Faith Enough to Serve

Luke 17:1-19. And he said to his disciples, temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith like a grain of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you. Will anyone of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at the table? Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterwards you will eat and drink.

Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty. On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.

When he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, were not ten cleansed?

Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. Gonna be helpful to have your Bible open, that passage.

I wanna put it to you this morning that the subject of the passage is very much about what it means to be a servant. Our focus is gonna be the little parable that Jesus tells right in the middle of the reading this morning about the farmer and his servant. In the beginning of the chapter, as the chapter opens, Jesus is talking and he's telling his disciples about those things that characterise the Christian lifestyle. He's telling his disciples how to live in the kingdom, no less. It's a stern warning about causing others to sin, to be careful, and to forgive those who sin against us.

And the disciples respond, somewhat dramatically, somewhat sceptically, I suggest, and they say, well then, Jesus, increase our faith. It's all well and good for you to say this is how we should live, but we don't have faith like that. Wow. What does that involve? You could call it blame shifting.

It's not their fault. It's Jesus' fault. Therefore, Jesus, you increase our faith. They say, Lord, it must be wonderful to live like that, but we couldn't possibly live like that. We're not capable of that.

We don't have faith for that. You see, what the disciples were really after was a big bowl of spiritually fortified faith. Something that they could just draw on and draw on. And that would kind of make them into super disciples. But then Jesus says this, he says, 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.

What he's saying in essence is, if you were prepared to act even on the faith that you have, small as it may be, you will be enabled to do great things, even and especially to forgive those who sin against you. He might have had a mustard seed in his hand. You can see how small the mustard seed really is. Jesus uses the mustard seed to point to the power of smallness in bringing on greatness in the kingdom of God. If you look at the very tip of the finger there, you can see the relative size of a mustard seed.

And now what Jesus is saying is you have faith that small, that tiny, you could say to a tree, go and throw yourself in the sea. If you can do that, then you can surely say to yourself, well, this is how I need to live in the kingdom of God today. It's not so much the quantity of faith, but the quality of faith. Jesus is saying, the size of our faith doesn't determine our ability to keep the commands or to live in the kingdom. But rather Jesus' emphasis is this.

He says, if you exercise the faith that you already have, even if it's as small as a mustard seed, you could do the great things that I'm talking about. It's that smallness of faith in you and in me this morning that we wanna talk about. The smallness of faith, and that's what will enable us to do great things for the kingdom of God even today. Now to illustrate the point, Jesus tells a story. We like stories, don't we?

This is a parable, and this story is going to give us the gist of what it means to exercise faith, even small faith. This is God's word, and I would say it's pretty stark. It's a kind of in your face teaching. It's going to be good for us to embrace it this morning without trying to qualify it or in any way squirm out from underneath the truth of it. You see, often we get in the pulpit like this and we like to boast of all the good things that we have from God that promote Christian living.

About what it means to be a child of God, to be able to call God our Father, what it means to be an heir of the kingdom of God. We love to talk about those sorts of things. But this morning, we're going to raise something that Jesus tells us about that we have to look at. A Christian is a servant. A Christian serves the Lord.

A Christian is no longer his or her own person. He or she is a man or woman of faith. Faith enough for service in the kingdom of God. Being a Christian is much more than just being a servant, but it is certainly not less. And Jesus is saying, if you're mine, if you want to be counted among my disciples, then you will live a life of service.

And the story that Jesus tells is real cold water in our face. It's very sobering. As long as you realise Jesus is not trying to tell us everything about what it means to be a Christian. If this was everything about what it means to be a Christian, well, it certainly wouldn't be very appealing. But Jesus wants to show us something that's definitely true for everyone who is a Christian.

To be a Christian means that you are a servant of the Lord and of His people. And what does that mean? Well, it means duty and it means devotion. Look at verse 10. We are unworthy servants.

The conclusion of the story, we have only done our duty. What does duty involve? Well, duty means here, there are things we have to do regardless of the impact that it has on us. It simply needs to be done, and so we obey. And as we obey, in the obeying, God gives the faith to obey joyfully, thankfully, even cheerfully.

