Placebo Faith – The Real Thing
Part 2
Scriptures: Hebrews 11:1, 6; Proverbs 23:7a; Matthew 14:22-31
Introduction
This is part two of my series, “Placebo Faith – The Real Thing.” Last week I shared with you that that medically there are patients who, because they truly believe they have an illness, will show signs of that illness. The treating physician, understanding that the illness persists only within the patient’s mind, will treat them with a placebo. The patients, believing that they are being treated with “real” medicine, are often cured of their illness. I told you that a placebo treatment is any treatment that appears to be a "real" medical treatment - but isn't. It could be a pill, a shot, or some other type of "fake" treatment. Placebos are important to the development of actual medicines because clinical trials are designed to prove that the new medicine is better than doing nothing at all (placebo.) But what can happen during these clinical trials is that some patients will respond to the placebo pill as if they received the real medicine. When this happens it is called a placebo effect. The placebo effect is proof positive of what is captured in Scripture. I want to remind you this morning of what was recorded in Hebrews 11:1, 6 and Proverbs 23:7a.
Hebrews 11:1,6 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen….And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Proverbs 23:7a says, “For as he thinks within himself, so is he.”
How many of you know the slogan for the United Negro College Fund? It’s “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Remember what I told you last week about stinking thinking? When our thinking stinks, we are literally wasting our minds. When we are focusing on the wrong things, we are wasting our minds. Maybe it would be better explained if I say we are wasting the true power of our minds. God has blessed us with an amazing combination of physical and a brain (organ) to help us think, plan, work and enjoy life. So God wants to bless, strengthen, renew, guard and bless our minds (spiritual) as we focus our thoughts and actions on Him. Remember I told you last week that the brain is the physical organ that controls our bodies, but our mind is spiritual and it makes us who we are. This is why our minds continue to exist after our bodies dies. This morning we will examine more of what the Bible says about the abilities of our minds. To establish the foundation this morning, please turn with me to Matthew 14:22-31.
“Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ And He said, ‘Come!’ And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:22-31)
This is a very familiar story in the Bible so I will not dwell to long on it. I know that I have preached sermons with this story as a focal point, but have you ever sat down and meditated on what truly happened with Peter? Jesus had sent the disciples away as He went and prayed. Between 3 and 6 in the morning, Jesus finished praying and walked on the water towards the disciples. The waters were pretty rough and the boat was being battered on it. The disciples look out and saw a man walking towards them and they think it’s a ghost. Jesus speaks to them, identifies himself and tells them to not be afraid. Peter, hearing the voice of Jesus asks Jesus to prove it was Him by allowing Peter to walk out on the water. On the surface this was one of the most stupid thing he could have requested considering that the waters were rough and it was dark and he could not really “see” if it was Jesus or not. But, Peter heard the voice of Christ and he recognized Jesus voice just as Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” So Peter’s request was not stupid at all because he knew it was Jesus and because it was Jesus, he knew if Jesus told him to come out onto the water he would be able to walk on it. So Peter got up and stepped out of the boat and began walking towards Jesus. He walked until he took his eyes off Jesus and his mind told him that he would sink and drown. As soon as he accepted this new wave of thoughts, he began to sink. As he sunk he cried out to Jesus to save him. Jesus reached out his hand, saved Peter but asked him why did he doubt? Do you see this? Peter believed he could walk on the water and he did. However, when he looked at the waves and felt the wind, he believed he would sink and drown and he began to sink. His circumstances changed with his thinking. Our minds can change our circumstances if we change our minds!
Let me share with you a little history relating to why this principle of faith is so confusing to intelligent people today. The contemporary theory of Evolution states that natural selection acts on random chance to favor increased order. On this foundation many evolutionist believe that man represents the highest form of evolutionary order. This line of reasoning comes from recognition that mankind has mental powers above the animal kingdom. This is one line of thinking. Another line of thinking is the Materialism model. Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental aspects and consciousness, are results of material interactions. This model predicts that the human mind is the result of complex biological functions in the brain. The complexity of the human brain is believed to be the result of Evolution. Evolution, then, is credited with the power and complexity of the human mind which, by definition, is a biological feature. By contrast, the Creation model predicts that the human mind was created by the perfect eternal mind of God. Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” It indicates Adam became a living soul when God breathed (put spirit into) into his body. Genesis predicts that our ability to function as unique persons comes from a combination of material biology (the brain) and non-material spirituality.
