Mark 9:14-29

The Message of Mark’s Gospel: Jesus Christ is the perfect and tireless Servant of God and man.

Listen! eating on the steering wheel of the truck that God had just given us and accusing Him of not taking care of us.

Today we're doing a standalone message on Mark Chapter 9. Next week we're going back into Ecclesiastes. The final month before Easter, we're going to do a four part series on relationships. Steve Walker and I will tag team on that.

Then we'll do Resurrection Sunday obviously. And then if I am still in this chair, we're going to start in the book of Philippians. If we have a new person, we're going to do what that person wants to do. So that's the plan for now.

Ecclesiastes relationship. Easter, Philippians, and we'll move on that and see how that goes.

●    Today’s passage is the gold standard for anyone who has or is faltering  in their faith.

Definition: Faith is the ability to see something that is true and real, but invisible. Faith must always be based on solid evidence. Faith always has an object. You must have faith in someone or something. Faith is the conduit, but God is the actual source of help.

So we're looking today at Mark 9:14-29.

It contains my favorite prayer in the entire Bible. It is an amazing prayer. But

before we look at that, I want to say this. Mark, the man who wrote this book, is sometimes called John Mark. He was an associate of Paul. He traveled with Paul. He was discipled by Peter. He was from Jerusalem. He was a part of the

Christian movement from very early on. Scholars believe that his mother was one of the first women who supported Jesus and the disciples financially. So this man was heavily involved in the church. From very early on, he probably wrote the book about AD 55 and he wrote it primarily focused on Gentiles, not on Jewish people or Jewish believers, but primarily on Gentiles.

The core idea of this book is Jesus is the perfect and tireless servant of God and man.

With that big idea in mind, I read this book one time and counted them. I counted 141 acts of service. That Jesus does in this book of Mark, either to God or to man. And so he came as a servant at his first advent and specifically as the suffering servant at his first advent. And here he is serving God and man through all of these different acts of service.

First, a problem is set out by a desperate father and complicated by the disciples. (v14-180

So I want to read for us, Mark Chapter 9:14. And this is a situation in which.

Jesus has been up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John and. The Mono transfiguration has two possible places. One is called Mount Tabor, which is about 2000 feet high and it's about 10 miles to the West of Nazareth. And the other possibility is Mount Hermon, which is almost 10,000 feet high and it's farther north in Israel, quite a ways north. Now which one it was, it's really hard to say. But those are the two main candidates for where that transfiguration happened. Jesus comes down the mountain with these three disciples. His other nine disciples are in one place and there's a massive crowd gathered around them.

And so that's where we pick up the story.

Second, the problem is diagnosed by Jesus. (v19-24)

“When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and some scribes arguing with them. Immediately when the entire crowd saw him, that is, they saw Jesus, they were amazed and began running up to greet him. And he said to them, what are you discussing with them? And one of the crowd answered him. Teacher, I brought you my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute, and whenever it seizes him, it slams him into the ground. And he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and stiffens out.

I told your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it. And he answered them, speaking to the disciples, and said, Oh, unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me, God.”

It's kind of my life first, isn't it? Keep putting up with me, Lord.

Third, the problem is salved by Jesus.(v, 25-27)

“They brought the boy to him. When he saw him, immediately the Spirit threw him in a convulsion, and falling on the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And he asked the father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said from childhood he is often thrown both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, if I can, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, (This is just a brilliant prayer,) I do believe. Help my unbelief. When Jesus saw that a

crowd was rapidly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit. Saying to it, you deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him, and do not enter him again. And crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions. It came out and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said he was dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him, and he got up. When he came into the house, his disciples began questioning him privately. Why could we not drive it out? They had driven out demons before, but they were incapable of getting this one out. And Jesus said to them “This kind comes out by nothing except prayer”. A new level of power that they had not experienced. 

Friends. I've had too many times in my life where I've had something ahead of me. I've trusted God to help me. I've cast myself on God. I really believed God was going to help me. And as time went on and the help didn't come in, or it didn't come in rapidly or didn't come in on my timetable or didn't come in enough.

Then my faith went from pure faith. God will help me. Down to a little bit

of doubt mixed in there. Down to a fair amount of doubt mixed in there. And as we got toward the deadline, it kind of got down to there's still some faith left, but there's a whole lot of doubt mixed in here.

Is God really going to show up and help me? It's the struggle with faith. It's the struggle with is God going to do something? It's the apostle Peter saying to Jesus, Lord, if it's you, tell me to walk on the water to you. And Jesus said, come on. And he gets out of the boat and he makes three to five steps or whatever he makes. And then the wind and the waves were so ferocious, he stopped looking at Jesus. He started looking at the storm, and he began to sink his faith. Now, mind you, he was the only one with the faith to get out

of the boat. Let's not give him too bad a rap here. There's only two people in the world who've ever walked on water.

