When We Feel We Need More Faith

When We Feel We Need More Faith Luke 17:1–6 (NIV84) 1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that you need more faith? Have you ever thought that life is tough or unfair or too difficult? Friends, I’m sure that all of you have heard many sermons that focus on the disciples’ request in Luke 17:5 “Increase our faith!” I have heard many sermons with this as sermon text and have preached a few myself too. What interests me greatly is that many people read this passage and think that the disciples’ request is only a response to Jesus’ command to forgive. I’d like to suggest to you that although this might sound right there is much more to it than what we might think at first. • “Lord, my health is not what I would like it to be; increase my faith so that I can cope with it!” • “Lord, family life is not what I would like it to be; increase my faith so that I can cope with it!” • “Lord, my spouse is not doing what I would like him/her to do; increase my faith so that I can cope with it!” • “Lord, my children are not doing what I would like them to do; increase my faith so that I can cope with it!” • “Lord, my boss is not what I would like him to be; increase my faith so that I can cope with it!” • “Lord, the business partnership is not what I would like it to be; increase my faith so that I can cope with it!” • “Life is so unjust, people are so bigoted, there are racists, fascists, chauvinists, sexists, homophobes, increase my faith so that I can cope with it!” • “Lord, the world is so full of suffering, pain, discrimination; increase my faith so that I can cope with it!” When the disciples responded to Jesus’ teaching and preaching with, “Increase our faith!” what do you think they were expecting Jesus to do? Do you think they thought He would lay hands on them, or pray for them or even cast the spirit of little faith from them and suddenly, miraculously and mystically they would become filled to the brim with faith? Do you think they thought that Jesus would give them the basic principles of powerful positive thinking? Do you think they thought that Jesus would give them slogans like “You can do it! God has a special plan for your life.” Imagine the times when you feel like your faith is in short supply, and you turn to God and say “Increase my faith”, what do you think God would do next? Scripture reminds us that Jesus’ teaching often caused people to be very uncomfortable. He talked about picking up crosses; about losing your life to gain it; listen to Luke 9:23–27: Jesus said to the people around him: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” Let’s say you are really keen to follow Jesus, really keen to worship God, really keen to read your Bible, really keen to pray, really keen to be active in church life, but you just want a little bitt of time to get your own stuff sorted out and then you Luke 9:57–62: A man said to Jesus as they were walking along the road, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus then replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” As if life is not difficult enough! Maybe you are one of those who believe that discipleship, following Jesus, being a Christian is easy. I would like to challenge you on that. Just ask that rich ruler that we read about in Luke 18. In verses 24–30 we find Jesus’ response to the rich ruler’s sadness when he realised what following Jesus really required from him: “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” 28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!” 29 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.” What is it that you have to leave behind to follow Jesus? What is it in your life that makes it hard for you to enter the kingdom of God? Friends, becoming a Christian might be easy. Accepting Jesus as your Saviour might be easy. But being a Christian, living as a Christian, having faith is not as easy as it sounds. It is not easy to stand firm when sin abounds. It is not easy to stay clear from sinning ourselves and it is even more difficult to address the sin of our brothers and sisters in such a way that our approach will not become a stumbling block that will cause them to walk away form Christ. It is not easy to forgive those who sin against us! It is not easy to stay cool, calm and collected in the midst of life’s storms when it feels as if your life’s boat is busy sinking! So, why did the disciples ask: “Increase our faith!” Could it perhaps be that the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith because they started to realise that following Jesus, being disciples, are not as easy as they first thought it to be? A perfectly reasonable request, you might say. They did not ask for more love or more tolerance so they could forgive. They also did not ask for more understanding. No, instead they asked for more faith so they could adequately do what Jesus told them to do. Could it be that they realised that if they are going to have to face the conflicts that Jesus preached about they will need all the faith they can get, and that it definitely more than what they thought the had! But Jesus’ reply to them is rather short. They got the surprise of their lives. Jesus bluntly told them that they don’t need more faith; no, they just need to learn to use what they have already got. They hear that the smallest possible amount of faith – ever faith as small as a mustard seed – can work wonders. This is what Jesus told them. This is what Jesus is telling us! When life is tough, when we struggle, when we suffer, when we are sick, when we are frail, when we are at our wit’s end we are told that we shouldn’t ask for more faith because more faith would cause us to cope better, since even the tiniest bit of faith would be enough to enable us to cope! The disciples requested more faith, but Jesus’ response reveals to them that it is not the quantity of faith that matters, but the focus of faith. The apostles didn’t need more faith; a tiny seed of faith would be enough, if it were alive and growing. We do not need more faith to comply with the Lord’s instructions, but genuine faith – even if it is the tiniest bit. It’s not the amount that matters, but its nature. The almighty power of God can flow through any unobstructed channel. The Gospels reveals to us that the impossible becomes possible when people are really willing to make the faith shift. We find a plethora of people who are willing to risk everything, who are willing change their way of thinking, who are willing to cross all social barriers because they believed that Jesus could do for them what nobody else could. Again, it is not how much faith you have, but in whom you have put your faith. Several times in the Gospels Jesus said to people, “Your faith has healed you.” A woman with a haemorrhage touches the hem of his robe in a crowd, breaking all kinds of social taboos from Leviticus. Jesus says to her “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” Zacchaeus, the hated tax collector, the deplorable, climbed the tree to see Jesus, and when he is seen, he gives away his wealth like Jesus instructed the rich ruler to do, and Jesus said to the crowd, “Salvation has come to this house today.” A Roman centurion humbly asks Jesus to heal his servant and Jesus