Nothing Will Be Impossible

Introduction

What is faith?

Faith is a word that we use pretty comfortably and one that we could define simply as trust or belief.

And yet when we think of our faith as Christians - that is, our faith in God - we can often struggle a bit with how we might explain it.

This is in part because we know that our faith can ebb and flow.

(1)We’ve all known moments in which we are clinging to God as our only hope.

(2)And we’ve all known moments where we’ve gone hours or even days without without thinking at all about God.

Yet, our faith can still be understood simply as believing Him and trusting what He has said.

Thankfully, we know that even when our faith is weak or lacking, our status as Christians doesn’t change.

This is because of the object of our faith - God Himself - who never changes but is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And when our faith is weak or fragile, we know that we can come to our God and pray, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”

This is the proclamation and plea of the man in the passage that we are looking at today.

(1)Matthew doesn’t record this part of the story.

(2)We find that part in Mark’s account. (Mark 9:24)

I think this is worth noting at the outset because it is a cry that resonates with so many Christians.

(1)We know Scripture tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. (Heb 11:6)

(2)We also know that faith is a gift from God to us. (Eph 2:8)

(3)And even though we understand and receive it as a gift, we are also called to stand firm in our faith. (2 Cor 1:24)

(4)In the end, Scripture tells us that our faith is counted as righteousness. (Rom 4:5)

So it is important as we approach this passage today that we understand this about faith - it is not simply belief, or faith in faith itself.

We are not called simply to be sincere in our faith.

We are called to put our faith, and grow in our faith, in the person and work of Jesus.

In writing of Abraham, Paul states in Romans 4, No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Rom 4:20–25)

The faith that unites each person who trusts in Christ alone is faith in Him - for who He is and what He has done for us - His being delivered for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

In this episode, Matthew recounts a lesson about faith for the disciples and for us.

Jesus shows them that they must think and act with trust fixed on Him.

As He recently corrected Peter, “For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (16:23)

And in our text today, after this important lesson about the walk of faith, He again reminds them of the suffering He will face.

We see all of this come together in a hope-filled instruction that when we do trust and rest in Christ alone, nothing will be impossible for us.

II.Nothing Will Be Impossible (14-20)

Looking now at verse 14 we read, And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him…

This event is connected to the previous one in that as Jesus and the three descended the mountain following the Transfiguration, they are met not only with the other nine disciples, but a crowd is present as well.

As the story unfolds we see that something has already happened before their arrival.

This man, whom Matthew introduces to us, has come to seek the help of Jesus for his son.

Not finding Him with the other nine, he has solicited their help, but they weren’t able to do what he asked.

And so the situation is already filled with some tension.

The nine were dismayed (as we see later in the text).

And Mark’s account tells us that there were Scribes there who were arguing with them.

We aren’t told what the argument was about, but it isn’t far-fetched to think that the Scribes were offering some kind of criticism.

This father comes kneeling before Jesus - a posture of humility that emphasizes his hope, if not true faith that Jesus is able to help him.

It is in this situation that Matthew describes the father’s request to Jesus, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” (15-16)

Addressing Jesus as Lord, he begs Him to show mercy for his son.

Any father can relate to this plea for a suffering child.

He has been unable to do for his son anything that can relieve his suffering.

(1)The particular infirmity is likely epilepsy. 

(2)The term the father uses is literally translated moonstruck. 

(a)Our English word lunatic comes from this same idea.

(b)But it wasn’t necessarily used at this time in the way we use it - to describe someone who is mentally unstable. 

(3)They didn’t know the cause of his seizures from a medical standpoint.

As the story unfolds and Jesus heals the boy, we find out the seizures were caused by demon-possession.

(1)We know this because in verse 18 we see that Jesus rebukes the demon and it came out of the boy.

(2)But this isn’t to say that all epilepsy is the result of demon possession. 

(3)Rather, as we have seen on several occasions in Matthew’s gospel thus far, the demonic realm was uniquely active during the life and ministry of Jesus.

(4)Demons caused a variety of physiological infirmities in the bodies of those they possessed. 

The bottom line is that this boy, the man’s only child, suffered greatly and was harmed as a result of the seizures so that he had often fallen into fire and water.

Again, we can all grieve with this father who helplessly watched his child suffer so greatly. 

Even more so, we see the mercy of Jesus who grieves with the suffering as He works to heal the child.

Since Jesus had not been with the nine when the father first arrived, the man asked them to help - and here he tells Jesus that they weren’t able to do so.

Jesus responds in verse 17, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”

We can hear the angst and frustration in the words of Jesus in His reply.

He addresses the whole generation as faithless and twisted.

