A Study of the Book of Mark
Sermon # 32
“Living for Jesus in the Valley.”
Mark 9:14-29
In verses one through thirteen of this chapter Jesus had taken his inner circle of three disciples, Peter, James and John, up on the mountaintop and He was transfigured before them. We discovered that being transfigured means that Jesus became on the outside what he was on the inside. For a brief moment the veil of His flesh was put aside and the disciples were able to see the glory of his deity. The disciples saw Moses and Elijah and listened as they talked with Jesus about his impending death on the Cross. They even heard the voice of God the Father as He said, “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him.” The disciples must have been almost beside themselves with excitement as they came down the mountain. They certainly did not understand everything that had happened to them, but they were no doubt full of joy.
Suddenly the disciples find themselves in the real world. Verses fourteen and fifteen describe the situation, “And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. (15) Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.”
When Jesus and the disciples came down from the mountain they find the other nine disciples engaged in an argument with some scribes. It was a noisy scene. The nine disciples who remained behind in the valley are being heckled and mocked by a group of smug and sneering scribes. It seems that a desperate father had brought his demon possessed son to Jesus for healing. But when he had arrived Jesus had already gone up on the mountain, so he asked the disciples to heal his son. They had been unable to cast out the demon and the scribes are contemptuous of them for their lack of power. No doubt the scribes were delighting in the failure of the disciples and were using the opportunity to put down the Savior. They were probably using the failure of the disciples to argue that Jesus was also lacking in power. The crowd judged Jesus by His disciples, and they still do.
When the people saw Jesus the text tells us that they were “amazed.” I believe that they are amazed because the sudden appearance of Jesus was at the very moment that His disciples needed him most. Jesus appears almost out of nowhere, at a time when he is not expected, yet moment that He was needed.
When Jesus arrives on the scene He asks for an explanation in verse sixteen. “And He asked the scribes, "What are you discussing with them?" (17) Then one of the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. (18) And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not."
Some modern commentators render this boy as an epileptic – to accommodate our modern sensibilities -but it is more, much more. The problem is not just neurological; it was demonic. The Bible teaches that evil is not just an impersonal force, - like the Star Wars, “the dark side.” But rather evil exists and is furthered through the work of Satan and his demons. Believers have no business dappling with darkness - such as consulting horoscopes or fortunetellers or possessing such things as ‘tarot cards.”
In some way this boy has become a victim of “demon possession.” When we are told that the evil spirit “throws him down” (v. 18) the idea is to take hold of him and take possession of him. The evil spirit makes the boy his own possession. He throws the boy to the ground and causes convulsions to seize the boy. The boy no doubts has both physical and emotional scars from the injuries inflicted on him over the years.
As we come down into the valley with Jesus I want you to notice five factors we discover in the valley.
First, It Is In The Valley That We Discover The Crowds Of Hurting People Who Need Help.
(9:14-19)
Mountaintop spiritual experiences are wonderful things to experience. But there comes a time when we must go back down into the valley because that’s where we live. In the valley, the challenge is to translate those mountaintop experiences of intimate communion with God into valley living, where people are hurting and need our help. In fact what we have received from God on the mountain is empty and meaningless if it does not translate into service in the valley among men.
After you have had a mountaintop experience with God, you tend to think that things are going to go smoothly and when you arrive in the valley literally “all Hell breaks loose.” That is the standard pattern so
don’t be surprised. So be ready, because whenever God opens the windows of Heaven to bless you, you can be certain that Satan will open the doors of Hell to blast you!
God gives us those mountaintop experiences in order to equip us to minister in His name. But often we find ourselves attempting to do His work without very much success. So we roll up our sleeves and work even harder, only to fail. And most of the time we don’t understand why. Perhaps we have not worked hard enough! Perhaps we should have tried a different method? What is it that we have missed? That is the very subject of today’s text. No doubt as the disciples descended the mountain with Jesus they were filled with the afterglow of the marvelous experience they had just been privileged to be a part of. They were full of divine encouragement. But what they were about to confront was altogether different.
