Lessons of Faith

“My faith rests not in what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is doing for me.” - C.H. Spurgeon

I read that quote this week, and I thought it was fitting for the portion of Matthew that we have been studying.

We have learned an awful lot about who Christ is in these last chapters. From Peter’s great confession in Matthew 16, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, to the almost unimaginable revelation of Glory that we saw on the mount of transfiguration last week, where the pre-existent glory of Jesus as the second person of the Godhead shone through in glistening light, overshadowing even the appearance of Moses and Elijah.

We have learned the purpose of that appearance, also, which was a lesson for the disciples to listen to the Son of God. And by extension for us, to listen to the Word of God.

We have seen much, also, about what Christ has done. We have seen his momentous teaching, his countless miracles, his dealing with his sometimes dense disciples. In the Gospel of Matthew we have every reason to adore, cherish, and worship this Son of God.

But we also see what he has said he will do - and that, namely, is to go to Jerusalem, be beaten, battered, and crucified, and then rise on the third day.

As we have seen, and will see again today, the disciples still do not have a good grasp on the necessity of Christ’s death - it still bewilders them. We look backward with the fulness of the resurrection and all the explanations given by the Apostles, but for them, it was still a matter of faith to look forward to the cross - for us it is a matter of faith to look backward to it.

Who Christ is, what he has done, and what he is doing.

For the disciples, that was a lot of teaching. A lot of instruction. A lot of patience, a lot of longsuffering and shepherding.

For us, it is no different. Teaching, Instruction. Patience. Longsuffering. Add to that, interceding for us in prayer, sustaining us day-by-day, working all things for our good and his glory, the list goes on and on - in other words, He is everything.

Faith, in who Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is doing.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

All this talk about faith, and what Christ has done, is because we are about to see a lesson in faith - really, more than one lesson, in the second half of chapter 17.

It seems that often, when Jesus truly commends a person, it is a commendation based on their faith.

Matthew 8:10 ESV

When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

Matthew 9:22 ESV

Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

Matthew 9:29 ESV

Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”

Matthew 15:28 ESV

Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

In all of those examples, the individuals were greatly blessed by Jesus purely on the basis of their faith, and he commends them for it.

But the opposite is also true, in that when Jesus rebukes someone, it is often for their lack of faith.

Matthew 8:26 ESV

And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

1. Lessons in Faithlessness - Vs. 14-21

Have you ever watched a movie where there were concurrent scenes going on, and in order to fully develop the plotline, the movie cuts from one intense, awe-grabbing scene to another that seems almost irrelevant, but comes to be relevant later on?

That is almost what is happening here, in literary form, as Matthew gives us the “meanwhile” of what the other 9 disciples were doing when Peter, James, and John were up on the mount of Transfiguration.

Matthew 17:14–16 ESV

And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.”

Now, imagine the emotion of the scene.

Have you ever come back from a vacation to a big mess, a big problem?

Story of Coming home to No Power.

In a Similar way, Jesus and the three disciples come back from this glorious retreat - I mean, if any retreat was spectacular and recharging and refocusing, it was this one - and they come down the mountain and to the crowds, and they are met with this mess.

You’ve got this poor boy, convulsing and falling and being thrown around by a demon, you’ve got 9 disciples who failed to do what Jesus had called them to do, and the father who is probably breathless over the condition of his little boy.

Now, we aren’t in Mark, but Mark gives us the added information that there are a bunch of scribes around and they are arguing with the disciples about something.

What a Mess.

And perhaps, for the first real time in Matthew, we see a holy frustration in Jesus that comes out in a powerful statement.

Matthew 17:17 ESV

And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”

Now, who is he rebuking here?

His words are to the generation.

And who do we have around him?

We have scribes, religious leaders.

We have the crowds, a mix of innocent or not-so-innocent bystanders.

We have a father, the man with a specific problem

We have the disciples, the followers of Jesus in this time.

