Matthew 17:14-23

Intro

It was fifteen or so years ago. I was in the lobby of a movie theatre waiting for a friend, when I began conversation (intent on sharing the Gospel) with a girl who was probably just a few years younger than me. She was with two other friends who had walked across the lobby, to the bathroom before our conversation began. I don’t remember how the conversation started, but I remember asking what she believed, “My parents are Catholic,” she said. “But I just started practicing Wicca. My two friends—those girls who were just with me—they got me into it. They’ve been doing it for a while.” “Okay”, I said. “Do you mind if I tell you a story?” “Sure,” she said. And, I began to share the Gospel with her. She leaned in and seemed really interested. As I began to tell her about the work of Christ, on the cross for her she said, “I’ve never heard this before. I mean I know who Jesus is, but I’ve never heard this before.” After a couple of minutes, her friends—who had no idea what we were talking about--came out of the bathroom, stood in the threshold of the doorway and yelled across the lobby, “Get away from him! Come with us! Get away from him! It’s all lies. Everything he’s telling you is lies.” “No,” she said. “I want to hear this. I want to hear this. I’ve never heard this, before.” It wasn’t more than a few seconds, and her dad pulled up to the curb, her friends motioned for her and she walked toward the exit. “Do you have a Bible?” I asked. “Yes,” she said. “Read the book of John and you can finish the story.” “Okay,” she said. And off she went. I still pray for her, whenever she comes to mind.

I was a relatively new believer, but one thing became clear to me…as long as we are in the world, we will see the effects of unseen spirits in all different kinds of ways; and the perfect and constant answer to all that upsets the world—unseen spirits, faithlessness, trial-- is Jesus Christ—His power, The proclamation of Him and His finished work, and our faith in Him. That’s the reason there was such a fuss in the middle of the lobby…Jesus. While our passage for this morning is certainly about an unseen spirit that Jesus deals with (because His disciples could not), this passage is primarily about the power and person of Christ and what faith and reliance in Him means for those who trust in Him and for those who lack faith in Him. I hope to do this in three points, as we walk through v.14-23:

The Power of Jesus

The Power of Faith

The Promise of Pardon

Then, I’ll provide some practical points of application in closing.

Context

You might notice that the passage jumps from v.20-22. Some manuscripts insert v.21: But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting. Your bible most likely has it as a footnote. The omission of this verse isn’t completely explained., but it was probably absent from Matthew’s original gospel and added to some manuscripts in the late second century to help this account match the one in Marks’ gospel. That’s the reason that the translation I’m using — ESV — omits it.

Jesus has just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration. It’s the next day. He’s with Peter, James and John. All three synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—place this story right after the transfiguration. The closer Jesus moves to his death and resurrection, the more His uniqueness is pronounced. You can see the contrast between what was certainly a glorious event in the transfiguration, into what is a tragic and less than stellar scenario with the demoniac boy and the lack of faith seen in the disciples.

Jesus, Peter, James and John come down from the mountain, and much like Moses coming down from Mount Sinai, the walk into a scenario of darkness and unbelief. They’ve experienced something heavenly only to experience something very earthly. But, they are about to bear witness, yet again, to the power of Jesus.

The Power of Jesus

They come to a crowd and father comes kneeling before (v.14) Jesus. This would’ve been out of humility and desperation, more than out of worship. Look at his words in v.15:

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.

As you read this, especially if you’re a parent, you can’t help but be overwhelmed. What a heartbreaking situation to be in—his son is in constant danger and repeatedly harmed, because he has a spirit that’s causing the symptoms of epilepsy and Mark 9 tells us, makes him mute. He’s thrown into fire and water…and we can presume that the only thing that’s really kept him alive is the careful care of his parents. An aside: Please know that this doesn’t mean that those with severe and physically debilitating medical condition have a demon or a demonic spirit. In this instance in scripture there is a clear connection between the two, but this is not prescriptive. It’s important to note the distinction in the authority gives to his disciples in Matthew 10:1 (and we’ll come back to this later) over unclean spirits, to cast them out, AND to heal ever disease and every affliction. The two are distinct and separate. It just so happens that this desperate man in v.14 is the father of a boy who is affected by both. And the real point is in WHO the father brings his son to! He comes, pleading for mercy on behalf of his son, to Jesus! Best decision he’s ever made!

