Post by delo63 on Jul 21, 2017 8:04:21 GMT -6
Have you ever tried to explain something to someone and they just ignored you or argued against everything you said? How many times have you tried to tell someone the truth about something and no matter how hard you tried to convince them, they never believed you?
I know I've been in this situation numerous times and you probably have too. It can be very frustrating and it can make us feel defeated. However, sometimes there is just one person who does believe you and it makes all the difference.
I remember so many times trying to tell my friends about God and getting shut down immediately. Most of the time it turned into a debate or an argument, which just left both of us annoyed and frustrated. Have you ever experienced this?
I know as we start to grow in our faith and learn more about the amazing love that God has for us, we can't help but want to share with our loved ones. When you first get saved, there is a fire inside of you that overtakes you. This causes you to be bolder then you ever were, and it gives you courage to speak to those you never would have spoken to before.
I believe every believer knows what I am talking about, they also know usually what happens once we start speaking. One of three things usually happens; they either start to argue against everything you tell them; listen to you and then say that its not for them; or they listen and ask you to speak more.
This is the same scenario when Christ walked the earth. As noted all throughout the gospel, there are many people who argued with Jesus, ignored Him, or believed in Him.
If you have ever heard about Jesus, you probably heard of the story of when he fed 5,000 people with only five small barley loaves and two small fish. Now if you can picture yourself there at the mount of olives, watching Jesus multiply all this food. Would it be easy to believe that He was God, if you witnessed this?
Honestly, I could say that I would be convinced, but oddly enough many people during that time, still didn't believe.
This story is in John 6, and it describes the day that Jesus fed the 5,000 and was seen walking on water. The next day a group of people who witnessed these things confronted Jesus. In verse 28, they ask him, "what must we do to do the works God requires?" and Jesus responds in verse 29, The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." Then in verse 30 they ask, "What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?"
I just want to stop here for a second. These are the same people that witnessed Christ feed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread, and realized that He walked on water. What other sign do you need? I can't help but think of some of my friends who say they will believe it when they see it. I honestly doubt that even if they see it they will believe, because so many people saw Christ do all these amazing things and still refused to believe.
John 6:53-65 says,
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[e] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
There are a couple things I see from these verses. One of those is that people got offended by Jesus words. Does that sound familiar to anybody? If we look in our world today, everybody is getting offended anytime you speak the truth, or call them out. Isn't it amazing that people are still the same? I feel like most of the people in this world are represented in these passages. When people are confronted with something that doesn't go with what they want, they throw a hissy fit and get all puffy. It was the same when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and other people back in His time.
Another thing I got from this is that no matter how much evidence is shown, they still will refuse to believe. Jesus basically told them that if He would die and rise from the dead, they still wouldn't believe.
This makes me go back to my I need proof to believe friends. I wonder to myself, what would it take for them to finally believe? If the Jews didn't believe Jesus and He physically rose from the dead, then what would convince people?
I am convinced that they would need to see the same thing, to make themselves even have a remote possibility of believing. This makes me think of the rapture, what else would start to convince the proof needing people of this world? Maybe the reason that Jesus comes back for His bride before the tribulation, is simply to give the stubborn people of this world the proof that they need?