But Jesus…

Message Transcription

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Dr. Brandon Fredenburg delves into the story of Jesus healing a boy with an unclean spirit from Mark 9. He focuses on the father's desperate situation and his powerful prayer, "I believe; help my unbelief," presenting it as a model for those facing seemingly hopeless circumstances. Dr. Fredenburg highlights Jesus' frustration with the "faithless generation" and the disciples' inability to heal the boy.

The sermon emphasizes the critical role of prayer in faith and healing. Dr. Fredenburg points out that Jesus attributed the disciples' failure to their lack of prayer, saying, "This kind can only come out by prayer." He warns that our actions, when not grounded in prayer, can negatively impact others' faith. The message concludes by encouraging believers to start with prayer in all situations, trusting God to "do the rest."

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, good morning. It's good to be with you this morning. Our message this morning is for all of those who, in various ways have found themselves at the end of their rope. Who found themselves at a place without hope.

Who find themselves desperate for something, for God to act, to intervene, to do something.

We want to look at a passage in Mark, chapter nine. For most of us, we're familiar with it, at least the outlines of it.

It's one of those interesting passages in Mark. Where he takes 14 verses to explain what Luke used eight verses for. And Matthew used five verses, four.

Jesus with his disciples, Peter, James and John. Has just been on the mountain of Transfiguration.

They've just heard from the voice of God. This is my beloved son. Listen to him.

And then he tells those disciples, don't say anything about this until you have seen the son of man raised from the dead.

And they were not quite sure what that meant. Meanwhile, while Jesus is on the mountain. His disciples are at the foot of the mountain trying to heal. Here's our passage.

When they came to the disciples, that is Jesus, Peter, James and John. They saw a great crowd around them in scribes arguing with them. And immediately the whole 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?

Jesus doesn't ask his disciples what they're arguing about. He asks the scribes what they're arguing with his disciples about. Why are you messing with my disciples? Jesus immediately goes into protective mode. Because while he's gone, they've come to attack.

And before they can answer, there's one in the crowd who sees the opportunity. And he says to Jesus, teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down. And he foams and grindens his teeth and becomes rigid.

So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able. And Jesus replied, o faithless generation. How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.

I wonder. I don't know. I wonder if the father was one of those scribes. I wonder if him bringing his child to the disciples of Jesus. Is what created the argument in the first place.

And that it was an argument not simply by the scribes to the disciples. But among the scribes themselves. Who is this man? Why have you brought your son here? It seems to me that's a real possibility.

Because this guy is real quick to say, my son.

And Jesus sees the situation. And the whole thing is frustrating to him. Yes, Jesus gets frustrated. It's frustrating to him because they've seen what he's been doing, and they still argue whether Jesus has power from God to do things, whether he is from God or not. And so his comment is not straight to the disciples, you faithless generation.

It's to the whole lot of them.

There's tension, there's strife, and Jesus cuts right into the middle of it. And he says, this is a problem about the faithfulness of Israel. This is a problem about the scribes and what they believe can be done. It's a problem about his disciples and what they believe can be done.

And in many ways, we live in the same world, don't we? A very similar world where religious folks, christian folks, argue about what God can and can't do. But we'll say God can do anything that he wants to, but then we sort of leave the escape hatch, that maybe God doesn't want to do the same kinds of things that he did in Jesus s ministry. Maybe God doesn't want to be so active. Maybe God doesn't want to be seen that way anymore.

So even we can argue among ourselves the depth of what God can do. Does God still do miracles?

This whole series that Carl arranged before he left on a much needed sabbatical, bless you, Carl is about, he asked, what is your favorite miracle?

For me, the favorite miracle is the resurrection, because everything changes. But I thought it would probably be a bit pretentious if I chose that one. So I chose one that I was working through at the time that he asked, and this one will get us there. But we live in a world where even among believers, we argue and fuss, or at least we doubt within ourselves. It's not only about the faith of the religious of the scribes.

