His Brothers Did Not Believe

On a regular basis, we drive around and see a sign in front of a church that has the famous Scripture, and it is a pivotal Scripture. John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. But it speaks of the need to believe in Christ. Now think about that, because Christ was here on the earth for over 33 years. And it was that last three and a half years that He had His ministry. And belief in Christ would speak of His message, His identity as the Son of God, His role as the Lamb who would bear away the sins of the world, of His resurrection to life, because we are saved by His life.

Belief in Christ would cover so many areas. And yet, as we look at the society of that day, it seems so few truly believed in Him. And they had Him, in some cases, living in their home, and they didn't believe. And in other cases, He grew up in the city where they were. Or He was just someone they heard of as He began His ministry, and they didn't believe Him either. Let's turn to John 1, because John in His Gospel speaks of the fact that there were so many who just simply did not believe.

And yet, the very reason Jesus came was that whoever believes in Him would have everlasting life. In John 1, let's read verse 11. It speaks above of the Word, and then it speaks of the light that came. And in verse 11, He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. And His own refers to His own people, the Jews. They did not recognize Him. The Messiah walked and preached and healed in their very midst, and they didn't recognize Him.

We'll look in a little bit at an account in Matthew. Matthew tells of when, at one time, He went back to His own country. He went back home to Nazareth, and it mentions the names of His brothers and the fact that He had sisters, four brothers and at least two sisters. And the people there didn't believe Him either. They didn't want anything to do with Him.

Let's go to John 6. As we get into Christ's ministry, we find in chapter 6 that He drops some pretty heavy nuggets of truth on them. It's kind of hard to wrap your mind around a statement that, I am the bread from heaven, and drawing the connection back to the manna that fed ancient Israel.

It's kind of tough for any of us to wrap our minds around a statement that whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life. And so, as we notice toward the end of this story, John 6, verse 60, Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying. Who can understand it? Well, Jesus knew what they were saying, and He asked them at the end of the next verse, Does this offend you?

What then, if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? In other words, what are you going to believe if you see the Son of Man actually ascend back to His Father where He came from? It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. And it speaks of the fact that He knew one among that intimate circle of disciples would actually betray Him.

But just notice verse 66, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Now, when the term disciples is used in the Gospels, sometimes it refers to the Twelve. And a lot of times, as you will remember, there were times when He fed 5,000 people. And disciples covered those who were following. They were the learners receiving and drinking in of what He gave to them during His ministry. And then let's go to chapter 7.

In chapter 7, verse 2, it says, The Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. The Jews' Feast, because John's writing quite a bit further down the line and with the audience he was addressing, it was viewed as being a feast of the Jews.

His brothers therefore said to Him, depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples, the wording would seem to imply they weren't among the disciples, but that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret while He Himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For even His brothers did not believe in Him. His brothers did not believe in Him. Actually, there was a prophecy all the way back in one of David's Psalms, Psalm 69, which we won't turn back to at this time today.

It has so many messianic prophecies and one statement that was made in verse 8 is that I have become a stranger to my brothers and an alien to my mother's children. It had been foretold a thousand years earlier in David's time that the day would come when his own family would not believe. Now, think of that family Jesus came from. What would truly be a stepfather named Joseph?

And, of course, his mother Mary. What a remarkable person she must have been. For God in heaven to look down and decide, I will use this woman to actually bear the Son of God. His mother. And it tells us the names of his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, whom we know better as Jude because of a book he wrote once upon a time. And then it says his sisters, plural, two but maybe four, five, six sisters, we don't know. But at least eight people growing up in a household.

Large family. Acts chapter 1, when everything comes to a conclusion and the resurrection takes place, the ascension to heaven takes place. It is interesting to read here. Acts 1 verse 14, as they gather in Jerusalem waiting for the power from on high. Acts 1 verse 14, These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women.

Yes, quite often there was this group of faithful believing women who flocked to his ministry. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, I love the place where it says that she kept these things in her heart. Won't it be neat one of these days to hear those stories from a mother who kept those stories, filed them away for another time, and with his brothers?

