May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 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. "Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 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.'" (Luke 17:1-10)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: Today we hear the disciples pray to Jesus, LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH. This is a good and needed request. Many times Jesus scolded the disciples for their little faith. Once when a sudden storm caught them on the lake and Jesus was asleep below, the disciples woke him crying, Lord don't you care if we die?! Jesus calmed the storm and asked, Why were you afraid, you of little faith? (Mathew 8) Another time Peter walking on water at Jesus' invitation began to sink when he looked at the waves. Jesus grabs him, lifts him up and says, Why did you doubt, you of little faith? Who can say that he/she has always perfectly trusted God's promises?--Certainly not us. So we join the disciples today. This Gospel is a perfect little exercise for in it Jesus shows us our weakness so that we see our need for him. In doing that he gives renewed strength to the faith he has place in us. God bless us as we pour ourselves into these words.

Let's first look at why the disciples found themselves asking for a stronger faith. At this point in Luke's "orderly account" (1:3) of Jesus' life, Luke is telling us about how Jesus tried to point out to the Pharisees especially how they sinned and needed forgiveness. What an amazing love Jesus had for sinners! These Pharisees spent their days trying to trap and kill Jesus, and Jesus spent his day trying to save them! On this particular day Jesus was showing the Pharisees their sin and hoping that they would bend their knees in repentance before the Lord. He had pointed out their love of fame and glory, their hypocrisy. They did not honor God with their works, they just wanted to look good and gain honor for themselves. Jesus said: "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight." (15:16)

Now, there is a part of us that likes seeing Jesus give his enemies grief. "Give it to ‘em, Jesus! Tell them how evil they are." Imagine their shock (and ours) when Jesus turns and starts speaking to the disciples. Jesus said to his disciples--(note: not the unbelieving Pharisees, but to the disciples)--Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come...so watch yourselves.

Jesus says "causing someone to sin" is a terrible sin that will bring God's anger. Other translations say "offend", "cause to stumble" or "tempt". When would we be guilty of doing that? By God's grace we may never intentionally do it like Mrs. Potiphar did to Joseph as she tried to seduce him to sin. But we still might unintentionally offend, cause others to sin, or tempt others. We are God's ambassadors and representatives in the world. What do others learn of God from our actions? From our actions what do they learn about our priorities, the right use of God's name, about what it means to trust and hope in God, about love and concern for others? If we are not 100%, 100% of the time the model of what it means to be God's child we can lead others astray. Well, we say, that's impossible! Right-that's exactly what Jesus wants us to realize. Then we and the disciples seeing our failure, our weakness, frightened by our own sin, we cry out "Lord increase our faith."

Jesus adds another example, this time about forgiveness. If your brother sins against you, if he repents, forgive. If 7 times in a day this happens, forgive. Impossible! As the hymn writer Paul Speratus penned: "Our flesh has not those pure desires the spirit of the law requires and lost is our condition." (CW:390) But that is exactly what Jesus wants us to see, understand, get, take to heart as he speaks to us this way. It makes us cry out, Lord increase our faith.

Jesus loves to hear and answer that prayer. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him. (1John 5) The way he answers it may seem strange to us at first. So let's look at his answer.

Notice, first of all, that the road to a stronger faith involves looking away from ourselves and instead looking to our God and his promises. If we look inside ourselves we see weakness, a lack of what God demands. But when we look out from us, up to our Lord Jesus, to his promises-then our faith gets the strength it needs. This is what Jesus does with his answer. He pulls our attention away from us and to our God and his love for us. If you have faith as small...you could say to this tree...and it will obey you. Even the tiniest flicker of faith can do the impossible. How? Why is this so? It is because it is not our "believing" our "trusting" that accomplishes the act. It is God who actually does it, and you know that nothing is impossible for God.

Maybe an example from Bible history will help us take it to heart. Remember when Jesus asked Peter to take his boat out in the middle of the lake (unusual since they fished near shore normally) and in the middle of the day (unusual since they normally fished at night) and throw out the nets. Now Peter did not expect anything to happen. He said, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." See, Peter did not have much faith that anything would happen, but his business had the biggest catch of its life. Why? Because of Jesus power and promise.

So here Jesus is saying: Don't worry about the size of your faith. Look at me. You see I can do the impossible. By displaying himself to us as he does in Scripture Jesus awakens and strengthens faith. Faith comes from hearing the message (Romans 10)-from listening to God. Time with the word, with God's Law, makes us despair of our sinful condition and drives out all delusions of self-good; time with the word, with God's Gospel, gives us hope for the rescue that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The message is really the same in the little parable that closes this Gospel. The slave in Jesus' day understood his position. The master owes me nothing. I only do my duty when I obey. Similarly in this little Gospel Jesus has shown us again that we are beggars before God. He owes us nothing, in fact, we ought to receive his wrath for our sin. Yet, we hear this amazing truth again today-Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. His grace in face of our exposed sin is what renews faith. Jesus' message to us who pray for a stronger faith-you have a gracious and almighty Lord who will supply your every need--hearing that builds faith.

CFW Walther once said that the best faith strengthening sermons never even mention the word "faith." These sermons merely give an accurate picture of sinful people and gracious Lord God. That will awaken faith. God keep us in his word.   Amen.