It's also about the faith of the disciples. So bring it a little closer. Even as a disciple in your own prayer life, do you ever just wonder whether the things that you're praying for, the things that you desperately want, the things that you desperately believe that God would want, do you ever just stop and say, no, no, that's too much of an ask. That's too difficult. I've not seen God do that before.

Maybe you do. I know I've done that. And so Jesus says, this is a matter of faith. How long must I bear with you? It's not how much longer will I put up with you.

It's how much longer will I have to be weighed by this burden.

But it's a burden that Jesus gladly bears. He just would like some help from his disciples. Bring him to me. He says, think about this father. This father has come to the disciples because he's at his wits'end.

This father comes to the disciples because his stamina is gone.

His hope are merely fumes.

And his heart has been disappointed too many times.

They brought the boy to him. That would be his disciples and the father. And when the spirit saw him, immediately he convulsed the boy. Oh, now we get a demonstration of what this father has seen. Day in, day out, week week out, month in, month out, year in, year out.

We get to see it.

Ask yourself, as we read these words again, ask yourself if this was your child day to day to day to day. And some of you have had similar experiences, I know. So they re asking is all too real. But ask yourself, if you've not experienced this, how long would it take you before you became dispirited? How long would it take you before you decided it's no use?

How long would you persist? Would you persist a month?

Two? Would you persist a year?

How long would you stick with it?

So the demonstration, it convulsed the boy. He fell on the ground, and he thrashed about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, how long has this been happening to him? From childhood. I've even seen it very frequently.

Cast him into the fire and into water to destroy him.

I've watched my boy nearly die a thousand times.

So, Jesus, what's one more time?

If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

Do you hear his desperation? Do you know that desperation? I pray you don't. I really pray you don't. But I know many of us do.

We know it. We've seen it. We've lived it. We're still living it.

If you can do anything, have compassion. You see, this father knew exactly what to zero in on with Jesus. It's about his compassion. It's about his mercifulness. Have compassion and help us.

Butus Jesus can't just heal him. This is a teaching moment above all sorts of teaching moments. And Jesus says to the father, do you understand? The father is just. He's both desperate, but he's so tired, he's just going through the motions.

Jesus said to him, if you can, Father, do you really think I can do something?

Everything is possible. Jesus says, for the one who believes this father had come to the end of his rope. His faith has been limited. But he does not limit his limited faith in the face of his limited faith, he does the only thing that he can do, that we can do. And he says to Jesus, for the sake of his boy, for his own sake, for the disciples who are watching for the crowd, I believe you help my unbelief.

So does he or doesn't he? Does he believe, or is he plagued with unbelief? And the answer is yes.

Yes, it's both. Have you found yourself there before?

I believe help my unbelief is absolutely the best possible prayer that we can pray. When we find ourselves in desperate situations, when everything that we've prayed for, asked for, hoped for, just doesn't seem to be there.

So he puts you at Jesus feet.

And when jesus saw a crowd, you see, Jesus probably pulled the father aside. And this is the kind of thing that demands the sort of personal attention that Jesus gives. It demands the sort of personal attention that compassion offers. Come here, dad. We've seen what's going on.

Anything is possible to those who believe. I believe, help my unbelief. And both of them glance toward the sun, who's just been through another episode. Look, the crowd's coming.

Jesus, seeing the crowd running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, you mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never bother him again. Just a word. That's all they took. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. Now, if we stopped there, it would sound really good, wouldn't it?

I mean it, that unclean spirit gets one last punch in. He convulses him.

He gets one last lick in, and he cries out. But he comes out.

And here are the words that just make my heart sink.

And the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, he's dead. He's dead.

I believe. Help my unbelief. He's dead.

I believe. Help my unbelief. I believe of my unbelief. He's dead.

I've got no more hope. I've got no more hope. I'm all out of hope. The only thing I have left is the desire for hope. Maybe that will get me there.

He's dead.

The next two words are critical.

But Jesus.

He's dead.

But Jesus.

But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up.

