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Read Matthew 9

HAVE YOU SEEN THE CHRISTMAS BILLBOARD sponsored by the Athiest Society?  It pictures three wise men riding camels, following a star but the caption reads, “You KNOW it’s a myth!  This season celebrate REASON.”

WHY IS IT THAT SOME PEOPLE who are exposed to the very same evidence as the rest of us don’t believe it?  Why did Christopher Hitchens die an atheist while his own brother, Peter, disagreed with him about Christianity?  Is one smarter? More carnal?  More cynical?  Different temperaments?  Why do two people examine the same evidence and arrive at opposite conclusions?

THE NINTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW records a series of Jesus’ dramatic miracles.  A paralyzed man walked home, a tax collector was transformed into an honest man, a woman with a twelve year history of bleeding was made well, a dead girl was raised to life, two blind men were given sight and a man who was mute spoke.  Wow!  No wonder “the crowd was amazed and said, ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel’” (Matthew 9:33).

HOWEVER, THE REACTION OF THE PHARISEES, a religious sect of that day, was not favorable.  They barked, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons” (9:34).  The Pharisees heard Jesus’ captivating teaching and were eyewitnesses to his undeniable miracles yet they apparently never even entertained the idea that Jesus could be sent from God.

WHY IS THAT?  Why do two people examine the same evidence and one concludes there is a God who has revealed Himself in Jesus and the other concludes the Christmas story is laughable?  What prevents a Bill Maher from believing in Christ while a Charles Colson trusts Jesus as Savior and Lord?

SOMETIMES IT IS A MATTER OF PERSONAL DESIRE.  The synagogue ruler with a dying daughter and the blind men wanted to believe because they each desperately needed a miracle.  Maybe the Pharisees didn’t believe in Jesus because they felt no need for Him at the time. They were healthy and content and Jesus posed a threat to their comfortable life style.

A NUMBER OF PEOPLE TODAY don’t really want to believe since they are satisfied with their life as it is.  They regard Jesus as “the transcendental interferer,” as C.S. Lewis called Him.  So, they dismiss the evidence without objectively investigating it because they prefer a life of self-indulgence.  Jesus said, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

SOMETIMES PEOPLE DON'T BELIEVE because of intellectual pride.  The Pharisees were the respected scholars of their day.  They resented the fact that Jesus didn’t share their educational pedigree and yet people were enthralled with His teaching.  So they arrogantly dismissed Him as a fraud.  “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?  How can this man claim to be the Messiah, He eats with sinners!”  Since the commoners flocked to Jesus, the Pharisees’ intellectual snobbery kept them at a distance.  “In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God” (Psa. 10:4).

SOME TODAY WHO FIND INORDINATE  self-worth in their academic prowess reject the super-natural because that was the mind-set of their liberal college professors and they want to be counted among the intellectual elite.  They have never read C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, R.C. Sprowl and other brilliant followers of Christ yet they maintain an “enlightened” haughtiness toward the Bible.  They rationalize that their doubt is intellectual integrity but in reality they are prideful and ignorant of the truth.

THE APOSTLE PAUL EXAMINED IT in 2 Corinthians 4:4: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).  Satan blindfolds unbelievers with intellectual pride and selfish pleasures so that they don’t see the truth right in front of their nose!

JESUS PLEADED, “Believe in me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at last believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves” (John 14:11).  God has given us ample evidence to believe. Norm Geisler, respected Christian apologist wrote, “God is not asking you to take a blind leap of faith into the darkness.  He’s asking you to take a reasonable step of faith into the light.”

THE BOTTOM LINE  People choose to believe or not to believe.  It’s not a matter of intellect; it’s a matter of the heart.  Olympic champion Bob Richards often said, “Some of you are eighteen inches from the kingdom of God.  That’s the distance between your head and your heart.”

ROMANS 9:10 READS, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”