Not by Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith - Softcover

Bloom, Jon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1433535939 ISBN 13: 9781433535932

Verlag: Crossway Books, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Trusting Jesus is hard. It requires following the unseen into an unknown, and believing Jesus’s words over and against the threats we see or the fears we feel. Through the imaginative retelling of 35 Bible stories, Not by Sight gives us glimpses of what it means to walk by faith, counsel for how to trust God’s promises more than our perceptions, and the way to find rest in the faithfulness of God.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Jon Bloom (BA, Bethel University) is the cofounder and president of desiringGod.org, where he contributes regularly. He is also the author of several books. Bloom and his wife, Pam, live in Minneapolis with their five children.

John Piper is founder and lead teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for thirty-three years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than fifty books, including Desiring God; Don’t Waste Your Life; and Providence.

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Not by Sight

A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith

By Jon Bloom

Good News Publishers

Copyright © 2013 Desiring God
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4335-3593-2

Contents

Foreword by John Piper, 
A Word to the Reader, 
Gratitude, 
1. "Where Is Your Faith?" James Zebedee and Fear, 
2. "Neither Do I Condemn You" The Adulteress and Guilt, 
3. She Still Had to Go Home The Adulteress and Sin's Consequences, 
4. Doubt in the Darkness John the Baptist and Doubt, 
5. Dismembering an Idol Zacchaeus and Idolatry, 
6. Why Are You Disappointed? Joseph Barsabbas and Disappointment, 
7. Can You Bear Uncertainty? Would-Be-Disciple and Provision, 
8. "I Will Never Believe" Thomas and Skepticism, 
9. The Night the Angel Didn't Come James Zebedee and Death, 
10. Facing a Painful Decision Joseph the Carpenter and Guidance, 
11. Stables of Desperation Are the Birthplaces of God's Grace Joseph the Carpenter and Trust, 
12. (Un)Planned Detours Joseph the Carpenter and Guidance, 
13. "Do Not Be Afraid" Jehoshaphat and Fear, 
14. What Love for God Looks Like Simon the Pharisee and Worship, 
15. When a Rock Sunk Slowly Peter and Faith, 
16. Faith That Makes Jesus Marvel The Centurion and Faith, 
17. Are You Content with Weaknesses? Paul and Humility, 
18. Ask! The Leper and Provision, 
19. "Do You Believe This?" Martha and Death, 
20. When You Aren't Sure What to Do Next Peter and Waiting, 
21. Jesus Chooses and Uses Failures Peter and Restoration, 
22. When a Rebuke Became a Reward Zechariah and Unbelief, 
23. Hope for Our Beloved Unbelievers Jesus's Siblings and Evangelism, 
24. Success Can Be Perilous King David and Selfishness, 
25. More Than Enough Philip and Provision, 
26. God's Purposes Can Be Opposite of Our Perceptions The Man Born Blind and Suffering, 
27. The Eyes Jesus Opened First Cleopas and Disillusionment, 
28. "What I Am Doing You Do Not Understand Now" Peter and Sanctification, 
29. Staying Faithful When Things Get Worse Joseph and Perseverance, 
30. Serve in the Shadow God Places You Andrew and Humility, 
31. The Day of Your Deliverance Is Decreed Disabled Woman and Suffering, 
32. Has Jesus Been Worth It? Paul and Christian Hedonism, 
33. Powerful, Pragmatic Pawn of Providence Pontius Pilate and Governing Authorities, 
34. "Follow Me" Levi and Grace, 
35. When Following Jesus Means Going Home The Gadarene and Appointment, 

CHAPTER 1

"WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?"

JAMES ZEBEDEE AND FEAR

Luke 8:22–25

THE SEA WAS QUIET now. And there was just breeze enough to push the boat along.

The disciples were quiet too. Andrew was steering. He had taken over for Peter, who sat wrapped in a cloak, exhausted and lost in thought. He had been soaked to the skin. A few others were bailing out the remaining water.

Jesus was sleeping again.

James leaned on the bow gunwale watching reflections dance on gentle waves.

James knew this sea. He and John had spent most of their lives on or in it. His father was a fisherman. So were most of his male kin and friends. His memory flashed the faces of some of them who had drowned in unpredictable Galilean windstorms like the one that had pummeled them barely a half hour ago.

