Faith to Do the Work of Ministry
Matthew 17:14-23
May 27, 2007
I don’t know about you, but as I listen to what people say, read what they write, and see how they act, I get the impression that our world thinks that Christianity is weak faith.
That we’re really just a bunch of religious people who don’t have any real power or influence outside of trying to manipulate the political process.
The fact of the matter is that in many cases, the world is right.
There are plenty of people in the church of Jesus Christ who have never seen God do anything meaningful through them.
They’ve never seen real ministry success, and it leaves them wondering if God really has anything for them to do.
And so they’ve never developed a faith that God can do something through them and wants to do something through them.
They simply exist within the church, getting comfortable with a comfortable walk with God.
And you know what? Pastors aren’t immune to that, either. Plenty of pastors go through their week just trying to survive. Seeing God work through them is a thing of the past, if it was ever a real thought for them at all.
I’ve struggled with some of those feelings from time to time, even though God has allowed me to see Him work in numerous ways since coming here.
Sometimes I have to battle with the thought that maybe God can’t use me anymore, or that my days of effective ministry are over.
The unfortunate part is that God is looking for people to get involved, and He’s ready and willing to equip us with everything we need to get involved in kingdom work.
My hope is that you will leave here today excited about what God can do if you’re willing to step up and let God do His thing.
And maybe you’ll start a new chapter of exciting involvement in touching the world around you with the love and power of God.
Our passage today deals with the issue of being effective for God.
The disciples are confronted with a situation where they had had some experience and success, but for some reason, they couldn’t get the job done this go-‘round.
And Jesus gives them a lesson that I don’t think they soon forgot: that the faith of the worker is all-important in the work of the kingdom.
Listen to this passage, and see if you can hear what Jesus says about the importance of faith.
We’re going to read through the passage, and I’m going to be making a few comments as we go through it, because I want to point out a few things that we can learn that are related to the main point.
Matthew 17:14-23 (694-695) –
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 "Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."
I can only imagine what kind of anguish this father was going through, seeing his son suffer like that.
Medicine won’t cure demon possession. This father knew that so he sought out Jesus. Somehow he came across the information that Jesus could do something about it, and if Jesus could do something, maybe His disciples could as well.
But for some reason, it just wasn’t working, and this poor boy and his dad were running out of options.
This demon was out to hurt this boy, and unless Jesus intervened, it would just be a matter of time before the boy would end up dead.
So here’s dad – begging Jesus to do something.
Jesus starts off by talking about the faith of the crowd – or actually, the entire generation that has witnessed His ministry.
17 "O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?
He says they have no faith – they are unbelieving and perverse. Ouch. How would you like to have been part of that crowd and hearing that?
But I think that there are plenty of people sitting in churches all around the world and right here in Aberdeen, SD, who have no faith. How about you?
Jesus continues:
Bring the boy here to me." 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
Can you imagine the relief of the boy? Knowing that from the moment Jesus spoke, he was okay and wouldn’t have to worry any more about the demon trying to hurt him.
I can tell you with pretty good certainty that the father’s response was to cry tears of joy, seeing his precious son set free. He would no longer have to watch the suffering of his son.
Indescribable moment, I’m sure.
Then we come to the part of the passage that I want us to focus on – where Jesus gets to the meat of the problem regarding why the disciples couldn’t drive out the demon.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn’t we drive it out?"
20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ’Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
He told the crowd they had no faith. Here He’s telling His disciples that they have little faith.
In a while I’m going to be discussing just what Jesus was talking about there, but here I just want to point out the difference between what Jesus tells the crowd and what He says to His disciples in private.
22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.
Let’s start off by discussing the fact that I think that the main thrust of this passage isn’t the healing of the boy, as wonderful as that was.
The main thrust of this passage is Jesus’ response as to why disciples couldn’t do anything about the boy’s problem.
They couldn’t drive out the demon, even though they had done that very thing in the past. So they’re asking Jesus, “What’s going on here?”
Jesus’ response was that they had little faith.
But what does that mean? Jesus said they had little faith, then says that if they had faith as small as a mustard seed, they could move mountains.
So I don’t think that Jesus was talking about the amount of faith, but rather the quality of their faith. The quality of their faith was that it was poor and ineffective. One commentary calls their faith, “defective.”
In any case, they did not have the kind of faith that would allow them to do what they had been called to do.
And that brings me to what I think is the bottom-line teaching of this passage:
The right kind of faith brings the right kind of results in ministry.
I don’t know what was going on with these guys. They had had a successful ministry up that that point that included driving out demons, so what was up this time around?
It’s possible that they were treating the authority that had been given to them earlier by Jesus like a gift of magic, ready for them to use at the drop of a hat.