Jesus and Peter for a short time. But he lost it. He stopped looking at Jesus, stopped investing faith there, started looking at the waves. He got fearful and his faith became severely mixed with doubt and he lost it. Today's passage is the gold standard for anyone who has ever faltered in their faith, for anyone who has ever said Lord, I believe, but I'm not 100% believing. I believe Lord, but man, you're really taking your sweet time about fixing this. This is the gold standard for all of us who have ever struggled with that. Before we look at

the actual story, let me talk about a couple of definitions.

Faith, as described to us in the Bible, is the ability to see something that's

true and real, but it's invisible. It's something that is not yet visible to us now. It's based on solid evidence. It's not wishful thinking. It's not I hope so, but it's based on evidence that something really is going to be done for me and something's going to happen for me.

The Friday Nichol,I heard a wonderful story. I doubt it's true. A little boy who had five nickels in his hand and his grandfather was visiting and he said, “Hey, count these nickels, how many do you have? And the boy counted them and said, I have 6. And grandpa said, :Try again. How many do you have?”And the boy counted. He said, “I have 6.” And the grandfather says, no, you only have five, son, You only have 5. And the boy said, “Oh, grandpa, it's Friday. My father always gives me a nickel on Friday.” He's counting the nickel that he hadn't gotten in his hand yet because he trusted his father he was a person of faith. And we are people who are called to to trust in the Friday nickel. It's not been delivered yet, but we know it's coming because we know our father.

So this is faith, but it's not faith, you know, leaping in the dark. It's faith-based on evidence. It's based on the word of God. It's based on fulfilled prophecies. It's based on the enduring of the Bible. It's based on the fact that it's a livable worldview that delivers joy to us. There are so many things that come to us through faith.

But it's not based on nothing. How many of you believe in George Washington?

Well, let me start this way. Does anybody not believe in the existence of George Washington? Well, I happen to believe in his existence. Contrary to popular belief, I never met the man. He was gone. I believe in his existence. Why? Because of sources. People wrote it down because of artifacts. I stood in the Plantation. I stood next to the bed that they said he died in, the docent said to us. George Washington died in this bed, OK. I believe it. I wasn't

there the day he died. We believe in Jesus. Because of sources, because of evidence, because of the volume of people who physically saw him and who

wrote it down. There is huge evidence. This is not a leap in the dark. I'm hoping against hope, friends. The most critical decision you will ever make.

What will be my truth source? Where will I find truth? In the Bible?

Bhagat Vagita, Crazy Uncle Willie, Book of Mormon biology textbook, College roommate inside my own head. Where am I going to look for truth? This is the book that has demonstrated itself to be a reliable book. And so every worldview is based on faith. Every one of them. You have to trust some things that are not scientifically verifiable. On every worldview. And truthfully, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. It takes way too much faith in my mind.

It's a check your mind at the door, kind of a deal. Because you have to believe so many things that are unverifiable. But the Christian faith, we're investing our evidence in some, our faith in something that has evidence. Theism is a very livable worldview. So a further definition is that faith always has an object. You always have faith in someone or in something. You, if you say I trust something, you're saying, well, I'm trusting this bridge or I'm trusting my friend or I'm trusting my car will start and so in this place.

We are putting our faith in the God of the universe. He is the object of our faith. And the issue is not how good our faith is, it's how reliable our object is.

Am I trusting a reliable being? I remember decades ago I was in college at this friend's house where he was renting, we're on the 2nd floor in this dilapidated deck. My friend Phil was leaning against a rail on this dilapidated deck and it was bowing out. I said, “Phil, don't lean on that thing.” He said, Dave, ”I trust God.” I said, “Phil, you're not leaning on God, you're leaning on a broken 2x4. Don't lean on that thing.” The object of your faith is not God at that point. It's a rotten 2x4. Every bit of faith is invested in something.

Will I? Will I trust Doctor A or Doctor B? Will I get across the river by the swinging footbridge or by waiting? What am I going to trust in to get here? What am I going to trust in to get to heaven?

The sacrifice of Christ. We're giving a lot of money to orphans. I've got to make a choice. What's the object of my faith? And so faith, very clearly, friends, becomes the conduit for God's power. It is not the power, it's just the conduit that the power and the ability is delivered through. And we must not say if I believe really hard, God must do this.

God is utterly uncontrollable, friends.

