Anything is Possible

Often, when we come to the opening of a sermon, I start off with a light little joke, or anecdote or story. Today, I want to jump right in and talk about something that we don’t often mention in many churches today. Evil Spirits. Well, there are some churches that do talk about this topic. A lot. But we don’t. Sometimes, we get uncomfortable talking about something that some people see as superstitious. But the New Testament is clear that there is a spiritual realm that is invisible to our eyes that contains creatures such as angels and evil spirits or demons.

Angels are creatures that are messengers for God and they do his bidding and worship God in wonder. Evil Spirit, or demons, are fallen angels who now actively work against God. They torment people, they distract us from God and they do whatever they can to keep us in spiritual bondage.

In our passage today, an evil spirit torments a young boy. The way the spirit affects him, mimics what we call epilepsy. Now it is true, that many things that we call diseases or sicknesses or maladies were attributed to the demonic in the first century. And I might think that within our story, that’s what’s happening. Except that epilepsy doesn’t react to a person. When the boy is brought to Jesus, it reacts to him and there is an instantaneous episode. That tells me that there is an intelligence to this, which is why I believe that this passage is accurate in saying this boy was tormented by an evil spirit.

But this is a passage of good news - of Jesus overcoming the evil spirit and healing the boy because our Jesus is the Almighty one.

So with that in mind, let’s read our passage

Mark 9:14–29 NLT

When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them. When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him. “What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked. One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth. “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!” Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up. Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?” Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”

Pray.

When I read this passage, and in particular look at the father of the young boy, I see an evolution of faith. I see his faith shift as the circumstances change and I believe that we experience shifts like this as well. So as we move through three different aspects of faith in our story, I am curious as to where you find yourself in them today? Do you see yourself more in the first, the second or the third? Let’s get into it:

1. A disappointed faith

We all experience disappointment in some way or another. Sometimes its a mild disappointment like when your favourite restaurant is closed. Sometimes its more painful than that as your expectations for people get crushed by reality. I found a cute post on Buzzfeed that showed disappointment so I stole three of them to share with you today.

Show pictures

There are a lot of ways that we experience disappointment but they are all rooted in the idea that our expectations aren’t met. If someone expects the Raptors to win, and they don’t, they are disappointed. If someone expects their dinner at a restaurant to be like what is on Top Chef, and it isn’t, they’re disappointed. If they expect the world to bend to their will and then it doesn’t happen, then they become so disappointed that they might turn into a Karen or a Ken. Not a good Karen like the Karen’s here at North Park, but the evil Karen’s and Ken’s who make teenagers cry at Wendy’s.

In our story, the father has a disappointed faith. He brought his son to Jesus to experience healing. He is banking on this healing because there is no other hope for his son, whose life is in danger every day because of these episodes.

And when he arrives, what does he find? Jesus and three of the disciples are gone. He came looking for Jesus and got stuck with Bartholomew. It’s like when you go to Best Buy and you are hoping that the person who is going to help you is the manager and head of the Geek Squad who is really knowledgable about the products and can give you a deal, but instead you get the trainee who doesn’t know the difference between a Mac and Windows laptop.

But the father in our story experiences something deeper than that. His disappointment isn’t just because Jesus isn’t there. It’s because the disciples fail. He expected that his son could be healed and it didn’t happen. His hope has been crushed by their failure.

Some of you can relate to this man. Some of you went looking for Jesus in a church but the church disappointed them. You came looking for healing and you got gossip, judgment, legalism, and self-interest apathy. If thats what happened to you, I am so sorry. Please forgive us. But don’t give up on us. Like the disciples, we are full of sin and we make mistakes but the one we follow, Jesus, never makes mistakes and his desire is that you would find wholeness in him.

When we meet the father in our story, we see he has a disappointed faith. He didn’t get what he came for. But then his faith shifts a little and he goes from a disappointed faith to a desperate faith.

2. A desperate faith

Have you ever experienced the kind of disappointment the father experienced? It happens. You believed in God for that healing, for that miracle, for that job or that relationship and then it doesn’t go the way you want. How do you handle that?

Some people give up the faith. Their disappointment turns to bitterness and they just walk away, first from the church, and then from God. But the father in our story does it differently. He perseveres, even if it’s by a thread. He didn’t leave when the disciples failed and he didn’t leave when the teachers of the law were weaponizing his son’s condition in their argument with the disciples. He waited with a desperate faith until Jesus showed up.

His faith had been strong when he brought his son to the disciples but had been weakened by the disappointment of their failure. But how do we know his faith was weakened; that he came to Jesus with a desperate faith? After he explains his son’s condition to Jesus, he says, in Mark 9:22b “”Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.””

That clause, “if you can,” is what tells us that he has come to Jesus with a desperate but weakened faith. Just like some of you. You have experienced heartbreak after heartbreak and you are walking through something that you hope Jesus can heal, but at this point, you aren’t sure if he can. So what does Jesus say to the father and to us?

Mark 9:23 NLT

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

We are of those who believe in the impossible. We believe that despite all the evil in our world, better days are coming. We believe that despite the sheer magnitude of our sin, we are still loved by the God who made us. We believe that resurrections happen. We believe giant bodies of water are split open so that a million refugees can escape slavery.

We believe that God talks through bushes that are on fire, but don’t burn up and through prophets and through donkeys. We believe that God can and does heal the deaf, give sight to the blind and hope to the hopeless. Anything is possible for our God and when we pray, we see the impossible happen.

