Faith Like a Mustard Seed(2)

Faith is central to the Christian life. Most people know that. Without faith, one can’t even be a Christian. And yet faith can be mysterious at times. In part, I think that’s because the word “faith” is used with different shades of meaning in the Bible. Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century pastor and theologian who was born just 10 miles south of here, identified 11 different senses of the word faith in the Bible. I wonder, how aware of them are we when we read the Bible? Not very. But more fundamentally, faith can be mysterious to us because Jesus says some strange, mysterious things about faith, like in our text today. Luke 17:6 — And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. Or Matthew 17:20 — where Jesus says, “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.”

Well, that’s hard to relate to, isn’t it? My first response on reading these statements is, “I obviously don’t have that faith. I can’t move mountains. I can’t uproot a tree and plant it in the sea. But come to think of it, I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. Does no-one have faith? But, hold on. What does Jesus really mean in saying these things?” At first blush, it almost sounds like - if I have faith I’ll have the power to do anything I want. But I know that can’t me right. Something else must be going on here. And so the text at this point is wrapped in a blanket of mystery.

Yet don’t we want to live better Christian lives? And isn’t faith required for that? The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 1:17 — that “The righteous shall live by faith.” Don’t we want to honor God more with our lives? Well, the writer of Hebrews tells us that without faith it’s impossible to please God. Don’t we want to be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ – bearing fruit for him and his cause in the world? Jesus himself tells us in John 15 that to do that we have to abide in him, and that requires faith. What could be more important than these things? One way of stating our ultimate purpose in life is to glorify God; he created us and then saved us to glorify him by bearing fruit for him. Jesus says in John 15:8 — By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Or to put it terms of our self-interest, our eternal rewards in heaven are connected to these things!

As I was doing my morning devotional a few months ago, our text today grabbed me in an unusual way, and I’ve spent some time since then wrestling with it to understand it. And I want to share with you this morning the fruit of that effort because I think understanding and practicing its truths t is vital for our ongoing Christian life. It can change not only how we meet the various challenges that arise day to day in our lives, but it can also change the quality of our relationship with God. I hope that sounds appealing to you.

So let’s get the context of our verses. Jesus is speaking. Luke 17:3–4 — Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him. The Jewish tradition of the rabbis said that you had to forgive someone 3 times; after that you no longer had to forgive them. Jesus is now saying you have to forgive them seven times, which really means you have to always forgive them. And the response of the apostles to the Lord is Luke 17:5 — “Increase our faith!” They are clearly saying that command is beyond their current ability to do it. If you allow me to read into this, I hear them saying, “It’s hard enough to forgive someone who sins against me three times. The more they sin against me, the less I’m inclined to forgive them, and the harder it is to forgive them because I’m frustrated and angry with them. My emotions and attitudes and desires are not such that I’m inclined or able to forgive them.” And in recognition of this they ask Jesus to increase their faith, obviously thinking that’s what they need to obey this command – more faith.

Let’s listen again to Jesus’s response. Luke 17:6 — And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Jesus is correcting their thinking. It’s clear they’re right in thinking they need help, that they need the ability – the power – to forgive which they implicitly admit they don’t have. And they’re right in thinking that faith is what is needed. But they are wrong in thinking that what they need is more faith.

A mustard seed was the smallest seed known by people in Israel. And Jesus is saying that if they have mustard seed sized-faith they would have the power to do the humanly impossible, namely uproot and move a mulberry tree just by speaking to it. And so Jesus is clearly saying it’s not the size or amount of their faith that’s at issue here.

Nor does it seem reasonable to conclude that Jesus is saying that they don’t have any faith at all. Why not? Because their response to Jesus clearly implies a kind of faith. they believe Jesus is able to increase their faith. As the ten lepers we looked at a couple weeks ago believed that Jesus was able to heal them of their leprosy, so the apostles clearly believe Jesus is able to give them more faith.

No, the issue Jesus is pointing to is that the apostles don’t have the right kind of faith. Again, the Bible talks about different kinds of faith. The ten lepers believed Jesus had the authority and power to heal them, but only the Samaritan who returned to worship Jesus expressed saving faith. And in our text today, Jesus is talking to the apostles, who are saved, about yet another kind of faith.