He's perfectly sovereign. I force him to do nothing. If I believe really hard, I'm an idolater who's believing in faith. I'm not believing in God, I'm believing in faith. I'm an idolater if I believe in the Bhagavad Gita or if I worship a rocker or if I worship myself or anything. I'm an adulterer. But if I think I can force God to do something with faith. I'm an idolater because he's an utterly uncontrollable being.

And he does what he wants to do. He'll have no gods before him. Hebrews 11:1 & 6 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to Him come to. God must believe that he is  the rewarder of those who seek Him.”

So with all that, by way of background, here's the story 2000 years ago. It begins in Hebrews 1:14 to 18, where this Father brings a problem to.

Jesus a desperate father with a demon possessed son. He brings the problem to Jesus, finds Jesus' disciples and they don't solve it, they complicate it. Jesus is not personally there. Jesus is coming down from The Mount of Transfiguration and comes in a big crowd going what's going on. He asked them and the father says I've got this demon. The demon was possessing my son and trying to kill him? The demon has far more power than the father.

Far more power than the sun. Now the demon's goal in this boy's life is destruction. The demon reports to Satan. Satan has two names in Revelation, Apollyon and Abaddon. The Hebrew and the Greek words that mean destruction. He wants to destroy your life, your reputation, your health, your marriage, your finances, your job, your faith. He wants to destroy everything. He is a destroyer. And so what he's about in life. The sun is destroying him. Cast him into a seizure and throw him in the water so he'll drown. Cast him into a seizure and throw him into the fire so he'll burn up. He is one of Satan's minions and he is hell bent on killing this boy. And so this boy and his father are living in daily anxiety, daily fear, daily helplessness, daily confusion. They're just their whole life. This is the nature of life for these two people. It's ongoing daily pain, discouragement and fear. And it's the everyday nature of their life. They don't have the forces to fix this and so the Father says let’s go find Jesus.

There's some resources there. It's complicated by the disciples. They couldn't cast him out. They had cast out demons. This one they attempted. It would not come out. They had run into a new level of power. Friends, I don't think the average believer understands the level of power resident in Satan and the demons. “Now greater is he who is in us than he was in the world.” So I'm not telling you to be a fearful person, but I am saying we need to be respectful

because demons are crazy powerful way beyond our ability. They're beings for whom we are no match. They're no match for Jesus, but we're no match for them.

And it is extremely foolish to even open the door crack to let demons or darkness into my life. It is crazy if I'm dabbling in seances or in Ouija boards or in dark movies or dark books or dark films or anything dark is spiritual insanity. Because if I open the door a crack, Satan will just kick it off the hinges.

 Jesus is the light of the world. Why do I get close to darkness? It makes no sense. I need to be a person drawing near to the light. Even though the Archangel Michael said to Satan, the Lord rebukes you. Michael was in a 21 day fight one time with Satan.

Michael the Archangel, the one who stands in the presence of God. These are

powerful beings. But obviously the Lord is more powerful than them. Here's the second thing that happened. Jesus diagnosed the problem verses 19 to 24. Now friends, the demon recognized Jesus. He recognized him because Jesus created him, because he lived in heaven for a time with Jesus before he followed Satan and got booted out. Because he's extremely keyed into all things spiritual he knows all about. Out of this he is very clear about who Jesus is. He knows that Jesus is his creator, his nemesis. He is an eventual judge. He knows that Jesus is about to hammer him. There's no confusion in his mind about any of this. And he hated Jesus, but he was terrified of Jesus. So the

The diagnosis that Jesus gives here is the Father. And truthfully, the disciples just had insufficient faith. They weren't constantly putting their trust in God.

The entire gospels are just overrun with trust and faith. Here's some of the common phrases. If you will only believe, ask what you will believing. Do you not believe if you have the faith of a mustard seed? Oh, you of little faith, how long have I been with you? And still you do not believe? And this passage is all about faith. Verse 19, he says unbelieving generation.

Verse 23, “All things are possible for him who believes.”

Verse 24, “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I do believe, help my unbelief.” And so there's all kinds of variations of the problem. There's no faith. There's faith severely mixed with doubt. There's faith with some doubt. There's faith that's got hardly any doubt in it. There's all variations of this whole issue of am I trusting God? Without faith, it's impossible to please Him.

How do I get stronger faith? I just practiced trusting him. I just bring him more stuff and say, father, please, please help me. Please intercede. I practice in trusting my heavenly Father. And so at the end of the day, friends, faith is just a settled decision. It says I will trust God. I'm discouraged right now, but I'll trust God. I don't have real strong faith right now but I will trust God. I'm confused, I'm overwhelmed. I'm going to trust God.