That happens, number one, when we realise God owes us nothing. First of all, a servant is someone who has settled that intellectually in his mind and emotionally in his heart. They know God owes them nothing. That's the first thing we need to drive home this morning. This word servant in some translations is translated as slave, and the Greek word that is used here is the word for servant or slave.

In other words, this person is not just an employee. In the story, there is a farmer who has a small farm, and on his farm, has just one farmhand. And that farmhand is a doulos or a servant, a slave. The farmhand goes out to work each day. But when the farmhand comes in, does the owner of the farm say, oh, let me get you something to eat?

Would you like a cup of tea? Would you like a beer maybe? Or do you wanna put your feet up for a little while? No. The farmer says, hey, you have more work to do.

In verse eight, prepare my supper. Get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink. And after that, you may eat and drink. And clearly, the servant doesn't expect anything else from the master. Verse nine.

Would he, the master, grant the servant or thank the servant for what he was told to do? Would the master thank the servant? And the implied answer here is no. Of course not. He's just doing his duty.

In the Greek language, it's obvious that Jesus expects a negative answer to this question. The servant says to himself, I'm just doing my job. This is what I need to be doing. And then Jesus drops the clanger. So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, we are unworthy servants.

We've only done our duty. I'm an unworthy servant. I'm only doing my duty. I don't need pats on the back. I don't go looking for recognition.

Doesn't matter to me because I'm only doing my duty. A servant is someone who's able to say to the master, master, you owe me nothing. I owe you everything, and mine is the privilege to serve always for as long as you give me life's breath. Now, do you know why the servant in the story thinks that way? One of the difficulties we have when we read the Bible is that when we see the word servant or slave, we read it through the grid of exploitation, abuse, and even human trafficking.

That's what we're familiar with. But that's not what we're talking about here. In the Bible, servant, being a servant or being enslaved, is honourable. It's dignified. In fact, you can read about the obligations of the master and the rights of the slave in the Mosaic law, in the book of Leviticus, for instance.

Under the law, they are afforded certain protections. They're to be cared for and provided for by their master. It could be that the servant was somebody who had fallen into debt. Back in those days, they didn't have things like bankruptcy. In bankruptcy, the government legally dissolves all your debts, and so if you declare bankruptcy, the government declares the debts are gone.

It's pretty convenient, actually. But of course, there are consequences for that. But back then, they didn't have bankruptcy laws. In fact, if you fell into debt, and you had a debt far in excess of your ability to repay, you were committed to go into service of your creditor. That is until the debt was paid off.

And the creditor owned your labour. He couldn't do with you whatever he wanted to do, but he did own your productivity. That is what you could produce, the results of your labour. So the servant in the story is the debtor. He owes the master.

And so the master has no illusions that he would owe the servant any kind of thanks or gratitude for what he's doing. The servant is simply working off his debt. The master owes the servant nothing, but the servant owes everything to the master. Now we're going to apply this. And Jesus has told the story, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

It's a parable no less. Remember what triggered the story. Increase our faith. Give us more of what you've got, Jesus. Jesus wants them to recognise they already have everything they need to serve.

Now, that is the situation between us and God. We don't often think of our situation before God like this. It may seem a little odd, a little strange. I will tell you what a Christian is, and a Christian you can't be a Christian until you've accepted this truth, and you've gotta settle it in your own mind and in your own heart, intellectually and emotionally. We have to understand that God owes us nothing.

He is like the master in the story. Sounds like cold water in your face. Inappropriate, don't you think? God owes us nothing except to throw us where we really belong, in prison, in the debtor's prison, and to keep us there forever. And a Christian is someone who understands that.

A Christian is someone who figures that out. A servant is someone who understands God owes them nothing. Number two, the servant of the story obeys the master in everything without qualification, unconditionally. Says it right there in verse 10, when you have done everything you were told to do, everything, no questions asked. What happens next in Luke's account, in chapter 17 in the place where Luke has this little parable recorded?

