Faith Like A Mustard Seed

Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 17, verses 14 to 23.

Matthew 17:14–23

If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand.

We'd love to give you a copy of it.

We're in Matthew chapter 17, verses 14 to 23.

Matthew 17:14–23

Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.

Oh, Lord God.

Lord, how can it be that sinners like us have something to gain from the blood of our Savior?

How can it be that though all our righteousness is woefully inadequate,

that you have made a way for us to be saved by your grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone?

Lord, affirm and establish us in that glorious faith.

Fix our eyes on your Son, Jesus Christ, this morning.

Lord, we need more of Him, more of you.

Speak to us, God, in your word. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please stand, if you are able, to honor God as I read from His word.

Matthew 17, verses 14 to 23.

Matthew 17:14–23

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 often he 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, O 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 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.

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.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

Please be seated.

Faith is a word that we use often.

As Christians.

But we rarely define it.

However, it is critical that we understand what faith is.

Because Romans 5.1 says,

We are justified by faith.

That's what Connor was just talking about.

It is by faith that we are declared righteous before God.

In other words, there is no salvation apart from faith.

Hebrews 11.6 also says,

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

It is not merely hard to please God apart from faith.

It is impossible to please God.

So faith is absolutely essential.

Faith features prominently in Jesus' ministry that we've seen throughout the Gospel of Matthew.

Jesus heals the Gentile centurion's paralyzed servant in response to his faith.

Saying,

Truly I tell you,

With no one in Israel have I found such faith.

Go, let it be done for you as you have believed.

When friends brought a paralytic to Jesus for healing,

It says in Matthew 9.2 that Jesus saw their faith.

And that's why he healed him.

Jesus also tells the woman who had the chronic discharge of blood in Matthew 9.22,

Take heart, daughter.

Your faith has made you well.

He heals the two blind men in Matthew 9.29 according to their faith.

Similarly, Jesus heals the demonized daughter of a Canaanite woman that we saw in Matthew 15.28 saying,

Oh woman, great is your faith.

Let it be done for you as you desire.

This is the consistent pattern in Jesus' ministry.

To work miracles, to help, to heal in accordance with people's faith.

Which is why in his hometown of Nazareth, where people did not have faith,

He says in Matthew 13.58,

He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Their lack of faith.

But why does Jesus care so much about faith?

Why does he emphasize faith so much?

And our passage this morning answers that important question.

Jesus teaches us what the nature of faith is,

and why God prizes it,

and why God has chosen to save us through faith.

And the main point of my sermon this morning is this,

Dare not trust the sweetest frame,

but holy trust in Jesus' name.

That's what we were singing earlier.

I take that main point from the 19th century hymn,

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less.

It means don't put your trust in your favorable circumstances.

Don't put your trust in your frame of mind,

how you're feeling, how you think you're doing,

how you think you're making progress before God.

No, put your faith solely, wholly in Jesus Christ.

In his name.

I'm going to first talk about what little faith is,

and then I'll secondly talk about what faith like a mustard seed is.

Remember where we are in the narrative in the Gospel of Matthew?

We were just on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Peter, James, and John went up and beheld the glory,

the divine glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

unveiled for a period of time.

And now they have come down from that mountain.

The nine other disciples that Jesus didn't take up along with him,

who were left behind,

have apparently been redeeming their time

by ministering to people while Jesus was away.

And so in this passage, they reconvene.

It says in verse 14,

This story is also recounted in Mark chapter 9 and Luke chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention Luke 9 · chapter mention

This man's son is afflicted with uncontrollable seizures.

The other Gospel writers note in more detail that he falls down.

He rolls about on the ground, and he foams at the mouth.

And the boy's father notes that he's been doing this,

this kid from childhood.

The Greek word here for having seizures

is a word that literally means moonstruck.

The Greeks believe that this kind of epileptic symptoms

came from being struck by the goddess of the moon, Selene.

We have an English word for that.

We call it lunatic,

which comes from the Latin word for moon, luna.

It means you're struck by the moon.

For thousands of years,

many ancient cultures held that epilepsy

was caused by spirit or a god associated with the moon.

