TWO LESSONS ON OBEDIENCE FROM JESUS

Luke 17:5-10

Introduction There once was a boy who was fishing one day. An elderly man who was fishing nearby noticed that the young lad was having considerable success in his endeavor. What was more unusual than the amount of fish he would catch was what he would do with the fish once they were successfully landed on the bank. The boy would hold each fish up to his hand and measure it. If the fish was larger than his hand, he would throw it back into the water. He kept only the small ones. Finally curiosity motivated the old man to slip over to the young boy and ask, "Son, why do you keep the small fish and throw the large ones back into the water?" The young boy replied, "Well, you see sir, I can't keep the big ones. I have only a 10-inch frying pan." I am afraid there are a lot of people shortchanging themselves because they are limited to a 10-inch frying pan God. They think no bigger, see no bigger, act no bigger, believe no bigger, and expect no bigger! Instead of expanding their horizons by enlarging their expectations of God, they reduce God by shrinking their hopes in Him. Too many people do not realize that their expectation from God measures the height of their present experience and future possibilities. Jesus Himself said, “Be it unto you according to your faith.” (Matthew 8:13; 9:39). Are you living a life disproportionate to who you are? Are you being obedient to God’s will? Are you living the abundant and supernatural life?

We have been learning about biblical obedience. When you obey God every act of true Biblical obedience is a divine miracle because the call to deny ourselves, go into the nations, heal the sick, return good for evil, forgive seventy times seven, to endure one another, to obey His 500 commands, and to keep doing this for God’s glory with joy for fifty or sixty years is not possible to the natural human. It is only possible to do this supernaturally. Brothers and sisters true Christianity is supernatural or it is nothing!

Many people are not receiving or seeing miracles in their lives because they either have no “expecter” when it comes to God (they have little or no expectations from Him) or because their "expecter" has expired (they’ve lost or given up any expectations from Him) or because they have forgotten that every thing that they do is a miracle from start to finish. For our last message on obedience I want us to look at the miracle of obedience from two perspectives:When we feel that we can’t obey and when we are obeying. I want us to be encouraged this morning by what Jesus said in response to a request by His unbelieving disciples who say “Lord increase our faith!”.

I. THE SETTING verses 1-5 Jesus is speaking in house to His disciples. He is explaining how we must think and live as his followers. The disciples felt overwhelmed by Jesus’ teaching in verses 1-4. He told them to be on guard so that they would not cause any young believers in Him to stumble. And He said that if their brother sinned, they were to rebuke him and if he repented they were to forgive him, no matter how often the cycle was repeated. Now remember that the disciples had been very much participants in miraculous things: healing the sick, casting out demons, etc. yet when the disciples hear of these demands from Jesus their faith in miraculous healings of bodies couldn’t be transferred by them into the things of daily living. The disciples are blown away at His command. Think about it: To walk uprightly so as not to cause a new believer to stumble and to forgive someone who has wronged us are neither automatic nor natural behaviors! Forgive seven times a day? To forgive seventy times seven. That’s not humanly possible! All they can think to say is “Lord increase our faith!” I think we would all join with the disciples in making that same request of the Lord, “Increase our faith.” It seems to me that this was a good prayer. It is a prayer that I have often prayed myself. And yet, it presupposes a wrong premise. It presupposes that I will only be able to obey if I have a lot of faith. If only I was like the Apostle Paul, George Mueller, Hudson Taylor, Adoniam Judson, William Carey, and Billy Graham then I would have great faith. But I’m me and I can’t see how I can possibly obey these commands. Do you feel like the disciples? Well, Jesus is more than willing to increase our faith! Let me show you how Jesus does it in a way that will surprise you…

II. JESUS RESPONSE verses 6-10 How does Jesus help them and us to increase our faith? He gives them the therapy of His word and spirit in two ways, both of which are by telling them truth. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”. So Jesus will increase their faith (and our faith) by teaching them about faith. Knowing certain things should increase our faith.

