The Disciples Ask to Have Their Faith Increased (Luke 17:5ff)

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The Disciples Ask to Have Their Faith Increased (Luke 17:5ff)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 2, 2026

Lee Strobel shares about talking with Dr. Craig Keener about miracles. He shares:

With that, Keener began recounting some of the stories he had investigated. He started with the case of a nine-year-old British girl who was diagnosed with deafness in September 1982, apparently the result of a virus that severely damaged nerves in both of her ears.

“Her case is reported by Dr. R. F. R. Gardner, a well-credentialed physician,” Keener said. “What makes this case especially interesting is that there is medical confirmation before the healing and immediately afterward, which is unusual to have.”

The child’s medical record says she was diagnosed with “untreatable bilateral sensorineural deafness.” Her attending physician told her parents there was no cure and nothing he could do to repair her damaged nerves. She was outfitted with hearing aids that did help her hear to some degree.

The girl didn’t want to wear hearing aids the rest of her life, so she started to pray that God would heal her. Her family and friends joined her. In fact, her mother said she felt a definite prompting to call out for God’s help.

“I kept feeling God was telling me to pray specifically for healing,” she said. “Passages kept coming out at me as I read: If you have faith like children . . . If one among you is ill, lay hands . . . Ask and you shall receive . . . Your faith has made you whole.”

On March 8, 1983, the girl went to the audiologist because one of her hearing aids had been damaged at school. After being examined and refitted, she was sent home.

The next evening, the child suddenly jumped out of her bed without her hearing aids and came bounding down the stairs. “Mummy, I can hear!” she exclaimed.

Her mother, astonished, tested to see if she could detect noises and words—and she could, even whispers. Her mother called the audiologist, who said, “I don’t believe you. It is not possible. All right, if some miracle has happened, I am delighted. Have audiograms done.”

The following day, she was tested again, and her audiogram and tympanogram came back fully normal. “I can give no explanation for this,” said the audiologist. “I have never seen anything like it in my life.”

The girl’s doctor ruled out possible medical explanations. After repeated successful audiograms, the dumbfounded consultant’s advice to her parents: “Forget she was ever deaf.”[1]

When we pray, how is our faith?

My theme today is:

The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith.

