Matthew 17:14 - 20
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.”
17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
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. Truly I tell you, 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.”
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Why did the disciples not have enough faith now, after healing people in the past?
2. What is faith? What does it look like to have faith as small as a mustard seed?
3. Really? Nothing will be impossible for me? I can literally move mountains around whenever I want?
I heard a pastor (not my own pastor) define faith in a certain way: "Some folks believe that if you say, 'I believe that God can heal me if He plans to,' that is faith, but that is not faith at all. To have faith is to say, 'I believe that God IS GOING to heal me TODAY!"
ReplyDeleteMaturity has shown me that it is a somewhat flawed view. Now - for sure - we are encouraged to pray believingly, not doubtingly.
four Scriptures: Mark 11:22-24, Matthew 21:21-22, Matthew 17:19-21 and James 1:6-8. Now, if these were the only Scriptures which discussed faith in the Word of God, it might lead to a somewhat different view of faith from that which, I believe, we should hold. But to honestly evaluate and to come to understand any doctrine of the Church we must always consider all of the Scriptures on that doctrine.
If we only had James 1:6-8 and Matthew 21:21-22, there is no doubt that those verses might tend to lead to a somewhat different colouring of this doctrine, indeed, I might almost say that just those verses would tend to support that certain charismatic view of faith which seems to place faith, gifts and 'spiritual experience' on a pedestal, elevating them above other facets of Bible teaching. In actual practise this tendency seems to pan out in a slant on faith which is just not biblically-grounded. That is: we just pray for what we want and, if we earnestly believe, there would be no doubt we would get it - if we didn't get it, we could not have believed enough. Presumably, no matter what you want (these verses don't tell us too much all on their own), we should get it if our "faith" is functioning correctly.
I have written a lot about faith and much of it, unfortunately, is in reaction to those who abuse the biblical teaching on faith; the danger here, of course, is that a few may feel that I am saying that we cannot count on God to answer our prayers - very far from it. We definitely can!!!
if we are truly Christs we can and SHOULD expect dynamic answers to prayer! But that dynamic answer may not be to give us exactly what we want when we want it because - excepting emergencies - that is quite often not the case. We must understand that God's wisdom and knowledge is far above ours, and, when listening to the prayers of His servants, He must take many factors into account. Yet we should confidently bring our petitions to God. In doing so, we are putting our case before the very Ruler of the Universe. Okay, so James 1:6-8 really presents no problem to our understanding.
(Oops, the previous article is from http://www.ukapologetics.net/8faultyfaith.htm). This is part two of that same article:
ReplyDeleteNow, of course, I think we all understand that only God can move mountains, that is within His own sovereignty and almighty power - not ours. So what did Jesus mean? What these verses are saying is that if one had total and utter faith - the sort of faith which Christ had when He walked upon this earth - then such an individual (if it were needful for some definite and God-sanctioned reason) could request the moving of a mountain - and God would do it!! Just as God can (and once did) actually cause the sun to stand still! Exceptional faith and exceptional closeness to God are required, and the requested miracle must have a definite reason! But - at least theoretically - if a man or woman was that filled with faith and with the Holy Spirit they could do quite amazing things - through God's power - very definitely not through any "power" of their own! Faith itself - after all - is given by God. Yet, of course, the truth is that in this world - all too often - we all struggle to stay sufficiently close to God even to 'stay on course' as Christians. Frankly, moving mountains is not going to happen, there would need to be a definite reason for a start - Jesus knew that, but He wanted to show the disciples what true, living faith could accomplish under very unusual circumstances. He is saying, 'Look, don't ever limit or underestimate what faith can do, after all, the mighty works which I do, I Myself do through faith!'
Jesus rebuked them because the power to drive out demons had already been granted to them (Matthew 10:1) and they should have held to this in faith, and not doubted. In other words, just as the power to heal the sick and to drive out demons would need to be specifically granted by God, even so the power to remove a mountain would need to be specifically granted by God.
But to say that 'God is going to heal me TODAY!' would need a specific revelation to come to us from God alone. If there is no revelation, no claim should ever be made! Unfortunately a very flawed view of faith has developed which sees faith as something which allows us to manipulate God in order to get what we want when we want it - we must avoid that. Jesus' 'faith moving mountains' comments in no way support the 'positive confession' or 'word-faith' view that if we can just summon up enough faith, we can actually tap into God's supreme sovereignty and demand certain things which He then must give us as long as we have asked boldly enough!
f a Christian man or woman is sick, they should pray and ask others to pray. Such a person - as a Christian - could then rightfully say, "I know that the Lord will heal me!" But if that person then added, "Such is my faith, that I claim my healing by this time tomorrow!" Is that really faith? Or simply foolishness which has no scriptural basis? I think that the answer to that should now be obvious.
http://www.heavensfamily.org/ss/family_devotions/day_71 says:
ReplyDeleteEven though the disciples had God-given authority to cast out demons, their authority didn't work unless they exercised faith. Again, this is proof that God's will doesn't always automatically come to pass in our lives. We must believe what God has said, or else we may not experience what God has promised. As Jesus said, "Anything is possible if a person believes" (Mark 9:23, emphasis added). Notice that what is possible depends upon each individual's faith.
In previous times when the disciples had successfully cast out demons, they must have had sufficient faith. Had their faith grown weaker? Probably not. I would be more inclined to think that this particular demon required stronger faith to expel than any demon they had previously dealt with. Faith requires disregarding the contrary circumstances, and when the contrary circumstances are greater, greater faith is needed. It takes more faith to move a mountain than a molehill!
Perhaps that was why Jesus also said that this demon could only come out through prayer. Spending time in prayer can't increase anyone's authority over demons, but it can increase his faith in the authority he already possesses as he meditates on God's promises.
First, it reveals His compassion. As Jesus saw the boy's agony, He began wondering how long the boy had been suffering to such a degree. It also reveals to us, once again, that Jesus was not all-knowing, even though He was divine. He stripped Himself of omniscience when He became a man.
My two cents on faith:
ReplyDeleteFaith is Not just believing really hard. Faith is having the mind of Christ. Faith is walking in step with the Holy Spirit within us. Faith is being obedient to what Christ has given us the authority to do.
So, why did the disciples not have enough faith this time? It's not clear why or how they didn't have enough faith this time (although, I believe that it was Not because they didn't believe hard enough). I think that our ability to walk in step with Christ/the Holy Spirit wavers. Sometimes we have our eyes on what God is doing and sometimes we don't.
I think John 5:19 gives an idea of what faith looks like: 'Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.'
The disciples didn't have a problem with belief (in the way we understand it - i.e. believing in Santa). They had a problem with their vision. I believe that their minds weren't on what God wanted done.
This also explains what Jesus meant by having faith to move mountains. If we see that God wants a mountain moved, and we are in it with Him, and He gives us the authority to move the mountain, we can obey or not obey.
With faith, first comes seeing what God is doing, understanding what God wants us to do, ridding ourselves of worldly thoughts, and then choosing to do what God commands.