Living in the Power of Christ

I. A Desperate Man.

A. Jesus had been on the mount with Peter James and John. We don’t know how long they were there. But it was long enough for a dilemma to develop.

1. There are some principles we can get from Christ leaving the nine behind. Those nine experienced for a moment what it would be like after Christ ascended to the Father. Perhaps that is one of the reasons Christ leaves them behind. In a sense, they are like us. We have yet to see the glorified Christ. We are left behind for now, with a mission.

2. After Christ returns the disciples will face persecution. Mark 9:14-15 tells us that the religious leaders had taken advantage of Jesus being gone. They were arguing with the disciples. It was pretty easy for Jesus to shut them up, now the disciples would have to deal with them without Jesus personally present. How we deal with skeptics is very important. We had better be convinced of what we believe before they arrive.

3. After Christ returns there would be ministry to do. Christ would not do what they thought the Messiah would do, deliver them all and immediately rule the earth. Christ would leave them to minister to the hungry, hurting, diseased, and unbelieving. Christ would push them out of the nest, so to speak, with His ascension. It would be their obligation to continue the type of ministry that Jesus started.

B. A broken hearted father comes to the disciples.

1. Scripture doesn’t tell us a lot about him. Where is he from? What is his name? What was his occupation. He is simply “a certain man”. Mark tells us he was just one of the guys in the crowd. Nothing special about him. He was like you and me.

2. He had one son. That would have made him special in his father’s eyes. Perhaps the man’s wife couldn’t have any more children. Maybe the father had children that had passed away. All that is speculation. But the point is this man had one son and he obviously loved him a great deal.

3. He brought his one son to Jesus. There is a lesson for us all there. Do we love our children enough to bring them to Jesus? In Jesus culture it would have been common for a man to desert a child like this one. It is in our culture as well. Children with special needs are often deserted by a parent. It is said that the divorce rate of parents of children with autism is around 80% and parents of children with ADHD is twice as high as other parents. I read that the divorce rate among parents of disabled children is 84%. I certainly hope that number is wrong. But my point is that here is a dad that loves his child. That has not deserted him in his need. He brings his son to Jesus in an act of desperation.

C. The son.

1. He had been afflicted by a demon from an early age. We don’t know how old the boy was. I think probably a teenager. Jesus asked the father how long he had been in this shape and the father told him he had been that way since he was a child (Mark 9:21). The scripture calls the boy a lunatic. The word comes from the word “Lunar”. It was believed that the moon would make conditions conducive for a person to go crazy. The boy was probably kept at home most of the time because he made such a spectacle. The father brought him out so that he could bring him to Jesus.

2. The boy was physically ill because of the demon. Mark 9:17 tells us that the boy could not speak. Mark 9:25 tells us that the boy could not hear. Matthew 17:15 tells us that he was “sore vexed” in other words, he was very ill. So here was a kid that had serious physical problems that the doctors could not cure.

3. The boy had mental problems. Luke 9:39 tells us he would randomly scream out, perhaps he was in pain. He would fall in the fire, often. In Jesus culture open fires were a normal thing, no electricity. We can only imagine how he might look. Scars probably covered his body; his hair was likely short and singed, clothes, burned. He probably had a terrific smell about him. He also fell into the water often. The possibility of drowning was very real. Could you imagine how tough the father’s job was? He had to constantly watch his son and rescue his son. Could you imagine how hard life was for this young man? And let us not forget that Satan was behind all of this. This was a demonic influence in his life. It is the joy of Satan to torment souls.

II. Doubting Disciples.

A. The disciples had been empowered by Christ.

1. This is recorded in Matthew 10:6-8. They were told to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely you have received freely give”. The Lord never expects us to do something we cannot do. But He also never tells us to do something that we, through His empowerment, cannot do.

2. In fact the disciples had accomplished mighty works in the power of Jesus. Jesus sent out seventy disciples and they came back shouting “Lord even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name”. Jesus had to slow them down and say “Don’t rejoice because the spirits are subject to you; rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10). Not only had the disciples been commissioned and empowered, they had accomplished the miraculous already.

3. In this situation the disciples failed miserably. This man brought his son to them with the hope that they could help and they could not. Look at verse 16. It reads like an accusation from the father. “I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him.” It’s as if this man is sick of the incompetent service of the workers and demands to see the manager. He has a comment for the comment card and his comment isn’t good.

B. This was not the first time the disciples had failed.

1. They failed several times as they sought to send people away without help. In 14:16-21 they wanted to send away the 5,000 without food because they didn’t have enough food. They wanted to send the Gentile woman away because she was getting on their nerves asking Jesus to heal her daughter (15:21-28). They wanted to send the 4,000 away because they were too far away from store to get food to feed them all (16:33). It was nothing new for the disciples to send someone away hungry and that’s what they did with this man.

2. They failed to have courage when they needed it. They thought they were going to die in a storm, get attacked by a ghost (14:26). They thought Jesus was going to die in a storm (8:25). In those cases they were screaming like little girls, scared to death.

3. They failed to understand truth. In 15:16 Jesus was amazed at little the disciples had learned. In 16:22 Peter rebuked Jesus for talking about the cross, in 17:4 he wanted to build a community on the mountain and skip the cross.

