Believe - October 11, 07 - This has been our most read topic !

[Jo]

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

I noticed this verse is the daily verse for today. It is a verse that the Lord brings up time and time again for me. It came up again for me last Sunday at church.

I am interested in hearing people's thoughts on this verse and on the word "believe". What does it mean to believe? It's easy to say I believe but even the demons believe. So what does it mean for us to really believe?

[Jo]

Last week at church the pastor was preaching from Matthew 24. In verse 51 Jesus uses the word "hypocrites". If you go over to Luke 12:46 the word "unbelievers" is used in place of hypocrites.

When unsaved people are saying the church is full of hypocrites they are actually saying the church is full of unbelievers.

When I heard the pastor say that it brought John 6:29 to my mind again.

This is the work of God that we believe in Him whom He sent.

Our good works come out of believing, it's not the works that make us believers.

[Jo]

In John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Jesus asked Martha if she believed she said yes.

John 11:38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Verse 39 and 40 - Did she believe in the first place? Did she have confidence or conviction that what Jesus said was truth? Do we?

Verse 42 Jesus performed this miracle that they who were there would believe.

So did they believe before the miracle? Did Martha believe. I believe Jesus groaned within Himself because of doubt and unbelief. That would mean, though they said they believed and thought they believed, they didn't have confidence or conviction.

[Jo]

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post John 6:29 is a verse that the Lord is continually bringing up for me. Just recently i was reading a book written by David Wilkerson and he wrote about righteousness as follows:

Romans 4:3, 9 and Galatians 3:6.

Each of these verses refers to one thing Abraham did to attain true righteousness. He believed.

Romans 4:22

Righteousness is believing the promises of God, being fully persuaded that He will keep His word.

Unrighteousness is unbelief - staggering at His promises, doubting God will do what He promised and trying to do it ourselves.

Then he quotes John 6:29 This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent.

If we are not believing the promises of God, and try to do things ourselves, we are not being clothed in His righteousness but our own filthy rags.

May we believe He is faithful to do as He has promised and walk by faith according to His word and have it accounted to us for righteousness.

[Jo]

The Hebrew word translated believe is from a root meaning "establish" or "confirm".

Belief is one of the most important ideas in all the bible, because a person must believe God in order to be saved from sin.

Whenever the Scriptures, whether the old or new testaments, state that a person "believed in the Lord, it signals that the person has made a decision to treat God's word as certain and has made a commitment to do what God wants.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name

The Greek word for believe literally means "to place one's trust in another". To believe in Jesus is to believe in His person and to trust in Him completely for salvation.

Many of Jesus' contemporaries believed in Jesus' miraculous power, but they would not believe in Jesus Himself (John 6:23-26).

Others wanted to believe in a political Messiah, but would not believe in the One who suffered for their sins (Mark 15:32 - Their offer to believe in Christ if He would descend from the cross was empty mockery. True evidence alone does not turn a soul toward God. A sinful heart must be convicted of the need of God's salvation).

We must be careful to believe and trust in the Jesus presented in the Scriptures, in the Son of God who sacrificed His life for our sins (Galatians 1:3-4, Philippians 2:5-8).

[Jo]

John 10:37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

The heart of the issue is belief. John never deviates from this single condition for being born again. The word translated believe is used 99 times in the book of John.