Ryan Hale

They were now leading a movement of more than 5000 men, Luke tells us in Acts 4. They not only saw the first 3000 join them on the day of Pentecost, but then subsequently, day by day, they continued to add more and more disciples as they went to the temple courts to preach and then meet as the Church, in fact the only church at that time, from house to house. They did this every day as this was the most important thing in their lives.

Of course, as the priests and the other Jewish leaders saw the disciples preaching and teaching the people, most especially in the temple courts, they were disturbed because they were teaching about Jesus, explaining to the people that he was the Messiah, that he had been killed by these same leaders, and that he had been resurrected. That upset the Sadducees, one particular sect of the Jewish leaders who claimed that resurrection was not possible, a position that many Jews had held, at least up until the time after the second temple was built.

Now, the Sadducees have Peter and John arrested as a result of their preaching the resurrection where they will then stand trial before all of the leaders, including the high priest of the time, Caiaphas. These same people that sent Jesus to his death through Pontius Pilate now had Peter and John in their hands and were making their plans on what they can do.

However, they had a challenge on their hands. First, Peter and John had performed a miracle by healing a man who was lame and could not walk. Now this man was walking around.

But second, these were just ordinary guys:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Acts 4:13

So here, in some fashion, God was just using ordinary men who were performing miracles and teaching new teachings about Jesus, whom they had just recently killed. Everything that they were doing, everything that they were teaching, and everything that Peter and John stood for, stood in opposition to these Jewish leaders. God wasn’t using them. He wasn’t using high priest and the leaders. Their words weren’t being confirmed by miracles. And the people weren’t lining up behind them in droves in the same way. How can this be?

What Caiaphas and the other leaders noted was right: They had been with Jesus. They knew him. They taught what Jesus had taught. They did what Jesus had done.

And now, so much more.

What Jesus had done, what Jesus had told them, what Jesus had commissioned them to be and do was all being realized and coming true. It was starting. It was happening. It was moving forward, but it wasn’t happening with the “wise” or the “learned”, but it was happening through the simple. It was happening through the unschooled and the ordinary.

The difference? They had been with Jesus.

We also can do the same. We also receive the Holy Spirit and we can be with Jesus. We can be a people who spend time with him, who learn from him, who become his disciples. And when we do so, we can help others to come alive in Christ. Just as we see Peter and John carrying the message of Christ, the message of resurrection and new life to all of humanity who are spiritually dead in their sins, we also can do the same.

But we must walk with him. We must be with him. This cannot happen on our own. Instead, as Jesus said, we must remain connected to him. He is the true vine. We are the branches.

One way in which we do this here is to do what we call a “band” study and then meet together weekly to encourage one another and walk with one another. We also can walk with Christ, abide with him, and this allows us to be just ordinary people who can take this same message that Peter and John took to the people, also to those around us, such that Jesus would be known and others can live in him.

Peter reached down and grabbed the lame man’s hand, pulling him to his feet. He told the man, who was begging for money at the temple gate, that he didn’t have any money, but he did have the power of Jesus Christ within him.

Peter gave the man the ability to walk. Now the man could go on to work for himself, no longer begging by the gate as he had done day after day depending on others to give him a few coins, but instead he could walk!

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.

Acts 3:6-7

The people who were there at the temple came to see Peter. The man had gone into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. What a great miracle had been done for a man who could previously not walk!

Yet Peter doesn’t go on to tell the people about the gift of healing people. He doesn’t tell the people about how they too can lay their hands on people, if only they believe and receive the Holy Spirit.

No, he tells them about a much greater miracle than that. Peter tells them about how the dead came alive. He tells them about the resurrection.

And why?

Peter knows that they too can come alive. The people don’t even realize that they are dead before God, but in Jesus they will be made alive. They don’t realize that they are the walking dead, destined for judgment. But in Jesus, they can be changed into who they were made to be, living as a new creation in the image of God!

The miracle is the confirmation of what Peter is telling the people. The miracle is the power of the kingdom of God breaking into the physical world. Yet we should not look to be the person who just wants the miracle. We should seek the one who can do all things and know him. We must know Jesus so that we who have been dead can come alive in him because what he has, he desires to also give to us.

It is sort of a “whodunnit?” type of story. Or maybe, as is common even today, you could say it was a grand conspiracy.

Jesus was killed, condemned and sent to his death, after being found innocent by his judge. How is that possible?

