Sit Down, Be Humble

Sermon Outline for Mark 9:28-35

Theological Proposition: True discipleship requires humility—depending on God through prayer, seeking His wisdom in confusing situations, and putting others above yourself. Sermon Purpose: To challenge hearers to examine their pride and follow Jesus with humility. Homiletical Proposition: Humbly follow Jesus with dependence, dialogue and denial.

Introduction:

Image: Story of the titanic – pride led to a tragic fall.

Need: We all need to stay humble in our walk with Jesus, lest we get humiliated.

Homiletical Subject: How do we humbly follow Jesus?    

Passage Context: Mark 9 pivots in the ministry of Jesus and turns to focus on the failures of the disciples in their following of Jesus.

Message Preview: During our exploration of this text, we’ll see three ways that this text calls us to humbly follow Jesus: dependence, dialogue, and denial.

Announce & Read Text: Turn with me to Mark 9:28.  

I. Humbly follow Jesus by being dependent on God, not yourself. (9:28-29)

A. The disciples couldn’t cast out the demon and question why. (v28)

B. Jesus teaches that spiritual power comes through prayerful dependence. (v. 29)

(Transition statement: The disciples struggled with self-reliance, but they also struggled with fear—leading us to our next point.)

II. Humbly follow Jesus with dialogue on your fears, doubts and questions. (9:30-32)

A. Jesus openly teaches about His coming death, but the disciples don’t understand. (v. 31-32)

B. Instead of asking Jesus for clarity, they remain silent—too afraid or too proud to admit their confusion.

(Illus. Boy in school who held in his bathroom needs and ended up regretting it.)

C. True humility comes in taking our fears, doubts and questions to Jesus and his word. (32)

(Transition statement: The disciples’ fear led to silence, but their pride also showed up in another way—by seeking status instead of service.)

III. Humbly follow Jesus by denying yourself and putting others first. (9:33-35)

A. The disciples argue about who is the greatest. (v. 34)

B. Jesus redefines greatness: it’s not about status, but about serving others and putting yourself last. (v. 35)

Conclusion:

Repeat the HP verbatim: Humbly follow Jesus through dependence, dialogue, and denial.

Reinforce the message:  Often times, if we don’t pump our breaks, we’re headed for a fall. Don’t wait to get humbled before God. Are you relying on your own strength instead of depending on God? Are you staying silent in fear and confusion rather than seeking wisdom from Jesus? Are you seeking status instead of serving others? Pump the breaks of pride and humbly follow Jesus. Jesus calls us to a different kind of life—a life of humble dependence, dialogue and denial. Slow down, be humble, and follow Him.

Manuscript:

Well, perhaps one of the most famous lines of pride ever spoken was: “Not even God Himself could sink this ship.” Whether or not someone actually said it, that line captures the idea that, the Titanic, designed by the brightest minds, built with the finest materials, and equipped with the best technology, was believed to be unsinkable. Yet we instantly connect this line to the most famous shipwreck in human history. So, what happened? Why did the titanic sink? Your first answer might be, “An iceberg.” But that’s only part of the story. Icebergs weren’t new in 1912—ships had been dodging these giant chunks of ice for decades. The real problem? The Titanic refused to slow down.

Standard procedure in icy waters was simple: you would slow your vessel down so you could steer away in time if danger appeared. Yet, spite warnings from other vessels about icy waters, the crew of the Titanic kept the ship at full speed. And so, when the iceberg appeared just a quarter mile ahead, the ship, which weighed several tons, was moving too fast to slow down in time to avoid collision with this giant chunk of ice.

So in reality, the real fatality of the Titanic wasn’t the iceberg—it was the refusal to pump the brakes.  1:45min

I mention this story because I think we all find ourselves in positions where we get going a little too fast, a little too carried away with our own ability or skill, or in other words, we get a little too proud. And this can often lead, as it did in the case of the titanic, to some real danger.

