Lord I Believe, Help My Unbelief

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

00:18

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

00:25

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter 9, verses 14 through 29.

00:35

When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them.

00:41

As soon as the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet Him. What are you arguing with them about?

00:48

He asked. A man in the crowd answered, Teacher, I brought you my son who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech.

00:57

Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.

01:04

I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not. O unbelieving generation,

01:09

Jesus replied, How long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.

01:16

So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion.

01:22

He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father,

01:28

How long has this been like this? From childhood, he answered. It often has thrown him into the fire or water to kill him.

01:37

But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. If you can, said

01:43

Jesus, everything is possible for him who believes. And immediately the boy's father exclaimed,

01:49

I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief. When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit.

01:57

You deaf and mute spirit, he said, I command you come out of him and never enter him again.

02:03

The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said he's dead.

02:10

But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. And after Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately,

02:19

Why couldn't we drive it out? He replied, This kind can come out only by prayer.

02:25

In the name of Jesus. All right, so this is an interesting text.

02:32

Jesus has just been on the Mount of Transfiguration. And immediately before what we just read,

02:38

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with him. And then he is transfigured before their eyes.

02:44

Elijah and Moses show up, and they're discussing Jesus's exodus. That's how the text talks about it.

02:50

And beginning to talk about Jesus heading to Jerusalem to bear our sins and die on the cross for our sins.

02:58

So Jesus coming down from the mountain, you know, you can say he's set his face like Flint.

03:04

He's on his way to the cross. Things have changed a little bit, which explains in part why he's got a little bit of an attitude in this text.

03:11

And so keep in mind, so he had Peter, James, and John with him. The other disciples, the other nine, they were down at the base of the

03:20

Mount of Transfiguration. And what happened while Jesus was up there is a man who had a son who was demon -possessed comes to get help.

03:32

Jesus isn't there. And the disciples, if you remember, when Jesus sends out the 70, he had given them authority to cast out demons.

03:40

And so the disciples get to work to cast out this demon, and nothing happens.

03:50

Nothing happens. Awkward moment, right? Well, put yourself in the shoes of this man for a while, if you would.

03:59

We've all seen those horror movies about demon possession. I know some of you don't like to watch those kinds of movies, but trust me when

04:05

I tell you they're harrowing. What we see in those movies, this guy is living for real.

04:12

This is not a joke. This is true demonic possession. And over and again, this demon has set out to not only possess this child, but to kill this child.

04:22

And so the idea here is that this man has no rest. This man has no respite.

04:29

He and his wife have to keep a watchful eye on their son, because you never know when he's going to go into a seizure because of this demon.

04:39

And then when it happens, oftentimes it happens when there's an open flame, or they're near water, and the whole goal is to destroy this child.

04:48

These people are living a living hell. And so think about what he's been through.

04:54

I mean, it's taking, at this point, Jesus is his only hope. He has very weak and wobbly faith, we've learned from this text.

05:03

And so he takes his weak and wobbly faith, goes to find Jesus.

05:09

The disciples are there, nine of them, Jesus isn't there, and they go to exorcise the demon, and the demon says, ha, nope,

05:18

I ain't going nowhere. The Pharisees and the scribes seize on this opportunity, because you'll see that they were having an argument with the scribes and Pharisees when

05:28

Jesus comes down. It's like, ha, your Jesus couldn't get rid of that demon. And that proves that this

05:33

Jesus isn't really the Son of God kind of stuff that's going on. So Jesus comes down from the

05:38

Mount of Transfiguration into the midst of this kerfuffle. That's what he's up to.

05:44

So it says this in our text, we'll return to it now. When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and teachers of the law arguing with them.

05:55

And as soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. The reason why they're overwhelmed with wonder is it's like, wow, we were just talking about you,

06:03

Jesus. Yeah, you're lousy disciples, they totally blew it. You know, here we thought you had all this power, and well, you don't, you know, because they tried to cast out this demon, and it didn't work.

06:15

What do you have to say for yourself kind of thing, right? So Jesus kind of takes control of the situation, and he says, what are you arguing with them about?