1. First, he strengthens our faith by telling us in verse 6 that the crucial issue in obedience is not the quantity of our faith, but the power of God (verse 6). The phrase translated “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed,” is called a conditional clause. There are two basic types of such conditional clauses in Greek. The first type expresses a condition contrary to fact. “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, (and you don’t).” If that were the clause used, then Jesus would be reprimanding the disciples for their lack of faith. You don’t even have faith the size of a mustard seed, and you need to get some! The second type of clause expresses a condition according to fact. “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, (and you do!).” It’s the second type of clause that Jesus uses here, and that makes all the difference in the world. In other words, the disciples already have faith aplenty within them. The apostles were under the impression that they would need a great quantity of faith to accomplish the forgiveness demanded by God. They already had faith. After all, they had gone out preaching the gospel and they had cast out demons and performed miracles. They had faith. But they were not so sure that they had enough faith to accomplish this kind of forgiveness.

So Jesus says to strengthen our faith that the crucial issue in accomplishing great things to advance the kingdom of God is not the quantity of our faith, but the power of God. To forgive unconditionally is an extraordinary attitude and action. So, in order to attempt great things for God, we must first expect great things from God. Why? Because God is a great big God! He says, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you." By referring to the tiny mustard seed after being asked about increased faith, he deflects attention away from the quantity of faith to the object of faith. God moves mulberry trees. And it does not depend decisively on the quantity of our faith, but on God’s power and wisdom and love. Jesus says in effect, "You don’t need a great deal of faith to accomplish great things. Even a little faith will do if you trust in God’s power and grace.

Everyone who has truly believed in Christ for salvation has enough faith to obey the most difficult commands of Scripture, because the issue isn’t our great faith. The issue is our great God. Oh how we need to see the majesty and might of this God and to know the splendor of this God overflowing to us with enthusiastic omnipotence to move mulberry trees in our lives.. If we are going to be doing impossible things that move mulberry trees we need to see who God is and what He is reallty like. One of the reasons why our witness to the reality of a great God is minimal is because our understanding of God’s greatness is minimal. The scriptures give us this great big picture of this great big and awesome God. And we would do well to meditate on some of the texts that capture the wonder of God's great and passionate omnipotence in doing well to those who trust in him. The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. (Zephaniah 3:17-18)I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good ... with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:40-41) The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is blameless toward him. (2 Chronicles 16:9) The LORD will again take delight in prospering you. (Deuteronomy 30:9) For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with victory. (Psalm 149:4) Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant! (Psalm 35:27) My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19) In the coming ages he [will] show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7)

One of the most liberating discoveries you can make is God’s gracious, merciful, omnipotent, enthusiasm to do you good in order to do good! In knowing this we are helped not to worry about our faith and are inspired to trust God's free initiative and power. In other words, the issue in your Christian life and ministry is not the strength or quantity of your faith, because that is not what uproots trees. God does. Therefore, the smallest faith that truly connects you with Christ will engage enough of his power for all you need. Moving trees is a small thing for Christ. The issue is not perfection for Christ, but connection to Christ. So take heart, the smallest seed of faith connects with all of Christ's enabling POWER, GRACE, STRENGTH, and MERCY. If Jesus tells you to cast out a demon, forgive a brother, endure, love, be holy, etc. He is powerful enough to give and enable you to do what He commands you to do, even forgiving! Just believe Him! One time a mourning father over the state of his demon possessed son approached Jesus about casting the demon out of his son in Mark 9:22-24. He said to Jesus, “if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" And Jesus said to him, ""if you can?' All things are possible to him who believes." Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

2. Second, he helps their faith grow by telling them in verses 7-10 that when WE have done all WE are commanded to do, WE are still radically dependent on grace. What about you who are being obedient? What if you aren’t stumbling others and are forgiving seven times seventy? Does your obedience move you out of the category of needing miraculous grace? Does God owe us some thing because of our obedience? Jesus gives an illustration. He introduces the story with a phrase that means “Can any of you imagine…?” Their answer had to be, “No we could not imagine such a thing!” In that culture, slaves had a very simple job description: Do everything your master commands. Period! Slaves did not give orders; they took orders. They did not negotiate with the owner what their privileges and perks would be. They didn’t join slave unions to get better working conditions or wages. They were not free to say, “I don’t like that order, so I’m not going to do it.” Slaves had to obey. Thus when they came in after a hard day in the fields, they did not expect their owners to have dinner ready for them. They couldn’t tell the owner, “I’ve had a rough day. Get your own dinner!” They were expected to come in and serve their master. And they didn’t expect him to be profuse in thanking them for all their trouble. It was their duty to serve him. A slave must obey and serve now, anytime, anywhere, and do anything his master requires. Just doing what ought to be done. Jesus wants to remind us of our identity by grace and our responsibility by grace. Since we were "bought at a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20), we are truly servants and should have the proper attitude of servitude. Your identity Christian is a servant, a slave, a bondslave. Your job Christian: OBEY! Anytime, anywhere, anything that the Lord requires of you. Some of us have some interesting attitudes about obedience and our identity. 

