Biography
Dr. Haddon Robinson is Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. A native of New York City, Dr. Robinson taught preaching on the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary for 19 years and was president of Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary for twelve years. He is the teacher of "Radio Bible Class," a program that airs daily on hundreds of stations around the world, and in 1996, he was named one of "the most effective" preachers in the English speaking world in a survey conducted by Baylor University. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"True Believers" 
A small boy was outside playing when his pastor paid a visit to his home. The youngster was unaware of the pastor's presence so he burst into the house dangling a mouse by the tail. He said, "Look Ma, look what I got!" He said, "I got a mouse. I hit it over the head with a broom, and then I banged its head up against the steps, and then I jumped on it." And then at that point the youngster saw the minister, and he said, "And then the Lord called him home!"

Now that youngster was doing, mistakenly, what some adults do quite seriously. And that is he was using religious words. But standing there in the living room, swinging a dead mouse by the tail, we have reason to wonder if he really understood the meaning of his words.

And adults, especially religious folks, do that at times. You and I use religious words, but we're not always sure what they mean. Religious words have a way of getting frayed around the edges. And I think that's true of the word "believe." It's a basic word of the Christian faith. In fact, it's used over 130 times in the New Testament, and we are told that when we believe our sins are forgiven. Belief on Jesus Christ is essential to having a relationship with God. In fact, one of the best known sentences in the New Testament is John 3:16, and that verse states, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life." Now that verse says that to have a relationship with God, to be joined to the timeless life of God, we need to believe on Jesus. So it's essential to know what it means to believe on Jesus Christ.

Now, the word "believe" is used in English in several ways. In fact, it's used in different ways in the different contexts of the Bible. And all of these meanings for the word "believe" are important, but there's only one kind of belief that relates a woman or man to God.

For example, one sort of belief that you and I might have is a belief about God or a belief about Jesus. Over in the back of the New Testament, there's a little letter written by James, and James writes to the people in his care and says in Chapter 2, "You believe that there is one God; you do well, but the demons also believe that and tremble."

Now, James was writing to Christians who, along with devout Jews, believed in only one God. In fact, one of the great declarations of the Old Testament is found in the book Deuteronomy and there that text says, "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one God." That simple sentence was central to Jewish faith and to Christian faith as well. It separated the people of Israel from the surrounding nations. They had one God. The nations around them had many gods. So when someone quoted that verse of Scripture, that we believe that there is only one God, that individual demonstrated that he had an orthodox understanding about God.

So James imagines someone quoting those great words of Scripture, and he commends that person for right thinking. "You believe that there is one God. You do well," he says. But then he adds, "But the demons also believe that and tremble." Obviously, James doesn't believe that demons have a personal relationship to God.

Now don't misunderstand. The Christian faith does have content. Paul stated in his Corinthian correspondence the essentials of that faith. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried and then he was raised from the dead the third day according to the Scriptures." Christianity stands on those great historic facts. But it's possible to believe those facts - that is, have a proper belief about Jesus and God - and yet not have a personal relationship to God yourself.

When I was growing up, I memorized an assortment of facts about American history. I've carried them in my head for over half a century. One fact that I remember was that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln while Mr. Lincoln was watching a play in Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. In fact, I even remember the date. Mr. Lincoln died on April 15, 1865. And I've never doubted those facts. Yet, as far as I can see, those facts have never really done much to affect my life. You could change the facts, have Mr. Lincoln die of indigestion. It wouldn't make much difference. And you can believe the historic facts about Jesus in very much the same way that you accept facts about George Washington, or Abraham Lincoln, or Christopher Columbus. But knowledge about God, or knowledge about Jesus, can no more relate a man or woman to God than belief about the safety of airplanes can get you from New York to Los Angeles. Now, don't misunderstand. Belief about the facts of faith, well that belief is important - vitally important - but merely believing "about" Jesus does not in itself relate men and women to God.

But there's a second kind of belief that falls short of belief that brings us into a relationship to God. For not only is there a belief "about" Jesus, but there's what we might call a belief "in" Jesus. Remember that statement by James? "You believe that there is one God. You do well. But the demons also believe that and tremble." The demons have an emotional reaction to what they know about Jesus Christ. When Jesus was here on earth, the New Testament writers tell us that whenever he came in conflict with the demonic forces, the demons shuddered. "What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth?" they would cry. "Have you come to destroy us?"

Now I'm not quibbling over prepositions, but I do want to underline an important distinction. You can go beyond a belief about Jesus to a belief in Jesus, a belief that stirs you emotionally. There are many folks who have sat and listened to the "Messiah" and have been profoundly moved at that great religious music. There are others who have heard a convicting sermon and have shuddered at the thought of standing before a holy God. They've had an emotional experience that left a mark on them, but in the years that followed, that experience made no difference in their lives. Oh, they believe in God; they have felt strong emotions about Jesus Christ.

