When Truth is Denied
A Journey with Matthew • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction:
Pledge
Passage
English Standard Version Chapter 17
14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him,
15 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.
16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.”
17 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.”
18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20 He said to them, “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.”
Title: When Truth Is Denied
Title: When Truth Is Denied
Segway:
1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Learning from Children
Learning from Children
Martin Luther found great comfort in and inspiration from his children. Disturbed and depressed by his enemies, one day he noticed little Martin nursing in his mother’s arms and remarked, “Child, your enemies are the Pope, the Bishops, Duke George, Ferdinand, and the devil. And there you are … unconcerned.” Even as he noticed his child’s complete trust, he realized his own anxiety was unwarranted; God had promised to protect him.
On another occasion Luther came upon Anasthasia, his four-year-old, prattling away about Christ, angels, and heaven. Whereupon the noted churchman said, “My dear child, if only one could hold fast to this faith.” Quickly she replied, “Why, Papa, don’t you believe it?” Luther was shocked and later wrote, “Christ has made the children our teachers.”
Share the story about Logan steeling the cookies off his 7th grade teachers desk.
I was called in to the principles office early one morning.
Principles explained to me that Logan was being accused of stealing some cookies off a teachers desk.
Logan was sitting in the office with me.
He emphatically denied stealing the cookies
The Principle stated the teacher say him with his own eyes take the cookies.
Logan said another kid did it. But didn’t know his name!
I asked the principle to let me be alone with Logan for a few minutes.
I looked him square in the eyes and ask him, “Did you take the cookies?”
With tears in his eyes he replied, “No I did not!”
The Principle came back in and I assured him that I believed my son!
He asked if he would allow him some more time to look into this other kid.
I agreed and was going to come back to the office at the end of school to hear the results.
End of school day came and I find myself in the principles office but something was different.
Logan has his head in his hands looking down toward the floor.
The principle starts off by saying, “Logan, is there something you want to say to your dad?”
“I took the cookies!”
I could have cared less about the cookies! But I was disheartened to the fact that He admittedly denied the truth!
After this incident there was something that was lost (for a period of time) between Logan and I.
He was going to have to EARN BACK my trust in his word.
My faith in what he would tell me was weakened.
But what about
I think all of us can relate to doing this at some point in our lives.
You don’t even have to be a teenage to relate to this.
Adults do this as well: spouse cheating will deny truth.
The truth of the matter is there is ALWAYS something lost when we try to deny truth.
the matter is there is ALWAYS something lost when we try to deny truth.
In the church, when we talk about truth, it is usually in reference to “GOD’s WORD.”
With the understanding that one’s lack of faith can be linked back to nothing more than the denial of Truth! God’s Word!
This morning I want to share with you this thought, Does doubting or denying God’s word deplete our faith?
This morning I want to share with you this thought, “Does doubting or denying God’s word (Truth) have an affect on our faith, better yet, does it deplete our faith?”
Think about this as we look at this passage of scripture.
(Do I put here?)
Body:
In this pericope we can almost feel a little strange about it.
Its almost like we walked into the middle of something going on.
I want to take you through the course of events that take place in this pericope .....
Jesus, Peter, James, and John come down off the Mountainside (Transfiguration)
This was at the conclusion of this retreat they were on.
The reason we know the retreat is over is because they find the remaining disciples (9) are with a crowd of people.
As a matter of fact, we know the disciples had been ministering (attempting) to the people while Jesus and the other 3 were gone.
How we know this is because an unidentified man approached Jesus
He does a few things ...
He kneels (Physical acknowledgement of who Christ is)
He calls him Lord (Verbal acknowledgement of who Christ is)
and then states his problem
His son has seizures (falls into the fire and water)
He reveals to Jesus that his disciples, who were trying to minister to this young boy, could not heal him.
Then we read something even more strange ...
Jesus’s response ...
Jesus responds disparagingly.
He calls out “O faithless and twisted generation”
Then he ask 2 rhetorical questions
“How long am I to be with you?”
“How long am I to bear with you?”
Some scholars believe he is speaking to the crowd
Some scholars believe he speaking to the father
While others believe he is speaking to the disciples (I lean toward this one)
Jesus tells them to bring the child to Him.
Jesus rebukes the demon, it comes out, and the boy is healed instantly.
I don’t know about you but this gives me hope.
That even when things are not going the way we think they should Christ is still willing to meet the need.
Even when we have seemed to have screwed up a situation ..... Jesus is willing to come in and clean it up.
You see, the disciples could not heal the Boy.
