Sermon Title: Faith that depends on God
By: Paul Ashishdeep, 21/01/2026
Praise the Lord, everyone.
Today, we are going to look at Matthew 17:20. But before we jump to the famous mustard seed line that everyone likes to quote, we must first walk slowly through the story that is mentioned in Matthew 17:14-20, and this is the story that actually gave rise to this reply of Jesus. This passage is not primarily about how big your faith is. It is about where your faith is placed. And this minute difference changes everything.
1: the story behind that—
The passage begins with a father who brings his suffering son to the disciples of Jesus. Now this man does not come randomly. He might have come because he has heard stories about Jesus doing great miracles like feeding the 4000 people or many other famous ones that we found in previous chapters of Matthew. He knew that these disciples belonged to Jesus. He knew they carried authority. Or there might be some miracles done by disciples before. The hope to save his son brought him there. But when he came to the disciples, all the disciples of Jesus tried. But all of them failed. This is not a small failure. This is public. Everyone is watching. The child who was brought to them is still suffering. And the disciples, who are representing Jesus, have nothing to show and nothing to say. But why? Because they misplaced their dependence. c. These disciples were not fake disciples or unbelievers. Jesus has given them authority, and they even had experience while living and walking with Jesus. This is so amazing and discouraging at the same time. Because it tells us something very dangerous
2. Jesus entry
Now after the disciples failed, the father took his son to Jesus. Now what will Jesus do? He would immediately heal the boy. That is what we expect. That is what makes sense. But Jesus does something unexpected. He spoke first, and he addressed the crowd & everyone who was there. He told about the problem before fixing it. Why? Because Jesus was not interested only in healing and getting famous by doing so. He was interested in forming and changing people. Healing the boy was easy for Him. But correcting faith that is not at the right place is harder. Many times, we want Jesus to fix our problems without touching our thinking. But Jesus refuses to do so. Cut short to the end of the story, Jesus heals the boy. The power of God is never questioned in this story. The question is not “Can Jesus heal?” The question is that where we need to focus is ‘why couldn’t the disciples heal the boy when the authority was given to them?’
3. Question
Later the disciples ask Jesus, “Why could we not cast it out?” This is one of the most important questions in the Gospel. They are confused. And Jesus answers with one word that hurts religious people the most //faith//. But again, not the way we usually hear it. Jesus does not say, “You didn’t believe hard enough.” or Jesus does not say, “You should have tried louder prayers.” He says their faith was the problem. There faith was misplaced. he says that faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. We love this verse. But Jesus is not praising small faith. He is exposing false faith. The disciples had faith, we all believe, so was their faith smaller than a mustard seed?. No, but it had slowly shifted. Earlier, their faith was dependent on God for growing, for nurturing, and for sustenance, just like a seed. But now, their faith was on themselves. That yes, I can do this it's easy for me. Jesus had been doing it like this, and I too will copy it. And this is the most dangerous stage of it. Now let us think about the elevator, the lift. Let's say there is a building of 100 floors. When you want to go to the second floor, you simply press the 2nd button. And when you want to go to the hundredth floor, you press the button 100. You do not press harder You do not use more strength. Because your force does nothing. It is the power of the elevator that lifts you. Your job is not strength or pushing it hard according to the floor that you have to climb. Your job is to trust that it will somehow work. Most of us don’t know the way it works, but we know it will work if we press the button. Faith works the same way. It does not matter how big your faith is; until it is on God, the mountains will not move. It is the power of God on which we have to depend. Faith is the connection
OT: Now look at Rahab. She was an outsider. No background. No religious thing as such we all know her pofession. But she had one thing. She believed in the God of Israel, the YHWH. Not in Israel or their army. She believed that their God was real and powerful, and that faith changed her destiny. Rahab’s faith was not large. It was clear. She was having clear faith in the God instead of depending on herself or her city’s army. This clear faith made him a place in the history of salvation.
Application
Now living in Hostel(or any contextual place) is not easy. At first, we come with faith. We pray desperately. But slowly, something happens. We learn the system. We learn the languages, the patterns. And faith becomes assumed. We still believe in God. But we stop leaning on Him. We start relying on routines or on our abilities. And then one day, something fails. A situation overcame us. A prayer is not answered. And we ask the same disciples’ question: “Why didn’t this work?” Earlier it was working. What was God doing? What happened now?. Sometimes God gives failure not to punish us, but to pull us back. As Brother Joel shared yesterday that our God is a jealous god, I would say that God loves you so much that he will not let you succeed without Him. And I know nobody here wants to get success without God.
Conculsion
Mountains in Scripture represent obstacles that are impossible by human strength. He is saying God responds to faith that trusts Him completely. The mountain moves because God moves it. Faith just stands in the right place. This passage asks us one question. Not “How strong is your faith?” But “Where is your faith resting?” On your ability? On your experience? Or on God alone? Small faith in a great God is enough. Not because faith is powerful. But because God is. God called us here. God has sustained us here, and I believe God will use all of you in a mighty way, even more than what we all can imagine. Let us return to honest faith, the God-centered faith. and the mountains will move. Amen.