Imagine that you read about a physician who has performed a delicate operation and that that operation has cured a dreadful disease. Perhaps you read about it in a medical journal and you believe it, believe it enough to talk to other people about it. And then imagine that you have a neighbor who came down with that disease and went to that physician, and came back healed. So, you not only believe "about" the physician. You have read about the physician in a medical journal. You believe "in" that physician because your friend has been cured by the doctor. But suppose you come down with that disease yourself. Believing about the doctor or even having positive emotional feelings about that doctor won't help you. If you don't go to the surgeon yourself and trust yourself to his care, then you won't be helped at all.

And that brings us to the third kind of belief. It goes beyond merely accepting the facts about Jesus. It goes beyond an emotional reaction to what we know. In order to make the distinction, let me call this third kind of belief, a belief "on" Jesus Christ. It means a casting of ourselves on Jesus to forgive our sin and to bring us into a personal relationship to God. It involves knowledge, of course, and it may involve profound religious feelings, but this kind of belief is knowledge and feeling that results in an act of the will.

Years ago the Anglican Bishop Ryle was trying to get at what this faith was all about, and this is what he wrote, "It's not just the life of Christ which saves us, or even his death on Calvary, but Jesus himself through his atoning death and resurrection. To believe on someone means putting confidence in that person as to what he claims to be. It's a combined act of a whole person's head, and conscience, and heart and will. It's so often weak and feeble that at first the person who has that faith can't be persuaded that he has it. And yet, like life in a new-born infant, this belief may be real, genuine, saving and true." Bishop Ryle says, "The moment that the conscience is convinced of sin, and that the mind sees that Christ is the only one who can save, and the heart will lay hold of the hand that Christ holds out - in that moment there is saving faith. In that moment, a man or woman truly believes!"

Imagine a young girl. She's asleep on the second story of her home. And she awakes one night - middle of the night - and there is the smell of acrid smoke. She stumbles to the door and opens it to a sheet of fire. And the young lady slams the door against the flames and then stumbles to the window and stares down into the smoke and the darkness. From the ground below the young lady hears her father's voice saying, "Honey, jump!"

And the young lady replies, "But, Daddy, I can't see you."

The father replies, "It's all right, honey, I can see you. Jump!"

And the young lady jumps into her father's arms.

Now it's a part of faith for that young lady to believe that her father is there. It's another part of faith to believe in her father, to feel that her father is able to catch her. But it's the essence of faith to throw herself into her father's waiting arms.

And that's what it means to believe on Jesus Christ. It's a part of faith to believe that Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for your sin; and it's another part of faith to believe that God is able and willing to forgive you and give you eternal life. But it's the essence of faith to abandon yourself to God completely and allow Jesus Christ to be your Savior.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, expressed it well when he said, that to believe on Jesus is "casting yourself with a reckless abandon on the grace of God."

Belief that brings us to God is as simple and life changing as that. Belief on Jesus Christ makes a solid foundation for your life now and forever.

Interview with Haddon Robinson
Interviewed by Bud Knoedler

Bud Knoedler: Haddon, thank you for that marvelous sermon. We just have a few minutes to chat and I guess my question to you is not so much how do you prepare a good sermon, but how do we in the pew get prepared? You know, we usually think that the sermon depends on the person in the pulpit, the preparation, the delivery and the content, but I suspect a great deal depends on the men and the women in the pew. Is there anything we can do to make the experience more profitable for us?

Haddon Robinson: Well, that's a great question. You stop to think about it, it takes two to make a sermon, it not only takes the person in the pulpit, it takes the folks in the pew. There's a myth abroad that great preachers make great churches, but the truth is great churches make great preachers, and the quality of preaching is very much affected by the quality of listening. I think many folks go to church and it's kind of a passive experience. They sort of sit back and let the preacher do the work, but unless they come to that experience and enter into it, they don't get a whole lot out of the sermon and it's amazing what that can do for a preacher, to have a congregation that is engaged in listening closely to what he has to say.

Knoedler: Haddon, I'm curious. Some of the people in the pews are often referred to as "saints at rest" in terms that this is the time for them to nod off and take a little snooze. How do you react to that as a preacher?

Robinson: There's an old saw about a preacher who dreamt he was preaching and woke up and found he was. I think when folks sleep, nod off, a good preacher who has a good sense of interaction with the audience will be discouraged by that. It's amazing how folks as they sit there and listen closely, nod their head, or somehow give a cue that they're understanding, it's amazing what that can do to help a preacher preach.

Knoedler: Haddon, how does a person in the pew challenge the preacher? Do you encourage that?

Robinson: Yes, I think if you come and really take seriously what the preacher is saying then you will ask questions in your mind and often at the end of the sermon ask questions of the preacher. It's amazing how that can stimulate him.

Knoedler: Great. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate your comments. I wish we had more time.