For some time, the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, all searched for ways to kill him. Jesus was speaking against them. He undermined their power. He spoke of their hypocrisy. And so they looked for ways in which they could get rid of him.

In the end, these leaders, with the chief priest leading the way, created accusations that they knew would bring the crowds over to their side. They created a mob, and they whipped up the mob to such an extent that they called for the death of a man who had not done anything wrong. And even worse, they let a man go who was guilty of murder and insurrection. Everything in this scene, everything in the way that these people were acting, was upside-down!

But they didn’t have the power to kill Jesus. They could murder him, but then they would have to answer to the state. They would have to answer to the Roman government. No, the Jews weren’t able to kill him themselves. They somehow needed to convince the Roman government to do it for them. They needed a way for the Romans to condemn Jesus because then they would no longer have this guilt on their hands because they could point the finger at the Romans. It would be the Romans’ fault that Jesus had died.

And the Jews thought that they had a good reason to bring Jesus before them for judgment and execution. If there was anything that the Romans would not put up with, if there was truly any unforgivable sin, it would be to lead a coup in an attempt to overthrow the Romans. Allegiance to caesar was of paramount importance. Disloyalty to the Roman government would not be tolerated.

And so this is the charge that the Jewish leaders bring to Pilate. He claims to be the Messiah, a king! He claims to be the king of the Jews!

Pilate asked him, probably with a little bit of a scoff and a smirk as he looked at the man standing in front of him, “Is that right?”

“You have said so,” Jesus answered.

Pilate sees through the ruse that the Jewish leaders are trying to pull over on him. He doesn’t believe it for a second. In fact, he immediately pronounces Jesus to be innocent. No way. There is no possible way that this man is leading a revolution against the Roman government. Just look at him! Does he have an army following him? This is not the work of a coming king who is looking to overthrow the Roman rule.

And yet, through a series of maneuvers and in his desire to keep the peace, or be liked, or whatever his ultimate motivation really was, Pontius Pilate ends up deciding to send Jesus to his death. He condemns him to a horiffic death on the cross with a sign hanging over Jesus’s head that says, in all likelihood a taunt to the Jews and a sign of Roman dominance, The King of the Jews.

But was it the Jews or the Romans that should receive the blame? Should the Jewish leaders be to blame because they instigated and initiated Jesus’s condemnation? Or should it instead be the Romans who should receive the blame because they carried out the sentence of condemnation of an innocent man?

The answer is Yes, both are to blame, and yet the answer is also No, they aren’t fully to blame. Why? Because there is another party in the mix of this conversation that I haven’t yet mentioned. Who is that?

It is God himself.

After Jesus returned to heaven and the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in Jerusalem, Peter stood up and began to speak. He explained what had really happened, what was truly going on in their midst:

Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

Acts 2:22-23

Upon whom does Peter place the blame for Jesus’s death? He is addressing the Jews as he says “Fellow Israelites”, and he says that Jesus was placed in his hands, but whose plan does he actually say it is that Jesus would be given to the Jews? It is God! It is God’s plan. He is the one who made the plan to kill Jesus. He knew in advance what he was going to do. God is the one who used the jealousy and anger of the Jews, in connection with “wicked men”, speaking of Pontius Pilate and the Romans, to kill Jesus. It was God’s plan that brought Jesus to his death!

We can see this prophecied and foreshadowed in several places throughout the Old Testament, although none would be more clear in explaining God’s plan than Isaiah 53. Specifically, we can look at the last few verses of the chapter:

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:10-12

This man is clearly identified as being crushed and suffering as a payment for the sins of the people. But what is more important is the alignment of what Isaiah says with what Peter said: It is the Lord’s will. It is God’s plan. In fact, God himself is the one offering Jesus as an offering for the forgiveness of sins. This is God’s plan.

So, who really killed Jesus? Thank God, it was God who, in his love and mercy for his people, who offered himself in the person of Jesus to be an offering, a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.

