Unbelieving Belief - Part 1

From having belief shaken by doubt to not believing at all, Jesus encountered the full spectrum of weak faith in the people he ministered to. Today on Turning Point, Dr David Jeremiah looks at one of those moments from Mark Chapter 9, an encounter that began in frustration yet would end in faith. From In Search of the Savior, here's David to introduce today's message, Unbelieving Belief. Dr. Jeremiah looks in Christianity today on having more faith.

If you just had more faith in God, a deeper faith, less unbelief, then the things that you desire for God to do for you in life would come true. But in a vivid display in the book of Mark, Jesus shows us that it is the object of our faith, not our faith itself, that determines everything. This is a very important passage.

I hope you'll be with us today and tomorrow as we unpack this and talk about every part of the book. And now it's time to get started with today's lesson from Mark Chapter 9, Unbelieving Belief. biblical scholar Frederick Dale Bruner has written that the Christian faith is bipolar. Disciples live their life between worship and doubt and trusting and questioning and hoping and worrying. John Ortberg added to this thought that disciples are not people who never doubt. They doubt and they worship. They doubt and they serve. They doubt and they help each other with their doubts. They doubt and they practice faithfulness.

They doubt and they wait for their doubt one day to be turned into hope. Today's lesson from the book of Mark will encourage us and guide us if we are frustrated by spiritual weakness. And we will be more eager to learn about our prayer life and more eager to learn techniques about ministry than to take time to walk closely with God. Have you ever read the stories of the disciples, the apostles and realized that almighty God rested his entire hope for the propagation of the Gospel on those 12 fallible men, men who were just like us with all of their issues and challenges? And here in this passage of Scripture, we're going to see an example of a man who probably describes what's really going on in most of our hearts today better than anything you have heard in a long time.

And before we get to that part of the story, let me just take a moment and tell you how this is put together. I love the study of the Word of God, and when you look at a passage, sometimes there's a peace that helps you understand how the passage goes together. And I believe the peace in this passage is simply the words that people say in the text. This is a passage full of statements. There are all kinds of words.

I mean, these words represent just about every emotion you can imagine. There's words of expectation and desperation and exasperation and frustration and explanation, many more. We're going to tell this story by acknowledging the different kind of words that are used in the passage to tell the story.

It's kind of an interesting way to remember how this fits together. And the first word is the words of confrontation. In the 14th verse of the 9th chapter of Mark, we read these words.

When Jesus came to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them and scribes disputing with them. Now, if you remember, we were on the Mount of Transfiguration. How many of you know it doesn't take long to get from the mountain to the valley?

But it does take a little time to adjust. And the glorious experience of the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ has just happened. And remember, he was on the mountain with three of his disciples. He was there with Peter, James, and John, but how many disciples are there? There's 12, so nine of these disciples are down in the valley. And when Jesus and the three disciples come down off of Mount Hermon, the Mount of Transfiguration, and they get to the valley, here are the other nine disciples. And when they see them, the Bible says they are disputing with the scribes.

And the word is really interesting. They are caught up in an argument with the religious leaders. Now, Jesus in his glory with three disciples and the other nine guys down having an argument with the religious leaders.

And the second word is words of expectation. Notice verse 15, "'And immediately when they saw Jesus, all the people were greatly amazed, and they started running to him to greet him.'" Now, interestingly enough, normally the crowds rush to Jesus after he's done a miracle. And it's evident they didn't see the Transfiguration because Jesus even told his disciples, "'Tell no man what you've seen.'"

They weren't running to Jesus because what had happened on the mountain. They were running to Jesus because they apparently thought maybe he could help them deal with the issue they were discussing. They were overwhelmed with wonder at this one who maybe still had a little of the glow of the Transfiguration on him, who knows, but they came to Jesus. And we would expect the crowd to retreat from Jesus if they saw anything of the afterglow of the Transfiguration, but they came running to Jesus. And this appears to be the fact that they hoped maybe he could resolve the issue that they were arguing with the other nine disciples about.

The crowd is dissatisfied with the disciples that they've been talking to, but here comes the main player himself, and so the crowd rushes to Jesus with expectation. Then words of investigation, verse 16, and Jesus asked the scribes, "'What are you discussing with them?'" And the word discussing could be translated arguing. Jesus said, "'What are you guys arguing it about?'"

It describes a combative altercation with some. It's the same word used as dispute in verse 14, and the picture painted here is Jesus walking in to a loud argument with his three disciples and noticing that the nine disciples are having this heated discussion with the scribes. Into this chaotic scene, Jesus walks, and immediately he restores order and demands that the scribes deal with him and stop dealing with the disciples.

And that brings us to these words of desperation, other words that are spoken, verses 17 and 18. And one of the crowd answered and said, "'Teacher, I brought you my son who has a mute spirit, and whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, he gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, and they could not.'" Now we know what the argument's about. They came to the other nine disciples to try to get this boy healed, and they couldn't pull it off. And they got into an argument about it.