I'm struggling in many, many ways. I'm a mess. But I'll trust God, it's constantly coming to him and saying, Lord, I'm going to trust you with everything in my life. I'm gonna let it be in your timing. The critical issue here is the question of trust. Of course, the major issue is the question of trust for eternity. What will I hope in to have eternal life?

I made a decision at the age of 19 to hope in the sacrifice of Jesus for me, having tried a bunch of other things. Yeah, by the age of 19, I tried a whole bunch of works. I had them all lined up. The only teenager in the nation tithing was going to church was the president of the youth group I was teaching Sunday school. I was a lay reader. I was reading my Bible. I mean, I was working like crazy to make God happy with me and it wasn't working. And then I shifted my faith from all that stuff to the death of Christ. I've changed the faith source in my own life but the point is, God is worthy of that trust.

He created us, He's for us, He loves us, He gave us his own son. Will he not freely give us all things? What's not to trust? What's not to like? Every aspect of Him is committed to us. And so this Father in verse 24 gives this terrific prayer, my favorite prayer in the Bible. This is my personal prayer, “I do believe. Help my unbelief.”

He did believe some. He had some faith. He was there with the boy. He brought the boy to Jesus. There's something he asked for the help he needed, but it was also mixed with doubt. Some faith, plenty of doubt, it's all mixed in there. And he said to Jesus, if you can do anything, take pity on us. It's a conditional clause, meaning I'm not sure about your ability to help him.

But if you can help him, please do it. I'm not sure if you're able to do this, but if you can help us, please do something. And so Jesus rebuked the man and said, if I can help you. I mean basically boards behind this. I'm the God of the universe. I created you and your boy. I dominate this demon. If I can help you, of course I can help you.

The Father's faith was not up to standards, but Jesus solved the problem in verse 25 to 27. He commanded the demon to come out of him and don't go into him again. And then this demon makes a last ditch effort to destroy him and puts him in a violent convulsion.

So much so that, at the end, the boy lay there like a corpse. Jesus lifts him up, brings him back, gives him to his Father. He has delivered him. He has continual mercy on this child. Despite the fact that his father's prayer was mixed with some faith and a whole lot of doubt, He answered it.

Listen, Jesus is the consummate problem solver, but always in his time and always in his way. He will not be controlled about when and how to fix stuff. He's always on time, but it's always on his time. I can't dictate when and how. There's a horrible heresy going around America right now. It grows out of a thing called the New Apostolic Movement. It's called the prayer demand.

It's the idea that I could express great faith in God by just going up and demanding something of him. And the people who promoted say, oh, no, no, we're not making demands of God. And I say, well, then don't use the word demand. That's insanity. God, I demand you do this. God doesn't respond to that kind of thing.

I'm a creature. He's the creator, I am a servant, He's the master making a prayer. Demand of God it's not bold faith. It's ridiculous. It's crazy. So I need to be bold when I come into God, come boldly into the throne room of grace. But I also need to be humble. I am his servant. He is not my servant.

How many of you saw the movie Rudy decades ago? Wonderful show. Rudy goes to the priest, he says, why can't I get into Notre Dame? And the priest says, young man, I know two incontrovertible facts. There is a God and I'm not Him. I have no idea. Well, you can't get into Notre Dame today. Why would you come ask me? There is a God and we are not Him. And God will operate on his own timing, AW Tozer said. “The most important thing about you is what comes to your mind when you think about God. The corollary is this. The second most important thing about you is what comes to your mind when you think about yourself.

Who is God and who am I? And God is not a being who will be. Manipulated.

Fourth, the problem is explained by Jesus

So Jesus serves his Father and then he heals the boy. In verses 28 and 29, he explains to the disciples they could not drive it out because this kind of demon comes out only by prayer. This is a new level of power. It comes out only by prayer. And there is power in prayer, and the power that's in prayer is the faith that goes up to the God of the universe. The faith up to the God of the universe, who is the source of power. And that faith is the conduit that brings it down to do something if you have a conduit running through your home.

And in that conduit is a bunch of electrical wires, and it's got power in it to run your refrigerator. The power is not in the conduit. The conduit is just bringing it. The power is in the power source up lined somewhere. The power is not in our faith. That's only the conduit bringing down power from the God of the universe.

Daniel Henderson. “Prayerlessness is our Declaration of Independence from God.” If I'm not a praying person, I'm saying I don't really need you, Lord, I pretty well got it under control. If I'm a praying person, I'm understanding God is my helper in need. The boy's father cries out. I do believe how my unbelief Jesus rebukes him verbally for the lack of pure faith, and then he answers his prayer.