After Jesus was resurrected and was preparing to return to the Father, he was sitting one day and eating with his disciples. He had told them previously that he would send the Holy Spirit, but now he told them to make sure and stay there in Jerusalem to wait for the gift that was to come, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist had also spoken about this very same thing. He had told his disciples that he wasn’t even worthy to untie the laces of the sandles of the Messiah because he only baptized with water, but true power was on the way:

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

John 1:26-27

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

John 1:32-34

John saw it. He knew what was happening. He understood who Jesus truly was, which put him in the place of understanding who he truly was. Yes, people from all over Judea were coming to him to repent and be baptized, but he knew that he himself was actually nothing in comparison to the real power that came from heaven, the real power that will be given by God’s Chosen One, the Messiah, Jesus Christ himself.

John knew that this is what counted. Yes, from a human perspective, we can take the action of walking into water and being baptized by others. This happens in the physical world such that we can see it. It becomes a testimony of the decision that we have made. A sign of the change that has happened within us as a result of God’s work in our life.

But as we stand before God, what truly counts is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are made alive before God. No longer spiritually dead, we are instead now given new life! We are spiritually resurrected and made to be a new creation before the Lord. This is who we are and the new identity that he has given to us.

So Jesus confirms what John had said to his disciples. He tells his disciples:

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:4-5

The Holy Spirit will change everything. It will be the release of the power of God, first upon the disciples, and then upon all believers in Christ. It is a gift that God will continue to give to others Jews who believe as well, now also, to the Gentiles.

The Holy Spirit will completely change the people in whom he comes to dwell. He will move the disciples from timidity to amazing boldness. He will change them from prejudice against the Gentiles to acceptance and love, and he will help them to leave their lives driven by the flesh to instead live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These things, and so much more will be the marks of the change that the Holy Spirit will bring upon the lives of the disciples who will receive him.

And as we stand before God, the Holy Spirit is what makes the difference. God “marks” us with the Holy Spirit, sealing us within his kingdom, as part of his people. This is how God knows, and we know, that we are his, that we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit and we are walking according to the Spirit, no longer according to our flesh because Jesus has baptized us with his Holy Spirit.

Doing the work that we do now in a spiritual or a “religious” context has given me a front row seat to how we, as human beings, align ourselves within hierarchies. For no other reason that I can discern than I tend to be the speaker and therefore teach others, and maybe – or, being honest, I would tend to say likely – also that I am an American and it seems that am frequently considered to be one who has money and can be financially or influentially helpful to others, I frequently have conversations where people tell me that they want to do the “work of God” for me, or as part of an organization together.

I’m not saying that organizations are bad, but Jesus warned his disciples against this tendency to create the hierarchies of people who are over and those that are under.

In fact, the disciples were having an argument about who was the greatest amongst them when Jesus rebuked them to explain how they were to relate to one another:

Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Luke 22:25-30

The kings of the Gentiles called themselves the Benefactors, but what were they really doing? They were lording over those who were under them. They were using their money to assume influence and power. Those that were being paid were being told by the others what to do. Not because it was right. Not because it was the leading of God that showed them the way, but because it was what that king wanted.

That Gentile king wanted to build his kingdom. He wanted his own power. Not the kingdom of God, but a kingdom with his name upon it. His power. His money. His influence.

And it is for this reason that the king would lord over the others, forcing them to do what he wanted them to do through the use of his money. Calling himself a Benefactor, but acting as a king in the place of God.

And this is what Jesus was warning his disciples against. Don’t do this. Don’t be like this! No, instead, be like the one who serves. Don’t try to determine who is the greatest. Those who do that act like the Gentile kings because they are trying to build their own kingdoms. No, instead, be like one who serves. “Do as I have done”, to paraphrase Jesus.

Jesus conferred a kingdom upon the disciples. It is the same kingdom that we are a part of even today. But it is not a kingdom where we become the kings. Jesus is the king. He is the one who rules over this kingdom. He made the disciples to be the judges to rule over the 12 tribes of Israel, but he is still the king. He is the head. None of us are, nor will be. Instead, our role is to be the servant. Regardless of what we do. Regardless of what we look like from a human perspective. Regardless of the accolades that others might give or whom others seem to say of us, we are each just servants at the table, and we must remain servants at the table. That is our role.

Jesus came as a servant despite being a king. We must continue his example and follow his lead as we work within his kingdom to God’s glory.

I think that if Jesus were walking on the earth today, there would be a good chance that he would be accused to be a zealot, or an extremist, or something similar to that description.

Just take a look at the type of behavior that he celebrates:

The rich people in the area to up to the temple to give their offering. They put a couple of coins in the offering. It is, in fact, what is required. Great! That’s good news.

