So this morning we come to Matthew chapter 17. We looked at last time the transfiguration, and now we look at the event that immediately followed from the transfiguration. 978 page, 978. Matthew 17. We will consider verses 14 through 23. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord this morning, beginning at verse 14.
"And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, lord have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For he often falls into the fire and often into the water, and I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him And Jesus answered, oh faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out He said to them, because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day. And they were greatly distressed."
There will end the reading of God's word.
Well, beloved in the Lord, we have been studying in Matthew's gospel a lot with regard to discipleship, looking at the life of Peter and the disciples. And I think what we have seen so clearly that we cannot get away from is that nothing about the Christian life seems to get easier as it goes. I think you see the progression here. They still have not comprehended that he must die, and he has been saying this now. This prediction he must die and by the hands of the chief priests and be murdered and killed and then rise on the third day and still they're greatly distressed. Everything about this just seems to be confusing for them.
And there's something fundamental that still with the disciples they're learning. There are all kinds of challenges that the Scripture show us in the life of the disciples. They are sort of many snapshots of our lives in many ways as we go through this life of Christian discipleship: the warfare, the difficulties, the sorrows. They only seem to get more intense and difficult.
And sometimes we feel that there is no real solution to all of this with the tests and the challenges that come to us. Well, I think this text this morning gives us a great solution to this problem. I want us to think together this morning of why faith is so important to the Christian life. We say this all the time: that we are saved by faith alone. What does this mean? I want us to think about living by faith. There's nothing easy about it. As we come to the table this morning, this question is very important: What is the kind of faith that pleases Christ?
We have a scene that is probably the most faithless that Christ one of the most faithless and surprising that Christ has come across in the Gospels. Could you catch his reaction there? Oh, he's frustrated. He's worked up. And you read the text, you're like, "I don't really see why. I don't really understand why." That's why this text is so fascinating this morning.
Sometimes you learn just as much in this life from asking the question of what something is not. It's like as an athlete in college, I had through my whole career as an athlete we had good coaches and we had bad coaches, and I learned just as much at times from the bad coaches what I never wanted to do when I coached. I always tell my children that even teachers or administrators, at times, they may make mistakes, they may do something wrong, they may be unfair. Everyone is willing to pounce on a teacher, an administrator, without ever asking the question, "Are we being taught something? Are children being taught something Something important through the good and the bad?" We don't let that play out. We don't let the work that is intended to be done be done.
Today, this is what's captured for us: on-site failure of living by faith. And it's so instructive for us. It's incredibly helpful for us. We learn a lot this way. So we have before us this morning a faithless scene today that Jesus challenges us with and them with to this great statement at the end that faith is of a mustard seed will pick up mountains and move them. Obviously hyperbole, but it is an important hyperbole, isn't it? It's meant to encourage us. It's meant to challenge us in all of life's circumstances to live by faith, to live by faith in the promises, especially as we come to the table this morning. What a great text to come to the table! And I hope to show you that in the previous section you remember what happened? It was the great transfiguration. It was the moment up on the mountain with Moses and Elijah and Peter, James, and John. Christ was transfigured in front of them, and His glory shone like the sun. His garment shone like the sun, and His human nature glowed with transcendent glory for a moment to declare and show a little glimpse we looked at of future glory, of what's coming in the resurrection, of what the end of the story looks like to encourage the disciples.
He had just given them. Three of them Now think about this. Three of them. to see His glory. but not all of them Where are the other nine? What are they doing? What we have here is that even though these three were able to see the glory, there was another lesson happening at the bottom of the mountain another lesson for the rest of the disciples. Here are the other nine. And I think that, again, proves what we've been showing: that everyone the Lord works with in his own timing to show himself to them in his own way and timing, to open hearts in that way. And we have to be patient with that. But what's going on here? What a scene to come down the mountain! to Jesus has been on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. And what is now happening at the foot of the mountain? Well, as he descends down the mountain, we read in verse 14 that he and these three came to the crowd. And a man comes up in verse 14. You'll notice here, and kneels before Jesus. Sounds good so far, looks good so far. He says to Jesus, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures, and he suffers terribly. You'll notice what he says: for he often falls into the fire and often into the water, and I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him
Now Matthew doesn't give us as much detail as somebody like Mark does. And there has been recent scholarly research in matthew a recent book that Dr. Ball brought to my attention as he was on AGR a few weeks ago and said there's this author who has now made a compelling case that Matthew may be the very last book written in the New Testament. Whatever the case, he seems to at time assume details that they're understood. Mark gives a lot of detail that Matthew doesn't. What is clear here, and we'll put some of that together because I think it's necessary to see to fill out the picture of what Matthew is doing here: Jesus is not entirely happy with the scene, is he? I mean, what a response when he the man comes up and he says, "Listen, my boy is just falling into the fire and into the water, and I I came to your disciples you weren't here and and they couldn't heal him." "Oh, faithless generation! Twisted generation! How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?" And you stop and you say, "Whoa! What in the world is going on here?" He is clearly disturbed.
