What Went Wrong

Introduction

Mark 9:14–29 ESV

14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 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.” 19 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.” 20 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. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 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.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 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.” 26 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.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 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.”

Prayer

What went wrong? We ask this question about a lot of things. Guys ask this after they think the first date went really well and the girl says they rather not. Gingers ask this after they put sunscreen on and they still burn. Employees ask this when they think they are the best for the promotion, but someone else gets it. We can ask so many things in life wondering what went wrong, and we may not get an answer, we get an answer we do not like, and maybe sometimes we understand what did went wrong.

We just read a story about a boy who was possessed, and the disciples could not cast out the unclean spirit. They ask “What went wrong?”

Context

Jesus has just taken Peter, James, and John up the mountain where he was transfigured before them. Verse three describes as

There is no parallel of this in Matthew or Luke’s gospel. Jesus has just taken Peter, James, and John up the mountain where he was transfigured before them. Verse three describes as

Mark 9:3 ESV

3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

These three men who claimed to know and believe Jesus as Lord sees this were terrified. They were in fear of who they were standing before.

They come down from the mountain only then to see that the other disciples were trying heal a boy with a unclean spirit within him. They claim to know Jesus, to serve him, to follow him and when they were without him they could not rebuke the spirit from the boy.

They had seen Jesus do crazy things. Things against the natural order in this world. Miracles of all kinds.

Back in chapter six he had given the twelve apostles authority over these unclean spirits.

And Mark tells us

Mark 6:13 ESV

13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

So they have done it before. They have rebuked these spirits without Jesus being there. Yet this time they could not free this boy from the evil within him. What went wrong?

Why not this time?

Mark 9:14 ESV

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

Mark 9:15 ESV

15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.

The person of Jesus when they see him they were amazed.

Jesus wondering what they are arguing about, wondering why the commotion then asks

Mark 9:16 ESV

16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”

So we’ve read that the disciples cannot seem to heal this boy from the unclean spirit, and the scribes are there arguing with them. We can suggest that they are more than likely embarrassing the disciples for not being able to heal the boy.

No one I thinks like to be embarrassed. I mean we all have said something dumb in front of a friend or two. But when we get embarrassed in front of a group of people it is much worse. Me or David standing before you, like I am sure we do things that are embarrassing that afterwards we shake our heads thinking, “What did I just do?”

Look what happens

Mark 9:17-18

Mark 9:17–18 ESV

17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 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.”

Mark 9:17 ESV

17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.

Think of the father’s perspective. He hears that Jesus is close, and he finds his disciples and brings his child to them for them to heal them. Maybe he figured that they were the next best thing, or he heard stories of them doing this before so they can do that with his kid. But they failed. Maybe he was disappointed. frustrated. Arguments break out. Theres no hope. Jesus is not around. His disciples can’t do anything.

And then Jesus is there. Hope returns. His boy may get healed. So he brings him. And its a disturbing story.

He’s mute. This unclean spirit takes control of him. throws him down. He foams out the mouth. Grinds his teeth. Rigid. A father who’s child is suffering and he is powerless to do anything about it. But he brings him to the one who can do something about it.

You may be here tonight with something in your life you are powerless over. A situation you can’t do anything about. You’ve lost hope. There’s so much pain. So much suffering. Bring those struggles to Jesus. Lay them at his feet. His shoulders are bigger than yours.

This father brings his child to Jesus and what is his response?

Mark 9:19 ESV

19 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 here is our first point. What went wrong?

A lack of faith

Jesus speaking to the crowd. Speaking to his disciples. Speaking to the present generation

O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?

Rhetorical questions.

Jesus is addressing the people there as a whole and this phrase ‘faithless generation’ is stressing the unbelieving people he encounters everywhere. What more do these people need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

Miracle after miracle. Blind man after blind man. The Lame walk. People who were in deep physical need and they were given not only their physical needs but their spiritual needs.

