Lesson 1-5
The Potential - Faith
Luke 19:1–10
Luke 17:5–6
With a perfect plan and perfect provision, God reaches out to us. We have only two choices: we can choose to believe what God is telling us and receive what He has to give, or we can choose to not believe and not receive. In Luke 19, we are told the story of one man’s response to the invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“And He entered and was passing through Jericho. And behold, there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; and he was a chief tax-gatherer, and he was rich. And he was trying to see who Jesus was, and he was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. And he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
“And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ‘Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ And he hurried and came down, and received Him gladly.
“And when they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ And Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.’
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’” Luke 19:1–10
To the Jews of Jesus’ day, there were few classes of people more hated than the publicans, Jewish men who collected taxes in Israel for the Roman Empire. Zaccheus, whose name means “pure,” would have been an outcast from Judaism, considered not only religiously unclean but politically traitorous.
Like another publican, the Apostle Matthew, Zaccheus would have been unwelcome in the homes or at the social gatherings of “good” Jews. His only friends would have come from the circle of people referred to by the religious leaders as “sinners.”
Zaccheus was looking for something; he did not know exactly what. He did know, though, that it was important that he see this man Jesus. Unknown to Zaccheus, long before he set his sights on Jesus, Jesus had set His sights on him. Zaccheus was being sought by God’s grace.
Before He reached the tree and looked up, Jesus knew where Zaccheus was—physically and spiritually. He knew this was a man who had been goaded all his life—a small man, a hated man who others took delight in insulting and vilifying. Jesus knew every humiliation Zaccheus had ever endured.
Jesus knew the other side, too. He knew every fraud Zaccheus had ever indulged in. He could count every penny he had squeezed from every merchant and tradesman in Jericho. Yet Jesus, the sinless Son of God, stopped and looked up to the man everyone else looked down on. The most important man in Palestine—the most important man in the universe—wanted time with Zaccheus so much that He invited Himself, “I must stay at your house.”
Before Zaccheus could meet the Lord, the Lord had to seek him. Jesus had a desire from eternity past for this meeting. He had seen Zaccheus before He created him and had determined to die on the cross for this man.
How did Zaccheus respond to the invitation of Jesus? He “received Him gladly.” The moment he opened his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation came to the house of Zaccheus. The charity and the restitution that Zaccheus promised in Luke 19:8 were not requirements for his salvation. They were freely given responses to salvation. Jesus did not require anything of Zaccheus except faith in Him. God is delighted when His children give “not grudgingly or under compulsion” but freely, cheerfully 2 Cor. 9:7. Faith is the only thing that has ever been required for salvation.
To the grumbling of those who were appalled that Jesus would enter the house of a “sinner,” the Lord had a message in verse 10: His sole mission in life was to seek and to save the lost, the sinners.
“To seek” is the aorist, infinitive zeteo, “to pursue.” It means to look until you find what you are looking for. David used the Old Testament counterpart to this word in Psalm 23 when he declared, “rely goodness and [mercy, NKJV] will follow me all the days of my life. The word had much more intensity of meaning than the translation “follow” conveys. It meant to hunt someone or something down, to chase with a passion.
With passionate intensity, Jesus Christ had sought Zaccheus. He still seeks the lost with that intensity. He is the initiator, the pursuer. All He asks of us is that we let ourselves be found and carried to safety, that we receive by faith the life only He can give.
Once we have, by faith, received that life, we find there is only one way to live the life—by faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. If only faith pleases God, then one of the greatest things we can ever say is what the apostles said in Luke 17.
“And the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” Luke 17:5
What had brought the usually thick-headed apostles to the point at which they recognized their great need of faith? It was one of the most simple, mundane situations of life. Jesus had just told them to forgive each other. He had said that if their brother sins against them seven times a day and returns asking for forgiveness seven times, they must forgive him
In a similar account in Matthew 18, Peter had come to Jesus and asked a question something like this: “Lord, if my brother sins against me seven times and I forgive him seven times, then can I deck him?” Peter probably felt that his brother Andrew had reached his limit of allowable offenses. He was probably proud of himself for being willing to forgive his brother seven times. But the Lord looked at Peter and said, “Seventy times seven.”
