What Is Faith?

As Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount and comes down from the mountain, large crowds of people follow him (Matthew 8:1). His initial public ministry attracted large crowds (Matthew 4:23–25), and his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount has amazed the crowds (Matthew 7:28), so they begin to follow him around the countryside of Galilee. Matthew now brings together several miracle stories to show that Jesus not only has a great messianic message but also a great messianic mission. Jesus is not only Messiah in word (Matthew chapters 5–7) but is also Messiah at work (Matthew chapters 8–9). And Matthew begins his account of this part of Jesus’ mission by showing how Jesus brings restoration to the marginalised of society – the lepers, the Roman centurion, the women of society (in verses Matthew 8:14-15), and the demon-possessed and sick – purity, ethnic, gender, and social boundaries are all broken down.

The Motivation of Faith – In the sermon it was highlighted that a need which you can do nothing about is a motivation for faith. Is this the primary or only motivation for faith? If you think there are others, what might they be?

The Object of Faith – Who (or what) do people turn to when in need? On what basis do they do this? As Christians we are likely to say that we always or first and foremost turn to God but is this really true? Is it the case for many of us that God is our last resort (or at least not first!)

The Action of Faith – Faith is meant to be acted upon; it is not just a belief. Have a look at James 2:14-26 and Hebrews 11 and see if you can compile a list of actions that can or should result from faith.

The Necessity of Faith – Jesus uses the Centurion’s demonstration of faith as a ‘teaching moment’ – to teach people that faith is essential for entry into the kingdom and that in the end the kingdom will be made up of people of faith, and not necessarily those who expect to get in. Look at Romans 1:5-6,16-17; Romans 3:21-26,30; Romans 4:1-25; Hebrews 11:6; Matthew 25:21 (and any other passages you can think of) to see how they reinforce the necessity of faith.

The Reward of Faith – In this story we see some ‘material’ rewards for faith – the Centurion gets what he asked for (cf. Matthew 7:7-8; Hebrews 11:6; Lamentations 3:25) and the servant gets healed. However, many of the rewards of faith are not material but spiritual. Consider the ‘rewards’ of faith in Ephesians 2:8; Psalms 32:1-2; Romans 5:1; Philippians 4:7; 1 John 5:4 and then see if you can find other rewards mentioned elsewhere in Scripture.