19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
We are in the Gospel of Matthew for over 3 years. The whole picture of the gospel is Jesus Christ as King of the Jews. The important transition from the last chapter, 16, where Jesus talks about his death, and he turns towards Jerusalem, and in chapter 17, before he goes to Jerusalem, he was encouraged on the Mount of Transfiguration by the Father for his great work. After the transfiguration, the Lord comes down… what does he see?
It reminds me of when Moses came down from Mount Sinai. He had faced God’s glory and God gave him His Holy law, he comes down, he saw the scene of Israel worshipping and dancing around a golden calf, he kind of lost patience… his anger burned and he threw the tablets, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf, burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. When Jesus came down from the mountain on which he had been transfigured, he also encountered a scene of unbelief and spiritual conflict. He in his anger bursts out, “O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you!”
We see even his disciples are with unbelief, immature, and spiritually blind in many ways. Now he has to go to Jerusalem, so the disciples need to be trained. It is an Advanced Intensive training school of Christ… so far they have little faith… now he makes them understand the danger of it and moves them to a higher faith. The Lord uses a living situation as the illustration for the principle of faith. He was the master of taking life situations and from them teaching and burying indelibly in the minds spiritual truth. So, it is not just spiritual truth given verbally, but coming out of a living, dramatic illustration, so the disciples would never forget.
So, in the remaining chapters from 17 onwards, we will see the Lord using life circumstances and teaching spiritual lessons to his disciples. Here in 17, he takes this situation and teaches them the power of faith; in chapter 18, he teaches them, using a child, about humility, then offenses, then church discipline, and forgiveness. Chapter 19, He teaches them about marriage, divorce, children, wealth, and eternal rewards. And then into chapter 20, about position and compassion. All of these are profound lessons for living the kingdom principles. While teaching these lessons, periodically stuck in between is a word about His coming death so that He continues to remind them that He’s moving to the cross.
So we are in chapter 17, and this chapter has a profound lesson about faith. This starts with an incident of the disciples being unable to heal the demon boy, and Jesus comes down from the mountain and heals him. I told you Matthew gives the shortest account—5 verses, Mark, the smallest gospel, uses 14 verses. We looked at that miracle in detail last week.
I believe the reason Matthew leaves many details is because Matthew wants to emphasize teaching about faith, so he leaves out many details of the incident. He just gives a brief account and then goes to the lesson. This whole incident is about faith. We see the Lord losing patience… totally frustrated… why? What reason? “unbelieving and crooked nation.” If you are unbelieving, you will be crooked. “How long will I be with you? How long is this going to last, when I’m so used to working through angels? How long will I bear with you?” You’re really seeing into the heart of Christ, the pain of His heart, the disappointment that comes out of His lips.
He sees this whole generation… his own disciples in spite of so much teaching in unbelief, unable to cast the demons, the crowd just thrill-seeking, no faith. The Father filled with sorrow with such a demon-possessed boy, and he also in unbelief asks Christ, “if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” Verse 23: “But Jesus said to him, **‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.’” Verse 24: “Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief!’” The scribes, in envy and hatred towards Christ, they’re gloating. I mean they’re really happy they can’t heal this terribly suffering boy. They’re gloating over the inability of the nine disciples. He rebukes all of them in frustration… “oh you unbelieving and crooked generation.” And if you don’t trust God, you get twisted in all your thinking and actions.
Matthew doesn’t record all that because Matthew is more interested in the disciples, their faith or lack of same, and the lesson the Lord taught here about faith as a disciple.
One of the key lessons in this passage is the lesson of faith. Faith can move mountains. That is what he says in verse 20. We’ve heard that many, many times. Faith accomplishes great things. But I wonder if we really understand what it means? The entire Bible testimony is this. This is listed for us in Hebrews, from Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab, men just like us—the only reason they accomplished great things is by faith. And it was faith that came, in the time of the crisis of their life. We studied what Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, Jephthah, and David, and Samuel and the prophets, and many, many others did through faith. And the writer of Hebrews leads into the great opening of the twelfth chapter and says, “Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses”—and to what are they witnessing?—to a life of what?—of faith—“as we stand surrounded by so many who say that we are to live by faith, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”
This is the direct teaching of Lord Jesus about faith, and we can say these are great statements in all of the Bible relative to faith when He says that faith moves mountains, and that it makes nothing impossible. The point of the whole passage is God moves powerfully when we believe.
After the miracle, the disciples are very ashamed, being impotent and unable to heal the boy, bringing a bad name for the Lord before the crowd and scribes. So now they question the Lord why they were not able to cast out the demon, and the Lord answers their question. So we have only 2 headings today: Question of Impotent Disciples and the Answer of the Omniscient Lord.
