This week we will cover the benefits we gain from applying what we have learned. The benefits we will discuss are just a portion. As you continue to apply these truths, you may see more than what we will discuss.
We will start by looking at Luke 17:5, “The Apostles said to the Lord, ‘Give us more faith!’”
Let’s think about this. What happened that caused them to ask Jesus to give them more faith? Had he just done a miracle? Had he raised someone from the dead? Fed five thousand? Calmed the sea? In order to answer this let’s look back a few verses.
Starting in verse 3 and reading through verse 4: “If another follower sins, warn him, and if he is sorry and stops sinning, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in one day and says that he is sorry each time, forgive him.”
It wasn’t the miraculous things that Jesus did that had them asking for more faith. It was forgiveness.
The law at the time was more like ‘an eye for an eye.’ So this call to forgiveness was a challenge indeed. This is what had them asking for more faith.
In Romans 12:3, we see that everyone has been given a measure, or portion, of faith. “Because God has given me a special gift, I have something to say to everyone among you. Do not think you are better than you are. You must decide what you really are by the amount of faith God as given you.”
How did Jesus reply to their call for more faith?
Verse 6: “The Lord said, ‘If your faith were the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “dig yourself up and plant yourself in the sea,” and it would obey you.’” This scripture is confirmed in Mark 11:22-24.
Ok. So first we find that we have all been given a measure of faith. Then, Jesus tells us that with faith as small as a mustard seed, we can do great things.
Mark 4:26 says, “Then Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of God is like someone who plants seed in the ground.’” Let’s look at our faith with this kingdom principle.
If our faith is like a seed, we need to plant it in fertile soil, take care to water, and pull weeds till it’s fully matured into a plant.
Fertile soil could be an obedient, submissive heart and mind that is open to God and his ways. Watering the plant could be time in prayer, reading the word of God and worship of God. Pulling the weeds would be to uproot the things in our lives that keep us from growing in God.
I’m going to expand on this last one for one minute. What is a weed? My kid’s dictionary says, “a plant that grows where it’s not wanted. Weeds are useless or harmful.”
For anyone who has ever done any gardening, whether vegetable or flowers, one thing necessary to maintain that garden is to pull the weeds. Why? Because weeds, left to grow as they wish will take over your garden or flowerbed. They multiply with ease and they take the needed nutrients and water away from the main plants.
Some weeds will even go as far as to wrap themselves around the good plant. If you try and uproot a weed that has attached itself to the plant, it would most likely uproot the good plant, or make it weaker.
Another factor about weeds is that you can pull the plant, but if you don’t have it pulled all the way down to the root it will keep coming back. Just like the dandelion. How can we apply these facts about weeds to sins in our lives? What things are in our lives that are robbing the full nutrition of God’s word in our lives? And what things are trying to so intertwine in our lives that it’s hard to pull it out without being uprooted yourself?
These questions are simply for self-examination only :)
Back to faith. If our faith is a seed, we need to plant and cultivate our faith. The scriptures make reference to ‘a time for planting and a time for harvest.’
We get saved, a seed of faith is planted in our hearts, and one day God will harvest his field. So now you may say, how do I help my faith to grow?
Back in Luke 17, where the Apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith, he spoke to them about the faith of a mustard seed, but then followed with a parable.
Luke 17:7-9, “Suppose one of you has a servant who has been plowing the ground or caring for your sheep. When the servant comes in from working in the field, would you say, ‘Come in and sit down to eat?’ No, you would say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Then get yourself ready and serve me. After I finish eating and drinking, you can eat.’ The servant does not get any special thanks for doing what the master commanded.”
How does this parable teach us to increase our faith? Well, lets take a look.
Notice in the parable that the servant works in the field all day. Whether working the crops or tending the animals, what is the purpose of his work?
The sole purpose for his work is to put food on the table. Therefore, his work is not completed till the food is on the table.
You wouldn’t plant a garden and not eat its food. Nor would you raise flocks of sheep without use of the meat, milk, or wool. Leaving a job unfinished is just as bad as never starting a job.
In verse 10 of the same passage, we read, “It is the same with you. When you have done everything you are told to do, you should say, ‘we are unworthy servants; we have only done the work we should do.’”
Jesus equated the servant’s obedience to the master with our obedience to God. In this there were three points made:
Now we will expound on each. In the first point we see the connection between faith and obedience, in the story of Jesus and the centurion.
“And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.’ Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ But the centurion said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.’”
Notice that Jesus was willing to go to the man’s home, but the soldier asked him not to for he felt unworthy of that honor. The centurion even explained why he felt Jesus shouldn’t come.
Matt 8:9, "For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does {it.}"
He said he was a man that knew authority. Let’s look at what kind of authority he was in. “There were six thousand soldiers in a Roman legion. Within the legion there were sixty centurions who reported to the legion commander. Each centurion had one hundred soldiers under his command.”
He knew how authority worked. Because he was under authority, he was given authority. With that authority, all he had to do was speak a command, and it was done. The centurion said “for I also”, meaning that he saw Jesus’ authority. He recognized who Jesus really was.
