Nothing will be impossible to you

Matthew 17:10-27 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

¹⁰ And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹¹ And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; ¹² but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.

¹⁴ When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. ¹⁶ I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸ And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” ²⁰ And He *said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. ²¹ But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

²² And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; ²³ and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.

Jesus coming as the Messiah was predicted by Elijah and many other prophets. The call and mission of the Old Testament prophets was to call the people to repent and turn back to God. Many of the prophetic writings in the Old Testament have already been fulfilled. Some dealt with events that would happen shortly after they were spoken and recorded others took thousands of years to come to pass. Jesus Himself fulfilled over 300 Messianic prophecies. There are other prophecies, about Jesus coming again which remain unfulfilled. The accuracy though of prophecy in scripture is beyond doubt for anyone who truly looks at it with an open mind. Even with all that evidence both the scholars of Jesus day and many today fail to recognize or accept the truth of God’s word.

 In every generation there are those who are called, like John the Baptist to be: A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the prophet said." (John 1:23) In truth, that is part of every believer’s call, to live and speak in such a way as to point others to Christ. John, speaking of his ministry and Christ’s coming said:  “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.     In Matthew 28:18-20 we see Jesus commission to, us, His disciples:  And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”       “Teaching them to observe all that I commanded”    Jesus did say that the first and greatest commandment is: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”       Many today mistakenly believe that this is the only commandment we need, simply to love God and others. Jesus said on these two depend the whole law and the Prophets. They are not all we need, they are the foundation of everything we do to point others to Christ.

In Matthew 11:11 Jesus says something about John and every believer:    Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.   John operated as a prophet looking forward to the coming of Christ. Yet he died before the finished work of Christ on the cross. We as believers now, being part of the kingdom of heaven here on earth, have all the authority, in Christ of the finished work. We have the authority in Christ to be both ambassadors of His love and agents of reconciliation and restoration. Jesus says:  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:12-14)     In today’s text we see a time when the disciples were unable to heal a sick young man.  After Jesus did deliver him the disciples asked Jesus why they had not been successful.

 “Why could we not drive it out?” ²⁰ And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. ²¹ But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Our faith is small and powerless indeed if we base it on our own ability. But if we recognize, like Jesus says, that we are part of the kingdom of heaven, if we will fast so that we are sure to : seek first the kingdom and if we will pray, recognizing that our faith is not in our own abilities, but rather in Jesus Christ, then truly nothing will be impossible. Jesus said we could literally move mountains. We saw yesterday that He says based on the revelation that He is the Christ: upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

We don’t need great faith to do great things. We need faith in the one who is greatest. In today’s text Jesus tells His disciples about His death which is coming. Verses 22-23 say:    And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; ²³ and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.    The disciples were grieved because they were dependant on Jesus, they depended on Him to do the things that they were unable to do.  In Matthew 28, when Jesus commissions His disciples, He says: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   That’s the promise we have from Him. Although He is with the Father in heaven, He is also with us and in us through the abiding and indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit was present and was the creative force behind God’s work of creation, so too is the Holy Spirit, in us, the power to do the greater works Christ calls us to. Faith and dependence in and on God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, not great faith but faith in the greatest of all, is what we need to do the greater works, to move mountains, heal the sick and raise the dead.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, that You have redeemed, reconciled and restored me and that You will never leave me or forsake me, but rather are with me always. Empower me to do the first, to love You with all my heart, soul and mind and to love others and in and through that love may they come to know You and the power of the cross. In Jesus name, the name above all names, I pray.   Amen.