The Faith To Obey Luke 17 Part 2
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If you were with us here last week I wonder if you perhaps felt a little overwhelmed by what Jesus is asking you to do.
He told his disciples to be on guard and watch themselves that they would not lead others astray into sin.
To not put a stumbling block in front of others.
Saying it would be better to experience a horrible death, having a millstone hung around your neck and being cast into the sea than to cause one of God’s children to sin.
Then Jesus speaks about forgiveness.
Showing how much we are to forgive.
We are to forgive others as God has forgiven us.
I am sure the disciples were feeling overwhelmed in the moment.
The disciples instantly realized that these were tough demands.
To walk uprightly so as not to cause a new believer to stumble and to forgive someone who has wronged us are not automatic behaviors.
Forgiveness especially is tough because our feelings are involved.
So the disciples respond by asking the Lord to increase their faith (17:5).
As response many of us might feel as well.
It was an honest request stemming from the right motives.
They saw that if they wanted to fulfill these demands, they would have to have God’s strength and enabling to do it.
If we are to fulfill what Jesus is calling us to do, we need God’s strength and enabling to do it.
While faith is an important part of our Christian lives, Jesus says that that is not really the issue.
Faith is not measured by its quantity, but simply by its presence.
A mustard seed sized faith will accomplish impossible things.
The real need, Jesus says (17:7-10), is for more obedience and humility.
1 And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 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.
7 “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
Faith Like a Mustard Seed (Luke 17:5-6) –
Faith Like a Mustard Seed (Luke 17:5-6) –
As we pick up here in verse 5, the disciples have sensed the difficulty of what Jesus is asking them to do.
If you were here last week, I am hoping to have seen that as well.
What has Jesus clearly stated?
He has told them they must be faithful forgivers!
How difficult is to forgive those who have sinned against us?
It is hard, feelings are involved.
Why do they ask a faith increase?
The demands of discipleship are great.
We might go so far as to say that they are in fact impossible, as much as we rely on our on strength, our own resolve, our own fleshly power.
The disciples realized that they needed help to fulfill the instructions Jesus was telling them.
What Jesus demanded in this context seemed to them to be an impossible standard to live up to.
It was completely contrary to what they had been taught by the religious leaders. (Traditional Jewish teaching was that you only had to forgive 3 times).
Help that could only come from God.
We might expect the disciples to ask for more love.
We often think love and forgiveness go hand in hand.
But the truth is, the real root of forgiveness is faith in God’s word.
Love may flow out from forgiveness, but forgiveness is a biblical act.
The reason why the disciples ask for more faith is because they measure faith like we often measure faith.
We measure faith much like this measuring cup.
The more faith we have, the the fuller the cup, the more power that is available.
The Greek verb translated increase means “to add to,” “supplement,” “develop,” or “grow.”
The disciples were not denying that they possessed faith, but doubted that it was sufficiently strong.
Jesus though tells them it is not about quantity, rather it is about quality.
Jesus is offering a gentle correction to the disciples’ request, not a commendation of it.
He is saying, “Don’t wait around for increased faith.
Just a small amount of genuine faith can accomplish what is humanly impossible.
English Standard Version Chapter 17
If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed
Remember a mustard seed was the smallest of seeds planted in the area during Jesus day.
With the example of that small amount of faith Jesus says amazing things can happen.
English Standard Version Chapter 17
you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
Why a mulberry tree?
They were some of the most hardy trees around.
The rabbis held that the roots of the tree with this name would remain in the earth for 600 years.
The major point is that this tree has an extensive root system, so pulling it up would be a major operation.
In fact the roots were regarded as so strong that it was virtually impossible to uproot.
Jesus tells them that even a little bit of faith can cause this tree to be uprooted, but more than that, also be planted in the sea.
You can’t plant trees in the sea!
Jesus was not speaking of literally moving a tree; He was speaking metaphorically.
The point is that those who trust Him will receive supernatural power to do what they could not do in their own human strength.
Humble people are powerful people because they understand their weakness and depend completely on “Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20).
The amount of faith is not the issue.
The issue is obedience.
The Duty of a Servant (Luke 17:7-10) –
The Duty of a Servant (Luke 17:7-10) –
So Jesus next brings in this story of a servant.
7 “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
Jesus uses the example of a servant to prod the disciples forward.
This concept is a lot harder for us to understand for us culturally today.
We don’t often see servants in this like this anymore and even the employer/employee relationship does not quite line up the same.
The situation Jesus described would have been unthinkable in the ancient world, where people knew their place in life, and where an invitation to sit at a wealthy man’s table was a high social privilege.