Ancient Mesopotamians termed epilepsy

the hand of sin, attributing it to a spirit.

Modern-day neurologists, of course, deny this.

They tell us that epilepsy is not caused by evil spirits,

whether it's caused by disruptions

in the brain's electrical activity.

For example, it can be caused by traumatic brain injuries

or from tumor growth in the brain.

However, we should not be too quick

in our own chronological snobbery

to dismiss all the ancients.

According to a 2020 article from the journal

Neuroepidemiology,

50% of epilepsy diagnoses have no identifiable cause.

50%.

And this research only concerns high-income countries

where they have access to thorough checkups

and medical diagnoses.

Could it be that some of these epilepsies

are not actually epilepsy at all,

but demonization?

Evil spirits attacking people?

I think so.

In this case, the boy's epileptic symptoms

are not caused by disruptions

in the brain's electrical activity,

but by an evil spirit.

And you can see the demon's malice

in what he does to this boy.

In verse 15, it says,

for often he falls into the fire

and often into the water.

The evil one comes only to steal

and to kill and to destroy,

and that is exactly what this minion of Satan

is trying to do.

He's trying to kill and destroy the boy.

The desperate father says in verse 16,

and I brought him to your disciples,

and they could not heal him.

No doubt the man was originally seeking Jesus,

but Jesus is up on the mountain

being transfigured.

So the next best bet is,

okay, well, you guys are his followers.

You're learning from him.

You're his students.

You're his disciples.

Maybe you can help me.

And they have tried their hand in exorcism,

but embarrassingly,

they could not heal the boy.

This should be surprising to us

because in chapter 10, verse 1,

Jesus explicitly and literally

gave them authority over unclean spirits,

it says,

to cast them out

and to heal every disease

and every affliction.

We know from Mark 6, verse 13,

Mark 6:13

that by the time of the transfiguration,

they had already been doing this.

They had already been casting out demons.

It says that they cast out many demons,

anointed with oil,

many who were sick and healed them.

In Luke 10, 17,

they returned with joy to Jesus,

saying,

Lord, even the demons

are subject to us in your name.

So they were already experienced exorcists.

They've had plenty of real-life,

hands-on opportunities

to witness the power of Jesus' name.

So it's actually surprising

that they weren't able

to cast out this demon.

And we learn later in verse 19

that the disciples themselves

were puzzled by their inability

to cast out the demon.

This report of his disciples' failure

stirs up in Jesus

a passionate lament in verse 17.

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.

There's something about this generation,

Jesus says,

that is twisted,

like into a knot.

Something is off about it.

It's not the way it's supposed to be.

It's not straight.

It's twisted and askew.

And this generation is faithless.

If even his disciples,

to whom it has been given

to know the secrets

of the kingdom of heaven,

as Jesus said in Matthew 13, 11,

if they can't even cast out this demon,

if that's where their faith is,

the rest of this generation,

what can you say about them?

They are faithless and twisted.

How long am I to be with you?

How long am I to bear with you?

Bring the boy to me, Jesus says.

And when the boy is brought to Jesus,

exactly what we expect happens.

There's no spectacular, dramatic showdown

between this extra powerful demon

that the disciples could not cast out

versus Jesus.

There's no buildup in the narrative.

There's no climax.

Matthew's narrative is intentionally simple

and unadorned in verse 18.

And Jesus rebuked the demon.

And he came out of him.

And the boy was healed instantly.

What gives?

The sheepish disciples are too embarrassed

to ask in public,

why couldn't we drive out the demon?

They don't want to be embarrassed

by what Jesus might say.

So they ask Jesus privately,

why could we not cast it out?

And then Jesus' answer in verse 20

is simple but profound,

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.

If you have an eye for this kind of detail,

you may have noticed

that there is no verse 21 in this chapter.

It goes from verse 20 to verse 22.

That's not a typo.

It's not because someone didn't know how to count.

And it's definitely not a sinister conspiracy

to hide something from us,

like some people are prone to think.

It's simply because when the verse numbers

were added to the Bible in 1555,

verse 21 was in there.

