Wednesday, March 2, 2022 PM

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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim

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All right, well, let's open our Bibles tonight to Luke chapter 17. Luke 17.
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I'll be reading the first ten verses. Read this passage a couple of weeks ago.
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Luke chapter 17. Then he said to the disciples,
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It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come.
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It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
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Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him.
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And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying,
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I repent. You shall forgive him. And the
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Apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith. So the
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Lord said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots, and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.
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And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field,
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Come at once and sit down to eat. But will he not rather say to him,
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Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself, and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink?
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Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.
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So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say,
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We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the reading of this word. I pray that you would help us to make a right application of it to our lives as we look to our
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Savior and Sovereign, Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. So Jesus says to his disciples that it will be impossible for his spiritual family, brothers in Christ, brothers and sisters in Christ, it's going to be impossible that all offenses will be avoided.
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Not going to happen. He says offenses are going to come.
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And he's got two more things to say about that. One is that we should not think that offenses are no big deal.
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Isn't that the temptation to fall off the side of the horse this way? Well, Jesus says offenses are going to come, so who cares?
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Jesus says, no, it would be better if somebody had a millstone hung around his neck and thrown into the into the sea.
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Maybe the Sea of Galilee or something like that. And drowned, then that he should stumble one of these little ones.
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Give a great offense to to scandalize one of these little ones as we talked about that word a couple of weeks ago.
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To scandalize, scandalizo. So Jesus said it's impossible to avoid offenses.
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So one temptation is to fall off the horse this way and say, well, then that means that they're no big deal. Jesus says, no, hang on.
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They are a big deal. And to not offend and stumble one another.
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And have a concern for the little ones. Have a concern for those who are young in the faith. Have a concern for those who would be more easily stumbled and hurt.
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Think about those folks. Now that's a principle that is carried forward throughout the rest of the
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New Testament. We have example stories in the book of Acts about how brothers and sisters in Christ are to live toward one another.
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We have instructions given to us in the letters to the Corinthians and in Romans chapter 14, especially about considering one another and accepting one another in Christ.
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To think of the weaker brethren and to be kind to one another. And so Jesus says it's impossible that no offenses should come.
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Don't think that that means that they're no big deal. But the other side, the other way to fall off the horse and get this wrong, is that, well, since they're such a big deal, then
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I guess they're permanent. Jesus says, no, no, if your brother offends you, and of course
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I told you that it's going to happen, so don't be surprised. Right? I can't believe
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I went to a church and somebody offended me. Jesus said it was going to happen. And it's not the end of the world.
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If your brother offends you, after you take heed to yourself, right? Jesus says get the plank out of your eye if you're going to try to get a splinter out of somebody else's eye.
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He says rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. Well, how forgiving should I be?
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Well, seven times a day if you have to. You know, that kind of forgiveness, that kind of patience and forbearance and love.
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So Jesus says this is the way you're going to relate to one another. Okay? Offenses are going to come, but that shouldn't bust everything up.
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You should be concerned not to offend one another, but when offenses do come, you should be striving to reconcile and win your brother by seeking his repentance and offering your forgiveness.
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A more detailed example of what Jesus says here can be found in Matthew chapter 18. Very similar information, a little bit more detail.
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And now, after hearing this, the disciples have one of their more funny sayings.
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Increase our faith. This sounds hard. This sounds incredibly challenging.
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Increase our faith. Reminds me of the time that the debate came before Jesus about whether or not it was okay to divorce your wife.
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And the running debate amongst the scribes and the Pharisees was of two minds.
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One mind said, well, you could divorce her over the smallest things. If you just, if you didn't like the way she scrambled the eggs that morning.
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The other school of thought was, well, it has to be something of great significance before you can divorce your wife.
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And that was the running debate. And so they brought the question to Jesus and Jesus said no. He just says no, full stop, period.
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And explained that from the beginning God made male and female, man and woman, to be joined together in one flesh.
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And what God has joined together, let no man separate. And then the disciples said, one of their funny sayings, well, if it's like that, better not get married.
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And Jesus said, okay. So in this case, they say increase our faith.
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And Jesus says something very interesting. He says, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea and it would obey you.
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Now when the disciples say increase our faith, what is it that they mean?
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And is their meaning accurate? And does Jesus correct their meaning? Are they asking that they would understand more about the faith?
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The faith handed down once for all to the saints for which we are to earnestly contend with the author
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Jude. Or is it talking about our capacity for trusting that God will do as he has promised?
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Is it a kind of faith where there's more power in how we believe and that miracles can happen?
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Well, the Lord said if you have faith as a mustard seed, as a mustard seed.
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So when we think about a mustard seed, we're thinking of something very small.
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A friend of mine one time had me over to his house and he showed me a little pendant and inside some acrylic.
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There was a little mustard seed right in the middle of it. Somebody had given it to him as a reminder and a tiny little thing.