06:26

Yeah, that's kind of a forceful question. And so a man in the crowd answered.

06:31

Now he steps forward, the man with the wobbly faith. I brought you my son who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech.

06:42

Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.

06:51

I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not do it. So when the spirit manifests, this boy goes into a full -blown epileptic seizure.

07:03

And if you have ever had a child have a seizure, I can tell you it is a harrowing experience, because the one thing you begin to do as soon as they go into a seizure is you start to count.

07:15

And the reason you're counting is because your child's not breathing. You're counting how long is this thing happening?

07:23

How long can they go without oxygen? I mean, it is just a terrible situation.

07:30

And this is his life. You don't have to convince him of good and evil, right and wrong.

07:36

He knows that good and evil exists. But the problem is that despite all of his pleas to God, nothing has worked for his son.

07:50

So Jesus says, O unbelieving generation, how long shall

07:56

I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.

08:02

So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion.

08:09

He fell to the ground, rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Now, I guarantee you, if something like this were to happen right now in church, and I've actually been in a church service where somebody's gone into an epileptic seizure, everything stops.

08:23

Everything stops, and the person you're tending to is the person having the seizure. Jesus has got this all backwards.

08:30

Watch what he does. So here we got this boy foaming at the mouth, rolling around on the ground.

08:35

I mean, this is demonic, apoplectic seizure, right?

08:43

And Jesus doesn't tend to the boy. He looks at the father and says, how long has this been going on like this? And you can almost hear this guy going, you're going to ask me this now?

08:53

He's on the floor. You know? So he says, all right, from childhood.

09:01

It's often thrown him into fire, water to kill him. And then here comes the important words.

09:09

But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. Now, it's important to note in other passages in the

09:17

Gospels, oftentimes people who have faith in Christ and who need a healing, they will say something to the effect of, if you will, if you desire to heal, you can.

09:29

And Jesus' response in those situations is, I will, I desire, and he heals them.

09:35

This guy doesn't say that. He says, if you can do anything.

09:41

So far, nothing has worked. Absolutely nothing. I came to you,

09:48

Jesus, your disciples, you gave them authority to cast out this demon. They couldn't do it. So if you can do anything, help us.

09:57

And Jesus said, if you can. If you can? If everything is possible for him who believes.

10:06

Now, this is a text that gets twisted a lot by people. And this is the important thing here. Jesus is not saying, if you stretch out with audacious faith, if you decree and declare anything is possible.

10:18

That's not faith in God. That's faith in your faith. There's a big difference between faith in God and faith in your faith.

10:26

Faith in God says, not my will, but your will be done. Because here's the thing.

10:34

Faith always has an object. Faith is like eyesight. It always is looking to something.

10:41

What is your faith looking to? Is your faith looking to your bank account? Is your faith looking to your upwardly mobile job?

10:49

Is your faith looking to your crops? Is your faith looking at yourself?

10:56

Or is your faith looking to your crucified and risen Savior? Faith always has an object.

11:03

And if you have faith in Christ, then you know this. You are a creature.

11:09

And everything you have, from the air that you breathe, to the shoes on your feet, to the hair on the top of your head, if you still have some, all of this comes from God.

11:22

All of it. You are creature. He is God. And creatures approach their God with these words, not my will, but your will.

11:32

See, all things are possible for the one who believes because nothing is impossible for God.

11:39

Does that make sense? But that does not mean that just because everything is possible for him, that he wills to give you everything that your sinful nature wants.

11:50

Sometimes we pray and ask and we do not receive because the things we are praying and asking for are the things that our sinful flesh wants to indulge in.

12:01

And God says, no, I will not give you that because I do not will for you to be destroyed by sin.

12:08

I will for you to be set free from it. Does that make sense? So all things are possible for the one who believes means, and we pray this in our

12:18

Lord's prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

12:25

You see the difference? Now, a little bit of an aside. The big mistake that a lot of people are making is, is that somehow

12:31

I've got to stretch out in faith. I've got to decree. I've got to declare. I've got to shout the devil down and bind him and all this nonsense.