Or maybe they were relying on their own abilities to drive out the demon, or even possibly trying to put on a show for their own acclaim (NIV Application Commentary).
I don’t know. What I do know is that their faith wasn’t working real well.
So what kind of faith did these guys need? It’s important, because it’s the same kind of faith you and I need as do our part for the kingdom.
[In a nutshell, it’s the kind of faith that trusts God to help us do what He’s called us to do.
It’s not confidence in our own abilities, but rather in God working through us to accomplish what He wants.
It’s a confidence that if God calls someone to do something, they can do it in His strength, even if it seems absurd and wacky from the world’s point of view.
The focus of this faith is Christ Himself. And when we yield ourselves to Him, He can do His thing. (Adapted from the NIV Application Commentary)]
It’s a faith that, out of a deep, personal trust, expects God to work. (Adapted from The Expositor’s Bible Commentary)
Folks, if we want mountain-moving faith as we seek to do His will, then our faith has to be in Christ, not in our abilities, our charm, our good looks, our talents, our money, or anything like that.
It has to be in Christ. And when we can get that focus, then we’ll have the effective kind of faith necessary for kingdom work.
Remember…
The right kind of faith brings the right kind of results in ministry.
And before we move on, I want to point out something from this passage:
Even when the disciples failed, Jesus still worked His miracle.
My point here is that even if you feel you have failed in ministry, God is still powerful, and He can do just whatever He wants, in spite of our failures and weaknesses.
So don’t feel that God can’t work when you mess up. He’s still able to do His thing.
So if the issue here is power for ministry, then what about those who aren’t in ministry?
After all, not everyone is an apostle or a pastor, so what does this have to do with everyone else?
I am so glad you asked!
The fact is that everyone is to be involved in ministry. Sorry, but you’re not getting off the hook that easy.
One of my jobs as a pastor, according to Scripture, and one of my biggest efforts since coming here is to help YOU do the work of ministry.
Everyone can have a part in doing kingdom work. And so I want to point out very quickly four actions a person can take to develop the kind of faith Jesus can work through for effective ministry.
1. Ask for it.
Faith is a gift from God, and I think it’s very appropriate to ask God for more faith so that we can be more effective for Him and His purposes.
I’ve quoted the passage from 1 John 5 that if we ask for anything according to His will, He hears and He grants it. And I’d have to say that chances are good that God will hear and give us the faith we need to do His work – what do you think?
Another action we can take in developing an effective faith for ministry is to…
2. Get into the Word of God.
Why? Because faith comes through hearing and hearing comes from the Word of God. At least that’s what the Bible says.
If you want to develop the kind of faith that God can use, you need to be reading the words of the One who can give you the power you need to minister effectively.
It’s in the Bible that we discover just how huge God is, the kind of power He has, and the promises He gives to those who love and serve Him.
Here’s a third way develop effective faith for effective ministry:
3. Discover your spiritual gifts.
If you are a believer in Jesus, then the Holy Spirit has given you at least one gift to be used for the kingdom.
These aren’t natural talents and abilities, they’re special giftings from God Himself for the benefit of the church and its advancement.
For some, it’s hospitality. For others, it’s serving. For others, it’s evangelism. There are lots of different gifts, and you can find them listed in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12-14, and in Ephesians 4.
When you choose to operate in your gifts, you can trust God to do big things through you.
If you’d like some help to do that, then let me know and I’ll give you some tools to help you.
On the heels of finding out how God has gifted you, you can move on to the forth way to develop effective faith for effective ministry, and that is to…
4. Do it.
Walk out and try it. If you think God has gifted you in a particular area, put yourself in a situation where you have to use that gift.
One thing I can tell you from personal experience is that the more you exercise your gifts, the greater your faith, because you see what God can do as you step out, trusting that God will do His thing in you and through you.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the message, Christianity is seen as a weak faith.
I have a feeling that part of that is based on the observation that few Christians actually live a life where faith is a significant component, much less the driving force in a person’s life.
Many if not most Christians operate in the world just like everyone else – relying on their own resources for everything from earning a paycheck to doing the work of the church.
But I think that if the church of Christ – you and I, and the other Bible-believing, Jesus-loving people in churches all around our area, would be intentional about being people who live like we expect God to do something as we step up to the ministry He calls us, then the world would see something huge.
They would see that the Christian faith is not a weak faith. They’ll see that it is a powerful faith – a faith powered by God Himself.
And when people see strength, they’ll see that the hope we offer through Christ is real hope – not based on the religious positive thinking that’s available on every bookstore shelf – based on the power of the risen Savior.
It happens when we say, “Lord, make it happen. Work through me as I work for you, and allow me to see You do something huge.”
Amen. Let’s pray.