And this happens in our spiritual life all the time. Its easy to start out in our walk with Jesus relying on God, walking slowly with him. But over time, the more we do, the more we kinda “figure it out” the easier it is for us to start sprinting full steam ahead – all own our own power.

Maybe you’ve seen this in your careers.  You started our praying over which job to take. But then you get it in, you’re making deals, you’re getting promoted—you don’t ever ask God for guidance in these business affairs, because, let’s be honest, things are working. Or maybe you’re tired and almost burnt out in your ministry job because you’ve been doing it all in your own strength. 

So often we find ourselves having a lot of forward momentum but somewhere along the way, we lost our anchor. And if we do that for too long, I think we’re headed for an iceberg. 3:15

So the question I want us to look at today is “how do we humbly follow Jesus?” – how do we pump the breaks in our life, so that we can stay aligned with Jesus, and walk with him – and not sprint out ahead on our own – so we don’t end up like the titanic.

Well I think Mark 9 is going to help us answer that question today. So if you have your bibles, flip over to Mark 9, verse 28. Some context for Mark 9 - Mark shifts from revealing who Jesus is to teaching what it means to follow Him. After the transfiguration, the text focuses in on the disciples’ failure in order to show us how to better walk with Him in humility.

In our time we’ll look at 3 ways we can humbly follow Jesus. How do we humbly follow Jesus? Humbly follow Jesus through dependance, dialogue, and denial. Turn to your neighbor and say “dependence, dialogue, and denial” 4:15/ 4:30 So Mark 9:28

            28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” 30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 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.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. 33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

So how do we humbly follow Jesus? The first way is through dependence. Humbly follow Jesus by being dependent on Him, not yourself.

We started our reading in verse 28 because I wanted to narrow in our focus with the limited amount of time we have here – but verse 28 follows a story where Jesus has to cast out a demon because the disciples were unable to. Verses 28 picks up on a private conversation where the disciples wonder why they couldn’t cast the demon out. And that is a valid question.

We see earlier in Mark that disciples had been given the power from the Spirit to cast out demons and to heal. Why did this power seem to fail now? We’ll its not totally clear, but Kurivilla and other commenters speculate based on the wording used in 28-29 we might be able to discern an answer. Well, in Mark 6:7, where we see the disciples casting out demons, mark states “he [Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and he gave them authority/power over the unclean spirits.”

By whose power/authority were the disciples casting out demons in chapter 6? The power and authority of Jesus. Yet, when the disciples come to Jesus in verse 28 – what do they ask? “why could we not cast it out?”

I wonder if the disciples had begun to presume on their own spiritual power – and maybe they forgot that the power of God wasn’t a right, but rather gift. And I think we do this to.

Maybe you’ve been serving in church for years, teaching, leading, serving - but somewhere along the way, your “quiet time” with God got replaced with “planning time”. You stopped praying before meetings, stopped seeking God’s help in your teaching, and suddenly, your ministry has become more about discipline than dependence.

What do we do when we find ourselves in that situation? When we’ve become more caught up in discipline than devotion? What do we do?

And Jesus offers us the solution in verse 29 “this kind only comes out by prayer”. And I know what you’re thinking – “just prayer?” , that’s all we have to do? If you’re thinking that, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Later manuscripts add an addition to this text “this kind only comes out by prayer AND fasting”. I wonder if that was added because they thought the same thing – that prayer being the solution was far too simple. “Intense prayer and fasting is what’s actually needed for access for higher spiritual power.”

Yet, what’s ironic about that is. that that very same voice is what often leads us away from simple dependence on God through prayer. The earliest manuscripts point to this simple truth – how does one achieve great spiritual feats for the kingdom? It’s not by rolling up our bootstraps and getting more “spiritually disciplined” – its through getting on our knees and calling out to God, the only one who has the power to do anything real in this world.

We see a call for prayerful dependance. The disciples needed prayerful dependence, not spiritual autopilot. And we need the same. So first, how do we humbly follow Jesus? Through prayerful dependence on him.