The disciples had been given authority to cast out demons. It's not like when the man came up and asked this question that it was an illegitimate request. But this is quite a case with his son. The demon seems to be assaulting his son, causing seizures, and it was an awful display. The demon would throw his son to the ground, and not only that the other gospels tell us that the son would gnash his teeth and his whole body would stiffen out. He was being thrown into the fire and into the water, so the demon was trying to kill his son. This stuff is real.
The disciples come along. the nine. And the man says, "Can you please heal my son?" And they couldn't. They could not do it. So they're totally humiliated in the moment. When you fill it out, we know that Mark says that when Jesus came down the mountain, there was a huge crowd around this sun. And this huge crowd was disputing and arguing with the disciples. So it became a great moment of mockery, obviously, when they saw the crowd saw Jesus, then the crowd comes running right to Jesus coming down the mountain. And Jesus asks the question, that's where Mark picks up: "What are you arguing about with him?" That's what Mark says. Jesus comes down in Matthew to this chaotic scene. The whole scene is centered around this boy. They're fighting, probably mocking. And it's at this point the man comes to Jesus: "I asked your disciples to cast the demon out of my son, but they just couldn't do it."
Now, I stopped this week. Does this sound any bit familiar to you? He's just been on the mountain with who? Moses. He comes down the mountain to a chaotic, faithless scene. Jesus was just on the mountain. Remember what happened in Exodus? Moses had been up on the mountain. The glory had passed by. And he comes down the mountain to a faithless, chaotic scene of a golden calf. What was at the heart of that? Aaron had made a calf. Do you remember? When the people saw, this is what we read, that Moses delayed coming down the mountain, the people gathered together and said to Aaron, make us gods who shall go up before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.
I suggest this is the same spirit, and in Providence, a very convicting scene for Israel intended to be. There was no faith while God was up on the mountain. And Moses had come down to this faithless scene. And Jesus has now come down to this faithless scene. A faithless generation, a perverse generation, a twisted generation. "How long shall I bear with you?" Well, that's just history. That's just history. And remember what God said after the golden calf event? "I will not go with them any longer." Jesus seems to be saying the same thing: "I'm done. How long am I going to bear with this faithless scene in Israel?"
And I think we are pressed to ask the question: What went wrong here? You'll notice the father essentially says, "I would have brought him to you, but you weren't here. So I took him to your disciples, and they could not cast him out. They couldn't do it." And I think the logical question is: Why? Why couldn't they? Why couldn't they cast it out if they had been...? I want you to listen to what Mark records of the father. As the father says that this demon had cast him into the fire, into the water to destroy him and then it comes, this is what the father said in mark and I think it helps fill out why Jesus is responding to the faithlessness of the scene. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."
And Jesus says, "If you can? Did you just say If "If you can?" if you can that's probably how it went if you can Now, in this moment, he does show compassion. Um, Jesus says, "Bring the bring the boy here to me." And in a moment, in front of everyone, he rebukes the demon, and it comes out of the boy, and immediately he's healed.
But Jesus is not done with the moment. A faithless generation he was also thinking of his disciples here because they become the center of this in his instruction. The problem wasn't just with the man; it was also with the disciples. They come to him, and they are totally baffled. The disciples do at this point. The scene seems to have calmed down, obviously. The healing took place. They come to him and they say, "Why couldn't we cast him out? Why did we not have the power to do it?" And Jesus says so plainly here: "It was because of your little faith."
