Deo Gloria
Sermon for October 2, 2022
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Luke 17:1-10
Theme: Lord, Increase Our Faith!
- That we are careful not to cause other people to sin
- That we forgive those who sin against us
- That we give God all of the credit
I don’t know how many times I heard it as I was growing up: “Be sure to eat your peas. They’re good for you.” “Be sure to eat your beans. They’ll put hair on your chest.” “Be sure to eat your broccoli. It will help you grow up to be healthy and strong.” Well, I tried my best. As much as I didn’t like beans and peas and broccoli, I ate them. And I don’t know much hair they put on my chest, but I guess they were good for me. They did help me to grow up to be healthy and strong.
But what do I do when it comes to my faith? I don’t know about you but sometimes I find that my faith isn’t as strong as I would like it to be. In fact, to be honest sometimes it’s still kind of weak, and I would like it to be stronger. Thing is eating peas and beans and broccoli is not going to help my faith. What will? If we want our faith to grow bigger and stronger, then we need to do what the disciples did. We need to go to our Lord, the one who gave us our faith in the first place, and ask him to strengthen it. And that is our request this morning: Lord, increase our faith!
In v. 6 Jesus makes a rather striking statement. In response to their request to increase their faith he says, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” Now I don’t know if you or I will ever need to transplant mulberry trees in the sea. My guess is not; but if we do, I pray our faith will be strong enough to do so. There are some other things in these verses, however, that Jesus commands his followers to do that are every bit as big and amazing and yet far more important to our every day lives as Christians, things you and I could never do on our own but need God’s help to accomplish, things that require us to ask our Lord to increase our faith.
The first one Jesus talks about in verses 1+2:
Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves.”
I struggle with sin and temptation every day. Sometimes I’m tempted by something I see on TV or read in a magazine. Sometimes I’m tempted to lose my temper and scream at my computer because it isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. Sometimes I’m tempted to speed as I’m driving down the highway. Things that cause people to sin are inevitable, Jesus says. They’re bound to come. But what if they come through me? What if by my own poor example or my own sinful words or actions, I lead someone else into sin, someone at work, a fellow Christian perhaps, or maybe one of my own children? That would be awful! Jesus agrees. In fact, he says it would be better for me to have a millstone hung around my neck and to be cast into the sea. A millstone is what they used for grinding wheat. Typically they ranged anywhere from 2 to 5 feet in diameter and weighed anywhere between 20 and 100 pounds. Could you swim very well with a 100 pound stone tied around your neck? I know I couldn’t. I’d sink like a rock. Jesus says it would be better for me to drown in the sea than for me to cause other people to sin.
Do you cause other people to sin? Do your children learn to curse and swear from listening to you curse and swear? Do your children have a “who cares” kind of attitude toward church and toward God’s Word because they see that it’s not very important to you? Do your children say mean and hurtful things to each other or to other children in school because they’ve listened to you say such things to them or to others? Or maybe it’s the older brothers and sisters I should be talking to. Are you causing your younger brothers and sisters to sin because of your bad example? Are they learning to use filthy language from you? Are they learning to lie from you? Are they learning to talk back to their parents or to do things behind their back from you? It isn’t funny. And even though you might not think it’s that serious, to God it’s very serious. Jesus says it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
You’ve done such things, haven’t you? At times you have set a poor example for others. At times you have caused other people to sin. I know. I have too. O Lord, have mercy upon us! Forgive us for such sins even as you have promised. And Lord, increase our faith. Help us to recognize the seriousness of sin, to do everything we can avoid sin and resist the devil’s temptations, and to be very careful not to cause other people to sin. Lord, increase our faith!
A few years ago, back when I was in first grade, my brother and I were playing outside. We were playing paratroopers. Each of us had a box with the top flaps folded in. That was our “parachute.” With box in hand we would climb to the top of the slide, hold the box upside down over our heads and jump off the top of the slide. Well one time I guess I didn’t jump fast enough so my brother, who was coming up the ladder behind me, gave me a shove. Naturally, I lost my balance and I fell. But instead of landing on my feet, I landed on my side and ended up breaking my arm. After I got back from the hospital with my arm in a cast, my brother came up to my room and said he was sorry. To be honest, I wanted to punch him in the nose. I wanted to shove him off the top of the slide and see what happened to him. I certainly wasn’t ready to forgive him. I guess my faith was rather weak.
In verses 3+4 Jesus said to his disciples:
If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, “I repent,” forgive him.
Notice that Jesus does not tell his disciples that forgiveness is optional. He doesn’t say, “If your brother sins against you and comes back and repents, you can forgive him if you want to.” Or “you can forgive him after you punch him in the nose.” He simply says we are to forgive him. But that’s not always very easy, is it?