But then there is a widowed woman who walks up and puts in a couple of copper coins. Barely anything, but it is everything to her, and what does Jesus say?

“Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Luke 21:3-4

Wouldn’t it be better if Jesus – who is also the God of the universe! – were to run up and give her back those two coins? Or maybe he should take two coins out of the common purse that he and the disciples are carrying around and replace them for this poor woman?

But that isn’t what he does. Jesus isn’t telling the woman that she must put in these coins, but he is certainly celebrating the fact that she has done so. And he isn’t taking any steps to replace the woman’s money.

In fact, Jesus goes on to say that she has put in everything that she has to live on. She doesn’t have more money to pay the rent. She doesn’t have more money to buy food tonight. What will she do?

We don’t know, but we certainly can see that Jesus has commended the woman and her faith. He has certainly shown that what this woman has done is worth much more in the eyes of God than what the rich people have put in. The rich people have deposited, in terms of monetary value, much more than this woman. In fact, the parallel recounting of this story in Mark 12 says that the rich people put in large amounts. But this woman only put in two copper coins.

Someone figured out that this would essentially amount to, at that time, the equivalent of about 1% of a day’s wage. In short, it was nothing. What she put in really wouldn’t buy anything, and yet it was all that she had, and she gave it all.

And Jesus says that she gave more than all of the others. She gave more than each of the rich people because they gave out of their abundance, but she would give all that she had.

This woman sees God as worth it all. Everything that she has. Everything that she is. God is worth it. Not a little bit. Not just a part. All.

And that is what Jesus is celebrating. Jesus is looking for people who will give it all. To repeat, all. Not a part, but all.

God cares for those who serve him. He himself is our provider. This woman lived that out completely. She gave, I believe, with the assumption that God would provide for her, that God would give her what she needed. Whether she knew Jesus’s teachings about God’s provision or not, she truly lived out what Jesus taught, that we shouldn’t worry about what we will eat or what we will wear because God provides for all of these things. This woman gave all, all that she had to live on.

Jesus routinely quoted scripture back to the people with whom he was speaking. He relied upon it, whether for identifying himself, understanding the nature of God, or in helping even the religious leaders understand that they truly did not understand the ways of God.

One of the instances in which he did this was when Jesus was being confronted by the Saducees in the temple courts. They believed that there is no such thing as the resurrection, so they confronted Jesus with a type of riddle that they wanted him to try to sort out.

But Jesus, being Jesus, skated around them. He helped them to understand how wrong they were by quoting the scripture to them, the scripture that they should understand as the religious leaders, as the teachers of the law. But clearly, they did not.

Jesus quoted from Exodus 3 to them:

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Exodus 3:5-6

Specifically, Jesus was making the point that God is the God of the living, not the God of the dead, and for this reason, he says, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive. The patriarchs are alive, not dead, because they are God’s children as they are the children of the resurrection. They did die, but they are the children of the resurrection, so they will live again and never die.

Obviously, this is great news! In Christ, we can also be God’s children and we also can be children of the resurrection, living and never dying again.

But the point that I see here is that of the reliability of the scripture. Think about what Jesus is doing here. He is quoting the scripture back to the Saducees, relying upon it for what he is explaining to them.

If you believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be, you have to believe in the reliability of the rest of the scripture because he learned from it and quoted from it.

Who did Jesus claim to be? He used God’s name for himself, therefore claiming to be God. He showed himself to be the Messiah, therefore claiming to be the one sent by God that would rescue his people. He claimed to have all authority in heaven and on earth, therefore claiming to be the King over all kings.

So if the one man who also claimed to be God himself, who claimed to be the Messiah, and claimed to be the King of the universe, is actually all of those things, and you believe that he is who he says he is…and he is quoting the scripture to you, then you must believe the same texts that he is quoting. In other words, God is quoting the scriptures to you. Believe what God is saying. Believe that the scripture is truly God’s word.

The Veritas Forum captured a discussion between Tim Keller and Martin Basheer as Keller spoke about this very point. You can see it online here:

If you speak English and grew up in the church, or even having gone to church as a child, I would guess that you probably know this song:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see

And as the Savior passed that way
He looked up in the tree
And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down!”
For I’m going to your house today
For I’m going to your house today

That’s a well-known kid’s song, and in truth, it is probably still the main reason that I remember the story of Zacchaeus’s encounter with Jesus.