12:40

It's not true. That's faith in faith. And where that leads is despair. And I want to give you an example of this.

12:47

Do you all remember Jim and Tammy Faye Baker? Yeah. Do you remember what happened to Tammy Faye?

12:54

She got cancer. She got cancer. And as she was getting weaker and weaker and smaller and smaller, cancer is a terrible thing.

13:07

Just to completely eat somebody out from the inside, right? She thought all things are possible for the one who believes.

13:16

So I don't believe I have cancer. And to her dying day, she was decreeing and declaring and making positive confessions that she is healthy and she does not have cancer up until the moment when cancer killed her.

13:38

All things are possible for the one who believes, right? Well, if that's what this text meant, then why did she die?

13:48

If you have faith in your faith, when things continue to go badly in your life, and they will, just give it time.

13:56

Because I haven't met anybody at Kongsvinger who's been able to avoid ending up in the cemetery right next to the church.

14:03

No one's been able to avoid it. All of the generations of the people who've been at Kongsvinger from when it was founded until now, everybody's always ended up in the same place, the graveyard.

14:17

So if you have faith in your faith, when things start to go bad and really start to head downhill for you, and it's just a matter of time, then your faith in your faith is going to give out.

14:33

And you'll be left doing nothing but blaming yourself and thinking that God somehow hates you. But remember what

14:39

Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane on the night that he was betrayed. If it's possible, let this cup pass from me.

14:50

But not my will, your will be done. All things are possible for the one who believes.

15:00

Jesus trusted God the Father and said, not my will, your will.

15:07

And what was the will of the Father? Scripture says this. It was the will of the Father to crush him because he was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.

15:20

The chastisement that brings us peace was upon Christ. Not my will, but your will be done.

15:26

And Jesus goes to the cross and oh, he suffers and oh, he dies. And oh, he rises again, victorious from the grave.

15:36

Because not only was it the will of the Father to crush him for our sins, it was also the will of the Father to raise him up on the third day.

15:45

And see, that's the thing. When you pray and understand that all things are possible with God, all things are possible for the one who believes, you can pray, not my will, but thy will be done.

15:57

And when God says it is now my will for you to pass from this life into eternity, you will not see

16:04

God as angry and vindictive and capricious, but will continue to trust in his promises of mercy and forgiveness, and you will go the way of death the way

16:15

Christ did. And because you are in him, you will be raised again on the day when

16:20

Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. Because God has willed that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

16:31

So always remember when you pray, all things are possible for the one who believes. So we pray, not my will, but your will be done.

16:41

So let's go back to our text. If you can,

16:47

Jesus said, everything is possible for him who believes. And immediately the boy's father exclaimed,

16:55

I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.

17:03

That's a prayer. Note this, that's a prayer. I do believe.

17:10

Help me overcome my unbelief. And Jesus is going to answer this prayer.

17:16

Be careful what you pray for. Be careful what you pray for. Because no sooner does this man pray this prayer, and it's an authentic prayer, and we've all had this prayer.

17:27

Yes, I believe in you, Jesus, but why is this circumstance so hard?

17:33

I believe in you, Jesus, but why am I made to suffer so much? I believe in you,

17:38

Jesus, but why did my mother or father have to die? I believe in you,

17:45

Jesus, right? I believe. Help my unbelief.

17:53

This is an authentic prayer, and we all know what this prayer is like. So Jesus is going to answer this prayer.

18:00

And watch, it's gonna go from bad to worse before it finally gets better.

18:09

So remember, the boy is foaming on the ground. So when Jesus saw that the crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit, you deaf and mute spirit,

18:20

I command you come out of him and never enter him again. Now keep in mind, demons were not created as demons.

18:28

They were originally angels who rebelled against God and they became demons.

18:34

But by virtue of the fact that they were created by God, when their creator speaks, they must obey.

18:41

But don't be confused when I say, Jesus is their creator. He didn't create them demons.