said, that He hadn’t seen faith like this in the whole of Israel! Why? Their requests were granted for a different reason; with all of these people it wasn’t the amount of their faith that did the trick. No, It was the focus of their faith! This is why Jesus responded to His disciples the way He did. He pointed to a nearby mulberry tree and said that even the tiniest snippet of faith could uproot it and send it into the sea. Mulberry trees grow quite large (as high as thirty-five feet). Matthew’s Gospel records similar teaching when Jesus said that a mountain could be told to throw itself into the sea (Matthew 21:21). It reminds me of another Scripture passage that involved a tree, Mark 11: Here Jesus one day cursed a fig tree because it was without fruit. The next day when they passed the tree again the disciples saw that the tree indeed withered. Peter remembered what Jesus said the previous day and said to Jesus: “Rabbi look! The tree you cursed has withered!” Just listen to Jesus’ response to Peter’s amazement. We find it in Mark 11:22–25 (NIV84) 22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Friends, Jesus’ response to Peter reveal exactly what I’m talking about: It is not the amount of faith that matters, it is the focus of faith that matters. In effect He was saying to Peter: “Pete, if you believed that God can do it you’d not be surprised that it happened.” Jesus teaches that it is the power of God, not human faith, that uproots trees, that moves mountains, that causes fig trees to wither; but human faith in the power of God must be present for us to realise that it is God’s work. When we come to realise that it is God’s power, God’s work then even the smallest “seed” of faith is sufficient. There is great power in even a little faith when God is at work. It is not the amount of faith that matters; rather, it is the power of God available to anyone with even the smallest faith. So, as you can hear this morning, my take on Luke 17:5 is that the disciples realised that following Jesus, required more faith than they thought they possessed. Denying self to follow Jesus asked a lot more than what they thought they could give. Jesus’ quick response is an important lesson we should learn too: It’s not great faith or more faith that we need; it is merely faith in a great God. Perhaps what Jesus sensed and responded to in our Scripture reading this morning was that the disciples were asking for faith to act as a prescription to cope with whatever life would dish out. They didn’t want to feel fear or pain but just to be on a high that will enable them to be unaffected by the tension and conflict around them. They realised that things were coming to a head between Jesus and the religious authorities, and they wanted some miraculous injection of faith that would insulate them from the unpleasantness around them and allowed them to act like the heroes they would like to be. Unfortunately, faith doesn’t work like that. Jesus suggests that they already have enough faith to get on with what they are actually being asked to do. The same is true for us too. There is a final Scripture passage I’d like to mention today. I believe that this passage might help us to understand this concept better. I’m referring to Mark 10:46–52 (NIV84): As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving Jericho, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. 51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” 52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Someone told Bartimaeus that the passing of Jesus caused the commotion. The blind man sees something that no one else has seen and cries at the top of his voice, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” If ever a person enthusiastically demonstrates a holistic show of faith, Bartimaeus does. All of his life, the blind Bartimaeus has counted on others to lead and feed him. But Bartimaeus believed that Jesus could turn all of this around by giving him sight! Jesus meets the ready faith of Bartimaeus with the open-ended question, “What do you want Me to do for you?” (Verse 51) The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” When Bartimaeus said this he believed that Jesus could make him see. So Jesus said: “Go, your faith has healed you” (verse 52). Jesus not only gives instant sight to a blind man, but recognizes the total healing of a person with a ready faith. Spiritually free, physically sound, and humanly dignified, Bartimaeus is pronounced “well” and “whole.” Mark reinforces the total healing of Bartimaeus by bringing the story full cycle in the conclusion, “And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road” (verse 52). A beggar becomes a disciple and a squatter becomes a pilgrim—living, seeing, walking, and singing proof that Jesus is Servant and Saviour. What must we learn from today’s message? Bartimaeus had not seen Jesus’ miracles, but he responded in faith to what he had heard. We have heard Jesus described in the Gospels. May we be like those of whom Peter wrote, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him” (1 Peter 1:8 NIV). Friends, I believe this is a remarkable message. We have heard Jesus’ teaching about discipleship. He has done this plainly. In order to follow in Jesus’ footsteps we can request a bigger portion of faith like the disciples did or we can follow the approach of a blind man and cry out ‘Jesu eeleison’—‘Jesus, have mercy on me’ (Mark 10:47). The oldest prayer in Christendom is found on the lips of this blind beggar who recognizes Jesus’ true messianic status as ‘Son of David’ (verse 47). Blind he indeed was! Nevertheless he saw more clearly than any of the disciples who asked for an increase of faith! Friend, Bartimaeus displayed this mustard seed like faith you and I need – faith that focuses on what God can do! This is the kind of faith that leads to prayers that move mountains; prayers that display faith the effectiveness of God busy building His kingdom. Friend, you and I don’t need more of it! We just need to come to the full understanding that God is our faith’s focus and not our circumstances! • Then we can cope with the health that is not what we would like it to be without an increase of faith! • Then we can cope with family life is not what we would like it to be without an increase of faith! • Then we can cope with the spouse who is not doing what we would like him/her to do without an increase of faith! • Then we can cope with the children who are not doing what we would like them to do without an increase of faith! • Then we can cope with the boss who is not what we would like him to be without an increase of faith! • Then we can cope with the business partnership that is not what I would like it to be without an increase of faith! • Then we can cope with the Life that is so unjust, with people who are so bigoted, with the racists, fascists, chauvinists, sexists, and homophobes without an increase of faith! • Then we can cope with a world full of suffering, pain, and discrimination without an increase of faith! May your faith in God’s all-sufficiency be enough to have peace of mind and calmness of heart during the toughest moments you experience in life! God is faithful and just. He can make your faith sufficient if you entrust it to Him. Amen.