Why would they argue about it? Well, they were dealing with a problem of demonic possession. And they weren't dealing with it as if it might not be true. It was a fact of life. And did you know that in our culture today, even here in this post-Christian, post-modern era, there are still a great many people who believe this happens today. Did you know that 57% of our population, according to a very recent poll, believes in the reality of the devil, and 51% of the people believe that it's possible to be demon-possessed in this secular culture?

That's true. So they weren't arguing over whether or not this did happen or could happen. They were arguing over why they couldn't fix the problem. And while the disciples are arguing with the scribes, this father is searching for help. And I thought to myself, isn't that a picture of what goes on in so many of our churches? We're sitting around arguing over the finer points of theology, and people all around are looking for help. Maybe we should quit arguing and just deal with the issue. People don't care whether we're Calvinists or Armenians.

Did you know that? If you got a demon-possessed son, that doesn't come up in the discussion. If you have a child in trouble or a spouse who is ill, all of this stuff that we get caught up in so much in our churches doesn't mean anything.

It's whether or not we care about the people. Can you hear the defeat in this father's voice as we've read his words, the words of desperation? The father's vivid description of his son's condition is heartbreaking. I mean, here is a father on the brink of giving up. I've talked to parents in recent days who were right there.

I talked to a woman not long ago whose son is on drugs. She doesn't know what to do. There's no father in the home. He keeps trying to get away from it, but he can't, and he gets back into it, and he gets in trouble.

He's been through job after job and living at home, no hope of anything. The desperation that people feel when something's wrong with one of their children is amazing. I've written in a book somewhere that there's no pain in the world like parental pain, and I believe that. This story is told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and all three of those stories add a little bit. I read a paragraph that puts all of the information about this boy's condition together, and I'd just like to read it to you. This is what was going on in this boy's heart.

What a pathetic picture we get from the gospels. The demon seizes the boy. The child screams. The demon throws him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth. He grinds his teeth. He becomes stiff as a board. Many times he has been cast into a fire or water by the demon so that he is covered with burn scars, and even worse, the demon has made him deaf and dumb.

He lives an aquarium-like existence. He could see what was going on around his pathetic body, but he could not hear or speak a word. Now, the father's desperation is intensified because he's gone to the trouble to bring his son to Jesus' disciples, and now he's desperate because they can't help him.

And you say, well, absolutely they can't help him. Only Jesus casts out demons. They shouldn't have been asking his disciples to do that. That's a Jesus thing, but that's not the right answer because early in the book of Mark, as you remember, when Jesus was under the pressure of so many people coming in for help, the Bible says he called his disciples together, and he gave them the power to do what he was doing so the disciples already had been given the power to exorcise this demon from this boy. Mark 3, 14, and 15 says he appointed the 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have power to heal sickness and cast out demons. It wasn't that they didn't have the power or the authority. That had been given to them by the Lord Jesus. Mark 6, 7 says he called the 12 to himself and began to send them out two by two and gave them power over unclean spirits. And Mark 6 says, so they went out and preached that people should repent, and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

So that's something you don't think about when you first read this story. It wasn't that they couldn't do it or that they hadn't done it. They just couldn't do it this time. And this man was frustrated, and he was desperate. And so the next word that comes up is this word of frustration. Notice verse 19. And he answered him, and he said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?

Bring this boy to me. These are Jesus' words, and he is frustrated with the crowd. He's not really frustrated so much with the disciples, although there's a certain amount of that here. The disciples did what they could.

They couldn't do this, and we're going to find out why they couldn't do it in a few moments. But Jesus was frustrated with the crowd. One writer has put, the faithless generation is a reference to the crowd. The word generation occurs five times in the book of Mark, and it never refers to the disciples. Even though the disciples weren't able to do this, Jesus doesn't chastise them. Inability is simply a limitation, not a fault. But hardness of heart and misunderstanding, that's sinful, and Jesus is frustrated with his crowd.

He's obviously done a lot to demonstrate who he is, and they have no interest in following him. Note the repetition of the words, how long. One scholar explains the significance of these words. He says, how long doesn't convey a wish to be rid of inept disciples, but refers to how little time he has left to soften their hardheartedness and acquaint them more fully with the power that can expel evil. So Jesus stops everything in the middle of this discussion, and he just said, look, bring the boy to me. Now we have words of demonstration in verse 20. And they brought him to Jesus, and when he saw him, immediately the Spirit convulsed in him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. And the frightening life story of this boy is being played out before Jesus' eyes and before the eyes of all those who have gathered in that moment.

The seizure is not a coincidence, because if you study this situation in the New Testament, you will find out that often when a demon was aware of the presence of Jesus, that demon acted out, convulsed. The very presence of Jesus was a traumatic thing to a demonic spirit. And you say, well, how would a demonic spirit even know who Jesus is? I promise you they know who Jesus is. The Bible says the devils believe in God and they tremble. The book of James says that.

I hate to tell you this. The devil knows more Scripture than a lot of Christians do. He's very acquainted with what he needs to do to create issues for us. And this demon was aware that Jesus was in the room. And when he became aware of that, he convulsed, and the boy, we've probably never seen anything like that unless you've seen somebody have a grand mal seizure. And he's on the ground foaming at the mouth. And now we have words of clarification. Jesus looks at the Father.