Jesus was passing through Jericho and found Zacchaeus, this short little guy who was also a tax collector, up in a tree because he was curious about Jesus and wanted to see him as he passed through his town. Jesus, this famous teacher who does all of these miracles that only God can do, calls Zacchaeus down and tells him that he wants to be a guest at his house. Whoa, what an honor! This guy that I have heard about wants to come to my house? Incredible!

So Jesus goes, and he stays there as a guest in Zacchaeus’s house. Here Jesus is, yet again, spending time with the sinners. All of the people knew who Zacchaeus and his friends were and they most certainly comment that Jesus is with the sinners.

But it is this next part that I find incredibly interesting.

Zacchaeus knows who he is. He knows that he is a sinner and has betrayed his own people by working for the Roman government. Beyond that, he knows that, as a tax collector, he has charged more than what he has needed and pocketed the rest, effectively also stealing from his own people for his own gain. And he knows how the people think of him. He knows that he is hated.

And now, with Jesus having come to his house, he wants to make it right. The Lord has come to him and he wants to come to the Lord.

So Zacchaeus repents. He repents quickly, and fully:

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Luke 19:8

His repentance is going to cost him. For him, it isn’t just a matter of saying “I’m sorry” and praying a prayer. No, it is going to cost him. He isn’t going to be the person that he has been. He is going to be the person that God wants him to be.

And that is a true picture of repentance. That is what it looks like. In a moment, his heart was changed and he truly wanted to give his life, his whole life, his entire life to Christ, such that what he has been, he no longer wanted to be. Instead, he would give his possessions and then much more, to completely change his life.

Jesus’s teachings are often taken out of context. They are frequently quoted or misquoted based on the desire to teach something fantastic, frequently so that the teacher can get other people to believe in something that they want the people to believe instead of what Jesus was wanting his hearers to understand.

Here is a good example. Tell me if you have heard this one before:

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.

I read that today and wondered why Jesus would have said this. And for that matter, what use would it be to say to a mulberry tree to be uprooted and be planted in the sea? What good would that serve? Yes, it would be fantastic to have a faith so powerful that I could move the mulberry tree with a word. Or, as recounted in other Gospels, to throw a mountain into a sea. Yes, that would be awesome. I want to have a faith like that!

But Jesus isn’t talking about having some sort of personal superpower. He isn’t saying that you can develop the power, as a result of your faith in Christ, to be able to move things around physically with your mind. No, he is using this teaching as a response to his disciples about forgiveness.

Forgiveness is one of those topics that is easily accepted, but hard to practice when it becomes personal. When someone has hurt us, has wronged us, has betrayed us, or even more, we want vengeance. We want them to feel what we have felt. We want them to know the pain that we have known. They need to pay, and they need to pay dearly.

Because we know that we are right. We know that we are justified. We know that the truth is on our side.

But before I get back to the story, I think a reminder is in order at this time. Each of us, every person, has been in rebellion against God. Every person, in our sin, has denied God, who he is, and what he has done. And so, in our sin, we were God’s enemies.

Think about that. You and I were God’s enemies.

If you had to say who God’s enemy is, who would you say? Probably Satan, right? We would see the most evil being that we could imagine in our mind’s eye. We would imagine him as the enemy of God. And you would be right. He is God’s enemy.

Yet the Bible says that we were God’s enemy. And while we were God’s enemies, Jesus came for us, he came to die for us. He did that so that God would be glorified. He did it so that all of the glory for the love and grace and mercy that he displayed to his people would be given back to God. Jesus did not come to save us because we were good enough to be saved. He came to save us specifically because we could not save ourselves, and because he did that, God would be lifted up and glorified before all of creation. Amazing!

But remember, at the time that he did that, you were his enemy.

So now, let’s go back to the story. Jesus is explaining to his disciples that they must forgive. The disciples don’t realize it yet, but Jesus is saying that they must forgive their brothers and sisters – not literally brothers and sisters, but anyone who has wronged them – over and over and over. Jesus says that they should rebuke them, they should call out their brother’s sin, or their sister’s sin. But if that brother or sister asks for forgiveness, they must forgive them.

If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 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.

Luke 17:3-4

Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.

Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.