18:47

They created themselves, recreated themselves as demons. Does that make sense? But they still have to obey the voice of God.

18:54

So I command you come out of him and never enter him again. And now it goes from bad to worse.

19:01

The spirit shrieked, and I'm sure that was harrowing to listen to. Convulsed the boy violently and then came out.

19:12

And the boy looks so much like a corpse. Many said, he's dead.

19:20

That means that it shrieks, it comes out of him, and everyone's looking on.

19:26

And there's enough time that elapses that this boy actually looks like he's dead. The crowd saying, he's dead, he's dead.

19:36

Jesus failed. He's dead. I believe, help my unbelief.

19:48

And now it's gone from bad to worse. My boy is dead.

19:55

That's what this man's thinking. That's what this man is experiencing. But the reality of the situation is this, is that Jesus is answering his prayer.

20:05

And this is the way of the cross, by the way. The way of the cross is that when

20:10

God helps our unbelief, oftentimes he helps our unbelief by sending us into suffering.

20:19

Sending us into suffering to show us our total need for God.

20:27

He brings us to the end of our rope so that we have nothing of ourselves left.

20:33

And the only thing that we can now have is God. So Jesus is helping his unbelief.

20:38

So there's his boy. Everyone's saying he looks like he's dead. And then this happens.

20:45

But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

20:52

Now, important thing in the Greek, the word, therefore, he stood up. That's the same Greek word for the resurrection when somebody arises from the grave.

21:03

So whether he was dead or not, we don't really know. It doesn't really matter, does it? He looked like he's dead.

21:08

This man is now seeing things go from bad to worse. And all of a sudden, there's a complete turnaround.

21:14

Complete turnaround. And he stood up. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

21:25

When you pray that prayer, it's a good prayer. Don't expect things to get better immediately.

21:30

Sometimes they get way worse. But that's to help your unbelief. Because your sinful nature doesn't want to believe.

21:39

And only when you're stripped of everything are you ready now to have nothing but your eyes on Christ.

21:47

And so the man leaves. Jesus has won. But of course, this begs the question.

21:53

Jesus, you gave us the authority to cast out demons. What gives here, right?

22:00

Verse 28. After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, why couldn't we drive it out?

22:08

And Jesus gives this very cryptic and somewhat scary answer. And the reason I say it's scary is because you have to think about the implications of what he says.

22:16

This kind can come out only by prayer. My immediate reaction in reading this is this kind?

22:23

How many kinds are there? There's very little information.

22:30

And I mean this. Very little information in the scriptures about demons. And Jesus just throws out this huge honking fish.

22:38

You know, it's flopping around. This kind. There's kinds. Kinds? How many kinds are there?

22:46

Ten? Are there levels? You know, do they have superpowers at level five?

22:51

I mean, what do we do with this, right? So this particular kind only comes out by prayer.

23:02

Which kind of begs the question. Well, that was quite a stubborn ornery demon, was it not?

23:09

I mean, not even the disciples could get rid of it in their own strength, could they not? They couldn't.

23:18

Well, no demon can be cast out in anybody's strength. You and I have no strength to cast out such things.

23:24

We know very little about them. But we know there's kinds. And we know that they come out by prayer. On alternate reading in this text, this one comes out by prayer and fasting.

23:34

So understand this. We're not to go out and be demon hunters.

23:40

You know, casting out demons here and casting out demons there. Some of the stronger, more stubborn demons are cast out simply by people praying.

23:52

It's not sexy. It'll never make a good movie. Right? But Jesus hasn't given us a lot of information about these things.

24:01

We're not to worry about them. Although our struggle is against them, he's conquered them for us. So when you suspect such things, pray.

24:10

Pray. And notice this. He said, this kind can come out only by prayer. So I ask the question.

24:18

If this kind, the kind that we just met here, can come out only by prayer, who was it that prayed that resulted in this demon leaving?

24:28

The answer, it was the father of the boy who prayed, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. That was the prayer that led to this exorcism, was it not?

24:40

Yeah. In the name of Jesus. Amen. 567 -44.

25:20

We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.