Jesus is dissatisfied with the crowds, and that includes his nine disciples, the ones who if anyone should have believed him. They had a lack of faith in the one who is faithful. A lack of faith in the one who would and will never let us down.

The people of this time, and us now struggle and we have a lack of faith.

So he commands them to bring the boy to him and they bring him it says,

Mark 9:20 ESV

20 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.

So this verse shows that this evil spirit knows he is about to lose control of the boy. He knows who Jesus is, and so his response is for last tone time to try and destroy this boy.

This picture we see in the beginning of of the beauty of Jesus being transfigured on the mountain. So beautiful the disciples were terrified. They did not know what to do. They were speechless, and this picture puts us in awe of the glory, the beauty, the majesty of Jesus, and he comes down the mountain and we see the worse of evils. Violent, destructive, and all bent on destroying that what God has made in the world. We as humans who bear the image of God to mar it.

Man is man and woman is woman, and evil has made it to where there is no gender.

Marriage is to be between a man and a woman and evil has marred that.

This story in Mark shows the contrast of the goodness of Jesus to the evil of this world.

And it just gets worse for this boy.

Mark 9:21–22 ESV

21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 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.”

Mark 9:21

The Father is pleading, “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” You see the Father’s lack of faith. “If you can do anything.”

That would be the equivalent of me asking a chef, “Hey if you can I know it is a bit difficult, can you make me some Kraft mac and cheese?” One they are probably going to be super confused I asked for something so simple, but yes of course they can make a bowl of mac and cheese.

Asking Jesus, the Son of God, the one who has been with the Father from eternity past who has done miracle after miracle bringing people from death to life, and you want to ask “if you can, can you have compassion on us.”

OF COURSE HE WILL

Look at what Jesus says

Mark 9:23 ESV

23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”

Jesus puts the phrase back on the father. Why is the father saying “If you can” and Jesus says “If you can”

An Exegetical Summary of Mark 9–16 9:23

‘As regards your remark about my ability to help your son, I tell you everything depends upon your ability to believe, not on mine to act’

Jesus puts the burden back on the father, because the issue is not Jesus’ power to heal this boy, but on the Father believing Jesus can heal this boy. The challenge is for this father to believe.

And lets address the issue, preachers, Christians, and any kind of person can take that verse throw it completely out in left field and tell you if you muster enough faith up you’ll get everything you ever wanted.

That is not the point Jesus is making with the father here. Rather, the father does not believe. “If you can” have compassion on us. Jesus can, but do you believe.

We ourselves in this room pray prayers that go outside of what God’s Word says,

“God I know that you can heal my grandmother from cancer, and I know you will.” You don’t know that your grandma will be healed from cancer.

And then we go the other way where we pray for our grandma to be healed from cancer while doubting in the back of our minds God can heal her. Both are wrong.

Jesus putting it back on the father is saying, “you currently don’t believe I can, and if you continue to not then your son will remain how he is. But if you do believe, then the spirit may be cast out of him.

The father for years has seen his boy struggle from this demon with no hope that one day he may be healed from it. And then when he saw the disciples of Jesus in town..hope only for it to be crushed. He is down but look at what he says.

There has been a lack of faith and now we see

Power Through Faith

Mark 9:24 ESV

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

Mark 9:

The Father wants to believe. With everything he wants to believe Jesus can heal his boy. That this spirit may be cast out of him. Years and years he has seen his boy torture and Jesus, the Son of God is standing before him who has the power to cast it out and he cries out

I Believe Help my Unbelief!

An honest answer. A transparent answer. A man whose faith was imperfect, but it was real. A faith this man declares publicly, and recognizes his weakness, he pleads for help.

The man makes a conscious decision to believe, yet an honest answer that he is struggling to believe and is calling on God for greater faith. Greater trust.

Sometimes all we can do in a situation in life where we do not know what is going on is to cry out to God, “I believe help my unbelief.”

As we make the conscious decision to believe in God, believe in who he says, believe in the promises he makes and keeps that our faith is weak, and we need his help to overcome our unbelief.

