“Lord, I Do Believe. Help My Unbelief!” Has anybody prayed a prayer like that?
I remember praying about that when I began the church planting process. In 2022, there were a number of families gathered in our living room house and prayed over me and encouraged me to seek the possibility of starting something new. We as a family took a bold step of faith and began our church planting journey then. Hard to believe it was just a year ago Easter of 2024 we launched Sola Church.
God has been so kind. God is faithful. I love being a pastor. It is a privilege! Today, I am reminded of how thankful I am for something as simple as “friendship” Friendship is a true treasure from the Lord. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Prov 17:17). I’m thankful for the flock here. I know I’m right where God wants me to be.
I wouldn’t exchange it for the glorious endeavor for the gospel, for Christ’s glory, and for the kingdom of God. All glory be to Christ our King!
Jesus undoubtedly performed miracles. They should not be understood as stories intended to primarily teach a moral or as evidence for Jesus’ deity. We see the purpose of Jesus’ miracle so that we will place our faith in Christ and in Christ alone.
1. Faith in Jesus and in Him Alone
Jesus said as he performed many miracles on his earthly ministry, “Where is your faith?” (Mark 4:40). Jesus says in this later in a particular story as well, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:34).
With Jesus makes the profound statement to the daughter, then Jesus follows along and says, “Do not fear, only believe.” (v. 36). Faith ties in with everything!
But as Jesus makes his way to the daughter we witness another story, where Jesus is interrupted by the woman who touched her clothes. “And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.” (vv. 25-26).
She had been sick for 12 years. She had spent all her money with doctors, and rather than spending time getting better, she has gotten worse.
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (v. 34). Praise God! But wait, what about the other one? This is the most terrible news here…. “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” (v. 35). Death is irreversible.
What is Jesus’ response here? “Do not fear, only believe.” (v. 36). It is hard for us to understand. “‘Little girl, I say to you, arise.’ And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.” (vv. 40-41). Jesus brings back the daughter to life!
The entire section teaches believers about Jesus’ miracles and their relationship to faith. Sometimes it appears that they are intended to instill faith and sometimes there is a note of the lack of faith.
There are two kinds of faith.
(1) Full-blown faith (woman).
(2) Slow kind of faith (Jairus).
What kind of faith do we have to show? I remember being told by leaders and mentors early on, “You need to slow down, you need to trust in this!” Faith sometimes is like that isn’t it? Waiting game of trusting the Lord. As we have witnessed here. God responded to their faith, to their desperate faith.
2. Missional Rejection & Martyrdom
At age 16, I responded to the call of ministry to shepherding and preaching God’s Word as I came to saving faith of Jesus Christ.
I was going to go anywhere, anytime, and any place for His glory. Even though at times people laughed at me saying, “Ex-gang members can never be a pastor” there were consistently adults patting my back physically and verbally encouraging me to stand with the Lord by serving him vocationally.
“He who has been forgiven loves much?” (Luke 7:47). That was me. I was on fire for Christ. You couldn’t pay me to stop talking about Jesus. I was overflowing with passion for Jesus. I remember shedding tears across one of my mentor teachers who listened as I wept over the lostness of people over the couch.
However, on the other hand, my buds and gang were in Japan. They couldn’t see pass the change. A prophet in his own town receives no glory huh? Sometimes it’s really hard when the transformation of Jesus takes place and others can’t pass through to see the new change in you.
We witness here Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth. This is his last visit to Nazareth (Mark 6:1-13). “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.” (v. 5). Can you imagine Jesus being rejected and mocked by his own people? There are times a home disadvantage for being a witness for God’s glory.
History is full of records of suffering. Persecution has always been a reality for God’s people. History shows that the church tends to thrive under persecution. Missionaries have spoken of this as the early church Father Tertullian famously wrote in 155 AD, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”
For every Romans would kill a Christian, that would double and Christians would be born again. Meanwhile, in America and Europe, Christianity has been steadily declining year after year.
Many in Christian History the martyrs, such as a man in India who was skinned alive and looked at the tormentor and said, “Take my outer garment off of me. Today, I will clothe myself with a newer garment!”
Deny me before Christ? Acknowledge Jesus and associate yourself with people of God: don’t deny Jesus.
3. Christ-Like Compassion
There is only one event that is parallel to the synoptic gospels which is feeding the 5,000. Other than the resurrection of Christ on that Easter Sunday morning, the well-known story that we marvel at Christ’s deity and power.
Feeding of the five thousand was the primary faith lesson for the disciples. Jesus continues to perform miracles such as feeding the five thousand as we see here (Mark 6:30-44).
There were 5000 people, plus women and children. It was a huge crowd, when it began to get late in the day Jesus told the disciples to feed them, which was 200 denarii worth! One translation says eight months’ wages!
The disciples doubted with questions, “How’s this going to work” I mean, Would Jesus be like Moses provided manna from heaven, would provide food for them?
“And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to sit before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.” (v. 41).
There was a boy who he had 5 loaves of barley bread and 2 small fish. I can almost hear the comments the boy is making…. “I only have 5 loaves and 2 fish…. in my hands I can’t do much, but within my Savior’s hand I know He can do much!”
He’ll tell us how glad he was that he didn’t hold back, how he just had to give them all to Jesus with faith!
However, the story is really not about the little boy, but about Jesus. As Scripture says, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” (v. 33).
I am so thankful we have a shepherd who is so compassionate and kind. As Charles Spurgeon said it well, “I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need.”
Bold Legacy with Faithful Endurance
Before coming to the States, I lived in Southeast Asia serving in a Muslim nation. While I was in Malaysia, I was involved on the weekends I had the joy of serving in a homeless ministry called the “Kawan House” to serve and help. “Kawan” in Malay means “friend” and it is organized by a mission agency. It was a privilege to be a part of the team, pray over the nation, and minister to people. It has shaken my world.
There was an audacity, maybe people would even say “foolish” There was a child-like faith to be obedient to whatever God’s call was upon my life. If the Lord calls me to become a missionary elsewhere, then I am willing to do His will. So if the Lord truly speaks into my heart to go to Africa then I will go. If He wants me to stay in America and become a pastor there then I’ll stay. If God says I must go to the mountain, the wilderness, the battlefield, then I will go, because there is nowhere safer than in His arm of love. However, somehow as I grew older, I forgot what ministry was like to be compelled by compassion and to be like Jesus.
As a young teenager, I was like a shepherd boy who knew nothing but a humble posture and said, “Lord, would you help me and use me? Would you lead me to be more like you to others?” As I grew older, I perhaps became more like a king who began to do things in his own ways, own mind, and own strength. Shepherd boys care to be known by the Father, but kings tend to want to be known by others.
I think of that good old hymn that beckons us to do so. “Take my hands, and let them move, At the impulse of Thy love; Take my feet and let them be, Swift and beautiful for Thee,”
May we be those people like the child, believers who are compelled by compassion and not scared of the eyes of the crowds, who reach out to the outcast, and who are low ranked in society for the glory of God!