Wait, what? The disciples were confused. How is that possible? I have to forgive them even if they keep doing the same thing over and over? Even if they keep hurting me? Even if they keep offending me? Even if they keep insulting me? I still have to forgive them? Shouldn’t they have to pay? Or maybe I can just get away from them? Or maybe I can…

No, Jesus says. Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.

Wow. One time is enough. How could I possibly live like that? How could I possibly have a faith that is solid enough that I could forgive like that? This is what the disciples are thinking, and that is why they say in response, “Increase our faith!”.

Rightly so, they realize that Jesus is teaching them to do something that is other-worldly. From a human perspective, this is not done. From a human perspective, in fact, this is impossible.

And so Jesus explains that, no, in fact it is possible. Not on your own. Not in your own way of thinking. No, instead, only by faith. In fact, a faith as small as a mustard seed can make this happen. He is saying that with the same measure of faith that you could uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea… in the same way that you could do something that would look fantastic, would look amazing, would be an incredible outward display of your faith… in that same way, you can forgive. And, Jesus is saying, you know what guys? Forgiving others in this way would be just as fantastic and just as amazing. It would not only show your faith, but it would show the power of God flowing through you. You do not have the strength and ability to forgive others in the way that I am telling you to forgive them any more than you have the strength or ability to uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea. But by faith, you can do it. Even if you have a faith as small as a mustard seed. That is how it could happen.

If you have ever been hurt, or lied to, or betrayed, you will know what Jesus is talking about here. He knows what he is asking because he has come proactively to offer forgiveness by sacrificing his own life for the sake of the sin of the world. The entire world has been against him. His entire creation has rebelled against him, and yet he is here to offer himself for every person, for all of creation, so that every person in all of time, along with the entirety of the rest of his creation, and worship him and glorify him. Jesus is telling his disciples that they can do it precisely because he is in the middle of offering his same type of forgiveness to us even in the middle of saying what he was explaining to them. What he has done, as his disciples, they must also do.

Imagine what that would look like. Imagine a people who lived with a mustard seed-sized faith. Imagine what could happen within our world. Would it not be as amazing as seeing someone, by faith, uproot a mulberry tree and have it planted in the sea? Of course it would! The world would change. Everything would be turned upside-down. That is what the kingdom of God is like. That is how it works. That type of love and grace and mercy is what Jesus displayed to his entire creation and is exactly what he calls us to give to others as well, forgiving them because of even a mustard seed-sized faith.

The religious leaders sneered as Jesus sat with the tax collectors and the other sinners. He was sitting around with those who had betrayed their own people. He was hanging out with those who were far from God.

To them, to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, it wasn’t a good look. Jesus wasn’t giving a good impression as a religious leader, from their perspective. He welcomed sinners. He ate with them. He seemed to them to actually enjoy hanging out with those people.

So Jesus turned to those religious leaders and told them three separate stories, just to make sure that they got the point:

In the first story, a man has one of his one hundred sheep wander off. He stops what he is doing and goes looking for that one lost sheep.

In the second story, the woman lost one of her ten coins, so she lights a lamp and sweeps her house to find the coin.

And in the third story, even after a son had betrayed his father, brought shame to his family, and squandered half of what the family owned, Jesus says this is what happened in the end:

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

Jesus expresses God’s heart clearly through these stories. He explains how much God desires that all lost people would be found.

All people.

Regardless of what they look like. Regardless of what they smell like. Regardless of what they have done. Regardless of their religious background. Regardless of the language that they speak. God’s heart is that all would be saved.

So we could make the point that Jesus is available. If they wanted to come to Christ, they can do it!

Yet we see that, instead, Jesus went to them. He went and had dinner with the tax collectors and the sinners. And each of his stories shows that someone goes to find or welcome that which was lost. The shepherd went to look for the lost sheep. The woman went to look for the lost coin. And the father, upon seeing his son, ran to him and brought his son back into his home.

And what was more, God rejoices when that which is lost comes to be found. The shepherd and the woman, upon finding the lost sheep and the lost coin, called their friends and neighbors to rejoice, to have a party together.

That is exactly what we see the father do as well. When the lost son returns, he calls everyone together and throws a party. His son had returned! They rejoiced and celebrated together!

We must adopt God’s heart for that which is lost. We must go looking. We must find those who are far from God and help them to know God through Jesus. Only in this way can we truly know the joy that God feels as the people who finally know Christ can truly know God. In this way, we will rejoice and celebrate with the angels in heaven and together with God himself.