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Not very impressive. When you look at it, our eye is drawn to the size of it.
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But what is a seed? What is a seed? It's a beginning.
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It's a carrier. It's something that transports something into the ground and then out of what
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God has programmed into the seed, this massive plant comes out. That all of this comes forth.
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So we have Jesus saying faith is a mustard seed. So they're saying increase our faith. They're thinking they need a bigger amount of faith.
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They're saying obviously we need a greater size of faith and Jesus says faith as a mustard seed will do because it's not it's not necessarily the size of the faith.
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It's the focus of the faith. Right? Faith is not our
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Savior. Faith is the grace of God which brings us into union with our
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Savior when we trust in Christ. If somebody says
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I have faith, this faith does not save. Somebody says I have faith in Jesus Christ who is the
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Son of the Living God. This is a saving faith. The faith is what unites us to our
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Savior, a grace of God empowered by the Holy Spirit. So Jesus says if you have faith as a as a mustard seed you can say to this mulberry tree be planted up by the roots and be planted in the sea.
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All at once we can see at the beginning that Jesus is something of an agrarian.
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He's talking about a mustard seed and he's talking about a mulberry tree and he's talking about transplanting a plant from one location to another and then all of his gardening credentials go right out the window when he says to plant the mulberry tree in the sea.
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Now that doesn't make any sense at all. We remember the illustration in a similar context in Matthew where Jesus says to his disciples say to this mountain if you had faith say to this mountain be cast be lifted up and cast into the sea.
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That'd be quite a splash and it would be done because they wanted to know how in the world he had cursed the fig tree and had withered away so quickly.
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What happened in that context? Jesus had completed the triumphal entry.
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He had entered into the by the parade and the songs of the people there. Hosanna to the son of David.
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He entered into the temple and what did he find there? A lot of activity, but no fruit.
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A lot of apparent life, but there was nothing worthwhile going on there. And what did he do about that temple?
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Anybody remember what he did? Yeah, so he chased the money changers out and anything else?
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Make a whip. Drive the cattle out. Send the turtle doves flying away.
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Basically shut down the economy of the temple there. In like fashion, and he had some things to say about it, too.
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My father's, my father's house would be a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves.
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A den of thieves, he says. And he curses what goes on there. Just like he cursed the fig tree, which you see from afar was in full leaf, with the apparent view of a great deal of life.
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But when he came close to the tree and inspected it directly, there was no fruit.
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Was there? No fruit. So he cursed the fig tree and it withered away.
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So when Jesus was talking to his disciples, they are still standing right there next to the temple he had just cleansed and cursed, and he says to his disciples, say to this mountain.
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He didn't say any mountain. He wasn't talking about Mount Everest or Mount Scott.
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He wasn't talking about any mountain. He said if you say to this mountain, be lifted up and cast into the sea, then it would be done.
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Which would be essential for the spread of the gospel was the removal of the greatest enemy to the gospel, which was the apostate,
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Second Temple Judaism, that drank the blood of the saints. In this context,
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Jesus has just said to his disciples, here's how you all are going to operate as brothers in Christ.
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You're going to love one another and forgive one another and repent of your sins and get along. And they say, well, increase our faith.
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He says if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree. Does anybody else have a different translation other than mulberry tree?
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Sycamine. Old King James. Sounds like something
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I'd have in Tennessee. Sycamine pie. Sycamine tree.
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Yeah. It's also translated sometimes as a fig tree.
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But the point is he's talking about a tree being pulled up by the roots and planted in the sea.
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In this illustration, he's not talking about chunking a mountain into the sea, destroying it where it like, you know, makes a big splash and gets removed out of the way.
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Here, he's talking about a living plant, one that is functioning, but now displaced. It is no longer growing here.
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It's growing out there. It's not just about, you know, uprooting a bush or a small tree, which you could do with some spade work and so on.
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That doesn't require faith, does it? To start digging a hole and uproot a big plant.
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I mean, you could do that with no faith at all. It doesn't take any faith to carry that plant out to the shoreline and wade out into the waters and stick the tree out there in the waters.
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That doesn't require any faith, does it? Anybody could do that. Where's the faith?
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That the thing would grow. That the mulberry plant, the sycamine tree, that it would actually grow out there in the sea.
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Plants don't grow in the sea. But Jesus is talking about having faith that indeed this plant displaced from the land would be in the sea and that it would grow there.
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Now, as Jesus has been shaping his message, it's important to remember that he has been preparing his disciples for a mission that includes more than Jerusalem, more than Judea, more than Samaria.
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Where is the gospel going to go? Go to the world.
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Go to the world. The mustard seed is an interesting illustration.
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He's already talked about a mustard seed elsewhere, about planting a mustard seed and watching it grow. The kingdom's like a mustard seed, planted and then it grows slowly until finally it's so big that the birds come and rest in its branches.
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Quoting from Isaiah and Ezekiel, the illustration of birds being nations all coming to the same tree, a vision of his kingdom.