But the disciples didn’t just struggle with dependance, they also had issues with fear. TIME - 9:00

Second point – how do we humbly follow Jesus? We humbly follow Jesus through dialogue – dialoging with him about out questions, fears and doubts.

The next story involves Jesus declaring his mission as the Messiah and predicting his death. But what really strikes me about this section is verse 32 “But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.” So Jesus is here making a massive statement about what he is about to do. And they don’t understand it – which is honestly, totally fair. A lot of the stuff Jesus said was confusing. But what do they do with that confusion? They stay silent because “they were afraid to ask him”. Why?

Well I think there’s two reasons why they might have been afraid to ask 1) genuine fear – there is a lot of scary language in there, being killed etc. So perhaps they were just afraid of the dying language so they didn’t want to ask any more about or 2) they were afraid of looking dumb, aka pride. So they keep their questions to themselves. But what’s sad about this, is that fear and or pride leads them to totally disengage with this mission and purpose of Jesus.

The problem with remaining silent, and bottling up our fears and questions is that they often leak out in an unhealthy way, if we don’t take them to God.

This is true of us too. When God’s plan, mission, and purposes in our life don’t make sense to us, and we don’t take our questions to him- we often will take our doubts and fears and questions to other places for comfort.

I’ve found this to be true in my own life – as a late 20’s single guy – I’ve found myself sometimes being frustrated with God’s plan for my life, doubting his timing for things and in this confusion its so easy for me to want to run to distraction, or gossip or grumbling, or using relationships to easy my discomforts. When we don’t take our fears and questions to Jesus, they often lead us to so many unhealthy avenues. We need to dialogue with Jesus

What does it actually look like? For me, its been carving out set times in the day. Not just when I get a chance, but specific times. I have planned times during the week where I get out in nature and just walk, with no phone, only God. I also have found journaling my doubts and fears has greatly helped me align back with God’s mission. These are just a few ways – but we need intentional time to dialogue with Jesus – our we might just make a mess of ourselves.

So humbly follow Jesus by dialoging with him. 13:00

Lastly – we humbly follow Jesus through denial. In this last story, instead of discussing the mission of Jesus, the disciples start arguing about who among them is the greatest. Isn’t that human nature? Despite our many short comings – despite the disciples failing to cast out a boy, not understanding the sayings of Jesus, they then go on to argue about who is the best. You almost want to laugh at them. But before we laugh at them, we should look in the mirror. Isn’t that what pride does to us all? It blinds us to our weakness and inflates our sense of self. It forgets our dependence and instead demands recognition.

But Jesus doesn’t respond by by shaming them, rather he instructs them.“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” (v.35). In the kingdom of God, greatness isn’t about climbing ladders—it’s about stooping low. Jesus flips the whole system: the path to honor is humility.

But that kind of service doesn’t come naturally. We want to be seen. We want to be praised. We want to be important. But Jesus says: greatness in my kingdom isn’t measured by how many people serve you—but by how many people you serve.

What does this look like in real life? Its serving others, when you could exalt yourself. It’s a student helping another student with their project instead of showing off their A+ project.  It’s a husband doing the dishes after a long day because his wife is tired. It’s choosing the unnoticed task, the behind-the-scenes work, the extra-mile effort—for someone else’s good.

Why though? Why would we do this? Because that’s exactly what Jesus did. Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus didn’t cling to His divine privilege—but actually emptied Himself, took on the form of a servant, and humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. We serve, because he first served us.

14:30

So how do we humbly follow Jesus? through dependence, dialogue, and denial. Often times, if we don’t pump our breaks, we’re headed for a fall. Don’t wait to get humbled before God. Are you relying on your own strength instead of depending on God? Are you staying silent in fear and confusion rather than seeking wisdom from Jesus and his word? Are you seeking your own status instead of serving others? Pump the breaks of pride and humbly follow Jesus. Jesus calls us to a different kind of life—a life of humble dependence, dialogue and denial. Slow down, be humble, and follow Him.