Jesus was telling His disciples to forgive and forgive and forgive again—490 times a day if necessary. And their response was, “This is going to take some faith. Lord, increase our faith” Luke 17:5
“Increase” is prostithemi. Tithemi means “to place.” Pros means “face-to-face” or “before.” Prostithemi was a banking term which meant “to make a deposit.” They were saying, “Lord, we don’t have enough to handle this; we need you to deposit more faith to our account.” Why? Because He was requiring of them a most practical thing—forgiveness
Faith is practical. It relates to every issue of life, and one of the greatest areas of need in our lives is in personal relationships. We have to deal every day with people who make us mad, who exhaust our patience, who take us to our limit. The Lord’s solution is not for us to change other people’s behavior, but for us to learn grace. If we want to learn to forgive others as God in Christ has forgiven us Eph. 4:32, we will need faith.
“And the Lord said, ‘If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and be planted in the sea”; and it would obey you.’” Luke 17:6
When they ask Him to increase their faith, Jesus answers by explaining how faith works. He is telling them that it is not the size or amount—but the object—of their faith that matters. If they had
- Faith unleashes the omnipotence of God. Omnipotence means “divine power.” In Romans 1:16a, Paul writes, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” The power of God is at our command, but we can only activate it by faith.
- Faith is a one-word summary for the Christian way of life. Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38 all tell us that “the just [in both Hebrew Greek, this word can also be translated “righteous”] shall live by faith.” “By faith” is the only way we can experience the abundant life Christ promised John 10:10. Anything that detracts from faith robs us of spiritual life.
faith like a mustard seed, He says, they could do anything.
According to Matthew 13:31–32, the mustard seed is the smallest of domestic garden seeds, yet it grows into the largest of shrubs. Jesus uses the mustard seed to illustrate His point because it represents growth from the smallest to the greatest. The question is not how much faith we have, but what we place our faith in. The power is not in the person who has faith, neither is it in the faith itself. The power is in the object of faith. The only proper object of faith in the universe is Jesus Christ. In the Bible, “we have the mind of Christ” 1 Cor. 2:16. Our faith may be very small, but if it is resting in the truth of the Mighty God, it can accomplish the impossible.
In the Matthew passage, Jesus tells His disciples only how faith works. In Romans 10:17, the Apostle Paul tells us where faith comes from. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
If we want to increase our faith, we need to increase our study of the Word. If we want to trust God more, we need to know Him better. If we know more of the Person of Jesus Christ and know more of the Word, our faith will gain in strength because the strength is in the object of our faith.
- Faith is the foundation of our hope in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is substance, faith is proof. The noun “faith” can mean two things: Subjectively, it is the act of believing; objectively, it is the content of what we believe. Our “faith” can never be stronger than the object of our faith. For the Christian, the object is Jesus Christ, the living Word, revealed in the written Word.
- Faith comes through the study of the Word of God. Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Every Christian needs to hear the Word taught. First Thessalonians 2:13 says that the Word of God performs its work in us who believe. After study should come action, that we would be “doers of the Word and not [just] hearers …” James 1:21–22.
- Faith alone can please God. Hebrews 11:2 and 11:6 tell us that faith alone pleases God. When God is pleased with us, an amazing thing happens—we are happy. As Creator, God planted within every soul a mechanism that cannot find contentment or fulfillment apart from His will. Because God loves us, what pleases Him most is what is best for us. Therefore, to please God is to find absolute satisfaction. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, and without pleasing God, it is impossible to be happy.
- Faith is the foundation of Christian virtue. Christian virtue is built on a trinity: faith, hope, and love 1 Cor. 13:13; 1 Pet. 1:12–23. As our faith increases, we come to have hope. Biblical hope—which is absolute assurance—enables us to have a relaxed attitude toward other people. Without a relaxed mental attitude, we will never be able to love. Love for others is demonstrated in our lives by simple thought-fulness and courtesy. When we lose these, we have lost love; and the reason is because somewhere along the way, faith went out the window.
- Faith works. Faith is power; it is dynamic. Faith can’t not work. Its nature is to work James 2:14, 17, 26. Faith works in the impossible, in the hopeless, in the helpless. We were created by Christ Jesus for good works Eph. 2:8–10. Work without faith is worthless; faith without works is dead.
