The Marks of Great Faith
Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus Christ did not exaggerate or mince words. He spoke the truth and the truth alone. When He applauds someone’s faith as "great," then it ought to make us take notice.
Only twice, both with Gentiles, does Jesus Christ call someone’s faith "great." Numerous times He reproached those that had no faith, and rebuked His disciples for having little faith, but rarely did He applaud faith as "great."
I dare say, none of us this morning would claim to have "great faith." We might say that our faith is weak but not great. And yet our text points to a woman among the Gentiles that Christ considered to have displayed great faith - the kind of faith that meets with His heartiest approval.
In our text we find a woman whom Jesus said to her, “O woman, great is thy faith.” Jesus said this about a woman who would not leave until she got what she wanted from Christ.
Faith is the cup we lift up to God for Him to fill with answers to prayer. Faith is the hand that grabs hold of the promises of God.
When one is told that their faith is great, it bears our study and meditation.
What were the marks of this Canaanite ladies’ faith?
There are at least four marks of great faith!
I. Great faith STARTS WITH A GREAT PROBLEM
The only materials God can use in building our faith are our difficulties. If we can figure something out, we do not need faith. If a problem is a minor problem and can be solved by our reasoning and common sense, it needs no faith.
God doesn’t build great faith with small trials.
This woman had a great difficulty. Her daughter was grievously vexed with a devil. I have no doubt but that by the time she decided to seek out Jesus, she had tried every remedy she knew to try. She had likely been to every doctor and tried every home remedy she could seek out to help her daughter. By the time she seeks out Jesus she has become a very desperate woman. All hope has about gone from her. She didn’t know what else to do.
This Canaanite woman had a great trial; her daughter was grievously vexed with a devil. God doesn’t build great faith in us with little troubles; great faith is not built by climbing small mountains. It is the cliff that is impossible to climb that challenges our faith into greatness.
By her own assessment, her daughter was "grievously vexed with a devil."
This mother felt the helplessness of watching her daughter under the control of the demons. And so she cried to Jesus, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David!" The text suggests that she did this repeatedly. She was desperate.
She understood that she could do many things for her little daughter, but she could not deliver her from being demonized. She had a great problem.
George Muller put it this way: "God delights to increase the faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say - and say it deliberately - trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith."
Great faith STARTS WITH A GREAT PROBLEM
II. Great faith is SECURED IN A GREAT PERSON
What all this lady knew about Christ we don’t know. Obviously she had heard of His miracle working power. Perhaps she had met some people who had been healed by Him. She calls Him “Lord” and in vs. 25 she worshiped Him saying, “Lord, help me.”
This lady was fully convinced of the Lord’s ability to heal her daughter. Great faith has confidence in God’s ability.
There was no "plan B" for her, no other option, and no other one to whom she could turn. She looked to Christ, and trusted in His ability to meet her desperate need.
Eph. 3:20 “Now unto Him Who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us...”
Before I would go to someone to make a request, I need to be persuaded that this person has the ability to fulfill that request.
The more we learn of Christ, the more we know about His ability, the more faith is generated in us. Tozer said that faith is an organ of knowledge. We cannot place faith in someone we do not know. And the more we know someone, the more we either trust or distrust that person.
This lady’s faith was properly placed. We will never build great faith in our lives until we get our total focus on the Person Who has the ability to answer our prayers.
Tozer said, “The only man who can be sure he has true Bible faith is the one who has put himself in a position where he cannot go back.”
As long as we have an ace in the hole, as long as we have other alternatives, as long as Christ is just one source of help and not the only one who is able, we shall fail in our faith.
This lady wasn’t leaving the side of Christ until He answered because she knew He was the only answer for her grievously vexed daughter. Now that is great faith!The prerequisite to any faith is always God’s ability. People do not go to someone for help unless they believe he or she can help them.
Great faith STARTS WITH A GREAT PROBLEM
Great faith is SECURED IN GREAT PERSON
III. Great faith is SUPPORTED BY GREAT PERSEVERANCE
This lady showed great perseverance.
A lady had just moved into a new apartment and was besieged by salesmen for everything from laundry service to life insurance. One busy day a dairyman came to the door. "No," she said firmly, "My husband and I don’t drink milk."