1. Question of Impotent Disciples
What a shameful experience it was for the disciples before the crowd and then the scribes’ bitter enjoyment against our Lord. The Lord comes to their rescue and casts the demon from the boy who was terribly possessed by the demon.
Verse 19: Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
We see next when the disciples came privately. Mark says “came into a house.” Being embarrassed to acknowledge openly their utter failure, so they are waiting for some private place to find out why they failed. So when they come into the house, they ask. “We could not cast it out… how is it we could not?”
In Matthew 10, there is a clear record the Lord gave them special authority to cast out demons. 10:1: “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.” In Mark 6:13, “They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.” They had done it before, consistently successfully did it. They cast out many demons… different kinds of demon-possessed people they cast out. But now, utterly impotent to their own shame, before these scribes insulting them and the crowd. They knew Jesus gave them authority, they have done so many times in the past, but when this man came to Jesus, “Master may not be here, but he has given us authority to cast out demons.” They tried to do it. And now, all of a sudden, they can’t do it. What’s gone wrong? Have they lost this power?
Did Jesus promise them they could do it? Yes, Chapter 10. Did he keep his promise in the past? Yes, Mark 6. So, they had the promise, and they had the power. What was missing?
So these disciples ask the Lord… “why we couldn’t do it now, Lord? You had given us authority, promise and we did successfully cast out earlier. Why could we not cast out now?”
2. The Answer of the Omniscient Lord
Why do I call him the Omniscient Lord? The Lord was not here when they tried. He was on the mountain, and was not there to witness their failure, and yet when they ask him, the Lord without hesitation he answers accurately. The scripture record shows he is omniscient. Without any fanfare we are given another indication that he is the omniscient God with perfect knowledge of their hearts, and the actual events of the failure, our Lord answers them.
Verses 20-21: “So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.””
Verse 20 talks about Faith and verse 21 talks about prayer. There is a confusion about verse 21. Except for NKJV and Tamil, you don’t find that verse in NIV, NASB because some of the older manuscripts don’t have them. Some scribe may have added it, so they removed it, but I believe the Lord also spoke verse 21. He spoke about faith in 20 and also verse 21 about prayer.
How can I be sure? Look at the same question in Mark 9:28-29: “When He came into the house, His disciples began asking Him privately, ‘Why is it that we could not cast it out?’ And He said to them, ‘This kind cannot come out by anything except prayer.’“
So in Mark, there is no answer about faith, but only prayer. Critics again use this as a contradiction in the Bible… see Matthew says one and Mark says one. But they fail to see the emphasis each writer is placing. Matthew focuses on faith and Mark is focusing on prayer, both different angles of the same incident. No contradiction. The Lord could have said 2 reasons. Because what is the basic expression of faith? It is persevering prayer. He could have rebuked them for their unbelief, and further rebuked them that in their unbelieving spirit in their time of need, crisis, they didn’t persevere in believing prayer. Because true faith always leads to believing prayer. They were given authority to cast demons. When the demon didn’t come out after the initial words, instead of pressing on with faith and prayer crying out to God… validate their legitimate call and duty… they backed off in unbelief… so our Lord may have been rebuking not only their unbelief but their prayerlessness. You see how this is beautifully connected. How stupid to see contradictions… this is how foolish people say the Bible has so many contradictions.
Matthew focuses on the root issue of their failure which is the spirit of unbelief. Mark focuses on the expression of that root issue in their prayerlessness. So what we have in Matthew and Mark is a different point of perspective.
So the answer to the question: “Why could we cast it out?”
The Lord is saying “because of your unbelief” /some translations have meager/little faith. Logically if you read “unbelief” makes sense… if you put “little faith,” it leads to a lot of confusion. So translators put “unbelief.” But the original word is little faith… that manifested in failure to engage itself with God in earnest fervent prayer… which prayer of faith would have brought deliverance. See, they had the promise of Christ, they had the power of God, and they did not use the means of faith to receive/appropriate it.
Disciples always, we see if they had one problem, what was it? Little faith. We have heard this repeatedly. They always were indicted for that. Four times Jesus says to them, “O ye of little faith.” It is not enough to realize you are of little faith, but see how it can hinder you in my work.
It was the Lord’s power not theirs. Why were they able to receive it in one situation and now unable to get it? The Lord explains the difference is their lack of faith.
