The Unexpected Faith

Great to be back together today as we continue our walk the Mark.

If you were with us last week, we looked at the beginning of chapter nine and witnessed this incredible mountain top experience that Jesus had along with Peter, James and John.

Just a s a quick recap.

The four of them went high up one of mountains where they were spending time praying together. Then, all of a sudden, Jesus was “transfigured” or “metamorphosed.” The text says that:

“…his clothes became radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them.”

Then Jesus was joined by Moses and Elijah, the great law-bringer and the great prophet, and they were talking about Jesus impending departure. And as if that’s not enough, then the mountain was overshadowed by a cloud and the voice of God himself came and said:

“This is my beloved Son; Listen to Him.”

We said that this mountaintop experience was recorded for us for a few reasons:

We got a glimpse of Jesus’ true essence

"For a brief moment the veil of Jesus' humanity was lifted, and his true essence was allowed to shine through” - Kent Hughes

2) Moses (the founder of Isreal’s religious economy) and Elijah (the restorer of Israel’s economy) were the ultimate summary of the OT, and they were talking with, and presumably encouraging and strengthening Jesus to fulfill his mission. Brings unity to the testaments

3) The presence of God, the shekinah glory of God showed up, something that hadn’t happened in ~600 years (since Ezekiel), and not only that, the humans that were on the mountaintop, didn’t die in God’s presence. Tim Keller helpfully wrote (once everything had disappeared and it was just the disciples and Jesus:

This moment of quiet is Mark's way of saying:

Moses is gone, Elijah is gone, and Jesus is able to bridge the gap between God and humanity. Jesus is able to give what Elijah couldn't give, what Moses couldn't give, what no one else can deliver.

Through Jesus, we can cross the gap into the very heart of reality. Jesus is the temple and tabernacle to end all temple and tabernacles because he is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, the ultimate priest to point the way for all priests.

Keller goes on to say:

"When the cloud comes don, now only do the disciples not die, they're surrounded and embraced by the brilliance of God. They hear God the Father speaking of his love for the Son, just as he did when Jesus was baptized at the beginning of Mark...James, Peter and John have experiences WORSHIP...Worship is a preview of the thing that all our hearts are longing for, whether we know it or not.

Which brings us to:

4) Because of Jesus, when we gather, we too can experience just a little piece, a “foretaste” a hint of the glory of God, because as we “worship” and we share in God’s love through song, scripture, being together, prayer, etc.” we can experience the love of God, and we can move beyond simply knowing/believing things about God, but also having an experience with Him.

Finally:

5) We need these collective mountaintop experiences. Not only them, we can’t stay on the mountain (like Peter suggested by building houses for Jesus, Moses and Elijah), but we need them so that we can be reminded of the goodness of God, the love of God, our ultimate future with God and b strengthened to “go back down the mountain” which is where we find ourselves heading in today’s text.

Now one last thing before we move into today’s text. These verses talk once again about demon possession, and point to a spiritual realm beyond all that we can see. So if you’re here maybe for the first time, maybe exploring this church thing, this may come across as really weird if you’ve never heard anything about it before. But I’d ask that maybe just go with it for this morning as we look at Jesus, and I’m happy to have further conversations about it afterwards or at a later time as well.

Let’s dive in:

Mark 9:14 ESV

And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.

“And when they came to the disciples,

they saw a great crowd around them,

and scribes arguing with them.

Jesus, Peter, James and John come back down the mountain to rejoin the other nine disciples. Imagine the conversations that the four of them would have had on the way down?! We said last week it probably took the better part of the day to climb up the mountain, so it would have been a fair bit of time coming back down.

Have you ever had a “mountaintop type” experience with God? Maybe at a summer camp or retreat, or outreach trip or even serving here in the Valley. These experiences are moulding, they’re shaping, and often we return giddy from them, and just can’t wait to tell everyone about what we’ve learned or experienced.

That’s probably how Peter, James and John were feeling, blown away by this experience, and then maybe even more encouraged and challenged by the conversations they had with Jesus (which aren’t recorded here for us, it’s safe to assume Jesus said more things than what we have written down), while they were coming down the mountain.

But.

They get down the mountain, and into chaos.

Again, a “great crowd,” and confrontation between the scribes and the disciples.

Mark 9:15–16 ESV

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 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?"

If we skip ahead, or are familiar with this story, we know that among the crowd was a father who had brought his son hoping to bring him to Jesus. But Jesus wasn’t there, so this father asked the disciples for help.

Something we need to remember, is that earlier in Mark, Jesus had given his disciples “authority to cast out demons (3:14-15), and they’s also been sent out without Jesus and “cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.” (6:13) So what is being asked of them is not something they’ve never done before.

The other thing we see in these two verses is Jesus seeming to confront the crowd, which would have included the scribes.

Once again we need to put ourselves back in the first century to totally understand what’s happening here. See, in those days the abilities of the followers lent credibility to the leader. Maybe that’s still sort of the case today, but probably less so.