And Mark, Mark gives us a little bit fuller explanation of that. When Mark says that that lack of faith was shown by the fact that Jesus said, "Nothing like this can come out except by prayer," and essentially, what Jesus was simply saying is: "You didn't even pray. You didn't even pray." And Jesus gets to the heart of why.
So I think this is so crucial for this morning, coming to the table and thinking about the whole of the Christian life: You tried to do this without me. You tried to do this without me. But he wasn't there. Now, do you see the dilemma? Jesus says something so important that what he's pressing them with, and what he's pressing us with, is that someone who believes in me, and somebody who claims belief in me, is called to trust me. And that means there will be no limit put on what I can do. But I think we see at this point why it's so similar to the golden calf event.
A man remember in previously, in john i mean, in Matthew, there was another highlighted event of faith that is the very opposite of this event. That's why I said it's good to see the good and the bad. There was the most shining event in Matthew's Gospel, early on in his ministry. That Jesus here he seems worked up; that Jesus seems worked up in commendation. This is a very important section. Remember the centurion: "Lord, I have a servant lying paralyzed at home. He is suffering terribly." Jesus says, "I'll come and heal him." The centurion replies, "Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof, but just say the word. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me, and I say to one, go and he goes; and to another, come and he comes; and to my servant, do this and he does it."
And when Jesus heard that, he marveled. "Truly, truly, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. This man believed he had authority over all sickness and death, and he comes to him believing, believing that, and I don't even need you there to come do it. You just say the word." Wow. That's what I'm after. Right there. That's what I'm after!
Well, what an opposite scene here. Jesus is the object of nobody's faith. They took life. They took matters. even the ability to heal completely in their own hands. There was no prayer. There was no fasting. There was no faith. The whole thing was absent of him. And now I think you see the importance of this: He wasn't there. He was on the mountain up in glory. And the whole point is: just what happened with that centurion, They have no authority. They have no power apart from him. And there it is: the problem was a lack of faith. That means they were attempting to give life-giving power in their own power. It was a faithless endeavor, just like the golden calf.
Even the father, even the father, all he cared about was to have his son healed. It didn't matter who did it. You see?
Well, what a scene! When we think about faith, Jesus was teaching us a vital truth in Matthew in this particular section: that "In my absence, you all still very much need me. It's my authority upon which help comes. There is no other power. There is no other way. I am. This is the good news of it just as available to you as when I am standing in front of you." And the way that's going to be expressed in life is through prayer. He was teaching them that day, and I think he's teaching us that we can do nothing on our own. Nothing in life. We have no strength in any kind of spiritual progress, or even in the difficulties. Every circumstance, every new sorrow, every new challenge, every new affliction, every new difficulty everything It is in this life. Whatever it is, it requires us to trust him, to lean on him, and to rest upon him in faith for every circumstance. And his mercy brand new. brand new
It is to live by faith. The just shall live by faith. You understand that we are justified by faith, but that verse in Habakkuk is also talking about a whole life that lives by faith, that lives by faith, that trusts him by faith. Because it's the last thing we do, the disciples misunderstood the mission. they here was a man that should have been called to faith before the healing of the son. And here were the disciples who should have prayed in faith. Now, how are we to understand the charge of having a lack of faith? I I don't think most of us argue with that. You know, I thought, was this just presumption? You know, is this just presumption? Did they just think it's automatic? And listen like did you come to church today thinking, "You know, I expect Pastor Gordon to give me a good sermon; I expect to get the supper; I expect this and I expect that"? I don't think so. I don't think there's many like that here. Maybe you're doing that. Why? I want to talk to you afterward if you're doing that. I think most of us struggle with the opposite problem. We know we don't have enough faith. Therefore, we think a lot like these people, and we live hopelessly. Am I wrong?
Jesus challenges the disciples, and he challenges us. Do you know what the man said in Mark when Jesus said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I bear with you?" As soon as he hears that, the man, this is the only prayer in the whole narrative as we have recorded in Scripture in this section: "Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!"
I think that's our experience. That is exactly what we feel. This is exactly what troubles us about the Christian life. And our lack of prayer proves it. And all the difficulties of life doesn't this struggle of life really evidence in us that we have little faith? Don't we all confess today that we have little trust in Christ? You know it; I know it. I remember ministering to a man on his deathbed, and he said to me, "I don't think I have enough faith to get through this." I said to him, I said to him, Dad, do you think you're going to die in your own strength? Who has enough faith?" And Jesus gives us surprising help.
