John 2:23 "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did."
At the end of this book, John will tell us that he did not record all the
miracles which Jesus performed. He emphatically stated: "And there are
also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written
every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books
that should be written. Amen." (John 21:25) I bring this in at this point
because our verse tells us the people had seen "the miracles" which
Jesus had done. We have only been told about one at this point. That is a
sidepoint, my focus today is on the portion of this verse that states,
"many believed on his name, when they saw..."
The world says, "Seeing is believing." Thomas was caught in that
mindset after the resurrection of Jesus when he said, "Except I shall see
in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the
nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." (John 20:25)
My point in bringing this to our attention just now is to show how easy it is
to become trapped in that type of thinking. The problem with the "seeing
concept" is our eyes can be deceived. Have you ever watched a magician cut
a woman in half? It has to be true, doesn't it? After all, we saw it with
"our own eyes". We know that it is not true even though our eyes told
us the man just cut that woman in half. We must never get caught up with
the idea that we believe everything we see. Yes, it can be true with some
things, but our Lord does not call upon us to believe Him simply because we see
something take place.
God has given us something far better than sight. At the point of regeneration,
He gives to us the precious gift of faith. Opposite to the teaching of the
world, faith tells us "believing is seeing." It is not something that
we manufacture within ourselves; rather, God places the ability to see Him by
faith. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) By faith, we know this universe was
created solely by the power of the Almighty God. I didn't see Him speak it into
existence, but I know (by faith) that the order of the universe could not be
maintained by any accidental collision of two masses. Look at the order of the
universe, planets revolving around the sun and then compare it to the tiniest
thing, an atom, which consists of particles revolving around the nucleus. Only
someone who does not have faith could believe that happened by an accidental
collision. How can it be predicted, in advance, the time the sun will
rise on a particular day? Is it not because God maintains this order of the
universe to such a degree that it can be told? Yes, even those who
predict the timing of the sunrise believe in the timely order of creation.
Why is this faith so important to us? All of us must agree there are events and
circumstances in life that have no human explanation. I am thankful our Lord
gave us this precious gift in order to be able to experience peace in the times
of storm. I am thankful He has given us faith to be able to see through the
unknown and place our dependence in the Creator and Sustainer of all life.
Thank you Lord for the gift of believing - especially the gift to know, through
believing, that Jesus Christ died for my sins. My home in heaven is secured,
not by my works, but by the shed blood of Jesus, my Saviour.