And he arose.

It looked like to the whole crowd, to the scribes who had gathered together, to the disciples who had tried but failed, to the father who had said, I believe. Help my unbelief. And in that moment, it looked like it looked like death had won.

But Jesus, the only one who was never uncertain of the outcome was Jesus.

And so he took him by the hand, lifted him up and he arose.

Jesus has three healings to do here.

He has the healing of the boy, of course, which were now satisfied in this narrative. He arose. The boy is cured. The boy is healed. The demons have left never to enter him again.

That's good. But he's also got another healing to do with this father who had been beaten down. His faith had come to the brink of extinction.

Maybe it was simply a smoldering wick, nothing but smoke.

Jesus needed to restore this father's faith in God and in Jesus.

I'm assuming he does. But there is another healing here that has to happen. And that healing has to be for his own disciples, because Jesus had just left them alone to go up on the mountain. And while he was being glorified and talking to his disc disciples about his own resurrection, the disciples at the foot of the mountain are trying to bring this child back from daily death to life. And they can't do it.

They've been doing it. If you read your gospel, you know they've been doing this. Jesus has given them power. They've healed, they've cast out demons, but not this one for some reason. And they're dispirited too.

And so Jesus, and they continue walking. They go into a house and his disciples sayew, what was that all about? Why? Why couldn't we, why could we not cast it out? And Jesus says to them, my paraphra, yeah, you're right.

You couldn't cast him out. This is one of the really tough ones. This is a hard one. This one can only come out by prayer.

This one can only come out by prayer.

Some Bibles also add and fasting, but let's just stick with prayer. Prayer is the most basic way of relating to God. It's number one. It's the one that we teach our children from before the time they can talk. It's the most basic.

And Jesus says, oh, yeah, you're right, this was a tough one. It can only come out by prayer. You see, what Jesus is doing is he is chastising them because they forgot the most basic element. And that is you don't go about trying to do God's work in God's name without first seeking God's involvement.

Why did they fail? Because they forgot why? I don't know. Maybe because they were being challenged.

But this also happens to us. Here's what I want us to notice the disciples inability at the beginning created a faith crisis in this man who brought his son to Jesus. Did you catch that? What can we make of that for ourselves?

I don't think it's too far to say that sometimes the watching world around us, when we say we're speaking for God and acting for God, we may very well believe we are. But sometimes it's powerless because we don't first start on our knees.

And when we don't start on our knees, asking God in prayer to be with us, to guide us, to direct us, to help us, to show us the opportunities when we don't do that. But all of a sudden we just decide, I'm going to act in God's name. I'm going to do great things. I'm going to try to command demons to come out of children. And we fail.

It not only hurts the witness that we give to the power of God, it also hurts our own faith and it hurts the faith of other people. And then we wonder, why didn't it work?

If you find yourself in a place of desperation, if you find the words I believe, help my unbelief on your tongue and in your heart, I simply want to ask you to look at this again and go to the end and remember what Jesus says. This kind can only come out by prayer and then hit your knees.

Pray.

I can't guarantee what will come about from that, but what I can guarantee is that you're starting in the right place.

Lord, help.

Show compassion on us and help.

So here's where we leave the lesson this morning. The miracle that Jesus does is not to prove his divinity. It is to build the faith of multiple people all around him.

And it begins for all of them, including Jesus. It begins at the most basic place.

It begins in prayer before the father.

So I ask you, disciples, those of us who would say we believe, when you find yourself wanting to show your belief and exercise your belief, there is only one place to start. Start with prayer and God will do the rest.

Pray with me, Lord Jesus. Lessons like this are hard. We become so familiar with you at times that we think we know exactly what you want to happen. And so we charge ahead, doing those things, forgetting and failing to pray to you. And sometimes, Lord, when we fail to pray, we've hurt the faith of others and we've hurt our own.

Lord, we would ask that you remind us every day, every moment to be in prayer.

Lord, we believe, help our unbelief in Jesus. Amen.