get so I went. During the Q&A time I asked him a question and after it was over, he came right up to me and talked to me. In that conversation he invited me to spend the day with him the next time he was in town. So a year later his office called and I spent the day with him following him around Petoskey. That day he invited me to come spend a day with him in Washington D.C. I happened to be going to Washington D.C. in a couple of weeks so I ended up following him around D.C. for a day. Have you ever wondered what your congressman actually does? I learned in those two days. When he was in Petoskey he met with people who asked him for money for various projects. When he was in Washington D.C. he met with committees and asked them for money for various projects! I don’t know how much changed in our world in those two days, but I learned a lot persistently following him around.
Paul tells the Colossians to be persistent when they ask God for things:
Be persistent in prayer, and keep alert as you pray, giving thanks to God.
~Colossians 4:2 GNT
Jesus tells the parable of a widow and an unjust judge. The widow is so persistent in seeking justice that while the judge didn’t care about justice, he gave her justice just to get her off his back. Jesus summarizes saying that if an unrighteous judge responds to persistence, how much more a loving God?
For many of us who have been around Sycamore Creek Church for a long time, we’ve had to be persistent. Fourteen year of setting up and tearing down in a school is a long time to persist. I’ve only been around for five of these years, but in my second year I had a problem of persistence. I am the second pastor of SCC. I followed Barb Flory, the founding pastor. Second pastors have their own unique set of challenges including a not unusual or unexpected drop of 30-50% in attendance after the founding pastor leaves. We didn’t experience anything quite like that, but in my second year we lost about 20% of our attendance. It wasn’t very much fun. Toward the end of my second year I began to wonder, should I throw in the towel? Five years into it now, I’m glad I persisted although at the time I wasn’t sure anything was really changing. I’m glad we persisted. God honors faith that persists even when it appears that nothing is changing.
3. A faith that works when it doesn’t make sense
There is a difference between hope and faith. Hope is a desire. Faith is a demonstration. Let’s explore that further through the story of Abraham and Isaac. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his child, Isaac. Isaac was a miracle baby, born when Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children. Sometimes you’ve got to wonder what God is doing asking Abraham to sacrifice his child, but you read the story and you find out that just as Abraham is about to do it, God sends an angel to him to stop. There are at least two main points to this story. The first point is to teach that in contrast to other ancient religions, God does not require child sacrifice. But the second is to show trust and faith in God.
In the New Testament we see James, Jesus’ brother, reflecting on Abraham’s faith:
“You see that [Abraham’s] faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.”
~James 2:22 NLTAbraham shows a lot of faith in this moment. But there’s also someone else who shows a lot of faith, maybe even more than Abraham: Isaac. In fact, the Jewish Rabbis don’t call this story “The Sacrifice of Isaac” they call it The Akedah or “Binding of Isaac.” You see, we often think of Isaac as a little boy in this story. But if you read the story carefully you’ll see that he’s probably a pretty strong young man, and Abraham is probably not the strongest old man. So Isaac has faith to allow himself to be bound. Both Abraham and Isaac show amazing faith in the face of something that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
The blind guys in the story we’ve been reading have a similar faith. They are like any of us. We have a problem, and we tend to magnify the problem. In the midst of it all we lose sight of God. In their culture if you were blind, people thought it was because you or your parents sinned. But these guys ignore all that. Nothing makes sense. But they realize that there are some actions they can still take. I can’t see, but I can hear. I can’t see, but I can talk, and I can yell. I can’t see, but I can walk, and I can follow Jesus.
Sometimes there are things you can’t do, but there are still some things you can do. You can’t heal yourself from cancer, but you can seek God and change your diet and go to the best doctor. You can’t erase temptation online, but you can pray for deliverance, and install a filter, and delete apps on your phone. You can’t change your spouse, but you can continue to love your spouse as Christ loved the church. You can’t rescue every sex slave or help every inner-city child get an education, but you can do some things…
You see, our faith is not in our faith, our faith is in the faithfulness of God. It may not make sense, but we trust that God is in control.
Some of you may say, “You go ahead with your blind faith.” But I say that I would rather be blind and have faith that God can heal, than have sight and have no faith at all. So God help me have:
- Faith that believes even though it doesn’t see.
- Faith that persists even when nothing changes.
- Faith that works even when it doesn’t make sense.
*This sermon is based on a sermon that was first preached by Craig Groeschel.
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