Believe

Welcome to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. We are about halfway through our series, Passover to Pentecost, where Pastor Robert has been sharing how the days after Jesus' resurrection changed the world. Today, Pastor Robert is sharing three keys to strengthening our faith.

So let's tune in with him now. So we're in a series called Passover to Pentecost, 50 Days It Changed the World. We're kind of focusing right now on the 40 days when Jesus was on this earth. What was Jesus trying to do during the 40 days? Why did he spend 40 days on the earth?

This one this week might surprise you a little bit. He spent 40 days trying to get the disciples to believe. And that's the title of the message, Believe.

Now you might think, I think they already believed. Let me show you the Bible. By the way, if you want to read about the 40 days, the last, it's easy, last chapter of Matthew, last chapter of Mark, last chapter of Luke, last chapter of John, the four gospels, and first chapter of Acts. And that's the 10 days of the first chapter of Acts, all right?

Okay, so let me read you some scriptures. Mark 16, verse 9. Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons.

She went and told those who'd been with him as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, what does your Bible say? They did not believe. This psalm at the 11, remember, referred to as the 12, when Jesus was on the earth, Judas betrays him and hangs himself.

For the 50 days they're referred to as the 11, from then on they're referred to as the 12. These are the 11 disciples that have walked with Jesus three and a half years. Your Bible says, not just Pastor Robert, they did not believe. Did your Bible say that? They did not believe. How many times had Jesus told them, I'm going to Jerusalem, the Son of Man will be scourged, beaten, mocked, and crucified, but will rise again on the third day. Were they at the tomb on the third day?

They didn't believe. Verse 12, after that he appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. That's the Emmaus Road disciples.

We talked about that last week. And they, the Emmaus Road disciples, went and told it to the rest, that's the 11, but they did not believe them either. These are the 11 disciples.

These are the guys he's been spending three and a half years with. They did not believe Mary and they did not believe the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Now I know this, I'm just having fun with you. Is this what your Bible says? That's why you had to stay 40 stinkin' days to get these guys to believe. One other verse, one other passage, Luke 24 verse 9. Then they returned from the tomb, these are ladies now, several group of ladies, and told all these things to the 11 and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales. And they did not believe them. This is our Bible.

He rose and they didn't believe. So three, three applications to believe, all right? Three things I want you to believe.

Here's number one. Believe Jesus is God. Not just the Son of God, because we're told God in three persons. Believe Jesus is God.

Now I want to go to a passage and talk about how you can strengthen your belief. Mark 9 verse 14. When he came to the disciples, now, okay, let me give you a little clarification. If you go up a few verses, Jesus goes up on the, it's called the Mount of Transfiguration. He takes Peter, James, and John with him. He's transfigured before them.

And now he's coming back down. So there are nine disciples at the bottom of the mountain because he took three with him. So this is when he came back to the disciples, okay? And when he came to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them and scribes disputing with them.

Immediately when they saw him, all the people were greatly amazed and running to him, greeted him. And he asked the scribes, what are you discussing with them? Then one of the crowd answered, said, teacher, I brought you my son who has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down.

He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not. He answered him and said, oh, faithless generation.

In other words, unbelieving. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?

I just love these four words. Bring him to me. This is the creator and sustainer of the universe. Bring me the boy.

I'll take care of this. Then they brought him to him. And when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him. And he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So he asked his father, how long has it been happening to him? And he said, from childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us, Jesus said to him, if you can believe all things are possible to him who believes, immediately the father child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

Okay. First thing I want you to notice is how calm Jesus is. Bring him to me. When he comes, the spirit throws this boy down.

He's wallowing and foaming at the mouth. Now, I don't mean this in any way to be inconsiderate of what the boy was going through. But I just want you to think about this.

He's going all over the ground. Okay. So it's just, all right. Jesus says to the father, how long has it been like this?

It doesn't, he's not like, oh my gosh, God, oh man. How long has this been happening? And the father says, since he was a child.

And then I know it doesn't say this, but I just wonder, Jesus is like, y'all got any other kids? Yeah, we got three. How long y'all been married?

17 years. Where'd y'all meet? Jeremiah's pizza parlor.

Oh, I love Jeremiah's pizza parlor. I'm just saying, he's calm. He's in the boat one day.