We read it, didn't we? Just a few moments ago. Phil read it to us. It's the story of the cleansing of the ten lepers, and I'm so thankful that story is there because believe it or not, it helps us understand what's going on in this passage. Without it, I'd be lost for an explanation about doing duty cheerfully, thankfully.

What are these ten lepers told to do? Do they obey? Are they acting as servants? Yeah. But you say these were lepers.

These people had nothing to lose. Their life was about as sad as it could possibly get. Why shouldn't they obey? Well, not so fast this morning. Think about it.

These ten lepers asked Jesus to heal them. But instead of healing them, Jesus does what? He gives them a duty. He gives them a command. And he calls them into service even before he actually heals them.

These lepers were not just in physical pain, as many of you know. These lepers in that society had a disease that was untreatable at the time. They were not just in physical pain, but they were also social outcasts, alienated from the societies in which they once lived, often alienated from their own families as well. Legally, they were declared outcasts, so they couldn't come to Jesus, and that's why the text says they stood at a distance, and they yelled. They called out to Jesus.

They were used to yelling. They could never go towards anybody. They had to stay a certain distance away from everybody. They say, Jesus, master, have pity on us. And then we read in the very next verse, Jesus gives them a duty.

Go, show yourself to the priests. Now the priests are kind of like the health inspectors of the day. They were the ones who could declare somebody clean or unclean. And whatever the declaration was, that was your legal standing in the community. And so under Mosaic law, a person clean and no longer a leper could have the legal sanction against them removed, taken away, and they'd be declared clean.

And we're told in the text Jesus does not heal them. Instead, he gives them the duty. Go. Show yourselves to the priests. Now what would you have done?

You look down, you see your own arms, your legs, your skin, and you say, come on, I'm not gonna make a fool of myself. What do you think you're talking about, Jesus? On face value, it's about as cruel as saying to a blind man, here, catch the ball. Of course, I'm not going to do this. I can't do this.

But all the lepers do. They obey. They do their duty. And amazingly, the text says, and as they went, they were cleansed. The cleansing came in the duty, in the obeying, not before, but only as they went, says the text.

A servant is somebody who obeys, acts on everything he or she is told. If you only obey when you understand why, well, you'll never be cleansed. And besides, you're not obeying. Listen up. If you only obey when you understand, if you only do the duty when you see that it's going to be helpful for you, if you only do the duty when it makes sense to you, if you only obey when it looks like it's going to pay off for you, do you know what?

You're not obeying at all. You're not obeying, you're agreeing. You're not obeying. If there's any condition to your obedience, then it's not obedience at all. It's like saying, but Lord, I would be so unhappy if I was to do what you're telling me.

Well, then you're not obeying at all. You see, there has to be a letting go of your own will. You're not a servant at all. It's like God is not your master, but rather God is your consultant. And you begin to talk to Him like the way you talk to Siri on your phone or your Google assistant.

And you're saying things like, well, God, I'd be happy to take your advice, but I have to think about it. And if all you do is take advice, don't you dare say that you've obeyed. If there was ever the possibility of you not obeying, then you haven't seen it as duty meeting an obligation. Remember, you and I are in debt to our Master. And a servant is somebody who makes no conditions.

A servant is someone who says, it doesn't matter what area I will serve. I will serve. And now thirdly and lastly, the burning question, how? How am I going to do this? You see, the Bible talks about all kinds of duty, doesn't it?

Most of it's not very popular. Most of it, we don't understand. Or by nature, we don't even agree with. For our part, we can't always see how it will lead to our happiness. And I'm owed happiness, aren't I?

Spiritual happiness at least. The disciples were being challenged that day at the beginning of the chapter. Jesus says, you have to forgive those who have wronged you. That was the issue for them, wasn't it? That's why they cried out, increase our faith, that's going to be impossible for us to do.

But the Bible also says things like, you're not to have sex outside of marriage. Bible says you have to honour your parents and all those in authority over us. The Bible also says the church should be governed by elders in a session or a church council. And then there should be deacons so that the elders can devote themselves to the ministry of the word. The Bible says all kinds of things like this.