A seasoned boatman, James was not alarmed easily. But he knew a man-eater when he saw it. This storm had opened its mouth to swallow them all into the abyss.

Terror had been in John's eyes when he grabbed James and yelled, "We have to tell the Master!" They stumbled to the stern. How Jesus had remained sleeping while the furious surf tossed the boat around was itself a wonder. They woke him screaming, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" (v. 24).

James would never forget the way Jesus looked at him. His eyes were at once potent and tranquil. No trace of fear. Laying aside the blanket, Jesus rose to full height on the rear deck. James, fearing Jesus was about to be pitched overboard, reached to grab him just as Jesus shouted, "Peace! Be still!" (Mark 4:39).

No sooner had those words left his mouth and the wind was completely gone! The sudden hush of the howling was otherworldly. The waves immediately began to abate. Each disciple stood where he was, looking dumbfounded at the water and sky and each other.

Jesus's gaze lingered for a moment on the steep hills along the western shore. Then he looked around at the Twelve and said, "Where is your faith?" (v. 25).

He had looked right at James when he said "faith."

Now, as James leaned on the bow, he turned Jesus's question over and over in his mind.

"Where is your faith?" When Jesus first said it, James felt its intended rebuke. Didn't he trust God? He thought he had. But the storm proved that all the confidence he felt when the pressure was off was fair- weather faith. The Galilean westerlies had swept it away. He felt chastened and humbled.

But the more James thought about the question, the deeper it dug into him. "Where is your faith?" Where? My faith is in what I see. My faith is in what I feel. When the storm hit, I trusted what my eyes saw. I trusted what my skin felt. I trusted the violent force that was tossing the boat like a toy. I trusted the stories told by my father. I trusted the tragedies I remember. I trusted the power of the storm because storms kill people. Is that wrong? Up until a few minutes before, this would have merely seemed like common sense. But Jesus had changed everything.

James looked back to the sleeping Jesus. He looked almost the same as when the storm was raging. But which had looked "Where Is Your Faith?" 25 more powerful then? What his eyes saw. But which really was more powerful? Jesus had killed the killer storm with a word.

James felt fear wash over him again. But it was a very different kind of fear. He thought, "Who then is this?" (v. 25).

As James looked back down at the water, the psalmist's words came to mind:

For I know that the Lord is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the Lord pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain
and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
(Ps. 135:5–7)

James trembled.

* * *

What Jesus did for James and the other disciples when he quieted the storm was a fear-transfer. One moment they feared the storm and the next moment they feared Jesus, with a holy, reverent fear. This storm was a gift from God to them because it taught them just how powerful Jesus was and deepened their faith in him. And it prepared them to weather other, even more deadly kinds of storms that lay ahead of them.

When the storms of life hit, they almost always appear stronger to us than God's Word. It is crucial for us to remember that our perceptions can be deceptive. When circumstances strike fear into our hearts, the question we must ask ourselves is, where is your faith?

What God wants is for you to trust what he says over what you see.

"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."

JOHN 8:10–11

CHAPTER 2

"NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU"

THE ADULTERESS AND GUILT

Luke 8:22–25

"SHAME ON YOU, WHORE!"

She was married, but not to the man in whose arms she had been lying. Suddenly the door had burst open. Oh no! Instantly she was in the grasp of angry men who dragged her — and her forbidden secret — out into the street.

"Adulteress!" The name pierced her like an arrow. Loathing looks bored into her. Her life was undone in a moment, by her own doing.

And it was about to be crushed. They were talking about stoning! Oh my God, they're going to stone me! God, please have mercy!

But God's verdict on her case was clear:

If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. (Deut. 22:22)

"Both shall die!" She was going to die! But where was he? Why hadn't they grabbed him?

No time to think. She was being half pushed, half pulled through Jerusalem. She was despised and rejected, as one from whom men hide their faces.

The temple? Why are we entering the temple? Suddenly she was thrust in front of a young man. A man behind her bawled, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery" (John 8:4). Oh God! Oh God! she begged silently. "Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" (v. 5).

The teacher said nothing. He looked at her, then at her accusers. Then he bent down. She stood in frozen exposure. Why was he writing in the dirt? Men on either side of her were clenching brutal stones. Impatient prosecutors demanded a ruling.