Try to reconstruct the scene: A desperate father comes with the boy. Maybe the boy was slammed, foaming, grinding teeth. They immediately, as they had done many times before, spoke the command in Jesus’ name… maybe they said, “In the name of Jesus Christ be gone.” He didn’t go. Nothing happened. And maybe they said it one more time, “In the name of Jesus Christ be gone,” and he didn’t go. They were expecting fully that they will see the demon going out, but instead the demon remains and maybe mocks… oh, what discouragement… so they didn’t see the power of God. When they didn’t see healing, they obviously began to doubt the power of their Lord given to them. Maybe they began to doubt the validity of their commission. “Well, it’s too difficult for the Lord. It just – it can’t be done; it can’t be done.” So, they gave up. I mean they just bailed out. Their faith ran out at that point, and they quit.
They didn’t at that point… lift up their hearts in prayer to their heavenly Father and say, “oh Father, our master is not with us to help us… but he has given authority… and he has not removed that authority from us… he has given this commission… promise… we believe his power… oh Father, we plead… honor your son… manifest your mighty power… by delivering this boy from the power of this demon…”
Little faith in the promise of their Lord resulted in the failure to pray and lay hold of the power of God… which in that instance would have resulted in the deliverance of that boy… So it was little faith manifesting itself in failure to pray.
Verse 20: “You couldn’t do this because of your little faith.” And then He says, “If you”—and He says it seriously—“Verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to a mountain, ‘Move,’ and the mountain would move.”
And, you know, you read that, and you say, “Now, wait a minute. You just said we had little faith, and now you tell us if we had faith as little as a grain of mustard seed, and that’s the littlest seed that was known in that part of the world. What are you saying? You just said we had little faith, and that’s why we couldn’t do it. Now you tell us if we had a little faith we could do it.” To avoid confusion, they wrongly translated “unbelief”… but the original says “little faith.”
I was struggling so long with this… The Lord’s remarks startle us, even at first hearing confuse us. “Why, Lord, you speak like this?” I believe the Lord purposely put it in a contradictory manner. We are meant to ponder them, to consider what they might mean, and in that careful consideration discover the real impact and application of his teaching. I told you unless we do serious Bible study, we never grow to understand scripture.
When we don’t understand what Jesus says… what should we do? What disciples did last sermon… they discussed among themselves… and then asked Jesus… I asked him many times… till 12 at night I was asking… but didn’t understand fully, but what I understood… made my heart burn… taught me to see faith in a different light.
I want to call the faith the Lord talks about mustard seed like faith, what the disciples had was little faith. See, you have to see “little faith” differently from “mustard seed like faith.” Why?
No, most people misinterpret that mustard seed. The principle of the mustard seed is not that it’s little, no. The principle of the mustard seed is that it is little, and it does what? It maintains uninterrupted and vital contact with its nourishing environment and grows perseveringly. Remember the parable in Matthew 13:31: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all seeds. But when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs and becomes a tree so the birds of air come and lodge in the branches of it.’” And what you’ve got in the mustard seed is something that starts very, very small and grows very large. If you had true faith as a mustard seed, it is a kind of trust in God which does not immediately give up in despair when it doesn’t see results. It maintains an uninterrupted vital contact with God and continues to pray perseveringly knowing God will fulfill his promise.
Now, what is our Lord saying? Watch, “If you had the faith that is illustrated in a mustard seed, you would start out small, but your faith will not give up… but persevere… would”—do what?—“it would grow and increase.” And that’s an indictment for them. They started out with a little bit of faith, and they just bailed out. They gave up…
The disciples started on the project, but they ran out of faith, and they didn’t see their answer immediately. And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, which starts small and gets bigger and bigger, you would have been able to do it.”
Little faith gives up… little faith doesn’t progress… Mustard never gives up… and because it never gives up, it grows.
Mustard’s strength is contact with its environment; little faith uproots and cuts contact. Mustard seed faith is a faith that constantly depends on God. Faith’s basic meaning is not looking at me, but looking at someone, not believing me, believing someone, and depending on someone else. Little faith stops doing that. I think this brings some clarity… think with me…
The disciples were continually doing the miracles in previous chapters. Mark says many demons cast out, and after regularly facing success. Very likely the disciples had begun to think of the power they had exercised over demons became their own… something that they possessed in their own right. Perhaps they had come to think of it as their power, resident in them. That is easy to do if you enjoy constant success at something, to begin to attribute the success to yourself. It would be hard, in fact, to avoid the temptation to do that. It would take a lot of humility, godliness, and dependent praying on God to always remember that it is God’s power and not your own when you do such remarkable things and to act and pray accordingly. See, they had not matured at this stage. Like Samson, because continuously God’s power was in him, he thought it was always there… it is his power… even when his head was shaved, “He awoke from his sleep and thought, ‘I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the LORD had left him. Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza.”