And we might be inclined to say, well, I don't feel strong enough. I don't have faith enough. I can't serve like that. I will obey only when it makes sense, only when I can see that it's going to pay off. But we read it before.

The strength came to them as they went, as they went. The healing came to them as they obeyed. And where did the lepers get the strength to obey? The strength came in the actual doing. They didn't sign up for a course at the RTC.

They didn't go to Bible college for x number of years. They did it. They obeyed. They did duty. And as they did, the text says, as they went, they were cleansed.

As they went, says the text. And that, brother and sister, is an act of faith. In other words, you don't say, I'll get my whole life together. I'll do anything and everything as soon as I have a reservoir of learning, of resources, and all the stuff that I need to be a servant. Then you're not a servant.

In fact, you're agreeing. You're just agreeing with God, but you're not obeying Him. I believe the story of the lepers is critical to our understanding of this little parable. And I think that's why Luke has put it there, straight after the parable. There were ten people healed that day as they did their duty. But which of the ten is the true servant?

Which one was sincere and demonstrates an attitude of an obedient servant? Well, you know the story as well as I did. There's only one out of the ten who comes back. And what does he do? As soon as he gets to Jesus, he throws himself on the ground at Jesus' feet.

The text says, he threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked Him. He thanked Him. When he saw he was healed, he came back praising God in a loud voice. And it's plain to see why his act of obedience had been rewarded. He and everybody else could see that he was healed.

But what about the other nine? They were healed too, weren't they? This man threw himself down at Jesus' feet and you know what that is? That's the stance of obedience. It's the stance of servanthood.

You literally throw yourself on the ground at the feet of your Master, and your man is saying by that action, Jesus, You are my Master. You command me, and I will do the duty. Are you convinced that you have a debt this morning? A debt that's graciously being paid? You've heard about the ransom earlier in the service.

Well, there's a debt in the story as well. The leper has a debt, and it's the debt of gratitude and love. Physically, he's been healed, cleansed. Legally, he's been made right. The law had no more claim on him.

Jesus changed his legal position as well as changed his pain and physical suffering. And that's what it means to become a true servant of God. Do you know Jesus paid the debt of all our terrible sin and miserable guilt? And once we've dealt with that intellectually and emotionally, once we recognise that we're serving because we have a hope and a future with God, then we come back to God again and again, praising Him in a loud voice, and literally throwing ourselves down at Jesus' feet and thanking Him. You see, there's enthusiasm.

There's passion to serve, and it comes out of a real grateful joy. It's the kind of duty that the hymn writer talks about when he says, take my life and let it be. Take my moments and my days and let them flow in endless praise. Let my moments and my days flow in endless praise. What is that really?

It's love. It's adoration for the one who's healed you and me. Consider how He's cleansed you. Come this morning, running back to God, throwing yourself down to Him, more of a servant than ever, and say, there's something binding me to You. There's something that brings me to You again and again.

Here's Jesus' own application of His story in verse 10. He sums it up this way. So you also should say, we are unworthy servants. We've done our duty. By unworthy, Jesus means servants to whom nothing is owed.

Servants who do not expect and cannot expect a reward or compensation or some kind of leisure or pleasure because they've done their duty. Therefore, Christians, disciples of Jesus, understand duty very differently. It's not everything there is about being a Christian, but oh, it's so important and so easily neglected by us. It means the Christian servant can say, I too am an unworthy servant, and we're only doing our duty. Amen.

Let's pray. Father, we pray, now as we consider Your word to us this morning, that we will find ourselves more into service than ever before. Lord, help us not to be thinking of ourselves, first of all, but to be thinking of what we owe You and one another. Help us to get away from the distraction of thinking about what we need or what we should be doing to be happy. Oh, Father, we pray that our fellowship here at Open House would be characterised by the true servant heart that Jesus has for us.

Help us to use the small faith that we have to accomplish great things in Your kingdom. Help us to believe that You're prepared to use every man or woman, young person, and child in our fellowship this morning because we've been redeemed. We've been cleansed. And our future with You looks brighter now than ever before. Thank you that You've loved us.

Thank You in Jesus' name. We praise You for it as we say together. Amen.