As you can see there is a battle going on right now to decide who is right and I must say the number of people who are becoming atheist is growing. The idea of God and the supernatural in general are flatly denied by pure Materialist doctrine. Logically, for people who pride themselves on being logical, the idea that man is anything more than his biology is also flatly denied. This premise, that we are only our biology, is a fundamental assumption of Evolution. Demonstrating the mind is material will support the predictions of Evolution and Materialism. Demonstrating the mind is non-material supports the predictions of Creation and permit if not require the existence of God. If you believe the record of Genesis 2:7 then man is part biology and part spirit. God made man in His image and we are not some blind chance process of nature! Hence what Hebrews 11:6 which says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Contrary to what the Evolutionist and Materialists believe, there is a great deal of evidence in favor of the mind being something other than biology.
Peter saw a man that he came to believe was Jesus, his Savior. Upon arriving at that belief, Peter defied all logic and asked Jesus to prove that it was Him by allowing Peter to come out of the safety of the boat into the midst of the troubling waters. Logic is defined as “correct reasoning or the science of this…what is expected by the working of cause and effects.” If our minds were purely biological, Peter would have stayed in the boat because logically it would not have made sense for him to leave its safety. After God formed man’s body, God breathed into man the breath of life. The word translated as “breath” is also translated “spirit” or “wind” elsewhere in Scripture. My point with this is that our biology does not constitute life and it was only after God breathed into man that man became a living soul. “Mind” is probably the best single word to describe how man is most completely in the likeness of God. We think; we have free will; we experience love, fear, grief and joy. Now here is what I want you to understand: thoughts, emotion, and will directly affect our biology!!! This brings us back to the placebo effect. When a person takes a pill or treatment that they believe is going to help them their mind (thoughts, emotion and will) immediately affects their biology – their body! They think it, they become emotionally attach to the outcome and they will it. The thinking, emotional attachment and will work in sync to influence the physical. Consider what the word says:
Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” Nothing has such a direct tendency to ruin health and waste out life as grief, anxiety, fretfulness, bad tempers, etc. All of these work death. I have shared with your before that it has been proven in many types of illnesses that how a person thinks during their treatment has a direct effect on the outcome of those treatments. The joy within our hearts heals just as the opposite of joy will destroy.
Romans 8:5-6 says, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Remember what I said earlier about stinking thinking? These two scriptural references discuss what type of thinking is not of God. Roman 8:5-6 focuses on two types of minds. The first mind focuses on the flesh. This mind is not focused on God, but the things of this world like money, material things, worldly enjoyments, self-accomplishments, etc. This mind is focused on doing what it wants to do for its own pleasure. The second mind is focused on God. The mind that is focused on God reaps the things of the Spirit. This mind does not believe like the world or accepts how the world says it should think. This is the mind that Peter had for a few minutes when he stepped out of that boat into the water. He had a mind that believed in the things of God, specifically he heard the voice of Jesus and he responded. Roman 12:2 talks about our need to renew our minds. In other words, before we accepted Christ our minds were being conformed to the world around us. We live in the world. We believed the world. We accepted the world. However, once we accepted Christ, we have to change from our worldly mindset to one that is Godly – spiritually focused. It is only through renewing our minds are we able to accomplish what God desires in this world because only a mind linked to Him can be influenced by Him. By renewing our minds as Christians God will give us wisdom and discernment to know and to do what is good, acceptable and perfect in our lives. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” God knew that we would face many challenges in this life while living on earth so He sent His perfect Son, not only to restore our relationship with Him, but so that we would have a guide through His Holy Spirit. Jesus walked this earth as a man and faced everything that we face. We find strength in Him because He overcame the world. We experience failures, but we will ultimately overcome the world if we do not give up or give in. Giving up or giving in is not an acceptable response for a Christian. To give up means we stop fighting and/or trying. When we give in, we actually change our thinking and not only do we stop fighting, but we change and accept that which we were fighting against. We go from fighting against to accepting. To overcome we have to stay in the fight with a steadfast mind that does not doubt! Through the Holy Spirit we have within our reach the ability to have the mind of Christ. If this is the case, we can do all things through Christ (and His mind) that strengthen us! (Philippians 4:13)
I want to close this morning with a final reflection on Peter. When Peter was first called by Jesus he had been a fisherman. He lived the life of a fisherman and he talked like a fisherman. Peter underwent a renewing of his mind, but it was not immediate. He cussed, he doubted, and he lied. Through the worse times of his life he never forgot who his Savior was. There was always a willingness of Peter to test the limit. Peter was always willing to step out front. Peter was willing to put his faith to the test. Regardless of the failures that we have read about Peter, Peter’s final years were spent doing the Lord’s work. Historians record that when Peter was crucified by Nero he requested to be crucified with his head towards the ground. It is said that he did not feel worthy to be crucified in the same position as his Lord and Savior. Peter died because of his faith in Christ just as Jesus had said that he would.
You can be more than what you are! You can do more than what you’re doing! You can think differently than how you are thinking. When we truly stand up to be counted as faithful we will witness the change. I will conclude this message on next Sunday.
May God bless and keep you. Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