The teacher stood back up. She held her breath, eyes on her feet. "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her," he said (v. 7).

The crowd of judgment hushed to whispers. Confused, she risked a quick glance at him. He was writing in the dirt again. She heard murmurs and disgusted grunts around her. Then shuffling. A stone dropped with a dull thud beside her. Its former holder whispered, "Slut!" as he passed behind her. But they were leaving! No one grabbed her.

It took some courage to look around. Her accusers were gone. She looked back at the Teacher. He was standing, looking at her. She dropped her eyes again.

"Woman," he said, "where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more" (vv. 10–11).

* * *

Forget for the moment the self-righteousness of the accusers and the apparent injustice of the adulterous man's absence. Did you really hear what Jesus said? "Neither do I condemn you." But this woman's guilt was real. She committed the crime of adultery. God, through Moses, commanded her death.

Now, if God the Son wouldn't condemn her, was God violating his own commandment and letting the guilty go unpunished? If so, then God was unjust. So how could Jesus possibly have said that to her?

Here's where the news gets really good. God fully intended for this sin of adultery to be punished to the full extent of his law. But she would not bear her punishment. She would go free. This young teacher, who would not condemn her, would be condemned in her place. Might he have written these words from Isaiah in the dirt?

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned — every one — to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:5–6)

In a sense, every one of us is that woman. Our horrible sins — our shameful lusts, destructive tongues, murderous hatred, corrupting greed, covetous pride — stand exposed before God as starkly as in that temple courtyard. Our condemnation is deserved.

And yet, if you believe in Jesus, he speaks these stunning words to you: "Neither do I condemn you." Why? Because he has been condemned in your place. All your guilt has been removed. No stone of God's righteous wrath will crush you because Jesus was crushed for your iniquities.

Jesus was the only one in the crowd that day who could, in perfect righteousness, require the woman's death. And he was the only one who could, in perfect righteousness, pardon her. Mercy triumphed over judgment for her at great cost to Jesus. And the same is true for us.

So much glory is packed into the truth that "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

"Go, and from now on sin no more."

JOHN 8:11

CHAPTER 3

SHE STILL HAD TO GO HOME

THE ADULTERESS AND SIN'S CONSEQUENCES

Based on John 8:2–11

THE ADULTERESS WHO HAD been forgiven by Jesus in John 8 begins to head for home when she realizes what she still has to face: all the consequences of her sin.

* * *

"Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more" (v. 11).

These words were almost unbelievable. A half hour ago she had been dragged out of her illicit lover's house and shoved through the streets. Just minutes before, she had been bracing for the crushing stones of judgment.

Now those stones lay on the ground, the execution squad was gone, and the young rabbi with compassionate eyes was telling her she was free to go. Free? Where had her guilt gone? It was hard to comprehend. One moment she was a condemned sinner and the next she was condemnation free.

As she turned and began to walk toward home, she felt something strange. She was clean — cleaner than she could remember. How could that be? She hadn't done anything to deserve to be clean. There hadn't even been a ritual sacrifice or water cleansing according to the law yet. That rabbi had simply declared her guilt free, and it was so.

No one ever spoke like this man. She heard God when he spoke.

But after a few minutes of walking, it hit her: I have to go home. Fear shot through her. She wanted to bolt. The rabbi had forgiven her. But waiting at home was her betrayed husband. And her children. And her parents. And his parents. And her neighbors. And her illicit lover's family. She had brought shame and inexpressible pain upon them all. Her life was like a shattered pot, shards all over the floor, shattered by her sin. She almost longed to be buried by the stones.

But she still felt clean.

She drew her head-covering around her face and took a detour, walking streets where she might not be recognized. She needed time to think. And pray.

That was strange too. She hadn't prayed a heartfelt prayer in years. She hadn't wanted anything to do with God. She had merely been going through religious motions while secretly pursuing her own happiness in forbidden places. She had just tried to lay low and escape the Judge's attention.

But now all was different. As she thought of God, that fresh cleanness washed over her again, like it had when the rabbi spoke. She found herself wanting to run to God to hide rather than hide from him. Surprisingly, he was the one person she wanted to talk to most. This was new. God was no longer her condemning Judge. He had become a forgiving Father.