I think most of his rebuke falls squarely on the disciples, but ripples of it certainly reach out to everyone within earshot. The problem is faithlessness.

Faithless and perverse.

That is, they either did not have faith, or their faith was misplaced. The word perverse or twisted means mentally or emotionally unsound.

A generation that Did not have faith in God, specifically in Jesus the Messiah, and the faith they did have was often misplaced and driven by whims.

We might be tempted to take the stand behind Jesus and say, Yeah, you tell them, Lord! But how often would Jesus cry out in frustration over us, and say something like this?

It is so simple, how do you not get it? All i have asked you to do is to trust me, yet time and time again, you fail?

After all, what was the lesson that we learned from the Transfiguration? It was to listen to the Son of God - to trust Him above all reason, emotion, whim, or distraction.

Jesus had already commissioned and given his disciples power to do these very things - back in Matthew 10, he sent them out on their own preaching and healing mission. He sent them out with words of warning about persecution, but he sent them out with the call to endure, to persevere, to carry on.

So put plainly, this is something that the disciples should have been able to do by faith. It is something they had done, and it is something that Jesus had called them to do.

And herein is a lesson - we are not accountable to every imaginable scenario. There are things in which we are helpless, or so far removed from the situation, that we can do absolutely nothing. But then there are times when we are faced with something specific that we know is within our reach, something that is within what the Lord has given us, and we fail. Why is it?

Jesus points to our faithlessness.

Matthew 17:18–21 ESV

And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Now, Jesus’ rebuke is strong, it is accurate, and it was needful - but notice what Jesus does?

In his frustration, he heals the boy - he casts out the demon. Now, how does that differ from us? In our frustration, how many times do we storm off, do we ignore someone, do we downplay the person or the situation in our minds or react angrily.

Jesus, shows mercy to the faithless. Whatever measure of faithlessness was present, Jesus still comes in and remedies the situation. He is Lord even over and above our failures.

And beyond that, in his frustration, he still teaches a lesson about faith.

Why couldn’t we cast it out? Because of your little faith.

Faith like a grain of mustard seed.

Now, how little must their faith have been to be smaller than a grain of mustard seed?

Do you remember the parable of the mustard seed? The mustard seed was one of the tiniest seeds known to man - maybe even the tiniest known at that time, yet it grew to great heights - far outreaching what would be expected.

So how small was the disciples faith? Well, perhaps the problem was not the size or amount of their faith, but the kind of faith it was.

Limited - that is one of the implications of the word for “little” - it has limits. There was a cap on the disciples faith, for whatever reason. They clearly did not believe they had the ability to cast out the demon. They tried, but this time, their faith was limited.

Stagnant - it wasn’t growing. From what they had just learned about Jesus, when it was revealed that he was the Christ, the Son of God, to this point, their faith has not seemed to grow, but rather to stagnate or even shrink back. Was it their concern over his death? Were they reverting back to their own strength, trying to prove to themselves whether they could do it without him or not? Did they take on an independent nature, and think, “we must be strong enough by now.”

We are never “strong enough”

We have never walked the walk of faith long enough where we can now step out on our own ability.

We never reach the point where we are “grown up” and “independent” of Jesus, our source of life and strength.

Faith like a mustard seed does not simply denote size, but it also denotes life.

A mustard seed starts small but the results are big.

So it is with true faith - it is living faith, it is growing faith, it is reaching into what Christ has called an promised, not with an eye of understanding but with an eye of hope.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Mustard-seed faith may be small, but it extends into the far-reaches of Christ’s power and his sovereignty. For faith latches on firmly to Him, not resting on our ability or knowledge, but upon our Lord.

Move Mountains - it was a common Hebrew expression of the power of God.

Now, this verse is often taken and twisted to say that we can literally do anything imaginable if we simply have enough faith.

It is also used to beat people down, when they try something unthinkable or big or miraculous and fail, someone might say, “well, you just didn’t have enough faith!”