(1)The people do not believe and they are perverted in their thinking.

(2)The man had come looking for Jesus with the hope, if not belief that He could help his son.

(3)Yet his faith, and the faith of the disciples, was lacking because the boy was not healed.

(4)Jesus had given His disciples the authority to cast out demons, which we read in Matthew 10.

(a)What happened in this case, we are not told exactly. 

(b)Could it be that the disciples had begun to think they possessed the power in themselves alone?

(c)Whatever the details, we can be sure that their trust was not in God for healing because they were unsuccessful.

While Jesus does address the generation as a whole, the rebuke belongs to the disciples as well.

(1)Their trust was either missing or displaced.

(2)They had become faithless and twisted in their thinking.

(3)Again, the rebuked Jesus gave to Peter comes to mind, “For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (16:23)

And the rebuke of Jesus also applies to the father.

(1)His faith was lacking.

(2)In Mark’s gospel we read more the exchange, 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!” (Mk 9:21–24)

(3)The father admits his need for help even in believing. 

The follow up question, “How long am I to bear with you?” adds to the frustration Jesus felt and expressed.

This may be difficult for us to comprehend, because our frustration is often sinful.

Jesus experienced a whole range of human emotions during His earthly ministry, yet always without sin.

B.B. Warfield writes, “It belongs to the truth of our Lord’s humanity, that he was subject to all sinless human emotions.” 

(1)Jesus is expressing a longing for not only His disciples but also for the people to put their full trust in God.

(2)It is a frustration born not of anger but of love.

(3)What a comfort it is to us that our Savior longed for the righting of all wrongs as He walked this earth - something that we so often experience in our own lives.

He then instructs the father to bring his son to Him.

Verse 18 tells us, And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.

Here we are told the source of the boy’s infirmity - a demon had possessed him.

Unlike the disciples, Jesus was successful in rebuking the demon and it left the boy’s body.

Matthew tells us, he was healed instantly.

It is hard to get our heads around the idea that this young child had to suffer.

None of us would wish such a thing even on our worst enemy. 

Yet for the glory of God, this boy did suffer so that the power of God might be put on display.

(1)In our own thinking, this can sound cruel.

(2)We often wonder why people we love get sick and suffer.

(3)We truly can’t understand this on our own.

(4)But we must recognize the curse of sin for what it is.

(a)It is a mystery why God has allowed sin and all its effects.

(b)Yet we know from Scripture that we are born in sin because of first parents fell.

(c)This is our great dilemma - that we hopelessly dead in our trespasses and sins except for the mercy of our God.

(d)And while it magnifies His great salvation - that in love, He frees us from both the wrath and consequences of sin through faith in Christ - we must understand that we are not innocent bystanders.

The sin that mars us and our world is part of our own doing.

(1)Even when we suffer in what feels like an unjust manner - physical sickness, for example - we don’t suffer innocently. 

(2)We have all fallen short of God’s glory in our sinfulness.

This doesn’t mean that our physical suffering is the result of our own sinning, but simply that we aren’t unaffected by sin’s wrecking power.

It is because of our sin that we need a Savior, but also because of sin’s presence in our world, and it’s consequence which is death - that all creation groans for salvation.

And so we must go to the only One who can deliver us and cry out as this father did, “Have mercy.”

And Jesus did show him mercy by instantly healing his son.

The disciples, understandably, were confounded as they witnessed this and thought back to their own frustrated attempt. Matthew tells us in verse 19, Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

They waited until they were alone with Jesus, but they wanted to understand.

They could have been shamed or even angry and stewed about, but they remained teachable in their asking Him this question.

This is important for us to remember - that we would remain teachable.

I often say that a proud Christian is an oxymoron.

(1)We know we all struggle with pride.

(2)So this doesn’t mean that our pride causes us to lose our salvation.

(3)Yet our pride is contrary to faith.

When we fail and sin, it is always a learning opportunity for us to grow in our faith - so we must remain teachable.

I would add that even when we haven’t sinned and we experience the effects of sin in this fallen world, it is an opportunity for us to grow in our faith - to trust God.

Jesus answers the disciples, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (20)

Quite simply, they lacked faith in their attempt.

Whatever they tried, they did in their own effort.

Mark adds the further explanation of Jesus, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” (Mk 9:29)

(1)Some of you may notice that in the ESV, there is no verse 21.

(2)The translators have omitted that verse because it doesn’t appear in all of the earliest manuscripts. 

(3)However, because Mark includes it I think it is worth mentioning.

That is, the disciples should have prayed and they clearly didn’t. 

