A tribute to Rewind Conference 2004

What does it mean to believe?

From Webster’s

be·lieve v.
v. tr.
1. To accept as true or real: Do you believe the news stories?

v. intr.
1. To have firm faith, especially religious faith.

I have selected the number 1 uses for both the transitive and intransitive uses of the verb “believe”.  Don’t ask me to define transitive and intransitive as I took English many years ago, but I will admit that I remember the words!  The point I want to explain is between the 2 definitions.

First, I want to credit this study to Adrian Despres who spoke at the REWIND youth conference in 2004 in Marion, Indiana.  He was so powerful and the spirit of God was so present that these words are forever written on my heart, among many others.  I’m not just saying that, this weekend changed me forever, much like my Walk to Emmaus.

Here we go, hang on.  Let’s look at a common verse from the Gospel of John.  Yep, John 3:16 NIV.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” There’s that word “believes”.  Could we be reading this verse all wrong?  How are we reading the word “believes”?  AS the transitive definition above or the intransitive?  Do we believe like we believe Abraham Lincoln was president of the USA, or do we believe like the Greek and Hebrew texts would have been defined?  English is a funny language, because one day “bad” means awful, and the next it means “good”.  Like right now, some use the word “nasty” as a good description, “fat” or “phat” as “awesome”, COME ON!!!  Can’t we just define something and NEVER change it……..?  Apparently not, and we may be reading John 3:16 and getting it all wrong.  How dangerous would that be?  I believe (historically) that God gave his Son Jesus for me, so I am saved right?  Hmmmmm, don’t think so.  Don’t get me yet?  Let’s look deeper.

Back up in John and look at verses 12+, Jesus is talking to a Pharisee named Nicodemus who is a bible scholar and knows the bible inside and out, yep, memorized the old testament (remember that).  So here is Jesus speaking: “12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven–the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16″For God so loved…”

WHOA!  In verse 14, what is this about a snake in the desert?  So we have to BELIEVE the Son of man will be lifted up JUST AS Moses lifted up the snake….  Have you EVER read that?  I hadn’t  (BUSTED)  Never read it, nope, not once that I recall.  AND I SAY THAT IS THE KEY TO WHAT “believe” is supposed to mean!!!!!

Enter time machine (or turn back into the Old Testament), and look at the book of Numbers chapter 21.  Here is some of the story background.  We are ~38 years into the 40 years of wandering in the desert.  God’s chosen people are once again complaining about MANNA and wandering the desert, blah blah blah.  God is not happy.  I parted the Red Sea for you, give you what you need to survive, and all you do is complain!  Moses can’t seem to get the Israelites to understand so God sends in the snakes (probably the vipers whose heads look like little Satan’s according to history and archeology) and many Israelites die.  They repent and say they are sorry and:

” 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

OK OK OK, some of you may be saying, Jeff, just where are you going with this.  You are nuts, insane, bad (good) whatever.  STAY WITH ME.  Read it again if you need to.  10 times if you need to.  This stuff is important (also pretty cool!)…point being I care, I wouldn’t sit here and type while my son naps if I didn’t feel this was important in some way.

Moses put a bronze snake on a pole and stuck it in the desert.  If you got bit by a snake, you looked at the snake on the pole and lived.  Do you think that people would let a tent or a wall get in the way of looking at that snake on a pole if they got bitten?  Do you think they would have jumped as high as they could to see the snake on the pole in order to live?  Readers, that is what the word “believe” means in these passages.  You will not let anyone or anything stop you.  You will jump as high as it takes, run as fast, climb as high, travel as far, do anything for that belief.  Jesus knew that Nicodemus would know this story like the back of his hand.

When Jesus equated the fact he would be lifted up JUST AS Moses lifted up the snake in the desert (John 3:14), he was saying that he knew he would be crucified and that Christians would look to HIM to LIVE.  Otherwise they die, simple simple simple.  Deep deep deep.  BELIEVE, jump as high as you need, run as fast, break through as many walls as needed, deal with as much persecution as dished out, be made fun of, get beaten up, lose your friends, pray in a public restaurant, ANYTHING, if you believe, IF YOU BELIEVE, you would do anything to LIVE, to follow Christ, to look at Christ lifted up on the cross.

Do you believe?  Really BELIEVE?  More than history, more than just on Sunday, more than…….(fill in the blank)

“Satan hates your guts and wants you to die, BELIEVE!” – Adrian Despres

Blessings!

Jeff

P.S.  Funny story about MANNA.  It means “What is that?”