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Morning Message Text: Luke 17: 1-10
1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.
2 It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.
4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’?
8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?
9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?
10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”
Morning Message:
For several weeks now, in my personal studies, I have been spending time in Genesis with Joseph. Chapter 50 verse 20 stands out to me. “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” This verse made me think about the many situations in life where I have seen God turn evil back on itself and bring his good and perfect will out of it. As Christians we need to come to terms with this. Vengeance is a carnal, common response when we have been wronged. It is so easy to retaliate and, from a human point of view, in the moment, it may seem like the right thing to do. There are two reasons that I will give you today why we should not return evil for evil. The first one is simple. As followers of Jesus, we know that God commands us not to. Shortly before the nation of Israel entered the promised land of Canaan, Moses recited a song in praise of God. In Deuteronomy 32, speaking of those who oppose God, Moses quoted God’s perspective on them: “Vengeance is mine, and recompense.” In other words, the wicked will reap what they have sown. The second reason not to retaliate is to allow God to work. This takes great faith on our part; we must believe that there is truth in God’s Word. It has been said that truth (honesty) is the currency of the Kingdom. Just as money is the currency of the economic kingdom, so honesty is the currency of the spiritual kingdom. If someone uses counterfeit money to conduct business, the transaction is fraudulent. Just so, if someone is less than honest spiritually, it corrupts the relationship. After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers feared that he might retaliate against them for what they had done to him. Joseph didn’t retaliate but he did have an honest conversation with his brothers. He said that what they had done to him was evil, but God used it for a good purpose—to bring Jacob’s family to Egypt where Joseph could provide for them during the famine. Joseph forgave his brothers, but their relationship could only be restored on the basis of truth. There was no glossing over what the brothers had done, no burying of past facts. For the Christian, honesty is not the best policy, it is the only one.
Jesus is always teaching his disciples. There are many cautions that Jesus gives to us that we should pay closer attention to. We are going to stumble in our faith. That’s why we always need confession and the forgiveness that Jesus made available to us on the cross. We should pay special attention when Jesus says “woe” to anyone for any reason. As followers of Jesus, it is incumbent upon us not to be the cause of someone else stumbling. What does this little word woe mean, anyone? There is a very big meaning for such a little word. It means: grievous distress or trouble, an affliction. Don’t get me wrong, there is no such thing as a better sin, but Jesus is warning us here not to take our words and actions lightly. Christians, you may not like hearing this, but you are your brother’s keeper in this one respect. You are to be a positive influence as it pertains to the truth. When you take the name Christian it comes with the responsibility to always profess the truth of the gospel of Jesus and not cause others to stumble because of your words or actions. Let me give you an example. We know that God doesn’t approve of gossiping. When we gossip and say negative things about others it is harmful to the person that we gossip about, and as mature Christians, it may cause someone new to the faith to think that it is okay to gossip.
We have a duty as followers of Jesus that is twofold. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.” What does it mean to rebuke someone? “To express sharp, stern disapproval, to reprimand.” We are not talking about mean-hearted disapproval. This is not a call for us as Christians to walk around like we are holier than everyone else. Stern disapproval, in love and in truth, to let another Christian know that they have sinned. You rebuke them and then you allow the Holy Spirit to convict them. You can’t change them, but God can, and it is your duty to call them out. As followers of Jesus, we are always called to testify to what is true and right. The world will hate us for that, but the world is not our Lord. The world, especially the evil in this world, will seek to silence us when we speak the truth about Jesus Christ.
The other duty that we have is to forgive them. I want you to notice that I don’t say that it is a choice. It is our duty. How many times should we forgive them? Here it says seven times in a day. Jesus in other gospels says seventy time seven. The point is that our forgiveness is unlimited, if they repent. This is a very important distinction. To forgive someone outside of the faith for something that they have done against you is the right thing to do, even if they don’t repent because that helps you spiritually. Charlie Kirk’s wife said she forgave the man who assassinated her husband. She had to let go of the anger and hate that would have otherwise eaten her up inside and kept her from living the Christian life that she wanted to live. But when another believer sins against you, they must be held to their faith and repentance must take place before forgiveness is granted. As Christ’s church we have a duty to expect the members of his body to repent. This is the only way the church can be healthy.
The apostles said to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” What are they really saying? Make this easier for us. Jesus, just give us so much faith that this will come so naturally to us that we won’t have to work at it. Jesus is giving them a lesson in faith that we need to hear today. You don’t need more faith; you need to use and practice the faith you already have. God increases our faith when we use our faith. We treat faith like money. We feel like the more we have, the easier life will be, because, when things get difficult, we can just throw our money at it or throw our faith out there and let it do what faith is supposed to do. You must live your faith. It needs to become second nature to you like breathing. Do you think before you breathe? As you struggle with your faith in the circumstances of life like dealing with a fellow Christian who has sinned against you, God is changing and molding you.
What is Jesus saying to us in this example that he gives? At first glance it seems like there is no connection between the example and what Jesus was just teaching. Here is the truth. There is a process to everything in life. Things can’t just be exactly how we want them to be, and doing things the right way is often times difficult. He gives the example of a servant and his master. Now this could be any relationship. It could be a worker and his boss or supervisor; a parent and a child. The point is in life, in order for things to work the way that they need to, proper protocol must be followed. You wouldn’t know this about me, but I am not a person who likes giving orders, telling people what to do. I know that I am always telling all of you what God is calling you to do, and I probably sometimes seem very bossy. This is God’s order of things, weather I am comfortable with it or not. In order for the relationship between the master and the servant to work, they must assume their proper roles. The truth is we are unworthy servants made acceptable to God through the blood of Jesus. We are called to stand against sin and be strong in the faith that God has allotted to us. It should be our privilege to carry out our duty without expecting anything more than the eternal salvation already provided.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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