You of Little Faith

Observation

Matthew 17:14–21 NKJV

14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Mark 9:14–29 NKJV

14 And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. 15 Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. 16 And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?” 17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” 19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. 21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” 26 Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

Luke 9:37–42 NKJV

37 Now it happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met Him. 38 Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, “Teacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child. 39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out; it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him. 40 So I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42 And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.

Context is important.

Jesus had just taken Peter James and John with him to the mnount of transfiguration.

This meant the remaining nine disciples were left to minister to the people.

Now think about how they would have felt about this.

When you have so much work to do, and now Jesus is off with three of the disciples you can imagine what was going on in the hearts of those remaining behind. Matthew was one of them observing all of this.

Also keep in mind the amount of people that there were with the remaining disciples to minister too. There were clearly a multitude of people.

This man comes to Jesus because the remaining disciples could not remove this demonic spirit in the man’s son.

Jesus immediatly rebukes his disciples. Then heals the boy.

The disciples come to Jesus to ask why they could not heal the boy.

Jesus plainly tells them why; it was their unbelief.

How did they display unbelief? According to Jesus it was their lack of faith that was a product of their lack of discipline to pray and fast.

They gave no priority to relationship with God, instead they simply tried to heal the boy on their own. This they could not do.

Application

There is a similar example of this in Revelation 2:1-5.

The church in Ephesus expended all their energy in doing what they felt they needed to do. Now they were really good at it.

What they underestimated was that Jesus was watching them the whole time. It became clear to Him that they were not doing things the way they needed too. They werent as affective as they could have been if they had their priorities right.

They worked hard to do, but their doing was without Jesus. It was for Jesus, Don’t get me wrong. But it was not done with Jesus.

The disciples were most likely aggitated by the fact that Jesus took Peter, James, and john with him and not them.

They would have been frustrated that they were left behind to do the work instead of being with Jesus.

There may have been elements of bitterness as to why Jesus took the others and not them.

Regardless, they were not functioning as well as they could have been if they understaood what their potential was.

Instead, they ministered in unbelief, something I am sure we all can relate to today.

Have you ever been so frustrated in ministry that you felt you were alone and no one was helping you?

Have you ever been frustrated with church because you sacrificed time and effort and got nothing for it?

Have you ever been so frustrated that God was not increasing your ministry the way that you were hoping he would?

You see, we all are guilty of thinking and feeling this way. Truth is this feeling is more common than you think.

But never would we assume that because we feel this way we are in essence not believing Jesus could use you.

Yet, when we walk away from that ministry or when we try to end it or we get frustrated by the lack of results, we are in essence not trusting God.

What we also underestimate is that Jesus is always watching us.

He is always observing how we are doing things and instructs His Spirit to lead and guide us back to the right path.

We could have thriving ministries here if we acted in faith and trusted God for the fruit.

But how did Jesus say we would see the fruit in John 15:1-5? By abiding in Him.

This is why in Matthew 17:21 he tells them:

Matthew 17:21 NKJV

21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Prayer and fasting are elements of abiding in Jesus.

In other words, our ministries will not grow unless we bath them in prayer and if necessary fasting.

You know there have been many times in my ministry I wanted to quit what i was doing. But when I took time to pray and seek the Lord, He would always bring me back to this truth. That I was not serious about fruit because I was not serious about being with Him.

This is the great obstacle for the church today.

But it can be overcome.

Ways we can function for the glory of God

Serving in the Body requires discipline and faith.

Serving in the Body requires discipline and prayer.