"Be glad to deliver a quart every morning for cooking."
"That’s more than I need," I replied, starting to close the door.
"Well, ma’am, how about some cream? Berries comin’ in now, and--"
“No," I said curtly, "we never use cream."
The dairyman retired slowly, and she congratulated herself on her sales resistance. The truth was that she had already ordered from a dairy.
The following morning, however, the same dairyman appeared at the door, a bowl of dewy strawberries held carefully in one hand and a half-pint bottle of cream in the other.
"Lady," he said, as he poured the cream over the berries and handed them to me, "I got to thinkin’--you sure have missed a lot!"
Needless to say, she changed dairies.
Persistence just means keep on keeping on.
This woman’s faith was tested in three ways:
A. The silence of Christ
In Matt. 15:23 we are told that she went to Him and made her plea and "He answered her not a word." He practically ignored her, yet He was testing her faith. He knew what was in man, He knew that she had faith. He was waiting for her faith to find full expression.
Some of the greatest lessons of faith are learned when God appears to be silent when we are desperate (22).
Over and over the woman cried out to Jesus for mercy. "But He did not answer her a word." Not one solitary word of acknowledgment was uttered. Not even a "Not now," "I’ll speak with you later," "I hear you, let Me think on it," was said. Nothing but divine silence met the pleas and cries.
All of us want to be listened to when we speak. Nothing can spark anger in us quicker than to feel snubbed by a relative or a friend when we are speaking. Even if someone does not agree with what we say we at least want to be acknowledged!
Yet here was a lady that felt in the depths of her own soul the desperation of her daughter’s demon possession, and in her crying out to Jesus Christ she found only silence. Why was Jesus silent to her pleas?
His silence tried her faith, but did not conquer it; she pleaded still.
She was claiming merit, but she needed mercy. She was putting herself on Jewish ground when she cried “Son of David.” She could not do this because she was a Gentile. The Lord responded the way He did to her, not to destroy her faith, but to develop it.
He had a purpose in His silence. The effect was to develop, strengthen, and manifest her faith. His silence was not without purpose, and certainly not out of unconcern for this woman’s need.
She was not discouraged to the point of giving up by our Lord’s seeming denial. She waited and held on, believingly.
B. The spirit of the disciples
The disciples said, "Send her away; for she crieth after us," Matt. 15:23. How sad that they thought more of their ease than of this woman’s need.
Their attitude made her more determined than ever! She determined to hold on until she received the blessing she needed so much. Great faith persists.
C. The statements of the Lord
His words, recorded in Matt. 15:24, must have seemed to shut the door to blessing, and yet she did not accept that. Jesus meant that His primary ministry was to the Jews, whereas the woman was a Gentile; but she wonderfully reacted to His words, verse 25. She uttered a quick "telegram" prayer, "Lord, help me! All that You say may be true, but please help me!"
The Lord was testing her faith, and she passed the test well.
Great faith gets things from God that little faith fails to get.
One day George Muller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Muller persevered in prayer until his for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Muller’s funeral the last one was saved.
This woman persisted in asking and trusting when everything seemed against her.
Great faith STARTS WITH A GREAT PROBLEM
Great faith is SECURED IN A GREAT PERSON
Great faith is SUPPORTED BY GREAT PERSEVERANCE
IV. Great faith Is SUSTAINED BY GREAT PROMISES
Let me show you the final mark of great faith.
Jesus said to her, “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” That was all she needed. She left. She had to go back home to find her daughter healed, but she was healed the moment the word was spoken.
All this woman needed was the promise of the Word. She left without another word. The Word of Christ was enough for her. That is great faith.
I think as she headed back to her daughter, she sang on the way.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King;
Through eternal ages let His praises sing,
Glory in the highest I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.
But most Christians do not persevere long enough in a problem to get a promise; they do not persevere through their discouragements to hear that Word.
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus;
Just to take Him at His Word,
Just to rest upon His promise,’
Just to know ‘Thus saith the Lord.’
Jesus, Jesus how I trust Him,
How I‘ve proved Him o’er and o’er,
Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus,
O for grace to trust Him more.
Conclusion
How DESPERATE she was
How DETERMINED she was
How DISTINGUISHED she was
