Luke 17:1-10

1. Temptations to sin will come and can destroy faith. Do not lead others to sin and depart from the faith.

2.

1.

YOUR MASTER HAS GRACE TOWARD YOU BECAUSE HE HAS DONE WHAT HE HAS COMMANDED.

A. Our Gospel lesson begins with a warning. Don’t cause offense. That is what the word translated “Temptations to sin” means. And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 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.

1. What does it mean to cause offense?

Jesus continues by instructing us to rebuke our fellow believer if they sin.

a. Saying or doing something that leads another Christian not to believe.

The word translated as “temptation to sin” can also be translated as “offense”, “trap”, “stumbling block”, or “cause of sin.” Jesus says that causes to stumble will come, but the one through whom they come is the one that needs to be worried. Satan is the one through whom these causes to stumble come. God is not the author of evil. Sin came by that ancient dragon, the Devil, who caused Adam and Eve to stumble. By their stumbling, all mankind fell into sin and death. Before the fall of Adam and Eve, sin and death didn’t exist! Because of the Devil’s deeds, he will suffer eternal wrath and torment in the lake of fire. Anyone who causes another believer to stumble into sin and anything contrary to the sound doctrine of God’s Word is in league with Satan and will suffer the same fate. Jesus also tells us to rebuke our fellow believer if they sin and forgive them when they repent.

b. Saying or doing something that leads another Christian to believe error.

b. What does is mean to cause someone to stumble or to cause offense?

To give offense means to teach or to do something by which we lead another not to believe or to believe error or to lead a wicked life and thus cause him, as far as we are involved, to perish eternally.

2. How do we lead others into sin and unbelief?

a. By our words.

c. Saying or doing something that leads another Christian to lead a wicked life.

These are difficult words to hear. Our words and our deeds have an impact on those around us. What we say and do in front of our children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, coworkers, and others in our life, can and do at times lead others to sin. Leading others to sin and false-belief occurs when a pastor communes people at the altar who are living in open, unrepentant sin or who attend a false-teaching church such as any other church besides Zion in our town or even some churches with Lutheran in their name such as ELCA churches. The New Testament clearly and repeatedly teaches us to avoid error, to beware of it, to mark it and steer clear of it. When other members of an LCMS congregation see their pastor communing a Methodist, Baptist, ELCA, etc., this gives the impression that it isn’t wrong to attend one of these churches. When Missouri Synod Lutherans begin to believe that church membership isn’t important they have been lead into sin. What a church teaches matters! Even if a church only teaches one doctrine differently, a church not allowing infant baptism for instance, attending that church could still make a shipwreck of your faith and your children’s faith. God’s word says, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Flee from this evil leaven! When pastors commune erring Christians, they are failing to rebuke those who contradict sound teaching. They fail to warn the erring as God clearly commands pastors to do.

You can show other believers what the Christian life ought to look like by serving your neighbor through organizations such as the LWML. By volunteering to help with Sunday School and Christ Academy. H

b. By our deeds.

B. You can also cause offense by failing to rebuke a fellow Christian caught in error. 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.”

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.”

1. What does it mean to rebuke?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

a. Approaching him or her privately.

1. What does it mean to rebuke?

a.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

b.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

c. Everyone

c.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Children and everyone else must keep a close watch on themselves as well. How you act and how you speak will have an effect on others. If you carry yourself in this life in ways that are no different than unbelievers, people will be mislead into thinking that your behavior is Christian behavior. Lying, stealing, talking about people behind their back, disrespecting your parents and other authorities aren’t valid expressions of Christian faith. Going to church here every now and then isn’t either. says that Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. This is the only place you can come and receive absolution. This is the only place you can come to and receive the true body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. What is more important than that. says the ought not “neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. About 307 members of Zion attended Divine Service this past month. 424 attended in the past 6 months, but only about 202 people were at Divine Service 2 weeks ago and on the 15th of September about 181 people attended. That means that over 100 members that come attend Divine Service in a month don’t go every Sunday. Why? When you or your family don’t attend Divine Service regularly, the devil, the world, and your sinful nature get even more time to reign in your life over and against God’s Word and Sacraments. These are the gifts God gives to create and sustain faith. When you don’t make Sunday a priority you are starving yourself of those gifts which God works through to keep you firm in the faith until you die.

B. Jesus doesn’t stop at forgiving us seven times a day.

1.

2. God alone gives faith and increases faith.

1.