It was included.

However, later,

as more ancient manuscripts

of the original text were discovered,

scholars figured out

that the best and most ancient

original manuscripts

of the Greek New Testament

did not include verse 21.

It was likely a later scribal addition

to bring it into harmony

with the Gospel of Mark.

This is why the modern translators

struck the verse,

and then once you strike the verse,

you can't slide up

all the other verse numbers

because then hundreds of years

of people dealing with these verses

and these schemes

and memorizing the Bible,

if you memorize any verses

in the Bible after this,

now you have your references wrong

by one verse.

You can't do that,

so they just struck the verse

so that it doesn't mess up

our usage of it.

But even if the verse were included,

it wouldn't change much.

You might have a footnote

at the end of verse 20,

if you have certain Bibles

that have that,

and that tells you exactly

what the missing verse was.

It says,

but this kind never comes out

except by prayer and fasting.

Mark 9, 29 does include that verse,

and that's in the original manuscript.

It says,

this kind cannot be driven out

by anything but prayer.

So Jesus said that in this occasion,

but Matthew doesn't include it

because for him,

Jesus' diagnosis,

because of your little faith,

is sufficient explanation.

It is already inclusive of that.

Yes,

Jesus has given authority

to the disciples

to cast out demons,

but they must always remember

that this power

does not reside in themselves

or in their methods

or techniques,

but in Jesus alone.

They must draw

from the power of Jesus

through faith.

Faith is the only instrument

by which one can draw on

and exercise the authority

and the power of Jesus,

but they lacked it.

They had little faith,

and so there was little prayer

or none at all.

Why is faith the key?

Faith is one of the foundational

Christian virtues.

1 Corinthians 13, 13 says,

So now faith, hope, and love

abide these three,

but the greatest of these is love.

Paul says love is the greatest

of the three

because love is what lasts forever.

Faith and hope only last

in this lifetime

because they are characteristic

of this present age

before the consummation

of the kingdom of God.

Hebrews 11, 1 offers

a helpful definition.

Now faith is the assurance

of things hoped for,

the conviction of things

not seen.

That's the ESV.

The reason why we need faith

in this life

is because we do not yet

see the invisible

spiritual reality,

so we have to walk by faith

and not by sight.

But soon will come a day

when we will see God

face to face,

at which point

we will no longer need

any faith

because our faith

will have turned to sight.

Faith is not a weak,

tentative thing.

It is assurance

and conviction,

it says in Hebrews 11, 1.

Paul uses those strong words

for a reason.

In fact,

the original in the Greek

is even stronger,

and I think I have

the King James Version

to project for you

which captures it well.

It says,

Now faith

is the substance

of things hoped for,

the evidence

of things not seen.

How in the world

is faith

the substance

of things hoped for

and the evidence

of things not seen.

Faith, Paul says,

is not something

that needs evidence

and proof.

Paul says,

No, faith is the proof.

Faith is the evidence.

It is the substance.

How?

Faith is worlds apart

from wishful thinking.

Wishful thinking

is fanciful.

Faith is solid

and substantive.

Wishful thinking

is grounded in fantasy.

Faith is grounded

in reality

because it is grounded

in the certain,

unchangeable,

objective reality

of God

and His promises.

When we walk by faith,

eternal,

heavenly realities

invade our present

earthly perspectives

and priorities.

Heavenly,

when we walk by faith,

heavenly power

invades

our earthly weakness.

And to convey this,

Paul picked

the most solid words

that he can think of

to define faith.

It is the substance

of things hoped for.

The evidence

of things not seen.

This is why Augustine,

the fourth century

Christian pastor,

describes faith this way.

Faith is to believe

what you do not see.

The reward of this faith

is to see

what you believe.

Faith is the evidence

of things not seen.

This is why Hebrews 11, 6

says, as I said earlier,

and without faith,

it is impossible

to please Him.

For whoever would draw

near to God

must believe that He exists

and that He rewards

those who seek Him.

The object of faith

is God

and when we walk

by faith,

we live as if

this all-knowing

and all-powerful,

everywhere-present God

really exists

and that His promises

are really true

and that He will

really reward us

for our faithfulness

to Him.

