All we need is belief
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning Liberty!
Good Morning Liberty!
What do you get when you cross a bear and a mountain lion?
Dead. You get dead.
I glad we didn’t choose to have a sunrise service this morning! It is cold!! If you have elderly neighbors, please check on them the next few days. Keep Merri Jo and Carolyn in your prayer as they are both healing. Also keep Tamara in your prayers as she is waiting to hear about a job interview she had last week.
Today we are going to be in Mark 9:14-29.
Last we we saw the conversation that Jesus and the 3 disciples had coming down the mountain. They talked about Elijah and that he is supposed to come before the Messiah. We saw that he is coming before the 2nd coming of the Lord. For those who believed what John the Baptist was teaching, he was the 2nd coming of Elijah to them. Jesus also talked about
how He must suffer many things and be treated with cont
Today we are going to see Jesus heal a boy that is demon possessed. This incident is different from the other demons that Jesus casted out.
Please stand as we read God’s word.
14 And when they came back to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. 16 And He asked them, “What are you disputing with them?” 17 And one person from the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, because he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes stiff. And I told Your disciples so that they would cast it out, but they could not do it.” 19 And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” 20 And they brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, the spirit immediately threw him into convulsions, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.22 It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 But Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again!” 26 And after 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 is dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him, and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began asking Him privately, “Why is it that we could not cast it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything except prayer.”
Let’s pray
V14 Who is coming to the disciples?
Who were the scribes arguing with?
What were they arguing about?
V15 The crowd acted like a bunch of groupies when they see the person they are waiting on. Jesus’ fame was great at this point in His ministry. Anytime He was near a town of village, there would be a great crowd of people. This is part of why the religious leaders hated Him. He was more popular than they were. They cared more about being popular in man’s eyes instead of being right in God’s eyes.
V16 Jesus asks a question but before anyone can answer, the father of a child possessed by a demon spoke up.
Jesus already knows why they are arguing.
V17 We see the father of the son speak up. He didn’t want to waste time with arguing or waiting for the crowd to explain to Jesus why they are arguing. He speaks up, he is desperate to have his son healed. We as fathers would do the same. We see that the father was seeking out Jesus. He brought his son to Him. We should be seeking Jesus. As a follower of His, we should be striving to be like Him. He is the standard that we are to be like. If we have Him as the standard, then we will have a right view of ourselves. If we use the worlds standard, we will think to highly of ourselves. The world says that we are good, the Bible says that no one is good, the only good comes from God.
V18 We see that the demon makes the boy mute, seizes him, throws him down, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. That is a lot of suffering that this poor boy is having to go through. We will see in a couple of verses that this is not the worst.
The signs of this demon seem a lot like epilepsy.
We see a lot of people that contribute sickness to a spirit. They have a spirit of epilepsy, a spirit of you name the sickness.
Not all sickness is a demon and not all demons have symptom of sickness.
The father asked the disciples to cast out the demon because Jesus was not there. He was up on the mountain top. The disciples were not able to cast out the demon. They had cast out demons before. They would have been shocked that they couldn’t. We will see later why they could not.
V19 Jesus gives a strong expression of the burden that He was feeling because of the fundamental problem that the people had.
They were faithless.
All of them
3 types of faithlessness
Scribes - chose to reject Jesus and deny who He is
The crowd - they had no faith, they just wanted the miracles
from Jesus.
The disciples - They were following Jesus, they had given up all they had to follow Him. They still didn’t have faith even with all that they had seen and themselves done. We can see it all throughout Mark. Jesus fed the 4,000 and then they were worried about having enough to eat.
Just because we believe in Jesus doesn’t mean we have faith.
The demons believe who Jesus is but don’t put their faith in Him.
Belief is merely acknowledgment. Faith moves us to action.
This lack of faith frustrated Jesus and He let them know.
Jesus tells them to bring the boy to Him
V20 This time the demon does not speak to Jesus. As soon as the demon saw Jesus, it attacked the boy. It through the boy into an epileptic episode.
Any encounter with Jesus will have some kind of response. No one can encounter the King and walk away unchanged.
They will either accept Him or reject Him.
V21 Jesus asks the father how long this has been going on.
Since childhood! This is heartbreaking. I can’t imagine how this father felt.
V22 It gets worse for the father and son. The demon was trying to kill the boy! It tried to cast him into fires and water.
Demons and satan not only want us to not follow Jesus, they want us dead.
They want as many people in Hell with them as they can get. Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy.