So she ducked into a lonely alley to repent of her horrible, selfish sin and to ask her Father for help with what seemed like an impossible situation. As she prayed, she heard the rabbi's words again, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." And then these words followed: "I am with you always (Matt. 28:20). With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27).

With a new peace that surpassed her understanding, she caught her breath and headed for what was left of her home.

* * *

We do not know what this woman faced after she left Jesus. But it must have been very painful.

Jesus removed the guilt of her sin, taking it and God's wrath against it upon himself. But he did not remove the fact that she had sinned and the relational pain that must have resulted. Maybe her husband was also saved and they were reconciled. Maybe he divorced her.

But whatever happened, she remained forgiven and clean. She was justified in God's eyes. In Jesus she became a new creature. Wearing Jesus's righteousness, the Father viewed her as if she had never sinned and as if she had perfectly obeyed, because Jesus became sin for her and he perfectly obeyed the Father on her behalf. And even the earthly consequences of her sin became a means of grace to her because God caused all of them to work together for her good.

And that's the hope we all need. We need the hope that we have been justified by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. And we need the hope of the promise of Romans 8:28, that God will work all things, even the fallout from our past sins, together for good for us.

God's grace was sufficient for this woman, both to cover her sins and redeem her life. And, likewise, his grace will be sufficient for you.

And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

LUKE 7:18–19

CHAPTER 4

DOUBT IN THE DARKNESS

JOHN THE BAPTIST AND DOUBT

Luke 7:18 — 28

AS JOHN THE BAPTIST sat in Herod Antipas's prison waiting likely execution, he was afflicted with doubts about Jesus.

* * *

"Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (v. 19).

This was a surprising question coming from John the Baptist.

It's unclear exactly when John first consciously knew that Jesus was the Son of God, whose way he had come to prepare. The apostle John quotes him, sometime after he baptized Jesus, as saying, "I myself did not know him" (John 1:31).

Now, this is remarkable because John's mother, Elizabeth, had known. She knew because John announced it to her in utero by leaping when she heard Mary's voice. Was she not allowed to tell him? We don't know. Regardless, John had known even before he knew.

What is clear is that when the revelation came, it was an overwhelming experience for John. That day, when Jesus approached him at the Jordan near Bethany, John couldn't contain the shout: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). With awe and trembling hands he had baptized his Lord. And then saw the Spirit descend and remain on him.

That day had also marked the beginning of the end of his ministry. From that point, he had joyfully directed people away from himself to follow Jesus. And they had.

Now he sat in Antipas's filthy prison. He had expected this. Prophets who rebuke sinful kings usually do not fare well. Unfortunately, he had not been an exception. Herodias wanted him dead. He was not optimistic that she would be denied her wish.

What he hadn't expected was to be tormented by such oppressive doubts and fears. Since the Jordan, John had not doubted that Jesus was the Christ. But stuck alone in this putrid cell he was assaulted by horrible, accusing thoughts.

What if he had been wrong? There had been many false prophets in Israel. What made him so sure that he wasn't one? What if he had led thousands astray?

There had also been many false messiahs. What if Jesus was another? So far, Jesus's ministry wasn't exactly what John had always imagined the Messiah's would look like. Could this imprisonment be God's judgment?

It felt as if God had left him and the Devil himself had taken his place. He tried to recall all the prophecies and signs that had seemed so clear to him before. But it was difficult to think straight. Comfort just wouldn't stick to his soul. Doubts buzzed around his brain like the flies around his face.

The thought of being executed for the sake of righteousness and justice he could bear. But he could not bear the thought that he might have been wrong about Jesus. His one task was to prepare the way of the Lord. If he had gotten that wrong, his ministry, his life, was in vain.

But even with his doubts, there remained in John a deep, unshakable trust in Jesus. Jesus would tell him the truth. He just needed to hear from him again.

So he sent two of his closest disciples to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (v. 20).

When the men relayed the question, the affection that radiated from Jesus was palpable. He loved John. And Jesus was familiar with John's sorrows and grief and the satanic storms that break on the saints when they are weak and alone. He too had been assaulted, and would be again.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Not by Sight by Jon Bloom. Copyright © 2013 Desiring God. Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Crossway Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1433535939
• ISBN 13: 9781433535932
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar