19th Sunday after Pentecost 10/3/10 Text: Luke 17:1-10
19th Sunday after Pentecost
10/3/10
Text: Luke 17:1-10
Title: Faith. God’s work or ours?
Grace and mercy and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This morning's gospel lesson is so full of possible sermons that it was hard to decide what to preach on. I had written a sermon on the last verse where it is written, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty. But after writing that sermon I read the Gospel reading one more time. That time, verse five caught my attention where, “The apostles said to the Lord, “increase our faith.” So, I decided to talk to you this morning about faith, so that later on when I talk to you about the last verse of the Gospel reading you will have a better understanding of it.
Just what is faith? Is it God’s work or ours? Or is it a combination of God’s work and our work? Let’s see what God has to say about it. Before Jesus said the words we are going to look at this morning he had been teaching for some time about his having to die on the cross and he had been telling the Pharisees that living the lives that they were living were worthless, as far as their salvation was concerned. Everything they did were only outward things, because they had no faith in God, for, as he told them he is the one the Scriptures spoke of and they did not believe him.
Last week we heard the parable of the rich man and Lazarus where we learned that it is only in the Word of God that we can know of Jesus. Thus it makes sense that if you don’t have faith in the Word of God that Jesus is your Savior you will not believe in him even if he were to walk into our midst today. That is why I, as your pastor stress the importance of your being in the Word of God.
Jesus told the disciples that day that “Temptations to sin are sure to come but woe to the one through whom they come.” Woe to the one that causes someone to sin. Do you by your behavior or words cause someone to sin? Listen to what Jesus says, “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea.” God hates sin and has to punish sin. Woe to us, for it is impossible for us, at some time or other to not cause someone to sin, by what we do or say.
Next Jesus told them that if a person repents of their sin against them seven times in one day that we must forgive him or her seven times a day. We must forgive! An impossible task, for what is the old saying? “Cheat me once, shame on you. Cheat me twice, shame on me.” Come on Lord! Forgive the same sin over and over, an impossible task.
You can see why in verse five the disciples would be asking Jesus to increase their faith. They knew that left to their own devices that they were in deep trouble with God. They just could not have enough faith to do what God wants them to do. It was impossible for them and it is impossible for us to have that kind of faith, so we too, if we truly want to be disciples of Jesus need to cry out to Jesus, “Increase our faith.” We want strong faith, so that we can do great things and live great lives. “Jesus increase our faith.”
While there is nothing wrong with asking for more faith. God wants us to have strong faith, for he knows that a strong faith will keep us safe in him and will enable us to weather the storms of life. But Jesus did not say that to them. Instead he seems to ignore their request as he tells them that faith even as small as a mustard seed will be able to say to a mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted the sea and it would be cast in the sea.”
A mustard seed while it is one of the smallest seeds on earth is quite capable of growing into one of the largest trees in the garden. To cast a mulberry tree into the sea is impossible, as a Rabbi that lived before Christ once wrote, “The mulberry tree’s root system was so intertwined that it would take 600 years to untangle the roots.”
An impossible task we would say and Jesus would agree, if it were left up to us. But it isn’t left up to you or to me, because it is not our faith that does the work. It is God who has done, is doing, and continues to do the things he promised.
Oh we might think that more we know intellectually of God’s Word the stronger our faith becomes, but that is not true thinking, for it is God speaking to us through the Word of God that increases our faith. That is done in meditating on the Word such as so many are now doing on the Gospel of John.
Jesus is making a point in verse six that the disciples already have the faith to do what he says that faith can do. The problem is that they just think it is their faith that does the work of God instead of God doing the work. They just did not understand faith much like I believe the vast majority of Christians don’t understand faith.
First of all faith is a gift from God. We don’t understand why then all people don’t have faith, for God wants all to be saved, and there are many who don’t believe. It is a mystery that only God knows and we have to leave it with him. Thus we see that faith in not something that we acquire. It is a gift from God.
Faith once one has been given it serves a double function. First, it clings to the promises of God taking upon itself the righteousness of Christ which then makes us righteous before God. Jesus died on the cross. He is the one that took upon his innocent self the punishment of God, the punishment that we all still deserve even as we are declared guilty. Faith, as to our salvation has nothing to do with our work. Faith is only the instrument in which we receive the gift of God.
Secondly, faith produces good in us, for it continually renews the life that I now live in the flesh, as we are told in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
That means that faith besides clinging to the promises of God also produces a holy life, and good works because Christ is living in me. I think this where we have so much problem with thinking that faith is, at the very least, a work shared by us and God. We believe we, by our actions and thoughts produce holy lives and good works.
That is simply wrong, for although we indeed are to try to live holy lives and do good works it is not our work that makes us holy or makes our works good. It is God that makes us holy and it is God that makes our works good. Good works certainly and without a doubt follow faith, that is, if it is not a dead faith, just head knowledge, but a living faith, since God speaks of good fruit being produced by a good tree.
Faith, which has been given to the believer by God then is not a work of the believer. For faith does not justify us before God because it enables us to live holy lives and do good works. Saving faith does not, and it is critical to understand this, trust in its own fruit, but in the saving merits of Christ, as we are told in Ephesians 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, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
We learn from that passage that faith enables us to live holy lives and do good works because it first receives the merits of Christ. Faith is not complicated or hard to have. For faith is given to you by God in some wonderful mysterious way that we can’t understand. And in receiving faith you are loved and forgiven by the actions of Christ on the cross. That same faith, after receiving the love and forgiveness of God because of Christ enables us to live holy lives and produce good works; all the work of God.
Isn’t it wonderful that even in your time of weak faith, and we all have those times you know that being saved and doing good works does not depend on you, but God! God is good that is for sure and I give him all praise and thanks. Amen.
After I have recovered from my surgery and can lead you once more in worshiping our Lord I will talk to you about the last verse of this Gospel reading, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”
10/3/10
Text: Luke 17:1-10
Title: Faith. God’s work or ours?
Grace and mercy and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This morning's gospel lesson is so full of possible sermons that it was hard to decide what to preach on. I had written a sermon on the last verse where it is written, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty. But after writing that sermon I read the Gospel reading one more time. That time, verse five caught my attention where, “The apostles said to the Lord, “increase our faith.” So, I decided to talk to you this morning about faith, so that later on when I talk to you about the last verse of the Gospel reading you will have a better understanding of it.
Just what is faith? Is it God’s work or ours? Or is it a combination of God’s work and our work? Let’s see what God has to say about it. Before Jesus said the words we are going to look at this morning he had been teaching for some time about his having to die on the cross and he had been telling the Pharisees that living the lives that they were living were worthless, as far as their salvation was concerned. Everything they did were only outward things, because they had no faith in God, for, as he told them he is the one the Scriptures spoke of and they did not believe him.
Last week we heard the parable of the rich man and Lazarus where we learned that it is only in the Word of God that we can know of Jesus. Thus it makes sense that if you don’t have faith in the Word of God that Jesus is your Savior you will not believe in him even if he were to walk into our midst today. That is why I, as your pastor stress the importance of your being in the Word of God.
Jesus told the disciples that day that “Temptations to sin are sure to come but woe to the one through whom they come.” Woe to the one that causes someone to sin. Do you by your behavior or words cause someone to sin? Listen to what Jesus says, “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea.” God hates sin and has to punish sin. Woe to us, for it is impossible for us, at some time or other to not cause someone to sin, by what we do or say.
Next Jesus told them that if a person repents of their sin against them seven times in one day that we must forgive him or her seven times a day. We must forgive! An impossible task, for what is the old saying? “Cheat me once, shame on you. Cheat me twice, shame on me.” Come on Lord! Forgive the same sin over and over, an impossible task.
You can see why in verse five the disciples would be asking Jesus to increase their faith. They knew that left to their own devices that they were in deep trouble with God. They just could not have enough faith to do what God wants them to do. It was impossible for them and it is impossible for us to have that kind of faith, so we too, if we truly want to be disciples of Jesus need to cry out to Jesus, “Increase our faith.” We want strong faith, so that we can do great things and live great lives. “Jesus increase our faith.”
While there is nothing wrong with asking for more faith. God wants us to have strong faith, for he knows that a strong faith will keep us safe in him and will enable us to weather the storms of life. But Jesus did not say that to them. Instead he seems to ignore their request as he tells them that faith even as small as a mustard seed will be able to say to a mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted the sea and it would be cast in the sea.”
A mustard seed while it is one of the smallest seeds on earth is quite capable of growing into one of the largest trees in the garden. To cast a mulberry tree into the sea is impossible, as a Rabbi that lived before Christ once wrote, “The mulberry tree’s root system was so intertwined that it would take 600 years to untangle the roots.”
An impossible task we would say and Jesus would agree, if it were left up to us. But it isn’t left up to you or to me, because it is not our faith that does the work. It is God who has done, is doing, and continues to do the things he promised.
Oh we might think that more we know intellectually of God’s Word the stronger our faith becomes, but that is not true thinking, for it is God speaking to us through the Word of God that increases our faith. That is done in meditating on the Word such as so many are now doing on the Gospel of John.
Jesus is making a point in verse six that the disciples already have the faith to do what he says that faith can do. The problem is that they just think it is their faith that does the work of God instead of God doing the work. They just did not understand faith much like I believe the vast majority of Christians don’t understand faith.
First of all faith is a gift from God. We don’t understand why then all people don’t have faith, for God wants all to be saved, and there are many who don’t believe. It is a mystery that only God knows and we have to leave it with him. Thus we see that faith in not something that we acquire. It is a gift from God.
Faith once one has been given it serves a double function. First, it clings to the promises of God taking upon itself the righteousness of Christ which then makes us righteous before God. Jesus died on the cross. He is the one that took upon his innocent self the punishment of God, the punishment that we all still deserve even as we are declared guilty. Faith, as to our salvation has nothing to do with our work. Faith is only the instrument in which we receive the gift of God.
Secondly, faith produces good in us, for it continually renews the life that I now live in the flesh, as we are told in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
That means that faith besides clinging to the promises of God also produces a holy life, and good works because Christ is living in me. I think this where we have so much problem with thinking that faith is, at the very least, a work shared by us and God. We believe we, by our actions and thoughts produce holy lives and good works.
That is simply wrong, for although we indeed are to try to live holy lives and do good works it is not our work that makes us holy or makes our works good. It is God that makes us holy and it is God that makes our works good. Good works certainly and without a doubt follow faith, that is, if it is not a dead faith, just head knowledge, but a living faith, since God speaks of good fruit being produced by a good tree.
Faith, which has been given to the believer by God then is not a work of the believer. For faith does not justify us before God because it enables us to live holy lives and do good works. Saving faith does not, and it is critical to understand this, trust in its own fruit, but in the saving merits of Christ, as we are told in Ephesians 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, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
We learn from that passage that faith enables us to live holy lives and do good works because it first receives the merits of Christ. Faith is not complicated or hard to have. For faith is given to you by God in some wonderful mysterious way that we can’t understand. And in receiving faith you are loved and forgiven by the actions of Christ on the cross. That same faith, after receiving the love and forgiveness of God because of Christ enables us to live holy lives and produce good works; all the work of God.
Isn’t it wonderful that even in your time of weak faith, and we all have those times you know that being saved and doing good works does not depend on you, but God! God is good that is for sure and I give him all praise and thanks. Amen.
After I have recovered from my surgery and can lead you once more in worshiping our Lord I will talk to you about the last verse of this Gospel reading, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 2:33 PM
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