It’s a whole lot easier to hold it against him. It’s a whole lot easier to get even with him, to make him pay for what he did. What if God had dealt that way with us? I mean, he certainly could have. How many times haven’t we sinned and broken God’s commandments? How many times haven’t we done something even though we knew it was wrong? God could hold those sins against us. He has every right to. He could insist that we be punished for the sins we have committed. He could make us pay. And if he did, we would spend eternity in torment in the fire of hell. But because of his great love for us God made someone else pay instead: his own Son, Jesus Christ. On the cross Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. He suffered hell in your place and mine. And in light of what Jesus has done, God no longer holds our sins against us. He has let go of them. He has forgiven them.
And now he asks us, his children, to treat others the same way. When our brother sins against us or our sister or one of our classmates or one of the people at work and they come to us and say they’re sorry, we are not to hold it against them—even if they sin against us seven times in one day. How many times has that ever happened? How many times has someone ever sinned against you seven times in a single day? I can’t think of time that it ever happened to me. But even if it did, even if someone sinned against us seven times in one day and seven times he came and said he was sorry, we are not to hold it against him. Nor are we to try to get even with him and make him pay for what he did. We are to let go of his sin. We are to forgive him even as God has forgiven us.
As I said, that isn’t easy. That’s why we need to ask Jesus to increase our faith. Lord, help us to be more like you. Help us remember how gracious and merciful you have been to us, how you have forgiven us for the countless times we have sinned against you. And help us in turn to forgive those who sin against us. Lord, increase our faith!
So let’s suppose we do. Let’s say that we take sin seriously the way Jesus urges us to, that we do our best to resist sin and temptation in our daily lives and we are careful not to lead other people into sin. And let’s say we also strive not to hold a grudge but are kind and forgiving toward those who sin against us. At that point should we pat ourselves on the back and commend ourselves for being such wonderful Christians? “Boy, I’m such a good Christian. My mom would be so proud of me. I’m always patient and kind and forgiving. I’m always careful to stay away from sin. And when the devil comes to tempt me, I do just like Jesus did and drive him away with the sword of the Spirit. People always tell me what a good example I am. I’m such a good Christian.” Is that the attitude we should take? Not at all!
And that’s the point Jesus is making in the little story he told about the servant. When your servant comes in from the field, would you invite him to come in and take a seat? “Come on. You’ve been working hard all day. Sit down. Relax for a while. Let me get you something to eat. Would you like roast leg of lamb or prime rib?” Is that what you would say? No. You’d tell your servant to go to the kitchen and start fixing supper for you, to wait on you until you’re finished eating. Then he could fix something for himself. And would you thank your servant for doing what he was told? Of course not.
Notice the application Jesus makes: “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’”(v. 10). Even if we went above and beyond the call of duty, even if we did something as amazing as forgiving our brother or sister seven times in one day, we can’t take credit for it. Even if we kept a close eye on ourselves and were very careful to set a good example so we didn’t lead other people, especially our own children, into sin, we can’t take credit for it. These are things our Lord and Master has commanded us to do. Shall I take credit for forgiving my brother when that is what I’m supposed to do? Shall I take credit when I do live a godly life and don’t cause other people to sin, when that is what I’m supposed to do? No. The one who deserves the credit is God. He’s the one who puts the love and the willingness in my heart to forgive other people. He’s the one who helps me resist sin and temptation and live a godly life. As the apostle Paul says, “It is God who works in [us] both to will and to act according to his good purpose”(Php 2:13). Lord, increase my faith, so that even when I do obey your will and do the things you tell me to, I remember to give all the glory and credit to you.
The one question we haven’t answered yet is how does God accomplish that? How does God increase my faith? He’s doing it right now, as you’re listening to his Word. Whenever we listen to God’s Word or read it on our own at home or study it together in Sunday School or Bible Class, the Holy Spirit increases our faith. The same is true when we come to the Lord’s table and receive our Savior’s body and blood together with the bread and wine and are assured of our forgiveness. In this way too our Lord increases and strengthens our faith.
Of course, the opposite is also true. Our faith does not increase if we remove ourselves from the means of grace. Imagine what would happen if you only ate on a sporadic basis, say once every other day, or if you only ate junk food: a bag of Doritos, a Snickers bar and a Mt. Dew for every meal. Would you stay healthy and strong? Not for long. Your body would get weaker as time went by. You would get run down and you might even end up getting sick. The same thing happens to our faith. If we don’t take time to come to God’s house and hear his Word, if we don’t take time to read and study God’s Word at home, if we don’t come to the Lord’s table on a regular basis, our faith does not increase. It only grows weaker.
Is your faith as strong as you would like it to be? Are you as patient and kind and forgiving as you would like to be? Are you bothered by the harmful effects of sin in your life and the harmful effect your sins may have on others? I know what will help. And it’s not having to eat your peas or your beans either. What a relief, huh? Come. Come to God’s house and listen to God’s Word regularly and often. Read God’s Word on your own at home or together as a family. Come to the Lord’s table and receive his holy Supper regularly and often. That’s what will really make a difference. That’s how the Lord will answer our prayer: Lord, increase our faith! Amen.