He didn’t realize God left him. We all struggle with this. I regularly struggle with this… regularly a sermon comes well and people enjoy it… useful… easy to assume, “okay… it is my preaching ability,” and stop dependence on God… And depend on my skills… then what happens… comes preaching none of you want to hear and wonder when he will finish… it takes so much humility and prayer to self-denial dependence to be a means where God’s power can pass through you.
Adolphe Monod, the saintly French pastor of the 19th century, once wrote that “Faith is nothing more than the power of God placed at the disposal of man.” Well, it seems it was precisely that which the disciples had forgotten. It is so easy to forget it. This is exactly the problem with our Christian life… It is so easy for us all to think after some time of the practice of the Christian life as a kind of magic/skill – a spiritual routine that results in predictable outcomes. We learn language, expressions, words, how to pray… and then try to do it without living dependence on God. When this is not there… living a Christian life without personal genuine dependence and connection with Christ.
We find ourselves simply going through the motions of the Christian faith and life, contenting ourselves with an outward conformity, and are not living in the active conviction of the Lord’s presence, are not looking up to him, personally, for our life, our godliness, our fruitfulness, are not living by the power of genuine prayer.
Here is C.S. Lewis admitting how often he struggled with precisely that failure: “The trouble with me is lack of faith. I have no rational ground for going back on the arguments that convinced me of God’s existence: but the irrational deadweight of my own skeptical habits, and the spirit of this age, and the cares of the day, steal away all my lively feeling of the truth, and often when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address. Mind you I don’t think so – the whole of my reasonable mind is convinced: but I often feel so.”
Something like this must have been the case with the disciples that day as it is so often the case with you and with me. Nothing less than constant spiritual vigilance can keep us from succumbing to this temptation to depersonalize our Christian faith and make it a matter of habit and procedure rather than living, active, personal confidence and dependence in a present Heavenly Father, Lord Christ, and Holy Spirit.
If, as Luther said, “Faith is nothing else but a sure and steadfast looking to Christ,” how often is our faith small to non-existent. If, as Robert Murray McCheyne recommended, we are to take ten looks at Christ for every look at ourselves, how much faith do you and I really have from this moment to that in our daily lives. Is it not the case that, with us, we are more likely to take ten looks at ourselves, or twenty, for every look at Christ?
What had happened, it seems, was that the disciples had lost sight of the source of the power they had once wielded and, given the fact that they had no power in themselves to order demons about, they found themselves powerless, just as we so often do.
I think of it this way. These men were believers in the fundamental sense. They really were followers of Christ. That is why the Lord says that their problem was that their faith was small, little. But in the particular instance in question, in their unsuccessful effort to cast out the demon, they were acting in the spirit not of faith at all, not even of little faith, but of faithlessness, of unbelief. They were acting in their own strength and not with a conviction of their dependence upon the Lord. They had forgotten that it was his power and that their only access to that power was by a living confidence in a present Lord, in an active dependence upon what he and he alone could accomplish. That is faith and in that moment that is what they were lacking.
Could it be… the whole setting of this part of the passage… the context of this passage… is filled with his coming suffering… that having announced that he was to suffer and they didn’t want to hear… hated to hear that… even the next verse he will speak about that… they were grieved. He didn’t speak about that when he sent them first to do the ministry in chapter 10… now after this revelation… could it be that their growing misunderstanding of all this talk about the cross was creating some doubts and distance between their hearts and their Lord… love for Christ reducing, connection, communion between Christ and their hearts was reducing… and their faith failed?
He who is out of sympathy, communion with Christ crucified will never be strong in faith and persevering prayer. When we don’t like what the Lord is doing in our lives… think we are wiser than God in providence, that is when our love for Christ reduces, our faith connection disconnects. We fail.
It could well be the withering of their faith and prayer was a direct result of the offense of the cross. This teaching of the coming death was beginning to wither their confidence in his ability to do what he promised to do through them.
And, of course, so it is with us. We believe, we really do. But, the fact is, far too many times in a day we think, speak, and act as if we do not believe; not really. In practice, too often by far, we are unbelievers, believers that we are notwithstanding. I think this is the reason why it says little faith… and mustard seed like faith.
Let us continue to look at the verse continuing…
If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
It is not saying that if you had a little, tiny faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, that you could say, “Mountain be removed.” It’s not talking about literal mountains; it’s talking about mountains of difficulty. It’s figurative. This was a rather common Jewish phrase – when the Jews talked about removing mountains, they used it in reference to the ability to get past difficulties or to remove impossible difficulties.
