Jesus in Mark: Wk 12

Intro:

Student Weekend Recap: What words would you use to describe Student Weekend this year? I would say: Powerful, refreshing, energizing. It was incredible to see over 600 students worshiping Jesus together, having fun, studying the Bible, and just being together. It was awesome to hear you guys talk about what God was teaching you and how He was moving in your hearts throughout the weekend. It was a Spiritual and Emotional high for sure.

We often talk about these moments as Mountain Top experiences. Like the story we read earlier with Moses on the Mountain top; he got to see a portion of God’s Glory and walked away GLOWING because of it. So much so that everyone around him was shook and impacted by His experience and time in God’s presence. When we have these powerful and high-concentrated moments of God’s presence moving among us, we walk away impacted and different because of it. Whether it’s student weekend, camp or even a Sunday or Wednesday together, we can have these transformative moments in God’s presence where we are impacted by His Glory! But we all know what happens after that. That moment can’t last forever, we have to come down off the mountain and get back into the grind and struggle of every day life.

How many of you felt that this week already? Monday and Tuesday hit and you were like- Dang, can I just go back to student weekend?

Yeah, I feel that. I immediately was wrecked by allergies and felt terrible, and remembered all the upcoming things that I needed to start working on. And it’s like, man can’t we just sit in those moments of worship and fun all day, every day?

However, we are not meant to live life on the mountain tops- life happens in the valleys between.

We are going to see tonight: God gives us those mountain top experiences to prepare us for the valleys between them.

Passage

Turn with me to Mark 9 tonight.

We will be reading through this story together and looking at how the disciples go from a Mountaintop moment, to a valley and struggle to make the transition.

Context: Remember last week, Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah, then failed to understand that that meant Jesus needed to go to the cross and die. Then Jesus taught that if anyone wants to follow Him they have to come and die first, suffering brings about glory with Jesus. Death leads to life with Jesus. We have to die to ourselves to find life in Jesus.

Now, 6 days later we see Jesus take a few of his closest disciples up a mountain and they will share in a powerful moment together. Let’s read it together and see what it means for us.

Mark 9:1–29 (CSB)

Then he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come in power.”

After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves to be alone. He was transfigured in front of them, and his clothes became dazzling—extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified.

A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!”

Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept this word to themselves, questioning what “rising from the dead” meant.

Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

“Elijah does come first and restores all things,” he replied. “Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did whatever they pleased to him, just as it is written about him.”

When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes disputing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were amazed and ran to greet him. He asked them, “What are you arguing with them about?”

Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”

He replied to them, “You unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me.” So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. “How long has this been happening to him?” Jesus asked his father.

“From childhood,” he said. “And many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”

Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you: Come out of him and never enter him again.”

Then it came out, shrieking and throwing him into terrible convulsions. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus, taking him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up.

After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”

We see a Mountain Top and a Valley, back to back.

Mountaintops give us 3 things:

Proper view of Jesus.

First, we see Jesus with Peter, James, and John heading up the mountain to be alone.

Jesus takes them up there, knowing what is about to take place and wanting them to witness it. And what happens?

As they get to the top of this mountain the disciples see Jesus begin to change. His clothes start looking like they are glowing white, brighter than any fabric could be. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, Moses and Elijah then appear with Jesus. This is an incredible moment on this mountain top, like no other! Jesus is glowing and displaying his divinity in a powerful way. And two prophets of God from generations before are there with them. Moses- who was like no other prophet and Elijah who was another prophet who was carried up into Heaven without ever dying.

Two very special prophets in Israels History. One, Moses- representing the Law, and another, Elijah, representing the prophets.

Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets. He is the one they all pointed to. And he is fully God and fully man. This mountain top moment showed his closest disciples who he truly was without a doubt.

This affirmed Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah and confirmed all the claims Jesus had made about Himself as Lord, Son of Man, and Messiah.

Mountaintops give us 3 things:

Proper view of Jesus.- God come to us.

Fuller vision of God’s plan.

Another significant reason for these two men, Moses and Elijah, being present with Jesus is the prophecy in Malachi about the Lord coming to earth. In Malachi 4, the last few verses of this prophet’s book say:

Malachi 4:4–6 CSB

“Remember the instruction of Moses my servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

We see a tie between Jesus and what God did through Moses- a deliverer out of Egypt, and Elijah a prophet calling God’s people to repent of their sins and Follow God!

This moment shows us where Jesus fits into the whole story of God saving the world- he is the culmination, the climax, the center of it all!

Peter, James and John get this powerful moment of watching Jesus be transformed and take on the glory of His divine being for a moment and spend time talking to Moses and Elijah.

And Peter, like some of us, is so caught up in it, afraid, excited and confused that He just starts spewing words. Have you ever had that happen? A moment is so crazy that words just start flying out without you really meaning for them to? He says, lets build three shelters for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

Peter, wanted to do something to make this moment last, something to keep this moment going, something to go back to and remember this moment by. But that wasn’t the point and Jesus doesn’t allow Him to do anything.

Right at that moment, they are interrupted by God the Father. He appears in a cloud that falls on them. And He begins to Speak in v7.

Mark 9:7 CSB

A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!”

This brings back all the imagery of the OT of God appearing to the Israelites in a cloud. While His words bring to mind Jesus’ baptism, when He spoke from the sky and said a very similar phrase about Jesus.

Mountaintops give us 3 things:

Proper view of Jesus.

Fuller vision of God’s plan.

The power we need for the mission.

Again, at some point the mountain top moment will end and we have to travel back down to the valley, back to ordinary life.

But God gives them clear guidance for how they are supposed to go back to the valley: Seeing Jesus as the loved son of God, and obeying Him!