That's faith.

The disciples

did not try

to cast out the demon

with this kind of faith.

Instead,

they had little faith.

This is now

the fifth

and final time

that Jesus rebukes

His disciples

for their little faith.

Let's do a brief survey.

In Matthew 6, 30,

Jesus said,

you worry about

what you will eat

and drink.

Will not God

who feeds the birds

of the air

and clothes the grass

of the field

not take care of you,

you of little faith?

Matthew 8, 26,

why are you afraid?

This is when

they are in turbulencies.

They are rowing

and going on their boats

and then Jesus rebukes

the wind and the sea

so there's a great comment.

He says to them

before that,

why are you afraid,

oh you,

of little faith?

Matthew 14, 30 to 31,

Peter asks Jesus,

let me walk on water

because Jesus just came to him

walking on water

and Jesus says,

come,

and then Peter starts

walking on water

but he says,

as soon as he saw

the wind,

wind churning up

the waters,

he becomes fearful

and is filled with doubt

and then he begins

to sink

and then Jesus says

to him,

oh you,

of little faith,

why did you doubt?

And then finally

in chapter 16,

verse 8,

which we saw recently,

when they forgot

to bring bread,

they're worried

that they're going

to go hungry

and then Jesus

tells them,

why are you discussing

among yourselves

the fact that you

have no bread,

oh you,

of little faith?

All of these situations

have in common

something

and there is

that they do

have some faith

but it is not

full faith.

There's something

else besides God

that they are

depending on.

They're not coming

to God empty handed,

they're coming

with something else

in their hands.

When there's

plenty of food

to eat,

plenty of bread

packed in their

knapsacks,

they have full trust

that God's going

to provide for them

and feed them.

Oh yes,

our heavenly father

provides for us.

Look right here,

look,

I got some bread

right in my bag.

But when they have

no bread,

now that faith

falters.

Oh,

why?

Because they didn't

come,

their faith wasn't

fully on God

in the first place,

their faith was

in God and

my preparedness

in industry,

the bread that I

brought on with me.

As they're going

on the water,

their waters

churned up

by the winds.

When the waters

come and the sun

is shining and

full faith in God.

Yes,

God is our

navigator,

God is our

lodestar,

he guides us,

he protects us

and he will bring

us to our final

destination.

Full faith in God.

But as soon as

the storm

comes up

and the wind

blows and he

sees the water,

the Peter,

that faith

falters because

that faith

was not

fully on God

alone in the

first place

because it

was on God

and

calm weather.

Favorable

circumstances.

In what areas

of your life

do you have

little faith?

faith?

What are the

sweetest frames

of your life

that you are

putting your

trust in

rather than

in Jesus

Christ?

Your

intelligence?

your

financial

portfolio?

Your

savings account?

Your

resume?

Your

connections?

Your

diligence?

And

discipline?

I trust you

God and I

trust these

things that I

have.

Let's think

for a minute

about what

this might

have looked

like for the

disciples that

are trying to

cast out the

demon.

I cast you

out in the

name of

Jesus.

Leave this

boy.

Nothing

happens.

Maybe

he didn't

hear me.

A little bit

louder.

I cast you

out in the

name of

Jesus.

Leave.

Nothing

happens.

Oh wait,

that's right.

That's right.

I should lay

hands on the

boy.

I cast you

out in the

name of

Jesus.

Leave.

Nothing

happens.

Wait,

what's going

on?

Oh wait,

that one

time Jesus

cast out

the demon

legion.

Remember,

Jesus asked

them for

the name

first.

You're

going to

get the

name of

the demon.

Okay,

what's your

name,

demon?

Your name,

demon,

whatever it is,

I cast you

out in the

name of

Jesus.

Nothing

happens.

He says

that they

had some

experience

healing with

using oils.

Maybe they're

using oils.

You know

that some

denominations,

Christian

denominations

nowadays use

that for

exorcism.

Oils and

exorcised

salts.

Spread it

out and

apply oil.

Maybe it's

the oil.