So they speak to Jesus privately, asking “Why could we not cast it out?”
Jesus tells them, “Because of your little faith.” (Vs 20)
They wanted to know why they could NOT DO what they had already been able TO DO previously. (What am I talking about ......)
( 5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.)
6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.)
7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
But Jesus reveals to them, the reason they could not cast out this demon this time ........
8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.)
“Because of your little faith.” (Vs 20)
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
Jesus answers their question, “Because of your little faith.”
Then Jesus goes on to say, “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.”
Now wait a minute, He just says “all you need is the faith of a mustard seed” but before that he says the reason they couldn’t cast out the demon was because they had little faith?
It almost appears as if Jesus is contradicting himself.
But then it clicked with me, He was saying to the disciples is that the faith you need is no more than the size of a mustard seed and you didn’t have that!
PAUSE
the size of a mustard seed and you didn’t have that!
The size of their faith was less than the size of a mustard seed.
Could it be that the reason we are not seeing Christ do miracles in our life is because the size of our faith is less than a mustard seed?
When it comes to Faith there is something very interesting I found in the scriptures ....
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 1495 Reduced into One Law
Rabbi Simlai in the third century noted that Moses gave us 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. David in Psalm 15 reduced them to eleven: Isaiah—in 33:14, 15—made them six: Micah 6:8 binds them into three: and Habakkuk reduces them all to one, namely—”The just shall live by faith.”
So what happen? When did they loose their faith? When did their Faith become less than a mustard seed?
Turn to From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer
many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on
the things of God, but on the things of man.”
the things of God, but on the things of man.”
This is at the point where Peter and the disciples decided to no longer obey the truth, the word of God!
Lets remember what says In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God. JESUS IS THE WORD!
So as Jesus walked on this earth, the words He spoke was the WORD OF GOD.
So if Jesus is telling them this is what’s going to take place, (what he says “IS THE WORD! IS THE TRUTH!”)
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
What we read is the Disciples denying the word.
What happen when they deny it, they lost FAITH! They lost POWER! They lost AUTHORITY (Gave it away)!
This is the reason they could not “Cast out” the demon.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
So I come back to the question, “Does doubting or denying truth have an affect on our faith, better yet, does it deplete all of our faith?
If we are to understand this pericope we would have to say it puts it well below the size of a mustard seed!
Climax:
So how do we apply this to our lives today .....
There are going to be times in our lives when our faith is tested.
Do we listen to the word of God or not?
I believe there are three things that become obvious to us.
Hopefully, when recognized, we can stop the course of action and right the ship.
Here they are!
When we deny God’s word (truth) ......
Carnality steps in!
Peter and the disciples didn’t want Jesus to go to the cross so they said NO! Fussed with him for 6 days!
The attempt to do it on our own becomes the solution.
The 9 disciples attempted to heal this Boy on their own. (Failure!)
We star
Not because Jesus wasn't there but because they had lost Faith in what Jesus said! They denied truth!
Christ wants to do wonderful things in you and through you.
But to be honest, he is more concerned about your Obedience which is caused by FAITH.
I think that one of the main reasons we
Power diminishes!
Relinquish Power (Authority)
Adam and Eve: the sequel
They had NO power (Authority) to cast out the demon!
The impossible remains impossible!
The boy was not healed, and until Jesus arrives on the scene, the situation remained hopeless.
All of this takes place because God’s word (truth) is denied!
Pause
Conclusion:
If I can somewhat vulnerable with you all here today, I believe we are seeing an epidemic when it comes to denying GODS WORD (TRUTH).
And I am not speaking in reference to the world as much as I am saying this about the church.
We want to know why we are not seeing miracles today? Why we are living nor experiencing power over sin? Why we are not experience God’s blessedness?
Maybe its because we lack FAITH.
BECAUSE WE ARE DENYING GOD’S WORD! (TRUTH)
I believe there might be someone here today who has come to realize that your faith is smaller than a mustard seed.
You have basically kicked God out of the circumstances of your life and have taken the reign.
How is that working for you?
Don’t be disheartened, we all have been there at some point.....
Let go of the reign! Let God have it. Trust him! Start Obeying him!
Don’t worry because when Jesus is allowed back in He will do what only he can do!
Healing, deliverance, instill peace and comfort, Power will be restored!
The impossible will become the possible again.
Denying Truth (God’s word) will always deplete ones faith.
But one’s faith is always strengthen by God’s word.
Hearing someone testify to God’s goodness always seems to help build others faith.
Have someone come forward to testify - (Kara Paxson)