Today we start a new sermon series looking at some of the most famous and challenging words of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. Over the coming weeks we will listen to Christ’s teaching on such matters as wisdom, wealth, prayer, repentance, resurrection and his return in glory.
But today we’re looking at Jesus teaching on faith and duty. What kind of faith is the Lord looking for in us? And what should our attitude be to serving him? Let’s address those two topics in turn.
Faith (v.5-6)
To begin then, verses 5 and 6 this morning focus on faith. Let’s listen to them again: The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “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.
Faith is a word we use quite frequently, don’t we? To have faith in someone or something is to place our trust in it. You are all exercising faith in your chairs at this very moment – trusting that they won’t collapse beneath you!
As we’ve just heard, the disciples in our passage today say they want a larger, bigger faith And we ourselves may have had people say to us “I wish I had your faith.”
But in response to such questions, Jesus says that faith as small as a tiny mustard seed is sufficient to order a Mulberry tree to plant itself in the sea! It seems that the quality not the quantity of our faith is the real issue. Jesus seems to be saying to the disciples (and to us) that the object of our faith – the thing we place our trust in – is far more important than the size or strength of the faith we may have.
After all, lots of people have faith – even great faith – but in all the wrong things. There is such a thing as misplaced faith, isn’t there? For example we can think of people who have great faith in themselves and their abilities, or in their bank balance, or in their preferred religion or philosophy of life. But none of those things is fail safe. And certainly none of those things can carry us beyond the grave.
In contrast to such misplaced faith, Jesus says that the most powerful, effective faith is faith in God – faith that has as its object the Lord himself. To have faith in him is to put our trust in the all-powerful, all knowing, all loving, ever-living creator of the cosmos! To turn to him in prayer is to petition someone with the power to literally move mountains and reposition Mulberry trees!
So Jesus leaves us asking:
- Who or what is our faith in?
- To what or to whom do we turn in times of need?
When we trust in the Lord our faith is well-placed, not misplaced. When we’re trusting in Lord – however weakly – we are accessing a great power!
Duty (v.7-10)
And after faith comes duty. Because Jesus proceeds to carry straight on and speak to his disciples about Christian service. Listen again to verses 7 to 10:
“Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 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.’ ”
With those words, Jesus is making the point that if we believe and trust in God, we should serve him.
If we truly have faith in the Lord of the Universe, it is right and proper that we should listen to him and obey his commands.
If we humbly acknowledge (as we should) that we are only creatures and he is our Creator, it stands to reason that we should do as he says. We are not at liberty to live our lives our own way – we are under a moral obligation to obey our Maker.
But don’t be discouraged. Because our Maker and Master is also our Heavenly Father. To serve him is to find true fulfilment – it is to live human life as it was meant to be lived. Indeed, as the Bible says elsewhere, to serve God is to experience perfect freedom. To live for the Lord is to enjoy life in all its fullness!