Jesus never meant this to be taken physically and literally. After all, the ordinary man seldom finds any necessity to remove a mountain. According to Geography, we shouldn’t move mountains; God has set in creation wisdom for a perfect balance in the world. That is why global problems are coming if you break mountains and make it sand for building houses. Don’t move mountains. What He meant was, if you have faith enough, impossible difficulties can be solved, and even the hardest task can be accomplished. And then He says it at the end, in Verse 20: “Nothing is impossible to you.” What a promise—for the apostles and the church! If you had a living connection of faith, even as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible. Because faith is the means through which almighty power flows; what is impossible with almighty power? Nothing. But that “nothing” is conditional.
You see, He was saying to the apostles, “Nothing is impossible to you, which was in the framework of my promise to you.” Right? “I promised you could do these things, and you can do it if you have faith that grows. I want to stretch your faith; I want you to learn to trust me so you’ll be able to trust me in the extreme tests.”
It’s only possible, first of all, if it’s within the framework of God’s will and God’s promise. So, don’t make that so broad that it means nothing is impossible. It has to be qualified somehow, and it’s qualified by the promise of God, “I promised you could do this, and you can do it if you have faith that grows. I want to stretch your faith; I want you to learn to trust me so you’ll be able to trust me in the extreme tests.”
What the disciples should have done, when they didn’t heal the man in the first, second, or third time was to keep on praying, and keep on trusting, and keep on believing God till their persistent prayer broke through and reached its point where God wanted them to learn, and then God would have responded.
And that’s why, you see, the story ends. Verse 21 says, “Howbeit this kind goes not out except by prayer.”
The terms “and fasting” are not there in the original text; someone may have added them. But it has a meaning. The Bible talks about fasting always with persevering prayer. Fasting always helps prayer. See, this teaches us the antidote to little faith is—what?—prayer. Persistent prayer.
James says it, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man”—what—“availeth much.” Effectual, dedicated, fervent, passionate, continuous, persistent prayer gets results. You may never know the full promise of God. You may never know the full blessedness of God. You may never know the full reward that all—of all that God wants to bestow upon you—until you learn persistent prayer.
So we have looked at the question of the disciples and the answer of our Lord. What a lesson of faith.
Applications from the Lesson on Faith
1. The Lord’s Answer is the Answer to All Our Christian Failures
The answer of our Lord to the disciples is the answer to all our Christian failures.
Do you have questions: “Why am I not able to live holy? Why am I not able to live as a witness? Why am I not able to bring souls to Christ? Why am I not fruitful in the Christian life? Why most times Christian life seems a failure? Why as a church we are not being mightily used by God?” Why, why, why…? All questions… Has God given me promises for these? Yes… then has God failed in promises? Does God not have power to fulfill these? Do you ask these questions…?
What do you do with those questions? One of the wisest things the disciples did and teach us is to own their failure, come to the Lord with our failure and ask him why we failed? Do you do that?
We, individually and as a church, have specific responsibilities laid upon us by Jesus Christ. Christ has given all promises. Why are we so weak in gospel work as a church? Why do members fail in many duties? Why do members not use our spiritual gifts and fail there? Why are we failing at home? Fathers have a responsibility to take care of our home needs and nurture children in the admonition of the Lord. Husbands have a responsibility to love wives as Christ loves the church. Wives have specific responsibility to respect their husbands, obey them, and take care of the children. Why are you failing there? These are Christ-given responsibilities and he has promised to make us successful in all these.
There is specific authority given to us according to the word of God. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He says he has given us authority to open the keys of the kingdom, close them, and no power on earth will overcome us. We are sealed unto the day of redemption… we have been given the promise that his grace is sufficient for all that he will demand of us. But in the realm of what Jesus conferred as duty and privilege, when we fail, do we own our failure, come to Jesus, and ask why?
Oh, much blessing we miss by failing to do precisely that. When we find that we have failed, it would be wise to get alone, come to the Lord in prayer, and ask, “Lord, why did I fail? What did I do wrong?” When we do, He will show us.
See the Lord’s answer: it is because of your little faith… that doesn’t express in persistent prayer. Isn’t this the cause of all our failures… our little faith?
No serious, earnest, thoughtful Christian hears these words of the Lord who does not immediately acknowledge that this is a message he or she very much needs to hear and take to heart. No sincere follower of Christ hears him speak of the disciples’ little faith and of the power of faith even as small as a mustard seed without realizing that the great spiritual defect of his or her life has been unmasked, discovered, laid bare. This is our problem.