-I’m off the clock I want to enter after obeying into the serving free zone.

- I will serve but I want overtime pay. I am really putting out for you God and I expect to see that on my paycheck.

- That’s not my job. When I signed up I didn’t agree to trun other cheek or go extra mile. Oh how Jesus wants us to embrace the attitude of a slave. A slave to the most wonderful master there is. The greatest freedom there is comes in being a slave to Christ. Jesus said that “He came to serve and give His life away…my food and drink is to do the Father’s will…I only do the Father’s will…He emptied Himself and became a slave.” Paul’s own identity was manifested as he began his epistles with an I Paul slave of Christ and rejoiced in it. Jesus said to His disciples “As I have done so ought you to do…if you know these things you will be blessed or happy if you do them.” Happy obedient slavery! I pray that you would come to this church today according to Jesus as a slave dedicated to serve, obey, and glorify my master and maximize your joy. Are you serving? Are you obedient? At home? Alone? At work? At the Lighthouse? In the world?

When it says in verse 9 that the owner does not "thank" the slave, the idiom for "thank" is challenging. The idea is that "thanks" is a response to grace. The reason the owner does not thank the slave is that the servant is not giving the owner more than what the owner deserves. He is not treating the owner with grace. Grace is being treated better than you deserve. So it is with us in relation to God. We never treat God with grace. We never give him more than he deserves. This means that he never owes us thanks. God never says "Thank you" to us. Instead he is always giving us more than what we deserve and we always owe him thanks. We can never say, well Lord since I’ve been so loving, you owe me a problem free, easy, life. You owe me three blessings and an answered prayer!” God doesn’t owe us gratitude. We owe Him. God is not our servant, we are his servants. He doesn’t need mercy and grace, we do.

Verse 10 sums it up: "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'" Here is our attitude before God. The lesson for us is that when we have done all we should do – when we have obeyed God, served God, loved God and others, done good deeds, forgiven people, cast out demons, fed the poor, been faithful spouses, reared godly children, fought the fight, ran the race, kept the faith, and boldly proclaimed Christ – when we forgive someone who has wronged us, we are not deserving thereby of some special merit or praise. We are merely doing that which we are supposed to do because we are only doing it because of God’s merciful grace. When grace is operating in our lives it causes us to do our duty as servants. After we have obeyed we can rejoice and declare that I’ve only done my duty and we will relate to him as debtors to grace.

This is a great encouragement to faith. Why? Because it means that God is just as free to bless us before we get our act together as he is after. Since we are "unworthy" slaves before we have done what we should, and "unworthy" slaves afterwards as well, it is only grace that would prompt God to help us. Therefore he is free to help us before and after. The fullest obedience and the smallest faith obtain the same thing from God: GRACE AND MERCY. Charles Spurgeon said, “We shall bring our Lord most glory if we get from Him much grace. If I have faith so that I take God at His word…I shall greatly honor my Lord and King.” A mere mustard seed of faith taps into the grace and mercy of tree-moving power to obey the most difficult of commandments. And flawless obedience leaves us utterly dependent on grace and mercy. So God gives us faith on the front end, in the middle, and in the end. The point is: we never rise above the status of beneficiaries of mercy and grace. The smallest faith and the fullest obedience receive one thing: almighty grace and mercy.

Conclusion Two lessons today from Jesus: the crucial issue in obedience is not the quantity of our faith, but the power of God; when WE have done all WE are commanded to do, WE are still radically dependent on grace.

We never move beyond the need for grace. Therefore let us trust God for great things in our little faith, and let us not be paralyzed by what is left to be done in our lives and in our church. Instead let us be encouraged that Jesus is here to strengthen your faith and help your unbelief this morning! Let us by faith expect great grace from God and let us by grace attempt great things for God. Let us look to God to help us to do the impossible, let us begin by faith doing the impossible, and when we do the impossible let us remember that it is only Christ’s grace that is enabling us to be doing it to His glory and for our constant joy, devotion, and gratitude.