Of Faith and Duty

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 28th of October, 2018 at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Look for the video of this and our other services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

During the three short years of His ministry on earth, Jesus tried so hard to get folks to understand the truth of our Father God and what He has planned for us.  He kept telling us what is truly important in our life, and too often that was not what we ourselves had made out to be important.  Simple faith is one of those things, and not only the importance of faith but what we should do with it.

Sometimes. it seems that His closest followers - His chosen disciples, His apostles - were the toughest to get the point across to.  Please listen and follow along to one such time when Jesus tried to teach His disciples about faith, as recorded by the Apostle Luke in chapter 17 of his Gospel account, verses 5 through 10, reading from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…

5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

6 The Lord said, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

7 “Which of you, having a servant plowing or herding sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come now and sit down for dinner’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare my supper, and dress yourself and serve me until I eat and drink. And afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? I think not. 10 So you also, when you have done everything commanded you, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done our duty.’?”

--Luke 17:5-10 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, You give each of us a measure of faith, but it’s up to us to do something with that gift.  Speak to us this morning, Father, with Your message.  Give us clearer insight into the duty our faith requires, into how we might better serve You.  This we pray in the glorious name of Jesus.   Amen.


Keith Miller and Bruce Larson, in their book The Edge of Adventure, wrote this little story:

The following letter was found in a baking-power can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across Nevada's Amargosa Desert: "This pump is all right as of June 1932.  I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years.  But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed.  Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up.  There's enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first.  Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather.  Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy.  You'll git water.  The well has never run dry.  Have faith.  When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller.  (signed) Desert Pete.  P.S.  Don't go drinking the water first.  Prime the pump with it and you'll git all you can hold."


This little story speaks not only of faith, but of a duty required of that faith.  The person finding the pump and reading the note must have faith that drinking water is available.  And more importantly, they must have faith that the stored bottle of water, when used to prime the pump, will return as much water as they can need as long as they don’t drink any of it first.  The duty required of that faith is that they must do the same for the next person to come along.  They must fill the bottle, cork it and bury it, so that the next person may also drink of their fill.

Every aspect of that scenario would be tough.  Being thirsty, you’d have to exercise discipline and faith to not drink from the bottle, but to use all its precious water to prime the pump.  After slacking your thirst, you’d have to take the time and care to see that the next person can have plenty to drink.  Faith often requires of us some duty to fulfill.


Today is the Sunday before Reformation Day, which is always October 31st.  October 31st, All Hallows' Eve, is the day when Martin Luther effectively began the Great Reformation by nailing his "Ninety-five Theses", his list of grievances against the Catholic church, on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  Since this is Reformation Sunday, I thought it appropriate to hear what Luther said about a significant and often overlooked way that we serve God in our everyday tasks:

"The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays, not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."

In our scripture reading, Jesus starts out talking about faith because His disciples asked for more.  He answered with one of a number of responses He gave, that even a little faith can do marvelous things.  But then He spoke of duty, and basically saying that we have a duty to serve because of our gift of faith.

The Apostle Paul understood what Jesus meant about faith and duty.  In his letter to the Romans, he noted how he was looking forward to coming to Rome to be with them.  In chapter 15 verses 25 through 27 Paul wrote……

25 But before I come, I must go to Jerusalem to take a gift to the believers there. 26 For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. 27 They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.

--Romans 15:25-27 (NLT)

Now, Macedonia and Achaia were the northern and southern regions of Greece.  So basically he’s saying that folks from all over Greece eagerly - not begrudgingly, but eagerly - took up an offering to help see to the needs of the poorer believers in Jerusalem.  These would have mostly been Jewish converts.  And the Greek Gentiles were glad to do it because they saw it as a way to acknowledge their debt to the believers who shared the Gospel with them.  They cheerfully performed a duty as a means of repaying a debt, and a debt that could actually never be repaid.


We can never repay the debt owed to Jesus for His sacrifice, nor to our heavenly Father for His mercy and grace, the God of our salvation.  But don’t we have a duty to acknowledge our debt?  Don’t we have a responsibility to at least try to repay even some small portion, as best we can?

King Solomon, in his Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12 verse 13, summed up all his teachings by saying…

13 Now all has been heard.
Let us hear the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

--Ecclesiastes 12:13 (MEV)

Solomon says the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments.  Jesus is God the Son, and He commanded us to love God and to love one another.  He also commanded that we go into the world sharing the Gospel, the Good News, and making disciples.  By our acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Master, we also accept that we are His servants.

In the very last of our scripture reading, Jesus speaks for servants in general when He says that, “we have done our duty”.  The New King James Versions translates that as, “we have done what was our duty to do”.  A servant should not expect to be praised or rewarded for simply doing their job, their duty, for fulfilling their responsibility.  But Paul certainly praised the Greek believers for helping the believers in Jerusalem.

And family, we will indeed be rewarded for doing our duty when we get to our true home in heaven.  From my own experience, we are rewarded here on earth when we do our duty by serving God, helping others, loving others.  Our reward isn’t monetary or even tangible.  It’s much greater, much more enjoyable than that.  Our earthly reward is in how doing our duty makes us feel inside.  Our reward is in seeing the smiles on the faces of those whose hearts we touch.  Our reward is in being able to pay forward what we have so generously received ourselves.

So let’s get out there and do our duty.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, You provide for our needs here on earth and promise so much more when we come to live with You for all eternity.  All we have to do is believe in Your Son Jesus and make good use of the faith You give us.  Forgive us, Father, when we fail to recognize and acknowledge the great debt we owe You.  Forgive us when we won’t even try to repay You and Jesus for all You’ve done.  Please help us be good, faithful servants.  Help us more clearly understand what You expect of us and how we might better serve You.  Help us do our duty.

Please hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking from our hearts, promising to turn from our sin, and asking for Your help by our faith to serve You in all we do…

Lord Jesus, the great prophet Isaiah described You as the Good Servant.  You did everything God asked of You here on earth, never once shirking Your duty.  Lord, may we as dutiful and responsible in our service to You.  Thank You, Jesus, for giving Your all for us.  Thank You for being such a good Servant.  Please help us be good servants, too.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior.  Amen.