Now, that doesn't necessarily mean all four, but it could. It might mean two. We would say it means at least two, because we happen to know some of the rest of the story with the one named James and the one known as Jude.

They didn't believe, but later they did believe. And I'd like to discuss that process with you today. I'd like to consider, why did his brothers not deceive? Excuse me, did not believe. Why did his brothers not believe? And then a little later, let's consider what changed. What changed them? They didn't believe, but then they did believe. What happened? Why? Why were his brothers incredulous that their older brother was the Son of God?

Had they not known him all their lives? Had they not recognized there was something unique and special about him, even when he was 15 or 17 or 24? Were they unaware of his miracles? And what about the people around his home area? Nazareth? Why didn't they believe? I'd like to explore three possible reasons. I think it's instructive for us to consider some of the landmines that might lie out there that we can step on. And then we can also be forewarned that we can avoid them. But why did his brothers disbelieve? What blinded them that they could not see the Son of God under their own roof? I want to suggest, first of all, that perhaps we're dealing with familiarity. Familiarity. Now, being such a high-tech person, I went online to dictionary.com. Yes, that is funny. Thank you for you noticing. It was easier than getting up and walking three steps to pull my old websters off the shelf. But dictionary.com, on this word familiarity, it says a number of definitions. First of all, a thorough knowledge or mastery of a thing or subject. That's not what we're really talking about here today. Let me just skip on down to the fourth definition. Freedom of behavior justified only by the closest relationship and undue intimacy. Familiarity, there is a negative side of it that involves taking liberty because we get too close. And maybe we can't see the forest because our nose is stuck up against one little tree, and that's all we can see. Familiarity. A person can be blinded by familiarity. We have heard, surely, the old saying, familiarity breeds contempt. We see it everywhere in the world around us. Just look at the political world. Look at it for your lifetime. For decades, we've had, I've often thought, who in their right mind would run for political office? Because they're going to have a life-sized target on their backside. They're going to be shot at. And you see, you hear, you become aware of enough flaws of a political leader. And familiarity tends to lead toward contempt. Let's go now to Matthew 13. Here is that story where it tells the names of Christ's brothers and mentions He had sisters. But it also speaks of the community around. Matthew 13. Let's go to verse 53. Look at the latter verses. Matthew 13, verse 53. Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables that He departed from there, when He had come to His own country. So He goes back home. He taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, Where did this man get His wisdom and these mighty works? I mean, they recognized there was something unique about His, the depth of His understanding. They recognized He had been performing mighty works. But then notice, is not this the carpenter's son? You know, we knew Joseph. This is just some son of Joseph. Is not his mother called Mary? We're on first name basis with Mary.

And his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all here with us? Where did this man get all these things? So they were offended at him. And that's one of the places where Jesus said, A prophet's not without honor, except in His own country and in His own house. And it says that He couldn't do any mighty works there because they didn't believe. Now, can you think of any other examples? Think back to some of the prophets of old. You know, it's like the leaders of Judah would flinch when Jeremiah would come along.

Oh no! Here he comes again! He's preaching horrible things about us! And you know, one place there in Jeremiah, what is it? Chapter 45, I believe, a little short chapter. We get a little insight into some of the thinking of his servant Baruch.

And Jeremiah had to say, Are you seeking great things for yourself? Seek them not! Maybe some familiarity had gotten into the mind of his servant. Or we could go back further to the days of ancient Israel. And a classic example would be the story in Numbers 12, as far as Aaron and Miriam, how they got caught up on the familiarity bandwagon and began talking and condemning and criticizing their little brother. Because, remember, Aaron and Moses were the older ones. And that could bring about special challenges that God in that story told them. No, Moses, I'll speak face to face with him.

And you may not criticize and condemn my servant. And you know the rest of that story. We have so many examples we could turn to. Cora, Dathan, Abiram, has God only spoken through you? What about us? Familiarity is throughout the Bible. Familiarity is in the world around us.