Kent Hughes helps us to try and understand this a little better
Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 Doing Our Duty
Imagine going out for dinner and hearing the waitress say, “You know, I’ve been working hard all night, and I’m a terrific waitress, and I’m really hungry right now, and I think I’ll just sit down with you folks and eat some of your shrimp Alfredo.”
Or imagine buying a new house and finding out when you arrive that the realtor is already there with his own truck, busy moving his family in.
Why not? After all, he helped to find the place, didn’t he?
Obviously if a waiter or realtor did this they would be out of a job quickly.
Even through a servant in Jesus day did their job well, it still did not mean they were part of the family.
They did not have the rights and privileges of the master.
According to Jesus, the same thing is true in our relationship with God.
Here is the spiritual application he gives for his story: “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty’ ” (Luke 17:10).
Many people take the opposite approach.
They think that all the things they do for God amount to something.
Now they want God to do his duty and welcome them into his presence and serve them.
This is what the Pharisees thought.
They were like the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son: when they came in from the fields, so to speak, they wanted their father to celebrate their obedience.
Often we come to God the same way, claiming that we deserve more from him than we are getting.
We hear this teaching today from preachers who present Jesus as a better way to get what you want out of life, which of course only makes God the servant of our own desires.
The truth is that God does not owe us anything.
If this sounds harsh, it is because in our self-righteous pride we think that we have really done something for God.
In fact, we may secretly hope that the good things we do will gain us some kind of leverage with the Almighty.
But even if we did everything he ever wanted us to do—even then we would only have done our duty.
We should not think, therefore, that we have merited any favor with God.
The gist of this story is that the owner of a slave does not become a debtor to the slave no matter how much work the slave does.
The meaning is that God is never our debtor.
Saying that we are unworthy servants when we have done what we are obligated to do as servants of the Lord does not decrease our value before the Lord either though.
Our declaration of being unworthy is not that we do not profit God our master, but that we are in a place of humility.
Unworthy does not mean that God does not value us.
After all gave His only begotten Son to die for us, in our place.
The Psalmist David asks
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
What Jesus is teaching is that we cultivate the humble attitude of a servant of God and Christ.
And in Matthew we see the master’s words to His slaves - “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant (doulos). You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ (Mt 25:21)
Service to God is a privilege and we should never feel we deserve "extra credit" for serving Him!
Our duty is when we hear His command, we are to obey without question, hesitation or reservation.
In simple terms a slave is obligated to serve which is what a disciple of Jesus does for that is our duty, our obligation, our responsibility, yea, even our privilege!
You have enough faith, rather what you are to do is to focus on your duty to obey God and, and when you have obeyed, don’t start thinking that you’re really something.
Keep in mind at all times that you are just an unworthy slave who has done what was required of him.”
Jesus reminds His disciples that obedience is not something to be rewarded but is simply the expected duty of a faithful servant.
ILLUSTRATION
- H. A. Ironside, the late beloved pastor of the historic Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, Illinois, used to tell his students of the maid who was asked how she knew she had really become a Christian. She replied, “I know I’m a Christian because I sweep under the rugs now!”
Millions of people are afraid to travel by air. Many of them know very well what the statistics say—that they are safer in an airplane than in the family car, or even in the bathtub.
But that doesn’t matter. Researchers say that a conscious fear of crashing is usually not the problem.
The real root of their anxiety is the fear that they will lose control of their lives once they leave the ground.
A similar crisis of faith may occur when a person puts himself in the care of God. He too is carried a long way from what the world considers “solid ground.”
Trusting an invisible Lord can be frightening, especially for a new Christian.
Jesus’ disciples experienced such a crisis of faith when He told them that they would have to rise to levels of forgiveness and mercy previously unknown to them (Luke 17:3-5).
Yet He responded to their lack of faith by pointing out that it takes only a small amount of obedient trust in Him to put the power of heaven at their disposal (Lk 17:6). That’s the key to our journey through life.
When we learn what Christ wants from us, we must take the first step of obedience.
He will then give us the strength to do what He wants us to do. Lord, increase our faith.
—By Mart DeHaan II (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. — Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)
Each of us here can be obedient servants of the Lord.
We each have the faith to obey.
We must remember that obedience is not something we can accomplish on our own.
Like Jesus disciples, we are called to faithfulness.
To faithfully forgive, to call one another to repentance, to be sure that we are not placing stumbling blocks in front of one another.
But it is only by His grace that we can truly serve Him well.
Left to ourselves, we falter—but in Christ, we are strengthened.
Jesus Himself is the perfect servant, who humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross so that we, who were once rebels, could be brought into God’s kingdom.
It is through His grace that we are forgiven, and it is by His Spirit that we are empowered to serve.
So as we step into this new week, let us not rely on our own abilities, but on the grace of our Savior.
May we fix our eyes on Jesus, who not only calls us to serve but equips us for every good work.
