It's All About Faith

Introduction

Tonight we are going to talk about faith. You would guess after last week that the inner circle of apostles would have a great deal of faith. If you missed it last week we saw Jesus transform into his full glory in the verses right before this. In that we saw that without a doubt Jesus is not just fully man but he is fully God as well. We also saw that God commanded them to listen to Jesus. All of these things lead us into tonight's passage where this faith will be tested a bit and we will learn more about it.

Tonight starts with a man that wants to see his son healed, this resembles many of the stories we have seen before but we need to remember that the guys present have grown quite a bit since then. In this we see the faith, or the lack of faith from the man and in the end we see Jesus give instruction on strengthening your faith. All of this is based upon saving faith, the faith that you put in Jesus as Lord that makes him the boss of your life and saves you. This is what makes you a true follower of Christ. Tonight you need to ask yourselves a few simple questions; first is do you have saving faith? if yes the second is; what is the quality of my faith?

Lets start tonight by reading the story in its entirety then we will begin to break down all of this important teaching about faith.

Mark 9:14–32 ESV

And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, 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.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

So to set the scene here for you Jesus is coming down from the mountain after he is transformed in front of a few of the disciples. When he gets down he finds the rest of the disciples there arguing with the scribes. As Jesus is asking what is going on this man comes and says that it is all a problem about his son that is seized by an evil spirit that tries to cause him harm. Neither the scribes or the disciples could take care of it. The man ask Jesus if there is anything that he can do and Jesus responds “if I can” claiming that all things are possible if he would just believe. The man responds with this “I believe, help my unbelief”. We see that this man had faith but it was very weak. At this moment the boy was healed and Jesus says that They needed stronger faith to cast it out and that can be achieved through prayer.

From there they quietly went back through Galilee and Jesus tells them for the second time that he will die and rise again. He does this a total of three times here in Part 2 of Mark.

Tonight we are going to look at faith and the lack of faith then we will begin to look at strengthening our faith. As we will see prayer is very important and it is where I want to start tonight so lets pray.

pray

Faith, or the Lack of Faith

Mark 9:19 ESV

And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”

Mark 9:22–24 ESV

And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

When it comes to faith there are varying amounts that people have. Some have no faith, some have a little, and some have a lot. Examining our faith is something that is good to do at any point in our lives. This is something that you need for salvation and it is something that you can always grow in.

Jesus starts by calling them a faithless generation. This is something that rings down through the ages and I think we can still call the people of today a faithless generation. There is a lack of faith in Jesus in our world today which means that there is a lack of people that follow him. Yes I know there are still a lot of people that follow him but there are so many that do not.

He then moves to talking with the father of the child and he ask if Jesus can help him and Jesus says if I can! all things are possible if you believe. Here this man admits that he believes but his belief is weak and he desires it to be strengthened. How many of us can admit that we believe but it’s weak, we have faith but it isn’t much?

Honestly I think that the statement that this man says can be true of anyone, we are human after all. We may have great faith that has been tried by fire over years yet we still need to ask Jesus to help our unbelief.

Those of you that have never put your faith in Jesus as Lord and savior are missing out on something precious. I reflect back of all of the most difficult times of my life and can see that it was only my faith in Jesus that got me through it. Back to the debilitating anxiety I fought and the extreme stress, it was my faith that I leaned in on. Through the storms that life has thrown at me, it was my faith that pulled me through. In the best days of my life, it is my faith that put me there. Through my faith, though I know it is not nearly as strong as I desire, I can know that everything is within Gods control and I am on his side.

The lack of faith on the other hand is a scary thing, here I am talking about the complete lack of faith. When you put no faith in Jesus and you go through life on your own terms you are on the path that leads to a scary end. Our sin makes us deserving of a just punishment that last for all eternity and it is only through putting your faith in Jesus that you can avoid these pains and find all of the joys that I previously mentioned.

I urge you to not leave here tonight without putting your faith in Jesus. Make him the boss of your life and reap the joys of faith.

For those of you that do have faith you are probably wanting to know how you can strengthen that faith, that is what we will look at now.

Strengthening Faith

Mark 9:24 ESV

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Mark 9:29 ESV

And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

Through this passage we can see that to strengthen our faith we need to be in prayer. When we pray and ask Jesus to help our unbelief it is the same as when the man in this passage did. When the disciples asked why they could not do it Jesus responds that they need prayer. Communication with God is what strengthens our faith so that we can face any of the challenges that life throws at us.

Prayer draws our minds towards God and as we go through life taking everything to God in prayer we will find that our faith is growing ever stronger. We know that muscles are built through repetition, we know that trust is built through repetition, and we can also know that our faith can be built and grown through repetition. The repetition of prayer through all of our different life circumstances causes us to see God at work more, it causes us to trust in his promises, and it causes our faith to grow.

As we go into small groups here in a bit you can discuss this but right now I want you to start thinking about how you can incorporate prayer into your life more. There has never been anybody on their death bed that said I wish I wouldn’t have read my Bible so much or I wish I would not have prayed so often. It is usually quite the opposite actually, Christians always wish they would have read their Bible more and prayed more. Why not start now? Start growing your faith now at a very young age and read a lifetime worth of rewards for it. The rewards are getting to live a life where prayer is a priority.

If you want to grow in your faith the first thing you need to do is make prayer a priority.

Conclusion

Jesus was always teaching his disciples something. During this time they are getting a lot of teaching because they are starting to understand more. Jesus is approaching his death as he has told them for the second time and they are now starting to see the importance of some things such as faith.

One important thing to note in this passage that we have not looked at yet though is the young boy that is afflicted by satan. I do not know the age at which you become accountable for your sins but this was a young kid that was filled with an evil spirit and if he can be filled with an evil spirit then he can be filled with the Holy Spirit. You man think that all of this is right but you think I am safe now because I am young, let me tell you that is the wrong way to look at it and I would say that by now you are accountable for your sins. This means that you all need salvation.

Salvation is found in faith and the Christian life is a walk of faith. It is a walk of faith that is continually growing through the means that have been given to us and notably tonight through prayer.

In the end it really is all about faith.