Politics. Or you don't have to work someplace new long, and you start finding out what people say behind the scenes about those who are in supervisory positions. It takes place in schools. It takes place within families. And it takes place within God's Church, doesn't it? It really does. Where does familiarity come from? Where did it start? Who could be called the familiar one? I think we could find the answer to that in Exodus, excuse me, in Ezekiel 28.

Ezekiel 28. We read here, it's written in code. It's speaking about a king of tire, but the wording tells us it's about someone far greater power than any physical flesh-and-blood king on this earth. He was a type. He represented someone else who had gone down a particular path long before him. Ezekiel 28. Speaking in verse 12 to this king of tire. The latter part of the verse, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. So again, could refer to no human being living in the 500s BC. Every precious stone was your covering. It mentions all of these precious stones.

The workmanship of your temples and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. Yes, even archangels, even carobene and seraphim, they're created, angelic sons of God. You were the anointed carob who covered. Think back to the blueprint God gave to Moses after the events at Sinai. He gave the blueprint of this tabernacle and of this ark and of this mercy seat. At that place that represented where God himself would be seated, you would beat out two carobene of gold with wings out shadowing, overspreading that throne.

And what was built on earth was of the pattern of what the reality is in heaven. This Lucifer, as the term is used in Isaiah 14 where it talks about the I will statements, this Lucifer, this king of Tyre, this Satan, once upon a time, was right there at the very throne of God. His wings spread out over the throne of God. He would have seen everything and heard everything. I established you.

You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within. And the story continues. Lucifer is the one who became familiar with God, who became familiar with the Word, the one who said he wanted to rise up above all the stars in heaven, which I think by interpretation means he wanted God's job.

He became familiar. And familiarity is something that is broadcast to the human family. Various places in the Old Testament, if you do a search for the word familiar, you'll find different examples where Israel was forbidden from going off to seek someone who had a familiar spirit.

It's interesting that Jude, one of Jesus' little brothers, Jude in his little short epistle talked about the angels who sinned. Rather, the angels who kept not their first estate. You see, in the angelic world after the sin, after the rebellion, you had the two-thirds who did what God said. They kept their proper responsibility. But you had the one-third. As Revelation 12, the early verses described, the great red dragon, his tail, drew the third of the stars of heaven.

They rebelled, and they were cast down to the earth. And they are the ones who seek to become familiar as they are allowed with human beings. You see, the righteous angels always keep back, keep their proper estate, unless God sends them in. Like when Gabriel went to go speak with Mary or Joseph or Daniel. But the demons are called familiar spirits. And surely that is the beginning. That's where it comes from. Familiarity breeds contempt. We are left with questions to ponder, such as, does familiarity breed contempt in my thinking?

Have I become familiar with governmental leaders? You know, I just cringe when we come to an election year, presidential election year. I cringe. And it's just getting started. And the mud will be slinging, and it already is. But in the process, we can become familiar with the leaders that the Word of God tells us, pray for kings, pray for those in authority. Ask God to provide the environment whereby the gospel of Jesus Christ can have free course.

Have I become familiar at work, or within the family, or among the brethren of the church, or with my neighbors, or maybe here at church with speakers and song leaders, and those who give prayers, and those who give sermons? It is a landmine we can all step on.

And I think that from the fact, the statement that His brothers did not believe. They probably were a bit too familiar. And the people at Nazareth didn't believe because they thought, you know, He's from around here. We know Him. He can't know anything. It's a strange way human nature thinks. He's one of us. He can't be smart. And they were familiar. And the Apostle Paul, he wrote to Corinth. It seemed like Corinth was his problem church. And some people, he actually quoted what they said, that, you know, his letters are weighty. He's a tough guy when he writes his letter.

But his bodily presence and speech, they're contemptible. I mean, I don't know what Paul looked like.

Maybe he was a... maybe he'd been injured. Maybe he was sickly. Maybe he had a high nasal voice.

And it didn't matter. They took shots at him. They were familiar. And he had to tell them.

