I do believe! Help me overcome my unbelief!

☞scrapped, Source  

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today we look at an amazing story that occurs in the valley after the Transfiguration on Mt. Hermon! We see Jesus returning with Peter, James and John to his other 9 disciples around Ceasarea Philippi where the Gates of Hell or Hades are located in the northern part of Galilee and finds crowds gathered and his disciples arguing with the scribes: Mark 9:14-29

Footnotes: Mark 9:25 Greek unclean  Mark 9:29 Some manuscripts prayer and fasting

 

 

▶It is telling how the people run to meet Jesus. Jesus then asked the disciples what they were arguing about? They and the scribes seem mute? They don't answer. The man in the crowd then explains how he had brought his demon possessed son to be healed by having the demon driven out. He must have known that the disciples have cast out demons and healed people. We hear in Mark 6

Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village.

Mk.6:7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.

8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

They had experience but they could not cast out this demon. They are on the defensive and they are surrounded by their critics and they are not able.

▶Jesus takes over and asks the father "How long has he been like this?" It is a really important question because Jesus wants to hear the story. He knows the answer, but as our loving God he wants us to tell the story. He is not just a magician or a dispenser of power and healing. As a matter of fact after the Transfiguration he does not want to be the center of attention. For in a few months the disciples will need to be on their own and they will need the faith that does not see. Jesus wants the father to know he is helping because he is a personal savior and has compassion for this man and his son!!

▶After he hears the father's story and hears how the demon has, from childhood, taken over his son at times so as to cause brain damage which manifested in these violent seizures. The man says something that many people who have been hurt and unsure of success say: "if you can." This causes Jesus to respond in an exclamation and divine frustration and responds "IF YOU CAN??" He is frustrated by this mans lack of faith. The man doesn't say "if you will" but "if you can." Realizing what he is saying: probably one of the most honest and transparent sentences in Scripture, he replies: "I DO BELIEVE! HELP ME OVERCOME MY UNBELIEF!!" May we be so honest, if we do not have the spiritual gift of faith, to admit that even when we believe we still have doubt, as sinful human beings we will have to deal with doubt all our lives!

▶After this statement of sincere faith it says in Luke 9:42 that as soon as Jesus sees the boy the demon starts to cause him to do his convulsions. Jesus commands the demon to leave and rebukes it. The spirit leaves and never comes back. The boy is so relaxed by the exit he looks dead. Jesus gives the son back to his father and then leaves before he is overwhelmed by the crowd. After all this is the time he has to prepare his disciples for his departure he will bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem that Jesus discussed with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration.

▶Mark continues by telling us they went away from the crowd and the disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast this demon out when they had cast out many. Jesus says something that is so essential for us today:

"This kind can only come out by prayer (and fasting)".   I think this means they were trying to do things on their own and Jesus was out of sight and out of mind. They tried to follow the formula, like the Sons of Sceva in Acts 19 at Ephesus, but they were trying to do things on their own strength, in their own power.

▶We in the church act like this when we ask God to bless what we are doing rather than do what God is blessing! We need to connect with our God through prayer and yes, fasting, to align our will with HIS WILL, HIS PASSION, and HIS DESIRE! May we be open to spending time in the Word, partaking of the Sacraments which offer us proof of who we are and the Grace that saves us so that we can use this relationship through the "means of POWER," that is prayer to walk in our Lord's strength and power.

This is a great story for us to understand the posture we are to have with the Lord: "I believe, help my unbelief!" and then spending the time in worship, prayer and fasting to connect with our Lord in order to be the ambassadors we are called to be!

May God bless each one of us with such transparent and honest faith!

Pastor Bryan

 

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◈“Believe It!”         Mk.9:14-29    Sep.16, 2012    scrapped, origin

Let’s face it, sometimes things are simply to impossible or improbable to believe.  Sometimes the possibilities are so far out of our abilities to understand that belief in them seems impossible.  Many in our world today would term God, creation, miracles, and other biblical truths to be “unbelievable”, based on this understanding.  But just because we can’t prove something or cannot understand it doesn’t mean we can’t believe it to be true.  More importantly, truth isn’t dependent upon belief, rather belief is dependent upon truth! Our Gospel reading this morning discusses just this idea and the fact that: ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE FOR onE WHO BELIEVES!

 

The situation is pretty straight forward.  Jesus, Peter, James and John, have just recently come down from the mount after Jesus transfiguration.  The Inner circle has just experienced something that most certainly blew their minds.  As they are walking they happen upon a heated argument concerning a demon possessed boy.  Apparently, the remaining 9 disciples has tried to cast out the demon from the boy and had failed.  All of this not that long after Jesus has given the disciples authority over unclean spirits.

 

Now we can read this story and with Jesus be exasperated at the lack of faith of those involved.  After all if it’s true that one who has faith as small as a mustard seed can tell a mountain to move and it will do so, then what happened to the disciples?  And what about the boy’s father?  He brings his son to Jesus, with a brief stopping point at the disciples, in order to free him from the demon.  Then having seen the disciples fail, he questions even Jesus, “if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”  Jesus response to these faithless followers is a stinging rebuke that must surely cause their hearers to wilt. ““O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” and “If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”

 

Perhaps we think that disciples should have know better.  Perhaps we think that certainly we would have known better.  But if we are honest with God and ourselves we would have to admit that we ourselves would be doubters too.  How many times have we said, “I wish that God would forgive me, but I don’t think he can.”  How often have we asked, “please God heal my loved one, or myself, if you can!”  How common is it for us to wonder if God can keep our church going, or our finances flowing, or our health growing, if He can?

 

The reality is that we are no better than those disciples or that father and that though we profess belief in Jesus, we are often believers in name only.  So then we like the father and the disciples are worthy of Jesus’ stinging rebukes! Which leave us to utter the same cry, “I believe, help my unbelief!”

 

But Jesus doesn’t leave them or us with that horrible taste in our mouths.  Immediately following his statement, “If I can,” Jesus proclaims those words which our disbelieving hearts long to hear, “All things are possible for one who believes.”  With this statement, Jesus calls the father, the disciples and you and me to faith in the faithful one.  As he has done so many time before Jesus then give us the facts upon which he centers that faith, “he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.’”

 

He does the same thing today for you and me.  For his very death on the cross and his very resurrection from the dead are the facts of your faith.  So this one, who is God himself, who died, and who lives again CAN most certainly do what He claims He can.  In his mercy then he confronts your disbelief and restores your belief in many ways.  Therefore he rightly says that “All things are possible for one who believes.”

 

But let us not assume like some that this means that if things don’t go right in our life that we must not believe enough.  on the contrary, for our faith is based on the faithful one.  In him all things are possible for one who believes.  So when we find ourselves beginning to doubt, when questions arise, when we say “I wish that God would forgive me, but I don’t think he can.” I can tell you all things are possible for one who believes. Jesus died that your sins would be forgiven, Believe it! 

 

When we ask, “please God heal my loved one, or myself, if you can!” I can assure you, all things are possible for one who believes. Though you may not be healed here on earth, you will receive a glorious body in your heavenly home!  When we wonder if God can keep our church going, or our finances flowing, or our health growing, You should know, all things are possible for one who believes.  All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In Jesus is life, and the life is the light of men.

 

Let’s face it, sometimes things are simply to impossible or improbable to believe.  Sometimes the realities of our sinful world cause us to wonder if God can ever make a difference.  The answer of course is that He can and does! He demonstrates this daily through all that he does for you and through you and He reminds you daily through his powerful promise that: ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE FOR ONE WHO BELIEVES!