Kill us
Steal our reward
Destroy our faith
Then the father makes a mistake. He says to Jesus IF you can do anything. This statement shows that the father doesn’t truly know who Jesus is. He just knows He is a healer and a miracle worker. He is hear for the miracle. To save his son. Jesus wants to change his heart.
V23 Jesus says If I can do anything!! Jesus can do anything He wants. He is not limited by our faith. Our faith can move Jesus, but He in no way is limited by our faith.
Jesus says that all things are possible for one who believes/has faith.
He never says anything about having enough belief/faith.
That is a lie from the prosperity gospel. A false gospel.
Jesus said all we need is faith like a mustard seed!
This is the smallest seed that they new about then.
The mustard seed when planted and fed and watered, would grow into a large tree that the birds would take shelter in.
We just need to have a small amount of faith to begin with, then as we grow, mature as we feed and water our spirit, our faith will grow in proportion to our spirit. As long as we stay baby Christians, our faith will remain like a mustard seed and not a mature mustard tree!
V24 The father immediately confesses that he has faith but also admits to his spiritual immaturity and weakness. He asks Jesus to help him to have more faith.
Where else should we go to for more faith than the author and finisher of our faith!
1 Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus gives us our faith and He perfects it as we grow and are obedient to His word.
God calls us and He gives us our faith.
We are called to be obedient to Him.
This is such and encouraging verse. We can see that belief is not the absence of faith.
We will have times when our faith can waiver.
Those are times that we need to really dig into the Bible and sit and marinade in His word and let it mature us and our faith.
God will put us in situations to test our faith so that we can see what we need to work on.
We are never fully matured.
There is always work to be done.
There is always growing that is needed.
We need to be constantly feeding and watering our spirit.
It is only when our spirit matures, that our faith matures.
V25 Jesus, seeing the crowd coming, rebuked the demon commanding it to come out and never come back! This is the only time He tells a demon not to come back. Jesus shows His compassion for the boy and his father.
We are told in Matthew 12:43-45
43 “Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
Jesus made sure that this boy would never be possessed by this demon again.
Unless we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are in danger of being possessed by a demon. I don’t think it is a prevalent as it was when Jesus was here.
We don’t see near as many demons being cast out by the Apostles.
I think it is possible, but not as common as when Jesus was here.
V26 We can see that the demon was trying to fight against Jesus’ command.
It is like us sometimes when God calls us to do something, we go kicking and screaming!!
That was me when He first called me to be a pastor.
Now, I would not go back to my old self if I could.
The demon convulsed the boy so bad that he lay there and they thought he was dead.
I can’t imagine what that poor boy went through.
It would be so hard to be aware of everything but not have any control over yourself!
V27 Jesus takes the boy by his hand and lifted him up.
That is what He does for us all so!
We are dead and He takes us by the hand and rises us!
V28 When they get to the house they are staying at, the disciples ask Jesus why they couldn’t cast it out.
They were shocked and puzzled that they could not do it.
They had cast out demons before.
This goes to show that the demons are as different as we are.
Some are stronger than others
This one apparently was a strong one.
V29 Jesus tells them that they can only cast this kind out with only prayer.
No has a prayer life like Jesus!
We are strengthened when we pray.
When we pray we need to have a time of quite, so that God can talk to use and reveal things to us.
The more we pray, the closer we are to God.
That closeness leads to a stronger spirit and a stronger faith.
We just need a little faith
We can have faith if we don’t believe.
We must believe first, then we will be given faith.
Our faith at first is weak and fragile
The more we experience and the more trails and tribulation that we go through, the stronger we and our faith will be.
It is like a tree.
If the tree is never exposed to wind and harsh conditions, it will be weak.
The more wind a tree is exposed to, the strong it is. The wind cause the tree to strengthen itself over time.
If a tree that is never exposed to wind is exposed to wind, it will break quickly.
A tree that grows up in the wind, will be strong.
That is why God allows us to be tested and to go through tribulation.
It is for our good.
It is to strengthen us
It is also good to take time to reflect on the things we have been through.
When we do that, we can see God there with us. We can see Him working in our lives.
That will strengthen us also.
If we never look back, we will never realize what He has done for us.
Reflection is a good thing.
We will have trouble in our lives.
That is a promise.
It is up to us if we will use the troubles to grow or to break us.
I pray that we grow more this year than ever before.
I don’t pray for trouble, but I pray that when it comes, it grows us. That we can look back and see God’s hand on our lives.
We just need to believe and have a little faith. God will do the rest!
Let’s pray