He had to remind them, you know, God is the one who uses the foolishness of preaching.

And if I come, it's going to be more than my letters that are weighty. Well, I want to suggest a second reason for the unbelief of his brothers. Number two is envy. Envy. Envy is defined as a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantage, success, or possessions. A person's ability to believe can be destroyed by envy. A person can be blinded by envy.

And when we look at the listing of the works of the flesh, envy is one of them.

And when Paul defined and broke down love in the love chapter, he said, love, envy's not.

Envy. Was it difficult for James and Joseph and Simon and Jude to see the great multitudes flocked to hear their brother, whose name was Jesus? At times, those crowds numbered in the thousands.

Did they come to envy the attention that he received? People weren't coming to see them.

They came to see Jesus. They came to hear what he had to say. And in fact, in Matthew 12, we see that sometimes they even had a tough time getting through to talk to him.

Notice here at the end of Matthew 12.

Christ had finished preaching, and he was told that your mother, your brothers, are outside.

Matthew 12, verse 46. While he was still talking to the multitudes, somebody apparently interrupted him while he was teaching.

Behold, his mother and brothers stood outside seeking to speak with him.

One said to him, look, your mother and your brothers are not standing outside.

Seeking to speak with you. But he answered and said, who is my mother? Who are my brothers? And he essentially stretched out his hands toward his disciples.

You're my family. You're my family because a spiritual bond is far stronger than a flesh and blood bond. I wonder if an event like that where they weren't able to have that instant access that they once upon a time had had with Jesus. I wonder if that tended toward breeding envy.

One of the Proverbs says that it sounds hard as life to the body, but envy is the rottenness of the bones. It's like a cancer in the bones eating you from the inside out.

It is interesting as far as that word envy. That is, it came to the end of Christ's ministry.

There were charges laid out against him. There were plans in secret. There were false witnesses who were bought. There was a sham of a trial that was thrown together, and he ended up before Pilate. Pilate could find no fault in him, but he still was a politician. He caved in when he got down to it. But with Pilate, Pilate remembered that it was custom to release a prisoner at that time of the year, and he was trying to get Jesus off in his own way. Finally, he asked them, do you want Barabbas, or do you want Jesus? Of course, they chose Barabbas. It says, just make a note of Matthew 27 verse 18. Matthew 27 verse 18. That Pilate knew that they had handed him over because of envy.

The Jewish leaders turned in Christ because of envy. Envy blinded them to being able to see the Lamb of God and the role he was just about to play for them. Envy destroys faith. It's the enemy of faith. Envy destroys our ability to clearly see, and so we're left with questions. Does envy blind us to truth? Does envy stifle our belief, our faith, and the promises of God?

Does it bother us to admit that we're wrong when it also means others were right?

Does it trouble us to admit others are right?

James chapter 3. I think it's interesting that one of these little brothers of Christ had a great deal to say about the fact that you need to believe, you need to have faith, but he also spoke about envy. James 3. We could begin in verse 13.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his words are done in the meekness of wisdom. Verse 14. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts. Interesting that the two are hinged together. If you have envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. James came to believe. James saw that we need to...

Well, on the one hand, first of all, he said, I'll show you my faith by the way I live my life. I'll show my faith by my works, but he also cautioned them, don't go down the path of envy. Don't go out seeking something for yourself.

It's a line of mind you cannot afford to step on. Truth, belief, and ultimately eternal life, salvation, and the family of God, these are far too precious to allow envy to push them out of our life, out of our reach. Number three. Number three. Why did his brothers not believe? I would suggest that they had preconceptions. Number three is preconceptions or preconceived ideas. It is easy to disbelieve when you have a preconceived idea of what a person is, how they should act, what they should be, how things should work out. And we find a lot of that in the Gospels, all the way up to even just before his ascension back to his father.

Let's look at John again, John chapter 6.

John 6. Notice just in passing verse 15. John 6 verse 15. Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he departed again to the mountain by himself alone.

There were those who bought into a cause. The problem was that it wasn't God's cause.