We look to ourselves so much more often than we look to Him. We feel like the father of this poor boy, possessed by a demon and suffering from epilepsy, who heard the Lord Jesus and the first thing out of his mouth was “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” Which is to say, “Lord, I have faith, help me to practice it every hour of every day. Help me actually to look to you always and in every situation, to remember your promises, to count on them, to believe in your great power and ask you to exercise it on my behalf.”
We are inclined to think about faith as a fundamental intellectual conviction and spiritual commitment. It is that, to be sure. And the disciples had that. But faith is also and always must be a daily, hourly practicing of Christ’s presence, a reliance upon him, a looking to him, a depending upon him. To the extent that we do not do that, we are people of little faith. At the moment we are not doing that, we are, at that moment, people of little faith. When we turn to him, however small and unimpressive our faith may be, when we look to him and count on him and speak to him, at that moment our faith can move mountains and will. Our constant fellowshipping connection with the living Christ is what brings almighty power into our lives.
Let us ponder this point well, and learn wisdom. Faith is the key to success in the Christian life warfare. Unbelief is the sure road to defeat. Once let our faith languish and decay, and all our graces will languish with it. Courage, patience, long-suffering, and hope, will soon wither and dwindle away. Faith is the root on which they all depend. The same Israelites who at one time went through the Red Sea in triumph, at another time shrunk from danger, like cowards, when they reached the borders of the promised land. Their God was the same who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. Their leader was that same Moses who had wrought so many wonders before their eyes. But their faith was not the same. They gave way to shameful doubts of God’s love and power. “They could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:19)
2. Learn the Danger of Little Faith
Little faith gives up and abandons us in the most needed crisis time. It shows itself as faith that doesn’t persevere. Do you want to test if you have little faith?
Very interesting: the other 4 places the Lord uses this term “little faith”… that is our lifestyle.
Firstly, Matthew 6:30: “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” You know why your life is filled with all worldly worry? The accurate diagnosis is “O you of little faith.” Not that you have too many problems than others… you may keep giving excuses… but until you recognize your problem is little faith, you will never get deliverance.
True faith will trust God even if it cannot see resources. That is the faith he was teaching them.
Secondly, Matthew 8:26: they’re on a sea, the Sea of Galilee, in a boat, and there’s a tremendous storm. And Jesus is asleep. And they shake Him and wake Him. They say, “Lord, save us; we perish; we’re going to drown.” And He said unto them, “Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith.” You see, they could believe the Lord would take care of them and protect them as long as there were no waves. But as soon as the storm came, their faith quit. It abandoned them. It only went so far until they couldn’t see any human way out, and that’s where their faith ended. We can believe God, “Oh, yes, I trust the Lord; I believe the Lord. As long as there is no temptation or trial…” And then we hit the storm, and we cannot see any way out, and our faith comes to a halt, and we enter into despair. You see, when faith stops, despair begins. When faith stops, worry begins. When faith stops, doubt begins.
Next instance, Matthew 14:31: famous Peter walking on water, a little bit… as long as he could go, but when he saw the wind, he was afraid; he began to sink. He cried saying, “Lord save me.” “And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, caught him”—and here comes that same speech again—“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” He could believe God until he saw the wind, until he saw the storm. And when He knew there was no human way to conquer that problem, he ran out of faith. Because faith is the ability to believe God when there are no human resources. See the principle: as long as we look at the present Christ, our connection is with him lively… we can cross any waves in life… but we remove our look from him… look at our circumstances and us… we sink.
The last one, Matthew 16:8: for the fourth time, disciples don’t have anything to eat, and they’re concerned about that. In verse 8, He says, “O ye of little faith,” again. They needed food for themselves, for another crowd that had gathered. They didn’t have the faith to believe the Lord could supply it.
Little faith is the kind of faith that believes in God when you have something in your hand. Got it? “Oh, yes, I believe God. Oh, yes, the Lord provides; here it is, and I’m hanging onto it.” That’s little faith. But little faith can’t believe God when it doesn’t have in hand its resource. That’s little faith. Great faith says, “I believe God without anything in my hand. I believe God in the middle of the storm. I believe God though the wind is howling. I believe God though there’s nothing in the cupboard. I believe God though I don’t have any clothing. I believe God.” That’s great faith.
3. Successful Christian Life Needs Mustard Seed Faith
Successful Christian life can be lived only with a mustard seed kind of faith on the promises of God.
See, this passage teaches what we have been reading about the promises of God. Know the promise, believe and meditate, and persevere in prayer.