In verse seventeen we are told, “Then one of the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.” Matthew adds in his account that the father got on his knees before Jesus. Dr. Luke (9:38) records him as saying “I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only son.” In our text the father, in agonizing detail, describes the pitiful condition of his son. Every verb the father uses in verse eighteen is in the “present tense” and describes a horrible, ongoing situation of demonic torment. “And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid."
The boy’s agony was demon-induced, causing him to scream, foam at the mouth and to have violent convulsions in which he threw himself into the fire.
Secondly, It Is In The Valley That You Find Out Whether You Have Anything To Offer A Hurting World. (9:18b-19)
•The Disciples – “Could not.” (v. 18)
“… So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not."
Whether you realize it or not, this building sitting beside a major highway, makes a silent promise to everyone who passes by that this is a place where God meets with His people. This church building promises if you need God, you can find help here. But what happens if the world comes in and finds no help for their problems. When people come to First Baptist Church and worship with us, what is their thought as they leave? Do they see the power of God at work in our lives or not? Do they see people who are being progressively changed by the power of God at work in their lives? Or do they come seeking fellowship and acceptance; but leave saying, “they could not?” I am afraid that you could write the words “and they could not” over many churches today.
The disciples had earlier been successful, but now after a week of his absence they were powerless. Their failure was NOT because they did not try! On the contrary I believe they did their best – but still they could not.
•Jesus said, “Bring them to me!” (v. 19)
“He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me."
All of us know what is like to be disappointed with people. Because people are human they will inevitably let you down. One has to wonder, how many people in our world today will go to Hell not because Christ can’t save them but because some Christian let them down. In turn, many Christians will continue to sit on the sidelines never accomplishing anything for Christ, because of the failure of some other Christian in their life. But the answer is the same for all of these disappointments. If you have had a disappointing experience with a church, if some Christian has disappointed you, “Come to Jesus.” The challenge is to focus on the Savior, not other people.
Third, It Is In The Valley That You Discover What Is Necessary To Help A Hurting World. (9:21-24)
“So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. (22) And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him….”
•The Man wants Helps with His Problem
(v. 22b)
The father in the story relates how he had for years dealt with the affliction of his son. When one deals with something for a long time, whether it is an illness or addiction, is it easy to lose hope that anything thing or anyone can help. Imagine if you will what it would have been like to be in this father’s place. While others are teaching their son a trade, he is trying to keep his son alive.
Problems like this affect the entire family. In fact the family becomes defined by their problem. Other people describe them as “the family with the demonic son.” Others in the community would at best feel uncomfortable and at worst unsafe to be around the boy. They would think it best to keep their distance. Ultimately problems like this would isolate the whole family.
The boy’s condition demanded constant attention. This father could not leave his son alone for even a minute, because who knew when the next attack would come. He had to remain alert and on call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He was desperate, tired and his appeal in second part of verse twenty-two reflects both, “…But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."
•Jesus wants to cultivated his Faith (v. 23)
Mark has already told us of two other parents that Jesus has helped by healing their children (5:41-42, 7:29-30). In both situations before Jesus helped them he pushed their faith to very edge. He had made the man wait until his daughter had died and he all but insulted the woman with an illustration that classed her with dogs. For the third time in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus pushes the faith of a parent to the very edge. For now as this man appeals to Jesus, Jesus turns it back to him and says, in verse twenty-three, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." In the story before us, the father was called upon to believe because Christ told him that his faith was the condition to his son being healed. Jesus told the father, “The question is not whether I am able, but whether you believe!” Faith does not consist in believing that God will do something, but that God can do anything.
This has to be one of the most abused sections of scripture today. People have ripped it from its context to teach all kinds of absurd things about faith. Some fail in taking this scripture beyond what is saying. Saying, that you can have whatever you wish if you only have enough faith. And I fear that we as Baptist fail in not taking it far enough. We fail to have all that God intends because we do not pray for them!
We want Jesus to help us with our problem; Jesus wants to help us develop our faith. But if the truth is told most of us would probably just as soon get by without faith. We had rather not trust, we would rather not find ourselves in places that compel us to trust.
