Mark 9:14-29 - Prayerless Disciples and Doubting Emotions

Well, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk today, and hope that you've had a good start to the week so far. And today, we are in Mark chapter 9.

We've been journeying through the Gospel of Mark with Jesus, and seeing what he's done and what he said, the miracles that he performed, the people that were not happy about it, all of the times where Jesus tried to make clear, I am the Messiah, the

Son of God, the promised chosen one. And he's been going through or trying to go through with his disciples what that means for him to be the Messiah.

And in our last episode, we saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, that he was there with Peter and James and John, and it was made clear from heaven, from the voice of God the Father himself, that Jesus was God's son.

And as Jesus and the disciples, those three disciples come down from the Mount of Transfiguration, that's where we find ourselves in Mark 9 and verse 14.

It says, when they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes disputing with them. Okay, if you're Jesus, this is probably not what you're really wanting to see.

No one wants to see their pupils surrounded with a large crowd and arguments happening. So verse 15, when the whole crowd saw him, they were amazed and ran to greet him. He asked them, what are you arguing with them about?

Verse 17, someone from the crowd answered him, teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. He's mute.

Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. Here, just a kind of nightmarish torment by this demon. He says, I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn't.

Okay, well, the last time that we saw kind of an interaction with the disciples and with demons was, I think, chapter seven or eight where Jesus had sent all of the disciples out kind of two by two, and they come back to Jesus and they're amazed that

they were able to heal and they were able to cast out demons and Jesus, you know, talks about, hey, that's awesome that you have that, but don't just rejoice in that, like rejoice in the fact that God knows you, he has a relationship with you, and

that your names are written down in heaven. Okay, amazing. So that was the last time that we had seen the disciples interact with demons. Okay, so now something's different here. And why would that be?

Well, verse number 19, Jesus replied to them, you unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you bring him to me?

So here as Jesus is thinking about this scenario, he says there is unbelief and there is like a patience that Jesus is enduring with them, that how he is treating them is not in line with what they really deserve.

What they deserve is condemnation and justice because of a lack of faith in God. And in fact, kind of a reliance on themselves as we will see later in the passage. So Jesus says, bring the boy to me.

So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

How long has this been happening to him? Jesus asked his father. From childhood, he said, and many times it's thrown him into fire or water to destroy him.

But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Here, man, what a terrifying life that the parents of this boy would have.

What a horrible thing for the boy himself to have this demonic oppressive spirit attacking him and attempting to destroy him, to kill him, to maim him.

And here the father says, if you can do anything, if it's possible, he says, have compassion and help us. Verse 23, Jesus said to him, if you can, everything is possible for the one who believes.

So Jesus makes it clear, okay, this is not a, okay, like maybe you're able to do something. Jesus says anything is possible for the one who believes in God.

That here, it's not saying, okay, I believe for a million dollars, and therefore I will get a million dollars. That's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying, okay, I called the boy to myself.

I said, hey, like bring him here and I will help him. Either believe that I really can help him, like you came all this way, you brought your son to me.

Or if you don't believe, then we run into the same situation that we saw earlier in previous episodes in Nazareth, where Jesus did not do many great works or miracles there because they did not believe. He just was able to help a few people.

God will not work on the behalf of those that do not believe in him. That's Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number six.

But without faith, it is impossible to please God for he that comes to God must believe that he is, that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him.

So Jesus makes clear to the dad, he says, okay, if you can, everything is possible for the one who believes. So then verse 24, immediately the father of the boy cried out, I do believe, help my unbelief. Man, what a great prayer.

What a great heart. He was in essence like master, teacher, Lord, I know what I should believe, but my feelings aren't backing up like what my head knows that I should believe.

And I need your help to bring my feelings in line with reality, with what I know to be true. And that's a great prayer for all of us to pray, that there are times in which what we feel like doing doesn't match up with what we know God wants us to do.

And here this dad gives a great lead in, go with what you know is true, go with the fact, go with the reality of God's Word, and ask God to help the feelings follow.

That it's, okay, God, I'm really struggling with this temptation right now, and I know what's right to do, but I would rather feel this way. I would rather hold on to this anger or bitterness.

God, I would rather retain this lust or this relationship, even though I know it's not what you want for me. And God here through His Word encourages us, don't allow your feelings, your doubts, to define who you are and your relationship with God.

Instead, go to God with what you know is true, and then ask Him to help your unbelief. So, verse 25, when Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit.

So here, as we've been looking at in Mark, Jesus is not just looking for, okay, what's the biggest, boldest, craziest things that I could do that would get all of the people to love me and to adopt me as king?

He wants them to actually believe in Him as Messiah because of His words, because of truth, not just when He suspends the laws of nature. So Jesus sees that a crowd is quickly gathering, and so now He's moving faster.

He says He rebuked the unclean spirit, the demon, saying to it, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of Him and never enter Him again. Then it came out, shrieking and throwing Him into terrible convulsions.

The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, He's dead. But Jesus, taking Him by the hand, raised Him, and He stood up. Man, for us who were one time dead in our trespasses and sins, Jesus is the one who raised us up with Him.

