Why Do You Want More Faith?

Scripture Introduction:

Would you like to have more faith?

Can I ask another question? Why? Why do you want more faith?

That might seem like a silly question. But what will more faith do for you? If you say, “I’d like more faith” why are you saying that? Let’s say you’ve got more faith…what now…what changes in your life? What’s different now?

We are going to try to wrestle with that question this morning.

Luke 17:5–19 ESV

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. “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.’ ” On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Sermon Introduction:

What ache do you have today? You discouraged by the state of our nation? Worried about inflation? Economic policies? School shootings? Worldview shifts? Abuse? Racism? Worried about an over-swing in addressing these areas? Concerned about losing things you’ve fought hard for?

Or maybe it’s not national news you’re thinking about. You might not have that luxury. You’re wondering about your own bank account. Or maybe family squabbles. Or school. Or friendships. Or crippling loneliness. Or illness. Or death. Or depression.

How does faith relate to these?

On Wednesday morning and evening we looked at Jeremiah 9. We saw the devastating news that Jeremiah was giving to the people. This wasn’t the first time they had heard it, but Jeremiah was telling them that they were going to be scattered among the nations, their food and water was going to be bitter poison, and many were going to die. What was happening was that God was giving them over to the desires of the heart—and was going to remove His blessing. The Assyrians would come in and utterly devastate them and the land.

So on the heels of this news Jeremiah says,

Jeremiah 9:23 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,

That’s what we can tend to trust in when things are going bad. I can think my way out of this mess…I just need to read a book…or trust in somebody smarter than myself, etc. We can think ourselves out of this mess.

Or boast in might. We just need to be more powerful. So we take all the problems we are having and we just figure out a way to get in power, or use might, or force, or whatever to accomplish what we need. Let’s just get bigger and badder and then nobody can hurt us. That’ll fix the problems.

Or we boast in riches. We’ll just buy our way out. Or if we can get somebody more wealthy to give us something…what we really need is more cash. That’ll help us out.

And so we boast in those things…we trust in those things…but Jeremiah says that the proper thing to do is to boast in the character of the Lord. Delight in what He delights in.

Jeremiah 9:24 ESV

but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

But the people didn’t listen. And you know why? There was a fourth thing they were trusting in. They were trusting in their faith. We have the temple, we are God’s chosen people, our identity is as His, we are circumcised, we have the Law, etc. etc. Therefore, what Jeremiah is saying isn’t going to happen to us.

But it did happen. And they ended up in exile. It was a horrible time. But there was a remnant of people. And those people decided that they never wanted to disobey God’s law again. They wanted to be faithful to the LORD.

But as time went on they lost the heart of that. And once again they started trusting in their faith instead of the object of their faith. And in part these people became the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and the ones who he ended up having so many heated battles with.

Here in Luke 17 he is talking to his disciples but the Pharisees and other religious leaders are still in the background—kind of serving as a foil—don’t be like them. They’ve gone astray.

So I’ll be clear with the point I believe Luke 17 is making and then I’ll try to show where I’m getting that. Here is the point:

Biblical faith does not put God in our debt.

Remember earlier when I said, “Why do you want more faith?” One reason might be because you see all of the bad stuff happening in our world, or maybe trouble is right at your own doorstep. You’re depressed. You’re hurting. You need healing.

And so you might be thinking, if I just had more faith. If I just believed more then something would happen. Or if the people around me believed more or believed better then things would change. I’d argue that what has happened with this thinking is that a subtle shift has taken place. You’re trusting in your faith and how much faith you have more than what you are trusting in the object of your faith.

Let me show you this. Look at 17:7-10.

This sounds like kind of a harsh word doesn’t it. We know that in the parable we are going to be the servants and it almost sounds like he just doesn’t give much of a care about us…he’s just using us for taking care of his field or his sheep or something like that. We don’t even get to eat the food prepared at the table. We’re just unworthy servants.

Jesus is using a picture from their culture. He’s not necessarily saying this is the way things ought to be. This is an illustration. This is a story to make a point. And it’s interesting too because I don’t think many of the disciples were going to be in a position of having a servant…they were more likely to BE servants.

But here he says, do servants get to recline at table after they’ve worked? Are they brought in as part of the family? Nope. They come in from the field and then they have to do their domestic work and THEN…and only then are they able to eat and drink.