We have to remember that this is in the context of something that Jesus had actually called and empowered his disciples to do. They had cast out demons before, and they should have been able to this time.

Living, growing faith enables us, through Christ’s strength, to do what he calls us to. That includes the little daily things, as well as the big picture things.

Christ may call someone to be a missionary, but he has also called them to be a faithful spouse and parent. All requires faith.

Christ may call someone to start an orphanage, but he has also called them to love their enemies. Both require faith.

Christ may call you to stand up against some great moral evil like abortion or the destruction of marriage, but he has also called you to bear the burdens of your brothers and sisters. Both require faith.

Maybe Christ will call you to move a mountain, so to speak, - but if you don’t have faith in the smallest things, will you truly believe for the mountainous things?

It is not the size or amount of our faith, Christ rewards even the littlest of faith when it is true faith. Growing faith. Active faith. Living faith.

2. A Lesson in Faithful Reminding - Vs. 22-23

Matthew 17:22–23 (ESV)

As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.

This lesson caused a great deal of distress, especially for Peter, before the transfiguration.

Why is this inserted here? Well, we will see it repeated many times before the end of Matthew. Jesus “began” or “started” to teach them this truth in Chapter 16, but it will take them a while to “get it.”

Or perhaps, it will take them a while to exercise faith when it comes to this truth.

I think Matthew inserts it right after this lesson on faith, because at this point, this was probably the biggest sticking point or trouble area in the disciples faith. It may have even trickled down into other areas, like why they couldn’t cast out the demon.

But this will continue to be a sticking point, a pill that’s hard to swallow. But Christ will continue to reassure them, to remind them, to hammer the point down.

Repetition - hammering a truth home - reminding. That is all part of our learning.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 ESV

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We need continual reminder of what the Lord has said.

This is why it is so important to be a student of God’s word. It is not enough to hear a message of scripture once, and to know it in your mind. You must be reminded.

Why do we need reminding?

Ignorance. We just don’t know. We have missed something, we have overlooked it, we haven’t learned it yet.

Forgetfulness - in our busyness, in our distraction, in our scattered minds, we are prone to forget.

Apathy - we just don’t care. We know something is important or true, but we have taken a position of lackadaisical apathy.

Willful Neglect - perhaps the worse, but something we all struggle with. We know the importance, we even are fighting the importance because of some other concern. Anger, frustration, a sense of revenge, a sense of self-righteousness.

Fear or distress - this is what the disciples were facing. They knew the words Jesus said, they probably “believed” him in a mental sense, but their fear caused them to not fully accept it.

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

How do we not lean on our own understanding?

We have to come to terms with the fact that we are limited and even mistaken in our thinking.

We have to allow our minds to be constantly renewed by the Word of Christ.

We will face all these concerns. Doubt, feat, ignorance, apathy, wilful disregard, all of them. And when we do, there is our Lord, who will firmly, but lovingly show us yet again. Remind us through His Word, building our faith in His never-changing ways.

3. A Lesson in Faithful Stewardship - Vs. 24-27

Matthew 17:24–27 ESV

When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

Matthew is the only Gospel writer to include this little story, and it is a curious one.

Now, I’ve said this is a lesson in faithful stewardship, and I mean that as sort of a play on ideas. This the only miracle that Jesus does (or alludes to) that includes money, but the teaching is not about money, per-se. The lesson has more to do with stewarding our opportunities, our influence, our relationships.

The two-drachma tax. This was originated in Exodus 30, when Moses was about to take a Census of the people. Every man who was numbered in the census was to give a half-shekel offering for the Tabernacle.

That tradition was carried on to Jesus day, but there were differences in opinion on it.

Some men gave the tax one time in their life, and considered that a fulfillment.

Some gave it every year.

Some did not give it at all.

These were all varying interpretations by different Rabbis.

Now, it should also be noted that Rabbis did not have to pay the tax, along with the priests.

