Jesus’ Faith in Action

Topic: Jesus is our example at how to live life. What can we learn about how His faith?

Jesus’ had faith

Jesus had faith. Jesus had deliberate and careful thought on God and His promises. Jesus had a radically different life for God. Jesus was certain and expressed that in His action. Jesus didn’t merely believe in God, but He believed God. Jesus had perfect, unwavering faith.

How do we know this? 
1. How do we know Jesus had faith? Because Jesus’ pleased God and believed He is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do. Hebrews 11:6: “And without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he who comes to God must believe that [God] is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” What does that mean? We need faith to believe that God is who He says He is and that He is a good Father who gives good gifts. Jesus believes God is who He says He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. He preached that to those He encountered. We know that Jesus’s life please God – and as this passage says “without faith it is impossible to please God”. Therefore, Jesus had faith.

2. How do we know Jesus had faith? Because there was unknown and a space to trust the Father. Jesus also, being fully man, did not KNOW everything that was going to happen. There were certain glimpses that the Holy Spirit gave him (that Judas was going to betray Him for instance) and that He was going to die for the sins of the world, BUT not every detail of every moment was in His knowledge unless the Father chose to reveal it to Him through the Holy Spirit. There had to be faith in God’s plan and trust in God because there were details unknown to Jesus. Jesus had to have faith.

3. How do we know Jesus had faith? Because His faith was expressed fully in His actions. Because Jesus is FULLY God and FULLY man, He did his miracles and healings as a man filled with the Holy Spirit, through faith. The Holy Spirit gave him power and direction. Not only did Jesus have faith, but He showed his faith by his works. He put his faith into actions. James 2:14: “What does it profit, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? . . . But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.'” (18).

C.S. Lewis in ‘Mere Christianity’ says: “if what you call your ‘faith’ in [God] does not involve taking the slightest notice of what He says, then it is not faith at all – not faith or trust in Him, but only intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him.”

We can see Jesus’ faith through His actions.

4. How do we know Jesus had faith? Because He is the perfecter of Faith. Hebrews 12:2 says that we must endure. We must fix our eyes on Jesus. Now, whenever I read that, I used to think we should fix our eyes on Jesus to help us persevere because He is what our faith is about . . . Now I do think that is truth! However, when I read this the other day it had a bit of a new meaning: “Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Not the author and perfecter of OUR faith, but the author and perfecter of faith itself. The One who created faith and the One who showed us on earth how to perfectly have faith. It goes on to say that “for the joy set before Him He endured the cross”. Why? Because His faith was perfect He was able to perfectly obey the Father. No one believed God’s promises and lived his life in light of those promises like Jesus did. Though his family doubted him, his disciples abandoned him, his friends denied him, and his fellow Jews rejected him, Jesus had faith to trust His Father’s plan and character.

Jesus’ BEST example of faith

Jesus’ whole life was an ACT of faith. Every single thing he did was marked by faith. Jesus had options as we have options. He had options during temptation, through each interaction with people, on His road to the cross, etc. He could have chosen the easy way. The faithless way. But each time He chose the faith-filled, God way. I was trying to think of the BEST example to share with you today about Jesus faith in action. I thought about going through the many miracles of Jesus and watching in awe as every single time the Holy Spirit whispered “heal that man” or “say this” and He did exactly that with complete and utter trust. And you might be saying, “Justine, there is no ‘best example’. All His faith examples are perfect because He had perfect faith, so how do you pick a ‘best’?” Well I picked a best one! And I think you will agree with me.

Dramatic reading of Matthew 27:27-28:10 (NRSV)

Jesus conquered the grave through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the power of faith. When Jesus died the death that we should die He went to Sheol. Matthew 12:38-41: Jesus says: “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” He was held in the grave by our sins. In order for Him to be raised from the dead He had to believe what God said about Him. He had to use His faith. There in the grave, alienated from God, Jesus was nearly overcome by grief, by emotions and by the abandonment of the Father. I had always thought it was heartbreaking when Jesus cried out in his final breath “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And it was! However, to think that was more than in that moment when He died on the cross but three days of abandonment by God is heartbreaking. In that utter abandonment He suffered the broken relationship; the broken relationship by Adam, the broken relationship we all suffer without Jesus. But it was by and through Jesus’ persevering and perfect faith He went to the cross, suffered so that we don’t have to suffer, died so that we don’t have to taste death, conquered sin, defeated the devil and rose again. This is the greatest picture of Jesus’ faith in action.

How does Jesus’ example relate to us?

So, how does this pose as an example to us? After all, we are looking this year at how Jesus was the PERFECT example for us. His faith in God the Father is one we need to try to emulate. How?

Well first of all, I think we can all recognize that we do not have Jesus like faith. His faith was perfect. That means we have room to grow in our faith. If we cry out to Jesus as the disciples did in Luke 17 and say: “Increase our faith!” He will respond: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” By referring to the tiny mustard seed after being asked about increased faith, Jesus deflects attention away from the quantity of faith to the OBJECT of faith. GOD moves the mulberry trees. It does not depend decisively on the quantity of our faith, but on God’s power and wisdom and love. In knowing this we are helped not to worry about our faith and are inspired to trust God (John Piper).

Like in the Beautiful Eulogy track we heard at the beginning he said: “Your faith instinctively strengthens in direct proportion to the expansion of the object of your faith! You expand your understanding of the object of your faith and faith itself will obediently follow. The object of your faith – if indeed you are a Christian – is Jesus Christ and all of His promises. Is your faith weak? It is owing to the fact that you don’t know the object of your faith well enough.”

Increasing my faith

How can we increase in faith and begin to seek to emulate Jesus’ faith? By coming before Jesus with willing and humble hearts to do the following . . .

1. Increase your knowledge of who God is. Faith is belief that God is who He says He is.
Who is God? What is His character?
-God is infinite: Colossians 1:17
-God never changes: Malachi 3:6
-God is self-sufficient (He has no needs): John 5:26
-God is all powerful: Psalm 33:6; Job 11:7-11
-God is all knowing: Isaiah 46:9
-God is everywhere: Psalm 139:7-10; Jeremiah 23:23-24
-God is wise: Romans 11:33
-God is faithful: 2 Timothy 2:13
-God is good: Psalm 34:8
-God is just: Deuteronomy 32:4
-God is merciful (compassionate and kind): Romans 9:15-16
-God is gracious: Psalm 145:8
-God is loving: 1 John 4:7-8
-God is holy: Revelation 4:8
-God is glorious: Habakkuk 3:4

Is there any of these that you feel like you lack faith and have trouble believing in? Why?

2. Increase your knowledge of God’s promises. Faith is belief that God will do what He says He is going to do
What does God promise?
-Eternal life: 1 John 2:25
-Forgiveness: Ezekiel 36:26; 1 John 1:9
-Holy Spirit: Luke 11:13; John 16:13
-To Provide for our needs: Philippians 4:19
-To Heal: Jeremiah 30:17; Psalms 103:2-3
-To give wisdom/guidance: James 1:5; Psalms 32:8
-Peace: Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 4:6
-Help us overcome temptation: 1 Corinthians 10:13
-That God will never leave you: Deuteronomy 31:6
-That the Lord is near to you: James 4:7
-Deliverance and Protection: Psalm 91:4-6; Proverbs 18:10
-Jesus is coming back: John 12:2-3

Is there any of these that you feel like you lack faith and have trouble believing in? Why?

3. Faith is expressed in action. Action is obedience – doing what God has asked us to do. True obedience comes through faith and without obedience our faith is dead.

“To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to God, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first fain gleam of Heaven is already inside of you.” (C.S. Lewis ‘Mere Christianity’)

What does action look like in our lives? Carrying out the grand picture . . . which is the great commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28) and in the small, day by day and moment by moment whispers of the Holy Spirit asking you to pray for a friend or talk to the random person on the street.

Romans 12:9-14, 21 gives us a more specific look at the kind of obedience faith should bring about: “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be lazy in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them . . . Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

How do you have trouble putting your faith in action?

CONCLUSION

Do you feel like you are lacking in these areas of faith? Are there characteristics about God on there that you have never thought about or that you know don’t have roots in your heart? Do you doubt any of His promises? Don’t worry. Our faith will not be perfected until we reach Heaven. What can we do about it now? We should cry out like the epileptic boy in Mark 9:24: “I believe; help my unbelief.” Recognize the places of unbelief in your heart and humbly pray and ask Jesus for faith – the one who gets it. The one who has faith, and has it perfectly, to increase your faith. Ask the Holy Spirit, the One given to be the Helper, to help. Know that God wants to increase your faith. Trust Him to do a good work in your life. Just offer yourself in faith.
Ephesians 2:8: “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

Written by: Justine Dueck