They didn’t thank servants for doing what they were supposed to do. The point here is that..and these are not my own words…the point here is that

“completing the work does not by doing so place his master under any obligation to reward him in some way”.

This isn’t talking about saying thanks if somebody gives you a glass of water. That isn’t the way that culture works. This is talking about being indebted to another. If the servant does his job then the master is not in some sort of indebted relationship to the servant. The servant is only doing his job.

What, then, does verse 10 mean:

Luke 17:10 ESV

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.’ ”

What does it mean to be unworthy servants? It means to be not-profitable. When we do what we are commanded we aren’t returning something to God so that now he is indebted to us. We aren’t giving him a return on his investment so that now he has profited from us. We aren’t building up equity that we can cash in. Not at all.

That is Jesus point. Biblical faith doesn’t think that it has put God in its debt. I believe so that God gives me something in return. I trust Him and by my trust in Him then he will reward me with this particular thing. I’ve done my duty of believing God…now he does His job of blessing me.

The more faith you have, then the more equity you have built up with God. Friends, that isn’t the gospel!

I’m not sure how to illustrate this. Is it to say that biblical faith isn’t handing someone the keys because they know the direction and they know how to get there the best. Biblical faith is handing someone the keys because they own the car and you’re just happy to go along for the ride.

I don’t know if that works.

God never owes us. Period. That’s the point. And I think we see this in the next story in verses 11-19. There are 10 lepers…not leopards…lepers. These are those who don’t have nerve endings really and so they’d end up burning their hands. It was a wasting disease. Horrible stuff. And they were outcasts of society. Leprosy was like a death sentence but not the type of death sentence where people come and gather around your bed and wish you farewell into the next kingdom. More like a death sentence where you’ve done something really bad and they throw you out into the desert and tie you up to the ground and just wait until the buzzards do their work.

They break some rules here by going to Jesus…but they are desperate and they ask Jesus for mercy. He tells them to show themselves to the priests—which means that they’ve been healed and they need to go and show the high priest that they are now fit to be back into community. Jesus unties them from that stake in the wilderness and tells them they can have life again.

They are cleansed on their way. Which I think tells us that there was something happening there with their faith—they trusted His Word and they go their way and in obedience they are healed.

But we see in verse 15 that only one of them goes back when he sees that he is healed. The other nine just keep walking. But this guy turns back and praises God and gives Jesus thanks.

It’s not by accident that Jesus says “he was a Samaritan”. That’s another one of those places where we see that the weak—the shamed—the ones who aren’t supposed to get it…are the ones who ARE getting it. And the nine others who ought to have been the ones who understood these guys just keep on trucking—not praising God or giving thanks to Jesus.

How do you explain that? We aren’t exactly told why but I think from the context we might be given a clue. You don’t turn back and give thanks when you think that healing is the reward for your faith. When you think that faith puts God in your debt then you come away with this idea that healing when you asked for mercy (when you exhibited faith in Jesus) is what you are owed and God is paying His dues.

As one person said:

Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 The Tenth Leper

Ingratitude is a way of saying that God owes us whatever he gives us, and that we owe him nothing in return. Thus it is a complete reversal of our real position before God, namely, that he owes us nothing and we owe him everything.

But not that 10th leper. Notice what he does. He goes back to Jesus. He praises the object of His faith. Jesus is the source of healing. He comes back to Jesus and Jesus says, “rise and go your way, your faith has saved you…your faith has made you well.” It almost sounds like Jesus is speaking of faith in that transactional way....his faith is what caused him to be saved. But notice what is different about this guy and the other nine.

His faith is saving because it is connected to an object—to Jesus. That’s why the language is different. Ten were “cleansed” but one was “made well” or “made whole” or “saved”.

It’s because what matters is the object of our faith. Now we are ready to come back to verses 5-6. Why do the disciples say, “Increase our faith!” and why does Jesus respond as he does?

I would argue that they hear what Jesus said about forgiveness and temptation…that’s hard stuff…and they say, “We’re going to need even more faith for this stuff.” Give us more faith. The more faith we have the better we’ll be at ____.

