Gen 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Matthew 18:6 If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Luke 17:2,3 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So, watch youself.

As i was in the MRT going passed Church of Our Saviour with its large anti gay posters, it is a reminder of their earlier ministry such as Choices led by Sid Rogers and real harm caused. In Matt 18:6, It is the only time in the bible where Jesus calls for immediate and harsh judgement, for the faith of young believers in their believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour are stumbled. The evangelical charismatic churches in Singapore is guilty and deserving judgement. That is why latter rain revival has not been coming. We have stopped an entire people group, the gay tribe from coming to Jesus Christ! Just because we perceived that they are the worst sinners!

Many of my friends who had gone through exgay teachings were once fervent Christians. They now only at best believe Jesus is Beta ie a way to God, but not the Alpha and Omega. That is why liberal gay churches don’t grow. Because, they abandoned the baby along with the dirty bath water of the harm caused by the charismatic evangelicals. That is also why the judgement is so severe on those who stumbled the beliefs of the fervent young christians. Because, they themselves will in turn stumble the faith of others and cause unbelieve.

The word “Believe” (4100) (pisteuo from pistis; pistos;) means to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust. To accept as true, genuine, or real. To have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something or someone. To consider to be true. To accept the word or evidence of. In the bible context, it is to accept Jesus Christ as God and Messiah, the way, the truth, the life. There is no other name for which man could be saved.

In secular Greek literature, as well as in the New Testament, pisteuo (pistis, pistos) has a basic meaning of an intellectual assent or a belief that something is true. Thayer calls this the intransitive use of the word which conveys the idea of to be sure or be persuaded that something is a fact. This kind of faith does not require any action on the part of the believer but only an intellectual acceptance. Ie it is not a process of doing the works of love so as to come to a state of believing. It is right believing leading to right living.

 

Matt 17:6 He replied “if you have faith as a small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it will obey you.

Matt 17:9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?

Do what you are called to do. That is the main call of Jesus for the Great Commission. When we look away from the Cross of Calvary, we become self righteous and self focused even love. Who are the little ones? The innocent ones? Gays in our community, Gay christians who had fallen because of the churches condemnation.

The little ones are stumbled from their faith from believing that Jesus Christ is their Messiah, their God and Saviour. Because the evangelicals say that you can’t be gay and christian they decided to abandon their faith since our sexual orientation is innate whether straight or gay.

Luke 17:7,8,9 suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?

The parable in Luke 17 about the stumbling the young ones not to believe and having the faith of a mustard seed is one of the most amazing hidden truths of the bible.

Are we the master or the slave? In this story, God is the master and we are the slave ie no rights at all. We are to serve the master and not our own agenda. And the master’s agenda is very simple, to prepare first the supper or the bread and wine for the master. We are called to do the Great Commission. This is what we are told to do, the first things. The church has instead put on their role as the moral gate keepers of society, putting gays in prison and having exgay ministries. We have stumbled the little ones.

Fundamentally, the church does not realise that we are the slaves, and in great debt deserving judgement to be hanged for stumbling the little ones. After Jesus talked about stumbling the little ones, He seemed to change subject and talked about how many times we need to forgive in luke 17:4? He was not referring to us forgiving others but being forgiven ourselves. God forgiving us. We are the repeated offenders!

What a self righteous answer that the disciples gave of requiring more faith to forgive those who had repeatedly sinned against them? Can’t they see that they were the sinners! Does more faith helps you to forgive or is it faith to believe that you are in debt to God’s grace and under judgement as the repeated sinners being the smallest mustard seed of faith that will result in great works in the Kingdom of God?.

The answer was that the measure you can forgive is the measure of knowing the depths and width of God’s forgiveness for your own repeated sins against God! That is why the wearing white campaign by the National Council of Churches against gays is so wrong and hypocritical. We are blaming gays for a perceived sin which is not a sin but it is us who are far greater sinners for stumbling the innocent ones of their believe in Jesus Christ.

It was God being wronged and we being forgiven. That is the mustard seed of faith, that we are under God’s amazing grace in Christ Jesus, for we are totally repeated sinners. The mustard seed of faith is understanding we were forgiven slaves, now forever forgiven despite STILL repeatedly sinning even though we do not realise the harm we are causing. We are slaves that are completely forgiven and desire to give our lives as a freewill back to the master as bond servants.

How do we not stumble the little ones and destroy their faith? By focussing solely on the Cross of Calvary, the Great Commission where Jesus is the Messiah, God incarnate, the risen Lord.

Do what you are told to do (and not our will nor extra curricular activities) says the Lord and not our own aggenda whether it be moral gate keepers or even acts of love. God’s aggenda is to point to the risen Christ that we may be saved IN Christ and not our own agenda of good works and moral policemen.

In the morning service, concerning the invitation to communion, the pastor said that we are all equal before God, all loved. He was only 50% correct. We are 100% loved by God but also 100% condemned as sinners under judgement of death and separation from God. The purpose of coming to communion is because we need 100% grace. We are truly equal, all sinners needing grace. We come to the communion table not because we are loved or considered equal before God but because we seek God’s love and His righteousness in the bread and the wine being the broken body and the spilled blood. The evangelical churches have been stopping gays from coming to the communion table. This is a great sin.

We come back to the first question of Jesus warning of grave judgement if we stumbled the little ones because their believe would be destroyed by our liberty. And the answer is a mustard seed faith, the smallest and most basic seed which is

1. We are all slaves serving God to be messagers of the Gospel Good News that Jesus is The way, the truth and the life, and Nothing else. We are not to add to the Gospel lest it stumble the believers.

2. We are all great debtors, truly sinners under God’s amazing grace needed to be forgiven repeatedly by God. We have nothing to boast of. How do we then condemn gays of sin when the sin here in the bible refers to the context of anal sex in pagan Baal worship. We overlook the pagan worship which we see in every street corner and yet condemn gays as the greatest sinners. Truly, it is the National Council of churches in Singapore who are the greatest sinners because we like King David did not go out to spiritual warfare for souls.

When the church in Singapore realise that they need only faith like a mustard seed for revival to come, truly we will become the Antioch to Asia. Revival has been stopped by sin, the only sin in the bible deserving immediate judgement, for the believe of the young ones are no more. Alas, the condemnation has killed many gay christians, very good people. May God have mercy.

The mustard seed of faith is to realise how much we have sinned and are sinning, and the debt that we owe like the slave being completely forgiven. We do not do our own will but a slave to God to do the Great Commission which is the very least before all else. We are slaves, we have nothing. Everything is by God’s grace. So how can we boast of anything except in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.