They wanted to see Israel returned to its greatness, its glory, right then.

And there were those who got caught up in the movement. Let's take this Jesus, make him king, and let's throw off the shackles of Rome, and everything will be fine.

The only problem was that wasn't the way God had it planned out.

Chapter 7, we read the early verses, and in chapter 7 you have the brothers saying, well, the Feast of Tabernacles is here. Go on down and let people see your great works.

Go down and show yourself in front of your disciples.

They had it all worked out. They had this idea that he was going to go for the power somewhere down the line. But it was a misconception that they had.

Let's look at Acts chapter 1, verse 6.

Acts 1, verse 6, in just verses he's about to go back up through the clouds to his father. Acts 1, verse 6, therefore when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

After three and a half years of his ministry, and yes, his message was of the kingdom of God, and of repentance, and of belief in, they still didn't get it. They looked in terms of the ancient glory of the kingdom under David and Solomon, and they had the idea.

And it was a misguided idea that he was going to restore them at this time.

Those of Christ's day rejected him because of some of their preconceptions.

And again, we're left with questions. Do we get ideas in our heads sometimes that have no basis on truth? I think we do. We all probably have our own history. In my mind, it was supposed to be the kingdom about 30 years ago. Well, be flexible so you don't get bent out of shape.

We've all had ideas of what people in the church ought to be like. Sometimes we have those who are rather critical. Some will say, well, the church doesn't love, the church doesn't serve, or the church doesn't this. And to that person, I'd say, why don't you go and look in the mirror and see what you see in that person's mind and face. We have preconceptions about things that really don't matter.

Do we refuse to re-examine some of our perceptions and ideas about how things ought to be?

Years ago, the church was all over the broadcast world on radio and then on television.

And once upon a time, we had 150,000 people attending the feast.

And at that time, I thought it's onward and upward. We're just going to keep growing.

And it's kind of like back in the days of Gideon. God said, no, there's too many. We need to pare down the numbers. And he ended up with what? 300? Well, the Bereans are held up as an example of those who studied the Scriptures to see what was true, whatever it might be. And then it says, many of them believed.

So Jesus' brothers did not believe, whether it was familiarity or envy or preconceived ideas.

We're not fully sure, but somehow I suspect it's within this realm.

Whatever it was, they didn't believe. You know, it's a common story. Let's go back to Psalm 78. We won't take time to look at a couple of highlights here. It's a beautiful Psalm.

It looks back across all so many years of Israel's relationship with God.

It addresses how many times God miraculously intervened and protected and led Israel. This is a Psalm of Asaph.

It mentions, verse 12, the marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through.

May the water stand up like a heap. Verse 14, sometimes He led them in the daytime as a cloud and at night as fire. Verse 15, He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them water in abundance.

He brought streams out of the rock. Verse 17, but they sinned even more against Him.

It gets to be kind of a broken record as you go through this Psalm, over and over. But as we know, we can't cast stones at them because change the names and the dates and the name just might be our name. Put into that story because we've had our times of tempting God and limiting God.

And in verse 22, it said, because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation.

Verse 32, in spite of all this, they still sinned and did not believe in His wondrous works.

This is telling of the story of human beings who by and large do not believe God.

We had a kingdom of God seminar, a series of them. It was built around Mark 1, verse 15, where Jesus began His ministry and He said, the time is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

We broke it down into those four pieces of that passage.

That's how Christ began His ministry. A call to repent and to believe.

It is interesting to study some of these brothers of Christ. I'd like to know more.

We don't know a whole lot about Joseph and Simon. We know more about James and Jude because of what they wrote and because of references, especially to James. But familiarity, envy, preconceived ideas may well have caused them to disbelieve at one point, but they didn't stay that way.

They changed. The people of Judea didn't believe and by and large did not change, but they have their chance coming ahead. We need to be concerned about the body of Christ and mainly about that person we look at when we go and look in the mirror.

We get to Acts 1, where we were a while ago and Christ had told them, wait here for the promise from on high. And we read that there were about 120.