The boat is sinking. He's sleeping. What I'm trying to tell you is, Jesus is not unconcerned with the boy, but he's unimpressed with the demon. He's totally unimpressed with this demon. The reason is because he's God.

He's the Lord of heaven and earth. And then it says, when he saw the people running and watching this boy. In other words, when he saw the demon putting on a show, he cast him out. Because he said, you're not going to put on a show.

So he cast this demon out. But something's very important. This guy says to him, if you can do anything, Jesus said to him, if you can believe. Here's what he said, sir, the if does not regard me. The if is not about me.

The question is not if I can do anything. The question is if you can believe. Because I can do it. And then this man gives the best answer in the world to this. Lord, I believe.

Help my unbelief. That's good. That's a great answer for you.

I actually think that the angels in heaven were kind of like on Family Feud. Good answer. Good answer. Good answer. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

Okay. Probably all of us could say that. Probably all of us could say that. My business, my family, my marriage, my health, for my kids, my grandkids, I believe. Help my unbelief. Wouldn't you say that prayer?

That's a great one. I do believe, Lord, but I'd like more belief. So he gives the key to getting more faith, to more belief. Verse 28, when he'd come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, this kind comes out by nothing but prayer and fasting. Okay.

Here's what he's saying. Because you have to put action to your faith. If you want more faith, you have to move.

You have to do something. You don't get more faith by just sitting around. You get more faith by pressing into God. And I'm just telling you that there's nothing wrong with the power of God, but the power of God is not turned on until there's activity in your life. Until you do something.

All right. So, number one, believe in Jesus the God. Number two, believe Jesus loves you. A lot of people have a problem believing Jesus loves them.

I did for years. I finally had a counselor, coach-type guy say to me, I said, I don't understand why God would ever love me. And he said, Robert, I can tell you why. It's because God is loving. And then he said to me, and this just stuck with me, he said, it's definitely not because you're lovable. He said, that's why you don't understand it. You think I'm not lovable, but God loving you has nothing to do whether you're lovable or not one week and not lovable the next.

It's because he's loving all the time. So, so let me show you again, after the resurrection, a disciple who understand, who understood this. All right. John chapter 20, verse one. Now in the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved.

Now let me just stop for a moment. This is John. John refers to himself throughout his gospel as the other disciple.

Okay. So when you see the other disciple, John is writing about himself, but he noticed he says whom Jesus loved. So we'll come back to that in a moment. She ran and came Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them. Now I just think it's funny. We're going to see something funny in a moment that John does and said to them, they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not where they've laid it.

We don't know where they've laid it. Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.

John's like, I'm not going to say who that was, but we all know. Now look at verse eight. Then the other disciple, now watch this, who came to the tomb first, went in also, watch, and he saw and believed. There was one of the 11 who believed. And that's what the Bible says.

See, you got to remember the Holy Spirit's inspiring the writers of the Bible. John couldn't say he believed if he didn't believe. So one of them believed. I'm trying to figure out why he believed.

I'll just go and give you the punchline. The reason he believed is because he knew Jesus loved him. That's what caused him to have a breakthrough.

I'm talking about how to have a breakthrough. One is to put action to your faith. The other is to believe Jesus loves you. Look at John 13, just so you know, he knows Jesus loves him. John 13, 23, now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. John 19, 26, when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved. John 24, verse seven, therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved. John 21, 20, then Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved. John knew Jesus loved him. Now, I do, I still get a little tickled about John writing this about himself.

It's kind of like Numbers 12, 3. Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who are on face earth. Moses wrote that. So I can either conclude that Moses and John were egotistical, or again, they were led by the Holy Spirit. So they weren't saying something prideful, they were just saying something factual. It's kind of like if I said, I have great hair. It's just factual. I'm joking.

I noticed that one is funniest I thought, so we need to edit that before it goes on television. Okay, so it doesn't mean that Jesus didn't love the other disciples. It just means that John knew that he loved him. He had that revelation. By the way, John is the only gospel writer who recorded the 11th commandment.

You do know there are 11, right? Jesus gave us a new one. John 13, 34, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. John 15, 12, this is my commandment, that you love one another. John 15, 7, these things I command you, that you love one another.

And then in 1 John, which John wrote as well, 4, 21, and this commandment we have for him that he who loves God must love his brother. John was the only disciple of the 11, after Judas, of the 11 that was not martyred. The other 10 were martyred.