Knowing that as a centurion, all he had to do is speak the word and the deed would be done, he also knew that with Jesus’ authority it was the same. All Jesus needed to do was to speak the word, and it would be done.
Let’s look at Jesus’ response to these things that he said. Matt 8:10, “Now when Jesus heard {this,} He marveled and said to those who were following, ‘Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”
What made this centurion’s faith greater than anyone that Jesus had encountered? His understanding and following in submission to authority.
This is how Jesus showed that our submission to authority could increase our faith. The more we are submitted to the authorities over us the more our faith will grow.
This is why Jesus said to the disciples, “… ‘If your faith were the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “dig yourself up and plant yourself in the sea,” and it would obey you’” (Luke 17:6).
When we are submitted to authority, especially God’s, just like the centurion, we receive authority. It is through the authority we are under that we have the authority to simply give the word, and have it obeyed.
The second point made in how to increase our faith, was that our faith increases as we complete the job we have been given to do. Luke 17:10, “It is the same with you. When you have done everything you are told to do…”
The true and faithful servant will complete the task that has been asked of him, no matter how hard the job is. The servant working his task to completion shows his obedience. Abraham is called the father of our faith. Rom 4:11-12
Abraham had no children. He was told at 75 yrs of age that he would have a son, and that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham waited in obedience till he was 100 before he saw that promise come.
God allowed Abraham and Isaac to become very close and their love was strong for each other. Then God asked Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering to the Lord. After waiting 25 yrs for a promise to be fulfilled, he was being asked to give it up. What did Abraham do?
Gen 22:3, “Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took Isaac and two servants with him. After he cut the wood for the sacrifice, they went to the place God had told them to go.”
Notice Abraham’s instant obedience. He didn’t wait or ponder. Then there was the three-day journey he had with Isaac. As a father, I’m sure he thought of nothing else then the thought that he was spending his last days with his only son, but did he turn back? No.
When he got to the place God had commanded, he proceeded with the full intention of doing ALL that God had asked. How do we know he was intending to carry out the sacrifice of Isaac? Gen 22:11-12, “But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ Abraham answered, ‘Yes.’ The angel said, ‘Don’t kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you trust God and that you have not kept your son, your only son, from me.’”
“Abraham obeyed to completion! He did not stop short, even by letting go of the most important thing in his life, his Isaac, his heir, his hope, his promise from God. Isaac’s death would represent letting go of his own life. Abraham proved his passion for obedience outweighed his desire for the promises.” ~ John Bevere
God knew that Abraham’s heart had the full intent of obedience in submission. When God asks us to do something in our lives, we need to respond as Abraham did. Immediately without hesitation. If it is a major life change, though, we would be wise to seek confirmation with those who are in authority over us.
Gen 22:15-18, “The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, ‘The Lord says, “because you did not keep back your son, your only son, from me, I make you this promise by my own name: I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, and they will capture the cities of their enemies. Through your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed me.”’”
Because of Abraham’s obedience to completion, he was promised that not only he but his descendants would capture the cities of their enemies.
In another version is says ‘Your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies.’ This is why Jesus said that the “gates of hell shall not prevail against us.” Abraham opened the door to this through his obedience.
Hebrews 6:11-15 says, “We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end [completion], that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ and so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”
Let’s look at Abraham’s obedience in comparison to King Saul’s. Saul was diligent to go to war as God had commanded and he completed 99% of what was commanded of him. He didn’t do all to full completion. And as a result he was punished.
“How many people, like Saul, start out on fire with enthusiasm, then when things get uncomfortable, difficult, or results aren’t as fast as expected, they disobey? Or with others they see and opportunity to benefit themselves while only slightly detouring from the directives of authority. All the while they justify it with religious purposes or reasonings, as Saul did when he spared the best sheep for sacrifices to God, sheep that were to be destroyed according to the word of the Lord. If obedience is not complete, faith will not increase, but dwindle!” ~ John Bevere
I’m going to quote James 2:20-24, 26 and replace the word ‘works’ with ‘obedient actions’. Let’s see if it works:
“But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without ‘obedient actions’ is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by ‘obedient actions’ when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his ‘obedient actions’, and by ‘obedient actions’ faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by ‘obedient actions’, and not by faith only… For as the body is without the spirit is dead, so faith without ‘obedient actions’ is dead also.”
In the final verse of that passage, faith and obedience are equated with the body and spirit of a man. The two must have each other to function in this world. If the spirit leaves the body, the body dies, and that body cannot be revived unless the spirit returns to it.
So James showed that faith (the physical body) completely depends on obedient actions (the spirit). James 2:18, “Show me your faith without your ‘obedient actions’, and I will show you my faith by my ‘obedient actions.’”
Faith isn’t true faith unless obedient actions accompany it. This is why when the Apostles said, “Lord, increase our faith”, Jesus then talked about obedience all the way to completion.
You may say that the scriptures say, “Faith comes by hearing [and believing] and hearing by the word of God.” But your obedient actions are the evidence of that confession of faith. This is why we are told that if we hear but don’t obey we are deceived. Our faith isn’t real but counterfeit.
Next week we will have our last lesson in this Under
cover series.