Spiritual Leadership Training: Sufficient Faith
Notes
Transcript
PRAY: God of all glory and grace, we ask you again, to help us understand and apply your word rightly. Make us more faithful to our Lord who gave himself for us. Amen.
Intro: If you only had more faith, things would be ok. If you only had more faith, things would go better for you. If you only had more faith, God would heal your husband of his cancer. If you only had more faith, God would bless you with greater comfort and consistent health.
What a gross and disastrous misrepresentation of faith is occurring in our day. - The Word of Faith movement and teaching is decidedly unbiblical, but disturbingly popular and disconcertingly contagious.
https://www.gotquestions.org/Word-Faith.html
“At the heart of the Word of Faith movement is the belief in the "force of faith." It is believed words can be used to manipulate the faith-force, and thus actually create what they believe Scripture promises (health and wealth). Laws supposedly governing the faith-force are said to operate independently of God’s sovereign will and that God Himself is subject to these laws. This is nothing short of idolatry, turning our faith—and by extension ourselves—into god.” … “From here, its theology just strays further and further from Scripture....”
Does God ever say that by faith we can bend him to our will? Or is faith trusting in God as God—trusting God to do what is best and conforming our hearts to his character, and our will to his will?
Faith does in fact believe is that God is indeed almighty, and therefore can accomplish anything that he desires. Faith also believes that God is perfectly good, and he can therefore be trusted to do what is best. (even or especially when that differs from what I think I want or what I think is best)
Our Bible text for today deals with the issue of sufficient faith in the context of Jesus training his disciples, and more specifically his apostles, who will be the future leaders of His Church.
In our series through the Gospel of Luke, we are in chapter 17, in a section where Luke gives us a window into a series of issues Jesus deals with as he continues training his disciples. He teaches them here to have a right understanding of the serious responsibility and impact of spiritual leadership (especially the danger of false teaching, false guidance). And he teaches a right understanding of dealing with sin among the brethren, a right understanding of sufficient faith, and a right understanding of humble service to God.
Please follow along with me as I read:
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. 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 apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 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.
In a previous message, we focused our attention on vv. 1-4, in which Jesus first emphasizes the seriousness of false teaching (leading others into sin instead of toward God). Then, also speaking of sin, Jesus addresses the need for the disciples to confront sin in one another, while at the same time being marked by forgiveness toward those who repent.
So in this four-part section on discipleship that corrects the wrong-headed Jewish leadership and points his apostles in a better way to lead, the first warning concerns false teaching—not leading others into sin—& and the second instruction is to confront sinning brethren but to repeatedly forgive when they repent. - Now the next two parts are sufficient faith (vv. 5-6) and humble service (brief parable in vv. 7-10). Each one seems to be a much-needed corrective, either to the false guidance of the present Jewish religious leaders, or to the misconceptions and inclinations of the disciples’ own hearts.
That broader perspective of the context really helps us when we get into what takes place with the request from the apostles in v. 5:
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
Literally the petition to Jesus is to…
Give Us More Faith (v. 5)
Give Us More Faith (v. 5)
What brings about this request for more faith, and why do I suggest it is connected to leadership? - Let me answer that second question first.
(besides the overall context being about needed correction concerning spiritual leadership, as I already pointed out)… Apostle is the term used to describe the particular group of 12 chosen by Jesus, so that he might train them specifically to be those he would commission to be the leaders of the early church, in whom he invested special authority to speak on his behalf. Luke described Jesus’ initiating this back in…
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
(Bartholomew, also called Nathanael in John’s Gospel. Matthew, also referred to as Levi. Judas the son of James, also known as Thaddeus.)
These are the twelve whom Jesus is training in spiritual leadership.
2. What brings about their request? I believe the question is a sincere recognition of the high calling that Jesus is placing on them. The apostles don’t understand everything about it yet, to be sure, but they comprehend well enough to see that Jesus is condemning the religious establishment as false guides and warning his followers of the severe repercussions of leading others astray. They undoubtedly realize what a challenge it will be to confront one another in sin and to forgive one another (every time someone repents)... as much as they are forgiven by God.
The apostles also know that Jesus is calling them to lay down their whole lives to serve him for the eternal good of others. They know that his expectations on their hearts are even higher than what was specified in the law.
Who can possibly attain to such a high calling without faith in God, who becomes the source of empowerment for obedience and for ministry? Turning to Jesus to be the source of what they need is exactly the right posture.
But is this the right question?
(To clarify, they are not asking for the initial gift of faith, which is of course essential.) What the apostles want is more faith to faithfully follow Jesus and serve their God on a daily basis. In other words, they need faith in God to stand up to the external pressures against them for confessing Jesus. They need faith in God to help them pursue righteousness when sin is crouching at the door of their own hearts. They need faith to be the kind of leaders that Jesus wants them to be.
But Jesus does not do what they ask (give them more faith); instead, he redirects them with his answer. I submit to you that while their intention might be good, this is not precisely the correct question. They should probably be asking, Lord teach us to walk by faith in any and every situation. (allow me to demonstrate this as we talk through v. 6 and related passages of scripture)
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.
The mustard seed was proverbial in their culture as the smallest of all seeds. “Like a seed of a mustard plant” is an analogy saying that even tiny bit of genuine faith is enough.
Jesus then chooses to illustrate with even a tiny about of genuine faith could do by choosing something common and apparently present at the moment. The black mulberry was known as a tree that was firmly rooted, even in rabbinical teaching: “The rabbis held that the roots of the tree with this name would remain in the earth for 600 years (SB)” -Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 273.