This is really interesting to me. He doesn't heal the boy immediately, but he looks at the Father and he says, how long has this been happening to him? And he said, from childhood. And often he's throwing him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. The Father's pilgrimage to faith is going to begin with a simple question.

How long has he been like this? And the question allows the Father to tell his story that the boy has been afflicted since childhood, and it also allows the Father to declare his heart. The question of Jesus invites the Father to come to him as a total person with hard facts and with human hopes and say, if there's anything you can do to help us, would you help us? Have you noticed, if you read this story, this Father cries for help from Jesus. Not something to be ashamed of.

I'd just like to point that out. He says, Lord, could you help us? Sometimes I think if we go to church all the time, maybe we've been in the church a long time, we think, well, I shouldn't be asking Jesus to help me with this. I mean, that's beneath the dignity of the Savior of it. It's never wrong to say to Jesus, help me.

Never. That's the most simple human cry. How many of you have ever prayed, Lord, help me? In traffic.

No, it isn't in traffic that you say that. You just get right down, you just say, help. And what a joy to know is that the Lord hears the prayer like that. He hears this prayer. This man comes and he says to Jesus, if there's anything you can do to help me, just help me. One of my favorite authors is a man who's in heaven now. His name is Louis Smedes, and he wrote a little bit about this passage in one of his books, and I remembered that he said that sometimes he came to the insight that this Father's cry for help is the cry of most of us as we come to worship the Lord on Sunday morning. It's probably the cry in some of your hearts today.

Here's what he wrote. He said, ordinary people come to my church on Sunday, but I did not recognize them in the early days. I know now why I did not recognize them. I did not want them to be ordinary people. I wanted them to be spiritual athletes, shoulders strong to bear the burdens of global justice that my prophetic words laid on them every Sunday. But while I was offering them the precious promises and walloping them with the heroic mandates of the Word of God, many of them were secretly praying, oh God, I don't think I can get through this week, help me. What most people have in common is a sense that everything is all wrong where it matters to them most, and what they desperately need is a miracle of faith to know that life at the center is all right.

Lord, help me. Then we come to the words of invitation in verses 23 and 24. Jesus said to him, if you can believe all things are possible to him who believes. And the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. This is a statement of great importance. What does Jesus mean when he says all things are possible to him who believes?

Listen carefully to what I have to say here. He was not talking about his faith. Jesus doesn't need faith.

He was certainly not talking about the quality of the father's faith. He was simply saying, if you have faith in me, there are no limits to what I can do for you. So often when we get into these discussions about healing and exorcism and all that, we lay the burden of faith on the subject who's involved in the need. Please note that in this text, there's no mention whatsoever of the boy having anything whatsoever like faith.

He's an incidental player in the story. The faith is on the part of the father to believe that he has brought his boy to the one who alone can help him. It's just simple faith in Jesus. Jesus said, if you really believe in me, I'm a miracle worker.

All things are possible if you believe. Notice it doesn't say if you believe a lot. It doesn't say if you get rid of all the stuff in your life that's wrong and get right with me and repent of your sin and get clean and all of that and then believe.

It just says, no, if you believe, all things are possible. The father certainly was on the verge of despair, was he not? The Bible says there's tears in his eyes. Jesus presses him on his unbelief. He sees that his biggest failure is not his inability to fix his son.

That would be impossible to do in his own human strength. His biggest failure is to trust his son to the Savior. And yet, even that is not enough to keep him from Jesus. Aren't you glad that our unbelief doesn't keep Jesus away from the door of our heart?

You know, the Bible is so clear about that in history. You often hear about the hound of heaven who chases us down. I used to hear people say in their testimony how they had found the Lord.

And I remember a song, actually, that was popular during that time, and the words went like this, I found what I wanted when I found the Lord. But the problem is most people aren't looking for the Lord. They're not trying to find him. They don't find the Lord. He finds them.

He is the one who searches after us. Even in our unbelief, he comes to us with his offer of salvation and forgiveness. You may feel like your faith is so dead, God can't resurrect it, but it's not true. He's able to give you the faith to believe if you'll let him, if you'll trust him.

Just give him a chance and watch what he does. Tomorrow, we'll finish up our discussion of unbelieving belief. Thursday and Friday this week, we're going to talk about who is the greatest? This is Turning Point, and we're studying the book of Mark together. We're going to continue during the month of November in search of the Savior.

We'll see you right here tomorrow. Thanks for listening. ... For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's current teaching series, In Search of the Savior, please visit our website, where you'll also find two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine, Turning Points, and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio.

That's davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. Now, when you do, be sure to ask for your copy of O.S. Hawkins' new book, The Bible Code. Finding Jesus in every book in the Bible.

It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard Version, the New International Version, and the New King James Version, filled with helpful notes and articles by Dr. Jeremiah. Visit davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio for details. I'm Gary Hooke Fleet. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series, In Search of the Savior. That's here on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. ... Thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media. To find out more about us, go to vision.org.au.