Let's

apply some

oil on

this boy.

I cast you

out in the

name of

Jesus.

Leave.

Nothing

happens.

At some

point between

when Jesus

gave them

the authority

to do

this in

Matthew 10

and now

when they

failed to

exorcist,

cast out

this demon,

the object

of their

trust has

shifted

from God

alone to

these other

things.

They're no

longer coming

to God

with empty

hands.

I have

nothing.

It is all

in your

power to

do this.

They come

with something

else.

Trust in

God and

this.

I'm a little

experienced

now.

I've done

this before.

I've got my

methods now.

I've got my

techniques now.

I bring these

along with me

and it doesn't

work.

It doesn't

work.

Because that's

the point.

Faith is the

empty work.

Faith is the

one method,

one way,

the means

by which God

works powerful

things and we

get no credit

at all and all

credit and glory

belongs to him.

That's the only

way.

That's why God

moves like that.

This is why

whenever people

present techniques

or strategies

were proposed

to me some

foolproof way

of growing

your church

and having

success in

Christian ministry

and making

sure people

are converted,

I have this

kind of

instinctual

allergic reaction.

Probably to

a fault.

In his book,

David and

Goliath,

Underdogs,

Misfits,

and the Art

of Battling

Giants,

Malcolm Gladwell

writes a

revisionist

account of

the David and

Goliath

story.

He argues

that David

was actually

not the

underdog in

the fight.

He argues

that David

had the

advantage

because he

was using

superior,

unconventional,

high-speed

projectile

technology

against a

slow,

heavy

infantryman.

But I

assure you

that if

David had

entered that

battlefield against

Goliath with

that mindset,

with his

faith,

not in

the living

God,

but in

his

superior

sling

technology,

he would

have been

speared to

death,

and we

would have

never heard

of him

again.

What does

David say

to the

Philistine

Goliath in

1 Samuel 17,

45,

46?

You come

to me with

heavy sword

and javelin

and spear,

but I

come to you

with advanced

high-speed

projectile

technology.

no,

of course

not,

that's not

what he

says.

David says,

you come

to me with

the sword

and with

the spear

and with

the javelin,

but I

come to

you in

the name

of the

Lord of

hosts,

the God

of the

armies of

Israel,

whom you

have defied

this day,

the Lord

will deliver

you into

my hand.

David defeated

Goliath because

of his faith

in God,

not because

of his faith

in himself

or his

weapons.

And whenever

we have

the Lord

of hosts,

Almighty

God,

on our

side,

I don't

care what

the odds

makers say.

I like

our chances.

Psalm 20,

Psalms 20:7

verse 7,

says,

some trust

in chariots

and some

in horses,

but we

trust in

the name

of the

Lord,

our

God.

This

doesn't

mean

that the

Israelites

never used

chariots

and horses.

They did.

But they

must never

trust in

chariots

and horses

in the

place of

trusting in

the Lord.

I'm not

denying that

God uses

means.

He does

use means.

But there's

a difference

between trusting

in the God

alone who

uses means

to help us

versus

trusting in

the means

themselves.

the big

difference.

Maybe

that's why

in Joshua

11,

6,

when they're

first conquering

the land

of Canaan,

the Lord

commanded

them,

hamstring

their horses

and burn

their chariots

with fire.

Why?

That's

perfectly good

equipment.

We could

use those

for ourselves.

No,

burn the

chariots,

hamstring the

horses.

So you

might always

know that

your battle

is won

not by

horses and

chariots,

but by

the Lord

God

Almighty.

In

contrast to

their little

faith,

Jesus says

in verse

20,

for truly

I say

to you,

if you

have faith

like a

grain of

mustard

seed,

and you

will say

to this

mountain,

move from

here to

there,

and it

will move,

and nothing

will be

impossible

for you.

what is

faith like

a grain

of mustard

seed?

We've

seen a

grain of

mustard

seed before,

early in

chapter 13,

where Jesus

compares the

kingdom of

heaven to

a grain of

mustard

seed that

is sown

in the

field,

and in

that context,

Jesus

describes this

as the

smallest of

all seeds.