Basically, in their minds, it would be insanely difficult or impossible to dig up bc of its deep root system… and transplanted into the sea—not where you would normally cultivate trees! - It should be obvious that Jesus doesn’t intend here for them to do ludicrous and unnecessary things to show off the power of their faith.
By redirecting the question with his illustration, Jesus essentially corrects them: Faith is not ultimately measured by size or by degrees but by its presence and application of it.
Jesus indicates in his answer that if they have faith in God, faith that Jesus reveals God and is the promised Messiah, then God will do what he promises. They don’t need an increased measure of that faith; they need to walk in it.
Jesus is essentially saying…
Even a Little Faith Is Sufficient (v. 6)
Even a Little Faith Is Sufficient (v. 6)
Where they are thinking that they need more faith, Jesus teaches that what they need is to have faith and apply it. - That would logically explain Jesus’ answer: even a little faith is actually sufficient. But you have to apply it when the trial comes.
Well, I’m 56% certain that this bridge will hold me. That’s not high enough—I’m out. No, I’m 100% certain that God is good and able to accomplish all that he desires and all that he has commanded of me, so I step into this by faith.
The gift of faith is sufficient (which comes from God, Eph 2:8-9).
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
You don’t therefore need more faith. What you do need is to apply that faith in any and every situation.
A quick note as I continue: I don’t want this to seem nit-picky, or to come across as overly dogmatic about the fact that sometimes we might talk about growing in faith. But it matters that we are clear about what texts mean in order for us to apply them rightly. It matters that we are precise with words in explaining what is true. And as we saw from the introduction, we need to understand faith rightly to avoid abuses of it.
I would argue that if we were to speak of growing in “the faith,” the body of knowledge that comprises the gospel, and who God is and what he expects from us (as the apostle Paul sometimes uses the term), that would not be incorrect. But since what we really mean is spiritual growth, we don’t ultimately want to confuse it with increased faith.
Even in passages where Jesus speaks of his disciples having “little faith,” have you given much thought to what he actually means by that? These contexts surrounding “little faith” in the synoptic gospels concern their fear in a storm, their failure to cast out a demon, and Peter walking on water until he realized he was WALKING ON WATER! At the moment these things took place, they lacked trust in God. At the time, they were not making God, rather than their gifting or ability, the focus of their confidence (or ability… people can’t walk on water).
I think that contextually Jesus means that at the time, they lack faith, they aren’t applying faith. Even textually I can argue the same. Consider the parallel passages to Matthew 8:26, where Jesus calms the storm and says “You of little faith.”
Luke’s quotation of Jesus from that same context is: “Where is your faith?”
And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
And in Mark, the result is the same:
He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
They all quote it slightly differently because they mean the same thing but are likely quoting from different people who were there (or traditions coming from those different original sources). The point is, the meaning they caught was: Don’t you have faith? Do you still not realize who I am? Would God let us die here if his Messiah still has a mission to accomplish?
Back in our text in Luke 17, it seems clear Jesus is teaching them: It’s not more faith that you need, it is genuine faith. It’s application of faith in every situation. What you lack is sincere surrender and dependence when the trial comes.
What if suddenly in the turbulence I stop believing the airplane can sustain me?
Faith believes, then, that God can (and does) do mighty things beyond our capability; in fact, God grants spiritual life to those who are utterly dead… whether in their wayward rebellion against him, or in their useless hypocritical religion. And the vehicle he has chosen to use to accomplish that work in us is faith—faith in God himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, doing for us what we cannot possibly do for ourselves.
Therefore, it is our consistency of applying faith that grows, but faith is faith. - You are either self-righteous, or you are dependent on God. You either serve God, or you serve materialism (money, mammon). You either want what is eternally best for people to the glory of God, or you’re after something else entirely.
What then have we seen today as Jesus instructs his disciples?
Faith is a trusting surrender to and dependence on God.
Faith is a trusting surrender to and dependence on God.
So when the apostles ask for Jesus to give them more faith, he tells that faith isn’t really about an amount, but must be present.
We don’t need to ask God to give us more faith so that we can accomplish the things he has given us to do. Through faith he has already given us everything that we need for life and godliness.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
What should we ask for and pray for from our Lord if it isn’t for more faith, which he has already given?
What we should be asking is, Lord teach us to walk by faith.
And to walk by faith we need to abide in him, submit to him, and allow him to accomplish what is best in his timing.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
The two conditions given for answered prayer are abiding in Jesus and his word abiding in us. If we are abiding in Jesus, we then desire whatever he desires and knows is best, and we’ll pray according to his words. We know that such prayers are pleasing to him.
One final application: Christian leadership isn’t about having the most faith so that you can do the most impressive things to have the greatest following and most influence. (contrary to most of the leadership models we see today, even in so-called Christian circles)
Is it difficult to be sure that we don’t misrepresent God and lead others astray? It is scary to hear that you better represent God rightly or you’ll be severely judged? Does it take both courage and compassion to confront one another in sin? Does it seem really tough to be asked to forgive someone for repeated offenses of the same kind as long as they are expressing true repentance? Is it a high calling to lay down your life every day to follow Jesus, to sacrifice for and serve others with everything that you are and have?
Yes, yes, yes, yes. But by the gift of faith in Jesus we have been saved and transformed and given the indwelling Holy Spirit. We don’t need more faith, we need to exercise faith. We need to use it.
Let’s pray.
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