C. This occasion seems to me to have greatly grieved Jesus.

1. Jesus has some very strong words for the disciples. He calls them faithless and perverse. I think we forget that to fail to have faith is sin. The disciples were used to Jesus strongly rebuking the Pharisees, now they get a dose of it. Why does Jesus use such strong language? It is because of His grief. They have grieved Jesus greatly. Here we get a glimpse of just how serious failing to serve is in the eyes of Jesus. “I was thirsty, and you let Me thirst to death, hungry and you let me starve, naked and you let me freeze, in prison, and you left me all alone”. In the end these disciples dishonored Christ because they failed to glorify Him with this opportunity.

2. He asks them two questions. Both questions show the frustration of Jesus. How long shall I be with you? Jesus only had a matter of months left before He would be crucified. You would think that after 2 ½ years the disciples would be getting this stuff, at least one of them. How long shall I suffer you? I don’t know but it is possible that Satan was tempting Jesus here. He was probably telling Him that this group of guys would never make it. He was probably telling Him to look for a new group. I’m glad that is not the way Jesus is. But what we see here is the humanity of Jesus; he became man and therefore at times became frustrated, not to the point of sin. But there were times He was tempted to just start over. Jesus is used to the wind, the waves, the angels and everything else immediately obeying Him. People are a different story.

3. Jesus demands that the boy be brought to Him. Mark 9:20 tells us that at this point the boy became very violent. He fell to the ground, the demon began to tear at him, the boy rolled around on the ground foaming at the mouth. Mark gives us a little more detail. Jesus told the man if would believe all things would be possible. The man looked at Jesus and said, the Scripture says with tears in his eyes “I believe help thou my unbelief”. Here was a man that just barely believed, but he wanted to greatly believe. Something about that story gets me. You can’t hold the father as accountable as the disciples. The disciples had seen so much, learned so much, been empowered. Jesus honors this man’s faith and casts out the demon. Mark tells us the demon left violently and afterwards the boy lay on the ground lifeless. The people thought he was dead. Jesus reached down and picked him up and he was healed. Luke 9:43 says the people were all amazed at the mighty power of God.

III. Directions for Powerful Living.

A. The disciples ask Jesus a question. “Why couldn’t we do it?” This question reveals some important things for us.

1. They tried to help the man. I don’t know how many of them tried, but obviously more than one “we”. Even as a group they could not muster the power, but they were trying. We can only conclude that they were trying in the power of the flesh. 1,000 men in the power of the flesh cannot do what our One Savior can do.

2. They were ashamed that they could not help the man. They asked Jesus privately. The disciples had been called out by this man “I brought my son to them and they couldn’t do it!” They had been called out by Jesus “How long?” All of this happened in front of a crowd of people, even their enemies, the religious leaders, were there. They knew they should have been able to do this, they made no excuses, and they were ashamed.

3. They wanted to make sure that this did not happen again. I think this is a key to powerful living. Recognize and learn from our failures. Be teachable. Be humble. When we fail to do something we know we should be able to do we ought to get alone with Jesus and say “Where did I go wrong?” Not “Where did you go wrong Lord?” or ‘Where did they go wrong?” But Where did I go wrong?”

B. Powerful living demands faith.

1. Jesus tells them they failed because of their unbelief. What does that mean? We know that the disciples were not unbelievers. They had enough faith to leave everything and follow Jesus. They had enough faith to try and heal this guy’s son. That’s more than most people have. So Jesus isn’t telling them “You are unbelievers”. He is saying that they had more doubt than they did belief at that point.

2. Doubt seemed to plague the disciples when they were faced with a difficult task. They were fine when the seas were smooth and the wind a gentle breeze. But doubt surrounded them when waves churned and winds howled. Tough times reveal who we are trusting. This was likely the most difficult person the disciples had ever tried to heal. This kid was violent, ugly, mean, etc. When they were faced with this trial doubt came. And at that point their doubt was greater than their faith.

3. Jesus assures them that if they had faith they could have healed this boy. He says that faith can move mountains. That was a figure of speech used in Jesus day. It referred to the removal of a great obstacle. Jesus wants the disciples to know that there is no barrier they cannot cross, nothing is impossible for those that believe. Jesus point is that we access God through faith and that God can do anything. So if we want to live a powerful life we need to develop our faith and cast down our doubts.

C. Powerful living is the result of the spiritually disciplined life.

1. Mountain moving faith may not be mustard seed faith. We often interpret this passage to mean that just a small amount of faith can move mountains. I have done that. But I wonder if Jesus isn’t saying something else here. Maybe he is saying that small faith can be developed into mountain moving faith. Certainly Jesus doesn’t want us to have a little faith; the goal is to have a lot of faith. If we have mustard seed faith that seed can grow into a large tree of faith that we can move mountains with.

2. Jesus tells the disciples that prayer and fasting are necessary to have the type of faith it took to heal this young man. This implies the more difficult the task, the greater faith we need. These disciplines, prayer and fasting, are what God uses to increase our faith. Prayer and fasting are spiritual disciplines that draw us closer to God. The closer we are to God the more faith we will have. If we will grow in the Lord we will grow in faith. If we grow in faith we will be able to accomplish mighty things for God.

3. When we are failing to accomplish what God has told us we can accomplish we need to strengthen our faith. If we are failing it is because we are working in our power. God wants us to do mighty things. We can only do the through faith. We can only develop our faith through a deepened relationship with HIM.