"Lord, I Believe; Help My Unbelief

Mark 9:14-29

INTRODUCTION:

We have heard all our lives about the power of faith.

You know the Bible verses:

“If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can move mountains.”

“All things are possible to him who believes.”

“Do not be afraid, only believe.”

Sometimes I think that I have lots of faith. That is when things are going well.

But when I am sick…or lonely…or disappointed…or something awful happens—those times, I find out how weak my faith really is.

We love Jesus and we want to believe, but sometimes we wonder if we really do.

There are whole books in the Bible about the difficulty of faith—Job, Habakkuk, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations.

Many of the Psalms were written by people who were struggling to hold on to their faith in God.

It may surprise you to know that doubt is not a sin. Doubt is a necessary part of living for God.

Someone said, “Doubt is the twin brother of faith.”

If there were no doubt, there would be no need for faith.

We wouldn’t have to believe because things would just be obvious.

You don’t have to have faith to believe that I’m standing here talking to you.

You can see, and hear me, and touch me.

But we need faith to believe that Jesus is here in our midst, because we can’t hear him, touch him, or see him.

We do experience God—and sometimes we experience God in unmistakable ways.

But other times God seems far away.

Maybe we wonder: “Is there really a God?” “Does he really care about me?”

Once I was trying to comfort a woman in a nursing home who was facing death.

I mentioned God’s promise of eternal life

She said sadly, “I just don’t know; I just don’t know.”

Some people have confidence when they enter that dark valley. I have been with some of them.

Others are afraid. They wonder whether it is true. They wonder if they really believe.

Even people with real faith, may doubt and fear.

The last time I was here we read the story of the Transfiguration.

This was the time—of all times in Jesus’s life—when his glory shone forth in an unmistakable way.

Jesus’s disciples could never forget that experience.

But that didn’t mean that they would never doubt again.

As soon as they had descended the mountain of Transfiguration, something dreadful happened.

Sometimes that’s the way it happens for us. We experience something wonderful from God. And then something awful happens, and we wonder.

Let’s read that story.

And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and ran up to him and greeted him.

And he asked them, “What are you discussing with them?”

And one of the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid: and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”

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 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. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has he had this”?

And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.”

And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.”

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

And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again.”

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.”

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

And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

I. Let’s imagine the scene.

A. The sight that greets Jesus and Peter, James and John as they get to the bottom of the mountain is one of confusion and quarreling.

Jesus’s disciples are embarrassed by their failure to be able to cure the sick boy.

Jesus’s enemies are rubbing it in.

The crowd runs up to Jesus, and Jesus asks what is going on: “What are you discussing…?”

A man steps forward. He is the father of a tormented boy.

He has brought his son to the disciples, hoping they can heal him.

He knows that they have been able to wonders in the past and he hopes they can help him.

But they can’t.

B. The affliction of the son is called by the name the ancients used for epilepsy. But they saw a deeper problem than just a medical one.

They are convinced that the boy is possessed by a demon.

The father tells Jesus how that when this evil spirit seizes his son, it dashes the boy down and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.

Then Jesus says something very odd. He says, “O faithless generation how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”

People have made many suggestions about who Jesus was referring to when he said, “O faithless generation!”

Was he speaking about the father’s lack of faith?

Was he speaking about the disciples lack of faith?

Was he talking about the doubting of the crowd? the scribes?

I think he was talking about the whole situation.

Jesus was a man of great faith. He was constantly pained by the lack of faith in the people he came to serve.

Their lack of faith caused them to reject God’s love for them.

Their lack of faith limited his ability to heal their diseases.

Several times we read how pleased Jesus was when he met someone who had strong faith.

And in the same way he was discouraged by lack of faith.

It made his life painful.

C. The father tells Jesus, “If you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.”

Jesus now tries to encourage the man’s faith by saying, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.”

And the man’s response is the very best response he could have given. He says, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

D. Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit and it comes out of the boy convulsing him terribly so that he became stiff like a corpse. And the bystanders said, “He is dead.”