Verse 20: "For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Now, if I don't qualify that today, I'm going to make Jesus sound like a raving Pentecostal, aren't I? Think about it. We always have to qualify these things away because of all the abuses of them in history. Did Jesus want us to do that? Well, "he he doesn't really mean that." Well, yes, it's hyperbole. It's definitely hyperbole. But you don't think that is intended for a great effect upon you? You don't think he said that so that you would actually say, "Oh, well, you know, that's not really possible"? Did you hear what he said? He is saying something very important. What is lacking in your life is trust. That's why you're worried about everything. What is lacking is a reliance upon me, showcased by the absence of prayer.
When Jesus says "faith like a mustard seed," I don't think he's measuring out our faith in terms of the quantity: "Oh, that person has a little bit more over here, and this person has a little bit more over here." I don't think that's what he's doing at all. He's speaking about a quality of faith that seems little to us, that doesn't seem to amount much to us. A glimmer of trust in him, says Jesus. A sparkle. One that truly believes in him and trusts in him. Jesus is saying something very encouraging today: That person receives great power and great help.
When we are helpless, or some hardship has overtaken us, we do not live as pagans, worrying and doing everything in our power to stop it, or living a faithless life, or giving up on Christ and giving up on his church. No, no, no, no, no. That's not it. As Calvin said, "it is believing that God will never forsake us. If we keep the door open for receiving his grace." End of quote.
Faith like a mustard seed does not try to take the burdens on ourselves. It does not give up on him. It continues to trust, even in absence, his promises. That God will, in his timing and in his right way, deliver and help his people. Always. He always has. He always has. He's never failed to do it. It is believing against all odds that Christ loves you, that he is powerful to deliver you, that he has everything at his disposal to do it, to help and to save, that he will not fail to do what he has promised. And that when there is faith, nothing he has for us will be impossible, for it's his power and the strength, his strength that rests upon us in our lives and all things.
To them, it was this answer: "If you had looked to me, had you trusted in me, had you believed in my power, had you prayed and looked to me, you would have received the ability to heal this man. But you didn't."
You see, today we come to the table of our Lord. What do you need? What do I need? Far more than what that man asked for that day. You need mercy. You need forgiveness. You need grace for you and your children. You need salvation. You need help. You need steadfast love. You need assurance. You can't achieve any of it apart from him. None of it. Do you know that?
And you see, Jesus came to die and to rise again. What is on his heart? Did you see the next verses? "The Son of Man is about to be delivered in the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day. And they were greatly distressed." this today we celebrate because this was the very path of our deliverance for us, and that he would apply all this to us and give all this benefit to us and all this blessing today by faith. By faith alone. You must receive it by faith. You must believe him and receive him by faith, and all that's being said to you.
What more shall I say? For if time would fail me, I would tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephtheth, also of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance so that they might obtain a better resurrection.
You must be, and must receive all of this by the same faith that they had. That we don't give up in despair, but that we will look to him, we will trust him, we will rest on his word in his absence, we will not doubt him. That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and he says to me today, "Whosoever believes Do you believe Whosoever believes shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Do you believe this? Do you believe these things? Do you believe when Jesus said, with Lazarus, to Mary and Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though they die, they shall live"? And then he looked at the crowd and said, "Do you believe this?"
Faith is what he was after. And that's what he calls us to today as we come to the table of his son, our Father: to feed our souls of the body and blood of Christ. He is calling you to faith. A gift of his grace in your life, to trust him.
So on his holy mountain today, what does he see of us? He's coming again. He is calling us today to faith: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age. Believe me. What is it? What is it that's challenging that? What is it that's pulling you away from that?" He wants you to know today, in closing, that when you come believing, He is willing to help you. He is ready to help you. You should cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.
This scene would have been turned into a glorious scene simply if there had been faith. May there be faith in us today as we come. And He calls you to come. Come in faith and receive the body and blood of Christ.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this glorious text today. Feed our souls with the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you, O Lord. Give us faith, for we are weak. Help, O Lord, our unbelief, we do believe. Give us faith as of a mustard seed. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Thank you.