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Here, he's talking about a plant, something living and growing and thriving, not simply on the land but out there on the sea.
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And we've already talked about another context, how often the sea is used as a metaphor and illustration of the nations.
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The message that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of the
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Living God, that he died on the cross and was raised from the dead the third day, ascended to the right hand of the
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Father and shall return. The message of the gospel would in some sense have an opportunity amongst the
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Jews who knew who Messiah was, right? Who had the Old Testament Scriptures where there was a promise of one to come who would bear our trespasses and and bear our sorrows and die on our behalf.
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Couched in language of the sacrificial system, all the shadows of the Old Testament, all these things were an advantage to the
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Jews. Paul says that. Paul says the Jews had great advantage because of all of the scriptures given to them.
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He says that in Romans 3. But what about the Gentiles?
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What about the Gentiles who had never even heard of a resurrection? The whole idea was nonsensical to them.
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They made fun of Paul for the idea in Acts 17. What about the Gentiles who never heard of a Messiah, an anointed one?
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What's an anointed one? What does that even mean, right? The whole message was foolishness to the
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Greeks, stumbling block to the Jews, right? Stumbling block because Messiah was supposed to save them politically, but he came to save them from their sins, a stumbling block.
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And then do they bear any kind of guilt in saying crucify him? What a stumbling block for the
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Jews, but it was not a stumbling block to the Gentiles. It was foolishness, made no sense whatsoever.
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Jesus says, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, mulberry bushes can grow in salt water.
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Or something as strange, something as strange, the message, the gospel, the good news of Jesus the
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Messiah being proclaimed among the nations and the Gentiles responding to the light of the gospel and coming to Christ.
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Now, what a big deal, you know. Jesus is not saying to the disciples, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can do amazing feats of prestidigitation.
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You can, you can say, poof, and the tree disappears and appears over there.
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That's not what he's saying. That's not what he's saying. That's exactly the kind of signs that the
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Pharisees and the scribes were demanding of him and the very kinds of signs and the very kind of demand that Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for asking for.
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So, putting all of that in context, he's talking about the mission that they're going to be tasked with.
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Now, what does that have to do with what he's already said in verses 1 through 4? Well, I don't know how much
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New Testament you have read, but how often do the Gentiles and the Jews step on each other's toes? Jesus says, it's impossible that offenses should not come.
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It's really hard for the Jews and the Gentiles to get along together as brothers and sisters in Christ. They're stepping all over each other's toes all the time.
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They're offending each other, and Jesus' main instruction is love each other. You sin against each other, you tell one another, you resolve it, you forgive each other in repentance.
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You see where he's going with this? And if you do all of that, if you do all of that, and you come to the end of the day, do you get to pat yourself on the back?
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Jesus says, And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he is coming from the field, come at once and sit down to eat?
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But will he not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper and guard yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink?
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Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants.
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We have done what was our duty to do. So Jesus talks about slaves here.
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Something that we tend to not relate to. The slave works all day long out in the fields, tending sheep or working in the fields, and then he comes in, and guess what?
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The slave's still working. Time to make a meal for the master. Time to stand and serve the master while the master reclines at the table down there on the floor, leaning on his left side, eating his food.
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And the slave has to clean up afterwards, and only after all the work is done does the slave get to eat and drink.
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And the slave does all of that, and does the master say, what a good slave. I'm gonna give you a participation trophy.
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No. He just did what he was supposed to do. There's nothing special about that at all. Now, if it's not a
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Jew -Gentile divide going on in the early church that they have a problem with, what is it? One person saying,
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I'm more spectacular than you are. Right? Or people trying to gather around which one they think is more spectacular.
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I'm of Cephas, I'm of Apollos, or I'm of Paul. About the braggarts, the false teachers who came bragging about themselves and their spiritual experiences to try to get people to listen to them.
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And Jesus is already working against the divisions that would pop up by saying, the way to peace is humility.
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Recognize that even if you have this kind of faith, and you're doing this amazing work where the gospel is out among the nations, and you're seeing the spread of God's Word.
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Even if you are a part of all of that, you don't get to go around and say,
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I've done something amazing. Everybody listen to me. Jesus says, no.
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You haven't done anything worth talking about. You've only done your duty. You've only done your duty.
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Well, that liberates us from having a whole lot of unnecessary contests. Right?
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And at the end of it, it's something where we recognize everything that we do is by the measures that Christ has provided.
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And of course, that increases our faith as well. Questions or thoughts before we move to our prayer time?
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It's like Jesus knew that there's going to be problems in the church. He's a good shepherd, and he gets out in front of it.
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Later on, we read in the New Testament, you know, the Apostles laboring right into the church, and laboring for their humility.
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Laboring that they'll be at one and at peace through humility. Laboring to heal the breach when offenses have been made.
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But they didn't come up with that on their own. Jesus instructed them in those things prior.