So, the fact that the disciples had failed to deal with the boy’s evil spirit led the scribes to deride them for their powerlessness, and the ascribe that same lack of power to Jesus himself. Basically, as one commentator put it, the scribes were saying to the disciples “you’re all phonies, and so is your master!”

I picture Jesus in this moment posturing himself between his disciples and the crowd, something like a protective parent shielding their kids. Jesus knows his guys. He knows that they still don’t have everything figured out, so he steps in the gap.

But before Jesus question was answered:

Mark 9:17–18 ESV

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 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."

Enter the father.

This father is desperate.

adds that he came and got on his knees before Jesus.

tells is that this is the mans only child.

A combination of the three gospels gives us a picture of the boys existence [Hughes]:

The demon seizes the boy (9:18)—the child screams ()—the spirit throws him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth. He grinds his teeth and becomes stiff as a board (). Many times he has been cast into a fire or water by the spirit (), so that he is covered with burn scars. But even worse, the spirit has made him deaf and mute (, ). He lived an aquarium-like existence. He could see what was going on around his pathetic body, but he could not hear or speak.

When we have previously looked at parts of Mark with demon-possessed, we’ve noted that the goal of Satan, the devil, the adversary of God is to destroy those created in the image of God, humans.

Kent Hughes is helpful:

[this boy is] a perfect example of Satan’s motivation, which is to destroy the image of God in mankind—as we see also in the pathetic condition of the Gadarene maniac (who was even compelled to engage in self-mutilation, 5:1–5).

Satan is at war with the image of God, the Imago Dei.

Anything he can do to destroy this in man is for him, in his twisted thinking, a triumph over God.

The disciples tried to help the boy, but were unsuccessful because {spoiler alert} they weren’t praying. For whatever reason, they’d come to the place where they thought they could simply take care of these spiritual battles all under their own power, perhaps having a sense of pride trickling in and clouding their vision. They had underestimated the power of evil in the world.

It’s interesting (actually essential) to note that the father of the boy is the only one in this scene who is acknowledging his weakness and admitting that he doesn’t have what it takes to deal with the suffering and evil that he faces.

He’s our example (outside of Jesus) in this story.

Mark 9:19–22 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.” 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 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."

This is a heartfelt, lament of a statement directed at Jesus’ disciples, he’s calling out their lack of faith, not their lack of power.

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."

Once again, imagine the desperation of the father here. He’s watched his only son be tormented for years. No doubt he has tried everything to help his son. He’s likely spent all sorts of time and money seeking out the physicians of the day, probably with the religious people too, maybe even exploring other traditional medicines or other healers. We don’t know for sure, but when he comes to Jesus, maybe he comes with just a glimmer of hope. “Maybe this Jesus I’ve heard about can finally do something.” See, I’d imagine with every failed attempt to bring healing to his son, a little piece of the father dies inside, and a bit more of his hope is dashed.

So the man comes to find Jesus, but Jesus isn’t there at first (he was up the mountains), so he asks the disciples for help, and they fail him. Nearly snuffing out the last glimmer of hope for the father.

But he gets an audience with Jesus. They have a conversation, and we see the glimpse of his fast-fading hope.

“Listen Jesus, we’ve been dealing with this for a long time, your disciples have failed, maybe you could give it a shot too? If you think you can do anything…”

And Jesus said to him,

"'If you can'! All things are possible for one who believes."

Jesus call the man out: “If?!”

“If I can help?”

“All things are possible for one who believes.”

Now, this verse has been ripped out of context and abused perhaps more than any other in the Bible.

What Jesus is NOT saying here is that if we just conjure up enough faith, we can do anything, get anything, heal anything.

I can believe and pray all I want that I’ll arrive home to a new Ferrari on the driveway, but it’s probably not going to happen.

I HAVE prayed and believed that God can heal relationships and then watched them fall apart.

I HAVE prayed and believed that God would miraculously heal illness and watched it not happen.

I HAVE prayed and believed, and tried to muster up all sorts of belief and not seen the actions I wanted happen…

But here’s what I think Jesus IS saying here.

Belief means getting out of the way.

“Having faith” (ie not being a part of the ‘faithless generation’) means recognizing our limits. Recognizing that we CAN’T do it on our own.

It’s really recognizing the Gospel.

See, virtually every other worldview in the market place of ideas tells us that we need to DO SOMETHING to get anything. Whether it’s appeasing the gods, living up to the tenets of a religion or building yourself into “all that you were created to be,”

But following Jesus means believing we CAN’T rescue ourselves, we CAN’T save ourselves…

Mark 9:24 ESV

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

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said,

"I believe; help my unbelief!"

The man knows he’s just been called out, and he owns it.

Somewhere inside he DOES believe Jesus could heal his son or he wouldn’t be there.

Somewhere deep inside there is still a glimmer of hope that Jesus might have compassion on him and heal his son, so the man desperately tries to cling to that.

“I want to believe Jesus, but I’m full of doubts, help me overcome my doubts!”