And so it is for every parent! We must bring our children to God, in prayer and plead for his mercy on them! We have no power to save them. The sooner we remember this, the quicker we’ll get to praying for them. Our children need Jesus! And we should plead His help, on their behalf, just like this father. He’s a good example for us.

He brings him to Jesus, because Jesus’ disciples—even though they were given authority to minister in this very kind of situation—cannot help the man and his boy. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him. Some commentators say that the translation emphasizes that the man is actually surprised that the disciples can’t heal his son.

And what does the text say? v.17,18 - “…bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.

The father and the boy are helpless, nine of the disciples, for all their trying (we’re not sure how long they were trying) are helpless, and Jesus, The Son of Man, God in flesh intervenes. He casts out the spirit and the boy is healed instantly.

This is the mercy, compassion and power of Jesus Christ—The God Man—at work. He is the one who nothing is impossible for! He has dominion over sickness, death and demons.

The Prince of Darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo, his doom is sure;

One little word shall fell him.

Which is exactly what happens here. Sickness and spirits obey the The Son! Matthew Henry says, “The lion of tribe of Judah will be too hard for the roaring lion that seeks to devour.” Quite simply, we see the power that was just revealed to three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, the day before displayed instantaneous healing of the boy. Jesus is the all powerful Son of God.

And isn’t it so amazing, that Jesus, after just revealing his true glory, comes down to a broken world, a helpless father and his son and immediately shows compassion! As one commentator puts it, “Glory did not distract Jesus from compassion. Rather, compassion for the hurting became an expression of his glory.” And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

What undeserving mercy and grace we see in the person and work of Jesus Christ... who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant!

This is the power, mercy and compassion of our God, church. How can we not entrust ourselves to Him?

The Power of Faith

Not only do we see the power and divinity of Jesus in his rebuking of the demon and healing of the boy, we also see that Jesus has sovereignly ordained this pericope so that he can help his disciples understand the power of faith, and not only the power of faith, but more importantly the object of their faith.

The crowd is arguing with the disciples (Mark 9) about why they can’t heal the boy or cast out the spirit. This may have been going on for some time. However long it’s been going on, the nine disciples cannot do it. Verse 16: “they could not heal him.” Verse 19b: they “could not . . . cast it out.” In both places the word used for “they could” (in their case, add “not”) comes from the word we use for dynamite. The root word in Greek is dynamis. They were unable. They didn’t have the power. Their best dynamite didn’t work.

Jesus responds to their failure in two arenas, one is public and one is private. When he hears that His disciples couldn’t cast out the spirit, He answers in v.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.”

This is a public rebuke. To who? Is it the disciples? Is it to the crowd? Is it to Jews? Is he talking to Gentiles? I think the answer is, yes! It’s in part directed at the disciples, because they lacked the faith to do something that Jesus had already given them the authority to do (Matt 10:1)—and as we’ll see in a moment, it’s not that they have no faith, it’s that their faith is little, and it’s the wrong kind of faith. And, his disciples are standing among a crowd full of people, some of whom had faith. The father has faith; in Mark 9 this is evidenced in his cry I believe; help my unbelief! Certainly, there are people in the crowd who’ve believed in Jesus. But, when Jesus enters a fallen world, he enters a world that is characterized by unbelief! The crowd is characterized by their lack of faith, even if it’s there, it’s still lacking! Jesus says they’re a faithless and twisted generation. This is the same phrase that Paul uses in Phil. 2:15 - Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world...

It’s certainly no coincidence that Jesus just descended from his glorious transfiguration, with Elijah and Moses and your could almost insert the words of The Lord to Moses in Numbers 14:11: ‘How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?’

The idea is that there is a fundamental imbalance in what they, as a generation, have put their faith and trust in. Jesus rebuke extends to all who are guilty of unbelief!

…how long am I to bear with you? How long am I to be with you? In moments where Jesus’ humanity shines through, we can often times forget the fact that God is walking around among sinful, gross, selfish, winey, complaining, angry, thankless, heartless people! People like you and me! God is living among them! He’s eating with them. He’s touching them! He’s talking with them! He’s healing them! He’s raising them from the dead. He’s controlling the weather in front of them. He’s feeding them, miraculously! And…He’s repeatedly, regularly, NOT WORSHIPPED!