But, I have to add a caveat to this idea. I have seen people take this principle too far and declare that if you believe, God will do whatever you want. That with enough faith, you will overcome every sickness, that God will give you so much money that you won’t have to think about it any more and that he will bring that right person into your life for you. We call this the “health and wealth” gospel and it isn’t biblical.

Yes, Jesus loves it when we live by faith. Yes, there are some blessings that are released when we live by faith. But by no means is it guaranteed that God will heal you in this life if you have enough faith. God may not make you wealthy and he may not bring that person into your life “to complete you.” God, who is infinitely good, will always do what is right, but it will be what he knows is right, not necessarily what you want.

A person with deep, real faith believes that God can and does do miracles but puts their trust in God no matter the outcome, even if the miracle doesn’t happen.

But in the case of our story, the father, who had a disappointed faith when the disciples failed and that led to a desperate faith when he encountered Jesus now experiences a new aspect of faith - a justified faith.

3. A justified faith

When Jesus saw how the evil spirit acted upon the boy, he chose to act. In his goodness and mercy, Jesus spoke and the evil spirit left the boy. If you were to read the first chapter of Genesis, you see that God created the world by speaking it into being. If you were to read the third chapter of Exodus, you would see God speaking to Moses, kickstarting Israel’s freedom from slavery. If you were to read the book of Jonah, you would see God speak to the prophet in order to bring repentance and mercy to Ninevah.

God doesn’t just talk to hear the sound of his voice. When God talks, that means something is about to shift. When God talks, miracles happen. And in our story, Jesus, who is God incarnate, speaks and a miracle happens.

Our God is not an idle God. He is always working. He is always doing miracles, whether it is a small, unnoticed miracle like a beautiful day after a week of snow and cold, or a natural miracle like a child being born or a supernatural miracle like healing a body, or bringing you to be part of our community today, or protecting you from our enemy by sending you encouragement through the people he brought into your life. Our God is always working.

This father, having gone through the wringer, now has his faith justified. The medical science of his time failed him. The disciples failed him. But Jesus didn’t fail him. Jesus never fails. He doesn’t always give us what we want, but he never fails.

Isaiah 46:5-10 ““To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal? Some people pour out their silver and gold and hire a craftsman to make a god from it. Then they bow down and worship it! They carry it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there. It can’t even move! And when someone prays to it, there is no answer. It can’t rescue anyone from trouble. “Do not forget this! Keep it in mind! Remember this, you guilty ones. Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.”

We have a God we can rely on. A God who is for us and not against us. And even if things don’t go our way here on earth, and everyday we experience trouble, there is coming a day when our faith is justified because Jesus is coming back and on that day, if we have held on to our faith, we will hear the words of Jesus spoken over us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

What should we take away?

1. The importance of faith

I am convinced that in our western, 21st century world, that the greatest enemy to our living a life of faith is not tragedy or calamity. It’s success. It’s when things go well. Sometimes, success can make us believe that we are in control and that we can do anything because we have the skill. But in John 15:5 Jesus said, ““Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

Nothing is impossible if we have faith and yet so many of us operate our daily lives from a place of self-sufficiency and we forget about faith. We forget that in our parenting, faith is what helps us overcome our fears for our kids. I should know, my daughter just got her drivers license recently and now she drives a two-ton car at 80 km/hr on a road with other people and I’m not there to make sure it all goes okay. But I refuse to worry. Worrying is about me indulging my fears instead of trusting God in faith. I trust that my God has my daughter in his hands and has what’s best for her.

What about you? Is faith a practical part of your everyday life or do you mostly operate in a self-sufficient way? To Jesus’ disappointment, the disciples started operating in life without faith and so they were unable to handle the problem in front of them. But for you and I who have the Holy Spirit living in us, empowering us to do what God calls us to, if we have faith, anything is possible.

Many of us have a faith in Jesus - that he died and was resurrected on the third day and that he atoned for our sin. Which is great. But Jesus calls us not just to have a faith, but to live by faith. Which is why we need to echo the prayer of the father every day from Mark 9:24 “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

2. The Supremacy of Jesus

The disciples failed the father but Jesus didn’t. Why was Jesus able to do what they couldn’t? Because of who Jesus is.

Colossians 1:15–20 NLT

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

When we look at our passage in Mark, we may wrestle with Jesus’ words of disappointment in the disciples. We may question what the role of faith is in experiencing miracles. We may wonder what Jesus meant by “this kind only comes out by prayer.” But let us not lose sight that Jesus was able to do that which his disciples couldn’t. Because they weren’t operating out of faith and because they weren’t filled with the Spirit at that point, they couldn’t do all the things Jesus could.

Sometimes we expect others to be our Jesus. We expect other Christians to be morally perfect. We expect the church to be only filled with love and understanding. We expect our partners or our kids or our friends to be the ones who carry our emotional baggage. In a perfect world, maybe those things should be able to be true but we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a world where sin has stained every one of us. I am not as holy as I would like. Churches, who are filled with people who are sinful sometimes fail at loving others like Jesus did. Your partner, or your kids or your friends don’t have the capacity to carry your emotional baggage forever. You need to give that to Jesus.

Jesus is the all-sufficient saviour who heals our souls. Jesus is the all-powerful miracle worker. Jesus is the one who made you and who loves you with an everlasting and perfect love. Jesus is the holy one, who covers your sin with his righteousness because. At North Park Stratford, we unashamedly love Jesus. We preach Jesus and we do our best to live like Jesus and when we fail, we lean on Jesus’ forgiveness and in all things, we live by faith in Jesus. It’s all about Jesus.

This is whom we worship and whom we love. Let us praise him.

Pray.