There’s an important lesson for us from this father. He’s brutally honest about his situation.

“Jesus, I’m going through hell here watching my son be terrorized and I think you might be able to help but I’m not really sure, but I WANT to believe that you can so please, would you help me believe in you?”

I need to learn from this man, I suspect you do too.

I don’t have it all together.

I don’t perfectly follow Jesus.

I have doubts.

But like his example I want to pray that God would help my unbelief.

Sometimes we “functionally” don’t believe in Jesus. We say the right things, but if we completely believed what the Bible tells us about Who God is, what He’s done for us, and who were are in light of all God has done, I’d be perfectly content knowing that my value, my worth, my identity come from what God says about me.

Those things (value, worth, identity) DON’T come from the car I drive, the house I live in, the job I have, how well my marriage is going, how good my kids listen to me, the letters/degrees after my name, how fast I can get up the side of a mountain, my bank account, my sexual orientation or sex life, the way I vote, the skills/talents and abilities I have, none of it.

This is the good news of the Gospel that my identity comes from being created in the image of God, and being so loved by God that he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for my rebellion/offence/sin to that I can once again have a relationship with him.

So listen, I want you to know that you have a sinner for a pastor. Without Jesus in my life, I’m a disaster. When I look back to earlier in my life when I wasn’t really following Jesus, I shudder thinking about where I could me. Even this week, if I allow myself to think about or focus on the “things of this world” as opposed to looking at the world through God’s eyes, it doesn’t take long for at very least my “functional disbelief” to start showing up.

I’ve heard this from more that a few people and at least twice in the last week, so I think it’s applicable, but many churches, probably Trinity too, can learn some things from AA type meetings.

Again, I’ve heard a few people share this, but a friend too once told me that in his experience, The church could learn a lot from an AA group, because when you walk into a meeting, everyone admits that they don’t have it all together. Step one is admitting the need for a higher power right?

Church, we know the higher power.

Listen, if you’ve been following Jesus for any length of time, and you have even a simple understanding of the gospel, just by walking though that door and identifying yourself as a follower of Jesus, you’re admitting that you need help, that you need Jesus.

So, church/family, I want to give you permission to be flawed, broken, imperfect people.

I don’t care how well you can hold all your stuff together on the outside.

Admit it, you need a saviour.

Let me remind you, that saviour is Jesus.

—

The man cries out “help my unbelief.”

This is the beauty of the gospel, we don't need perfect understanding, believe or righteousness, just repentant helplessness to access the presence of God.

See Jesus could have told the man,

“I am the glory of God in human form. Purify your heart, confess all you sinn, get rid of all your doubts and your double-mindedness. Once you have surrendered to me totally and can come before me with a pure heard, then you can ask for the healing you need”

The boy’s father says,

“I’m NOT faithful, I am riddled with doubts, and aI cannot muster the strength necessary to meet my moral and spiritual challenges. But help me.”

That there is a saving faith—one that has faith in Jesus, not oneself.

[Keller]

“Perfect righteousness is impossible for us, and if you wait for that, you will never come into the presence of God. You must admit that you are NOT righteous and that you need help. When you can say THAT, you are approaching God to worship.

Mark 9:25–29 ESV

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.”

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."

Jesus healed the boy, giving him new life.

The disciples had failed because they had neglected to sit under the authority of God, and were trying to conjure up a healing and exorcism by their own strength and power.

Mark 9:30–32 ESV

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.

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.”

We can’t leave this scene without remembering where Jesus himself is headed, and all that he is about too lose.

Jesus has lived for endless ages in glory with the father. At the beginning of chapter 9, on that mountain top we see Jesus surrounded by the glory of God, in the presence of God, experiencing worship.

But Jesus is on the way to the cross, where he will be abandoned and forsaken by God.

ON the mountain we see Jesus as he always has been, embraced by and clothed with the love and light of God. But on the cross we will see him naked and alone in the dark.

Why would he do this?

He did it for us.

Paul tells us clearly that evil is unmasked and defeated on our behalf at the cross. In his letter to the church at colossal he says that Jesus “disarmed the power and authorities…triumphing over them by the cross ().

[Keller]

And on the mountain, through the Spirit God was strengthening Jesus for his mission, for the infinite suffering he would endure to defeat all evil. And God can empower us in the same way to face evil and overcome our own suffering

You may know in your head that God loves you—but sometimes the Spirit makes it especially clear to you that that is the case. Sometimes you go to the mountain. Sometimes through the Spirit you can hear God make a statement of unconditional, permanent, intimate love. Sometime you don’t just KNOW ABOUT God’s love but in your hear you actually hear God saying “You’re my daughter, you’re my son, I love you. I would go to infinite cost and infinite depths not to lose you—and I have.”

When you have pursued God in repentant helplessness, you will have worshipped. And every time you sense his embrace, your soul will shine the slightest bit brighter with his reflected flory, and you will be the slightest more ready to face what live has in store for you.

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