I mean think about it, if I spent all of my time and energy and resources to build a house for Cindy (I cannot do this, but if I could) and I labored and I sweat for months, maybe even years, and I presented to Cindy, and Cindy said, “Meh…no thanks!” Wouldn’t disappointment be fitting?!

Now, consider Jesus, the Son of God, living among sinful humanity who don’t really know how evil they and bearing with them. …how long am I to bear with you? How long am I to be with you? Is the exasperation of God living among people who love the fact that he can heal, feed, and raise the dead, but don’t love enough to worship. In fact, they’ll despise him and reject him…they’ll kill hi. Faithfulness and Righteousness is dwelling among them and He is surrounded by faithless people who don’t know how bad they are and don’t know who He actually is.

Jesus is unsettled by unbelief! It exasperates him. We see this earlier in Matthew and also in Mark’s gospel:

Matthew 13:58 - And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Mark 6:6 - And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.  6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.

It’s painful to him. Enduring unbelief is part of Christ’s humility. It should be stamped out...and yet, Jesus most certainly has in view the inevitable mount of crucifixion, where He would “stamped out” for our unbelief! How long is he to be with the unbelieving? Up until the point where He would take on their sinful unbelief, in His body on the tree...so that we might be granted belief in Him! Jesus is to be believed on and to be believed in! That is the appropriate response to Jesus! GOSPEL TO UNBELIEVERS!

His first rebuke is public, to a faithless and twisted generation characterized by unbelief. And he is merciful to bear with them, and die for their faithlessness.

Then, the text says privately the disciples come to Jesus. Some commentators think this was probably in the privacy of a home where they were staying together. And, they ask Jesus, “Why could we not cast it out?”

And Jesus says its, “Because of your little faith.” What’s going on here? Is this little in quantity? I don’t think so, because Jesus says to them that if they have a “little 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.” What a promise! And…it only takes a little bit of faith. I don’t think Jesus is rebuking the disciples for the size of their faith, I think he’s rebuking them for the quality of their faith. It’s not little as in “small”, it’s little as in “poor”. It’s that the faith the disciples have is little…weak…poor…because of where their faith is placed!

The disciples lack of faith is a theme through this section of the book of Matthew. Jesus has used this phrase with them before and isn't it interesting that every time faith is marked as "little" or "weaker", it's always connected to what the disciples are focused instead of Jesus and it’s always tied to a particular trial or difficulty that seems insurmountable:

Matthew 6:30

[30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

- Faith is small because it's focused on possessions and temporary, even important things, but faith is looking at something else.

Matthew 8:26

[26] And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. (ESV)

- Faith is focused on the waves

Matthew 14:31

[31] Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (ESV)

- Peter is focused on the fact that he should not be able to stand on water.

Matthew 16:8

[8] But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? (ESV)

- Faith is focused on what they don't have!

What is it that Jesus is rebuking in the disciples here? It’s the fact that, in this instance, the nine are just like the rest of the crowd; their faith was in themselves not in the Son. Jesus gives them the authority to cast out demons and heal diseases in Matthew 10. But, it’s likely that the disciples had been treating their power to cast out devils as a new possession of their own--a kind magic--they would go through their routine and the devil would come out! “We did the thing with our hands and we stood like this, and we yelled really loud, he jumped around…nothing worked!

There was nothing in the disciples themselves to overcome demons...it was necessary for them to look to Christ and to act in humble faith. The disciples think the authority given to them is theirs to wield...at will. It’s not that they don’t have a plan for building...they’re just building on sand. They don’t need “giant faith” they need “true faith”. Faith that trusts God and expects him to work.

I think this is clearly emphasized in the fact that Matthew specifically contrast the misplaced faith of the disciples and no results to the clearly displayed faith of the father on his knees pleading for mercy to the LORD…and he actually gets results! One comes to Jesus in humble dependence and pray and the demon and the sickness is gone. Nine men trust in their own strength and nothing happens.

Church, it’s unbelief and belief in that which has no power that limits us! The work of the kingdom is to be done by faith in dependence on the triune God. If we are not committed to setting ourselves to pray, we can expect little results. The longer we are a church, the more we are going to have to regularly be reminded that we cannot do anything without a sincere dependence upon the Lord! We will never advance past our prayers. Pray that we would not grow complacent and full of ourselves.

And instead of ending there, Jesus encourages them with an astounding promise. 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.”