Let’s continue the story and see how that plays out.

wLet’s continue the story and see how that plays out.just don’t quite understand how Elijah will return before the Messiah, if Jesus is the Messiah and Elijah hasn’t come yet.

Jesus corrects them that Elijah did come, John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus like Elijah, and he was rejected and persecuted by the people and even killed.

He says, that he too will suffer and be treated the same way. Again, anyone who wants to follow Jesus will endure suffering and hardship, but its through that death that we find life.

But then we get to the valley!

And something has been going on there.

a father had taken his son, who had been possessed by an evil spirit all his life, to the disciples to be healed. But the disciples tried their hardest and could not heal this boy.

So then the religious leaders came and were criticizing the disciples for their failure, probably pointing out their lack of education, and qualifications, and that they were following a fake rabbi named Jesus.

This is the scene Jesus returns to.

Any of you return home after camp or student weekend, or a Wednesday night to just straight chaos at home? And it felt like you were immediately removed from any spiritual encounter you had?

Yeah, same. The enemy likes to attack us right after mountain top moments.

And Jesus hears these things and realizes his disciples till lacked faith. HE was frustrated and calls them an unbelieving generation. And then he goes to the boy and his father and the father says,

“If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

If he can???

Jesus says, everything is possible for those who believe!

The man says he believes but asks Jesus to help his unbelief.

His faith isn’t perfect but he is offering Jesus all he can.

We can see he has likely been discouraged by the disciples failure. But Jesus is here now and he has some remnant of faith left that He can make a difference.

Jesus casts the evil spirit out and the boy falls dead to the ground. We don’t know if he was fully dead of just appeared dead, but all the language around this moment is the same exact language that is used when Jesus raised other people from the dead- like Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter. And the boy gets up, fully healed, and restored.

Man. We go from the highest of high mountain top moment with Jesus, so blatant evil and brokenness and failure in the valley.

This is life. We have mountain top moments with God, but our life is mainly lived in the valley. And that is difficult. So, the question is, how do we transition between the two well?

Let’s see what Jesus tells the disciples:

Later on the disciples ask Jesus- why did we fail?

Here it is y’all. This is the point.

Verse 29:

Mark 9:29 CSB

And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”

What does this suggest? The disciples had not been praying. They had gotten so busy, or familiar with their daily routines and ministry that they hadn’t been spending time alone with God, they hadn’t been in prayer, that hadn’t been filled up in prayer- so they had no power in the valley.

Experiencing the powerful presence of God should lead us to share His power with the world around us- as we live in the valleys.

Gospel - Acts NIV Application Commentary (Contemporary Significance)

WE MAY PREFER the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ inspiring transfiguration to the disciples’ disheartening failure, where they are unable to heal a demon-possessed boy. But Jesus calls us to go down where the cries of help are the loudest, because this is where we put faith into practice

God told them- this is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.

Yet, they had stopped focusing on the Son of God, they hadn’t listened to him- he told them to pray, to stay focused on Him and have faith in him- yet in their busyness and routines- they stopped being filled up and had no power left to offer those around them.

We are meant to go into the valley to be a light in the darkness, life where there is death- however, we must do that in the same powerful presence we experienced on the mountain top..

If you leave student weekend, camp, or Wednesday nights and never open your bible, never pray, never worship outside of this place- well, you will have NOTHING to offer your friends who are crying out for hope. You will not find victory over your sin and struggles, you will just go back to the same old routines you had before. You must soak up God’s presence on the mountain top. Look to Jesus in faith and trust him and Listen to him daily for your life.

Yes, the mountaintop is exciting and powerful and exhilarating. But the valley is what Jesus ants to use you to reach a broken and hurting world. But if you just wait for mountaintops to be with God, to Hear from God and to experience his power, then you will never have power in the valleys- you have to spend time with him regularly in the valley.

Don’t chase the mountaintop, just keep your eyes on Jesus and soak up time with him as much as you can. Then, you can walk in power and purpose in the valley.

So, what do we take from this tonight?

The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Seven: The Servant’s Secrets (Mark 8:27–9:50))

If we want to share the glory of Christ on the mountaintop, we must be willing to follow Him into the sufferings of the valley below. - Warren Wiersbe

Enjoy the mountaintops, but let them motivate you to seek God with even more purpose and intentionality in the valleys. All for the sake of the hurting world around you.

You have NOTHING to offer your friends except Jesus.

You have no hope to give them but the Gospel.

You have no encouragement to give them but the Truth of God’s Word.

You have no power to help them through their struggles but the powerful presence of God within you- SO- are you being filled up by His power daily?

You are called to come down off the mountain and go straight into the valley- to live on mission bringing people into the transforming power of God’s kingdom.

We are not meant to live on the mountaintops- life happens in the valleys in between.

Are we fully depending on God in the valley?

Or are we just coasting to the next mountain top?

When we depend on God in the valley- we will have all the power of the Mountaintop. But

If we coast from mountain top to mountain top- we will never make an impact in the valley.

Bow heads, close eyes.

I think many of us here are already feeling the weight of the valley after this weekend. Or you didn’t join us for Student Weekend- and you haven’t had a mountain top moment in quite a while.

Know this: God will always give you what you need from Him- when you come and ask Him to!

You don’t need another Student Weekend or Camp or anything else- you just need consistent time with God- in prayer, in the word, in worship.

Ask God tonight to remind you of how Good it is to be in his presence.

Ask Him to help you constantly come to Him to be filled up this week.

Ask God to Show you those around you this week who are crying out for hope, help, and healing- and ask him for His power to go and serve them well!

Pray

Let’s sing!