faith in...

When George Michael begins "Faith" with the lines:

"Well I guess it would be nice, if I could touch your body, I know not everybody, has got a body like you" 

you could be forgiven for thinking it's going to be a song about doubting Thomas touching Jesus' wounds and having faith in the resurrected Jesus. In fact, it turns out that it's about George just needing to drum up enough "faith" that his decision to not get (back) into a relationship is the right one. Similarly, Jon Bon Jovi just needs to "keep the faith" that his relationship will work out. The idea that "faith" is this force or substance that we need to work up in ourselves in order that things will some how work out is also present in the church. Saying "you just need to have faith" sounds like we need to convince ourselves to believe the unbelievable, to convince ourselves of something that we're really not sure about.

That idea of faith is unknown in the Bible. Yes, faith is confidence in things unseen (Hebrews 11:1), but it's not confidence in things unknown. It's not "faith" by itself. It's faith in something. Faith in Jesus.

The paralytic man's friends weren't digging through a roof because they had this thing called faith. They were doing it because they had faith in Jesus. Faith is not something you need to work up in yourself, it's a natural response to encountering the person of Jesus.

continuing work

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, (Acts 1:1, ESV)

Luke describes his first book (Luke) as what Jesus began to do and teach, suggesting that Acts, his second book, is what Jesus continued to do and teach. In Luke, He does it in person, in Acts he does it through the church. Acts is not the story of what Jesus followers decided to do with his legacy, it's the story of what he is doing through them. It's Jesus' church and he's the one building it.

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Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” (Matthew 4:5-6, ESV)

When the devil quotes from Psalm 91 in his temptation of Jesus, he knew where to stop. If he knew to apply this psalm to Jesus, he should have considered verse 13 and who that might apply to! 

 For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up,

lest you strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread on the lion and the adder;

the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

(Psalm 91:11-13, ESV)