But Jesus takes him by the hand, raises him up, and gives him back to his father.

Do you notice the tenderness of the Lord as he takes the child by the hand?

I can think of at least three other times that we read in Mark’s gospel that Jesus took someone by the hand to heal him or her.

He took Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand, and her fever left her (Mark 1:31).

He took the synagogue ruler’s 12-year-old daughter by the hand and raised her from the dead (5:41).

He took a blind man by the hand and led him out of the village to heal him (8:28).

II. I want to call your attention to the father’s prayer and recommend it to you.

His prayer: “I believe; help my unbelief!”

He did want to believe. That shows that he did believe a little.

We don’t need strong faith to unite yourself with God. Weak faith will bring Jesus into our soul.

But we need strong faith to overcome the doubts that assail us.

So we need to pray about it. Keep praying every day for more faith.

Weak faith will bring us to heaven.

But strong faith will bring heaven into our soul.

Strong faith will fill us with peace and joy.

CONCLUSION

Everyone here, I suspect, has seen remarkable answers to prayer.

We have seen healings.

We have seen relationships restored.

We have seen problems overcome

I have seen remarkable—maybe miraculous—answers to prayer.

But I have also been disappointed I prayed and nothing happened.

Some people take Jesus’s words to mean that if we only have enough faith we’ll get everything we ask for.

But prayer isn’t magic.

If everyone always got everything they prayed for, nobody who had  believing friends would ever die.

If God answered every prayer all the children who prayed would get “A’s” in all their classes.

Every football team would win all their games.

We would never have droughts or floods.

We read that the great apostle Paul had a serious physical ailment—he called it a thorn in the flesh—and he prayed for it to be removed.

But God refused. He said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you. For strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Jesus himself prayed earnestly that he wouldn’t have to face the cross—but he wisely added, “Yet not my will but thine be done.”

Like Paul and Jesus, we just pray and leave the matter in God’s hands, trusting that he will do what’s best.

Whenever we pray we are connecting with God.

Prayer is the way God has given us to maintain our closeness to God and our confidence that he is with us.

I heard about a man who was very sick. He put a chair beside his bed and imagined that Jesus was sitting in that chair, and he talked with Jesus often. It gave him great comfort to know that Jesus was so close.

After he had slipped away to be with God, his friends found him with his hand stretched out and placed on that chair.

Prayer can be asking for things, but even more important, prayer can be thanking God for his goodness to us.

Or prayer can be just imagining that Jesus is beside us.

Some things we can pray for with complete confidence that they are God’s will and that we will
 receive what we ask for.

We can pray for forgiveness—and God will always forgive.

We can pray for strength for times of adversity—and God will give us strength.

We can pray for humility…and compassion…and patience…and that God will make us kinder…gentler…more helpful…more patient.

We can pray that God will bless our friends—and our enemies.

It is especially important to pray that God will bless our enemies…and anyone who has wronged us.

There’s a lot I don’t understand about prayer

But let’s keep praying for whatever is important to us.

Let’s keep believing that God hears our prayers.

Let’s be patient and keep praying when we don’t receive what we want.

If our faith is real—even as small as a mustard seed—it can grow.

And it will grow if we keep looking to Jesus and crying out: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Jesus on the Mountain

MARK 9:2-8

INTRODUCTION:

Just now we sang the familiar old hymn “Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine.”

That hymn was written by Fanny Crosby, who wrote many of our favorite hymns.

Fanny Crosby was blind. Historians aren’t sure whether she was born blind or whether she was blinded when she was six weeks old as a result of poultices put on her eyes when they developed an inflammation.

Fanny Crosby didn’t let her blindness limit her usefulness.

She was an active Christian. She was dedicated to work in rescue missions.

She was a gifted poet. She wrote many popular songs.

And she wrote many, many hymns. Dozens of them are still printed in our hymnbooks, including the one we just sang, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine.”