Why the disciples failed here: they had the promise of Christ. They had available power, they didn’t continue to believe and persevere in prayer. How it applies in every aspect of our life: God has given us promises that cover every area of our life. Oh, my. Promise for wisdom; promise to meet all our needs; promise for comfort, peace, joy, virtue, strength, safety, protection, deliverance, fruit. The promise of guidance, promise of forgiveness, promise of freedom, promises, promises. His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. And He’s given us power in the Spirit of God. And yet, very often we don’t experience the fulfillment of the promise in God’s power because we don’t know the mustard seed like faith which makes us persistent in prayer that keeps on praying until God responds.
Beloved, I believe there are many things that God desires for you to experience in your life that God desires to accomplish in your life that are available to you through the exercise of His divine power. But that power will never be tapped until you have the faith that starts small, and when it meets with resistance, and when you don’t see it happen, the faith doesn’t die small; it gets larger and larger and larger. And you continue persistently in prayer.
This kind of mustard seed faith can move mountains.
If faith is the means through which the omnipotent power of God flows, then nothing, no mountain of difficulty, can stand before that.
The lesson here is that true and living faith in Christ, because it connects us to divine power, because it puts the power of Christ at our disposal, makes possible the accomplishment of extraordinary things.
We should not think of this promise applying to worldly things. Think of what these disciples accomplished with right faith. But they turned the world upside down. They brought salvation to many places and to multitudes of people. They gave glory to God and bore the name of Christ in such a way as to cover it with honor in the world. Nothing was able to stand before their faith. Now there is a mountain worth moving!
These may not be the mountains we first think of removing, but they are the mountains the world cannot move and that faith can. And they are the mountains we know it is God’s will that they should be and shall be moved: mountains of gospel resistance in our community… mountains of false teaching…
This is the great work of God in the world and if faith obtains access to God’s power, we are right to conclude that this divine power will be put to work accomplishing what God intends.
4. Important Insight on Spiritual Warfare
Important insight to be remembered: “This kind can come out but by prayer.” The Lord is emphasizing there are different degrees of evilness and evil power among demon hosts. The Lord gives this insight: that as there are varying degrees of evil powers, there are varying degrees of spiritual intensity—spiritual weapons to confront those evil powers.
What he was telling them is this: in your past encounter with demonic forces, all you needed was to do… speak the word in my name. This kind… when you meet this kind who has so deeply entrenched himself in the soul… from childhood… into every recess of this personality… This kind will not go out in ordinary means… there must be an intensification of means ordained of God for the conquering of powers of evil.
Surely this is a vital insight we as people of God need to remember as a church. We are living in a society where we see society so much against the gospel… and doing everything against it… this kind requires more intensified faith and prayers… not ordinary means. See the degree to which men are held by sin and Satan vary from one individual to other. When we see no souls saved, we should not quit in discouragement… but we need to recognize we need to intensify our prayers and efforts. The degree to which men are given over to the opposition of truth and light of the gospel… those things vary… in the waging of our spiritual weapons of warfare. So must our prayers and efforts should vary.
The gospel will work in any society… and bring souls… we are not able to see the power… not because there is no power… but because of our lack of faith and prayerlessness.
We need to intensify our efforts… talking to neighbors… talking to others… giving gospel tracts… talking publicly in a real sense… every effort of evangelism… is an aggressive effort upon the kingdom of darkness and upon the prince who sits as head over that kingdom… there are some situations… ordinary means will not do… “This kind goes not out but by prayer.”
Some argue fasting was added later… yes, but there is a biblical doctrine of prayer with fasting… It is this: in certain spiritual exercises that ordinary means are not enough… there must be extraordinary prayer… concentration of all faculties engaging on God to intervene and bear his mighty arm in the destruction of the kingdom of darkness… fasting maybe needed.
Application in the family: in our children’s salvation… we train them… sometimes they seem to go worse… we need to use extraordinary means… and pray more fervently for them. “This kind, this kind does not go out by ordinary means… except by prayer…”
The extraordinary power of Satan must not discourage our faith, but quicken us to a greater intenseness in the acting of it, and more earnestness in praying to God for the increase of it. Fasting and prayer are proper means for the bringing down of Satan’s power against us, and the fetching in of divine power to our assistance. Fasting is of use to put an edge upon prayer; it is an evidence and instance of humiliation which is necessary in prayer, and is a means of mortifying some corrupt habits, and of disposing the body to serve the soul in prayer.