And there were the women and there was Mary.

And there were the 11. And there were his brothers. There were his brothers.

We don't know how many. Two, three, or four. But his brothers were there.

In due time, two of the men at least changed.

We find references to James different places.

The other James, well there's more than two Jameses. There were James, the son of Alphaeus, that after the Gospels we hear almost nothing about him.

There was James, the brother of John, son of Zebedee.

And as Acts 12 begins, he's killed with a sword.

But then after that, here's this other James the Bible speaks about.

And lo and behold, it turns out it's James, the brother of our Lord.

And he became a key factor there with the Jerusalem church. He became the resident pastor.

There were times when Paul said, I went up to Jerusalem to Peter and John and James.

And it wasn't the James who'd been killed, it was this James, those who seemed to be pillars.

Or they'd have a conference over the question of circumcision and the different opinions the input was given. And then James stood up. And here is my sentence, he said.

And circumcision was spiritual. We don't require it physically of those called from Gentile areas into the body of Christ.

We should address for a little while our other question. What changed them? What happened?

I think we can find the answer to that if we look in the resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15.

We know from early in Acts chapter 1, it mentions that he was with them for 40 days, appearing to them various occasions and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

But in 1 Corinthians 15, notice here the message he's preaching beginning in verse 3.

Paul said, For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

And that's where we started with John 3, 16. That's why he came, that whosoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life, that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen by Cephas, one of the names of Peter. Then by the 12th, after that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once.

I wonder if his brothers, if his sisters, surely his mother was there, she was always there, of whom the greater part remained of the present, but some have fallen asleep, some have died. Because you know, this is pushing 20 years down the line, or somewhere around 20 years down the line, or a little over. Verse 7, after that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

And it's thought that this James was his brother James.

You know, he performed a lot of miracles, but it is possible. It is possible to fake miracles.

That's happened a lot in the world around us. It's possible to fake healings.

But you can't fake the fact that the man standing there appearing to you and speaking to you, that you knew good and well was dead, is now living again. You can't fake that one.

What changed his brothers? The undeniable. The empirical evidence that their brother, as he had said, would rise again from the grave.

And he stood there before them. And they realized that there were times when he could appear among disciples behind the doors that had been closed. And there were times when he would speak to them and then just suddenly vanish from their sight. And his brothers, along with the other disciples, began seeing one with the same glory and eternal life that he had preached to them while he walked on the earth. Repent and believe in the gospel, he said. That's a tough one to believe in, isn't it? But that's what God has called us to do, to believe in Christ and Him crucified and resurrected.

In my chill time, I like to pull out a Zane Gray or a Western. He has one called the Zane Gray. Now I'm drawing a blank. Tales of lonely trails, but it's not a Western, per se. It's Zane Gray describing some of the places where he went and traveled. A lot of them out in Utah, Nevada. And then he would formulate and write a story about it, but he was there.

And he could describe it. And I love the way he describes. But one story I read this week was when they were back up in some canyons and they found a sign of mountain lions all over. And how the crew, they had some hounds and the hounds treed a mountain lion and they lassoed the thing and pulled it out. They lassoed it again and pulled it, stretched it out, tied it up. And then they did with another one and something inside of me says, no. And the way he tells it, it really happened. They went roping mountain lions and hog-tying them. Now that's kind of hard to stomach, isn't it? It's kind of hard to believe. I wasn't there and my grandparents both sets came from Missouri before Kansas and Oklahoma. And Missouri is a show-me state. I'd have to see some more evidence. That's pretty unbelievable. But what about a story of a child that's going to be born to a virgin, never known a man, and that child's going to grow up and live a perfect life.

And he's going to walk on water and he's going to calm seas. And when they couldn't catch fish, he's going to say, cast it over on the right side and they'd pull in 153.

Just humanly speaking, that's a tough one to wrap your belief around also, isn't it?

