John 20:30 In the presence of the talmidim Yeshua performed many other miracles which have not been recorded in this book. 31 But these which have been recorded are here so that you may trust that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by this trust you may have life because of who he is.
All of the miracles we’ve seen are not for entertainment purposes. They aren’t there to spur along intellectual criticism. They aren’t there to get you to understand. They have been recorded for one reason only: you.
But these which have been recorded are here so that you may trust that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by this trust you may have life because of who he is.
This word ‘trust’ is also translated as ‘believe’. Now, we believe a lot of things and a good number of those beliefs have the tendency to bring death. While we fundamentally disagree with that statement, there is little doubt that we most certainly do not bring as much life as we know we should.
Let’s lay a little groundwork here so we can better understand the context. The word for ‘trust’ here is:
G4100 πιστεύω pisteuo (pist-yoo'-o) v.
Ok, to trust means we have ‘faith’. But that’s still a little abstract, therefore we tend to each define this in our own way. So what is faith? Turns out it is linguistically related to ‘trust’.
Root:
G4102 πίστις pistis (pis'-tis) n.
Well, that didn’t clear anything up. Let’s map these back through the LXX and see if we can get something a little more concrete.
Trust (pisteuo) and faith (pistis) both land on the following Hebrew word:
H539 אָמַן 'aman (aw-man') v.
Firm: Pillar: Something that grabs hold or supports something else. The passing of strength or skill to the next generation. A large group of the same kind are stronger than one. To stand firm as a support.
Now we’re getting somewhere. Faith and trust are two sides of the same coin. Trust is the verb, and faith is the noun. In Greek, two different words. In Hebrew, only one. Amen?
But neither of these get started without believing first.
If you don’t believe, then faith and trust are never part of the equation. If you are reading this, it is likely you believe. You believe that YHVH is the one and only God, and He sent His Son into the world so that whoever trusts in Him will have eternal life. But knowing this is nowhere near enough:
James 2:19 You believe that “God is one”? Good for you! The demons believe it too — the thought makes them shudder with fear!
Having belief puts you on the same level as the demons which is far from where we aim to be. But at least it’s a start.
The next level?
Once we believe He exists, we go to work building our faith. This is what separates us from the demons. This is where we pick a side. Filling our library with instruction manuals on how to live, learning His ways, grafting ourselves into the Body called the Bride. Conferences, books, worship sets -- whatever we can get our hands on to grow in relationship with Him. We choose to separate ourselves from the world through a belief structure that promises life. At least, that’s what we hope.
If faith is buying and reading the Book, then trust is doing what is in it. Believing what was written, we now try it for ourselves. We have no personal evidence whatsoever that what He says is true but we try it anyway. If it turns out to be true for us, then trust is built.
I stumbled across the following graphic that I believe covers the transition quite well. The cycle goes a little something like this (starting at the top):
Belief, faith, trust. Repeat.
We aren’t good at understanding flow charts when it comes to truth, so we’ll look to marriage as a practical example.
When you marry someone, you assume they will do their part in the relationship. Your belief in the marriage union spurs you into action so you get married. You then hope your own personal needs are met because they love you and want the best for you. You have faith. You know, the substance of things hoped for. Of course, it hasn’t happened yet but you at least have hope. So you smile and find joy in what’s to come.
Over the course of time, your spouse then performs actions that either validate or invalidate your faith in the marriage union. From this, trust is established or divorce is eminent (or secret option #3 is to become a drunk or bury yourself in work). If they do their part, however, trust builds and you now have history to support your future hope. According to the manual, marriage works. It now moves from theoretical to application. Faith to trust.
And now you have life.
The hope for a peaceful, loving, and supportive relationship gets converted into exactly that. There is no fear of your spouse lashing out in anger. There is no worry of being manipulated. You live together as one flesh in harmony with one another. This is what we are all seeking when we utter the words, “I do”.
But our spouse isn't there just for our own needs -- this is a two-way street. The guidelines for a good marriage say that if you serve your spouse, they will serve you. In this order. Stepping out and serving them first is operating in faith. You hope they reciprocate but there are no guarantees. You have exercised your faith because you believe the manual is true in its instruction. Even if 100 couples before you tell you this is so, that can only build your faith. Until you gain evidence on your own, it will always be faith only.
The moment you step out and serve, you are getting closer to trusting.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Do it enough times and your hope becomes a reality.
We have the entire Bible chock full of examples that can build our faith but until something is done, we will never truly trust. Showing up in fellowship week after week can do wonders for your faith but never having the courage to act will always leave you needing more life.
Fast-forward through the testing phase, and we find out our faith isn’t really producing much fruit. Since we want fruit and we aren’t getting it from Abba, we go to the next best thing. Us.
We believe we have the power to provide for ourselves, and the world has done a marvelous job at building our faith around that. We’ve stepped out on our own and sure enough, trust is built because it works. We can get everything we need/want in order to live through our own efforts and our lives are fully complete.
Except, of course, our lives are anything but that.
Here lies the tension. A God that says to do things His way so we can have life (according to His definition) and the world that says do it their way to have life (according to their definition). We want both because what better thing could you possibly have?
The wealth of the world, and the wealth of the Kingdom. Life now AND life later. Practically, we know this isn’t possible but that sure doesn’t stop us from trying.
How do we shake this? We take His evidence above the world’s.
The world says you will die. It also says that you can have as much as you want as long as you play by their rules. Day to day, this isn’t really all that consequential. Perhaps this is why it’s so easy to stay grounded there. But in those moments where you have to decide, the world plays a very dirty game. The threat of taking it all away if you choose wrong pins you down so tightly, you have to choose their way. Serving ourselves is not a choice but a necessity.
But Abba has a different strategy. Serve everyone else and forget about yourself. Provide life to others instead of holding onto life for yourself. Want proof this works? Closely inspect the evidence:
He can turn water into wine.
He can heal sick kids.
He can deliver people from the clutches of demons.
He can rebuke fevers.
He can heal the masses.
He can provide more fish than you can handle.
He can make you clean.
He can remove paralysis.
He can restore limbs.
He can raise a young man from the dead.
He can calm the seas.
He can remove legions of demons.
He can heal issues with blood.
He can bring children back to life.
He can give sight to the blind.
He can give speech to the mute.
He can heal those that can’t walk.
He can feed 5000.
He can walk on water.
He can heal you with His clothes.
He can heal the gentiles.
He can heal multiple ailments in one person.
He can feed 4000 more.
He can spit on you and heal your sight.
He can deliver unclean spirits.
He can provide tax money to the government.
He can deliver demons that cause blindness and muteness.
He can heal the crippled.
He can heal your swelling.
He can heal your gossip.
He can bring a rotted man back to life.
He can extend pity.
He can wither a fig tree.
He can heal those that come to kill Him.
He can heal those that once followed but now feel the shame in denying Him in favor of the world.
The world’s evidence cannot touch the evidence produced by these miracles.
But these which have been recorded are here so that you may trust that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by this trust you may have life because of who he is.
Giving instead of taking.
Amen.