The father’s cry for help with his faith is verse twenty four is in fact a cry of faith. “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"
This is one of the most honest and transparent responses recorded in the bible. His faith was imperfect, but it was real. He both declared his faith publicly and he recognized its weakness. And in his weakness he pleads for the Lord’s help.
Fourth, It Is In The Valley That You Discover That It
Only Jesus That Can Help A Hurting World. (9:25-27)
“When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!" (26) Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, "He is dead." (27) But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.”
•Satan does not give up without a fight.
Jesus hears the father’s explanation and commands the boy be brought to Him. When he arrives, the demon in the boy recognizes Jesus and attacks the boy again. I believe that the evil spirit attempted to kill the boy right in front of the Creator. But Jesus commands the demon to leave the boy and to never return. The demon attacks one more time and comes out. The boy becomes so still that the onlookers assume that he is dead. His enemies may have thought, “You cured him alright, he is dead!”
But Jesus took the boy by the hand and lifted him to his feet. Luke adds that Jesus “…gave him back to his father. (43) And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.” (Luke 9:42-43) The Lord did more than depose a demon, he gave this boy back his life.
Fifth, It Is In The Valley That You Discover That It
Requires Dependence On the Lord To Help A Hurting World. (9:28-29)
“And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" (29) So He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."
In Chapter three Mark told us that Jesus had commissioned his disciples with the power to cast out demons (3:15). It is reasonable therefore for them to expect that they ought to have been successful in casting the demon out of this boy. But they had not and the question becomes why not.
Like most of us the disciples did not want to share their embarrassment with the entire world; they waited until they got back in the house. After the disciples were safely out of the critical earshot of the scribes, in verse twenty-eight they asked the question they had been aching to ask, "Why could we not cast it out?"
•When Things do not go as expected, pray!
In the parallel account Matthew tells us that Jesus said that their failure was because of unbelief (Matt 17:20) manifested by a lack of prayer. The problem was instead of defending themselves, instead of engaging in an argument with the scribes they should have prayed. They had a choice; pride or prayer, defensiveness or dependence and they made the wrong choice.
When Jesus says in verse twenty-nine, “…This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."
Jesus is not saying that are faced with some kind of super demon. The point is that when they run up against circumstances which contradict their experience and their expectations, when they failed when they should not have failed, when things did not go as they should have gone, they should have prayed.
Neither is Jesus saying that there was some kind of magical prayer that if prayed on the spot, could have done the job. Jesus implied that they were neglecting a lifestyle of prayer. The reason for powerlessness is prayerlessness.
The scriptures make it difficult for us to extract some kind of foolproof formula for spiritual success. What we can extract is the need for faith – honest, vulnerable, trusting faith. Prayer is the vital link in transferring the power found on the mountaintop to the desperate needs in the valley. The power of the mountaintop is available every day in whatever situations we are confronted with in the valley, but we must pray.
Conclusion
On the mountaintop there the presence of a radiant Savior; in the valley there are messed up people who are crying out for help. On the mountaintop is worship; in the valley there is work. On the mountain-top there is power and purpose; in the valley there is frustration and failure. Everyone wants to stay on the mountaintop; because in the valley there are demons, disease and even death.
“Living for Jesus in the Valley.”
Mark 9:14-29
First, It Is In The Valley That We Discover The Crowds Of Hurting ______________ Who Need Help.
(9:14-19)
Secondly, It Is In The Valley That You Find Out Whether You Have Anything To _______________ A Hurting World. (9:18b-19)
•The Disciples “___________ not.” (v. 18)
•Jesus said, “__________ them to me!” (v. 19)
Third, It Is In The Valley That You Discover What Is _____________________ To Help A Hurting World. (9:21-24)
•The Man wants Helps with His __________________ (v. 22b)
“…But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."
•Jesus wants to cultivated his ____________________ (v. 23)
“The question is not whether I am able, but whether you believe!”
Fourth, It Is In The Valley That You Discover That It
Only ________________ That Can Help A Hurting World. (9:25-27)
•Satan does not give up without a _____________.
Fifth, It Is In The Valley That You Discover That It
Requires ____________________________ On the Lord To Help A Hurting World. (9:28-29)
•When Things do not go as expected, _______________!