So it was a disputed matter to begin with, but some were very religious about it - and, at face value, it was not a bad thing in any sense. They were giving this tax for the upkeep and the work of the Temple. We all give our offerings in a similar way to the Lord.

The collector of the tax comes up to Peter, perhaps Peter is known as the leader among the disciples, and he asks. Doesn’t your Rabbi pay the tax?

Now, why did he ask him that? Was this the day when the tax was to be paid, and did Jesus walk by the tax-booth without paying?

Was Jesus known for not paying, and Peter felt the need to defend the Lord’s reputation?

We aren’t told any of these details, so we can’t extrapolate from them.

But what we do know is what Jesus taught Peter.

Matthew 17:25 ESV

He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?”

Jesus immediately sets up an illustration in Peter’s mind.

Peter, do the children of Kings pay the taxes that the King requires?

Matthew 17:26 ESV

And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.

In other words, Jesus is saying that he truly is exempt from this tax. Jesus is the Son of God - the one whom the Temple is for. As the God-man himself, does Jesus need to pay the tax to support his own Worship?

That was the biggest reason he was exempt, but he also could have claimed any other number of things.

He paid it once and is of the opinion that that’s is the proper fulfillment.

He doesn’t believe it was to be a continuing tax.

He is a rabbi, and the rabbi’s don’t pay the tax.

There are many reasons why he didn’t have to do this. But what is the lesson here?

Matthew 17:27 (ESV)

However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

Now, we aren’t told that Peter went out and did this - we can imagine that he did. But the miracle doesn’t seem to be the point of the story.

The point of the story is, “we are free, but...”

This is where the lesson in faithful stewardship comes in.

We are free to do many things, but there are times when we willingly lay down our freedom for the sake of something better.

In this case, the purpose was to “not offend” the Jews who believed this tax was relevant.

To “not offend” is stronger than simply to upset them. The word is “skandalon” - it means cause to stumble.

Often times that is a strong as to cause someone to sin - or at least to trip them up. To put such an unnecessary burden or task or expectation in front of them that it throws them for a loop. It frustrates them unnecessarily. It burdens them with confusion or doubt or anger.

1 Corinthians 9:19–23 ESV

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Paul is saying the same thing - he is free, but...

For the sake of the Gospel, I will willingly surrender some of my liberties.

For the sake of the Kingdom, I will willingly lay down some of my freedom.

For the sake of the Word, I will steward my relationship in such a way that i don’t cause a weaker brother to stumble.

Paul talks about this very thing also in 1 Corinthians 8 - in a culture where many of them were saved out of idol-worship, some of them could never get past the association of the meat offered to idols.

It was common to purchase it and eat it - and some Christians had no trouble with that. They thought, “these idols are dead and fake - this meat has no evil power in it.”

But others, who were weak in their faith and still learning and growing, wanted nothing to do with that - or perhaps, they were tempted to go back into that lifestyle.

Paul said - for their sake, I will not eat it. I will give up my freedom. I don’t think Idols are real, but my brother still struggles with that, and my disregard for it might cause him to stumble. I can freely eat the meat - it may be a great deal! But I will give it up.

We often do this. If one of our brothers struggles with alcoholism, and we believe that it is not an outright sin to have a drink of alcohol, would we exercise that right in front of that weaker brother, possible causing him to stumble?

If our brother came out of a lifestyle where immorality ran rampant, and was trying with all his might to avoid that for the sake of Christ. We may be able to watch a film, or take in some entertainment that makes light of those things - and we might do it without sin because we aren’t tempted by them. But would we exercise that right with our brother, and possibly destroy his progress in those areas?

In the same way, Jesus says - Peter, I don’t have to pay the tax. I’m the Son of God. But in order to keep an opportunity, to steward influence, to not cause them to stumble, we will pay the tax. Even if I have to perform a miracle to afford it!

This also teaches two other things.

it is a statement about Christ’s identity. He is, again, identifying as the Son of God.

It is a foretaste of his willingness to lay down his life.