This passage has been used to encourage people to talk to nature, inanimate objects, their hair, tell it to move “by faith” and expect it to move. And, if it doesn’t move, they’re told that they lack faith. First, that’s not what Jesus is talking about. Second, what would it benefit anyone to move a mountain? How would that moving a mountain, talking to your hair or blowing away the Coronavirus on public-access television advance the kingdom and spread the gospel? Please stop.

Moving a mountain was a common metaphor in Jewish literature for doing what was seemingly impossible.

Isaiah 54:10

[10] For the mountains may depart

and the hills be removed,

but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,

and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”

says the LORD, who has compassion on you. (ESV)

1 Corinthians 13

...if I have faith so as to move mountains, but have not love.

Jesus is likely referring to a particular mountain--ne that would’ve been far, but visible. Probably the Mount of Transfiguration.

And Jesus is trying to remind the disciples and us that our lives should be marked by much faith in Christ, and not ourselves, and our faith in God should cause us to expect Him to act in ways that would not predict and that would otherwise seem impossible apart from the work of His hand! Yes, this passage can be misused by the word-of-faith movement, but it’s to be used rightly by those who believe and it is, for us, a call to trust God, in faith, in circumstances that are insurmountable for us. And, we should ask God for help and provision in prayer, often. John Calvin says it well, “He does not mean that God will give us whatever comes heedlessly to our minds or mouths. In fact, since there is nothing more contradictory to faith than the foolish and unconsidered wishes of our flesh, it follows that where faith reigns there in no asking for anything indiscriminately.”

God is sufficient and able for all that unsettles us. Trust in Him!

Jesus moves from his rebuke and encouragement on the power of faith, to a promise of his pardon.

The Promise of Pardon

Matt 17:22 - 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 second time Jesus has predicted and promised his disciples that he was soon to suffer and be killed. v.22 - “about to be” -- trans. destined to be. It is imminent and inevitable.

Not only will he be crucified, but Jesus adds something, he was going to be delivered into the hands of men. In other words, he’s going to be given over…betrayed.

“delivered” - trans. hand over is meant to indicate a divine pass/hand-off.

“The Son of God is given over by God to human hands.” and he will be raised on the third day.

His betrayal and death are certain, but so is His resurrection! He told them this before in 16:21 on the third day (he will) be raised.

And the text says And they were greatly distressed. The resurrection is the crux of our faith and the faith of the disciples (1 Cor 15:17) and the crux of their faith is what they miss completely.

Why is Jesus repeating Himself when He just said this in the last chapter? Because the disciples need to be constantly reminded of the truth of the Gospel…and so do we. The disciples needed constant reminder of what was to come! He keeps reminding. They keep forgetting. He keeps reminding...the narrow path is hard and marked with suffering, but I’ve overcome the world...and they forget. We need constant reminders! Don’t feel weird for needing reminders of the truth! Feel strange if you don’t regularly need to be reminded. This is why we have a gathering! Now I know in part, then I shall be known fully, even as I have been fully know. And so, I can’t see good right now…will you remind me of the resurrection! All the disciples hear is, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him...” and they block the most important, life saving, faith giving, world changing, kingdom making part out. Like it’s white noise…Why?

Lack of faith/Unbelief always grabs at the worst and seeks to paralyze us.

But it’s the promise of Christ’s death and resurrection that is life for us, Church! It’s no mistake that above the doors outside is Risen Christ Fellowship! The hope for us and for our city and our world is that there is a risen Savior sitting on a thrown in heaven who welcomes all who would turn from their sin and themselves and come to Him in faith! And Church, we need regular reminding of that which is of first importance! 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

We are so prone to forget and our faith suffers for our forgetfulness. Now a few points of application and encouragement. All of them have to do with faith and dependence on the Lord.

Application

Repent of “little” and misplaced faith and ask God to help you grow in your reliance on Him.

Ask God where you have been self-sufficient.

Remember that there are times when our usefulness for the Kingdom can be marred by our unbelief--pray, pray, pray! Prayer is repeated posture of dependence. It’s the disciple of acting in regular repeated dependence on God. Pray in private. Pray together. Pray prayers that acknowledge your dependence before God. They will build your faith.

God has done the hardest thing—he’s died for our sins. Ask God for help with the everyday things that are difficult for you. That’s why God’s allowed them into your life—so that you would ask for help and stop trying to trust in your own strength.

Remind one another of the Gospel, everyday. Actually say it to each other.

Pray