Fanny Crosby didn’t regret that she was blind. She said, “When I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”

We are all looking forward to seeing Jesus.

We wonder what he will look like. Of course, no one on earth knows. But we have a hint of what it will be like to see Jesus in a story that is included in three of the gospels.

We read the story in the Gospel of Mark (9:2-23):

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and lead them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. (Fullers were people who worked with cloth. One of the things they did to cloth is bleach it.)

And there appeared to them Elijah and Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid.

And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud. “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only.

I. Let us picture the scene.

Jesus along with Peter, James, and John had climbed the mountain. It had been a hard climb.

It was evidently night time. Jesus, we read, used to go up into the hills to pray at night.

This time he took three disciples for company. Did he suspect that something special was going to happen?

We read in Luke that the disciples were very sleepy but kept awake and that Jesus was praying.

Suddenly Jesus was “transfigured.” Mark tells us that “his garments became glistening, intensely white.”

Matthew tells us that “his face shone, and his garments became white as light” Matthew 17:2).

Then two of the greatest figures from Israel’s past appeared—Moses and Elijah. And they were conversing with Jesus.

I suspect that Peter and James and John could hardly believe their eyes—or ears.

We don’t know how they knew those two men standing with Jesus were Moses and Elijah. Maybe Jesus greeted them by name.

Luke adds a little detail we didn’t read in Mark’s account. He tells us that they were talking about Jesus’s departure—the death he would soon die.

And then a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

“And suddenly looking around they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.”

II. So what did this dramatic event mean?

A. First, let us consider what the experience meant to Jesus.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.

He knew that he would suffer many things in Jerusalem, be rejected, and be killed.

The Cross would be such a dreadful experience that Jesus would experience a crisis of faith.

He would become convinced that God had forsaken him.

Jesus’s death was—we believe—the most terrible death ever experienced by any human from the beginning of time to the end of time—because in that death, all the sin of the world was gathered up to burn itself out in the body of Jesus.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, God was preparing Jesus for that awful day.

Here Jesus hears again the reassuring words from God that he heard from heaven at his baptism: “This is my beloved Son.”

This experience on the mountain would give Jesus courage to continue to the victorious end when he would exclaim from the Cross: “It is finished!”

B. Now let us consider what the Transfiguration meant to the disciples.

Less than a week before this Jesus had spoken of his approaching death and the news had shocked his disciples.

It was such a terrible prospect that they couldn’t believe their ears.

The disciples would also face a crisis of faith. They would fail.

Peter would deny Jesus.

James and John would run away with the other disciples (although John would later return to the Cross).

The experience on the mountain of transfiguration was given to the disciple as a foretaste of Christ in glory.

The experience would help them come back to faith after their shattering experience at Golgotha.

John would later write in his gospel: “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

And in 2 Peter we read this testimony: “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18).

C. We have talked about what the Transfiguration meant to Jesus and what it meant to the disciples. Now we will consider what it means to us.

Listen to the words the Father, spoke from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

In these words, God is telling us, not just to “hear” the words of Jesus but also to “listen.”

God is saying, “Listen, and act on what you hear.”

When we believe in Jesus, we trust in him, and we obey him. We build our lives on him.

When the cloud had lifted, Moses and Elijah had disappeared. We read, “And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only.”

We used to sing a song with a refrain that went like this,

Jesus only, let me see,

Jesus only, none save he,

then my song shall ever be—

Jesus! Jesus only!

Peter, James, and John never forgot that vision of Christ in glory. They carried it in their hearts for the rest of their lives, and passed it on to those they taught, and finally the story has come to us.

Let us always picture in our imagination these images: Jesus in the manger, Jesus teaching his friends, Jesus welcoming sinners, Jesus on the mountain, Jesus on the Cross, and finally, the Lord in Glory.

Let us constantly meditate on his words so that we may always listen to him and seek to please him in all we do.

And when the time comes when we meet him on the other side, we will be meeting our Best Friend.