There was some faith mixed in there. He answered his prayer. It's a stunning prayer, friends, because it's intercessory. He's asking for a person whom he loves. It's a stunning prayer because it's directed at somebody who can really help.

Because it's humble, because it's brutally honest, “I believe, help my unbelief.” It is a wonderful prayer because it's expectant, it's persevering. It was obviously pleasing to Jesus. He answered it. Here's a core idea. Please think about friends. Great prayers are sent expectantly straight to Jesus, no matter how dire the situation, no matter how faltering my faith at that moment. Sent straight to God, no matter how dire things are. And no matter how mixed my faith is, it's a great prayer because it comes straight to God.

The quality of a prayer is not dependent on the quality of my faith. I need faith, but it's dependent on the dependability of the object of my faith. My Father is a dependable being. “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”

Matthew 12:20 says, “A bruised read, God will not break,  and a smoldering wick he will not put out.”

And the metaphor behind that is I'm a bruised Reed. I'm the kind of reed you would find and just, you know, go ahead and snap it the rest of the way into pitch it off in the ditch. I'm a smoldering wick. I'm not as fired up for God as I need to be. It's the kind of thing that you would just kind of step on and put it out to be safe. And then you're on your way. Well, you don't have to break a battered Reed. You can shore it up. You can make it stronger. You don't have to stomp out a smoldering wick. You can give it some oxygen and get it going.

And God understands that we're broken reeds, we're smoldering wicks. We're made out of dust.

Friends were made out of dirt, and God knows it and God recognizes who we are, and he understands our faults and he understands our struggles and he understands that sometimes our fire for him fades. But he's not the kind of God who breaks off a broken reed. He's not the kind of God who snuffs us out. He recalibrates us, he renews us, He gets some oxygen into us. He fires us up because he's that generous and that compassion for him. And so the core issue is in the face of my own brokenness and floundering. I still can come to the Father. He'll still respond to me in the face of my own lack of pure faith. I can still come to Him because God is the champion of the broken Reed, the champion of the smoldering wick.

The champion of the widow, the orphan, the downcast, the poor, the immigrant, the sojourner, the champion of the powerless. God is the champion of the powerless and of the broken. He's the champion of us. So if your faith is really strong right now, here's what you should do.

Come to the Lord with every prayer you have. If your faith is really weak

right now, here's what you should do. Come to the Lord with every prayer that you have. Just keep coming to the source, the place that you can actually be helped. Because the outcome of my prayer is not dependent on the strength of my faith.

It depends on the source where I'm going. That's the key issue. Have I gone to the right source? Great prayers are brought expectantly to Jesus, no matter how dire the situation and no matter how mixed is my faith.

Lord, I believe, please help my unbelief.

I want to close with this comparison. Friends. In Luke 5:12 and 13,

“A leper comes up to Jesus and says to the Lord, if you are willing, you can heal me.” It's a conditional clause. It's conditioned on Jesus' willingness. Not on his ability. And this Father comes up to Jesus and says, if you can do anything, help us. It's a conditional clause. What he's not sure about is Jesus' ability. The leper is not sure about Jesus' willingness. He knows his ability. This man is not sure about his ability. Which prayer did Jesus answer?

Of them both. There was a really pure faith that said, I know you can do this, God, I just don't know if you're willing. And there were some very mixed faith that says I don't even know if you can help us. But he was there with his boy.

And Jesus, in his generosity, answered both prayers. I don't necessarily need the flaming faith of the apostle Paul or the leper. It would be great if I had it. I don't necessarily need that. But if the faith I have is the faith of the Father that said I believe, please help my unbelief. I still direct it to the God of the universe.

BIG IDEA: “Great prayers are sent expectantly straight to Jesus…no matter how dire the situation and no matter how faltering my faith at that moment.”

●    App: God is the Champion of the widow, the orphan, the alien, the downtrodden, the poor, the prisoner, the broken, the floundering, and the person whose faith is faltering.

Let's pray together, please. We're deeply grateful, Father, for your kindness, compassion to us. Thanks for your forgiveness in Christ. Thanks for your generosity to us in every way. Father, I'm conscious of that both for myself and for everyone sitting in here. There's problems that are weighing on us the way this father's problem weighed on him. There's stuff we can't fix, that's intractable. It's beyond us. So we take a moment of silent prayer right now to bring those to you, Lord. Whatever, whatever the purity value of our faith is, whether it's the flaming Apostle Paul faith or the struggling faith of the Father, we take a moment right now to bring those to you. Father, we believe.

Please help our unbelief. We come directly to you, Father. We're deeply grateful for your compassion. We know your ability. We thank you for your kindness to us. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.