That just like Christ was raised, so we are raised as well. And I'm so thankful for that. And here this boy that had undergone so many difficulties, as soon as Jesus enters the picture, man, Jesus brings him up, and he's got a whole new life.

A life that will never again be tormented by that demon that had been with him for so many years.

And for you today, maybe you've been struggling with a sin, maybe you've been struggling with bitterness or with lust or with hatred or with any number of greed or a ton of sins. Know that when Jesus comes in, He wants to clean out house.

He wants to make it so that the things that once tormented you, that ones that kept you isolated and in brokenness in your relationships with God and others, that Jesus wants to completely give you a whole new life.

I think of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 5, where it says, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, a new creature. The old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new. And that's what Jesus did for this boy.

Verse number 28. After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, why couldn't we drive it out? And he told them, this kind can come out by nothing but prayer.

And here we can see kind of the way in which the disciples had been interacting with this demon. That it had not been in reliance on God, it was reliance on themselves. They hadn't prayed, they hadn't asked God, God, would you help?

So then when Jesus is saying, hey, you unbelieving generation, how long am I going to put up with you? He's saying, you didn't believe in God to do this, you believed in you. And they didn't ask, hey, why didn't God allow us to drive it out?

They didn't ask, hey, why didn't... We said this in your name, why didn't it happen? They said, why didn't we drive it out?

And I think sometimes we can have that exact same process in our spiritual life.

That instead of going to Jesus, instead of asking God for things, we try and do things on our own, we try and conquer sin on our own, we try and evangelize on our own, we try and have interpersonal relationships within the church on our own terms.

And we're not going before God. We're not saying, hey Lord, like, guide me, direct me, help me, help me to only say what you want me to say, help me to be glorifying to you, help me to have patience.

And we don't go into any area of our life, our job, our family, our friendships. We don't enter any of those with prayer. And prayer is such a vital component of your Christian life.

The Christian life without prayer is a useless endeavor. Absolutely useless. Ephesians 6, as Paul's capping off the armor of God, what he says is, with everything that we have, with all of the armor pieces, what are we supposed to do?

We're supposed to be praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and giving thanks to God. We're supposed to be praying as we do deeds of righteousness.

We're supposed to pray as we dive into God's Word that the Holy Spirit would guide us into what is true and what we should do. We're supposed to be praying as we think about salvation. Lord, thank you for this.

Help me to walk worthy of it. We're supposed to be praying as we, trying to think of what, oh, as we evangelize, trying to think through all the pieces of armor. We've got salvation in the helmet.

We've got the breastplate of righteousness. We've got the belt of truth and the feet, the sandals, equipped with the sending out the preparation of the gospel of peace. So that's what Paul tells us.

Paul also tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5 that we are called to pray without ceasing.

And in Philippians 4 that we are not to be anxious, worried, fretful about anything, but instead we are to pray about everything with all prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, letting our requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which

passes all understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Prayer is not the least we can do. Prayer is the most important thing that we can do.

You can spend all the time in the world diving over the Bible, and you can still end up like the Pharisees. You can spend all of your time trying to benefit the poor, but if you do not pray, it's pointless, it's worthless.

You can spend all your time deep in theology, but without actually talking to God, none of it really matters.

And here for the disciples, they were trying to do amazing, wonderful, God-honoring things, but they were doing it without a reliance on God. Let's not make that same mistake. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Think of the song, What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit.

Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. I've heard it said before, when we work, we work, but when we pray, God works. And man, let's have that heart.

Now, again, this is not a, okay, if I pray for a million dollars, if I pray for a Ferrari, I'm going to get whatever I want. I think it's 1 John chapter 5 or so, that says, we know that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

And that hearing is not that He doesn't maybe hear us in other scenarios, but He actively listens. He hears in order to accomplish or to work. He wants to hear us pray His will.

How would we know what His will is? Read the Word. The Word tells us what He thinks, how He thinks it.

Just reading the Word itself is not enough from what the Bible says. That the Bible ought to drive us into that personal conversation with God. That even as you read the Word, you can read it in an attitude of prayer.

That as you see, OK God, this dad had unbelief. Lord, I know that I've got some unbelief in some areas. I've got some fears about this or that.

And I really, really need to believe. I need to act on what I know is true. God, please help me to do that.

Here, this can come out by nothing but prayer. Lord, help me to be more reliant on prayer. Lord, you chided these disciples for being an unbelieving generation.

God, help me to be a person that helps lead others in prayer, in faith, in believing that you will do what you have promised.

As we do that, man, the spiritual life is opened up to us because we're no longer just relying on, okay, how good of a person can I become through memorizing maybe lists of do's and don'ts.

Instead, as we have that relationship with God where we're talking and when we know what he thinks, we know what he says, and as his spirit is taking to God the prayer request that we should be praying as we read about in Romans chapter 8, as all of

that's happening, then we get that vibrant, actual, real, spiritual life that God made us for, that we would be daily walking with him, that when we encounter problems, we're thinking, okay, what does God think about this? Hey, Lord, would you help

me to remember what I need to say or what I need to do in this situation? So many other things could be said about prayer, but I hope that this would be an encouragement to you today from Mark 9 and verses 14 through 29.