A

mustard

seed,

probably in

this case

black

mustard,

is a

proverbially

small

seed.

It's the

smallest

seed that

was commonly

sown in

that

region.

I kind

of wanted

to bring

the

perilla

seeds that

I have

at home

because it's

about the

same size.

You wouldn't

be able to

see it if I

were to

hold it up

to you.

It's the

smallest of

the common

cultivated

seeds in

the

ancient

areas.

And this

is why

most people

understand

faith like

a grain of

mustard

seed as

referring to

small

faith.

Since

mustard

seed is a

small

seed,

a mustard

seed

faith must

be a

small

faith.

However,

that

interpretation

runs into

a small

problem in

verse 20

because Jesus

just admonished

the disciples

saying that

they were

unable to

cast out

the demon

because of

their little

faith.

So then

right after

saying that

is Jesus

now saying

that all

you need

is little

itty bitty

faith like

a mustard

seed and

then you

can move

mountains?

Well then

why didn't

it work?

you said

they have

little

faith.

It doesn't

quite fit.

I was

confused by

this.

I'm sorry

to say

that this

is the

first time

I'm

preaching

on this

passage

and I

didn't

realize

this until

this past

week that

doesn't

work,

doesn't

make sense.

And so I

was confused

and I

asked God

for help

and then

he

immediately

brought to

my mind

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 13:2

13 verse

2.

According

to this

verse,

what kind

of faith

is required

to move

mountains?

Not

tidy

mustard

seed

faith,

all

faith.

If you

have all

faith so

as to

remove

mountains,

so it's

not little

faith that

Jesus is

talking about

here.

Mustard

seed faith

cannot refer

to a

small or

weak faith.

Faith that

moves mountains

is a

great faith.

It's all

faith.

Why then

does Jesus

highlight faith

like a

grain of

mustard

seed?

A

mustard

seed is

a small

seed and

there's

something

else that

is small

that Matthew

loves to

talk about.

more than

any other

New Testament

writers and

four times as

much as the

other synoptic

gospels,

Matthew

mentions

little ones.

That's

Matthew's

favorite way

of referring

to the

followers of

Jesus.

And whoever

gives one of

these little

ones even a

cup of cold

water because

he is a

disciple,

truly I say

to you,

he will by

no means

lose his

reward.

Matthew

10,

42.

Matthew

18,

6.

Whoever

causes one

of these

little ones

who believe

in me to

sin,

it would

be better

for him

to have

a great

millstone

fastened

around his

neck and

to be

drowned in

the depths

of the sea.

Matthew

18,

10.

See that

you do

not despise

one of

these little

ones for

I tell you

that in

heaven their

angels always

see the face

of my

father who

is in

heaven.

These

little

ones have

uninterrupted

and unhindered

access to

God.

They are

precious to

him.

So it

is not the

will of

my father

who is

in heaven

that one

of these

little

ones should

perish.

Jesus

says in

Matthew

18,

14.

Christians

are by

definition

little

ones,

small

people.

This is

also why

twice in

Matthew's

gospel Jesus

points to

children,

he brings

children in

the midst

and then

he says

to them,

truly I

say to

you,

unless you

turn and

become like

children,

you will

never enter

the kingdom

of heaven.

Whoever

humbles

himself like

this child

is the

greatest in

the kingdom

of heaven.

I think

faith,

like a

grain of

mustard

seed,

refers to

the wholly

dependent,

humble

faith of

these

childlike

little

ones.

This

humble

faith is

worlds

apart from

the little

faith of

the disciples.

Remember

what I said

earlier,

their faith

was little

because it

was divided.

Here's

trust in

Jesus and

here's

this other

thing.

Children

are not

like that.

Children

have nothing

to bring

to the

table.

They

have nothing

to offer.

They

come

empty

handed,

childlike,

dependent,

humble.

And so

viewed in

this light,

you can say

that the

little faith

of the

disciples

is a

prideful

faith.

And faith

like a grain

of mustard

seed is a

humble

faith.