Mark

Mark 9:25–26 ESV

25 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.” 26 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.”

The authority of Jesus on display. The gospel of Mark has stories ranging from the different things such as nature, diseases, and demons Jesus has authority over, and he rebukes this spirit to not only come out, but to never return to this boy ever again.

This demon would possess the boy, the boy would be in pain with seizures, and other symptoms, and then the demon would leave.

Jesus then frees the boy, but then he’s dead. Like I wonder how much time had passed by because people may be a bit confused. Some may be angry because the boy was alive, and then this Jesus comes and now he is dead.

Mark 9:27 ESV

27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

You can just picture it. The crowd is cheering. The father is giving massive hugs to his boy. To Jesus.

What we saw as Jesus being transfigured on the mountain, then the picture of evil and how it mucks up the image of God and creation. And then Jesus rebukes the spirit restoring the image of God.

Things have been restored. Faith has been strengthened.

So we have seen a lack of faith, we have seen power through faith and then finally we see what went wrong

Power from Prayer

Look at verse 28

Mark 9:28 ESV

28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”

Jesus went away, and the disciples did what he commanded them to do. They preached, they cast out evil spirits as usual. You could say then that what the Lord commanded them to do, live on mission, they were doing.

And then this boy happens. This evil spirit possessed this boy, and one disciple tried to cast it out and it did not work. Another disciple tries and they fail. Several more tried and nothing worked.

Why?

What went wrong?

Jesus answers them

Mark 9:29 ESV

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

The disciples had deceived themselves. They must have figured what they were doing came from them. That was not always the case. They went about six days without Jesus dependent on his power. Dependent that what they were doing only came from Him and not from within themselves.

But then they became self-reliant. They forgot to be radically dependent on God and His power.

And because of this inner flesh versus spirit battle where they became reliant on themselves, they did not think to pray.

And Jesus then teaches them this point.

Preaching the Word: Mark—Jesus, Servant and Savior Power Comes Through Prayer (vv. 28, 29)

Jesus was teaching them that the faith which brings power is a faith that prays.

The disciples of Jesus, who were living on mission until they forgot to be dependent on God.

And here is the main point that I want to bring across tonight. You will never live a life on mission if you are not radically dependent on Jesus Christ.

If its is true that Jesus was transfigured on the mountain before the disciples. If we believe he is the son of God, the one who came and died to rescue us, then he is worth putting our faith into. He is worth having our whole life being dependent on him.

So implication number one tonight.

If you believe Christ can fulfill his Word, then your life will be given to prayer

If you do not believe this, then I would ask what would happen? You can’t believe that truth and go on living life as if nothing has happened. Something has to change. We cannot continue to read our Bibles, read the promises made in this book, and live life unchanged.

What will it take for you and I to believe and live out the promises of God?

If you give your life to prayer, then there will be power in your life

You have heard David talk about living with a prophetic edge. That a life on mission will make people wonder what is different about you. Why you can respond to situations with joy or peace.

They will wonder how you can live your life with direction and purpose, and be persecuted for what you believe, and yet still continue to proclaim Jesus as Lord.

You encourage one another living a life where there is power. Your Christian friends come to you for wisdom and counsel because they see you living out the Bible. Your non-Christian friends come to you in times of need because they see your life on mission.

People went to the disciples to get healed and demons to be cast out because they lived life on mission..until they didn’t. Until they became prideful and relied on themselves.

We will fail in this life trying to live on mission. We will mess up. We will struggle in our fight against sin. But Christians who live a life devoted to prayer, who believe in the Jesus of this chapter, of this gospel, of this book are devoted living a life on mission for the glory of God and spread of his name and his glory in their life, their job, their school, their friends, their family, all for his honor and his praise.

Summer is ending, and school is starting back up. Let us be a college ministry devoted to prayer, devoted to Jesus, devoted to making his name known where it is not known. Something has to change, and may we start to live out what we believe.