And so the $10,000 question is: what kind of faith do the apostles need here, such that if they had the smallest amount of it, they could say to a mulberry tree “Be uprooted and planted in the sea” and it would happen?

Let’s start by saying they need the kind of faith that’s able to lay hold of the power of God. I say that because it’s clear only God is able to uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea, not us. It’s only the power of God that can do that. Our faith isn’t that power; it’s the means which can lay hold of the power of God which is able to do the humanly impossible. God alone is all-powerful. Nothing is impossible for him. He can do all things.

And so Jesus is telling us that there’s a faith that can access the almighty power of God. That’s the kind of faith we need. Through that kind of faith God will enable the apostles to do what they admit it’s impossible for them to do in their natural selves, namely, always forgive someone who is constantly sinning against them. As I read it, the apostles are asking for more faith such that the power of God will overpower their will such they will forgive when they are opposed to doing that. But Jesus seems to be talking about the kind of faith which lays hold of the power of God to transform the apostles – to transform their hearts – that is, their minds, emotions, wills, attitudes, perspectives – so that they are willing to forgive others as Christ forgives them.

The question then becomes this: what do we need to exercise this kind of faith that lays hold of the power of God which will work in and through us? There are four things. I’ll talk about them very briefly.

First, we need to be convinced of the power of God. And by that, I mean it needs to be conviction in our heart that God can do the humanly impossible. We need to meditate on the power of God in creation. The power of God in delivering Israel from Egypt by bringing the plagues, and dividing the Red Sea, and bringing water from the rock, and feeding them with manna. God has shown his power – doing miraculous things – throughout the Bible. We need to reflect on these things, and become utterly convinced in our heart about the almighty power of God.

Second, we need to be in an active, intimate relationship with God. This requires salvation. You have to be born again; a genuine child of God. But children of God can neglect their fellowship with God, creating a practical distance between them and God. Unconfessed sin often leads to this, as does a preoccupation with the entertainments of the world, among other things. We can become comfortable with a casual and occasional relationship with God. We relate to him more as an acquaintance than the love of our life. But the faith that can lay hold of the power of God to work in and through us entails having an active and intimate relationship with God. This is a living connection with God, like being lamp being plugged into the electrical socket. Only now is the power accessible.

Jesus talks about this connection as abiding in God – like a branch abiding in a vine. I know most of us here need to be working on developing and maintaining this kind of relationship with God. It requires seeing the importance of it, and prioritizing it, making time for it. It doesn’t happen of itself. We have to actively pursue it. It requires reading and reflecting on God’s word and other Bible-saturated books and engaging relationship-building prayer.

Third, we need to ask God to exercise his power in a specific way. In other words, it requires specific prayer. “Lord, please help me to forgive this person again; to be able to forgive as Christ forgives me.” “Lord, please help me to love this person who keeps verbally attacking me.” “Lord, please work through me to be a bold testimony for you.” “Lord, please make me into a prayer warrior for the sake of your kingdom.”

Fourth and finally, we not only need to ask – now listen carefully, this is really important – we also need to trust that God will give us what you ask for. You have to be convinced that he will do it – that he will positively answer your request. And the only way you can do that is if you’re convinced that it’s the will of God. You have to be convinced that what you are asking for is God’s will. As John puts it in his first letter, 1 John 5:14–15 — And this is the confidence that we have toward him (i.e., God), that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. And what this implies is that in our intimate relationship with God, we are not asking to use the power of God for selfish purposes, but for his glory, for his sake. Now that includes asking and trusting God for the power to transform us in specific ways into the likeness of Christ, and in asking and trusting him to empower us for ministry.

And so unless God wants you to move a mulberry tree into the sea, you are not going to be asking and trusting God for the power to do that. But if for some reason God makes it clear that’s his will for you, you need to be trusting him, without doubt, that he will work that through you. By faith you lay hold of his power to do it. Again, there can be no doubt in this kind of faith; it must be wholehearted trust that he will do it.

Friends, this kind of faith is sanctifying faith. It’s the kind of faith all believers need. It’s the faith through which God transforms us, through which he empowers us to do what we can’t do in our own power; it’s the kind of faith through which we bear spiritual fruit for the glory of God.

O Lord, help each believer who hears this to exercise more and more this kind of faith. Please, Lord, help us to lay hold of your power for your glory.