Mustard

seed faith

is a

humble

faith because

it's an

undivided

faith that

trusts in

God alone

and puts

no trust

in self

or any

other thing.

Is it

unimpressive

on the

outside?

Of course

children are

unimpressive.

It is

unimpressive

and small

on the

outside because

it's a

faith that

does not

make much

of self

but only

makes much

of God.

Jesus

commands a

mustard

seed faith

because it's

a faith that

makes us

look small

but it

makes God

look big.

So when

Jesus tells

us that

faith like

a grain of

mustard seed

can move

mountains,

he's not

saying that

that's the

minimal adequate

faith.

A mustard

faith seed

is great.

If you have

it, good

for you.

You can

move mountains

but imagine

if you had

an avocado

seed

or a whole

coconut.

You can

move planets

that way.

That's not

the point.

He already

said that if

we have

faith like

a grain of

mustard seed

nothing will

be impossible

for us.

This is the

kind of faith

that Jesus

commends for

all of his

people.

Mustard seed

faith is when

small people

trust in a

big God.

Charles

Hedden

Spurgeon,

I've used

these two

quotes that

I'm about to

share with

you many

times but I

do it again

and again

because I

love these

quotes.

Prayer,

and you

can apply

this to

faith,

prayer is

the slendered

nerve that

moves the

muscles of

omnipotence.

Do you

want to be

powerful?

Childlike,

dependent,

humble

faith.

John

Piper says

this,

prayer is

the splicing

of our

limp wire

to the

lightning bolt

of heaven.

I love

that image.

Think about

lightning for

a moment.

Lightning is

five times

hotter than

the surface

of the sun.

If you see

a lightning

from 50

meters away,

it will

appear 10,000

times brighter

than the sun.

A single

super bolt

of lightning

can carry

up to

1 billion

volts and

light up

100 million

standard 100

watt light

bulbs for an

instant.

100 million

of them.

It can

single-handedly

power 850,000

homes for an

entire day.

A single

bolt of

lightning.

Now imagine

that lightning

bolt falling

on a copper

or aluminum

wire.

That wire,

however slack

or limp,

however short

and stubby,

however thin

and frayed,

as long as

it is purely

metal,

will conduct

that powerful

lightning

bolt.

Likewise,

because its

material itself

is beholden

to electrical

currents,

likewise the

mustard seed

faith that is

beholden to

God alone

will conduct

the power

of God.

However,

if you have

a nylon

wire,

the kind

you use

for fishing

or jewelry

making,

no matter

how long

and strong

and thick

that nylon

wire might be,

it cannot

conduct the

lightning bolt

because its

material is

not beholden

to electrical

currents.

Likewise,

the little

faith that is

beholden to

not just

God but

to self

and to

self-effort,

to self-righteousness,

to all these

other things,

will not conduct

the power

of God.

It's not

the faith

itself that

is impressive

but the

faith that

taps the

power of

the Almighty

that is

impressive.

Who is

impressive?

God,

who is

impressive?

And when

you have

such faith,

he says,

you can

move mountains

and nothing

will be

impossible

for you.

Mountain

is something

that doesn't

move,

right?

That's proverbial.

If you do

a time-lapse

video of a

city that

has a mountain

in the middle

of it,

everything around

it will change

over time,

over years,

over decades.

The mountain

is just going

to sit right

there.

It doesn't

move.

That's what

mountains are.

But when

that mountain,

a proverbially

immovable

thing,

meets the

lightning bolt

of heaven,

it moves

because God

is immovable.

Mountain

has to

move.

Now,

to qualify

this a little

bit because

it's such an

open-ended

promise,

nothing will

be impossible

for you.

This doesn't

mean you can

do whatever

you want

with faith.

To have

faith is

to place

ourselves

under the

mercy of

God.

If God

was obligated

to do

everything

that we

had faith

for,

faith,

for example,

to win the

lottery,

then that

would place

God at

our mercy.

No,

a self-serving,

self-centered

faith is no

faith at all

because faith

by definition

places us

at God's

disposal,

not the

other way

around.

So,

Jesus'

open-ended

statement

in verse

20 that

if we

have faith

like a