4. Beware of Little Faith and Self-Confidence
Beware of little faith Christian life that lives without vital dependence on Christ. Mustard seed faith lives with constant dependence on the Lord. The disciples got accustomed to demons leaving… they began to think the power lay automatically with themselves… not living bonds of present faith and trust and communion with their God… and with their Messiah… if so… you see there was a form of idolatrous self-confidence beginning to emerge. They began to forget that power was conferred personally by their Lord and should be operative through them in living fellowship and faith in their Lord… if so, our Lord’s words to them: “Because of their little faith…” was a call to leave the beginning of self-confidence and detachment, calling them back into a more deeper, vital bond of communion with him and trust in himself.
That is what the Lord is calling us. All your failures are because you are not living in constant fellowship with me.
If you notice your Christian life is powerless… it is because you have learned to live with self-idolatry without mustard seed kind of faith… “Because of your little faith and prayerlessness…”
Oh, how much we need to learn this as a church… God has given his promise: when we gather he will be in our midst… he has promised… he has given his Holy Spirit… he has freely given us all things in Christ… we enjoy the reality of that many times… The moment we think things are automatically operative apart from living bonds of present faith and trust and communion with our Savior, it will be right for our Lord to withdraw them and let us feel our utter impotence… feel our total powerlessness to prayer, praise, or preach… as we ought.
Faith is the substance of the unseen; it feeds on unseen reality. We cannot be strong in faith if we are inordinately attached to the world of sense and sight. We live in a world of sight and sense… we feel them and sense them in food, dress, house… but when there is inordinate attachment to the world… so we no longer say with Paul… we do not intently gaze on the visible but the invisible… the focus of the soul is not the seen… unseen… substantial realities… eternal…
This incident also reminds us how much dishonor we bring to Christ by our unbelief.
See the disciples before the crowd and scribes arguing… They were so impotent as Christ’s representatives, dishonoring him. He came, did the miracle there… What about today? The church is so impotent! That is why the world mocks at the church. Their helplessness and inability to do anything to advance the ministry of Jesus in their own power was becoming a cause of mockery for the unbelievers.
Do they ever see us trying to “use” Jesus—as if He were our own personal “tool”—instead of submitting to Him so that He can use us? If we aren’t sometimes a cause for unbelievers to mock us in the same way—and for the same reason. “They’re accomplishing nothing! Why should I even bother with the ‘Jesus’ they talk about? Why should I even listen to them? Jesus doesn’t seem to be doing anything through them!” All this because of trying to live the Christian life without dependence on the Lord.
Trying to do the work of Jesus apart from an absolute dependency upon Him! We bring disrepute to His cause whenever we do so! So long as the disciples sought to do something of the work of Jesus apart from a dependent faith in Jesus, they were “unable” to accomplish anything. But as soon as they brought the matter to Jesus Himself, things happened!
Do we recognize we will bring dishonor to Christ if we try to live the Christian life apart from Him?
This is a tremendously important spiritual principle; and there’s a story in the Book of Acts looking at how Paul was used by Christ, he was casting evil spirits. Some sons of a Jewish priest tried to do that, but the problem is that they sought to do so apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith—with disastrous results. We read:
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded (Acts 19:13-16).
If I may put it this way, these Jewish exorcists sought to “use” Jesus’ name and authority. They sought to make use of Jesus, in order to do the work of Jesus, without any dependent relationship by faith with Jesus. And that is something that simply cannot be done! It always leads to frustration and helplessness. And worse; in their particular case, it led to them running away overpowered, naked, and wounded.
But, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, how often do we do the very same thing? How often do we try to “use” Jesus’ authority and power on our own initiative? How often do we act as if the power and authority of Jesus is ours to use apart from Him? How often do we try to do the work for Jesus without a personal, dependent faith in Jesus?
Jesus once gave us some very specific instructions concerning this. He said, in John 15:4-5:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Think of what Jesus said. Can you accomplish something for Jesus apart from abiding in Him? Of course you can. Jesus even had a name for it: “Nothing”! Many of us try to serve Jesus without a dependent faith in Jesus; and we succeed in accomplishing just that—”nothing”. But by contrast, the apostle Paul once testified, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20). He once affirmed that, in his own experience, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
I believe that this is the great lesson that this passage is meant to teach us. Just as these disciples discovered, we, as followers of Jesus, are unable to do anything for Jesus apart from an utterly dependent faith in Jesus.
When Christians exercise their faith, really exercise it by placing their confidence directly, immediately, intentionally, personally in Jesus and his Word, then the power of God is at their disposal.
So what are Christians to take away from the Lord’s teaching here?
- That faith is an active dependence upon a present Christ, that it is not a going through of Christian motions, but a genuine looking to Christ to act and to work.
- And that faith, because it connects us to God’s great power, is mighty to achieve wonderful, surprising things that cannot be achieved by human strength.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 