If you don't know, by the way, John lived to be over 100 years old. But the other 10, just to let you know, Matthew was killed with a sword. Philip was hung. Peter was crucified upside down. James was thrown from the temple and then beaten to death.

That's James the Lesser. James the Great was beheaded. Simon the Zealot was crucified. Bartholomew was flayed to death with a whip. Thomas was stabbed with a spear.

Thaddeus was killed with arrows. Andrew was whipped by seven soldiers and then crucified. And if you want to know why John wasn't martyred, it's because they tried to and he didn't die. They had the whole Roman Colosseum field and the big of the night, after they had done all sorts of killing Christians, the big night with the last event they had advertised was they were going to burn him in burning oil. They had a cauldron of burning oil. They put John in it and he preached the gospel to him.

And they pull him out and he suffered no harm. That's when they exiled him to the island of Patmos and he writes the book of Revelation. So I know he suffered no harm, but he might've got mixed up a little if you've read the book of Revelation. I don't know.

I'm joking. He knew Jesus was God. He knew Jesus loved him. And I want to explain one verse to you from John because it's one of the greatest gospels that maybe you've never thought of. The last verse in the book of John says, and many more things Jesus did, that if they were written in books, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books.

Okay, I want you to think about that. You can't understand the last verse of John if you don't understand the first verse of John. He could not have been referring to the three and a half years Jesus was on this earth. Because you could write a book of everything Jesus did, many books, of everything he did in 33 and a half years, it would not fill the world. But the first verse in John says, in the beginning, the exact same way Genesis begins, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

Here's what he's saying. If you write everything Jesus has done since the beginning of time for every human being, the world could not contain those books. See, he knew Jesus was God.

That's the revelation that he had. So, and here's point number three, believe that you love Jesus. Now, I don't have time to read the scripture.

I knew I'd run a little short on time today. But the scripture is when Jesus asked Peter three times, do you love me? Scripture is in John 21, okay?

And this is during the 40 days. Three times he says, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me?

Peter, do you love me? You've got to remember, Peter was the most human of all the disciples. I mean, you know, Jesus comes walking on the water and says, it is I. Peter says, if it's you. Jesus wrote like, I said it is I. And then Jesus says to the disciples one day, who's everybody saying I am? And they're like, Jeremiah, Elijah, and the one who says, John the Baptist? That's got to be the stupid, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

And he's probably thinking, I was standing beside him. I didn't baptize myself, you know, I mean, he just, and then he said, come on, guys, who am I? Peter says, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus said, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, my father in heaven. This is what Jesus was saying, this is a miracle. This is a miracle that you got the right answer, Peter. And then Jesus says, at the last supper, all of you are going to deny me.

Let me tell you why. Because the scripture says you're going to. And he quotes the verse from the Old Testament, he quotes it. The sheep's going to be, the shepherd's going to be slaughtered and the sheep are going to be scattered. You're all going to deny me tonight. Peter says, not me. If everybody denies you, I won't deny you. Jesus says, you're going to deny me three times.

Before the rooster crows twice, you're going to deny me three times. After the resurrection, he's trying to get them to believe that he's God, that he loves them, but he's trying to get Peter to believe that he loves them. So he says to Peter three times, do you love me? Do you love me?

Do you love me? Peter's last answer was, Lord, you know all things. Of course, Jesus knew that he loved him. He was trying to get Peter to know that he loved him. See, God never asks you a question to learn something.

He always asks you a question for you to learn something. When he said to Adam, where are you? God knew where he was. Adam didn't know where he was.

He wanted Adam to say, I'm hiding from you in fear and shame. Here's what I want to tell you. Because of the resurrection, I want you to know you do love Jesus, even though in word and in deed, we have all denied him at some point in our lives. Some of you denied him at school. Some of you denied him at work.

I want to get really transparent with you. Some of you denied him in a bar. Some of you denied him in a hotel room. But that doesn't mean that you don't love him.

It just means that you blew it just like Peter did. But I want you to know, I want you to believe that Jesus is God, that he loves you and that you love him. Well, I want you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of Pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com. And if you haven't already, go follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. Thank you so much for joining us. Next time, Pastor Robert is sharing how God still moves in our lives during seasons of waiting. Until then, have a blessed day.