And like his own brothers, once upon a time we didn't believe. But then the calling of God came our way and we began looking at some of the actual evidence. And we began reading stories, but we began then proving the authority of this Bible, that there's too much of it that we can prove that it really happened. And somewhere along the line began faith. And as Paul wrote, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We read stories. We read of men and women of God who've gone before us. And by decisions they made, their strength was built, was strengthened. It's interesting. Let's go to James.

Here we have a letter written by one of those little brothers, and then we have another letter written by another younger brother. And in their writings, what was weighing heavily on their mind was things like, you need to test your faith. You need to live by faith. Don't envy.

And don't have the faith of God. Don't show it with partiality.

James 1 verse 3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

And in chapter 1 verse 6, let him ask in faith with no doubting.

And in chapter 2 verse 5, listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which He has promised to those who love Him.

In chapter 2 verse 17, thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

In James 5 verse 15, the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise Him up.

He had a lot to say about faith. He had a lot to say about living your faith.

We already read they had something to say about envy.

Let's go to Jude. The words of another little brother.

And what was upon Jude's mind was, verse 3, beloved, while I was very diligent to write you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Seek for the faith. He goes on and talks about the angels who sinned. They didn't keep their proper estate. And he talked about some of the false teachers going around at that time, who didn't have the filters on their words or their thoughts, and they would speak evil of dignitaries.

Maybe they too had preconceived ideas of how things ought to be.

And in Jude, verse 20, but you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

The initial unbelief of Jesus' brothers serves for us as a warning. Be aware, and be aware of the landmines out there.

If we walk the path of familiarity at church or at work or at home or anywhere, then we're playing into the devil's hand, and we're becoming a child of the great familiar one himself. And we should be warned how easily we can be blinded by envy and sometimes by preconceived ideas.

We do so much judging as human beings. We look across the congregation, and we're quick to point out the the beam in somebody else's life, and we can't say the beam that's in ours. And yet, James said, don't have the faith of God with partiality.

I think the initial unbelief of the brothers also should inspire us.

They changed as they yielded to God, and so can we. We can ask God's forgiveness for the many times we step on the landmine and say things out of familiarity or envy or just not really understanding.

We can ask God's help being content with what we have, what He's given us, rather than envy what others are given, talents that others may have. We can ask God to help us to think as He thinks. Oh, 20-30 years now, I've heard that phrase, think outside the box.

You know, sometimes we see things the way they are. We see a person, and we think, well, He, She, they're always that way. And you know what? We're not their judge. Everyone will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and we will too. Think outside the box and ask God to help us to get some of the misconceptions and some of our preconceived ideas out of the way because they tend to blind us. Let's close over in Acts 10. Acts 10, here are the writings, here are the words rather of another man who, once upon a time, didn't believe. His name was Peter.

And God has used Peter by means of a vision and by sending him to the household of Cornelius, this Centurion of the Italian regiment. Acts 10, verse 38, is breaking in on the thought here.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good. I like that last phrase. I kind of like to have that on my tombstone, although I am in no hurry. But think about that. You ever think about what do you want to be known for when you're gone? Peter said about Jesus, he went about doing good. That's a pretty good summary.

And healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him, God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, not all the people, but to witnesses chosen by God, even to us, who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead.

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the apostles, the prophets, witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. It's been quite a few years back now, but at a general conference of elders, when Mr. Bob Dick was the chairman of the council, in an address to the ministry and wives, he said, in order to do a work, we must first be a work.

And here we are, 2,000 years down the line, the modern day witnesses of Jesus Christ, the ones who are to do a work. But something has to take place in our heart. You know, with James Jude, with the others, whatever they faced, whatever adversity came, they never wavered. They certainly didn't recant.

There were perceived setbacks, and they got back up and went on with the work God had given to them.

I mean, think of Paul with that. He was stoned and they thought he was dead, and then read the account later on. He went right back into the same city. In order to do a work, be a work. And if we're to be among those to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world, we must first believe with all of our hearts and prove that belief, prove that faith by the way we live life. And as John summed it up, by living by the commandment we've heard from the beginning, that you love one another.