https://youtu.be/dvbgQV4zQNs

No Honor in His Own Country

43 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. 44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast. 46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you [people] see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." 49 The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!" 50 Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told [him], saying, "Your son lives!" 52 Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." 53 So the father knew that [it was] at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and his whole household. 54 This again the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. - John 4:43-54 NKJV

Have you ever heard the phrase “seeing is believing”? A lot of people in the modern world are convinced that this is the only way that they can be certain of something.

Especially when it comes to accepting the claims of Jesus or the Gospels. They have to see it to believe it and, no doubt, seeing something can help you accept something but is seeing always believing?

And is there a difference between accepting a fact or having mental ascent regarding something and having Biblical faith? I want to demonstrate to you that you can have belief in one sense and yet not have what the Bible calls “faith”.

Charles Blondin, who some of you may have heard of, was a French tightrope walker who lived in the 19th century. He grew up in the circus and he is considered one of the greatest tightrope walkers of all time.

In the mid-1800s he was enamored with Niagara Falls and he concocted a scheme. He was going to stretch a tight rope the length of Niagara Falls over 1000 feet and then walk across it.

Once the planned stunt was known, an enormous crowd showed up to watch him cross the gorge which he did with no trouble.

Now he crossed Niagara Falls a number of times promising that each performance would be more daring than the last and he never used any nets to catch himself

He crossed it blindfolded. He crossed it backwards. He ran across. He did somersaults and backflips across. He carried His manager on his back across.

He crossed on stilts. He crossed while shackled. He crossed while tied up in a sack.

Once he carried a stove and utensils on his back, walked to the center of the cable, started a fire and cooked an omelet. When it was ready, he lowered the breakfast to passengers on a passing ship

One time he asked the crowd if they believed he could cross the falls with a wheelbarrow and he got mixed answers. He then proceeded to walk across with the wheelbarrow.

Next, the wheelbarrow was filled with rocks and he asked again if they thought he could do it. He then did it. Finally, he asked if they thought he could cart a man over the falls in that wheelbarrow.

Of course, the crowd was fully convinced by now that he could, so they said yes. He then asked if anyone would volunteer to get into the wheelbarrow and … no one from the crowd could muster the courage. Finally, with no volunteer from the crowd to be had, he carted his manager over the falls without incident.  

You see, they had seen wonders with there very eyes and they