A. If faith depends on us, we fail. 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.

We have a weak faith. Which one among you wants to stand up and command these pianos to shoot up into the sky and see if they will obey? The truth is, if the Apostles, those great men of faith, don’t even have faith the size of a mustard seed, then how great is our faith? The Apostles were beat down by Jesus’ warning about leading believers astray. They are beaten down concerning Jesus’ command to rebuke an erring brother and to forgive him as many times as he comes back and repents. After hearing this the Apostles feel compelled to beg Jesus, “Increase our faith!” When Jesus responds by saying, “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,” he isn’t using the mustard seed analogy in the positive sense like comparing it with the Kingdom of God. That positive sense is where the LWML’s Mustard Seed Devotions get their name. Jesus uses the mustard seed in this way when he says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” That isn’t the way Jesus is using the mustard seed in our Gospel today. He is using it to say, “If you only had faith the size of this measly mustard seed, but you don’t!” This is the way Jesus used the mustard seed when the Apostles were unable to heal a demon possessed boy in . They asked Jesus why they were unable. He said, “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.”

The truth is that we have faith much smaller than a mustard seed. We have faith smaller than about 1 to 2 millimetres (or 0.039 to 0.079 inches) in diameter! We need more faith. If it depends on us, we are in a seriously sorry state. Yes, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed nothing will be impossible for you! But we don’t have faith at all in and of ourselves. What are we to do?!

B. Jesus gives us his faith. The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Notice who the Apostles are asking for this increase in faith. They don’t look to themselves. They don’t try to make some self-improvement plan. There is no 10-step plan to growing your faith. In complete desperation, they beg Jesus, “Increase our faith!” Jesus may call his Apostles “little-faiths” from time to time and they may certainly deserve it, but they know what everyone here ought to know. Faith doesn’t come from us. Faith isn’t something we produce. Faith isn’t something that we make to grow once we have it. God is the cause of saving faith. says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” , “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” It has been granted to you. You didn’t do it. You didn’t earn it. Faith is a gift. , “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Faith comes from God, who makes it grow, and it is not the product of your own will. Its beginning, growth, and completion are all from God and cannot depend on your own powers. God gives you the gift of faith out of His own love for you for the sake of the death of His Son Jesus for your sins.

Jesus came and stood in your place and did what was commanded of you to do. He lived a perfect life according to the Law of God, in your place. He suffered the punishment that you deserved for falling into sin and leading others into sin as well. You deserved eternal wrath for these sins and all others. For leading others astray by your sinful words and deeds. For failing to rebuke those who fall into error by speaking the truth in love. For failing to forgive repentant brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus suffered in your place for all of these sins and every sin committed by mankind from the Fall till the Last Day.

Jesus even had faith in your place and gives it to you. God has worked faith in you by the preaching of His Word. He has given you the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit in your Baptism. He keeps you strong in this faith by giving you the blood of the eternal covenant sacrificially poured out for the forgiveness of sins, the body and blood of your Lord, Jesus Christ. The faith and faithfulness of Jesus, which is infinitely greater than the size of a mustard seed, is imputed to you. It is reckoned to you. It is accounted to you. Jesus has the faith that says, “Peace! Be still!” to a sea storm, and it obeys Him ()! Jesus has such faith that, even when truly separated from the Heavenly Father, Jesus continued to trust in Him. On the cross, Jesus was forsaken by God and suffered His Father’s wrath for our sin. Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (). He still says “My God.” states that, “Jesus committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. This is the faith accounted to you.

3. Faith will and must produce good works. These works do not merit salvation! “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’? 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’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 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.’ ”

God has worked faith in you. He has given you the gift of faith which produces good works. God works in you by His Holy Spirit to make you better, more holy, more righteous, more faithful, less evil, and less selfish. God dwells in you and causes you to do what He commands. For all this we ought to give thanks. We are nothing but unworthy servants. Thanks be to Jesus that He has made us worthy by His own precious blood! Thanks be to Jesus because He doesn’t behave in way we expect of a master. Even though we have only done what we owed according to God’s Law, AND have only done this by His indwelling and compelling us, He does have gratitude toward us! He has grace towards us! When we die and rest from our labors, our Master will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (, and ).

Imagine someone ten million dollars and they come to your house and make you Hamburger Helper and sweet peas in an attempt to show gratitude towards you. Are you going to thank them, commend them, show grace to them? Are you going to say “Well done, good and faithful servant?” I think not! But that is how our God treats us! Out of thanks for what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, we offer our measly works, our sacrifices of praise. Our Lord is well within rights to scoff at these worthless things. After all, these are just works that He commanded us to do and they are tainted with sin to boot! Give thanks that our Father looks at our works done in faith that are covered in the blood of Jesus and sees them as holy, precious, and a pleasing aroma! He doesn’t scoff! We come to Him in faith confessing our unworthiness. He comes to us with pure grace and mercy saying “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master!” Thanks be to God!