  1. Context:
    • This section follows the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus in Luke 17:19-31.
    • Jesus is giving mini messages.
    • He warned them about causing others to stumble (Luke 17:1-2), then about forgiving others.
    • Then, the disciples ask for an increase in faith.
  2. On Faith (Luke 17:5-6)
    • Luke 17:5–6 (ESV)
      5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
    • Why are they asking this?
    • To me, they seem overwhelmed by what Jesus shared.
    • In Luke 17:1-5, Jesus warned against causing someone else to sin (Luke 17:1-2) and told them never to stop forgiving.  
    • Further, I agree with John MacArthur[1] that this is about humility. Jesus had spoken about forgiveness. After this, Jesus will be talking about humility. It is humbling to admit we need help.
    • Do we admit that we need help?
    • 1 Corinthians 2:1–2 (ESV)
      And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
    • The request by the disciples (Luke 17:5): “We need more faith; tell us how to get it.”
    • NET: The request of the apostles, “Increase our faith,” is not a request for a gift of faith, but a request to increase the depth of their faith.[2]
    • What is faith? This means our trust in the Lord. Faith has the idea of trust.
    • When we pray, do we recognize that we are needy people?
    • Are we trusting the Lord?
    • The Lord then gave the example.
    • The reply by the Savior (Luke 17:6): Even a little faith can do great things![3]
    • A black mulberry tree is a deciduous fruit tree that grows about 20 ft (6 m) tall and has black juicy berries. This tree has an extensive root system, so to pull it up would be a major operation.[4]
    • To cause a tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea is impossible. The expression is a rhetorical idiom. It is like saying a camel can go through the eye of a needle (Luke 18:25).[5]
    • The image of the mustard seed is another hyperbole, but the point is clear. Christians, even apostles, are distinguished not by the quantity of faith, but by the employment of faith; not by greatness or smallness of faith, but by acting on faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed.21,[6]
    • After these verses, Jesus gives an illustration.
    • Luke 17:7–10 (ESV)
    • 7 “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
    • What is the point?
    • This fits in with humility. This fits in with forgiveness.
    • As Timothy Keller shares:
      Now why would Jesus use this illustration when his disciples say, “We can’t do this”? He says, “You could if you remembered who you were. You have an owner, and what if he made you pay for everything? You are just servants. If you start to hate the people who have wronged you, you’re forgetting you’re servants.”[7]
  3. Applications:
    • Do we ask the Lord to increase our faith?
    • Do we remember who we are?
    • We are servants (Luke 17:10), but we are servants of King Jesus.
    • Our faith is trusting in Jesus.
    • In another passage, Jesus said:
    • John 14:12 (ESV)
      12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
    • Jesus is talking about the spreading of the Gospel.
    • Jesus is talking about what happened in the book of Acts.
    • If we pray in His Name, this means we are praying in His Will. Back then, “name” had to do with who a person was. When we are praying in His will, we can do great things. Jesus said that when they believe in Him, they will do greater works than He did. Now, that is a little bit of hyperbole because Jesus saved all those who come to him by His death on the cross, but what happened in Acts? The Gospel spread all over the known world, and even further than that. The Holy Spirit came upon them, and over 3000 were saved (Acts 2:41, and that was just the beginning).
      What about faith in our passage of Luke 17:5?
    • One source shares:
      These hyperbolic expressions describe what faith can do, but in practice Jesus was not speaking of a faith that stages wonders238 but of a faith that facilitates healing,239 that understands the need of Christ to suffer (24:25–26), that has confidence in God’s providential care (8:25), that will not fall away (8:13; 22:32) but will endure (Acts 14:22), and that will believe God and grow.240, [1]
    • The more I live as a Christian. The more I am convinced that I need to live “in Christ.”
    • That means I need the fuel that only Jesus can give me.
    • I began this sermon about miracles, but the greater miracle is salvation in Jesus.
    • It is a miracle when we experience salvation in Jesus.
    • It is a miracle when we share the gospel with someone.
    • Think about it:
    • When we are saved, we are forgiven. We are redeemed. This carries the idea of being bought out of slavery. We are bought by Jesus’s blood out of slavery to sin.
    • When we are saved, we are sanctified. This means we are set apart for a purpose (1 Cor. 1:2). God sets us apart for His purposes. God makes us holy. This is positional sanctification. We are in a position of holiness because of Jesus.
    • When we are saved, we are being sanctified. That means God is growing us more mature in Him. This is progressive sanctification (Heb. 10:14; Phil. 1:6; 2 Peter 3:18).
    • When we are saved, we are justified. This means that God declares us righteous. How does this happen? Jesus gives us His righteousness, and Jesus takes our sin upon Himself (Rom. 8:1, 30; 2 Cor. 5:21).
    • When we are saved, we are children of God (1 John 3:1).
    • We can cry out to Him as a Father.
    • We are in the family of God.
    • We have the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9).
    • Think about Who we are in Jesus.
    • We live with Jesus.
    • Are we living with Jesus?
    • Do we ask Him to increase our faith?
    • We can picture faith as a connection between the work of the Holy Spirit and the power at work in our new nature. Faith is a wire that conducts a current called grace that flows from the Spirit so that the new nature receives power.270,[1]
       
      Prayer
       


      [1] Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 96.

      238 Cf. Luke 4:9; 11:16, 29; 16:27–31.
      239 Luke 7:9; 8:48; 18:42; Acts 14:9.
      240 Acts 6:5; cf. Luke 1:45 with 1:20.
      [1] Robert H. Stein, Luke, vol. 24, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 431–432.


      [1] MacArthur, John. Four Hallmarks of Humility, Part 3. September 10, 2006.
      https://www.gty.org/sermons/42-219/four-hallmarks-of-humility-part-3
       
      [2] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Lk 17:5.
      [3] H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Lk 17:5–6.
      [4] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Lk 17:6.
      [5] Ibid.
      21 Nolland, Luke 9:21–18:34, 838, “What is needed is not the increase of faith, but the exercise of faith.”
      [6] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 479.
      [7] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[1] Strobel, Lee. The Case for Miracles: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Supernatural (pp. 99-100). (Function). Kindle Edition.

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