"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.

Why Are There So Many Disappointments?

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

INTRODUCTION

We remember one day when our first child, Johnny, was seven-years-old, almost eight, he was upset by something that wasn’t going as he wished. He said to us, with sorrow, “I wish I’d never been born. There’s so many disappointments.”

It doesn’t take long for even a child to learn that life is no picnic. There’s sickness, and failure, and disappointments, and losses.

Friends disappoint us. We disappoint ourselves. Enemies torment us. We have money problems and health problems. People we love die. And finally we face the reality of our own death.

People ask “Why? Why? Why?” And sometimes they say, “Why, God?”

We think we could bear our troubles if we just could know “why”?

Especially we want to know why we suffer—or when someone dear to us suffers.

I’ve known people who turned away from God because they blamed God for their troubles.

The godly men and women who came before us had the same troubles that we have—and, I think, even more troubles. They were less healthy; they lost more babies; they lived shorter lives; they had fewer comforts.

And—just like us—they wondered “Why”?

The holy people who wrote our Bible had these same questions.

They brought their troubles to God—just as we should.

Here are some of the prayers of desperation we find in our Bible:

Psalm 22:1-2

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Why art thou so far from helping me,

from the words of my groaning.

O my God, I cry by day, but thou dost not answer;

and by night but find no rest.

Psalm 130:1

Out of the depths I cry out to thee, O Lord!

Lord, hear my voice!

Let thy ears be attentive

to the voice of my supplications!

Psalm 6:2

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;

O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

My soul also is sorely troubled.

But thou, O Lord—how long?

The great apostle St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Christian believers in the Greek city of Corinth about an affliction he had recently suffered. He wrote, “We were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).

We need to remind ourselves that others suffer as we do, and some have greater sorrows than we can even imagine.

One believing woman in a nursing home told me: “I don’t ask, ‘Why me?’ I say, ‘Why not me?’” That’s one way to look at the problem.

Others suffer; why should I be exempt?

That’s a helpful way to look at the problem.

We wish God had made a happier world. After all, if he’s all-powerful, and if he’s all-loving, he should have made a happier world for us to live in.

You can read the Bible from cover to cover, and you won’t find a complete answer to the “why” question.

But you’ll find a lot in the Bible that will help you to deal with your troubles.

You’ll find a lot to assure you that God is with you in your troubles.

You’ll find ways that you can honor God, especially because you have suffered.

You’ll be encouraged to offer your pain up to God and let him use it to bless other people.

You’ll find that, while this world seems to be a “vale of tears,” there’s another world in which our Lord will wipe away all our tears.

I. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians Paul tells of an amazing experience he had had 14 years before.

A. He had been caught up into heaven and seen wonderful things—things that were too astonishing to tell about.

If Paul had been writing nowadays, he might have been tempted to write a book about his experience, and it maybe would become a best-seller and make him rich.

But he knew that what he had seen and experienced wasn’t something to boast about.

And then he had a setback. He tells about it in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

“And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me.”

We don’t know what Paul’s affliction was. Some think that he had malaria. Some think it may have been partial blindness, or chronic fever, or maybe an affliction of the mind.

But we know that it was something very painful, because he calls it a “thorn in the flesh.”

He didn’t call it a “sticker,” he called it a “thorn,” and thorns are very painful.

Maybe you have a thorn in the flesh—some kind of pain or affliction that torments. Most of us do, if we’ve lived as long as we have.

B. Notice, Paul didn’t blame God. He says, “A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me…”

Some people think that it is God who afflicts them. Maybe sometimes it is.

Maybe sometimes God gives us pain to get out attention, or to correct some sin in our life.

But Paul doesn’t blame God. He puts the blame on Satan.

But Paul figured out a purpose for his “thorn in the flesh.” It was to keep him from being too elated. It was, in other words, a lesson in humility.

One of the best things we can do when trouble comes is to ask ourselves: “What can I learn from this affliction?”

Maybe we can say like Paul: “It will help me to be humble.”

Several years ago my young granddaughter was talking about her grades. I said, “It’s good for you to get a bad grade now and then. It will help you to be humble.”

She said, “Grandpa, I’m humble enough.”

We may think we’re humble enough, but the truth is that we need constantly to learn that lesson.

Humility is not to think about ourselves more highly than we ought to think.

Humility is to constantly depend on God.

II. So Paul prayed about it. Paul was powerful in prayer, but this time he got an answer that surprised him.

A. Paul writes, “Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but God said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power if made perfect in weakness.’”

I don’t know whether God spoke to Paul in a voice Paul could hear with his ears, or whether God gave Paul an impression in his heart.

God has never spoken to me with a voice I could hear with my ears, but he has spoken to me in the Bible.

He has spoken to me by things wise people have told me.

He has spoken to me in books I have read.

And sometimes he speaks to me in my thoughts while I’m lying awake at night.

And through this story, God also speaks to us. He says, “My grace is sufficient or you…”

“Grace” is one of the great words in the Bible.

“Grace” is the powerful word that includes the entire story of God’s love, active in Christ and the Spirit to do for us humans what we could never do for ourselves.

B. Our afflictions weaken us. And God works in our weakness.

That is why God says, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

When we are feeling strong and capable, we depend on ourselves. We don’t have to depend on God.

When we are weak we have to depend on God.

And so Paul says, “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

APPLICATION

There’s nothing I can say—or anything you can read in the Bible—will take the sorrow out of your life.

But there are ways of looking at your troubles, and pains, and losses that will help you to bear them.

When we hold tightly on to God and don’t give up on him, we prove that our faith is real.

We become stronger believers.

We become an example for the weaker ones among us.

When we suffer, we understand better the sorrows of other people. We are able to comfort them because we understand something of what they are experiencing.

When life is good and everything is rosy with us, we hardly need God.

But when our bodies are full of pain and our lives are full of disappointments, we know we need God. These things can make us cling tightly to God.

There’s a saying, “The only whole heart is the broken one.” When our hearts are broken, that is when God can come in and heal our hearts.

I don’t mean that the pain will go away, but God will comfort us and heal our souls and help us to find peace in God.

When our bodies are full of pain and our hearts are full of sorrow, we long for that Better Land where Jesus is, where he has prepared a home for us to be with him for ever.

This world is not our home. We’re not supposed to be totally comfortable here. God is preparing us for glory.

This world isn’t a resort for our pleasure.

It’s more like a hospital for our healing.

It’s more like a school for our learning.

Paul wrote in this same letter to the Corinthians (4:16-18):

“So we do not lose heart.

Even though our outer nature is wasting away,

our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

For this slight momentary affliction

is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.

because we look not tat what can be seen but at what cannot be seen;

for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”