- Faith alone overcomes the world. “Whatever is born of God,” the apostle says in 1 John 5:4–5, “overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.” If we believe that He is the Son of God and if we have His presence with us, what do we have to be worried about?
All human learning starts with faith. When a toddler sees his first picture of an elephant, he gazes at his mother with a face that says, “What in the world is this?” When she tells him it’s an elephant, he takes her word for it, and learning has taken place. The next time he sees that picture, he’ll probably point and shout, “Elephant!”
The young student who dares his teacher, “Prove to me that 1+1=2 or else I won’t believe it!” will find that learning in his life will come to a grinding halt. If he refuses to exercise faith in the formula, he won’t be able to balance his checkbook when he grows up, but that won’t matter because if he never exercises the faith to get through basic math, he most likely will never earn enough to need a checkbook!
There are three basic methods of learning: empiricism, rationalism, and faith:
Empiricism is reliance on sensory perception for the discovery of truth. It is the basis of scientific investigation. The empiricist says, “Only if I can see it or touch it, will I believe it.” But empiricism is flawed because there are so many things that cannot be seen or measured or accounted for.
Rationalism is reliance on human reason for the discovery of truth. Its standard of measure is the human intellect. The rationalist says, “Only if I can reason it out with human logic, will I believe it.” But rationalism is flawed because it can never extend beyond the tiny limits of human intelligence.
Faith is reliance on the word of someone you trust—someone more experienced than you—for the discovery of truth. In the biblical sense, faith is reliance on the inspired Word of God. The man or woman of faith says, “Because God said it, I believe it, and in His time, I will see it and understand it.”
While both empiricism and rationalism have roles to play in discovery and in education, neither is of any use in man’s attempt to find or to know God. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1, makes it very clear that God planned for man to find Him, not through either sensory perception or human intellect, but through faith alone.
Isaiah 55:8–11 points out how vastly superior are the thoughts and ways of God to the thoughts and ways of men. God is omniscient and omnipresent—He knows all things and is in all places. He knew the end of human history before there was a beginning. God is perfectly righteous and perfectly fair. He never lies, and He always keeps His Word. God can be believed! It is always safe to trust Him, and only faith can please Him Heb. 11:6.
Because the Jews thought in concrete rather than abstract terms, Hebrew words were designed to form mental pictures. There are five Hebrew word-pictures of faith found in the Old Testament. They are progressive, and they illustrate steps in spiritual growth:
- Amen means “to lean on for support.” It is usually translated “believe.” It is used of the faith for salvation and pictures someone leaning on God. Genesis 15:6 tells us that Abram “believed in the LORD and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” This “leaning faith” is the faith of spiritual infancy.
- Batach is a wrestling term that draws the picture of someone body slamming his opponent to the mat. Usually translated “trust,” batach is found in Psalm 55:22a. “Cast your burden upon the LORD, and He will sustain you.” “Wrestling faith” is analogous to the experience of spiritual adolescence, the time when believers—having acquired a little biblical knowledge—begin to enter the spiritual conflict.
- Chasah means “to flee for refuge,” as a rabbit might seek protection from pursuing wolves in the cleft of a rock. It is the faith of spiritual maturity—when the believer can be bold and confident because he has come to understand that the Lord is his fortress, his stronghold, his shield, and his deliverer Psalm 144:2. David, in the Cave of Adullam where he had fled for his life from King Saul, understood this kind of faith: “For my soul takes refuge in You” Psalm 57:1.
- Yaqal means “to trust in extreme pain, to trust under pressure.” It is usually translated “hope” and draws the picture of applying healing salve to a wound. This is the faith that heals the wounds that spiritual heroes pick up in their advance. Job displayed the heart of a hero of faith when he wrote in the heat of his affliction, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” Job 13:15a. Jeremiah, distraught over the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of her people, was able to face another day because of this kind of faith Lam. 3:21–23.
- Qawah, the strongest Hebrew word for faith, is translated “wait.” The word was originally used for the process of making rope by weaving frail, easily broken strands into cords that could not be broken see Eccl. 4:12. Qawah is the patient endurance that comes from weaving together promises, principles, and doctrines from the Word of God into an unbreakable rope of faith. This is the faith of the friend of God. The Hebrew in Isaiah 40:31 promises that those who wait for the Lord will “gain new [exchange] strength; "they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”