(1)Ashamedly, I must admit that on too many occasions I have allowed great stress in my life to persist for far too long.

(a)I have worried and fretted and often become angry or despondent because of a situation.

(b)And then it hits me — I haven’t even prayed!

(2)I don’t know if you can relate to my struggle, but I would guess that I am not alone in this.

(3)Jesus is here, teaching the disciples and us, that prayer ought to be our first resort…not our last.

(a)The heartaches and stresses of life should drive us to our knees.

(b)Our sufferings should lead us to the throne of grace where we can find help in time of need.

Jesus continues that even a small amount of faith is powerful - using the metaphor of a mustard seed.

Both metaphors of the mustard seed and moving mountains were commonly used in Jewish thought and life.

Jesus regularly uses every day things to give a picture for His hearers to better understand what He is saying.

(1)So here, He is saying that a small amount of faith can accomplish great things.

(2)It is not literal, or church history would be filled with examples of literal mountains being moved.

(3)It is a metaphor used to teach a spiritual truth.

(a)And that truth is this - it is not the amount of faith that accomplishes anything.

(b)Rather, it is the object of our faith Who will show His power.

Our prayers do not change God because we cannot provide any information to God that He doesn’t already know.

God is unchanging.

iii)He is the Almighty - not us.

(c)But He sees fit to work through our prayers, as a means of His grace to do the extraordinary things we come and ask of Him.

Yet we know that God doesn’t always grant us the requests we make of Him.

(1)He is not a genie in a bottle. 

(2)Rather, when we pray, as Jesus taught us, we do so asking Him to do His will on earth as it is in heaven.

(3)Everything we ask of Him must be in submission to His holy and perfect will.

And when we submit ourselves to Him and pray for even that which seems impossible, He tells us that even those things are possible.

Possible is key here.

It doesn’t mean everything we ask for will come true.

If that were so, we would make God our agent - and He is no one’s agent. As He states through the prophet Isaiah, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” (Is 46:8–11)

But there is nothing we can’t bring to Him that He doesn’t hear, when we do so in submission to His will. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Pet 5:6–7)

So we bring everything to Him - our physical needs, our hurting hearts, our desire for loved ones to come to a saving knowledge of Him, and all our worries - and we do this in faith and are strengthened that nothing will be impossible for us.

III.Jesus Will Die and Be Raised (22-23)

Following this event Matthew tells us in verses 22-33, As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed. 

This is the same prediction that Jesus spoke of previously to the disciples when He said that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and then be raised by the Father.

Here, instead of must, He simply states that He will be delivered to be killed and then be raised.

He also uses a different phrase that speaks to Him being delivered into the hands of men.

(1)This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 53, that it was according to the plan of God that the Messiah must suffer and die.

(2)Yet there is culpability on the part of those by whose hands He would suffer and die.

(3)We see this in the story of Joseph as he speaks to his brothers who sold him into slavery when he told them, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Gen 45:8)

(4)Peter expresses this same sentiment in his sermon in Acts 2, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” (Ac 2:22–23)

It was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God - yet those who crucified Him were responsible for their actions.

(1)God will always accomplish His purpose.

(2)Even the sins of people cannot thwart His plans.

As the disciples heard this prediction again, they were greatly distressed.

This wasn’t how they’d imagined it would happen.

They hear Jesus explain it, but their hearts are broken that He would have to die.

They are still grappling with the plan and straining to understand how this could at all be a good thing.

IV.Conclusion

In the same way, it is hard for us to consider the death of the sinless Son of God as a good thing.

Yet we know that it was - for it was through His death alone that our ransom was paid.

It was by His stripes that we receive our healing.

It was through His being broken that our sins were forgiven and the atonement was made.

The proof of this horrible thing being the means through which our greatest good came about would come on the third day - when the Father raised Jesus to life.

This is what we are called to hear and believe. 

The Good News of the Gospel is that Christ Jesus came to save sinners - and He did this through His death and resurrection. 

We are called simply to trust Him - to believe with our whole hearts that He alone is our righteousness. 

And like our father Abraham, our faith is credited to us as that righteousness.

To walk by faith is to walk believing in Jesus.

When doubts come, we cry out, “I believe; help my unbelief.” 

When we face suffering, we cast all our anxieties on Him because we know that He cares for us.

When those we love suffer, we run to Jesus and fall on His mercy in faith, trusting Him to do what He alone can do.

When our worlds seem to crumble and we can’t see a way forward, we hear His promise that if we will trust Him with even the smallest faith, in Him nothing will be impossible for us.

So we do not lose heart, not because of the strength of our faith, but because of the immeasurable power of the One in whom our faith rests.