But Jesus’ answer seems strange. All you need is mustard seed faith. It’s possible he is saying, “y’all don’t even have that”. But I don’t know if that’s what he is doing here. I think instead he’s letting them know that what matters isn’t how MUCH faith they have but in WHO that faith is…mustard seed of faith in Christ is able to uproot mulberry trees.

So should we want our faith to increase?

Yeah. But let’s think about what we mean by that. If we’re saying I want my faith to increase because the more faith I have then the more equity I build up with God and the more he is indebted to me. Of course I don’t think anybody would say those types of things out loud.

But look at what happens when we are sorely disappointed. God I did all of these things…I did all this stuff for you, and this is how you treat me? Or when bad stuff happens we start looking around and thinking, “ah, it’s because I didn’t have enough faith”. Or we counsel people with things like depression or even another type of illness, “you know if you had more faith. If you believed x, y, and z.”

But what we’ve seen in this passage is that this isn’t what the Bible means by faith or an increase of faith. What does it mean?

There is a way in which we definitely want to see our faith increase because as faith increases our experience of God tends to increase. This seems to be what Paul was praying for when he prayed for the Ephesians that “the eyes of [their] hearts may be enlightened”.  That’s a decent definition of faith: seeing Jesus with the heart.  The result, says Paul, is that “you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…”  In other words,

more faith—>greater sight—>deeper experience of the grace already received

So, we should passionately pursue an increase in faith.  But we must constantly remember that our pursuit is a greater sight of faith’s object; namely, Jesus Christ.

William Randolph Hearst was a wealthy and successful newspaper tycoon in the early 1900’s. If you have ever seen or heard of the movie Citizen Kane it is loosely based on the life of Hearst. Hearst was also an avid collector of art work. On one occasion he read of an extremely valuable piece of art, which he decided he must add to his collection. He demanded that his agent hunt this piece down. The agent went to numerous galleries throughout the world to find the masterpiece. Hearst assured the agent that he was willing to pay any price for this extremely valuable painting. Months went by of agonizing search for this painting and it was nowhere to be found. Finally, one day the agent found the painting. It was owned by one William Randolph Hearst—and had been stored away in his warehouse for years. He already owned this valuable painting and did not even know it.

Is it not sad that many Christians spend their life searching for that “something more” when we already possess everything in Jesus Christ? Believers can be like Hearst. We can scour the world to find the thing that we already possess. If we would but stop and enjoy that which we already possess how different our lives would be.

Increase our faith means give me eyes to see Jesus. Eyes to see what he has already accomplished. Eyes to see that who I am in Christ isn’t based upon my performance.

How can you tell if your identity is based on your performance or based upon Jesus—the gospel? You can tell that the gospel is not deep and you are living in the flesh whenever you:

1. are worried, anxious, or fearful

2. are insecure or paranoid (protect your identity)

3. cannot take criticism (your performance is attacked)

4. constantly explain or defend yourself (protect your reputation)

5. are consumed by thoughts of yourself and how others perceive you in conversations

6. fish for compliments

7. need to advance yourself—make your name great

8. are struggling with pleasure-related sins (escape when attacked)

There’s a quote by Eugene Peterson that I’ve been chewing on for a couple weeks now:

The mystery to which Paul gives witness is not the mystery of a darkness that must be dispelled but the mystery of a light that may be entered. It is not something we don’t know but something that is too much to know. God and his operations cannot be reduced to what we are capable of knowing and explaining and reproducing.

What Peterson is saying is that the things of God aren’t things that are hidden in a dark room, and we need a flash light in order to find them or see them. It’s more like what happens when you come out of your darkened house in the morning, the sun is shining on a field of pure white snow and it’s blinding, until your eyes are able to adjust.

That’s what it means to say “increase our faith”. Help me to see what is there, help me to see who you are and what you are doing, and see your character. And help me to know that at the end of the day You are too glorious to see with my fallen eyes.

Increase our faith means give me eyes to see. Otherwise, we’ll default to all those things like insecurity and self-advancement. Help us to see Jesus as He is.

If you do not have a relationship with Jesus, that is what we pray. Give eyes to see. Because apart from that Jesus doesn’t appear as He really is.

But we can pray that for those of us who are believers as well. That we would be like that 10th leper and be given the eyes to see what Christ has really done on our behalf. And that we would be people of gratitude who live free in Jesus.